Arsene Wenger is clearly a fan of Danny Welbeck, and was full of praise for the striker after his excellent contribution in the 3-2 win over Southampton on Sunday.
The England international provided an assist for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before helping himself to two goals – one of which was the late winner to help the Gunners take all three points.
It was his best performance for some time, aided by the fact he’s been fit and playing regularly, and the Arsenal boss believes he’s getting back to the required level after suffering two serious knee injuries.
“Danny Welbeck has been getting sharper,” he said. “He has been out for a while, now he comes slowly back to his best. I’m personally very happy and pleased for him because this guy has gone through some difficult times.
“I’ve seen him behave when it was really hard and tough. He deserves everything he gets. He had every reason to feel sorry for himself, to think this mountain is too big to climb, with the right knee, the left knee, and a year out every time.
“He worked hard unnoticed by everybody. People were questioning will he come back or not. To continue to go is the most difficult test for any sports person.
“What he has done is exceptional.”
Welbeck does frustrate at times, but he’s definitely one of the good guys so it’s nice to see him find some form again. Not least because having him back among the goals is a boost for Europe where we’re without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Big strong lad, let’s hope he stays that way and starts getting a better goals/game ratio. Could be the peak of his career coming up.
I can excuse the odd missed and ‘Welbeck’ moment as he works hard. What I really want to see from him however is much more aggression. He’s big, strong and quick. He should be making himself intimidating to play against. Not just battling but aggressive in his running and play, take players on, push teams back rather than slowing things down.
Still a good performance and hopefully he can build on it
I hope that leaves some fans thinking about how they react when players have bad spells. If abusing and ridiculing is the best thing to do or maybe backing the player up and stand by him through bad patches – what’s actually nothing special to expect from a supporter but just his purpose in the game – is the best thing for all concerned. But I thought that after Ramsey had this phenomenal season after he’s received so much abuse the months and years prior to that when he struggled to get back to his best after that horrible injury.… Read more »
I remember AOC looking up at the stand as our fans screamed ‘You’re not fit to wear the shirt’. He was trying. It wasn’t working. He was (along with the rest of the team) taking massive abuse from his own ‘supporters’.
Would you re-sign for us after that?
Many of our ‘fans’ aren’t fit to wear the shirt.
Berlingoon, that last part brought a tear to my otherwise Sahara desert dry eyes mate. You’re definitly west of the wall and in my books pal. COYG.
This is exactly what I was thinking while reading the comments about Wilshere. Many fans need to take a balanced perspective about things. When Wilshere came on it wasn’t like Arsenal were playing Southampton out of the park and he came on and ruined it. As far as that incident with Stephens is concerned I was actually pretty proud of it. How many times have we wanted our players to do a professional foul and take a yellow, that’s exactly what he did. It got heated because of Stephens reaction to it, which believe it or not broke their momentum.… Read more »
There was absolutely nothing professional about Wilshire’s foul. It was an off the ball incident with Jack spending 20 yards trying to tear the guy’s shirt off with several defenders in front of Stephens in case the ball did come to him. I don’t mind professional fouls to help the team but this was just Jack losing it and going after someone plain and simple.
Mate, Wilshere tearing that enemies shirt off is nothing, id rather have my shirt ripped off every game than some of the really bad tackles i see flying around, have seen (Young on Aguero) and have had against me. Wilshere would of had an assists if it wasn’t for Welbeck’s miss, and he did well to create that chance. Wilshere sprints back countless times to cover other players (Ozil mostly) who just jog after being dispossessed. Bore off honestly lol Wilshere isn’t there to be the oppositions best friend.
Wiltshire is the one player we have who crosses over to dirty play when he isn’t playing well- his tackle from behind when he easily could have injured the other player a few weeks ago etc. I dislike that part of his game. I’m all for professional fouls etc if it helps us win but I dislike seeing an arsenal player cross the line as jack does and then to stand up as if he was aggrieved
The Wilshere incident was just before a quick break. It was obvious that he lost his temper because of a bad through ball he played, which could have led to a 1-on-1 opportunity had he played it right. He then went after the fella’s shirt in frustration instead. It was needless, to say the least.
I think temper did play a part, but this guy stephens im pretty sure i saw a dodgy tackle on welbeck, then he kind of went in on wilshere, and while its not exactly sportsmanlike I did enjoy jack getting back at him and getting him wound up, I remember the incident when Holding blatantly fouled Arnautovic and that kind of thing, sometimes is somewhat acceptable, and certainly put a smile on a few fans faces
Have to say i wholeheartedly agree with this. I don’t know how many games i attended where ramsey and diaby took ridiculous levels of abuse for no good reason. A lot of arsenal “fans” could learn a thing or two from how the liverpool fans behave. You should never, ever give stick to your own players unless they are obviously not consistently putting the effort in.
Wouldn’t surprise me at all if rambo decided to head for a club where his amazing talent is appreciated a bit more.
Ramsey will leave as he has always said he wants to play abroad. Plus he might want to challenge for the pl and cl and with us and aw that ain’t happening
In any regular job, if u dont perform either u r removed or demoted or given a bad raise. U r only as good as your last good performance…it’s a fact of life everywhere in professional world. More so for a professional footballer in the best league in the world. People will criticize. if you have a thick skin u just get on with it or if u r sensitive about it, u can cry about it. Should watch Nketiah’s reaction to that miss… tells u all u need to know. Some people have that killer instinct in front of… Read more »
I accept that we’re on the fringes of extremes mostly. We need to be more balanced and problem is not with the fans ‘only’. If we have one or two fragile players and if our dependency on them is not much, then most people would wait for them to hit form and stand by them. But, as a club we have a lot of such individuals and our season after season gets derailed due to injuries and recovery timelines, hence the anguish from fans. I don’t think fans hated RVP due to his injuries or Rosicky or Santi or Kos… Read more »
After 2 years of injury hell, Danny is now showing what he can do with a clean bill of health, and games under his belt. A good all-round game- tracks back, makes the runs, puts in a good shift, and getting better with his finishing. I know this may be contentious, but I’d like to see him get an extension (along with Rambo of course). PEA, Laca, Welbz and Nketiah would be a good group of forwards to have for next season.
Mr. Useful
Welbz is class! PERIOD
Given his goals against United (and celebrations…) Danny has got an awful lot of good will credit from me. I have always thought he was better than a lot of fans give him credit for. That said, he has been in pretty poor form lately as I always felt he could have a big impact on games even without end product (see the FA cup final against Chelsea) and he has been a bit anonymous of late. That is why I am really pleased he seems to have rediscovered a bit of form lately. Long may it continue. Obviously the… Read more »
There’s another United match upcoming….
Well done Danny.what a hard working lad, I’m sure their’s a bit more to come from him yet. At this high level of sport it would take any player time to over come, return and then find form after serious injury. I would of thought with our history of player injuries that we gunner fans should have more patience than most with our injured players and give them the time and support they need to get back to the top of their game.
I think Danny can potentially give us what Giroud provided in a target player but with power and pace. That said, he needs to work to his strength like the Frenchman did so well given his limitations. Personally, I feel Danny is best from a central position where his height and strength can come into play. But his hold up play must improve. If we should play one of the strikers as option out wide, I suppose the ideal at the moment is for Aubameyang and Danny to swap out left and central or conversely Aubameyang and Lacazette to do… Read more »
At his best he’s what Wenger wantedYaya Sanogo to be. A nonstop ball of energy creating headaches for defenders all the time. Welbeck did that well yesterday. His first goal I thought he showed some great control as well. He was going full steam through the defense and managed to keep control.
Deflection?
It was still on target.
Wow
Leading up to the deflected shot he showed fantastic close control at full speed. IMO one of the hardest skills in the game. He has good skills/technique….in small bursts.
I agree with 420 that run was the type we would see from alexis in his best year for us, who’d scored deflected goals like that and no one cared. Taking on a defender quickly cutting in and shooting, who cares if it deflected it was quality play and the type of run a confident player makes. He has it in the locker so hopefully it will give him the confidence to do it more often.
People pick and choose whom they want to highlight and whom they want to amplify faults with. I think Welbeck deserves the accolades but lets be balanced as well, he still has much to improve (Glaring miss late on in front of open goal). He tends to wait for the ball (he isn’t the only one guilty of this of course) where he would be better served anticipating and gambling into the box earlier. I mentioned this several times in recent matches when he was always two steps away from the ball that predictably would find its way (ostensibly to… Read more »
Did he compare himself to Cristiano Ronaldo?
It’s a fine line sometimes between “does this guy care.”, or “this guy is really shit” and “bad month/year”. Sometimes the player just doesn’t fit in, or wants a change of scenery. Alexis, Ox, these guys are thriving. If all these decisions were easy. Fans have the right to their opinions. Fan complaint is sometimes valid. I think a lot of the Arsenal Fan TV nonsense is from a feeling of powerlessness vs. mgmt, they don’t listen/care. Should they? Up to a point, yes, I think, why not? I think the more transparency the better. Coaches and people in power… Read more »
All that to say, good on ya Welbz! Clearly the man is doing doing good for our team. We should be careful before we slag off players recovering from injury. Like I was saying, it can be complicated. Can we ask for more quality without being dicks to the players trying their best? Can we have more transparency so that we can tell? I prefer this than the attitude of blind support for whatever happens at the club.