As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Henry Norris 1913 wrote:but who said being top at october will not happen? it happened in 2013, 2010 and if memory serves me correctly 2007.
it would prove me wrong if we were top at the end of march, let alone may. we all know we can gather enough form to get into this sort of position, it just doesn't mean anything yet
however, to clarify: we are top of the league say we are top of the league
As some famous bloke probably said, you can't be top in March when it's only October but you can be pleasantly surprised at being top and you can definitely laugh at Chelsea
Gunner Rob wrote:i must admit though that Wenger is proving myself and a lot of others on here wrong this season.
you can't really argue with the results over the past month.. hopefully he can continue to prove me wrong next month too.
Agree with this. I think that everyone would like to see that happen without some blip. I still think that we could use another defensive midfielder and a striker, but wouldn't know who the striker would be. With that, we could be thereabouts come May. Fingers crossed. Without them - we are hoping that Coq doesn't get hurt. I am not including Arteta and Flamini as I don't see them as credible alternatives.
With the media and instant news in the footballing world, I still scratch my head about any talk of a title when we have played a little over 10% of our league schedule. It seems like every game, there is talk about it. It is nauseating.
Have those bastards increased the league campaign to 100 games now ?
We have played 10 matches, so over 25% of the season gone - a reasonably good indication of how the season will pan out.
I wouldn't say he has proved people wrong because everyone should know that we are more than capable of putting together runs and beating anybody out there, certainly at home. It's what we've always been capable of.
Doesn't mean that things have changed. Just like when we go on one of our dreadful runs to throw away any title aspirations it doesn't suddenly mean that we are only a mid-table side just because that's how we look for a month or two (although to be fair people have finally stopped predicting that this will be the season where we finish 7th or 8th!).
The reality is despite being top or thereabouts and showing championship-winning form on plenty of occasions over the last decade, the only time we have had any remote chance of winning the title in late March since the Invincibles was in 2010 and we were just about hanging onto coat-tails then and were well out of it by mid-April. We have been a million miles away from winning the title so it's going to take more than a slight upturn in form and results to take us seriously - even though the standard of top teams in the PL is getting even worse.
Feels like 2013/14 all over again. Piers Morgan will be out soon saying how he's delighted to have been proved wrong as we storm to the Calendar Year Trophy, and its seemingly a 2 team shootout between us and City. What could possibly go wrong?
Lets see how we negotiate Liverpool and Stoke away back to back in January, followed up by the visit of the Chavs. If we're still in contention after that then we'll truly have our best chance in many a moon
We were top as recently as Feb 2014. 7 points clear at one point in February, then the 5-1 thrashing at Liverpool, thrashed by Munich and then Chelski, with largely the same squad of players, significantly adding Sanchez and Cech to that squad of players. We are capable of sustaining this but I think adding a player in January, like we did with Reyes in 2004, will give has an extra boost. We just need to start scoring more goals as city wont stop adding to their plus goal difference.
Nos89 wrote:We were top as recently as Feb 2014. 7 points clear at one point in February, then the 5-1 thrashing at Liverpool, thrashed by Munich and then Chelski, with largely the same squad of players, significantly adding Sanchez and Cech to that squad of players. We are capable of sustaining this but I think adding a player in January, like we did with Reyes in 2004, will give has an extra boost. We just need to start scoring more goals as city wont stop adding to their plus goal difference.
We have a habit of bottling big games and show a lack of fight when the chips are down - how often does one bad result spiral into four or five?
These players haven't been in a proper fight before. They haven't gone to Somebody like Palace on a Tuesday night in March in a must-win game and gone one-nil down with the opposition fans making a racket, and knowing they can't afford to drop points. It's not just about playing well for most of the season, it's about carrying on picking up wins all season even when you're struggling and bouncing back straight away from setbacks. And we haven't done these things well.
Any half decent team should have a real shot at winning the league this season because the standard is that poor - we def have a squad more than capable of winning it and will never have a better chance to end the 12 year famine.
Of course if we don't win it then the real hard questions will have to be asked - no more excuses about lack of funding, not having the extra quality needed to make the difference etc etc
There is no doubt that we are on a nice little run of form at the mo and the performances have been as encouraging as the results themselves - however lets not lose sight of the fact that it is just 4 games ago since we were turned over at home by the greek giants olympiacos It amuses me when people talk about le cock proving us wrong just 3 games since one of THE most embarrassing European results in our history - we have a long way to go before the manager AND these players can prove us wrong by displaying the quality, resilience and the commitment required to win a league title
Can't quite believe I've read the phrase "Wenger has proved us wrong" on here. Especially after one half decent month. Was it an attempt at sarcasm Rob?
Leyton Gooner wrote:Can't quite believe I've read the phrase "Wenger has proved us wrong" on here. Especially after one half decent month. Was it an attempt at sarcasm Rob?
Genuinely hilarious that some think we might win the league. Pure jokes. Hey, there's only 11 years of evidence and of the team being top as late as February before throwing it away, and it might be the exact same squad as last year (bar a keeper) that fell woefully short, and it might be the same manager and hey let's discount the usual injuries....
Leyton Gooner wrote:Can't quite believe I've read the phrase "Wenger has proved us wrong" on here. Especially after one half decent month. Was it an attempt at sarcasm Rob?
I'm referring to the wins over Man United and Bayern Munich really - I don't think there would be many on here that would have predicted 2 wins, 5 goals and 0 conceded against those 2 teams.
I am definitely not predicting that we can win the league, but with Chelsea in meltdown the league is so poor that it will be hard for us to finish lower than 3rd. (Steve Mclaren could probably manage to get this squad into the top 4 )
augie wrote:Any half decent team should have a real shot at winning the league this season because the standard is that poor - we def have a squad more than capable of winning it and will never have a better chance to end the 12 year famine.
Of course if we don't win it then the real hard questions will have to be asked - no more excuses about lack of funding, not having the extra quality needed to make the difference etc etc
There is no doubt that we are on a nice little run of form at the mo and the performances have been as encouraging as the results themselves - however lets not lose sight of the fact that it is just 4 games ago since we were turned over at home by the greek giants olympiacos It amuses me when people talk about le cock proving us wrong just 3 games since one of THE most embarrassing European results in our history - we have a long way to go before the manager AND these players can prove us wrong by displaying the quality, resilience and the commitment required to win a league title
Ikechukwu1 wrote:Genuinely hilarious that some think we might win the league. Pure jokes. Hey, there's only 11 years of evidence and of the team being top as late as February before throwing it away, and it might be the exact same squad as last year (bar a keeper) that fell woefully short, and it might be the same manager and hey let's discount the usual injuries....
But this time will be different!
Yes we got a world class keeper from the Chavs, he will save us 10 points guaranteed, Thanks to scumbag Mourinho
It amuses me when people talk about le cock proving us wrong just 3 games since one of THE most embarrassing European results in our history - we have a long way to go before the manager AND these players can prove us wrong by displaying the quality, resilience and the commitment required to win a league title
