Are Arsenal In Crisis?
I rarely read the newspapers but from yesterdays news it seems like we’re in a crisis.
We’ve played 5 games so far this season and currently sit just above the relegation zone in 17th position, amassing 4 points. Of those 5, we’ve only managed to win one, which was a nervous 1-0 victory over Premier League new boys Swansea City.
The other games include an opening day draw against Newcastle United, a defeat at home to Liverpool and that drubbing against Manchester United. A 4-3 defeat at Ewood Park completes our opening 5 Premier League matches.
But are Arsenal in a crisis?
Generally speaking, 5 games into the season is hardly enough time for any manager, nevermind a great such as Arsene Wenger, to be judged upon. The problem we have is that it seems to be the same old story season after season.
Our defending is shambolic. There’s no other word for it. We can make all the excuses in the world but the fact is we can’t defend. We’ve had some really poor defenders in our time, Pascal Cygan and Igor Stepanovs come to mind, but this weekend really summed up where we are.
Against Manchester United, we were ripped apart and it could have been 14 or 15 if they didn’t feel sorry for us. But at the weekend, the severity of the situation really showed.
Arsenal are a team that are always capable of scoring, that’s one side of our game which has never really been questioned over the last 15 years. But at the back, it’s a disaster. The fact is Blackburn Rovers, whose fans were so upset with manager Steve Kean, intended to protest after the game. Blackburn Rovers were rooted to the bottom of the league and their fans were not happy at all. They had scored 1 goal at home all season, yet against Arsenal they filled their boots.
That’s the context you have to put this result in. Bottom of the league, struggling to get a win under their belts, their fans on the brink, yet they scored 4 goals against us. If Blackburn Rovers, a team with the manager who the bookies have favourite to get sacked first can score 4 goals, what are the rest of the league capable of doing to us!?
With al due respect to Steve Kean, he is hardly the most experienced or talented manager in the league, yet he easily worked out how to beat Arsenal. The idea is simple really, Arsenal’s defence is so fragile that and balls played in behind or in the air will result in goals. Making Blackburn Rovers look like Barcelona is quite a feat yet we managed to do it.
And where is the blame?
There is no blame at Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger is the only one at the club that expresses and opinion. The board are never come out with any intentions, and of course we have Silent Stan. At clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City who all have foreign owners, we understand what their intentions are. But not at Arsenal.
What does Silent Stan want? What is his vision for the club?
For me, Arsene Wenger has his hands tied and is not the one to blame. We have no idea what is going on behind the scenes at the club and ever since David Dein left the club, Arsene hasn’t had any real support within the football club.
The board are the ones who are seemingly only interested in making money rather than winning trophies. Many that drubbing at Old Trafford was Wenger’s way of telling the board he’d like some proper investment into the club, but instead we brought in some last minute deals which were blatantly not Arsene’s kind of signings.
Players like Mertesacker, Santos, Young and Arteta are ones that have experience but are not world class, nor players you would see at United, City, Chelsea and even Liverpool or Spurs, with all due respect.
While the media turn up the heat on Arsene Wenger, it would be sad for Arsenal to sack a manager that has brought so much success to the club and someone that has put Arsenal on a steady footing for generations to come. When you think of the disgraceful sacking of Peter Reid by Peter “I ruined Leeds United” Ridsdale then that is not the way we want to go.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:58 pm
The thing is its not just a run of 5 games, its a run of 16 with only a few wins, which is relegation form. Lets hope we can at least win back to back games in the next few weeks.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:03 pm
David Moyes will fix this.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Klopp can fix it all
September 19th, 2011 at 8:11 pm
There is only one person who can be held responsible for the inconsistant defending that we’ve seen over the past 3 seasons…& that is Arsene Wenger. If anything it’s got worse. A little more emphasis on organisation & a little less on expression, might be a start.
For the first time I can remember tickets are on General Sale for a Prem League game (next saturday)…there’s a crisis off the pitch too!!!
September 19th, 2011 at 8:11 pm
there is something wrong t arsenal.either is wenger or the board.i hears wenger saying after sellng cesc his team is good enough so you have to blame him.ts been like this for last few season.he thnks his team is close but he fails to realise that kocienly,djouru,chamakh,mertesaker,arshavin arent good enough.ramsey and song always go missing last 20mins.force him to buy at least 4 world class players eg lke hazard,goetze,cahill,mavilla,diarra,torres,
September 19th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
The Board have always backed Wenger in public. How can you claim otherwise ?
The Board is composed of business men not football men, that’s why they do not get involved in team matters. How can you claim we would be better off copying Chelsea, where the owner changes the manager every season and often involves himself in team selection.
How can you claim that the manager is not given financial support when there is £50m sat in the transfer acoount ?
Wenger grabbed all the credit when we were doing well and he is the one responsible for the last six years of underachievement and the last six months of relegation performance.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
yes arsenal can spend but they wont, they selled cesc and nasri for top doller and the two billoners that owen more then 80percent of the club but that is the problom were there is conflect there is weaknes are two big boys are at war both didnt want to put any green in the summer trust me we could have made a lot of good signing but wenger wanted to hold on to cesc and nasri but we all knew that ship is gone becuse he knew the club didnt have the money to bring in top players , in they end a 8-2 defet is what made the board go and give wenger the green light to sign new faces with just a few days left ( you can see the conflect dont you) all summer all the players linend up (hazard-cahill-zarata-jadson-martin-and alot more) we did not even get on star to shin in are new team the new hero .
what im saying is the problom is up top (owners and board) and we need our some one needs to do somthing about it .
F.U.I did you know that osmanof the owenr of more the 25percent of our club is not given a place on the board and another FUI he is the thrid richest man in russia more then chelsea owner ibrahmavic so you tell me we are not a aclub with riches around it and also tell me there is no conflect between stan and osmmanof .
i think they are whating for each other tell the club stokes fall and one gets tired and sells and stans is the one to blame
becuse he has magority over the club its his responsblty i dont care about his confects i want to see my club in top of all compttions .
how to solve these dilemma
number 1- force one of the two to make a buy out stan has the uper hand i do want osmanof becuse of his deeper pocktes 20bil is alot more then stans 2.7bil yes i did my reserch.
number 2- bring in a biger power yes every body knows that qatar holdings is intrested in buying man utd but with the glizer famliy in charge and manu success and the deal smoney coming in no way there selling but if a certen arsenal fan club hwo owens a few shares (arsenal supporters trust) contact them i dont know what are there methods our there loyalty to whom usmanof or stan.K but im sure that the club comes frist in there eyes and we need stabilty deep pocket to make it in these new era of football . ( qatar holding ) is a very rich institution that can buy arsenal and keep it in the top for many years to come and they are looking for an english club with big history and arsenal fits the profile .
September 19th, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Wenger is suffering a crisis - he’s clearly lost the plot and put all of all of his options into attacking and scoring goals . 2 away in the league at United was more than we have scored since George Graham was coaching our team, shame about the 8 though that conceded, even a lower league side would have defended better.
3 away at Rovers should have been enough to win the game . It’s obvious that it’s no good scoring goals at one end if you concede more at the other.
I can’t see Wenger turning things around now,he’s put together a squad that has too many poor players in it . Mertesacker looks too slow for the Premier League and all of the other centre-backs make too many mistakes - this has led to a lack of confidence . Young Wojciech is a good shot stopper , he lacks the experience to shout and organize his defence - the other goalies must be dreading him getting injured and having to come in with that dodgy defence in front of them.
I can see us finishing mid-table ,I’m not convinced that we will even beat Bolton , Coyles had good results against Wenger before and playing us at this time even with his own poor results will give him some hope that he can get a point at least from the game.
September 19th, 2011 at 10:57 pm
Our next 5 games are bolton, spurs, stoke, sunderland, chelsea, and we’re going to lose all 5.
It’s incredible how fixtures up and down the entire table now look daunting to us. We’re supposed to be the Arsenal.
So long as Wenger is not sacked after these next 5 games, the team will eventually steady itself and scrape a top 6 finish.
But seriously, Wenger and the board need to look at themselves and change. This failure is entirely of their own making.
We need younger more vigourous coaches. Get Bould and Keown in there. No more old fogey yes men.
We need to be decisive in the market.
We need to offload the dross players in the first team. Pay them off if necessary, get rid of them.
And defend first.
September 20th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Steve I agree wt ur position. i think it wuld be totally unfair to expect magic from a team that has never played together as a unit (gerv, per, santos, arteta, yossi). they need time to blend! See real madrid & manciteh - players worth millions of pounds, yet it took them time to blend together. Koscelny is good but not good enuf 4 d gunners. he plays well but he causes more harm than good. the 4-4 draw with newcastle, carling cup loss, penalty to barca etc were all his mistakes & again he caused an OG on saturday. I guess he’s d major weak link in d defence. There can be a miracle dis season though. I predict 4th position & maybe mickey mouse cuo or FA - i might be proven wrong