Mental strength, quality, intelligent players, maturity, naivety… experience.

I reckon Arsenal fans have become so used to reading Arsene Wenger interviews these days, you could almost predict what he is going to say after a game…

Arsenal fans are constantly being spun an almost unattainable dream and I think even the most ardent Arsene fans are coming to end of their tether.

I was speaking to a Grover yesterday and he made a couple of great points I’d like to mention.

Do you remember back in February when Danny or Keith came out and announced record pre tax profits? It’s no coincidence that around the time that story came out the club sent out the renewal letters for Club level.

How about late May? Do you remember the stories that came out from the club that we needed a centre back, no more players would leave and the fans wouldn’t be disappointed by this summers transfer activities… well that ties nicely in with normal season ticket renewals.

The next nicely packaged portion of bullshit came from the AGM. Apparently their was such a lack of decent centre backs on the market this summer, AC Milan had to sign Phil (Who I am sure Arsene said was a great player).

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but I am sure Wenger also said that Vincent Kompany was a good player in the summer and he moved to Man City for about £6million? How about Richard Dunne who we could have picked up for next to nothing? How about Olof Melberg (Clutching at straws here, but the guy is better than Song) who was on a free? How about Martin Caceres?

I can’t believe that a team that boasts the greatest scouting network in the world can’t find a centre back.

My point with the above is that we are constantly being fed propaganda by the powers that be and we take it hook, line and sinker.

So here we are again, after surrendering a 2 goal lead to the worst team in the league and Arsene is taking positives and defending his centre midfield… claiming certain players are better than we know they are… promising the fans the players will learn their lessons… telling us Arsenal are a bit naive…

Now, I am sure I’ve heard this all before?

Are we about to embark on another fruitless season becuase a team we all knew was too young is naive?

Many dislike Adebayor, but you can’t knock his honesty,

“At the end of the day we always drop the points and not against the top four – against Tottenham who are bottom of the league.”

Exactly Ade. We may be sitting pretty in the league, but we haven’t played anyone of calibre yet.

“To be champions in this way? You can never be a champion,”

In your heart of hearts, you know he is right. How can we claim to be challengers if we can’t hold onto a 2 goal lead with 88 minutes on the clock?

So, time for Arsene to rescue our season. No more bullshit, no more empty promises… just action on the pitch and if players aren’t up to the challenge, drop them or move them on in January. I am sure their are 220 worthy players willing to replace them who will show some heart on the pitch.

Arsenal fans deserve players who have some fight in them and we deserve a team worth of the shiny new stadium.

So… what do you think the coach is going to do?

That is what my Spud chum text me… no gloating… not snarling… just that.

‘Unbelievable.’

What a joke…

Where the hell do I start? How do I approach a match report after that… I’m virtually speechless (textless…).

Well firstly I think I can say with honesty that Harry Redknapp has clearly been having an affair with Lady Luck… she didn’t even give us a look in tonight. Let me assure you though… I wont be using that as an excuse.

Secondly, why oh why when we are cruising does Arsene insist on bringing on two of his weakest players?

Thirdly… where the hell were the experienced players telling the kids to shut up shop? Wenger spoke of naivety at the end of the game… but Gallas and Silvestre are two of the most experienced players in the Prem… where was the leadership? Why weren’t the kids told to take it up the other end and play keep ball by the corner flag or something along those lines.

I don’t think I’ve felt lower as a Gooner for a while. It’s not the result that has hit me for six (Or four)… it is the fact that here we are again… a few games in, we’ve not played anyone of merit and we are struggling. It’s really quite disappointing…

Individually there were some great performances out there, but overall as a team I felt we looked disjointed… the hole in the middle of the park next to Cesc couldn’t be clearer. Cesc isn’t playing well and that can almost solely be put down to the fact that Arsene has made a huge mistake by not replacing Flamini. Denilson played ok tonight… but Cesc doesn’t look comfortable next to him does he? He is a shadow of the player we saw last year and a shadow of the player we saw in the summer.

The centre of defence is a hard one to judge. The two french centre backs looked solid for the most part. The fact that they both nicked two goal showed they were both up for it. However, defending your centre backs performances after they leaked 4 goals is tough. The goals were pretty flukey… but after Almunia spilt the Huddlestone (?) shot… shouldn’t someone be following up? If Jermaine Jenas is running with the ball, shouldn’t someone be preventing a shot at all costs… becuase I am pretty sure everyone is aware that Penas can do that from 20 yards.

Almunia really let himself down tonight. I am a big fan of Almunia, but I can’t defend his erratic display tonight. David Bentley launched a speculative shot from 40 yards for Spurs first… for me Al could have stepped back onto his line and caught it… but instead he went for the spectacular and tipped it into his net. From that point on his head went. For the Spuds second he parried weakly and allowed Bent in and for the other two goals… well… he didn’t have much chance. I called him world class last week… and the sign of whether that is true is how he bounces back from this game. I wont write him off, but he needs to up it and not allow himself to go the way of Lehmann.

For Spurs third, Clichy made a shocking error when he slipped over allowing Penas to take control of the ball, run for 30 yards unchallenged only to bury the ball in the top corner. For their fourth, some dirty spud picked up the ball, spanked it at the post and the rebound was instinctively finished by Lennon.

There were positives tonight. Our attacking display was pretty spot on… ok, so we missed a few chances, but we did score 4 goals. Silvestre nipped in near post for our first from a corner… Gallas connected with an RvP freekick for our second… Adebayor finished off Nasri’s chip for our third… RvP buried our 4th. You can’t argue with 4 goals really. I know people will say we should have finished off all of our chances, but that is just being unrealistic. 2 goals up with 6 minutes to play normally signals game over.

It certainly looked like it was over, then Wenger started tinkering. He brought on Eboue. When he did this I said to my neighbour that it was almost like Wenger was trying to sneak him on just so he could prove a point…. I mean honestly… what was he going to add to the right that a 19 year old Theo couldn’t? Then he subbed RvP for Diaby… then finally he threw on Alex song for Nasri. I don’t understand how those subs were supposed to do anything other than invite Spurs on? They were pathetic subs in my eyes… Who would you rather have seen, Song and Eboue or Ramsey and Wilshere? I know who would have done a better job and I don’t think I am saying that with the benefit of hindsight… I think I am saying that with the benefit of logic.

It was a monumental cock up on Wenger’s part and he has to shoulder the blame for the outcome.

The team is inexperienced and top heavy with averageness. I don’t care how young they are (naivety… per-fucking-lease), I don’t care how good they could be and I don’t care about lady luck . I want to see my team perform like lions and I want to see my team have the intelligence to hold on for 6 minutes when they are 2 up.

The crowd did their part tonight… they were electric… sadly they were let down by the manager and the team. It’s just not good enough and I a flummoxed as to what the answer is… how do you combat a manager who believes in average players at the expense of winning things? How do you teach a team to defend? How do you make young players grow up without shedding points?

I’ll let you guys discuss that in the comments…

P.S. Well played to the stewards tonight… they were obviously told to let people stand tonight and the difference told… the atmosphere was spot on.

I’d also like the thank the hundreds of Grovers who added their thoughts to yesterdays post. I was worried I might come back to a few nasty comments… but you proved again that you are the best bloggers on the net by keeping it friendly and making Le Grove the best place to talk Arsenal!

Ok to start on a very positive note and to issue credit, where credit is due, a great friend of mine who is a season ticket holder and an Arsenal nut, told me a story that warmed the very cockles of my red and white heart.

His son who is in his mid 20′s was playing for his local team, he skinned a defender and received an Eduardo style break and dislocation, unfortunately for this young man, he may not get his game back, much like Eduardo he’s in the lap of the gods.

For anonymity’s sake we’ll call this Gooner ‘Tiny Tim’ after his dad. My mate told the powers that be, that his son had a similar break to Eduardo’s and Arsenal told Eduardo, who then wrote a get well letter to Tiny Tim, so a big well done to Ken Friar and his team, I thought that showed why Arsenal are unlike other clubs, they care about their fans as well. It was a classy thing to do. Get well soon Tiny, we’re all rooting for you.

Tim will also be at the game tonight as arrangements are being made to get him there, so if the team needed any more encouragement, they’ve got it now!

Ade’s warning the boys they need to focus and show no mercy, clinical finishing and the spirit of Fenerbahce and West Ham are called for, go get them gooners.

The BBC said that Cesc said the spuds couldn’t beat our ladies, I can’t find where he said it, but Cesc, I think the chavs would struggle to beat our ladies, so go and show them how it’s done.

Harry Redknapp seems to have a memory problem, last year he was a lifelong gooner, today he’s a lifelong Spud, it just goes to show the lengths that some people will go to please a few hundred spurs fans, shame on you Dirty Harry.

I’m really looking forward to tonight but as always I’m very nervous when it comes to playing the spuds, we need to put them to the sword and shut Bentley up, I expect them to play with a lone striker and stifle the midfield, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wenger sending out the Fenerbahce set up, though I would prefer him to play Ade, Robin, Theo, Nasri, Nikki and Vela up front and win 17 nil, sadly I don’t think he’ll be taking my advice though!

Have a great night tonight Grovers if big Tone does us a favour, we’ll be 1 point behind and I think Pompey have a far better team than the spuds.

4-1 the Arsenal and let’s sing so loud we can’t hear the knuckle draggers from Shite hart lane all night.