Arsenal v Norwich

You can point out injuries ,blah,blah,blah, but when we have to win the game we bring on a 17 yr old for his first league game....


****Who I'm sure will be very good in the future at some point***

And on that block.....you know it's not your day..

COME ON ARSENAL!!!! GET THE LATE POINT!!!

haha hilarious how the commentator pronounces Gnabry's name. Geh-naabee.

right people I am off......should only take me 20 mins to get home....so catch up in a few....

What an absolutely pathetic performance. Same shite, different season.

Horrible, horrible performance. Might as well not have showed up. Norwich have been in horrible form and apart from the Chelsea game, we have been pretty good but today was a return to the Arsenal of 'old'. Of course Wenger will blame the international break but we are not the only team who has to deal with this.

Also, why does Wenger keep substituting Podolski? He is our best finisher but he is yet to complete a full 90 in the league, makes no sense to take him off especially when we are trailing. Gervinho isn't half as effective yet he manages to stay on the pitch. Bizarre.

Maan, I ain't even mad... completelt expected pne of these sooner or later. Surely Wenger needs to have his players punished some sort of way when they play THIS shit! and while he's at it he needs to give himself some kind of punishment as well for not being able to motivate them!

Worst game performance wise under Wenger for a while. Now everyone will blame Wenger for not preparing/motivating the team well enough..bullshit. FFS even WE know that every game is difficult and you can't win a fucking football game with no effort.

If I was Wenger, I would fine everyone in the team one wage + an agressive bollocking. They were walking on the pitch! Only Arteta can leave this shit with his head held high. Purely abysmal.

Well I am back and in the warm....thank fuck.....


Simply put what a pile of shit tonight....no other way to sum it up...not one bit of motivation from anybody in red....and what seams to make it worse is Norwich were hardly busting a ball they just sat back most of the time waiting on little breaks or fuck ups by us..which there was quiet a few....

I am all up for the fine and bollocking.....as far as I am concerned they should donate this week's collective wages and takings to cancer research....



The bloody lot of them should be ashamed.....

Rubbish. Everyone bar Cazorla and the back 4 were terrible. We didn't deserve to lose (because the back 4 were decent, Mannone horrible mistake though) - but we certainly didn't deserve to win. We had, what, 70% possession? And we couldn't fashion a single decent chance? Giroud was flopping all over the place, Gervinho may as well have been in Africa, and Podolski was quiet. Arteta seemed a bit off the pace and Ramsey wasn't making anything happen either.

Poor poor poor.

Arteta was the only one who played well I thought. The rest were purely shit. Can't say the defense were great as they had nothing to do and the only simple thing that they did have to do, closing down the guy who took the shot, they didn't. Utter rubbish goal keeping from Mannone. I watched both the Chelsea and the City games prior to our game. During the Chelsea game, right after half time when Tottenham got the lead, things could have been much worse but Cech kept them in the game, same with City. They were 1-0 down and it could have been 3-0 or something but Hart kept them in the game. Things could have been different if Mannone didn't concede from that situation. I'm not saying we lost because Mannone is shit, everyone, bar Arteta was shit yesterday, but when both teams (City and Chelsea) were shit at times, their goal keepers kept them in the game and they grinded out victories, we didn't. We went behind just because a simple shot went in. Other than that, no off the ball movement, no shots from long range, poor crosses (we've managed to drill the crossing ablity from Jenkinson), no runs with or without the ball, nothing. What a waste of 90 minutes that was yesterday.

It's pretty embarrassing when the fans (including me) are hoping that a 17 year old, who is having his league debut, can come up and save our asses.

My thoughts on the goalkeeping situation is best summarized by Arseblog:
"Vito Mannone should have done better. The ball squirmed sideways into the path of Holt and even he couldn’t miss from there. For me, the bottom line is a top class keeper would have dealt with that shot. Either held onto it – something even the not very good Ruddy was able to do late in the game – or push it away from goal and not back into the path of the onrushing attacker.

He’s honest and he tries hard but those small moments are exactly why Arsene Wenger would have let Mannone go this summer. Those small moments are why you need a top class goalkeeper if you want to win, or even challenge, for the league title. It’s so important on days when a team fails to perform that you don’t give away a silly goal and defensively, and from the point of view of the goalkeeper, that was a silly goal to concede. Very serious consideration needs to be given to our goalkeeping situation now, a January purchase ought to be a priority because even if Szczesny returns and cements his place as number 1, we need more reliable back-up at the very least."

Arseblog once again best describes what I think of our goal keeping situation:
"It might sound like I’m nit-picking but it’s a game of tight margins at this level. It’s not uncommon for a team to have an off day and fail to break down opposition they should score against, it happens to all sides, but we continually make life more difficult for ourselves by hobbling ourselves with sub-standard keepers, the very base of a team’s spine.

Solution? Buy a goalkeeper in January, a decent one, one that might cost a few quid because, you know, sometimes you have to pay for quality."

buying a back up keeper should have been on the cards a long time ago...

mikel arteta voted man of the match by arsenal fans...


wenger on the defeat…
Norwich had a good defensive performance; they were focused and committed. We had a lot of the ball but did not create much with it. It was an illusionary domination. It was a disappointing performance on our side.

on the reasons for the defeat…
I felt we lacked a bit of sharpness. We tried to get into the game after 20 minutes. But we missed what makes the success at the top level - that is complete focus. And they were sharper than us.

on the goal...
We do not blame anybody, we many made mistakes today. We have to put that performance behind us, realise that is not good enough and come out on Wednesday with a different performance.

The attitude of the team has been excellent but that was not at the level of what we have produced until now. It was the first time of the season we were way below par. And we were well below today.

on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s injury...
It was a kick on his hip. It is not long-term. But he will be out for Wednesday.

on Jack Wilshere...
We have to be conscious he has not played for 14 months. I would have brought him on if the game had allowed it today but it was too intense. He will play on Monday with the Reserves and then we will see where we go from there. He needs games.

on the reaction from the defeat…
I hope it will have a positive impact. It was a shock to the system today. But you have to give credit to Norwich today. They played well, were completely committed and they deserved the win. Maybe we underrated the difficulty we would face. But the Premier League is the Premier League. If you are not ready for the fight then you will always have bad surprises. There is a big difference between the amount of possession we had and the amount of chances we created. That is down to the fact that Norwich defended well and we did not create a lot.

on losing players during the international break…
It is not an excuse. We have to deal with that. You could say we have better players but there is only one way to show that – on the football pitch.

on players coming back…
I don’t see anyone new being [back] for Wednesday night. The closest will be Gibbs but he will not be ready. Walcott will not be ready [either].


Mikel Arteta admits he was left angry and disappointed by Saturday’s defeat to Norwich - and insists the team need to bounce back quickly.

Grant Holt’s 19th minute strike ultimately proved enough to consign Arsène Wenger’s side to their first defeat of the season on the road.

While acknowledging the home team raised their game, Arteta says he and his team-mates were thoroughly frustrated at losing a game they had expected to emerge victorious from.

“We’re really down because we expected to win the game,” Arteta told Arsenal Player. “They raised their game, they made it very difficult for us.”

“I think we controlled the game, mostly, for 90 minutes. But you go a goal down, you start getting anxious, the goal doesn’t come, it makes it really hard.

“For the amount of ball we had in the game, we should have done more and created more goal situations. We need more patience sometimes.”

“It’s not the first time we have conceded the first goal,” Arteta added. “It’s very difficult.

“If you go ahead, it gives you a lift, the other team has to take risks, and you can cause mistakes. You can’t get back in the game every time you fall behind. It’s a tough ask and we haven’t done it today.

“We have time to come back. But we are down because we know how good we are and how good we can be.”

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admits he is concerned by the 10-point gap already between his side and Premier League leaders Chelsea.

The Gunners dropped to ninth in the top-flight table after they were beaten 1-0 at Norwich on Saturday.

Grant Holt's early strike, when the Norwich striker pounced on a spill from goalkeeper Vito Mannone, condemned Wenger's men to their second defeat in three games.

And it left Arsenal well adrift of early pacesetters Chelsea following the Blues' 4-2 win at Tottenham.


"The gap is very unpleasant," conceded Wenger.

"We had an opportunity that Tottenham could win and we could win, and we both lost. That of course makes the gap a lot bigger.

"You cannot say you do not worry about that, but what is more disappointing is that we could not score.

"After we went 1-0 down we had the ball for 70 minutes and could not score a goal."

Wenger was left ruing the lack of attacking bite showed by his players at Carrow Road, but hopes they will learn from the experience as they look towards a top-four finish.

"There was always something missing - sharpness, decisiveness in the box. Offensively we were really not at our level," said the Frenchman, whose side return to action against Champions League visitors Schalke on Wednesday.

"It was a poor collective offensive performance, rather than one individual missing. We have scored goals until now, we were just poor.

"It is a good lesson but I would have preferred not to get it, because if you need lessons like that you will stand there at the end of the season and be full of regrets."