Reflections on a bad weekend for Arsenal

Losing to Stoke City is not the best result in the world.  Ask any Spurs fan.  That on the end of a last minute draw with Tottenham that felt more like a defeat has made it a gloomy weekend for Arsenal fans.  Here are my reflections in numerical form:

1) If Arsenal are challenging for the title, the should of really won all of their league games up until now.  The only challenging game they have had was the North London Derby, which if they had retained possesion and sat on their two goal cushion like all other premiership teams they would of won.  Losing to Fulham, Hull City and Stoke is basically not good enough if they want to challenge. 

2) The game at Stoke was a bit shocking.  None of the Arsenal players seemed to play with any confidence and they always looked like they were gonna lose.  Their inabilty to defend decisively cost them at the hands of two Rory DeLap throw-ins, which they must of been expecting.  I find myself agreeing with Mr Alan Hansen who commented that ever since the Birmingham game of last January, they have lacked the mental strength needed to grind out results at places such as Stoke.   Hopefully they will regain this at some point, but until then, similar results are bound to take place.  The team also seems to suffer from the same frustation that the fans have.  Some games Arsenal will play some of the best football around and tear teams apart, other games, they are closed down and look disinterested.  When the latter happens they always seem to cope badly (a good example being Van Persie’s silly red card offence).   

3)  To make a bad result worse, Arsenal have lost some key players in the run up to a difficult Champions League game at home to Fenebache and worse, at home to the monsterous Manchester United.  Adeboyer, Walcott and Sagna all have serious injuries, whilst Van Persie is suspended after his stupid sending off at Stoke.  Not good. 

4)  Overall its not looking great.  I will be attending the Emirates on Saturday to watch the Man U game, but I’m expecting a loss.  Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong, but with key players missing, and no one filling the defensive midfield gap that Flamini and Silva’s departures left, it doesnt look too promising.  On the bright side though, I will be able to boo Cristiano Ronaldo to my hearts content. 

James

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Tags: Arsenal, Stoke City

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