All Arsenal fans are used to the TV pundits berating Arsene Wenger and saying things like “You can’t win the title with Olivier Giroud”, but it is annoying when ex-Arsenal players join in with the criticism.
As far as I remember Paul Merson was infamous for being addicted to gambling, cocaine and alcohol during his time as an Arsenal player, and it certainly sounds like he had had a few when he ranted about Wenger not buying anyone other than Petr Cech this summer.
“It puts severe pressure on the players and whatever they say at Arsenal, I bet those players know they will not win the title this season,” Merson was quoted as saying.
“Does Arsene Wenger really think you can finish that many points behind Chelsea last season and get past them this time just by buying Petr Cech?
“Fans pay top dollar to watch Arsenal and they are right to be upset. They are spending a fortune and the club isn’t.
I don’t if Merson has had time to actually look at the League table, but Arsenal are already above Chelsea and there is little reason to think they will overtake us any time soon. I can see us having trouble catching up with Manchester City, who are the only club to get off to a flying start this time around but Jose Mourinho seems to have lost it in this campaign.
I know there is a long way to go but I will happily predict that Merson will change his mind on who will win the title at least five times this season!
Too much slate these days cause of no transfers. In my opinion it was obvious from the end of last season that we wouldn’t buy anyone.
Keep calm and wait at least half a season to judge our resuls. After all only city looks like a team on form so far and i believe they will colapse once again when the Champions leugue starts.
Theo may not be a good striker but he know how to change position creating gaps to other players, with his pace he always drives the team forward with a real intensity. I have even noticed that Sanchez is more conformable playing with Walcot than he used to do with the so called “Mr. Hold up play” , with Theo they interchanges positions and he can have room to shoot more often. Looking the game against Newcastle you can easily see how much it is true.
Ok we haven’t signed a WC ST as many of us anticipated, and Welbeck is injured which i rates him more than the “Martial” signed to United, Now Wenger has no choice than Walcot and Giroud at the moment. We have seen enough of the hold up play week in week out what we want now is to see more game time to Theo up front before fans conclude that he is no better than Giroud. The lady has not even given a run of five games in a-Low in that position but still in those few chances he proves to be a weapons to defenders. Players can only be good when plays regularly let him be given an opportunity to gain his confident before the Muppet and idiots fans made their conclusion.
Enough of this silly forum,what about Theo’s 2 goals. All the previous posts on Walcott as a no no striker eat ya heart out, can’t wait for Stoke game and hope he gets his chance to squash his enemies Go the Gooners CB
Chelsea aren’t looking sprightly themselves,apart from Pedro the rest of their transfers look dodgy and not up to standard!
2009 falcao joins porto they finish 3rd
2011 he joins atletico they finish 5th
2014 he joins manu finish 4th
2015 he joins chelsea finish ???
Talk of delusion!
I think you use the word “delusion” like some kind of a joker. Whenever you have no idea what you want to say you throw the word delusion in there. I have to admit though that you came a long distance from calling people imbeciles and idiots to deluded. Still some progress.
It’s only cos he’s been moderated. Give soopa free reign he’d revert to type, you know it. There was a moment last season he was a supporter, he had to go with the masses. That’s not an insult admin, that’s a fair opinion based on seeing behaviours over three seasons. Do not moderate me for highlighting what THEY say.
LOL I am not goingto turn int oan ogre ovenight! I am happy with Soopa using ‘delusional’ than much harsher insults, and I don’t see any insult in your words. As long as we keep our discussions free of anger and agression I will allow all comments. I don’t want ANYONE to be moderated in a perfect world, but some people just go over the top with vile anger. You would not believe some comments I have caught quickly before any youngsters got traumatized….
I do not think at this stage of the season no one knows who will finish in what position come May 2016. What is apparent is that Man City with the same 11 they had last season, except for Sterling, have hit the ground running. They have collected maximum points without conceding, which is remarkable. Incidentally this is the same team that was dropping points to lower tier teams last season. Lessons that can be learnt by the media and pundits from the City case so far is that squads are not always improved by buying players but existing players can make a huge difference by improving themselves.
If Arsenal were to reproduce their end of season form there is no doubt that the team can challenge or even win the league. Considering the relative strength of mid table teams, it is highly likely that this season 79 points can win the league. Teams like Swansea, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Stoke City, Everton, Southampton, and Leisceter City are likely to be the king makers of the season. Despite their experience in the EPL Sunderland, Aston Villa,and New Castle are likely to face relegation battles based on their early season form. Arsenal therefore needs to get as many points as possible from the king makers of the season, because such games will decide where the title ends at come May 2016.
Read anyone where it says no one
That’s the real fact. City isn’t winning because the world class players they bought integrated into the team very well and quick. They have improved massively from the previous season. Sometimes last season, we also wouldn’t believe that City can lose against weaker oppositions. They have raised their quality by improving their game – something we should focus more on. I believe that the EPL yet is to unfold itself and we don’t possibly know that whether the scene we are watching now will still remain the same after a period of 10 games.
Yeah City’s winning is because the same squad is on form. Its really not because 150+million they just spend.
Yeah right.
Excellent point Analyzer, and one that Arsene has been trying to make.
why care about chelsea, finishing first is what i care about arsenal. we might finish above them maybe 2nd and chelsea 3rd or we might finish 3rd and chelsea 4th but that wouldn’t give any satisfaction as long as we don’t finish 1st. So yeah Merson was right to criticize wenger for what he had done in the transfer market.
What if we won the CL and came sixth in the league, would say Arsene was lucky but Ill take it. Personally I have always felt it is harder to win the Prem than it would be to win the CL. One bad call can get you to the final and pennos can even help you decide it, with Porto Liverpool I Milan and Dortmund winning at times when they where nowhere near being best in Europe only confirms my theory.
stop mentioning champions league its embarrassing, we are nowhere near the levels of barca, bayern and madrid. I’m not saying it impossible to win it but its the style of play that wouldn’t bring us anywhere near winning it but yeah who knows if wenger change his mind and play defensive tactic against the big teams just like chelsea did few years ago but i really doubt he will do.
Chelsea proved you don’t have to be at the top level to win the champions league. They won less games than any team in history when the won it. You can actually win the trophy by only winning 4 games and you can win the last one of those on penalties.
In fact u can win it by winning only 3 matches
so according to you CL is lot easier to win than epl i somehow agree with that since chelsea has proved like you said but the question is why has arsenal never won it? its the trophy i’ve waited for a long long time.
That’s exactly what i dislike………. Not like we made some remarkable signings in the window…..not like we are multiple goal scorers, not like we have reinforced this presumably strong squad, not like we are being consistent, not like we have a great home record, and not Like we are even free from all the injury woes………….TOO EARLY TO GLOAT
My honest assessment/prediction
City look like the Champions getting De Bruyne and Sterling
However, don’t count Chelsea out. Pedro was an excellent signing and upgrade from Cuadrado.
We will NOT finish above Chelsea or City. If we do, I will call Wenger a genius and run naked down White Hart Lane
United will definitely be better than last season with good acquisitions Schneiderlin, Schweinseiger, Depay, Darmian
I think we will fight United for 3rd place. If United had got a Top striker, I would have said they will get 3rd or higher.
We will finish 3rd or 4th 🙁
NOT LOWER as I think we are better than Liverpool, Spuds, Everton,SOuthampton
I will only say “Be careful what you wish for.”
That’s the huge difficulty with us, in any other league there is one giant obstacle who throws cash about like one dollar bills in a strip joint. But if we can finally manage to topple the mighty Kremlin well then we still have not one but two more clubs of this ilk.
This season however …it would seem that we have one giant obstacle if we can pip the big blue bus. This would still constitute improvement but I am hoping and sort of expecting to see city hit a pretty average patch. Aguero Company Toure, these three players are hugely important to their success, in a match it will be Aguero and Toure who are closely watched and tackled. You are right though City do look like champion material and even though I didn’t know it at time Sterling was an excellent buy for them. It makes it allot harder to closely watch Aguero and Toure when you have the tricky little thing Raheem coming at you, and then there’s De Bruyne. Also I mentioned how important Company is too them, and they go and got someone they are hoping can ease that fear too. Otamendi, it will be interesting to see if he can settle and compensate for a missing Company down the line. City have bought very very well, I think.
I should have mentioned in the Che article below that maybe Mourinho is ticked off at how city are spending like a billionaire club spends but weirdly ..Che seem to have eased up a bit, might be due to new stadium ..lol
I’m glad you brought up Che, or Mourinho more to point. He certainly does seem to have lost a bit of something ..and I reckon it’s because of all those strange actions or outbursts lately. The way he attacked your woman for running on to field was appalling, and what makes it worse is that she was held in high regard and affection by the entire team. I’m sure J Terry or some of the other players tried to make fun of the situation but then Mourinho goes off the wall again and blames J Terry for bad first half performance by taking him off, he goes a step further by by saying he should have done similar in another match but didn’t get them off in time.
Mourinho was always one of those managers that likes to be one of the lads, their best mate but honest at the same time. Players always mention love or affection when speaking about playing under him. Lately he has been like a rattle snake though. It could be the pressure of being in his three year same club period, long may it continue.
One thing has been true for the past 5 seasons…Arsenal was written off by pundits because of our poor transfers.
I can always tell whenever admin writes an article. It usually starts off with an attack on the individual and questions whether they even have the ability to be critical of arsenal for whatever reason and never gets to any actual objective criticism or assessment of the opposition view point.
E.g. Merson’s substance abuse as a player.
What that has to do with his comment currently or it’s validity is beyond me.
As for Merson’s stance I reckon he’s correct. The sole addition of Petr Cech while both immense and generally overlooked won’t be enough in my opinion to win us the title.
As for whether it’s enough for us to finish above Chelsea is open for debate and at any rate I don’t think there is enough evidence to allude concretely to that notion. Both teams have had a poor start to the campaign, Chelsea worse so than us but if it is the opinion of the author that simply because we are 3 points ahead of the champions after 4 games in that “there is little reason to think it will change any time soon” then I think he is misguided.
This isn’t to suggest there is any certainty than Chelsea will finish above us either. But to dismiss Merson’s stance as asinine when he is basing it off the campaign and tendencies of both teams over the 9 month period of the season (not January – May alone) is foolish.
The idea is to be top of the pile coe May, that means invariably we will have to finish above Chelsea as well as 18 other teams.