The key questions and answers of an Arsenal fan by OA
This season has been the year of contrasts. At one point there is a result that have us Arsenal fans, jumping with joy, and then there is a disappointing result. The league started off as a poor campaign but now we have found our feet, standing in second place, just behind Man City on goal difference. In comparison, the qualifying process for the Champions league has been difficult to say the least. As a result of the differences between domestic form and European form, where do the Arsenal go from here? In this blog, I will be answering the key questions.
What to do next in the Champions league?
The problem about our position within the Champions league is that we are playing Zagreb, before Olympiakos. This means that if we beat Zagreb, we will finish at least in third place, meaning that we get Europa league football as a minimum. Olympiakos just need to nick one point off Bayern in the next game of the group stages and then Arsenal simply can’t finish in second place to qualify. However, even if Bayern beat Olympiakos, Arsenal will have to go to Greece and win against Olympiakos by two goals, which is insanely difficult to do. I’m sure that any Arsenal fan’s biggest nightmare would be playing on a Thursday night in the Europa League, so the question is whether Arsenal should push for the highly unlikely chance of qualifying or if they should play the youngsters and lose the remaining two games so that Arsenal don’t get Europa league football. Personally, I would like to push for a Champions league spot. We have the players to go to Olympiakos and get a result which will keep us in the pool of Europe’s elite. Of course, this could prove costly and mean we play in the Europa League but we have the quality with the likes of Cazorla, Sanchez and Ozil to get through. However, it will be a necessity to go straight out of the Europa League, if we go into that competition, if we want any chance of winning the League!
Is it the end of Wenger?
As an Arsenal fan through and through, the club wouldn’t feel the same without Arsene. What he has done for the club, the trophies he has won, the consistency of top four every season and getting through the group into the last 16 of the Champions League is what we love about Wenger. This year it has been made clear that winning the Premier League is the priority of the season. If we do win the League it will be a huge achievement for Wenger and the club, one in which fans would love Wenger to stay on as manager – or walk out of the club on a high. However, under Wenger, we are so used to qualifying from our Champions league group and if it doesn’t happen this year, does that destroy the philosophy and consistency of Wenger? This is what Wenger sets out to do and if he fails, than maybe it’s time for him to walk out, or is it signalling the end of his reign? My personal view on the situation is that we will put in a solid domestic performance this year, despite not winning the league. Wenger has to do this before he leaves and I believe that he will do it next season. If he doesn’t, then maybe it’s time to go, but if the title is achieved, then keeping faith in Wenger is what is necessary. Going out of the Champions League could be flipped from a negative to a positive, and instead of it ending Wenger, it could be what proves Wenger to be the top manager for the job.
Can we win the League?
This is arguably our strongest squad in years and this is the year where a lot of Arsenal fans believe that the league is in our grasp, for the first time in years we can win the trophy we have wanted for so long. However, our starting XI may be solid but our squad isn’t in my opinion. With injuries and no Koscielny or Bellerin in the team, you saw what Bayern did to us. There was no-one on the bench who could change a game around for us – whether we are winning or losing. If we are to win the league, there needs to be some winter signings to improve our squad in a way in which we can be the best team in England over 38 games. One transfer window doesn’t do the job for us and therefore we also need the summer transfer window to build the ‘complete’ squad. I believe that we will do this in addition to our current team, and I therefore believe that this year may not be our year, but next year we can certainly win the league with a few world class reinforcements added to the team.
Oliver
We will probably either finish 2nd or 3rd in the grup and if it happens to be the latter we may as well look at europa league as a realistic chance of winning a title. Also winning Europa league would give us the chance of playing ucl winners in super cup!! Another chance of a title.
As for the title, we are definitely in for it but the injuries have started to roll in with many of them only coming back after Christmas. Fingers crossed!
Europa League is not a walk in the park either. Besides, who knows the winner two seasons ago? Because I wasn’t sure it was Sevilla. Had to look to confirm. We need a healthy squad. We need Welbz back, and Rozza. And Ospina. That if we want to mount a challenge.
If we go through to Europa league then that’s just another competition that we want to win!
What to do next in the Champions league?
I don’t know, maybe try to win both matches by a good margin ….
Is it the end of Wenger?
I hope not, because we are not even halfway into the season … I believe he is not the one to take us further neither his transfer policy nor his tactics are of our favor … He should leave at the end of this season no matter what happen …
Can we win the League?
Ask me this question at the start of the season and I would say “no chance” given the lack of depth and the lack of quality in one position (striker) …. But now, looking at the circumstances with chelsea suffering and UTD zigzagging, I say “you never know”
Wenger won’t build the ‘complete’ squad, because he is obsessed with getting value from his squad, even if it comes at the expense of titles and credibility.
Obviously he is still a top manager, but like any relationship, not many get past the 15 year mark with complete satisfaction from both sides, so it is arguably time he went to give the team a new start.
The main thing keeping him there is fear of change from both the board and fans..
We would rock the Europa League and possibly run away with the TitLe
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Oh! Wait a sec….
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How bout Borussia dortmund?
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L()L
Personally…
CL – of course we go out to win the remaining games. Qualification is not in our hands at present but if Bayern get a result against Olymipacos then it absolutely will be. Olymipacos have a +4 gd versus us, if Bayern win 2-0 and we beat Dynamo by the same, it’s al square going into the head to head with olympiacos.
Wenger – far from finished. I am amazed at the comments that have suddenly appeared again on the back of the Bayern match. We are joint top, we have players who will return post the break and we are getting much better results – beating Bayern at the Emirates, demolishing Utd etc. That aside look at the others…Liverpool, Chelsea, even Utd. Change isn’t always good. I’m pleased with our performance this year (first two Cl and first pl matches aside) and we’re on a five match winning run at present in the pl. The weeks ahead look promising to consolidate our position at the top.
Pl – yes the priority and I think this season we have every chance. Sure we have good and bad periods but so does every team. This season we have more flexibility and tactically versatility and a better team work ethic. I fully expect that we will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.
I really don’t know what all the fuss is about. Even if we had beaten bayern the likeliness was that we would still need to go to olympiakos and win as a draw would not have been enough, as results against each other come first. We would still have had to beat Zagreb and rely on Munich beating olympiakos. So the only difference is we have to go there and win by 2 goals instead of 1.
We can qualify for champions league next round then we might be out from the competition in the second round or we could face thursday night football and then field some of our young guns in the competition or we could just get knocked out from the competition (4th in our group) and then face the EPL totally…
Let’s try and qualify from the champions league first.. But our priority as it stands now is the ‘league’. our first two games in the champions league didn’t go our way. We have ourselves to blame for that….
We have either started well or finished well in previous seasons and as always the injuries to key players have played a big part in our failure to win the premier league.
Which obviously point’s the finger at the depth and strength of our squad, which then, points its finger at the failure to bring in the appropriate players in the transfer windows!
Its easy to point the finger, when things aren’t going well,
But the blame always has to stop at the decision maker!
and the problem is…. Wenger has become too Indecisive!
Which can be confused for being deluded and stubborn because of consistency of that behaviour.
Starting with this January transfer window,
Wenger needs to put right where he failed in the summer
and inject the club with some fresh faces,
who can do a quality job on the pitch,
to cover our injuries.
Otherwise our title hopes will fade away,
because of the same old reasons!
which is getting incredibly boring ???
Wilshere, Welbeck, Walcot, Ox….what do they have in common? They are all English and they ALWAYS injured. Injury prone players are very UNRELIABLE. Hence teams dreaming of winning MAJOR titles should not have more than two of these type of players. They are not even world class players (so annoying). The invincible SET were not plastic players and they were reliable.
If we keep nurturing Injury prone players, we will keep struggling to win MAJOR titles.
My Opinion; Keep Walcot and let the others go. End of story.
What to do next in the Champions league?
In my view (and I know I a lot of dislikes for this 1) I say lets drop out lets be smart…even if we come second we will still have to face a team that finished first and if we draw another AS Monaco type team and loose that could do damage to our momentum (if we still have it ta that point).
There are to many variables right now that have to work for us to even finished second…Bayern need to destroy Olympiakos and we need to destroy Zagreb then go to Olympiakos and win by 2 clear goals.. I am no saying it is impossible but all that energy we will put in we can direct to the league and get more points.
We cost ourselves CPL this year by not been focused on it from the get go over looking teams lets get the league title them focus on building a CPL winning team next season.
Is it the end of Wenger?
Only time will tell I personally believe that he should see out the remainder of is contract and then hang up the long coat.
Hopefully he will walk out with a few more titles to his name but either way we should Thank him and remember him for the true LEGEND he is…I will be happy to go to the emirates and see a statue of him outside the main entrance because Wenger is Arsenal and Arsenal is Wenger…PERIOD!!!!
Can we win the League?
YES we can there is a team spirit (when it come to the EPL) in that changing room that we want this you can see the drive/hunger/passion We just need to take it a game at a time and hold out till Jan when we will have more of the squad back so we can rotate better.
we can do it we can push and beat anyone in the BPL the way we are right now we just need to keep going
And in terms of Jan transfer lets no kid ourselves the kind of players we want/need to boost the team we can not get in Jan because Jan is not the period for big moves…we may and that is a BIG may sign 1 player as reserve maybe on loan…but Wenger will see it as by Jan we will have 9 players back that is almost a full team and wont really see the point to adding to it
I see us winning the league for sure. what do you mean? this is the best chance we have. city?? with all due respect we know city can and will have their bad period as usual. the question Is, can we cope with injuries?