Arsene Wenger says he side will need to keep their nerve when league leaders Leicester visit the Emirates on Valentine’s Day.
Arsenal closed the gap on Claudio Ranieri’s side to five points on Sunday with a 2-0 win against Bournemouth, their first league victory since 2 January, and know a second successive victory is vital if they’re to stop the Foxes, who beat Man City 3-1 at the Etihad this weekend, from consolidating their status as title favourites.
After strikes from Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain secured three points at Dean Court the boss reflected: “Leicester were running away and us playing them next week makes the game very interesting.
“In one week Leicester have beaten Liverpool and Manchester City. That means that they suddenly become the favourite to win the Premier League. That makes our game on Sunday a big one.”
On whether his side can cope with the pressure of a title race, he retorted: “On what basis do you say that? We have been in the title race and we are still in it. We cannot control people’s opinion and we need to show that we believe in it. We have to do it.
“It is still a long way to go. Leicester City is a favourite and we have a big game at home against them and I hope we have enough quality and nerves to deal with that.”
Ever the optimist the boss even played up his side’s performances during their recent winless streak.
“We needed to win the game [against Bournemouth]. I don’t want to be too dramatic making statements. A game away from home in the Premier League is difficult to win for everybody. We needed to win and we won.
“In the last three away games we played against Liverpool who equalised in the last minute and we played at Stoke which was 0-0. We came here today and won so I believe that we have shown good performances. We played with 10 men against Chelsea. We created many chances against Southampton.”
Just hope we’ll get them. Three very important points.
Every match from now on constitutes ‘three very important points’.
Each will be labelled as ‘must win’ games. Each loss or draw will fell like the end of the world. Just remember this: it’s exactly the same for all our rivals.
It’ll feel like 13 cup ties for us. And it’ll never be over until the fat lady dies.
Welcome to the ride.
More importantly, Leicester will have pretty much cleared all the ‘big teams’ if they manage to win against us as well. We tore them a new one back in the fall – time to take them down a notch again! COYG.
they’ve been pretty lucky with injuries too. i’m not wishing injuries on them, but I’m not not wishing injuries on them as well 🙂
No they still have to play us and are away to Chelsea and Man Utd, and face Southampton and Everton at home. They are also more likely to drop points against sides of their stature too. Man City and Spurs have lots of difficult games to play – more than us.
We have to win almost all games now. We have used ALL of our margin for error in a title race.
Wouldn’t mind a few more goals to improve the goal difference either.
Hopefully the early kick off thing at home will work in our favour and we can come flying out the blocks. We have to play Gabriel & Coquelin! Vardy’s pace on the break vs Mertesacker would be too dangerous. Also Flamini struggles to sprint & Mahrez loves to come inside so I’d fancy Coq to do a good job on him. CM will be where the game is won, and I personally see Kante & Drinkwater as a better partnership than Ram/Flam so Coq has to start. I’m looking forward to this game all week!!
It’s a big mystery why while Coq is fit and ready, Wenger continues to play Flamster!
Probably being a bit cautious after the injury. Though Flamini should be nowhere near the first eleven after that stupid tackle that could have cost the whole season. Strange that the most experienced players like Mertesacker and Flamini are the ones making stupid decicions right now.
That tackle tells us all we need to know about the difference between Flamini and Coq at the moment. It was needless as the ball had left his opponent. That aside; the sliding tackle that missed the ball and the man later in the half was simply stupid and reckless. That would certainly have been a second yellow had that player gone down.
This recklessness will cost us dearly if Arsene persists with this guy.
Coquelin took out a Southampton player with one of his first actions on his return and got booked. He didn’t look up to speed then, hence Wenger’s caution with him I reckon.
You are missing the point. Flamini did not need to do a two-footed tackle; he had the advantage. Secondly, we were just circa 12 minutes gone.
I might be wrong but Coq hardly risks a straight red with his tackle which are single-footed and usually clean.
I thought the coq looked leggy when he came on yesterday as well.
I couldn’t agree with you more about that tackle. I was still getting over the fact Coq wasn’t fit enough to start the game when he nearly killed our season off. In defence of Mert though, I personally think if we’re going to win the league it will be with him in the side for the run in. I know his pace can be exposed when our mis-match midfield pairing has gone walkies, but he has also held strong in two successful FA Cup runs & has at times excelled in a good defence this season. Either way though, Mert… Read more »
Beating Hull and Aston Villa in those FA cup victories.. Mertesacker is pretty good against lesser opposition but struggles against the better forwards who usually are rather quick too
Team selection for this game depends where Wenger’s emotional affection lies. He is the only wise man. Many times, he doesn’t see what we the fans see.
Emotional affection….. Does that means his knowledge of the players fitness, which the fans don’t know.
On current form Leicester are favorites. And Spurs as well if we’re honest. Can’t fathom if Spurs actually win the league. We’re still struggling but a win on Sunday would be a massive step in putting things right. It doesn’t take a lot for a team to lose form or gain it. Let’s also hope for a draw at Etihad.
We have World Cup and Copa America winners, Champions League and PL winner. Plus a lot of other more than decent players eg Kos, Bellerin, Nacho, Ramsey.
We often rise to the challenge, we have a good record versus other top 5 clubs, three wins one draw. And beat Bayern this season.
We have gone through a period without Sanchez and Coquelin and hopefully are on the rise now. No promises but we must have a chance, bookies are making us just favourites after the Bournemouth win.
Well put. If we leave our irrational supporter emotions out of the equation – Arsenal are well placed to win a first league title in 10 years.
The WOBs, Piers and the ALWAYS pessimistic section of our support are doing their best to convince us all otherwise however!
We have a very decent chance. Sunday is huge, and so is every game from now until the end.
Totally agree. Also, our record of scoring goals in quick succession must be phenomenal! It goes to show how massive moments of confidence are during matches (let alone during a whole season). When we get our tails up, we score straight away so often, also taking advantage the opposition’s brief spell of mentally dwelling and inevitable dip after conceding. If we can sustain that tails up style for only 10 minutes in a match, we can devastate any team. That can win us the title, starting with Leicester.
I remember Alexis dip in form before the game we won against LC 2-5, he didn’t score a goal in 5-6 games in a row and then a bang against LC hatrick which propel him to full form and after that smashing unated, I hope the same happens against, Alexis back on the score shit with MOTM performance an back in best form which will be crucial pushing us for the title.
I can’t wait for this match. Let’s get win this one – stating the obvious, it’s worth more than the 3 points.
What bookies made us favourites for the title following the win against Bournemouth? Hate to say it but when the chips are down we usually bottle it 2003 league title challenge, 2004 FA cup and champions league, 2008 league title challenge, recent opportunities in the league (started to loose count) and that comedy cup final against brum!!! Oh and the way we fell apart after the defeat at old toilet that ended the 49 games unbeaten – quite why that ONE game had such an impact is highlighted by T. Henry who in the papers is questioning Arsenals mental strength,… Read more »
Don’t forget those back-to-back FA Cups we just won
yeah, 2004 was totally shit, wasn’t it? When we bottled the FA and European Cup. Absolutely nothing made 2004 good. No consolation. Did we even finish in the top four?
wait, what?
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/312/10159726/- make us favourites. The teams have changed a lot since the times you give. See my post above for the winners that we have in our team now, even ignoring the FA Cup and La Liga wins. Most key injuries are abating, except Santi. Cech has the most clean sheets in the league, so him and the defence are doing something right. And Arsenal have conceded just one goal when Gabriel played all 90 minutes this season, so keep him in the team. There are no promises, we may blow it and Spurs may win the league. But I’m… Read more »
pedant, george, and sam nelson. I have to say, while I don’t fully agree with ciderman (e.g. the CL final), you guys talk like you’ve truly drunk the wenger kool-aid, and have selective memories to boot. You’re right, we were invincibles that season, and we recently won the FA cup in succession (I hope we win again). But it is also true that we did bottle it (bolton, was it? 2003. Eduardo’s amputation and Gallas sulking, and Wenger’s 1,000th game in charge even more recently. And Birmingham in the League Cup, a trophy that would have been really important for… Read more »
OK, give us some current facts about the team, not ones from 2003 or 2011 (with Mike Dean as referee, who has already done us out of three points at Chelsea this season with wrong decisions per the FA). All my views are on the current team and the winners/players in it. Even Flamini was part of the defence that had the best run not conceding a goal (10 matches) in the CL so he can’t be that bad at defending, though I’m saying he is an OK third choice back-up rather than saying he is a first choice player… Read more »
I don’t think we are saying the boys don’t have a chance this season and you make some good points as to why we should be optimistic, but personally I think past gaffs have scarred me and when we went two goals down inside ten or so minutes against Hull in the FA cup final I thought here we go again!!!
We’ve learnt from that as we came back and won, in some ways it is a positive rather than a negative. Though I have the scars from the past too and fears that Spurs or Leicester might do it this season.
On the negatives I’ll start – we have to play City, United and Spurs away. Any other current team/season negative facts please?
The injuries don’t help!!!
Thank you Kafka, I am not saying we were totally useless just that we could and should have won so much more and the only thing I can put it down to is a lack of mental strength!!! Take 2004, I was over the moon we won the title and do so unbeaten was incredible – hence I feel like we could and should have at least won the FA cup that season, after all we were all over manure!!! I think winning that game would have also impacted positively on the subsequent champions league game, but who knows!!! I… Read more »
@kafka the Arsenal achieved something without any meaningful compare in the history of the game, something that just about everyone in the game recognises as such, and you choose to make it about whether or not AW is the right manager for us now? Are you even serious? re: “bottling it” this is just confirmation bias, pure and simple. All teams lose. That you choose to see those losses as supporting your narrative about “our bottle” is your business. It would be equally facile to take all those victories and trophies and hold them up as irrefutable proof of the… Read more »
Excellent riposte Sam. Couldn’t agree more.
-It is abusing statistics when only listing the ones that support your opinion….
I’m not interested in T. Henry’s ‘punditry’ any more. I block it out so as not to spoil the pot.
Valentines Day Massacre ?
For the first time in my life…im actually worried the spuds could win the league?
when you are affected by this worry, it’s timely to remember the legendary team talk Alec Ferguson gave his side immediately before facing Spuds:
“Lads, it’s Spurs”
Same applies. Remember the “Mind the Gap” season?
I’m also genuinly concerned.
This seasons Spuds look unlike any we’ve seen before. 🙁
If you go to the Bank of Friendship on Blackstock Road, there’s a regular in there who’s so old that they say he can remember Spurs winning the title! Of course a lot of people say it’s the booze talking and he’s been driven mad since the landlady took off the barley wine and he had to start drinking light and lager instead, so *of course* it’s understandable that he dribbles insensibly about pass and move and even “the Double”. And others still say that it’s impossible anyone could be that old, not even those tortoises on the islands that… Read more »
Pretty sure I won’t read anything better than that this week. Cheers fella.
A Tottenham title is a tale to chill the blood of babes.
http://www.haveyoueverseentottenhamwintheleague.com/
My favourite website in the world. And I have to answer “no, I have never seen Tottenham win the title”, because I wasn’t born until a month after they did it.
Right?! A buddy already had to pull me off the ceiling and say “St. Totteringham’s Day will come late this year.” Late’s OK, as long as it comes…
we won’t beat them with flamini on the field.. hope he understands.. Any reason for the absence of elneny ?
Partner gave birth to a baby so no injury problem to worry about.
Best thing to give birth to – in my opinion.
You’re on a roll Ciderman! Take a happy pill man and enjoy the fact that we are well in the race to win the Prem.
If our own fans can’t believe, how the hell are the players meant to?
Certainly need some improvement defensively so the Coq has to come back in.
A lot of people have been giving Theo a lot of stick lately and his performances of late have certainly warranted it. Strangely though I feel he could be the key to winning the title though. A keen and more involved Theo with some key goals will make the difference.
I think we need our wing strength back to support him having some appearances up top to give Giroud a rest or change it up.
So Alexis getting back on form, Campbell/Ox/Ramsey if need be (with Coq and ? in the middle). We’ve needed him to play a role wide (and needed a bit more form from him obviously) for a few matches while we were thin there.
Hi bobby, I would love to see Arsenal win the league – long overdue – but with the required mental strength I think we would not be having this conversation!! George mentions the back to back FA cups but the first of those really didn’t look like happening when hull stormed into a two goal lead – I put that down to flaky mental strength and was glad santi bucked the trend!!! The FA cup against villa was the type of display we know we are capable, hence is is frustrating to see the boys struggle when they are capable… Read more »
The FA Cup final demolition of Villa was one of our best displays in a big game over the last decade! We have of course done well against the bigger teams in PL games of late, but that final stands out.
We don’t seem to have hit them heights just yet in terms of the football we have been playing this season. With Coq, Alexis and Santi out it was always going to hurt take its toll.
We done well to hang around the top places imo, now its time to kick on. COYG
We are going to come good. Arsene’s analysis is right: the goals will follow the chances we are creating. Ozil is on fire (he has 99 chances so far: the same as Hazard all last season), Ramsey is back in the saddle and we have top if rusty players coming back to full fitness and form. Even the Ox looks to have turned a corner. We are a better team that Tottenham or Leicester and we will go the distance. Man City have lots of injuries and just added Silva to the list. Man U are a bust. We are… Read more »
Don’t even get started on Ramsey. People bum his covering the ground stats and possession won, but always forget the times he gets robbed in the centre circle, or shoots from an outrageous angle, or takes the hardest option of a pass possible on the pitch – you’d think he’d take a leaf out of Santi’s book.
And the Ox turned a corner? One goal in 2 years and nothing else in the game yeah brilliant! Plus I think he may have been trying to square it if you look at how much he twists his body. Lol
We are title favourite regardless any other contrary opinion. all teams will slip at sum point. There wont be run away leaders unlike the french league one. COYG i believe in the team
As much as it hurts to say, it is not Leicester I am concerned about, it is Sp*rs.
They seem to be peaking at the right time and have flown largely under the radar.
The prospect of them lifting a title is repulsive to say the least.
Sp*rs do go through an annual “bottling” themselves, and we should be heading into that period soon. They did it under ‘Arry, they did it under AVB, they can do it under Pochettino.
Must believe!
Well I hope man city are hurting from their defeat against Leicester and thus batter the spuds and reduce their goal difference!!!
One thing that gives us some sort of advantage is there are winners in our squad. Mertesacker and Ozil have won the World Cup, Cech has won multiple league titles, Sanchez has won multiple titles with Barcelona and recently Chile.
In all areas of the pitch these are guys we need to stay fit and focused over the next couple of months.
Let’s see how Leicester deal with the pressure of being favourites. Much rather be the underdogs at this stage. Underdogs with World Cup winners.
Those last quotes there answer your question of why Flamini is still being picked. Wenger thinks we were playing well despite not winning for those four games where we got what we deserved + 3pts from 12
The next game is a real dealbreaker for us this season. If we can pick up the kind of form we were in before we lost our central midfield we should still win it. People are worrying about the possibility of Flamini playing against Leicester, yet when we beat them 5-2 earlier in the season it was he who started alongside Cazorla. Still, I’d like to see a Ram Coq midfield two to give us that extra protection at the back. Walcott also started that game and was very good as far as I recall, scoring the opener so, although… Read more »
On current form, Sp*rs and Foxes to fight it out for Prem. Can’t see Arsenal taking it unless something drastic changes with mentality.
I’d actually have more confidence if we were playing them away. At home (and them being at the top) will mean they will do their usual tactic’ concede possession to sit deep and counter. We beat them 5-2 last time because they were at home and we forced them to have the ball and play possession, which worked to our countering advantage. Now they’re going to do the same to us. Which makes the Flamini axis even more of a worry, as it seems we’ll have lots of the ball and will be pressed to lose it. And neither of… Read more »
Fortunately we’ve been in the position many times recently of having to finish out the season strong to ensure CL qualification and often have had the best record in the league from Jan 1st on. Of course our January was not good, but in February we can start to put that string of solid performances together and keep the pressure on Leicester and the others. We have experience facing this pressure while clubs like Tottenham and Leicester don’t. Look back to the Fall when we qualified out of the CL group after losing our first two matches, nobody would have… Read more »
Please Wenger, we have absolutely blown any chance we had of winning the title with our poor nov and jan form.
People being optimistic need to look at schedule…we have to play leicester, spuds, city, manure and everton. Can anyone here BOLDLY say we can get 12 points from those games?? I just hope leicester wins instead of spuds. It’ll be the most humiliating thing ever.
The players don’t look like they know what’s at stake. They like Wenger seem to love this 4th place trophy.
Alexis and Ozil will leave if we don’t win the league.
try being optimistic mate … WE CAN GET 12 PTS FROM THOS GAMES …there I said it boldly, in plain English. Harden the fuck up
Spot on, PodB.
You know it’s the same for the others right? Actually it’s worse for Man City and Spurs. As for Leicester, there are 39 points left and we play them next week. Surely they haven’t won the league yet with a 5 points gap…
Don’t no why everyone keeps worrying about city and manure games.
Yea we could lose but they are not great.
We’ve had good results in the bigger games this year so am confident.
I must be the only one who thinks it’s a good thing Leicester won against Man City. When English clubs get kicked out of the CL, shit will hit the fan and we’ll be glad City dropped some points.
Our Coq MUST be on the pitch for this game. Seeing him charging around when he came on and scaring the crap out of people was glorious.
He needs to let that cocky Vardy know early doors that he’s in our house and we are The Arsenal!
We will still be in the race for the title IF we beat Leicester.
I don’t know how people can still bleat on about this mythical Rammini axis being poor. When Coquelin came on, were we anymore secure? Does Elneny playing against Burnley suddenly suggest he is better than Rammini holding against City or Olympiakos? Flamini (Liverpool aside) has us with clean sheets against Soton and Bournemouth. Against Chelsea he ran the highest distance at 13,2km yet some would still deem to criticise him. It was our attacking that was an issue more than anythingelse. Goals. Grnated Coquelin can give us ore energy and therefore protect us higher up and closer to the attack/recylcle… Read more »
It is not only about saying we are in the title race but do we have what it takes to finish the race? Only Wenger can answer that question. The choices he make now and the kind of “mental strength” he instills in the boys will determine whether we can win the race. I believe Wenger is the problem, until he starts to think outside the box and stop seeing himself as the only wise man, we will never win the league. He selects his team based on his emotional attachment to the player instead of the best player for… Read more »
Anybody mention revolutionary football manager Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool’s exit from FA cup? To West Ham?
What’s the excuse, Liverpool has been under reconstruction since 1993. Leicester’s squad total spend is 17m.
Anyone like Morgan Scheniderlin? Where United? Leaking goals still.
Never mentioned because it doesn’t suit the agenda.
Wenger doesn’t want to finish fourth every season. That said, he has added two FA cups back to back and those fourth place trophies (now coveted by United, Chelsea and Liverpool and endorsed by same media who made a meal about them) are MINIMUM finish for us which has come as standard for almost 2 decades straight despite key departures and restricted spending bc of stadium build for a period. Put it in context. You want to win the title and you believe with every bad result for us that suddenly Wenger and the lads do not want to win… Read more »
If we can play the way we did against against Munich, I’m sure we will run away with 3 points. Personally, I would be more confident if Walcott plays in place of Campbell.