Arsene Wenger admits that Arsenal are playing with more freedom away from home after watching his side extend their unbeaten record on the road to 12 games – a run that stretches back to February – with a 5-1 win over West Ham United.
The Gunners have won five of their seven league games away from the Emirates so far this season, scoring the most goals (18) and conceding the fewest (5) as they look to keep pace with leaders Chelsea. It’s a run that is contrasted by struggles at home where visiting sides neutralise Arsenal’s attacking intent with purposefully conservative tactics.
“I felt that maybe we play with freedom away from home,” the manager told Arsenal Player on Saturday evening. “We face a bit less defensive, less compact defensive blocks than at home.
“At home recently, maybe we lost a bit of patience sometimes when it didn’t come off early in the game. Today, away from home, we played maybe with a little bit less pressure to make the different quickly and are a bit more patient.
“This team has mental quality and focus. I cannot fault their attitude, they have been very strong on that front. Hopefully now we can maintain the quality of our performances week-in, week-out because December is a very important month in England and it’s important for us to maintain that level.”
So what’s on the agenda in December? Well, some pretty tricky away fixtures. First up we take on Basel in Switzerland on Tuesday and after a home fixture with Stoke it’s trips to Everton and Manchester City…let’s hope the handbrake stays off a while longer.
I think it all boils down to the fans. Downvote if you have to but our home support is a total sham to be honest.
All 60,400 of them are a total sham? You obviously don’t go there.
It’s not the number of them he’s talking about, but all the noise those 60,000 don’t make.
I do go, can tell you from being a season ticket holder at the Emirates that the support is great. Go and see.
You are not the only person in this comment section who has ever been to a game at the Emirates.
So you agree with:
‘Half of our crowd goes for a snack around 38-40 mins…’
‘Total sham…’???
Living in the USA I’ve only had one opportunity to see a game at the Emirates, December 26th, 2014 against QPR. Found it to be a thrilling experience. But, I have to say, watching all the games at the Emirates on t.v., I find the fans tend to get restless quickly if the team struggles early. I just think that puts more pressure on the team at home.
You kind of honored your name with that comment
it sure doesn’t come through in the TV coverage compared to other stadiums. Not sure if that’s due to the architectural design, but it seems we’re bordering on the ole ‘prawn sandwich’ level of noise.
Groans are louder than cheers for a lot of games, although not lately 🙂
Yes i have never been to emirates… But i have watched almost every match of arsenal since last 4 and the half years and i have always observed that our away support is far more louder than home… Half of our crowd goes for snacks around 38-40 mins.. We need some energetic individuals asap..
‘Half of our crowd goes for a snack…’
‘Total sham…’
Both massively wrong, go to the Emirates and see.
But after such a great win, I guess you can give the home fans an undeserved slagging if you can’t slag the team.
To be fair to MerteXhaka he isn’t one of those that comes on the site and slags off the team. Regular readers/commentors know this.
So the point you make is not a very good one.
‘Total sham…’ doesn’t describe the crowd at the stadium.
‘Keen and dedicated supporters’ (paying their £1,000 plus a year to go there) would be more accurate.
Make suggestions on how to make the stadium more of a fortress, then I’m with you. But slagging off Arsenal supporters isn’t right.
Most team’s support is louder away from home, there a obvious reasons for this. It’s nothing new, Roy Keane famously mentioned it years ago in the ‘Prawn sandwich’ comments. Arsenal have never had the most vociferous of support. It’s been fairly constant though, amongst the top 3/4 attendance figures for the last 40 years… So you know, we’re OK. If you don’t like it your free of course to ‘support’ another club.
Pedant thinks spending money equates to good stadium atmosphere. I’ll tell you how to do better. Paying your 1000 plus pounds to moan at every failed move isn’t helping. How many times do you hear a missed opportunity at Crystal palace or liverpool homes games get the reaction “ooooh” followed by applause? The most times our players get applauded for is good tackles/clearances.
Moan at every failed move?
Doesn’t happen for 99%+ of fans in the crowd.
Why the needless exaggeration and myth about fans in the stadium?
Wenger needs to dip in to his pockets in the January transfer window and get some world class home fans….. 🙂
Not true at all, there’s large sections of excellent support. That said, I do accept there are also significant numbers of people who can’t understand why we’re not 3-0 up after 15 minutes. They’re often the same idiots shouting for Coquelin to shoot from 35 yards…!
2 seasons ago i had to move seats as the man behind me was one of the most negative people i’ve ever encountered attending football. he seemed to revel in our poor performances as it validated his many confirmation biases. because he’s involved in some two-bob local team from the home counties thinks he is the bastard offspring of clough and ferguson, and he looks like a middle-aged woman.
You know what they say…stupidity prevails when sensibility gags itself. It’s always a handful that ruins it. 20-80. Empty vessels, whatever the loudest (spuds). I have never boo-ed any of our players because I don’t see what it would achieve and, quite frankly, when all is said and done, my bank balance isn’t further affected. Neither is my mental state. However, I have been guilty of not starting positive chants, and entertaining stupid conversations. There are pockets, especially upper levels, that are consistent in their support. It all begins with peeps thinking their opinion counts for anything, when it really… Read more »
You do realise how you unique you are having seen the face of Fatgooner and lived?
I have had the same experience but unfortunately couldn’t move seats…some twat in the Upper Tier on the North End…my mates stopped me from having a full and frank exchange of views with him…
Personally, I would love to see safe-standing at the Emirates. It would go a long way to improving the atmosphere.
Been awhile since I was to the Emirates since im Swedish, But what struck me when I was there was how scattered the support was. And when you have entusiastic teenagers and other passionate fans seated amid pensioneers, random guy here for the Facebook status and family’s just there for the holiday experience etc you cant stand up and sing so these people cant see shit. We was literally told to sit our ass down by some dudes in yellow jackets which was very different from my hone games with Malmo. Under those circumstances ofcourse its gonna be difficult to… Read more »
Agreed. I think the fans are too quick to get on teams back if they don’t like what they see and this without fans themselves trying to get things going. Take PSG game – zero atmosphere for our biggest game of season so far and lots of abuse for team when support would be more likely to help team.
Wenger never doubts his players mental strength! Never.
This isn’t really relevant, but i hate the mugs on Arsenal Fan TV. They’re like the Fox News of Arsenal fans.
Liverpool Lost 4-3 to Bournmouth. 3-1 and they fucked it up!
Last week I was celebrating our 3-1 victory over the same Cherries. There were people on here complaining that it was an easy game, and Arsenal were not good enough.
I think some of our fans have an incredible sense of entitlement.
Obviously Jack makes a huge difference XD
i think the way arsenal and liverpool play attacking football we are always prone to goals through counter attacking . our midfield can be cut open in an instant, but what makes arsenals defence much better than liverpools is set of worldclass individuals in koscielny , cech, monreal , bellerin who are excellent and thwarts anything thats coming in their way. liverpool does not have it . the players liverpool have are always prone to odd errors like what karius did today or lovren does often. that is why liverpool lost today .we are lucky to have these guys especially… Read more »
And they don’t have to deal with our terrible fans. Our home fans are an embarrassment. The worst in the league by a long way. Unfortunate but true.
Bit harsh. My first game at the Emirates this season was Wednesday against Southampton ouch! .
Wasn’t the best atmosphere right enough.
It’s undeniable that we still often struggle at home for fluency, ideas and attacking momentum against sides who press us high and who set out to defend. Often we revert to slow, sideways, sterile stuff. We need to work out how to play well and win decisively when we don’t get as much space as West Ham gave us. Give Alexis and Özil space, and watch yourself get annihilated. I don’t go to the ground any longer (too £££) but used to go 4-5 times a season. Always top deck. Atmosphere up there is difficult to get going. I much… Read more »
I don’t think you can generalise who or where the best support comes from. I’ve been in the lower tier a couple of blocks along the touchline from Red Action 2/3 times and the fans there were sitting on their hands the whole game, only making a noise when they wanted to grumble at our players. I’ve also noticed groups of people in the upper tier who have sung all game long. I must admit that I don’t try to start chants (I think I did it once a few years ago!) but I always join in ones that have… Read more »
Got told by the chap in front of me at the PSG game that the players couldn’t hear me and to stop shouting.They certainly couldn’t hear him thats for sure. Kind of sums up why the atmosphere is so insipid sometimes at home.Got a vuvuzela for the Stoke game! 😉
Can these two sign that contract already…
It’s not about the noise levels. It actually is to do with patience and belief. If our team fails once we doubt them. If our team misses a few chances we get impatient. And this affects the players who end up forcing passes. We have to understand that teams don’t always win. There is no need to criticise players during the 90mins. Even post match the amount of negativity. Given a chance half the fans here will physically harm Ramsey. I would like to see people working their normal jobs under such conditions.
What irritates me the most is that even when we have shot the lights out (Man U last year/ Chelsea this) is that the stadium is often half empty at the end. Why not stay to applaud?
Well we certainly have better home support than west ham 🙂
We also played a better balanced team. 1)Granit Coquelin axis as I mentioned is probably the best solution right now sans Santi. 2) Ox although he still needs to garner consistency adds a different muscular dynamism to our play. He needs to be kept playing (as does Iwobi whom I thought was actually pretty decent second half against Soton) 3) Gabriel is a better and more composed option to the technically limited Jenkinson. Forget whether Jenko is a gooner, we need the best option at Rback. This doesn’t mean we have to boo Jenko from the stands, it simply means… Read more »
‘I am a season-ticket holder’ those words are getting boring already. Its as if people use the words to qualify a certain narration ???
Though not going to matches and slagging off those who do go to matches is better?
It’s an odd thing about arsenal. The library reputation had followed us a bit. In terms of the official online engagement I think they do a good job (thanks to places like this as well), so it’s a shame that the crowd isn’t always all it should be. Unfortunately for season ticket holders there’s an aspect of long suffering frustration that will be hard to shake without winning the Prem. I’d love it if we made the Emirates a real fortress, one day I hope it will be.