After the 1-1 draw with Sp*rs on Saturday, Sokratis Papastathopoulos took time to speak to the press after removing Harry Kane from his pocket.
The Greek international formed an excellent partnership with Laurent Koscielny, and were it not for some dreadful officiating and a daft foul, the duo would almost certainly have prevented the England captain from scoring yet another derby goal.
The Gunners suffered a deflating blow late on when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang spurned the chance to take all three points, but the 30 year was encouraged by the team’s all-round display as they continue the chase for a Champions League spot next season.
“What I saw against Tottenham, the spirit of the team, I am very happy and I think if we are like this until the end we can do it,” he said.
“It’s not about how we play, it’s also that we have all started to believe that we can do it.
“This is very important for the team, for the spirit. Every day in training we know that we are there, and it’s very important for us.
“It’s very important for us and our manager that we take one of the four positions so that next year we are in the Champions League.”
He also had an eye on next weekend’s crunch encounter with an in-form Manchester United.
“Next week also is very important,” he said. “It’s a big game. In our home we have to take the three points.”
Me too, especially if we beat those wankers on Sunday… could still catch Spuds as well, who have both City and Pool to play.
Isn’t it hilarious watching Liverpool choking. Just saying.
ah the usual bottling. The closer they get, the more hilarious.
Speaking of which, watch out for some serious bottle job vs Dortmund.
Up the Dortmunds!
I’d actually prefer Sp*rs to get further in the champions league. They’re never going to win it so the more preoccupied by it the better
I love it!! Klopp had a face like a smacked arse at the end… he can’t handle not winning! No running on the pitch or showing his pearly whites yesterday!!
I actually would be very happy for Liverpool to win the title, much happier than for Man City.
hm i go for city. just because alot of pool fans around me and they will rub it in my face on every fuckin occasion. im living abroad so never met or saw a city supporter tbh.
My daughter is a City fan, so want them to win so she’ll be happy! Plus I detest Liverpool
Well, some supporter in the family gotta be happy 🙂
For you I’, afraid it’ll take some time.
We’re heading in the right direction though!
I dunno I have mixed feelings. I don’t want to see oil money dominating either.
That ship has sailed already. We can all just think about their victories with an asterisk against them.
Liverpool, on the other hand, seem to think it’s their God-given right to win things, even though they’ve not won the league for nearly 30 years. They would be excruciating to deal with if they do win the league. Personally, I think it would be hilarious for them to get so close, only to fail yet again.
They haven’t even got Stevie G to slip this time!
Yep. Many of us who grew up in the 70/80s have an abiding hatred of the red scourers. Bloody hilarious if the win nothing this season after all the hype.
Salah has really lost the plot.
Yes, I remember those smug dorky cunts from the 80s. The current bunch are not nearly as unlikeable, but its still fucken Pool.
They are much more of an old hated foe than Citeh, down the bastards go!
Much better them than City. I am surprised. Being Arsenal fans and our way of playing and financing, we should be supporting Liverpool over City. City has no history unlike Pool and us and they are born of only Money.
What you are suggesting we do is like seeing a bank robber and a rookie policeman in a shoot out and thinking we should support the bank robber because the cop gets a regular paypacket from a wealthy government.
Liverpool fans are arrogant. Liverpool players have historically been arrogant. Liverpool the Club and its owners/board/managers have historically been arrogant. Their only great Club tradition is arrogance.
That might be the best analogy in the history of the universe.
Unpopular maybe, but I would rather see LP win rather than an oil rich(not that that is a sin), piss on human rights, financially cheating country win it.
Lets face it. We have four of the five worst teams in English football above us in the league, and the other sniffing around our arses.
Let’s get the Emirates and every Arsenal fan in the world rocking next week! #COYG
Anything is possible…. Sokratis is a rock (& I love the picture & agree he is a massive twat ?)
He’s been a brilliant signing, £16million has so far proven to be a bargain. We don’t have the budget or currently the appeal to attract a world class, ball playing centre half, but if we can ship Mustafi out? And get a similar type of experienced, quick+aggressive, no nonsense centre half as Sokratis? Then i think it’s the best we can do in our current situation.
£50mill for Sokratis, Guendouzi, Torreira was fantastic business, whoever replaces Mislintat? Will have a tough act to follow.
Particularly as our budget is reportedly only £40million this time around…..
The caption might well could have read: You stamp on our Bernt, I bite your head off, malaka!!?
Off topic, but why couldn’t we offer Wenger a position at the club? Much like Man Utd did it with Sir Alex after he stepped down as manager. I hear we are looking for a Technical Director, Wenger would be perfectly suited for it imo. Massive connections and well respected in the game, an eye for talent, proper negotiator, very intelligent, and he has the Arsenal DNA in him. Shame we couldn’t keep him in a different capacity
He’d be interfering all over the place, he needs to be kept away for a few years so the club can move forward without his shadow hanging over everyone. Maybe in ten years time he could be on the board or something.
Lost me at proper negotiator…40M +1, never forgot
the legal bid?
we were let down by the suarez camp who we were led to believe was desperate to come. i thought this was common knowledge now?
that was a perfectly legitimate bid – it did trigger his release clause. This has been clarified.
You are just listening to the liverpool ridicule when in fact they should have allowed us to negotiate with him. Instead they offered an improved contract to him and sold him the next year.
I am glad we didn’t buy that bitey racist anyway and we got Sanchez which was great until he forgot how to play and joined man utd for the GDP of Scotland every other day.
And we got Mkhi – who i am starting to love.
In other news, I know I’ve only got myself to blame, but I looked at Garth Crooks’ Team of the Week on the BBC website (purely because the headline was ‘which two Sp*rs players made it in to Garth’s team of the week and in my incredulity I was intrigued). My word, that man is an unbelievable twat. He picks Sokratis and then gives it “Sokratis was lucky that Harry Claim was only just back, blah, blah”, plus picks Lloris and Vertonghen in his team. Just for good measure, he randomly throws in a statement about why anyone thinking Torreira’s… Read more »
Typical bloody spud ?
In fairness Lloris was their best player. A good save from iwobi and he stopped auba’s crap penalty.
But leno was better than him
Well he had to have a good game after his (& Trippier’s) howler against Chelsea!
That boiled my blood to fu*k as well. Man for man those spuds were completely outplayed.
Garth Crooks is a knob
I like Papa’s confidence.Three points against Manure would be massive.
If you look at it logically and dispassionately then a top-four finish is unlikely for us. United have a massive amount of momentum behind them and will probably finish above us. Our away form has been patchy all season and we still have a few tricky matches outside London to negotiate. With our excellent home form I think we’ll either beat or draw with the Red Devils on Sunday but their consistency will see them nick fourth. Spuds have two very tough away games at City and Liverpool but will probably pick up enough points from the other games to… Read more »
That might be true, FG, but fortunately football is never logical and full of passion. Keep the faith. COYG.
I think Arsenal might win over ManU. But we’re unlikely to play the eight last matches without dropping points. This goes for ManU and Chelsea too, so it’ll be tight. There is a fair chance to squeeze into the top four, however, in which case Emery will have over-fulfilled expectations in his first season.
The team is playing well at the moment. Sunday will be massive; if we can repeat the intensity we showed in beating Chelsea, that should be enough for 3 points.
I don’t know how many of their injured players are coming back, but we look better than them at the moment.
Danny Rose is a cunt!
He really is!!
What’s the beef between him & Welbeck? I remember a game where Welback really went in hard against him, it seemed personal.
When even one of the nicest people in football hates you that should be an indicator that you need to change your ways. But not Danny Rose. He just carries on being a cunt because that’s what he knows.
He’s a John Terry wannabe.
Sokratis at 16m in the current market looks like a steal. We also have to remind ourselves that it’s his first season in the Premier League…
Nine matches left in the PL. With a victory against ManU, it is all in Arsenal’s hands, meaning the top four is certain with wins in the last eight matches (against presumingly weaker teams).
Eight PL-victories is unlikely, however. We’ll stumble. But so will Chelsea and ManU. This will probably not be settled until the last round. Goal difference might decide, and Arsenal must continue attacking even when leading 3-0.
We should try and win every match. We’ve done it before. Finish strong. Start with United.
Nothing is impossible. Just do it.
Nope, it’s not certain even if we do win all nine matches we have left. Chel$ki are two points behind us but have a game in hand, so if they win all of their remaining ten matches we can’t catch them.
That said, the likelihood of either they or us winning all of our remaining matches is probably similar to the likelihood that Jose Mourinho, deep down inside, is really a nice guy. And our run-in is easier than Chel$ki’s.
I love the pic and caption at the top of the post… Made me chuckle….What a twat Rose is and was consistently throughout the game, he should have had a red for his tackle on Leno, broke all the rules right in front of the blind ref Taylor… Nullo cards for Rose and red for Torrieara WTF?
*Sorry, Not Sorry.
He’s beginning to believe – Morpheus
It’s tantamount to a final this Sunday. It’s the biggest match left (unless we make it all the way to Europa) We need to approach it as such, all or nothing. Thereafter Spurts still have to contend with City AND Liverpool away. We want to finish above them, United and Chelsea nothing less. It’s in our hands. Hope Aubameyang gets a kick up the arse. He’s far too casual at times. As much as our defense is culpable, we need the attack to be far sharper than they are. Lots of positives from the Spurs game. Defense was solid for… Read more »
How do the other players feel when a single player on the team repeatedly does things that cost the team VITAL points? Just curious to know how they relate afterwards and how they look forward to games knowing such person is gonna play and not really sure what the outcome would be