Per Mertesacker has praised his Arsenal teammates for their performance in the 2-2 draw with Sp*rs, sarcastically noting they did well for a team with ‘low confidence and no belief’.
After three defeats in eight days against Barcelona, Manchester United and Swansea, Arsene Wenger’s squad desperately needed a positive result at White Hart Lane to help stop the rot.
While a solitary point does little for their title chances – Leicester’s win against Watford has extended their lead over the Gunners to eight points – the fact they recovered a draw with only ten men answered suggestions that they lack any mettle.
“I think we fought all the way through which is what matters in the derby,” Mertesacker told press after the game.
“Even before it was 10 men, we played the perfect away game in my opinion. We defended well together, it was a high tempo from the start.
“It was unbelievable how we coped with that. We scored first, then we looked dangerous on the break. Up to the red card, we played fantastic and it was a good response.
“Afterwards, it took us 20 minutes to take advantage 1-0 down. It sounds weird but the team is great.”
“I have no idea [where it leaves Arsenal’s title chances],” he added.
“We have to take care of ourselves. As you mentioned, [for] a team with low confidence and no belief, we played pretty well today. We don’t need that. It’s nonsense. We just concentrate on ourselves and that’s the only way to compete and win games.”
On the subject of Francis Coquelin’s 55th-minute red card, the German couldn’t hide his disappointment with the manner of the Frenchman’s dismissal.
“I think we need to be more disciplined in those occasions. There was no danger, he was at the sideline as well. It took us 15 minutes to cope with that, being one man down, but after we played fantastically and could have scored a third one I think.
“We had couple of good breaks and how the team responded after 15 minutes was great. In between it took us a bit but in the heat of the game it is difficult. Overall, the spirit is great and we fought until the end.”
Mertesacker wasn’t the only man in red who was pleased with the response. Aaron Ramsey says it was imperative that Arsenal left Sp*rs with a positive result.
“It was important after back-to-back defeats to come here and try to get a result. I thought in the first half we did well, but they came out in the second half and got the two goals in quick succession. We were under the cosh a bit but we carried on and got the equaliser.
“I think we needed a performance like that after the couple of defeats that we’ve had. We needed to come here and get something and we managed to do that with 10 men.”
Ramsey greeted his opener, his sixth goal of the season, with a vociferous celebration along the touchline in front of the Sp*rs fans.
Explaining his decision, he continued: “I was getting a lot of stick on the side so when it goes against them it’s good to give it back to them sometimes. In the end I was fully concentrated on the end and I was happy to score my goal.”
So am I but this shouldn’t be confined to one game. We need to produce such performances for every game until the end. Leicester have 8 points lead but Man united once lost that lead in April. So, it can be done.
Wenger himself said when we played Leicester 3 games ago that to lose and be 8 points behind would be to much. We are now 8 points behind with 9 games to go and still we cling to hope, it’s the hope that kills a man, how many points have we taken in last 27 available. We have blown a wonderful chance to win the league. It’s enough to make me cry. Instead I will make small incisions on my inner thighs.
If that’s the case then we might as well handover the title to Leicester and play for the second place. Arsenal lost 8 points in a week. Tottenham lost 5 in 4 days and city 9 in last 4 games. If it can happen to these three teams, it can happen to Leicester.
Yep Leicester scum and city will all drop more points than us cos that’s what we now need. Maybe we will beat barca as well.
This is how I predict it to play out City 50 Norwich (A) 3 United (H)1 Bournemouth (A)3 WestBrom (H)3 Chelsea (A)1 Stoke (H)3 Southhampton(A)1 Arsenal (H)0 Swans (A)3 Newcastle (A)3 total = 71 United 47 WestBrom (A)3 Palace (H)3 City (A)1 Everton (H)0 Shit (A)1 Villa (H)3 Westham (A)1 Leicester (H)3 Norwich (A)3 Bournemouth(H)3 total = 68 Shit 55 Villa (A)3 Bournemouth (H)3 Pool (A)1 United (H)1 Stoke (A)0 Westbrom (H)3 Chelsea (A)1 Southhampton(H)3 Newcastle (A)3 total =73 Leicester 60 Newcastle (H)3 Palace (A)3 Southhampton(H)3 Sunderland (A)3 Westham (H)1 Swans (H)3 United (A)0 Everton (H)1 Chelsea (A)0 total =… Read more »
I think 73 points will win the title and shit won’t get that many.
There are points to be dropped by all teams but i think the timing in between fixtures will decide it. put it this way, though i love this scenario this would be an absolute miracle for us to drop two points out of our remaining nine fixtures, not including the FA Cup ties and a trip to Barcelona.
Just want to see us fight for it all the way stubbornly and heap as much pressure as possible pn Tottenhama
You never know but based on our current form we will be lucky to reach 65pts!
🙁
I have no faith in, if it comes down to it on the last day, Chelsea beating Leicester, especially if they’ve nothing to play for. Could see them rolling over to hand title to Leicester at the expense of us out any other ‘big club’
The fact is there is possibly going to be 3 teams above us if Man City win their next game. So we need 3 teams to play worse than us, we are not in second place, and possibly won’t even be in 3rd place when City play their extra game. Its asking for a miracle for the 3 teams to drop more points than us, lets face the truth, Leicester are playing far better than us, obviously if Arsenal don’t win the league, id happily see Leicester win it, but things need to change in the summer, if Wenger doesn’t… Read more »
wenger should not be given the chance to spend this summer. when leicester or spurs win the title this year, the question is going to be put to wenger…does the blame lay with him or the players? it’s one or the other. this year it has nothing to do with money or injuries or bad luck. if it’s his fault, he needs to walk away. if he say’s it’s the players, well, they’re his players so he should still walk away. players won’t play for him after that anyways. either way, he has to go. the current situation is unacceptable… Read more »
For me the participation in CL / Capital One Cup / FA Cup and Premier league with our squad is the biggest issue. Add to that injuries, again, and we are spread so thin at times. We need strengthening but by just how much? We are always one injury or red card away from disaster. And I also feel that the team needs some coaching on dealing with big games on a psychological level. We came out against United in Oct 2015 like a team wanting to take on the world. We need to come out every game like that.… Read more »
Leicester’s last 3 games are at ManU, home to Everton, and at Chelsea. There are 9 points right there for them to lose. Remember, the closer they get to the title, the tougher it will be. Right now, they are playing with house money, and loosey goosey, but by the last 3 games, if they are not up by more than 9, there is a chance because they will then have the pressure of finishing it off. Remember Liverpool a few years ago. Of course, that is if we are in 2nd position at that time.
As i said though, its not just Leicester, there is possibly 3 teams going to be above us when man city play their game in hand, they all need to lose aswel, and have their goal difference taken down a notch, and they can beat any of those 3 teams you mentioned, they have been performing well all season and everyone expects them to lose, they had pressure on them since they went top, and they’re sitting nicely 5 points clear, the one time they messed up was against us in the last seconds. I fancy Man City to be… Read more »
If we manage to go on a trot like we normally do coming out of Dec/Jan/Feb disaster (hello Champions League) we can put ourselves in position to capitalize.
Our goal difference though is a worry.
Our run in:
West Brom (H)
Everton (A)
Watford (H)
West Ham (A) – tricky one this
Crystal Palace (H)
Sunderland (A)
Norwich (H)
City (A) – win here while on a good run and we’re going to enjoy an interesting last day
Villa (H)
None of these three will have anything left to play for, when they face Leicester. Both Man U and Stoke of the South will have lame duck managers as well.
Wow. Just checked PKs in the BPL for this season. Leicester has had 10 for and only 2 against. We are at 2 for and 1 against. That is a huge difference.
Jamie vardy has been awarded 6 penalties this season. Thats more than any club ( apart from leicester of course).
Our penalty tallys look low for and against.
Mr Farquar. Please don’t listen to Wenger. Blackburn was once 12 points ahead with 6 games remaining. Did they win that year? No. We’ve been 5 points ahead with 6 games remaining, then the Great Geordie Comeback happened (remember that 4-4 when the twat got Gervinho sent off?) We are still in this mate. The only certainty as yet is that Leicester won’t be relegated this season, and Aston villa won’t qualify for Europe and Mclaren will be sacked. Apart from that everything else is posible
Diaby sent off, you dolt.
He got Gervinho sent off in another match for the weakest slap I’ve ever seen.
we might need to stop worrying about Leicester and start worrying about West Ham….
Haha well said sir. The collective denial of some is frightening. It’s General Custer mentality. Surrender comes with total acceptance. Acceptance is the price of freedom. The league is gone no more pain.
Yeah, if we continue with our “form” as it is we will end up in 7th place.
I just don’t think we can go on losing/drawing games like this, we always put a run together at some point, right? And I consider myself to be unbiased…. oh boy.
Leicester should start feeling much more pressure now. They can no more ignore the objective of winning thé league. They will be nervous about losing points and you actually lose points for that. BFG’s responsability in first Spurs goal is much worse that Coquelin’s red card imo. The red card was a bit careless but the defensive malpractice was criminal. BFG should look in mirror first.
The thing that will make Leicester drop points is if Arsenal start winning relentlessly. The fear comes in when there is a chase. To be honest if everyone keeps dropping points then Leicester can too. I can’t see us winning at Everton, West Ham and Man City to get 9 points from those games will be a miracle but that is what champions would do…
Despite the fact that he scored a goal, he was still not a player that will take us anywhere. Ramsey plays like a person that doesn’t have bones. Not impress with his game these days! He should concentrate and play the game instead of talking.
Ramsey on the left : “Oh, i’m not happy, i want to be at Cazorla’s place”. Ok, Cazorla injured, Ramsey in defending midfield = not working, Mister Ramsey up, not tracking back, talking about “my team, my balls, my play, my game, my goals…”, but doing nothing for THE team. Back to the right = not keeping his position, compelling Özil to spend his time on the right and maybe soon complaining again.
When Mister Ramsey will start knowing what he wants = the team starting to function and players like Özil not compelling to fill his holes.
If you think Ramsey roamed around the whole pitch against the wishes and instructions of the manager, imo you are greatly mistaken. If that was the case, Wenger would have dropped him a long time back
Ya right. Wenger doesn’t drop his projects. Even when campbell plays well, Chamberlain and the man due a testimonial come straight back in.
And boy, do these fucks talk a good game. Mertesacker has cost us goals or bad situations in practically every game I can remember in recent memory. Just stfu for god’s sake, you’ve nearly totally obliterated our chances of the title, just avoid the press for a little while.
Exactly. Bfg should not be cocky as they did play the last 3 games, bar spuds, like total pussies. They draw and now he acts like they won. Shut up and do the talking on the pitch.
Wenger plays Ramsey for the exact purpose of him roaming in field and leaving space for Ozil to drift wide if he wants to or for Bellerin to overlap. If you can’t see that then clearly you’re just looking for a reason to hate the guy. Not to mention I don’t think it’s coincidence that we were playing well and with confidence (11v11 that is) when we pushed him back wide and three Elneny into the mid to attempt the Cazorla role. It’s probably the team he’ll go with until Cazorla comes back
“We just concentrate on ourselves and that’s the only way to compete and win games.” Yes yes yes, do that please. Forget the league, forget top 4, just concentrate on WINNING every single game. Stop putting pressure on yourselves for nonsense and start playing at the level you are supposed to play. Maybe then we’ll salvage something from this (so-far) fucked up season.
Another draw; even if it was good to come back a player less it’s still only 1 point. We haven’t won for too long in the PL and the point gap is too great. Wenger Out as well as some useless british players like Walcott, Ox and Ramsey. And give Coquelin some brains please!
We could beat them. We scored at 11 versus 11. They only scored after the Coq up. We still rescued a point with a man down. Bloody papers this morning are all about how spuds are great, a better team than us eh??? They were at home ffs. I still believe there is a good chance we can win this. And we will definitely be celebrating St. Totteringham this May.
this is revisionist nonsense
Shots 24-10
on target 11-4 (nearly 4x as many shots on target!)
Corners 9-2
For the first time ever we might have played better after the red card, not sure we would have won 11v11, as much as it hurts, they were better
another stats warrior. We were leading 1-0, remember? After having defensively handled their best phases when it was 11 on both sides.
Watch the game folks, stats don’t tell the story always.
You mean a team that was up a player for over half an hour had more shots taken and corners? How shocking…definitely was a case of us being shit and them being way better then us and not at all a reflection of having the man advantage
As long as it is still mathematically possible, there is Hope(not the hope that wakes you up whilst being tortured tho)
“We just concentrate on ourselves and that’s the only way to compete and win games”…So, therefore the fact that we lost the previous 3 games means that you weren’t concentrating??? With 2 of those losses effectively throwing away any hope of the title & including the weakest Man U team in years??? Seriously Per? Yes it was a good point obtained in the NLD, but I’m still mad as hell at the pathetic performances in at least the 2 previous PL games (let’s face it, the CL was a bit of a lost cause anyway). No wonder Alexis is fuming… Read more »
Yeah win those games against manure and the swans and the title is well and truly on!!! Unfortunately we are 8 points behind!!!!
The logic for the rest of the season is, in fact, surprisingly simple: we have to win all of our remaining games. That’s it. 8 points behind with 9 games to go; it’s out of our hands just now. Only when United threw away an 8 point lead with 8 games to go in 2011/12 has something similar happened, and that was an exceptionally rare occasion when Fergie’s side collapsed in the run-in. You’re looking for for Leicester to perhaps lose twice and draw at least once, which I frankly can’t see happening. But we have to give ourselves the… Read more »
Out of 9 games you can’t see Leicester losing twice and drawing once? Fuck me, it’s great what they’ve done this season, but why are people suddenly under the impression they’re this invincible force?! Just last week they scraped 4 points from 6 (against supposedly ‘beatable’ opposition). Not saying we haven’t left ourselves with a lot to do being 8 points adrift, but Leicester have never been in this position before, have some very tough remaining fixtures, and make no mistake, they simply don’t have anywhere near the same quality of previous title winners in this position- if Mahrez has… Read more »
Yeah no worries,
As long as Mahrez, Kante, Ericksen, Alli, Aguero, and Kompany all get injured we should be fine (if City win their game in hand we’ll be behind them too)
I’m not entirely confident in the team charging up the league. The team has surely used up 8 of their 9 lives this season. Nearly every match we play is billed as a “must win” and we’ve been poor to average at best. Still on we go…
Elneny!
best comment. lol.
Hearing Mert’s comments and those of the others it is quite apparent all of the relentless criticism, ‘bashing’, and the toxic air in the Emirates was affecting their confidence. Say what you want about them being professionals, our own supporters have negatively affected our team’s performance. The fact that the club responded like this away with the more supportive traveling support speaks volumes. I honestly doubt we would have recovered that point at the Emirates. That’s truly a shame. Thank you to the traveling supporters. I wish I had the means to join you. Now let’s Have that spirit at… Read more »
They also played like dog shit at Old Trafford just over a week ago – not sure the crowd played a part there.
It’s a good point (you only need to look at the people interviewed on Arsenal Fan TV to see what a lot of fans are like – more of Chris, and less of the fans like the one having a rant after Swansea, please) but it doesn’t excuse terrible performances like Swansea and Man U.
Nothing excuses those performances, I agree. And I’m sure every player in the squad does too. All the more reason to thank the traveling support. But if we want any bit of whatever chance we’ve got left, verbally kicking the team like abused dogs [Nobody should EVER do that.] is not going to help one bit, especially in what is supposed to be our ‘fortress’. We’ve all completely got the right to be disappointed. I am. It is a way of coping to express it, and the Club should and do know we’d be much happier if they were to… Read more »
Unfortunately it’s the same old, same old, Groundhog Day (season) again. If we had gained the points we dropped at the games we should have won (Southampton, Swansea etc etc), we would already be out sight of everyone else by now. As it is once again any slim title hopes we have left now depend on Leicester, Sp*rs and Citeh *all* dropping points, while *at the same time* we have to play out of our skins in every game and try to gain maximum points. The statistical chances of that happening, based on our form thus far, are, to put… Read more »
aahh big per, just dig him out completely. Itll probably influence to use his head more. It was only when coquelin knew ot was now or never that he stopped playing the song or denilson dm rle, by which i mean horizontal passes only or trying to be pele, that he found uis niche. Think Coquelin has the right spirit and hopefully will learn from what was a really, really, really stupid decision.
Coq F’ed up, but they’re all accountable. Each one of them have cost us points, including Per.
Less talk, more action …
It’s one game
I’m one of the few who regard Ramsey highly as a player. I actually think he’s one of our most gifted players. But he had a horrible game on the wing yesterday. He usually likes to make forward, creative, not-so-obvious, but a little-bit-risky passes (like the one to Bellerin leading up to Sanchez’ goal) but the options for this is really limited on the wings so he’s forced to go back or lose the ball when under high pressure. I think we should just stop expecting him to put in the most defensive shift, which is not to say he… Read more »
The solution is the bench.
funny response : ) but that’s not the solution.
you realize that he was directly involved in both goals against Sp*rs and if he was on the bench we probably would not have won.
Do you realise that if me auntie had bollox we would probably call her uncle!!
Despite the fact we have not been taking the points we should have in the last month or so, I believe we have been playing well. A lot of the breaks have just not been going our way. Posts, uncalled penalties, goalies who suddenly become superman when they play us, etc. I just feel it is time for the breaks to start going our way which can bode well for us in the stretch. This game is such a fickle game that can be decided by fluke situations and terrible refereeing. Today’s game of Crystal Palace against Liverpool is a… Read more »
Off topic but considering Manure (who were one of our new worries) have just lost to WBA!
Has the league properly evened up this season?… and if so, should we be thanking Wenger and the lads for doing better than the likes of Chelski, Citeh and Manure…mad season! COYG!
we are not actually doing better than City at the moment, just played one game more than them
A game in hand does not count as three points…..
let me try to understand this…the standard of play in the pl this year is the lowest ever and we’re supposed to THANK wenger for lowering the performance and standards of arsenal football club??? this is crazy? wtf are you talking about? you deserve fourth place trophies.
Twas just a thought….
blah blah all talk!
We are out of the title race FACT!
f*ck me can we just have a moment of silence from all of our players, shut the fuck off, and dont speak to the media, not until you win us title come May.
Coquelin should listen to Per and follow his example. He’d never make a rash challenge and get himself sent off, leaving the team up against it…