Arsene Wenger has revealed that he’s not that different from many Arsenal fans by saying he was angry at half-time at his team’s performance during the 2-1 win over Preston.
The Gunners were a load of old poo in that first 45 and should have been further behind but goals from Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud provided passage to the 4th round.
Speaking afterwards, Wenger answered a question if he were angry, saying, “Yes. We are top level Premier League and we were dominated in the first half.
“Preston had chances you know and I believe we were just not at the pace of the game or the pace that the game demanded.
“Of course, I didn’t want to go home and be out of the FA Cup tonight.”
And afterwards, he took time to praise the opposition when questioned what had impressed him.
“I would say their organisation, the speed of their transitions when they won the ball,” he said.
“Every time, we were in trouble. Overall, their intelligence, I think they played in a very intelligent way.
“They are a good side you know and honestly, I was really impressed by them today.”
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was named as the Times “star man” and given a rating of 8!!??
Seriously:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/giroud-grabs-the-glory-rhgplq0df
He was woeful! Gave away the ball to one of the Preston chumps thrice in close succession at the same damn place on the pitch… Why doesn’t he play on the right where he can try a cross or two towards Giroud??? Who decided he is Alexis lite to try dribbling and running with the ball every time? Like his teammates, he improved in the second half but no excuse for him to be so outfoxed and so lax. Talks real nice and seems amiable (lie Walcott) but has no cojones. With every passing day he is more like Townsend… Read more »
Sterling, please. Ox will eventually become a better player I hope.
With better hair. I fucking hate sterling. Fat little girl run and all
Lucky they didnt punish us in the first half. Could of made for another terrible week in the life of a gooner.
Lucas needs to get a start against swansea. Seems to either score or assist every time hes on the pitch.
Whatever he said at half time worked. Kudos to him for that.
The idea of an angry Arsene makes me smile. Maybe it’s because he scared the shite into that French prick Gallas when we were losing to Liverpool at halftime years ago.
Or maybe because it’s the jolt Ramsey and the team needed.
Watching Chamberlain everytime just makes me miss Campbell
Neat trick : search for #Joelcampbell on Twitter and you will find a LOT of people who tweeted that same opinion today. And I agree, but then again, you have to commend Joel Campbell for getting out while he could.
How’s he doing in Portugal?
he doesn’t get much game time. When he comes on. he doesn’t do much. Our fans tend to overrate him a little bit.
How is he overrated as every time hes played for us he looked lively, hes creative, hard working, scores goals n doesnt do a Debuchy. Everybody was surprised n maybe angry he got let go, now hes overrated? Seein the thumbs up u got i must be pretty lonely in tgis, but Campbell overrated by Arsenal fans? Maybe he just being judged by what he shown in the shirt, wich all in al was pretty decent imo n to me we should have kept him.
Crap comment
The ox is a good player, if he gets a run of games..no injuries, he will come through, he has it all..good lad.
Also i never regarded twitter as a good basis of human opinions.
Absolutely spot on. chamberlain is not doing himself any favors. His play has been erratic to say the least and for the most part very poor. Unfortunately he will see time on the pitch because of a lack of squad depth. Now we are seeing how good Campbell was. Not to mention gnarby.
Gnabry was the one i wish we could have kept
And how is Gnabry doing at his new club?
He’s doing pretty well considering his team is shit and they’re fighting to stay up. He’s been their best player so far. 6 goals in the league aren’t bad
we were lucky we didn’t go full Bournemouth and go down 3-0 in the 1st…very lucky.
I was impressed by Preston, but I think we made them look good in the first by playing so poorly.
Never go full Bornemouth.
I think we were worse in the first half vs Preston, they had so many good chances but not the quality to take them (and a really soft goal disallowed). Had one of those chances been a penalty like vs Bournemouth the scored would also have been (at least) 2-0. Our back line was a complete shambles first half and the midfield not much better.
No one was pressing them! Ramsey Iwobi Perez and Ox were merely pretending to be interested. Xhaka did the best he could. No one had poor Miles’ back! Ramsey then sat more often with Xhaka in the second half and things immediately improved. Wouldn’t be surprised if he got his ass handed to him by the boss during the break.
Why are we so crap at the moment?
Wenger does not know his team or how substitute.
Lucas deserves a start. St this point, don’t give a shit at whose expense.
Wenger should start the match angry… might get better first half performances.
Zipped down furiously!!
Arsene has been fightibg with that zipper for years
You would think he would get a new coat
Whats his coat got to do with how the team.Isnt it how the team play on the day.We aint played that well at mo and u care his stupid coat
The players have to take responsibility…Why were Giroud and Ramsey ‘surprised’ by Preston’s approach.
Why are the players always surprised when teams harry, press, put in tackles and generally make the game as uncomfortable as they can to offset our football…This is not new..Teams have been doing this to us especially for eons but what always pisses me off is that the players always seem to always be surprised. Wenger expected it but for some reason that did not translate to the players.
Spot on!
Gabriel just isn’t good enough. Absolute liability
About time you get mad. You should turn green too on these players.
Time to give Lucas a chance leading the line!!
Arsenal need to call back Campbell. The problem with Wenger he use the same strategy every time and again nomater which teams Arsenal is play against same .. same .. same – it’s can be different players some time but same Template strategy or game plan.
Perez is the real deal.Pity does not think so.
Perez is the real deal. Pity Wenger does not think so.
You had never heard of Perez until Wenger bought him 6 months ago, so not sure how you are coming to that conclusion. He will play more now he’s settled in, but there were still moments last night where his positioning and availability for the pass weren’t quite there.
Ridicilously negative comment. If he didnt rate him, why would he buy him for 17 mil when everybody was screaming for him to buy others. If you want to bash the manager at least pick the right stick.
Is Wenger too old? Why is he rooted to his bench when the team is fumbling?
Because the rules prevent him from playing centre forward? There’s a reason that you field a Captain each game. That’s Wenger’s representative on the pitch, and the one who should be shaking the team out of their lethargy during the game. I’ll be fucked if I know who was wearing the armband last night. No sign of any leadership on the pitch at all. Just 11 players in their own little worlds during that first half. Whatever Wenger said to them at half time should have been said to them by the Captain after 10 minutes. I really miss Tony… Read more »
I believe it was big Ollie mate.
Say what you want I like Giroud as a captain. Vocal, not introspective and almost always positive. Was surprised when I saw the armband on him, could have gone to Ramsey or Monreal… but Arsene knows.
People hating on Gabriel. Yet, in the recent past games bar this one, I thought he was quite solid and even better than Mustafi. Mustafi makes a lot of unnecessary errors, although by next year he could have that out of his system. Perez has gotten less game time but I feel he’s already been more consistent than Ox. Granted that Ox is younger and has faced stronger opposition. Nonetheless, he’s been a fantastic signing. Walcott is absent and we’re barely realizing his absence, it’s been a long time since we’ve had such a good squad depth, it’s very nice… Read more »
*he was not outright class
That grin of his after his challenge and then yellow put an even bigger grin on my face yesterday.
I also like Gabriel. Not as bad as everyone makes him out to be.
Gabe is the best 3rd/4th choice central defender we have had in a very long time.
Will be interesting to see who the boss pairs with Koscielny when Per is ready to play matches again and everybody fit.
Would argue that all of our CB options are pretty solid and compliment each other well.
And when you consider the experience they can pass onto the younger players like Holding and Chambers bodes extremely well for the future too!
I agree about Gabriel, he’s been quite solid recently and I didn’t think he was bad today. Mustafi is out of touch due to the injury but he’ll get back soon, he was great pre injury so it wont be long. But also look at the back line today, first time that line up has been played and you could see it in the first half, they ripped through us and we were so lucky not to 3-0 down, again! Great change of attitude in the second half, the defense started to gel and some good balls were played forward.… Read more »
I am amazed when Arsenal fans blame players for shambolic performance most of the time.What you see on the pitch on match days is a reflection of the poor training the team receives on the training pitch. That is why the team as a whole would perform badly in many matches and Arsene Wenger then praises the opposing team for defending/ performing well.It is now a trend for the team to record no single shot on target or one at best in the first half ::Check out the statistics in matches against ManU,PSG (H) Southampton,Mid’sbrough (H) Ludogorets( A) PSG (A)… Read more »
Ridiculous comment for sure, on many levels.
Cherry pick the bits you like and ignore the bits you don’t like and you’ll always be able to prove your ignorance. Congratulations.
Don’t you know that it’s better to remain silent and let people think you’re stupid, than it is to open your mouth and remove all doubt?
Arsenal should not punish us always by allowing simple goals,we need our game back.but in all we remain a gunner.
I don’t think it is a ridiculous comments makes some good points regarding training! I agree I think this squad is capable of challenging but Wenger’s refusal to use different tactics against certain opposition really shows. How many times have we gone the distance in Europe? To win a European trophy u needed to be sound tactically and have a plan without the ball. Wenger has done this twice Bayern at Home and Man City Away both games ozil defensive work was focused a lot more on becoming a 3 CM without the ball. We lack intensity starting games an… Read more »
Good to see welbeck back but listen the first half performance from gunners team was not good. After this bournemouth game we get little preston and slightly struggled.
Listen there’s not room for two Keowns here – you’ve gotta understand that. Listen right – I’m the real Keown!
One likely cause for the two first half performances might be complaisancy. The players subconsciously feel that the opposition is not as hood so their performance is less focused. What is needed is a killer instinct that wants to get at the opposition and intimidate them physically by outworking them. Then, the team’s greater quality can come through. Against the high pressing game, all players need to work harder and be able to give the player in possession a few decent passing options. Our play seem to rely on the player in possession playing themselves out of trouble against a… Read more »
Yep. “Bournemouth are better with Wilshere so without him they’ll be shit.”
Very poor assumption. It ignores that fact that those Bournemouth players are learning from playing with Wilshire and they’re gaining confidence in themselves with a few decent results. Their manager’s no idiot either. Definitely underestimated them regardless of anything Wenger might have told them beforehand. This is where our sports psychologists should be helping our team to go out there with a Chelsea-like killer instinct that assumes that every team is dangerous and needs to be crushed before it gets a foothold in the game.
The reason we struggled is because its hard to convince players that “little preston” is a team with a huge history, a lot of belief in themselves, and a lot of hunger to claim the scalp of a PL team like Arsenal. There is a tendency for fans and players alike to assume it will be easy because its “a team we should beat easily”, but there are a lot of intelligent managers in the lower leagues and they’ve seen what can hurt Arsenal so they try the same approach to playing us and what do you know? It works…… Read more »
Cannot remember the last time I watched a Gunners game where my stomach was not turning. It adds to the excitement but let’s not take away from the fact that there is something seriously wrong with this team at the moment. Good squad with Loads of talent, but do they Have some type of inferiority complex? I say this as it’s the same every year. It may even also be the negative attitude of a star player/s that’s having a knock on effect and if so, the Prof needs to sort it out as at the End of the day… Read more »
OX needs to show his worth and take his chances when he plays. Gabriel is liability. On paper that team looked more than good enough to win that game but yet again we suffered with first half no show. We were lucky and whatever was said at half time went some way to making a difference but as a supporter it was once again “dreadful “. We are Arsenal football club and YES I know it’s a cup game and Preston played their socks off but we just didn’t show. The game should have been over in the first half… Read more »
Hilarious that people are upset with Rambo and the Scorpion king for saying they were surprised by Preston’s commitment. They just say generic stuff that is nice about the other team and throw in a few clichés about teamwork and mental strength. They just say what they think press want to hear. Why would you give an actual opinion on TV and risk media/twitter backlash? That’s why they don’t.
Lol’d at Rambo and the Scorpion king
Wenger depends entirely on the players’ gut to carry on his simplistic tactics because such is how the Wenger way is. The same fking blueprints for every team he faced. Problem is he believes in too much of his players that it could easily backfires when there’s no plan left because the latter plan has been figured out by oppositions using the press high up and man mark Xhaka or Ozil counter tactics. Hope to see a new face in the new season. Allegri seems a good start.
He must have found the mini travel size hairdryer Fergurson gave him as a hand me down.:D
Too bad it takes so long to charge up and can only be used once a month…that time of the month thing.
Probably can’t figure out how to turn the damm thing on anyway like that zipper on the coat. Why are they so cruel? How about they find a use for something called Velcro.