Arsene Wenger says his Arsenal team will fight until the end of the season although he feels his side have paid for their profligacy in front of goal in recent months.
Three weeks after losing to Watford in the FA Cup the Gunners delivered the perfect response in the Premier League, winning 4-0 thanks to goals from Alexis Sanchez, Alex Iwobi, Hector Bellerin and Theo Walcott.
Reflecting that his side dominated possession as much in victory as they did in defeat, the Frenchman, not for the first time, touched on the importance of finding the net.
“We played well,” he told his post-game press conference. “We had a good flow in our game and a good desire to play.
“Our technical quality was high and we combined the fact that we played well and that we could score as well. In the FA Cup defeat we had the same domination but we couldn’t score. That makes a big difference.
The Gunners win temporarily closes the gap on Leicester to eight points before the league leaders take on Southampton tomorrow. Reflecting on the way the title run in has unfolded, Wenger continued:
“The title is never there for the taking, you have to work for it. Everybody works for it and you have to respect the teams who have more points than you, and who have not played in as many competitions.
“We played Watford, then went to Barcelona on Wednesday and then to Everton on Saturday. It’s not the same [for Leicester City].
“People on the outside think it’s easy but you have to earn your points, work well in every game and recently we haven’t made the most of the chances we’ve created. We paid for that.
“We want to focus on the way we play and keep the quality very high. Then we’ll see where we are. We will fight until the end to have a chance. The only way we can achieve that is by playing games with our team quality. That is based on our movement, on our technical ability to play at the highest level and at the highest pace.”
21 points to play for. Finishing above Sp?rs is a must. With Iwobi and Elnani in midfield it’s given us a new dimension. Two players who are going to have a great future with us!
Too little too late. Time for you to go.
Shut up you twat.
Oh wait, I forgot we just won a match, so criticism isn’t allowed, despite the long-term issues at the club not being resolved. The short-sightedness of some never fails to amuse.
Or the people who refuse to take any joy in a win a pain in the hole. We all know there are problems.
We beat a substandard Watford side when we’ve thrown away the league due to our own choking. Whoopdee fucking doo, please excuse me while I go dance in the street.
I support your decision to go dance in the street.
A mad drunk driver is coming fast on the same street with his truck. You keep dancing mate.
We all take joy in an Arsenal win–especially so conclusive as the win today–but folks are aware of our problems and I think what we need to do–or what the club needs to do.
Errr shut up you…
Shut up you twat.
Time for you to leave I think
And the new manager should be…….? You, not Arsene, has gotten complacent and unrealistic. You think we will always do at least as well as we have for the last 20 years. We have no divine right. Look at the shambles ManU has become after 20+ years of unbelievable results. Even Chelsea with their oligarch money will have had two league finishes that are unthinkable at Arsenal. Lose Arsene and you need to get accustomed to shit seasons and/or a unappealing style of play. Fit is everything. Maureen? Benitez? Ancelotti (taken). Conte (maybe a fit). Larry White’s gonna be available… Read more »
Like every season, when the pressure is off and there’s no big prizes to play for, this team performs how they should be. They should be ashamed of themselves
How is the pressure off? It’s not impossible that we can win the title and a loss at this stage would have certainly ended those hopes.
The way we have played the last two matches has more to do with the players we have had on the pitch rather than league position.
When everything is expected of you, that creates pressure. Now it’s out of their hands, there’s no pressure. Same thing year after year
Do you really think there’s no pressure to catch the Spurts at least?
We know they will drop points so they are reachable but only if we get a very good run of results ourselves.
We also know Leicester will drop some points but we need them to fall apart.
In the unlikely event that they do and we somehow win the PL it will be because we’re under pressure to beat the Spuddies much more than because we thought we could catch Leicester.
Liverpool did an Arsenal, missing all those brilliant chances. Lloris is so annoying.
Picked up two points on Sp*rs, win the game and hand and we are very close.
Good weekend so far.
Correct. Petit a Petit, l’oiseau fair son nit. Slowly mate. It will come. 2 points gained today, more next week. All our fixtures are highly winnable. We no longer have the bloody champions league to distract us so let’s smash em till the last day
After today’s results, If every pundit out there still thinks Sp*rs can win it, I don’t see any reasons why we can’t either. Especially looking at our relatively easier run in.
Let’s see how we do v West Ham away. If we win that then we can be a bit more confident with 4 of the bottom five to play. And West Bromwich and City.
Where do you get your confidence from? It can’t be the dropped points against Norwich, Swansea, or the shit form shown throughout the season.
‘A bit more confident’?
It doesn’t say what level of confidence I’m starting at. I was at the Swansea match…
Are Spurs still playing Leicester after this? If they are that helps us greatly (clinging on to that last bit of hope, however far fetched it seems).
No they’ve already played twice.
Remember, pundits are wankers who have no idea what they are talking about. COYG
Not all pundits are wankers, what about, errr…no actually you are right!
Don’t want to be overly negative but if we’d worked on the fighting in the middle bit we’d have been much better off. Glimmer of hope still but….
Paul Merson talks some shit sometimes, but he called it right in his predictions this morning, arsenal are the best team under no pressure.
If the title doesnt happen, we can only look at ourselves. But id welcome good go at it until the end….they owe the fans at least that.
I think it’s a lot more to do with this starting eleven being so much more balanced than us not being under pressure anymore.
Merson talks shit all the time. If he happens to ever say anything right then it’s pure luck and nothing to do with his football knowledge.
so Arsenal are under no pressure to finish above spurs, or even finish in top 4,
this “under no pressure” thing is just another bullshit soundbite that idiots throw out there to try and seem clever.
When the players themselves talk about the title all season, what their fighting for now is no pressure.
They’re under loads of pressure to beat Spurts.
Not being under pressure is the worst kind of rationale you could find for an Arsenal win. You will never be under no pressure when you play in the premier league. Some of you talk like being in the top four is easy, look at Liverpool, Man utd, chelsea, etc, they spent hundreds of millions, not in the top four.
Wish I could “like” your comment multiple times. Amen.
A multi million pound squad of internationals beating Watford is a different type of pressure than the same squad being consistent enough to win the league
We could win every game, wouldn’t surprise me, just as losing next week would t surprise me. Was at game today and there is so much more balance to the team, against barca Everton and today with two central midfielders that are clearly playing together and then the team moving forward as a unit. Some of you wont like to hear it but the injury to Ramsey has been a blessing in disguise. I’m not sure Wenger has the balls to drop him if he was fit. I recon elneny would still be on bench. This is not a scape… Read more »
Totally agree with you TF
I agree with you on the better efficiency of the coquelny axis, over the other midfield pairings, in absence of cazorla, but wouldn’t go as far as to brand ramsey’s injury as a blessing in disguise to the team. Ramsey for me carries a different attacking skill set that elneny cannot replicate. however, on the other hand, elneny is far more safer and efficient than ramsey holding in the centre because of his quick give and take style of play. I would use Ramsey on the wings when he is fit and rotate him with Campbell, Ox, Theo, depending on… Read more »
our problem was more to do with awful finishing than our midfield two, a run of ten games where it was an average of 25 shots per goal, has nothing to do with the balance of the midfield two. Against Everton and Watford our attackers scored early, and got a second soon enough after too, meaning we did not have to force it, did not have to take risks, against Watford in the FAC we created far more chances than we did today, but only converted one of them, and lost 2-1, today we won 4-0, and many want to… Read more »
Well… The defensive performance was much better actually.
I disagree – we were way more incisive and much better defensively this time around
Elneny started in the middle and Ramsey on the right against Tottenham I think so they could have well both started if fit. Ramsey’s injury has given Iwobi the chance to break in the first eleven and also to try Alexis on the right. Still think that Ramsey is a quality player but this eleven seems to be working really well so can’t see Wenger changing anything for a while
Absolutely true..this axis works better. Ramsey’s adventurous nature sometimes puts the team at risk.
A lovely and delicious win
Mathematically, we are still in the race and anything can still happen. either teams can still choke up or get hit by injury to key players. Leicester is bound to choke at some point anyway, whether they will drop enough points to lose the title remains to be seen, but at the moment, its in their hands. They are also over due injury to some players because they have basically been playing with the same squad, all season long (not that i am one to wish ill on my fellow human being..(wink!)). At their last match, Mahrez hobbled around for… Read more »
Leicester have played less games boo hoo.
Fewer
They’ve played 31 (32nd tomorrow) and we’ve played 31…. How is that less or fewer?
Champions League, FA cup…
I see, I thought he was referring to the PL only.
My mistake.
Football changes a lot in a week but no one gets used to it. We can catch Spurs normally with a strong performance – win the game in hand and it’s one point with 6 to go.
Leicester, I feel, are home and dry. I hope I’m wrong of course but a loss tomorrow would be the early start to make pressure on points that we need. Just can’t quite see it.
You’ve been riding the crest of an ad revenue wave on the back of this wank season blogs, time to tighten the belt again as the arsenal win and the volume of post game comments plummet again.
If Leicester slip up against Southampton you just never know what the nerves will do to them. We certainly look stronger then we did a few weeks back. Spurs didn’t look that great against a poor Liverpool side Imoa.
The amount of penalties Leicester get awarded compared to us is simply ludicrous, putting us at an inherent disadvantage. I reckon we can sweep at least 19 from 21 points to put us on 77. Leicester therefore can only take 11 points, but considering the teams they have left to play were responsible for 6 of our 7 defeats, you never know…
The problem is us taking 19 out of 21 when we have taken just 16 from the last 36 available since Christmas
These are indisputable facts.
We’ve had previous periods where we’ve ‘gone on a run’ like last season after Xmas, and seasons unbeaten, and periods where we’ve struggled & can’t win the coin toss.
They all mean very little (if anything) to our remaining 7 games…
and that’s a fact!
Yes we know. You can stop taking now Arsene. You’re beginning to sound like a stuck record.
Leceister have an average of two points per game for the season up until now. From this we can expect them to get 14 more.
As arsenal fans we know from this time of the season, this is where the pressure is ramped up(spuds today).
Hopefully we can keep on winning, keep the the pressure on and their average will falter.
They don’t have to lose, just draw. They are winning a lot of their games by a one goal margin.
I for one think that is still on. Keep believing…
After what was a pretty shitty period where Wenger has received more stick than I’ve ever seen, I think he deserves credit for the changes made to the team over the last few weeks. He’s put Gabriel in place of Mertesaker, Elneny and Coquelin together in the middle, and has gone with a front four of Ozil, Sanchez, Welbeck and Iwobi, dropping Walcott and Giroud to the bench. The team looks much more balanced, and much more dangerous going forward now. I saw many comments after our bad run saying the buck stops with the manager, well that also applies… Read more »
I trust you appreciate that he’s been forced to use this 11 because of injuries, although to be fair he hasn’t been able to use his first choice 11 all season because of injuries either…
Of course, but Giroud, Walcott, and mertesaker are not injured at the moment. We’ve had to contend with injuries to key players all season as usual, I just wanted to point out that the manager has done something about the predicament we were in and deserves some credit. I think it says a lot about what the manager thinks of Walcott at the moment when he’s played Iwobi ahead of him for the last few games too.
@Gunner 73- I agree. Iwobi also playing ahead of Campbell, who’s been consistently pretty good unlike Walcott. The difference for me is that Iwobi is playing freely. Campbell feels like he’s got the handbrake on a bit-until he throws in a killer pass or scores. It’s weird. He contributes yet still manages to look uncertain or uncomfortable. He takes few chances with the ball which is good and bad. Both guys put in their defensive shift and are among the most physical of Arsenal players. Amazingly neither seems to attract cards. I wonder what Campbell would have looked like up… Read more »
We have no idea how Campbell trains or what knocks he’s carrying/carried. AW usually likes to keep the same team if players play well and only really changes for tactical reasons against special opposition or if a player is injured or exhausted (Alexis excluded because he never gets exhausted). So I’ be surprised if he didn’t leave Campbell on the bench without good reason.
@Andy Mack I can’t reply to your reply (below) so I’m doing it here. This is the oddest thread. You started by saying that Arsene is using this 11 because of injuries. Then Gunner 73 said that “Giroud, Walcott, and mertesaker” aren’t injured now. I agreed with Gunner 73 and added Campbell to the list of consciously omitted potential starters. I think, in your response below, you are saying you think he might be carrying a knock. I think Arsene just thinks Iwobi is more of an obvious threat. It could be that Joel is injured but the fact that… Read more »
I hope Campbell stays and I think he will, to me he offers far more all round than Wallcott at the moment. He’s a very good squad player. Theo can deliver in short bursts but doesn’t seem to offer enough for long enough. As for Iwobi, Wenger has given him his chance and he seems to be taking it with both hands. He looks like he has the trust of senior players like Ozil who doesn’t seem to hesitate to give him the ball, which says a lot to me. It’s early days for him but he looks like the… Read more »
Arsenalnut, I started by pointing out that the 11 weren’t necessarily the 1st choice from the squad. I thought I was suggesting it’s a much improved squad to be able to do this. I agree that Iwobi is viewed as the best option on present form and having played in the previous win, he won’t be changed unless the manager has a real reason. Similarly he wouldn’t have dropped Campbell from starting unless he had a reason, which isn’t always obvious to the outside observer. Some idiots just think he has favourites which he uses because he can, whereas he… Read more »
Still plenty to play for. Leicester will need to have a colossal collapse, but you never know. Spurs can be caught. Key to it is partnerships in our team have to continue to develop. Teething problems with Gabriel and Koscielny cost us a number of games but now seem to be paying dividends. Ditto Coquelin who had several shaky games where we let in 9 goals in 5 matches. But Elneny and him are finally finding some sort of footing with each other. The front players are also being more efficient and aggressive in front of goal and largely this… Read more »
I tip Leciter to lose against Sunderland who are fighting to stays up, every pundit predicted that soton will take points of liecester and that didn’t happen and now everyone will predict easy win for liecster at sunderalnd and the will lose mark my words. All we need to do is win the early kick off against west ham.
Too many fireworks for just 1 big win. Better keep hugs and kisses for the end of the season, whatever the result be.
And… Leicester win 1-0 again. At this point it isn’t luck anymore, it’s clearly good management. I can’t even enjoy watching my team win 4-0 anymore because the next day a single goal is enough to kill the joy.
Half expecting Wenger to soon start trying to get the crowd going at the start of the matches with chants of I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN
Cant really say we bottled the league, if city,utd,spuds had as much injuries as us, they wouldnt be close! Were missing so many important players, dont think any team can cope with that better than us.
Actually United and City have had their loads of injuries this season. So I guess you are right, they can’t cope with that better than us, judging by the table.