Staying Grounded – The Verdict

Just as Martin O’Neill rushed to quell a positive over reaction to the Man U win, he doesn’t want a negative over reaction to our Arsenal loss.

Today backed up the thoughts of many when it comes to our current squad, when a supposed Top 4 team doesn’t completely turn up now the chances are we will get the result, when in previous years we’d have probably still lost. However, when they turn up, they are a different class.

That was in reality all that happened today, we weren’t at our best, and Arsenal were – Fabregas especially – and we were quite rightly mullered.

It’ll happen, but not many teams will put three past us this season, so sometimes you just have to hold your hands up.

Speaking on the Official Site following the 3-0 loss, Monny refused to draw too many conclusions from either the performance or the result admitting that Fabregas was ‘immense’ and was ultimately the main difference between the two teams overall.

Commenting that we were more than in the game until the free kick, he said:

‘He has made a major impact on the game, he has turned the game for Arsenal completely.’

But with Liverpool up next, only 48 hours later, Monny is adamant that the game should by rights be forgotten and put down to one of those things, and we just keep going. We just keep doing what we have done over the last few weeks where performances have been good and results have gone our way.

We cannot let this result, get in the way of us picking up three points against the Scousers.

‘We don’t have much time to reflect on it. We just have to get on with it and we’ve got a major game coming up.’

All Monny would offer on our performance today was the disappointment he and the lads obviously feel at working hard to close them down and win the ball back, yet (ala Milner for the goal) almost giving it straight back to them by some substandard passing.

As for what the rest of the season brings, as many fans no doubt can’t avoid seeing parallels to last, Monny simply adds:

‘It is up to us now in the second half to see if we can maintain the form that has put us there in the first place.’

Fingers crossed, Top 4 may still be a step too far but finishing 5th IF we can also keep our Cup run going, would still be an improvement and surely the least we aim for at this stage.