False Dawn v Spurs

[Chippy]

Right. I quite liked Arteta’s response on the Arsenal website, basically saying that he started preparing for the Newcastle game during the second half, clearly the points had gone so forget it and focus on the next game. That’s all we can do now. It’s in our hands, forget what Spurs are doing let’s just win our games.

Letters, Can you honestly see us getting maximum points?
Last night's defeat was double pain because of what was at stake. Deep down, we all know the CL has passed us by.

[Letters]

Letters, Can you honestly see us getting maximum points?
Last night's defeat was double pain because of what was at stake. Deep down, we all know the CL has passed us by.

I’m not confident but then who thought we’d beat Chelsea and West Ham away?
The injuries worry me. I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

[Chippy]

I’m not confident but then who thought we’d beat Chelsea and West Ham away?
The injuries worry me. I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

Fair play

[Mac76]

Right. I quite liked Arteta’s response on the Arsenal website, basically saying that he started preparing for the Newcastle game during the second half, clearly the points had gone so forget it and focus on the next game. That’s all we can do now. It’s in our hands, forget what Spurs are doing let’s just win our games.

It's just a pity he didn't prepare better for the Spuds game then, just fielding the side that scraped past Leeds showed a failure to adjust for Spuds and their tactics

His rookieness really showed, as well as the lack of maturity in the team

I don't rate our chances of beating Newcastle - Eddie Howe loves this type of game and he's already turned St Jimmy's Park into a fortress

[Mac76]

...and what's worse is that spuds will trash burnley tomorrow which means we'll be playing catchup at Newcastle

of course if the NLD had been a hard-fought contest instead of a walkover then we might have been able to call the extra day an advantage, but all it achieved was to give spuds a head of steam

[Niall_Quinn]

You have to wonder how a manager and a team that can't figure out the spuds would go to any lengths to win such a vital game will fare in a European competition packed with teams that will go to any lengths to win, most of them considerably superior to a very average gang of spuds.

These are the tests the club has failed at for a decade. When it really matters to the fans, the club lets them down. There's not a single spine in the whole organisation. If that match against the chavs had been the decider for CL qualification, Arsenal would have lost it handsomely. As it was, they did what they always do. Pull back from the brink at the last moment, so they don't fall from longstanding mediocrity and into the abyss. But that's where they live now, at the edge of a pit, circling a drain, aspiring to be also-rans. There's not a single sign this club is in control of its own destiny. There's no control, no smarts, no ability to dig deep at the crucial moments. Progress is not a measure of avoiding failure, it's a measure of proceeding in a controlled manner towards a desired outcome. Does Arsenal actually desire anything, other than continued existence there or thereabouts?

[Letters]

Who on here wouldn’t have taken CL qualification being in our hands with 2 games left at the start of the season?

[Letters]

You have to wonder how a manager and a team that can't figure out the spuds would go to any lengths to win such a vital game will fare in a European competition packed with teams that will go to any lengths to win, most of them considerably superior to a very average gang of spuds.

These are the tests the club has failed at for a decade. When it really matters to the fans, the club lets them down.

Literally won the FA Cup 4 times in the last decade.
You sneer about the importance of Top 4 (and I’m with you, although it is a sad reality of the modern game), but you’re dismissing 4 actual trophies? And while the FA Cup doesn’t have the prestige it once did, don’t pretend you don’t care about it - I remember your reaction when we won the first one.

I didn’t see the game on Thursday but by all accounts we were undone by a soft penalty and Holding losing his head. It was a bad result but things like that affect results and you can’t legislate for them. I’m more interested now in how we react. It’s still in our hands. We are quite the butterfingers but at times this lot have been grinding out results this year - certainly lot better than last year.

We are a work in progress but for the first time in years it does feel like there has been some progress. This is a group of players I feel I can get behind more than I have for years.

[Niall_Quinn]

Ask Liverpool or City if they'd swap their last few seasons for FA Cup wins. It's always good to win a cup. But for a club like Arsenal, if that's the summit then you have a major problem. We used to win the cup while challenging for the title and battling it out on a serious level in the CL. Both the latter are now so far out of reach it will take a generation to, perhaps, claw back to sufficient levels. Not a single sign of it happening in the last 10 years. Unless you cunt qualifying for a competition you can't compete in as anything other than making up the numbers.

There's always an excuse on hand for the big hurdles and the dead horse. A whole stream of excuses. A decade of them.

[Globalgunner]

Small team mentality is killing this club after every failure to compete you always find fans that will pull out the FA cup wins in the last decade. No one who wants to win the CL gives a toss about FA cup wins, now or ever.

We are not Everton, Newcastle or Leicester.