Out of the FA Cup, out of Europe…but not downhearted. That’s the message from Hector Bellerin, who says Arsenal have no time to lick their wounds if they are to finish the season on a high.
The Gunners face Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon knowing they must secure three points to maintain any semblance of a title challenge.
Promising that the players are united in their ambition to regain form, Bellerin emphasised the importance of staying positive despite a poor run of two wins in nine games.
“All the players and all the staff will give everything on the pitch but sometimes things don’t go your way,” he said.
“You need to focus on where you want to get. That is football. Sometimes you are high, sometimes you are low. It is about being high as much as we can and hopefully things will get better.”
Reflecting on last night’s 3-1 defeat at the Camp Nou, the Spain under-21 international maintained that having 20 shots at goal represented a positive, even if poor finishing ultimately cost Arsenal dear.
“I don’t think many teams can face Barcelona in the way that we did, even though the result was a bit too wide given what had gone on the pitch. I think we did really well and we had our chances and while we could not materialise them, we showed we were up there.
“We can take a lot of positives as well and finish the season on a high. There are other things you can take from the games and now it is about focusing on the league and finishing the season on a high.
“The team did really well on the pitch and I don’t think many teams have created as many chances against Barcelona as we did,” he added, as if to super, super, super emphasise the point.
“We have to be a bit more efficient in front of goal, the way they are, and for us we need to keep our heads up and take the positives of the game.”
Good ability to repeat exact sentences at the end of the interview!
Great lad, fast, awesome control. Right back for many years I hope.
I hope the team refinds its balance and also can start sticking the ball in the net – Alexis, Theo, Aaron, Olivier and Danny are all due a few.
Apologies for that, slight bug in the CMS.
Don’t apologise, mildly amusing at the time (not that anyone else will see it now) and you do great work.
“Sometimes you are high”
“Sometimes you are low”
All the times we are number four
Just saying…
I don’t get worked up by our losses anymore. What gets my goat are these after match quotes/soundbites/ lamentations/ whatever!! Arrgh!!!
I can not agree with you less. I am absolutely tired of all the soundbites, comments, anticipated dreams and what not. They should show all these in the field with their performance. Walcott is always doing this just to cover up his inadequecies. I don’ t bloody care what any of them says in the media any longer.
We need to be much more efficient in front of our own goal while defending too.
The players need to be less efficient infront of the media as well.
‘Efficiency in front of goal’, pls tell Arsene to get better forwards.
We’ve been banging on about this ‘efficiency’ in front of goal for far too long now. Wenger was saying this at the beginning of the season. The solution is clear, we need to sell the deadweight and invest in a clear first choice striker. All of the other building blocks of the team are adequate enough, but we just don’t convert enough of our chances. Walcott looks about as motivated as Jimmy Savile’s lawyer would have been. Alexis and Mesut both lacked some work rate but in all honesty I wouldn’t blame them too much. It must be so frustrating… Read more »
What fucking high is that then ?
The fourth place trophy …
And over on the website the *we need to go back to basics* soundbites have already started …
I’m sure we WILL finish the season on a high. That all-important fourth place is now in danger, so all hands will be to the pumps, making sure that the unwinnable Champions’ League will be qualified for in the coming weeks. I think that we’ve become a sad and pathetic club now. No matter what happens between now and the end of the season, Arsene Wenger will still be our manager come August. At what other top European football club would this outrageous situation be allowed to continue? Apart from refusing to buy tickets or merchandise (which I do), we… Read more »
How can anyone thumbs down this post?
Or are there still people out there who actually BELIEVE that Wenger and the board of directors can make Arsenal into the force it should be?
What a f*****g joke – Arsenal are doomed if they think that Wenger is the answer to our problems, he has CAUSED all of them…
Because if you’ve been around long enough, here and at other forums, you tend to get tired of these kinds of copy+paste doom-merchants. There is nothing novel, insightful, or vaguely interesting in what this type of ‘fan’ has to say, again, and again, and again. Including the hackneyed rebuttals which are sure to come.
Nothing to see here, except a very boring, tiresome, and noisome cross between Groundhog Day and whack-a-mole.
What a stupid pig ignorant post. You don’t buy tickets or merchandise – so how exactly do you support the club other than putting the knife in from internet forums.
I support the club by NOT supporting the people who are destroying it. The only way to get Wenger and Kroenke out is by stoping their cash cow. When we’ve become a football club again then I’ll be back. Just like I was for more than THIRTY YEARS before we became a joke.
I think you should run the club Fatgooner.
You sound like you have a very strong and clear understanding of the economic landscape of the football community, and the world as a whole.
To be totally honest I think you’d give Saddam a run for his money at the title of ‘Best Dictator Ever’.
High now sadly may mean finishing above Spurs.
Catching the foxes looks a bit difficult considering an 11 point lead and the way we have been in recent games.
No more FA cup or CL.
No more FA cup or Champions League may actually be the catalyst for us being champions.
I hope we can do it.
Perhaps I’m being overly critical, but what I saw was a Barcelona side that were taking it easy and an Arsenal side that couldn’t take advantage in a meaningful way of the space left by opponents who had largely written them off. I don’t see that performance as cause for optimism because that’s probably the last time this season we will be involved in such a low stakes and open game. It definitely won’t be that way away to Everton and City.
You’re absolutely right. Arsenal don’t have the quality to convert chances in an open game vs Barcelona who aren’t really afraid to give us chances as they are sure they can outscore any team. What’s tragic is that we didn’t make them fight hard for it. Make no mistakes, that team didn’t really do anything spectacular, it was very good football that’s it. There are smaller teams that use other tactics such as parking the bus and hitting us on the counter, and we’re susceptible there too. Arsenal try to play like Barcelona, with half the skill and dealing with… Read more »
We don’t play like Barcelona, we don’t even play like Arsenal, we’re a team with no real identity and it shows in the (lack of) quality of chances we make and it’s why we look so tactically inept in most games. It’s not as if a man with Wengers eye for detail would just gloss over essential tactics, it’s the tactics themselves that either aren’t up to scratch or don’t have the right personnel to execute them and in either case you have to say the manager is responsible.
They didn’t do anything spectacular other than scoring three spectacularly clinical goals…
Well said, in terms of quality and quantity. On a related note, I just want to give Bellerin a hug. He’s such an awesome guy!
This is something we regularly hear from players at the end of the season when it’s become clear that all chances of silverware have gone out the window and there’s essentially nothing to play for. Let’s play as hard as we can and finish as high as we can, etc. Zzzzzzzz….
My thoughts exactly – a strong finish when the pressure is off just keeps that idiot in charge for another year.
I just cannot believe that such a wonderful opportunity was wasted this season. It took Leicester City to take advantage of flagging Chelsea, Man City, Man United and Liverpool. Arsenal just did what they did every season for the last twelve years and bottle it. And they are talking about finishing the season on a high? It just leaves you speechless. What a gutless bunch of spineless bottlers. Not ONE of them deserves to wear that shirt. But no doubt “le prof” will still be employed, picking up that lovely £8 million for being a clueless buffoon. If there is… Read more »
That is quite a big salary for the standards expected isn’t it? A manager on that should expect to win things not talk about art.
if i didn’t know it was bellerin i’d swear these were wenger’s quotes. it’s so sad how the low ambitions of an old man have infected the players of this team. just go wenger. please, just go.
So much self-satisfaction. Apparently it’s okay to concede joke goals now.
That’s the spirit Bellerin. Win the next 9 games and finish above Sp?rs. COYG!
Are we still in the title race? Yes if we beat Everton and no if we as much as drop a point.
There is no ambiguity over what is needed. Their form has been dodgy at home in the league and an early goal from us can unsettle them.
If we play like we did on Wednesday, 3 points is a distinct possibility.
Leicester and Spurs will certainly wobble as the nerves set in. COYG!
Win, lose or draw – up the Arsenal
Ok Hector, on your advice.
Smoke up / Drink up everyone and we’ll all enjoy the run-in!
COYG!
Oh, and shout your guts out, because what the fuck else can we do at this point?
I agree with Hector.
Let’s get high!
Yes Hector. I too am trying to be high as much as I can to forget these last few months…
Finish on a high? It’s obvious this guys believe they won’t win the league and here am I hoping against all odds. May be it’s time to face reality