Arsenal vs West Bromwich, 25/09/10, ATVO 3.00 PM GMT

[redanddread]

When people on Arsenal-Mania, mainly the posters more sympathetic to Wenger, complained about the quality of football in the Premier League the connatations always were that if they played football the "right way", they wouldn't match us. Arsenal, along with only a handful of teams in the league, played the best football in the league and that should have some sort of reward. I admit, people didn't say that outright, but that's what they implied with their line of argument, certainly from my point of view.

Now that West Brom have beaten us (and were battering us at one point) playing at least decent football, we can't really say anything other than we lost to the better team. Our defence isn't us robust as we thought it was, given we let in a customary goal almost every match unless it really is that easy (see Blackpool against 10 men). Lagos is still correct, our defending as a unit and what Wenger therefore coaches is poor for a supposed title winning side no matter the personnel.

Our mentality seems rubbish, especially if the players knew the Chelsea result before going out onto the pitch. We wake up when they score 3 goals, we expect to win etc

So I say still wait for the holy 10 games, but you never see Chelsea or United lose to this sort of opponent at home. And if they have in the last 5 or 6 years since we last won the title, not like we did just now. Never.

Ditto!

 

[redanddread]

I'm of the opinion it was just a bad day at the office!!

A very bad day at the office! The type of day though that should NEVER be happening. All the good work in the early season start has been thrown away with this awful, abject result!

 

[IBL]

I just woke up - wtf happened?!

These matches should be bread-and-butter 3 points in the bag type games. This is why we're gonna struggle to win this league, because we cant capitalise when teams above us drop points. That's 5 points in two weeks which would have put us top.

 

[redanddread]

What is up with Wenger by the way, how did he come to the conclusion that Diaby is a holding midfielder?

That guy has only three positives, he is big, shoots and dribbles well. That can be effective when he runs at defenses, but I haven't seen that since 2008. Instead, he does what he was always bad at - passing.

Wenger has always said that Diaby is a more attacking midfielder that helps us in our transition game - defence to attack. He just got back from injury and had a bad game...

Nobody took the game to West Brom until we were 3-0 down...WTF!! God how we miss Cesc!

We were really awful........never saw that coming though....arrghh!

 

[AshburtonGhost]

I'm of the opinion it was just a bad day at the office!!

Hmmm, I dunno. Some here have likened it to the 2-4 against Charlton back in 2001 which legitimately was a bad day at the office for a bunch of top class footballers. This, IMO, was different. It showcased how easily we can be got at, how disorganised we are defensively as a team, how our 'system', if it could be called that, ceases to function properly without Fabregas, reaffirmed how shocking our first choice goalkeeper is and how easily our game can be thrown off with a bit of sustained pressure from the opposition.

Things could go downhill rapidly if they don't react to this against Chelsea.

 

[albakos]

Did anyone hear Wenger's excuses yet? Was there a post match interview??

Anyone...?

 

[Don Pacifico]

Did anyone hear Wenger's excuses yet? Was there a post match interview??

Anyone...?

I'm sure if someone has heard something, they'll post it.

 

[James]

He said we deserved to lose.

We really must've been **** in that case, if Wenger is admitting it.

 

[AnthonyG]

I just woke up - wtf happened?!

Wahey! You still beat our players!

 

[hujja]

I just woke up - wtf happened?!

Wahey! You still beat our players!

 

[Accomplished]

**** everything about that.

 

[goonerleila]

He may be reluctant to see things most of the time but Wenger would be a complete fool if he didn't admit that we deserved to lose.

 

[A_G]

Wenger:

on Manuel Almunia...
You can have question marks about many players today if you look at the performance, especially the defensive one. Many players made massive mistakes defensively.

on a shock defeat...
We made it more difficult because we were not at our usual level. Not defensively, not offensively. Overall everything was difficult for us today - passing the ball, winning the ball back, winning the one against ones - and we got what we deserved which was zero points. We didn't deserve more. The positive is that we did fight until the last minute but it was just not good enough at that level to get three points.

 

[MAK 14]

I just woke up - wtf happened?!

Wahey! You still beat our players!

 

[GunnerPL]

Song needs to be put on a leash.

 

[Don Pacifico]

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/34706/wenger-reaction" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archiv ... r-reaction</a>" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At least he doesn't claim that Almunia had an okay game. Agree with him that it was collective failure.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

Exactly what I expected from Arsène.

As long as he kicks some of our players in their a**** for that performance today, I don't care what he says in the post match interview.
Don't know if he deserves a kick too.....

 

[DC Gunner]

Song needs to be put on a leash.

and forced to write "I am not Drogba" 10,000 times.

 

[IBL]

I just woke up - wtf happened?!

Wahey! You still beat our players!

:cry:

 

[Sannei]

Diaby, Song, Clichy and Eboue, god what a quartet to play today and all at the same time. The carnage that followed shouldn't be a surprise I guess. Throw in Alumnia and West Brom could not believe their luck.

They should never all be played at the same time ever again, 1 or 2 we can carry but not all at once.

But at point I'm just sick and tired of watching the same players disappoint and play badly time and again. They never learn and the same basic mistakes are made. I'm looking forward to and hoping for a future and team without Alumnia, Clichy, Eboue, Diaby as starters or in some cases even in the squad at all. Oh yeah also add Song in there if he keeps going the same way he is.