Arsenal Thread

I have little hopes for a Stoke win or draw but it was a close one. The fact, though, is that Stoke is a Championship level club.

Now the pressure is on for Arsenal and I look at both teams we have to face: Wigan and Newcastle. Both are in danger of relegation and will be playing for survival. If you combine that to the casual performances from Arsenal of late, I think we're in a tough spot.
Wigan and Newcastle will want it more than us, I'm sure.

Looking at some results now, actually Newcastle could be going to safety if they beat QPR. Plus, if we beat Wigan, it will put Newcastle definitely safe, so that would take some edge off the Newcastle match.

Ideally Sunderland would stay at 38 points, so they can play for their lives against Tottenham in the last round too.
 
I don't mind Squeaky Arse time. :LOL:

Three points is all that counts, especially in this part of the season. With Spurs again winning late today it puts on pressure, really need the win against Wigan now. Hope Newcastle can get the three points against QPR, so they'll be safe when we face them.
 
I think Spurs are in the driving seat now, I can see us dropping points in the next couple of games.

I'm praying I'm wrong, we actually really need 4th, we are on the brink of really strengthening the team with quite a bit of money available. If we don't get in it will be a severe kick In The nuts.
 
Please let Wigan, so I can justify having moved social commitments next Sunday to watch the final round of matches. Thanks!
 
Yet again I come here to say for the umpteenth time what a massive cunt Mike Dean is! FFS :RANT:
He doesn't even bother being discrete anymore. Maloney dived 3 or 4 times, I think he was even choosing the spots he wanted for a dive and Mike Dean gave them all!
Especially the dive that led to Wigan's goal, Maloney was running into traffic, going nowhere really, just looking for a foul. Arteta just put an arm in front of him.

You sometimes give a ref the benefit of doubt, but there's a screaming difference of treatment there. Cazorla had 2 identical situations, but only Maloney got the free kicks (basically everytime he tried).

Man, I'm so angry Mike Dean better never cross my path, I'm serious
 
Good result in the end.

I feel sorry for Wigan though, after the build up to the Fa Cup final and their win i have started to have a soft spot for them, so it is a shame they go down especially because they haven't had time to celebrate their Fa cup win.

But we need that 4th place, let's pray for a result against Newcastle.
 
Massive result, although I feel we kind of scored the 2nd against the run of play. Wigan were looking the brighter team in the beginning of the second half.

Now, to the detractors of Santi Cazorla who accuse him of going missing in important games, get this: he set up all 4 goals. That's right! The guy simply ran the show.
What a player he's been for us.

I feel we sort of missed an opportunity to improve our goal difference and score more than those 4. I know it may seem like a tough ask, but Wigan were totally deflated after we scored the 4th. We could use 1 or 2 more goals there, because now as it stands, Chelsea is 2 points ahead and they're on +34 goal difference. We are +32. If Chelsea draws against Everton and Arsenal beat Newcastle, it will be down to goal difference for the 3rd place.

On a side note: I was watching this on Sky Sports and had to endure several digs by Martin Tyler at Arsenal being trophyless. It was really 2 or 3 times he went out of his way to bring up how Wigan has the FA Cup trophy and Arsenal has none for 8 years. In his world is it better to be relegated with some silverware?
What a total arsehole Martin Tyler is.
 
Jeez if I had the choice between winning an FA cup and being relegated or finishing in the Champions League positions every season, I'd stick with the latter.

Martin Tyler was also saying shit like "if things go wrong in Newcastle, Arsenal would be joining a Championship side on the Europa League" etc and so on. Why would he say it when we were 4-1 up and as it stands it would be Spurs who'd be in the Europa League? It's the kind of thing that does my head in.
You can feel the anticipation, these pundits are building up to the moment when Arsenal would slip up and finish behind Tottenham, but I think the British press will have to stomach the Frenchman yet again in the elite :D

BTW, a correction: our goal difference is +34 and Chelsea's is +35. If it finishes even in points and goal difference, what's the next criteria?
 
Another interesting piece of stats is how we've got 4 players with more than 10 Premier League goals:
Theo - 14
Cazorla - 12
Giroud - 11
Podolski - 11

Of course it would've been great if RvP stayed, but it's a big relief to see our goals coming from many different sources.


Godotelli said:
It's either a game of conkers or goals scored, I think.
Click to expand...

I think it ideally should be decided on paper-rock-scissors or a game of FIFA between Squilaci and David Luiz.
 
I guess that is that. It's all over for Spurs.
I can't see Newcastle being an obstacle. Congratulations to Arsenal. I also feel for Wigan. I really liked them, but in the end it had to happen once...you can't pull of an Houdini act season after season and the FA Cup did not really help them at all.

Rentboy, i haven't heard Taylor, but i can understand him in some ways. A club like Arsenal should win trophies. You compare them to Wigan. You can also compare them to Swansea...It isn't normal that clubs like Birmingham, Swansea and Wigan win silverware and a club like Arsenal doesn't (and one might delete "Arsenal" there and put in "Spurs" too).

And contrary to what Wenger says: finishing 4th is not winning a trophy...as much as i would have wanted Spurs to end 4th.

But anyway: congratulations Arsenal.
 
I support Wenger's mentality 100%. He's realistic and sensible because it is pivotal to secure a top four spot. I doubt he wanted to stay trophyless for eight straight seasons and that he would sprinkle it with a cup title here and there which would be fine.

In reality though, the only cup that matters is the champions cup, and Wenger knows that.

After selling van Persie Arsenal has delivered exactly the same as with van Persie on the field. They've scored almost exactly the same amount of goals and won more or less the same amount of matches. They even avoided 8 goals in the bag against United, which is a step up...

Smile and be happy, you're one of the most spoiled and priviliged fans in the world.
 
The thing with Wenger saying getting 4th is a trophy is a bit overused really and I don't think he actually said that? he said something like 'the first trophy of the season is to secure 4th place' or something like that.

In that context he used the word 'Trophy' as an analogy for reaching a goal or target in the season, as it is something that they aim for and the rewards financial at least, are way better than winning any of the cups.

So for the club getting into 4th or higher year on year is much much better than being mid table and winning the odd Fa Cup/league cup here and there. Better for a club like Arsenal who's finances were not amazing through the early years of being in the Emirates.

It was much more important for the clubs progression to get 4th over the last few years.

Its another thing to bash Wenger with, but what he was actually saying was correct. Dalglish won the league cup and got sacked, which highlights the importance of league placement, I'm sure the same would have happened if he won the Fa Cup as well.

Staying in 4th place is very hard (Ask Liverpool, Spurs, Cheslea even) and the rewards for your club to progress are much better than the two cups.

But the point is we should be challenging better for the cups, why cant we get 4th and above and still do well/even win the cups? this I agree with the two shouldn't be split.

This year he played his full teams in the cups, he was going for them, but we lost to teams we should have beaten easily. That is very poor.

We got to the league cup final the other year and should have played much much better.

But I agree with Rentboy trying to bash Arsenal on TV about not winning a trophy and Wigan have etc is just silly imo, especially when Wigan have been relegated, which has major financial repercussion on the club, also with there best players maybe leaving etc.

For a club like Wigan to win the FA cup is special and I am not sure what the majority of fans would have prefered the FA Cup or Premier league safety?

But for Arsenal we need to get into the Champs league (Maybe not so much now with our new spnsorship deals etc) to compete and try and build to win the bigger prizes of the Premier league and Champs league.

If you asked most Arsenal fans what they want and if they thought sensibly about it, if you said that we could win the FA Cup but be 7th I think most would turn it down for that 4th spot at least.

Different clubs Swansea and Wigan the cups they won are huge for them, but 4th is huge for us at the moment.

Don't get me wrong though I miss winning the cups, we need to start challenging more for them and the league. Hopefully with our new spnsorship deals etc and a more settled team and a few more additions over the summer we can do that.

But we will only be in the situation we are, because of all of those seasons finishing in that top 4. It has taken a long time, maybe longer than it should have, but I think you will see Arsenal getting stronger over the next year.

I still think it is hit and miss if we get 4th this season, I am praying, because it is huge for us.
 
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Hi Bobby, i shouldn't have mentioned the fourth spot-trophy-thing. Now i remeber that people here (perhaps you) have already mentioned that it was used out of context...i forgot...sorry.

As for the rest of my last post, i still think a club like Arsenal should win silverware even if it is only the League Cup.

On the other hand the fact that Arsenal was out of all the cups has certainly helped them in the race for 4th place. Spurs lost energy and point because of both the FA cup and (even more) the Euro League. I appreciate the fact that AVB went for both other cups and lost. This also makes Chelsea's season (and Benitez') more impressive because they also went for it in all cups...

But in the end if (i should write "when") Arsenal ends fourth (or even third), then they deserved it, there is no arguing about that.
 
Arsene treats 4th as the promised land because it is. The more times you get 4th the easier it is to get 4th because of the financial rewards. 3rd and 4th was nothing back in the day, it wasn't the monopolising force it is now.

It's great for the 4 clubs involved but its impact on football as a whole is pretty negative. The FA Cup is devalued because of it -one of the biggest shames in my footballing lifetime and something the FA need to rejuvenate somehow (CL qualification may be the answer but too risky for the oligarchy)- so I don't blame Wenger or anyone for valuing 4th ahead of it ((something inconceivable in the past)
The PL 'ffp' rules being pushed by Utd, Arsenal etc. will only speed up and amplify the issue.
 
We all understand that Arsenal is a pretty big club in England and should be winning trophies, and that it's abnormal not winning silverware in 8 years. But all the banter and piss taking that ensues should be restricted to pub talk among fans.

When you hear such comments on TV, it just sounds wrong. It's extremely unprofessional from Martin Tyler. According to someone he also said that Arsenal should put 3rd or 4th place around the stadium next to the trophies after 2005. I didn't hear this, but I wouldn't doubt.

I don't think I'm being paranoid here because you just don't hear him saying that kind of thing about other clubs. I mean, Tottenham is considered a big club in England but you never hear them saying on TV they last won the league in black and white??
I mean, what's the fucking deal with this Arsenal persecution? Is it Wenger they don't like? Is the British media really full of Anti-Arsenal francophobic twats?

I didn't like Martin Tyler before last night, now I hate him even more. A cunt of the highest order he is.

While we're on the subject of cunts, here is Mike Dean's impact on Arsenal's results:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-win-seven-cent-games-Mike-Dean-referees.html

The link is 4 months old, but little has changed since.

Now get this: Arsenal's win percentage under Arsene Wenger is in the region of 55-57%. With Mike Dean officiating, this win percentage drops to 7%!
Is this a coincidence?? It's just a matter of how far you'll go to believe in coincidences. From the evidence I've seen and these numbers, I don't think it is coincidence.

Someone posted stats on Arseblog too. According to that, Arsenal won only 2 out of 18 with Dean on the whistle.

And you know what, I remember exactly those last 2 matches: yesterday's 4-1 against Wigan and last year's 5-2 win against Spurs. In other words, we only won when we were very superior. It's worth mentioning the 3 goal margin on those matches, because I think that's what it takes to win a game refereed by Mike Dean.

How nobody sees that and how's that fucker still out there doing his thing? I wonder if the FA looks into those things or do they endorse it?
 
Well you can't argue with the sending off vs City.

Maybe list the Dean games. Perhaps he, being one of the more experienced refs, got to ref the bigger games and Arsenal just haven't been good enough
 
Godotelli said:
Well you can't argue with the sending off vs City.

Maybe list the Dean games. Perhaps he, being one of the more experienced refs, got to ref the bigger games and Arsenal just haven't been good enough
Click to expand...

The Mail article isn't disputing that, neither am I. But the question that begs is if he would have sent off a Man United player at Old Trafford, you know, in a like-for-like situation. Also, David Luiz got away with it when he did the same to Demba Ba, Dean gave him a yellow.

Here is the list of games:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...Dean-is-Arsenals-least-favourite-referee.html

The first match of the list was in August 2009 against Man United at Old Trafford and I remember as if it was yesterday. Darren Fletcher made a two footed tackle inside the box that swept Arshavin off the floor and nothing was given. We lost 2-1, Fergie dismissed it as 'never a penalty' in a post-match comment, and life goes on.
So I don't buy into this 'Arsenal weren't good enough for the top opposition' talk. That fucker does influence our matches and if Wigan had a bit more quality yesterday, Maloney's goal from that free kick that shouldn't have been given would have turned the match around.
 
The fact that a club should be constantly disadvantaged by a certain ref is bullshit rentboy. It's a coïncidence, i would say exactly the same when that was about Spurs-Dean.
 
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