Arsenal need a winning mentality

Good  morning,

It’s been a while since I’ve sat in my chair at home, laptop...on my lap, composing a post on the mighty Gunners. The reasons are twofold. One, work has left me extremely busy of late. Two, the thought of going over the United game put me off. I thought about leaving it even longer, the international break leaves us with little in the way of Arsenal news and views.

There’s talk of injuries mounting for Arsenal players whilst away on international duty. Vermaelen, Szczesny, Mertesacker, Rosicky and Ozil are to name a few. Add that to the list which is keeping the Arsenal medical staff from ever taking a break and that’s a long list. If it wasn’t for a two week break u=i might be worried...*gulp*

I don’t think any of these new injuries will be anything to worry too much about. I expect they’ll be little niggles that will be miraculously sorted in a few days. Either that or those players mentioned are established internationals who realise that these fixtures are meaningless, pointless and shit-givingless. I imagine that the players realise that they are at a crucial point in the league and any rest that can be gained will be valuable.

Our next fixture is Southampton at home, not the easiest fixture considering they’ve managed to place themselves 3^rd in the table. I sure I am among many that believe this won’t be a permanent sight. It’s fantastic for them but realistically we all know it can’t last. The same can be said for City, Chelsea, United and even Sp*rs. They’re not going to remain in a position of dropping points against smaller teams. Sooner or later they’re going to click and we’re going to have to keep pushing them all the way.

United was out toughest test so far this season. Dortmund was tough but relatively unknown. Yes we know they’re good but how many times have we played them over the past 5 years? To date 4 times in the champions league. With us edging it at 2W 1D 1L. Compare that to United over the past 5 years and that’s a completely different story. Over the last 5 years (if my stats are correct) we stand at 2W 3D 12L, 17 times in the league, FA cup and Champions League. Looking at those stats it’s easy to see who Arsenal find it tougher to face.

Considering the amount of times we’ve faced United, we know what they bring every time. The team knows all about the pressure, the quality and history of the team, the players and the coach. Even Moyes has been around for ages even if it was at Everton. Dortmund was relatively unknown. We knew they we good and had some good players but because they hadn’t been getting the better of us over the past few years we had nothing to fear.

I’ve left it until now to talk about the United game because it’s given everyone time to read match reports and analogies. Everyone will have been able to look into the areas of the team which underperformed. The fact is physiologically they already had us beat. Massive amounts of money are going into the mentality of sportsmen and women. It’s the next big thing along with nutrition. In some respects it’s just as important as the fitness. If a player isn’t mentally ready and fit then all the fitness in the world won’t do them any good if they cannot concentrate for 90 minutes.

Until we can beat that mentality then we’re always going to be struggling. Perhaps if we’d been undefeated in all competitions from the start of the season then that would have given us an extra advantage. Yes we’ve been playing well but like everyone else we haven’t been without fault. Winning a cup, or the league would do it but there’s a long way between now and then.

The “fear factor” is a huge thing. Look at City. In the past 5 years (since they’ve been taken over) our head to head is W5 D3 L6. Fairly even but if you look at our results the 5 years before the millions W9 D1 L1. Just shows what a bit of money, success and a case of the “Barry big banana’s” will do. I know it’s not all down to mental state. They’ve spent all that money on trying to buy the best players around. But you have to admit, we all get that nervous feeling against those top teams. Call it respect, call it fear, call it what you want it’s a factor that’s holding us back.

If we want to seriously compete this season e need to eliminate those factors. We can’t rely on the big teams to keep dropping points, we need to take them off them.

Until next time.