The last time Arsenal kept consecutive clean sheets was back in December/early January when we beat West Brom and Crystal Palace 1-0 and 2-0 in succession.
Since then, we’ve been defensively suspect, so to come away from St Mary’s without conceding, after keeping Man Utd at bay last Sunday, is nice to see.
A major part of that in the last two games has been down to important first half saves from Petr Cech, and the Arsenal keeper was in good form again last night in the 2-0 win. His experience and quality has been apparent.
He’s also taking the positives from clean sheets, not just for him but for the whole team.
“Of course I’m happy to contribute,” he said. “I thought it was their best spell – they had two chances and when you keep a clean sheet, it’s been very difficult for them to break us.
“When you have that feeling that one goal will do it, you play with more confidence.
“I think it will give us hope, because if we keep the pressure on the other teams, maybe they will have an unlucky game or drop points somewhere.
“We need to make sure we are ready to take advantage of that.”
As for our chances of the top four, he knows it’s out of our hands, but insists they have to keep plugging away.
“We concentrate on our games, we go game-by-game and we have to win all of them to give ourselves a chance. Then we will see what happens.”
Is our defensive woes in the last few years down to poor personnel or poor coaching?
The personnel are more than capable, but they have not adapted well enough to the systems they have been asked to play. They need to do their jobs better, and if that doesn’t work then the manager has to change the system. Since that has happened we have seen better results. A shout out for Rob Holding who looks a mighty fine young player.
I don’t think that they get any coaching. AW is only interested in midfield and SB only sits impassively on the bench.
Your day to day knowledge of the inner workings of the Arsenal team is fascinating. Pray tell how you know all this.
the results!!
The change in the system shows the players are good enough, it’s just a pity it’s taken so long to change to that system.
I liked the clean sheets article with Spud at the top
Chech playing well in this system. Seems this system suits him. (joke!!)
….i dont get it.
hehe, Chech