Saturday 25 September 2010

Are Barcelona Not "Mentally" Tough Enough Either Then?

Today's performance was piss-poor and painful to watch. In fact I'd rather have the raging hangover I had this morning again than watch that pile of shite. And that hangover was bad.

But I must say this, while we were worse than my Sunday morning football team, West Brom thoroughly deserved the win. Well done the Baggies.

Of course this is a set-back in our title bid, but it hasn't killed it. It's how we react to the defeat that counts.

I've no doubt that we will hear the critics loud and proud and maybe they will feel justified by watching us lose at home to a newly-promoted side but shit happens sometimes.

I'm not happy with the performance and I feel that we succumbed to our old ways a little by thinking all we had to do was just turn up and we would win. Maybe it was arrogance, I think it was complacency.

All I know is that I hope it gives us a massive boot up the arse and we realise we have to at least match the opposition for effort or you get nowhere.

I'm sure we will hear that Arsenal probably don't have the mental strength for a title push and that Manchester United or Chelsea wouldn't have lost like we did to a newly-promoted side.

Well Barcelona did......

A couple of weeks ago I watched Barca beaten at home by Hercules. Not the Greek demi-god, but a real football club recently promoted. And Barcelona are the greatest side in the entire universe. And beyond.

So it does happen and even the masters of the universe can be beaten by newly-promoted sides deemed inferior to themselves. Not just Arsenal suffer from this disease.

It may seem like an absolute disaster today but if we learn from the mistakes then we will be okay. Barcelona reacted with three straight (not gay) wins.

If we react the same then the defeat will be forgotten in no time. But we must learn, and learn fast.

It's not the end of the world but it is a kick in the nuts. Please though don't be suckered into thinking that Arsenal aren't title challenging quality on the back of a disappointing performance and defeat.

Keep it Goonerish............

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

we are shit

Anonymous said...

Always the voice of reason Wrighty.

Where you been lately buddy??

Wrighty7 said...

I prefer the term "pony" than shit.

Wrighty7 said...

I've been hibernating mate!

CesyBoy said...

Spot on again Wrighty! Refreshing to hear. Rather get setbacks this stage of the season. Put today down as a bad day at the office. Move on.


Heard that Diaby is no longer good enough on other blogs etc. Oh please!

Keep it up, and no more holidays!!

Unknown said...

I don't think we can compare ourselves to Barcelona here. Nothing will be gained by it.

Barcelona are the Kings of Spain. Arsenal hasn't won a tropy in five years, and displays like today are part of the reason for that. A lack of a killer instinct when necessary.

Chelsea lost today and it was a chance to make up ground AND make a statement. The team folded. Like before. Remember Wigan and Birmingham last season?

All is not lost, but the game against Chelsea may provide some idea as to what our season will be like.

Anonymous said...

Well, we were really off colour today, mind you with a midfield of Song Diaby and Eboue what did we expect.

Anonymous said...

Wrighty it was our arrogance plain and simple and we should blame Wenger for that. We do not have many players with the passion for the shirt and that is Wengers problem again.

Anonymous said...

but Barca win trophies
all we win are strupidity and idiotic awards
koscielny is CRAP. never want to see this Cygan again

Anonymous said...

we are not mentally able to win trophies, we do not have the team spirit to win the big games, play like that against Chelsea and we will get stuffed, Wenger is the only one who doesn't see what a clown Alumina is and he had all Summer to rectify the problem, instead he went to SA as a commentator, that was a poor decision, he is Arsenal manager and that is what he is paid six million a year for, the team selection and tactics were poor and that is down to Wenger

Anonymous said...

Are you seriously comparing Barca, a team that plays in a different league and has won 7 major trophies in the last 2 years, to us? Get real mate, we are cack and it doesnt look like we are going to win a trophy anytime soon.

Anonymous said...

I dont understand people that say song is not good enough. Its true he didnt have a good game today, but nobody did except nasri. For me Song is one of the best midfielders in pl.

Anonymous said...

Thankyou. A little calm in the storm.

No doubt a shock today but this happens in sport and in no way are we immune to this. We never really turned up today and in the modern game, if you don;t bring your A game u always stand a chance of losing....a la today's result.

A good analogy re Barca. Hercules deserved that win. If we had been winning things as often as Barca then there probably wouldn't have been as much of an uproar. Can we win with this team, why not. We have a plethora of stars in the sick ward and IMHO today was just a fucking awful day at the office!

Wenger has already torn them a new one, I hope!..;)

Our expectation levels were so greatly heightened during the early part of this decade that now many of our fans expect nothing but trophies and the best. Something we know is not always achievable in life.

GOONER4LIFE!!

visionary said...

wrighty, good start to your blog but then you make a fool of yourself by comparing us with barcelona and start making excuses for our performance.the sooner us supporters oust wenger the better for everybody, its obscene the amount of money this man is robbing the club of and the sneakiness involved in his contract renewal beggars belief
fail to prepare, prepare to fail that's my motto and that's what wenger has done during the summer over the goalkeeping situation and as for coaching of the defenders at the training ground, well you see the results for yourself today,the keystone cops would of done better

Gooner4Life said...

The Only Player that genuinely looks like he plays for the shirt is Mr Samir Nasri himself, i really believe once Gibbs is fit he should replace clichy. Clichy's performance today was really bad in good terms. Also Almunia although conceding a penalty and saving it shows why we need a keeper yet again not covering his near post as most of our keepers have shown (flappy and his tissue hand against the yids) without a top keeper i feel we wont go to far this year we have all been crying out for one yet Wenger seems to not be fazed about it. on a high Top marks to Samir Nasri the guy is world class and is proven how much of an influential player he can be in the arsenal team.
G4L

Anonymous said...

Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn! Its the word that I always here! from Wenger to players and now even you! Isnt it about time the players did something instead of all this shite they talk about 'learning', they've had fucking 5 years to learn or at least last season when I heard the word from the players about a million times! I'm actually sick of it now.LEARN FROM THIS!

Anonymous said...

Barcelona 2 CL wins in the last 4 years.We have won nothing in 5 seasons.And we will continue to be trophyless until Wenger buys a WORLD CLASS KEEPER.

The truth is Almunia/Fabianski,Denilson ,Diaby,Eboue and Vela are not good enough players for us to win a title again

Anonymous said...

Passion for the shirt. How many times am I going to hear that shit spouted. We lost to a team that played better than us - simple. Many of the same players that played with "passion for the shirt", midweek, played today. They played badly, West Brom played well-WBA won. It fucking happens people. It doesn't mean that we are shite. We were shite today though.

Anonymous said...

Todays performance was a repeat of the performances at Wigan and Blackburn.In our last 11 league games we have won 4 drew 3 and LOST FOUR that is a shocking record.Today was not a ONE OFF

Anonymous said...

idioits learn...stupid idiots do not. Arsenal's players are Stupid Idiots.
They never learn - ever.
Koscileny was awful, Clichy and so was Sagna. Sagna has gone downhill fast.
Arshavin is lazy and Diaby is just worthless.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't 'passion for the shirt' that was missing today - it was cohesion, organisation and movement. Nor is it right to lay all of the blame with Wenger. The players aren't puppets who he manipulates from the sidelines. Once on the pitch they have to take responsibility for their individual and collective performance. Before the kick-off nobody would have doubted that the XI selected should be more than capable of seeing off Albion. The fact that they didn't was equally down to their own failings and Albion's own performance - the best by a non- Top4 side at the Emirates since Everton last year,

Danish Gooner said...

like your optimism Wrighty but i am afraid it will only get worse from here.

Anonymous said...

very good article wrighty7

i dont think our performance was down to arrogance or complacency i think it was down to lack of concentration and confidence.

in the first half we had our chances and west brom had theirs. not enough chances were made in the first half whilst the ones that were made like chamakh header, eboue's, arshavin's post, nasri's 2. were all lacking a good finisher.

the 2nd half we more or less swtiched off straight from the start. and didnt regain our style even tho we scored. this will just be one of those games the players will have to forget about. will be interesting how we perform with the return of vermaelen, fabregas and bendtner.

Anonymous said...

this actually made me feel a wee bit better. I dont think wrighty is comparing us with barca per se. he just probably meant that barca as good as they are have had some freak results along the way, and we can learn from this major disappointment.

like manutd's lost to burnley, chelsea's lost at wigan last season and so forth. if they are to meet again, i'm sure the bigger team would win. this is not the end of our title challenge, not even close. come on now, our results before this were quite good against better teams and one loss, albeit a pathetic one, and we are all saying we are shit(that's reserved for almunia/fabianski and diaby only).but we are complacent and arrogant though.


and yes we do have the worst set of clown keepers in the epl! it's a joke really. and making almunia captain is probably arsene's way of spiting us. how can the team be lead by someone that is so error prone! and diaby.. pfft i'd rather lansbury in there, with diaby its always a few moments of brilliant as and when he pleases. muppet!

Anonymous said...

Barcelona have a great keeper if not world class. We have a muppet and we play with 10 men, because this muppet is pathetic and let's the whole team down.

If I was Cesc, I'd tell Wenger to fuk off I am going to Barcelona; save your riches for your grave.

It is the most demoralizing thing for any player in a team if because of one (yes, one) same player making same mistakes costing matches.

It's just not worth the effort to work hard, knowing that this scum would screw the match up.

This guy is a venom! His incompetency has led to low confidence in defenders who freak out knowing what a scum he is!

Anonymous said...

Bad day at the office. Sick of hearing fickle football fans saying how great song, diaby and cheering eboue again, and then one bad game and they are all terrible! Get over yourselves, they were all crap and it happens. Almunia on the other other hand has never had a great game, never won the points for us and is clearly not good enough.

This was an off day. I remember when Charlton beat us at home 2-4 and we had played like shit then as well. We went on to win the title that year...

Anonymous said...

the lesson is don't waste your first teamers (Wilshere, Rosicky, etc) on a meaningless cup so that they are not fit to play in the real competition.

Anonymous said...

Its posts like this that are the reason Wenger gets away with it. Are you completely deluded Wrighty, Wyh dont you tell it like it really is and for once criticise Wenger and his team of mediocre shit.

Steve D. said...

Very good article Wrighty. A bit of balance and a level head. FFS - Any team can have an off day and your analogy with Barca in that respect is a good one.
People who say Kos is crap are watching different games to me. He is a very good player and will be great alongside the Verminator.
I think we lost today because the midfield didn't control the game. Unfortunately Diaby and Eboue were not on song and Song couldn't do all the singing. Diaby really slows our passing down when he's not on form and he is only just back from injury. When Jack and Tomas came on, the game looked totally different, I just wish AW would have changed it before the 2nd goal.
I was surprised when Vela replaced Kos as I think the little Mexican didn't get up to speed and just got in the way.
The only player I wish AW would try not playing once and a while is AA23. Sometimes he tries to take too many players on rather than passing and it can spoil the possession football and rhythm.
Well, it had to happen sometime and Chelsea also lost, so never mind. Personally I suspect we're another year or two away from the title, but when we get one, we'll dominate for a long time, IMHO!!! Can't wait - but willing to wait and trust in Wenger - I just hope the more shortsighted of our fans don't destroy it before it begins.. have patience, PLEASE

shedzy said...

nice sense of perspective, thanks

;complacency' just about sums it up i think, and i hope that, as you say, we see the error of our (old!) ways.

Joel said...

Wrighty, you son of a gun! Good to see you alive and kicking again with some insightful posts.

I sent you an email the other day. Please could you get back to me when you get the chance?

Thanks, and as always, keep up the good work!