Confident of getting into the top four?? One man is….

Morning all,

This writing malarkey gets harder, and it’s not helped by our players at all.

We should be playing Millwall today in the FA Cup, but in a game full of poor finishing and a lack of concentration by a few players in defence, including the goal keeper, we were dumped out of the competition by Blackburn.

Exactly the same problems saw us defeated at Bradford, knocking us out of the Capital One Cup and of course, much of the same against Bayern leaves us facing an almost impossible task in Germany on Wednesday.

We have definitely had our ups and downs, there have been good times and bad times.

The team has lacked a bit of consistency and sometimes we have made mistakes that have cost us dearly – removing these from our game will help us improve in the future.

That’s from Santi Cazorla, February’s player of the month for Arsenal. I’m not sure he’d get my vote though, he is so hit and miss with his performances. But then so are many of our players.

I’m sure if they all played near to the top of their game, every game, and at the same time, we’d look like a quality side. But we don’t and individuals have start taking a lot more responsibility for themselves and their own performances. Especially if they want to get into that top four and stay there!

Cazorla is right, cut out the silly little errors because they are costing us dear!

As is missing so many relatively simple chances in front of goal.

How many did we miss against both Blackburn, Bradford and Bayern Munich? Too many. Any opportunities we are presented with in Germany on Wednesday must be taken, I doubt we will get many but if we can get an early goal, who knows.

One player who I always struggle to criticise because no matter what he does on the pitch, he never gives anything other than 100%, he loves Arsenal, just like we do.

Of course that player is Carl Jenkinson:

There are two teams to chase and I don’t think we can get too caught up in how they’re doing,

If we go on a good run now, we’ll finish in the top four. I’m sure of that. If you look at Tottenham’s run in, it’s quite difficult. They’ve got some difficult games so we’re going to hope that they drop points.

If we focus on what we’ve got to do, I think it will take care of itself.

Spot on, focus on what Arsenal need to do, rely on no-one.

Cut out the stupid mistakes, get a good run going, gather some momentum and get pints on the board.

That’s the only thing they should all be thinking about, winning and going all out to do so.

Maybe if they’d have done that from the beginning of the season in the league and in the domestic cups, we would be playing today…

That’s it for another day…..

0 thoughts on “Confident of getting into the top four?? One man is….

  1. ozgunner10 says:

    evening Rico or morning for you – these little mistakes are not little mistakes are they? – they wreck seasons consistently, they loose us key games all the times

  2. joaquim Moreira says:

    good morning!
    Isn’t only lack of concentration of the players. The bencj has much responsabilities

  3. rico says:

    Hi Oz, no, good point. They are massive errors which have cost us many league points, and two domestic cup…

  4. rico says:

    And they are all avoidable with better coaching, better individual performances and this so called togetherness AW bleats on about…

    Hi JM, the one AW sits on, or the one which lacks depth, depth that would push those on the pitch, or replace them and do better…

  5. Marinello says:

    Hi Rico, Joaquim, Ozgunner,
    Trust you are well.
    I hear what Carl Jenkinson says, but at the end of the day we are reliant on teams above us slipping up, and this is never a good place to be. With footballers, half of preparing for the match is having belief and confidence in one’s own ability and those around them in the team. With the current trend of sloppy defending, players going missing at crucial times during a game, chances in front of goal going begging etc I for one do not think that we will get a top four finish. I really hope that I am proved wrong.
    The Board can’t be that confident of a top 4 finish, as they have been busy stashing an Emergency fund away, to help ease the pain from not receiving the millions from CL qualification and competition.

  6. rico says:

    Hi Marinello,

    All well with me thanks, as I hope it is you?

    On paper, we have the easier run in I believe but, seeing as how we like to make things difficult for ourselves, even if others slip up, can we be sure we will take advantage?

    I worry what the result in Germany will be and what it could do to the squads already low confidence….

  7. Marinello says:

    One other point, I get a little tired of players speaking in various newspapers, twitter etc about performances, reasons for losing games etc. In the old days….. the only people that you heard from was the Manager and the Captain. I think players like Czesny, should stay away from the media reporting, and concentrate on what they are paid to do and in his case become more commanding in his box, sort the defence out at set pieces, and stop friggin about when clearing a back pass.

  8. Marinello says:

    Hi Rico,
    All good over here.
    I agree with you about the result in Germany and leaving the players confidence low. It may go the other way, no one gives them a chance, and on first leg performance, Bayern should go through. But this is football, and sometimes things do not go to plan, look at chelsea winning the CL, who would have bet on that. the difference is, Chelsea had defenders that attack the ball, and not look around for someone else to take responsibility…
    We can only hope for a Bayern off night, and for our team to somehow play out of their skins in all departments and not allow Bayern to settle and dictate the game.

  9. potter says:

    The press pack is insatiable and the more you give them the more they want. It would be better to say nothing and eventually they will go away and find another source for their headlines. Send them up to WHL or to the new Olympic team down by the river.

  10. rico says:

    Couldn’t agree more re all the talking the players do. Shut up and do what they get paid for is my view..

  11. rico says:

    Hi Potter, are you referring to the link I posted?

    If so, I actually agree with the author, both Bale and Suarez are diving cheats, but somehow, many decide to find an excuse for the Welshman….

  12. Danish Gooner says:

    Hahaha Santi you joker,like foretting to track back when Toni krooss is about to unload a rocket of steeping of your player just ecause you cant handling him speed wise etc.Small mistakes it is not it is gros negligence of your defensive duties

  13. major joe says:

    I re-watched the game against Porto 3/10 we had no fabregas no van persie only bendtner, song,arshevin etc we won 5-0,6-2 on agg
    we played quite a bit faster than we do these days maybe we can
    still win in germany.

  14. Wavy says:

    Morning all,
    The players would do better to do their talking on the pitch and not the papers. They are more silent than Buster Keaton in the General!
    No leadership on the pitch but plenty of blather off it!

  15. rico says:

    Everyone wrote our chances off going to Milan a few years back…

    Danish, not only Santi can be accused of that. Its this kind of thing which should be ironed out on the training pitch.

    Does AW even tell players to track back, he seems so hell bent on our attacking game.

    Hi Wavy – couldn’t agree more.

  16. southyorkshiregunner says:

    Morning all …..
    I watched an Arsenal match on Youtube before I went out last night … Chelsea v Arsenal Jan 1985 … played on a quagmire of a pitch … 1-1. Chelsea equalised in the last minute …. Nothing much changes …
    Back then we had a great team on paper ….Nothing much changes

    England’s right and left back in Anderson and Sansom, complemented by O’Leary, a Republic of Ireland Centre-back and a young Tommy Caton – captain of the England u21’s.
    An English centre, with Rix, the workmanlike 110%-er in Talbot and the skillful albeit aggressive Stevie Williams with Mariner, Woodcock and Mariner up front. All internationals.

    Like now they were a fantastic side on paper…. yet they won nothing …
    Badly managed? Badly coached? No gelling between players?

    History.
    Terry Neill got sacked …. Don Howe who took over the reigns, wasn’t a manager and it showed …. and then George Graham came in and got rid of the ageing or what he must have seen as problematic players …..

    three years later …. Dixon and Winterburn had replaced the old internationals at right and left back….. Caton was offloaded and Adams came in alongside O’Leary ….
    Rix and Talbot were outed and replaced by Rocky and Davis whilst we went 4-4-2 with Williams as the axis …. we initially had Robson in there until he left to sign with his boyhood club – WHU at the beginning of Graham’s tenure and then the workmanlike and underrated Richardson was drafted in …. Smith was eventually bought to play alongside of Charlie Nick as the gangly Quinn wasn’t that well thought of as the No1 striker….

    Sometimes its a problem with the manager ….. Sometimes the players dictate to the manager or won’t play for the manager …. sometimes the manager hasn’t got the balls to get shut or drop players …. especially players whom he likes ….. Diaby anyone?

    Did Graham see this …. ?? Woodcock was top scorer for Arsenal for 3 seasons, yet he more or less immediately offloaded him … same with Mariner…. He made do with Viv and Sansom (both of who were sound players) until he could get Dixon and Winterburn who both more or less surpassed everything Viv and Sansom had done… Adams was an awkward looking Senderos of a player at first but look how it turned out …. Rocky and Davis were always brilliant players… Even Charlie Nick eventually got fully replaced by Merson …

    What Graham did with what was an under performing set of internationals was quite brilliant ..

    I wonder what a man like George Graham (not George Graham now) would do with the side as it stands? Overpaid reserves and youth, shit players out on loan, constantly injured prima donna’s, dumb wingers, half-assed defenders …. Graham wasn’t perfect …. and what he did with Limpar borders on what Wenger has done with Arshavin…
    After Limpar left we became more workmanlike and very average …. a bit like what is happening now ……

    History has a tendency to repeat itself….

  17. potter says:

    Rico :- In many ways yes , but it’s always been that way, Pires was vilified so was Eduardo but Rooney and Gerrard well :- Say no more.

  18. Marinello says:

    Couldn’t agree more Wavy, talk is cheap.
    When Brian Clough was Boss at Forest, no player spoke to the media without his say so.
    Major Joe, I hope you are right, but looking at our woeful defensive errors, not tracking players, or picking up players who go on to score, I feel a tad at a loss in the confidence stakes of us getting a result. I sincerely hope that we do.
    The person that I would like a response from is Steve Bould. What are his views on things…..

  19. ozgunner10 says:

    i think the confused look on the players faces so often tells the story of a complete lack of preparation – Wenger fills them with so much rubbish and in fact i remember Santi saying to the press “we never believed we’d loose that game” what sort of ego is that and it runs rife from Wenger down – “we just need to believe how good we are” from not one but three of them!! “Our season starts now” how many bloody times as Wenger used this line – once again we’re hoping for stuff ups and if we don’t get them we’ll hear the same old “we learned some lessons last season, this season will be very different” you know its coming

  20. rico says:

    Hi Syg….

    Nice comment. I and one or two others asked here a while back, ‘could another manager get more from this crop that AW is right now’?

    My answer has to be yes, it’s all got too easy, no matter what happens on the pitch it seems the players aren’t chastised, in fact it seems the opposite.

    Look at Qpr, Arry has breezed in and changed things. Ok, they aren’t always getting the right results but that side are suddenly working a lot harder for each other and themselves….

  21. ozgunner10 says:

    syg – hiya mate agree with much of your post – love to get fergie in for one year and watch the truck loads of exports happen

  22. ozgunner10 says:

    More links everywhere to all these unproven foreigners – why don’t we simply pay the rate and go after players who understand the league – Begovic is excellent and surely we can take him from Stoke – Williams at Swansea and why not Michu? What about the young kid at WBA from Chelsea, Lukaku? they will buy a big name in the summer so he’s not going to get a game there, looks a super player to me. Wengers claim of it being hard to replace the lot we have in the main is pure stupidity and blindness – just won’t admit his program is clearly going backwards. He simply waits for the 1 game in six when he can tell everyone “see i told you so”

  23. southyorkshiregunner says:

    I admire what Wenger has done Ozzie – I really do. I loved being an Arsenal supporter …. Life was brilliant…. What he helped do with the building of the Emirates was brilliant ……but the mistakes ….

    Everyone makes mistakes, as we are all human, but some of his mistakes border on sheer stupidity …… For all the good he does he undoes it with bad decisions ….

    Cahill, Mata, Hazard????

    Or just overpaying dross and constantly signing shite …. Park, Silvestre….. and I’m sick to the frigging teeth of mentioning the dumb selfish African’s he buys and perseveres with … I wouldn’t mind if they were the class of Kanu and Eto, but they aren’t …. they are more Adi Akinbyi …

    As Kev KJ rightly said yesterday – try to look at the positives … but it’s hard when you feel for something that you’ve loved since you were 7 or 8 years old …

    ….Give Wenger £70M and I feel he’ll either piss it away on shite ….
    …or he’ll buy a Maserati and try running it on either paraffin or 145 tyres ….. Get Jovetic and stick him out on the wing ….. Get Goetze and play him centrally …

    Like Graham …. it’s maybe time for a younger more dynamic manager ….. and believe me, half the squad will be reading blogs such as these ….

  24. rico says:

    They are only rumour though Oz. And to be honest, most of it is just rubbish lazy journo’s who base they story on AW history of signings…

    If he signs more unproved or second rate players again this summer, he might as well shove off now…

    Talking of which, I have to pop off, back later….

  25. southyorkshiregunner says:

    rico says:
    March 9, 2013 at 11:52 am

    Inter Milan hammered us at home 3-0 in the first match. We were dreadful.
    We beat them 5-1 in the San Siro, but back then we had the team and the characters to do it…. okay we had Cygan in the side as our token French flop…. but the rest were all decent players, with Pires, Henry and Ljungberg being exceptionally decent …

  26. ozgunner10 says:

    i hear ya syg in the early days mate but top performers are top performers. In my mind he’s had as many average under achieving years as he’s had good ones – year after year all supporters have agreed we were just one or two away from having a real go and who’s he wasted the money on, time and time again. Then gets himself in trouble with stupid remarks like recently “we already have the finest player at the Africans cup how do i replace that” are you serious or was that an attempt at his idea of humour?

    Rico – are you honestly telling me you believe for one second he will not gamble money on wanna be’s again this summer? Way to long a history for questioning that surely?

  27. southyorkshiregunner says:

    We should have won the Champions League and FA Cup that year
    ….. my defining moments in the Champs League that season was Ashley Cole’s brilliant last gasp diving header at home to Kiev and Edu running to the fans in the San Siro after scoring …..

    … and the most perfect 70 minutes of power football I have ever seen in the 6-1 humiliation of Portsmouth at Fratton Park in the FA Cup quarter finals ……..

    absolutely awesome. great days

  28. rico says:

    This lot are decent Syg, this lot could go and get a result in Germany, IF they were coached right and given some pre match guidance…

    But that’s all for Wenger to do, and that’s where I give up on us having a real chance….

  29. rico says:

    Oz, you know that’s exactly what I think he will want to do…..

    But will he be allowed? Will he still be manager?

  30. ozgunner10 says:

    no rico, i am sure PHW will tell him to pull his finger out and spend the profits uuummm not 🙂 Or maybe it will be the man he OK’d for his job ‘Gaz the nodding dog” Nah Stan will fly over and tell him “listen mate, i don’t spend money of any of my sports franchises but i want you to go mad out there, here’s my cheque book son”. They have to save face and buy at least one top player, lets just hope their not the miracles, so many of their mates turned out to be. I simply don’t trust Wenger with this squad at all

  31. Lee says:

    The media are wankers, I read this on another blog…
    Suarez, good player that scores goals but cheats = villain!
    Bale, good player that scores goals but cheats = blue eyed boy!

  32. southyorkshiregunner says:

    The Goetze, Capoue and Jovetic rumours sound great ….. even greater if they come true ….

    .. but we know it will be Wanayma instead of Capoue; a five foot six inch tall tricky winger who’ll bottle it once he gets a kick instead of Goetze; and Montpelliers’ elegant Moroccan at £20M less than Jovetic…

    He needs to go for his first choice three and supplement them with Paulinho and Phil Jagielka…… I’d even go as far as trying to bring in the under-performing flop that is Torres and drafting in Toulalan and Gourcuff …. and getting shut of half the squad and the reserves in the process…

    It sounds a bit immature and like I’ve been on one of those football manager games (which I never have) …. but we need big players coming in to replace the average ….
    …7 players there ….. and like everyone says …. we desperately need a No. 1 and looking at Stoke’s signing of Jack Butland … it could well be that Begovic is coming here…..

  33. ozgunner10 says:

    not sure Bale throws himself around quite like Suarez Lee but given a choice i’d take Suarez every time – such a super player when he’s strutting his stuff

  34. southyorkshiregunner says:

    I’d take them both (Suarez & Bale) in a shot Lee.
    I was hoping that we’d get Joey Barton the other season…..
    Barton is a nasty aggressive bastard who can play football and who has an IQ which goes through the roof ….
    There is no way we would have bombed out of the cups with him in the side this season… and we certainly wouldn’t have been humiliated away at Old Trafford last season…

    I even saw a comment on here last season from a blogger that if he (Barton) signed for Arsenal, they’d STOP supporting the club ….??? How can you stop supporting a club? You can’t. I tried it in 1975 when we were shit… I couldn’t, it is stamped into your soul.

    Sometimes that’s the type of comments you get on blogs…

  35. ozgunner10 says:

    Torres has found the going tough hey syg? The press have slaughtered the lad as well – i think he should leave England and get his career back on track. Dzeko is there for the taking, he’d be my No1 target mate – still opt for Williams and maybe the heavily discounted Samba when QPR go down? 15m for TV? Wouldn’t hesitate personally

  36. DutchGooner10 says:

    In this Facebook-era modern players are parasitic by trade, feeding off whichever host is available sustaining their own survival and keeping their interests viral.

    Individual media exposure means simply building commercial familiarity, a household name/face that portrays endorsement value for those brands selling shaving cream, deodorants, beverages and the ‘Dench’ stuff we don’t need. The club or their troubles merely acts as an adequate container and mobile vehicle.

    Afternoon Goonerdom worshippers.

  37. DutchGooner10 says:

    Evening Ozzie

    Players either prioritize the aim to be utterly eccentric – or be the loudest bird on the wire as a spokesman.

    I ask: How many dots on the horizon do we actually need? Personally I believe it reeks of repetitive stipulation of our failure more than anything. Self-pity and self-deception galore.

  38. southyorkshiregunner says:

    Hello again……

    01 Mar 2013 Anthony Jeffrey Loan Stevenage Loan to end of season
    28 Feb 2013 Josh Rees Loan Brentford
    11 Feb 2013 Andre Santos Loan Gremio Porto Alegre Loan to end of season
    08 Feb 2013 Benik Afobe Loan Millwall Loan to end of season
    31 Jan 2013 Chuks Aneke Loan Crewe Alexandra Loan to end of season
    25 Jan 2013 Emmanuel Frimpong Loan Fulham Loan to end of season
    05 Jan 2013 Johann Djourou Loan Hannover 96 Loan to end of season
    04 Jan 2013 Marouane Chamakh Loan West Ham United Loan to end of season
    19 Nov 2012 Emmanuel Frimpong Loan Charlton Athletic
    27 Sep 2012 Sanchez Watt Loan Colchester United Three month loan
    27 Sep 2012 Craig Eastmond Loan Colchester United Three month loan
    21 Sep 2012 Conor Henderson Loan Coventry City Three month loan
    08 Sep 2012 Chuks Aneke Loan Crewe Alexandra Four month loan
    31 Aug 2012 Nicklas Bendtner Loan Juventus Season loan
    31 Aug 2012 PARK Chu-Young Loan Celta Vigo Season loan
    31 Aug 2012 George Brislen-Hall Transfer Inverness Caledonian Thistle Free
    31 Aug 2012 Philip Roberts Loan Inverness Caledonian Thistle Season loan
    28 Aug 2012 Henri Lansbury Transfer Nottingham Forest Undisclosed (seven-figure fee)
    28 Aug 2012 Daniel Boateng Loan Oxford United Four month loan
    21 Aug 2012 Alex Song Transfer Barcelona 15,000,000 GBP
    17 Aug 2012 Robin Van Persie Transfer Manchester United 24,000,000 GBP
    17 Aug 2012 Kyle Bartley Transfer Swansea City Undisclosed
    13 Aug 2012 Ryo Miyaichi Loan Wigan Athletic Season loan
    10 Aug 2012 Oguzhan Ozyakup Transfer Besiktas Undisclosed
    10 Aug 2012 Carlos Vela Transfer Real Sociedad Undisclosed
    03 Aug 2012 Benik Afobe Loan Bolton Wanderers Season loan
    31 Jul 2012 Manuel Almunia Transfer Watford Free
    10 Jul 2012 Gavin Hoyte Transfer Dagenham and Redbridge Free
    05 Jul 2012 Joel Campbell Loan Real Betis Season loan
    05 Jul 2012 Denilson Loan Sao Paulo Season loan
    01 Jul 2012 Jeffrey Monakana Transfer Preston North End Free
    28 Jun 2012 Tom Cruise Transfer Torquay United Free

  39. DutchGooner10 says:

    Buenos Dias JM,

    Hope it just some post-injury niggles for Ryo. I my opinion he would have done himself a bigger favour opting for a loan spell in the Dutch league with a club gunning for the domestic title.

  40. ozgunner10 says:

    massive game for ‘arry tonight then – loose this and there will be trouble – i fancy them to win though

  41. rico says:

    I said Everton would miss Tim Howard 🙂

    Afternoon folks…

    I didn’t want to say anything Lee 😉

  42. Geons says:

    We lose games just because of our tactic.I wont blame players entirely.Problem is with attacking tactic. When we attack we never cross the ball or try to have a shot on goal immediatly.What we do is,wait for others to arrive and play lots of tiki taka which needs a great amount of concentration with technical ability.And as we all know when our possesion is lost suddenly our back line is exposed as our midfielders,forwards and strikers where busy up front tiki tak-ing.Thats d way we concede goals mostly.We are not bad at defending setpieces too this season. We have a good squad.They just need a good tactic and formation when attacking and defending.We dont defend deep when we have a lead to defend.I wonder Vermalean rush forward which usually leads our opponent to counter attack when we already got a lead.You can see that in game against Aston villa.
    My favourite performance was against Liverpool at Anfield early this season.Superb defending with occassional counter attacks.I expected a lot this season just because of that performance.Still hoping for the best.

  43. southyorkshiregunner says:

    All we want is 8 quality players in ….

    there’s 30 there we have got shut of or part shut of in 8 months …. we need Wenger and Gazidis to load up the machine gun and do a bit better job of culling ……

  44. DutchGooner10 says:

    SYG

    You can hardly escape the impression we had a spare quarter in our marble halls converted to Rent-A-Tool service desk. You know, tools you wouldn’t invest in cuz the scarcity of use but still need for parts of the job at hand.

    No incentive to Houdini from Colney Alcatraz being on our kind of food, water and clothes, is there?

  45. Joaquim Moreira says:

    Bayern 1 dusserdolf 2 – 71th minute
    No doubts. They are afraid of Arsenal. Very slow team.

  46. southyorkshiregunner says:

    sad re: Lansbury. When you see some of the shite Wenger has placated it really does make you think …..

  47. Joaquim Moreira says:

    86 minutes: bayern3 dusseldorf 2
    they speed the game… and they have their own pride.

  48. DutchGooner10 says:

    SYG / Ozzie

    It’s a aim-for-the-stars-you-might-hit-the-moon strategy. The academy numbers are there to service luck over sound judgement.

  49. rico says:

    The only ‘young’ player I’d love us sigh is Tom Ince, but I bet his dad will send him Fergies way!

  50. W.A.T.H says:

    Rico, you know full well young Thomas Ince is a Gooner…. His Dad would not be able to convince him to sign for the mancs unless he genuinely thinks he would be better off there and at the moment he probably would be but he is a proper winger who would be good for us and he is feisty…!.

  51. rico says:

    Yes Wath, a friend of mine told me that Tom is a Gooner. He’s going to be a great player….

    Maybe by the time he’s ready to move, things will be looking up for us…..

  52. southyorkshiregunner says:

    Don’t think about it too hard Rico.
    In these Muslim countries life is considered cheap. A woman has an affair and she gets stoned; you thieve and you get your hands lopped off.
    They ALL know the score when they break the law.
    Saying that I think burglars in the UK should get their hands lopped off…

  53. rico says:

    I know Syg, I won’t lose any sleep over it, it’s just a case of ‘how is this all allowed to happen’ really….

    Yes, and rapists should have their doo dah cut off too ….

    We are too soft here, but I guess all that is for a very different kind of blog 😉

  54. DutchGooner10 says:

    SYG off topic

    I know your exploiting a magazine and being in print you can’t ignore digital (r)evolution.

    Keep your eye on the ball, explore the possibilities of e-magazines. Gonna be huge as soon to be publisher trend. Even conservative industries as tunneling are rapidly becoming digital savvy.

    Check out the link to help you on your way.

    http://www.xflip.com/

  55. DutchGooner10 says:

    Revolution & evolution Rico. Technology evolves in cycles causing revolutionary breakthroughs by introducing new standards.

    Going from My-first-Sony walkman to an iPod-touch is a example.

  56. rico says:

    I am off for the day now, got some friends coming over for a few drinkies. I might have to join them….

    Nighty Dg and all…..

    Have a good evening folks………

  57. DutchGooner10 says:

    Night Rico. Keep the cava cellar locked up. Spoiling them only returns the freeloaders quicker. 😛

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