It’s less than three weeks since Watford twisted the knife on Arsenal stuttering season by knocking Arsenal out of the FA Cup.
On Saturday, the Hornets return to the scene of their 2-1 quarter-final victory and Nacho Monreal is out for revenge.
Ahead of the Premier League clash, a must-win for the Gunners if they’re to keep alive any suggestion of a title triumph, the Spanish left-back told Arsenal Player that the pre-Interlull 2-0 victory at Goodison Park can be a blueprint for performances in the final eight games.
“The match [against Everton] was perfect,” said the 30-year-old. “The first half was fantastic in every sense – we performed very well both with and without the ball. We barely gave them any chances, as soon as we lost the ball we were able to win it back straight away because our positioning was good and we were pressing really well.
“We study our opposition closely throughout the week to identify where we think we can hurt them. Aside from keeping possession and taking the easy option, you have to try to target the opposition’s weaknesses to work a scoring opportunity and score the goal that makes the difference and secures you the three points.”
As things stand Arsenal can achieve a maximum of 79 points this season, a solitary point better than Wenger’s ‘Double’ winners of 1997/98. Of course, with Sp*rs capable of 82 points and Leicester fighting to hit 87 points there’s a great deal that is out of Gunners’ hands.
“We’re aware that we don’t just depend on ourselves – that’s obvious,” continued Monreal.
“Right now we’re in third place so I think the only objective we need to set for ourselves is winning the eight matches we have left and then what will be will be. It’s not just down to us. Even if we do win all eight games that doesn’t mean we’ll be champions, but what does depend on us is winning those eight games.
“We’re coming off the back of two really good performances, the most recent of which we won. We know it’s going to be difficult against Watford because we only played them recently and they knocked us out of the FA Cup, but we’re hungry for revenge.
“It’s a completely different competition. They’re not fighting for big things so we need to show that we are. We need to show we’re the home side and that we want to keep fighting for the league title. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Same team as the match against everton! Well Cech for Ospina if possible.
what about Giroud as striker and Welbeck on the left? Start Iwobi on the bench because he’s probably knackered from his first big international match.
Too young to be knackered
He played a combined time of about 30 minutes in both games; the flight time between Abuja and London is 8 hours. There is still much in that 19 year old tank.
What would you then say about Alexis and Ozil – give them mini holidays?
As my boss used to say…
Just fucking do it!
‘We study our opposition closely throughout the week’ Can’t be, all the experts (on here) say we don’t. And never have.
Plus Wenger must have told the team that we only need to get 4th, why is Nacho talking about trying to be champions? Weird.
If we study our opposition so hard, how come we always play the same way against all opposition bar City? The squad must be sleeping during class.
Good question.
Maybe they know we study them, then they do the exact opposite of what we expect…its so simple.
Nacho talking about our FA cup defeat against them like a victory. We did this and we did that etc… Revenge of course but forget the self congratulations for a defeat. Champions do not do that.
Maybe they aren’t very good at it?
Certainly our in game management is piss poor. We had no idea what to do against Watford or at man utd to name just 2
I just don’t know why we don’t employ Gary Neville. It’s clear from his time as a pundit that he has all the answers.
Wait…….
the irony.
people just repeat what comes out of pundits mouths these days like its gospel.
He was a pundit who was very fair to Wenger though.
The talking begins…
The answering of journalists questions begins…
Just imagine we beat Watford, only for Spurs to lose to Pool and Southampton to beat Leicester. IMAGINE.
It is unlikely, but if Southampton play well and beat them well, it could break their confidence and start them on a draw/lose/draw path… could!
Leicester/Tottenham players might be tired from their England call ups too. Some of them maybe even mentally/emotionally drained from being so ramped up to play for their country…
Here’s hoping!
Danny Rose was terrible and should have given away 2 penalties against the Dutch; more of that please Danny.
It is still exciting, and I thank Arsenal’s consistency for that….I know it may go all Pete Tong again, but we are always there or there abouts…COYG!
I’m imagining really hard. Here’s to hoping us imagining it somehow warps reality enough for it to actually happen.
Think Neville would go to Villa! Tailor made for each other!
We’re still in with a slim chance, I’m just praying Sp*rs and Leicester slip up. COYG
Well Anup, I have a feeling it wiil happen starting from this weekend.
But there is a second part to it that you may consider praying about:- that Arsenal will capitalize on those slip-ups…very important. Don’t you think?
Forget the championship. Just play well, win the remaining matches and make a good account instead of looking like the purposeless bunch it has been for a while now. That should be enough considering where we are.
I said 2 months ago that Gary nevile will be sacked in march. And he is. Right to the last day. Pheww
‘The experts’? Like Gary Neville? Not so easy to put theory into practise. Easy to pontificate from the sidelines. Reality is different. Players are not digits in a computer game. They are human and have their own failings too. Plenty of variables. Wenger has had to juggle the team around this season because some of our injury concerns are still not yet worked out. Meanwhile Ranieri has had the benefit of a stable and robust squad. He was before known to over tinker. Relationships on the pitch between players take time to gel and can cost us in the process.… Read more »
Coq-Elneny works for me! How many goals exactly did that pair concede please?
Your right can’t believe none of us saw it before, let’s go back with Ramsey and Flamini in the middle. Oh hold up, we probably had the worse central pairing in the league, one average player (flamini) and one just above average who doesn’t fit into our system and is fucking awful in the middle of the park
Hold up, we study the opposition. But some folk on here told me Arsene never looks at the opposition and does not do tactics. Ah well, the internet has a lot to answer for with gullible me. Who would have thought that a manager did tactics
So explain how we get beaten with the same tactics??.
Internet knows.
Show me the manager who has never been beaten?
And not in a David Pleat way.
Fabregas, Henry and Nasri said Arsenal do not study opposition teams. They opt to impose their game. Used to be a bragging right in those successful years.
Of course, we want revenge. best served cold.
I am quietly confident that IF we win the 8 remaining matches – not an easy proposition by any stretch of the imagination – we will be champions.
Leicester play SOTON, SUN, WH, SWAN, MU, EVER and CHEL. Those are not easy matches for a team playing under severe pressure; they will wilt.
The Tots play LIV, MU, STK, CHEL in their next 5 games. They could drop at least 5 points from them.
That’s why I say that if by any chance we win all our games, we’ll be crowned champions.
Well said, love it……get in in there.
I also find the attitude to Wenger at times really offensive.
Do you think he would not spend money…….If he was allowed too, he would have spent it.
Who would you get in Now?
For me, i would get Ronald Koeman, finishes his contract next season with Southampton, perfect time.
Also I’ve been supporting ARSENAL, for over 30 years, Wenger has provided, most of my greastest moment .supporting Arsenal, apart from may 89 when I cried like 2 year old.
So I think cut him some slack and let him finish his contract.
I love your attitude! COYG!
But I can totally see is needing a win and needing Chelsea to beat Leicester on the last day… But imagine it’s the other way round, arsenal sitting mid table knowing that you could throw the game and deny your big rivals the title… What would you do?
Just Do It, and leave the top top talk!
How is winning this weekend’s game going to be revenge? Watford deprived us of the only trophy we could win this season.
We are going to finish third or fourth – forget about the nonsense some of the muppets on this page are writing – and so three points against the Hornets isn’t going to make much difference.
PS: there’s more chance of Yaya Sonogo outscoring Lionel Messi this season than us winning the next eight PL games.
Dear Fats, there are some of us on here that get an absolute stomach fluttering experience when we watch the boys do their “stuff” which can be amazing, or not amazing. I worry that you may have lost all of the “Arsenal” excitement from your life, by concentrating on telling whoever wants to listen, how the manager should do things differently. To my mind, that means you won’t be happy until the manager either does things your way, or resigns. May I suggest you get this wannabe manager stuff out of your system by perhaps managing a kids team near… Read more »
No respect is due to someone who can’t make their point without calling those with differing opinions idiots, muppets, etc
“there’s more chance of Yaya Sonogo outscoring Lionel Messi this season than us winning the next eight PL games.”
Strictly speaking, that’s simply not true. Except perhaps if you’re FG — I’m surprised he doesn’t expect us to finish 5th. Which is equally possible, theoretically.
Anyway, I don’t expect us to win 8 games. 7 wins and a draw will do, thank you. 8 wins would just be the icing on the cake.
You need to increase the dosage, Mike.
Strictly speaking you’re right!
Bloggers, is it a bug on the Arseblog News page? If I reply to the last comment, the reply seems to come up as a new comment, not a reply.
Probably best to email Bloggs mate…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RHdrwLaUDA
We really should start to take more shots.
These quotes are not the same as today’s blog reports and I’m quite disappointed by the inconsistency. Will the players howl at the moon or not???
On the subject of Arsenal defenders…. Eboue bringing his particular brand of chaos to Sunderland it seems! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35933681
Monreal,I hope you understand that you must exclude Walcott from this revenge mission,Giroud too
Talk of revenge – against Watford? As the title gradually slips out of sight. Anyone else feel this seems a little sad?
Monreal finally got the revenge he wanted