Arsene Wenger somehow stopped short of accusing Chelsea of being boring c*nts and instead focused on Arsenal’s own shortcomings after Sunday’s torrid 0-0 draw with Jose Mourinho’s table-topping outfit.
The Gunners managed only one shot on target against the Blues as they laboured their way to a point and at full-time the boss pinpointed his side’s lack of fluidity in the final third as a decisive factor.
“I think we did enough to win the game today,” Wenger told his post-game press conference.
“Chelsea defended well. I felt that we played with the right intensity in the first half. We dropped that in the second half and came back to the right level in the last 20 minutes.
“We could have finished the game off. Ozil had a good chance in the final minute of the game but they came to defend well, did it well and everybody knows that.
“They are not champions yet but they will be, and you get what you deserve,” he said when pressed on whether the visitor’s performance was the mark of title-winners.
“They started the season strong and they made the difference in the first half of the season compared to us.
“We have closed it [the gap] since the start of the season. What happened is that they had the experience at the back, they could close the game down. We lacked freedom of mind today. Maybe we were too conscious of their counter-attacking and didn’t play with enough freedom in the final third. We made some wrong decisions.”
Today’s draw means Arsenal sit in third place on level points behind Manchester City, albeit with a game in hand. On his aims for the rest of the season, Wenger continued: “We want to finish this season well and when you look at the other results – I watched Aston Villa against Manchester City, and today Manchester United – every game is difficult.
“We need to absolutely keep focused until the end of the game, and then we can see what we can do next season. Let’s finish well. We have a strong end now.
“We go to Hull and then we want to secure top four before the FA Cup final because that battle is not done yet. After that, we can look at the top three or the top two. It’s all to do now.”
Arseblog News is pretty sure Arsene is on his way home to stick another couple of pins in his Mourinho voodoo doll. Deep in his teeny Portuguese testicles we hope…
We dropped 4 points we could have won first half of season (one against Leicester) regardless of Wenger’s error in not reinforcing at Cback. had we done the business there,w e would be closer to unsettling them now. As is, Chelsea (you have to begrudge them) deserve it. When you look at their team, it isn’t entirely deep either and aside from Hazard, Oscar, Costa and Fabregas (plus the keepers and maybe Ivanovich) they are fairly average in other departments. But what Jose has done has settled them quickly where we were handicap by a lack of Cback choice which… Read more »
As much as i dislike John Terry esp. for his bigotry, you lower the credibility of your post by saying him and Matic are fairly average. I say if we had those 2 in our ranks we would be closer in points to them. As difficult as it is to admit, i beleve it will be almost impossible for any Wenger team to finish above a Morinho team, it is just too apparent that Wenger is less of a tactical manager than Morinho, for me Wenger has run out of ideas/excuses as per inability to score even ONE win against… Read more »
Wenger wasn’t fluffing his lines in front of goal … Ozil and Welbeck and Alexis and Santi did … we need world class main striker to win league as Henry says … he can compete with OG and we need w-c def midfielder to back Coq … but who?
Chesea have the wood on us but only just, two more players and we can win the league next season playing the beautiful game properly … boring, snoring, whoring Chelsea will be stuffed then
I feel we need another top striker, as good as giroud has been he can’t run behind and that makes it tough against packed defences.
If I were to pick where we spend the next £30 million it would be on a clinical striker, who plays on the shoulder of the last defender, pacey and maybe can beat a man too… yea I know I don’t ask for much!
But we’ve seen the differences it makes to the Chelsea scum, they can play shit and then fab pings the ball over the top to Costa who wins them the game.
i think Arsene’s hoping that Welbeck will soon become the striker you describe
in the meantime, another Alexis on the other wing could be perfect for us
we could clone him or buy Reus
Reus just signed a new contract which means that he has no intention of leaving. Even if he wanted to leave the price would be crazy. We got another potentially very good winger in Oxlade Chamberlain (Just my personal opinion.). Arsenal is a club which have always given the youth a chance and I think most fans are quite happy & proud about that.
Welbeck can’t finish
I wish I had that problem 🙁
People are often talking about a mysterious clinical striker who can run behind for 30mil, who would that be? We have Welbeck and Walcott who both can run behind the defence. This system requires that the wide forwards make that kind of runs, not Giroud. Today Ramsey and Sanchez were made to drop too deep to get the ball so they weren’t making that kind of runs. Walcott is excellent in this and will be an important player again.
if Walcott is that important to us , he would have got more than 8 minutes dont you think ?
Yeah he’s called a Unicorn
Raheem Sterling? AHahahahahahahah.
No.
Mourinho is simply very good at nullifying teams. Wenger has yet to get joy against him. Felt Alexis was fantastic first half but spent himself too quickly. His drop in energy second half had impact on our team coming out for the second. This has been a feature in many recent games where we have started a bit more flat in second half. We could still do with another asset to provide special impact in lieu of this. Walcott was rightly tried but he has not been effective and tends to be predictable for the better defenses. If he does… Read more »
Lol…
Why would we buy another attacking midfielder? Santi Cazorla and Mesut Özil are top quality. The only reason to even considering to buy Isco would be if we allowed Santi to go in the summer, which I’d imagine is highly unlikely. There are other positions which could need strengthening.
You need to think long term. You are too short term. 1) Walcott may leave so we may need added experience out wide in addition to Alexis and Ox (Granted possibly Gnabry, Akpom or Campbell may step up) 2) Rosicky is not getting younger and may likely retire. 3) Santi is on the wrong side of 30. Your sort of thinking is the sort of thinking that will get us into a bind. The only other addition necessary this summer is a Cmid IMO who can add power and height ala Diaby. Considering Arteta is also not getting younger, it… Read more »
Yet Santi Cazorla is in the form of his life and could probably continue like this for another 2 seasons atleast. Some players are like wine, they get better with the years 🙂 It is not all Fifa like were people starts declining as soon as they reach the wrong side of 30. There are plenty of ‘old’ players who still are able to play on a very high level. Take Rosicky, Ibrahimovich, Pirlo, Lampard as examples. Have you even seen Isco play? He is talented for sure, but he would never be satisfied with playing as a third option… Read more »
Especially when santi is keepin the best player of our team last season and scorer of the goal the won us the FA cup out of position, and there is somewhere a wislhere in our squad which if he was fit he would got walcott minutes as a sub the last 8-10 minutes of the game, i like isco and i would love him to replace cazrola when he leaves but that’s not gonna happen in the next two season if he plays like this season and i’m sure he will be great next season also.
Mourinho is simply tactically SUPERIOR to Wenger!
No need to dress it up.
Regards striker, I think Wenger will watch closely the development of Welbeck first half of next season to see if he does progress. Akpom will also be given a look in. A striker may not be necessary until the summer after or January should there be a ‘crisis for goals’ before then. I don’t expect we will add in the striker department this summer. Welbeck works hard and gets into good positions but he needs to start taking his chances. He is still very young 23/24 so there is plenty of room for him to improve and his attributes in… Read more »
Welbeck is never gonna be a clinical finisher, I think that he could become a good striker too. I just don’t think that finishing will ever be one of his main attributes. I think he might even be better off as a winger.
How would you know?
The same was said of Giroud.
Van Persie flattered to deceive for much of his career.
Ramsey they said would never come good.
Welbeck is still only 23/24. He has plenty of room for improvement
He has some good attributes in speed and technical skill. He just needs to sharpen up in front of goal
‘How would you know’? Because if he hasn’t learned to finish after 15+ years of playing football it is unlikely that he will become the finisher we all hope him to be. Some people just never become good finishers, welbeck got plenty of other attributes for sure. But people who thinks that he will become the new therry henry or something are just fooling themselves.
plethora of missed of chance is fairly indicative of shoddy finishing. Missed an open goal v spurs at home by somehow missing the ball and kicking out his own standing leg.
Unlike most, I thought Ramsey was brilliant today (even if you take away those delicious flicks).
He did the basics well. He was part of our pinball machine and played some brilliant passes. He did give the ball away in dangerous areas a couple of times but we were solid enough in defense for it to not hurt us.
I thought he could have scored a goal. By laying back and not being too ambitious going forward, we sort of miss his threat in front of goal . Like when he used to make runs from outside the box. Also, some of the players had chances to pass him the ball outside the box. Ramsey can score shots from far, we should get him more such chances. I’m not sure how we will get the best out of his goalscoring abilities and midifield energy he brings. Is it an a case of either or?
I thought he was really good today as well, but he played too centrally. We needed him to be wider in order to stretch the Chelsea defence. We looked a lot more dangerous with Walcott and Welbeck on, and Ramsey in the middle.
Based on today’s play, there is nothing to suggest that Chelski are unbeatable.
Apart from bulldozing Oscar, Ospina had very little to do this afternoon.
Unfortunately, Courtouis hadn’t much either :/
And I must say Walcott was pretty poor even if he only played a tiny part.
Having no shots doesn’t make them Beatable. Breaking down that defence makes them beatable. Which looks very difficult…
And also unfortunately, we only had 1/12 shots on target and they had 3/7 🙁
Not trying to downplay giroud’s contributions but it’s either we get a pacy forward with good finishing ability or a winger who can run in behind and also track back effectively.Walcott would have fitted perfectly if only he would track back a little more.
Sounds like the Ox. Hmm.
I see this comment so frequently.
So- every defense sits deep two banks of four against us. If there is fuck all space to ‘run into behind their lines’ what good is a pacy attacker?
We have Sanchez- pacey. Welbeck- pacey. Walcott – uber pacey. Who is the most effective center striker for us? On current form and all attributes (not just goals) it is Giroud by kilometres. We have speed this season. It is not in itself an answer.
Giroud is not that striker who will do an Henry and get you a goal from nothing.
Well if there is no threat of a forward running behind the defence then its very difficult to stretch them and break the rigid 2 banks of 4… A striker who makes runs pulls the 2 CB’s apart and makes space for himself or other runners from deep. Wingers by their nature don’t do that often enough to regularly stretch a packed defence, notice the times we threatened is when we got behind them but always down the flanks, having runners behind their CB’s would add another option to our attack. Someone said that’s not our system, no its not… Read more »
Wenger’s tactics was too cautious for my liking. Wenger should have brought on Welbeck and Walcott earlier enough to change things up in attack. We had to win this game to shut up Maureen and we failed.
Yes and if we had lost as a result you would be saying Wenger has lost the plot again, going gung-ho, etc.
We came away with a point from a team that has grinded out a lot of wins lately despite being under the kosh for most of the game. They came to play for a draw and there is frankly, no better team in the world who digs in and sits behind the ball than Chelsea. The Premier League was out of reach before the match and it’s still out of reach now, it wasn’t a ‘must win’ game and to say that we failed is the wrong mindset. We’ll improve ourselves and bring our battering ram to their 15 foot… Read more »
I indeed hope we do improve ourselves next season, but going by Wenger’s past, sentiments wont get us there.
Morinho came in, was strategic/objective in terms of needed persone, sentiment makes you hold on to unproductive players, if Wenger does not learn that he will never be able to put a team together that can finish above a Morinho team.
The likes of Diaby/Flaminni/Arteta/Rosicky etc need to be evaluated objectively not sentimentally, even Walcott and Wilshere too.
I reckon we have to get at least a draw now at OT (and win our other games). We need 4 wins and a draw to beat last year’s points total of 79. Still, it’s doable, and the last 4 months’ results do look like some sort of progress. Though I really did hope we could show we’d thrown off those mental shackles and beat Chelsea today. It was not to be.
@MyNameIsDifficultToPronounce How was Walcott poor?? How many mins was he own for? Someone who was poor and frustrating was Ozil and not Walcott. Mertesacker for me did a great job at the back.
This result is like getting a chick to come home with you from the club, only to find out when she said “Yeah we can cuddle 😉 ” she actually really wanted to do nothing other than fucking cuddle. Fucks sake!
Other fans who watched with me were all “Meh I’ll take a draw” and I said fuck that, we need to have a solid 2-0 against Mourinho sometime in our lifetimes! We’re Arsenal, not Hull, who happily just “accepts not being shafted 5-0 as a positive”.
What do you have against cuddling?
The scums came to defend and were even happy at the end of the game, celebrating like they’ve won the world cup. As angry as I’m (that we didn’t get a win), there’re some positives I took from the match today: 1, We are now very close to beating the scums, Yes. I see us beating them next season, either anyone disagree with that or not. 2, If you think Moaninho is a tactical genius and Wenger isn’t, then you need a dilution of Acid and ammonium for dessert. Our manager’s vibe is back as he now has fit players… Read more »
Arsenal is more than just a team
Is anyone else not a bit frustrated that we didn’t manage to give Jose and his team of pricks a bloody nose and bag three points in the process?
Very happy with the performance if not quite the result. Defending all game is not easy and Chelsea did a good job of that.
I love our team, every position, but I would still have that one striker who scores goals that make you go “SHIT”….goals from nothing, 8 times a season.
Unfortunately, those are your Suarez types. Arshavin, RVP, Henry could all do it on the day.
Makes defences twitchy.
We are the best “team” we have been in a long time, but one player like that would make the difference now
“Arshavin could do it on the day”
Err… are you sure about that?
Yes. He very well could on his day. It’s a shame how his career turned out considering his talent
His career was moulded by his own application, or lack there of. His talent was never a problem, it was his mentality and work effort that was the problem in the end. Placing him in the same bracket as Henry, Suarez and RvP is over reaching at best. If that day was indeed against Liverpool, then I would say yes and concur, but his consistency in the last two years of his career with us hardly made him a ‘he could do it on the day’ player. You never knew which Arshavin would turn up and counting on him is… Read more »
As much as I like Ramsey, would probably have rather seen Welbeck start on the right today to do more runs in behind rather than keep the ball
Yeah I share similar sentiment that this could have been an option. I think Ramsey is the safe choice because Wenger expects him to tuck in a bit and add protection for our right. But it also left us narrow and without much width on our RW. I’m not sure if I would have hauled Giroud out for Welbeck in the middle. I think it was either Walcott or Welbeck for me at RW. Should have kept the big guy in the middle and had Welbeck make runs wide or in field in support of Giroud when crosses came in.… Read more »
I love the comments on other threads saying we have to remember how boring Arsenal were under George Graham and that we have no room to talk. Yup…we were boring at times (ok many times) under Dodgy George. However, there is a massive difference. George only had a few quid to play with. He could go out and buy Chris Kiwomya. Andy Linighan perhaps? Well, hows about splashing out on Glen Helder? Juventus may have gone for Baggio, but why would Arsenal even contemplate that with Eddie McGoldrick dazzling us all in midfield? Arsenal tended to sit back against ‘better’… Read more »
Wenger wasn’t exactly flush with cash when he started out over early part of career with us. he built the team and brand because he generally bought well and cheap. Plus he qualified us for Europe’s most prestidgious championship every season which was also important for the branding and development of the stadium (enlargement of the support base) Because he generally bought well (and low) he manage to limit impact which poor buys would have wrought on the club going forward (contrast Spurs and Liverpool) And all this whilst winning in style plus doubles. Dodgy George did not have the… Read more »
Great perspective – thank you!
Very good post Neilano. And for this of us who were actually there under GG I don’t remember too many ‘boring’ occasions. Going to WHL in the League Cup Semis and winning 2-1. Copenhagen against a much better Parma. Anfield ’89. Winning the title in ’91 with only one defeat all season.
If only we could have some more ‘boredom’ like that next season.
Well at least we can make this right and beat them at Wembley at the start of next season.
It saddens me to see some Arsenal fans loosing our class bit by bit. We should be better than this. When you disrespect and boo ur every ex-players it’s says a lot about us and nothing about the player.
He got a standing ovation from the crowd when he came off. Boo him and put him under pressure when on the pitch, show him respect when he is coming off the pitch and no longer involved. The way it should be.
I think today was the perfect send off from our fans to move on past it and I would be surprised if he is largely booed again next season.
I agree. I don’t even know why some fans bother to boo him. He was a player who decided to ditch us for some mythical DNA rubbish that proved unfaithful to him. Wenger already signed Ozil (who let’s not forget is younger with more up side) plus we have Santi and Ramsey and Rosicky. If we load on another player where we don;t need to, it simply takes away resource we could sink into a more necessary area plus it takes up the wage bill given Fabregas’s likely demands. That would have further impact into this summer where we will… Read more »
I might add some fans or delusional. they look at our overall value and believe we are number 4 or five in terms of money. We are mainly rich in assets. Our revenue is closer to Juventus which lies in tenth. Granted we do have extra cash to spend and Wenger has a habit of being a little parsimonious, we are not without limits either. When you see a player going for say 30m to a Chelsea and wonder why we did not bid for such a ‘low’ price, understand that if we enter the fray, they can afford to… Read more »
All the so-called mainstream sports sites mention the booing but not the warm applause at the start when his name was mentioned, and the ovation of course. Well-balanced sports journalism at its best really.
If only! Its hard to find.
I don’t think matic came in to our half the whole game did he ??? It was disappointing how many times we gave the ball away today we played very narrow did not stretch Chelsea making it easier for them to defend , just wish that chance came to anyone else rather than mertesacker
Dissapointing that even at home, just as in the away fixture, we only had 1 shot on target all game, and that was straight at Courtois.
Game was totally as expected,horrible seeing the cunts celebrating outside.
Mourinho may be remembered as an all time great but none of his teams will be… A lot of teams leading the league would have approached the game as if to show everyone why they are the best team in the country, but not mourinho… Small time mentality for such a big manager.
whatever the result I’m proud we always try to win the game and play football in a way we all love to watch. COYG
this wenger quote reminded me of the young boy in “the last samurai” film telling tom cruise to concentrate because TC had “too many mind”.
wenger needs to concentrate on the football now and stop seeing samurai movies.