Comments on: Arrogant Arsenal pay the price for complacency – Theo the Elephant

By: Alistair Wiseman

Alistair Wiseman — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:44:02 +0000

Err… Best start ever to a premier league.

3 players with over 10 goals in all comps while the main striker v.P has played diddly squat games.

Joint top of the league having lost two games less than Man U.

Double the points tally of the team supposed to be replacing us as CL 4th place.

Yep that looks like a terrible season so far.

For myself… I think Adebayor is a cumbersome player who can rarely complete a pass, but CAN finish. Bentner looks like he’s way out of his depth, Walcott is terrible, and don’t see him improving either. Eduardo looks like an out n out finisher, something we’ve lacked for years and will bounce off v.Persie Hleb n Fab’s passing and lay offs. Senderos is a confidence player and needs to be in the team when they’re winning by 2+ goals a few times to convince him he belongs. Eboue plays in fits and starts, but is good enough to get in any other team cept MU Chelsea n Liverpool, and only then because they have good cover.

I’ve seen every game live this season from the comfort of my sofa here in Holland, as well as going to the 1-0 win at Ajax in the hamsterspam arena and really and truly I dont see how anyone can complain about still being in all competitions and joint top of the league. We’ve seen that we can play some amazing stuff (7-0 springs to mind) with the squad we have, and we’ve seen that if needs be we can take points off the other big boys, winning 5.. yes FIVE more games than Liverpool (about 21% more than them) while not loosing to any of them. I’d happily loose to Middlesboro than any of the other 3 and come March if we maintain our form and position then Chelsea and Man U (Liverpool will be long gone by then as a challenge) will have to play us knowing they have to win as it’s likely a draw won’t do them any good.

I don’t think we will win the league this year however. I think we’ll finish second, with maybe an FA Cup final, and Champs league semi maybe, especially looking at Ac Milan’s form. Yes it’s not titles and silverware, but it’s money in the bank for investments firstly, and then viable shots at silverware along the way. The fact that i don’t expect us to win the league this year, makes the anticipation and excitement all the more fun, as i see results and positions in the table which might prove my judgement wrong.

After all… who wants a competition where the outcome is a foregone conclusion. If you want that, you may as well go have a shufti at the Italian league while keeping a quiet eye on betting cycles for clues….!

By: bal-malaysia

bal-malaysia — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:02:15 +0000

44.

i feel kinda gloomy after tht game….against birmingham…and the way man utd won just rubs the salt in..i agree with casiky above to a certain extent…abt the ruthlessness,but wht wenger is doing with the squad..u dont see manUTD stars asking for transfers like diarra flamini in the past…but wenger is relaxed abt this thats why players step on his head..would gallas still be a united player if he talked to the press the way he did in pre-season…bendtner,flamini,diarra and cesc have talked freely to the press abt their futures..yes wenger has a unprecedented ability of collecting an exotic collection of world class young players..but they all look like they gonna leave in a while..ferguson had the 92-93 youth fa cup winning team of scholes,giggs.beckham,neville,…three of them are still there 15 years later..can wenger keep denilson,diaby,bendtner,cesc,walcott?…if he can we will be better than united definitely for years..but u just feel they gonna walk away..
y shouldnt we fans demand loyalty from our players…we have been loyal enough..this is bullshit.look at ashley,vieira,anelka,henry and ljungberg..all prasie for them here and now they ran out on us we all crticize them..whats the f**king point?…ronaldo and rooney had a brawl at the past world cup..there was talk of roonaldo leaving to Real ..guess wht happened..ronaldo and rooney ended up helping man utd wining the title from chelsea the very next season..this is how alex runs his team..its a proper football team..not a bunch of talented players regularly considering their futures..the players here dont have any misunderstandings the way ronaldo and rooney did but still keep on running away from the club like little chickens.. the solution for this is i think bringing in established players and showing these young players they need to shut up and play football..in this case,,diarra has been wanted by spurs..y not make a diarra plus cash deal for berbatov?..wanna noe why this will never happen?..cz we probably need to add 10 mil to diarra to get berbatov..and wenger thinks this is bullshit coz berbatov is not worth tht…and also that bendtner in a few years should be better than berbatov..very logical..but if bendtner was to start whining and asking for first team football at the best club in europe when he is only 19 then wenger woudlnt do much to keep him here..
whts the point of not bringing berbatov now and help us win the league now?..fabio capello,ferguson,mourinho,raymond domenech…all coaches who put discipline in their players..and they win trophies where ever they go..i totaly respect wenger for what he has done..but if he had a hard side to him then we would be unstopable

By: Pedro

Pedro — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:35:36 +0000

Great point London… We’re not here to develop him. If he didn’t want the media hype he should have stayed in Southampton.

Paulsito, I agree with what you are saying about his talent, I just don’t think we should have to spend 10-15 games a man down because he isn’t cutting it.

West ham are in for him apparently? Could be a good move for him… though I doubt it will happen as it will leave is short! It would be great experience though.

By: Paulsito

Paulsito — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:01:47 +0000

London, i do remember his contributing quite a lot, mind u as a sub but he has saved our backsides quite a few times if u do not remember and he actually is the reason why we drew against tottenham in th CC in case u forgot. too much pressure will hinder almosty any player. Give the youth a break from all the media attn and watch him thrive. He is trying to hard because of us! Listen to me, the weight of not only Arsenal but a nation is on his shoulders as we have already given up on the hope of rooney and the rest, believe it or not! at leats i think so.

Be cool dude. We have what it takes to win this year.

God bless ya!

By: London

London — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:32:46 +0000

Let’s not forget he is 18!
Now is exactly the time we should forget Walcott is 18 and start judging him on what he brings to the team. Do we want to win the league or do we want to develop Theo Walcott? This decision needs to be made. Walcott contributes nothing; in fact he is a hindrance holding us back. This experiment has to stop. It is the equivalent of playing with 10 men. No other club vying for the premiership would tolerate such a handicap.
Sir Alex, which would you say is more important, developing Theo Walcott or winning the league?

By: Paulsito

Paulsito — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:34:24 +0000

oh and please give Walcott a break. how would you feel if u were seen to be the savior of a nation at his age. i think the reason he cannot break the chains is because he is trying too hard because of us fans putting too much pressure on the poor boy. NO OTHER palyer in the league has as much pressure on them! Give the young man a break and watch him flourish! This kid will be great in time.

God bless!

By: Paulsito

Paulsito — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:29:45 +0000

i get tired of Arsenal fans for real! the only problem with this performance was an obvious sense of over self confidence, not having the right type of players has nothing to do with it! so we can beat Chelsea but all of sudden need new players to beat the likes of BIRMINGHAM! now does that really make sense. we are second in the league as far as goals scored and the second best goal difference, which means our defense is not bad and we still have lost only one match and are only second by goal diff. which i do not think will play a part in the Title. Man U’s win was not so impressive to me (neither was our win over Everton) – have u ever seen a team defend as poor as Newcastle (back pass to GK, GK kick it off of own player, senseless penalty give away and i honestly believe i would have scored at least 4 on them!). the problem with Primiership supporters is that they sway with evey good or bad performance and blow things out of proporion, Arsenal fans calm the hell down, we needed this match to get our feet back on the ground (it will work 4 good). Lets se each team at best and see who would win! I have never seen the graet ronaldo have a great game against Arsenal (Clichy cancels this dude out everytime). Lets get RVP and keep things tight till the boyz come back from the ANC and see what the hell happens!

Im a beliver r u?

God Bless!

By: clockendjim

clockendjim — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:20:55 +0000

Apart from an early howler which we have come to expect, Senderos was one of our best players on Saturday. Mind you he did not have a lot to contend with as Birmingham did not really attack and were obviously there for a point.
There was a collective malaise about the whole team who gave the impression that they just just had to turn up to be presented with the three points.
It is never that easy in the PL !
Unfortunately Theo is not learning or improving. He is a headless chicken who achieves nothing. I haven’t given up on him yet, but all his best contributions have been when he has come on as a sub with about 20 minutes to go and I think that should be Wenger’s policy until Theo matures a bit more.
My biggest disappointment though was Fabregas because we know he can do it, but he has been poor for several games now. Funny but when leaving the Emirates on Saturday, I made the same comment to my pals as Geoff above in ‘they are beginning to believe their own publicity’. I suppose it is the danger with a young team, but all the praise being heaped upon them may have gone to thie heads – the trick is to perform every game.
What no-one seems to be commenting on is that Wenger is doing a Benitez and rotating the players to where it is unsettling the flow of our football. Fabregas had not been in the team since the West Ham game on Jan 1 that’s 11 days without playing

By: RUTAGENGWA Yves Bertin

RUTAGENGWA Yves Bertin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:25:44 +0000

Our Arsenal is luck of ammunition specialy on our strike. Adebayor for the last game he played an assey penalty due to Da Silva apart that he is not able to make diffrence when needed. And A.W takes him as the main man to rob the title to strong M.U. Adeba has no skills and his play limits our performence. If A.W expect to win this title he must forget it if his hope rely on Adeba as the main striker. He has the option to buy other players such as Karim BEnzema and Luka Modric with the money offered to him (about 120 M pounds) in hope to have players who should score behind the small square no one in arsenal squard is able to score in long distance away from the goal. M.U has all the necessary to score so if we can not much their attack, let say goodbye to the Premier League TITLE and others

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:45:28 +0000

Spot on about Theo, I have been going on for ages that this kid will not make it at Arsenal. He offers us absolutely nothing. If he wasn’t English, we wouldn’t even know his name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!