Arsenal: Ospina, Chambers, Mertesacker, Gabriel Gibbs, Coquelin, Elneny, Ozil, Campbell, Alexis, Giroud
Subs: Macey, Bellerin, Monreal, Flamini, Iwobi, Walcott, Welbeck
—
A late goal from Danny Welbeck wasn’t enough to spark an Arsenal comeback, as the Gunners crashed out of the FA Cup, losing 2-1 to Watford at the Emirates today.
Arsene Wenger brought out his big guns, returning Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez to the starting XI, while Olivier Giroud kept his place up front.
The Gunners started brightly, dominating possession and an early Calum Chambers cross just evaded a clutch of Arsenal players in the Watford area. Another fantastic move involving Campbell and Alexis saw Giroud put the ball in the net but he was marginally offside and the goal was ruled out.
At the other end Per Mertesacker was called upon a couple of times to snuff out some potential danger, before a Gibbs cross was taken off Campbell’s toe by some excellent defending. The Costa Rican’s eye for a pass was obvious, again setting Chambers free down the right but his low cross ended up in Pantillimon’s hands.
Ighalo and Deeney should have done better with a quick break, again Mertesacker intercepted but it was a real chance for the visitors. And there was a huge stroke of luck in the 28th minute when Gabriel got away with a two footed tackle on Troy Deeney. It should have been a red card, but referee Andre Marriner didn’t even award a free kick.
Mohamed Elneny had a sight of goal on the half hour mark, but from close range slashed his shot wide, and once more Watford failed to make the most of a break which could have seen Deeney one on one with Ospina.
Superb skill from Ozil and Campbell set up another chance for the Egyptian but once again his finish was wayward, firing over the bar from the edge of the box. Campbell had an opportunity on the stretch but despie lifting the ball over Pantillimon, it cleared the crossbar. The Watford keeper then picked up a yellow card for time-wasting, and the game remained scoreless at the break.
There were no changes from either manager at half-time, and there was an early chance for Giroud when he headed an Ozil corner not far over the bar. Typically though, it was Watford who went ahead in tame circumstances. A throw from the far side was flicked on, Ighalo held off Gabriel far too easily and finished from close range to make it 0-1.
They might have doubled the lead shortly afterwards, Ighalo turning the ball over the bar from close range, and when he got behind Gabriel he had another chance but just couldn’t get the touch. Pantillimon made a save from Giroud that he knew nothing about, before Watford got their second goal.
After Ighalo held the ball up in our box, he laid it back for Guedioura who rocketed the ball into the top corner to make it 0-2. An amazing finish, it has to be said, but a depressing one from an Arsenal fan’s point of view.
It prompted Arsene Wenger into a triple change, with Elneny, Campbell and Giroud coming off, being replaced by Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott. Not much changed, Arsenal still struggled to make chances, and Watford sat deep to deny us space.
Ozil picked up a yellow card for a frustrated tackle on some bloke, Gibbs headed straight at the keeper from an Alexis cross, and basically at this point we gave up the will to describe what was an absolute bag of shit from Arsenal.
Then we decided to start again because Danny Welbeck made it 2-1 in the 88th minute, a side-footed curler into the far corner. The England man could have equalised moments later. A Iwobi shot hit the post, came out to the number 23 who couldn’t get his foot around it to finish into an empty net.
Iwobi had another shot deflect wide of the post, but in the end the second goal wouldn’t come and Arsenal’s chance of a historic third successive FA Cup win was gone.
Sad times, but that was no less than we deserved on the day. A team without any cohesion or obvious gameplan fell short again.
Quel surprise.
Dreadful.
2 goals down and 10 minutes left on the clock before we start playing. Abject performance, no ideas and no confidence. We are so easy to play against that we make teams like Watford look capable of stopping any team in the world scoring past them. It’s becoming all too familiar.
A flowchart could manage against as.
And win.
‘us’ not ‘as’
Ha, I never understand why a person correcting his own typing error gets so many down votes.
The manager got the team selection abysmally wrong. This was an important game, Weds we have no chance.
Hector, Monreal, Welbeck should have all started, and even Chambers at CB instead of the hapless Gabriel.
Carzola’s absence is hurting us so much that actually missing Cesc!
There is no one in the middle of the park to control play for us!!
Fuck Cesc. He was shite yesterday anyway.
Carzola has been that important player in the middle we’ve been lacking since December.
Dat guy Welbz though! He totally fluffed that last min equalizer.
#FML I just want this season to be over.
We lack a game plan and basic formation.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!….i am so angry!
It´s over
Walcott’s absence is hurting even more.
New coach needed…..
There’s a lot Wenger needs to fix up on. The way we play against a tight parked defence is so fucking inefficient with short side to side passes, of course we’re not going to get anywhere with that. If we took anything from games like Swansea is that we needed to have pumped the ball into the box as soon as we went down, not the last 5 fucking minutes! Why do we keep using the same tactics when we are losing and have no time on our hands? And what the fuck was Wenger thinking bringing on Theo Walcott?… Read more »
We did pump the ball into the box in the last 5 minutes and nothing happened. As you say, Giroud was off and so they dealt with every one. We might have been better keeping the ball on the ground but it get so narrow. Sanchez always cuts inside. I am surprised Welbz didn’t start.
not sure why he left Chambers on when chasing the game. He wasn’t offering anything as an attacking option. Keep Giroud on with Welbeck and take the RB off. Wenger of old used to that all the time.
I thought Campbell was good. So was Ozil and I’m sure it was frustration I saw in is face for all the work he did setting up a bunch of numpties time and time again.
Hold up swish, at least the stewards got paid and there are a lot of them so we couldn’t invest any of the £200 million hey.
You’re incredibly obsessed with those stewards, aren’t you. I think that’s the 3rd post I’ve seen you make about them based on my one comment 6 months ago.
Did you fail stewarding school? Do you have a bit of resentment for those wearing the jackets? Are you jealous that they get to go to the games? Are you that dimwitted that you couldn’t pass the ‘sit down and stare at a spot’ test? You seem the type.
Some deep ingrained obsession there for sure, hopefully with the stewards and not myself.
Haha just reminded you of comment of the decade you made. You have to admit it was a tad desperate to talk about stewards being paid when this manager of ours will not invest in our beloved club. Don’t take it to heart swish. I’ve said a lot of things that make me look like a proper John Terry.
Ok. Why did the stewards all stand up blocking our view in the front row in the last 5 minutes?? Did they think we were going to invade the pitch? Give us a break. Nobody’s that angry. Just resigned. It’s an insult to the fans.
Like fucking North Korea. That pissed me off. We still had a modicum of hope and we couldn’t properly watch the match.
Sad people that keep giving shit to Stewards that are only doing what the club tells them to do.
sanchez needs to be dropped,reputation alone does’nt win matches.
Gabriel should be dropped,play chambers if need be cos why not?we are defending for fuck all anyway.
Coquelin is not up to it,bad positioning,shame we dont have an alternative.
walcott………….no.
welbeck over giroud.
play iwobi in place of sanchez.
hell if arteta was any good now ill take him over coq.
Wenger get your act together,cos you can’t win matches if you concede more than you score,thats how football works.
meh 🙁
I think it’s time to face reality and say the majority of our players just aren’t good enough. We aren’t even getting the absolute basics right. Poor passing, heavy touches, bad defending and crap decision making all round. Gabriel was a joke today and should have been sent off for that idiotic challenge. Chambers kept getting the ball stuck under his feet and the form of Alexis is a serious worry. What’s happened to the slick one touch passing counter attacking Arsenal from years gone by? It’s still the same man in charge who brought that style to our club.… Read more »
I know ! we will have mental strength and bounce back ( or have we said that before ??}
I don’t even feel bad. In fact it’s funny because come august we’ll again be full of hope.
Hope, but not expectation.
Bruh
I too have become indifferent to an Arsenal defeat. The team’s all too familiar abject performances lately, have sucked the passion and expectations out of Me. Though as fans We would all continue to support our team through thick and thin, I think it’s best we keep our expectations to the bare minimum. After all “It is the hope that kills you”
All of it is just so familiar – Hornets have 2 shots on target & score both. We have 20 total shots & score 1. It happens too often to be a coincidence. Regardless of what happens in next 8 weeks, it’s time for AW to step aside. No one else (Fergie aside) manages a top club for 20 years. He has been amazing, & we should never, ever forget that. But we just need a change. Einstein said “the definition of madness is doing the same thing over & over again, & expecting different results”. That, my friends, is… Read more »
Absolutely. No matter how much we make a crap out of a promising season(s). Maybe I’ll just start treating every win as a bonus and a loss/draw as something expected. Like a team that just got promoted and has no haoe in hell to finish in the top!! Hmmpf!!
Bob on, its the hope that kills you, after 20 years out of 30 being an arsenal fan with arsene in charge i think this is the first time I’m somewhat happy to lose, i kind of hope we finish outside the top 4 so mr wengers position almost becomes untenable with the fans. I want something new & different and i don’t particularly care what it is anymore, this repetitive cycle is pretty much the definition of insanity, and its now affecting me because I’m happy the team has lost!
Feel the same way. I think we either win the premier league(highly doubtful i know) or we dont achieve anything and finish outside the top four. So that it sparks something into the management to sort it out. Wenger out? No, i dont think its the manager. The only thing i blame him for is sheltering the blame off the players who quite simply in my opinion, dont fit the bill. Walcott being a big one.
The manager chooses what players to buy and he always spends aeons procrastinating about which ones to buy – with their attitude and mentality (as well as their footballistic skill) being key factors in his decision. So yes the repeated faults season after season are very much down to him! He chose to buy Walcott – no one forced him – or to continually give him chance after chance these last ten years despite never really meriting it!
No, i don’t think so this time mate. This is the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back for me. The reason why we (the arsene must stay camp) seemed always hopeful come august was because we believe in him (scratch that…believed in him!) and we feel he has the managerial acumen to take us forward in this new era, given his track record. In previous seasons, there have always been something that we (no, let me now speak for myself as it will not be right to try and speak for others in the camp)…that I feel was… Read more »
Why didn’t Wenger buy a striker?
Which striker was actually for sale? Don’t believe everything in the press. I don’t want to follow one of those petrodollar teams that just buys buys buys and has no home grown talent. On average Wenger has presided over Arsenal’s most successful ever 20 years. I suspect he will leave at the end of his current contract, and then we can see whether we are ever as successful again over a sustained period. You have to go back to the 1930s to see such a series of successes. Wenger took over a mid-table Arsenal in 1995 and brought sustained high… Read more »
Wenger has been stunted by silent Stan & CO, this guy has no iñtention of backing the club he’s only in it for personal interest. So Wenger only spends £10 mil on Cech and says there’s no one else around to improve the squad. He’s just a puppet in play and will continue to be so as long as there’s money coming in from me, you and the rest of the faithful. So sick of it at the moment it’s fucked my week up already!!!!!
No, i don’t think so this time mate. This is the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back for me. The reason why we (the arsene must stay camp) seemed always hopeful come august was because we believe in him (scratch that…believed in him!) and we feel he has the managerial acumen to take us forward in this new era, given his track record. In previous seasons, there have always been something that we (no, let me now speak for myself as it will not be right to try and speak for others in the camp)…that I feel was… Read more »
great post mate . nailed it
Don’t you worry the players will have another meeting and we will sort Barca out.
Dreadful indeed.
It is with a hugely heavy heart that I finally find myself shifting into the Wenger Out camp. I respect the man so much: he revolutionised English football; he is a statesman in football circles; a frightening intellect; a legend of a manager… and yet, and yet.
I really do think it would be great to bid Wenger a positive farewell after this season. Though with Klopp and Guardiola already taken, and Maureen an anathema to Arsenal’s DNA, I don’t know who else would be the natural successor?
How about Tuchel or Simeone? That took less than 10 seconds. I wonder what a person employed to carry out a search would uncover?
But there’s so many exciting managers out there. Conte and Simeone two of them. Respect to Wenger and all, but I would love a new manager who is hungry and ambitious with some new ideas and different methods
I used to be Wenger out back when we sold our best players every other season but did not reinvest the money in equal or better quality replacements. And we allways played Gung Ho attacking football regardless of the opposition and the subs was allways the wingers even if they we’re playing well. Rock Bottom was probably after Van Persie in the form of his life world class striker hands down best in the league at the time was sold for a laughable 24mill to Manchester United of all places gifting them the trophy next season. As if we needed… Read more »
Three words: Financial Fair Play.
These feelings I have right now. So familiar.
Wait guys,
Walcott and other senior will meet later to discuss this loss and some other rich people stuff.
So dont panic just yet!
It worked so well against Hull, so I think we can be quietly confident it will have the same effect against Barcelona…
sanchez needs to be dropped,reputation alone does’nt win matches.
Gabriel should be dropped,play chambers if need be cos why not?we are defending for fuck all anyway.
Coquelin is not up to it,bad positioning,shame we dont have an alternative.
walcott………….no.
welbeck over giroud.
play iwobi in place of sanchez.
hell if arteta was any good now ill take him over coq.
I feel so sad 🙁
I’m looking forward to what Mr. Wenger the genius has to say about this loss.
Gravity was against us for their second goal or some sht like that
Great to see the long lasting effects of that private meeting that the players had before the hull game. I honestly can’t believe the brittleness of this squad. It’s outrageous how we have come up so short on multiple occasions. The defending for the goals was dreadful, and the mentality of the overall team was shocking. Coasting through periods of the game is just unacceptable. Unsurprisingly, kicked into gear as soon as we’re up shit Creek, but left it 85 minutes too late. What’s the answer? Another meeting? Arse holes. I’ll leave it at that before my language gets too… Read more »
I am afraid no amount of crisis meeting will help turn our season around . The problem lies in our team’s lack of character and ability to fight together as a team. Something’s clearly not right with our players’ mental strength and belief at the moment. Otherwise how do you explain how a group of players could go from looking quite strong by beating a newly promoted team 3-0 away, to appearing so fragile in losing 2-1 to them at home in the same season
Focus on the lea… Never mind. Pretty incredible how players can’t be motivated to actually turn up for 90 mins and try to win a trophy..
You’re dissatisfied? Wenger, who was in philosophical mood earlier, would not approve of your attitude. People are never content, he reflected sadly but forgivingly. Even in the paradisal Garden of Eden Adam couldn’t stop grumbling. My sympathies are entirely with Adam. Put yourself in his shoes. Don’t suppose you’d have much of a smile on your face with all those pesky animals to find names for. You, I name Cow. Won’t, won’t, won’t. Don’t want to be Cow. Want to be Caterpillar. Caterpillar has a bit of a ring to it. Or perhaps Iguana . . . Wenger, if he… Read more »
Going to assume your heart’s in the right place but your tongue’s contorted. Head up, lad.
Latest Report. The senior payers are holding an emergency meeting at Zuma to discuss the problem.
You just cant even be surprised any more, that’s what’s most disappointing. You can now tell within about 5 or 10 minutes of watching us play whether we are going to lose or not, and today’s result was so predictable, I saw it coming a mile away.
And here we are, once again, mid march, and within about 14 days we have blown the league, the FA Cup and The Champions League.
I don’t even feel disappointed when arsenal don’t perform upto expectations anymore, just sad. It’s sad to see my beloved club suffer. I will always support you, “I Love You ARSENAL”
And Wenger said “we deserved to win” and he believed it. Oh dear!
i fucking love Mesut
and
i fucking hate Wenger with his Walcotts and Chambers
so frustrated again
anyone who can’t see that Wenger MUST leave is deluded
this is Arsenal FC and we are a rich, respected club that MUST win titles
we are not Tottenham for fucks sake
Troll
Even the cup wants you gone Wenger. Take a hint.
It seems the players want him gone too. They’re playing like they don’t give a fuck. Özil is not going to renew his contract if things continue the way they’re going.
Ozil hah…
Ozil seems to at least give a fuck. Look at Gibbs and Walcott. They couldn’t care less. Pathetic players.
He seemed to be the only player out there who gave a damn. He looked pissed off when nothing was happening, looked annoyed when he got muscled off because there was zero movement around him and he got booked for being frustrated that he seems to be the only one who bothered turning up. He genuinely felt like the only player on the pitch that wanted to win. His back heel assist was delightful and I’m pleased to see Welbeck grab another goal but he should have started.
I’m now genuinely concerned about him being with us next year.
How can you say that ozil played well he jumped out of every challenge today and the 2nd goal was from him losing the ball,yes Walcott was shite but we only had 4 shots on target what chances did the great ozil set up today, the talk during the game was that ozil had a chance to surpass our legend Henry for assists , well I hope he does not because at least Henry scored about 35 a season and also set up everyone else ,all ozil does is flap his hands in the air when he gives the ball… Read more »
ozil, gone? can i have some of whatever you’re having?
Gary wake up Ozil played well today. I won’t bother with the papers because they’ll agree with you.
Madrid let him go because he was 35million euros more than they got him for. He doesn’t strike me as someone who cares about breaking any records either. He has always been about the team. He is one of the hardest workers in the squad. Be careful what you wish for.
He can take most of the players (losers) with him if he goes.
Funny thought Campbell put his usual good stint in. Yet the man being so let down and betrayed by his players that don’t give a fuck pulled him off.
Wenger may fuck it all you want, but the players (bar özil) are playing rubbish football. They don’t deserve to win shit, hell they don’t deserve to put on the shirt.
Sorry, meant to reply not downvote. I would exonerate Welbeck too.
You would exonerate the guy that missed an open goal to tie it?
Ozil, Campbell, elneny all did well. Sanchez should not be on the field.its not his fault though.
WOAH! You did just write ‘Eleney did well’ didn’t you??!! He was shite! Missed chances, couldn’t even shoot straight and was taken off: As he has been since he arrived – completely clueless. But, like Gabriel (who was lucky not to get a red card for his two-footed tackle and really bring the team down with him), if you pay peanuts for your players, you get monkeys…
Big clear out needed in the summer, smash that padlock off the wallet and buy some QUALITY …if Wenger and the board are serious about going beyond perpetual 4th position…
Yes. He worked hard, scored an excellent goal to give us even a glimmer of hope and does deserve to wear the shirt, in my opinion.
A sub coming on and working hard is the minimum.
Missing an open goal as a striker in that position at that moment is beyond terrible.
I’m as gutted as you about the miss, but if working hard is the minimum, he did much more than that by hauling us back into the game with his energy and goal. Missing a chance doesn’t then render him shit and undeserving of the shirt.
Is anyone going to point to the part whereby Gibbs running on to the dropped/rebound ball, played a cut back behind Welbeck, who had to swivel on the spot, under pressure to get hold of it?
My question is why the hell didn’t Gibbs just lather it into the net?
he missed trying to turn in tight space with his back to goal, totally forgivable in my humble opinion. I thought he was one of our best players on the pitch.
Ok, this is absurd. Nobody should be talking about Welbeck right now. He came on and scored, and the only reason you care about the miss is because he (and no other player) put us in a position where we could take something from the game.
What other forward did as much as he did today in a few minutes?
Focusing on his miss is churlish, petty, and completely missing the point.
No they’re different points.
Your comments about the other players not doing shit for the first 75 minutes is accurate but scoring is Welbeck’s primary function (although the squad as a whole played pretty well the first 45 minutes, we just didn’t convert that play into shots on target).
Anyway, you rarely get chances at a goal with the keeper completely out of the frame. Have to score that.
Absolutely!…I know we are all upset and consequently need to play the blame game for our collective sanity, but ffs!, there are 10 other culprits wearing arsenal shirts on the pitch that imo we should focus on! Question is what the fuck were they all doing before he came n?……Welbeck, when he came on at least scored a goal and missed a second, in addition to working hard. If his 10 other colleagues did the same, before he came on, we would have been at least 6-0 ahead……hell, he might not even have had to come on, score a goal,… Read more »
he missed another one, cos he is limited and one-footed. no one seems to remember that miss.
Equalise. Speak English please.
Such well paid footballers. All play with one leg only. Pathetic. Did you see welbeck fuck up that run in behind from coquelin’s floated pass? Wanted to take it on the right foot. And forget about the rebound from iwobi’s shot. So embarrassing that these are our strikers.
Why put Walcott on at all? Keep Giroud on for the lofted ball fest we try to do sometimes.
Numb.
I think Welbz absolutely has to start up top…… what more can he do? I feel the same about Campbell too……..there is no way I would’ve pulled him off for Theo……and if you absolutely had to bring Theo on then Alexis should’ve been the man to make way……….saying that, I just wouldn’t have bothered putting him on in the first place. I am so over the Theo Walcott project now, let’s sell him in the summer and inject some new blood into the squad……. 140k pw, wtf?
and who’s fault is that????
Everyone’s. I think Wenger should go too, I don’t think he’s the only one to blame.
this is what i see a team with no plan, no cohesion, no “automatisms”, no consistency just a bunch of players trying to play something that comes close to possession football the hardest type of football you can play you need the ultimate tactical awareness to be able to make it good and it’s exactly what we don’t have we don’t press as a whole we don’t create spaces as we attack we don’t have movement we don’t have good transitions we just wait for the opposite team to make a mistake and then we miiiiiight take the chance to… Read more »
and my point is that you can’t get that without a great manager which obviously isn’t (anymore)
Nor can you with a group of players that don’t give a fuck.
i disagree. I think they all (except Giroud) didnt do that bad. Though, as i said before Gabriel is a defender who made atleast one stupid error a game. Ala first goal. Anyway, i think its time, its time for Wenger to finally be gone. I honestly be out of UCL for a year or two in the row and win them once or a PL than a Top Four every year and win none of both BIG ones, if you know what i mean. So sad to say this, but i honestly have no more faith in this Manger… Read more »
Here’s the thing about Wenger leaving….
Who comes in to replace him? Look at how United are faring trying to replace SAF. And look at all of Kroenke’s North American teams. They are terrible. Rams never make the playoffs. Avs never make the playoffs. The Nuggets can make the playoffs but lose in the first round.
Wenger leaves and things at Arsenal will not get better.
Uh, yeah, I think the thing with SAF leaving is that he left on a high.
Wenger will be leaving on a whimper.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This board is never going to sack Wenger, and Wenger loves to see out a contract, so we’re stuck with more of the same next season.
Ernesto Valverde, Bielsa, Joachim Löw
Bielsa… right. And then he’ll resign midseason after throwing a temper tantrum and alienating all the players. And why would Löw leave one of the best jobs in sports for this shit?
This season has been a baffling comedy of underperformance and errors, but running off Wenger isn’t going to solve our problems. It’ll probably make things worse.
I’m all for Joachim Low too.
Doesn’t seem too unrealistic either.
Bielsa with this crop of players? they wouldnt stand a day of his no nonsense attitute and training methods
I can think of a certain pretty decent Man City manager out of a job in May, we could do a lot lot worse
Wenger is in his late 60s. He cannot go on indefinitely. At some stage a successor must be named. The Manchester United situation was handled dreadfully, yes, but that has nothing to do with us. The board are paid a shit-load of money to make decisions like this, and the talent is most definitely out there, they just have to find it. Whether they will or not is, of course, another matter, but change cannot be avoided in life. Frankly, I am becoming a little tired of persistently limp performances year after year. I can’t help but think that there… Read more »
Maybe a new manager would strengthen the squad !!!? How Wenger thought we had enough squad depth to win the league in August is beyond me …. We clearly lacked fit CMs (flamini Arteta both should have gone) you’d probably debate now we need a CB too , although I’ll admit I didn’t think that in the summer … But once again AW will be reactive to a crisis situation , not proactive to avoid a crisis , you run the club ‘from top to bottom’ the buck stops with YOU Wenger ! Time to leave !! (I have only… Read more »
I so agree with you!!!!
I’ve never been in the Wenger-Out camp, but when I was sitting in the stadium for the Swansea match, Wenger took out Campbell. The player that scored and was mostly of all, to score again…. I mean that was the final straw, Wenger clearly was not looking at the game being played on the pitch.
He should have never taken out Campbell… And he did it again today…. He is just not connected to reality.
Get the current manager of grampus eight and see how he does.
To say we stick with wenger because thier is no one else out thier is absolute bolox.no one heard of wenger when he joined and the fact that most of the best managers have been snapped up already is a failing of those that run the club.
Just get someone new as I don’t want the respect I had for a once great manager to return to hate as it is rapidly doing.
I’d rather a change at least and a bit of new hope over the inevitability that every season has now become under Wenger
A Yank along with several other people Arsene is not the only football manager in the world.
Tired of hearing “who can we get”? 20 years ago no one knew who he was.
Quique Sanchez Flores who’s he? Erm he’s the manager that has just stifled all our attacks and just guided his unfancied Watford through to the semi final.
There is always someone out there!!
Precisely. I don’t know why the assumption is always that we’ll get worse under a new manager.
You’re assuming that because there is ‘always someone out there’ that we pick the correct someone. Again, look at United. Hell, look at pretty much every team that’s not Sp*rs or Leicester right now. Everyone pretty much wants to run off their manager. Just because you don’t like what you currently have doesn’t mean what you get next is better. I’m extraordinarily frustrated with just about every aspect of the club (lack of summer spending in key areas, season-after-season of the same injuries followed by the same setbacks, another round of 16 UCL failure). And much of that is on… Read more »
On no! What will happen when we trade a lack of success for…a lack of success!!!
[Kermit-armed panic]
Give Unai Emery a chance. He deserves a shot at a big club. Regarding Wenger, I would say he’s still better than the vast majority of coaches out there and I think that’s a fact lost on many of his detractors. Many of the touted names of the past have not amounted to much such as Bielsa or Garcia for example. However others such as Emery and Pochettino have proven to be the real deal. So it isn’t easy to get the right person in and there’s every chance with our board that they’d get it wrong. But at this… Read more »
New manager won’t 100% bring us championship. It’s 50-50. It could be success, it could be disaster. We don’t know but we do know it’s 100% we wont be longer successful under the current one. His time is up. He had gave it everything, he could no longer move the club forward. We have been stagnant while many small clubs have improve.
BTW, the same discussion has already happened in the comments above. Please read before you start with “who is out there?”
Yeah they came along later…
Fuck. This. Shit. Can’t score – Can’t defend. Gabriel is a fckn liability !!!! Woeful defending and positioning in every single game.
Remember when people were complaining everytime BFG started ahead of Gabriel? Lol I bet they won’t do that anymore.
Welbeck and Ozil were the only ones putting their all in. Ozil with the ability and Welbeck with the drive. Sanchez looks utterly lost and is now out there each match playing for himself. I have given up counting how many times he picks the ball up and just puts his head down and run. The fact that every one of his passes are just bizarrely misplaced by some distance is probably why he has just given up passing. To all manager’s in the league, if you are worth your salt, then you’ll already know this: How to beat Arsenal… Read more »
Almost perfect. You forgot show alexis the sideline. And wait for him to cut in on his right. Again. And again. And again.
And again
I think I have seen him score twice from doing that. Last one being against Aston Villa in the FA Cup final last year and Liverpool before that.
Class goals, but there have been about 30-40 attempts since. He really isn’t doing anything out there apart from using up energy to turnover possession. He’s dropped off in such a huge way.
Randomly pick 11 person on the street, follow ur game plan and they might even win against Arsenal
One other tactic is to look at the calendar. If you’re playing Arsenal in January, February, or March, you may as well rest your starting eleven.
Yawn.
Wenger’s done. No quality in the market on top of what we have? Fuck that shit. The FA Cup would be compensation on losing out on the league but that’s also gone. League looks tough and my heart wants to hope but my head knows Wenger has royally fucked it up again. Year after year he comes up short in the transfer windows, his tactics get find out, can’t change formations and forcing players playing out of position, he doesn’t rotate unless for injury. Fucking horrible.
Nowhere left to hide.
Why must you give hope?
Mesut Ozil deserves better.
I need a new pastime, this one makes me too sad.
I feel bad for him. Coming from Madrid and the performance we are giving these days is a massive step down for a player of Ozil’s calibre. I really hope Arsenal turn things around in the league even though we are 8 points off. His through balls were Amazing and only lacked finishing.
This team is completely broken. Someone PLEASE fix our Arsenal.
Starting to think Gabriel might not be very good at defending.
I Called this first, remember the he is more concerned with getting into fights’ commet I made?
Still not convinced!
Haven’t been convinced by him since the beginning. Always had a mistake in him.
Agree, other referee could give him red for his slide in the 1st half. Also guilty for the first goal
The English speaking West ham cbb who we saved a million on by buying that bag of shit is looking better every day
Period pains? Ha, try being an Arsenal fan this season.
That was the final nail on our confidence for the rest of the season I am afraid. Downward spiral
FFS we couldn’t even beat Watford sheesh. How are we going to beat Barca on this form? Shambolic.
PS. Watford celebrating like they’ve won the FA Cup pisses me off!
You were expecting us to beat Barca on the form beforehand?
I was resigned in the CL the moment we finished 2nd in our group.
One can but hope, impossible as it may sound.
Sad but we’re going there just to make up the numbers it seems.
Why should that have any affect on you? They celebrated like they just knocked the holders out of the tournament, in their own manor. Seems legit to me :-/
Yep fair play to Watford and their fans. Well done to them and no reason they shouldn’t celebrate.
Hopefully those celebrations will stick in the throats of a few of our players as they cruise home in their Lamborghinis tonight and make them put it in a bit more bloody effort for the next game.
Well, we were mostly shit. But this one is on the players I think, not the manager.
(BTW, it’s “quelle surprise” blogs)
He’s surely got to go now??? Please Arsene, leave at the end of the season. You’re only doing more damage to your legacy by staying on. This is pathetic.
In Arsene I trust. But, he should grow a pair and buy someone like Zlatan who doesn’t settle for mediocrity. Experience shows players like Giroud,Ramsey,chamberlain, Walcott and wilshere have consistently let him down. Now, I’m not saying they should leave. But, they are far away from consistent first team football. They can warm the bench until they prove themselves.
I can understand cazorla and rosicky getting injured. But, Ramsey and chamberlain?? Sorry, don’t waste our time.
I’ve kept silent for long enough. This is absolute shit. How do we always only start playing when we’ve conceded. I fear Ozil might leave us end of season and pray Wenger does.
Arsenal giving you hope only to let you down since 2005
1 win in 7, 4 in 14, just the league to play for now.
Performance typified Arsenal in the last few months, no pace, no tempo.
Walcott made absolutely no impact when he came on again, waste of a sub.
Why couldn’t we have played like the last 5 minutes for the whole game?
So disappointing.
That Welbeck miss sums up Arsenal. Absolutely brilliant one moment, then unbelievably trash the other.
In what part were they brilliant? I must have missed that one….
Disgusting.. absolutely shit performance.. last chance of silverware gone.. wenger has to go after this season
Keep full support until we cannot win the league, then vent.
Are Leicester going to lose three more games before the end of the season? Are we going to win all of ours? We can no longer win the league.
It may not seem likely, true enough, but its not out of the question that Leicester could lose their last 3 games of the season.
Regardless, the point is that to maximise any possibility the team need backing. Then if as seems probable it doesn’t happen the criticism comes from a position of integrity and strength.
Thing is, I have no doubt Leicest will drop points, same as spurs, but we will drop points, thats for sure with perfomance like this, so yeah, league isnt mathematically over, but is safe to assume chances for us to not drop points at all are slim as hell
I am so fucking done with football. Staying up to 2:30am is not worth watching this load of cuntfuckery.
Basically just kill me.
Was thinking the same mate.. Throw in the fuck arounds on champions league mornings that are never worth the commitment to watch either lol
Invest in a TiVo?
Just the 16 shots off target today…
Such a boring team to watch. I found myself reading a magazine during the game because we’re so fucking predictable. I don’t even care about what happens for the rest of the season if we keep playing this monotonous junk food football.
Absolute tedious shapeless dross I agree
The puzzling aspect of AWs last decade is how they never turn up when there is expectation or need of a great performance
Groundhog Season…
So fucking boring. I found myself looking for new music on soundcloud instead of watching.
And that was even before Watford scored.
How a team of such quality fails to win is just beyond me.
At least junkfood tastes good. Surely our football is comparable to some shitty vegan cuisine – tasteless, lacking ingredients of any substance and completely unsatisfying
Quinoa Football
we were tofu today
hey now, quinoa and tofu are offended that they are being associated with that abject display
Next season must be Wenger’s last. Whatever happens. Any attempt to extend his contract should be the cue for a mass revolt.
I am thinking why wait to next season …
i really can’t understand people who still support Wenger
i really really can’t
More loyalty than support.
I support the decision to sack the Manager, but wait it’s Arsene?…let’s be loyal just abit longer
Board last 9years.
They will follow him to whatever end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVEYcTyj1Do&t=33s
Major overhaul needed, players and manager …
Mertesacker doesn’t jump for the first goal, doesn’t charge down for the second. Just unbelievably poor. We deserve to be out when we defend like that. Gabriel wasn’t exactly great either but at least he tries. Can’t say that for Mertesacker today.
And why on earth did we bring on Walcott chasing the game against a team that is going to sit back? Did he even touch the ball?
Poor Ozil, he had another great game and ends up on the losing side thanks to a basic lack of…I don’t even know. Character? Seriousness?
Atleast mertesacker can defend………….can’t say the same for gabriel
Its a Joke watching this side lately, no confidence, no belief, no cohesian game plan belief or anything else.
It has to be time for a change….
Giroud’s goal should have been allowed. Elneny should have taken his chances. How many more performance are we going to see like this? We should have shown the same intensity in he last 5 minutes for the whole game. Too little too late. Wenger has questions to answer. How can he not buy any outfield players at all when we injury and players who are coming at the end of their careers’? Players like Flamini, Rosicky and Arteta are all on their way out. The players didn’t care or want it enough. In the end I can only say that… Read more »
Yep and then lose to Everton two days later …
That was it, we failed again. Somehow we just squandered all of the chances created in both half. Same problem recurred, inefficient use of chances. And this is the team that will face Barca…the Manager cannot seem to solve this inefficiency all season long? In Wenger we still trust???
Oh we are losing 2-0 now lets make substitutions and take off two of our best players on the day and bring on Walcott. He’s lost it. Completely.
Wenger’s substitution decisions are legendarily awful.
I think it’s debatable that Walcott was brought on.
What a brilliant 10 minutes. Shame there was 85 minutes of shit before it.
I am utterly and completely sick of this fucking season. We can’t do anything right; if we concede the first goal we can’t break down the opposition most of the time… If we score first we can defend.
Spineless fucking bastards
Watching arsenal is like watching paint dry…then again can i have some goals while watching…barca and this is what Watford does to us
dark days
Arsenal and Wenger and the players let the fans down today, and an apology won’t do.
it is all we are going to get though
the club doesn’t care as long as they make a nice fat profit
never seen Alexis play so badly
Arsene. Must. Go.
I think it comes down to fear with alot of these players. it’s like theyre scared to lose and play within themselves.
Today we start playing as soon as we have nothing to lose, at 2-0 down. Suddenly we start creating chances and piling on pressure.
It’s just a shame it always happens when its too late.
Because I think when it’s at that “nothing to lose” point they actually take risks. For the first 85 minutes of every game they just knock it backwards and sideways because they don’t want to lose the ball. It has been Insanely frustrating to watch this team since November. We’re broken
There is a stupid arrogance about this team somebody needs to tell them they are not as good as they think they are the final twenty when Danny welbeck got in that’s the way we should have played all game
Alexis was awful and Gabriel is a brainfarter.
Arrogance. The players just expect the wins to come to them, no urgency throughout the game- even when 2-0 down they tamely pass the ball like they haven’t left training. 1st shot on target from Elneny directly at the keeper 53 minutes into the match. As always they start playing like they should once they’ve just about left it way too fucking late.
It really does feel like the end for Wenger now. In the season where we were supposed to kick on, and in which most of our traditional rivals haven’t turned up, we have regressed spectacularly. A diabolical end to the season that has to fall on he manager’s head. He came into this season with no strategy beyond hoping for the best and depending on players that have repeatedly shown they can’t go the distance. No fresh ideas, no innovation, no belief, and no grit. Pathetic.
we have actually gone backwards this season and are turning into a laughing stock
As I am currently living on the west coast of the U.S., I routinely have to rise at 4:30am, 6am, etc., to watch my beloved Arsenal. I have to say that I’m not sure how much longer I can keep doing that. To rouse myself from too few hours of sleep to watch what has become an abject display of shit is just not worth it anymore. At least give me a reason to get so little sleep, Arsenal.
Sigh. Yawn.
Thianis the first time I’ve ever posted on Arseblog but feel compelled by to the absolutely shambolic performance of Chambers – The guy looked so far off the pace and completly out of his depth it was unbelievable.
Imagine what Ozil and Sanchez must think when they look around and see players like him. Dreadful.
As for all ruing and complaining we have done this a gazillion times. Nothing new. Can’t think of anything new to say that hasn’t been said in the past seasons of failure.
Only things that matters is who is the new Arsenal Manager?
1) Bergkamp
2) Simeone
3) Joachin Low
Not a young manager per say, but one manager i could see with us is Lucien Favre: Likes possesion football, likes to play with youngsters (Ter Stegen, Kramer, Max Kruse, Reus blossomed with him), but also is very good at playing defense and counter attack (His gladbach team was always a pain in the ass for Bayern). He could worth a shot. Or Bergkamp, Koeman.
Low would be nice. As apart from a hugely respected German manager taking charge, I don’t see why Ozil might want to renew his contact with us.
Is that a reasonable expectation though? I honestly doubt Löw would actually leave a great job and come manage Arsenal
Actually post Euros its widely expected that Low will leave the German side. A WC winning manager playing solid at the back aggressive football wud be a great replacement.
Joachin Low would be perfect
So gutted. I’m gutted to lose, because I hate losing, but mostly gutted to see such a pathetic performance. The worst part is, as soon as they scored it was over (at least it felt like it).
Sanchez has forgotten how to play football by the way, Elneny missed some great chances, Mertesacker I have your shirt but fuck me, at least try and get in the way of it… And Gabriel the Gazelle WTF, don’t think I’ve had less faith in a player’s ability to do something smart before.
Don’t remember Andre Santos then?
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!
Cannot wait for this season to end. I think the worst thing has been that glimmer of hope that we held a few months ago. Fuck this season. I really think now the only way forward is with a new manager. I don’t know who, that’ll be, but it just feels that having a change for the sake of change is now a good option. The manager seems bereft of ideas, the players’ confidence seems about as low as it can get, and if we don’t do something soon then the little that we do have going for us (Ozil)… Read more »
Very bad
from having the best chance to win a double to going entirely trophyless.Pure magic