So, that was fun?
Got up early, trekked my way down to the S&B, drunk copious amounts of Peroni… built up the Dutch courage for the afternoon… took my seat and then realised I’d got myself all worked up for the wrong competition.
We’d arrived for the Carling Cup Preliminaries!
Hoyte, Traore, Gilberto, Walcott and Bendtner where all in the starting line up!
Oh shit, its not the Carling Cup!
Our squad is now to thin for the Premiership!
What a fucking joke.
The first half was one of the worst I’d ever witnessed. I don’t understand the mind set of some of the youngsters. If I was on the fringes of Arsenal and I’d got my chance against Liverpool I’d be busting a nut to show everyone how good I was. Yesterday, it looked like some of them were visibly pissed at the thought of working on a Saturday.
Traore was very sloppy, giving the ball away time and time again. Hoyte was just Hoyte. How can you judge Nikki B? The guy never gets the service does he?
The whole team looked uninterested which really hacked everyone in the Stadium off. Peter crouch banged one in near the end and everyone left for half time drinks… can you blame them? The team didn’t turn up, so why should the fans risk not getting a drink at half time… inebriation was the only way to get through the second half.
The second half kicked off with a bang. Toure went going agonisingly close early on with a header. Then Cesc whipped in a cross and up jumped Nikki B to head in. Fantastic, at least there might be a game in the second half.
The rest of the half continued in last seasons fashion, loads of possession but no one to convert it into goals. All the big boys were brought on, Ade really looked good when he came on… Theo was terrific down the wing… Clichy looked good… Hleb was ok…. until the ball was slinked through to him in the last minute and he chose not to shoot.
Just a quick mention for Gilberto. I thought he was great yesterday and he deserves a lot of credit for his performance. Bravo, I didn’t think it was possible to be over the hill at 30.
So groudhog day continues, same score, same gripes.
Eboue is by far the worst player in the Arsenal side, he’s simply not good enough. Its widely accepted that Rosicky will never be injury free… so here is an idea Arsene, go and sign a world class player in that position. Someone who can score a few goals and become a big game player from that position.
In fact, scrap that last comment.
Sign some world class players in general, ditch your ideology towards a home grown team and start turning Arsenal into a big club because currently its not working is it?
We have waited 3 years for a trophy and its looking pretty unlikely you’ll deliver one this year. You may win the Champions league, but that wont mask your teams deficiencies.I worry that if you do win that trophy it will just justify that you’re right and we’ll have to put up with another year of being the cheap skates of Europe.
Arsene, you’re a great manager, but you should have realised that we were struggling at Christmas. If you don’t rectify this issue in the summer, I think you will find your support base dwindling. I think even the most ardent ‘Arsene Knows’ brigade member will be wondering what the fuck you’ve been up to of late
So, our squad wasn’t big enough for the Carling Cup, the F.A Cup, and now the league… this is a mess.
Lets hope the boys put in a big performance on Tuesday because I am getting a bit sick of this season.
Unless we can convince Mourinho to join us, unfortunately I can’t think of any other better manager than the Gaffer at the moment unless you can suggest some and so we are stuck with him for now. Suddenly, David Dein looks like a fricking genius in that he realised that a giant albatross around the club’s neck a.k.a. The Emirates means nothing unless it’s accompanied by trophies. Is it a coincidence that the clubs above us which will soon include Liverpool are all backed by big money oligarchs? Unless and until the FA includes an NBA style salary cap, AW’s plans to build on the cheap will never succeed against big money.
Summed it up perfectly Pedro, makes you wonder how some of our so called fans find room to defend it, I think winning is everything and if you don’t want to win then you are a loser, me I’m a winner and that’s what I expect from my team.
So what if we miraculously beat Liverpool on Tuesday only to get our butts kicked by Chelsea’s experienced quality? Chelski is much, much better than Liverpool and given the way our team is playing do you really think we have a prayer against Chelsea? And what if we miraculously beat them? Do we have a prayer against Man U or Barcelona in the final? Oh well, I guess it’s better to lose later rather than sooner. How sad when all we needed to do was to not be penny wise pound foolish and to buy quality and experience when we had the chance.
Well said Pedro.
mate could have done with you guys on last night, we had some dickheads on giving it the whole ‘arsene knows’ shit and we are going to annihilate the pool on tuesday!
I dont know how you guys who were at the game saw it, but half that team was knackered, and it’s a sad indicment of AW’s policy taht his backup players werent good enough to give Flam,Fab,Toure,Gallas a rest.
We need a winger…
We have height in the middle with two fine headers of the ball, and it is many a year since we had that. So, we have to find players to can cross accurately. As yet, we do not have them. Eboue has crossed well ONCE this season, Clichy a couple of times more.
Why do we score from set play? Because Cesc can’t cross a ball
Morning all… sorry for the delay in commenting… I’m just to deflated.
The best part of the game was the banter in the S&B, cheers for that everyone, it was a good crack.
If we do win on Tuesday, then beat Chelsea, then the Mancs… it’ll be brilliant.
But woud that make this season a great one? Not in my eyes. Did anyone really respect liverpool when they won in? Or did they say, ‘its just a cup’. I remember what I said.
Give me the prem any day of the week… the cup comes second in my eyes.
half right…we need to dispose rosicky..hes not worth it and there will be many suitors..get bastian schweinsteiger or navas ,capel,stephen hunt…for the wings..i cant stand it when hleb and diaby and walcott as well get pushed out to the wings…cmon chelsea and manU have big squads with big name players..thats why they noe how to see out a season…and not vanish away with injuries during february and march…now chelsea are ahead of us and with rubbish as a coach(grant) its clear the players like terry,drogba ,ballack lampard and essien who got them this far…dont blame wenger..i bet he is up to something,maybe he plans to use his young players to the maximum this season,give them good amount of experience and get some quality players to beef up the squad…hopefully he does…and by the way, im not pinning to much hope on the anfield game…afraid i might get dissapointed…id rather see a good squad next year than winning the champions league this year…
Odub we had some knobbers on but I dumped them, the game was shit and I left for the Small and B early, I watched the last 10 in the Tavern, I kept hoping for a roar on the walk but it didn’t happen.
Found a great chip shop though so it wasn’t all bad, oh and saw Troare drive by in a £80k Range rover, no wonder they have no grit, they don’t need it.
excellent post, i could noy agree more.
we could of one the league this season and it is completly arsenes fault we didnt
And why the fuck did Bendtner spend half the 2nd half as a left winger?!! Why persist in playing players out of position???!!
Just go out and buy specialists for each fucking position!!! Buy a left footed left winger it’s not fucking rocket science!! Instead of playind Diaby,Bendtner,Hleb, Theo in a position they do not look comfortable in!!!!
I know how you feel. We’ve got used to being contenders and it hurts when we come up short. But the bigger picture is that without Arsene we would not be sitting in a 60,000 seat stadium having led the league for most of the season and still being in with a good shout in the CL quarter finals. Take a look at Spurs and that’s where we’d have been without him.
You are right though the boss needs to spend some of the record cash we are making in the new stadium. Some quality width, someone who can find the back of the net and a decent keeper. Al can stop shots but his decision making is just plain scary.
And another thing. Can we please practice stuff like defending, closing down, blocking shots and midfielders shooting. The game is about more than passing the opposition to death. That’s about coaching not personnel.
ooops… I meant that Cesc CAN cross aball and that is why we score fromset plays !!
Geoff, what is a knobber?
Hey Grovers, bear with me we just had a dipstick on.
Jimmy Bacon, you didn’t get your 15 seconds of fame did you, don’t bother again you are not welcome here.
Spot on James
A knobber is someone that has an IQ of 4 or less, same as a dipstick and don’t worry about your typo, I corrected it for you, I knew what you meant!
Geoff there’s your problem right there!
An 18 year old reserve left back who made his Premier League DEBUT yesterday!!!
Helb is crap. Twist and turn fancy work without any real threat for most of the time, and he bloody SCARE to shoot!! Remember Pires? No turn no twist no nonsense, 1 pass 1 touch 1 goal. Don’t tell who Thiery, I hate that statemtent when we did well in the begining of the season. I miss Berpkamp too. These 3 players are true world class finishers. Sadly we have none now…
Exactly! that age and a £100k car! making his debut in a match of that importance, fuck me.
Geoff here here !
just Done my head in again, by visiting ACLF , as i always link from there to Le grove !
BIG MISTAKE !
you know what you said earlier ?
I think even the most ardent ‘Arsene Knows’ brigade member will be wondering what the fuck you’ve been up to of late
READ the shite they are all blogging over there !F### ME !
Patting themselves on the back at how far we have come
since the year prior ! !?!?
delusional . Rose tinted gits !
I was on there in December and was slagged off by every blogger on there because i suggested buying a few players in December .. (anelka for 1 )
I watched an interview with peter kenyon , as much as he is a total marketing chevski pratt … He said something that really hit home as far as modeling a club for long term success .
He said he wants to make chevski FC a club of history and a global product and to do that you need the players and coaching staff to reflect that goal . Have the best management and best players and you will get results . he went on and said 6 cups in 3 years .. blah blah blah then i think he had a dig at arsenal by saying you cannot call yourself great if you dont win anything for 3 years and just go missing , He said that you only get Accolades if you remain consistent , which is true ..
If arsene cant see our squad was too thin who else should ?
US FANS ?
As for quality players !
We need 3 or 4 GREAT players before we will win anything !
Arsene stated we can win the title race with 5 wins and 1 draw !
it feels good to get the draw out of the way first doesnt it?
Yesterday was an enormous oppotunity to cut united lead at the top… Liverpool amde 8 changes and IMO it was a rather crap side that they fielded… Then we go and play a half-cooked, uninterested team,,, absoloute bullshit! Our 1st team would have walked through that liverpool team yesterday. Wenger should have known that that team wasnt good enough to beat liverpool.
Hoyte was woefull and i really hope he leaves in the summer, he should have really seized the opportunity and he just looked uninterested. Im still not sure of Traore… I think he will become good but theres no way that he will overtake Clichy. I have before defended Eboue this season but no more will I. Every attack ends with him… he cant shoot, he cant pass, he cant cross… What the fuck is he doing in the side?? He is purely a liability, he is always cutting in around the 18 yard box and never trying to get to the by-line and swing in a cross, theo is much more effective and should really play more… he deserves aswell. Eboue should be kept purely as cover for Sagna and we should buy a WORLD-CLASS Right winger… i dont care who… ive been hearing we are watching Schweinsteiger???
Wenger needs to sign some current world class players in the summer…. its the only way we will win something ever again. I’m all for getting young talent in but enough is enough, we are crying out for 1 or 2 world class idividuals! We need to get our numbers and depth up and SOON! Except for Bendtner and Theo… we have no real players on the bench that can change a game quickly. Next seaosn we can name 7 subs so if we could have some world-class subs and a few youngsters like Merida and Barazite on the bench our 1st 11 and bench would be extremely exciting and could easily change a match!!
C’mon Arsenal
A fellow gooner asked me yesterday if AW is too comfy in his job, and knows no matter what he does he’ll get the boards backing as he makes a profit each year?
Couldnt come up with an answer to that one I admit, he also said he finds it strange that Rijkaard wins the league twice and the CL, and goes 1 and a half seasons without a trophy and he’s up fpr the sack!
odub
I think wenger is a money maker 1st and a winner 2nd
thats all i have to say on the matter ..
other than…….’ selling club ‘.. cough !
There are always causes and symptons… and i really think that it’s more a mentality issue, though not discounting the thin squard. For 10 mins or so before Crouch got one, we played fine actually and were threatening and why’s that? Because the tempo was high… and if we think back to the winning days [this season], that’s generally true or at least we scored more when the tempo was high whether the other teams parked players in their half, or not. I’d even argue some players are ‘liabilities’ when they slow it down totally unnecessarily… if you watch a replay and look for it you find plenty.
Hoyte is useless; Traore lost the sparks (or perhaps confidence) he had last season… you see that in his going forward and crosses – that hopefully would change. I disagree Gilberto was ‘great’; he did okay but couldn’t pass – either miscued it, passed it back several yards, or put his team mates under pressure straight away with poor passing…
Don’t our midfielders [and sometimes defenders] tackle anymore? Eboue, Flamini,…? If it’s a confidence thing, train and practice tackles please… we lost possession and couldn’t stop counterattacks in many cases, including yesterday… If in the same situation, our opposition would have tackled our players many times over before we reached the half way line.
And the last point about crossing… why couldn’t we cross properly? Even Cesc isn;t consistent tells it all. When Arsene put on Adebayor, we have TWO tall strikers who can score with headers [this part is proven actually] so why on earth were we passing to death? Where was the route 2 option we used rather successfully early/ mid season? And perhaps this was one of the key reasons for the slump in form… as i blogged once saying ‘when we go up our players start getting cute…’ it’s exactly the mentality that is undesirable believing we could always pass our way to goals and forgot how they got to the top of the EPL.
Anyway, I still strongly believe the ego or whatever Adebayor had when deciding not to pass to Bendtner for a simple tap in against birmingham set the tone for the downhill run… as many say, winning is a habit and we lost it when our players got cute and revert to old habits
the scousers had a kid making his debut yesterday, he had it so easy he could have strolled around with a big fat stoggie in his chops, he had it that easy!!
Since when does a skinny french teanager make his debut in a depleted liverpool team against Arsenal away and have an easy game?!!
since yesterday !
and i think it was wenger with the big fat stoggie
Great post again.
I worry wenger will never change? why will he this year? hes already stated he will continue with current group of players…
He stated he wasnt even interested in signing Torres one of the most exciting prospects in recent years.. ‘why the hell not’????? Torres was made for Arsenal…
It does feel it is Wengers club now… I want to support our club ‘the Arsenal’ but we are having to support (fund) wengers deluded mission
Why do we not play 4-4-2 anymore?? we have always had 2 wide men Rocky,Limpar.. Overmars,Parlour.. Pires,Ljungberg.. we dont even have ONE anymore!!
We struggle to score form open play these days.. we used to go from one end of field to the other in 25seconds for gods sake…
We weren’t good enough and until he spends, we won’t be. We need a goalscorer, a winger and a proper centerback.
And stop being the professor Arsene, start being a manager.
useroz
crouch is the Model giraffe needed based on yesterdays performances , he threaded a great pass thru to riise , had a blistering shot from distance that made alumina leap full stretch …
then topped it off with a goal that was 1 inch inside the left upright . Bottom corner ..
I sat there and thought could i have imagined ade having a half like that ???
It just goes to show me that you can put ronald macdonald as our striker and score goals
when our midfield was confident ! However ade did play better yesterday .. But still goalless !
It just goes to show me how totally screwed our strikers are .. its like dumb and dumber !
He also needs to start being ruthless and get rid of some of the deadwood in his squad, red nose would have got rid of a lot of the crap we’ve got at the mo.
Let’s hope and pray that we can somehow scrape the 4 points we still need to prevent Everton from taking 4th place away from us. I used to think given the financial rewards that 4th place was as good as winning a trophy but then I thought again and realised that unless the additional funds from UCL games are used to fund top quality experienced players with winning mentalities that Ljungberg, Bergkamp, Adams and Winterburn had who would never accept losing then actually winning 4th place really isn’t as good as winning a trophy is it?
geoff
do you think he will spend ?
vela sunu merida bazerite .. plus the rest of them !!!!
it seems arsene has been deluded for quite some time and given the amount of
young talent he keeps snaping up .. will be deluded for sometime still to come …
I mean if you look at cesc , as young talent that made it .. and theo a work in progress
these kids developed only buy getting some 1st class time on the pitch .
how are all the above youngsters ever gonna make it playing 5 games a year in the C.C… ?
His strategy clearly is flawed !
they will all turn out to be bentleys ..
thats why the only strategy left is MONEY MAKING ..
Because i cant see them getting better unless they are played …
and if they are played i cant see AFC getting better !!!
I am sick of Arsene knows , just look at the idiots presenting Fans Forum on AFC TV , Tom & Shovel make me sick , with all this lets be patient shit, I am not patient with anything else so why start now.
Eboue needs to fuck off!!! I am also quite happy to write Nick B off as well , along with Diaby, Denilson,Song , Armand , Senderos,Vela & Merida
Well said. It’s certainly an eye opener, should i say, Arsene the great manager will turn a blind eye on all the deficiencies of the current Arsenal squad. Will all due respect, Arsene is a brilliant coach but it’s high time he set’s a side his stubborn persistence of organic growth within the current squad and make some match wining players.
No, seriously, what’s like the depth in our squad and as an Arsenal fan it’s heartening and frustrating to see ‘No hopers’ like Eboue starting regularly for Arsenal. Eboue is a poor no, is the worst right midfielder playing in the EPL currently and the guy is retarded, he assumes referees are blind folded and his clumsy play goes un- detected. Why on earth are we having such players in Arsenal Football Club? Emmanuel Eboue is no good for football and no good for Arsenal. He should be not playing football and is a shame for the game.
If we lose the EPL this yr, which is quite inevitable now, is solely due to Arsene’s stubborn, stingy policy of not buying world class players and counting on internal development and consequently, not having enough depth in the squad. I am devastated, for the first time in my life, I felt like giving up on Arsenal for good. No silverware for three years now and counting.. What’s Arsene trying to prove and to whom? And yet again we give in for ManU to mock us. As an Arsenal fan, why are we devoting all our thoughts, time and money if we are to end up achieving nothing at the end of each season. I am tired and sick of this. Why on earth can’t we buy some world class players and see off psychotic cases like Eboue. Justin Hoyte is no more a kid and is 23 and personally, I don’t see any development in him. RvP and Rosicky are no doubt world class players but what’s the point if we can’t get them to play on a regular basis. Eternally unfit.
Re: match it was a suicidal and we conceded the match and title hopes literally. Will somebody please get some sense in to Arsene’s mind and get him to buy some world class players and see off players in the likes of Eboue and Hoyte. At least the retarded Eboue..
THE PLAYERS ARENT TO BLAME , THEY ARE SIMPLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH . WHAT UPSETS ME IS THAT WE ARENT USING OUR RESOURCES TO THE FULL . IF WE HAD NO MONEY THEN FINE , WENGER IS DOING THE BEST THAT HE CAN WITH WHAT HE HAS AVAILABLE , BUT THIS CLEARLY ISNT THE CASE .AS A SUPPORTER I WANT TO SEE TROPHIES IN THE CABINET NOT CASH IN THE BANK . SAD TO SAY BUT SPURS HAVE WON MORE THAN US THIS SEASON …..YOU CULDNT MAKE IT UP .
I say make champions league only the top 2, if not the champion, because I feel this top 4 shit is the reason wenger can just chill. We have become a contender for top four but nothing else. Did wenger really have confidence in that team yesterday, and if he did why did he not change it up 3/4 weeks ago when it was clear the team was tired. We all can see that there are at least 6/7 players that could leave in the summer and you wouldn’t even care, funny how diarrar for portsmouth will be getting his winners medal this season.
I cannot believe that all the hell we have been through in these last few seasons can be called a success.Please tell me then the things Chelsea won and Utd also what are they called?losing continuously in finals is considered success by some
ethan I think he has to, if he can’t see what we’re lacking we’re in trouble!
May i suggest fellow gooners that the real problem lies in tactics and not personnel.I suggest to you that every tom,dick and jerry knows how to defend against arsenal.As i have watched almost every arsenal game on terrestial tv i could make drawings in my sleep on how arsenal attack.In the early days teams didnt have a clue on how to defend against Wengers arsenal but that has surely changed.When arsenal builds from the back disciplined teams know to send drones(players) to the flanks making it hard for sagna and clichy to get going but lately i have discovered that they also get amongst us in our own half making it very diddicult for Hleb and Fab to get going through the middle Middlesbrough adopted this tactic and Villa also.When we are only 5 or 10 percent of our game we struggle with this tactic.And that is why a plan B is needed something that the oposition will struggle against.
Well round 2 over and still no daylight but I’ve clocked another 600 miles and about £100 in fuel, forget anything else…..still Anfield will be a little closer on Tuesday.
This group of players will win fuck all; I have no fucking doubt about that!! AW has been fantastic no doubt BUT this time it’s not working.
I’ll come back to this tomorrow because right now I am too fucking pissed off to make any comment!!!
BTW – Pedro; spot on with your comments – Best player of the pitch yesterday – Gilberto; by a fucking mile!!!
guys i miss Pires and Bergkamp as well, but you can never get the same player again, sytles of play change and so do the players over the era’s, we just have move forward and hopefully the players will come!
Im certain we will win at anfield, and even with the recent time changes for Brittish summer time and us in OZ going off daylights saving time, i will be up at 4.30am on Wednesday morning to fire up and watch us move into the Semi’s!
I THINK WE WILL QUALIFY 4 THE SEMIS BUT UNFORTUNATELY THAT WILL JUST PAPER OVER THE CRACKS . A GOOD RESULT WILL JUST GIVE WENGER MORE OF A REASON NOT TO SPEND .
I could write all day on this literally, but it looks like we’re now all finally agreeing on the basics. We do not have enough good quality players to compete with the top teams in the EPL or the CL.
For me the problems start at the back. If we could defend properly I think we’d have at least 10 more points now – many of the recent draws should have been wins. Let’s face it Toure and Gallas are a pair of clowns together and Almunia isn’t world class. I also have serious doubts about Clichy’s ability to defend properly although with more experience I think he’ll come on. We need a world class goalkeeper and a world class centre back to replace Toure’s madcap defending, we’ll only see the best of Gallas when he knows he’s playing next to someone with some decent positional sense. Sagna is fantastic and will only get better so that’s one Wenger got right.
Selling Diarra was a disaster especially when you consider Gilberto is finished and will be moving on in the summer. If he’d only played him more and rested Fab and Flam (which Wenger needed to do) he’d have been kept happy. You can only blame Wenger for this and for generally playing our best 11 into the ground all season. If Denilson and Diaby aren’t going to be good enough we’ll need a a CM in the summer but I still have faith in them both, they are young.
We know we need more quality out wide. Rosicky needs to be sold and we need a World Class replacement, not potential. I fancy the guy at Port who’s name I cannot spell. We have Vela returning and I’m sure he’ll play both up front and wide and will provide much needed reinforcing of those areas but he’s another kid. If we have more quality out wide it’ll mean we’ll not have to play Diaby and Denilson there which isn’t their position and we’ll be able to tuck them inside to give Flam and Fab a break.
Up front is a mess. I have faith in Bendtner and Walcott but at 18 and 19 they’re just too young. RVP is a disaster (can we waste another year waiting to see if he’s fit) and Ade can’t do it all alone but congrats to Wenger on another great signing here. Will Eduardo ever play again at this level? To this end I think it would be a massive gamble not to buy a recognised goalscorer this summer. I’d love to see Huntelaar or Benzema but does Wenger have the bottle or money? I think he has the money…
So in assessment we need -
1. World Class goalkeeper, Lehman to go.
2. A tall, world class, dominant CB with positional sense that doesn’t run around like a mad man and can head the ball. One of Djouru or Senderos to be sold, maybe both with Nordvet and Miguel coming through. Hoyte to also go.
3. A world class wide player and Vela back in the squad. Gilberto to be sold.
4. A world class striker and possibly one out the door.
I think just about every gooner recognises the above short fallings, the big question is why doesn’t Wenger? He’s not an idiot, he must know it. We’ll know this summer whether it’s sheer stubbornness or a lack of money that’s the problem. I don’t particularly trust Edelman when he says we have 70m in cash to spend, do you expect him to tell the markets and our competition that we’re skint? We’re still in shed loads of debt but I’m sure we can get our hands on 30 or 40m which is all we might need if we sell a few.
One thing’s for sure, Wenger and the board have 1 more year. If we win nothing next year it’s time for people to move on. I for one will not accept the current ticket prices with such obvious failings in the squad. Don’t take this to mean I don’t respect Wenger for what he’s done, he’s transformed our club totally but how long can we go on with these obvious problems. You could accept not winning if we at least competed.
He wont spend either way !!!!
Ethan his first degree is in Economy then FM, so…..
Who wants Kirkland by the way ?????????
morning boyo’s
what a load of bollox yesterday was,
there is a lot of dead wood to be shiffted in the summer, sorry to see hoyte go but its over for him and i love all the boys who put of the club colours and try but there is no more room for sentiment wholesale changes otherwise the clubs with recent foregin investment will over take us,
gilberto did well yesterday to a degree but happy to see him out there,
so my score line happened twice for the record i am saying 2-2 tuesday
Good post but can’t agree about Gilberto he made a some good tackles but as normal his distrbution was poor don’t think he played the ball forward. Why does our defence always play 20yrs to deep in the first half? Liverpool just pumped long balls into crouch and billy and toure just couldn’t cope. why did thay play 3yrs goal side of him and not 3yrs the other and actually challange for the first ball. Our defence is not good enough we have two world class full backs, but one of the centre halfs has to go and be replaced by a proven 25-30 year old, who is over 6ft tall.
By the way my first post sorry to be so negative!
It wasnt just that we didnt strengthen in January, we weakened by selling Diarra. How we could have used him in the last 2 months. I live in Pompey and know the club well, they would’ve taken Gilberto in a flash… instead we sold them someone who couldve potentially been The Best Midfielder At The Club! That includes Cesc. What a gross piece of mis-management from Wenger. Sure Diarra wasnt happy, but then its Wenger’s job to manage that.
Wenger has no one at the club to tell him “No, you are wrong, you cant do that”. Everyone knew Crouch was playing yesterday. We beat Pool 3 times last year, and they beat us once, and when they beat us it was Crouch vs Willy/Kolo… and so we drop Phil and line up with Willy and Kolo against Crouch. No Sagna? Drop Eboue back, surely? Flam and Cesc knackered? Play Alex Song, or Denilson… So many descisions wrong yesterday. Terrible squad management. Wenger has had a really bad couple of months.
really if losing on tuesday means wenger losing his job I will be happy but I will not wish us losing the match for 2 reasons:1)our love for arsenal is greater than any individual
2)I am damn sure even if we lose 20-0 Wenger would still keep his job and the board will tell him that he has a job for life and so on.A few years back our missing link was a top striker to finish the number of chances we used to create.Nowadays it is no exaggeration to say that our whole team needs rebuilding.This shows we have actually gone back not forward with all those kids.
THE SAD THING IS NEXT SEASON WILL BE EVEN WORSE THAN THIS SEASON, ALL THE PLAYERS WILL COME BACK EXHAUSTED FROM THE EURO CHPS AND ANY NEW PLAYERS WE DO BUY WILL TAKE THE USUAL 6 MONTHS TO BED DOWN ………….ALL RATHER DEPRESSING AND PREDICTABLE
dead right paul !
we know he wont buy kaka or eto . So it will be another dudu affair !
and knowing our luck when (and if) we get these new players they will be top goal scorers
from the Latvia A league or Estonia … And cant handle the pace for 8 months of the season ! … And probably be injured by December !
And will Eduardo ever be the same?
Just found this board – what a relief I thought I was going mad! I kept hearing about our great spirit and mental toughness, our togetherness, how exceptional this team is! ….
….That should fill our trophy cabinet!!
The Goons need winners & prob more than one or two world class players! Match winners needed, Striker/goal scorers needed, goal scoring midfielders needed. Ahh the list depresses me!!
The current crop are definitely maturing but maturing into what? 3rd or 4th place chasers every season??
Go through our team in every position and ask yourself the question – would our player get onto the Man Utd team? Because that is what is needed to overcome them and be champions.
Is Walcott really the new Rooney??
We don’t even have a Stevie G. Cesc is awesome but I bet statistically he doesn’t win us as many matches (or European Cups for that matter!!) as Stevie does for Liverpool.
Will AW ever spend big dosh for proven talent?
I think the turning point of the season will be the game against b’ham. Eduardo’s finishing is sorely missed, the dropped points affected confidence as well. However the image of Gallas in tears must have really affected team morale..
I think it was January, when he sold and didn’t buy, pretty stupid if you ask me.
fuck shit bollocks cunt twat knob cock!
Still dont feel any better!
Buy some fucking players and get rid of some of the sub standard dross you are trying to get us to buy into AW!!
Almunia,Eboue,Hoyte,Traore,Diaby,Bendtner,Rosicky,RVP,Gilberto. All not good enough or too injury prone.
If AC Milan, Barca and some of the german clubs are having a clearout as is being reported, I think we should be the first at their doors!
Get some fucking quality to rival some of the decent talent that will challenge for honours FFS!!
I think the problem is Odub, if he clears out, he’s admitting he’s wrong, I can’t see him doing that, however if he replaces what he got rid of, like Henry and Freddie then maybe we’ll get two new players, can’t see better than that though, add to that Theo is in 18th place in the grand prix, my weekend has been a waste of time.
Its not wenger fault the team is playing badly its the players!! It seems like they dont want to win enymoore.
Right Geoff. One builds from a winning position in order to stay out front. AW was telling us ‘look where we are now, we don’t need anyone & we will dishearten the youngsters coming through if we bring in new players mid-season’. Well, it didn’t work as AW hoped.
Now is time for Plan B…….. B for BUY
the turning point was aug 31st end of transfer deadline day , anyone with half a brain realised then ,that a team that had just won nothing and lost the league by miles needed some serious investment , then again jan31st 2nd transfer window we bought a 15 yr old luke freeman while chelsea spent £27m , im sorry but a 5year old would have the intelligence to know the squad was never going to be strong enough
Right Raddy and robert of course it’s Arsene’s fault, he buys the players and he picks the team, if the players don’t play, that’s the managers fault.
True Geoff, and considering Theo started in third, and considering he is now 14th ,he’s playing like we’ve played this season….throwing it all away!!
Robert who do you blame for playing Eboue, who do blame for Bendtner playing left wing yesterday, who do you blame foe fab and flam not getting the chance to rest their weary limbs yesterday?
Could Theo be the Arsenal of F1 ?
panic button anyone?
pretty hard not to feel down when arsene does quite the opposite in what we expect him to do.
Yup! His last season mirrors ours this!!! spooky!
I’m back, what have I missed?
Have the Arsene knows crew been out in force today?
had rosicky or van persie been fit we would have walked the title this season. Or had Ronaldo and Rooney not been fit for a large period Utd would be out of the title race. We desperately need a rosicky type attacking midfielder who’s going to bag some goals from midfield, and Arsene will sign one in the summer, but that is the only position we need. The only problem with the squad is the lack of back up for rosicky and hleb, as the Eboue experiment hasn’t worked and diaby is not a left mid. Bendtner is a fantastic fantastic talent and would be a huge loss if he leaves in the summer. Traore, Denilson, Walcott, Vela, Senderos will all be top top players within a season, and Van Persie should have his injury problems sorted by the start of next season. Rosicky may not though and subsequently may be sold. Our lack of depth is limited to the wings, every other position we’re very strong, and next season could be the best yet since arsene arrived at the club
the facts are this will be our worst season under wenger , no trophies , no 2nd place and no final ……………. progress ?
True A, But why not give a fillip to the fans by buying a world class player. Someone to excite the imaginatio. We are consistently being talked about as being one of the biggest clubs in the World. Well it is time to prove it. Buy Buy Buy.
Ronaldinho, Kaka, Drogba, Benzema, Etoo.
Why not?
We’re currently in the champions league quarter final, and have 71 points in the league, with five games to go. That means we’ve already surpassed our league totals for the season in the last two years (68 last season, 67 05/06) with five games to go, despite a horrific run in the league. How could that be called anything other than progress?!
THE CHANCES OF WENGER SPENDING BIG IS AS LIKELY AS SPURS WINNING THE CHAMP LEAGUE ……. ZERO . IM AFFRAID UNTIL WENGER STANDS DOWN IT WILL BE LOTS MORE OF THE SAME .
We may well buy a world class player. But not a forward, whatever happens arsene has categorically stated we won’t buy a forward. Ronaldinho is too old and injury prone for arsene to make an offer, and Kaka, Messi are untouchable. We may well sign a world class player but it’ll be someone like Diego, Ben Arfa, or Modric. Or maybe Dos Santos. The only other position we could potentially buy a big name other than a replacement for rosicky would be a centre mid should flamini leave.
A .. I WOULD RATHER COME 4TH AND WIN A CUP THAN COME 2ND AND WIN NOTHING , COMING 2ND BY DEFINITION MAKES YOU A LOSER , NO ONE REMEMBERS WHO CAME 2ND . AS FOR OUR POINTS TALLY THE STANDARD IN THE PRSHP THIS YEAR HAS BEEN A LOT POORER , THER HAVE BEEN A LOT LESS UPSETS AND THE STANDINGS COULD HAVE WRIITTEN THEMSELVES AT THE START
I just read a comment that the type of success we have had under Wenger is unbelievable and we should be grateful.
Steve take your head out of Arsene’s arse for a second. This will be our 3rd season without a trophy… the longest baron spell under Arsene… this didn’t happen before.
97-98 League + Cup
01-02 League
02-03 Cup
03-04 League
04-05 Cup
05 – 08 Nothing!
We’ve never been 3 seasons without a trophy under Arsene Wenger! We are a big club, what sort of fan thinks we should be grateful for the last 3 years? A fucking unambitious one thats for sure. If you take that approach to life, you’d be pretty fucking miserable.
Wenger was not solely responsible for the stadium… Are you so up Arsene’s ass that you believe he was the man that made that happen? What about the putting the finances into place, what about buying up the land, planning, building and the overall logistics of the project? Not Arsene i’m afraid.
I am still numb after yesterday, but at least we have the core of a good team. It doesn’t need an overhaul, it just needs a few world class additions.
I think if he added wisely in the summer, we could be real contenders next year.
Get your facts straight before you start preaching
Feel free to start supporting west ham and blackburn if you are happy with mediocre seasons that piter out to nothing, and be happy with it!
I support a team that wins the league and challenges for cups, not a bloody team that finishes 3rd/4th and doesnt win anything for 3 years. what we’re meant to be happy with that because we’ve got the best manager in the world?! Well facts state the best managers are the ones that ACTUALLY WIN SOMETHING consecutively and regulalry! We’ve never won back to back titles under AW nor have we won a trophy in europe despite getting to 2 finals!!
1 all … ali scored V manure !
whoooa
opps it was alves !!
shitei was so happy i dropped my burbon !
good goal, theyve had some chances too. Fucking Ronaldo looks more and more annoying every time he plays! Cunt. He’s def due and injury
THERE IS NO DOUBT WE HAD SOME AMAZING YEARS UNDER WENGER BUT FOOTBALL IS CHANGING AND MONEY TALKS NOW MORE THAN EVER . WE HAVE THE POTENTIAL 2 BE THE BEST IN EUROPE BUT I FEEL WENGER WONT BE THE ONE TO TAKE US THERE .THERE COMES A TIME WHEN YOU KNOW YOU FLOGGING A DEAD HORSE .
yeah im with you on that one geoff ! and even if dudu does come good how long will it take?
did he sign for 3 years?
it could be a flamini … the year his contracts up he comes good !
but either way you really cant rely on him next season !
so if wenker stated he wasnt going to buy a striker .. he really has lost the plot !
Agree Pedro,
I am not looking for wholesale changes in the summer just buy some f**king players please, before cesc gets disillusioned. You see am not the supporter who thinks it’s Arsenal’s’ given right to win something every year, but at least attempt to strenghen with transfers, it’s getting that bad that I would even accept us spending 20 mil on a player, who turns out to be a dud, at least it shows willingness to compete, well maybe not but you get my point.
odub
yeah like andy gray said man U as a team has scored 70 odd ..
and ronaldo’s scored over half of em …
HE is the team really ..
he has good support .. but thats what we are missing , a truly
world class player (striker) .. since ade stopped scoring we have been drawing or losing .. that is not the consistency AFC needs !
it would be nice to have a world class player or 2 …
instead we have eboue and ade !
id slagg off bendtner too but he is still pretty young … 19 and he is just as good/bad as ade ! but he can improve over time … Just not on AFC’s time !!!
He needs to go on loan next season ! (the dane)
he cant be played any more at AFC unless he turns good …
and he wont turn good getting 20 minutes here and there …
A f*ckin goal keeper that doesn’t let in the first/second shot on target would be a good f*ckin buy.
I’m sick of people supporting that c*ck between the sticks who’s a pile of sh*te. He doesn’t even deserve to be Arsenal’s number 2 FFS!! Look at Chelski’s number 2, sod it – their number 3 is better than our number 1!! Ben Foster; Manure’s number 3 again better than our number 1. Pool’s 3rd choice; Scott Carson – again better than our number 1!!
Can’t believe they even gave him a new contract for being the one shot one goal keeper.
Not long ago some of our players were saying Arsenal could do the double of the cl and pl.I had my doubts then and still have.To win these trophies you need to have a good defence and good offence. I’m afraid based on these requirements,Arsenal do not satisfy the minimum criteria. It’s to better to be eliminated in the qf than go to the sf and f and suffer more heartache.
Of course football aint so simple as that.For example Arsenal coudld only draw with Birminham who were beaten by Wigan. Aw had a golden opportunity to win a trophy this season but has squandered it. I don’t see the red faced giving up such a good opportunity.
We’ll have to wait for end of the season to see what AW does. If it’s more of the same you can be assured either Chelsea /MU would top the table again. As for Arsenal if nothing is done the gunners could be fighting for 4th spot.
You have beeen warned.
ethan, no goals from midfield in the league since Newcastle in Jan!! Compare that to what the other top 3 teams have at their disposal?!!
Speaking of which, just switched over to channel 5 just in time to see paddy vieira power in a header from a corner for inter v atalanta!!
Memories!!!
Uk bubbler
with our stadium .. with our ticket prices … with our training facilities
with our manager …
3 years with NO SILVERWARE is abysmal …
To be a truly great club , to get the recognition of a heavy hitter on an international stage winning silverware goes hand in hand with GREATNESS !
this stadium is state of the art ! we have all the materials to be truly great !
its like john candy driving a Lamborghini
did you have a relative on the titanic ?
see where optimism got them !
Franny, Almunia has been solid this year, I think he has come on leaps and bounds. Good distribution, good temprement and good hands. I don’t think there have been many keepers that have been better this year?
Nikki B will be much better next year, I think the added competition of a fit RvP will push him on!
I don’t think its our god given right to win a trophy every year, but the money we pay should entitle us to expect to compete on at least 3 fronts.
Who will we buy though? We either have someone coming through, or someone with Maradona potential in every position!
Bill, don’t ask the blog writer why he is a winner then ask which trophies he has won… he means he is a winner at what he does.
Merits should be judged on the now… not 4 years ago.
You have to be forward thinking in football otherwise you stagnate. In business if a CEO posts negative figures 4 years running, they get the boot… why should it be any different in football? I’m not saying can the manager, but lets have a bit of perspective about what is going on, because its not good enough is it?
odub
hey you mean as against our defenders scoring ? like toure or gallas ?
but our strikers cant ???
how long has it been since ade scored ? in the EPL ?
our midfeilders are suppliers !
thats the way it works ! it has been since pires left .. since TH14 demanded the ball ..
the same way ade’s DEMANDING the ball ..
A few weeks back ade came out and said ..
me and the midfield dont need to talk i just raise my hand and they supply it too me !
its like magic ..
Its like magic when you score !!!
it looks like bollocks when you don’t ..
not to mention offsides and loss of possession CONSTANTLY !
Listen i agree to a certain extent that the midfield haven’t scored more ..
but when they are following there game plan of supplying ade its pretty hard to
blame hleb – flamini – and cesc !
however you came blame eboue
when ade comes out and says these guys are
doing there job ..
so what are the strikers on the pitch for ???
But if your a striker who hasn’t scored in over 10+ games its pretty ignorant to blame the midfield !
the goals that have came in these draws haven’t been from our strikers !
if theyve came at all it was from defenders and cesc … the odd flamini goal ..
but its quite clear ( to me ) which area isnt firing !
alves 2nd !!!!!
man U might drop points !!!
That’s funny ethan
You must of misunderstood me, am not pleased with our yrs in the wilderness, am just looking for anything even a mirage! I think we all know that wenger will see this yr as progress, and in some ways maybe it is. So he will continue with his policy, am afraid we may all be saying the same shit next year. Also wenger and goalies, he places no great importance on them, hence almunia and his contract extention. I always thought it started at the back. Ethan the biggest thing is that wenger disses the domestic cups and hasn’t won anything in years, definition of complacent!
ethan I meant in comparism to pires,ljunberg,parlour and the like popping up with goals if the strikers werent scoring. Gallas has done his bit agreed and sagna scored his first v the chavs.
But take ade’s goals out the equation, and no one else stands out despite cecs’ free scoring start to the season.
Uk Bubbler… that is the only thing we can take from this season… we are contenders and we’re not that far off being a great team!
I think after today, we all need to look to the positives otherwise its going to be a miserable summer!
Who knows… we may even win the champions league!
stop it pedro!! I cant take anymore of getting my hopes up this season!!!
It is good enough. If the invincibles had had the injuries that we’ve had this season, they would have capitulated in the same way, possibly even worse. We do indeed need to try to gain some perspective, and 7 games ago we were walking the league despite having had two of our best players out the vast majority of the season. The players we have are at such an age where they will improve season by season. By the start of next season as well as having many of the most highly rated young players in Europe having improved from another season of experience, we’ll have one of the best forwards in Europe fully fit in Van Persie, either one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe in Rosicky fully fit, or a replacement such as Modric or Ben Arfa, or both, and one of the most highly rated young players in the world in Vela coming into the squad.
We are still not out of the title or the champions league this season, and even if you say that the standards have decreased, (which is not true, the premier league is now the top league in the world, and it’s just the fact that the top teams have improved more than the bottom teams) we are closer to first place than we were the past two seasons, which would seem to indicate that we have improved.
Those who would rather be miles off in the league and win a cup should go an support spurs. It’s nice to win silverware, but we are a top club, and are striving to be the best club in England, and the best club in Europe, and the only indicators of these are the Premiership and the Champions League. The FA cup is a nice bonus, the League cup is like a friendly cup.
A…. which players are you talking about?
RvP is potentially one of our best players, but he has never done it over the course of a year? Eduardo needs to be discounted. Rosicky is a good player but nowhere near as vital as freddie or Pires.
I would always prefer to finish second to fourth… but a cup would have been nice as well. Something to show for the year.
Like I was saying to the boys yesterday… we have one of the most competitive first elevens out there, but past those player… we have nothing really?
That a lot of maybes re Rosicky and RVP, Im not convinced they’ll ever be injury free, and I dont subscribe to your view A that we have great young players coming thru, if we do, how come they havent won the FA youth cup in ages?!
Ferdinand just limped off!! It’s getting intresting this!! No vidic for another 2 weeks too.
nice to read a site where we are not all yes men andy gray said yesterday at the start of the sec ond half that we keep passing the ball across the back four for five minutes thereby going nowhere we do that all the time Pat rice I watched a replay last night and he sits there like a muppet never saying anything to wenger reminds of graham taylor and phil neal yes boss
You never know what injuries your going to have in a season, but when history shows wenger that certain players can’t be relied on then you need a plan B, A…
Pires was the best player in the world for a time, so I would agree that Rosicky would never be that good, but he is a fantastic player and along with van persie i think when players are injured fans forget just how good they can be. Hleb is better than Freddie was, although he contributes in a different way. Clichy and Sagna are fantastic full backs, Traore is better the Clichy was at that age. Denilson, Diaby, Senderos, Bendtner, Walcott, Fabianski, Merida, Vela are all young players who we beat a lot of top clubs to sign, and are very highly thought of, not to mention fabregas, flamini, sagna, clichy, Van persie, and Toure and Hleb are still at an age where they’re yet to reach their prime. Denilson and Diaby have had very difficult season’s but are very talented players when fit and playing in their proper positions.
Looking at past our first eleven we have Fabianski, a very highly rated young keeper, Eboue as a sub right back who whatever people think of him is still a good full back. Traore a very talented sub left back with the potential to be better than clichy. Senderos who is very very underrated and close to displacing toure as first choice. Djorou who I’m not sure about, but has done well at times. Denilson and Diaby as sub centre mids, who have done a very good job at times when they’ve come in but have had horrible seasons with injury in Denilson’s case, and both injury and playing out of position in Diaby’s. We also have Song who I didn’t rate but had a fantastic African Nations and has been brilliant for the reserves recently. We have no real sub right or left mids, this is our biggest problem area. Up front we have Eduardo, who we know is certainly a very good reserve, Bendtner, and Walcott, two of the highest rated youngsters in Europe, and very close to being top top players, and Vela to come in next season. The only position we badly need back up is wide men, everywhere else we have good cover, and good young cover, with players who have the potential to develop into players better than those they’re backing up. I’d much rather than a denilson or diaby as a reserve than a fletcher or park, who will never be good enough to be regulars
A, thats the problem… we are talking about potential again.
How long do you wait? 2 years, 3 years, 4 years? Why don’t we buy some great players to compliment the best youth players.
Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg and Thierry Henry were all good players when they arrived and Wenger moulded them into World Class players.
Our youth players are ok players… then we mould them into good players… then maybe, just maybe they’ll turn into world class players. Its all very commendable on Arsene’s part, but I just worry they’ll become good with us, then fuck off to Europe to become world class.
I wouldn’t condone a clear out, but I would condone some competition for places because currently there isn’t any.
Who challenges Ade? No one… its not like asking who challenged Thierry… because he was the best of the best. Ade isn’t though? Who challenges Cesc? No one, who challenges Flamini? No one… the same pattern runs throughout the side.
At ManU, Anderson Competes with Scholes, Nani and Giggs, Tevez and Rooney, Hargreaves and Carrick… the same happens at Chelsea.
Organic growth combined with a bit of class would be a great way to compete at the highest level!
Also, I seem to remember Pires getting injured all the time, Paddy, Bergkamp, Edu… we always had injuries on the way to the title. Thierry was a bit different, but don’t forget the others! Sol Campbell was another one!
Thats alot of hope! it may all well click eventually, not sure about Hleb over freddie though, gave much more to the team in his prime and did it over a number of seasons, hleb’s very hot and cold and will he ever really truely take over a game, or will he ever score more than 5 a season? To many ??? for my liking about this squad, nothing a 40mil cash injection couldn’t solve. that’s my point!
No way is Hleb better than freddie no fucking way!!!
The guy has great ball control, agreed, but does not impact games anywhere near as much as freddie or pires whose position (cutting in from the left) he is actually currently occupying. Rosicky was the one meant to take the herth on the right a la freddie.
I reckon we have 3 players who are up to required standard in terms of ability, bottle and desire to play for Arsenal. Gael, Sagna and Cesc. The rest, all of them are flawed in some way, be it the size of their balls, their technical ability, or the fact that a lot of the time it seems that playing for Arsenal and winning things is not the most important thing in their world.
Gunners are fools to put their faith into RVP. It used to be a knock on Ronaldo that he was a show-pony who was a bit flakey and not up for physical stuff. I would say that is exactly what RVP is. Injured or not, the chances he has muffed in his most recent comeback have been poor efforts. And does he care? Does he really care?
Same for Ade. And Nik. Will they die for the cause? What about Eboue, Willy, Diaby, Hleb, Flam, even Kolo? Are they gonna bust their balls for us? They say they want to in their press conferences (yawn!), but out on the pitch I dont see it.
The 3 i mentioned early, Cesc, Gael and Bak… they are proper geezers. Their performances, even when they are off their game (which is rare), you can see it absolutely matters to them. Theo, Tommy and Big Phil escape criticism, Theo coz he’s improving, Tommy coz I cant make a judgement because he’s never there, and Big coz I love the guy and he loves us.. he’s just a young centre back who’s gonna get done occasionally, so did JTerry every week when he was Phil’s age… but the rest of em, I have huge doubts about their character…. every one of ‘em. At least Phil comes back for more…
a draw how interesting,
I couldn’t believe it when I saw The team sheet yesterday. I could understand changing it a bit upfront, but to play Hoyte, Traore and Gilberto??? That to me showed that Wenger was bullshitting us when he said we could still win the league. Why the fuck not play the strongest team for an hour, then rest em? The scousers were there for the taking.
The atmosphere yesterday was garbage, people around me were too concerned with having private little chit chats than even contemplating singing, shouting or heaven forbid, support the effin team! Wankers, the lot of em.
No wonder away games are soooo much better to go on.
Spot on Gidster agree with you list other than Kolo who I’d say deserves some credit for most of his performances this season, most.
yeah chris but more defensive injuries for the cunts.
Pires, Ljungberg and Thierry were all good players that Wenger turned world class, and Rosicky, Hleb, and Van persie are the same. If van persie had been fit Bendtner could have challenged Adebayor as his partner, as he undoubtedly would have been our number one forward, but with his out we needed Adebayor’s mobility often playing as a loan forward, and couldn’t throw Bendtner in at the deep end in that position.
Noone challenged Vieira in the same way that noone challenges Fabregas’ position. Diarra was meant to challenge Flamini, but his attitude messed that one up and he left at such a time and in such a way that Wenger couldn’t find a good replacement in time. I could see us signing someone in this position if Song doesn’t develop into that role, unless Arsene sees Denilson as that player. Anderson and Nani were bought because Utd had no good young players coming through to replace their aging stars who are near to retirement. It’s the same as the way in which we introduced Fabregas when Vieira was getting old. They were bought to replace permanently the old players within a season, but we don’t have old players who need replacing, apart from Lehmann for whom Fabianski was bought to replace, with Almunia as a stop gap whilst Fabiansk develops a bit.
Pires, Freddie etc all had injuries, but we never had two of them out for pretty much the entire season, even that squad would have not been able to cope with it.
Hleb has single handed run many a game this season, especially at the start of the season, and is as important as Fabregas in my opinion, though his lack of goals is frustrating. He and Cesc have tired towards the end of the season as we’ve relied entirely on them to pull the strings without any help from Rosicky, or Denilson.
Oh ans some fella saying we should go for Mourinho as manager???
You shittin me? Seriously, have a word with yourself m8.
odub
I think it all goes back to the squad is too thin ..
In fact all roads lead to rome !
its all based on being light on class !!!
and arsene is prepared to wait until he retires before 1/2 of the youth he purchased comes good !
You can’t run a top flight club like that .. Either that or we must stop kidding ourselves that we are worthy of the same accolades that we had just gotten used too in the invincible’s days . Its a bitter pill to swallow for me !
Winning is a habit ! and thats what it takes to be winners ..
I cant see anything consistent about this season ..
(other than we’ve won fuck all like last season ) and the season before that …
we still cant kill teams off .. in fact most times we’ve given away the 1st goal ..
we’ve still won no silverware ..
ok we are ahead of liverpool , but the season ain’t over yet !!!
and the most frustrating thing is Man’ure just dropped 2 points ..
and so did we !!!
I think i would of rather them won ! so i can stop brooding about it !
its so frustrating ..
we need macgyver to come in and do his magic on our squad !
he’s used to working with nothing !!!
odub;
What defensive injuries fella?
first of all to all u man utd Wa**ers just piss off u sad fools. trolling the arsenal blogs to talk crap. thats kids stuff, same thing to arsenal fans if u do it to other teams blogs. its bloody sad.
2nd. of all i know were all hurting as its hard to swollow a 5 point lead thats been cut to nothing in days all of witch was our fault, thats what makes it harder to take as it was ours to lose. ontop of playing EVERY team out of the park and not coming back with the win that we deserve.
think of that before we blame the ref.
3rd. any one calling for wenger to get the sack and Booing our boys is just over reacting.
4th. Yess we do need to spend but thats not the be all and end off of our problems what happends if we blew the 70 odd mill and win nothing. then what??
considering our current position we have done much better then what every body had thought we would do. they said we wouldnt even get 4th. but we was sitting top for most of the season so thats progress, but our need for a Cup since we havent had one in 4 years is over looking that.
we look at players we could have signed if wenger put his hand in his pocket.
then only to be told weeks later we looked at them but didnt bid.
that leads to more frustration and feeling hard done by. torres, ribery, anelka, to name a few,
end of the day i love my Team and stand by them as much as possible. thats all we can do when things are going wrong, NOT put them up a firing squad.
but i am a realist and i can see there are players there that are either injurd to much or just not good enough to were the red and white.
so that needs to be addressd as soon as possible,
any one who thinks were going to spend big in the summer please think again. 1 or 2 more youngsters and thats it. i will be shocked if we bring in 1 player of proven quility
Gidster are you genuinly saying that Toure, Gallas, and Flamini don’t care?! And that they don’t show it on the pitch?! Gallas cares possibly too much, hence the Birmingham fiasco. Flamini plays his heart out every single game, and with Toure you can see it in his face how much he cares, when we win or lose. As people have said our current first X1 is good enough, and would have won the title this season with better luck with injuries. The only issue is whether the back up is good enough.
When someone has been out for so long it can take a long time to get match fit, and that’s why van persie has missed the chances he has, not because he isn’t very good. A fit van persie is only bettered as a forward by Torres in the Premiership
ferdinand limped off, vidic out for 2 weeks. They ended with a back 4 of Hargreaves,pique,brown and vidic
Rosicky has played 31 games this year! Thats not a bad return for a player who is injury prone… to put that in perspective, thats about the same amount as eboue… and it feels like that prat has been in the team every week!
Odub, who would rather have and inform Hleb, or an inform Freddie… for me… 20 goal a season Freddie would take a place on my right midfield everyday.
Gidster, I would put the Flamster on that list.
A, that is another thing we do… boot out the experienced players. Imagine if we still had Pires and Campbell in the team? We’d be doing a lot better wouldn’t we. There is nothing wrong with Giggs and scholes, they are stil contributing… why do we have to sell all our experience? It makes no sense?
Pires done his cruciate and was out for a year, and Freddie was a low contributer games wise most seasons!
So we’re in the same position as we were yesterday? except if we beat the mancs, chelsea can win the league now!
Fucking Marv… I am assuming Chelsea won? Actually, I am assuming they played! haha!
RvP is a fantastic player. Well I think he is, coz I can’t really remember him playing form us 100% match fit.
We have done way way better than anyone ever thought we’d do this year. Thats why it hurts so much watching it all go down the pisser. The team selection yesterday handed the impetus to LPool, their goal was like watching last season’s huffin n puffin only to lose a goal from the oppo’s 1st attempt. Then to see us having to come back, YET A FUCKIN GAIN! How tiring must that be? Watchin Wenger goin ape shit on the touchline just made me think; Why are you going crazy fella? If you’d have played your strongest 11, we probably wouldnt be in that position to begin with.
Gidster i tend to agree with you.
My list is Cesc, Sagna, Clichy, Flamini & Theo… if you look at Man U first team only Sagna & Cesc would get a look in..
Adebayor’s recent interview he was talking about ‘his’ most important 10 days not ‘Arsenal’s’ but ‘his’…?? i couldnt believe it
Why didnt we play 4-4-2 on saturday? Theo upfront down the middle thats his position not f###ing right or left wing!! Why play with 1 striker at home? Man U play with 4 sometimes.. how many goals/assists have Eboue & Hleb got this year? they both not good enuf to play for Arsenal period.
Is there anyone at Arsenal that will question Wengers decisions or tactics???? it doesnt seem like it
lets hope ferdinand’s still injured and limping like a gimp next week !
Pedro – Ljungberg wouldn’t score anything like the goals he did in today’s team. He scored the goals because of Bergkamp. The role that Bergkamp had in making everything tick and opening up defences is now taken by Hleb and Cesc working in tandem.
Good shout Goona P, Theo has been showing grit lately, I like that!
True A, but Hleb wouldn’t have scored those goals even with Bergkamp.
Goona P
Looking at the United team I could have Sagna and Clichy in ahead of Brown and Evra, Flamini ahead of Carrick, and Rosicky or Hleb ahead of Giggs who’s a shadow of the player he was and Cesc ahead of Scholes or Anderson.
Hleb is on par with Cesc in terms of his importance to the team, you see how different we play when he’s on the sidelines, such as most of yesterday’s match.
True Pedro, but Hleb wouldn’t have been in the team with Bergkamp. Arsene knew he had to replace the job that he did, and there wasn’t anyone similar who could do that, so he had to change the style of play sharing those jobs out between cesc and an attacking midfielder by signing hleb.
I think our 1st 11 is fantastic. Trouble is our 1st 11 includes Rosicky and RvP who for whatever reason just cannot seem to stay fit for too long. That and the back up just wasnt as good as Wenger hoped; Traore, for sall his promise, wasn’t ready to fill in for Clichy, maybe he shouldve gone on loan. Hoyte; I thought he was pretty solid yesterday, but he will always be slated for the 4-0 Fa cup game I guess. Eboue; Don’t get me started on him. Maybe people have their own player they love to hate, but for me Eboue just needs to eff off asap. Hate slating Arsenal players, but he really does my nut in.
I got every faith in Theo, and yep, he needs to start playing up front, like NOW!
goona p
Adebayor’s recent interview he was talking about ‘his’ most important 10 days not ‘Arsenal’s’ but ‘his’…??
was head butting bendtner number 1 ??
plastic mac
Eduardo is the back up for Van Persie, and I’d say he’s good enough, but unfortunately his horrific injury happened whilst Van Persie also had a long term injury. Hoyte was abysmal yesterday and must go asap. Traore was solid yesterday and had Pennant in his pocket all game, as well as winning the free kick that we scored from. He’s still raw and looked very weak at the start of the season but has got to the level where he’s a good back up. Eboue is a fantastic full back, but not a right mid. He probably will be off in the summer, but it’d be a shame because as an attacking full back he has a lot to offer.
My brother a liverpool fan txt me from prague yesterday saying how can a team that if win would be 3 pts behind man utd, play with so little passion. They didn’t play like they thought the league was still doable. Now with manu dropping points with hindsight, wenger should of played his 1st 11, the point is however, the ones that came in didn’t play with much passion, so I guess you have to question their desire, obviously with some it’s just damn right skill.
When did it ever mean that when you rest players in one game they automatically win the next, I thought it was one game at a time. The resting of players should of happened after blackburn in prepration for champions league. But coming back to my original point the squad is way to light, both in quality and depth.
I dont put Flam on the list. If he was Arsenal die-hard he wouldve signed a contract by now. He puts it about on the pitch, he seems to care in his performances, but obviously playing for Arsenal is not the most important thing in his life or he wouldve signed months ago… 8 years Cesc signed for.
Anyway, good as Flam has been, he is replaceable. I would even go as far to say that Jimmy Bullard could do Flam’s job. But then Jimmy is great… Reo-Coker could do a job for us too… Flam is not that great….
And Kolo and Willy… well, they might care, but they arent good enough. Maybe one of them and A-Nother (i would happily stick with Phil), but as a unit they dont compliment eachother. Kolo has won our hearts with his performances over the years, but last year and this you can put more goals down to his mistakes than Phil’s. I would take Vidic, Rio, JT, Carvallho, Alex, and Carragher over him. What was that crap defending against Stevie G last week all about? That was nothing to do with playing at right back, it was just rubbish. Kolo exudes panic.
And Willy… he seems to be not as good as he was for Chelsea. All talk, no walk… and clearly a bit of a dipshit…
RVP reputation is a joke. Best striker other than Torres? Thats nonsense. Rooney, Drogba, Anelka, Tevez, Berbatov,…. even Owen’s goals per game puts RVP to shame… Robin is a hothead with a good shot who can do amazing things. But there is no evidence anywhere to suggest that we can build our front line around him. He’s lightweight, fragile, one-footed, crap in the air, poor final ball, first touch isnt outstanding, and he’s easy to wind up. He can do the odd bit of magic, but to suggest he’s anywhere near Bergy’s or Henry’s class is nuts. We have a bunch of reasonable strikers, RVP doesnt stand out amongst them. Eddie is probably our best striker.
So would anyone still put us in the title race? Things are the same as they were before yesterdays result.
Bergkamp with anyone would result in goals, the guy was a genius.
A, I agree with you when you speak of Hleb. He is just as important to us playing well. I am not a big fan of Rosicky though? Its like he hasn’t found his role in the team yet? He doesn’t score really, he doesn’t assist to much… he looks good on the ball but I felt he would be more of a goal scorer when he joined us.
Did you really think Traore was good? I think he will be good, but he was sloppy as fuck in the first half. He looks big enough to be a quality winger. He has pace, trickery, a great cross! (I remember thinking that about Eboue last year).
So what are the solutions chaps? Where do we need to strengthen… and where can we realistically strengthen… what I mean by that is there is no point in saying we must buy Eto’o because we have to many strikers already!
Where would you strengthen if you were given the team now?
Eboue a fantastic right back! you sure about that, what is sagna then?
Pedro, if we’d beaten pool yesterday we would have been 4 pointe behind then=m and maybe we could have deluded ourselves about having a chance. I’d rather aim low for the rest of the season, support the team but not expect much because they look dead on their feet.
Gidster I agree with you on flamini, if he still keeps holding the club to ransom i’d tell him to do one. We’ll not fall apart if he leaves, he’s had one and a half decent fucking seasons ffs!! and the half was as a bloody left back!
a; yep, Eboue is such a great right back, thats why Wenger would rather play Kolo or the useless Hoyten there!
A garbage right winger (which begs the question; what the fuck did Wenger think was gonna happen? Turn Eboue from an erratic RB to a world class RM???) And a RB that cannot be trusted.
Considering Hoyte has NO confidence, and why is that a surprise, I thought he did OK. But WHY was he playing anyway?
Eboue is fantastic….Fantastically shit that is!
The right backs prior to him were dixon, and lauren, he aint a patch on them 2!
Pedro;
Im a blind optimist, so yeah I think we are STILL in the title race!
It’s giving me a bloody headache keeping up with comments on both of today’s post because both are still getting comments added!
Anyway I’m done for the day, have a good evening grovers!
And hope we have a top notch tuesday night and next sunday to paper over the cracks!!
This time next week should tell us all we need to know about where the season’s heading. 2 big wins that’s all we need to have me believing again.
goona p,
wud u not put toure on ur list??
an wat u think about gallas coz all his antics i still think he puts 100% in
were not guna win the league and im cheerin 4 th gooners on tuesday but if we lose will wenger finaally take a bloody hint and spend sum money??
hes like a boring investment banker takin no risks
Matt, come back when you can spell you tard. (Different matt to the one above!)
Yeah Pedro right at the start Traore was pretty sloppy, his first touch was a bit off and he looked nervous on the ball, but he grew in confidence as the game went on and he got back very well when he did give the ball away. Defensively he didn’t give pennant a sniff all game.
Rosicky when he’s played a few games does look very good, he’s more direct than Hleb, but plays one two after one two linking up with both cesc and hleb, pulling strings in a similar fashion, but making more runs into the box. He just hasn’t stayed fit long enough for his role in the team to evolve properly as Hleb’s has done. I think if he stayed fit he’d score a lot of goals making the runs into the box but whether he’ll ever stay fit long enough or whether he’ll be there come the start of next season is far from certain.
We need a goalscoring midfielder, or maybe two. A pires type, be it a fit rosicky, or a diego or ben arfa, and a player or two who can come in if they are tired or injured. We need Denilson, Van Persie, and Rosicky to either sort out their injury problems, or be sold or replaced.
Bergkamp was certainly a genius, but I don’t think Hleb would have every played with him. Bergkamp had the ability to do it all, and Hleb would be useless as with Bergkamp playing all you need are players who make good runs. Ljungberg was hardly a world-class player in terms of his ability, but Wenger created a system using the genius of Bergkamp and Pires that utilised his strengths to the extent that he was fantastic, similar to the way in which Mourinho made the most of Lampard’s strengths despite his limited natural ability.
Phrasing it asking what the solutions are is presumptuous, because it assumes there is a problem, and the problem only seems to exist in the minds of certain arsenal fans everytime we fail to win. Had middlesborough won we would have been very much still in the title race, as a win on sunday and a Chelsea win at Stamford Bridge, and we would have been ahead of Utd. Now our only real hope is for Blackburn to get something at Ewood park, as well as Chelsea not losing to Utd in two weeks.
erm, right… yeah… RVP IS FUCKING BRILLIANT!.. he’s got technical deficiencies, he’s embarrassingly one-footed, he’s got the temperament of a teenager, he’s got no physical presence, and he rarely takes the right option, but HES FUCKING BRILLIANT coz he occasionally bangs in a screamer… good one…
Stengthen goalkeeper for a start. Anyone really, but can Wenger be trusted? He has a bit of previous in that area… Wright, Warmuz, Shabaan, whisper it,… Fabianski?
Back 4 is ok, so long as Kolo or Willy make way for Phil or someone else of a larger stature.. Phil is ok for me though…
Midfield: keep Cesc, buy Diarra back, or Coker, or even Barry… or all of em… and ship the rest of the CMs on… as for wide men, I wouldnt have a clue… Ben Zema..? i saw a link to Schwiensteiger today which is a good shout if true… Robinho always gets mentioned… Looks like a bit of a dick to me…
Up front I’d like to see Toni, or Berbs… or spend all the money on Ageuro…
All those draws we’ve had… if we’d just won 2 of those games against those ropey teams that cant play the game… we’d be right on Utd’s tail… we’ve pissed it away ourselves… I can take getting tonked and outplayed… its part of footie,… but I cant take chucking it down the toilet ourselves.
Who’s being dramatic here sounds like you!
In my humble opinion rvp is’t world class yet. your standards for world class are obviously abit lower than mine, play a handful of games a season and scores some beautiful goals doesn’t make you world class in my books. He is what he is a good player that needs to get over a history of injuries. Is rvp world class because he plays for arsenal, that’s the ? you need to ask yourself.
Uk, I agree with you. How can you be deemed world class if you have never played a full season?
I’m sure he’d prove us wrong if he did, but he hasn’t yet!
Ronaldo is world class because he show brilliance consistently over a long period of time. I’d like RvP to follow suit!
Eboue sucks! What the fuck he does on the pitch? I can’t understand what Arsene sees in him. I think eboue’s got some Arsene’s secrets, otherwise what the fuck Arsene sees in him is beyond me. This summer we need to sign some established players big time, a clinical finisher, right and left wingers, and a big commanding centreback. Arsene please sign some quality players. Our first 11 is superb except RVP and ROSICKNOTE. They really make me sick as they are always sick with injuries. If we can strengthen our bench with some quality players alongside Theo and Nikki B we can torment any team no matter who they are. But at the moment we have agonizingly thin squad. Hoyte can do us a big favour by leaving but i like him as he is from our youth academy. As for traore he is only potential and nothing else and he needs to get lost to some spanish or dutch league for an year to learn his trade. As for gilbetrto if he plays like he played yesterday i have got no problem with him. Well i won’t suggest we need to chuck Arsene out. Surely not with Mouninho in place of him.
RVP is by far the most technically gifted player we have at the club, and he’ll score at the very least a goal every other game once match fit. He couldn’t yet be considered world class, but has the potential to be. He does need to sort out his injury problems, and I’m certain he will have by the start of next season. Although Arsene has said he won’t sign a forward, should Van Persie’s injury problems not be sorted I could see him selling him and bringing someone in, but that’s very very unlikely.
Arsene didn’t want to sign Richard Wright. Warmuz and Shabaan were only average back ups, and Fabianski will become a top top keeper. He also signed Lehmann who in our Champions League season was the best goalkeeper in Europe.
Diarra is a completely pratt, we would and should never sign someone with that sort of personality back. Reo-Coker would potentially be ok, Barry isn’t good enough. Robinho would be incredible but Madrid would never sell him.
RVp is simply not world class. He’s got the quality but to become a world class player u have to do it on a consistent basis. Even Cesc has not done it consistently and for me FAB4 is not world class yet although he may become world class as he’s only 21.
IF RVP could stay fit long enough to develop, then who knows how good he could be. But the over the top shite from Ginster is hilarious! Buy back Diarra! Buy Reo-Coker or barry!
A..
I think you miss the point, your talking potential again and maybe’s, If I knew you I would bet you 50 pounds that if rvp plays in the euros this summer he will come back to us injured, just like rosicky next season, how long do you give players with a history of injuries, before you give up on them? And although the must tec player as you put it, is he the best baller, ie. sees the pictures, unselfish when needs be I don’t know.
I really don’t get how anyone could say buy back Diarra, the bloke is so incredibly stupid. Had he stayed he would have been first choice by the end of the season. He’s got twice as much natural ability as Flamini, how could he not look at the things that Wenger had done with Flamini and had some patience. Complete idiot. Saying we should sign him back is also ridiculous because Arsene says he has a policy of never signing back players who’ve been sold. Although one player I wouldn’t mind him breaking that rule for would be Reyes, as a squad player at least and one of the few players who would probably be available.
Hey guys, let’s enjoy for a moment – ManUSA dropped two points!!!