The radio just announced that the chavs could win the league today if they beat pool and the mancs fail to beat Sunderland. Three weeks ago it was a three-horse race and so with 2 games left and nothing to play for lets have some fun and think about how, if things had been different, we could be in that exciting position of playing for a trophy.
Feel free to share with us any other factors you think could have been influencial. Rasputin wrote a post a few weeks back that alluded to how important certain players were going to be in the run-in. You can read it again here https://arsenalarsenal.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/villains-to-heroes-its-been-worth-the-wait/ not too hard to guess where Rasputin’s vote is going to go.
Hopefully in the last two games we’ll play some fantastic football that will get the juices flowing and we can look forward to next season with relish.
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
We need 2 ave a quality goal keeper,striker &defenders 4 us 2 win a trophy
1)If we had strengthened the squad appropriately in the transfer windows
2)If we had better conditioning and medical staff
3)If we had more self-belief when we play the top teams
Morning Kama,
A new keeper is a must for me, although I’m not sure AW will get a GK who will step straight in as No.1.
The ‘new signing’ that will be announced before the world cup starts (yawn) will be Chamakh, so there is the striker you list.
Our first choice midfield is plenty good enough I believe (particularly when Ramsey is back) although I would like to see a ‘utility’ player who could fill in at RB as I feel either Sagna or EE may leave – anything more than that would be a bonus.
We would have won the league if the pratt that sits next to me would only stop Farting I am sure he is the reason for all the arsenal injuries!!!!
Lots of reasons but RvP would have given us a cutting edge against teams like B’ham that we drew against would have forced the top teams to defend a bit more against us and not go all out attack.
If I knew the real answer though I could be the next manager 🙂
Morning Alfa,
Of course it is a combination of factors, maybe we should have re-worded the poll to ask “which is the single most important factor?”. Actually, the results so far reflect the factors as expected and combined give the answer to your question 😉
It seems we’re always going to be hampered by injuries and its a toss-up whether we have 2 great players for each position or attempt to ride out the storm with ‘not as good as’ players. This season we almost fooled the nay-sayers with our patched up team – we were really really close – but they bottled it and that comes from inexperience.
The combination of no Robin and a poor keeper were our undoing I reckon. Our keepers and defending let points slip through our fingers and thats very frustrating. Obviously if we could get into the habit of coming out of the traps and scoring three early then the blunders could carry on ad infinitum.
Theres too much emphasis on poor defending being the fault of the back four, we have to learn to defend better as a team IMO
Morning peaches,
Do you know if the poll is limited to 1 vote per IP address as we have had a sudden surge of votes for one option?
Once again the PL challenge was derailed by a “no malice honest tackle”. Would we still be there if Ramsey not been injured? I think so, cos the midfield is bare bone. We could have won the Spurs game and with the momentum, Wigan game and who knows?
Wenger had brought some cover in January
Morning FE Gooner – Theres no doubt that Ramsey had become influential and we’ll never know if he’d have been able to provide a bit more steel to both the mid-field and the ‘belief’. Good point though, we could have included him in the poll too.
This from arse.com
Arsene says
“I believe the midfield was not a problem this year because we created so many chances from midfield and we dominated nearly all the games in midfield. I don’t think we had a big problem in there. I believe we had a problem of efficiency defensively.”
We would have won the league if we had a good enough squad. It’s nothing to do with injuries to individual players. All teams get injuries\suspensions\players missing for african nations etc.
Hi Russ,
Do you blame the manager, the lack of funds due to the building of the Emirates or any other reason for what you consider to be shortages in the squad?
I’m not sure where you’d find the stats, but I believe we have suffered a disproportionately high number of injuries to key players over recent years – a more difficult question to answer is why?
Rasp – you said earlier you dont expect Aw to sign a keeper who will step straight in as No1
could not disagree with you more.
with 2 young, not ready to step in as No1, polish keepers already at the club.. why sign a 3rd?
i’m certain another experienced keeper will be coming to the club this summer, in the mould of lehman more than likley.. 30-34 age bracket.
this will then allow the option of loaning out both the poles to championship/lower prem sides to allow continued development.
he rates the pair very highly, as most who have seen them do.
Obviously it’s a combination of factors, but the big one for me was Cesc’s injuries. This year he really grew as a player and a captain and in certain situations where we dropped points he would have dragged us through to getting all three. With more Cesc, we’d have had at least six more points and we’d still be right in it.
That’s not to say we didn’t miss RvP, that we don’t need a top class keeper etc, but even with all those handicaps we could have done it if only Cesc had stayed fit.
Morning all.
Earlier this week I wrote a headline post on the the fact that football was business and the importance of foreign fans in the future. If you need further proof of this, then watch the Liverpool v Chelsea game being payed on TV today and note that Liverpool are playing this their last home game with the Danish company Carlsberg as shirt sponsors. Only this time Carlsberg is written in Chinese thus ensuring they can legitimately continue to market their name on photo’s and replica shirts around that part of the world for a long time to come.
Pools new sponsors from next season will be Standard Charter a British owned bank, but who write 90% of their business in the far east.
Clever marketing by Liverpool who not only take the sponsers money, but make sure their name is kept in the public eye in two of the three biggest world markets.
Hi dandan, SH
SH – I hope you’re right re keeper
dandan & SH – what do you think of the snooker allegations against Higgins, and his unexpected loss to Steve Davies … were there any unusual betting patterns before the match do you know?
Sorry – Hi Rocky too 😛
I think it is possible that the loss of any of the players listed to injury could have made the difference to us winning the title. I know Cesc plays for the shirt, but this £3m backdated payment came as a bit of a surprise and makes nonsense of our wage structure.
I am not a gambling man but am pretty sure Davis had far to much to lose to get involved with such stupidity rasp
rasp – higgins has been suspected of this for some time, the reporters did not pick on him by chance.
on betfair, there have been complaints of him dropping frames and missing bizzare balls in premier league matches.
betfair allows easy corruption of so many sports, over the coming years there will be a plethora of sports stars getting nabbed.
davis is certainly exonnerated from any wrong doing.
right got my filly hibbayeb running for me now in the 1000 guineas at 20/1 🙂
wish me luck
not mine as in ownded lol
great race, my filly should be finishing soon.
Given my utter contempt for and disregard of anything printed in the rag that is the News of the World I find it difficult to believe that Higgins would be that stupid as to even discuss such things. However if he did have those conversations, he may have known all week they were going to publish and therefor either couldn’t concentrate or wanted to be well away from the crucible when the news broke, either way poor old Steve Davis will have his achievement downgraded I expect.
66/1 outsider of the field wins the 1000 guineas 😆
dandan – he did say those things there is a video on the notw site proving it, cystal clear video aswell.
as i said, this is not a surprise at all to anybody within the betfair communiity.
the notw were tipped off about his liking for bribe.
If that is so, he is to Quote Cassius Clay “stupider than he looks” LOL
even stupider are the statements he and his agent ( also in the video as the fixer and on the board of the WSPBA ) have released today
saying they went along with it as they feared for their lives 😆
here you go dandan, tell me how “scared they look” arranging a 300k bribe lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLJPTXqTETc
Chelsea are Virtually home and hosed now….. How long before the Manc’s start to say on the blogs. it was a fix, because Stevie G set it up for them to stop Man U from taking the record
sunderlands last 5 at home in the league
2-1, 3-1, 3-1, 1-1, 4-0.
draw at best for mancs today, chavs handed the title tonight.
Higgins is dead and buried then String, bloody fool, career out of the window, baned for life
I’ve just watched the video. Higgin’s defence that he was scared is ridiculous, as dandan says, that’s his career finished and quite rightly so.
the most amazing thing about the incident is he was taking a bung for a mere 300k
after having made over 5M in the game.
he will certainly be banned for life if barry hearn’s comments today are anything to go by.
current world number 1, current world champion, and easily in the top 5 greatest of all time.
all gone for peanuts.
It appears that just about everyone can be bought for a price 😦
My biggest surprise was Hansie Cronje – he couldn’t take the shame and committed suicide …. very sad
Rasp I thought he was killed in an air crash
It was an air crash but they suspected it was deliberate = suicide, I believe
Then there was the suspicious death of Bob Woolmer?
oh that bob woolmer thing was even worse than the pathetically obvious dr david kelly farce.
there certainly are dark forces at work out there.
Was he the weapons expert who gave a controversial interview and was found dead under a tree?
yup thats the one, murdered… cast iron!
as was bob woolmer for nearly spilling the beans on the fixed match that pakistan chucked in that t20 WC.
Blimey, not my beloved cricket too – is nothing sacred 😦
So I guess that anyone in the know, would keep an eye on betting patterns and when something unlikely is being heavily backed, jump on the bandwagon!
I think someone tried to fix our poll earlier 😆
😆 We beat the dark forces 😆
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2003/aug/03/cricket.features Worth a read Rasp sometimes the establishment stinks.
lol rasp, cricket has been a farce with betting rackets in the india/pakistan for yonks.
problem is, authorites who get alerted to underground betting irregularites within their respective sports very rarely take action.. as it would cast doubt over integrity of their business/sport, and sport is about as big business as you can get these days.
sponsors abandon ship at the slightest hint of “bentness”
so it is always left to undercover reporters to uncover the truth
kels will know well enough what many connected to racing knows about the game
but the racing authorites have to present a brave front
great stuff from sunderland, really having a go here.
On a serious note to bonny about the farter sitting next to you He is my husband and and after thirty three of wedded bliss including the occasional fart no injuries have befallen on me. Which does lay lie to your e-mail regarding the arsenal injury list
So it’s down to ManUre and Chavs on the last day then. Any possibility of the Chavs choking against Wigan? Can’t see it myself… More like 6-0.
Thanks doris/bonny for your comments – Its a shame you haven’t got anything useful or interesting to say that might have added to the debate.
I would have voted for most of the possibilities. But RvP was clearly the most damaging loss.
Is it a surprise that a “sport” like snooker is corrupt? I would have been surprised that it wasn’t. Ronnie O’Sullivan, both Higgins, the coke heads, the alcoholics……
There are “Sports” that are open to betting scams and where there is easy money to be made, corruption is inevitable. Any non-team game is easy prey.
Could Stoke get a result at OT? No?
Nor will Wigan.
And rightly so, Chelsea have been head and shoulders the best team this season and deserve the title
hate to agree with you BR
but they have been, and will now match us on 3 premiership titles.
but their era is over 2004-2010 was the chav era, that team is now over the top.
the next 5-10 years will see a big shift.
i cannot see roman spending 100’s of millions again, he planned to have them self sufficent by 2011, that is not happening.
i poor season without a trophy and he will be offski.
I hate to agree with you SfH but I do
This will be our decade
Anyone watching the 20/20 cricket Ausie lost five wickets for zero runs in the last over amazing
Hi dandan – must be fix a then 😉
Raddy sweetie 😉 – are going to write a little something pre-match for tomorrow, pretty please
dandan,
Read your link about Cronje – more likely assassinated than suicide then?
I’m not going to trust any great sporting upset in the future 😦
Hello Rasputin 😛
We were in South Africa a couple of times in recent years Rasp and I was shocked at the high regard in which he was held, They were also adamant that England, Oz and West Indies were also involved in match fixing.
How safe is footy from match fixing, do we think?
When you see Gerrard’s back-pass today anything is possible 😎
RL,
I will do a post sometime about match fixing in football.it will blow your mind.All based on facts.
Christ, is that the time, I should be in bed.Goodnight.
Look forward to that Kelsey. Very intrigued.
[…] We Would Have Won The League If…………. The radio just announced that the chavs could win the league today if they beat pool and the mancs fail to beat […] […]
And we think we have problems. would you swap
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/05/benitez-has-struggled-but-hes-not-liverpools-biggest-problem-.html
I have to say if the poll results are true, without double voting, How can the loss of RVP get a higher vote than the inept keeping of our keepers.RVP, is a great player who has averaged just under 20 games a season over the last 4 years, and until a few months ago we were scoring for fun from various positions.The defence and keeper is the main problem, who ever plays as we have shipped 39 goals aleady this season.is it the players or the inability to defend,or the coaching or the all out attck that is wengerball.We have conceded far too many soft goals yet again, and until that is addressed I fear our progress will be halted.
Morning kelsey
I agree with you. We reckon there was some multiple voting for the new manager option as there was a sudden surge early in the day but other than that the votes were cast in a steady fashion.
I would say that the overall defending by the team has been poor – we haven’t broken up play early enough up the pitch and with a dodgy keeper everyone was nervous once the ball got close to our penalty area and mistakes were made.
Hate to be a pessimist, but our current run of 1 win in 7, makes me feel that there is no certainty of the points today.
I don’t want us to sweat and wait until the last game to get that vital point to secure third.
Morning kelsey,
I totally agree, it hasn’t been our lack of ability to score goals that has been the problem, it has been the goals conceded. Almunia has cost us 10-15 points this season.
More worryingly, this has been reported this morning …… “Goalkeeper isn’t an area that I necessarily want to strengthen,” said Wenger – if he really thinks that he has lost it 😦
Morning Rasp, Maybe he has already done it, who knows.
We can be the early morning pessimists 😉
Didn’t Robin get bashed up in a Blackburn game early in his career and then scored a penalty? A cup game wasn’t it?
dandan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know dandan …he hasn’t.
One of the most important lessons politicians repeatedly make is to ignore the lessons of history – invading Afghanistan when Russia at its strongest failed to conquer the country.
I’ve heard it all before. The only signing we are likely to announce before the WC is Chamakh in the same way as the only signing we were ever going to make at the end of last summer was Sol Campbell.
All of our signings over recent years have been flagged up for weeks in advance – Nasri, TV, AA, Chamakh. The last surprise signing was Reyes – and look at how that ended up.
Rasp. Keep the faith my friend you never know, our glass is half full.
Hi Peaches how are you
Morning dandan – forgetting my manners 😛
Surely there has to be a statute of limitations on keeping the faith ….. mine expires at the end of the transfer window this summer.
Did you see Jamie Redknapps endorsement of LJ this morning in the mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1270853/Jamie-Redknapps-weekend-watch-Jack-Wilshere-proves-hes-Premier-League-star.html
I fear that AW has a ‘problem’ with LJ in the same way he has overlooked Vela in terms of first team chances. I can’t understand why he has persisted with some players for months/years and with others he seems impatient or just doesn’t rate them I suppose.
Hi dandan – I’m fine thanks, wish it was warm again
I agree Rasp But the end of the window is a long way from here and the papers are in frenzy mode.
I agree dandan, perhaps it would be circumspect if Arsène and others in authority at the club chose their words carefully when giving interviews.
AW was definitive last week when he said that there was no truth in reports of any of the players we were linked with – that is fine. But he also has developed a tendency to prepare everyone for a decision he has made by dropping hints for weeks in advance, and I’m interpretting some of his utterings as that kind of agenda.
NEW POST
Rasp you seem like so many people this week undecided. LOL
We will have a great year next year, JW was sent to Bolton to toughen him up and it appears to have done that, Carlos will get his chance in the world cup to show what he can do.
Le Gaffer will buy and we will progress
dandan,
I have interpretted it as the opposite – LJ was sent to Bolton because AW thinks he’s a bit too wild and wanted him to get that out of his system. He is a feisty little player and likes to get stuck in. Its the sort of aggression that Rooney has and it’s what ‘makes the player’
I think we have done incredibly well this season. Still remember we were so underdog during the start of the season, pundits keep writing us off, not from the title, but from the top 4, and yet, we are proved to be a serious title contender at least half of the season, even Alex Ferguson admitted it. I say fuck all of them. But it is really disapointing watching those “fans” not appreciating what we having and backstabbing the team, real dissapointment.
Thank you for your wonderful efforts
Great post Wonderful Efforts!!! keep this really appreciatable work up..!!!!!!!
I think, Will have a great year , next year
Whereas I have an understanding of your stance I am unable to actually accept as true with what you have said right here.
Very Cool
Nice Post.