So I didnt catch the Fulham game… only when I got to work today did I see the result. It was a blow .. a blow to our already fragile title hopes. I admit , I expected a lot from us this seasson , no not winning the quadruple but atleast a 2nd place in the league and a good cup run in the CL , maybe win it , I dont know. What I do know though is that I’ve stopped speculating because its no use, theres no gurantee we’ll win anything any longer. Maybe its because I’m still immature , I still dont “understand” football , maybe cause I’m a 24 year old Indian who’s followed Arsenal for around 7 years of which only the last 4 have been fanatical.
At the start of the season I was expectant , eager , even bullish about our chances , 13 games later I’m not bullish.. I’m just living each day hoping that we will translate our quite obvious talent into meaningful success. The talent is there , of that there is no doubt at all but it’s just not happening for Arsenal right now. They’re brilliant one night ,they’re average the other and downright poor the next. Signs of a champion side.. not quite…If we went on a 5 game winning run and then lost one or drew a couple I wouldnt mind… but losing to City, West Ham and Fulham away is not acceptable if we want to win the EPL.
All the drivel about the 4-5-1 and the 4-4-2 and the 4-3-3 is just plain nonsense if you ask me. Either way theres no one at Arsenal who plays a well defined system… they are a ‘feel’ team , if someone feels its right to go a certain place on the pitch he will…Once we start winning all our armchair analysts will shut up.
Whats with the criticism?? Sure we deserve it at times but negativity to the extent of some extremists calling for AW’s head is stupid. What’s AW going to do? He’s only telling the players to do the right things..he cant play in central defence till Gallas comes back. Our defence without Gallas is raw…and we will make mistakes. When Djourou played people said .. Nahh not good enough… not Arsenal material…hope Sendy’s back soon.. when Sendy’s back..and he’s a slow starter..we all know that.. he gets better the more he plays…”drop Sendy.. he’s so bad…” its rubbish everywhere..Myles Palmer writes rubbish like “ManU excite me..Arsenal dont”…huhh?? … Every blog .. every newspaper … every channel reporter.. can hardly conceal the glee when ManU are winning and Arsenal are not.
Yes we are going through a bad patch yes we are losing stupid away games…yes AW’s excuses are ridiculous at times…yes Titi is moaning too much… Yes Fabregas has played too many games…Yes Kolo needs a break and Baptista n Clichy need more games…but all said n done.. You and I are still outsiders.. only AW knows what he and Arsenal n the kids r going through…and only AW knows why he dropped both our fullbacks… maybe it was keeping Spurs in mind?? … yes he’s an average tacticin..but he’s improved this season… with his substitutions at least.. lets back him…and stay loyal to a guy who’s given so much to smile…and has spoilt us silly…
Maybe AW knows heart of hearts that we may not win anything this season… and knows he has to teach the kids .. how to play big games…coz we couldnt do that last season… maybe he’s teaching the kids what pressure means…sure he’s overestimated their ability at times… maybe…maybe there’s too much on the plate for some of them.. maybe he’s thrown them in at the deep end… and some are struggling… but like last season its the old guard thats not pulling
… not helping them enough.. last season RVP was bad…average at best.. this season he’s improved… Hleb was inconsistent.. he’s improved…. we still havent got a fully fit squad all the time.. yes thats what a big squad is for…agreed.. but its not that easy…
I’d love to believe this is some Wenger master plan to get everyone complacent about us and then we shock everyone by some 25 game winning streak..but that aint gonna happen. What I do know is that criticizing the team and slamming Wenger n the players n cursing Titi will do no good. Yes he’s had a lousy season this far and is not up there..what good is it slamming him though??.. when he’s one of the main reasons we have “The Grove”
Lets get behind the team guys.. lets show them we’re their twelfth man…let stop only praising the team an bandwagoning when we’re winning..lest stick by them when they’re in trouble. Yes its their own making.. yes they are to blame.. but lets be there for them…lets be there to pull them up … lets be there to support them .. lets be there and let them know we believe in them and most of all lets believe they’ll make it through…
Yes we may win nothing and might scrape fourth place again..or we might get to 2nd and win the CL… lets be there .. both ways.. let nothing or noone play tricks with your mind and convince you that we suck….its a rough road and the kids I hope will learn…will learn fast..
They have the talent…lets play our part in being patient and try and let them grow… yes the situation looks desperate… but I believe all’s not lost…Go Gunners…keep fighting .. thats all I ask…thats all any Gooner asks….
12 Responses to “What now for Arsenal??”
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December 1st, 2006 at 2:41 am
Many of your points are valid. The problem is that these are the same ones which were raised a season ago. The saddest part is that we don’t seem to have improved much over one long year.
But I totally agree with you that this is the time for the fans to get behind their team. The team and AW need it more than ever. I am sure AW and the team are working full time to set things right.
December 1st, 2006 at 2:45 am
By the way, did anyone notice that for all the flak RvP gets, he is now joint top scorer with Henry and actually leads him in the assists?
December 1st, 2006 at 3:58 am
Will AW ever have a fully fit squad to choose from?
Will he bring back some of the reserves?
By the way TH14 could be out for the Spurs game.
December 1st, 2006 at 7:24 am
When you LOSE, the criticism comes. It should. There is nothing wrong with leveling criticism at Wenger or the players. It comes with the territory.
GGraham states that we’ve let too many experienced players go, and are relying on too many inexperienced players to win.
WELL HELL YEAH. Thats factual. Experience is huge in sports. Its not everything, but it sure helps.
Assley says we aren’t physically tough enough. He’s still an ass, but he’s CORRECT. Thats factual. We play in the most physical league in the world, and we don’t have the team that can cope with that type of challenge regularly.
When you are short on experience and physical toughness, you better be making it up in effort effort and effort. You better be out working your opponent to the death. I am not saying the players aren’t trying, but its not the same as it was in the CL last year, where we out played big time opponents.
UNITED… top of the league… just signed Larsson on loan.
Experience. Yes, he’s in his 30’s… but he could come in and score a big goal and provide some help for their strikers, if someone is injured or fatigued.
This is EXACTLY what Arsene and Arsenal NEVER do. I’m sorry, its a policy that hurts us. You CAN pick your spots at bringing in “specific” older players to help your team win NOW. Its not a negative.
Make NO mistake about it… its ALWAYS about winning NOW. At what point do you stop playing for the future, turning your 30 year old players over… and is it time to go for winning titles? next year? 2 years?
December 1st, 2006 at 8:39 am
People need to stop looking at the past and focus on the future. Experience is helpful, but not always the answer, what did experience get us last year? It was youth that took us to the Champions League final. Pires stunk last season, Bergkamp hardly played for the last 2-3 seasons. You want experience? What exactly are Gilberto or Ljungbeg offering? How about we get some of Shevchenko’s experience, what a waste of ?31 million quid + another ?8m per annum on wages.
Wenger bought Gallas, that’s the right sort of experience. But what teams want to let go of players of that quality? For that type of player it’s a closed market.
You are still making assumptions that this managerial lark is easy, just bring in a few experienced players and everything will be fine, well first of all you have to find them, and secondly it won’t necessarily mean a thing.
Wenger is a victim of his own success, over the last 10 years he has had less money to spend than Tottenham, Newcastle, Liverpool - but look at what he has achieved compared to them? I don’t think you can challenge his transfer policy, but you can probably challenge his tactics and team selection at times.
I think when Diaby, Baptista, Lauren, Gallas, Walcott are all fit and settled into this team, you will see a very different Arsenal. A little foresight is all that’s required - just hold on and be patient, ride the rough waves.
December 1st, 2006 at 9:24 am
Your last comment is spot on but when will that happen?
Will it be too late by then
December 1st, 2006 at 9:37 am
I think where people have a right to be generally worried is in regards to Wenger’s judgement of the squad. He just continues to have blindspots with inadequate players and there seems to be no sign that this trend is close to abating. It’s is has cost us in the past several times and came close to derailing us even more. It’s always been a fine balance and that balance has been tipped dramatically to arsenal’s detriment recently.
Lose the plot is probably not the right term but over the last few years he has set far from secure foundations in regards to squad depth. The worrying thing is that he is completely oblivious to it. It’s obvious Flamini is not good enough. Same with Song, Senderos and Hoyte. It was probably obvious when watching Adebayor at Monaco. This is the issue with which I’m really pissed off with Wenger. The genuine top-class players in our squad are having to work too hard to compensate for their lack of quality. Soon this takes its toll and players like Toure begin to look ill at ease. That’s the problem, a lack of quality in depth is undermining morale to the level we are at now. It’s only been glossed over to now because we have some players of jaw-dropping quality who have busting their asses in the last few months to compensate. When they drop off, the “depth” players look out of it their depth.
Of course, other factors are at large. Rotten luck- both in terms of injuries and during games- and the players are not giving enough for the cause at times. The players are also giving off vulnerable vibes left right and centre, sparking the opposition. However, these weaknesses have been very evident even when we were doing well results wise, and have been rising and bubbling to the surface sporadically for a long period. I feel the root cause is negligent squad depth and other problems have generated from that.
The question is, have Wenger’s hands been tied financially to restrict his squad strengthening? Undoubtedly yes, but he must have had certain funds available to buy players of a certain quality needed for the premiership. Just players who don’t look completely out of their depth- unlike Flamini and Song. I think he has had that 5 or 6 million to buy these players but has been reluctant to because he wants to rigidly- and stubbornly- push ahead with the youth policy and he is determined not lose “face” by changing strategy half-way through. It is this stubborness- set in motion a few years ago- that is killing is. That and his growing inability to distinguish wheat from chaff.
December 1st, 2006 at 9:41 am
Wenger did bring in Suker a few years ago to do the same thing but that did not quite work out.
December 1st, 2006 at 9:49 am
Too late for what? We’re not going to win a thing this year. This year is all about next year. If we’re still in dire straits the same time next year then perhaps serious questions will need to be asked.
December 1st, 2006 at 9:52 am
I’m not sure if it was you but we all basically said that last year. I agree give it another year but I’m not sure these problems will be solved by then. In many ways, we seem to have gone backwards. For instance we had more points last year than we have this year.
December 1st, 2006 at 9:56 am
Too late for what? Too late for this season? Too late for Henry to be a factor in another great team? Too late for Wenger to retain his job? What do you mean? It’s not an Arsenal fan’s birthright to be guaranteed a top 2 finish every year in the EPL. It only seems that way because, under Wenger, that has been the case each of the past 10 years save the last one (when Arsenal went to the CL finals and still qualified for the Champions League.) I’m worried about this year no question, I’m worried about Wenger’s refusal to see that Flamini, Hoyte, Song, etc. are just not up to snuff. But for what he’s done for Arsenal over the past 10 years, we can’t just say he’s lost the plot and start looking for a quick turnaround.
December 1st, 2006 at 8:13 pm
You were right on Vieira and European success and the need to bring in Fabregas. However, on this issue you forget one thing - Flamini, Song, Senderos and Hoyte are still young enough to improve, Vieira was too old to change. That is not to say that they will improve. With young palyers, it is enough to say they can improve, the rest is up to the coaching staff.