With the league title out of reach and huge competition in the Champions League, the FA Cup looks like being Arsenal’s best chance at silverware this season.
And while it might not have been the top priority at the start of the campaign, Arsene Wenger says he’ll be going all out to win it, because it’s a competition he ‘loves’.
Speaking at his pre-Villa press conference, the boss said, “If you look at my record, you will see the FA Cup is important for me. It’s a competition I love, a top class trophy.
“If you look at the record of all the other teams, I think our record is better than all of them over the past 15 years.
“Even last year we went for four trophies. I think we always try to go for everything and for a long, long time last year we went for trophies late in the season. Still we will try to do the same and try to win the FA Cup.”
Under Wenger Arsenal have been in five FA Cup finals, winning four and losing out in 2001 when Liverpool became the first team in the competition’s history to play with two goalkeepers.
Meanwhile, when it was put to him that the team needed the support of the fans after Sunday’s boostravaganza, Wenger said it was up to them to get the fans back onside.
“I always believe the fans’ reaction depends on us,” he said. “It is the team which has to get the fans behind them, and the fans have to be proud of the team.
“The vibes have to come from us.”
So 5th and Europa league is not a trophy?
Common man, give it a rest. I understand the frustration and things are definitely not going well for now and I know your 7 year no trophies song- You’ve been going on about it for so long…but it’s time to give it a rest. We get that you want Wenger replaced and that’s your opinion and while in the beginning your bank manager and no trophies for 7 years posts seemed to be spot on with good value in terms of sarcasm, these days it’s becoming quite boring. Ironically for all your criticism your posts are becoming just like Wenger… Read more »
*come on man…
“Time to give it a rest”. Are you mad? This Wenger out stuff is only just started, Now comes the chance to finally get rid of the nutcase.
James, you could shout all you want, we know the board either a)doesn’t care about the fans, or b) is too patient with Wenger or BOTH. So assuming that the above is the case, you can either keep moaning and keep getting upset and constantly quarrel on blogs and have to insult and be insulted by other fellow fans of our beloved club and basically do nothing positive for your own life or for the club in general… OR take the frustrations that come with the game, try to back the team like those of us who did on that… Read more »
well said
“People are dying in wars, without food and hope and we have gun toting criminals on the street, yet we moan about the ‘condition’ of our club for months on end knowing full well that our opinions are not really the ones that matter.” I was enjoying and agreeing with you until I read this, I stopped reading and you lost me. As for the Bank Manager, to me he is NOT a football manager any more (which part of this you don’t get?), putting finance before football, lying to us and letting our world class players down and not… Read more »
Alright Cygan’s left foot – that’s a pity. Anyway the gist of my post was basically what you said you enjoyed and agreed with so that’s that. A question for you though, what if Wenger doesn’t leave this summer? Where does that leave you? I’m merely curious.
AR,
Give the advice a rest, you are part time Arsenal supporter, that is your life, don’t worry about us, just manage your life and let us manage ours and how we support OUR club. Now you start sounding boring and like look at me I am a good girl thingy.
The board sacking him our not that is not up to me, but what is up to me to make his life difficult.
And what exactly do you hope to achieve by making his life difficult? Are you indirectly hoping that the results get worse so he leaves? And you call me a part time supporter? What is that? Someone who gets behind the team in every game and has been to every home league game since late 1976? For not getting sucked into the constant doom mongering? You’re upset about our ‘bank manager’ and not winning anything for 7 years. You’re lucky you weren’t around when it was crap football for 15-16 years with different managers. More recently in 1995 when we… Read more »
AR, I support the team and want us to win all our remaining match EVEN if I want the Bank Manager out it is hurting like hell just to look at the table and see the Spuds above us. But there is when me and you stop thinking the same. I can’t take us being the Bank Manager personal Bank and return to be a football club that want to win football games and trophies. I want us to stop being the Bank manager personal crazy experiment for youth to develop their skill and back to basic. I want our… Read more »
Fair enough mate, at least you took the time to respond with some reason. Since we all want the club to do well, can we not leave the Wenger out stuff for the end of the season when there’s even the remotest possibility of change happening? The other thing is this notion of our best players wanting to leave. Throughout the last 30 years and from what I hear, even earlier, our best players have always done a lot for the club and left. This isn’t a new phenomenon. The reason in the 80s and early to mid 90s was… Read more »
Very long explanation AR. Even Cygan with all his Bank Manager and useless players stuffs in one comment will only use maximum two paragraphs.
Young Gunners,
Leave him alone, if you find it long don’t read it. AR has a good knowledge of football that is why he can write a long replay and it seems easy to him. I might disagree with him but I still think he is not like most Arsene knows sheep that follow blindly with no football knowledge.
Young gooner- A good debate is a good debate, whether it takes a paragraph or a page. I might have been able to cut the explanation short, but didn’t so maybe next time I’ll keep that in mind. Thankfully, however much you write or not, unlike some other sites you’re not asked to pay to read. And Cygan mate, like I said, we’ve all got our views on what will and won’t work but as long as the club benefits, I don’t hold any grudges.Cheers.
Theres a reason why most of your comments are hidden due to low ratings champ. Maybe go outside, think perhaps why that is, and come back when you’ve got some decent banter about the topic of the article and stop ruining the best part of my day. Reading about the Arsenal.
you deserve at least 2 likes. 1 – good point. 2 – your name ! haha
YES!! go for the FA Cup , and don’t play the reserves FFS , take it seriously
Look I said it earlier and thumbs down be damned. I want to go to a fucking cup final again and if that means coming in with then so be it. I would take that immense feeling of ecstasy that winning a trophy brings over coming in 4th and playing in a competition we are very unlikely to win.
“coming in fifth.
any1 else think that ramseys not good enough? as much as i like him hes been shit the last few months.he was poor against man u.if he doesnt add a midfielder we are fucked.
Typical Wenger signing of last 7 years, a lightweight, fancy passing girl.
He has been off form for a few months, but if that = not being good enough than half our team would be worthless. Do you even know how old Ramsey is? I bet you said the same thing about Koscielny last year. Oh and you dont captain your country at 21 by being shit.
I remember when Song first came to the club at a young age and no one could understand why Wenger thought of him so highly… how times have changed
NO MATE I LOOKED THE LOOK OF KOS FROM THE START.YOUR JUST ANOTHER OF THE FANS WHO THINK THAT RAMSEYS UNTOUCHABLE FROM CRITICISM.HES BEEN SHIT FOR A LONG TIME NOW.HIS FAULT FOR UNITEDS SECOND GOAL.AND YEA I KNOW WHAT AGE HE IS.MY HONEST OPINION IS RAMSEYS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.AND IF WE KEEP PLAYIN HIM GAME AFTER GAME WE GONA SUFFER.I LIKE RAMSEY.HE IS YOUNG YEA AND MITE COME GOOD.BUT THE FACT IS HES BEEN PISS POOR FOR A WHILE NOW
The fact you responded in nothing but capital letters makes arguing with you pointless.
and he captains wales pal.hardly fkin brazil is it.whos vice captain? wrexhams sub left back r sumtin
Somebody get this guy a cool drink!
face it pal i speak the truth.and deep down u know it
I would hardly call what your doing speaking mate. If you want to throw your toys out the pram go for it but I for one am not going to let petty point ruin the love I have for this club and sport.
em ok.. all i said was ramseys been shit.no need to get all pms about it
No what you did is bitch and whine like a baby. I am fed up of all our supposed fans shitting themselves over every little thing. We are going to drive the manager and players out if we are not careful.
what are you talkin bout pal? i said ramseys been shit for a while now.calm yourself down no need to get so defensive.tescos do kleanex for men nowadays.just so you know.
You actually claimed “if he dosnt sign a midfielder we are fucked” and that is was Ramseys fault united scored their second. That sir is ridiculous. And thankyou for the advice on tissues, I find the normal kleenex rip far to easily.
He is captain over Gareth “the media darling monkey face scum” Bale and Craig “err…nobhead” Bellamy, so he can’t be that shit. His form has been quite poor for a while but then he is 21, has come back from an horrendous broken leg, and has played nearly every game this season due to us having, well, no one else. You’d be a bit knackered too I’d imagine. Obviously he’s not going to improve unless he plays. Sometimes you have to play yourself out of bad form and that means giving him a chance to do so. A bit of… Read more »
wasnt it three goalkeepers?
Totally agree smoking. The club needs a lift I would play the best team we can in the fa cup and concentrate on getting 4 th place. Play the kids in the cl games against Milan. We won’t win it and could pick up more injuries for our tired players. We can win the fa cup and get fourth if we prioritise them over the cl.
100% agreement with you fellas. We need something to smile about again and getting this fuckin monkey off the back would be a good start.
I do have a sneaky about the CL though, like a path will open up once we’ve seen off Milan…
I hope your right! Dont get me wrong I love moments like beating Barca at home but really they count for nothing when it comes to the history of our club. If someone offered me : The F.A Cup, a decent showing in the CL and 5th in the league I would be very tempted!
I think it is too risky to hope for CL cup. Even if we get past Milan, there will be timee when we will face those La Liga Duo. Much better to prioritise PL and FA.
Do you not want to win the crap out of Milan? I would never accept playing the kids in the CL. Where is the pride?
Please bring this trophy home to the emirates, Arsene
and please don’t leave Arsenal, you are our greatest ever manager
Big game if we lose I fear the voices of discontent will be huge at the stadium not just the net.
I think the fans do need to get behind the team but equally have a right to moan on the net or boo at the end of a match if we have been crap and lost.
Wanting change does not make you a non supporter or glory hunter it is an individual’s right to an opinion
I hope for the best but fear the worst on Sunday
1-1 compromise is my guess
A great coach? yes Our greatest ever manager? Surely you jest? In fact, since the Mee-like(probably before your time, noname.} premature destruction of a great team, my respect for his judgement has gradually eroded. The early years were the expected progression as he added to The Howe/Graham/Rioch winners with French Wonderkids, too slow maturing for Italy but seen them in underage competitions, my mum would have signed them. While maturing and winning, Dennis Bergkamp and Tony Adams led us to success. As that team departed AW committed us to reliance on youngsters. As our style and respect withered away, heis… Read more »
Didn’t he create the invincibles, a team of transfer of his choosing? Seems like he knows what to do when the board release funds for him.
Also, he prolonged the careers of this players you mentioned by completely revolutionising their diets, training regimes, supplement intake, etc… Those same players have acknowledged his influence on them
Don’t normally do this but feel like self harming so am watching the spurs game. Why the fuck did we not buy scot Parker the bloke is running the show and is pure class. At least we have benyoun tho so life ain’t all bad. Right more wine to dull the pain.
We have Song, Coquelin, and Frimpong at the time.
Speaking to my friends who are Spurs supporters, I think it came down to wages and playing time. As mentioned below, we had 3 DM’s at the time while Tottenham had Sandro, that Redknappp doesn’t seem to trust, and I suppose Huddlestone, but he hasn’t exactly set the world alight, so he was more likely to get regular first team football
The dearth of AFC news up until today has forced me to watch African Cup of Nations matches with any AFC interest. I can therefore cheerily confirm: (a) That Gervinho continues to take up very dangerous positions in and around the box only to finish moves by doing a passable impression of someone who has never played football before, and (b) Chamakh´s bid to restore his confidence has failed spectacularly. Dropped after a moderate performance in the first game (where he failed to convert clean through on goal), he was an unused substitute (sound familiar? could be his new position… Read more »
Lol now onto something with more relevance…
The Spuds manager admitted that he “has the writing skills of a 2 year old, he’s not good enough to fill out a teamsheet or even type out a text message…”
Lol
(will post a link soon)
Oh Wenger please do the dew!!! Turn this nightmare around and let’s have the good times back, enough of excuses.
In defence of AW ole was the sole A
Steve cites the`Invincables` as geing AW`s creation and proof of his managerial skill. Seven established Internationals were happy to join a club whd had been highly successful for fifteen years, Two French wonderkids were rcognised already as future stars, Coe the only Arsenal product and a lready in place, to bind into a team, Dennis Bergkamp, I have always maintained that AW is a fine coach ut his dietry strictures were inovative, only in England. Frank McLintock had followed a controlled diet thirty years earlier and played at the top at 38. Whenevaluating AW`s ability you must ask, why did… Read more »
Oh, just shut up! Stop trying hard to mislead us. Soon you’ll exclusively report that he wasn’t really the one coaching the team and picking the players when he won trophies, but some reserve team coach!
Abegi!
I would just like to say, despite all the troubles we’ve had this season, I love Arsenal football club.
And we’re going to win the league when Diaby returns, you watch…
The problem with many football fans these days is that they see everything in black or white and never grey. A given player can never have an OK game. He is either having a blinder and should be first choice every week or is being a lazy useless **** who should never wear the shirt again. And sometimes both apply in the same match!!! I was stood behind somebody at the Swansea match who spent the entire match shouting abuse at Theo and at Wenger for not taking him off. Well up until he scored that is. After that Theo… Read more »
The fact the we are all so gutted about jack is hiding the fact that we have pinned so many hopes on someone so young. Someone that by anyones standards was overplayed last year. It’s happening again this year with Ramsey and of course rvp. We have been lucky so far with rvp but it’s an accident waiting to happen. We do not have sufficient cover for him to be given the rest that he clearly needs. Arsene is an intelligent man and this is what I cannot get my head around. He knows that certain players are at thier… Read more »
Link as promised lol
http://www.sport24.co.za/Soccer/EnglishPremiership/Redknapp-I-cant-write-sms-20120126
We will always be better than em no matter how bad things get 🙂
With ManShitty out, Klanfield doing one over ManUre & our wounded slowly returning, the cup looks like it might be within reach.
Manbearpig your comment really did make me laugh. I assume you were being sarcastic!