Szczesny (and Wenger) happy with 0-0 draw and a clean sheet against Villa
Arsene Wenger has been bombarded with criticism this week after Arsenal only managed a 0-0 draw away at Aston Villa, but Wojciech Szczesny thinks that is quite a good result considering it was their third game in ten days, and it could have been worse if Szczesny hadn’t pulled off an excellent save to deny Brett Holman’s long-range effort towards the end of the game.
“They had a few shots on goal so it was not difficult to keep my focus but I was happy with the save,” Szczesny said. “They have lost their last two games and their desire tonight not to concede was great so they made it very difficult, you have to give them credit for not letting us score.
“In the end we would take the draw and are happy with a clean sheet, those are the main positives.”
Wenger echoed the same sentiments, as he felt that his team was tired after the Champions League win over Montpellier in midweek. “We had a difficult week, and a good week where the team gave absolutely everything.” Wenger said.
“I told you, we had two difficult games in the championship – not everybody will come here and win. After the Champions League game, when you play away from home, you can make a draw, it can happen. We could have won the game, we could have lost the game. You have to respect Aston Villa as well.”
Although there has been quite an hysterical reaction from a lot of Arsenal fans after the draw, this result means we are only six points behind West Brom in third place, so a win against Everton on Wednesday is now extremely important as David Moyes side are one point ahead of us in 5th.
“It will be a six-pointer,” Szczesny said. “It will be a very good game for us to win. We managed to get three points last year and it was a really tough match.
“We are outside the top four so our first target is to reach that top four. But our ambitions are much higher than that.
“We have managed to get a couple of good results recently. It would have been good if we had won on Saturday but we shall take it game by game and hope for the best. We need to climb the table and hopefully do well in the other competitions as well.
“I think the last two matches against Tottenham and Montpellier, offensively we have played really well. We have had a few disappointing performances before that, so it’s important we get back to that level and I think we are in a good position to do so.”
Everton are in excellent form this year, and are unbeaten at Goodison Park since March (when Arsenal won 0-1). On paper this game should be a lot harder than the one against Villa, but even if we have to settle for another draw that could be a very important point at the end of the season…..
Szczesny played well,good to see him returning back to form.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
32 
0
Ya wenger v knw dat ur always happy wid a top 4 finish!!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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Off course they are happy with a draw, remember fourth place is a trophy, a winger is a striker and now a draw is a win. What next.
I said it before i will say it again. there’s nothing wrong with the team it all comes down to poor management. Look at our poor team selections, lack of movement off the ball, motivation, passion, lack of depth in the squad. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. People who know football will tell you! I have a brain to disagree with David Seaman that Wenger is not to blame. Take into account what other legends like Ray Palour, Tony Adams, Ian Wright have been warning us about, and guess what as much as we didn’t like them saying these things, they were right!!!
An Arsenal fan group, Where Has Our Arsenal Gone? are planning a demonstration before the Gunners’ clash with Swansea City on December 1, against a perceived lack of action from the club’s board.
Supporters will demand that minority shareholder Alisher Usmanov be given a seat on the board and a change Arsenal’s ticketing policy which sees them offer the most expensive season ticket in the country at £1,955.
Other issues to be raised include player wages and contracts, while they are also set to demand to know who decides which players are brought into the club. Why is Arsene Wenger not taken to task on poor performances etc. Why the poor team selection? Why the lack of depth in the squad? Fitness of players? The medical/fitness team: Why so much injuries and poor recovery of players compared to other teams?
“We’ve been sold the future for five years now, that tomorrow we’ll arrive at the promised land,” group spokesperson Marc Harold told The London Evening Standard.
“We aren’t labelling it as a protest march, although we are demanding changes at boardroom level. The board has lost focus, is complacent and insular, feeling all is rosy at Arsenal when it most certainly isn’t.
“We have done this before [in May 2011] and the turnout was a few hundred. I’d safely say that number will be quite a bit bigger this time.”
A tense club AGM was held last month that saw manager Arsene Wenger and chief executive Ivan Gazidis grilled on the club’s matchday pricing and lack of success on the pitch.
Opinions divided. What do you think?
11 
8
why is everybody saying we need a backup/replacement keeper for sczezney? he is doing great with vito not doing a bad job for backup when required. kick back lads, the pol knows whats up.
Opinions divided. What do you think?
11 
4
Off course they are happy with a draw, remember fourth place is a trophy, a winger is a striker and now a draw is a win. What next.
I said it before i will say it again. there’s nothing wrong with the team it all comes down to poor management. Look at our poor team selections, lack of movement off the ball, motivation, passion, lack of depth in the squad. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. People who know football will tell you! I have a brain to disagree with David Seaman that Wenger is not to blame. Take into account what other legends like Ray Palour, Tony Adams, Ian Wright have been warning us about, and guess what as much as we didn’t like them saying these things, they were right!!!
An Arsenal fan group, Where Has Our Arsenal Gone? are planning a demonstration before the Gunners’ clash with Swansea City on December 1, against a perceived lack of action from the club’s board.
Supporters will demand that minority shareholder Alisher Usmanov be given a seat on the board and a change Arsenal’s ticketing policy which sees them offer the most expensive season ticket in the country at £1,955.
Other issues to be raised include player wages and contracts, while they are also set to demand to know who decides which players are brought into the club. Why is Arsene Wenger not taken to task on poor performances etc. Why the poor team selection? Why the lack of depth in the squad? Fitness of players? The medical/fitness team: Why so much injuries and poor recovery of players compared to other teams?
“We’ve been sold the future for five years now, that tomorrow we’ll arrive at the promised land,” group spokesperson Marc Harold told The London Evening Standard.
“We aren’t labelling it as a protest march, although we are demanding changes at boardroom level. The board has lost focus, is complacent and insular, feeling all is rosy at Arsenal when it most certainly isn’t.
“We have done this before [in May 2011] and the turnout was a few hundred. I’d safely say that number will be quite a bit bigger this time.”
A tense club AGM was held last month that saw manager Arsene Wenger and chief executive Ivan Gazidis grilled on the club’s matchday pricing and lack of success on the pitch.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
19 
5
Such a great keeper when he’s on-form.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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@Mikey
While i disagree with protests, as they rarely make that much of a difference, i totally agree with what you’ve said. We all love Wenger, he’s given us some amazing memories. But they are fast becoming distant memories. The last thing i’d want to see change is our manager, but “fans” who are blinkered by thinking that everyone should just stay behind Wenger because we should are wrong. We have seen him time and again make changes to our team that have not cost the earth but have made a massive impact to our team. But teams like Chelsea, City, PSG and so on have caused transfer prices to soar. The board must make funds available for big transfers, the club must break the wage structure to keep big names at Arsenal and Arsene must realise that todays inflated prices mean that shelling out 12-15 million for a player can still be a bargain! These things must change other wise, our club will never be competitive until the money clubs are totally restricted to spending a limit.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
10 
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OMG they happy with draw result against villa.. they are 18th and well well clean sheet? villa didnt even threat us seriously. it was a poor display by arsenal, admit it. lack of ambition? definitely. i still cant understand why wenger always play with the same players week in week out as he forgets that we are in 4 competitions currently..
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Can we please just stop dwelling in the past! Yes we had a fairly dissapointing draw against Villa, but that’s behind us now let’s look forward to the Everton game anf focus on getting a good result there! Let’s just get behind the team and hope that we can string a couple of wins together and get us vack in the top 4!
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7 
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None of its worth stressing out about. These clubs are in it to make or launder big money. The corruption has set in and there is fu ck all anyone can do about it. Us fans might as well just put up or shut up!
Were not going too bad in the grand scheme of things. Not many other clubs have got a better stadium than ours. One thing that pissed me off though is its so fu cking quiet. Everyone of us should be shouting and screaming the entire game getting behind the team. Create an atmosphere so intense it scares the shit out of the opposition. We do that.. no player will want to leave.
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forget about invicible team and anything, arsenal was building some foundation, but the shit board just broke it.
we just need to calmly and wait until end of season
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Though he’s given us sumthings in d past bt dey’ve bt that has gone let him give us new tins……ask ur yunger broda who startd supportin arsenal at d age of 7 and he’s nw 15 dat has e ever seen arsenal lift any major trophy since he startd supportin dem?..d ansa is no bt ask d one who supports chelshit,manure or shitty even livrpul d ansa i yes…..sum will say spurs,everton and odas has also neva won 4 a lng tym bt dose are lesser teams with less xpectations 4rm dem…..bt my arsenal is a big name in d world of futbal 4 God’s sake……dis is d same team dat went a whole season unbeaten nw hasnt won anytin 4 d past 8 yeaz…..plz wenger and board we want our arsenal back even u (wenger) were d 1 who built it or shuld we say we want our wenger-arsenal back…..lolzzz
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Man City also played a Champions League game during the week… I didn’t hear Mancini blaming their Champions League exertions for the 0-0 draw with Chelsea. Different managers; different excuses.
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First of all, I’m disappointed by the result. But retrospectively thinking, after the game against Rottenham, Wenger prioritised the CL and played Jack and the rest. Man United had the luxury of resting RVP and Rooney. Chelsea rested Mata and lost 3-0 and are almost out. City rested Tevez and they’re out…
Now that Qualification is done, Arsenal only had to win at Villa and everyone would be happy. But the players were tired, conditions were bad, lot of rain, not easy to pass, people were slipping everywhere…
People were talking about Arsenal not keeping a clean sheet in a long time…
Lets hope to beat Everton and continue our climb in the League Table.
Luckily, not a long wait. Mid-week matches.
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There are positives, Wilshere and Sagna got much needed rest, like said we got a clean sheet, Gibbs is back and the game will have done him good, Szczezzers looking good and has made two crucial saves in the last two games
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Shut up dumb Keeper!
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Sunderland – 2 points
Stoke- 2 points
Man city – 2 points
Nowrich – 3 points
Fullham – 2 points
Aston Villa- 2 points.
Games we should of won but messed up. Thats a total of 13 points we dropped. Add 13 to the 19 we have = 32 points. Man Utd = 30 points.
If we cant win games against teams we should off not a chance of winning anything.
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if you want an arsenal fa’s honest view on the match, no one is statisfied but glad we had a clean sheet run. wondered what wenger sees in ramsey! why didnt he started with wilshere on the squad! these games are crucial! we all know it! enough with 4th and 3th places. lets go for a change hit a trophy this season! GO GUNNERS!
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Even the best teams in the world get away draws, it was terrible conditions and I’m fine with a point, if fans are getting angry at away draws we have unrealistic expectations.
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