Arsenal are in a fair position looking at their stats. by KM
Hello everyone. So this is another season that painfully slowly but surely Arsenal are heading back for the usual fourth spot. And as every Arsenal fan, although little I had some hope, despite deep inside me knowing that it will hardly happen, I thought the rest were so bad, we’d win at our own game, but no.
We lack a number of important qualities that a team becoming champions needs. One is leadership. Name one person on that team that’s a true leader? Ozil, Sanchez, Cech? Koscielny? It was an embarrassment watching us on Sunday.
The moment a team fails to lose by themselves playing against us, we crumble. Since the Liverpool game, we played numerous games, where we produced the same bad performances over and over again, but our position close to the top was an easy excuse.
This brings out the lack of character. We’ve turned around only two games this season! The two against Leicester ironically! But even so, we just seem incapable of playing once any sort of pressure comes on. When we concede we completely abandon play and hope things will go our way out of nothing.
The teams that won the title under Wenger all had leaders! But Wenger inherited them! The teams he assembled by himself have won two fa cups in 10 years! We lack desire and hunger, key qualities if you want to win it. We have the worst attack of the top 4 clubs. We can’t score, can’t turn around games, don’t have a championship mentality. You can’t expect to win the title, without all those qualities.
It’s baffling when you think, we have 2 world cup winners, a Champions league winner and people who won the FA cup and the Community shield two seasons in a row, that all those qualities are missing. And last but most importantly the manager who is completely exposed. Everybody knows how to beat him.
He is immortal. He’ll be here for another 10 years, because there is no power that will take him down. That’s the reality. Change starts with him. Because even if we continue to be a club that doesn’t spend, we might at least bring in some adequate tactics and a new style of play, because this one clearly doesn’t work.
Who might take it? Brendan Rodgers, Roberto Mancini or someone else? Mourinho and Diego Simeone are the other big names left. Which one of those would you take? I’d take any of the latter two. We need to roughen up. But it won’t happen. Wenger would not allow it. If he ever leaves, he’ll do it Fergie like and probably appoint a pal of his.
This will be really sad. We’ll hire another yes man, but you know what, whoever it is I’m ok, I just want change. Wenger bought only ONE player in the summer! If Leicester or Tottenham win the title, he simply has to be sacked. But that’s what logic says! At Arsenal we don’t do things by logic, we do them by money.
Wenger is a millionaire who brings money to a billionaire. That’s all at the expense of the fans, and Wenger and the board don’t event have a problem to come out and say it in a press conference. Sadly though it doesn’t look like anything will be different next year.
Konstantin
I will always remember fergis words. He was that kind of man who said that the manager alone is the most important figure in the team. No player and no one else beside the manager should be questioned in football matters.
We have a manager who is all tllk and no action.You just need to listen to wenger how he preach his philosphy and storys. You must believe, spirit, fight, cohesion, big titts dont lie, boner, all emty meaningless words.
We are as strong as our weakest link. We have many weak links for example. Merti, strikers and cm role in Ramsey. ( Santi is fine).
According to Fergi the strongest link in the team has to be the manager, and you all know that Wenger is just a fraud. A luckster who cant even compete in a time where the big boys are at sleep. If not for Arsenal i salute l. city and spurs the title. yes even f. spurs bec i dont give a sh….t about the local rivality bec it does not concerne me at all. what i see is a team who in quality is weaker then us, but in mentality and football, much better. 3 loses till now, big archievemnt.
arsenal should be ashamed.
Good Article.
Arsenal under Wenger especially for past 11 years always had few missing links, and that is why we never won EPL, and forget about UCL, which teams come to Emirates and beat us easily (Olympiakos !!!).
Wenger transfer policy is to rely on youth development and as such he maintained that no need to go all out and buy players at high price. His view of creating and developing a team not buying a team we all heard.
So, let’s see what he did as far as Youth Development, the ones that became stars in our team, not the ones like Benik Afobe sold to a decent price. We have none to offer.
Now look at young stars, and the ones to be stars in EPL by others.
Liverpool – Sterling, Ibe.
Man City – Inehacho,
MU – Marcus Rashford, Botroyd Jackso, Mc Nair, Linegard, >>>>>
Spurs – Deli Alli, Dier, Harry Kane
Everton – Barkley, John Stone,.
Southampton – Forget about names, last year they have sold more than 100 MIL to other team and still have a decent team for this season.
Watford – Idalgo
Leicester City – Maharez, Vardy.
Arsenal
Benik Afobe Sold before reach his potential
Iwobi, Hardly have any game time
Campbell, after few years on loan, still Flamini is better than him (he shoots the leg of players than shoot the ball !!!).
Jeff Reini Adelaide – was supposed to be a future star, he playing times are in minutes not in hour.
The list goes on and on, and can we safely say that Arsenal under Wenger is the destroyer of young talents than producing talents.
You do the judgment and tell me I am wrong.
Our style of play is the worst i’ve ever seen a team adopt!
I Look at Leicester and the spuds and i have no doubt why they are performing superbly…….They instill fear into their opposition by pressing and hitting em hard…..with alot of shot and crosses outside the box- Every keeper’s nightmare…. Every defender’s headache
But ours is one so boring and brings conjunctivitis to every eye…..nobody dreads going into an encounter against us…. Team Arsenal are like a bunch of destitutes without parental care
and make no mistake, our match against the spuds won’t be a walk in the park…..it’s a matter of urgency!
Every EPL club, bar Leicester has had a very tumultous season. City, Chelsea, United, and others who have spent much more than Arsenal, are lying beneath us. Does this somehow justify our lack of character and consistency? To a small extent yes it does. Last years winners by a mile are beneath mid table. That being said, and after watching every Arsenal game, it actually is no excuse. It would be different if we saw fight and passion from our players each and every game, but that is not so. From what I have witnessed lately, is almost as if at the start of the season we were over performing, and now it’s almost like the real Arsenal has been exposed – no backbone and lost the instinct to get goals.
We were undone by kids on Sunday, KIDS. Half the time we didn’t even look enthusiastic. On the day, our players were solely to blame. A few were good, but the rest of our team, just pathetic, couldn’t even get the basics right. Wenger has almost complete control over what happens regarding our first team, he chooses who to buy, squad selection, promotion etc etc. Is it really Giroud’s and Walcott’s fault that their is a goal drought? Yes and no. Yes because according to stats we are creating chances. No because they are NOT world class and are only performing best they can. If Arsenal want to capitalize on playmakers like Ozil, Cazorla, Ramsey etc we need to have better strikers. I am TIRED of seeing our guys hit the keeper at point blank range, or completely missing the target. I am tired of seeing our strikers get the ball, either not being able to run with for a few steps (Giroud) before being tackled or losing control of it (Ox and Walcott).
Arsenal will never look dangerous enough to win the EPL, nevermind the CL with certain mediocre players in our squad and you all know who I’m talking about. As far as I’m concerned a world class player is a player who puts in a decent shift every game and who gets results, backed up by stats. I’d say Cech, Monreal, Bellerin, Koss, Coquelin, Sanchez and Ozil are really our only players who fit the bill, and maybe Giroud as a sub. The rest of them (as proven over the years) are simply just not consistent enough.
You’re making an excellent point, which is that for the most part it’s PLAYERS themselves who are to be blamed, not the manager. He put up a solid starting XI against ManU, and they completely bottled it. As far as I’m concerned, only Cech and Ozil are earning their wages, and the rest are just happy to collect their paychecks. Utterly disgusting, if you ask me.
why are you only choose what you only want? PLAYERS. I saw Big Gun blaming Wenger as well, but u didn’t see that part. Wenger is the big fish, the team he assembled are all bunch of losers except the few that BigGun just mentioned.
All the big teams are crap this year, that includes us as we have bottled it… Again! Chelsea, Utd, Liv, City and Arsenal are the big guns of the Prem, not anymore with these tv deals coming into play and not one of the teams above winning the league this season, 3 maybe not even in the top 4!
We all knew we had a golden chance this year but Wenger decided to not invest of a DM and ST in the summer to near complete the team to compete across all competitions. He is the only one at fault for the injuries constantly over the years and we have lost our way completely imo. We should be well clear at the top after all the chances we have blown, its quite ridiculous that hes still at Arsenal, we have read this script over and over again!
Fans want there say, do something about it. Stan and Wenger OUT asap, no harm in getting the wheels in motion for a summer exit for both of them. Usmanov takes over is the only option if we want someone ambitious who wants Arsenal FC to win trophies and be the best! Arrange a protest for Swansea game against the Both, seasons already derailed!
That money in the bank along with money sales/wages of Wenger, Gazidaz, Theo, Gibbs, Debuchy, Arteta, Flamini, Per, Rosicky, Giroud and maybe Ox we could replace with some WC talent among our best players of Cech, Bellerin, Koss, Nacho, Coq, Ozil, Santi, Welbz, Campbell, Alexis. We need a LB, RB, CB, DM, RW & ST and Manager who i dont think will need 8-9m per year in wages.
LB;
Young LB with big potential to challenge Nacho and to eventually take his spot. Hes not getting any younger and Gibbs isnt getting any better.
MY OPTION = Gaya (Valencia), unreal talent.
RB;
Same again to Challenge Hector to keep him on his toes. Jenko there but imo hes a squad player not a serious one to take that RB.
MY OPTION = Serge Aurier, can play CB also.
DM;
Cover and Competition for Coq and to play along side in big away days or a natural defending box – box player, Sorry Elneny ul be good cover for the both! MY OPTION = Granit Xhaka, Beast!
RW;
We dont really have anything and a WC talent with Campbell understudy for him and Alexis. Want to go all out along with a ST.
MY OPTION = Antoinne Greizzman
ST;
Welbz will be cover and challenging whoever is brought in but has to be a big player who bangs them in with no hesitation.
MY OPTION = Pierre Aubameyang
This will never happen but we need to be looking at these sort of signings and getting rid of all the deadwood at the club
I’d put in a decent bid for Aurier since his recent problems at PSG. Wasn’t he caught on camera saying he was going to join Arsenal a couple of seasons ago?
Many ppl still upset at the manu loss, fair enough. Dont know how many times ppl will say this , with wenger we wont win anything major trophies. Ive been saying this for the past 10 years and still i am not yet been proved wrong. Lost hope for arsenal under wenger long time ago so, i dont even feel sad/frustrated anymore ;p
P-s Walcott is one of the most overated english player in the world. He is a league one player. Thats why no one wants to buy him or even bid for him. He cant dribble, when needed , cant cross . Shame he gets 140k .Deluted fans still thinks he would deliver or have still some high hopes perhaps , he got pace this and that etc etc , When did he ever use his pace to beat defenders one on one for the past 7 years or let alone scored by running away dribbling pass them…. ???
Fighting back is too much to ask……….we can’t even cause a Fight and take it to em!
TOO MUCH OF EVERYTHING IS BAD….even good things; i have said this on here before and am repeating it; players, tactics, injuries etc are just a small part of our problem at AFC, the biggest problem is Arsene Wenger and the pressure free comfort zone he operates from; he is living off the great great things he had done for the club in the past, and that includes building us a fantastic new stadium and keeping us relevant with little or no money; this great feats afforded him the title of ”he who cannot be questioned or sacked” and therein lies all our problems…there is just no pressure on him to get out of that comfort zone, he lost his edge, his hunger, his passion for winning ANY WHICH WAY, now its about winning in a certain way, even if the whole world and their dogs knows how to negate that ”’way”.it is also this lack of pressure to produce results that allows him to take and keep taking ridiculous risks, like banking in ordinary players like Flamini and hoping they can deliver, i mean a chicken is always going to be a chicken, it can fly as high as chickens can but expecting it to reach the heights of eagles is madness..his position of utter power is also why he will keep faith with players who are either not good enough or are just injury prone, i mean can anybody see the kind of things that happens at AFC seasons after seasons after seasons happening in any other top clubs, where the managers knows their jobs and longevity depends on results? Will Mourhino keep an injury prone Diaby for going on to 5 years, will Fergie, even with his great success at Man U keep Wilshire knowing his injury history will ultimately cost the team a spot?…Wenger’s clout and power is also the reasons why the players who are average at best are getting ridiculous amount of money weekly just as long as they manager believes in them…..i can go on and on, but look at all our problems and you will see that Wenger is the ultimate decision makers tht leads to all the problems, just look
very sad reading , but very honest words indeed. at least more and more people are copping onto the fact that we have a fraud as our manager for the past ten years or so .a fraud and a very lucky manager is exactly what wenger is . even sadder is the fact that he cannot , and , will not, be removed from his position regardless of how bad the team perform . many of you on here are responsible for almost sainting this fraud , even to this day there are some on here asking for more time for him.you call him “le prof”and you know not what that means . stop calling him that , he is not a professor , unless you count failure as his greatest achivement !.i have totally given up on our team until such time as this old fraud is removed from our club , one way , or , the other .the time has come to stop buying kids such as the next vierra and so on . we want results today , not in ten years time .you wenger lovers are entitled to your opinions in the same way as i am entitled to mine ,at what cost is this love affair that you guys have with this man costing our once great and proud club . time to count the cost me thinks .
I stopped reading after this: “The teams that won the title under Wenger all had leaders! But Wenger inherited them!” – Idiot, do your research at least once. The only player that Wenger “inherited” as you put it, was Bergkamp. Okay, I take it back. There were also a couple of defenders, like Adams, and Lee Dixon. There was also Seaman, and Ian Wright. But ALL of those guys were over the age of 30 already, and on a decline. All the other players, such as Henry, Vieira, and so on and so forth were brought in by Wenger. We all know you have a hard on for our manager, but give him some credit too. He may have lost a touch/step over the years, but he still a great manager with a great pedigree, and you’re a complete douche for trying to take that away from him.
@Vlad
Much Respect Gooner…
great manager with a great pedigree? who Wenger? when was the last year he was that?? He is a fraud for 10 years whether you like it or not, a very huge one, eating 8m per year and buy cheap. He should go, those years are really gone, that was the past and so is he
Another idiot who knows nothing about our club, and our manager. In those 10 years that you speak of Wenger performed miracles. Yes, MIRACLES. When you sell your best players years in and years out (and to your main rivals sometimes), and operating on a shoe string budget, what he’s done is a HUGE accomplishment. We take our CL appearances every season for granted, but other teams would kill for it. The very first year that we didn’t sell anyone, and had some money to buy more players, he brought in Ozil, and what do you know, we won an FA Cup. Second year, and it’s Sanchez. Another FA Cup trophy. We’re still in 3rd place, and still in the title race this year, but Nooooo… there’s no pleasing in idiots like Konstantin, and yourself. So why don’t you do us all a favor, and crawl back where you came from. You clearly know nothing about managing a football club, and probably get all your opinions by playing FIFA and watching YouTube videos. Leave the “semantics” to people who know this stuff… like Wenger, for example.
@Vlad
I am with you man….AW may have grown too penny pinching and too loyal to his players for my liking in recent times, but I took exceptions with comments such as he is a fraud etc etc….Over the course of his career at AFC, for me only 3 or 4 managers who had clearly performed a better job than him if you take everything including resources available into account, and they are Alex Ferguson, Pep, Simone….Pep built the Barca sides of today and continue to win titles at BM…Simone continues to overachieve in every seasons at AM, and Alex, you just have to look at his track record and admit they are better than AW…Maureen would have made the list if I excluded this season, but for the simple reason AW is on record as having never let AFC performed as bad as the Chelsea side this season, Moureen would have to be excluded (plus he flop in his last season at RM too)….For me, AW has been a model of consistency in his AFC career, in that he managed to produce a competitive side year in year out even when his resources were limited for a quite extended perod of times….If he is a player, he’s like what Ozil or Monreal has been for us this season, consistently producing competitive performance in every game….For that I would always regard him as a top quality performer even if he has not win the big one in the last 10 years….(Pep, Simone, Alex would equivalent to Messi, Suarez, Ronaldo)…
For me, my only regret this season is that he didn’t bring in another DM to complement Coq and decided that two aging players, Arteta and Flamini would be sufficient as alternate…Because I believe many good DM/HM were available for bids in the summer of last year..
In the striking department, AW was going for Benzema but that did not pan out….And looking back around then only Falcao (glad Maureen took him) , Jackson Martinez and Lacazzettes were the only known serious options available for bids then…and I am glad we didn’t took them…. so no hard feelings at least from me for that position.. despite our current woeful performance in front of goals….
As I wrote this I think or I know I am going to get a lot of thumbs down from you guys given the general mood of AFC fans after the MU defeat…Its ok guys …..LOL bring it on …Coyg
Atleast the last few seasons we played good entertaining football..Cant say the same thing about this season..This season our football has been so poor…pass pass side pass back pass hoof the ball upfront lose posession gain posession …rinse ..repeat..
It’s sad reading most of these posts. The fact that they come from fans/supporters is what makes it all the more saddening…
Just about every post after the ManU loss has been of total negativity. Utter degradation of the team as a whole. It does say a lot about what you people expect from your team. “Total Perfection on an unrealistic scale”…
Why even bother following/supporting AFC if the “hatred” is so deeply embedded that it presents itself in this manner?
I am 100% sure, that “NONE” of you have such unrealistic expectations in any other area of your “REAL” lives. But hey, Fantasy is Reality, for some…
being positive or negative wont affect team at all, but will affect us fans, if someone is passionate about club of course he will be negative, he is hurth, we bleed while players and managers get their pockets bigger and bigger, your positive atitude wont change that, it will change how you feel.
@AlmiR
I get where you’re coming from. But even when we win there’s still a boatload of negativity spewed out from many of the people on here.
There are more negative posts after a loss or draw, then there are positive posts after a win. What type of “passion” is that?
NY_Gunner I am one who still supports Wenger as I believe in the last two-three years, believe it or not Arsenal have become a better club and we have some silverware to prove it. What I will point out and it is blatantly obvious to everyone including you, is that we still have weaknesses in our team which Wenger has failed to address. The likes of Walcott, Chamberalin, Wilshere etc etc have been around for almost a decade but are still nowhere near anything we actually need to be a true European threat. Giroud is average/good but not WORLD CLASS. The same applies to Ramsey. There are a few players who are over the hill that Wenger still is relying on in crucial games. Would a player like Flamini even make it into Barca/Madrid/Bayern second team? Probably not!
Yes, to expect our players to be flawless each and every game is unrealistic, but with the amount of money and resources Arsenal have at their disposal, including a manager of Wenger’s experience, we should be expecting to see more consistency from our players. I mean to not be able to put 2 passes together against a young United team is just mind numbing. I think it is quite clear that what we have is good, but not nearly as good as it can be! Just imagine 2 or 3 more world class players on the level of Ozil, Sanchez, Cech…it would take us to the next level which is where Arsenal should be.
All I wish is that Wenger would realize this, stop being so damn sentimental to certain players and just bring in the calibre type players we need. Every player has their price. I’m not talking spending willy nilly like United, but Arsenal have enough to draw in top players and Wenger is one of these drawcards for sure.
@Big Gun
I agree with you. And am quite disappointed with AW’s blatant favoritism of out of form players, as well as his snubbing of certain in form players.
Another thing, I feel that he has his eye on a few certain players, which are unattainable at the moment, but is making due with the payers he has, hoping to secure that top 4 finish until the time comes when he can get his “dream team” together.
I’m not even going to get into what the board or majority shareholder wants from the club. But if it was as everybody thinks, to just earn money, then they would have went out and spent in order to secure more silverware, which in itself brings more money into the club…IJS
No Leader, No Character,No Fight Back. This has been Arsenal for a number of years under
Mr Wenger and the Board. I listen to Wenger after the Man Utd defeat he came out with the ssame old crap. Then the Arsenal Board leak a few lies ARSENAL SET TO SPEND 75m this summer we are tracking this player and that player and if you believe this you really have it bad. If Arsenal are to progress there has to be a clean out starting at the Top. Start with the Board the Manager then the underachieving Players.Only then will Arsenal take their place at the top table of Great Club’s.
So it boils down to this….this year, all big clubs are not doing well so it was our big chance to win the PL and AW wasted it….!!!
Its so sad that we became so lo to the degree we wait other to become lower than us so we win the PL.
We have one of two options : 1- accept current facts and dont ask more than the current manager/players can provide and make peace with yourselves.
2- dont do number 1 and keep posting your dreams that will not change a thing in reality.
WHEN SOmeone post an article I believe illustrative facts should be straight at it, unambiguous,not misleading. It is a fact Vieira and Henry were leader who were created in Wenger teams, he ddnt inherit them!!! PLS don’t sensationalise half-fact story, like you are new gen fan, write wt enough of complete fact and truth you know only.