ARSENAL MANAGER ARSENE Wenger feels that no Premier League side is capable of catching Chelsea this season.
The Blues have made an unbeaten start to the campaign, with Saturday’s win over Liverpool their ninth from 11 matches, leaving them four points clear of second-placed Southampton.
Reigning champions Manchester City are a further four points adrift while the Gunners are 12 points behind following their 2-1 defeat at Swansea City.
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Liverpool and Manchester United are even further adrift, and Wenger does not believe that, on current form, anyone will stop the Stamford Bridge outfit from lifting the trophy.
“At the moment Chelsea are on course for 100 points this season,” he told reporters. “If you look at the number of points they have, if they keep that up nobody will catch them, that’s for sure.
“There doesn’t look to be anybody capable to challenge them at the moment.
“They had a good start, and we have gone through that [in the past], as long as you don’t lose, you don’t question yourself, there is a little bit extra spirit in the team that, when it is tight, [that] gets them through.”
Goals from Gylfi Sigurdsson and Bafetimbi Gomis secured victory for Garry Monk’s side over the Emirates Stadium outfit as Wenger’s team allowed a lead to slip away from them for the second time in a week.
On Wednesday, Arsenal allowed Anderlecht to come back from 3-0 down to claim a draw in the Champions League, and after the Swans turned the game on its head following Alexis Sanchez’s opener, the former Monaco boss admitted his team had suffered a poor few days.
“We had a very disappointing week, considering the performances we produced and the end result we got it’s very disappointing.
“We were 3-0 up against Anderlecht and 1-0 up today and in the end we lose two points against Anderlecht and three points today.
“I think it’s very disappointing because you have to be capable, once you are 1-0 up and a big team, to win the game.”
The hierarchy at Arsenal need to seriously question the merit of keeping with Wenger going forward. Sanchez has been an excellent acquisition but all the others are either playing below their best (Ramsey, Cazorla) or simply aren’t good enough (Wilshere, Monreal). Over a decade without winning the PL – the time is now right to part company with Wenger.
Wenger has been exceptional for Arsenal and they will regret the day he moves on, however his point blank refusal to invest defensive cornerstones while buying more and more of the same type of lightweight creatively gifted players mean they are always open to being exposed. Seriously as excellent as Sanchez has been (an Chambers and Debuchy will prove good signings) but Aresnal have been crying out for a player like Matic since the day Vieira left the club, their defence if far from exceptional but the difference a proper anchor man in front of it would make.
Well Arsenal certainly won’t be catching them anyway with that fraud of a manager, monreal is playing centre half for the love of god he’s the worst left back in the league and we have him playing centre half, every fan should be calling for wengers head.
It’s easy to say that, but if it was up to you and you only to fire Wenger and find a replacement, what would you do? It’s not easy, maybe you’d go for Jurgen Klopp, but he’s struggled recently in Dortmund? Obviously a Mourinho/Guardiola is out of the question given that they’re at better clubs right now. You could try the exciting young manager route, but then you look at Spurs and Mauricio Pochettino and you see how he’s struggled to adapt to a bigger team. And while Ronald Koeman is doing excellent work at Southampton, expectations were so low coming into the year, that he’s been able to work in a low pressure environment.
Add this to the fact top players come to Arsenal to work with somebody like Wenger who past greats speak so highly of, and it’s hard to get rid of him. I’m as frustrated as anybody watching Monreal flap around cluelessly at centre back, but right now, I don’t see another viable option? Wenger won a trophy last year and everything, is dealing with some injuries but has messed up the defence horribly in fairness, especially in not replacing Vermaelen, but what can you do?
Yeah I see your point but this club needs a change we are not seeing any real progress. I was delighted with the FA Cup win and thought we might build from there and although it’s still early I just don’t see it happening. It’s easy to see we don’t have enough quality CB’s but also for years upon years we are crying out for a defensive midfielder even if we had resigned Alex Song I think it would have been a good move. Players like flamini and arteta have no real presence in midfield, Arsene signed these types of players in the past e.g. Gilberto Silva who was always one of my favourite players but for some reason he refuses to see the bigger picture these days.
Klopp is currently struggling with Borrussia Dortmund but he’s done a fantastic job which isn’t easy as they have been a feeder club for Bayern Munich in recent years so I do think he would be a good replacement for Wenger and it may even attract the likes of Hummels and Sven Bender to Arsenal, types of players we desperately need.
I agree, I would have loved to have seen Song back! He’s aggressive and knows the Arsenal way of playing having been there before! I loved Gilberto as well, and he was converted into a DM and everything!
I think part of it for me is fear of the unknown in that Wenger is all I’ve ever known as a manager, and you only have to look at Man United to see how hard it can be to move on from a manager who has been at the helm so long. He’s blatant refusal to shut up shop when winning is madness, it’s either his way or no way, and it’s really frustrating! To me this is the best Arsenal squad, when fully fit, since maybe the Invincibles, and a defensive minded player and another centre back would really bring it all together! Sadly though, I don’t think that’s gonna happen anytime soon so for now it’s having to accept being 3-0 up at home with a half hour to go and drawing 3-3 with a good, but not spectacular, Anderlecht team! Even against Swansea, I could see they were gonna score, surely Wenger could see it too?!
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He usually comes out with nonsense but he’s right on this occasion. Pains me to say it but Chelsea are unstoppable.
This is kind of new, he usually doesn’t concede that we’re out of the race until early March when there’s a 21 point gap!
The hierarchy at Arsenal need to seriously question the merit of keeping with Wenger going forward. Sanchez has been an excellent acquisition but all the others are either playing below their best (Ramsey, Cazorla) or simply aren’t good enough (Wilshere, Monreal). Over a decade without winning the PL – the time is now right to part company with Wenger.
Wilshere is good enough
Wenger has been exceptional for Arsenal and they will regret the day he moves on, however his point blank refusal to invest defensive cornerstones while buying more and more of the same type of lightweight creatively gifted players mean they are always open to being exposed. Seriously as excellent as Sanchez has been (an Chambers and Debuchy will prove good signings) but Aresnal have been crying out for a player like Matic since the day Vieira left the club, their defence if far from exceptional but the difference a proper anchor man in front of it would make.
Well Arsenal certainly won’t be catching them anyway with that fraud of a manager, monreal is playing centre half for the love of god he’s the worst left back in the league and we have him playing centre half, every fan should be calling for wengers head.
It’s easy to say that, but if it was up to you and you only to fire Wenger and find a replacement, what would you do? It’s not easy, maybe you’d go for Jurgen Klopp, but he’s struggled recently in Dortmund? Obviously a Mourinho/Guardiola is out of the question given that they’re at better clubs right now. You could try the exciting young manager route, but then you look at Spurs and Mauricio Pochettino and you see how he’s struggled to adapt to a bigger team. And while Ronald Koeman is doing excellent work at Southampton, expectations were so low coming into the year, that he’s been able to work in a low pressure environment.
Add this to the fact top players come to Arsenal to work with somebody like Wenger who past greats speak so highly of, and it’s hard to get rid of him. I’m as frustrated as anybody watching Monreal flap around cluelessly at centre back, but right now, I don’t see another viable option? Wenger won a trophy last year and everything, is dealing with some injuries but has messed up the defence horribly in fairness, especially in not replacing Vermaelen, but what can you do?
Yeah I see your point but this club needs a change we are not seeing any real progress. I was delighted with the FA Cup win and thought we might build from there and although it’s still early I just don’t see it happening. It’s easy to see we don’t have enough quality CB’s but also for years upon years we are crying out for a defensive midfielder even if we had resigned Alex Song I think it would have been a good move. Players like flamini and arteta have no real presence in midfield, Arsene signed these types of players in the past e.g. Gilberto Silva who was always one of my favourite players but for some reason he refuses to see the bigger picture these days.
Klopp is currently struggling with Borrussia Dortmund but he’s done a fantastic job which isn’t easy as they have been a feeder club for Bayern Munich in recent years so I do think he would be a good replacement for Wenger and it may even attract the likes of Hummels and Sven Bender to Arsenal, types of players we desperately need.
I agree, I would have loved to have seen Song back! He’s aggressive and knows the Arsenal way of playing having been there before! I loved Gilberto as well, and he was converted into a DM and everything!
I think part of it for me is fear of the unknown in that Wenger is all I’ve ever known as a manager, and you only have to look at Man United to see how hard it can be to move on from a manager who has been at the helm so long. He’s blatant refusal to shut up shop when winning is madness, it’s either his way or no way, and it’s really frustrating! To me this is the best Arsenal squad, when fully fit, since maybe the Invincibles, and a defensive minded player and another centre back would really bring it all together! Sadly though, I don’t think that’s gonna happen anytime soon so for now it’s having to accept being 3-0 up at home with a half hour to go and drawing 3-3 with a good, but not spectacular, Anderlecht team! Even against Swansea, I could see they were gonna score, surely Wenger could see it too?!