At this point, we’re not sure anybody really cares whether or not certain Arsenal players chose not to celebrate Alexis Sanchez’s goal at Crystal Palace back in December.
We’re not even sure we cared at the time.
That said, having been asked about the situation at the Oxford Union last, Hector Bellerin gave his take on why he didn’t bother congratulating his teammate at Selhurst Park and how the striker’s demanding nature sometimes roughed people up the wrong way at London Colney.
“[He is] one of the best in the Premier League, for sure, but he is a player who always wants to win,” Bellerin explained. “He demands from everyone, sometimes it can be too much.
“The great thing is he wants to win, to give 100 per cent.
“This season maybe things weren’t going as well for him but I truly believe he was giving 100 per cent.”
“There was one game against Crystal Palace,” he continued. “We celebrated a goal and some of the players went I stayed back, I was talking to Calum Chambers because there was some tactical stuff.
“For me that was more important than celebrating the goal.”
So there you go. As you were.
Stay tuned next week for Bellerin’s fascinating explanation of why he couldn’t be arsed to fly all the way back to Barcelona for the 32nd birthday party of an old acquaintance he still has on Facebook but doesn’t really talk to much any more.
Too right.
No wonder we never win anything if ‘wanting to win’ is asking too much! Lolz.
We win more trophies than Liverpool and Sp*rs win though.
that’s not very difficult to do considering they haven’t won anything since I have been alive.
Except Liverpool winning the Champions League. I would trade the last FA Cup wins for one Champions League trophy.
We don’t even compete for the most important ones though. Winning the FA Cup is a great honor and a couple decades from now we’ll probably look back on these last few years with pride, but there’s a reason the atmosphere now is so toxic.
And that reason is that the majority of the fanbase has been attracted to the club since Wenger’s reign and doesn’t remember what it was like to be an Arsenal fan in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s
Newsflash not everyone in the world is >50 although you baby boomers seem to think that is the case
Before Wenger Arsenal were second to Liverpool when titles are considered. Along with Man Utd. Arsenal weren’t a piss-poor club like you are trying to make it appear. We were one of the most successful clubs even before Arsene
last season when we were facing bournemouth we were down 3-0 with first fifty minutes and it took a huge effort by the team to draw level .that great performance was driven by sanchez , giroud and perez who were the ones who i thougt gave the most that day . and the fact that our tema messed up so much to be there in the first place , you could see the frustration on sanchez face when he threw the gloves to the ground despite leveling . and this season when we face bournemouth again the difference couldnt be… Read more »
Exactly…who is going to yell at people now for playing like a bunch of soft panda bears. This squad is all too buddy buddy and there is no hard personalities to drive and demand success. The media are forever calling out the mentality at Arsenal, and we just got softer by selling off more of our tougher, gritty personalities. Maybe the squad didn’t “like” those guys as much, but this isn’t a high school hang-out group. Its a pro-freaking football team. Wenger just loves his squad harmony with each other a little too much. Sadly the wankers in the media… Read more »
These days I’d rather pay to see 11 pandas mill around the Emirates than watching our team play.
It’s like everything has dragged everything else down with it. Wenger out? Sure. But what about the board, then? New striker? Yay. Giroud out. Booh. We’re shit all over, so what should have been celebrations over Auba arriving becomes “why the hell don’t we fix the midfield”.
I hope there’s a way out of this awful mess. I just can’t see it. There isn’t one thing we need to change. There are lots.
in my view the one change we have to make above all else is to change the manager and appoint a really good forward thinking manager . look at tottenham they were a shit club for decades but all that changed after they appointed pochettino . there performance improved dramatically and due to that board , owner all started supporting him
It has to be one of the most shocking statements you could expect to hear from a professional sportsman but let’s be honest it only confirms what most of us having been thinking for a long time and that is our players have been more interested in winning the Premier League best haircuts and tattoo competition! And they both require lots of time to invest in reaching Hector Bellerin standards. That said we have potential to slide down that table too now that Walcott, Giroud and The Ox have left but Jack’s back and he’s got strong sleeve game so… Read more »
Jack’s got a lot of tattoos
Nah. Everyone who’s played has played with ‘that guy’ that you don’t want to give the time of day to otherwise because he’s just a dick about it. Well, everyone except that guy, because he’s the dick. You don’t condescend your teammates and workmates and expect them to be cool with it. It’s pretty obvious that’s Alexis.
I’ll never believe anyone who tries to tell me Hector doesn’t want to win.
Binary vision: Ever thought one guy might want to win, but another guy wants it more? Well Alexis and a lot of guys not on the Arsenal roster want it more than most of the guys on the Arsenal roster. Hector’s statement smacks of “sure we want to win too, but its just not everything”. He’s absolutely right, but when you are being paid copious amounts of money and are a pro footballer for such a short part of your life you are never going to reach the peak with that mentality and our squad is rife with that mentality… Read more »
Here’s the thing, you don’t know jack about Hector’s interpretation of what he said. It’s a statement that can -as we clearly can see- be read a few different ways.
I read it as 100% Alexis can be a real condescending dick and that Hector sees pretty clearly.
Good for you mate, but impressions are everything and that is what he said. You read it like that because you don’t like Alexis. Plain and simple. But there are problems with this squad and if you’re happy with the team’s mentality then I guess you’re loving Europa League too…that is what its delivering
What a dick, it must be painful playing with someone that makes you look that bad.
I read it that way because that’s what Hector implied. Why would I believe the reason some may not have liked him was because he wanted to win? It’s not at all ridiculous to think perhaps they didn’t like him because he was a dick about it that pushed past the respect line and was leaving anyway. But perhaps it really is because Hector is a useless loser and should be flogged off at the first opportunity. And we should get some ‘winners’ – the type that go around insulting and disrespecting their teammates because that’s what a ‘winner’ with… Read more »
Think I’d be more interested in what Gunnersaurus is doing on Valentine’s Day
Yeah! Could help me get an idea or two on how to go about my day as well!
Dinosaurs are known for their comet-ment.
…Only if the budding couple finds a Jurassic spark.
Sorry.
Haha, reminds me of obituary quote code,
People who were:
Focused
driven
independantly minded
didn’t suffer fools gladly
highly professional
All code for ” A right bastard pain in the arse & I’m glad he/she’s dead”
“But he is a player who always wants to win”
Well fuck me sideways and call me Jonny, that is a total joke. So you’re saying you don’t always want to win ey Hector. Get a grip, wanting to win should be the single bloody default for a professional sportsman. Incredible.
He didn’t say that.
“The great thing is he wants to win, to give 100 per cent.”
He did say that, read the article again.
Here’s the quote:
“[He is] one of the best in the Premier League, for sure, but he is a player who always wants to win,” Bellerin explained. “He demands from everyone, sometimes it can be too much.
Don’t read too much on things that are not even there.
Thanks for the offer, btw.
I just don’t swing that way. And it is awkward to call people Jonny during sex.
I’m sorry they are there a little bit…”but” means a contradiction to the previous statement and as a spanish speaker “pero” would be used in EXACTLY the same context (so not a translation thing), thus stating Alexis is one of the best, “but”… the second part of the comment becomes a negative…”he is a player who always wants to win”… To say that as a negative part of the statement is worrisome. It just shows the air of complacency at Arsenal. An air of sure we want to win, but its not everything. It was everything for Alexis and that… Read more »
Yes, Alexis was part of the problem. Fact is you can’t just say whatever the fuck you want to someone and try to cover it with a bullshit ‘well, he wants to win’. Some people just go too far and go about expressing things in ways that are unacceptable to others. ‘Wanting to win’ does not make everything acceptable to everyone. And it shouldn’t.
and that is why Arsenal is mired in mediocrity. Because Alexis was the only one yelling and calling people out and rocking the boat…you think Koewn, Tony Adams, or Viera would have sat there when someone was jogging around or not playing the way they thought was right saying “shall we get a new stylist after the game mate?”
Maybe Alexis wasn’t always right is what he said, but f*ck at least he showed some drive and passion, while the rest of them say $hit like this, “oh we didn’t really like him because he wanted it too much”…pathetic
Speaking of stylist, that’s quite the series of leaps of logic there to paint your picture relating it to players from an entirely different time and place in football.
Yeah two from an invincibles era and one that wouldn’t take $hit from anyone. Hmmm… I wonder why they were such successful teams and such great captains?
Now we are lead by the drive and determination of Ozil, Koz, Cech, Bellerin. Great footballers, but none of them should even be close to captain material. Been said so many times…no leaders…couldn’t be clearer and Hector is just driving it home with statements like this
The issue isn’t with the coordinating conjunction but with the antecedent of “it”–if you think the antecedent is “wanting to win,” then Dave M’s interpretation is right; if you think that the antecedent might be the unstated “and Alexis expressed it like an arsehole,” then Dave M’s interpretation is wrong. Given that people almost never speak in grammatically unified sentences, we really can’t be sure, so we’d have to think about it logically, as in: Is it more logical that a professional athlete on a struggling team would say (when asked about snubbing a teammate) that wanting to win is… Read more »
Either way it doesn’t matter that is what the issue is here. So what if you think a team mate is an arsehole. As a pro footballer you deal with that and you don’t complain because its a team, and at times you should be using it to drive you performances up. Like I said before you think everyone loved Viera, Adams or Keown to bits? I am almost certain no, I am sure there were many people scared shitless of them and probably thought they weren’t very nice, but they sure as shit weren’t going to tell them that… Read more »
Oversimplified. Delivery is everything. Getting on someone and giving them a good shout to get their focus up properly with the intent of building up the overall can be useful in measure. What if Alexis doesn’t use it properly? What if he’s just not passing to some players (we’ve seen it) throwing his gloves off in a hissy (we’ve seen it) laughing on the bench at the wrong time (we’ve seen it) and most of all, what if his super competitiveness is just not delivered in a constructive manner but rather just in a divisive, disrespectful way? We don’t know.… Read more »
You’re so focussed on Alexis you’ve missed the whole point most people on here are making. As I’ve said you’re making Alexis a scapegoat for why we are shit, yet we still get beaten (and on the performance quite easily) by our biggest rivals with barely shrug of the shoulders from the squad. We’ll continue to be mediocre post Alexis, so scapegoat all you want you’re just completely missing the point Look at the table. Are you happy with that? Look at the fragility of this squad mentality. Are you happy with that? How are we doing in the Champions… Read more »
No problem hector. We live in a world focused and serious bout going green and energy consumption.Running from right back all the way to left forward area for a high five is inefficient energy use.
Only Flamini has the right to run everywhere and high five everybody because he knows how to use energy efficiently.
Flam always maintained a tactical balance between high fiving and finger pointing.
Alexis Sanchez was the reason we fucked up the first half of the season and here are struggling to pick it up in the second half of the season trying to incorporate all the new players in! That bellend who was supposed to be our main player on the pitch couldn’t give a rat’s ass and score goals. Blame Arsene Wenger for not selling him in the summer and end up messing up with a lot of things this season. What Arsene doesn’t understand is not all people are as professional as him and respect their contracts. Simple as that.
Alexis Sanchez wasn’t the reason why we’ve been so poor this season. We were awful last season and he was our top goal scorer.. Alexis Sanchez wanted to leave. We should’ve sold him as soon as we realised he wasn’t signing an extension – which was months and months ago. Ultimately we are in this position now all because of a failed transfer window back in 2015 where we only bought a goal keeper. We completely neglected a genuine opportunity to push on from our recent FA cup victories by bringing in the one or two top class additions the… Read more »
I used to believe this, but I think it’s been proven that we can bring in any players we want and it still won’t solve the problem unless we replace the manager…
@Adam Guillette
I completely agree with you.
The only reason why that season was a genuine opportunity to win the league was due to the other top teams all having awful seasons as well. Hence Leicester were the eventual winners…
You’re both right!
Can’t up vote that comment enough. Well said. But people need a scapegoat. Apparently “always wanting to win” is a problem these days for Arsenal players
at least he tried, unlike some of our players
This is a first I dare say. Alexis messed up our season….how? By scoring and creating more goals than our supposed darling? Or showing his obvious indignation about d fact that we have a poor poor squad. Half of them do not deserve to play alongside him. Ozil can accept mediocrity, which he is most times. Alexis won’t. Let’s not hate Alexis for being a winner
Yeah, if we’d sold Alexis then Cech would have become 5 years younger, Kos’ Achilles would have healed itself, Mustafi’s arse would have shrunk & Elneny would have gone from average to brilliant in less than 6 seconds. Not to mention all our wonderful little boys would have turned instantly into Strengthy McMentalstrength.
In the first half of the season if you remember right.. we played so many boring matches in which we failed to score..playing 0-0 till the latter part of the second half and then lost after conceding a cheap goal! I don’t know how many points have we lost this season up until now like that! I am sure there have been a lot. Had we scored earlier in those games I am sure we could have ended those matches on a different note. I am sure you wouldn’t agree with this (I am sure most people wouldn’t!) but Arsene… Read more »
Sanchez was our best player! Sanchez was our top goalscorer! You guys surely don’t remember watching how Sanchez played for us this season.. do you?
And for calling Ozil average at best in one of the above comment.. when he clearly has been our best player this season and has shown commitment by signing the contract! Classy. You make us all proud. Keep going!
Sanchez was playing for himself and his last big contract at a top team with plenty of money. He wasn’t playing for the team, merely with the team.
Once again this Bell-end Bellerin nonsense shows that some footballers are very childish.It’s time that goal celebs were banned anyway for time wasting . Sanchez himself once threw one of his tedious strops when Giroud celebrated scoring a goal . I suspect that Giroud will prove a more significant signing for Chelsea than Sanchez for United or Wenger’s latest panic buy that failed miserably against Tottenham.
jeff wrong
Jeff wrong, except in the point about Giroud being more significant!
Just to point out we won the reverse fixture with Alexis.
There was no Aubameyang or Mhkitaryan I can only pass with my right foot.
You are correct, we did have ‘I can only cut to the right and refuse to pass to Lacazette’ Alexis in the squad. He also did basically fuck all by his standards half of his time here this season.
I’ll go ahead and say it. I’m happy he’s gone. Wish he had gone in the summer.
Jesus wept. Why not ban fucking smiling and rainbows. You must be fun at parties. Is Bellerin childish for replying to a stupid question with a sensible answer? What’s childish and stupid is all the bloody over-analysis of celebrations and handshakes etc if you ask me. I was as disappointed with the Sp*rs game as anyone else but give the new boys a chance ffs, it’s only been 2 games and they were good against Everton, no?
So Bellerin didn’t like that Sanchez wanted to win all the time and all that players give 100% all the time. Fucking hell what a barsted Sanchez is
Yeah, that’s exactly what to take from this article mate. Fuck me.
Great player “BUT” he always wanted to win…
If that doesn’t ring some alarm bells about the attitude of our squad then nothing will and we really are doomed to this Europa league mediocrity
I see nothing wrong with Alexis and his attitude. If anything we were unable to match his appetite. Yes he became a bit selfish with the balls over this season but his frustrations were not met by our actions in the market. RVP was another who you could see lost confidence in Wenger’s tactical decision making and was not convinced we were spending enough to cover for the gaffer’s flaws. And he was right. I still remember the match (not sure against which team) where we were losing but the young Ox was having an inspired game and we were… Read more »
#KroenkeOut
#GazidisOut
#WengerOut
Maybe then things start to freshen up and get better at Arsenal…until then welcome to the Fun of Europa league and Carabao Cup…zzzzzzzz
The game was at home against United in the 11/12 season – the return leg of the 8-2, if you will. We were a goal down but Ox was devastating that day, eventually creating an equalizer scored by van Persie. Then Wenger hooked him for Arshavin and the crowd was very audible in their displeasure – and RvP’s reaction was more animated/vigorous than it may seem from your recollection. In that moment I figured he was leaving after that season; considering we went on to lose 2-1 (winner came from Arshavin’s wing, natch) I’m actually a bit surprised Wenger survived… Read more »
@eddymc2
Your interpretation of Hector”s comment seems too simplistic equally your understanding of hhhh
My interpretation of what? My understanding of what? I was replying to santori’s comment.
He doesn’t use a fucking political speech writer and he’s not constructing an legal document. FFS. He was live speaking.
I 100% read and understood it as ‘Sometimes his demanding attitude and treatment of others is too much’.
yes because you want a scapegoat…we get it…good for you. And now he is gone watch Arsene turn this bunch into invincibles eh…because its clear the mentality of this squad is the strongest in the EPL. “That dam Alexis…he demanded so much of us, too much really, how could he…”
You aren’t looking for scapegoats?
No I’m blaming our shit performance and league position on this shitty meek attitude from our squad, this buddy buddy thing going on above winning and a manager who promotes it by always 100% defending his players and never holding them accountable publically. These are exremely well paid pros, call them out! Make them feel some internal pressure enough of this backing them up no matter what because they aren’t getting the job done…end of story
Tactical stuff? At Arsenal? Are you sure Hector?
Yeah I got to that line and laughed out loud.
Well we did beat Spurs with Alexis in the reverse fixture and we even kept a clean sheet. There was no need for Aubameyang or Mhkitaryan. We also beat Chelsea recently (plus FA cup final)and Wenger’s record against Conte has been good. I don’t think you can say Wenger doesn’t do tactics. He’s just prone to lapses and goes back to his bad habit of reliance on an open architectured system not supported by sufficient investments in the RIGHT players for the positions we truly need reinforcing. Mslintat and the new team have not conspired to understand the needs either… Read more »
He did tactics but they were backwards. He tried to get us to play a higher tempo, but he filled the team with technical players than control the ball instead on two pacey attackers (it was only Auba running onto the ball). Even with the extra technical players we got overrun in midfield, all those lauding Jack week in week out the only thing he did in this game was the through ball that got call (probably wrongly) offside. Otherwise he along with Xhaka El neny, Ozil and Miky all got overrun in the midfield…sad fact spurs midfield dominated ours…Tactically… Read more »
its a shame a few more of you don’t give a 100%, we get somewhere if you did
Where’s that dead horse? I want to beat it.
Sir Alex beat you to it.
It’s f*cking beating us to a bloody pulp
Benriz, some of the celebs with all the kissing and jumping on top of one another by players look like a group sex orgy! I don’t mind a normal type celeb although with Wenger’s teams ability to lose leads it’s best to wait until the fat bird sings before getting too carried away with things. Yeah the new boys did well at home against a piss poor Fat Sam got it all wrong again against Wenger but I don’t read too much into these these fast-track bully home wins it’s only recently that we saw another away day bottle it… Read more »
When did Wenger claim we rule at Wembley? I think you’re getting mixed up between Arsene and Arseblog.
I thought Bellerin was pretty decent against Spurs. kept Son quiet, did a lot of hard work on the flank, supplied world class Lacazette with an excellent ball which the French man miscued on. As for Alexis, we are now missing that sort of instigator in the squad. Which is why the ball goes from side to side against better defenses like Spurs. Remember we won the reverse fixture. Also Alexis is the sort of player who can single handedly dig you out of a rut. You don’t think we miss Alexis and gained with Mhkitaryan? Delusional. Consistency is the… Read more »
““[He is] one of the best in the Premier League, for sure, but he is a player who always wants to win,” Bellerin explained. “He demands from everyone, sometimes it can be too much.”
With that kind of attitude, Alexis clearly didn’t fit in with the Arsenal of recent seasons.
You’re placing an awful big reliance on that comma after “always wants to win” in your interpretation of what Bellerin said. You do realise that none of this is actually available to the public on video yet? So your comments are based on what other people have written about what he said. Do you KNOW they are verbatim and are written exactly as spoken?
People will read/interpret the comments the way they want to to fit any narrative they see fit. If I liken this to being a workplace, not just 90 minutes on a football pitch. I would suggest that Bellerin is saying that Sanchez gives 100%, but is over-demanding of people, even when his performance is poor or in part the reason why others under-perform. I think Bellerin is suggesting that he likes Sanchez for his effort, but is overbearing and blames everyone else for a poor team performance, rather than saying 100% effort is too much. The statement he made was… Read more »
Funny. But yet, Henry is a snake for seeing what most people could see and what appears now to be obvious.
Bellend seems to have rather a lot to say about things he’s taken over from Wally Walcott in the spokes-player excuse maker front for the regime . He should just shut up and concentrate on working on the flaws in his own game . Anyone who believes that he did not high-five Sanchez when he scored against Palace because he was discussing tactics with another player will believe anything. If a big club came in and offered Bellend the sort of money that Sanchez got off United he would be off faster than you can say adios amigo !