Arsene Wenger has backed his players to come through November, traditionally a difficult month for the Gunners, because of the maturity in the squad.
It’s something the Arsenal manager has been preaching since the start of this campaign, and with huge games against Sp*rs, Man Utd and PSG during the month, it will be a real test of his team.
Speaking after the Sunderland game, he said, “Maturity is what you want to show … over a longer distance, you know, and that’s what is at stake.
“We now have some difficult games coming up, we have a difficult November, so by the end of the November we’ll know more about ourselves, but the desire and the mentality is great in the side.
“We have a great togetherness and we have quality as well, so they are good ingredients, but we have to show that we can do it week in, week out.”
Arsenal are unbeaten since the opening day of the season, but without trying to downplay that – because there have been some excellent performances – the fixtures have been relatively kind.
The 4-1 win over Sunderland at the weekend was something the Frenchman still took all the positives from though.
“This win strengthens our belief that we can bounce back from the disappointing result we had last week,” he said, “and that we can also bounce back within a game when it doesn’t go our way.”
First to comment…that’s a first!!
There’s always one 😉
What worries me the most isn’t the fixture list, its the internationals in November right before the United game.
We are notoriously poor after those breaks and we consistently lose big players to injuries in those damn matches too.
And even though United couldn’t buy a win at the moment, we will still need to be at maximum strength playing well to beat them at their gaff.
Maureen will literally do anything to prevent Wenger from beating him because I think even he knows that would maybe finish him at United.
Anyway Nov looks like a tough one…but if we can come out it with victories in the 3 main difficult games…the message send out to the evryone else will be loud and clear…that thos team is the real deal and that it is a very serious contender for the league title!
Coming out of November unscathed doesn’t mean we will win the League. Remember the 13-14 season where November was pretty kind to us but we lost the title with huge losses to Liverpool in February and Chelsea in March.
It’s a tough two months to be fair. November, because of the direct nature of the fixtures. December, because we would have been playing at full throttle throughout November.
It might explain why no risks were taken with Walcott or Carzola.
#COYG
Ohh… Please please PLEASE let us beat Mourinho and United. The evil empire!
Regarding favourable draw: we are ahead as compared to points against same opposition last season.
I’d take 2 draws and a win against any of Spurs, United and PSG. Pessimistic but for me it’s as long as we don’t lose. We have an advantage over all three teams, rather than losing and letting them close the gap it’s better to draw. Having said that wins would be nice of course.
I personally don’t rate Spurs that highly and definately not Man Utd. I believe both of them will be more scared of us than us of them.
I honestly believe we can take 6 points from the two games. I’d be very disappointed with anything less than 4 points from them anyway.
Was gonna say myself that I’m quietly confident going into the Spurs game. Of course this means absolutely nothing because of how unpredictable football is, but I think talk of them as title contenders is really failing to acknowledge how much the league’s improved since last season. City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and yes, ourselves have gone up a level, whereas they’ve stagnated. For me they’re just a *slightly* better version of Pochettino’s Southampton side from 2 or 3 years ago. A well organised, hard working team no doubt, but with the exception of Harry Kane on a good day, they really… Read more »
I apologise for the negative comment, however when we take into consideration our recent results against both United and Mourinho, I am a bit worried. Even at United and Mourinho’s worst we barely ever emerged victorious. So I am being very cautiously optimistic.
I feel the same. However also feel Wenger is talking and planning about tactical flexibility rather than forcing our game on the opposition.
So, there is a surprise or two he might spring against the Special Cunt to throw the ManUre team of course.
Its injuries that I’m more worried about or very cautiously optimistic about.
The 3-0 win against Manchester United was glorious because we took our game to them. We started aggressive from the first whistle and we shocked them. It feels like Arsenal are the only team Mourinho never parks the bus against (when taking into consideration top 4 teams) so perhaps all-out aggression will be a positive tactic. I don’t think Mourinho is very scared of Arsenal, so perhaps it would be best to change that 🙂
For some reason I laughed more than i should for calling him “Special Cunt”. 😀 I read somewhere that he could be facing a stadium ban that could result in maureen not present for the match against us??
Since this would be his second sending off in two years, he might end up missing the match against Swans and the Arsenal match after the break.
Spuds got the better of us for the past 2 seasons. For some reasons, spuds manu always play their socks off against us.
Sp*ds have only let in 1 goal from open play in the league this year. They, arguably, have the best D, but they are having trouble scoring. I think it’s critical that we score the first goal in the game against them.
Man U look lost and the Maureen-ho side show is already hurting them! Who would have seen that coming?
I have to disagree. As much as I hate to say it, spuds look impressive. They do not concede goals and once they get that bloke up front fit, they will start turning those draws into wins. I also think the chavs have started to look a lot more cohesive than they did against us.
Having said all this I think we could be really competitive this season!
COYG!!!!!!!
As long as we beat Spuds and Manure, regardless to the PSG result I will be over the moon
I also believe that the strong mentality in our current squad is capable of matching the so called power horses so i don’t see any reason of us being scared secondly we have the depth and quality in the squad as well as unity therefore there is no reason to tremble we shall come out victorious!
If we win these next 3 games and I’ll be on Cloud 9!
Off topic but how to read the comments from the arseblog app?
i have once asked the same question but no response from blog. i don’t think it’s possible though. you have to go to the web version to see/post comments.
I use the app on android. Just click on the speak looking box top right of each story… sceoll down and start reading the comments.
It works in my android, thanks.
No you don’t and yes you can read comments on the app. Simply tap onto the square icon on top right of the screen/blog.
There is a little icon on the top right, if you click on it, the magic happens and it leads you to the coment section.
Doesn’t seem to work on iOS… :'(
I have already asked this question to blogs. He acknowledged that the comment section does not work in iPhones. Blogs suggested to use safari browser to read the comments.
Big big November for us and given that it is our usual “bad month” I’m not looking forward to it at all even though four are at home and we have a relatively full squad. Man U away managed by Wenger’s arch nemesis. They may be on a bad roll but don’t forget even against an even worse Chelsea side we manage to gift them all six points. The Spuds won’t be easy either so far only conceding 5 goals so far.
5 goals? Makes it easier for us to double their conceded goals tally. 😉
But in all seriousness, I’m backing us to take 3 points againts Sp*rs, while Mourinho probably won’t take any risks against us, being in the position they’re in atm. Expecting at least 8 players in their box whenever we’re in their half.
When we have conquered the November bogey, we move to December. One month at a time. Every month will be seen to present new challenges. Until we win stuff. That’s the way to approach it. No month to relax until season ends with trophies.
Ramsey back. Giroud and Elneny filling in nicely. And with Xhaka returning from suspension, we’re not as badly affected by injuries at outages as we have been in past seasons. And if the injuries to Cazorla and Walcott are minor knocks then the situation looks even better. It’s a big pity about Lucas Perez’s ankle which, if reports are accurate, will have him returning to the squad at roughly the same time as Danny Welbeck. Last November was dreadful for us: draws against Norwich and Sp*rs, a hammering by Bayern, and a loss to WBA. Then the injuries to Koscielny… Read more »
Mourinho has a way of playing to frustrate us, much like the Liverpool draw. Although Sanchez and Ozil with their newly defined roles might put his “tactical acumen” to the test. Either way, it’s going to be a very interesting game.
The fixtures in November is bit tough but not that bad as we play 4 home games and one away game at OT.If we win tomorrow we are guaranteed to the next round of Champions League. So even if we lose against PSG , its not the end of the world but would be fabulous to win and finish top of the group. For the past few years, whenever we played in OT, I had only hope for a victory but this time around, we are oozing confidence and with squad depth (mostly miss important players during November) can say… Read more »
We’re not QUITE guaranteed CL progression with a win tomorrow. If we win and Basel beat PSG, but we then lose our remaining two matches, and Basel and PSG both win their remaining two, and Basel beat us by three or more, we’d finish third.
We clinch progression if we get a better result than Basel tomorrow.
The thing with us this year is we are the most balanced team, with city a close second (and the ‘Pep’ affect) In the past we haven’t had the goals, but that seems to have been put to bed with the goals being shared around. Ozil, Theo, alexis are all having purple patches and scoring more then expected, then we have Giroud who is a ‘plan b’ and will certainly chip in. In the past our defence has been suspect at times. Wouldn’t swap our back 5 for anyone in the league, no? Lack of leaders? Cech, koscielney, Mustafi, Xhaka,… Read more »
Everyone who makes a comment is “quietly” confident….
Let us keep our heads on the ground, stay humble and respect our opponents and the league is ours. Remember, there are no easy games in the EPL. COYG!