Arsenal fans should listen to Pulis on Wenger

Tony Pulis would, I am sure, have been delighted to add to the growing pressure on Arsene Wenger by beating Arsenal on Thursday night, but his West Brom side were well beaten on the night and the combative boss was clearly not happy.

He has no reason to want to offer the Frenchman any help and in fact the pair have clashed plenty of times in the past, most notably when Pulis was in charge of our Premier League rivals Stoke City. The two certainly have very different management styles and the football produced by their respective teams is poles apart.

That is why I think it is worth listening to anything positive the West Brom boss has to say about Wenger and it was interesting to read on Sky Sports ahead of Thursday’s game what Pulis thought of the failure of Arsenal’s challenge for the Premier League title this season.

Just as I have written in the past, he reckons that the Gunners and Wenger have had terrible luck on the injury front and he clearly thinks that any club would struggle in the absence of big players like Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sanchez, Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck.

He said, “Arsenal can beat any team in Europe on their day. And I think Arsene has been incredibly unlucky with injuries this season. He has missed big players at important times.

“Once all those players are fit, he has got a strong enough squad to win this league. He will be disappointed with the inconsistency but all the other clubs will be saying the same thing, apart from Leicester and Tottenham.”

Is it really a coincidence that the two clubs above us have been blessed with hardly any injury problems? Or that last season’s winners Chelsea were able to name the same starting XI almost every week? Yes there are genuine concerns about Wenger and Arsenal but can we not accept that bad luck has also played a big part in our problems?

16 Comments

  1. No denying the fact that every team which wins the league is always way down on the injury chart. Santi Cazorla of all players out for the entire season basically, that was a real kick in the nether region. Just when we thought we’d found our best combo, and Coquelin the season before this one. The spine, we always hear how important it is, not that we needed telling. Alexis was in the mood also, he looked really sharp and became a target for every opposite number. It plays a part all right, lei and tott are jammy little sods, all it would have taken is two big casualties similar to the two from this season mentioned in the above.

    1. you dont think some of our injuries may, just may down the years have been down to the way there being trained…medical staff has improved .

      some cant be helped of course

      i believe a well respected dutch fitness coach said our methods were archaic

      1. I believe the two names I mentioned was just god awful luck. Some players I think are a little prone, namely the speed merchants. Ramsey, I think it’s because he gets played even when he’s showing signs of danger. If there was something terribly wrong with our methods I think Ozil would be one of the most unlucky one’s.

        I don’t remember the Dutch fella but I remember a lad over in Wales speak about us. He was talking about it after Wenger said Wales should not have played Ramsey and Bale for two friendlies, one or both of them pulled up then a while later he said it. This dude had little no experience of being near a quality football club, and knew even less on Arsenal.

    2. And i also believe that a well organized manager can pull stunts
      and rescue a team struggling to avoid relegation e.g Rafa benitez and Big sam….

      Same applies to a Team struggling to be Top of the League….a good manager can as well work wonders e.g Ranieri and pochettino

      Wenger is average at best!….

      1. Dude, are you high, under 15, or just stupid? Compare Ranieri/Pocchetino CVs to Wenger’s. You have about 2-6 negative comments aimed at Wenger in every article & never anything constructive to say.

    3. We don’t need pulis’ advice

      Injuries are no Longer a valid excuse

      wenger’s inability and negligence has been what’s costing us for seasons

      Everybody knows Wenger is only punching above his weight!

  2. We will probably finish strong and get a few fans’ hopes up about next season…..then all our players will be fit and we won’t be able to find any players that will improve our squad because wilshere and santi will be like new signings….fast forward 7 months and we will be exactly where we are right now….

    1. I don’t understand how fans are not seeing the patterns ?? Cazorla’s injury was expected by me and many other fans, he played for an entire year with no back-up which is why everyone was calling for the manager to spend on another midfielder with his qualities. Sanchez didn’t have a vacation for a full year either so his injury was also expected, injuries in Arsenal are so common that saying we’re unlucky is no longer an excuse. If you know you have bad luck with injuries you address the issue by either :

      1)changing the training methods
      or
      2)bringing in back-up players with QUALITY

      In our case we should have done the second option since our squad is full of deadwood and injury prone players

    1. hahaha im a jinx
      unlucky liverpool.

      ok whos next…aha united.

      united are looking good..there smashin everyon….there finishin strong

  3. The simple reason for arsenal faltering for years is the fact that arsenal squad is not good enough to compete for the epl title and the Champions league. Our season always seem to fade away between February and March. Then we get kicked out of Champions league pick up lots of injuries and start losing a grip on challenging for the title. Over the years arsenal making top four was just a money making ploy with no real intent on winning the trophy and thereby messing up our epl title challenge. All said i think Arsenal will finish second in front of the spuds. HOPEFULLY.

  4. Haven’t watched an arsenal game in ages and i see still same old story. Same old manager and same old striker up front (Giroud). This team isn’t going anywhere, they will be stagnant for many years to come because trust me on this, wenger will sign another 3 year extension. If he was going they would’ve secured klopp or pep.

  5. In as much as injuries to some top Gunners mid-season or so might be responsible for the poor showing by Arsenal in the 2 months of February – March. Arsenal title charge failure has become an annual ritual. Which only God knows when it will abate.

    The Boss refusal to sign at least 2 top quality outfield players in the summer as option & cover for known injured Danny Welbeck & Jack Wilshere has turn round to bite us as Arsenal lost ground in their League campaign during those 2 months the services of Welbeck & Wilshere might have added 10 points to our title charge.

  6. as soon as the season ends , we need to have a clear direction who will be the next manager ( would love Sampaoli more than Simeone ” similar high intensity pressing and tempo but also good football” and get the transfers needed before july ends so they can go on tour and adapt before the new season starts. Alexis and Ospina will be given extended holidays due to Copa america and Ozil from the Europe cup too. Go and GeT HULK ( wc st 35 MILLIONS ), XAKHA, RENATO SANCHES or CARVALHO ( 25 MILLIONS ) and HUMMELS ( 20 MILLIONS ) = 80 millions then sell the deadwoods and recover at least 20 millions. ..The board needs to act as soon as posible..NO CHANCES FOR EXCUSES THERE IS NO SPECIAL ONES OUT THERE. NO MORE demise , we are the arsenal.GIVE US OUR GLORY TIMES BACK AND PRIDE.

    1. vinie2000: this aggressive attitude you are proposing is not the kroenke/wenger way.
      wont happen sadly.
      we’re not a “win at all costs” club. we’re a “win within reasonable costs” club with measured , passionless response.

  7. Most managers stick up for each other. It’s like silent code of honor.

    Injuries have little to do with out failure to impress this season. Mental weakness evidenced by the inability to perform consistently, by repeating the same mistakes defensively (Wenger called this naivety), failure to fight for 90 minutes, that has been our undoing. We dropped many points to teams who had no business beating usor taking points from us or eliminating us from the FA cup, we dropped points from winning positions, we dropped points with (on paper) strong squads.

    It’s time to stop hiding behind injuries. How many injuries did we have for the two league games against West Ham? More recently, how many injuries did we have against Palace?

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