Rant Friday again, don’t they come round fast. Herb’s post yesterday stirred a few and emotions were let loose as many of the regulars on AA are ardent Wenger supporters. I felt agitated by Herbs Post, whether he meant it as a post or not is irrelevant, as what he wrote was for someone to read and it reflected the way he felt.
Herb is of course entitled to his opinion, what kind of supporters are we if we are not willing to listen to another side of the story. In the post Herb wanted to vent his concerns over the current transfer policy. I think he feels we need to spend vast amounts of money, he didn’t exactly say vast amounts of money, but when he showed dismay with Ozil and Sanchez I can only assume he wanted bigger and better players and they don’t come cheap.
Reading the post it struck me that Herb is the kind of supporter who would want a Bale or a Ronaldo or perhaps even the Holy Grail Messi so I assume he would want the board to spend obscene amounts of money. Its easy spending other peoples money when you’re a supporter. There are supporters who moan about the price of a packet of fags or the TV licence but when it comes to their very own club, they expect anything from 50 million. Many of this kind of supporter has out laid on an Arsenal scarf or pushed the boat out and brought a snide Arsenal shirt, some will even be season ticket holders. They can be the worst as they feel they have paid so much for their ticket and what’s 150 million to a club like Arsenal? They actually believe that the money they have out laid to be entertained should be spent to make their enjoyment even better.
Supporters come in all shapes and sizes. Some supporters are ardent Wenger supporters but others can be called Wenger haters and they are critical if we don’t buy or if we buy the wrong players according to them. I feel we have to realise that perhaps the club do not always feel like many supporters do, that winning the League and Champions League is the only goal.
Looking at it from the owners side, a good season for Arsenal is when it makes more money than it has laid out. Usually supporters will look at the figures put out and assume the profit at the end is what we have to spend on players, well don’t make me laugh, that is the money that the owners and shareholders own, not the clubs money. Any money over is their profit for their investment, not for the clubs to spend on players.
We always look around us at what other clubs are doing and assume our club should be doing the same but what we should be doing is realising that Arsenal are making money and now and again the Manager is allowed to use some of their money to replace with new stock. Again a further investment made by the owners money.
What you have at the other big spending clubs are owners who have always had huge amounts of money. These people have been used to having the best that money can buy for yachts, mansions, land and cars. They can afford to buy everything that you can think of and the ownership of a football club with no expense spared. Like all oligarchs and Sheiks the very best is a must have, our own Mr Usmanov would be the same, if only he could get his feet under the table. Many say he is a proper Arsenal supporter and wants to spend spend spend but apparently he has his rules before he does that and before that happens he will keep hold of his billions, whether we win or lose. A fine supporter, right!!!
Supporters ask for money to be spent, when it looks like we have weaknesses. This last transfer window seemed like one of those occasions, but it seems that the money holders felt that the last three signings were enough investment for the time being. Close on a hundred million, I make them right.
Herb is a long time reader of AA and occasional author for the site. He is aware that his views are not shared by the majority and so emailed this response to GN5’s post which asked the question “Who is Arsenal’s greatest manager?” …….. Ed
Most of us know that during our early years as Dial Square and Woolwich Arsenal we struggled to establish ourselves, and would have ceased to exist had it not been for Glasgow Rangers buying some shares. And the time leading up to WWI was quite desperate. As you’re aware, in 1913 that perception was about to change. We moved to the other side of the Thames because Tottenham didn’t have anyone to teach them how to play football. Highbury,
The Home of Football became our spiritual home, and our growth as a club between the two world wars was phenomenal. And it was all driven by businessman (and Conservative MP for Fulham during WWI), Henry Norris. My argument is simply based on Norris’ ownership. The club grew more in his time as owner than at any other time in the club’s history. He wanted Arsenal to be bigger and better than anyone else, his ambition was there for all to see. Of course you need the right ingredients to make it happen but that comes down to intelligence.
Herbert Chapman won the club it’s first major trophy – the FA Cup – quickly followed by Arsenal’s first title. Chapman’s. Arsenal is the last to win back-to-back titles. George Allison rightly gets an honourable mention in dispatches, but he didn’t have to tinker too much with what he inherited from Chapman. Arsenal ‘The Bank of England’ Football Club, the biggest most powerful football force in the world. So strong was Arsenal’s position it was impossible for any new owners to fail (to make piles of money!).
So what happened to building on that philosophy and huge advantage we had over everyone else?
Well, obviously we can’t control external forces such as what other club’s do, but what happened to Arsenal was the Hill-Wood’s and Bracewell-Smith’s.
I think it’s fair to say that neither the Hill-Wood’s, Bracewell-Smiths, or Stan Kroenke have given their generation of Arsenl supporters anything like the same club that Norris, Chapman or Allison gave to their generation. And within that premise is the crux of the problem.The whole dynamic paradigm that Norris, Chapman and Allison brought to Arsenal disappeared out of sight under new ownership, and as a whole, the club have never recovered the ground they willingly conceded. But they’ve made shed-loads of cash so the only real losers are the long-suffering fans.
This is where you can help me to better understand, because we live in a culture of ready-made manufactured excuses which are tactically designed to dumb-down the general public and mask people’s flaws.
My perception of The Arsenal is that they are a super-wealthy football club owned by aristocratic Old Etonians related to the Royal family. They are very much part of The Establishment and it is with that in mind that I firmly believe Arsenal should be serial contenders for major trophies every year i.e. PL title and CL.
The whole philosophy and drive of the club changed after WWII. Where once Arsenal had the same burning ambition as Manchester United, now seen at City and Chelsea, now there is no urgency to be the best. The cautious safety-first model isn’t exciting, and has brought limited success since the war.
Arsene Wenger has been wasteful in keeping Arsenal 3rd but mostly fourth and out of CL at the Round of 16. He loves repeatedly reminding people of ordinary achievements like consistently qualifying for CL, which would be more welcome if he tried actually winning the competition. Some laud him even more for the two recent FA Cups, and the signings of Ozil, Sanchez and Cech, and claim he has changed.
He doesn’t care for the FA Cup as seen when he put a second-string out against Blackburn in the 5th Rnd a few years ago, because he was saving the first-team to get put out of the CL against Bayern Munich. After the 5-1 mauling at Anfield we had them a week later in the 5th Rnd at The Emirates, which came as redemption for Arsene Wenger.
The Ox blatantly fouled Suarez in the penalty-area when it was 2-1, but Arsenal got away with it. Once Wigan beat City in the QF, we were left with a SF line-up of Hull, Sheffield Utd, Wigan and Arsenal, and even though they tried not to win it, fate inevitably intervened. Same story for this year’s cup too, sure we won at OT in the QF, but I see that with the same relevance as beating Chelsea in the Community Shield. Arsene Wenger will never field a team capable of beating Utd 8-2 or Chelsea 6-0.
The Mesut Ozil signing fell into his lap. He was under pressure after losing the opening game 3-1 at home against Villa, and for his embarrassing attempt at buying Luis Suarez. Ozil wasn’t what we needed, but it was a big enough name to appease restless supporters. Real Madrid were in the process of up-grading to CL winners, Ozil was surplus to requirements, Arsenal were desperate for a big-name, bingo! The player yet to have a game-changing performance for Arsenal, and who Arsene Wenger said would be Footballer of the Year this year. Pretty similar story with Alexis Sanchez. Barca were up-grading and showing us that with the right ambition Luis Suarez really can be signed. They had Pedro as back-up, so again he was offered to Arsenal. He refused to entertain Liverpool (who wanted him as part of the Suarez deal), so it really couldn’t have been easier. Apparently it was Abramovic and Cech who did most to push his transfer through to Arsenal. Cech and his family are settled in London and he wasn’t that keen to move away.
Is that Arsenal’s transfer policy? To wait until players just under elite-level are offered at cut-price?
Arsene Wenger shows no aggressiveness in the transfer-market in the way that other super-powers do, nor does he have the urgency to make us any better. Winning the FA Cup in2014 was like a genuine ‘Men In Black’ moment, where people are zapped to have their memory erased. Rewind four months. We’d been to OT and The Etihad and were top of the league. Arsene Wenger surrendered the PL title in the January TW with £150m* sitting in the bank, so the FA Cup isn’t really much in the way of compensation. Nice that he can pick and choose when to take the FA Cup seriously – especially if it massages his ego and puts him in the Record books.
I appreciate the huge cost of the stadium move – that rankles with supporters too – Arsenal wouldn’t have gone into such a project without examining all financial pit-falls and worse-case scenario’s. They needn’t have worried. It’s a proper cash-cow with a license to print money, and they don’t have to offer anything in return. When people say they want ‘their Arsenal’ back, they’re talking about the Arsenal that were at Highbury, the original crest with the cannon facing inwards, the siege mentality of us against the world. It has been replaced by a shiny new Corporate Arsenal that has no accountability, exists for the primary reason of making money, and are as far away from their supporters as they’ve ever been. And they’re just not that exciting anymore.
I’m not particularly intelligent, I just want to know why Arsenal refuse to compete at the highest level. It can only be down to the club structure, the administration, or the ability of the manager. I bet Carlo Ancelotti would win us the PL and CL.
It just seems (to me) that there is no correlation between Arsenal’s resources and their performance. This isn’t just a failing of Arsene Wenger, managers such as Billy Wright, Terry Neill and Don Howe should all have done a lot better. If you think I am being stupid/dumb or a bit mis-guided, please don’t hold back. I have no grudge or axe to grind with any other Arsenal fans, I just think some are very narrow and refuse to acknowledge the bigger picture which reveal a lot of the reasons for why Arsenal are where they are. If more people were aware of our history and where Arsenal originate from, I’m sure there would be a lot more understanding and fewer arguments.
Throughout our history Arsenal has seen 19 different managers. I’m going to give a brief outline of my personal top five.
First up is Herbert Chapman (1925-1934)
In the 1925 close season Sir Henry Norris placed the following advertisement in the Athletic News.
“Arsenal Football Club is open to receive applications for the position of Team Manager. He must possess the highest qualifications for the post, both as to ability and personal character. Gentlemen whose sole ability to build up a good side depends on the payment of heavy and exorbitant transfer fees need not apply.”
He became our manager shortly after and remained as such for a short 8.5 seasons before his untimely death from pneumonia on January 6th 1934
He championed major innovations in football including floodlighting, numbered shirts and European competitions. He along with Charles Buchan created the famous WM formation which helped to transform Arsenal into one of the greats of English football.
Under his guidance we won our first major trophy, the 1930 FA Cup.
A bronze bust of Herbert Chapman is on proud display outside of the Emirates Stadium.
Herbert Chapman’s league record –
Games 336, Won 157, Drawn 84, Lost 95,
Goals for 736, Goals against 541,
Goals for per game 2.19, Goals against per game 1.61
Points won 59.3%
Average League Position 6.25
Total # of trophies won – 2 League titles, 1 FA Cup, 3 Charity Shields.
Second we have George Allison (1934-1947)
During WW1 he worked for the War Office and the Admiralty, producing propaganda, and later joined the Royal Fling Corps (later renamed the Royal air Force). After the war he moved into broadcasting, joining the BBC and becoming the first person to commentate on the radio on events such as The Derby and the Grand National, as well as the annual England v.Scotland international, and the 1927 FA Cup Final. By this time, he had already formed a strong association with Arsenal and he became the club’s programme editor, becoming a member of the board of directors soon after the end of the WW1; he was first club secretary and then managing director.
After the sudden death of Herbert Chapman in January 1934, he was appointed Chapman’s full-time successor, in the summer of that year. Arsenal had already won the League Championship twice in a row (1932-33 and 1933-34), and he made it a hat-trick, winning a third successive title in 1934-35.
He famously appeared in a 1939 movie that was set at Highbury, “The Arsenal Stadium Mystery”, where he had a speaking part as himself. Amongst his lines included one uttered at half time: “It’s one-nil to the Arsenal. That’s the way we like It.”, a line which had resonance with the team’s penchant for 1-0 score lines many decades later.
He passed away in 1957 after several years of illness.
George Allison’s league record –
Games 294, Won 137, Drawn 80, Lost 77,
Goals for 552, Goals against 345,
Goals for per game 1.88, Goals against per game 1.17
Points won 60.2%.
Average League Position 4.29
Total # of trophies won – 3 League titles, 1 FA Cup, 2 Charity Shields.
Thirdly we have Tom Whittaker (1947-1956)
In 1919, after serving his country in World War I, he joined Arsenal, under manager Leslie Knighton. He first played as centre-forward then as wing-half, signing as a professional in January 1920 and making his debut in a 1–0 defeat away to West Bromwich Albion.
He toured Australia as part of the FA side in 1925, but during the tour, in a match in Wollongong he broke his knee cap and was forced to retire from playing. Following his injury he joined Arsenal’s coaching staff and also studied to become a physiotherapist. He became Arsenal’s first team trainer under Herbert Chapman in 1927, at the time, he was younger than many of the players. He assisted Chapman in transforming the training and physiotherapy regime at the club, and played a major part in the club’s successes during the 1930s.
After Herbert Chapman passed away in 1934, he continued to serve under his successor, George Allison while also becoming a trainer for the English National Team. With the advent of WW11 he began to work as an ARP warden, before becoming a pilot in the Royal Air Force where he achieved the rank of Squadron Leader. For his service in missions on D-Day, he was awarded an MBE.
When George Allison retired in 1947, he became the club’s new manager; after winning the League in 1947-48 and 1952-53 and the FA Cup in 1949-50, the club’s success waned. He tried, in vain, to attract major stars to the club, one being Stanley Matthews who said later – “I felt there was nothing to be gained by moving south, however I was very happy and politely turned down the offer”. “Such an approach was against the rules at the time and, consequently, I couldn’t tell anyone about it, and I never have until now.”
Sadly Tom passed away from a heart attack in 1956, aged 58.
Tom Whittaker’s league record –
Games 378, Won 171, Drawn 101, Lost 106,
Goals for 677, Goals against 509,
Goals for per game 1.79, Goals against per game 1.35
Points won 58.6%.
Average League Position 5.22
Total # of trophies won – 2 League titles, 1 FA Cup, 2 Charity Shields.
Our Fourth manager is George Graham (1986-1995)
Arsenal, who had not won a trophy since the FA Cup in 1978–79, appointed him as their new manager in May 1986. Arsenal finished fourth in his first season in charge, and then went on to win the 1987 League Cup. His sides featured tight defensive discipline, embodied by Tony Adams, who along with Lee Dixon, Steve Bould and Nigel Winterburn, formed the basis of Arsenal’s famous defence for over a decade. However, his teams were not only about defence as he had more than capable midfielders such as David Rocastle, Michael Thomas and Paul Merson, plus striker Alan Smith, who regularly scored 20 plus goals per season. In (1988–89), Arsenal won their first League title since 1971.
In the final game of the season against Liverpool at Anfield; Arsenal needed to win by two goals to take the title; Alan Smith scored for Arsenal early in the second half to make it 1–0 and with only seconds to go Michael Thomas surging through the Liverpool defence and lifting the ball over Bruce Grobbelaar and into the net.
The 1994 Cup Winners’ Cup was his last trophy at the club; the following February he was sacked after nearly nine years in charge, after it was discovered he had accepted an illegal £425,000 payment from Norwegian agent Rune Hauge following Arsenal’s 1992 acquisition of John Jensen and Pål Lydersen, two of Hauge’s clients. George was eventually banned for a year by the Football Association for his involvement in the scandal, after he admitted he had received an “unsolicited gift” from Hauge.
George Graham’s league record –
Games 364, Won 167, Drawn 108, Lost 89,
Goals for 543, Goals against 327,
Goals for per game 1.49, Goals against per game .90
Points won = 55.6%.
Average League Position 5.11
Total # of trophies won – 2 League titles, 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cups, 1 Cup Winners Cup.
Finally we have our current manager Arsene Wenger (1996 – Present)
Arsene was born in Strasbourg, France and raised in Duttlenheim. He was introduced to football by his father, the manager of the local village team, however his playing career mostly as an amateur, was very modest.
In 1996, Arsene was appointed as the manager of Arsenal and two years later the club completed a league and FA Cup double. He led Arsenal to appearances in the 2000 UEFA Cup Final and 2001 FA Cup Final, and a second league and cup double in 2002. Arsenal retained the FA Cup in 2003 and a year later regained the league title, becoming the first club to go through an entire league season undefeated since Preston North End, 115 years previously. The team later eclipsed Nottingham Forest’s record of 42 league matches unbeaten and went seven more matches before losing in October 2004. Arsenal made their first appearance in a Champions League final in 2006, though they lost to Barcelona. During his tenure, Arsenal has moved to a new training centre and after 93 years at Highbury they relocated to the Emirates Stadium.
In February 1999, Arsene offered Sheffield United a replay of their FA Cup fifth round match immediately after the match had finished, due to the controversial circumstances in which it was won. The decisive goal was scored by Overmars after Kanu failed to return the ball to the opposition when it had been kicked into touch to allow Sheffield United’s Lee Morris to receive treatment for an injury, Arsenal went on to win the replay.
Under Arsene Wenger Arsenal hold the current British record for the most consecutive appearances in the Champions League with 2015-16 being their 20th consecutive, Man U held the previous record with 21 consecutive which stopped in 2013-14
In 2002 he was awarded France’s highest decoration, the Légion d’Honneur and was in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List of 2003. He has also received an honorary OBE for his service to football and was then inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2006. A commissioned bronze bust of Arsene was unveiled as a tribute to him at the club’s annual general meeting on 18 October 2007. An Arsenal fan and astronomer, Ian Griffin, named an asteroid, 33179 Arsènewenger. In January 2011, he was voted “World Coach of the Decade” by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.
A bronze statue of Arsene Wenger is proudly displayed outside of the Emirates Stadium.
Arsene Wenger’s Premier league record –
Games 718, Won 416, Drawn 178, Lost 124,
Goals for 1348, Goals against 681,
Goals for per game 1.88, Goals against per game .95
Points won = 66.2%,
Average League Position 3.01,
Total # of trophies won – 3 League titles, 6 FA Cup, 6 Charity Shields.
These are the records of my Top 5 Arsenal Mangers. If it were possible who would you choose to manage Arsenal today? (My choice will be a (well known) secret)
Well here we go our first schedule pile up of the season, over a 23 day period we have 7 very important games which is a game every 3.29 days.
Here is the schedule –
Now I recognize that we have a big squad but is it realistic to expect our team to play a game every 3 days?
Let’s take a closer look at the individual games. The game against Stoke at home in the Premier league comes after a 14 day international break, which in itself sounds good but the majority of our players will be away on international duty which means they will have no rest and there is always the risk of them returning injured.
Now we face the unenviable task of playing 4 consecutive away games. 4 days after the game against Stoke we play our first Champions League group game away against Dinamo Zagreb in Crotia, these games are never easy and the travel time there and back is very tiring.
I’m unaware of our travel arrangements back from Croatia but with only 2 days in between the games we then have to play Chelsea away in the Premier League. Chelsea meantime play Maccabi Tel Aviv at home on the 16th – so they have the benefit of not having to travel – that may appear to be a petty statement but these type of games are won and lost on small details.
Next up with only 3 days between the games we have Tottenham away in the Tea Cup, now personally I hate losing to them at anytime but this will not be a good time to put too many of our 1st team squad on display and I could easily forget their euphoria if we lose and protect our squad for bigger and better things. I would really enjoy it if we beat them with our kids as that will give us endless bragging rights.
The nightmare continues as with only 2 days between games we have to travel to Leicester in another PL game and they are proving to be a very difficult side to play against.
At least the next two games are at home – after only another 2 days between we play Olympiacos in the CL, our home record against them is good as on the two occasions we have played them we have won 2-1 and 3-1 – strangely enough they have won both away game by the same scores.
Lastly after playing 6 games in 18 days we play Manchester United at home, I wonder just what shape both physically and mentally our squad will be in after all of this?
Your guess is as good as mine but frankly after our first 4 games it’s hard to be positive about our nightmare of a schedule.
We are The Arsenal, we have always done things a bit differently. In Arsene Wenger we have a manager also cut from a different cloth.
Season after season we have been told we haven’t done enough to progress in terms of transfers and that others around us have strengthened and will overtake us, yet year on year we have proved the doubters wrong.
Last season after a horrific start to the campaign we went on a run where we were the best team in the league in the second half of the season, and despite that not being enough to make up for the poor start and challenge for the League we still managed to hoist ourselves into 3rd place when at one point we were looking likely to drop way out of the top 4.
Injuries were unkind to us last season. In the summer it has now been much published that we only added Cech and apparently no outfield players, that’s a great headline but ignores Adelaide and his mate who joined. I know they are not going to be starters but if the tabloids are going to run these headlines at least let it be fact.
So after the Window closed various questions have been asked…was this the worst summer ever for Arsenal fans, well for me the summer we brought in Silvestre and Bischoff may have been worse.
The perceived wisdom is we had to buy players to kick on again this season. I wanted to see whether history told us anything different. To be honest I was surprised at what I found.
Arsene’s league successes came in 97/98, 01/02 and 03/04. Our signings in those seasons were as follows:
97/98
Wreh, Grondin
01/02
Toure, Tavliaridis, Wright (R), Campbell, Van Bronkhirst
03/04
Van Persie, Reyes, Djourou, Lehman, Senderos, Fabregas
Safe to say only Campbell and Lehman really affected the side in the seasons they arrived, the other major players in those successes had arrived earlier and won nothing for a couple of seasons, Bergkamp and Platt in 95/96, Petit, Overmars, Vieira and Anelka in 96/97, Ljungberg in 98/99, Henry and Lauren in 99/00 and Pires and Wiltord in 00/01.
See how those players that were key arrived in earlier seasons? Well think Alexis, Ozil, Welbeck etc, and then look at Cech as the missing piece.
There’s your positive, now go on and support them and try to hold on to a smidge of belief at least until Christmas.
We got 3 points away from home at a ground that I am not sure will be that easy for many of our rivals this season. On the general positive front our passing and movement was excellent and only lacked that last little itty weeny bit….the placement of the ball between the white thingy’s with the mesh behind it. Ok we did place it there once but at the end you did feel we should have been far more comfortable. Also, yes, we should have had a penalty, so the officials once again conspire to undermine our season. We should be 2 points and 2 goals better off right now.
I mention the officials because the toon fans obviously felt very hard done by yesterday. However in the cold light of day and viewing these incidents again I would challenge any of them to disagree with the decisions. If anything the non penalty penalty kept them in it. With that as well as the other goal I think we would have gone on to score 2 more.
So with general all round excellent play why didn’t we put them to the sword a bit more? Does this have implications for the season? Are we lacking a world class cutting edge up front or could it be more simply that we are not quite in full gear yet? Could it also be that McClaren has them far more organised now and that Newcastle didn’t come out to play enough football and got so many men behind the ball that breaking them down was always going to be tough. If anything it possibly got tougher once they were a back’s to the walls 10 man outfit.
My stance has softened on yesterday once I stepped back and reviewed it. I actually think we looked so fluid and sharp that we forced them into a bus parking exercise.
Someone may come before the transfer window closes, to provide that extra cutting edge up front, but let’s say they don’t, and there is a very real chance of that. I still feel we have quite a bit at our disposal. Many are now looking to Welbeck to save us, because to many Giroud and Walcott can’t cut it, and I am looking forward to him getting his opportunity. However, even having been a critic of Giroud I still feel that both he and Walcott have something to offer as number 9’s, if we play them in the right way. I would also say that where Walcott is concerned he could be a number 9 option and still play as a wide player when needed.
Many will use yesterday as hard “EVIDENCE” that Walcott can’t do it. Well as already said Newcastle firstly made it difficult. Secondly from my point of view none of Walcott’s chances were gimmes yesterday. If you watch them again in most of the cases Walcott is actually latching on to balls at high speed. That automatically makes it more difficult to control any shot on target than at a slower pace. It is of course easier if the ball is on the ground as you run onto it.
He had a one on one with Krul in this situation and there is an argument that Theo could have done a bit better by chipping the keeper. Fair enough but not an easy skill at that pace and in reality it was Krul that did very well here in reading the game and coming out.
His second big chance is the one that many are referring to as almost an open goal. The one on the rebound from Sanchez shot. Look at it again peoples. Again Theo is arriving at high speed…more difficult. Secondly the ball is bouncing….adds extra difficulty. Thirdly he is not directly in front of an open goal, but is at an angle with the keeper getting up from the ground to narrow his options….again adds to the difficulty. This was no gimme. Alright it didn’t happen for him or Ollie when he came on but the great Ronaldo and the great Aguero missed easier chances yesterday!!!
This is not a “defence of Theo” post. More I am trying to rationalise why we didn’t quite make it easier and why our striking department individually and as a whole didn’t quite pull it off as well as they could have. Theo and Ollie might not be quite good enough to push us to the title. Then again they might be and my point is that yesterday is not enough for me personally to say they can’t.
If anything I really wanted Wenger to play Theo to Giroud’s right when Ollie came on. With Ollie and no Theo teams play a higher line. With Theo and no Ollie teams play a deeper line. With Theo and Ollie they are in trouble either way. It looked a potent combination a couple of seasons back and would have meant that we had our next 3 most clinical goal-scorers (Sanchez, Rambo and Theo) all playing off Giroud. As said I don’t see any reason why they can’t rotate as striker or also play together.
Arsene got his subs right because we won the game. Fair point. I do however feel the subs were a bit negative and he could have put them to the sword with something more similar to what I mentioned above. AOC could have gone in to the heart of midfield where all those pesky Newcastle players on yellows would have been shedding a load when he started to run through the centre at pace. We have in recent times been too gung-ho, but weirdly I also feel Arsene goes with too much caution and still needs to find that balance at times.
Newcastle. What do you think of when hearing that name?
I have a mental image of SuperMac, Keegan arriving by helicopter, Dirty Shearer with one arm raised, Dire Straits, Bryan Ferry, that TV series with Jimmy Nail and the bloke who became Inspector Morse’s assistant, unintelligible accents, dreadful beer, Gazza, Sir Bobby Robson, Ugly Beardsley, Fat Football fans and much more (add a few if you have the inclination!)
And in recent years a total road wreck of a football club. Managers sacked, dreadful players bought and sold, fan unrest, an owner who is hated by the fans and a top quality, traditional institution which could attract the very best becoming a selling club.
Newcastle have spent 5 times as much money as AFC in this window (so far)! IMO this is a dreadful state of affairs and questions must be asked. I do not accept that players are not available – if they chose other clubs one must question the negotiating skills of our buying team. It is claimed that Thauvin chose Newcastle having been approached by AFC, if this is true our boys really do a crap job.
McClaren is a good manager and will bring discipline into a difficult club who were lucky to escape relegation, he has bought young, pacy players who he hopes can change the atmosphere in both the changing room and the stands. Their start is worse than ours which brings some degree of hope.
Her Maj in Her Home Kit
But we need points and we need them NOW.
How do we get them?
The usual …… hard work, team play, concentration, fast attacks, clinical finishing. A little bit of intricate passing and a sprinkling of magic.
Could Chambers play worse than his first half on Monday? It would be difficult. There is a fair chance he will start alongside Paul Easter and if he does then AW has to instruct his midfield to give better protection.
Theo to start? Would be good but who gets dropped? Giroud is the obvious choice though he is our only goal scorer this season (how rubbish is that?)
Dare AW drop Cazorla and play the Ox thereby adding some pace and width down the right? Or Ramsey? Or both and play Theo and Ox.
I don’t know and I am not paid millions to make such a decision. What I do know is that at present things are not as they should be. There is imbalance in the team both vertically and laterally. We need more cohesion in front of goal, better understanding between the defence and the midfield, and less reliance upon left-sided attack. It has to be said (and it was by LB!) that if you have Ozil and Sanchez on the left then we are likely to use them. I really fancy Ozil to score today and will bet a fish that he will.
The season start has shown that we have no idea how the team will perform today – who knows today could be the launch pad for a run of wins or it could signify the start of a difficult season.
The general perceived feeling on the forum is that we are doing fine on the full-back position as we have four reliable full-backs at our disposal:-Debuchy, Bellerin, Monreal and Gibbs.
I tend to agree that are “good full backs” but I am not convinced that they can take our club to the next level as they still suffer from defensive lapses, do not create enough assists or goals and worse, do not bring enough width to our game at times when we are stuck with fruitless possession in the opponent’s half…You look at Ivanovic, Alves, Rafinha, Lahm, Alaba, Alba and even Baines, Coleman or Clyne (he still needs to confirm though) and you realize that our FBs are not doing enough for our team…
So Petr Cech has showed us we have have a world class keeper now. Happy with that. Again the footballing gods have betrayed us……a proper goal incorrectly ruled offside and Mignolet pulling out a couple of blinders (the only problem is so did Cech so that probably cancels itself out).
Well by my reckoning we should be at least 7 points from 9 after 3 games, and I say at least. So we sit on 4. It is easy to say that this is not so much a problem so early in the season with so many games left, but the EPL is so competitive these days that a top team like us, (capable of winning the EPL), could probably lose it in the first 5 games if they leave themselves too much to do. I believe playing catch up is now far harder to do and you will not see the likes of our overhaul of Utd in the 1997-1998 season again.
I believe playing catch up is now far harder to do and you will not see the likes of our In the last 2 seasons we have either finished as the winners in the first half or second half of the season but have not put 2 great halves of the season together and won the title. Consistency I guess is the order of the day. We could probably argue that injuries have played a large part historically, and I couldn’t disagree with that. Not quite having those extra 1-2 quality players in the right positions could also be an argument. I couldn’t disagree with that also.
However, despite all this, and my personal feeling we still require 1-2 key top players to be an absolute certainty as a top team, we still have a squad with the potential to beat any team out there and win the top prizes. So it is my assertion that we are not making the most of what we have available to us.
Boring I know to mention it again, but I still feel Arsene has a blind spot when it comes to favouring playing the types of players that he likes most as opposed to playing the best balanced side.
Don’t get me wrong, Liverpool are not a bad outfit, but are a side in transition with a lot of new players and are not ready for a serious title charge. We did play parts of the game in the ascendency with some good spells but the sheer quality of the players on the pitch tends to guarantee that at times. One of the serious title challenging teams will expose Liverpool this season and the fact that we didn’t do this, and also win the game, potentially doesn’t bode well.
In a more general sense I would say that I can’t think of a modern successful team that doesn’t have an abundance of pace and penetration from 2-3 sources in attack. In this game we really only had Sanchez as a true pacey attacking player from the start of the game. When we did introduce the extra pace players was it too late to have the time to influence the game
I said before the game that my biggest worry this season was not in who we did or didn’t recruit but in how we used the squad we had available to us to get the most balanced and fluid of teams. Others may see our problem areas as different of course and I always enjoy a different perspective, this is just the main problem as I see it
Walcott and AOC left on the bench for more slow but technical ball players? Were they introduced too late in the game? Were we just unlucky? Is it too early to make a judgement on us this season? Are bad habits resurfacing that will see us fall just short when we didn’t need to
A draw with Liverpool need not be a source of concern under normal circumstances, but for me there were possible worrying signs that we haven’t learnt from the past and that would be a shame for a team that I feel could win the EPL with what it currently has. Aside from the injuries this reminds me of the start of last season when we had a great team on paper but looked out of sorts. Arsene needs to sort it out quickly or we may end up the EPL champions for the 2nd half of the season again, and unless I am wrong they don’t give you a trophy for that.
Liverpool at home is always an exciting prospect and the first home night game makes it even more so. Wish I was going 😦
Plus this is a big test against a team who have spent almost €200m in two seasons! Selling your best players doesn’t help but Rodgers has to prove his success of two seasons ago was not purely a result of having a brilliant striker in the form of his life.
AW has been there; selling your best players inevitably has an effect, fortunately the past two seasons has seen us keep our players and add to the quality of the squad – who knows who will be arriving at AFC over the next 7 days!
So …. Liverpool. Never liked them. Hate the awful dirge of YNWA. I think I would even go so far as to say it is worse than Yellow Submarine! Just think of the dorks who have worn their shirt…. Keegan, Owen, P.Thompson, Dalgleish, One Minute, Emlyn Hughes, Suarez – the list is endless … but they are a very good team when in full flow, always have been.
The question is, has Rodgers put together a winning team? The lack of a quality finisher (in the absence of Sturridge) hurt L’pool last season and the signing of the excellent Benteke gives them considerable attacking strength. Add in the wily Firmino and the excellent Coutinho and we can see why L’pool are confident of an improvement on last season’s disappointments.
We smacked them last season when Kolo repaid AW for bringing him to Highbury – I doubt dirty Skrtel or Loopy Lovren will do the same.
As to us, we have to improve. WHU – terrible, CP good for 45 mins, tonight – who knows? And that is what concerns me; we have the potential to be brilliant and very successful because this is the best squad for a very long time but as yet we continue to be unpredictable. Consistency is what wins titles and can you honestly say you are sure we will play well tonight?
Thankfully we have an almost fully-fit squad (apart from Abou Wilshire and Abou Rosicky). Mr Wenger “just” has to pick his best team. Not easy – my guess is that if we all put in our best 11 that there would be many different 11’s. Theo or Ox? Theo or OG? Ramsey on the flanks? Cazorla alongside Le Coq? Monreal or Gibbs? Czech or Ospina etc etc.
It is being suggested that pace will win this game for Arsenal thanks to L’pool’s static central defence – I agreee and would certainly start with Theo alongside OG in the middle. The problem with this is that it results in the Ox having to ride the pine. The Ox is one my favourite players and he needs to know he has the confidence of AW to be a central cog in this team – he is too good to be a bit-time player.
It should be a good game between two attack-minded teams with Arsenal edging it.
p.s. Hope Rodger’s master-signing Balotelli plays 🙂
Posted by peachesgÖÖner 
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