The procession of Echternach

By Walter Broeckx

December 11 always has been a special day for me. There are two anniversaries that I can celebrate on that day and one of them is that on this day Arsenal played for the first time an official game of football. Yesterday my party was ruined by Arsenal. Oh well that is how things go sometimes.

Let me start with some statistics. Arsenal had a total of 28 shots on goal. Bradford 5.  So anyone who wants to suggest that we made no effort is wrong. It was Arsenal who attacked during the whole game. Bradford defended (successfully)

Possession Arsenal 63% and Bradford 37%. Anyone who wants to say that Bradford outplayed us didn’t see the game.

The tactics from Bradford were clear: defend and try to hurt us with a long hoofed ball. A tactic that made us restart from our penalty area and so they could reorganise themselves to try to defend the next attack. Because of their early goal it was a tactic they could use for the whole game and that brought them success. Each team plays to its strength and so did Bradford and they got away with it at the end.

I don’t think Bradford won the game (well it was a draw in fact) but it was more a case of Arsenal not being able to win the game. I think we have beaten ourselves on this day.

We had 28 shots on goal only resulting in one goal. For those wondering: I didn’t count them myself but got this from the BBC website.   But that will be close to an all time low I think. Maybe an idea for Josh James at Arsenal.com who does the stats to have a look at that? And maybe more telling the goal in the end  came from a defender.

I think apart from Mertesacker each outfield player from Arsenal got a chance to score a goal yesterday. This is good and bad at the same time. It is good because it means that we created enough chances to score goals. And creating chances is important in football. But what is truly bad and awful is that we just couldn’t put the ball in the net. I think we had enough chances to score 4 or 5 goals in this game. Just to name a few: Coquelin, Vermaelen, Gervinho, Wilshere, Cazorla, Chamakh, Oxlade-Chamberlain, all should have done better with the chances they got presented during the game. If they would have finished the chances we would be in the semi final.

What also was very disappointing in this game was the crosses we tried to produce. We couldn’t find the correct length in our crosses. I noticed the Bradford pitch was a lot smaller than the Emirates pitch and as a result a lot of our crosses went harmlessly wide and high above heads in front of goal. And because of the crowded defence the low crosses couldn’t find an Arsenal player also.

And I do think that is where we lost the game: our bad finishing and our bad crossing. In a way this hasn’t a lot to do with Bradford. This was our failure. Maybe it was no real surprise that our finishing was so shockingly bad because our two top scorers from this season were missing. Apparently we do need Giroud and Walcott for the moment to get some goals. I think we have too many creators and too few finishers for the moment.

I think defensively we were ok. When you only have to concede 5 shots in 120 minutes you could say that they didn’t get many chances. Apart from the goal I can only remember one really dangerous attack just before half time from Bradford.

The problem for Arsenal seems to be that whenever they play a good game, they suddenly stumble in the next game. Consistency is needed but for the moment we can’t seem find it. It is 3 steps forward, followed by two steps backwards. Like the old procession of Echternach up to 1947. Look it up on Wikipedia if you are really interested.

For the moment we never know which Arsenal will turn up. Will it be the Arsenal that plays good football and can score goals or the Arsenal that sometimes is a shadow of that team and can hardly create a chance. And in fact looking at the stats from yesterday we found even an Arsenal in between those two. Creating enough chances but not scoring them.

The problem we face now is that in the league in the next month we have to find some kind of consistency. We need to pick up points now. So we need players who can score goals for us. So we should hope that Giroud and Walcott are back next week.

But maybe this result was us hitting the ground after sliding down the hill. Maybe this result will have the same impact as our defeat at United last season. Maybe the board will now realise that now is the time to act and to show us what they want. Just lying down at the bottom of the pit and do nothing? Or act in January and repair the damage?

A little bird has told me that the club will do everything they can to put things right and get back on track. I believe the bird. I think we might see changes next month. One good goal scorer is what we need most of all.  And depending on the Walcott situation another winger. But most of all we need to put the ball in the net from our chances.  I think even Wenger acknowledged this after the game. Playing 5 strikers and not scoring a goal is terrible.

I do hope the little bird is right. But I trust the little bird.

The books…

The sites…

39 Replies to “The procession of Echternach”

  1. i believe that January we will make some massive signing and i wish walcott sign with us and rumors about man utd signing walcott will kill me 🙁 . COYG

  2. What bird is this? The lyre bird?

    Can’t wait for January, we’ll see whether the club has real ambition.

  3. You sound like Wenger mate.Little bird? Another blogger in the know.Tell us what the little bird told you and we can see how much you really know in January.

    At the end of the day we have been knocked out of the cup by a club 2 divisions below us with a 1st team on the pitch in the only competition we really had a chance in not really very many positives there for me.

  4. Good resd Walter. Glad to see the defeat hasn’t dampend your Arsenal spirit.
    Unfortunately for me the match wasn’t on live. I will watch it later on the Arsenal player once it’s uploaded. Want to see Arsenal play. Still enjoy that.
    No doubt the tabliods will slate us and the doom and gloomers will be out in force. New day. Next week a new game. Hopefully we’ll win.
    Keep up the good work. Don’t let the B******* grind you down.
    Gooner for life.

  5. Walter,

    “I don’t think Bradford won the game” – my newspaper this morning clearly shows that Bradford are in the Semi-Final draw, and watching it last night I got the clear impression that Arsenal lost on penalties.

    Andrew

  6. another ramsey start another loss. more good players to leave, even wilshere has to ask himself if he wants to waste his career. that turns into a downward spiral with no way out. depressing.

  7. Cant make any excuses for last night’s performance with virtually our strongest line up, but there were many that had below par performances, lost count the amount of time for instance Wilshere gave away the ball with sloppy passes. How much was Carzorla involved in the first 90 minutes?

    However, slightly off track, Walter perhaps you or your ref reviewer friends can answer this, but I would love to know how many free kicks were conceded in that area of the pitch in front of Gibbs nearly all in an identical position. I counted at least 8 freekicks one of which lead to the first goal and strangely enough Vermaelen conceded many of them for a ‘foul’ on Hansen, one which was his booking for a cleanly won header. It was almost as if Bradford players had targetted this area for the ideal place from which to launch a ball into our box, perhaps exploiting our perceived weakness. Though as so many appeared ‘soft’ perhaps some will have to question whether our friend Mr Dean was in on the act as well.

    Just curious that’s all.

  8. Andrew,
    I hope you understand that I was referring to the normal and extra time played.

    We also should get the goal remeasured at Bradford as I think that the goal posts and crossbar are not at the correct distance.

  9. Northern Nuge,

    I have seen a few strange decisions but as it was Dean I knew he would be like that.
    Not giving the foul on Wilshere in the first half was such a thing and it should have been a yellow card. The player almost trying to kick Ramsey his head off was given but no card for that? But that is typical when Dean does an Arsenal game.

    I think Dean books Vermaelen each time he does an Arsenal game. I think they don’t like each other.

    That Hansen sure went down easily each time maybe knowing the foul would come…

  10. Wenger has had lots of opportunities over the last couple of seasons to strengthen the squad. We’ve had promises the last two summers from Gazidis that we would see plenty of transfer action. Each time it’s been too little too late with departing players not being properly replaced. Being rational about it there is no reason to think this January will be any different.

    I’ve seen the same problems get worse and worse for the last few seasons irrespective of personnel and that is telling me that the problem really lies with the manager’s methods. Tactics, motivation, leadership. All poor.

    I watched the game last night and thought “This is a team that doesn’t know how to win”.

  11. Such a silly post Walter. Did you actually watch the game ? Most of the players were extremely poor and the likes of Chamakh and Ramsey should not be playing for Arsenal.Even when Arsenal realised in the second half that they should be playing football, there was no composure and very little skill. This is the worst Arsenal side in living memory.I predicted 3 years ago,that Arsenal were in serious decline. Because of the reasons I put forward (e.g. useless manager, and a board that has no interest in football but a lot in making money and decieving gullible supporters into thinking we have a football club as opposed to a business club).Now my fears has come to pass.Since we last met, Arsenal has lost virutally all its good players and 2 remaining ones of that period Walcott and Sagna are about going. We have even entered new lows. We sell our best to our direct rivals (ala MANU and MANC). Oh I forgot, they are no longer rivals because we are now a mid table club.

    UNTOLD means do not tell Arsenal fans the truth. Ban me again if you like.

  12. Ofcourse I am heart broken and all that…I am also sure that we are not going to win any titles this season…!!! And yes we lost and are out of the C1 cup etc etc…but I do agree with you Walter that somewher it rankled with me also that there was something wrong with the goal post…given the propensity with which our players hit the upright!!! Maybe maybe not…just sharing a thought…

  13. I’m curious what’s going on with Arshavin, I thought this was the perfect game for him to come on and make a difference. He can beat a man, play an incisive pass, cross a ball with either foot, and likes to shoot. Perfect for a parked bus. I’d have subbed Gervinho for Arshavin, and I think that change alone would have yielded a goal or more. Gervinho is better for end to end play, when the box is not crowded. Andrei is better for a crowded box.

  14. hope you are right walter. just wonder if we are doing all we can resource and coaching wise for success. Is Bould really being given a say? some say he is not. Are certain players getting enough individual coaching?are they prepared for teams they face – I do not know these answers, but looking at performances this season,I do wonder on all counts. We used to punch above our weight, this year we are not. We have some highly talented players, this season, they are not playing as a team. New signings will be welcome, but not the complete solution.
    The club need to put things right, and quickly. Our squad was left far too light in key positions from the summer. the board back wenger, but continual failure on this scale and the fans,and maybe even the players will take wengers future into their own hands. As you say, the board need not only to communicate more but show ambition. weare a big club, a wealthy club, we need to behave like one. players should be queuing to join/ renew, the latter certainly is not happening, wonder if the alleged CL failure clause is causing problems?
    The next month is the time for action, not just words or papering cracks, The whole club, from top downwards really needs to up its game, of not, wenger may be the first casualty of war, but the anger will move upwards after that.
    And dont even get mestartedon Theo….

  15. Jed,
    How do you know Wenger has DECIDED not to strengthen the squad?

    To me the situation has been spelt out that the board has been holding back on this (hence deadline day transfers when it clearly wasn’t right). Wenger doesn’t write the cheques!

  16. measure the goal posts?

    ………………………………..

    has it really come to this, lol

    i honestly feel bad if that wasn’t a joke, it’s the silliest thing i think i’ve ever heard after an arsenal defeat.

    i’m not sure why you’d bother to linger on the fact we ‘didn’t lose’ (in normal time). the match was 120 minutes + penalties, the 90 minutes didn’t matter in the end. or is it really that great an achievement to not lose to someone in the 4th division in the 90 minutes that it’s worth commenting on?

    saying we dominated them is also disinegnuous regardless of the stats. we only got majorly on top of them after making the subs are the 70 minutes. until then it was a very open game where BOTH teams could’ve scored more. after 70 minutes they were knackered and took of their brilliant striker, which arguably makes it even worse that we failed to beat them in 120 minutes

  17. at least we are still able to get that 4th place trophy though, it’s not all bad. wenger said so after all

  18. There is no way I trust Wenger to spend whatever money he is given to get us out of this mess. He’s had some humdingers over the years like Cygan, Senderos, Chamakh, Santos, Denilson but Gervinho has to be one of the worst buys ever in PL history. The art of defending was never Wenger’s forte, tbh he never really needed it with the defence he initially inherited and leaders in the team thereafter but now as it’s proved he can’t do anything to improve us defensively , he has completely made us toothless in attack. We are declining at an alarming rate now and it is truly embarrassing to be an Arsenal fan at the min.
    If I were Arsene Wenger, picked up the newspaper and read all the criticism of me, I’d actually take it and think they have a point. Wengers attitude on the other hand seems to me that he’s completely ignoring it. Okay, so we can presume Wenger has gone senile, but what about Bould? This is the man who was nowhere near the first team setup, HE SURELY must of read all the criticism and thought, as an ex Arsenal player I have a duty to get Arsenal back on the right path? SURELY his views must of been heard by Wenger?
    ..

  19. Walter, all your explanations would be true if this was a one-off. Unfortunately this is a trend. A long term 7 year trend.

    EPL won 6 darw 6 loss 6 (1.5 points per game, 7th)

    CL won 3 darw 1 loss 2 (1.67 points per game, 2nd out of 4)

    Cup won 2 loss 1 (OUT)

    We’ve all been waiting to hit the bottom and for the board & AW to wake up. What if it still doesn’t happenin in Jan?! Who says this is the bottom?

    AFC = Arsenal Football Corp and our blind support has been feeding the monster. Time to wake up!

  20. The question we ought to be asking ourselves is this: will the fortunes of the Club improve if (as seems likely) Arsene goes and the regime remains or will nothing fundamentally change for the better and may even become worse. And if you believe (based on the character and record of the regime) that the departure of Arsene will NOT make them mend their ways and that nothing much will change, then the intelligent conclusion is that Arsene Wenger is a side issue. Now I know that the obsessive wenger-haters – who can’t (or won’t) see further than their noses – will take this as a defence of Arsene, and that they will shout the loudest and hurl abuse (which they maistake for civilised behaviour), to no avail because we sensible people do NOT give in to bullying tactics. No, I am not defending Arsene. No, I do not believe him infallible. Yes, he does make mistakes. But my concern is not for him (never has been), it is for the Club (always has been). And the question is: will Arsenal be better off without him. And my answer is: NO, not if the regime remains.

  21. If any of you caught the Sunday Supplement on Sky this morning you will know that our latest debacle was discussed. Something occurred to me this morning after watching 3 respected journos defend Wenger….Why does he get such an easy ride from the press?I saw his post match interview and i get the impression that his attitude towards the paying punters sums up the clubs attitude as a whole.The fans are treated with contempt by the manager and the club.”Do not question me or my decisions” seems to be the party line at the Emirates these days.It seems Wenger and the BOD have not only lowered the ambitions and expectations of the club,they have succeeded in lowering the expectations and ambition of a large number of fans too. A worrying number of fans have totally bought into the 4th place is a trophy rubbish spewed out by Wenger,well it’s time to wake up the club because is going places…Mid-table.What will the club sell us as a trophy if we finish 7th??

  22. Seriously how bad do you lot want it to get before you want Wenger out. Can you not see he cannot get the best out of what he’s got? Can you not see through players don’t believe in him anymore and can you not see the players have had enough occurrence playing out of position? Ramsey on the right wing when he’s a central midfielder. Podolski on the wing when he’s a class striker and Gervinho as a Striker when at best he’s a winger!! Times up for Wenger.

  23. Walter,
    Is there something that continues to keep you from openly advocating that we pay our best scorer closer to what he asks, and play him full time, and let at least one flower of the former youth project bloom here? And also to honor many fans’ bonds with even one of their former heros who is not yet out the door? And how about Barcary Sagna? You know well that he has shown and deserves the loyalty and the pay and extension; and that the fans’ love for him should be honored, rather than sacrificed for management’s wreckless parsimony (radical conservatism) and addiction to ever-fattening the bottom line and placing the zero net transfer balance as its de facto driving force at all windows. UA keeps its head in the sand at these moments, as I have continually pointed out to Mr. Attwood. He waits until the deed is done and then rationalizes after the fact. Never venturing to advocate for or against a player that has been openly praised in these quarters until the UA weather vane (or little bird) indicates a trade wind – and then goes very quiet to “see what happens” with _____ (Walcott, Sagna, whomever). You call for goal-scoring to resume from Giroud and Walcott “for the moment” I agree. But your “for the moment” leaves lots of wiggle room for you to just wait and see what happens. What about openly advocating for Walcott and Sagna? Do you want them to stay? Or are you Ok with their departure? I think their staying is essential; and, like Song, their departure would be ruinous. Perhaps AW sees their departure as a fait accompli and is opposed; and, seeing all his best products leave and/or pushed out has actually had enough. Perhaps, we’ll not know until the memoirs. But for now, where do you stand?

  24. Marcelo Bielsa. Juergen Klopp. Laurent Blanc. Joachim Low. Unai Emery. Michael Laudrup.

    There, off the top of my head, are six affordable young managers who could replace Arsene Wenger. Last night’s shambles proved that there is something wrong in this current Arsenal set-up that is now beyond repair.

    Surely, after Norwich and Swansea, Wenger wouldn’t send another team out that was ill-prepared to deal with a supposedly lesser side? Surely lessons would be learned and we wouldn’t underestimate our opposition AGAIN? Unfortunately. last night showed he doesn’t have the gumption or willpower to inspire that ruthlessness anymore, or that the players he has signed and picked won’t do it for him.

    The promotion of Steve Bould was supposed to bring about a change in attitude, so that the sloppy mistakes and brittle back line of seasons past would be no more. But here we are again, with Arsenal conceding more goals due to individual brainfarts than any other team.

    We can complain about restrictions from the board – but the board didn’t sign Gervinho when we already had Walcott and Arshavin in the ‘ineffective wide forward’ role, Arsene did. The board doesn’t persist with the promising but unreliable Abou Diaby. Despite what the board and the manager constantly claim, this league is full of bargain players and managers performing with far more limitations than Wenger does. Is fourth place on a ‘budget’ good enough anymore? Yes we’re in the knock-out rounds of the Champions League but does anyone seriously believe this side has the cojones to win a penalty shootout in the Bernabeu/San Siro/Nou Camp? We can’t even do it at Valley Parade.

    The mindset of this entire club needs to change. Results like last night happen too often to write off as unlucky. And as the one constant in the last few years is Arsene, replacing him is the only way to do that.

  25. I strongly believe that Wenger’s attitude towards the player is one of the major contributing factors to the current slump in form seen in the team. From time, he had always BLINDLY DEFENDED THE PLAYERS DESPITE LACKADAISICAL PERFORMANCES. ‘I didn’t see it’ used to be the common response way back then. Now it is not to blame them for lack of effort on their part. ‘They gave their all’ and ‘that’s all you can ask for’ are the most popular phrases these days or ‘you cannot question their commitments’. The truth of the matter is that when their best doesn’t seem to be good enough, they are never chastised.
    Imagine Evra saying that Fergie will sack all of them if they lose the six points lead over Manchester City this time around. Such keeps the players on their toes but not with Wengers. I have never heard him make one comment to the fact that the team did not just play well enough. An element of fear has a way of bringing out the best in people.
    My only take here is that he should have stuck to the youngsters.

  26. @derek

    I love Bielsa, but it is a serious stretch of the imagination to call him “young”.

  27. bra bra bra what the hell!!Yeah shit happens and with Deanshit you expect it sooner rather than later. How many so called big team which bought players as some MAGWAMPAS say but are out???How many??? We lost this match as Chel$ea won the champions league period. Lets give some breather to a guy like gervinho and chamakh whatever ,whenever we miss arteta(Gilberto) rest assured to be disappointed.Hate them or like them we need bendtner,denlison,akprom miyochi and the young ghananian boy. We have tough matches comin in january ooh boy we better be prepared and with dean having 2 of the five we better be.

  28. This is to SUPERSPORTS south-africa what the hell is wrong with you???? we pay $80per a month but you are doing us a dis-service when you are always one sided on one team. Tell us to pay more money so that we can get a channel which is for all and not biased.
    On Monday football a caller from Nigeria wanted to know why the ref did not give an advantage to yayatoure after he was ambushed by two thugs but survived narrowly, you never even showed that highlight and never showed us anything WHY IS It ONE TEAM always??? If the liner co mites an offense you crucify him ,if someone from that team creates a foul you say that was supposed to be a red card !!If its the other-way round you say that was a fifty fifty ball.Where will we run too, GTV comeback to life someone, some body rescue us from the jaws of the zombies.

  29. A balanced article Walter, we did play some good football, in fairness to Bradford they put in a great shift, but had our finishing not been so appalling we would easily have won. Dean was nearly as appalling as our finishing, but even with the cunning Dean to deal with, we would have won had we put away our chances, so we cannot really blame Dean. I hope you are right about the little bird and I hope the bird was referring to a proven striker.

  30. Fair assessment of the match, Walter.
    Except I think you could have mentioned the referee. I notice you mentioned him in your later comments.
    After all the criticism of Santi Cazorla after our previous match, it is amazing how easily some of the Bradford players went down at times, and how little comment it got from the commentators.
    Or rather it isn’t amazing, but what we have come to expect.
    Anyway, as to the result, it was a cup match, and these things happen.
    As Arsene Wenger says, on to the next match.

  31. With all due respect is this a serious comment?

    “We also should get the goal remeasured at Bradford as I think that the goal posts and crossbar are not at the correct distance.
    ..”

    I mean truly that is one of the most mind-boggling of excuses I’ve heard now (especially since it’s a League 2 side).. Usually it’s the pitch, weather, “anti-football” (whatever that is), money in the game, ref conspiracies, the FA/UEFA/FIFA whatever, being tired/jaded, injuries, the media, negative fans etc etc that are a major part of a poor result….

    But wow, the goal posts and crossbar need to be remeasured…

    I stumbled across the following (a summary not a copy/paste job) on the web from a Bradford fan this morning….:

    * Arsenal had a near first team out. Bradford had both first-choice centre-backs out injured, and were missing their arguably our best player (Kyal Reid).

    * Because of the cups, Bradford City have played the most games out of any English side this season .

    * Arsenal (13 successive Champions League seasons) v City (5 seasons in the middle of the bottom division).

    * Chamakh earns more each year than our squad put together. Take two Arsenal subs (any two) and their weekly wage adds up to more than we’ve spent on transfers in the last ten years.

    Let all that soak in, c’mon we can do better that the excuses such as the goal posts and crossbars not being the proper dimensions…

    When you look at a poor result against Bradford considering how they compare, can we not actually take a self-critical look within as the main reason for failure and not blame external factors such as the goal posts?

  32. My money would be on Llorente coming in, maybe not in January. Would like to see Isco, wishful thinking though. The biggest disappointment about the club at the moment is the fact that no team however small fears Arsenal, they all know they can have a go at us and get some joy, that must change and the players need to take responsibility for that.

  33. Re this: “Possession Arsenal 63% and Bradford 37%. Anyone who wants to say that Bradford outplayed us didn’t see the game.

    The tactics from Bradford were clear: defend and try to hurt us with a long hoofed ball.”

    Well yes they (a far less talented team) played tactically in the way that would give them the best chance for a positive result, which is smart tactical preparation/execution, especially as it is no secret that we often struggle to breakdown such a set up..

    Now regarding possession…perhaps not acutely related to this match, but gooners often cite superior possession as the first statistic to show that we outplayed a team that beat us (the elite teams often LET us have possession too, knowing that we penetrate little, they can defend and hit us on the counter). Superior possession, especially when it is largely lateral with little incisiveness and penetration doesn’t automatically mean that we are playing better or are even being tactically smart.

    Food for though..Dortmund in a Champions League group that contained Real Madrid, Manchester City and Ajax, had less possession in every single match of the 6 they played in the group and didn’t lose a single match.

    Possession is not the end all and be all of good football, similarly, technical ability is not the end all and be all of a good footballer.

  34. I would love to see Dortmund win this years champions league, a club I like a lot. Interesting point A.stewart brings up about playing the game whilst not in possession of the ball. The best players in the world will only be on the ball for a maximum of two minutes in a 90 minute game so players need to master the tactical side of the game as well as technical. I think this has been a knock on affect from Barcelona’s dominance in recent years with the opposite taken to extremes by the likes of Chelsea last season. Dortmund have found a nice balance within their side though.

  35. Well its an obvious lie to say we had 28shots on target(i sincerely doubt the bbc said that, and if they did i’m sure you ought to have doubted it enough to seek a second opinion). Also it would seem quite convenient to mistakenly match our total shots with their shots on target. So, is it a mistake or a calculated ploy to decieve, giving an impression of a better arsenal performance? Untold, please stop accusing the press of picking on arsenal, and stop the lies, don’t report a turn out of 300 at a bsm march when u kno they at least a thousand, or try to make up a story about a fake message from a certain RVP

  36. UK and all the other whiners here, whether you seriously doubt any facts Walter or Tony present is meaningless, since THEY do their research whereas the likes of you moaners RARELY if ever research your claims…you invent them. I checked on two websites and indeed they gave more or less the same figures Walter did for shots.
    As for the goalposts, Walter is a referee and knows that ALL the equipment on the field is verified before the game starts, by the officials….so he was pulling your collective legs, but you AAA’s and sad-sack gloomers swallowed it like all the other ¨truths¨ you so gullibly accept from the media, LeGrove-type websites and whatever other sources you can find that will help you maintain your dislike of Wenger, the Board and the player(s) who you have decided, in your brillant Fantasy Football Managerial expertise, don’t deserve to wear the jersey.
    It was a frigging Cup game, which is always a toss-up, regardless of which competition it is in. Cheatski and Shitty are out of the CL at the first round, but nobody here whines or moans about how such ¨big¨Clubs get embarrassed year in and year out (in Shitty’s and United’s case)by supposedly inferior adversaries. Those who keep on defecating on AFC for losing to a 2nd division team should realize that it can happen to ANY EPL team and has regularly occurred to almost every EPL top 4 team over the last few years. On any night, every EPL Club can be beaten by so-called ¨inferior¨teams, not just Arsenal. Bradford were better penalty takers than we were on the night despite Szcesny’s best efforts, so that’s over with….the team has far bigger fish to fry and constant whining, complaining and bickering won’t help them in the least. If you’re unhappy with our current situation as most Gooners are, do the ONLY thing that is realistically in your power to do, cheer them on, and support their efforts regardless. Nobody gives a damn at the top of AFC about your endless gloominess and rancour….and they are right, since most of you know piss all about how to help AFC, as proven by your eternal litany of Wenger out, Ramsey,Gervinho,Chamakh etc. should be sold and Buy,buy,buy….both irrational and very negative. I am definitely NOT an AKB but I do respect Wenger, as he is now, and believe that, once again he will find a way to resurrect the team, as he has done so often in the past.If you don’t, that’s fine…its your right to disagree but IF, as so many of you claim, you are true supporters, then get behind the team and do what you do best, SUPPORT OUR team through thick and thin….doing anything else is hypocrisy and totally disingenuous…and worthy of LeGrove, NOT Untold Arsenal.

  37. United lost to York in 95, Southend in 96, and Coventry in 2007. Damn perhaps that old Scottish bloke was past it and needed sacking!

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