Arsenal have to rely on other results going their way this weekend after Arsene Wenger’s side drew 3-3 with Norwich at The Emirates earlier this afternoon.
The Gunners got off to a flying start and took a two minute lead through Yossi Benayoun. However, they only managed to stay in front for 10 minutes after Wes Hoolahan passed a tame shot past Wojciech Szczesny.
15 minutes later Norwich surprisingly, though duly, were ahead. The Canaries hit Arsenal on a classic counter. Hoolahan squared the ball to Grant Holt whose shot deflected off Kieran Gibbs’ foot and over the hapless Szczesny.
In fairness, Arsenal were struggling to get their passing game going, though Norwich did well to prevent the home side from getting a foothold in the game.
The second 45 saw a much more urgent Arsenal side take to the field, and rightly so. Their passing was much better and they looked more determined, creating chances at will. They were finally level in the 72nd minute through Robin van Persie. Alex Song delivered a delightful long through ball to the Dutchman, who kept his line, and converted the chance he was given.
With the momentum on their side, Arsenal kept pressing and were looking for the winner. Eight minutes later they were rewarded for their efforts. Robin van Persie sent The Emirates into raptures after several passes outside the Norwich area finally broke to the in-form striker who blasted home The Gunners’ third and his 30th Premier League goal of the season.
With only 10 minutes left to play and the Gunners in control, it seemed conclusive that the north London side were going to bag all three points.
However, there was to be a final twist in the tale. In the 85th minute Steve Morison broke clear of the Arsenal defence and smashed in a low, hard shot into the far post of Szczesny’s goal.
Arsenal looked to have a clear penalty dismissed late on by Anthony Taylor when Van Persie was bundled over in the box by Kyle Naughton.
The result still leaves Arsenal sitting in third position, but will have to depend on others to do their bidding.
Tottenham and Newcastle can both potentially leapfrog the Gunners if they manage to bag victories in their respective games this weekend.
So with that in mind, what FIVE things did we learn from today’s game?
Give us your thoughts
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Wenger does not know what he is doing
1. Ramsey must be a sub!
2. Gervinho is weak, also just a sub standard!
3. Szczesny need to learn to be CALM, and know where to
kick the ball!
4. We REALLY NEED A NEW CB TO GET MOST OF
VERMAELEN AND KOSCIELNY!
5. AOC is pushing for a start!!!
6. No one can leave Arsenal! All must be blame and put
us back on the map!
7. Podolski gonna be a starter..!
8. Next season
szczesny
Sagna-Koscielny-vermaelen-Gibbs.
Song
Arteta – Wilshere
AOC – Van Persie – Podolski
NEW GK
Coquelin – Mertesacker – NEW CB – Santos
NEW DM ENFORCER.
Ramsey – Rosicky
Walcott – NEW FORWARD – Gervinho
Fabianski, Diaby, Frimpong, Wellington Silva, Ryo
The rest that doesnt been mentioned must be KICK OUT or LOAN!!
Good one from you,but you are missing the most important factor and that is Arsene Wenger. If you say Gerv is weak,Ramsey is poor and MC29 has to leave then you are 100% right because it’s the true reflection of our manager AW. He’s our number one problem.
We learnt that anthony taylor wud need kick on his nutsacks to adjudge a penalty..denying us three penalties..he was clearly sleepwalking..and that last push from naughton was jus a blatant decision both by the refree and his good for ntn assistant!!dumb FA shud charge such refs and reprimand them frm games until they learn their lesson!!
You forgot to mention the 2 blatant penalties for Norwich in the first half, plus Ramsey’s 2nd yellow, & Benayoun was lucky to stay on the pitch. Yup, I agree, a pretty useless ref.
Oh, & the linesperson missed the blatant offside just before Naughton fouled RVP. Free kick to NCFC then.
Belting game though!!
The 5 things confirmed today ;
We do not have good enough players.
Annually we make the same mistakes, the team have no idea how to defend.
Other than his ‘dink’, Alex Song is the most over-rated midfielder we have.
We waste millions on wages & crap buys.
Paid £7m a year, Arsene Wenger is to blame. RESIGN NOW.
…that is my position: Mr Wenger deserves a break with Arsenal; give this gentlemn another 15years, his style cant deliver any trophy!
He (undoubtedly) has done tremendous work in d past but those were d days of 2-horse race but now d bar has been raised!
@Malaysian: You are clearly blind. Gervinho was in the thick of things throughtout the match. Half the chances were thanks to him. Blame others and nt someone who is workin their ass of for the team.
Spot on he was so incisive In the second half. I was there and it was a lack of professionalism that cost us again, anyone could see we were asking for trouble after we scored our third an that’s what we got, we could of just held onto the ball. But also the refs was a joke yet again, I’m sick of it but as fans we are powerless
Holding the ball is something the arsenal players are clearly not good at. Thats where we miss arteta. Hes someone who wud take the ball fwd out of our half. Song is good but he needs an equally good partner on his side to keep the defensive side of our team goin. Injuries at the wrong time have been a problem for us since ages!!what luck!!nw no sagna,theo,jack,arteta,per. Thats an awful long list of players injured. And we as fans are clearly powerless against refs like taylor..but then FA shud clearly take some action against such refs..they shud be warned..
Nothing, because we had too many of these games and learned nothing. Only way to win these games is to have a new manager. Wenger had his days and it is time for him to move on. Managers from lower end of the table know how to win matches with worse players. In the transfer market he is too cheap, bought too many dud players and used wrong subs too often among other mistakes. It’s past time to replace him.
Why blame the manager!? It was vermaelan’s mistake that morrison scored. It was song’s complacency that allowed the canaries to pounce on our seemingly incapable goalkeeper. Why blame the manager??blame the defense..but you won’t..u wud jus wanna have a go at our manager.
Who manages the defense or rather whose job is it to find someone to coach the defense?
Okay so when vermaelan and the defense work together to get a clean sheet against the opposition then ppl praise them..say gr8 things abt em..they say wengers brought in some gems to club yet again..but when they fail to defend..its the managers fault!!why!?hes done everything he could to make that defense work!!and until today verm nd kos have been really good together..today too kos was brilliant but verm was jus interested in scoring goals..and song wanted to play dribble dribble with canaries!!
It’s Arsene’s job to put the players in their place. Why did he just sit there with a long face when TV5 was trying to play striker? You constantly see other great managers communicating with their players from the sdieleines, whereas Arsene is only interested in shouting at the refs.
Wenger has been coddling this team too much. You think Fergie would start Ramsey in his team based on these performances every week? Fergie isn’t afraid to bench his 30M Berba to show him that he either needs to shape up or ship out. Wenger rewards mediocre players by playing them every week no matter how bad they’ve been – why else was Almuina our first choice keeper for a good 3-4 years and this is why Squidface has still been on our payroll despite playing less games in 2 years than I have fingers on one hand.
Every year for 7 we have won nothing. Different players,transfers in and out, young players developed, the new stadium, 60,000 seats sold. The one constanat has been M. Wenger. Do none of you blind loyalists recognise that the long drought just might have something to do with the Manager ???
We learned that:
1. Recently promoted Norwich City have better striking options than Champions League Arsenal.
2. Arsenal need a defence coach.
3. Robin van Persie is the only world class player at Arsenal and he must be tempted to be on his way.
4. We will be very lucky to qualify for the Champions League next year.
5. Our goalkeeper needs a serious challenger.
Though most of that we knew already and failed to take action on.
Wenger will allow no other coach to have the smallest say. And he himself will ” nevere abandon his attacking principles.” Blind loyalists can look forward to more of the same next season.
Mr wenger, i love you so much and i Respect you
but do not loose your digity ove your own phylosophy,,
its too much for the supporters, just imagine, if you can step into the shoes of supporters,
to be honnest i dont think we should be fighting
for places, why we have produced great players not future players, just think of what you are
doing, if Ramsey is relly not good enough please
change the tactics, please,, as a teacher stop admiting, in a stupid way that 3rd is giong to be difficull, open up your eyes and wake up!
DEMPSEY,
PODOLSKI
M’VILA
AJAX DEFENDER
HARZARD
PLEASE DO US A FAVOUR
Its time Wenger quit and stop torturing fans with his stubborn pride. He cares more about his pride than he does about the fans and that is why we keep seeing the same stupid mistakes by the same stupid players season after season. We need new hope and that means a new manager because if one things for sure, it’s that under Wenger nothing is going to change.
Correct
1) RVP will be dropped form Holland’s Euro squad due to back problems from carrying this Arsenal team all season
2) Ramsey doesn’t know what his role on the pitch is and if he did he isn’t good enough to do
3) Vertonghen can’t be signed fast enough. Our defense is consistently poor and has been for years but Arsene believes that football only works by attacking
4) We need a serious competitor for Song. Although he had brilliant moments going forward, he also did not protect the back four with enough discipline. He needs someone as good or better than him in his position to push him to make better decisions on the pitch about when to go forward and when to sit back and lock shop
5) We have very little say now in getting a CL spot since we’ve failed to win any of our last 5 games