Oh Arsene
What can you say?
It’s hard watching this Arsenal side. We’re not a bad one. In fact in many ways we’re a very good one. In fact we’re probably a squad who a fair few managers could add a couple of players to and turn into Champions.
But right now something is missing.
Something is not right at the back…
The marking for the first goal was a joke. Nobody took Terry, nobody took Drogba and Gael Clichy left his post and went on a bizarre run to nowhere. But really it’s not so much about individuals. There is some kind of imbalance about the team and whereas we can simply put more goals past lesser sides, it’s always going to be a lot harder against the likes of United and Chelsea.
The galling thing is that yesterday’s back four, coupled by Song and Diaby is not a bad defensive shield. Yes, the keeper needs replacing, but as we saw yesterday he can’t be blamed for every error.
As for the second goal…
We appeared petrified of Frank Lampard running with the ball. Enough said really. Drogba got lucky with the ricochet but there was no doubting his determination.
Our attacking play…
Was not terrible given the situation. Arshavin didn’t do a lot wrong for his chance. But at 2-0 down at Chelsea, it’s going to be tough. Especially when you’re lone forward is 5ft 7ins or something like that…
So why didn’t Bendtner start?
I accept the man may not yet be 100 per cent fit. But is there no room for compromise at all? Surely after two sub appearances you could at least give it a go? If he got knackered, I think everyone would understand. As it was, the lateness of his substitution was utterly predictable.
Had we been creating chance after chance just before the break then fair enough. But who can honestly say they were surprised that all we managed between 45 and 64 minutes was one opening for Nasri? A complete waste of 19 minutes. Bendtner is not perfect and he will sometimes screw relatively simple looking things up. But he gave Chelsea something very different to think about.
What really annoys me…
Is that the vast, vast majority of our players ARE good enough but that we seem to have a manager who has become such an obsessive that almost any sense of pragmatism has departed our dealings. I say almost because Sol Campbell was clearly a very pragmatic signing. But he is the exception.
For the past three years or so we only seem to have got players who are perfect fits for what Wenger wants. And while everyone goes through good and bad spells, the likes of Vermaelen, Arshavin, Nasri, Eduardo, Sagna, Gallas etc are good players. Good enough too in my mind.
But it’s the players we haven’t signed that are killing us. The midfielder the summer before last, the goalkeeper this summer and now the striker we clearly need in light of a very bad injury list in that area of the team.
I fully appreciate the perfect player at the perfect price was not available. But would compromising just a little not have been worth it?
So we’re out of the title race…
Probably, but not definitely. We’ll know a whole lot more at 10pm on Wednesday night when us, United and Chelsea all have less than routine fixtures. United and Chelsea both have potentially tough away games, though just as Liverpool have run into form, how annoying that Everton and Villa appear to be running out of it?
The referee…
Why was it that on 68 minutes when Bendtner was chopped down by Carvalho and no yellow card was forthcoming that I was able to confidently turn to the people I was with and announce there would not be a single yellow til gone 80 minutes and that after that at least three would follow?
It’s because I’d seen it all before. Referees, particularly in the big games, seem to predetermine the disciplinary pattern of the game.
It’s either:
a) I’ll book the first foul of any vague gravity and keep going on that vein.
or
b) However bad the tackling I won’t caution anyone. Then on 80 minutes I’ll get card happy as to prove to everyone how well I’ve done to keep a lid on the game for so long.
It’s pathetic frankly. Just referee what’s in front of you. Book Malouda for constantly going in a bit over the top. Probably book Song too. And certainly book Carvalho (hardly renowned as a clean player!) for his foul on Bendtner.
Seriously, for 80 minutes you could do whatever you wanted out there, but so much as touch anyone in the final ten and that was your name taken. For the record Mike Dean booked four in those last ten minutes, including two Chelsea subs for presumably their first offence! Totally inconsistent and yet so predictable.
John Terry
There was something very wrong frankly about the badge kissing pledges of loyalty and commitment at the end. You kind of wonder if he gets it.
For the record, my take is Capello’s decision was undoubtedly right. Had Terry simply hit Wayne Bridge for no good reason, he’d have shown himself unsuitable as captain. Given he’d repeatedly slept with the mother of his child…
Perhaps more importantly though, he’d undermined Capello’s otherwise impeccable judgement. By Capello doing what he has done, the damage to the manager’s authority has been limited.
One other thing that must be said at the end of this quite rambling post is…
That Didier Drogba is an excellent footballer full stop but against Arsenal he really has hit some great heights. Fair play to him.
In last two games, we played like a Real Madrid team. Unfortunately, in the both games Song played in an advanced role. Has he forgotten his song?
Anyway, I agree….
I would have started Eboue or Rosicky ahead of Walcott. He has lost it this season. He needs to start fresh next season. I would give him a break. I would also give Arshavin a break.
The team needs to learn to become street smart. That is what we are missing. We are a too honest team to win anything, imo. They deserver another chance this season, and I pray to god that they get it.
I also pray the team gets full support from the supporters on Wed. The team needs it most now. It would be wrong to isolate and blame the team or club.
In fairness, we kept Malouda, Anelka, Ballack and Lampard quiet throughout the whole game, it was really Drogba 2 Arsenal 0. But don’t get me wrong, we still have weaknesses.
im just getting ****** off now,i really really am.ive been saying for about 3 years now the keeper is not good enough,gallas should have been out after his strop at birmingham,we should have signed a striker even b4 rvp got injured.i thought we had money to spend does wenger just bank it for himself or what,he needs to start spending money and build a team that can win things again,or just go.seriously,hes wasted the last 4,5 years building a team of ‘young players coming thru’ how many of them even make it to the first team anyway.its like men against boys.
goodplaya…youve stopped giving player ratings. i know you feel it might not be appropriate to make judgement on individuals when the team is struggling, but credit where credit due, likewise they are big enough to accept criticism.
you should be objective enough to give everyone a critique of their performance. it was one of the enjoyable features of your blogg. not that your bloog isnt good..i share all your views. its a crying shame weve been playing without a centre forward since october. the team looks very very unbalanced.
best wishes…and it aint over.
arsene wenger willing to break the bank to ensure arsenal is in the top 4 last season… but he won’t spend a single penny when we are in the title challenge(with the attacking crisis looming large like a dark cloud before a storm struck)
that is how big arsene ambition to you, pretty obvious… silverware is not the first priority for arsene… making profit is his only task… he act like a ceo rather than a manager… that is why he fly private jet to capture a piece of shit… so he can look like one big important figure arsenal can do without
times up arsene… you should become the ceo of assanal(chairgay true gooner)… and make sure you bring your peice of shit with you… he is not only an excess baggage, he is a huge liability, arsene trademark failure, the next pascal cygan in the making
that is arsene for you, he never care… at the end of season, he will tell you we are doing good because we’re in the champions league… he never care about the barren years
the only way for arsene to wake up is when arsenal finally out of the top 4 spot… i would like to see that happened… simply because that is the only way to cure arsene youth policy… otherwise, keep dreaming, until the day arsene is out of the way
i disagree a little bit. defending in their first goal was pretty bad — and they took the chance. any team playing at the bridge and going 1-0 down at the 8th minute would find it very hard.
for us, that goal screwed the game plan: we had two speedy players upfront that would have more chances to sprint in a 0-0 game. but they were 1-0 up and very resilient as they usually are, and then ok, we were not good enough.
barcelona last year struggled badly there, and only went through owing to some very bad refereeing.
Look at our back four as individuals. Most teams in Europe would like to sign them up. In which case, why do we defend so poorly? I’m afraid it can only be that the manager places insufficient focus on defensive drills in training. I have no evidence to back it up, but it see,s to me that we practise no form of defensive drills at all. Both of yesterdays gooals were down to shambolic defending. Well played Drogba but most of the work was done for him. Nobody is asking to go back to the dreaery late Graham years. But by the same token it’s not unreasonable to place some focus on defending bearing in mind that’s clearly our weakness. Or one of them.
How can you say that the majority of our players are good enough after such matches.
Bring back Keown as defensive coach…
Man Utd top bosses set a target each year to WIN a trophy and obviously they are ranked in preference… when the league title was looking dodge they put more importance in the carling cup… Remember the carling cup final still means world wide media exposure which keeps the sponsors happy. top 1-3 finish and trophy to them is better than none.
Chelsea top bosses set a target win the prem or CL league or their manager expects the sack.
With Arsenal its different number one target is CL qualification. Thats it. Until we have a board who demand more we will have to accept CL qualification as our “winning”.
I actually thought Walcott did OK yesterday. Hardly set the world alight but looked dangerous-ish at times. To suggest giving him ‘a break’ now is frankly idiotic.
Can’t agree enough with ClockEndRider though… there’s obviously something very wrong with the defensive coaching at Arsenal- far too many schoolboy errors from otherwise good individual players.
Ultimately losing 2-0 away at chelsea in the manner we did is no disgrace. The Man U game was when we ceased to be serious title contenders…
Please explain the no striker policy! When did it become accecptable to have no recognised goal scorer in the starting 11? Did I miss a meeting? And when is someone going to tell Clichy how to do his well paid job? Just throwing it out there.
Good post Goodplaya. And great observations about Terry too. Since it has all come out he has had the look of the victim about him, and he is so very far from that! It’s as if he expects people to feel sorry for him because HE is going through such a tough time. Very wide of the mark JT, and like you say Goodplaya, it’s like he’s not really getting it.
Mazza – I’ve stopped doing the playa ratings more as a time thing than anything else. Sometimes I found myself writing about players when really I had little to say. Maybe I’ll reinstate giving them at least a numerical rating…
I wonder what the 1996 Arsene Wenger would do if he were to take over THIS team today.
With the pressure of being a new manager and £30m-£100m in the bank to spend, do any of you believe that he would NOT immediately buy David Villa, Christian Chivu and Hugo Lloris?
I pay my money to this club. Every year. I do not at all advocate a situation where we always must find the perfect player for the perfect amount of money who may perfectly fit our club in 3-5 years time.
I saw an OPTA stat that said we conceded 6 shots against United and Chelsea combined.
Villa conceded 33 against Sp*rs the other day. Yet are the best defensive side in the country.
It seems every team is efficient against us. Which leaves merely one position of issue.
I believe we have the best fullbacks in the league. I believe we have the best reserve fullbacks in the league too. I would NOT trade Gallas and TV for any other pair in the league. Ok, we dont really have cover for these two but they have stayed injury free. No blame there then.
Yet the few shots we concede tend to be devestating in matches.
Conversely, since Bolton we have struggled to score. That we did NOT buy a striker to replace Adebayor was an error. You will recall that Adebayor carried the striker burden in previous periods with RVP. We simply did not have that player this time with Eduardo coming back from injury and Bendtner, Vela and Walcott not yet established. I think it is very telling that Arshavin himself said that we can’t win with him at centreforward. Surely the fact that he THINKS this should require that we do not PLAY him there.
I only listed to the match but was the Walcott selection not there to nullify A. Cole? Walcott didn’t have a great game but that didn’t so much matter….I didn’t hear Cole marauding forward too much. Just a point.
@good to be a GOONAH …spot on !! yesterday’s stats courtesy of sky..We had 6 shots on target against Chavs 3, 8 shots off target against Chavs 6 , 8 Corners against their 6 and 56% possession. Our team seems to have 3 main failures
1. We are not efficient enough with our finishing
2. We make too many individual errors
3. We do not seem to be able to deal with transition ( going from attack to defence) very well
Point 1. Since Henry, Eduardo (pre injury) was the only player we had that I would be thinking ‘goal’ anytime he had a chance who fits that description now ?
2. Clichy has been the worst culprit for individual errors recently and in the past. Think Birmingham away ( the eduardo leg break game), think Spurs at home 4-4 and his slip, think Bolton at home this season and kicking the ball back into the 18 yard box for their CB to score , think yesterday and the imaginary ghost he was watching whilst vacating his post..No matter who we buy, you cannot have individual errors of that magnitude continually negating all of our good work. I dont like to single out individual players , but Clichy makes title turning unforced errors regularly
3. I was at the everton game and watched with amusement the snow covering our defensive half of the pitch as all 23 players were in Everton’s half….that is until we lost the ball and Pienaar set off to chip Almunia. Rooney repeated the trick last sunday, lampard yesterday. We seem to attack with no respect to balance and cover and are refusing to learn the lesson, despite it being displayed to us in devastating fashion in recent games
We are not far away but these little things are extremely irritating
After a minute Cesc got in behind their midfield and was hauled down by Ballack. The ref didn’t even have word. From then on Ballack, Mikel and Malouda could basically get away with whatever they wanted. It was an appauling refereeing display. If he books Ballack or Mikel early doors as he should, they have to think twice about the next time they go kicking Cesc up in th air.
Individually it’s hard to fault anyone in particular. In a game of very few chances Drogba took theirs and we couldnt take ours.
That’s football sometimes.
Dont trust the Sky stats. There is a reason why Sly Sports at no point showed cumulative possession throughout the match. And why they chose not to show the Bendtner penalty “shout” replay.
You should all know that when a player such as RVP, Eduardo or Rosicky get injured Arsenal FC collect insurance for the player. From that point of view, there was PLENTY of money to bring in a striker to at least provide competition for places whilst the entire team struggled scoring goals.
In fact… one could argue that Arsenal FC were RECKLESS in selling Adebayor (massive profit btw) and having RVP long term injured without replacement. We were top of the table 2 weeks ago. With everything to play for. Remember the boost that Arshavin offered when he arrived last season? Surely David Villa could have offered that same boost this season.
This argument that the transfer market is dead because no one has any money is actually evidence that our money (we just broke the world record for footy turnover £313m, PLUS whatever we made from Toure/Adebayor) could have gone FURTHER with clubs suffering empty seats and declining incomes. The Emirates is still full (for now). I want my bloody money spent. We may have pissed away a chance at winning the league over this. That Wenger is talking about having wrapped up a deal with Chamakh for the summer is very very irritating. Dont forget that we could have signed Arshavin 6 months earlier than we did also.
SO… the question is. Was it worth it? Was the 6m we saved for Arshavin worth it? Was the 6m we saved for Chamakh worth it? Was the 2m we saved for Xabi Alonson worth it?
and returning players like Eduardo, Walcott, Nasri, Bendtner and Rosicky from injury ARE NOT LIKE NEW SIGINGS.
Why?
Because they need dozens of matches to find match fitness and form.
What ARE like new signings are NEW SIGNINGS. Arshavin and TV were new signings. And immediately paid dividends. So did Lehmann.
Goonah-hindsisght is a wonderful thing-but as I remember it there were not too many gooners supporting keeping Ade at the time. Good business indeed!
You are absolutely right about injuries. Whats becoming clearer to me is we have got to get a proper defensive left back. Clichy is a liability in the penalty area-he has been well and truly exposed. If we want to compete against the top 2 we have got to have a higher standard of defending that we have seen the last 3 times we have played Chelsea.
Im not sure selling Adebayor is ‘good business’ if his lack of replacement costs us the league.
At the time Wenger said that if Adebayor left that we would bring in Chamahk. The WAITING will save us the £6m we offered Bordeaux. But at what price.
I hate Adebayor as much as anyone but he still could lead the line on his own and (when interested) could be effective at both ends of the pitch. He’s a moron and we’re better off that he is gone, but it did leave us one short in that area.
We have 3 good left backs. If Gibbs were fit I think Clichy might have been dropped by now. As it is I think the fact Traore is still with the team strongly suggests that Clichy will be sold this summer.
Our defensive abilities are out of this world, our oponents don’t even need a chance to score! I’m terrified everytime we get a corner, because we move the team up, and then just delivers the ball to the keeper… Our invincebels team would have beaten this team by at least 10 goal! Henry, Pires, Ljunberg, DB… oh.. miss those counter attacking days, but it seems like Ferguson(an others) picked up a lesson.. just a shame Wenger won’t play fotball “like anyone else”.
First Chelsea goal is a present, starting with Clichy’s hopeless atemt to win a header against Anelka, the resulting corner noone tries to attack the ball and head it out! We have 3-4 defenders trying to follow their player and are left with NO chance on the ball!!! IF we win the header we are more likely to head it towards our own goal then away! Clichy leaving his post is also a horrible crime, what the hell is he doing it tough!! BUT, the reason he does it is Almunia!!! He has NO fait in the keeper, and his positioning…. almunia was standing behind the chelseaplayer marking him, and there was a big hole near post… no excuse for clichy, but a reason…
Bring in a defensive coach! Stop beeing the nice boys of fotball, make some fouls and stop counterattacks! (Or stop making errors, and prevent counterattacks).
How about bringing Sol into the center of defense and move Vermaelen out left and Clichy wider left(bech)? And at the same time moving our defensive line a little lower…. Let our passers up front open up defenses over 90 minutes at 0-0 instead of chasing games with gung ho after 20-30 mins of play….
What scares me is the post match commentary from Wenger. He talks about our possesion and “spirit” and immediately goes on the defensive with “not a toal display of football from Chelsea”. This scares me – being a perfectionist is fine but he seems to be losing the plot a little….Still a fantastic manager of course so don’t get me wrong but the development and commentary is becoming more and more worrying….what is he focusing on? This team is not winners currently but then again it doesn’t seem as if that is how they are drilled. Hope we take a step in the right direction against Liverpool.
Someone else said it above – this is not the sime to sulk though, this is the time to get behind the team even more, they obviously need it.
I thought that our general performance was better this week, than last Sunday. Chelsea, the team at the top, played as though they were the away team, and just soaked up the pressure to counterattack. Hardly the stuff of champions.
As far as the refereeing is concerned, it is amazing that, whereas last season we had numerous penalties, this season we have had only one. How many times have we had cast iron penalties and they have not been given. Have the referees all decided not to give us any?
Also, there were 2 occasions in the match when we should have had corners, which were pretty clear, and yet a gaol kick was given, including one before their first goal. The chain of events would have been different had the ref done his job properly, although, in truth, Drogba has this mesmerising effect on our defence, so he would most probably have scored anyway.
Talking about corners, I always say that there is no point in our having corners, because we never score or do anything from them. The ones we had yesterday were all hopeless, in most cases not even clearingthe first defender, or straight into czech’s hands. Do they not practice corners?
Very disappointing , but not unexpected.
Yet, I do not want Arsene to change to sytem, because i prefer to see us attacking. I doi not even think that a chnage of personel is likely to make the difference.
If Chelsea were without DRogba and Manure Rooney for more than half the season, how good would they be?
Somehting has to be done to stop the injuries. Rest assured, had he had a nother striker, he would have been injured as well.
Whenever the opposition get a corner my heart is in my mouth. When we get one, I don’t even bother watching. Whenever the opposition get into a position to whip a cross into our box I sweat anxiously. Whenever we do I just roll my eyes again as it sails aimlessly and softly towards the corner flag to ironic cheers from oposing fans. How long…?
Well said Terry. My thoughts entirely. What do they do on the training ground, other than pass the ball to each other?
we scored 9 goals this season from corners or free kicks crossed in the box. a considerable amount, i think. however, most occurred early in the season. i guess we’ve been missing RVP delivery…
ONLY ONE SOLUTION, AW SHOULD GO. The fact that Benitez comes under such fire at Loverpool when HE HAS WON MORE TROPHIES in the same period tha AW tells you something about Arsenal’s ambition.
One point I’d like to hear your thoughts on Goodplaya, if you don’t mind, is the coaching situation at the club.
Clearly the type of coaching the defenders received in the Graham era has gone out the window. But are they getting any defensive training???
Like you, I believe we have good players. All the defenders as individuals are good or have potential. But Mr. Wnger clearly needs a number 2 that will provide some insight different than his own. And Can we please bring back Keown to teach defense?
I won’t even venture into questions over our training methods for corner kick taking and defending….
Will Cesc stay at a club that lacks the ambition to strengthen the squad. The money is there but AW just doesnt see the need. I have long admired the man but I have loved Arsenal alot longer and will continue to do so long after he has left. I want to winthings. I want to be able to tell Man u fans they are a pack of fucking losers and have the championship to back me up.
Re the coaching situation, you do wonder how much time is spent on defending on the training pitch.
PLEASE STOP THE ADEBAYOR CLAMORING!
Arsene was entirely CORRECT in selling a player who’d become poisonous in the dressing room, whose ego was destroying morale and creating cliques, and WHO REFUSED TO PUT ANY EFFORT ON THE PITCH!
The players gave their all yesterday but the manager’s REFUSAL to modify his tactics and approach according to his opponents is the problem.
We are very very easy to figure out — Ferguson and Ancelotti respect our quality, so they thought out their tactics to exploit our obvious weaknesses and one-dimensional play.
It’s not hard to figure out, and they have the players and mentality to pull it off.
Whereas our manager’s only solution is to try to impose our game on others, regardless of the opponent.
It’s staggeringly poor management.
We need real width with players who can cross the ball and players big enough to get on the end of them. Rocket science it aint. Everything we do currently is through the middle with neat passes. Problem is its become to predictable and we have lost the ability to take shots . One pass to many every fucking time.
Lets be clear. Selling Adebayor for anything over 10p was a master-stroke.
However. Not replacing the player with another player and having this £25m sit alongside the Toure money and the HUGE profits we see every year (turnover £313m/a) was a massive error.
The papers are all about how Arsenal cant beat the top teams now. Any of you who have been supporters longer than 10 minutes will recall that Arsenal were undefeated against the big 4 last year in the premier league whilst struggling with the likes of Stoke/Hull. Meanwhile United failed to beat any of the top four last season yet won the league.
By the way, Nasri was fantastic yesterday. His best performance in our shirt.
Im still angry about stoke. Giving up our best chance for silverware. Then arsene just mocks the cup afterwards. I COULD SEE THIS COMING! A defensive coach is a good idea,its not as if we cant call upon some experts to make the players a tight unit. As for a striker,i can see why he hasn’t bought considering players to come back and poss players breaking thru,but we could of paid A.C MILAN a decent sum for 6months service for huntelar. Given should of been ours,but that boat sailed didnt it. So new keeper in the summer, SOME MUSCLE AND PUNCH IS NEEDED. I just hope wenger get it right in the near future,5 years without a trophy isnt good enough
Can we win the league?
League? shows how fucking old I really am.
During my time at Arsenal I am not saying that we, as a back four, did not get coached – we had been coached earlier and we knew each other well – but basically Wenger just let us get on with it.
Yet I am not sure who works with the defenders now…
‘I fully appreciate the perfect player at the perfect price was not available. But would compromising just a little not have been worth it?’
Absofuckinglutely right. Wenger deserves any criticism he gets for letting a great chance of a title slip away.Of course the do-gooders will spout their usual shit that anyone who dares to criticise him is not a real fan etc etc.
Grow up & start feeling the pain & frustration for a change instead of always looking for positives that don’t exist. If you ask me the ones who aren’t the real fans are the ones who aren’t hurting enough at the minute.
Everybody calm down. The premiership is not over nor is the champions league . We are where we are. Making best use of the talented squad we have is how we move on. I hope the collective hurt will gel the players and pride and passion will drive them to the kind of performances I know they are capable of. Fuck’m all! We are the Arsenal!
True gooner, stop complaining about torphyless years. There are more barren years to come with arsene youth shit policy.
Given the choice, arsene would prefer flying private jet to capture a piece of shit rather than properly address his centre forward crisis when the team is in the fight for the league title
Arsene is a big motherfucking sore loser for complaining about chelsea… he can’t see his own undoing and stupidity… he would prefer to blame other people rather than himself… enough of shit talking wenger, it sounds familiar like last season when we’re in the danger zone dropping out of top 4
Those who try to pinpoint the problem to a specifiy player for the continuous disaster, stop doing so… there is only one person responsible, and his name is arsene wenger
IN ARSENE WE TRUST… NO LONGER!
this is the 1st season where it appears that clichy is being exposed on a regular basis. he’s made mistakes in past seasons, but were less frequent and were usually offset by some bustling attacking and defensive work. right now, i’m tempted to say he should be dropped for the 1st time. he was terrible for the 2nd goal yesterday. couldn’t see if was on the post for the 1st or not. only problem is the options; traore is not good enough defensively. maybe eboue/sagna or silvestre. i like clichy but he needs to get his mojo back.
What I cannot understand is why both our centre backs charge up field at the same time.
Even with my very basic football skills I remember playing in defence and our team shouting at each other to decide who went up and who stayed at around the halfway line. This is basic, basic stuff so what the hell is Pat Rice doing or saying. We simply do not have sufficient defensive coaching in place and its creating an obvious way to play against us.
Before I finish my rant, how is that the Chelsea manager can announce days beforehand how he is going to play us, does so with well drilled ease whilst Drogba is debating how many goals he is going to score against us. Wenger has become easy pickings I’m afraid and doesn’t have an answer to the how football has developed over the last 5 years or so.
I agree we need new players particularly a keeper but who is there that was availble and could paly in the champions league
First of all, Ramshit… Whats your problem with Ramsey mate? He is just 18… He has shown immense promise in his limited chances so far… You crib about Arsene’s efforts to sign him in each of your posts… Lay it off a bit mate..
A few days ago you posted about Wenger missing on Smalling inspite of spending 5 million and sending a jet to sign a shitty player like Ramsey…
Do you have any footballing sense? Who is Smalling? How many games has he played till date for Premier League strugglers like Fulham?
Do you know that the fee for Smalling has been touted to be in the range of 8-10 million…almost twice that of Ramsey and he is a couple of years older to Ramsey without having spent those 2 years learning at a recognised youth academy etc..10 million is what Arsene paid for the Vermaleen… Is smalling as good as Vermaleen? Far from it..So effectively signing Chris smalling for such a high fee is a big risk… Just like the many big Risks Sir Alex Fergusson(SAF) is used to taking…
Remember Nani (forget his performance against us in last weeks game)… has he done anything to justify his 17 million fee???
Also Anderson, supposedly next Ronaldinho and SAF spent 16 million on a player, who is yet to score his first goal for United in 2 and a half years… and is touted to have fallen out with SAF now..
Also Owen Hargreaves… 16 million signing from Bayern…He hasnt done anything to suggest he was worth the 16 million quids paid to Bayern Munich…
And there are many More… Berbatov, Zoran Tosic,Owen(not the signing fee,but in general a transfer faliure)..
So please dont irritate me by telling Ferguson signs the right player and Wenger doesnt… Over the last few years, show me any high profile Wenger signing to be a failure?
I for one am someone who would definitely criticise Wenger for not signing people, But he can seldom be blamed for not signing the right player… e.g. Arshavin, Verminator, Eduardo…
So please shut up already about Ramsey and give the kid a chance you moron…
Second, coming back to the game from Sunday… I think Almunia should have done better to save the second Goal, his refelxes are not sharp at all and he reacts so late to lot of attempts, that it seems almost useless to even bother to try some at times…
Replacing Almunia is the primary transfer target for the summer i reckon and i am sure loads will agree with me there..
I think the game was surely a bit unfair on us especially as it was decided on the basis of 2 superb finishes by Drogba who sure knows how to take his chances unlike us…
I think if we have Van persie and Eduardo fit, we dont have much of a problem up front and so the secondary target should be to sort out the long term injury problems of so many Arsenal players, i mean just look at it, RVP, DUDU, Rosicky, Walcott, Nasri, Diaby, Bendtnar and the list goes on…
We should be thankful to where we are to a relatively injury free season for our top 4 performers this season, Fabregas, Vermaleen, Song and Gallas ( in no perticular order)… you may count Sagna in there as well… but everybody else in the squad just needs one touch from the opponent (and sometimes not even that) to be out for 3-4 weeks and at times months… So its extremely difficult to plan anything untill you know about injuries etc in advance which is impossible… So something needs to be adressed for the injury prone lot in the physios room to sort our inevitably eternal injury problems…
Thirdly I would for once like for Arsene to accept the fact that injuries are part and parcel of the game despite however much you try…I want hm to factor that into his planning and sign up 1-2 squad players in each of the main positions like a forward, couple of midfielders and couple of good defenders… these squad players need not be of the same standard as our First team players, 1 or 2 notch lower would do as long as Sagna does not have to replaced by coquelin for example or Arshavin/Eduardo by a Jay Emannuel Thomas…that big a quality difference cannot work….
I dont mean to say Coquelin or JET are no gooders… just that they are too young and inexperienced to compete in the premier league so soon…
finally Defensively we need to sort things out… Keeper aside a Defense general needs to be signed who can organize and marshall defenses like Terry does for Chelsea…
We can safely assume the title race is all but finished for us and this can be turned to our advantage in preparing the squad for next season…I mean players like Walcott, Clichy, Denilson etc who have looked out of form and mojo-less can have a good run-in of games towards the end of the season and be ready for a fresh and great start next season…
GO gunners:)
Wenger was very elegant in the press conference today. Say what you want about the man but he represents our club brilliantly. All of this hurts him at least as much as it hurts us.
->All of this hurts him at least as much as it hurts us.
More than us. He can’t blame anyone where as we can let our frustration out by blaming him and others.
In the January window, neither United nor Chelsea bought anyone. We always say look at what United and Chelsea bought, so why should it be different for January window.
We do defend and we have improved our defense compare to the last season. I read a title on newsnow: “Arsenal Legend: Arsenal lost because they tried winning the game” – don’t know who said it – but I agree with that. Would we have played liked that if we were at the top? I doubt it. The team wanted to catch up… and kind of prove critics wrong. Shame they couldn’t.
Booland. Spot on mate.
if there is a “the best sore loser award”, arsene is surely the top guy to receive it… he keeps talking bullshit for his shameful mistake and own undoing
flying private jet to capture a piece of shit is his ultimate failure(i woul repeat this again and again, and i will never stop)… arsene with his youth shit policy is going overboard
he refused to deal with the centre forward attacking crisis simply because he got no private jet to ride… that is arsene for you
arsene has becoming too big a liability to the club… if he stays, we will be out of the top 4 sooner than later… and please don’t dream of silverware… be prepared for repeated heartache… and shambolic performance against the big club
IN ARSENE WE TRUST… NO MORE!
‘We always say look at what United and Chelsea bought, so why should it be different for January window.’
The answer to that is fairly simple. Neither of them had anywhere near as obvious a need as us to buy players. To leave us with Almunia in goal & no striker was criminal mismanagement by Wenger & he deserves to be criticised for it; to say otherwise is ridiculous.
Wenger doesnt like to lose… show me someone who does and I will show you a loser.
Such an odd criticism the English media makes at Wenger about hating to lose. I think it says more about the English than it does about Wenger actually.
@PD… Chelsea were actually under a transfer ban and linked themselves to some of the biggest names in the world without spending any money. Odd? Well, less odd when you consider that Abrimovich lobbied Uefa to enact the ‘living by your means’ rules that will come in to the Champions League shortly.
Manchester United have no midfield. And are an injury to Wayne Rooney (RVP?) away from 4th.
Meanwhile we were actually very active in the transfer market, but merely bringing in the usual super kids that wind people up today and thrill people later.
I love this write-up, am here for the first time!
It’s spaced out and it makes as much sense as the word sense makes to me! I hope I can improve on my writin’ too.
P.S: The Website is excellent too. Have you designed it on your own?
Reports suggest that Bendtner is not fit to start tonight against the pool. I say fuck that he needs to start. Arshavin is to short to trouble defenders in that center forward role. Give bendtner 70mins to give us that extra dynamic and then let shortarse loose no a tiring defence.
Your point about Chelsea is of course true but has no relevance whatsoever. They didn’t need to buy as urgently as we did in Jan rgeardless of ban/whether they could afford it.
‘Manchester United have no midfield’.
Apart from the one that kicked our arse a week or two ago I suppose ??? And yes,they will be in trouble if Rooney gets injured. But he isn’t; RvP is. So again; no relevance.
You’re just completely missing the point. Wenger has won 3 league titles in 14 years. Not a criticism, it’s a fact, they’re very,very hard to win. Getting to Jan in our position was amazing considering injuries etc. Not building on it by buying a striker & a goalkeeper was shocking.
May well have bought more kids but so what ? Planning for possible title chances in the future while wrecking a great title chance NOW ? Makes no sense whatsoever. Awful, awful management on Wenger’s part. Worst decision in his 14 years for me. (& pretty much every other Gooner I know)
And it doesn’t matter how much I’ve loved him he deserves shitloads of criticism for it. Anyone who says otherwise is living in dreamland.
Oh yes yes yes 1-0 and the chavs losing. Its offical their is a God! come on you reds!
PS whiskey is good!
Gallas was superb and clichy played well. Almunia had a confidence boosting performance also. Cesc’s interview at the end also spoke well of the young man. I feel so happy.
Football eh! Worlds most poular form of intertainment.
maybe even popular
note to self ‘drink less’.
yes…all the nonsense for part-time supporters… FUCK OFF… ta… I will live and die Arsenal… you lot will bask in the glory… and fucking moan about the rest
FUCK OFF… proper supporters earned tonight… the rest of you can fuck off…. if you need that defined to you, please visit me in North London. ta
We gonna win the league you cunts. ta
All the nonsense of this week… yet… we’re only 6 points back with a stupidly easy run in…. ta
Many of you doom and gloomers are NOT allowed opinions. Why? Because you are fucking morons.
ta
we’re gonna win the league.. .any of you lot that yappped… can fuck off… ta
All you moaners arent allowed an OPINION… damn. Cunts
Ohhh Arsenal, how I admire thee, all throughout the high and low tides of the season, only those most valiant in their voice and peace of mind have earned themselves a right to speak up of for the club in its greatness.
The point being – step by step, game by game, we’re on the road already and we’re not getting off anytime soon….so LET’S GET BACK AT ‘EM YOU GOONERS!!!
‘All you moaners arent allowed an OPINION… damn. Cunts’
Like the guy who posted comments 20,21 etc etc. Nothing more amusing than a hypocritical twat like you !!!
Fucking great win. Great night all around. Badly,badly needed shot in the arm.
Oh my head hurts. Beautiful morning, sun shining, temples throbing and my man u loving boss avoiding the fuck out of me. The football gods are kind. Nani the banana footed cunt sent off and Ashley (i’m a ballbag) Cole off injured. You gotta love it.