Where do they go from here?
17 minutes left in the game still pal. As long as thereâs only a goal in it, anything can happen.
Back down to earth unfortunately.
A draw would be an excellent result here but it doesnât change the wider story - Spurs or Leicester winning the league would represent a total and utter failure for Arsenal.
Woolwich have essentially spent the last decade going around in circles. Finish fourth in the league â qualify for the European Cup â get knocked out of European Cup at last 16 â blame referee for European Cup exit â threaten to win title â fall away and get in a battle for fourth â qualify for European Cup â get knocked out of European Cup at last 16 etc. etc. etc.
All the time, their gullible fans are paying by some distance the most expensive prices for tickets in the EPL and swallowed the line that Wenger is doing a great job and if they were lashing the cash around to the same extent as Man U, Man City and Chelsea theyâd be winning the league every other year. Looking up the table now at Leicester and Spurs, the fans have finally woken up the fact theyâve been sold a pup by the Alsatian for the best part of a decade.
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Just after seeing todayâs post match interview from the Specialist in Failure there now. Complaining that Andy Carroll should have been sent off before he even set to work for his 7 minute hat-trick.
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Woolwich have become a joke under his tenure
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He is some prick. I suppose he didnât mention the fact that Lanzini had a perfectly good goal ruled out before Arsenal went two up?
About time the FA made an example of him for blaming his own shortcomings on match officials.
Called that one weeks ago.
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Battling point at home to Crystal Palace there today. The dream of yet another season of European Cup football a step closer.
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The open top bus is ready and waiting.
Arsène Wenger has admitted his team have had to play in âa very difficult climateâ at the Emirates Stadium this season but suggested the mutinous atmosphere is being whipped up by a few egos with a personal agenda against him and actually has ânot a lot behind itâ.
Three of Arsenalâs supporters groups intend to protest at Saturdayâs televised game against Norwich City, calling for a âTime for Changeâ. Fans from the Arsenal Supportersâ Trust, the Black Scarf Movement and Red Action will hand out placards pre-match and will urge the crowd to hold them up after 12, 78 minutes and, in particular, after the final whistle, with their ire aimed at the hierarchy and, by implication, the manager for the way the club is being run.
Wengerâs side are currently fourth and attempting to deflect Manchester Unitedâs challenge at their back, with the Frenchman admitting his own exasperation at the fizzling out of their title challenge. âIt is very frustrating because we were in a position for a very long time where we could compete for the titleâ he said. âWe won the FA Cup in 2014, the Charity Shield [sic] and FA Cup in 2015, and we wanted to go another step up and win the league. It wasnât possible, which is why we are frustrated. I can understand the frustration because no one is more frustrated than we are. But we must protect what we have and go for what we can still achieve. Our disappointment canât go too far.
âWe lost the championship at home against the lower teams â we have the best record against the top clubs â but we played at home in a very difficult climate. We have to realise that, away from home, we are championship winners [Arsenal actually boast the third best away record in the division at present]. At home, against the smaller teams, we lost the league. This club does have special values though and one Iâve experienced over the years is to stick together and support the team. Thereâs no success without that.
âBut some groups of people try to manipulate our fans, and I believe apart from an agenda â a personal agenda, a big ego â thereâs not a lot behind it.â Piers Morgan, who has been vociferous in his criticisms of Wenger on social media, immediately suggested on Twitter that the Arsenal manager was directing his criticism at him, though the Frenchman would not elaborate on whom he was commenting.
Wenger defended his teamâs âcharacter and attitudeâ, which has been questioned not least by former players now working as pundits. âSome people question them,â he said. âI know [the critics] well, and they have less character than this team have.
âI saw them play and I know them very closely, and they shouldnât question this teamâs character. Attitude-wise, weâve been impeccable from the first to the last day. But when a club cannot enjoy anything any more, itâs in trouble. In football you go down very quickly and come up very slowly. We have to stick together.
âI think this club has special values, and we care about the club and we care about our fans as well. We try to keep everybody happy. But we have to put things a little bit into perspective and see how the clubâs evolution has gone over the years. It was not always easy. The quality of the work weâve done at the club has got us into a strong position where expectations are very high, and where we are frustrated when we donât get what we want.â
Arsenalâs manager of almost 20 years did not speak like a man planning to walk away from the last year of his contract at the Emirates Stadium, and pointed to the way he had transformed the club over his time in charge. âWhen I do go I hope the club goes higher up and wins the Champions League and the championship every year,â he added. âIâll be the biggest supporter in the stands because I will feel as if I have contributed a bit to that with the basis weâve built.
âWhen we built the stadium, we had five to seven difficult financial years where we had to pay the money back: we had to be three years in the Champions League out of five and have an average of 54,000 people, and we didnât know we would be capable of that. We had to sell our best players every year to survive, but we didnât do three years out of five in the Champions League. We did five out of five. Now the club is in a stronger position and we can compete again with our main opponents. But during that time it was very difficult. Now the club is in a very strong situation. You want your fans as well to be behind your team.â
Simeone would be a great manager for Arsenal.
Congratulations to all at Woolwich on achieving a Top 4 finish for the 20th consecutive season. An incredible achievement.
Top four meant nothing in the 1996/97 season, though, so itâs only 19 consecutive Champions League qualifications for the great Arsene Wenger.
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Still work to be done for this season though. A point needed against an in form Aston Villa on Sunday to avoid dropping to 4th place and a potential banana skin play off match in August for the European Cup group stages.
Villa will be a dangerous proposition with relegation confirmed, the pressure off, and the chance to have a real crack at the final game.