Aaron Ramsdale promises Arsenal won’t give up on the title race with five matches remaining even though City could open up a four gap if they win their two games in hand.
The Gunners travelled to the Etihad looking to give themselves some breathing room heading into the final month of the season but were routed by the reigning champions who created wave after wave of attack on their way to a comfortable 4-1 victory.
“We haven’t played nine months of Premier League football to be in this position to moan or give up – we’re not going to do that,” Ramsdale told Arsenal.com.
“If something is going to happen, it’s going to be in our league, so, we’ve got to be there to pounce if anything happens.
“Nothing changes for us; we’ll go through everything as we always do and learn from our mistakes, individually and collectively. Unfortunately tonight we haven’t been able to do what we came to achieve.”
When it was put to him that Arsenal had been outlcassed on the night, the keeper disagreed, stressing that his side had been masters of their own downfall.
“I think we gave them a leg up in the game,” he told Viaplay.
“They are definitely the team we’re aspiring to be and trying to compete with in this league and that’s a credit to us but if you don’t outrun them or compete in the duels then their quality will come through.
“For the first 45 minutes we were a yard off. When you give them a chance to play they are going to dominate, they’ve dominated some of the best teams in the world, so it took us 45 minutes to start.”
Having not beaten City at the Etihad since 2015, it was always going to be difficult for Arsenal to record a win if they didn’t get the first goal.
Their opponents knew that and immediately went for the jugular. Inside six minutes, Kevin De Bruyne scored a spectacular opener in ruthless fashion.
Racing away from Thomas Partey and Rob Holding, he moved onto his right foot before fizzing a low curling effort past Ramsdale from 20 yards. The effort was taken so quickly, it seemed to catch the Arsenal keeper off guard.
“He’s one of the best players in the Premier League. He can do anything with a football, is a special player and he’s took it early, gone hard and low.
“I’ve not seen it back, I’ll look through and if there’s something I can do better, I’ll hold my hands up, I’ll be the first one to hold my hands up. We’ll go through it, we’ll move on and we’ll try and learn.”
We have to win all of our remaining games, but clearly take each one at a time. A win against Chelsea will undoubtedly give us confidence to take up to Newcastle – which we will need by the sackful. Three points up there and we really do put pressure back on City. We currently need them to drop five points from their remaining twenty one. Truth be told, that’s a big ask and frankly I just can’t see that happening; all we can do for the time being is pray that fatigue eventually sets in and reduces them to treacle-wading… Read more »
City seem to be the masters of periodisation and coupled with a bloody generous fixture list, it really would be a shock if they drop more points than us. But you never know.. it’s the hope that kills
If the second youngest squad (and manager) learn from this year, I hope it’s just how deep a squad you need to compete with City and how to rotate better through the year to ensure we finish strong.
Tierney, ESR, Trossard, Nketiah/Balogun and Holding/A N Other can’t be thrown in cold to games and be expected to set it on fire.
And this is why I kept saying that we should have fucked off the Europa by playing the bench and a few youth team if needs be.
The first XI should have been nowhere near the pitch that night against Sporting. Look how we’ve missed Saliba to start and also Tommi as an option from the bench.
Our squad in its current state cannot compete for the title and a European trophy.
I duly hope Josh has noted this and will provide some serious funds – at least £180m -£200m to bolster the squad in the summer.
Ultimately what happened to both Saliba and Tomi could’ve happened at training, or in any game. Particularly with Saliba’s back, sounds like it was a ticking time bomb kind of thing, maybe we would have gotten one or two more games out of him, but I kinda feel it was a bit of an inevitability. We need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and having this victim mentality about City spending shit loads of cash to acquire their squad. It is what it is. We can’t change any of it. None of us were complaining about the quality of our… Read more »
You can’t minimise what happens in training.
You CAN minimise what happens in inferior competitions by not picking your best players and keeping the safe and rested for the competition that REALLY matters.
So your argument doesn’t wash mate.
We lost both Saliba and Tommi when they should both have been rested.
I disagree with that completely, if you’re training properly, you train how you play, and so you can get injured at any point. Absolutely no chance you minimise anything in that environment.
Erm…. I think you’ll find – if you look REALLY CLOSELY – that I actually said that you can’t minimise what happens in training.
Do try to keep up…..
Trying to keep up?
Difficult when on one hand you’re saying you can get injured at any point. But at the same time saying its best to not play certain players due to potentially getting them injured.
By that logic we shouldn’t play anyone ever or even train.
Makes total sense.
Dear God Almighty.
Training is a necessary risk.
Playing your best XI in an inferior competition is an unnecessary risk.
I simply said – both at the time and after the injuries to Tommi and Saliba were sustained- – that the first XI shouldn’t have been picked and risked unnecessarily for the Europa League games.
NOW do you get it….?!!
🙄
We had an unbelievably generous fixture list too in the first half of the season!
Just saying
Wake up from your fantasy land 😂😂😂
That’s rich, coming from you.
Nah.
I’d much rather laugh at you wallowing in yours.
It’s over brother…sad truth. It would take a miracle from here, and with the quality $ity possess that ain’t happening. The run of draws made yesterday’s game a must win and $ity crushed us.
Still a really great season, but we also still bottled it. I said fuck a lot yesterday…so one more time. FUCK!
We ran out of energy hence Ramsdale’s point that we were a yard behind. We don’t have a world class squad to fall back on because we play by the rules.
The damned oil world cup really fucked us. We were flying when that atrocity happened, and I know we won a couple directly after, but it disrupted and lengthened the season to a point we couldn’t cope.
Ran out of energy. We have played one game a week for ages. City have played far more games than us recently.
City’s squad has such depth that it has allowed them to rotate not just at the business end of the season but throughout the season as a whole!
Without blaming anyone, we’ve overplayed most of our key players this campaign and it’s cost us over the last 4 matches.
It’s been a fantastic season nonetheless!!
We fucked ourselfs in the matches against Liverpool West Ham and Southampton. It had absolutely nothing to do with fatigue and energy.
I love you bro. Fact! We always run out of energy when it matters most.
Leicester ran out of energy that season to i remember. Don’t we always run out of energy when it matters most season in season? Truth is, it’s beyond energy thing, all the point we dropped this season were few games to our match up against city. Go and verify.
“But what is truth? Is truth the unchanging law? We both have truths – are mine the same as yours?” (Pontius Pilate – ‘Trial Before Pilate’ from ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ lyrics by Tim Rice) Mate, I had you down as someone better than to use the word ‘bottle’ but anyway, I digress…. Never mind ‘truths.’ How about my favourite Get Out Of Jail Card – fact. The FACT of the matter is that, despite everything, we still have a chance, albeit a small chance – a ‘miracle’ as you do rightly at this moment in time call it. Said it… Read more »
Troodat. And I will add the following:
If (and, yes, it’s a rather large IF) we can only keep the gap between us ‘n them to a draw or even a win, up until the last 2 games… they need to then win at both Brentford and Brighton. And, anything can happen under ‘must-win’ pressure… even to this bunch of oiled-fired automatons.
As Q says… KEEP the faith.
Miracles can happen. Just ask Michael Thomas.
I think a team selection freshen-up would help…
Play White CB… play someone else RB… Start Trossard even…
Holding / Jesus / Partey have been so poor the past 3 games
Yeah. Was listening to the Arsecast Extra and Andrew suggested maybe three at the back and Trossard starting, which sounds great, but I can’t see Arteta dropping either Saka or Martinelli, so where on earth do you play him? You have to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt too, so maybe another 8 alongside Odegaard? I don’t know. We definitely need to freshen things up, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the manager kept the same starting XI. Our woes, such as they are, are in defence and defensive midfield. Partey strikes me as not being… Read more »
Regardless how people think holding has played, we have conceded 13 goals in 6 games. With saliba Gabriel and white we can afford Zinchenco going into middle. Without saliba it’s as clear as day now and was to me and some before city game that white needs to come back into middle and either tierney or Zinchenco go right back. Gabriel alongside holding has been awful. We have looked like the keystone cops again. The fragility has spread through the whole team. If Arteta continues playing holding alongside Gabriel we beat Chelsea but cannot see us beating Newcastle. A fantastic… Read more »
Just don’t drop any points anymore and play like the arsenal
Just.
Going to get downvoted but I don’t care. The whole narrative of us being a young team & not expected to be in this position is moot because we are. And let’s call a spade a spade, we’ve bottled the league. Simple as. And is it completely unexpected, of course not, same thing happened at the tail-end of last season. When the going got tough, certain players were found wanting. WHERE WAS ODEGAARD YESTERDAY? 2 goal leads x2 in the Prem for a team chasing a first league title in 20yrs should result in 6pts. I don’t care that it’s… Read more »
I think you bottled your comment when you said saka bottled it when he missed the pen…
Mate, Saka has been outstanding this season, but he’s also been poor over the last month. In the end the penalty miss probably isn’t going to matter anyway because $ity smashed us, but Saka’s dip in form has had an impact. For sure he’ll be back stronger than ever and he’s my favourite player, but to win the league, your players like Saka (and Marty and well frankly the whole team) need to play like worldies down the stretch and they’ve all stumbled. The big disappointment for me is opportunities like this aren’t guaranteed. People say it’s a good season… Read more »
Every team except one bottles the title every year. If you want to ignore everything that’s happened this season and strip away all context so that you can repeat a tired football cliche go ahead. I think this team deserves better than that.
I agree with 89 Again – what are we supposed to do? Win every game? We have lost 4 games out of 33. That is an incredible improvement from last year. To say we bottled it is ridiculous; everyone knew that with fixture list that City would haul us in. City are a machine, we are going through what Liverpool experienced for several seasons. To run City as close as we have with this squad is an incredible achievement.
I think you”re over-simplifying things. I do not like the word ‘bottle’ – and I do not think it describes the events of past weeks. However, I DO feel that we must accept that the simple facts are – by our own grit, skill, spirit – we played ourselves into massively advantageous positions at both the Scouse and the Hammers. City should NOT have simply ‘hauled us in in’… that is bollocks. We were – TWICE in consecutive games – in a position to load all the pressure onto them. And let’s not even start with the aberration that was… Read more »
I agree with this, maximum points is the only way to go in our previous three games and the situations we created. Arteta shoulders some of the responsibility…don’t imagine we will be chasing the title next year, it doesn’t work like that unless you have built a machine like City. Liverpool did not improve. Spurs did not improve after their CL final.
We could be better and we could me missing Saliba and Saka (awaiting signatures guys).
Unique opportunity given away for no good reason. We even kept Party fit.
Someone who gets it
Listen, I LOVE this young team but we need to be honest with our failings. It’s happened TWO seasons in a row now where at the business end we’ve been found wanting. Why did we freeze yesterday against City? Why did we completely abandon our normal game and play with the proverbial handbrake on? Why. WHY? Someone please tell me why? I’ll tell you why, because it was a pressure game and we were intimidated. We didn’t even give it a go, we looked overawed by the occasion which is another way of saying we bottled. I think the negative… Read more »
‘Bottled’ is reductive. Both seasons ‘bottling” was preceeded by the loss of key players leading to the loss of form. Did pressure play a part too? Probably. Would another £50m cb and cm on the bench have meant that we were able to cope with that pressure better? Probably. There is more nuance to this discussion than simply saying that Arsenal Bottled it. Further, it’s counter productive because reducing it to those terms just makes it more likely to become a self fulfilling prophecy next time we find ourselves in the same situation.
Spot on, thank goodness for some nuanced analysis! Would we have had this recent dismal run of form if Saliba & Tomi were available, probably not!!
Tomi would not be playing. Saliba is a loss for sure, but that’s one first team player out. That’s not enough of an excuse. Injuries happen every year. Next year we could have a total disaster with injuries and be back out of Europe again. It has been a really good season and the team has done super super well, but they also had the PERFECT chance to win the league – in our hands, and the players/coach didn’t step up/choked/bottled it (whatever you want to call it). Obviously, this is still a huge improvement on the pitiful performances of… Read more »
I think it’s logical to assume that Tomi would be starting every game with Ben White in Saliba’s spot. That would make a big difference.
Agree that we can’t assume linear progress and luck for next season, this was in our hands and sadly we blew it. Trust the process though (serious).
Simplistic – if Tomi stays fit (and Saliba is injured), Ben simply shifts to his original (and, some would say, preferred) position and Tomi comes in at RB.
BIG difference. It absolutely made a difference that we lost both at so crucial a point in the season.
Mate, if Tommi was fit, you can bet your car, your mortgage and your pet dog if you have one, that Tommi would have been playing RB and Ben White would have partnered Gabriel.
Or Tommi would have partnered Gabriel and our full backs remain the same.
Either way Tommi would have played.
So that fucking game against Sporting is where I’ll be looking if we don’t win this title.
If we had a stronger squad/team we would be less likely to stumble. That includes the players we have being better, and a lot of them should get better.
You feel pressure more when you lack confidence or when you are struggling to cope.
Hasn’t been much wrong with our mentality for most of the season.
Why dont we play our normal game? Play with the handbrake on? Such a simplistic way to analyse a football match….What do you expect MC players to do then, stood, watch and clapped admiringly while we play our normal game? Lets be clear, we did try to play our normal game, but it was just not that effective, because this was a match where we were actuaĺlly COMPETING against a team with definitely better players across the board, and probably a better manager tactically too. Plus we were playing in their own backyard as well. So why not try to… Read more »
Are you finished?
Good. Thank fuck for that…..🙄
I wouldn’t mind if you at least waited until the end of the season before peddling this crap. But the fact that we are still in with a mathematically possible chance – albeit a very slim one – seems to have bypassed you in your haste to turn on the team and use words being bandied about by jealous rival fans and pundits – the very same people who were shouting from the rooftops last August that we wouldn’t make top four, never mind take City on in a two horse race into May. The irony of the word ‘bottle’… Read more »
I agree with the sentiment to an extent but your Saka comment was a far bigger miss than his penalty. We were cruising at 2-0 up, and when he missed we were still 2-1 up against a relegation threatened West Ham team. To blame it all on Saka is completely absurd and even shameful.
Who blamed it all on Saka? Not me buddy. Just said it was a pressure moment and he let it get to him. Greater players have missed penalties in high pressure moments, I’m just calling it what it is as I bet if that penalty was given earlier on in the season he would have buried it.
Saka narrowly missed a penalty. Essentially he made a minor error in his technique. Yes, this error could have been caused by the pressure of the situation. Saka got a goal and an assist in the next match, presumably you don’t feel he bottled it in that game? So we have 2 data points and rather than accepting that mistakes happen you choose to question the mentality of our best player (for several seasons now) who has been exceptional for the vast majority of his many minutes on the pitch. Thats lazy and stupid when troll supporters of other teams… Read more »
But it wasn’t really a pressure moment, not in of itself. It was around 50 minutes and, again, we were 2-1 up. If we simply maintain that lead, no one talks about that Saka pen ever again. But because we went on to drop points, people look back at it like “oh, he bottled it”. It’s ridiculous.
This is hilarious. A great piece of satire. Well done! We started players in key positions that wouldn’t even sniff Man City’s squad in Xhaka and Holding. We also started 2 of our key additions whom Man City willingly LET GO in Jesus and Zinchenko. That their cast offs = our significant upgrades tells you all you need to know about the gulf of talent. One year into the Arteta regime, I felt he was over his head and I was Arteta Out. How wrong I was! That he has turned this assemblage of players into second place in the… Read more »
It’s pretty simple. We’ve been exceptional this year but there is one team that has been better and that’s why they will be the only team to finish above us. You can nitpick the moments, the individual errors, the tactics and all the rest but there was simply a team that was more consistent and simply better.
If we want to win it next year we know what we have to do to improve this team.
Agree with every single thing you said although proud of the team. Hated Rooney when he was playing but young Rooney feared absolutely nobody. He was there to destroy you and always displayed that attitude on the pitch. Saka and Odegaard are not in that mould. One of them was supposed to get the player of the year recognition but they bottled it.
Cheese and bread. You have just won the most stupid comment of the season. Congratulations 🥳
Oh my days….🙄
I think those 3 draws will haunt me until we win our next title. And the stolen 2pts at Brentford, disallowed goal at Old Trafford too. If we’re talking about “bottling” moments rather than being bottlers then I agree. Odegaard and Saka have been clutch for us all year (recent goals against Southampton included) but have dropped off the last few games. Affected by lack of rotation and strength in depth maybe? Missing a penalty at this stage of the season looks like pressure taking a toll it’s true. Overall still a better season than I anticipated, I just hope… Read more »
I don’t think its fair to single out moments where we’ve come up short and conveniently disregard the fact that we operated at an extremely high level the majority of the time.
Mate, I would say Stillman’s piece is a better take.
People don’t seem to understand the level that City are operating at.
Well I am not going to criticise a team that has wildly over achieved this season but came unstuck near the end not helped by big defensive injuries.
Fast forward to next week, Chelsea at the Emirates, they are there for the taking! Maybe jig the team around a little though, start Trossard and Tierney, maybe ESR as well.
It is Arsenal for the taking..Teams will look into our recent woes and try to maximize tgat to their advantage. In addition, we are a charity club so expect us to help Chelsea lift their mood..
I think a change or two is in order. If all goes well we’ll get to enjoy a sad and confused Lampard throwing his players under the bus.
Hopefully, pressure off we can get back to playing how we did in the first half of the season. In terms of the squad, sadly the defensive side of our game has been caught lacking, 11 goals conceded in 4 games is appalling for any top team. Will be a big summer for Edu and co..
Rambo always has the right attitude. He has had a brilliant season. Loved how he tried the exact same pass that cost as at West Ham again last night. He deserves praise for that. Being bold and taking risks brings success and Rambo is a winner.
Cue the team collecting 4 or so out of 15 points available.
Sean, above, has said almost everything that I wanted to say. Let’s just be honest and admit that we bottled it. These bunch of players are the Greg Norman of football: complete and utter chokers. Arteta and Edu have assembled a very talented group of players, but the missing x-factor is courage and nerve. They were fantastic over the first two thirds of the season, but once they saw the finishing line they began to panic and couldn’t handle the pressure. Yesterday’s game should have been a free hit: if we had taken the 9 points against Liverpool, West Ham… Read more »
Hard to disagree with this.
There’s many factors at play, City being City, key injuries for arsenal again, inexperienced team vs serial winners. Mentality.
Mentality has to be the biggest change next year. Whether that be added in the market or by growing maturity in the squad and management. Probably both.
It’s the only factor that we control.
Fats, you’re a self fulfilling prophecy of doom mate.
You’re only happy when you’re having a moan up.
It’s getting boring .
Lol. From you!
Oh here he is!
The bloke who didn’t want Martin Odegaard or Gabriel Jesus.
How’s it going Minty? Must have been pure hell waiting all season long for this.
Don’t be that guy. It’s not your style – Fats does it his way, you do it yours. Your optimism is inspiring right now – good for you (even if it is over). But don’t become one of the “cool crowd” that targets posters with personal stuff. I respect you both because you both call a spade a fucking spade (even if we disagree).
Get, stuffed, Q. I’m a lifelong Arsenal fan who’s desperate to see us win the title again. It was great to see us challenging again but I’m sickened by the way we’ve collapsed. We were good enough to win it this season. Forget about all the media hype about City: we were the best team in the Premier League for the first 25 games. Had we simply maintained the form we would now be in an untouchable position. But we didn’t. Man City aren’t going to win the title: we are going to lose it. We beat ourselves; they didn’t… Read more »
Like I said mate, boring.
As you point out, the three draws were unacceptable. We could have possibly got away with a draw with Liverpool as long as we thumped west ham and Southampton but obviously that did not happen. And that to me is when we lost the league. Yesterday was irrelevant. And even though it’s been an amazing season you don’t get chances like that to win the league every season…
That Ramsdale pass against Southampton is the proof of the panic.
I think we can all agree there are many factors that have contributed to this mini collapse. Experience and ‘bottle’ is definitely part of it and should be, as you say, looked at with our summer recruitment. There are some 1st teamers I would happily let go for that reason if the price is right.
We need to play players lie Reiss, ESR , Neketiah and Tierney in the remaining games. We can’t rely on the same players week in week out. Only when players play and start some games that they have the confidence.
My dream summer:
Rice
Kvaratskhelia
Osimhen
A man can dream, right?
I would like to see us push this closer than it is now. I’m already proud but if we could finish 2nd by maybe 2 points fewer – wow, that would be genuinely incredible. I don’t want to finish 7 behind or something.
Pardon my French, but I couldn’t give a fish’s tits how many points behind we are.
It’s a bit bitter at the moment but at least we have other teams to laugh at. By that I mean cunts like Spuds and Chelsea who are hurting bad and that’s always good. Spuds likely not making it to CL and Chelsea not even a whiff at anything European. Meanwhile look at us!
Is it Chelsea next? We really need to ram it right up their arses and hard this time. Kick them when they’re down. It’ll be hilarious.
COYG!
You cannot knock them at all – I think they have done brilliantly to be there challenging. The likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, United and ***** have been nowhere.
Let’s keep our heads high and do our best for the rest of the season.
We have the summer transfer window to strengthen those areas that need strengthening and we have next season and CL football to look forward to.
Onward and upwards!
And just remember.
No matter how bad the result, you could be following S****
I agree with what a lot of people have said over the past weeks (Philippe Auclair on the Arseblog, Rory Smith in the NY Times, James in a different way, and others). Every year, it is City’s title to lose from the first day, no different from Bayern. Yes, sometimes Bayern lose (though not in ten years). We have played brilliantly and in any period before Abu Dhabi’s purchase, we would likely be well in front, even with those three draws, because you did not need a perfect season to win the title. I am proud of this team, of… Read more »
These motivational talks after an insipid performance usually sound hollow to me. We had the chances to keep doing our talking on the pitch. Letting two goal leads slip twice and then falling behind at home to the bottom club is not the way to go. For me, I am already satisfied with the season. CL football is back. We strengthen the team and go back next season.
Southampton is on their way down. Guess which team only managed to drew twice with them this season? Yep..
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/apr/27/manchester-citys-perfection-is-laced-with-coldness-and-unease
Excellent piece by Barney Ronay.
Cheers Goonshow I enjoyed reading this – thanks for the link
Absolutely loved the latest tactical pieces on Blog and I think you guys were spot on, ..THIS TIME…haha.. Anyway I have been wrecking my brain since the match on how and why MC was able to isolate KDB + Haaland againts our CB pairing so easily time and time again, and you have certainly provided me the answer I was looking for :). Come to think of it, Brentford probably used the same tactic when they visited us early this year as I remember Saliba was in all sorts of bother against Toney that day despite keeping him quiet x… Read more »
piece = peace
Though now my paranoid mind began to wonder..Why and Do they have to let the world know how they managed to spank us? Hope Frank Lampard wasnt watching ..haha
Let’s beat Chelsea and then get last season’s Newcastle looking monkey off our back. At the very least, I want us to make the Oil State work for it until the last possible moment & hopefully complicate their treble attempt.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will be Arteta’s Arsenal dynasty, but it’s underway!!!
Top post, well said. 👍🍺
Let’s get that magical 90 and make those fucking media darling cunts work and sweat for every single point.
We need to come out against Chelsea like wounded tigers and utterly destroy everything in our path.
COYG
Ladies and Gents We may all have our ‘digital differences’ as Goonshow would say – but I sincerely and seriously come here in peace to each and every one of you – as fellow Arsenal fans (unless of course you are a nosey voyeur rival fan in which case FUCK OFF) Folks, I humbly advise you, do NOT go onto the TalkSport website – they are taking our recent defeat, draws and dropped points as licence to mock goad and publish as much destabilising material as they can. You name it, it’s there – ESR’s absence dressed up as an… Read more »
Cheers Q. Yeah, TalkSport are a bunch of cunts. Especially Jamie O’Hara. The bloke needs help.