Arsenal 0 - 2 Swansea: Any one else done with this season?

This game was tougher than on paper. Swansea, minnows compared to Arsenal, were having another good season and actually had a similar points tally. Arsenal were no where close to where they perhaps should be. For them, they had to win this game in order build confidence ahead of a good run of fixtures in a season defining month.

Fixture congestion and injuries resulted in some changes in the starting line-up. Jenkinson returned at right back, Podolski returned at left wing and Gervinho got the nod over Giroud up front.

First half

For all the hype this match was receiving as a potential "feast of football", it was somewhat dull first half. When two possession-oriented sides meet, the result tends to be both sides taking turns in keeping the ball and creating very few chances.

Swansea did not look fazed playing in the Emirates Stadium and passed the ball around with confidence, pressed with hunger and played with a fluidity that's won them a lot of supporters. Arsenal, on the other hand, looked like a side lacking in purpose with their passing, did not press at all and were static off the ball.

Arsenal's best chances were created by crosses; crosses that there was no Giroud to get on the end of. It may seem easy to say that in hindsight, but when your team has actually looked like scoring when they cross the ball towards a target man, then it makes sense, at least in my mind, to continue with that strategy.

As it was, there was nothing threatening about this Arsenal team.

Second half

We improved in the second half and looked more dangerous, but those clear cut chances still proved elusive. We seem to be creating a lot of half chances at the moment, but don't possess the quality to turn those half chances into goals.

Swansea saw out that period and continued as they did in the first half. Come the 87th minute, when Wenger had played all his cards (and didn't leave it late, thankfully), they were rewarded. A mix up at the back, Michu was through and he finished with the quality we've come to expect from him. Then, Jenkinson gets caught on the ball, Arsenal get caught with everyone forward and Michu gets an easy second.

It's an all too familiar situation

Lacklustre. Pedestrian. Slow. Static. Lacking in desire. Lacking in creativity. Lacking in quality. That's just some of the ways we've described Arsenal this season and it seems now it's after every game.

How did we lose this one? Well, the other team pressed well. They stopped our players from playing. They forced us into mistakes. They capitalised on our defensive errors. If I told you I copied and pasted those, would you be surprised?

It's very worrying that for several games now, we've lost to the same game plan. We know how teams will play against us, but we don't seem to come up with ways to counter that. We go into every game, playing the same players, playing the same way and, more often than not, achieving the same results. We've discussed a lot how we should be lining-up and what could be doing to change things, but I wonder if the problem isn't more than that.

The performances on the pitch don't suggest a team that really wants to play for Arsenal and play for the manager. And even if the team is doing all that, there's still the issue of tactics not getting the most out of our players, or our players not getting the most out of tactics or just plain not being good enough or consistent enough.

Add in the fact that the manager doesn't seem to be doing much to change things and you get a lot of rightfully upset fans. If the formation isn't working, try different players. If it still doesn't work, change the system. If the way we're approaching games is conjuring poor performances and results, then our approach has to be changed. I fear that if we continue in this way, we're not even going to get Europa League football, no matter how much money we might decide to spend in January.

Just to add to the worries, look at our results since the North London derby:

2-0 vs Montepllier
0-0 vs Aston Villa
1-1 vs Everton
0-2 vs Swansea

1 win, 2 draws, 1 loss.

Now compare this to Spurs:

0-0 vs Lazio
3-1 vs West Ham
2-1 vs Liverpool
3-0 vs Fulham

1 draw, 3 wins, 0 losses.

Defies logic, doesn't it? You'd have thought we were the side to have lost 5-2, not Spurs.

We're headed for midtable mediocrity and this aint even a knee jerk.

Outplayed by a team on our own turf, just embarassing.

If we continue like this, our season is over!

Bad game

A better performance.. But a more terrible result...
certainly not the unexpected considering how we were playing in the previous few weeks.. i will console myself by thinking that we gave it a better try this time.. We pressed them hard and managed to keep the ball upfront especially in the second half and tried to create chances.. we failed to create any clearcut chances while they looked more threatening to score.. it looked like our players dont have the talent or the brilliance needed to make the difference.. it was an open match and this sort of result was bound to happen.. We got caught trying too hard to score and conceded twice...
i know there will be riots there after this match.. every season we think, this is the worst to happen.. no...

Sczeny - 6 excellent match.. we would have lost it quite early if it was not for him..
Jenkinson - 5 was good except for the last minute blunder.. managed to put some good crosses but Giroud wasnt there today..
Vermaelen - 6 energetic and confident display..
Metskr - 5 pretty decent
Gibbs - 4 offers nothing more than blind crosses offensively..
Arteta - 6 best player of the day.. came forward a lot more than his usual and tried to make things happen
Wilshere - 5 poor first half.. looked active in the 2nd
Cazorla - 5 too many mispasses and wayward shots..
Podolski - 4 anonymous as usual..
Walcott - 4 playing selfish like he wants to score himself and impress someone..
Gervinho - 4
Chamberlain - 5
Giroud 5
Rosicky 5 welcome back..

We are done, just stick a fork in us to be honest

Santi was horrible, he kept losing the ball trying to do his turns, he only livened up in the last few mintues, even then his passing was crap.

Arsene Wenger the 5th highest paid coach in the world? His team doesn't reflect that, sadly. Embarrassing, a shambles. Jan needed.

Arsenal are now EIGHT points worse off than at the same stage last season. And we thought last season was bad.

The last time Arsenal began a season with a tally of points as low as this (94-95) after 15 games, they finished 12th

Legend wrote:Santi was horrible, he kept losing the ball trying to do his turns, he only livened up in the last few mintues, even then his passing was crap.

Theo was worse, he is playing for himself he fcked up every single promising move whenever he had the ball

#saveusDraganStojkovic

wenger transfer dealing have been fcking crap, he has lost it. some of our players are soo USELESS. there are A LOT BETTER PLAYERS OUT THERE, FOR CHEAPER THAN WE GOT THESE USELESS PLAYERS. wtf is wenger thinking, he's transfer dealings have been bang average these past few seasons. all we have been doing is loosing quality players and replacing them with CRAP. HOW THE *bleep* HAS A TEAM THAT JUST GOT PROMOTED TO THE PL 2 SEASONS AGO BECOME BETTER THAN US?!!! HOWWW

Every team in this league will beat us right now. Our only hope is that our opponents are on even worse form than us. Our offensive play was so predictable: pass it out to the left, give it to Gibbs, Gibbs can't use his right foot so doesn't know what to do, pass it back to our half, rinse and repeat. Arteta also did his best Denilson impression with no ambitious passes (what was that about him needing to be our captain over Vermaelen because of his consistency?), and our entire front line was a disgrace before and after the subs. As for Jenkinson on that second goal...

Our best players were our CBs and Szczesny. I don't blame Wenger necessarily because our subs were correct, but we need a new formation and/or new players. The current formula is clearly broken.

If anyone knows where the real Arsenal is, let me know

No shame is losing to better team. Good game by Swansea. Showed more hunger and desire to win the ball than us. Pressured more. Got the game.

We got lucky to hold them off for that long could have been way worse. We are the worst team in the league, Wenger needs to go.

Sell all of them (apart from Giroud, Walcott, Cazorla, Vermy, Kos, Merty Szczesney and Wilshere).

Not good enough for the shirt.

Wenger HAS lost it in my opinion.

Best manager we've ever had, but almost a decade of this and it's getting worse and worse.

Wenger out. Never thought I would say that.

ivan gazidis
"It's hard to keep up financially with the likes of Norwich, Stoke and Swansea"

he needs to GO there are so many better managers out there than him now. he is finished.

This season is over honestly. Even if we have an amazing transfer window and tear things up in the 2nd half of the season, I can't see us doing any better than a 4th place trophy tops, with maybe a domestic cup run. I feel like a damn Spurs fan saying that

any team with a bit of quality can beat us. in fact all they need is one quality midfielder and they will dominate the game against us. arteta is fatigued and old. he is not starter material i have been saying this for ages. he needs to be a sub, we need to buy a dm fast.

we need a:
striker
dm
AM, we also need better more technical fullbacks with skill. fullbacks that can actually ATTACK and beat an opposing player. our only good fullback is sagna.

Raptorgunner wrote:ivan gazidis
"It's hard to keep up financially with the likes of Norwich, Stoke and Swansea"

BREAKING NEWS "a source from inside the Arsenal camp has revealed Swansea scooped Michu from right under Arsenal's nose in the summer after an initial offer of £500,000 from the north london club was rejected by Rayo Vallecano

'He is a top top player' Arsene was quoted as saying 'but i was not sure if he was a top top top player and thus, did not want to risk a further 1.5 million on him. Plus, Chamakh is like a new signing'"

The only way we can salvage anything this season is if Kroenke and Gazidis go halves and spend £1 billion and just buy the Premier league trophy

And I'm not talking about a metaphor for transfers or whatnot, I mean literally hand over a cheque with £1 billion marked on it to the FA who, in turn, express deliver the trophy to Islington via FedEx

Lex wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:ivan gazidis
"It's hard to keep up financially with the likes of Norwich, Stoke and Swansea"

BREAKING NEWS "a source from inside the Arsenal camp has revealed Swansea scooped Michu from right under Arsenal's nose in the summer after an initial offer of £500,000 from the north london club was rejected by Rayo Vallecano

'He is a top top player' Arsene was quoted as saying 'but i was not sure if he was a top top top player and thus, did not want to risk a further 1.5 million on him. Plus, Chamakh is like a new signing'"

We would have paid over 10m if Michu was french and useless.

Cost of starting XI's today: Arsenal £75m - Swansea £9.9m

Wenger the master of the transfer market?

Wenger will be on some we lacked confidence,Jaded we have always made Champs league crap!

GoonerJay29 wrote:This is certainly familiar ground now...

loosing at home, no getting DOMINATED AT HOME by a team that spends what? 20% on fees and wages on players compared to us is not familiar ground. this is a new level of pathetic. this is the first time i can say that arsenal have NO future or POTENTIAL with this team. to make this team quality now. we need 5 or 6 WORLD CLASS players. whereas before, 2-3 years ago we needed maybe 2-3 decent players. this drop is MASSIVE.

Lex wrote:The only way we can salvage anything this season is if Kroenke and Gazidis go halves and spend £1 billion and just buy the Premier league trophy

And I'm not talking about a metaphor for transfers or whatnot, I mean literally hand over a cheque with £1 billion marked on it to the FA who, in turn, express deliver the trophy to Islington via FedEx

So where are we now in the table? 8th? 9th? I'm too depressed to even open up a new window and check for myself