1. No Leaders

We have a squad of talented footballers, but not enough strong personalities. Apart from Alexis Sanchez and Francis Coquelin, no-one else cares enough to fight or win. The rest of the team are happy to play pretty football and pick up their huge pay packets.

2. The Manager

Arsene Wenger is a great man, who has done huge amounts for the club, but his ideas are old and stale. He doesn’t do tactics and it’s well know that he only concentrates on attacking football. Unfortunately that approach just doesn’t hack it these days. Against better managers (in the Premier League and in Europe), he gets found out too easily.

3. Arsene Wenger Makes The Same Mistakes Every Year

Whether it’s not strengthening in key areas (how many years did it take to sign a top central defender? Or bring in a world-class goalkeeper?) or naive tactics away from home against the better teams, Arsene Wenger has a blind spot for seeing the obvious. You’d think one win at Stamford Bridge in 15 years would flag up a concern with him but clearly not.

4. Aaron Ramsey

He had one good season and after that has been poor. In all fairness he is being played out of position (see how good he was for Wales in the Euros?) but he just doesn’t fit in at Arsenal, unless we sell the likes of Özil and Cazorla.

5. Arsene Wenger Has Complete Control of The Club

One of the major problems Arsenal has is that even if they wanted to get rid of Arsene Wenger, they couldn’t. He pretty much controls the whole club. From transfer dealings to daily training, and from club policies to how the club is run, he is the all-ruling master. You would need to appoint 4/5 people just to replace Arsene Wenger, and with our board they wouldn’t even know where to start.

6. The Board Have No Idea

Essentially Arsene Wenger’s fantastic consistency to get Arsenal into the Champions League season after season is a board members dream. A steady, regular income year on year is what the shareholders want. We’ve never dipped below 4th place in the league, which means that we represent excellent value for money and that’s why Silent Stan invested in the club. Why would the board jeopardise that by appointing someone else and most likely, end up finishing lower than 4th? If it was up to the board (and it is to a big extent), they would have Arsene Wenger in charge for the rest of the mans life, and beyond (if they could they would stuff Arsene and place him permanently on the sidelines at The Emirates).

7. The Owners Simply Don’t Care

The owners don’t care about the fans. Their interests are how much money the club makes and how that can be maximised. We have the highest ticket prices in the league yet don’t show the success on the pitch to reflect the amount of money the fans are spending. We’re pretty much spending Lobster and Caviar money and getting Steak and Chips. Steak and Chips is lovely and tasty but there’s always something better. And aside from that, their second main interest is to have as little hassle as possible – and keeping Arsene Wenger on makes that a certainty. Just keep running the club into 4th and keep the money rolling in? That’ll do nicely thank you very much!

8. We Have The Wrong Mentality At The Club

Arsenal have all the tools in place to fight for the major titles (I’m talking about the Premier League and Champions League) but the mentality of the club, which all comes from the manager, is all wrong. Arsene is highly respected by pretty much every single player he has managed since he arrived in 1996 and that’s because he will defend his players to the hilt. And while that is a commendable attribute to have, it also means no player is actually accountable for their performances. How many times have we seen out of form players still selected week after week?

Arsene’s belief in his players is admirable but again it just means that as a club we don’t push on to the next level. The best managers aren’t afraid to make tough decisions when it comes to team selections whereas Arsene is. How many times have we seen a team go onto the pitch and then put in a limp performance? Stamford Bridge comes to mind every season.

The mentality at the club is try your best, and if you don’t succeed don’t worry. Look at clubs like Chelsea and they are like rabid dogs – winning is everything and nothing else is acceptable – to the extent where if they’re not winning then they will literally fight on the pitch. A club like Chelsea has the mentality of winners, full of leaders and players who will fight for each other. Whereas our players are great when things are going well but as soon as there’s a slight sign of difficulty they wilt and give up. Do you think a manager like Diego Simeone would stand for the performances against Watford and Chelsea?

9. There’s No One Pushing The Club Forward

With Arsene at the helm we’re just stale and stagnant. There’s no drive or willingness to reach the next level. We dither over transfers and persist with players like Ramsey and Walcott who are clearly not good enough. There’s no accountability with Arsene and he’d soon rather get on and father his players then give them a bollocking when it’s required. He’s too soft and no longer got the determination to push Arsenal to winning major titles. Where is the desire and determination to improve? Where’s the winning mentality amongst the squad?

10. The Team Is Always Too Nice

On the pitch we’re a joke. On a good day we can terrorise any team with our passing, movement and possession but the problem is when things aren’t going well. Our heads go down and in games where the opponents are too physical we literally lie down and die. Where’s the fight?

When you think of the old Manchester United teams, this current Chelsea team and The Invincibles, if someone took out one of their players we’d have about 6/7 teammates coming in and kicking off. These days one of our players gets poleaxed and no-one cares. Teams don’t bully us, Arsenal let teams bully them. Where’s the aggression and fight? Do you think Patrick Vieira, Theirry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp would let players push tem around? Would they f*ck!

Our team is full of pushovers. One bad foul and instead of fighting back they moan and bitch to the referee. If Vieira got kicked he’d get back up and then get the f*cker back with the next challenge and let them know who’s boss. None of this feeling sorry for yourself crap.

There has been some debate about who should be in Arsenal’s starting eleven if everyone is fit – especially as Olivier Giroud is in such fine form. But as the statistics show, his goals have come late in games and for me, he is best used as Arsenal’s super-sub.

Earlier on in the season, Arsenal were flying. Mesut Özil was pulling all the strings with Alexander Iwobi and Theo Walcott flying either side of him, and with Alexis Sanchez as the main man. The amount of pace those three possess is scary enough and with Özil finding them with pass after pass, opposing teams couldn’t handle us. They used to say that with Dennis Bergkamp, you could literally run into the space and the Master Dutchman would find you. With Mesut Özil, it’s a similar story.

Another fantastic facet with the front line of Alexis, Iwobi, Walcott and Özil (apart from the devastating runs from deep) was that Sanchez was somewhat of an assist-master himself. As well as being direct, hungry and leading the line with passion, he had that ability to drop deep and pick out a deep lying runner with a killer pass. This season he’s scored 20 goals and given 10 assists, but unfortunately those have somewhat dried up with Giroud as the main striker.

For me, excluding Santi Cazorla who is out with a long term injury, this is the best possible side we have when everyone is fit:

But who do you think should be in Arsenal’s best starting eleven? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

I’m sure you’ve all heard about Arsenal signing 20 year old Cohen Bramall, from the 7th tier of the football league. The youngster is an attacking left full back and the story goes he was let go from his job at Bentley lifting radiators and the very next day Arsenal came calling.

Certainly sounds like fairy tale stuff!

The transfer fee for him is rumoured to be between £40k and £80k, which is small change for a club like Arsenal and poses hardly any risk whatsoever. In return, they could potentially have a player who could make it at the club, and feature for the first team.

Arsene Wenger has said quite a few things recently and apparently he’s instructed his scouts to look more in the lower leagues and see if there’s any talent there.

The boss has said numerous times that players from lower leagues are hungrier and that sometimes it’s hard to have a 17 year old who has been brought up with the club to fully appreciate what they have because they’ve come through the academies, been paid handsomely and had competitions such as the Champions League as their bread and butter – so for me its inevitable that some of these young superstars are pampered and mollycoddled.

I think it’s a good thing that we’re looking in the lower leagues and it can only be a plus if we unearth a gem or two. These players will be extremely hungry to make it and as we know talent is only half the battle – look at promising players like Ravel Morrison who was labelled the brightest young talent Sir Alex Ferguson had ever seen.

And if anything, it might show a few of our own lads what it’s like to have hunger and passion.

Arsene Wenger has talked about players who he thinks “have it easy”, and you automatically wonder who he’s talking about. Of the top of my head I’m thinking…

Jack Wilshere, Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson, Francis Jeffers…

Over 2 months ago in October, I posted an article saying that Mesut Özil has to be careful that the Arsenal fans don’t turn against him. In summary, the main reasons for this were that the whole contract situation would give Özil a distraction. The problem is that Özil would want a bumper new contract, which in turn would put the spot light on him – with Arsenal fans (as well as Arsene Wenger I suspect) questioning whether he was worth it.

And yesterday I put an online poll asking if Arsenal fans thought that Özil deserved the abuse he’d been getting – and the majority said he did.

He’s been successful for Germany, winning the World Cup – but in terms of club football his achievements have been modest at best.

He’s played ‘top level football’ for 10 seasons and won the German Cup for Werder Bremen, La Liga and the Copa del Rey for Real Madrid and 2 FA Cups for Arsenal.

If you put him alongside players like Philip Neville or even Nani, his trophy collection isn’t as near as impressive.

So my point was that basically seeing if Arsenal matched his ambition was a little rich, as he is demanding Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo money for achievements which are not even on the same planet as the aforementioned players.

The problem now is while Özil is a very good player; he’s not world class. He flatters to deceive and when things are going well, it’s fantastic, but when they’re not going well he disappears.

Do you think Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi would disappear when their teams needed them most?

If you compare Özil to the other top Number 10’s in the world, is he anywhere near the best?