Positives & Negatives After Chelsea Defeat

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After that game the overriding feeling was that Chelsea were there for the taking.

The second half showed that when put under pressure, Chelsea got nervous and we had some good openings after half time.

But why didn’t we perform like that in the first half?

The first half was a shambles, from ourselves and the referee. Coquelin was clearly fouled on route to Chelsea’s first goal and the referee was conned for the penalty decision. Replays showed Ramires left his foot in and there was no contact, get the penalty was given. So both goals were avoidable from our point of view and we can be aggrieved about the referee.

But that doesn’t excuse our poor first half performance. Sagna and Diaby were particularly bad, with Sagna looking uninterested in being on the pitch, and Diaby was well off the pace. Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin were left to drive Arsenal forward almost single-handedly and defensively we were all over the place.

I said at half time that Wenger had to give the team a right bollocking at half time and take off Sagna and Diaby. He didn’t do the latter but it seems like he had stern words at the interval because Arsenal got their act together and started playing like a team.

Chelsea, who had the 2-2 draw against Southampton still in their minds were content of protecting the lead and this gave us more possession, and we scored a well made goal through Theo Walcott. After that, we pushed and pushed for the equaliser and gave Chelsea a lot of problems.

But in the end we fell short.

I’m not sure how to feel after that game. Disappointed with the toothless first half or proud of the second half performance?

It was definitely a game of two halves and a draw, on reflection, would have been a fair result. But ultimately, we gave ourselves too much of a mountain to climb after an atrocious opening 45 minutes.

Arsene Wenger was livid at the final whistle and with some justification, but we can take some positives from the second half.

Are You Happy With Theo Walcott Signing?

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would have heard that Theo Walcott has signed a new deal with Arsenal. His current (well, previous) contract was due to expire in the summer which would have meant he could have left on a free to the highest bidder. Reportedly, Liverpool and Chelsea were leading the chase for the speedy 23 year old.

But quite surprisingly, yesterday Arsenal confirmed he signed a new deal.

He rejected a 5 year deal worth £75,000 per week and stalled on signing a new contract until this weekend, which is a 3 year deal worth £100,000 per week, which makes him our highest paid player. For his “loyalty” as well, he was rewarded with a £3 million “signing-on bonus”.

So all the speculation (for now) about Theo leaving will finally be over. But how do you feel about the way it has been handled, what Theo did and whether it was worth it?

There is no doubt Theo is a talented player, who on his day can be devastating. His pace is unrivalled and his finishing (and crossing) has improved greatly. But he still has the same flaws – namely that when put against intelligent and experienced defenders – he struggles.

Against lower league opposition he can be a major handful. But as shown against Manchester City last weekend, he was hugely ineffective. And we still don’t know where Arsene is thinking of playing him.

His refusal to sign a new deal over the last few months has brought up another problem, which is where he wants to play. Comparisons to Thierry Henry have been banded about but Titi was on another level – he was special and one of the greatest players to have ever graced the game, never mind Arsenal Football Club. Regular readers will know that one of the biggest annoyances I have is they Thierry never won the World Player of the Year. That being said, Theo is not in the same league.

With the ball in behind he is pretty much unstoppable. But strikers need more than electric pace and finishing, they need to hold the ball up and be able to compete in the air sometimes. That’s why Theo should concentrate on developing his game from wide positions where his pace can be used to greater effect.

But then Arsene could solve this by scrapping the 4-3-3 system and going back to a 4-4-2. That would please Theo by allowing him to play up top and give him a partner to play off, like Giroud. I can’t see why that wouldn’t happen and it would give us much better balance in the side. Our best sides have always played 4-4-2. Cazorla and Oxlade-Chamberlain are quick, skilful and intelligent enough to be like Bobby and Freddie on the wings and Arteta and Wilshere in the middle would be a hell of a central midfield pairing.

But without wanting to drift away from the topic too much, now that Arsene has pinned Theo down to a 3 year contract, we can start concentrating on developing our first eleven and matters on the pitch.

Now that Theo has committed to Arsenal (and is “like a new signing”) it might be worth actually going out and making some actual signings to strengthen our squad.

Is Theo deserving of being our highest paid player? Is he our best player? I don’t know how much Jack and The Ox are on but I’m pretty sure it’s peanuts compared to what Theo is now on. If anyone has details on what wages our players are on I would be interested in knowing!

Lucky City Given An Absolute Gift

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Before the game, I couldn’t see Arsenal losing this one. Against Arsenal, Roberto Mancini reverts to type and plays completely negative. In the last home game against them last season, they had no interest in winning that match and even in the away game earlier this season, we were the better side.

Mancini is clearly scared of Arsenal and sets up his side to catch us on the break. Against us, he is typically Italian.

We had the potential to see a great game this afternoon but on 8 minutes, that all changed.

With Dzeko about to latch onto the loose ball, Koscielny pulled him down. The decision to give a penalty and send off the defender isn’t as black a white as everyone makes out.

Was it a foul? Definitely, there’s no doubt whatsoever. It was stupid from Koscielny because Dzeko probably wouldn’t have converted it. And was it a penalty? Yes, it was a stone wall penalty.

But the red card? I’m sorry, I can’t agree with that.

Surely a yellow card and a penalty is punishment enough? I couldn’t help thinking that if that was at Old Trafford, the penalty probably wouldn’t have been given, never mind a red card. Would a referee have the balls to send off a Manchester United defender? It would have been a penalty and yellow card at most.

Dzeko showed his prowess by missing the penalty and scoring a scorcher from 2 yards but with 10 men the game was over. Arsenal really should have tried to batten down the hatches until half time and then tried to regroup after half time. After all, the pressure was on Manchester City to win so we could have slowed the game down.

But once City scored it was over. If there’s anything City know what to do it’s defend and I had to laugh when I think it was Jamie “Literally” Redknapp that was baffled and couldn’t explain why with all their attacking talent, Manchester City had a very poor goalscoring record against Arsenal at The Emirates. It’s because Mancini plays negatively against Arsenal, even Stevie Wonder can see that Jamie.

The bottom line is the referee gifted the game to City with the big decision. Even with the Manchester City freekick that Milner scored from, the referee let City take it quickly while when Arsenal had free kicks, he said wait for the whistle and signalled that we had to wait until City set up their wall.

Without Arteta and a completely fit Giroud we were going to struggle but with 10 men it’s a massive ask.

And we’re mentally not strong enough. In the past, in the Bergkamp, Vieira and Henry era, going down to 10 men didn’t matter. We won countless games with 10 men in those days but this current Arsenal squad are extremely fragile. You just knew with 10 men it would affect us far more than the other big teams in the league.

Anyway, up and onwards to Stamford Bridge next weekend, should be an easy 3 points.

Arsene Wenger Can Never “Leave Arsenal”

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The bottom line is, Arsene will never leave of his own accord and Arsenal will never sack him.

So we have this ludicrous situation where no matter how the team perform on the pitch, no matter where in the league we finish, and no matter how the fans feel – we’re stuck with Arsene Wenger.

Now don’t get me wrong, this man has phenomenal things with the club. He is quite rightly regarded as the greatest manager our football club has ever seen. He did miracles that no-one else could have done, created one the best footballing sides I’ve ever seen and recruited players with potential that he’s managed to turn into truly world class footballers.

He introduced training and diet methods that revolutionised the game, giving Arsenal and then Premier League sides an edge over the competition. He won The Double in his first full season at Arsenal, something we hadn’t achieved since 1971.

He took us from Highbury, a stadium that held 38,000 and gave us the vision to move to The Emirates Stadium, a modern stadium that would allow Arsenal to compete with the best in the world. Something that would ensure our future would be in good hands.

Whatever you may think of him now, he is the legend and one of the most important people in Arsenal’s history.

But that doesn’t mean he is without fault.

Football has caught up with Arsene and Arsenal and the revolutionary things he did have been used by other managers, coaches and teams in the Premier League for the last decade now. Another thing we had in our armoury and something we had over our rivals, our amazing scouting system, has also been left behind. Gone are the days when we would spot a young Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, or players no-one else would give a chance to like Marc Overmars and Robert Pires. Now we recruit people like Marouane Chamakh and Sebastien Squillaci.

And Arsene had a knack of getting the best out of his players. Everyone in the squad wanted to win, but now we have players like Arshavin who play well for their International teams but are out of favour at Arsenal. There are too many players in the squad who have excellent quality but for one reason or another aren’t up for it.

Ever since 2005, we’ve become a club that sells their best players year after year to balance the books. And while it’s a fair point to say we are on a restricted budget compared to the other Top 5/6 teams in the league, it’s not as if we haven’t spent money. The problem is that when we have spent it, we’ve wasted it. We brought in Gervinho for £11 million, Podolski for around £11 million and Arshavin for £15 million – and money on players such as Park Chu-Young, Andre Santos, Sebastien Squillaci, Mikael Silvestre, Lukasz Fabianski and countless others that haven’t contributed to the team in any meaningful way.

Despite having one of the biggest wage bills in the league, we can’t recruit young, hungry, talented players like we used to. Players like Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie and Freddie Ljungberg who had something to prove and wanted to win things. Nowadays they leave to bigger clubs as they know winning things at Arsenal is very unlikely.

There used to be a theory that once players left Arsenal their career would go downhill. We said it when Vieira left, Henry left, Reyes left and Hleb left. But look at the teams players like Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Robin van Persie, Ashley Cole and Cesc Fabregas have played for since leaving Arsenal – they include Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Not exactly teams with no ambition…

The problem is Arsene has managed to make himself the most important person at Arsenal. He is unsackable and he would never choose to leave of his own accord. So what do we do?

Football is an ever-changing game and sometimes a new manager instils new motivation and desire amongst the players. Sometimes new methods fresh up a squad that is tired of the same old routine and pushes them on to perform better, and gives those players who are out of favour a chance to prove themselves all over again.

But that is something we will never know.

We have become the only football team in the world that cannot forget or appreciate enough, the things one man has done for us. We have this perverse situation where change is impossible. If we want Arsene sacked or want change, they we are the most ungrateful people on this earth.

The problem is Arsene will never leave until he has won something again. The board have freely admitted he has a “job for life” so the only possible conclusion to his reign is winning a trophy. That is the only way Arsenal’s greatest manager of all time can leave – on a high. It is impossible to have him sacked or leave under less than glorious circumstances. I don’t doubt that Arsene’s desire is as strong as ever, but the big question remains… is Arsene still capable of bringing back success to Arsenal?

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Tired Arsenal, Tired Fans, Tired Excuses…

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As we enter December, we currently sit in 10th position in the Premier League, having earned 21 points from 15 games. We’re below Swansea, Stoke and West Ham, and 5 points off our target of 4th place.

Manchester United and Manchester City are on another level, and it looks more and more likely it’s going to be a two horse race.

Chelsea started the season in fantastic form, but are struggling of late, with Rafa taking on the reigns at most insecure job in football. How he is better than Di Matteo at this stage of the season is mind-boggling but that’s another debate for another day.

So we have Chelsea and Tottenham fighting for 3rd and 4th place and have Everton and West Brom in good form so far. So where does that leave Arsenal?

Arsene’s admission a few weeks ago that the players were tired was pretty unbelievable. How can you say that half way through November? The state of the squad is entirely up to the manager and the board, and I’m not being funny but professional footballers should be able to play 2/3 games in a week.

The tiredness excuse is something that has always bugged me whenever managers have used it but to keep repeating it week after week is ridiculous. It seems that whenever we lose or draw, that’s the go to excuse. Mind you, I suppose it makes a change from blaming the referee, blaming the pitch or blaming the other teams tactics.

Which was a problem for Wenger yesterday. He couldn’t blame the referee, he obviously couldn’t blame the pitch and he couldn’t blame Swansea’s tactics either. They took the game to Arsenal and if I am being completely objective, they really should have won by 5 or 6 if they weren’t so wasteful in front of goal. I don’t have the statistics to hand, but they had more clear cut chances than we managed to create.

Perversely, because of Swansea’s wastefulness, we could have stolen the 3 points. At 0-0, we had a couple of chances to score what would have been a completely undeserved opener.

But why are things so bad? It’s the worse start to a season (doesn’t this sound familiar?) in the Arsene era and our worst start since the 1994-1995 season, when George Graham got sacked in February.

Will the same thing happen to Wenger? I jest, I jest.

But where do we draw the line? It has been 7 seasons since we’ve won anything and the same things keep happening over and over again. We lose our best players and replace them with players that are still good but not quite at the same level.

It is only because of Arsenal’s spin that we are not more outraged. Players such as Van Persie, Adebayor, Nasri, Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb and Song are all made out to be mercenaries that are only interested in money, and people we don’t want associated with our “honest club”. But these players are all first team members that were obviously good enough for Arsenal. And the contract situations we find ourselves in are crazy – how many players have been allowed to get into their last year of their deals? Does this stupid thing happen at other clubs? Would Alex Ferguson let this happen at United? The biggest clubs in Europe might have one or two players that wind down their contracts but it doesn’t happen as much as it does at Arsenal.

We try and get 4th spot every year and to Arsene’s credit, even though we’ve had a lot of highs and lows over the last few years he’s always delivered Champions League football.

And maybe we should all stop worrying and see where we are in May.

But it is hard to ignore the squads of Chelsea (who should finish 3rd) and Tottenham, the biggest threat to 4th spot. Everton have been excellent this season but there’s always a question mark over the depth of their squad. West Brom and Swansea have been doing well so far and hopefully, their good form won’t last forever.

The frustration is even more so because of the start we made to the season. For a run of games we had the best defence in the league. We looked more solid but that has gone to pot, partly because of the injury to Diaby. How can we go from one extreme to the other in such a short space of time? Were the first 6/7 games of the season lucky clean sheets? How can Arsenal just lose their defensive discipline?

At least with a tight defence we have something to build on but without that we are fighting a losing battle every time we step on the pitch.

Maybe we shouldn’t worry and see if Arsenal pulls it out of his magic hat once again.