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.

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.

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.

As Arsenal sit in third place in the Premier League only three points behind leaders Chelsea, it’s strange how things have turned out. While Arsenal are in a good position you still have Arsenal fans who aren’t happy with the current situation – myself included admittedly. There’s nothing wrong with striving for perfection I say.

But it’s hard to take an objective view of the club and I’ve not been happy with the performances in recent weeks and wonder how we will cope with the injuries to Van Persie, Fabregas, Walcott, Denilson, Clichy, Bendtner… The list goes on, and we’re also missing Song to the African Cup of Nations. Fortunately though, Fabregas is back and others are slowly on the way back.

And then there’s the form of Manuel Almunia, which has been inconsistent to say the least.

But compare our situation to Liverpool and Manchester United.

Rafa Benitez has had a nightmare season, and Liverpool are suffering on the pitch and off it.

In the last 20 games, Liverpool have lost 10, won 6 and drawn 4. Pretty bad on reflection of a team of Liverpool’s stature, but spare a thought for the recently sacked Gary Megson from Bolton Wanderers. His record over Bolton’s last 20 games includes 7 defeats, 7 wins and 6 draws.

And Megson got the boot!

Liverpool are in big trouble because they offered Rafa a big new 5 year deal in March of 2009, which will cost a reported £22 million if the club want to buy out his contract. So effectively, Benitez can perform how he likes because they can’t afford to sack him, and Liverpool’s financial situation isn’t the greatest. Liverpool Football Club have only themselves to blame of course, offering the Spaniard a bumper contract for ‘almost’ winning the Premier League. Avram Grant almost won the league as well but he wasn’t rewarded for coming in second place.

Personally, I’ve never rated Rafa as a manager anyway.

He’s a control freak who needs to be in control of absolutely everything. His insistence of having 2 holding midfielders for a team that is supposed to try and win football matches is ridiculous. Creativity rests solely on Gerrard’s shoulders and without him or Torres in the side they are comparable to Blackburn Rovers. And the reason why creative players like Benayoun are constantly substituted time after time is because they have that air of unpredictability and could create something from nothing – and since Rafa can’t control that he doesn’t like it.

He persists with this stupid ‘zonal’ defending from set-pieces, and this is coming from an Arsenal fan who readily admits we ourselves can’t defend corners and freekicks, but we cope better than Liverpool. And his record in the transfer market is possibly the worst I’ve seen in the Premier League.

Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel, Craig Bellamy, Robbie Keane, Albert Riera, Andrea Dossena, Lucas Leiva, Andriy Voronin, Alberto Aquilani, Glen Johnson, Mohamed Sissoko Jermaine Pennant, Peter Crouch and Boudewijn Zenden are all players Rafa has signed at his time at the club. The total of these transfers has cost Liverpool in excess of £125 million.

And on top of that, the miserable git never celebrates a goal. I honestly can’t name another manager I haven’t seen celebrate when their teams scores. When Liverpool score, he just writes something in his little notebook! This is pretty cool though. [view video]

And Manchester United are in a financial crisis, depending on who you listen to of course.

A lot of Manchester United fans are ignorant of the kind of trouble their football club is in. But conversely, there are also a lot that know exactly what the Glazer’s have been doing. After all, the Manchester United supporters club managed to get an amazing 32,000 signatures on a petition to oppose the take over from the Americans.

From 2005 (from when the Glazer’s took over) to 2008, Manchester United were liable to pay a staggering £263 million in interest alone. [1]

The debts currently stand at £699 million, and in the last 3 financial years Manchester United have actually made a profit on transfers, and this sits at £7 million. This, along with signing Michael Owen and selling Ronaldo clearly shows they need to sell players every season and can’t afford to buy equivalent replacements. Alex Ferguson might nowadays publicly say that he is trying to find value for money in the transfer market but we all know he’s full of sh*t. This is the guy that recently spent £30 million on Berbatov and wasted £28 million on Veron!

Who knows what the long term effects of this will be. Some believe that they need to either sell a big star or win something every season to keep the problems at bay. At the end of the day, the Glazer’s are essentially asset strippers and even though the club is in massive debt, they still managed to pay themselves £22.9 million! [2]

The ironic thing for Alex Ferguson is that if it wasn’t for his preposterous claim for 50% of the stud fees for racehorse Rock of Gibraltar against John Magnier and JP McManus then they probably wouldn’t have been so open to selling their majority shareholding in Manchester United.

So with Wenger’s ‘cautious’ transfer policy and attitude to spending, along with his vision for the Emirates Stadium and the future of our club then it looks like things could be a lot worse for Arsenal Football Club.

Well I’ll be damned.

If my figures are correct then Arsenal are now 16 games unbeaten in the Premier League.

And I’m not sure what I’m surprised about the most. Because the first few months of this season were shambolic. Seriously, it was agonising to watch. There was no desire, no effort and we were losing to teams like Hull City, Fulham and Stoke.

Amazingly now we’re in the Quarter Finals of the Champions League, the Semi-Finals of the FA Cup and in 4th place in the Premier League, 3 points ahead of Aston Villa (albeit they have a game in hand).

And we are actually 10 points behind Manchester United, who many people have been calling ‘untouchable’ throughout this Premier League campaign. Now I’m not saying we’ve got a chance of winning the league, but if you consider the amount of stupid points we’ve dropped (with sloppy defeats and unnecessary draws) then we’d be right in the race.

The gap between us and the other top 3 teams has seemed mammoth at times this season but are we really that far behind?

It’s an old cliché but football really is a funny old game.

Because only a few weeks ago things looked so bleak for Arsenal, where we were minutes away from being 8 points adrift of Aston Villa.

So why have things suddenly started to look up?

The first reason is the arrival of a certain Andrei Arshavin. Seriously, this guy is quality.

He is truly a world-class player and I love him. He’s intelligent, energetic, full of skill and already has a handful of assists to his name. He’s also got an eye for goal (unlike previous midfielders who now warm benches in Barcelona) and adds a new dimension to this young Arsenal side. His arrival at Arsenal was a much needed injection of hope for the club and it’s no co-incidence that his arrival would coincide with our best form of the season.

The only downside is that we can’t use him in Europe, because he has the ability to make the difference in these kind of games.

But we also can’t ignore the recent form of Aston Villa.

While Arsenal have been solid in defence (although you wouldn’t think it if you saw some of the goals we concede), Aston Villa have been leaking goals and have literally been in free-fall. They haven’t actually won a game (in all competitions) since February 7th, when they beat Blackburn Rovers in the league.

Since then they have been knocked out of the FA Cup by Everton, threw away the UEFA Cup against CSKA Moscow and drawn 1 game and lost 3 in their previous 4 Premier League matches.

And this weekend they have to face Liverpool (who are as of writing trailing 3-0).

Then there is the faith Arsene has put in his players.

Bendtner, Song, Denilson, Diaby and Eboue have been the main focus of debate among Arsenal fans and I guess that even now most people are still undecided about these particular players.

Eboue has to be one of the most infuriating players Arsene has ever had during his time at Arsenal. We know he explosive pace and has the ability to take on players but his form has been too inconsistent. He is certainly the player with the most highs and lows this season and you just don’t know what you’re going to get. His form of late has been good though so that would have kept most fans onside, for now.

And I’ve always liked Nicklas Bendtner.

I can’t fault his workrate and he is far more intelligent than Adebayor. He is more of a team player and while his touch can be poor it’s still better than the Ade’s. And the key for me is this kid is improving all the time and is hungry. On the other hand it seems like Adebayor just can’t be bothered anymore. His body language and behaviour haven’t been the best and since his pay-rise it would appear that he has lost his desire.

But hopefully he’ll prove me wrong when he returns and goes on to help Arsenal finish the season strongly.

How about Song, Denilson and Diaby?

Personally, I’m not a fan of Song. As a squad player I think he’s adequate to fill in now and then but he’s just not good enough for Arsenal. When you talk about players like Cesc and Arshavin then Song isn’t really fit enough to clean their boots.

Denilson is a tough one, but overall this season I’ve been impressed with him. Whenever I’ve watched him play he’s been solid and done a job for the team. Not very glamorous but keeps the side ticking over with simple passes and protecting the back four. It’s not his job to make things happen so to an extent some of the criticism he’s had is unfair. He’s still very young and you can see that Denilson is a player who will improve with more experience.

And then we have Diaby. I’ve liked him when he’s played out wide or in the hole because he’s not afraid to shoot and he has the ability to pick out a dangerous pass. I think he’s a good player but you wonder where his place in the team is if Cesc, Rosicky, Nasri and Arshavin are all fit.

The final thing to say is thank you Arsene for setting up a potentially exciting end to the season.

Because during the first half of the campaign I (like many others) doubted the ability and desire of this current squad.