We fucking win the Prize™ 2013-14: Page 15 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

We fucking win the Prize™ 2013-14

Burnwinter

Forget about the title. One game at a time.

Rohit

Yeah, one game at a time, although it is hard not to feel very optimistic.

9 away wins on the trot, 7 of them in the league. 35 of the last 42 points on offer. Those 3 points lost on opening day against Villa hurt now considering all those decisions.

The form is pretty good and it came at a time when it all looked bleak for the club. The Ozil signing has just happened.

To win the title though, we will need to beat the other top teams, it's something we have been really poor at over the last two seasons.

Biggus

We had a very easy run in Rohit and we've got a very easy start to the league this season too.
We're not going to face crap teams in the quarter finals of the CL and FA cup either, so I'm not ordering in champagne yet.

Burnwinter

At this point going on a really epic run at the start of the season is all I'm hoping for. It's been a few years since that happened, could shake up the fourth place mentality a bit.

Rohit

I do admit we need to start beating the top teams with more regularity to stand a chance.

Our run-in was easy but we did lift ourselves well. If we had beaten teams of the quality we faced in the run-in through the season we would be much closer to United and certainly above Chelsea. Let's not underplay our mentality to get the required results at the end of last season.

I would take that one game at a time all of this season but yeah, we need to beat United, City and Chelsea to give us the big push.

Sometimes it just becomes a mental block even though players come and go and squads are overhauled. Chelsea and Tottenham couldn't beat us for the longest time.

Wenger had a winning record against Fergusson before the CL semi-final in 2009 and after that tie we just couldn't beat them, it was almost as if we had lost before a ball was kicked.

If we can compete with them in our encounters, I am very confident we have a great chance. That's a big if though.

Biggus

Rohit wrote:
it was almost as if we had lost before a ball was kicked.

Well we had, Almunia was in goal.

goon

We don't need to beat the top sides, as long as we limit the losses and can win our fair share we'll be fine, as I expect all the top 6 sides to take points off each other. The key is if we can remain consistantly dominant against the lesser sides.

marv3llous

We got 5 points against our direct rivals last year out of possible 24 - 3 vs Spurs at home, 1 against City away and 1 against Utd at home. 68 points were accumulated against teams in places 6th-20th.

RocktheCasbah

I don't know how anyone can say that we don't need to do better against the top sides. Chelsea "doubled" us last season and finished 2 points ahead of us, Citeh took four points off us and finished 5 ahead. Even if we'd only won fixture each against both teams, we'd have finished second.

goon

Is that directed at me? I didn't say anything about not having to do better if so.

Captain

I fancy us to do better this year. Don't think we'll get much change from united because those wankers raise their games when Arsenal come to town, but certainly the current Chelsea and City. City particularly seem to have a small inferiority complex when it comes to us.

RocktheCasbah

otfgoon wrote:
Is that directed at me? I didn't say anything about not having to do better if so.

Well, you did say "we don't need to beat the top sides..."

I know you added a caveat, but the fact that we did so well against the sides 6-20 last year didn't exactly stop us all from shitting the bed at various stages of the season. I was just illustrating how beating a couple of the top sides at home last year would have made life a lot easier for us.

RocktheCasbah

Captain wrote:
I fancy us to do better this year. Don't think we'll get much change from united because those wankers raise their games when Arsenal come to town, but certainly the current Chelsea and City. City particularly seem to have a small inferiority complex when it comes to us.

I don't know. I know Chelsea are a markedly different team to the one Mourinho inherited, but Arsene's record against him isn't very good at all. Conversely, I don't think we have much to fear from David Moyes United team. I think a lot of their success against us the last few years was down to Alex Ferguson's ability to fire them up.

Rohit

And our lack of top quality.

Like I said, Wenger had a winning record against Fergusson up until that CL semi final in 2009.

I do think this current crop of players has a stronger mentality than our previous lot. They seem to be more uninhibited than the team led by Cesc were but we will see.

I do think we will do well against the top sides. The Bayern result gives me belief. I know we could have felt the same after we beat Barca too but the individuals according to me have more character.

RocktheCasbah

I think you might be right. The run they put together in the aftermath of the Bayern game was something we never saw from the Cesc era team. In fact, whenever the pressure was on, that team went completely south. A better mentality, with some top quality players... there's probably reason to be optimistic.

Btw, interesting that you mentioned that Barca win, because that should have been the springboard to a great end to the season, instead things went tits up immediately. As if the players felt, "well, we've beaten Barcelona at home, that's us for the season". That collapse was pretty much unforgiveable in my opinion.

Rohit

May be because that was the first leg which raised expectations for the second leg which we were one good touch from the donkey away from winning. Win the tie and it's a different ball game altogether. Or if we the game we won had been the second leg, even if we went out.

That came after the Carling Cup final disappointment, didn't it?

I am just assuming they didn't have the character to bounce back, no proper leader. Cesc's head was turned by then.

When we lost to Chelsea in the CL in 2004 and to United in the semi in the Cup, we looked beat up against Liverpool on the Monday before a masterclass from Henry. We weren't going to lose after that.

I think these players have shown incredible spirit to win each and every game post Villa, leave aside the run at the end of last season. They and Wenger lost the crowd that day like never before at the Emirates. Better teams would have collapsed.

goon

RocktheCasbah wrote:
otfgoon wrote:
Is that directed at me? I didn't say anything about not having to do better if so.

Well, you did say "we don't need to beat the top sides..."

I know you added a caveat, but the fact that we did so well against the sides 6-20 last year didn't exactly stop us all from shitting the bed at various stages of the season. I was just illustrating how beating a couple of the top sides at home last year would have made life a lot easier for us.

I guess the tone of my post is off, but what I was actually trying to get at is that we don't need to do brilliantly, i.e. an average performance will be ok.

As bad as our results against the top sides were last year, we also dropped around 16 points in games against Sunderland, Stoke, Norwich, Swansea, Fulham, Villa and Southampton. If we can turn at least half of those into wins it leaves is with much less work to do against the bigger sides. United famously won the league with a horrible record agains the top sides.

flobaba

No thanks to average performances. You fall into that trap and then you can't step it up when you actually need to.

We need to go HAM and for the win each and every game. No half arsed efforts. Then if we still fall short, we can doff our hats to our opponents knowing we were beaten by a superior team and have no regrets.

We aren't going to fucking win the fucking league title, no. Our squad wasn't just an Ozil and a performing Ramsey/Giroud and good team spirit away from winning last year. We need a bit more quality in attack and solidity defensively.

Are we going to give whoever eventually wins a good run for their money? We can, yes. No nonsense 20 point gap this time around. Think maybe we come in 3rd.

goon

Just because I said an average return in the big games will be good enough doesn't mean I think we should only attempt to win an average amount of the games or put in an average amount of effort 😆

flobaba

Oh, that's what you meant. Misunderstood.

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