Can Arsenal Win 12 Games In A Row?

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Well that was a strange night in a strange Premier League season.

Not one team is putting a consistent run together to go clear at the top of the league. And even teams who have had poor runs in the this season are still in with a shout of their ambitions.

Liverpool, who have had a horrendous time this season are amazingly in fourth position. Teams like Spurs, Aston Villa and Manchester City have all flattered to deceive and instead of taking advantage of Liverpool’s problems they’ve probably thrown away their best chance of breaking into the Top Four.

I have no doubt that Liverpool will make fourth now.

So how about the three teams above them?

Well Chelsea lost at Everton and Manchester United dropped points at Aston Villa.

But to me, they still both look strong. United created a lot of chances with 10 men at Villa Park and could have nicked all 3 points. Chelsea are still a solid team and Everton do have the ability to step it up against the bigger sides (we can vouch for that).

I think we can all agree that for various reasons (injuries to Van Persie, inability to defend counter attacks, etc.) that Arsenal have not been in stunning form this season. We’ve look unconvincing in several games this season and stars such as Andrei Arshavin have lost their form and haven’t performed enough. Yet amazingly, despite our inconsistent form we’re only 6 points behind Chelsea, and 5 behind Manchester United.

Don’t get my wrong, it’s still a massive gap as far as I’m concerned and the chances of lifting the Premier League title come May in my opinion are slim. Because to do it I firmly believe we would have to win 10 of our final 12 games, and that is a massive ask.

Our final fixtures are:

Sunderland (Home)
Stoke (Away)
Burnley (Home)
Hull (Away)
West Ham United (Home)
Birmingham City (Away)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (Home)
Tottenham Hotspur (Away)
Wigan Athletic (Away)
Manchester City (Home)
Blackburn Rovers (Away)
Fulham (Home)

From our 12 remaining games, 6 are away and 6 are at home.

Looking at them on paper (well, on screen) they don’t look too difficult, in comparison to the fixtures Chelsea and Manchester United have left. Certainly, all of our home games are more than winnable but the away games could prove a lot trickier than they look.

Hull have recently beaten Manchester City and drawn against Chelsea at home, and you just know the Orange Phil Brown would love to take points from us. His record against us isn’t bad for a team tipped for relegation. Stoke is another problematic game – we lost there last season and we know about the FA Cup game last month.

Then the others against Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers will be fights, make no mistake about it. Whether we can withstand their physical tactics will decide how our season will pan out. They will try to bully us and the form of Nicklas Bendtner could determine where we end up in the league. He looked decent last night against Liverpool and our form of late proves that without a target man then we’re toothless. If Bendtner puts himself about and allows players like Rosicky, Arshavin and Nasri to play then we’ve got a chance. The fitness of Diaby is also important as he has the physical presence and has a knack of scoring important goals.

In my eyes, the only chance we have of pushing right to the end is if Bendtner stays fit for the rest of the season and starts every week. Having Arshavin or Eduardo as the central striker won’t do it. Defenders hate having to defend against someone who is good in the air. Bendtner isn’t exactly Alan Shearer but we need a different style of play to compliment our short passing game. We need to mix things up and make sure teams don’t use the same gameplan against us week after week (a la Manchester United and Chelsea).

Of course, we need to somehow find a way to make sure our defence doesn’t leak stupid goals. Can Arsene turn it around so we have a rock solid defence? If he can then we’ve got a chance.

A Prediction: How The 2010/2011 Season Will Go

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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.

Literally ‘No Defence’ For Arsène Wenger

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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.

Garth Crooks Can See It, Why Can’t Arsene?!

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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.

Chelsea Ease To Victory Without Breaking A Sweat

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Chelsea (2) – (0) Arsenal
Stamford Bridge, London

Well that is Arsenal’s title challenge officially over for yet another season.

Before going into the games against Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool we were still in contention, but now, even before the Liverpool game, we find ourselves 9 points behind Chelsea. Ever since we threw away the FA Cup our form and confidence has collapsed and we’ve draw one and lost two.

Arsenal have suffered defeat 6 times this season, twice to United, twice to Chelsea and once to Manchester City. If anything confirmed the fact that we were a Top 3/4 side then that was it.

Strangely, both the away and home games against United and Chelsea followed the same

At The Emirates, both Manchester United and Chelsea dominated their games against us and completely deserved their victories. We were simply outplayed and tactically they were superior. We had no answer to anything they threw at us and our defensive frailties were exposed.

But today was similar to the match at Old Trafford. We dominated possession, passed the ball well but couldn’t take advantage, and in the end, the clinical finishing (combined with naive defending) was our undoing.

It was the same old story. Lots of pretty passing, decent possession but lacking that killer instinct in the final third. Too many times we were in fantastic attacking positions but the final ball was lacking. With a better final pass, we could have scored 2 or 3 against Chelsea. If you play poorly then you can hold your hands up and admit the other team was better but today was particularly frustrating to watch – a decent performance but in the end the fact is we are just not good enough.

We might as well go through the goals.

Didier Drogba is dangerous at the best of times but to gift him two goals was… I don’t know, ridiculous? naive? amateurish? sloppy? I realise that Arsene doesn’t teach defending and quite honestly when they scored the goals they did I wasn’t disappointed like I usually was, I saw it coming. We concede the same kind of goals time and time again and it’s just frustrating that we don’t learn from it.

Gael Clichy is clearly targeted and almost every attack (in both the United and Chelsea games) went down their right hand side. And why not? Wenger doesn’t change things so once you see a team like United use a particular game plan then all you really have to do is emulate it. So how many Arsenal fans were shocked when the first goal was a set-piece and the second was on the counter attack?

The fact was that Chelsea didn’t even step out of first gear. Their win over us today was easy. We know they can defend so all they had to do was pick us off whenever they could be bothered. In the first half they punished us but in the second they just sat back and strolled to the final whistle. They forced us wide and we had to resort to crossing into the box, which never works for us, and they can cope with easily. John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho can defend crosses in their sleep.

Anyway, the first goal was from a corner. Malouda crossed from the left and John Terry won the header after he lost Vermaelen and the ball fell to the far post where Drogba tapped in from two yards. Drogba was amazingly unmarked (Song lost him) and we gifted Chelsea a simple goal.

I would like to know why we didn’t have a man on the far post though.

Then the second was on the break. Arsenal (like against United) had possession on the edge of the Chelsea box and Chelsea won the ball, played 2 simple passes through and Drogba waltzed into the area and smashed the ball into the net.

22 minutes, and the game was over.

After that, we threatened here and there but never really looked like scoring. There were a few skirmishes but you felt that if Arsenal had somehow miraculously managed to get a goal then Chelsea would just step it up a gear and kill off the game. In all fairness, it was a walk in the park for Chelsea.

There were some positive performances, from Diaby, Song, Vermaelen, Gallas and substitutes Eboue and Bendtner, but that’s not enough. Cesc was trying his hardest to make something happen and he carved out 2 or 3 real opportunities only for his team mates to waste them. Andrei Arshavin had a massive chance at 1-0 to equalise but once again, he let us down.

Arshavin doesn’t really give a shit anymore, and he wants to leave. Partly because he’s being played out of position, and partly because he doesn’t think Arsenal are real title contenders. You can see it in his body language, we strolls around and doesn’t care. Can you blame him? Maybe not, but I expect 110% from anyone who puts on an Arsenal shirt. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one who hasn’t been performing.

There’s the argument that the vast majority of the squad are overpaid and pampered kids who are being rewarded without having won anything. I personally don’t think that’s the main reason why we’re once again not challenging for the title, because players like Song and Diaby have really stepped up this season. The fact is we’re just not good enough.

And that is down to Arsene Wenger. The squad isn’t strong enough. I’ve never been one to shout about buying players (mainly because I don’t ever expect Wenger to spend any money) but unless we strengthen in key areas then we’ll always be also rans.

We don’t need a complete overhaul of the team, we just need to get rid of dead wood like Almunia, Clichy, Walcott and Bendtner. I don’t have anything personal against them (and I’ll always support them if they’re in an Arsenal shirt) but I just don’t think they’re good enough. They are all players who have been at the club for 5 years plus and not improved. Bendtner was okay today but Van Persie is the top quality striker we need.

I am pissed off with today’s game? Not really, we all knew winning at Stamford Bridge would take a miracle. I was hoping something special could happen, but we Arsenal fans watch the game week after week and know what to expect.

I just hope Arsene gets his act together and looks at defending more seriously because we won’t get far in the Champions League with defensive performances like that.