Well, that was a disappointment.
I think a draw would have been a fair result, but there is no denying that we were below our best.
I feel that we lacked a bit of drive and intensity in the first half. That would have come from ‘Jack the knackered ankle’ and ‘Tomas the poorly’.
Really, I am of a mind that the number and intensity of games, played with an ever decreasing squad, finally caught up with us.
There is little or no point picking over the bones of this defeat. It’s gone and the important thing is that we are top of the league.
Two weeks rest and we will be back with a much stronger and fresher looking squad.
I am as confident as ever that we will make a real fist of this campaign.
Chelsea and City are the two teams I fear most over the distance and we stand 4 and 6 points ahead of them respectively at this stage.This is a great position to be in given we have been decimated by serious long-term injuries to vital players.
All we can do is get behind the team and let them play with the confidence that comes from knowing that they have a supportive fan base.
Positively Arsenal 
Are you absolutely sure we cant have a fortnight of self destructive civil war George?
A bout of intense introspection in the course of which we can produce a list of who is ‘not fit to wear the shirt’ ( not to mention the zip up down jacket) at the present time?
A letter or two to Stan demanding a meeting perhaps ?
A public statement denouncing the guilty men and recommending appropriate and swift punishment sent to all the major news organisations?
A march three times round the walls of the Emirates with rams’ horns blown ?
Come on George – this getting behind the team and keeping a sense of perspective is just no fun
LikeLike
I tend to agree with you that poring over the entrails after a disappointing defeat is pretty much self defeating.
That said, it is inevitable that analysing what happened is a natural desire and impossible to resist.
Let’s get the easy bits out of the way first.
The sicky bug did us no favours, placing Per in the clutches of nubile nurses instead of shoring up the centre of defense and stopping Van Persie’s ‘shoulder’ goal; and the need to shore up our midfield with two holding DM’s after the displays of recent seasons was understandable, though it left the team unbalanced; and by the way, the refereeing decisions had no ascertainable impact on the result.
What that left us with was a misfiring Cazzorla and a subdued Ozil, while Rambo was played out of position and neither fish nor fowl. All of these are transient and easily remedied.
More concerning was a lack of pace and a specialist winger which impacted badly on the options open to us. In tandem with this was isolation of Giro who has shown himself to be a willing and big hearted CF who is lacking in really top notch skills sadly,
The situation regarding the winger can be alleviated by Theo’s return, although for me he is not the complete answer. But it is glaringly obvious that Bendtner the want away ‘best player in the world’ should play no further part in Arsenal’s quest for a trophy.
It is probable that it will be impossible to find a top quality CF in January, but it must be a top priority in the summer.
No need to panic yet, football is full of ups and downs, swings and roundabouts, yacka yacka.
We are top of the League == Enjoy! 🙂
LikeLike
Anicoll – Is it dry humor or caustic wit? Top form my friend. A good way to start my day out west.
George – You hit the nail on the head with your usual brevity. Yesterday, I was really disappointed at the end knowing we had them on the run for the last 30 minutes in contrast to the nervy way we started. I may have overreacted but, for me personally, moral victories over that over-rated, conceited Scum is not enough. We have had enough moral victories over the past 8 years to last a lifetime. I am absolutely convinced that this group has both the talent and the experience to go all the way this year. The opportunity is there this year and I am hoping this group will seize it.
At the end of the day, however, after 3 hard games in seven days, decimated by injuries and a the flu bug on match day, we have shown we have the class of champions. Still top of the league.
LikeLike
nothing..everything good and ozil to join the gym and man up a little bit…. very easily knocked off ball
LikeLike
I would like to render a side note, if I may.
When RvP made his successful bid to fly the coup, unlike many, I thought it reasonable for a grown man to make understandable career choices to try and win a trophy elsewhere as he was approaching the tail end of his career, much though his modus operandi and reference to his ‘inner boy’ left much to be desired and I hated his choice of Manure.
I consoled myself in my belief that he was a decent Arsenal man at heart, much like Wrighty, Cesc and others appeared to be too.
His shitty behaviour on Sunday after scoring soon disabused me of any such thoughts and showed him to be a shallow minded, poor principled asshole and I found that asinine behaviour unforgivable. More fool me, I suppose.
LikeLike
you do not want to know what i said when he didnt head that ball past degea … when he did that unecessary hop and stop instead of attacking the ball… haha.. 🙂
LikeLike
or when none of ours met sagna’s fabulous crosses….we could have scored 3 lol…
LikeLike
Indeed George.
I sincerely hope, that for once, people can see the wood for the trees (for those that can’t: It’s that woody thing with trees in it).
Moyes is, er, trumpeting a great Man Utd performance. Oh dear. I suppose he has no choice. I must have been watching a different game though. Goal from a set piece, and then defend for your miserable lives. Zzzzzzz. It won’t make the history books David. If we are to believe that is a sign of an almighty resurgence, well, good luck with that.
We are the far the better side (let’s face it we beat a far superior side to them but a few days previously). Of course that can count for nothing at the final whistle, especially up there, but I saw no evidence yesterday to the contradict that. Save for the Skunk and Rooney, they are currently the very definition of middling. They know it, we know it, anyone who was been watching football this season knows it. We maybe missed that spark that would have unlocked them yesterday, for reasons already outlined by the venerable George. That’s all.
Arse.
LikeLike
I agree with you George and Anicoll5 and Shotta.
One thing about games against the Manc nasties is that football rarely works, it is usually a war of attrition interspersed with bouts of violence. The boy Jones was happy to put his head through Wojciech’s face yesterday despite pundits claims that it was completely unintentional and that is the way they play against us. We must get used to it. TV might stop hi5ing his old pal in the tunnel and take a leaf out of Martin Keown’s book when it comes to Dutch Manc nasties, but I kind of like the fact that he doesn’t.
That said that was a cup match to them and we were under par and they scraped it….at home. We will have the last laugh this season.
LikeLike
His shitty behaviour on Sunday after scoring soon disabused me of any such thoughts and showed him to be a shallow minded, poor principled asshole and I found that asinine behaviour unforgivable. More fool me, I suppose.
well thats what happens when we make songs about him without FIRST fucking him …..
LikeLike
I had really hoped yesterday would be the time where we put the record straight at their ground. Some players were sick and the rest didn’t step up and it definitely seems like we have a mental block when we play there (1st half was not impressive and we looked restricted). The last 10 games v Man Utd has given us 1 win, 1 draw and 8 losses. It’s not good enough.
It’s perfectly fine losing to a better side but it wasn’t the case yesterday – even if we were largely poor a draw would have been fair. Man Utd played to their limit but were smart through out, excellent defensive setup, keeping it compact and despite being under pressure in 2nd half they were generally cruising and kept us from any real chances.
On a more positive note we looked a lot less naive than we’ve looked in recent years against the big clubs. Defensively we did well and rarely got caught on the break. An approach like this is what will keep us in the title race and hopefully we will create more chances than we have done lately.
As someone mentioned on twitter we’ve played Liverpool, Dortmund and Man Utd and only conceded 1 goal (from a set piece) that really is encouraging. Keep that up and get the offensive working again and we should be cruising for the rest of the month.
LikeLike
Yes Henry. His performance yesterday was the very definition of “shitty”.
Disrespectful, classless. Awful.
Entirely fitting then.
LikeLike
“ferocious rooney”
“crucial united win”
“wenger’s self indulging fashion project an utter failure”
mmmmmfffffffgrrraaah z”£$%!£$^”%&$^
LikeLike
It appears that Per, Tommy, Mesut, Mikel, Serge and Kieran do in fact have ‘flu’….and as a result Per, Tomas and Mesut are unable to play for their national teams. As this is now an established fact I just don’t understand why pundits, media and even the most miserable of arsehole arsenal fans do not see this as a reason for a relatively low key performance.
Anyone who has had flu will know that it is a near miracle that any of that group of players were on the pitch at all.
LikeLike
playing three big games in a week is difficult. but we did wel to win the two we despirately need to win. liverpool and dortmund games are far more important than yesterday. yesterday was more about pride.
for those of you who were surprised by the traitor’s behavior yesterday, lol. he is no henry or bergkamp or even cesc. this guy is the worst kind of thug, rapist and a greedy fellow. he doesnt care about you or the club. he is a mercenary.
LikeLike
well i can not talk sensibly about this match because i hate united so much i expect our players to enter games against united with one thing in mind EVERYTIME …. to repay that scoreline….
LikeLike
This game was a definite disappointment, the gods conspired against us after a massive week the squad was down to the “bare bones” and those who were left were running on empty. With just one more game to go to reach the rest station and for the reinforcements to arrive our patched up legion had been playing well enough to expect a result from a battlefield we had previously few victories in PL times.
If you look a the bigger picture, consider the circumstances and regarding the closeness of the game we have no right to feel gutted,sickened,disappointed,angry,frustrated or whichever description of gloom you need to insert the fact that we all do and when we awake our first thoughts are of the game shows just what a fantastic team,squad,group we have this season they I giving us high expectations even when logic defies it so don’t worry be happy and patiently wait till they make us elated again
LikeLike
yes aob yo are correc, but sadly ever since that game in august every encounter leaves me gutted…..i want our players to have the “tonight i will fuck you and then kill you” when they face those cunts….. but its me personal and i have to elarnt o cope with it
LikeLike
S’true Frank. If they were actually out there playing with the flu’ (no, not “man flu”), and that appears to have been the case, well if I was wearing a cap I would duly doff it in their direction. With the flu, it usually takes a herculean effort to even drag your body out of bed, let alone playing football (at that level) for 90+ mins.
LikeLike
On his review on the Arsenal site Adriane Clarke says pretty much what has been written above in the comments and post. Great minds!
There was a clip of wayward passes he used, the one from Özil was definitely that of someone under the weather, not just tired. On the plus side that means that he and Per get a mini rest in this lull, which can’t be bad with xmas coming up. Just need to hope that Sagna Koscielny and Giroud don’t come back niggled. Of the three the first two could be rested in the next league game. Vermaelan’s performance yesterday was encouraging. By my understanding stamina is so critical for the players and they are not at the same level as their peers after long lay offs. It can be difficult for a player to regain form in that context*. Considering that the highly respected German team seem to panic and concede without the experienced BFG are Arsenal a little bit spoilt for choice at CB? I think so!
*Look at Messi. Even a donkey jockey could tell he needed a lay off and a good rest a while ago. Fatigue. Not enough rest. Either Messi did a Vermaelan/Wilshere and insisted on playing when he shouldn’t, normal for an athlete (Lloris didn’t play again. AVB really is a bit of plonker), or the marketing zombies pressured him to carry on, shades of Ronaldo the Great. Probably a bit of both.
LikeLike
southampton i love you but you can fuck off ….12/12 in our next 4 games please, nothing less …only chelsea’s programme looks as easy .united has to play tottenham everton newcastle…i havent checked city …
LikeLike
I hope our brave lads have not been struck down by the fiendish norovirus – bloody horrible and takes a while to get out of the system !!
LikeLike
One definite plus yesterday was a short but very useful few minutes from Gnabry
For a youngster who has so few games under his belt he contributed immediately and looked much at home on the big stage – on another day his efforts could have been crucial – If SG continues to develop it will not be very long before Theo has a real rival for the wing position
LikeLike
especially after sagna and arteta were playing so well !!!! AAaaaaarggghhhh
and kierran….was positive going forward..didnt see him flinch at all…in fact he was very keen to go forward and punish….
LikeLike
hope poldi is back for our next game. we really need more of our players who can profit from giroud’s hard work up front. ramsey is doing it fine but we need more. ox is also very good at that but still far away.
LikeLike
I have to agree,Anicoll5. Serge is going to be a real player. Very very exciting…and under the radar of all but the most observant
LikeLike
“When we started to play we dominated the game completely and were unlucky not to score in the second half.
“I hope that everybody’s full of rage basically against ourselves because it’s unbelievable to lose a game like that.” – Wenger
..and people think we are not going to fucking fight for the title! Wait and see!
LikeLike
There’s not much more to say. My own view is precisely as others, with I suppose one minor difference. This match confirmed my previous view, that consistency of performances and results over a year has placed Arsenal well ahead of the second string of sides (Pool, Yoo, likely Spurs and Everton) and the margins are not narrowing between us and Yoo. That wind of change already arrived, and we hardly noticed the real psychology surrounding the match because we called it a “final test” for Arsenal. Not so. This was a cup final season turnaround for Yoo, but for not for us. We put in a deflated performance. Word of flu only exposes and explains more of the same, on top of tiredness, but the writing is on the wall for those guys. I have nothing against Moyes you know but what I see in Yoo is not unlike the hype surrounding the failed Dalglish project at Liverpool, lots of hoopla, the odd great result, a moment when it seemed as though spirited effort with supportive media would succeed, but ultimately confirmation that Liverpool’s star had fallen and they would struggle to make top four.
Rooney played very well, and Smalling is damn good, Van Persie is skilled. They tried so hard. Aside from that they are not good enough, and they will be exposed. That’s my considered opinion. Not popular I know because “you can never write off Yoo”, but it’s what I saw. They really battled to contain a depleted Arsenal.
.
LikeLike
ZP your totally right, in the days of Liverpool dominance our young side went to anfield for a midweek league cup game Rocky scored a beut but although we lost the feeling after the game was their invincibility had been dispelled. I believe this played a big part in the league defining victory later on.
definatly have that on the up feeling in this defeat
LikeLike
Excellent, ZP
LikeLike
I have just been informed that the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in a dyke went to shake Kos’ hand after the game and Kos just glared at him and then walked on by.Not surprising. Who would want to shake hands with a Dutch bloke who had …er….you know………………………………………………become a Manc nasty.
LikeLike
What’s up folks!
Yesterday’s loss is nothing but a bump in the road. The boys will bounce back in the next match
LikeLike
The only thing I’ll say is, why didn’t the whole squad have the flu jab 2 months ago?
LikeLike
I’ve had mine
LikeLike
The only thing I would say is if an Arsenal footballer has been rendered incapable of playing football by reason of the side effect of a flu jab then he has a severe underlying in medical condition
Or he may be pregnant
LikeLike
Exactly Frank, which is why I’m surprised that the club didn’t organise it for the players.
LikeLike
Hello Paul-N
wondering where you got to.
Yesterday wasn’t a good result, but considering the effort the team put in during the week, I have no grumbles.
Closing in on CL last 16 at Dortmund was infinitely more important than a match against a mid-table team that had worked themselves up all week to beat us, that sometimes happens to teams after midweek CL games. Go ask City and Chavski.
I still say we played decently enough (sorry PG), we just couldn’t find a killer shot.
Was Shezzy that busy at our end? No he wasn’t either.
Gnarby looks like he has a lot to offer.
LikeLike
I see some of the dick swivellers in jellystone park could’t wait to let rip.
It must have been galling them to have to wait 2 months before turning up again.
LikeLike
What Frank said at 11:30am was 100% correct.
Jones went for Shezzy, not the ball.
any chance of the FA calling that one in for a video jury? not a fucking chance.
Welcome back, Frank.
LikeLike
Frank: “It appears that Per, Tommy, Mesut, Mikel, Serge and Kieran do in fact have ‘flu’….and as a result Per, Tomas and Mesut are unable to play for their national teams. As this is now an established fact I just don’t understand why pundits, media and even the most miserable of arsehole arsenal fans do not see this as a reason for a relatively low key performance.”
It’s the same crap they do when they ignore a referee’s influence in a game. The opening game against Villa and the famous 4-4 at Newcastle come to mind.
LikeLike
A or B: “This game was a definite disappointment, the gods conspired against us after a massive week the squad was down to the “bare bones” and those who were left were running on empty.”
The squad was down to the bare bones and they barely beat us on their patch. Let’s keep in mind that they rested Van Persie, Rooney and other key players mid-week because losing to us would have effectively knocked them out of the league race. I’m more than sure they’ll be eight to eleven points behind us come January.
LikeLike
And by the by not to forget a couple of three genuine positives, being the excellent shift put in by Tommy, as good as ever and what a guy to be able to pull a shirt on, the cameo from Serge one of his best still 18, and the impact of Jack, still not 100%, who instantly turned defense into attack linking wonderfully with Sagna. Turned the game around, and oh so close (the 2 Sagna crosses, by inches). But we are still 3 forwards short, Theo, Lukas and Ox; (Sanogo back in training I guess), and missing the offensive qualities of Tomas and with Aaron, Mesut and Santi tired or not 100% well or both and you have a severely depleted Arsenal side, especially offensively. Now consider that Yoo played like wild-eyed men possessed, a cup final approach, a largely rested or settled side, at home, crowd behind, Rooney doing everything except cartwheels to galvanize the team, and you kind of felt this was Stoke at its very best, able to defend but not much else except long range efforts. Predictably, they scored from a corner that seemed straight off the training ground regimen. No wonder Robin went ape-shit. Yoo were not expecting to hold Arsenal.
LikeLike
there is this quote from ivan gazidis that arsenal will sign a striker in january. if he actually said that, i think he’s already making the job difficult for arsene. it can distrupt at this point of the season as well as inflate the price of any potential target. he might be saying it to impress the fans but it didnt help us last window when he went public that we now have enough money to blow on players.
LikeLike
I can find a quote that quotes what Gazidis is said to have said in an interview with l’Equipe – looking at l’Equipe I cannot find any interview with Gazidis or any quote from him
Does anyone have a link to the original ?
Assuming there was an interview ?
LikeLike
Well I exaggerate there – the last mention of Gazidis in L’Equipe, the on line version at least, is the 21st August 2013
LikeLike
bt got champions league rights starting from 2015 ……. strange…rupert youre slipping…
LikeLike
“Liverpool fans were blamed for Hillsborough when it wasn’t their fault. If there is any justice left in football, they will finish as champions this season”
lmfao ….
what kind of brain comes up with such shit ?
LikeLike
i believe the role and job description of a journalist has changed dramatically the last decade. They do not record events and present them as are. They give personal biased comments and try to form/lead opinion. Their articles could be said that are made to provoke and instigate emotional anger to the reader. trolling has become professional. they are paid to troll. we live in a wonderful society.
LikeLike
When Twitter becomes the news, as it has, there’s not much left to add.
Journalism? Pfffffffft.
LikeLike
Hunter, how about this for trolling?
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/manchester-united-1-arsenal-0-comment-david-moyes-decision-not-to-sign-mesut-ozil-from-real-madrid-justified-by-germans-invisible-show-at-old-trafford-8931573.html
It is so bad that it is funny: “David Moyes’ decision not to sign Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid justified by German’s invisible show at Old Trafford”
So Ozil begged and pleaded Moyes to sign him but he said no, I will have fellaini and rightly so. After Ozil went from pillar to post begging other clubs to sign him, he finally had to settle for Arsenal, reluctantly accepting to work under Arsene.
“..the energy which Jack Wilshere delivered when he finally arrived” I hate how it is always implied in the english press that Arsenal are a shade lower without Jack the messiah. I love Jack and I too noticed the gear shift he gave us. He is great and will be even better in the future, but we are much much more than just him. We are capable to putting out more than two super-world-class midfields. FFS even Rosciky is not guaranteed a starting spot! We are not like England.
Credit to the public though. They have ripped apart the article in the comments section.
LikeLike