I disagree. Clubs tend to play each match as a standalone game. If Arsenal feel the pressure in a league game with (say) 12 league games still to go then they are likely to feel even more pressure in a Cup final where it really is winner takes all. How can you say there is nothing to lose in a Cup final? It makes no sense.
I think the pressure of a season mounts. As much as clubs say "one game at a time" etc its just not true, they know with their competitiors picking up points they must to or be left behind.
Just look at the melting on here 10 days ago, and then try telling me the pressure doesnt add up ;O)
Season over, one off game, and as Billy says usually the underdog, having finished the season in strong form - yes, I think a cup game is entirely different.
And I think you just keep saying 'no, it's nothing to do with conditioning / peaking, it's mentality', but aren't offering any reason as to why it can't be the other way. It stands scrutiny as much that it could be mentality as it does conditioning.
I can't find the quote (I guess it may have been in Fergie's book) but he has spoken before about how Mourinho made him realise he needed to start seasons faster. Obviously he's a winner. Obviously his players see him as a winner. But if he's such a winner, why was he not 'trying' to start seasons as well as he could? What was holding him back from doing that? I'd argue that he needed to tweak their conditioning so they were able to start fast, and maybe they suffer a little bit more mid-season, but at least then Chelsea haven't pulled away. Saying 'they had to step up' does not easily conflate with Fergie being a serial winner who accepted nothing less. There must have been more to it than that. Why did Fergie accept less in those early games, if it is all about mentality?
Mourinho builds a siege mentality but I am talking within a season. He always starts quickly, he did it this season and he did it last season. That is not to do with his siege mentality overall, that is how he starts seasons, as he always does. And why is that? Is he more demanding with his team talks?
Arsenal don't just turn into energiser bunnies, and frankly I used to be totally bought into the idea that Arsenal played better when the pressure was off until I learned more. And I saw what Poch was doing with us, which then made a lot of sense. Arsenal playing well with no pressure is as much a narrative that we are only able to put the pressure on rather than be the leaders. I don't buy it - if we had more quality and depth, we'd be able to get out in front. And relative to our pre-season expectations, we were absolutely way ahead of where we needed to be last season for example.
I don't think they turn into bunnies, but I think there is a noticeable difference in the tempo that teams adopt over a season. Sometimes Arsenal are ponderous, and sometimes that's because they are just bad. But a lot of the time, I think they play a higher tempo because that is the time that they have prepped to play it, and that gives them a greater chance of winning, as that does to us. But let's say they played a high tempo but couldn't sustain it over a game, because they were knackered and hadn't peaked...they'd be more likely to get picked off and not win those games, because their strategy isn't aligned to their condition. That's why I think form is predictable. Mentality is different a part of it, but I don't think everything comes underneath it. I think it is all linked. How you motivate our group depends on the players we have, and how you get them to play, and train, and condition them is all linked to what kind of players we have. It is hollistic.
I compare our games against Swansea, WBA or Bournemouth at home to our games against Everton and Man United recently and it is absolute night and day, in terms of the tempo we adopt. It is a completely different pass selection that we use, we are a lot less safe, a lot more aggressive, and we are pouring forward at every opportunity. We are more patient in some of those earlier season games, and sometimes this gets written off that we just couldn't get going, but I think it's somewhat deliberate. We play a more patient style in earlier games or when we haven't peaked, and when we play a more aggressive style, it's because we are peaking, and we know we can sustain it rather than getting picked off. And maybe now, because we're peaking, we may be able to sustain it twice in a week for example, but we absolutely couldn't do it earlier in the season. We played a high tempo vs Madrid and then a slow game against Palace where we just needed the result. But there's a big argument to say if we tried to play the same way against Palace, they could well have picked us off particularly later in the game.
Im not saying its nothing to do with conditioning. Im saying conditioning is a small variable in the equation, mentality being the main thing that drives all else (including conditioning) and separates the teams at the end of the day.
We have seen as a club the impact of proper fitness. Conditioning is of course a thing. And yes, Ill even go with the idea that different managers have different points in the season where they hit top form.
But its not THE thing. Its not a defining thing. Its a thing that, at this level, is a minor variance between sides. Like general quality, at our level not many teams have better players than us.
Why did Fergie raise his game? Because he had to. He was a winner. He was challenged. He met that challenge.
Mourinhos team came along and hit the ground running, yes. Conditioning was a part of that, yes. Not the defining factor. Mourinho would happily sit back and grind out wins as early as the first day of the season, he didnt necessarily win via fitness - it was an attitude/mentality thing. Just as, he would start games fast, get a goal, and then as early as they 10th minute sit on a 1-0 and just pick teams off on the break. This is not a fitness thing.
But, because of that willingness to grind, he was picking up points at an alarming rate - which was the gauntlet laid down for Fergie to match.
And, while Fergie wasnt above grinding out a win, or getting a spawny last minute winner, he never went about it in the same way as Mourinho did he? Because his mentality was different.
Part of keeping up the pace for the season was improved fitness, and squad composition and management. Its all details under the larger challenge. Set by ones mentality.
And, its at about this point, Arsenal slipped away - as Ive been saying - NOT due to fitness and conditioning, but mentality. Wenger didnt have the desire to get involved in the pressure, like his team.
