Throwing a 2 goal lead wins you nothing, not even the respect of the fans
Hello Gooners. West Ham 2 Arsenal 2 it finished. Excuse the rage I’m feeling right now but I’ll try not to be downright acidic in my assessment in London Derby Number 2 against the Hammers.
Complacency, CarltonCole and Choking. 3 C’s I said we needed to be wary of against the Hammers. And for good measure I also mentioned the threat of Diamanti from set pieces. But that is hardly a Nostradumus’s type prediction from me was it?
I didn’t celebrate when Van Persie scored the first or indeed when Gallas made it 2. Don’t call me ungrateful, I still appreciated the quick one two passes before Sagna crossed it into the box. And Van Persie’s delivery on the corner for the second goal was excellent.
Yet something never felt right. I knew we were always going to score but the key question was whether we could keep it quiet at the other end. For 45 minutes it looked a decent prospect.
Complacency didn’t surface first against Alkmaar. Indeed the first signs of taking it easy appeared when we were cruising 2-0 against Birmingham. It was almost as if the lads wanted the opposition to score to make the game more interesting but an uncomfortable experience for us.
Last year it happened on our very own patch against Tottenham. That for many was the game where we lost belief that our side could be in the title shake up. That match was also at the end of October. The ONLY positive to take is that the teams above us are not running away with it.
Many are of the view that Diaby had a shocker in midfield. This is partially true. He was one of Arsenal’s better players when it came to passing but he lost more than half of his tackles. In any game this is unacceptable but especially more so in a derby match where local pride dictates a more wholesome commitment.
But it is extremely harsh to single out one player for this collapse. To my mind only 3 players escape criticism. Fabregas, Vermaelen and Van Persie were the trio who showed the focus for the whole 90 minutes.
This concept of throwing away leads is not something only associated with this current Arsenal side. The ‘invincibles’ lead a 2 goal lead slip against Bolton back in Spring 2003 and even before that a Dion Dublin hatrick gave Villa a 3-2 win despite being 2-0 down. And it can’t be co-incidence that we failed to win the title on both occasions.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth springs to mind. Simply you can’t throw away opportunities like that with such disregard for the fans who were chanting Arsene Wenger’s name. On a day like this you can only feel for him. It isn’t his fault when his team capitulate in 10 minutes.
Can you imagine or even recall in recent history a Chelsea or a Utd side throwing a 2 goal lead cushion? The only other side in the Premiership who have a habit of cocking it up from that position are the ones who we play next saturday afternoon.
And what is extremely frustrating is that for 70 minutes West Ham looked an awful side, unable to string 5 decent passes together. And though I said they didn’t deserve to be in 19th place before the game, if you can’t finish off a side that is 2-0 down with even their own fans skeptical of a comeback, then this Arsenal side need to seriously take a good look at where they went wrong and apologize to the fans and staff alike.
I could ramble on but I’d rather not as I’d be here all night. And I want to hear from you Gooners.
Arsenal did what Arsenal do so well, `drop their bundle in injury time`, will they ever learn? There may be lack of leadership at the back forcing total concentration until the final whistle albeit six minutes or even ten minutes over time. This is where the likes of Vieira come into their own.
Diaby is the cunt that needs to be out of the game. He slows everything down and doesn’t know a shit how to tackle. He gives away more freekicks than anyone else on the pitch.
I’ll say fuck wenger for being so stubborn!
arsenal general is correct in his assessment. but dont vilify wenger for this mess.
right if we’re ONLY talking about this game, yes he lost more tackles than he won and the same applies for freekicks but let us not single out one player like that.
@ arsenal general
mate i have to agree with you 100%, mr arsene is the only person who does not see things how they are in real. he should change his mind or he should go now, we are fed of promises not kept about silver wear.
Pathetic gunner fans on a troll here
Whoever calls for Wenger’s sending is a fool.
Naumann,
there are a lot of unhappy gooners today but yes wenger can’t be blamed for today’s result. And Wenger himself criticized the lads for not concentrating adequately against Alkmaar and now against West Ham.
Arsenal General,
Diaby had an off game, perhaps it is time Ramsey got his chance? or even Nasri as he was on the bench today. Not to take out Diaby for his performance itself but also to take him out of the limelight for a bit so he can focus on his training.
@ gunners today
the problem is diaby has off days everyday. he is such a pathetic player that i cant believe why wenger picks him in the first place. that retard cant tackle cant pass is slow, gives away fowls. list is endless. what wenger sees in him i dont know.
no point in commenting when people can’t make comments without resorting to foul language. Myn only query is why weren’t changes made sooner-Arshavin mostly had a poor game too.
I was hoping someone noticed arshavin’s performance! yes a very good point, bendtner was warming up just after half time so he could have come on a bit earlier?
Agree with you gunnerstoday
As as far as I am concerned Manonne should have taken the ball away from goal and not inside the box
Arsenal should avoid kicking feet and sticking out legs in the box
If we are going for the kill, Wenger should add more attacking players
We should have had Eduardo, Bentdner and VP together up front by the 65th min
Fed up with the complacency. Two goals to the good, yet we squander atwo goal lead with less than 20 mins to go. This team is a good team but lacks maturity to see out games. No real leaders on the pitch to see the fight through. Bloody sick of this. Thought we’d been given a life line with Manure losing, and could have gone top on goal difference if we won our game in hand.
We will never win the league until we learn to close out the opposition. We may score goals but I feel we lack a certain ruthless streak that our title competitors possess.
boy did my score prediction fail by a country mile. At 2-0 it was looking good though.
The smart thing would have been to take Arshavin out as he was having an off day. It isn’t as if we were short on options (bench)
If the reports and comments I read are anywhere near the truth we do seem to have a problem with are “star players”. Both Fabregas and Arshavin are not consistent enough for me.No, they can`t put in `man of the match`performances every game but these are very highly paid high profile athletes who appear to have mood swings on a regular basis. Every player has his off day but this is becomming too regular and could brush off so it needs to be addressed. When these two are in the mood we win, when they`re not we appear to struggle. Maybe I`m wrong or read the wrong text, it`s only my opinion. Moreover ,I truly feel it is time for Ramsey and Nasri to step up to the plate and be included in the starting line up.
Correction to text. Should read OUR “star players” not `are`……
Maybe it’s more Diaby bashing, But the press don’t rate him, A lot of Gooners don’t rate him. Only good with his head for the opposition (The Mancs would not have won without his OG) His either gives the ball away or falls over after beating 2/3 players. He is weak in the tackle and I cannot understand how a man of his size gets knocked off the ball so easily or gets out jumped so many times by smaller players. Arsene, for Gods sake …WHAT ARE YOU SEEING THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD CAN’T SEE???? Stop being so stubborn.After 5 years he will never make it. He is the ‘Weakest Lnk’ and as Anne Robinson would say “GoodBye”
At half time I thought..’We’re not playing very well but are two nil up’. In the second half we continued to play ‘not very well’ but West Ham upped their game & we didn’t.
As in the mid-week CL game there was an uncharateristic lack of chances created & it all looked a bit too laboured or comfortable…I’m not sure which.
love the gunners, but fuck 50% of your opinions.
just like any premiership fans, half of you are mugs
F OFF MATE HOW WE CUNTS MATE WE’VE SEEN PERFORMANCES LIKE THIS FOR THE LAST 3-4 SEASONS LEADING BY GOAL/S THEN LOOSE OR DRAW WHENS IT GONNA STOP WE NEED A LEADER GALLAS OR VERMAELEN NEED TO START RAISING THEIR VOICE ARSHAVIN WAS POOR TODAY…FERGUSON MUST BE LOVING HIS PROBABLY THINKING “YES KNEW IT, SAME OLD ARSENAL SCORE FIRST THEN DRAW OR LOOSE!” THAT WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED THE OTHER CLUBS ARSENE NEEDS TO BE RUTHLESS WITH THESE BOYS
please refrain from slagging off fellow gooners, both of you.
cesc didn’t have a very good game. he had some good moments, but wasn’t particularly dominant against a not very spectacular west ham side.diaby *was* probably our worst player again, even though he had some great moments. his passing was very poor, what bothers me is that it is often the simple short passes he is getting wrong.
the REAL problem today was not that we dropped some silly points, it was that we showed absolute no sign of intelligence and having learned anything from this mistake. i love wenger but can’t hel;p but feel he is to blame. he is so busy trying to keep the team confident by telling them how great they are, they believe it and don’t take half the games seriously. it’s easy to see when we throw away a lead or go behind and instantly we step up 2 gears. if we have those gears we need to try to use them to put us out of sight- then sitting back is not such an issue. wenger needs to stop patting them on the back and finding positives in a terrible result like today’s and instead tell them that this arrogance will certainly ruin their trophy chances- beyond any questionable doubt (we all know it’s true). if we don’t beat spurs then as far as i’m concerned our league campaign is likely over. we *could* get back to winning ways as the others all drop points, but we’ve seen this so many times before. an arsenal team on top of the world one week and easy pickings the next. don’t get me wrong, this result isn’t the end of our season or the end of the world, but it’s exactly the belief from the players that dropping these points isn’t disastrous that allows them to be so complacent and allow it to happen. either wenger tells the lads to CONCENTRATE (or be dropped from the team) and they do it, or we kiss goodbye to another year thanks to awful wasting of easy points. if it had been a really tight game that would be one thing, but with a 2 goal lead and 12 odd minutes to go, drawing is NEVER acceptable
Diaby was really disappointing, he should not be playing until he proves he fit to handle pressure from tackling opponents… it would had been nice if the substitution came up early, I feel eduardo and Nasri should been there in the starting fo the second half.
vermalen should have handled diamanti and sagna should have done better marking down cole.. Now its for Wenger for God’s sake to bring one physically and mentally stong defnder!!!
End of the day a lacklustre performance and disappointing defence… we ned to fill the gap immediately .. forget about the title…. if we play like this we will not even be on the top 4… Very dissappointing
third with a game in hand, if we win that we go 2nd 2 tops behind chelsea. perhaps we’re all being a bit too pessimistic? but agree can’t have too many games like this when the boys can and should do so much more better. they had it set up for them.
Hey folks what where u especting,u thought dis team was gonna win all the rest of the games.hahahaha.dont espect that to happen.this is not the era of the invicibles.if i had a gun and i see diaby i’ll surely shot him.men that guy is a weakling.maybe he’s running a kill and divide deal with wenger,thats why wenger cant stop using him.diaby will be a case of he was never good enough.hope wenger keeps manone in goal,he’s way better than that sick fake blonde almunia.wenger talk to your boys.the problem is they are over confident.we have being lucky twice this season,look at vs portsmouth and birmingham,we were 2 goals up but allowed them back into it at 2-1.third time not lucky i guess.nevertheless gunners the way.
I know and apppreicate Wengers policy, it is good and right, but this team needs a older head at the back. Much as I have said about old players returning I think Viera is the answer. The truth is it`s unlikely because he wants game time and won`t get that at Arsenal, but if silver is the goal get him back.
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 ?
If the defenders can grind out, the game is already won. it’s better to win 1-0 than draw 2-2. Don’t understand y other teams can grind out 1-0 win.
Only Vermaelen & RVP play well.
Pls Mr AW don’t be TOO stubborn.
We Respect u
Mills, deephenry and anyone else ripping apart Diaby.
you should be ashamed of yourselves using such disgusting language to articulate your thoughts. We are all frustrated with the draw but if you didn’t notice, others, including your blogger, have not resorted to foul words. And let us not be too fickle, two matches ago Diaby was a strong man of the match contender. How can you forget that so quickly?
i feel sorry for robin..he didnt deserve to lose like this..but all his temmate SUCK
psychologically it feels like a loss but let us not be too literal about this. RVP like I said was one of 3 players I thought was committed for the cause.
I am very annoyed. However the good thing to come out of this was the fact that I noticed what the problem is. The problem is that the pace of our game is very slow away from home. At home we play quicker due to the fans cheering the team on plus the crowd would turn against the team if they played at the pace we play away. The problem with playing so slowly is that it makes it difficult to get behind teams so we create less. It was interesting the team upped the pace when we got to 2-2 which is saying something about the mindset of this team which is very poor. Winning teams do not do what we did yesterday.