Post-boxing day analysis of Arsenal’s performances by KM
Hello again. So after barely sleeping through a simply unacceptable defeat to a bad Chelsea side, I decided to take a look at what we’ve done after Christmas so far. Our results feature a hammering at Southampton followed by two wins, two draws and a defeat.
Does something look familiar here? Post New year collapse? You got it. Even if we ignore the fact that has happened before, what’s worse is that our performances have not been good. Back in 207, 2008, 2009, 2010 even, we were dominating teams. We used to hammer the smaller teams.
Southampton’s first visit to the Emirates ended up a 6:0 defeat. I cannot remember the last time we destroyed a bad team, except when we beat United 3:0. Personally I wouldn’t have that much of an issue if we had won some easy games we threw away, but truth is when you are playing well results may not go your way, but sooner or later they will.
In our case, we’ve been trying to nick games by one goal and it’s not worked too well. When we concede we become fragile. We crumble under the pressure, because with everyone being so bad, the pressure is on us. No matter what anybody says, the players feel it. It might be their only chance to get to the title and that’s disrupting our game.
We sleep through the first twenty minutes of most games. Sometimes we survive and end up winning but sooner or later this will cost you as it did on Sunday. Liverpool destroyed us in the first 20 minutes, but thanks to the fact they are also terrible we turned up in front at the start of the second half.
Immediately after that we stopped playing. Hoping the clock will roll over and it did with a draw. We have only won once at Stoke since they’ve been in the premier league and that was six years ago. We haven’t won against Chelsea since 2011 and we’ve given them 2 of their incredible 7 wins this season. Teams like Bournemouth beat them at the bridge!
And Southampton managed to thrash us 4:0. How does that happen? City have their away issues, but I don’t remember them losing 4:0. And those are mid tabled sides. People get deluded by the fact we are behind City only on goal difference but the style of play and our goal difference is the worst of all the teams in the top 4 right now, and we are yet to go away to Tottenham, City and Everton.
Apart from our 2:0 win at the Etihad, our away results to those sides hasn’t really been that good lately, just like our game play. You cannot say it is a coincidence when it keeps repeating over and over again. True that we are missing Cazorla and Coquelin badly and Alexis was out for a long time, but if you can’t win at West Brom and Norwich without one key player it’s sad.
Finally the fixture list doesn’t get any easier, with Southampton who’re in good shape coming up with confidence from thrashing us and winning at OT. Then it’s Bournemouth with Afobe out to prove Wenger a point, Leicester, Barcelona, United, Swansea and Spurs away. The team needs to sit down and rethink, how it will approach these games, or we’ll be seeing more of the same.
We missed out on Ancelotti and Klopp, and when Pep arrives at City next Season, with United, Pool and Chelsea coming back strong, Arsene will be even more exposed. I’m hoping for a reaction, will we see one from Arsene? Not sure.
Have a nice week.
its a merry-go-round
for chrissake!…
Why can’t we just break this vicious circle?
@ So0pa Aeon
We can but ofcos we need sum1 brilliant enuf to realise its a terrible vicious cycle in the 1st place.. Unfortunately frm Wenger to the Owners nd even sum fans dn’t see it as such ..
Even if not this January
NEW MANAGER – ANY ONE HUNGRY ENUF (I MEAN ANYONE)
DEFENCE – RUGANI (JUVENTUS) & RECALL JENKO
MIDFIELD – Javi Martinez (BAYERN), Andre Gomes (VALENCIA) & R. Saponara (EMPOLI)
FORWARD – Reus (DORTMUND) & Alvaro Morata (JUVENTUS)
SELL, RELEASE OR LOAN
DEFENCE – Debuchy (SELL),
MIDFIELD – Ramsey (SELL) , Flamini (RELEASE), Arteta (RELEASE), ROS (IF ON BENCH)
FORWARD – Walcott (SELL), OX (LOAN)
OUR TEAM
MANAGER – ANY ONE WITH DESIRE
DEFENDERS – BFG, KOS, BEL, MON, GIBS, JENKO, GAB, RUG, HAYDEN
MIDFIELDERS – WILS, COQ, SAPONARA, J. MARTI, CAZY, A. GOMES, OZIL
FORWARDS – CAMPB, WELB, GIRD, SANCH, REUS, MORATA
No team can beat us
CECH/OSP/ SCH
JENKINSON /BELLERIN BFG /GAB KOS/RUGANI MON/GIBBS
COQUELIN /J. MART CAZORLA /WILSHIRE
CAMPBELL /REUS OZIL/SAPONARA SANCHEZ/WELBECK
GIROUD/MORATA
Wenger is done it again like the past 11 years. We are up thanks to others who are bad , and here comes January and we have a perfect chance to strengthen the team yet again he refuse to get any one except Elneny who is not even used and Flamini which is a useless player is preferred by Wenger. I bet you top dollars that if Arteta was healthy poor Campbell would haven rotten on the bench or traded. The fact that team Captains are Arteta and Mert tells the club ambition under Wenger. After all why this year be different from the past 11 years !!!!
No matter how well play, when it all seems that all Is going well in our team, injury will somehow someway striker a key player and from that moments, other key players starts over labouring themselves and ended up injured as well. The thing is dat our manager is really weak in making hard decisions in this team. Cos I don’t see the reason why u hv gab and decided to play per.
That’s what happens when the manager refuses to buy top quality back ups he can use to rotate. And even when he does have back ups he finds a way to **** up the rotation so he can play his favourite mediocre players.
But Man City have lost 4-1 to Liverpool and to the Spuds this season!
Danny Setbeck is wellback into training today!
Hip, Hip, Hooray ??? He has been out for so long,that,
he really is… like a New signing ? ??
Man City are not in a good place this season either. If you look at the EPL, in any other season would a team like Leicester be able to top the table. Chelsea, Man U, Man City are all underperforming from there very best, we are not capitalising on it. The loss v Chelsea wasn’t catastrophic in terms of points, but it was in terms of showing our mental strength. We had just drawn v Liverpool a game we should have won, but conceded in injury time. We couldn’t see off Stoke a mid table club (although I was happy with the draw), but a demoralised Chelsea has taken 6 points off of us. Wenger should be ashamed that he couldn’t put out a team confident enough to play them off the pitch. That’s the problem with this current Arsenal side.
What’s with February and Arsenal really, things tend to go wrong around this month.
CL, elimination, lose points in the league but after this we go on some crazy run of games when we either have nothing much to play for or to get that top four spot.
I pray we begin that crazy run of winning games this Saturday, with Sanchez back maybe he can refresh the team with his energy and passion. They need a leader on that pitch because the current senior players like Mert, Theo, Kos and Flamini are not doing as required in games where we would have run away with the league by now. Hell even the new guy Cech is showing more leadership, that moment when he raised Kos from the ground after the Chelsea game, I bet he was saying get up, don’t let your guard down and don’t let the younger players and fans loose hope for the title after this, keep your focus.
Even Zouma starts ahead of Cahill and Isco starts ahead of James. What’s with and free will donation? Playing less privileges like Per, Flamini and arteta is totally unacceptable. If u don’t have anyone to play dm, put a defender there.
Even Chambers would’ve been a better choice than Flamini or Mertesacker
I find it quite disturbing every time a fan uses the word “sacrifice”…!!
“We should sacrifice the CL and one of the cup to win the league”…!!
I mean those fans are talking like we were, somehow, in contention for any of the major trophies…!!
We cannot sacrifice the CL… How can you sacrifice something you will never, ever win?? We are no where near that level, seriously!
As for the league, only Ozil, Sanchez, Cech and Koscielny will take us there as long as the rest of the “average pack” follows and try to put some sustain performance… All of that despite Wenger and his puppet Bold.
Mertesacker is Arsenal captain… This is where the all thing is wrong… The voice of Arsenal on the pitch is, may be, the worse player we got !!
Walcott still believes he is a striker, “Thierry Henry” reincarnation may be… When we all know deep down he is just an average player with a bit of pace.
Wilshere, OX, Welbeck (well done Man United for giving us your trashes), Arteta and more are just utterly useless, even fit…
Basically, we have a core of may be 5 or 6 players, solid and willing to sweat for the shirt, the rest is just distraction…
Wenger has a “tender” relation with the “tocards” (worse players in the club) and I REAL coach will clean up the rubbishes and make sure those kind of things never happen again.
Once again Lockay tells the brutal truth!
How do you qualify as a fan when you hate most of the boys so much?
Welcome back to Coquelin, Rosicky, Alexis
we missed you All
Coquelin will strengthen our defense. Although I would Still start Elneny against Burnley. Ease Coquelin in. Coquelin is vital to our season
It’s been the same old issues, we lack the mental strength to make it count when it matters most. We can’t seem to handle pressure and high expection. Wenger has lost what it takes to infuse that champions mindset into a team. He has lost what it takes to psychologically lift a team to glory, to light up that fire in the belly of his players. And of course his legendary stance against buying enough quality to give our squad the depth it needs. I have said it time without number and am sure I now sound like a broken record, the coach we need is Diego Simone. He will give us that mental strength we lack and of course he will have a far larger purse to work with it the transfer market.
The Southampton game is a potential banana skin,
As the 4 nil thrashing is still fresh in our memory,
We have only managed to beat them once in our last five meetings and that was a 1 nil win at home, I would be more than happy with that score line on Tuesday night!
I have been looking at our remaining fixtures and the previous head to heads( Last 5 meetings) with our opponents and I must say that apart from our away games at Utd and City,(where we could get a draw) we are more than capable of winning the rest, going by them stats, but of course that doesn’t allow for the Wenger mistakes of late!
As long as Wenger finds his balls, Asap!
We might still nick the premier league trophy!
Agreed, well said fatboy!
Since when are you so optimistic and positive ?? You know we’ll beat Southampton but fail against United and City
What Arsenal has done
since the New Year
is stay right up
there with Man City.
Leicester play City at the Etihad on Feb 7th
Leicester play Arsenal at the Emirates on Feb 15th.
City and Arsenal have cup games. Leicester does not.
Going out early in the FA cup and ECL
will help Arsenal’s EPL chances.
EPL under Wenget is a dream never come true. He always fails in crunch time to do the right thing and pass the team beyond the reach of others. 5 days left in transfer market and he does what he in past 11 years and do nothing. The purchase of Elneny and Bielik last year it is all to say I bought some one but not use them when others are injured if not good enough to be better than Flamini then you idiot bought them in first place. Deli Ali is shining like a super star in Spurs but our starlet sensation Reine Adelaide in the bench !!!! Shame on you Wenger you are the destroyer of talent in Arsenal.
Admin, I sent you an article for publication that deals with the kind of dross we get from KM and company. In times past you used to acknowledge receipt of email but today you haven’t. Have you changed your policy on guest articles?
No I’m in bed. It’s the middle of the night where I am right now Can I look in morning …..
Aaahh, the “good ole” KM is back. I guess I spoke too soon when I said a few weeks back that it looks like you changed your tune, and I finally started to enjoy reading your articles. You’re one of the most fickle fans that I have ever seen. Even worse than Chelsea supporters, most of whom were upset when Mourinho got sacked. Every team… I repeat EVERY SINGLE TEAM has had its share of UP’s and DOWN’s this, and other seasons. My understanding always was that we, the fans, should be supporting our club through good times, as well as bad. But you, Konstantin, apparently didn’t get the memo. Arsene is a living legend. Things he’s done and continues to do for the club are something you will never be able to comprehend. So why don’t you leave recruiting, analysis of the games, managing, and so on and so forth to Wenger, and just keep on watching the games without making too much noise. I’m really sick and tired of these so called fans like yourself. Unreal ignorance and total disrespect to manager and players.
@ Vlad
Instead of this direct attack on Konstanstin, who is bold enough to articulate his positions, why don’t you also write articles on Wenger and the players in a manner you feel it should be and post. Not everything he writes is trash.
@Pam – 99% of Konstantin’s articles are trash. And I’m not the only one who noticed it. In fact, a lot of people before me have complained, including The Analyzer, whose comment is just above mine. I don’t mind subjective criticism of our club, our manager, and our players. BUT… his hate for Wenger is so obvious and is so beyond ridiculous that I think it needs to stop. As for writing articles myself – I don’t have time, nor desire. But I do like to come here once in a while and read good, well composed pieces, and I don’t care whether they share my opinions or not. Unfortunately, Konstantin’s “writing skills” need a lot of work, and re-thinking. And it’s not just the quality I’m talking about. I can tolerate mediocrity (just like an average book or a movie), but I cannot and will not tolerate pure hatred, ignorance, and simply idiotism.
Wenger is holding Arsenal Back he has to go . Arsenal have a great chance to win the Premiership but they need to buy one or two Top class players. I really think Wenger knows this
but he just won’t spend the money required to land a Top class player. Wenger will never change
if he does not buy in this window and Arsenal fall short he should go and give someone else a
go.