The Arsenal manager is never going to come straight out and say that another club are a load of old tosh and are lucky to be where they are after some mind numbingly dull performances, but if Arsene Wenger did not think that way about Manchester United under Louis van Gaal then I would be extremely surprised.
We know that the prof puts almost as much focus on the type of football that Arsenal play as he does on our results and ever since he took over the club almost 20 years ago we have become known for being good to watch. United under van Gaal on the other hand…
Let’s be kind and say that they are defensively strong and hard to beat, but to be honest they are missing a trick by not having some kind of quick drying paint as a sponsor. But all that aside, you cannot argue that United are currently above Arsenal in the Premier League table (bizarre though it is) and we could really do with them getting what they deserve this weekend.
Step forward Leicester City, the surprise package of the season and the club that will play host to van Gaal’s dreary side this weekend. Wenger was asked about the game in the pre match press conference reported by Arsenal.com and I get the impression that he is not only rooting for Ranieri and the Foxes but that he believes they have a great chance of taking points off United.
Wenger said, “It will be quite interesting because Leicester are a team who have no pressure and they play with no pressure and quality. It’s a very explosive team, especially on the flanks. When they win the ball, they come out on fire in a very explosive way. At the start of the game, Man United will have the possession and Leicester will be the team that can create havoc on the counter-attack. It’s very hard to predict.”
Do you think that Leicester will do Arsenal a favour?
No.. Leicester will be doing them selfs a favour by winning and drawing further clear of Utd at the top of the league.
And we need to ourselves a favour and stop relying on other teams to win the premier league for us ???
I love Leicester. It is hard to root against them as they’ve done well, but to date in the league they’ve only played Tottenham and Arsenal from the top 6 clubs and they drew to the Spurs at home and lost 2-5 at home to the Arsenal. With Man U, Man city, Chelsea, and Liverpool all yet to visit, the Foxes will be coming back to earth a little in much the same way Southampton did last season.
Leicester will probably finish somewhere between 8-12 in the table come May, but that will be a huge accomplishment for the club that teetering on the brink of relegation until the last couple weeks last season. People will say they’ve come off the boil but it won’t be true. One of the hallmarks of a well managed club is winning the games they can win. Leicester is doing that.
However, two things happen to the Cinderellas every season. Sometimes these teams are schedule Cinderellas, and Leicester is a definitely in that category. They have played mostly mid to lower table teams thus far and to be fair, they’ve beaten them or drawn them. Only the Arsenal have beaten them but Man U, Man City, Liverpool, and Chelsea are coming and when the Foxes have a run of games against those teams, they’ll fall some.
The other thing that happens to the Cinderellas is schedule fatigue. Leicester has some terrific players. Wes Morgan, Jeffery Schlupp, Riyad Mahrez, Kaspar Schmeichel, and of course Jamie Vardy could play for most Premier League teams. Robert Huth, Nathan Dyer, and Shinji Ozaki are legitimate Premier League starters. There are some other goodp layers on the roster as well; but when the fixtures start coming fast through the Boxing Day/Christmas period the lack of depth starts to test these clubs.
If Chelsea need to rest Matic or Fabegas, they have John Obi Mikel and Ramirez. If they need to rest Diego Costa, the have Loic Remy. Defensively, to replace Terry or Cahill, they have Kurt Zouma to step in. And if these guys aren’t enough, they can afford to buy in January.
Man U have similar options. If Rooney struggles there’s Martial or Memphis. If Anders Herrera and Schneiderlin can’t get it done in the midfield, there are Marouane Fellaini, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Juan Mata, Daley Blind, and Michael Carrick. That;s pretty good depth. The foxes don’t have that.
Even Arsenal, who are in the injury crisis again; they lost Wilshire, tosicky, Ramsey, Champberlain, Coquelin, and Arteta from their midfield. They’ve still got Joel Campbell, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez. At striker they’ve lost Welbeck and Walcott, but Olivier Giroud is a 20 goal per season striker who returned to the first team and is in amazing form.
compare that to Leicester. If Jamie Vardy is out, for even a few games, who will carry the load? If Riyad Mahrez should be injured, who takes his place? When Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, or Man city need to rotate players, they men coming in are still top talents. Does Tottenham lose a lot if they replace Eric Dier with Mason? If Man U are ‘forced’ to play Michael Carrick, do they really lose much quality?If Chelsea rotate Pedro in for Oscar, are they losing that much?
Clubs like Leicester though, suffer a bigger drop in quality if they have to rotate or in the event of injuries. Similarly, if Arsenal really need to buy a player in January, hey can. Expect Chelsea to spend £40-£50 million in the January window on a striker and a left back, and maybe a winger. Man U may add a left back to replace Luke Shaw and a center back as injury cover. You could see them bringing in a striker as well, if Rooney’s form doesn’t improve. If Vardy slows down or gets hurt, can Leicester replace him from players they have? Can they afford to buy a replacement?
Leicester can take points form Man U if they’re careful but as much as I’d like to see it, I don’t think it will happen. Arsenal carved Leicester up like choice steaks. Man U’s attack isn’t in the same league as Arsenal’s, but they have a lot of quality in the middle of the park and players like Smalling Rojo, and Darmain should be able to cope with Vardy.
No-one should underestimate Leicester when they are in such fearless form. The reason they lost to us is because they just played their normal attacking game. If Ranieri starts changing tactics against top teams they could go places.