This is the way I see things which I will try and explain by way of a quick summary.

We all remember being told that the reason we had to leave Highbury was because with a capacity of only 38,000 we would not be able to continue competing; we needed a 60,000 seater to stay at the top. Has that happened? No it hasn’t. Were we lied to? No we weren’t. At the time of that statement Roman Abramovich had not joined Chelsea. Do not get confused, that statement was made by the club long before we actually moved.

Most people have now grasped the financial clout that Abramovich and later Mansour at Man City have brought to the EPL has greatly reduced the calibre of player that is available to Arsenal.

I have tried to point out many times that if a world class player came on the market and we put in a bid of 30 million for him, there is little doubt in my mind that Chelsea would put in a bid of 31 and if not Chelsea then Man City or now PSG and all these would follow Barcelona and Real Madrid who, although, they cannot pay the same wages as the other Northern European clubs I have mentioned, they still get first dibs because, as we all know, players go there for the prestige.

So now, it should be clear that in the pecking order we come somewhere behind, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man City, PSG and Chelsea. Do you know what that means?

As things stand Wenger will never be able to buy world class players again.

And here is why I still support Wenger………..nor would any other manager who took on the role at Arsenal.

I am still quite amazed that people who should know better cry out for players more like Henry, Vieira, Ljungburg. Are people’s memories so poor that they cannot remember that those three players were failures or non entities before they arrived at Arsenal?

Wenger is following the same pattern, Chamakh was thought of very highly before he arrived and was very impressive for a time, Gervinho was one of the top marksmen in France, as was Giroud. The signing of all three of those players made sense, not just for their past success but for the fact that Arsenal was a step up for them and for that reason it follows that they would want to well for us. I still genuinely believe each one of them does in his own way.

I am not trying to suggest that these players will turn into Henry, Vieira and Ljungburg but I can see why they were signed and importantly to me I do not think another manger could do better.

Where would this new manger that a growing number of people are crying out for find better players? I don’t believe he would which is another reason I still support Wenger. Are people happy with Jenkinson, Gibbs, Szeczney? I am and let’s remember that these defensive players were signed by Wenger not Steve Bould.

I have described myself in the past as a fully paid up card carrying Wengerite, I still am but, and there is a but, I purposely question this on a regular basis to make sure it does not become a devotion — after all no one is bigger than the club.

I see it this way: if you saw smoke coming out of the Emirates at what point would you shout “Fire”? It seems to me that many are already shouting but I am not there yet, although, be in no doubt if it came to saving the club I would be shouting at the top of my voice.

There is smoke coming from the Emirates it cannot be denied and the smoke that is bothering me is the attack but I will come onto that another time.

Written by LB

Well here we are mulling over the worst defeat in our history, losing to 2nd division Bradford was not the sort of record we were looking to create.

It was the first game that I have not been able to watch in over 10 years so I listened to the audio commentary on Arsenal player. To be frank their commentary was far superior to what we are served up on television and it gave me a clear understanding of what was happening at field level.

You would think that after following Arsenal for the past 66 seasons that I would be really upset about us losing out on what was, in all likelihood, our most winnable trophy this season – but I’m not the least bit upset. Over the years, I’ve observed so many poor games that one more could not possibly create any more furrows in my brow, they just seem to get deeper and more pronounced when I think about Arsenal’s performances.

The simple realisation is that overall we are a poor team, our defensive play has been more than acceptable giving up only 6 goals in our past 7 games for .9 per game which is also our premier league average, but our offence has sputtered over the same period scoring only 7 goals for 1.0 per game vs. our PL average of 1.7 per game.

A defeat of this type, will of course, bring out the very worst in our “supporter’s” who will now be baying for Arsene’s head and the scalps of certain players.

The media will have a field day with this result and will have it “bronzed” for future use, bringing it out at every possible opportunity.

I feel that as a supporter group we need to stand resolute in our support for our manager and team, which does not exclude us from being critical, but the club must now realise that the day of reckoning is nigh and we need to make urgent changes to get us back to the high levels of performance that we have been spoilt with and have become accustomed to.

It is more than apparent that we are being let down by our performance’s but what is not clear are the reason/s behind our loss of form/ability/technique.

The questions are ongoing –

Is it the manager’s fault?

Is it because we won’t spend our transfer kitty?

Why do we lose our best players?

Why do we seem give away easy goals?

What has happened to our passing fluidity?

Why can’t we put away our chances?

Are we using the right formation?

Why are we putting players in the wrong position?

Why are players not fulfilling their potential?

We supporters are blessed with infallible hindsight and, after the fact, can solve all of AFC’s problems, I just hope that our club can find the foresight and vision that will resolve our problems and ease our pain.

We have a window of opportunity with the January transfer period and the club need to have completed their homework and be ready to pounce on some exciting new talent to put us on the road to recovery. One or two high quality players in the right positions would make a big difference.

You will have noticed that I didn’t write about the game or criticize the manager or our players, the reason for that is I believe that they are performing at the very best of their ability – but it’s simply not good enough – is it?

Changes are needed and the changes need to be well planned and executed.

I once read that –

You can have change without improvement – but –

You cannot have improvement without change.

My vote is for the latter as we have dwelled for far too long on the former.

Will it get better – well of course it will – we have just hit our all time low – so it can only get better – right?

Keep the faith.

A disheartened but not broken –

GunnerN5

What we needed yesterday was (in order): three points; a more committed performance; a more attacking performance; a supportive crowd; a clean sheet.

It’s fair to say we achieved all five, even though things didn’t always click.

All game the players put in a massive shift, pressing West Brom deep in their half, tracking back and busting a gut to make space when we had the ball.

In defence we were hardly troubled (Szczesny parried one long shot and was quick out of his goal to snuff out another attack, and I remember one unchallenged header in the box towards the end from which the visitors probably should have scored).

In the end a result of five-nil to the Arsenal would not have been unjust.

We created numerous chances (the BBC stats say we had 16 shots on target – but presumably that figure does not include the several times we slid balls across the face of goal only for no-one to quite get on the end of them).

There were some great moments of interplay between the forwards as well as many occasions where the wavelengths were not quite in tune. There is still a lot of work to do, but what is indisputable is that we carved open West Brom time after time and should have had more goals.

On the other hand, it was a pretty poor display from the Baggies who, several times, were kind enough to simply pass the ball to our players from unchallenged positions.

The first penalty was controversial. In the ground it looked bang-on and I have only seen a replay once, where I thought the defender’s toe caught Santi’s shinpad (although not hard enough to upend him). The consensus seems to be that Santi dived.  If so, I don’t approve but we’ve been on the wrong end of enough penalty-dives recently (Bale and Young last season to name but two) that I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Of course, Santi is foreign and an Arsenal players, so the media will probably go to town on him.

The second penalty was less controversial and well done Mikel Arteta for putting them both away so tidily (especially when you remember that he missed that last minute penalty against Fulham). Giroud seemed to be wanting to take the second one, but Arteta was having none of it. He had something to prove and prove it he did.

The atmosphere at the ground was good with plenty of noise from the home fans and (from where I was sitting) barely a squeak from the West Brom fans.

The relentless teasing of West Brom goalie Myhill who went from ludicrous time wasting to frantically trying to speed things up once the Baggies went behind was particularly enjoyable.

Bottom line: a good day at the office.

Player Ratings:

Szczesny: didn’t have much to do but when he was called on he was impeccable. A very reassuring presence. 8

Sagna: very solid at the back but some of his passing and crossing was erratic. 6

Mertesacker: such a reliable figure at centre back. He was outstanding once again. 8

Vermaelen: put in another tidy performance following on from a good showing in Greece. He’s getting his form back together. 7

Gibbs: fine game from Gibbs, who has made the left back spot his own. He was defensively secure and contributed plenty going forwards. 7.5

Arteta: did a great job of fighting and competing for every ball. Passing was excellent as ever and two good penalties. 8

Wilshere: he is improving game by game and yesterday showed why we are right to be so excited about him. His understanding with his team mates can still get better, but his touch, turns and forward bursts are a joy to watch and dangerous for the opposition.  8 (MoTM)

Cazorla: good creative work throughout the game and also put in a shift pressing the WBA defenders when they had the possession. Let’s not mention the dive. Whoops, I just have. 7

Oxlade-Chamberlain: showed some good moments in the second half after a quiet first period. You feel he can do more, but he is young and improving. 6

Gervinho: the current hate figure for many fans (must be nice for Ramsey to see someone else copping the heat for a change). He worked his socks off yesterday and created numerous goalscoring chances. The fact that players were an inch or two off converting them is irrelevant. If he keeps playing like that he will get many assists this season. However, I suspect it’s more likely that elements of our support will have crushed him before then by howling at every mistake (while tolerating similar errors from others). 8

Giroud: led the line very well, had some sublime touches and was occasionally out of sync with his colleagues. Work effort outstanding. 7.5

Subs

Coquelin: looked sharp and hungry.

Rosicky: picked up where he left off in Greece.

Podolski: looked lively; missed a sitter.

RockyLives

Looking at the standings as of December 5th we languish in 10th place, while not the worst start in our PL history it’s pretty close, only 1994/5 was worse when we had only 5 wins and 19 points versus our current 5 wins and 21 points.

Our play has been very spotty, our incisive passing and our high energy game has eluded us and many of our players are not in the best of form.

The teams quarrelling with us over the 3rd and 4th spots are Chelsea, Tottenham, West Bromwich, Everton, Swansea and Stoke, with only five points separating the teams. (The writer is conceding the top two places to Manchester)

Each team has five league games to play before the end of the year and, being a positive type I’ve assumed, for the sake of the following analysis, that we will regain our elusive form.

I will list each of the teams showing their current points, the teams they will play and the points that I estimate they will earn.

Chelsea is currently at 26 points and will play –

Sunderland away, a win and 3 points

Southampton home, a win and 3 points

Aston Villa home, a win and 3 points

Norwich away, a win and 3 points

Everton away, a draw and I point

This will give them a total of 39 points.

*

Tottenham Hotspur is currently at 26 points and will play –

Everton away, a loss and zero points

Swansea home, a draw and 1 point

Stoke home, a draw and 1 point

Aston Villa away, a win and 3 points

Sunderland away, a win and 3 points

This will give them a total of 34 points

*

West Bromwich Albion is currently at 26 points and will play –

Arsenal away, a draw and 1 point

West Ham home, a draw and 1 point

Q.P.R. away, a win and 3 points

Norwich home, a win and 3 points

Man U away, a loss and zero points

This will give them a total of 34 points

*

Swansea City is currently at 23 points and will play –

Norwich home, a win and 3 points

Tottenham away, a draw and 1 point

Man U home, a loss and zero points

Reading away, a win and 3 points

Fulham away, a win and 3 points

This will give them a total of 33 points

*

Everton is currently at 23 points and will play –

Tottenham home, a win and 3 points

Stoke away, a draw and 1 point

West Han away, a win and 3 points

Wigan home, a win and 3 points

Chelsea home, a draw and 1 point

This will give them a total of 34 points

*

Stoke City is currently at 22 points and will play –

Aston Villa away, a win and 3 points

Everton home, a draw and 1 point

Tottenham away, a draw and 1 point

Liverpool home, a draw and 1 point

Southampton home, a win and 3 points

This will give them a total of 31 points

*

West Ham United is currently at 22 points and will play –

Liverpool away, a draw and 1 point

W.B.A away, a draw and 1 point

Everton home, a loss and zero points

Arsenal away, a loss and zero points

Reading away, a win and 3 points

This will give them a total of 27 points

*

Arsenal is currently at 21 points and we play –

W.B.A. home, a draw and 1 point

Reading away, a win and 3 points

Wigan away, a win and 3 points

West Ham home, a win and 3 points

Newcastle home, a win and 3 points

This will give us a total of 34 points.

*

Based on my estimates the table at the end of the year would look like this

1. Man X

2. Man X

3. Chelsea

4. Arsenal

5. Tottenham

6. Everton

7. West Bromwich

8. Swansea

9. Stoke

10. West Ham

I known what you’re thinking estimates are just guesses, and you are right, but at least to my way of thinking all is not doom and gloom and we are still in with a good shot at finishing in the top four.

But if we lose to West Bromwich on Saturday even my bright outlook may become a little clouded.

Written by GunnerN5

Have you ever seen an ex-champion boxer? I have.

Ageing, outdated, short on his wits. He can’t dodge the punches or predict his opponents next move.

Weighed by expectation, jaded by the years.

Last Saturday I watched Arsène Wenger stand on the touchline at Villa Park, drenched and lifeless.

Is this the man I have come to know and begrudgingly admire? The Professor?

The sophisticated, urbane, mastermind. The man with the plan.

He looked a beaten man.

I have spent the last week thinking of the good times. Of the first double, of Bergkamp, Henry, of Vieira and the Invincibles. Of the fast football, a team playing off the cuff.

Arsène deserves respect and lots of it but not immunity.

We convince ourselves every time that the players leave for the money and I’m sure that’s true but they also leave for success.

If you deny that you are deluded.

In recent summers Wenger has failed to convince stars to stay with a salary budget that was big enough to keep them.

Meanwhile millions are wasted on the salaries of players that are not good enough for this club.

Are the Board really offering Wenger a budget of £50m for transfers?

In my opinion, No

Is Wenger told he has to break even in the transfer market?

Well the proof of the last 7 summers tells you that is the policy. We break even on transfers, that isn’t coincidence.

So let me ask this, if Arsène came out tomorrow and said “the board are withholding funds from me” who would you back?

I wouldn’t trust our board with a pound in a phone box. I would trust Arsène.

Would I trust them to pick a successor? No

I don’t like 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 and the use of it coincides with the start of our demise. It coincides with a loss of direction, a loss of nerve.

Play 4-4-2, and for god sake play Walcott up front before you lose yet another one you stubborn old fool.

If you had  told me 7 years ago that I would be watching a bunch of overpaid minatures playing 4-3-3 with thousands of empty seats and a club run by Americans I would have laughed. I’m not laughing now.

I don’t claim to understand tactics but I understand this.

If you lose your sharpness, if you lose your edge in any sport then your are finished.

Play your system, recover your style, have a go Arsène, have a go.

If this is it, if this is how you go out, then you’re not the man I thought you were.

“We could have made a 0-0.”

Really, Is that all you’ve got?

Is that where we are now?

We could have made a 0-0 with Swansea.

Get some pace, take “le handbrake” off, play your way and be true to your beliefs.

How many times, have we heard “we had the handbrake on”. It’s your car Arsène, your handbrake.

Are you going down with a whimper?

Have you lost your nerve?

Have you gone soft?

If this was a fight then this is the moment with the sponge in the corner. The trainer telling you to step up, throw some punches and move your feet. This would be that moment.

I’m not suggesting we have a team of champions but they are good enough to beat Sunderland, Norwich, Fulham and Swansea. We got 2 points.

Either they aren’t trying or they have lost faith in what you are saying.

Stop talking about the spirit of team. Stop telling us the world is against us. The whole club has a complex.

I still think you can win the last round but if you can’t dodge the punches Arsène, maybe it’s time to get out of the ring.

Written by Arsenalista

Swansea were very good, Arsenal were very poor. Why?

GiE – who was at the game – made this fine comment yesterday after the game………………..

Several times in the first half with the ball at centre backs feet I looked up to see a high Swansea line and Theo one on one with the left back. This is where you would normally see a player of Theo’s pace point to the space and start running. The statuesque nature of some of our players up front today was something I have seldom seen throughout Wenger’s reign.

Oh and finally what most impressed me with Swansea today the unselfish runs of their midfielders and attackers, runs they made willingly despite not being likely to be played in, it’s that movement that creates space for others.

In short the teamwork that we displayed at Anfield has disappeared, and the question that has to be asked is why? Same manager, pretty much same players, but for some reason the workrate has dropped…. fatigue I certainly hope not they are paid a lot of money to be match fit…..so it’s mental, confidence or desire. My fear is its the latter the only Arsenal voices in the dressing room are too young to be listened to.

Discuss …………….

How do you feel Arsenal – the business model – will cope with non-qualification to the Champions League if we fail to get into the top four?

MickyDidIt89 put this comment out there this morning …………….

Almost to a Man, and Woman, we will all continue to attend games whenever possible, irrespective of performance. Both GiE and Chas have made this point very well, in respective of meeting up with Mates and watching our beloved team and so on. On the whole, we have also lived through a wonderful period, as well as attending throughout darker days.

However, the 60,000 Emirates Project relies heavily on Corporate as well as attracting/keeping the new breed of more fickle fans, and to that end, I see real problems looming from the point of view of the business model.

I may well be wrong, but it is my belief that CL football is very important to sustain what is, somewhat tragically, a business.

The club has been holding onto a sum of money for some time that would be used for running costs should we fail to qualify for the Champions League, if that becomes a necessity then the funds available for players will be reduced. The new sponsorship/tv money will just get dropped into the hole created by no Champions Lge football.

Has the club mismanaged this ‘rainy day’ fund?

Kelsey has made some good comments recently which were echoed on Saturday Supplement ……….

I just watched Sunday Supplement and nearly word for word they are saying what I have been on for months. We are a team of individuals not a unit. The few big name players that are left will be having their doubts and will maybe also move on.
The board believe qualifying for CL is basically a trophy.

AW panicked last season and to an extent this and bought in the main sub standard players realising project youth had failed.

The question for me is if there is money available,will Wenger not spend it or is he under instructions to be over frugal?

Danishgooner was very kind to put up some player ratings from yesterdays game which are always good for some discussion.

Player ratings

Chezzer 9.Absolutely kept us in the game with amazing saves.

Per 7.Solid as ever,had a lot of firefighting to do because Vermaelen went missing several times.

Vermaelen 3.His promising start to his is Arsenal career is well and truly over,pulled out of position to easily and generally all over the place.

Carl J 4.Completely out of his debt today,tried hard and that is a positive but simply isnt very good at the moment.

Gibbs 3. Woefull in defending,absolutely atrocious and going forward not much better.

Arteta 6. Did ok but not one of his best games,lost a lot of midfield battles.

Santi 8. The one intelligent player in attack,drove us on and tried his hardest but his colleagues are not on the same wavelength.

Walcott 3. When will Wenger realize that he is not a Winger,keeping playing him in a position he doesnt do well in isnt exactly doing him any good.

Podolski 2. The games biggest disappointment, looked tired and ragged,welcome to the PL.

 Gervihno 3 Simply not suited to the Pl,to skinny and cant beat his opponent,atrocious decision making.

Jacky boy 5. Always tries but even he had a stinker and couldnt stamp his autorithy on the game.

Lots to chew over there, however you feel about yesterdays game or the way the club is going or whether you  think the manager has lost his players please don’t take your frustrations out on other bloggers if they don’t share your opinion.

A match report talking about a win would have been much more fun ………

peachesgooner