Arsene Wenger is clutching defeat from the jaws of victory
WE demanded a new team to follow the Invincibles and last year Arsene delivered one.
His side were probably a good central defender (31 goals conceded is not title winning stuff) and a sprinkling of luck away from a most magnificent title victory.
The critics say we overachieved, but what in god’s name is over achievement?
It’s a feeble argument the critics use to explain away anything. The fact is we came bloody close and bloody closer than anyone thought we would.
What rankles so much is that unlike Arseblogger, I simply don’t believe the bulk of our players compare so unfavourably with previous vintages. Last year tells me they can’t.
But by not addressing two very obvious but absolutely fundamental areas (centre-back and replacing midfielders) we now stare into an abyss where all last season’s progression is at grave, grave risk.
We risk this, Arsene’s third team, never hitting the heights and never lifting the trophies that only a few months ago they appeared destined for.
Going back to Arseblogger’s searing criticism of the squad, here is my defence:
Critics say Almunia is not good enough. And yet we spent those glory years saying either Seaman was past it or Jens was too erratic.
At full-back Sagna and Clichy would walk into any of Arsene’s squads and arguably straight into any of his teams. Individually, Kolo and Gallas are top class players and would too.
Cesc Fabregas’ ability needs no explaining.
On current form, Theo Walcott would get his fair share of games whether at United, Chelsea or Liverpool. Czech captain Tom Rosicky, hit by a freaky injury, is another very good player. And in Samir Nasri we have a guy who in his first ten games in this country has made as much of an impact as any of the long line of top wing players Arsene has ever signed.
People forget how Freddie Ljungberg, also signed age 21, spent his first three seasons rolling around on his arse.
Up front Adebayor may not be Thierry Henry and RVP may not be Dennis Bergkamp, but when their heads are in the right place, both do very decently indeed and would also get games anywhere. And in Eduardo, Bendtner and Vela we have proper back-up that compares pretty favourably to the season when Christopher Wreh and winger Boa Morte were the only replacements were Anelka or Dennis injured.
So I think there are plenty of really good players in the squad and that last year was testament to that. As I said, that team came agonisingly close and despite the bitter disappointment of the end of last season, in May there was every reason to be optimistic for the future.
As I said earlier, there were two issues that needed addressing. The centre of defence needed reinforcing, but that seemed manageable. Sadly, reinforcements were belated and somewhat underwhelming.
Even when Hleb and Flamini left, there was no reason to panic. Excellent as their form had been, neither were exactly irreplaceable. Nasri and a maturing Walcott have adequately replaced the former, offering a very welcome more direct approach.
That second issue was replacing Flamini and two other central midfielders. Incredibly, nobody arrived.
Almost as if still drunk on his Flamini success, Arsene has brazenly tried to pretend Diaby, Denilson and Song can replace Diarra, Flamini and Gilberto. The chutzpa would be admirable, were it not so tragically misplaced.
Consider Denilson began four Premiership games last season, Song five (mostly in central defence) and Diaby just nine, and virtually none in central midfield. It’s shocking when you think about it.
And why, twelve years after he arrived at the club, Arsene is yet to pay any kind of significant transfer fee for a central defender, I wish I knew.
I’d even argue that addressing those two areas properly would have been sufficient to mitigate any concerns over leadership.
As Arseblogger says, these are issues everybody saw coming. And yet failure to do anything about them has left us vulnerable to great strikes and vulnerable to capitulate the second anything goes against us.
And with the squad unbalanced, the team selections go that way too. The average Denilson is played out of position ahead of the flying Theo Walcott on the right as Arsene acknowledges his central midfield is too weak.
Tragically, quality is replaced by quantity. Even for Stoke.
It needn’t be this way. But as it is, Arsene is currently clutching defeat from the jaws of what should have been a remarkable victory.
2 November 2008 at 7:16 pm
Have to agree. I don’t think it’s that much to do with the players. It’s all to do with a complete absence of any form of defensive coaching. How many big-time medals have Silvestre, Gallas and Toure got? This would seem to point to the problem in the centre of defence not being defenders not knowing what they’re supposed to do but not being drilled in a coherent defensive strategy. No one is asking for the return of the George Graham days but we now have to ask how much the trophies of 98, 02 and 04 were down to the residual memory of how to defend being left as Grahams defenders and their ways were still present, albeit on the decrease. This has now gone and Wenger seems to do nothing to focus on it beyond mealy mouthed platitudes every week after we’ve given away very similar goals from free kicks, corners and now throw ins which the old defence would have eaten up and spat out. I’m sick of it now.
2 November 2008 at 7:23 pm
Astute analysis. I think arseblogger went too far this morning, but everyone can empathize with the reaction. Technically speaking, this is certainly one of the best squads AW’s assembled. Sadly, its vulnerabilities are all too clear to our rivals - to the extent that any two-bit team with enough stamina, muscle and height can cause us problems.
There’s such a delicate balance that AW needs to strike to get success from such a young squad. Thanks to our youth and recruitment policy, he’s trying something that’s never been done in the premiership before. I know why he’s placing such emphasis on youth. Firstly because of the financial constraints that we face, but also because there’s a very smart experiment going on. Just look at other sports: The average age is dropping considerably. A top tennis player can win a grand slam by 20 and expect to be finished at the highest level by 28 nowadays.
I reckon that for this to work we need to copy Ajax in ‘95. Their team was as young as ours is, but right at the heart was an old head and true leader - Danny Blind.
Sorry for the waffle!
2 November 2008 at 7:28 pm
Again, I’m in pretty much 100% agreement playa.
For me, there wasn’t a need for loads of players to come in; I had every faith in Theo, was happy for Hleb to leave with nasri as his replacement too. And I assumed Wenger would sign that effin defensive midfielder! But it never happened, obviously.
I even felt a centre back wasn’t a priority as Djourou would be given his chance, as Senderos was before him and how Denilson & Song are getting theirs now (Effin weird one that). But he hasn’t been given a chance to show us what he can do.
If Wenger had said, well, this year we aint got a cat in hell’s chance, sio will be stickin all the kids in, then fair enough, but that aint the case either, as the likes of gallas, Silvestre and even Kolo have come in, regardless and the likes of Johan, havent had a sniff.
It’s not all doom & gloom, regardless of what some other pathetically Sun-sationalist blogs are trying to tell gullible Gooners, BUT it aint all rosey either and Wenger has a lot of work to do now and especially come January.
As we all know, we have got a pretty tough November (durrrr!) and Saturday would be a top time for the manager and team to show some desire and balls!
2 November 2008 at 7:42 pm
wat crop u are talkin. theo is the only player who would get into the utd liverpool or chelsea .the rest are overated prima donnas who disapear every season when the goin gets tough. and dont say golden boy fibre glass, he hasnt been seen since the birmingham game.after that game flamina nearly carried us over the winning line by himself as the rest went in to hiding. no wonder he left
2 November 2008 at 7:45 pm
Yes, he is talkin crop…
Fuckin genius!
2 November 2008 at 7:54 pm
Arsenal’s players were ‘going crazy’ in the dressing room after their north London derby draw with Spurs, according to reports.
“Everyone was going crazy in the dressing room after the game. There were a lot of raised voices and fingers being pointed,” a ’source’ told The Sun.
“Everyone was blaming each other for Spurs’ two late goals and the manager was as angry as anyone has seen him for a long time.”
The Daily Mirror says that Wenger specifically turned on Gallas, Mikael Silvestre and Emmanuel Adebayor. Silvestre could be punished for his lack of leadership, while a defensive midfielder like Alex Song or Kolo Toure is likely to come in to replace Denilson.
The Sun names Gael Clichy as one player who could lose his place, but the Frenchman has probably suffered enough after reportedly being in tears in the dressing-room after his slip led to Tottenham’s third goal.
and even funnier than that…
Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas has added fuel to the fire ahead of the North London derby with Tottenham tonight by claiming Spurs are not good enough to beat the Gunners’ ladies side!
The Spanish midfielder’s comments were quoted in Loaded magazine where he said that if the highly-successful Arsenal Ladies played Tottenham’s first team: ‘They would do really well. I’m sure they would get a point!’
muhwahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
COYS
2 November 2008 at 7:56 pm
Ahh, how different Arsenalo and the spuds are…. the spuds season lasts an entire TWO WHOLE games!
Wonder how long before the fickle spuds hound Arry out?
2 November 2008 at 8:10 pm
That’s the difference between the Arsenal, and the spuds, We draw and it’s like a loss, while on the other hand they draw and celebrate as if’s its a win.
2 November 2008 at 8:13 pm
Wenger likes younger players because he can use their raw talent and turn them into a specific type of player with a specific role - it is harder to do this with older players as they come with their own mental and physical baggage which can make them hard to work with. The problem with this is that it takes time to achieve this and that is what we dont seem to have. Arsenal also seem to ‘hold back’ and get poor results just before a champions league game and so you must wonder whether this is really their priority. The problem with this is that in the knock out stages you are just as likely now to meet a premiership team and so a more european style will not be effective in that case ( will be like an FA cup game!). Arsenal lack good leadership on the pitch, their last effective captain being Vierra, and have continued to show defensive naivety in dealing with high balls and in the gap that always seems to be present in front of the back four allowing these spectacular looking goals to be conceded from 20yds plus when the players are not being closed down. In offense they need to develop a more selfish goal scoring attitude - i was at the Hull game when players were squaring the ball when they were 2 yds in front of goal instead of poking it into the net!! The problem is that these weaknesses make Arsenal look predictable and most teams try to exploit them with an obvious measure of success. I do think Wenger has a stubborn streak because he knows that if he can get his style of football to work then Arsenal would be unbeatable - but its not going to work with the current set of players.
2 November 2008 at 8:16 pm
Theo Walcott, the most overrated english playeer at the moment… making the wrong decision 99% of the time… pass the ball when he should make a shot, shot when he should pass
blame it on the british media who has yet to wake up of the hand of god by maradonna
it’s more than two decade and the skysports broadcaster still blaming maradonna for the england team lost… the british dun get it, they are not good enough… they will lose even more if mardonna use his foot to score… haha
english are stupid… wowowocott… stupid!
2 November 2008 at 8:18 pm
I think Arsene spent the summer looking for defenders and defensive midfielders but didnt fancy any of them at the prices they came with. Im pretty sure that Arsene ran his rule over the likes of Kompany (doing a decent job in the City midfield though he doesnt look top class), Zapata, Albiol and others. He also looked at Inler, Toure and Matuidi closely but decided that they werent 10m+ better than the players we have.
I think that our defence has underperformed but that is partly due to the lack of cover they are getting. I think Cesc has underperformed this season. I think Adebayor and RVP have underperformed this season. Denilson and Song, Walcott and Nasri have done as well as we could have expected.
To be honest I think that Arsene believes in his squad too much - and I think he will buy in January to make sure of that we get 4th this season.
2 November 2008 at 8:21 pm
The fact is that Arsene has never put together a team that can defend without Vieira.
Going back to the closing stages last Wednesday can anyone explain why Van Persie and Walcott needed to be taken off given that neither were going to be in the team on Saturday?
2 November 2008 at 8:26 pm
I agree with you Steve - apparently at the Arsenal shareholders meeting, Arsene said that they were looking for players but they were not available - Milan were also tracking the same players and ended up with Senderos on loan for the same reasons!! I do also especially believe that the defense need more midfield cover and that Arsene should accept the short comings of some of his players.
2 November 2008 at 8:40 pm
can somebody post the link to arseblogger please.. unable to find it on newnow// thanks.
2 November 2008 at 8:43 pm
Harryo,,,
You negative twit.
Flamini only played 2 more games after birmingham as was injured…
Stop talking/writing ignorant rubbish….
Get behind the guys…we are really struggling…yes…but lets get behind them and then buy 2 players in JAN….
As for the jealous spurs Fan….just keep looking at the table.
Just keep looking at our Ground.
Just keep looking at our History and compare it to you……(sorry you have never won the prem or been in the CLEAGUE….
Keep the jealousy!
2 November 2008 at 8:47 pm
wowowanker;
Dunno what nationality you are, don’t really care, anyone that xenophobic and clueless can fuck right off.
2 November 2008 at 8:55 pm
Absolutely correct.
This is a remarkable team. It’s a squad full of experienced kids, who’re experienced because they’re quality. Just take them one by one, find objective measures of performance and compare them to established players at the other Top 4 and you’ll be shocked. Walcott and Diaby have done much better than comparable Man United players, Nani and Anderson.
We have the team, guys don’t mess around with that. It’s a fact.
We blame Wenger for tinkering with the team and not knowing who our best team is. But I expected that. We lost some players and that has an impact on key partnerships within the team.
In many ways that’s the problem now. That and a lack of belief in the hearts of the more experienced guys who keep letting the team down.
Bite me! Toure was fouled by Fuller who wrapped his arm around his waist and didn’t allow Toure jump. Blame Toure for not holding him back.
2 November 2008 at 8:58 pm
Yesterday was all down to team selection. Can anyone tell me that Song is a better central defender than either Djourou or Senderos? The boy is a liability. We should now go into the next few games with this line up IMO.
Almunia
Sagna Djourou Toure Clichy
Theo (if fit) Cesc Diaby Nasri
RVP Vela
I think Vela looks like he is at least ready to fight to help the side. Right now we need to get back to basics, too many of the boys are not pulling their weight and we do have quality players in the reserves bursting to get out.
I would even be tempted to Play Nasri on the right and throw Wilshire in on the left.
2 November 2008 at 9:20 pm
good article, well written & valid points all the way through..one thing I would like to add, was at the start of the season we looked ok defensively when Djourou was playing alongside Gallas. I think we have to give Djourou a run in the team alongside Toure or Gallas & play Diaby central midfield rather that the improving but still lightweight Denilson.
2 November 2008 at 9:51 pm
C - It seems the most logical choice, Diaby is the best Centre mid to partner Fabregas and Djourou is the best headerer of the ball. Lets let these two play. Play Diaby in his favourite position and give him a few games in a row there.
2 November 2008 at 9:51 pm
I think that we were still shell shocked after Wednesday night yesterday.
Rather like we were when we lost to PSV in CL a couple of seasons ago. We then went Anfield and got hammered.
We are only 6 points off the top. We are still in 4 competitons.
On our day we can beat anybody. The Spurs result was a freak.
NB will turn out to be a top quality striker. Vela could be all the things that Reyes promised to be.
We need to sit down clear our heads and Arsene needs to re-organise and focus the players.
Clichy alongside Cesc anyone?
JD to be given a run of games at CB.
Don’t forget Man u shipped 3 yesterday & were hanging on at the end.
Chelsea will try and play us off the park instead of hooffing the ball like they normally do.
The season aint over yet folks
2 November 2008 at 9:56 pm
We can all analyse what we want from the stands. The bottom line is losing to Stoke, Hull and Fulham is unacceptable if you have aspirations of conquoring the premiership. All three should be dispatched with ease given the supposed quality we have in the team. I’m with Arseblogger. This current crop would get anihilated against a team consisting of Henry, Pires, Vieira, Ljungberg, Bergkamp, Cole and Campbell. In fact, i’m confident those seven players alone would have given Stoke more of a challenge yesterday.
Ultimately however, Alex Song and Nik Bendtner cant help being gash. The buck stops with the boss who continues to keep faith with them (having allowed better players to leave!) rather than reinforce the squad with real quality.
All we get is the same old speil “I’m happy with my squad”. Well, monsieur Wenger, the fans are not!
2 November 2008 at 10:10 pm
Bendtner aint effin gash! He isn’t consistent YET, has tons of talent and potential as many of the players have.
Song on the other hand…..well, fuck knows why he and Denilson seem to get picked when Diaby gets played out of position and Djourou doesn’t even get an effin game?
2 November 2008 at 10:18 pm
I just don’t get why so many people seem to think Diaby is the answer beside Cesc. He’s been injured too much & for me has flattered to deceive when he has played. But more importantly than that even when he has played well - e.g. against Fenerbache - the qualities he’s shown aren’ the ones we need to solve our major problem; he’s just not the Flamini-type player we need.
That’s what we’re so blatantly missing & until that happens then Ole Gunner I’m afraid you’re serously wrong - we simply do not have the team.
And as for the ‘ we’re only 6 points behind’ argument ….lads, there’s only been 11 games. We weren’t much more than 6 points behind at this stage in 05-06 or 06-07 but yet its as clear now as it was then that we’re out of it. And we finished more than 20 points behind in both seasons. That is far more likely to happen again now than us closing the gap is.
2 November 2008 at 10:43 pm
DPK It is curious to me when people say “we need a Flamini-type player” Before last season we didnt have one ever. Gilberto was very different, as was Vieira. I think you cant say Diaby wouldn’t be the man to play there till he has had the chance to do so. He is obviously a class act and to say, “He has been injured to much for me” Does that mean when Eduardo and Rosicky are back they shouldn’t play either?
2 November 2008 at 10:46 pm
We over-acheived last season with Adebayor, Cesc, Flamini and Hleb exploding and each having the best season of his career. Two have left and two months into the season ive not seen either Cesc or Adebayor reaching the same heights.
Knowing that players are not easy to replace Wenger should have worked harder to keep Flamini. Gilberto was also allowed to leave far too easy.
Its tough times ahead esp with our player of the season (Walcott) struck down with injury.
2 November 2008 at 10:50 pm
For what its worth, I think we just a player whose 1st thought is to defend, shield the back 4 and try and stop the opposition from getting sort of attack going, by fair means, or if need be, foul!
When Clichy fell over and that pub player jenas ran at our defence, where was the effin player busting a gut to scythe the twat down???
It aint rocket science FFS! Phil Neville did a job for the mancs for a while in that same position!
Denilson obviously has qualities, but they aint the qualities we need, maybe Diaby is the answer, maybe not, but i we simply don’t know do we?
2 November 2008 at 11:40 pm
we are abunch of fancy dans who when the going get a tiny bit tough roll over and die. watch yesterdays match and see poor adebayer gettin bullied by a player half his size. dennilson running on to the pitch on a mild november day with gloves on for fuks sake. a good captain would went over and told him to get them fukin off u fairy. the whole of the premiership knows how to beat us .just give this team a dirty look and they roll over.the sollution. 2 big mean centre halfs .a midfielder who can tackle and get rid of that lazy big lump of lard up front. hes not fit to wear the jersey
2 November 2008 at 11:49 pm
Yaya Toure is coming to Arsenal in January according to the papers in Spain! He is a tall, strong and quick defencive-midfielder and i think he is what we need in our team! He can help defend set pieces and provide cover to the back 4! Lets hope the rumors about him are true! We just need to hang in there for a few more months until the Jan transfer window! Im sure Mr Wenger will find a solution, lets have faith in the boys and support them! They really need our support right now! Things will get better, im sure of it!!!
3 November 2008 at 12:27 am
Yet again ‘playa - I agree 100%
We are only 2 quality players away from having a fantastic squad (flamini replacement and a central defender/dm backup); but that’s what I said at the start of the season.
Thing is, the key is when Wenger was talking about the number of games to the jan window - he commented that it is surprisingly short this year; that said to me “if we flying on top, great, if not, then I’ll buy” and I kind of agree with that. Also depends on how we are doing in the champions league.
I seriously believe the squad as is can go all the way in the CL - we are more suited to it - remember last time we did this badly - actually worse - in the league was when we got to the CL finial and finished 4th.
So if we are still only 6 points behind in the league in jan, buy those players to bulk up midfield, and we can challenge - there are far more league games between jan and end of season (than up to that point).
2 other things - 1) flamini was not a defensive mid - he was a plain old midfielder, just with lots of energy - 2) people talk about splashing cash - hargreeves - sort of quaility we’d need, cost over 20m - if wenger has spent that and the player got injured 2 games in, we’d be in the same position we are in now.
3 November 2008 at 12:42 am
Sorry me again - to back that up - in the 05/06 season (where we got 4th place on the last day of the season); after 11 games we had 20 points - (this season, we had 20 after 10) - scoring 16 (to 23) and letting in 10 (to current 12).
Notching up losses to boro, wba and chelsea and draws to sp**rs and west ham.
http://www.arsenal.com/fixtures/fixtures-reports?season=2005-2006&x=20&y=8
Beat man u on saturday, we are no worse off than then - with the exception that in 05/06, we were further down the league at that point.
In Arsene we trust.
3 November 2008 at 1:41 am
As usual the voice of sanity & optimism Goodplaya. Whilst I agree with 99.9% of what Arseblogger wrote this morning, like you I disagree that this team compares that unfavourably with past Arsenal teams under Le Boss. It’s his failure to address the problems you (and it would everyone but Arsene) identified and his insistence in “versatility”.
There’s an argument for keeping things simple rather than sticking square pegs in round holes, but as long as Diaby, Song and Denilson, and perhaps even Eboue, are not employed to their best abilities we’re going to have results like Stoke, Fulham and Sunderland.
And personally, I think Almunia bottles it in big games. A great back-up keeper, but I’d be quite happy to see Fabianski blooded or a new first choice brought in. But at this moment in time, first choice keeper is the least of our worries.
3 November 2008 at 7:35 am
Two of the games where we dropped points, Sunderland and Stoke, were down to team choices. If Nasri’s not good enough to play away in the Prem, why buy him? From what I’ve seen, he does hold off players, is tenacious and can more than cope. Why not play him and see? Walcott, even if he does sometimes look predictable, has serious serious pace and has improved so much last season. As soon as Walcott came on, the game opened up for us–he was getting in behind the defense and causing problems because we were able to exploit his speed.
Why drop those two? And even if Diaby for Nasri was okay, why not Eboue for Walcott–Eboue can defend, he’s not tiny like Denilson and he has played on the right. Yeah, I know about Eboue’s antics but he has been *so* much better this season.
The bottom line is that a team of the talent of Arsenal should be playing to their strengths and should not be worrying about their opponents. We’re good when we play fast, frenetic football, with the ball zipping around. Slow the game down and we’re not so good. I’d rather play our style of football and lose rather than make changes to a team based on what team we’re going to play and play crap football.
The teams that cause others problems are the ones that force you to play to their strengths. Our strength is our quick passing, quick moving football. It’s little wonder that we lost to Stoke because played the game that they wanted.
The Carling Cup runs of the last couple of years should’ve taught us something. Our youngsters play without fear of losing, they play football the Arsenal way and no team wants to face them for fear of being beaten by a bunch of kids and being embarrassed.
Arsene needs to look no further than the Carling Cup kids to realize what he needs to do with his senior team–make the other teams worry about our players rather than our players worrying about other teams.
3 November 2008 at 3:06 pm
Only a few years ago we kept losing to the “smaller” teams and performing well against those at the top. I think that was 05/06 (thanks Ginger Gooner fo the link). People said we could only get motivated for the big matches and had we done the job at those other matches we would have won the league.
It was an attitude/ mental thing and it seems the same way now.
Trouble is, I don’t have the confidence in them at the moment to get results in the big matches either, but I’m happy to be proved wrong.
I still think that Wenger tried to get replacements in the summer, but failed for some reason that isn’t obvious. Contract negotiations? We’re a bit short of squad members in that area, too.
With vP off and Ade injured, maybe this is the time for Bentner and Vela to try and match their summer partnerships.
3 November 2008 at 7:49 pm
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son!
Rudyard Kipling
3 November 2008 at 9:08 pm
drew10, you should read my mail before paraphrasing what I said - “He has been injured to much for me” is not what I said at all. (or perhaps deliberatly leaving out the & from my sentence suited you point-making better)
What I meant was he hasn’t played much at all but a lot of people are certain he’s the answer.
3 November 2008 at 9:44 pm
Ginger Gooner,we did finish 25 points off the pace in 05/06 didn’t we ? so saying we’re no worse off than then doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
You are right though; we may well do well in CL, it wouldn’t surprise me at all. But it is at the end of the day (more or less) a knock-out competition. and just writing off the competition we play most weeks in is quite sad really but that’s where we’re at
3 November 2008 at 9:47 pm
Sorry,one last thing. We have 20 leagues games before 1 Jan & 18 after.
3 November 2008 at 10:10 pm
interesting the comments about arsenal players who would get in a combined team out of the big 4. here’s my personal choice for the first 3 elevens.
first xi: cech, sagna, clichy, terry, ferdinand, gerrard, fabregas, essien, ronaldo, rooney, torres
second xi: reina, bosingwa, cole, vidic, carvalho, lampard, deco, cole, walcott, berbatov, adebayor
third xi: van der sar, belletti, evra, alex, carragher, carrick, anderson, ballack, tevez, drogba, van persie
(in central midfield i’d put each of the following ahead of all ours except cesc: ballard, deco, essien
lampard mikel, gerrard, alonso, mascherano, anderson, hargreaves, carrick, scholes. pretty depressing when you look at it.)
3 November 2008 at 11:27 pm
To those who say Arsene was trying to get central midfielders in but they were 1) not good enough 2) too expensive or 3) both - fine. We know he is a good judge of a player and spends wisely.
But he was culpable and irresponsible to let Diarra, Gilberto Silva and Flamini leave the club with totally inadequate backup.
4 November 2008 at 12:48 am
DPK - What I’m saying that it is not doom and gloom - lots of the media would have you believe we are heading for mid table - I’m saying we can still challenge, and hopefully come Christmas we will not be too far off; but we stuck with the team through that, and stuck with Wenger - he is not stupid, and I don’t think he will repeat too many of the 05/06 mistakes.
This month will tell us for sure though…
4 November 2008 at 10:22 am
I think Arsene should have dropped Flaminin for Diarra unless he signed a contract to lose them both was madness.
4 November 2008 at 12:42 pm
Interesting point McGooner. Remember AW dropped Edu when it became clear that he wouldn’t sign a new contract. The thing is though prior to January, when Diarra left, there was very little evidence suggesting Flamini would leave.
4 November 2008 at 2:34 pm
Enough complaining people, Flamini is gone, Diarra is gone! They are not coming back! Complaining will not get us anywhere, what we need is a solution! The transfer window is still far away so we have to find a solution in our current team. I think this combination might work for Le Boss! Toure should move up and take on the CM position with Cesc, Walcott(right) and Nasri(left), Vela and Bendtner as our strikers, Djourou can partner Silvestre or Gallas at the back, Clichy(LB) and Sagna(RB)!
8 November 2008 at 4:00 pm
C’mon you plastics. Whine ! Go on and whine ! We beat Man U 2-1. Surely you’ll find reasons to hate on Wenger and the team now.
11 April 2009 at 7:04 am
Очень занятные мысли, хорошо рассказано, все просто разложено по полкам
21 April 2009 at 11:03 pm
Текст оставил сложное, неоднозначное, впечатление… Даже не знаю, что сказать… Нужно время, чтобы обдумать прочитанное.
13 January 2010 at 12:11 pm
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àâòîðåìîíò…
17 January 2010 at 5:14 am
I can see Maradonna will make headlines in this years world cup for all the wrong reasons
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9 February 2010 at 12:34 pm
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13 February 2010 at 12:05 pm
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15 February 2010 at 7:07 am
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16 February 2010 at 7:44 am
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22 February 2010 at 3:46 pm
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9 March 2010 at 5:09 am
Wild Card for the World Cup is Portugal - You just never know. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for England
9 March 2010 at 10:47 pm
Ñòàáèëèçèðîâàííûå èñòî÷íèêè ïèòàíèÿ…
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