Phillip says:

It wasn’t sagna, but song who failed to take the ball from walter before he hit the bar!

Mully says:

Thank god, it took 3 years, but its finally sunk in. Let’s hope you’re fellow Gooners follow your stance, as it’s the correct one, but from the comments on twitter it appears you’re still in the minority.

We are improving season after season, and with the prospect of Europe next season, a better quality of player should become available, its been a fantastic end to the season for us, and hopefully will be even better next week.

Mully

GoonerDave says:

I think some of your ratings were a bit harsh – I thought Sagna and Koscielny were our best players today. Szczesny, Djourou, Gibbs and Ramsey were just awful.
Our defenders are not the problem though – its our style and our lack of experience thats catching us time and again. Its great to have a conveyor belt of young players but they need to learn from older heads.
Credit to Stoke, Ill never forgive Shawcross for what I saw as reckless last year, but thats in the past and they wanted the victory more than we did today. They got what they deserved.
And so did we.

arsene knew says:

wow, breathtaking, amazing… not the arsenal today the mess we seem to be in, fantastic club, stadium, training ground and business, cash in the bank, proper business model (thanks to alan sugar tonight confirming this on tv) BUT… our manager has run out of ideas, i have heard from those inside the game that he has lost the dressing room… every single arsenal fan who goes to games knows the problems, a huge squad of players but only 12 of them are any good but many of them all play in midfield which is why we are the masters of the tippy tappy keep ball in the middle, which is great however we have no world class goalkeeper (not since seaman) arsene has never signed one, jens cost us the CL in paris, we have NO big tall centre back like sol, not one, we have small 6ft nothing nothings and JD who is tall would be better in midfield!, we have NO width, none, arshavin, nasri and rosicky who play wide are ALL midfiled players not wide players, so no width, no getting behind the defenders like giggs did today, and as for theo do me a favour, he is a small lightweight centre forward like defoe, scored a great goal at sperz up front, theo is played out of position on the wing as is bendtner… which brings me to strikers, we have er NONE rvp is fantastic but he is a second striker in the bergkamp mould, we have theo but he is on the wing, we have chamak and what the fuck, and we have the winger self styled best striker in the danish world who is suited to play for the likes of birmingham, he is no ian wright/henry/radford/stapleton… as for all the other squad players and those on loan they are all crap im afraid… so great midfield but nothing else which is why today happend… yes sometimes our amazing midfield 5 can win a game but its no way to win a trophy…. david dein leaving is the reason, fizman broke a winning team… and his legacy is to sell the club not to the person who is the 2nd richest man and richer than abramovich who wants to clear our debt and see our team win, no he sold it to a yank who knows NOTHING about our game and who borrowed the money to buy the club from deutch bank, who is silent but did say he will keep things exactly as they are!
so we are FUCKED

Innocky says:

Since Arsene Wenger and the Board that agrees with him are more interested in saving money and relying on 2nd grade or young players that do not cost them much, the best way for us fans to be heard will be to hit them also where it matters to them. Let us mobilize the supporters not to buy any annual (seasons) tickets until they buy strong and mature players especially in defense and at least two world class strikers.Talking to Arsene Wenger is worse than talking to a rock.So friends: Action Speaks Louder than Words. If we boycott the matches and sacrifice to watch on T.V for sure the message will be heard faster. HELP AND SPREAD THIS NEWS BEFORE MANY PEOPLE BUY ANY SEASONAL TICKETS” We are fed up of this total disrespect to the supporters.

SeattleGooner says:

This is rather off-topic, but after watching Gibbs get absolutely brutalized today, it got me wondering if maybe we havent been a bit hard on Clichy. Before I go too deep here, let me acknowledge the fact that he has made several errors, especially in terms of this season, which have cost us points. My wonder is: have we been making Gael Clichy a scapegoat for a poor backline?

Think for a second. Sagna has made errors this season as well, one of the most notable was the play that allowed Sp*rs to draw the penalty which saw them level a few weeks ago. Regardless, his play has generally been considered solid, and if I’m not mistaken he was named to the EPL team of the year?

NOW, realize that teams seem to attack our left side much more often then our right, for whatever reason. Clichy often is given much more responsibility than Sagna because he is often the focal point of the attack. Its nothing more than law of probability that say’s Clichy will make more mistakes the greater pressure he faces.

Add to that the fact that his centerback pairing he has teamed up with has changed on a year to year basis. In the last 2 years alone he has had 2 completely different backlines. Gallas and Vermaelen were more vulnerable in open play last year it seemed (probably because fancied themselves forwards on occasion) while Djourou/Koscielny can’t defend set pieces.

I say all of this, mostly, because of the rumors circulating about Clichy’s departure. The rumor’s to Madrid are long standing, and it strikes me that if Madrid sees quality, perhaps we Gooners aren’t looking hard enough. I know after watching Gibbs today i have reconsidered Clichy a bit. The man is only 3 years removed from a Team of the Year selection. The quality is there somewhere. Perhaps with a less frenzied central pair Clichy might have a shot. He does have attacking quality (on occasion).

Anyways, let the hatred rain down upon me.

tommy says:

Wow the more I think about everything that is wrong with the team the uglier it gets. We have massive problems, and the entire world, even former players know that Wenger needs to adapt, and that his youth project has gone as far as it can go. Just listen to the Invincibles, and you know they are pulling their punches. So the question now becomes is Wenger the man to fix Arsenal??? I used to think so, as long as he woke up and admitted the team needs experience to lead them over the hump,but the more I think about it I’m beginning to have doubts. There are a lot more problems than just the defence, and Wenger’s response and recent signings do not inspire confidence. We have to also consider that there are many veteran players who probably don’t want to play for Arsenal. Look at how Man City had to overpay to get their squad together. This is most likely why Wenger signed Squillaci—no one better wanted to come here. Cahill is probably holding out to see if Man U are interested,and who can blame him? This is truly tragic and it’s quite possible that because of the youth project we may not be able to attract any top talent until Wenger leaves….think about that.

nyanguge says:

stole fans please…dont tell us whats wrong with our team. You beat us, yes, and greece won the european championships. It happens, but can greece really be uttered in the same breath as brazil, holland or spain? No neither can stoke with arsenal. And arsenal fans shouldnt accept any critisism from stoke. They havent got 1 player that would even be fit for our bench. Unless we want the ball?to be thrown from one end to the other (delap), but wait, we play footbal, and havent got enough dry towels.

yinka says:

Arsene Wenger is a stubborn old fool that will never let his arrogance let him do the right thing.I wonder what players like Fabregas,Nasri,V.persie are doing at Arsenal.Wenger has turned Arsenal to his guinea pig and is intolerant of any counter view to his failed experiment.I will be surprised if the listed players are all in Arsenal next season;I expect at least one of them to leave.Its obvious teams have mastered Arsenal’s stereo type playing style,and the antidote to it is to simply form a cage around the 18 yard box which is where arsenal will try to enter before making any goal attempt,then hit Arsenal with counter attacks and set pieces.Guess what,it has proven to be the effective Arsenal neutralizer because we have a joke of a defence.Good coaches identify problems in their teams and rectify them(Alex Ferguson and Mourinho come to mind) but with Wenger,since he achieved success with the invincibles,his arrogance has spiraled out of control to the extent that he has cornered power in Arsenal that no coach in the world can boast of.A good coach will realize that when oppositions efficaciously handle Arsenal the way they do now,the best thing to do is to find:
(1) A goal poacher that V.persie will play behind(V.persie is a good play linker)
(2) Pacy wingers that will stretch opposition defenders and deliver quality crosses in,to be supported by full backs with dangerous crosses.Baines is a good full back with these qualities as he has the 4th highest assist in the league even though he is a defender.
(3) A quality centre back to partner Vermaleen.
Will Wenger make these changes?we all know he won’t as he is obssessed with his failure of a project as he will rather go decades trophyless than admit his faults and make changes.What an arrogant,chauvinistic brat!

stokestokestoke says:

From the game, I just didnt get why you were’nt playing 2 up front from the start?

also, I thought Bendtner (as much as I think he’s a waste of space usually) actually made you guys look half challenging in the second half being on that left wing.

Furthermore, taking Ramsey off is understandable but I think if he had gone out the second half I think Wenger should have given him the chance to really give it a go.

I think you miss Nasri more than Cesc, you lacked any sort of creativity bar a relatively low amount of Van Persie magic. Cash him in and get in 2 or 3 good quality players while hes at his peak price.

Was discussing with some arsenal fans. I think you really lack that definitive captain. I think Cesc isn’t right for you at this time, he should be concentrating on his creative play which I think hes starting to lose with the press slating arsenal for the lack of silverware, as admited by Wenger. Van Persie needs to develop further to be the ’striker captain’ like an Alan Shearer in my opinion. Though it sounds hypocritical considering Shawcross’s age, the reason why Ryan is captain is that he doesn’t just command the back 4 well as shown today, but the whole team as a unit, and his vision for the games is good aswell. While its great to see that your developing some great young talent, Ramsey actually being my favourite, I think you really need that Gallas/Campbell/Adams type at the back.

I think Cesc will be a great captain in the future (if he doesnt leave, which I hope for the benefit of your club he does), I dont think your getting his full potential by making him captain.

Goonster says:

Let’s face it. SAF is going to spend this summer to fill in the gaps his seasoned veterans are slowly leaving. Chelsea will spend b/c they didn’t win anything this year. Liverpool are likely to be a top 4 team next year. If City can keep most of their players they will only improve. If Spurs can afford to keep their top players they will be fighting again next year. Where does all of this put Arsenal? If Wenger stays true to form and makes little or no improvements for next year, we are looking at finishing somewhere around 5th-7th. Will missing out on the CL finally bring an end to this water treading policy that Arsene believes so strongly in? Do we need to lose money in order to finally be pushed to spend money? Might we go an entire decade w/o silverware? Some of you will call this doom and gloom, and in some ways it is. However it is also delusional to expect that we can continue doing things the same way and the “football gods” will some how bless our unwavering commitment with undeserved success.

Should Wenger go? I’m not there yet, but the board (and Mr. Kroenke) needs to put things in no uncertain terms for Arsene. Win something or move on. It’s time for Le Boss’s bosses to tell Wenger he must bolster the defense and he must hire a defensive coach.