• dave

  if we keep giving these lower level teams chances they are going to take them we need to kill teams off 2 up we shouldnt be drawing if we want to win the title

• Richiebacardi

  I thinks we need to take a lesson from Barca v Zaragoza…just looking at them on Sky…ruthless.

  I was a bit angry but calmed down and thought to myself…last year we would have maybe lost that game…we’re learning. I hope they got a good tongue lashing from AW, and we see less of that in the future!

  Ooo Ahh O Ahhh!!

• sam

  I’m a believer in Wenger, but yestreday he didn’t do his job. He should have adjusted his team based on West Ham’s subs, but he instead waited till 88th to bring Ed in!
  Conceding goals from poor teams you’ve scored 6 against is not going to win you trophies. Just not good enough defensively.
  And please, let’s not talk about “learning a lesson”, that’s what the last 4 years have been about.

• VJ

  i agree dev drops for mannone eboue and diaby against Sp*rs and replace them with almunia nasri and eduardo respectively, no more fuking around get the early drive for the second and third and then play possession football its high team we start playing like a proper big 4 team and crushing the opponents like we used to in the old days and stop prancing around like school kids who are bored because they are winning and just riding time out, wenger needs to makes sure clichy and sagna gets back with the pace of lennon down the wing and the insticts of defoe and keane, not the mention the height of crouch we need to be at are best defensively to beat tottenham, fabregas needs to give a rally call this week.

• Leeroy.N

  I was at Wembley watching the NFL game yesterday, So I missed the match! I will have to look over the game and highlights to form a serious opinion of how or where w lost the game. But we will be punished if we do not learn to finish off and or for a better word “destroy” teams like we are capable of. I beleive in the score one more rule. Just aslong as it doesnt leave you open. I will watch it tomorrow and see where it went to pot. Come on you Gunners.. play to and past your potential.

  Win, Lose or Draw.. Gooner til I Die!!

• Fabrez

  That was painful…how could we drop points on a day so many title contenders did? I was very very angry and frustrated as I watched our old defensive failing surfacing once again. I was sat there in front the telly next to a Man U fan and he didn’t even rub it in…it was that shocking! I felt as if we were just ok in the 1st half but the difference in quality gave us 2 goals. Ok…so not a totally fabulous 1st half but we more or less played our game n got rewarded.

  Then the second half…we were as flat as a Coke that was left without a cover for months! I was really disappointed that we didn’t come out hungry to get the 3rd. No killer instinct whatsoever! I was thinking, “A 3rd and the game is over…surely!”…yeah right… I just couldn’t see it coming and Mannone makes a mistake to compound a flat 2nd half…great! Don’t get me wrong…Mannone has done well enough to be Arsenal’s number 2 and put Almunia under some pressure but he’s not yet good enough to be number 1. He is a hell of a prospect tho. Carlton Cole…he just decided to take a tumble…Song didn’t need to tackle the lad…but he barley did and bang…penalty…but definitely not enough in it to be a foul in my opinion.

  But it’s like I could have seen it being 2-2 after looking at our body language a few minutes into the second half. It’s a mental lapse that we continuously seem to have. And as Ronaldo-less as Man U are, they would have NEVER let that 2-0 advantage slip. If I see or hear, “must learn from that experience” again, I’ll just get upset and angry bcuz I’m so so so so tired of hearing it. It could give me an ear-bleed one of these days.

  I’ll just end by saying I’m trying to stay positive…we need to as supporters…as Arsene once said, “If you eat caviar every day it’s difficult to return to sausages.” And boy-o-boy wasn’t Alkmaar and West Ham eating sausages! Kinda looking fwd to Wednesday then Saturday…let’s get back to winning ways! And yes Dev! Agreed that we need to be using offensive players in an offensive formation! Eboue needs not be in that advanced role on the right! We had Edu and B52 on the damn bench! We need to be more positive away from home sometimes!

• Berth

  Serious minded players are needed. Players like Nasri, Eduardo and Rosicky and not players like Ebuoe and Diaby with no conviction in their style of play. I heard one of Ashley Cole’s interview; I know his not popular with us fans but he made something known. He mentioned that what motivates Chelsea to win is trophies especially with the ageing team they possess. That bit of hunger is what the team (Arsenal lacks). Wenger should find what motivates the team and most importantly he should call on senior players like Arshavin, Cesc, Gallas, Rosicky and V.P to step up and allow their experience to reflect on the team.

  It won’t be surprising to know that most of the players in the Arsenal squad could be playing just to enjoy football rather than playing to win all (like V.P)

• JDD

  After Going 2-0 up Drawing Is Obviously A Bad Result But By The Way We Played Then One Points Is A Good Result.But Still We Should Be Taking 3 Points From A Team Second Bottom.Up Next Liverpool.I Wonder Who Wenger Will Play????I Would Go With..

  Almunia
  Gibbs Silvestre/Vermaelen Senderos Eboue
  Nasri Ramsey Wilshere
  Vela Eduardo Watt

  Fabianski Silvestre/Vermaelen Gilbert Traore Rosicky Sunu Bedntner

  What Do You Guys Think????

• salaquin

  While this team undoubtedly has bags of quality, it is clear that we do not have a team of real winners. Having quality is not enough in the Premiership. I know I might upset a few (maybe a lot) but Cesc is not Arsenal captain material. Saying this does not take away from the quality of the player but if we’re honest, he doesn’t really lead the team. Wenger has plied us with a load of tosh about leaders all over the park but for me, we lack THAT GUY who says “lets keep the ball, make them work and probe for the finishing blow”. The players should know how to close a game given their age and experience but we’re lacking in this department severely and Cesc, as good as he is, is not not the rallying type need for this team. I think a lot of it is to do with the nice guy “palms and teeth” culture that’s been grafted onto the team. I just feel that the Chelsea and Man U players are under no illusions as to what is required to win in terms of determination and ruthlessness. We seem to think that having good quality players is enough. I can’t really put my finger on why we seem so complacent and take leads for granted but maybe it has something to do with having quite a few players who haven’t won much up until now. If you don’t think its a worry that for a few seasons now, our fighting spirit does not show until we’ve been pegged back in a match that should have been out of sight for the opposition, you are overlooking perhaps the most serious weakness in our team. And one more time please tell me, HAS DIABY IMPROVED OVER THE LAST FEW SEASONS? Don’t worry, I’ll wait. The sooner Nasri’s back the better. Carlton Cole would have been a perfectly acceptable replacement for Ade.

• jien

  JDD..i think wenger will still stick with his policy of using youngester in the CC

  i will more likely be:

  gilbert-senderos-silvestrre-gibbs
  randall-ramsey-coquelin
  merida-watt-vela

• Gunnersgun

  It is not the result, it is the performance.
  ARSHAVIN WAS THE WORST, Cesc was not his usual self may be of family problem.
  may be Arsenal SHOULD ENGAGE GEORGE GRAHAM AS SPECIAL ADVISER FOR THE DEFENCE. He is the best DEFENDER.
  already leak 13 goals in EPL; 4 goals in CPL.
  Always the same excuses: didn’t get final ball to kill the game. Where & when is the ruthlessness coming ? (always like to buy midfielder who can play wide & not deadly striker e.g Torres from LFC)
  If the team can grind out, the game is already won.
  Mr AW pls don’t say need another goal to kill the game (IN CPL final, LFC 3-0 down, 2nd half come back & win). Work on the defence & balance it up with beautiful soccer
  Why other teams can grind out 1-0 win & the end of season they have trophies (Chelsea under JM).
  AW likes to play players out of position, y he didn’t do to diaby as a lone striker baffles me ???
  If continue to let Diaby involve in defence, we will definitely get more similar result & forget about winning trophies.
  Pls Mr AW don’t be TOO stubborn in substitution, learn from J. Mourinho
  Arsenal have many wide players who should supply crosses & also drift in instead of depending on Sagna & Clichy to supply crosses. They are defenders.
  AW should take a major part of the blame (team line up, substitution)

• http://kierandelaney.net kierandelaney.net

  I thinks we need to take a lesson from Barca v Zaragoza…just looking at them on Sky…ruthless

  This kind of comment is mental. You want Arsenal to play more like Barcalona? So you’d like them to lose 2-1 to a romainian team in the champions league at home?

  It’s easy to criticise the team for not playing well or thrwoing away two points – Arsenal let themselves down. But they didn’t lose. They got a point. They’ve got a game in hand that could pull them to second in the league. It’s not all doom and gloom.

  Compare them to any team you like, but just remember even the mighty Barca have awful matches – losing to the worst team in the champions league at home could potentially be more damaging to Barca than earning a draw away in a London derby will be for Arsenal.

• patrik

  Resulting from the latest seething in the blogs after the unfortunate draw against West Ham, I am requesting a chance to express some views on Arsenal which I have for awhile.

  My view is that we did not fail against West Ham but rather that we have progressed as a club for the last 4 seasons despite not winning trophies. My view is we are not on the wrong track this season, we actually are doing well.

  The draw on Sunday was really bitter but I still retain vivid memories of 3 games which happened during the ‘98 and ‘02 seasons.

  - The magic game with three goals from Dennis Bergkamp… but we ended up drawing that game
  - The game we lost at home against Blackburn (1-3)
  - The last minute equaliser from, again, Leicester City in the ‘02 season

  What I want to emphasize is that even in successful seasons, there were still many bitter and heartbreaking moments. We actually won the league title(s) after the turn of the year – it’s really up to how we do in the last 18-20 games or so that will define our season.

  Right now it’s the players’ job to do their best to keep up (stay at worst 5 points from the top) or even win all their games to lead the league going into the year 2010.

  Of course many moaners said that we are competing with more teams now (back then it was us and Man U). But look at how all the teams, and I mean all of them, have dropped many points already this season. And I can argue for myself that we are the only team who dropped points undeservedly.

  As to my second idea, all I will say now is that what other manager has…

  1) managed a team under such a tight budget to reach CL final and semifinal

  2) produced another crop of young and great players

  3) managed an injury prone team to lead the league for 8 months before that evil moment against that evil team

  4) sold greedy, want-away, and unneeded players for a large chuck of profit

  5) given us the most beautiful footballing team in the history.

  (The answer is no one apart from the Lord Wenger, of course).

  It’s funny too when you compare the SUCCESSFUL Arsenal teams to this current squad of how they do in Europe. This current team is actually doing a lot BETTER than the class of ‘98, ‘02, and ‘04. So unsuccessful and incompetent? I’d say hell no.

  We just have to pray that we will get a break this season (bad calls, injuries, lucky goals…..), – the sort of break we have not had for a long long long time.

  Moaners say that we can’t look at the past. But a great manager is defined by ALL his actions, both the past and the present.

• Pete

  Thats exactly whats annoyed me the last day or two. Don’t get me wrong, the result was disappointing and the players probably feel it more than any of us, but its the fans that have been absolute misery guts in the last day or two. You’d think their pets have died or something! All of a sudden there’s comments like “our season is over”, “the manager got it wrong”, and “it was the keepers fault”.

  It seriously baffles me how some supporters only chip in with their comments when there’s a disappointing result, but when we’re on a winning streak for a few weeks they’re no where to be seen. You can criticise Diaby and Eboue, but the fact is they are squad players, so they’re not going to be as good as the lieks of Rosicky, Nasri and Eduardo. But if they’re fit to start and other better players aren’t then there’s not much that can be done is there. I’d still rather have them in the squad then not have anyone to cover for someone whose injured.

  The fact is you’re going to have days like this in football. No team wins every game all the time. If you can accept that then you better get out now because you’re not going to cope with the rest of the season. We’re going to lose and draw more games because thats the nature of the beast. But there will be wins too, so its all right. You cant just be along for the ride when we’re hammering Everton away 6-1. In the Unbeaten season, similar thingswere being said when we drew games we “should have won”, which is an invalid phrase because nothing is certain in football. Its after these sort of games where we show our real support the most. All the complaining wont change the result of the last game, all there is is the next game.

  Come on Gooners, we know better than to be like this.

• patrik

  Majority of people have claimed how ruthless Chelsea are against the traditional middle to weak teams. But no one has been able to explain how Wigan trashed them or how Aston Villa withstood the so called Chelsea barrage and edged past them. ManU lost to Burnley and indeed, nearly lost to Sunderland at Old Trapshite. How does anyone explain that? In this league as it is now, anyone can beat anyone. That makes the league interesting, not dominance. If your team can beat other teams playing football; in that lies your pride. There is no pride in winning against minnows who cannot string 3 passes together successfully. So, when other teams manage a draw against your team, kudos to them for trying and not just laying down to die. That Should galvanise your team to work harder and not be complacent. You, the so called supporter, moaning and criticising would not help. If care is not taken, you will end up demoralising, and completely eroding the confidence of, your team. How can that help your team? Immagine if you take the dagger out everytime your child or your wife makes a mistake? You will end up loosing them; that¿s a fact. If ManU and Chelsea were treated the same way as the referees treat Arsenal (hashly, with biaz & extreme prjudice), I wonder how they would cope?

• Debs

  Like I said earlier, we’ve missed one chance, but there will be others- no doubt about that. As long as we take it when it eventually comes, all will be forgotten. There’s still a longgg way to go, and we always tend to do better anyways when we’re under the radar, almost like the forgotten men. We’re still in a very strong position guys- no need to pull out your hair just yet!

• Berth

  Whatever Parik and Kieren. The truth is that it happened on Tuesday and also again on Sunday – that alone is enough to make one panic. I understand that we should not be fretting over this little slip up but then again we fear this pattern; this sort that saw us draw 5 matches in a row last term. That pattern is what I feel most people are scared of and not the fact that Man u drew at home or Chelsea lost to Wigan. Its about us and not them.

• Gbengs

  The team needed that win to boost the trust of there fans that this year is our year.Only to see them drop point (2)knowing that it was to be a good weekend for us to shoot high up the table with a game at hand which with what i saw them play in the second half, could likely end up messing it up again with Bolton as West H.

• Pete

  Guys, sorry if that last post was came out a bit too strong. Wasn’t trying to have a dig at anyone in particular. Everyones entitled to their opinion, but sometimes it seems us fans are our own worst enemies at times. We get over excited with our wins, and in turn set ourselves up for major disappointment when results don’t go our way.

  Just like to re-emphasise my point again, but more calmly this time lol. Despite how Diaby and Eboue played, it’s too easy an excuse to just single out those two players in particular, especially as they’ve contributed goals and assists already this season. The team as a whole should have killed the game off, period. If we’d scored a 3rd goal in the 90th minute and won the game, no one would be criticising any of the players, despite conceding the same two goals. I just think its too unfair a judgement. If you apply that same thinking to RvP, Arshavin and Cesc, then they should be slagged off for not scoring when they had chances too, but we all know that would be unfair to do. Song had a good game, but his one mistake gave away a vital penalty. Every player makes mistakes, but if all the players on the pitch make one or two mistakes each then collectively it can hurt our reseult, and thats what happened Sunday.

  Contrast that with past games. We were terribly lucky at Fulham to have won that game. We played badly, somehow got the 3 points yet weren’t criticised. We played brilliantly in both Manchester games, deserved to win, yet lost both. Thats how football is. Best teams aren’t necessarily the winners or the champions.

  The one mistake fans of big teams make is thinking they have a God given right to win absolutely every game and every competition, Chelsea and Man United supporters are particularly prone to this in recent seasons. By doing that supporters end up deluding themselves regardless of what team they support, not to mention disrespecting the opposition team by highly underestimating them. West Ham have good players and they deserved to be level after the final whistle. Sometimes you got to be big enough to show respect toward the opposition, take these kind of results on the chin and put it behind you because the next game comes round fast. I still have to remind myself that we didn’t acutally loose the game, we still got a point, so if you want some labour party-style spin on it then we’re still on a good unbeaten run in all competitions lol

  As Leeroy always says at the end of his posts, “Win Loose or Draw, Gooner til I Die”. Lets make that our motto here at WOA. If you’re going to take the wins, then you got to take the draws, losses, injuries and unfair decisions as well.

  Peace!

• JDD

  Arsenal.com-Nasri and Fabianski to start Liverpool game,Wilshere and Traore injured,Eduardo and Bendtner to feature.Lokks like it will be a young team with expereinced players

  Fabianski
  Gibbs Silvestre Senderos Gilbert
  Nasri Coquelin Ramsey
  Vela Bendtner Watt

  maybe???

• Debs

  Anyways, On another note, did you guys see this Ramsey goal v Liechtenstein the other day? It was his first goal for the full team. It was from a free-kick. Brilliant goal!

  youtube.com/watch?v=Vjtb9SM-JJY

• Fabrez

  Yeah Debs! What a goal that was! The manner in which he took it reminded me of Becks… And the pass was a killer pass… that would have been a great assist! Ramsey keeps getting better. I feel as if he’s really learning from those around him and he’s hungry. I like his attitude. He’ll be a tremendous player for us in the near future!

• wills

  I hope Wenger goes for Eboue instead of Gilbert. Liverpool are probably going to go with Babel on the left and Gilbert is nowhere near good enough to contain him.

  Possibly…..

  Fabianski
  Eboue-Senderos-Silvestre-Gibbs
  Nasri-Coquelin/Randall-Ramsey/Merida
  Watt-Bendtner-Eduardo

  If Wenger has said that both Nik and Eddy will start, and he’s not mentioned Vela then he may be on the bench unfortunately. I can’t see all three of them starting for some reason.

• JDD

  he said they will feature he didnt say whether that would be from the beginning or not.I forgot Merida is back from the u20 world cup i hope he starts because he is a real talent i would say with a couple games under his belt he could be good enough to play in the prem/Cl on a weekly basis.

• Debs

  Yeah Fabrez. Brilliant awareness to know the pass was even on! Can’t wait to see him play week in week out for us in the near future!

• Richiebacardi

  I thinks we need to take a lesson from Barca v Zaragoza…just looking at them on Sky…ruthless

  This kind of comment is mental. You want Arsenal to play more like Barcalona? So you’d like them to lose 2-1 to a romainian team in the champions league at home?

  Keiran…I don’t think I was being mental at all. I wasn’t attacking the team or wanting them to play like barca, no way do I want that.

  In fact what I want (and what I should have stated) is for us to play like Arsenal.

  Correct me if I’m wrong but In the last 5 or so years the only way we could keep a lead is to keep attacking. Every time we sit back and try to defend our lead it sooms to go wrong (well almost everytime)

  When I made the comment about being like barca I meant just to keep playing our style. It seemed that the lads on the last two games were testing themselves…maybe trying something new, to see if we could defend a lead…and we ended un drawing.

  Calling it mental is a bit harsh…it’s just an opinion, with reasons I guess I should have been clearer about.

  Apologies

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