Monthly Archives: February 2010

I Am Just Sick And Tired Of These Ridiculous And Amateurish Mistakes

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FC Porto (2) – (1) Arsenal
Campbell (18′)
Estadio do Dragao

For Sol Campbell this was his return to Champions League football since the heartbreaking final in 2006, where he marked with his last game for Arsenal with a headed goal. He scored a valuable goal tonight and just like in Paris we lost this game 2-1.

Football’s a funny old game isn’t it?

But co-incidences and irony aside, this was a poor night for Arsenal.

At a time when Arsenal find themselves just about back in the title race and supposed to be showing determination, solidarity and spirit to kick on for the last part of the season they were a collective shambles.

Almunia was injured (Arsene’s code for dropping a goalkeeper) and started with Fabianski. Unfortunately, whenever Almunia has played poorly and given Fabianski a chance (and there’s been a lot) the young Polish keeper hasn’t stepped up. He looks terrified and you couldn’t even say that he’s completely inexperienced. He’s made over 30 appearances now.

Vito Mannone is the best goalkeeper we have at the football club. And that’s saying something about the dire situation Arsenal are in.

The two goals Arsenal conceded were so shambolic they are something you would see on a second rate Christmas bloopers compilation DVD but unfortunately for Arsenal fans there was nothing funny about the ridiculous and quite frankly amateurish mistakes we seem to be making lately.

We’ve debated why Arsene doesn’t teach defence but do we actually have a goalkeeping coach?

The sheer ridiculousness of the mistakes Arsenal make these days are just depressing now.

I would compare the mistakes to ones made in Sunday league football but that would be a huge insult to Sunday league football.

Against Manchester United, terrible defending made Nani look like Ronaldo. The fact is he is an average player and we made him look world class. Against Chelsea, more shocking mistakes gave Chelsea an easy victory.

And tonight? Well you wouldn’t believe it unless you saw the game.

Their first goal was a cross from the wide right and for some reason he wasn’t set, and despite the fact the ball was just going across the goal Fabianski amazingly managed to turn the ball into his own net.

This is basic level stuff, and I have no idea what our goalkeepers do in training. Probably overhead kicks and heading.

Similar stuff to the Nani/Almunia goal against Manchester United a few weeks ago, so it’s good to know Fabianski is learning from Arsenal’s number one.

And the second goal was just as farcical.

The ball was running back to the goalkeeper with no threat from any Porto player, Sol clipped the ball and instead of kicking it, Fabianski picked it up.

Now, you can debate whether it was Campbell’s or Fabianski’s fault for conceding the indirect freekick in the penalty area, but what happened afterwards was even more farcical. Instead of holding up play (we even do this in my local Sunday league games) they literally handed Porto the ball, and stood off as they rolled the ball into the net.

In a Champions League game of this magnitude and could very well shape our season, we do not one, but two stupid things!

I can’t explain what the hell is going on with Arsenal at the moment.

Arsene can moan about rules and the freekick but the sad and sobering truth is Arsenal are a shambles. We’re not ruthless enough to kick the ball away or waste time nevermind win enough games to win the league.

Are Arsenal’s players just over pampered kids who don’t understand football?

Teams and players that have experienced success know what it takes to grind out a result or get a slight advantage here and there, but none of our players seem to have a clue.

Remember the Thierry Henry days when we were the team that would punish teams with quick freekicks and nice little tricks? That used to be us.

But nowadays we’re seeing the same ridiculous mistakes time and time again from our players, and I’m just sick and tired of it.

 

Can Arsenal Win 12 Games In A Row?

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Well that was a strange night in a strange Premier League season.

Not one team is putting a consistent run together to go clear at the top of the league. And even teams who have had poor runs in the this season are still in with a shout of their ambitions.

Liverpool, who have had a horrendous time this season are amazingly in fourth position. Teams like Spurs, Aston Villa and Manchester City have all flattered to deceive and instead of taking advantage of Liverpool’s problems they’ve probably thrown away their best chance of breaking into the Top Four.

I have no doubt that Liverpool will make fourth now.

So how about the three teams above them?

Well Chelsea lost at Everton and Manchester United dropped points at Aston Villa.

But to me, they still both look strong. United created a lot of chances with 10 men at Villa Park and could have nicked all 3 points. Chelsea are still a solid team and Everton do have the ability to step it up against the bigger sides (we can vouch for that).

I think we can all agree that for various reasons (injuries to Van Persie, inability to defend counter attacks, etc.) that Arsenal have not been in stunning form this season. We’ve look unconvincing in several games this season and stars such as Andrei Arshavin have lost their form and haven’t performed enough. Yet amazingly, despite our inconsistent form we’re only 6 points behind Chelsea, and 5 behind Manchester United.

Don’t get my wrong, it’s still a massive gap as far as I’m concerned and the chances of lifting the Premier League title come May in my opinion are slim. Because to do it I firmly believe we would have to win 10 of our final 12 games, and that is a massive ask.

Our final fixtures are:

Sunderland (Home)
Stoke (Away)
Burnley (Home)
Hull (Away)
West Ham United (Home)
Birmingham City (Away)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (Home)
Tottenham Hotspur (Away)
Wigan Athletic (Away)
Manchester City (Home)
Blackburn Rovers (Away)
Fulham (Home)

From our 12 remaining games, 6 are away and 6 are at home.

Looking at them on paper (well, on screen) they don’t look too difficult, in comparison to the fixtures Chelsea and Manchester United have left. Certainly, all of our home games are more than winnable but the away games could prove a lot trickier than they look.

Hull have recently beaten Manchester City and drawn against Chelsea at home, and you just know the Orange Phil Brown would love to take points from us. His record against us isn’t bad for a team tipped for relegation. Stoke is another problematic game – we lost there last season and we know about the FA Cup game last month.

Then the others against Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers will be fights, make no mistake about it. Whether we can withstand their physical tactics will decide how our season will pan out. They will try to bully us and the form of Nicklas Bendtner could determine where we end up in the league. He looked decent last night against Liverpool and our form of late proves that without a target man then we’re toothless. If Bendtner puts himself about and allows players like Rosicky, Arshavin and Nasri to play then we’ve got a chance. The fitness of Diaby is also important as he has the physical presence and has a knack of scoring important goals.

In my eyes, the only chance we have of pushing right to the end is if Bendtner stays fit for the rest of the season and starts every week. Having Arshavin or Eduardo as the central striker won’t do it. Defenders hate having to defend against someone who is good in the air. Bendtner isn’t exactly Alan Shearer but we need a different style of play to compliment our short passing game. We need to mix things up and make sure teams don’t use the same gameplan against us week after week (a la Manchester United and Chelsea).

Of course, we need to somehow find a way to make sure our defence doesn’t leak stupid goals. Can Arsene turn it around so we have a rock solid defence? If he can then we’ve got a chance.

 

A Prediction: How The 2010/2011 Season Will Go

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It’s the same old story every single season, so to make things easier, here’s a check-list of what will happen next season:

  1. The club tell us Arsene has money to spend.
  2. In the summer, we will sell 4 players, bring in 2 and be ‘stronger’.
  3. We are told by Arsene Wenger that Arsenal will mount a real title challenge this season, as our squad is more experienced and stronger.
  4. The club are happy that we’ve made a profit.
  5. After a positive start, we will lose a big player to injury before Xmas.
  6. We don’t need to sign anyone, as players returning from injury are just like ‘new signings’.
  7. We don’t bring in anyone in the January Transfer Window.
  8. We throw away the FA Cup.
  9. We’re told that challenging for the league is better than any FA Cup.
  10. Our form suffers and we’re out of the title race by Spring.
  11. We’re told a Top Three finish is better than any FA Cup.
  12. We get to the Quarter/Semi Finals (delete as appropriate) of the Champions League, but go out.
  13. We’re told a Top Four finish is better than any FA Cup.
  14. ‘Real’ Arsenal fans tell us that we should be grateful for a Top Four position and all these expectations are unrealistic, we don’t really support the club and we’re spoilt, despite Number 3.
  15. Arsene Wenger tells us finishing in the Top Four is like winning trophies.
  16. Lather, rinse and repeat.

See you next season.

 

Literally ‘No Defence’ For Arsène Wenger

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After the fallout over yesterday’s game with Chelsea, and the realisation that our title challenge is all but over in early February, accusations of bringing in 5 or 6 players have come up and Arsenal fans who defend the Arsenal manager keep saying that we have to look long term and success will come.

Who mentioned bringing in 5 or 6 players? I don’t want 5 or 6 players.

At a time when the majority of Arsenal fans want a new goalkeeper, new left back and new striker, I only wanted one new player.

And that was a striker.

The fact is that for all the injuries we’ve had to Eduardo, Bendtner, Clichy, Diaby, Rosicky, Nasri and Denilson throughout the 2009/2010 campaign, the only person we’ve truly missed is Robin Van Persie. You might laugh considering our defensive frailties that have been exposed recently but the Dutchman is much more than a goalscorer. He made a fantastic number of assists, made the team play better on the whole and possibly more importantly he gave the team that drive and desire we’ve been missing over the last few months.

There have been accusations that the team is ‘too French’ and you can see why. Van Persie and Fabregas drive the team forward and give the side more urgency but without them we’ve strolled through games. Look at the Aston Villa match at The Emirates earlier in the season. We were woeful until Fabregas came on a completely changed the game. But we can’t keep relying on Cesc to drive the team forward. Without a more complete squad we’re comparable to Steven Gerrard’s influence on the Liverpool side.

I honestly believe that if Van Persie was still playing now we’d be right in there. Even with Almunia, Clichy and our shocking defending. Our title challenge ended a couple of season ago when Eduardo got injured for the rest of the season, and the same thing has happened with Van Persie. In the first 10 games with Van Persie we were on fire. We weren’t unbeatable by any means but with a central striker we had purpose. We could score against anyone – Van Persie would hold the ball up and play in the creative players like Arshavin, Fabregas, Diaby, Nasri and Rosicky. The proof that our creativity has been stifled without a target man is there for all to see.

We’ve know for a while that Robin Van Persie would be out for the season, so why didn’t we bring someone in? And I don’t mean spend £25 million on a world class forward, but someone who could do the job. Even someone who already played in the Premier League, could hold the ball up and put the pressure off the likes of Arshavin and Fabregas. In an Arsenal side who have so much possession and usually create a number of chances someone like Carew would do the job and wouldn’t break the bank. There was even Louis Saha who would have been peanuts as his contract is up this summer.

You might laugh at those suggestions, but I’m not a highly paid professional football manager with a professional scouting network. It’s not my job to find the solution, it’s Arsene Wenger’s. And I find it hard to believe that there was absolutely no-one available who filled the criteria.

And we’re in a recession, so players would be cheaper than usual. How many big teams spent big in the January Transfer Window? With virtually no competition for purchasing players then you couldn’t use the ‘inflated’ prices excuse. Liverpool brought in Maxi from Athletico Madrid on a free, and Manchester United brought in Smalling from Fulham. Hardly high-profile or expensive signings.

And along with the lack of striker coming in over the January Transfer Window the only other problem I have is Arsene Wenger’s stubbornness.

Even without replacing Van Persie, the situation in the league wasn’t completely lost.

But Arsene Wenger was too stubborn to change things.

If you’re not going to replace Robin Van Persie then change the way we play. We’ve lost a massive influence on the team and a target man, Nicklas Bendtner is also out so why persist in playing the 4-3-3 formation? It clearly works great with Van Persie (and would probably be fine with Bendtner looking at his 20 minute cameo yesterday) but without either of those in the side it’s counter-productive and as it’s been proven, it has cost us dear. 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 works great with a target man such as Van Persie or Adebayor to bring others into play but is useless with Arshavin and midfielders like Rosicky, Nasri and Walcott. Recently we’ve been playing with Arshavin as the lone central striker and it’s agonising watching Arsenal pump long balls up to him – it’s crazy.

Why not revert to a 4-4-2 formation? We’ve used it when Thierry Henry played alongside Sylvain Wiltord and Dennis Bergkamp, none of which were target men who used to win the ball in the air. All three of those players played a short passing game to feet and Thierry and Wiltord could be released over the top.

The other problem with Wenger is his seemingly inept tactical knowledge.

We know he rarely worries about how the other team will play but not working on defence is something I don’t understand. He had Martin Keown in doing some coaching a few season ago and look what he did to Senderos, Flamini and Toure in that Champions League run to the final. Hardly the most feared defence in Europe but with some basic coaching and drilling Keown obviously taught them how to defend as a unit – something we’re severely lacking at the moment.

I don’t know exactly why Keown isn’t there anymore, but Wenger’s ego means we’re being punished. Maybe he doesn’t want anyone else to take the credit for Arsenal’s success? The fact is in Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown and Nigel Winterburn we have some of the finest defensive minds in the game available to us. They all fondly speak of Arsenal and you know that we would benefit hugely from their influence if they had a chance. They were all taught by the master of defence, George Graham.

Arsene can’t ignore the importance of defending anymore. Is it a co-incidence that we haven’t won a trophy since Adams, Keown, Campbell, Dixon and Winterburn left the club? Keown was at the club in The Invincibles 2003/2004 season and it obvious he helped out Lauren, Toure, Campbell and Cole during that campaign. Since that season we’ve struggled in the league and conceded far too many goals.

As everyone keeps saying, we’re not a million miles away but because of someone’s stubbornness we’re not looking any closer to bridging that gap. It’s the same story season after season.

 

Garth Crooks Can See It, Why Can’t Arsene?!

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On Match of the Day 2 tonight, Garth Crooks implored with the panel asking why Arsenal haven’t invested in a quality striker, a quality midfielder to play alongside Cesc Fabregas and a top quality goalkeeper.

He said “it’s so obvious, and that’s what they need to turn from a good side into a great side so they can win things”.

Yes Garth, it is obvious. Not to Arsene Wenger though.

Update:

Read our new post on Arsene Wenger here.

And

Read our 2010/2011 Season Predictions here.