As you might have guessed, the above is a list of the sides that have held the Gunners to league draws this season. Besides ManU and (to much a lesser extent) Charlton, notice any common connection between the remaining teams? You got it...they are absolutely mediocre teams. Why does Arsenal struggle to get wins against these teams? Arsene always speaks of treating every opponant with equal amounts of respect, regardless if they are top or bottom of the table. But the teams that give Arsenal problems seem to be coming from the bottom half. The phenomena also appears in the Champions League, with Arsenal struggling mightily to get results against the much weaker Russian teams. Is this just a coincidence or are the players not heeding Arsene's directions? Or is it something else?
Some of these mediocre teams you mention have turned over some of our main rivals this season, so the points we have taken from these game, so maybe we should be thankful for small mercies, even though after 24 games unbeaten there should be a bigger gap between us and the teams below us
Or do you not think it a tad unrealistic to expect us to have won every game so far this season. With regards to the weak russian team, wouldn't that be the same one that are also in the second round of the champions league? The one's that stuffed Inter Milan 3-0 at home and got a 1-1 draw away? And Dynamo Kiev are a very good side and have been for many years. Not more than 4 years ago, they were an away goal ruling away from being in the champions league FINAL. Something we are yet to ever achieve.
I am in no way suggesting that Arsenal should win every game. I do see a trend of the Gunners struggling against teams that are struggling themselves, and I am just trying to find out why that is. If we can get results against Chelsea, Newcastle, and Liverpool, why not lowly Portsmouth and Leicster?
It's a funny old game. But seriously, that's just the way the ball bounces sometimes. Along that line of thinking, this mid-week match against Soton might be tricky. Especially, if the players are looking ahead toward Chelsea.
in the case of Fulham they played 11 behind the ball and only had 2 shots the whole game so that could be a reason why we struggle. it is a little hard to score when there is about 18-20 people in one half of the field.
Southampton, Fulham, Chelsea and Wolves. As you may have guessed, these four teams BEAT Man United this year, something neither they or anybody else has managed to do against us. With the possible exception of Chelsea, those teams have no business beating Man U, yet they did. As the famous German national coach Sepp Herberger was found of saying, "the ball is round." Sometimes it rolls your way, sometimes it doesn't.