Having been top of the Premier League table since August – a run of 19 matchweeks – Arsenal slipped to second on Wednesday night following a first home defeat of the season at the hands of title rivals Manchester City.
After a spirited first half performance, the Gunners made costly mistakes after the break and deservedly had their pants pulled down by the reigning champions who eased to a 3-1 win.
While the two sides remain level on points, and Mikel Arteta’s side have a game in hand, there’s a concern that momentum is being lost at an alarming rate; eight points have been dropped in three games and tricky trips to Aston Villa and Leicester lie ahead.
For the moment, the players don’t seem too disheartened – to be fair, they’ve experienced far worse situations in the last couple of years – and are eager to get back on the horse as soon as possible.
“We know there’s a long way to go, we’ve said it after every game we’ve won,” captain Martin Odegaard told Arsenal.com.
“We have to stay calm, keep working hard and take it game by game. It’s the same now when you lose, we need to just come back on Saturday and get a win again, that’s all that matters.
“The good thing is that the next one comes around very quickly. Just change the chip, look for the next one and come back.”
Maintaining perspective is something Gabriel Martinelli also thinks is important.
“We know our team; we know our qualities and we are going to stick together,” the Brazilian told the Evening Standard.
“There are still a lot of games to play. We know our strengths and we will bounce back. We are a family, and we are going to fight until the end.
“For sure, it is going to be tough games [at Aston Villa and Leicester]. But we are ready. We know our team and we go for it.
“We lost the game [against Manchester City], but we are Arsenal. We know how big we are and our qualities. We go to the next game to win and try to beat Villa.”
Having been so explosive in the first half of the season, Martinelli has looked out of sorts in the last month, seemingly lacking the conviction to take on opponents in the manner that had so many flailing in his wake.
“I think I can improve. I think everyone in the team can improve,” he said.
“I always try to rewatch the game and see what my mistakes were and try to improve. It’s not going to be different with this game.
“I am going to rewatch the game and see my mistakes and try to improve for the next game.”
Great attitude that. On to the next game, stick together. We could be top again by Saturday afternoon and City could lose. Its been that kind of season.
But it hasn’t really been “that kind of season” for Arsenal, has it. Despite small ups and downs, Arsenal have remained on top of the PL for months. Now we’re not. OK, there’s a game in hand (which still has to be won) but of the two managers, Pep will be more pleased now. That’s not to say our chances are over of course, but we’re in a slump (a single goal in open play in four games now) and that’s new for Arsenal as well. The Villa game wouldn’t be easy in “normal” circumstances, so who knows now? Hopefully… Read more »
The way people hate the truth on this platform baffles me. What have you said now that people are thumping you down? 🤷♂️
I think there’s still one or 2 slip ups from City on the cards. They are improving, but still look disjointed and not their imperious best. Buckle in, should be a wild ride until May. One ending with double decker buses through London 🙂
We should still be top with 2 points extra.
It’s good that he is happy to rewatch the game to see what mistakes he made!
Jonathan Wilson has written a damning piece in the guardian today all but putting the final nail in our title challenge coffin.
Well fuck him and fuck anyone who thinks this is over.
Every team has a flat spot in the season. We have the players to get out of it. Plus ESR and Jesus back soon.
We’ll fight City, their stable of crocked accountants, and the fucking King’s Council all the way.
Up the gunners
Sorry replied to wrong comment there
That makes your original two footed response even better.
Wilson is an absolute dickhead, I try to avoid his articles at all costs but when I do accidentally happen upon one I can’t believe people give his ‘thoughts’ the time of day.
Wilson has to feed his kids, just like all the click merchants prostituting their intellect and peddling predictable narratives. Pity them, don’t waste time being angry.
Good attitude, but the whole team will have to improve pretty quickly or we’ll find ourselves trying to play catch-up for quite a time.
Exactly, I want to see this attitude on the pitch, not in the papers.
We are so fortunate to get the opportunity to watch a brilliant young manager and team grow. Just as they must compose themselves, accentuate the positive, steel themselves to the pressure and disappointments, the fans must as well. Remain composed, shit out the negativity, ignore those who doubt our team….COYG
I especially like the part about shitting out negativity! So kinda like after you eat something that’s off, right?
It was supposed to be “shut” but was divinely interventioned!
More like when you take Ayahuasca and purge black goo from every orifice, which I’m sure is something the team does regularly
PL refs do that often but instead of black bile they officiate. That’s why many of their decisions are so far out.
vile instead of bile
Somehow I feel like if PL refs ever did any of that stuff they’d get much better for the simple fact that most of them would realise they’ve been such complete cunts
Well said brother
I worry that the team is running out of steam. Jesus and Esr won’t be at their best right when they come back. And Vieira is not ready yet for the prem. Basically, we have one offensive sub. Should have got a striker in January. Had the chance to get Felix but failed.
Also, maybe this team might just not be ready. Second half the pressure got to them. All we needed was a draw but we forgot how to pass.
20 odd million for Felix plus wages was never going be good business
Well you can see how massively influential he would have been by the way the Turd Boilers have been tearing it up since they got him…. Ah….. Hang on….
And he is not exactly pulling up trees at Chelsea by the way.
I too think we made a mistake not having an extra striker back in July last year as back-up/cover for Jesus, who himself is not likely to score 20 plus goals in the prem each season. Eddie is unproven over the long run and we’re starting to see that now. We had a chance to get a striker in during January but instead went for midfield and defensive cover plus another winger. If we had nabbed a striker instead of a centre half we might not be in the slump we’re in right now…
And who would have covered for Partey if we’d gone all out for that elusive striker??
Im not questioning the jorghino transfer im questioning buying the young center half instead of a striker…
The worry for me is not so much the loss to City but the fact that our form has dipped and we haven’t won for 3 games in the league.
Just depends when / if we can get back to the way we were playing a few weeks ago.
I won’t be too gutted if it doesn’t work out this season. I think we are still a work in progress, but obviously at this point everybody is hoping for more.
Yes, this isn’t about a single game. Actually, if you count the FA Cup defeat against City it’s four games now. I don’t fully share your confidence about “work in progress” though because Arsenal certainly won’t be the only “big”team that will be improving next season. City (legal problems aside) will be investing heavily as will Chelsea (on top of the money spent already). Utd. are close to being taken over by Qatar. If so, they could become a bigger force than either City or Chelsea, given their support. Who knows what Liverpool or Newcastle will do? Even Sp*rs could… Read more »
All of this is true but our players will be a year older, we will perhaps be getting Patino and Balogun back, and hopefully some significant investment too.
We are ahead of schedule this year.
We managed to build it all so far without spending more than 50m on a single player, most of them were comparative bargains.
Yes, that’s all true but the others, or at least some of them, will be stronger as well. They don’t need to look for bargains.
Arsenal will improve of course no doubt about that, but the key question remains: will they improve enough relative to the improvement we can expect elsewhere? We’ll only know that next season.
We’ll find out I guess. We seem to be smart and we’re not exactly poor so there is hope. We also have a good foundation to build on.
Look at all the expensive flops Chelsea and Utd have signed. It’s easy to waste a lot of money.
The team had them rattled in the first half. Things aren’t all that bad. To cheer yourselves up watch https://youtu.be/tZuMSXalq78 or if you are able watch a documentary by Irish broadcaster Rte on Liam Brady called an Irishman abroad.
Hysterical, thanks for sharing
I fully trust that Aston Villa on Saturday will do an Everton and literally play for their lives, Ollie Watkins turning into prime Pele before all returning to their dreadful usual selves the next game
Even if the team did just run out of steam and end up 2nd or 3rd this year I am damn proud of them. The improvement on last year is off the fucking chart!
Exactly this!….how quickly people forget that nearly this same team was being talked about as relegation candidates barely 12 months ago.
I defy anyone to tell me they were expecting Arsenal to mount a title challenge this season. Our target was and still is, to secure champions league football, anything else is a very welcome bonus.
Stop moaning and berating our young players and get behind them, particularly when we lose!
Must admit I was disappointed with the result last night – as you would be.
But if you look how we have performed this season bar the last couple of games Arsenal fans should be proud of what they have done.
I imagine we are ahead in what we want to achieve and I think with a few top quality additions in the summer we can be even stronger.
Emotions aside, if they are saying patience then that is fine by me..
Long way to go for a fight for 4th
Seriously?
A win at Villa Park will be the loudest statement the team can make at this point, and not media soundbites. We heard about the anger and frustration at the Brentford game that would drive them yesterday. It is superfluous to say it didn’t quite pan out that way.
Beat Villa and Leicester City, and the momentum is back on.
One thing is certain: this City team will drop points along the way. We must position ourselves to capitalise on that and take back the initiative.
I agree, Villa on Saturday is our biggest game of the season, win it and we’re right back in the mix, lose it and our kids have a huge job steadying the ship.
All games have equal value. The next game is always the biggest game of the season. Citeh game was the biggest game of the season and before that it was Brentford and before that Everton. They are all big.
Need to change our attack, Trosaard replace Nketiah. With Jesus out, our right hand side has suffered, Xhaka and Martinelli is much more isolates. Also put on Tierney to provide more width, Zinny is too central most of the time.
Jesus doesn’t score a lot of goals, but Jesus we’ve missed him, he makes everything and everyone tick.
Wondering why Arsenal is the only team playing on Saturday?? Every other team plays on Sunday, resulting in Arsenal only having a 2 day rest….
Man City is somewhat of a hodoo team for Arsenal (same as Sp*rs are a hoodo team to them). It is extremely optimistic to assume we will come back with even a point when we visit Etihad, so we can assume we are level on points with City (with lower GD) after same number of games played. Can the team in current form come away with wins from Anfield (another hoodoo ground) & Newcastle? If they can, we might have a chance at the title. But at this juncture I am more concerned about being overtaken by United TBH. Finishing… Read more »
Why? The goal has been top four this season. A very young thin squad went on a club record starting run to the season. What form they were on and what scintillating football they were playing! Did people really expect we would keep that winning pace that outstripped the Invincible’s? That’s not realistic. The squad is a little jaded right now. The manager wanted this test to measure the squad and he got his answer, we aren’t good enough yet to beat City at home. I’m expecting the Manager to be a little more ruthless in his player rotation. We… Read more »