It doesn’t seem that long ago that JustArsenal was over-run with AOB’s that were filled with hate for Arsene Wenger simply because we couldn’t win every single game we played in. The first half of his season was defined by injuries to nearly 50% of our squad, making it extremely difficult for Wenger to even pick a Starting XI that were all in their most effective positions.
As Wenger explained yesterday after winning our seventh game in a row against Liverpool: “We missed important players at the start of the season where we dropped too many points. If you look since everybody’s been back and available, the number of points we have made shows we have the quality to fight at the top.
“When you start the championship with the players coming back from the World Cup not available and having big players out for three or four months, we played six games in the Premier League and won one. You have a mountain to climb after. We are a consistent side and consistency is linked with quality.”
So now we hardly ever hear that Arsene should be sacked any more, but during that bad run last year we practically had a civil war on JustArsenal, not to mention the abuse given to Wenger and the players at Stoke Station after another loss. It got so bad that I had to intervene with a personal statement on the issue after I was accused of being a biased AKB by one of my readers.
Here is an excerpt from my response on here: According to various opinion polls at different times recently, including my one on JustArsenal, there are slightly more AKB’s than AOB’s in the world, so I am finding it hard to understand why a majority of my commenters (You lot!) are totally Anti-Wenger, and that is why I sometimes go out of my way to represent the silent majority at times. I DO NOT want my site to be off-limits to half of the Arsenal fanbase just because they get abused by the AOBs.
Right now Arsenal are going through a hard time, whoever you blame, but the fact is that we have been in bad places before, but Wenger has ALWAYS managed to turn it around and get us back into the Top Four. We should allow him to work his magic again until the end of the season and then re-assess the situation.
Until then please just support the team and encourage them to finish as high in the table as possible.
Thankfully (for the club) Wenger has proved me and himself right, and as the injured players returned the results have been getting better and better and we are now safely positioned for a Top Four finish. So how do the fans feel now? The last poll conducted by Forza Football, who provide fan generated data for all clubs, gave us this result before the Liverpool match.
75% of Arsenal fans have confidence in Arsene Wenger
79% have confidence in the Arsenal squad
63% have confidence in the chairman
I was personally surprised that only 3/4 of the fans still supported Wenger after this fantastic run of form we are in, but it does show a massive increase on the figures before the New Year. Can we safely assume now that there are very few AOB’s left and we all really believe that Wenger could lead us to the title next season?
The w.o.b is dead, just like the kkk
plastic fans.
see what happens when chelsea, tottenham, city have just two injuries to key players. we had ozil, og, debuchy, ramsey, wilshere, arteta, koscielny, list goes on.
i am confident, wenger has built a team and not a one or two-manned scam. that’s why we pull through.
shad is getting players back early, and i have faith that we’ll now not be the injury team but a fit team, we can do big things.
yes, he should have bought a cb, but overall, the injuries were massive. and look at lovren: don’t buy for the sake of buying
Avoiding injuries is also a very important aspect of wengers performance. And looking at injury history, we cant blame it on bad luck. Wengers agenda is making the players injury prone, which will have to be added to the big equation.
Aob, but how we’ve been doing since new years gives me no reason to wish wenger out. He’s been brilliant, and im glad he’s proving me wrong.
It’s human nature to blame him,but now that things have improved,the whole team has moved on. When you look back at the games we lost because of injuries,even with his bench it was a ploy to make the opposition think he had numbers but half the bench was not fit. Wenger, now you can understand how he had to bluff his way and take the knocks. We should all let him him do his job No one can do better. Next year we will win the Champs Lge and he then will retire as he has done it all and Good luck to him.
Plastic because I don’t go along with your hero worship? Seems legit.
In that case you’re a zombie who’s placated by a winning run of games and hype because when all’s said and done we haven’t achieved anything more than last season – we’re likely to finish 1 place better because Liverpool ditched Suarez and have went from 2nd to 5/6th.
– What signs point to a CL challenge exactly? The last 16 exit to Monaco, getting embarrassed by Anderlecht…
– How about the league? Being nowhere near the top all year and putting a late charge to save face…
When Arsenal are in good form the actual “plastics” wax lyrical about Wenger, when we’re not they’re on his back or citing things like injuries and bad luck for our shortfalls. Tactics and injury management/rotation are still a huge question mark, address them and we have the squad to challenge.
I don’t think Wenger has it about him to do so, but if you’re content with top 4 what is there to say.
He had so many out through injuries,you are an idiot to think this late charge is to save face it’s because players now can play in there right position not having to fill in here and there and Le Coq doing his bit as Bellerin as well,why are you so negative of the players we have you think Shniderlin is the answer. Well let’s see how we go now to the end and if we finish 1 place higher than last year that’s direct entry to Champs lg,and that is either Man U or Man city to play the extra games just to be in the Groups. CB
You have a hard-on for Coquelin and me apparently. Get over it mate Schneiderlin is better, except I only use him as an example of the TYPE of DM we should have starting for us – great defender and can play. I’ll let the multi-million pound scouting network find anyone who fits that bill, coquelin is a good player to have in the squad and no more.
Sh*t up. Lol. See, why would anybody fail to support you when you are doing the right thing??? We’ve always said one major problem with Wenger is tactics, and he seems to have worked on that (he used to be tactically very rigid).
The introduction of and very young and ambitious DM (Le Cock) literally brought about a positive revolution in the team. Now we have Gabriel who is quite similar to the boss and he (Gabs) has been doing well. These are the very things we’ve all been crying out for.
There’s always room for improvement, but we’ve been damn good, so far.
Admin, u just wanna rob it in. Hahahah! Thanks to us (the bad guys—u call us AKBs), we are responsible for the positive change at Arsenal, we made Arsene sit up.
But the Coq was only introduced because of an injury crisis and was called back from a loan spell at Charlton. Wenger admitted as much himself. it was an accident- Wenger stumbled upon a solution by accident.
A young player spotted by AW years ago. Developed the way AW knows and got rideculed by the AOs because he’s French. Yes I think we are all surprised at how good he has been. He CE back with confidence and well done to AW for having the courage. If he had a couple of bad games what would the reaction be? I remain a AKB and I for 1 am glad the wind has changed again. However I said that last year on our way to winning the FA cup. Will I be debating with AOs next season? If it means AW is still with us then fine.
Look on any Spurs forum. No anger, only here with AW. How many of their 40,000 waiting list for season tickets come and boo. Not fans.
Why would any gooner be on a spuds forum or give a shit how they feel about their losers who have not won a title since 61
Truth is the people that wanted Wenger out at the beginning of the season are nothing but a bunch of dumb idiots that know nothing about football (no offense to anyone). Their judgement of wenger was based only on results per game, they completely ignored critical factors like injuries…. schmucks!! I mean, what manager in the world can produce results when he is always forced to change half his squad for each game he plays?
The worst part about injuries at arsenal is that they seem to affect one department at a time – I remember at some point we had Per, Monreal and Chambers as the only fit defenders. At one instance we had all the CM’s (ramsey, arteta, flamini, wilshere) injured..Wenger had to play ox and carzola as anchors! And yet some fake-ass fans have the nerve to think that the reason we lost games in those periods was because wenger was incompetent!
How did these players get injured?
If you think soft tissue injuries are ‘bad luck’, then the convo has to end there because to quote you…..you’re nothing but a “dumb idiot”. ‘No offense’.
‘I remember at some point we had Per, Monreal and Chambers as the only fit defenders.’
I can understand the manager cannot be wholly blamed for the injuries… but you think a top manager wil go into a season wit just 2 recognised centrebacks???
Don’t tell me you knew Monreal will do gud in CB (I thought Chambers did a gud job in CB during preseason)
Having said that, I agree Wenger has pulled some nice tactical masterclass in the past few months..!
At least we don’t get called deluded and know nothing about football no more
Nothing dead about it, it’s a few bad results around the corner because just look at the type of hype beating Liverpool has created.
Fact is we can finish top 4 at best and win the FA cup, which is the same as last season even with the players we added. Not saying we should have won the league this year by any means, but we definitely should’ve been challenging (hilarious if anyone wants to retort and say we are). Love the injuries argument, always good fun watching the mindless bunch rehash that – constant/numerous soft tissue injuries is bad management, and that’s science.
Has beating Liverpool changed my view that with Wenger there’s a glass ceiling and he WON’T win the league for us again? Nope sorry, need to show far more growth than that.
Top 4 place in the league, out the CL in the last 16. Those are the two elite competitions we play in and we don’t feature in challenging for either. There’s your yard stick and we haven’t measured up yet again.
How many more seasons we must go through before we lift the EPL trophy? It is ridiculous.
Until next season when we have a slow start and have little chance of winning the league by December, and go oput in the second round of the CL. You are like the battered wife- forgetting because you have had a few good months. Or better, the kidnap victim with Stockholm syndrome
I admit I was wrong for wanting Wenger out mid season.
He should go in the summer.
exactly. Wenger does this EVERY season. People act like we’re about to win league or UCL. We’re still not and we still haven’t won FA Cup yet. The Arsenal cycle is happening again. There have been improvements but Arsenal still cannot maintain a title challenge throughout an entire season and we still cant get past R16 UCL. And these are the two competitions that matter most. Let’s not act like Wenger is God now because he finally (and luckily) found a CDM after every fan told him to get one for a whole decade…
Wenger knows best…. Thats why we are Mere Fans!
Wenger knows best, but Mourinho knows better. Thats why Wenger has NEVER beaten him, ever…NEVER
He’s a Chelsea fan,get off this forum and go back to the Bridge. CB
The fans who shout the loudest especially on the Internet always seem to be the ones who know the least and are the ones who want Wenger out. You do a poll like that you’ll also get non arsenal fans wanting to put pressure on the club saying they want Wenger out. It’s not a true reflection got to a match spend some time with proper fans it’s probably about 5% want change. Then you have a section who’s opinions chance based on how we’re playing but even in those periods I’d say less than one in four want Wenger out.
I’ll get loads of thumbs down for this because this website is a hang out for Wenger haters. Also I’d say more foreign fans dislike Wenger especially outside Europe and fans of a certain age (young fans). Grown up in an era of clubs constantly replacing managers.
Apart from Schneiderlin who do Gooners even want in the summer? Next year has to be the one in which we go for the title – the squad is basically at it’s peak with every position having suitable cover and competition apart from DM.
Fabian Schar!
someone to cover for giroud when hes injured , something different like lacazette
someone to bed in as a future pairing with gabriel- per an kos arent getting any younger
an yes a dm like schneiderlin
ummm chambers? he barely got games in the center
Messi who will slot right in to our team and get 25 to 35 goals and at least the double.
I have to admit AW is a new man his changed his tacticks, I love the way the whole team defend in all areas of the pitch, I think most of AOB wanted him out becouse he was not bolstering the team where it was desperately headed and we had the funds in the bank, thanks to cock and Belerin coming good when they did otherwise most still be asking for AW head, I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel but still think we can buy someone special this summer.
I am one of them. He is too comfortable and not under any pressure.
LOL. with no money to spend up till a season ago we were a selling club. give him time with money and no inuries.
next season let’s get this trophy!
mark my words: no other manager with the lack of money and iniuries would have even gotten to top 4
injuries he could have solved long before we had “money”. By this stage of the season we have people coming back and a fresher squad. this has been the pattern.
(DIABY COULD GET AN EXTENSION ON HIS PENSION)
“Le professor” victoria concordia cresit! Coyg!
time for a change…..
wenger out!
LOL
hafiz, get a life. not even funny anymore. who is better? which manager would get us in view of 2nd with the amount of injuries we’ve had?
sorry but tottenham, chelsea, city would dissolve without one or two players. we have had a whoöe starting eleven out.
dear deluded , this is not fifa.
confident in next season together with shad
Thank you for the memories but time to move on………..
i’m watching spuds vs burnley. it’s soo rudimentary. i really don’t rate tottenham, and as a 21 y o fan, i don’t see em as rivals. they’re not rivaling us for top four. they’re mediocre who use a some good pressing and physique. nothing special, no intricate passing or anything :/
Hmmm… Look, Wenger has done many good things this season. However, crediting him now that we are winning as if nothing he has done this year was wrong is complete BS. For instance, heL
1- staredt the season with 2 first squad CBs; one of which has achilles issues
2- depended on an immature and inconsistent keeper and backed him with a keeper that was signed injured
3- did not address the most glaring weakness in the squad for the zillionth year running, i.e. DM. and gets lucky by bringing back La Coq, who was being let go as Wenger admitted recently.
4- LOSE TO MONACO with a full squad
And the most important thing; we have seen this before. Start Shiit, finish strong OR start strong finish Shiit. Do not win the league or CL.
Look, I love the guy and prefer to win things with him. However, this does not make me blind to the fact we have a high quality squad that would have won the league this year with better planning from a better manager.
I agree with your post up to the point you said you love him. I used to but now I despise him. If he loved Arsenal he would have stepped aside years ago but he is more interested in his £8 million per year and total control of the club.
Logic is wasted on here mate, so many ruled by the form tide. We’re comfortably the best team in the league right now yet we’re 10 points off the top spot….same cheery bunch can’t recognize the reason for that is inept management for a considerable portion of the season.
The cherry on the cake comes when someone has the audacity to suggest you’re a ‘hater’ or other such bs just because you want some form of progression. *sigh*
Personally i feel what is happening to arsenal this season has been happening for years.
Start the season off terribly and end with a bang to clinch 4th spot…atleast now we fighting for 2nd.
Hence for this reason I’ve always wanted Wenger out.
I feel though that the new squad he has assembled in the last two seasons has a lot of potential and recently we have shown that we can compete.
I still believe though that we are 3-4 players away from being epl champions.
The only way i will be happy with WENGER as manager next season is if he WINS the FA cup and finishes 2nd in the league.
Then he must show that he wants to challenge in the summer by first getting rid of the deadwood (Flamini,Mertesacker,Ryo,Campbell,Podolski,diaby)…loan out future prospects (Sanogo,Gnarbry,Akpom,Hayden etc) and bring in quality palyers to replace the needed positions (CB,DM,LW,ST)…after this he and his fitness and medical team must show that they have improved the injury crisis that we have…then finally he must show that he can motvate and rotate his squad well and tactically outclass our opponents with good squad selection and game plan.
Thank you
mertesacker is deadwood? what are you smoking. he had a shit first quarter of the season, been good the rest. quality player as he showed yesterday. even in a high line. you don’t get that many german callups by being deadwood.
don’t believe the media hype. bs comments like that disgust me
lol…no club in europe wanting to compete at the top has a player like merteshaker as a starter…its not just that he is slow paced he is slow witted…the time it takes him to get ball forward and then invariably pass it to someone with no option but to pass back is unbelievable….as wih just about every season for last 10 years we have a team that is a couple of real quality players short of challenging on three fronts for top honours…so if wenger is willing to get rid of mert flamini arteta diaby and walcott (and possibly gibbs who is begining to really disappoint but perhaps worth another season) and bring in three quality players cb dm and attacker i will change my mind and give him a chance till end of contract…if its another round of bargain basement players with potential and talk of getting in to cl as like a trophy…then yes he needs to go
This Arsenal squad can still only win when the pressure is off. Top 4 ambitions once more and everyone performs well. Lose 1st leg of UCL tie, play better the 2nd game. AW is doing better but these problems still persist. I still dont think the team can handle pressure for an entire season. As good as we’re playing right now I still dont think we’re title contenders next season. I just dont see it still. How many times have we said “next year is our year”, and then flop on the big stages. At least we’re doing well in FA Cup though, so credit there, but Arsenal can still do more hopefully.
win when the pressure is off? we beat man u. idk that’s huge pressure. monaco we underestimated, so there wasn’t pressure. so please get out with that bs.
we beat liverpool, that was pressure. we beat city, that was pressure.
get out m8
Lol you can’t just not include the Monaco game. And all those other games Ty mentioned were won afYet we were already out the title race. We haven’t been in the title race this whole season and that’s my point
And don’t say we are in the title race right now because we’re not.
You make a good point RSH. We all love the Arsenal attacking style but in some key games, some players have gone walkabout, leaving gaps for the opposition, failing to track back etc.
We lack real leader(s) in the team who will kick arse to make sure we keep our shape.
Le Coq is not afraid to shout at his team mates, but he is still earning his respect on the field.
Fact is, it is getting better – and if we can beat Chelski at home and ManUre away, our record against 4 or 5 will be OK. But we still need to up our mental toughness across the whole for these games.
It’s why I’d sell Walcott in the summer, and add £15-20M to our reputed £50M transfer funds.
Get Cech for his quality and experience to add to Ospina, get Wanyama or similar DM to support LeCoq, keep Santi, and get a tough, quick CB. These are essentials. A Lacazette or Reus, if we had enough money left, would be a bonus.
COYG finmish the season strong
Only fickle “fans” do.
Lol a few months half the people praising wenger now we’re calling for his head. A bunch of indecisive hypocrites. It’s 10x worse they pretend to be wenger lovers then stab him in the back the moment things get rough.
I said it before and I’ll say it again…I support the progress of Arsenal as football club. I’d criticize a player for poor performances, but if that same player does well in the next game, I’d be the first to sing his praises. A manager should be no different. Bad performances are NOT supposed to be applauded and good performances SHOULD be praised. Wenger has made a lot of bad decisions and he has been rightly criticized for them. Now he is making all the right choices and he should be praised. The whole world and even aliens in other planets know that we have needed a DM and CB for ages but only now have we been able to get them in. I said previously that I’d prefer Wenger to change his rigid and stubborn ways as opposed to him leaving, but if he still refuses to change then he should leave. And now he seems to be getting his mojo back. How the hell am I not “gunner” like that? I’m neither AKB nor AOB. I am a GUNNER!
I’m not falling for the late season good form AGAIN!
it is happened way too many times. Next season wenger will again start the season with an incomplete squad. We all know what happens next
title ambitions over by november
R16 exit in UCL
Late season good form
Top 4
Repeat
And the monaco game is the perfect example for why wenger should leave.
He messed up the 1st leg very badly. Even henry had to admit that the lack of width (reason for the loss) was management’s fault (henry’s words). Again in the second leg he refused to sub out sanchez who was having a stinker.
WengerOUT
*has