It has been a very bad season for Arsenal so far. We are struggling. At home, we play like champions. Away from home, we play like a team fighting relegation. Last week, we were knocked out of two domestic cup competitions. The manner of the Carling Cup defeat was extremely disappointing (to put it mildly). Our near full-strength first team could not register the victory over Wigan which would have been enough to win the tie over two legs. The FA Cup defeat was less dramatic because of the team that played, but it was still disappointing because there were chances to win the game. What now?
All season long, we have been fearing that Henry (and maybe Cole) might leave in the summer. Henry, though, has come out and stated publicly that he will stay. Now it is upto the Arsenal board to do all they can and make him the best offer. But will the best offer be enough if we don’t qualify for the CL? I don’t think so. Who can blame Henry if he wants to leave because of the CL? It has become the holy grail in football and everyone wants to win it. More so with Henry, who has won everything except the CL. Keeping that in mind, what would you prefer?
1. FA Cup run
OR
2. CL qualification
I certainly agree that we should be good enough for both, but it’s a fact that this year we are not. That is the truth and it must be faced. Given a choice, one has to go with #2. Yes, we do have the CL pre-quarter final matches remaining. But based on our performances this season, we can’t expect a repeat of Liverpool’s heroics last season, even if we manage to get past Real Madrid.
Tottenham have been touted as our main rivals for the 4th league position. But Bolton have been overlooked. A look at the table shows why
Team Played Points
Tottenham 23 41
Arsenal 22 37
Wigan 23 37
Bolton 21 36
Arsenal have a game in hand, but it’s Liverpool away. I expect no points there. Bolton have two games in hand. I think they are Boro at home and Birmingham away. It’s safe to say that they could get atleast 4 points from them. That would make the table look like
Team Played Points
Tottenham 23 41
Bolton 23 40
Arsenal 23 37
Wigan 23 37
In essence, we have 15 games to claw a deficit of 4 points and two teams. Definitely doable, but not guaranteed. The good part is that both, Bolton and Tottenham, have to visit Highbury, where our record is good. I am looking forward to Arsenal putting together a good run and securing that 4th spot with some games to spare. The season starts now.
19 Responses to “The season starts now …”
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January 30th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
C’MON ARSENAL!!!!!!
A different kind of scrap than we’re used to but let’s all get behind the team!!!
January 30th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Interesting take on the standings.
I’d say you are very right… we aren’t just battling Totteringham, we are battling Bolton.
With our away form being SO POOR… we are in big trouble in the race for 4th place.
I completely disagree on the FA Cup.
Why would it be a positive to lose the FA Cup in order to suceed in the league. One has little bearing on the other in my eyes. If players can’t play 2 games a week for a few weeks, they shouldn’t be playing professional football.
Why not bow out of the CL as well?
Lets field a weaker side vs. Madrid, so that we can REALLY concentrate on the league.
This is a loser’s mentality. If we are adopting this mentality at Arsenal, we are in worse shape than I ever thought we’d be.
You try and win EVERY match and EVERY competition you are in. Its that simple for me.
If Pires and Bergkamp aren’t good enough to even make the bench in an FA Cup match at Bolton, then they should never wear the kit again, because they are completely worthless.
I think BOTH or EITHER could have made a difference on Saturday. We subbed on NOBODY.
If we don’t make next years CL, I highly doubt Henry will be around.
)
There is already talk of Cole for Baptista.
Please, kill me if we do that. We need all the proven players we can get, and swapping Cole for another potential player is IDIOTIC at this point. (not to mention he’s British and homegrown… so he is familiar with the league and style… Baptista is not…
I don’t like our chances of making the top 4, based on how bad we are away from home. What will change that form? Please tell me?
Other than Cole coming back and the return of our players from the ANC… it doesn’t look like a sure thing.
January 30th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
I think we already saw Diabys influence in the middle.
The tackle on Campo lifted my heart, here is a player who wasn’t afraid to put his studs in and make Bolton think twice about whether they wanted a football match or a fight.
Little inspires players more than seeing one of their own crash into a tackle. The Bolton game was different to many of our away games, and a lot of that was down to Diaby - this kid looks quality, I’ve just got a feeling in my bones he can turn things round.
However, I think Wenger is compounding our problems playing 4-5-1 away from home. I reckon we’d have won easily playing 4-4-2 yesterday. Shame that Wenger never thought to change the formation, but that’s Wenger, whenn it comes to tactics the fans know more than he does.
I’d rather not have Baptista at Arsenal to be honest, I don’t think Brazilians equippe themselves well to English football, he has been pretty awful in Madrid too. But with the sort of turnaround they have at Real it wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to flog him and Wenger tried to buy him.
He might be a big b*stard but he doesn’t play like one, he doesn’t use his physical attributes at all whenever I see him.
Yes, in many ways the season does start now. Away games to Blackburn, Liverpool, Man Utd, and Man City all look like nailed on defeats. Can we afford another 4?
Liverpool and Tottenham at home are not what you’d call dead certs either. I have no idea what will happen, but I think we have to play Diaby in every game now and hope he can learn even faster - he already looks better than Gilberto, Flamini and Song to me.
Ditch 4-5-1. We’re just not creating enough chances to win games and simply don’t have the players to play that system effectively. There is no target man.
I still think Arsenal can finish well when Toure and Cole are back, with Diaby next to Fabregas. Hell, even give Walcott the odd game to give us some pace on the flanks, can’t do any harm.
Lets have Henry, Van Persie up top in every game, and Adebayor for that extra impetus and excitement.
I still have a chink of optimism left that we can salvage 4th place - mainly because I don’t think Spurs, Bolton or Wigan will sustain much of a winning run anyway.
January 30th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
I think Adebayor’s coming could be something of a catalyst, he’s a playmaker, always admired him at Monaco, and hopefully he could send the woeful Freddie Ljunberg to the bench, that alone should be a plus. And Theo? He could be our x-factor.
But it’s a plain fact, unless we improve our away form we’re not even getting fifth place. I can’t see how we can keep on losing away matches at the rate we are and end fourth.
January 30th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Now your talking my language. Dump 4-5-1 indeed.
I’m hoping that the chink becomes a full fledged run to thrid place anyways.
January 30th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
Who do you think is going to falter for us to get 3rd?? United or Liverpool?
I don’t see either as likely candidates for us to catch them.
4th place is the best we can do in my opinion, as its going to take some doing for us to change our away form.
January 30th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
I would have prefer an FA Cup run knowing the 4th spot is guarantee. If we can’t beat Spurs/Wigan/Bolton for the 4th spot then we are not worth thinking about playing in Europe. Looking at our fixtures for next month we have to beat both B’ham and B’burn away also Bolton at home. We have to beat West Ham on Wednesday to start with. If we manage with a win in all 4 games, the Liverpool game will be meaningless with regards to the 4th spot. If not I predict 6th place.
As for the 4-5-1 formation is only works for a team with a strong striker battling alone up front. With our counter attacking football 4-3-3 suits us best with wide midfielders but at the moment Reyes is crap who keeps diving all over the place and Hleb passing is getting a bit worse.
With Cole back if Sol can have Kolo back too our back 4 have to play ball but the big question is, Gilberto is not cutting it and Cesc run out of gas. Diaby is too early to tell.
Wenger needs a new formation when things are not going well. Liverpool were very successful last season and this one bacause their manager is very good when it come to tactics and so is Chelsea. Until Wenger get his tactics right next season will be the same.
January 30th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Ash could be the key.
I agree that Ash and Kolo could help solidify the back 4 some.
It only takes a player being out for a few months to learn how valuable he is to a team.
Ashley Cole means a lot to the teams success both defensively and offensively.
January 30th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
The two games against Liverpool will tell all. Win those and not only will we be 6 pts closer, but it could affect them badly. Can’t see it happening though, my bet is we’ll lose both.
No way will we make 3rd.
January 31st, 2006 at 12:22 am
I can see us going out of the CL against Real Madrid. They are playing much better without Ronaldo and Raul. Guti and Gravesen in CM, Zidane and Beckham on the wings, Robinho and Cassano up front, Roberto Carlos and Cicinho as full backs and Cassilas in goal. The only chink in the armour is the defence with Helguera, Woodgate and Ramos. If they win the first leg, there will be huge pressure on us in the second and we could see a repeat of last season.
I don’t know about Baptista, but I wouldn’t let Henry or Cole leave for anyone. We need them and Wenger knows it. But he likes Baptista, so Real could use him as bait for Cole.
January 31st, 2006 at 12:42 am
Once Cole and Toure are back, our defence will be strong again. It will be upto the midfield and attack to win games, especially away from home. We should win all our remaining home games except against Bolton, Liverpool and Tottenham. Away games at ManU and Liverpool look like certain defeats, atleast based on current form. We should be able to beat Fulham, Portsmouth and Sunderland. The key games will be away to Birmingham, Blackburn and Man City. We should atleast salvage a draw, but expect an odd defeat. To sum up
Home -> P 8 W 5 D 3 L 0 Pts 18
Away -> P 8 W 3 D 2 L 3 Pts 11
Total -> P 16 W 8 D 5 L 3 Pts 29
Will 66 (37 + 29) points be enough to get 4th place?
January 31st, 2006 at 1:36 am
I just think we WILL get 4th place - call it blind faith argue all you want!
I have a question - Rio played in midfield and everyone calls Fergie a genius. Well due to injuries AW has been playing virtually everyone out of position and people criticize AW alot for it - especially Arsenal fans!!
I seriously believe this is the 1st time in living memory that Arsenal’s own supporters have criticized and maligned their own team more than other supporters from other teams have!
Diaby looks very good - with hard graft of the next 6 months in the 1st team, he and Cesc will make for a super midfield next year at Emirates Stadium!
The boys from ANC coupled with Ashley Cole’s return will make a hell of a difference…
January 31st, 2006 at 2:03 am
i have already made my mind up on the fact that it is diaby and flamini who
should be there in the midfield.
flamini was given an 8/10 rating by the sun it also said that “flamini always stuck his foot in for the
tackles “.diaby got 7/10
i never trust this tabloid but to be true i saw that match against bolton and i was convinced
that for the 1st time what they said were true.
juve is succesful coz they have viera and emerson in midfield
coz emerson is the one who always gets his foot into the tackles and not viera>
i think flamini plays well in highbury and that girlberto should be given one more chance to prove
himself against the hammers.
also flamini has better passing and tackling skills than fabregas,if u notice almost everytime fabregas
makes a long pass it 99% intercepted well i am pretty much sure that is not the case against
flamini.he has the fighting spirit in him and the potential to be the future captain of arsenal.
even though the red currants looks good on me,i just do not like it one bit
i don’t no but as compared to the white red combination i just feel that this home kit
brings a sort of gloomy atmosphere in the team.
January 31st, 2006 at 2:04 am
i just saw that match against liverpool which we won 4-2 at highbury 2 years back “
and these r some of the facts that i noticed:
1. henry had his head on his shoulders, he had the determination to score goals,
to run back and help our midfield and to shoot from outside the box.
2. cole was the most determined person in that match.he did not wear flashy earrings
and he combined well with the french trinity.
3. sol had lots of pace and edu was knownas “the guy with the smile on his face
4. bergkamp actually went for the tackles .don’t believe me then go and watch that match again
5. viera he was the person that henry looked up to.
there is an incident in that match,where henry got injured and the ref did not stop the play
then viera got really angry and stopped the played by kicking the ball out of the pitch
he got a yellow card for that but that showed that we all cared for each other.
6. i have got to say this, the white red combo looked gr8 on the team
January 31st, 2006 at 8:45 am
Unfortunately, I’ve been called away on business for the road trip and am none too happy about it. As it turns out, the 18th of March is the only time I can make my last trip to THOF.
Can anyone give me advice on how i should go about getting tickets for this game. I would also like to do the tour, if possible.
Stag, I know you said you were going earlier, too, but I can’t find your post. Help?
January 31st, 2006 at 10:50 am
Scotty…
YOU ARE IN MATE!
The March 18th match is vs. Charlton Athletic.
I will be in London for the match.
I have a pair of tickets. If you buy my wife a All Day Travel Card for the Tube, I think she’d be happy to give you her ticket!
(Seriously, we can discuss… I am pretty damned sure I can get you a seat… ask LoveG as well)
Give me PM…
we can discuss.
Cheers.
January 31st, 2006 at 11:30 am
Nice.
January 31st, 2006 at 11:34 am
I sent you a PM with explanation.
Don’t sweat the ticket for the match… I can get you one.
January 31st, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Wenger is starting to make excuses, and that’s not like him. Today he complained that Chelsea was driving the transfer market beyond the reach of Arsenal. Boo hoo. The same thing could have been said about ManUre four years ago or Real 2 years ago. Come on Arsene, you can do better than that. Get off your ego battle with Jose and get back to coaching.
Losing to Bolton 1-0 in front of a crowd of 13,000 is pretty sad. If you’re Arsenal, you play to win the FA Cup. Period. This is the best showing that they’ve had in the CL in years and they’re trying to p*** it down their legs.