Brand New Year But Same Old Story For Arsenal Fans

We enter a brand new year full of optimism a hope, but that was dashed pretty quickly against Southampton this afternoon.

Two mistakes by Szczesny meant that we lost against a Southampton side who weren’t at their best today. Southampton were without their best player Morgan Schneiderlin, but still managed to outfox Arsenal and create plenty of chances – Southampton striker Graziano Pelle had five shots on goal today including two attempts hitting the post and one was cleared off the line.

For Southamptons opener, Szczesny came flying off his line giving Sadio Mane a relatively simple opportunity to place his shot into an empty net. And for their second, the Pole kicked the ball to Tadic who accepted the gift and slotted in from close range.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Szczesny is always prone to making big mistakes and he’s done it again today. If you take away the mistakes the game was pretty even and both sides fashioned chances – so without the mistakes Arsenal might have got at least a point.

Arsene Wenger needs to man up and drop him for 5 or 6 games. Bring in Martinez or Ospina and give them a run in the team. Otherwise what’s the point of having backup goalkeepers?

But it’s the same old story with Arsenal isn’t it? Arsene Wenger is a fantastic manager who has done wonders for the club but we’re stuck in that awkward situation where no-one at the club knows what to do – Arsene Wenger is a manager who is clearly incapable of creating and nurturing a side good enough to win the Premier League, but at the same time he knows how to get Arsenal into the Top Four every single season.

And that’s the bottom line. Champions League football is the minimum a side like Arsenal should be achieving and Arsene Wenger is the man who can guarantee it every year. And at the end of the day, risking that to see if we can find a manager who can take us to the next level is too much of a risk to take for the Arsenal board.

 

5 thoughts on “Brand New Year But Same Old Story For Arsenal Fans

  1. The problem is Wenger.

    No tactics.

    No ability to motivate his players.

    Unable to identify obvious weaknesses in the team.

    No plan B – this has been a problem for years now.

    No appreciation of solid defensive coaching.

    The man is a complete liability and is the reason why Arsenal will NOT achieve anything while he is in post.

    WENGER OUT !!!!

     
  2. TVNZ broadcast the game live. Don’t get that many opportunities to watch a live Arsenal game so early to bed, up at 4 am to watch.

    The Ox started well then forgot how to pass, Mertesaecker a lummox, Chambers a lummox, whole midfield cancelled out too easily thus exposing lack of forward-motion creativity, defence carved open more often than Christmas turkeys, goalkeeper is a turkey.

    I would love to agree with those who think the reappearance of Ozil, Ramsay, Arteta will guarantee 4th place but that’s to ignore the fact that Arsenal are a team of fragile, plastic men – there’s no way a strong core will make it to June without further injury. We scraped past QPR and West Ham and were shown up for what we have become against Southampton – Europa League quality if that. If Theo’s tentative performance today is anything to go by, we are going to drop a lot more points before a usefully consistent squad is fit enough to play to its full potential. Get used to Thursday night soccer Gooners because, with a defence that wouldn’t be out of place in a circus, a midfield that has become easy to predict and play against, and forwards (Sanchez excluded) whom I would be happy to face in a firing squad given their inability to hit anything put in front of them, that’s all we have to look forward to.

    Prove me wrong, Wenger, I would love you to, but I don’t think you have it in you anymore.

     
  3. The table doesn’t lie, we’re in 6th place for a reason, 9 wins from 20 played is mid tab finish form. We’ve a real fight on our hands just to secure a top 4 spot this time around which given the scale of our resources is just poor.
    We’ve had the same defensive issues regardless of personnel since 2008, clearly someone is not learning.

     
  4. Enough bullshit from Wenger about being in control of the game, this load of crap should have lost at least 5 – 0. After that display, no decent player would consider going to Arsenal unless they’re injury prone…in that case they will be quite at home on the bench with the other relics. Wenger’s an expert at excuses and doesn’t seem to understand, we are not all idiots. He’s the ruination of young talented football players because he likes to send them out on loan to get cut to pieces…prime example..Miyachi. Send Wenger out on loan to a conference club perhaps, if any will have him?

     

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