Arsenal have a habit of dropping points immediately after a loss so we must be on our toes against Shakhtar.
The Gunners are heading into the third round of UCL fixtures off the back of a loss to Bournemouth at the weekend and will therefore be hoping to use Shakhtar to get back to winning ways ahead of the game against Liverpool on Sunday evening.
After that stinging loss, we would’ve loved to have more time to lick our wounds but the fixture schedule says otherwise in what will be a busy season ahead. We missed the opportunity to stay close to the top two.
Today we have a chance to not make that same mistake in the Champions League. The Gunners are five places off the automatic qualification spots for the round of 16, and even though it’s still early days in the campaign, winning and staying close to those spots are imperative to avoid the extra games that the qualification play-offs will bring.
With that said, beating Shakhtar Donetsk will be a must, not only for our confidence but for the UCL campaign as well. However we must be on our toes due to our tendency of dropping points after a loss in the last year or so. Indeed since we beat City one nil last year, each loss we’ve had after an unbeaten sequence has led to dropped points in the following game, barring only the Porto game away from home last season, where we followed that up with a 4-1 thrashing of Newcastle at the Emirates.
We tend to let a loss get a dent in our confidence in the following game for a while now, so Arsenal should be mindful of that and just do what needs to be done for us to get the win. Any UCL game is a difficult fixture, but these are the sort of games we need to be winning consistently if we hope to potentially win this competition soon!!
Score predictions, gooners?
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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The sensationalism and over the top panicked as always after a bad day at the office.
Anyone that thought or thinks that with a 38 game season you won’t experience a result here and there against any team is just a gullible sensationalist. We are going to drop more points as will Man City, Liverpool and everyone else as the season progresses.
That’s how the league and real life works. This week was our bad week, next week or a month later it will be Man City, Liverpool etc that might have their bad day.
What we need is the calmness that this team has shown us for the last 3 season. No need to panic as this is football and we know that these happens results are part of the football reality. Arteta and the players know that they can’t let emotions and panic overtake their rationality.
We’ve been here before..
Just keep calm everyone..
It happens every season to every team in the league. What
Yes we have been here before and we came up empty handed every single time.
Perhaps those who are not calm have over 20 years of memories to back them up?
Unlike those who will excuse losses because they have put the manager before the club?
What did your calmness bring for the past two seasons where we ended up with nothing in a two-horse race and what is the difference this season in a five-horse race so far?
Tell me Goonster what is it that give you confidence that this time will be different? give me concrete argument and data not hopes and wishful thinking.
Yes, I agree but we’re suffering from over-expectation up until the defeat. It’s obviously true that all the teams with title ambitions will drop points, often unexpectedly as Arsenal found out. However, you wouldn’t have thought it that likely Arsenal would judging by some of the articles and posts on JA prior to Bournemouth. It was very much “Invincibles MkII”, “the greatest defence”, “World class players” etc. etc. and all that with around 20% of games actually played.
The worrying factor this season for me is discipline on the pitch. Three red cards in eight games are unacceptable, along with yellows for time-wasting. You’re right that “we’ve been here before” but, of course, we didn’t win anything on those occasions, so Arsenal doesn’t need self-inflicted damage.
Am in agreement with Goonerstar above, we must pick ourselves up and go again, and I wouldn’t surprise we bounce b⁶ack to winning ways.