Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2015/16 ( Mod Note linked in OP 29/12)

We can blame injuries all we like but there's more to it than that. We still had 11 players who the boss thought good enough to represent this great club. They should have been good enough in my opinion to beat a very poor team like Norwich who are 5th from bottom and struggling. I can't see them finishing any higher.

There is an old saying in football "the team that shows the greatest desire usually wins" and i stress usually. Only two of our players imo showed the degree of desire yesterday to win a league title. That's the nub of our problem right there "desire" and it has been for some time.

I blame a lot of the problem on Wenger. He selects, trains and is supposed to motivate them. Our team have lacked motivation in many games recently and in seasons past. The same players have shown the desire necessary in these games and the same players have not. Our squad is not big enough and players are complacent especially when they know that because of injuries there is nobody else to push them. Another fault of management. Our defence has looked a shambles in a lot of games this season, leaking silly goals and making many simple defensive mistakes. They must be doing nothing on the training ground.
Giroud can get some great goals but on many occasions he has thrown the toys out of the pram when things are not going his way. He prefers to moan at referees and players instead of knuckling down. Standing with your hands on your head looking up at the sky will not get you into positions to score. That will just give the opposition defenders great joy that they are nullifying his effect on the game and make enemies of referees as if we haven't enough problems with them already. Someone needs to have a serious word with him.

Some of our midfield and wingers are only back and were probably rushed to a degree so i'm reluctant to blame them too much. Campbell for all his running and desire is inconsistent, Ox the same. I think we should be buying the finished article in future as we rarely have time to let players develop and very few are breaking into the team or have been disappointing when they have got game-time. We have a lot of problems at Arsenal. Our first choice 11 are ok but we struggle afterwards and with our record of injuries it always comes back to haunt us.
I thought we had a great chance of EPL glory this season but my opinion is changing rapidly. Two points from the last nine is pretty poor when you consider who we played against.

I don't think so ronjo.
We played very poorly against Spurs and were lucky to get a point.
We played poorly against WBA after scoring first and showed little or no desire to get a second.
Same yesterday. We let one of the worst teams I have ever seen in the EPL back into a game when we were ahead and all over them. We then lay down when they scored a goal helped by some of the worst Arsenal defending i have ever witnessed.

Something seriously wrong at out club and the Minister for Excuses out today doing his usual stuff, deflecting.

IvoryTower wrote: »

giroud done **** all yesterday but there was very little he could do

He could have shown his desire by getting into better positions for crosses. He didn't. I had to look for him anytime we threatened. No runs or shows worth a damn and i'm one of the posters who stood up for him before.