Arsenal scrape past Norwich, but questions remained unanswered. Guest post by KM.
Hello fellow Arsenal fans! Lots to talk about, but I’ll start with the game. A poor performance in my opinion. Norwich had the best chances of the first half in which we really didn’t create much. I’ll start with a few baffling decisions.
First off, we started Giroud again. I mean his body language is just terrible and despite the assist he made I wonder what poor old Danny Welbeck has to do to earn a starting 11 place when he offers quite a lot more than just the heading of the ball.
Welbeck and Cech were the best players we had and for me it’s difficult to accept this, when you are playing for the top 4. We also stuck with Mertesacker? I mean I thought we were finally sending Giroud and Per to a deserved spot on the bench and now we bring them back?
Change, a word which I find difficult to understand in the point of Arsenal. I’ve already made my point that change starts with Arsene, otherwise there is no movement at all, just little tweaks. So the 12th and 78th minute protest was smaller than I hoped. Honestly I was more disappointed by the number of fans that actually stood by Wenger.
It just shows he still has huge support, especially at the Emirates. All my hopes of having him leave were slashed by that. This win was important, hugely important, because it practically saves Champions League football, unless United win all their games which I still choose not to believe.
Arsene sadly for me is not leaving, but truth is there is an apathy about this club. I understand both set of fans. Some will say 20 years in the top 4 is a great achievement and will point out to the misfortunes of United and Chelsea of this season, while others will point out that it’s been 12 years and we’ll never win the title with Arsene again, especially since we failed this year.
You cannot say one or the other is untrue, but which side you’d take depends on what you expect of the club? If you are content with the top 4 then Arsene is the reasonable choice. If you aim for higher ambitions then we need a new approach. But leave those two points aside and let’s go back to the apathy.
What will you do if you were in charge of Arsenal to change this? Spend money, introduce new players, blame the fans for the problem, do nothing or go for a new manager? For me the problem goes deeper than the famous fourth place. We have no direction and our management is bad on both the footballing and the non-footballing side.
This protest is not enough to see the end of Arsene, but it is a start. Questions will be asked of Arsene again and if’s funny because it’s the first time that people actually demand something of him and his negative response is a sign for me where things are heading.
On a final note, I will just finish with this. Arsene directly blamed the Arsenal fans for his failure of losing the title to Leicester! It’s a real shame that after this so many people chanted his name. Take a look at how the team is playing throughout 2016 and ask yourself if you enjoy what you are seeing.
Time for change is here in my opinion, but if we really want it, we’ll have to be louder about it. This is at least a start, but it’s gonna get something bigger to move disrupt the stale waters at Arsenal.
Konstantin
My question is why did alexis head straight for the tunnel, after being substituted? Was he unhappy? Will he and ozil be with us next season? I’m concerned!
Maybe because he played crap and he was disappointed in himself. Why decide to cover his poor performance yesterday when he was clearly doing more damage than good? Is it because he’s “Alexis Sanchez”? Stop trying so hard to be negative and be truthful especially when it smacks you right in your face… I swear every article it’s I hope Alexis and Özil stay, I don’t blame them if they leave and so on. Wenger has his faults and I’m no Wenger lover but taking him off yesterday was justified for me. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Alexis over complicate a simple pass to a teammate where he decides to do a million stepovers and loses the play further putting the entire team under pressure from a counter. I love Alexis but please stop being negative and be more truthful.
Why decide to cover the manager’s inability to motivate him and the rest of the team ?! It’s evident he’s had enough of the poor quality the team has shown and he’s tired of carrying us like he has been ever since he was signed. He’s had very good games this month but because of today you forget the goals he’s scored and decide to put the blame on him instead of the manager. Wake up and smell the coffee, this is a warning that Wenger must change or our top players will leave out of frustration like RVP and Nasri did.
Wenger needs to change if we are to win the league. He needs to be active in transfer window and sign the players needed and get rid of flops and injury prone players. Even u Akb’s know we need change even if wenger stays. We should also need to play with different formation. Play with 2 strikers against weaker teams and be direct instead of passing and passing with no end product. Be more physical with teams. The reason we can’t win the league is because of no leaders on the pitch like Vieira and Adams and we are very predictable and no tactics.
I agree, I’ve said before as well that sometimes we need to switch to a 4-4-2 diamond and people say that formation is dead or old. Funny, tell that to Leciester who’ve been using it and now at halftime are 2 points away from being champions. With the squad we currently have I would try Welbeck and Alexis as the front 2. I think Iwobi is more of a midfielder than a winger.
Problem is that Wenger is extremely stubborn and doesn’t like to change
He always wants to prove he is right despite fans suffering for him not being dynamic enough
For most people, if one way doesn’t work you need to change to another method
But Wenger believes you should always stay on the same path
Mind you Pellegrini
says “we always
play the same way”
LVG is extremely rigid.
Mourinho’s bus was as predictable as it comes.
And to be fair Arsenal is leading the usual “Top 4 ” right now.
Pellegrini and Mourinho never play the same way, they’re known to use different tactics in a match. And unlike us they like to use physical players capable of winning the ball back from the opponent.
Wenger is lazy
Wenger has a cushy job.
Wenger is not going to change.
Kroenke is greedy.
Kroenke is only looking at the Forbe’s rich list
Nothing is going to change.
1 They will frustrate either Ozil or Sanchez out .
2 Then they will perform a sleight of hands by using some of the cash to buy 1 to 3 players and bank the rest( profit).
3They might buy you One world class player with a one or two very average players.
4 Cash reserves increases
5 More money for Kroenke
6 4th place
Rinse and Repeat the next season
v are not saying sanchez and ozil didn’t play bad in the matches but most of the time u can c the chances they created went invain
ozil created highest number of chances in epl history still only 18 went in the net doesn’t it show the potential of the guy
alexis rant his heart out in matches but he was moved to wrong position by manager his form dropped..
its not they are not having a bad day bt wenger is not taking the best of them
Fair enough and you have good points. Every team has their talisman but I’m not going to say Alexis and Özil are carrying us this season. Big “BUT” though, obviously if we’re to maximize their efforts then there are players that need to go or be dropped and I think the majority knows who those players are.
Questions unanswered?
The questions WERE
answered on Saturday
at the Emirates anyway.
You said so yourself the majority of the Arsenal fans at the Emirates were
fully behind Arsene and his “titles are nice but not essential” leadership.
All my keyboard Don Quixote days fighting for the restoration of the
title winning Arsenal to the throne have come to nothing.
Time to head for home.
Adiós mis amigos
I agree with the 4-4-2 change it will give us better attacking options!
Im good with 442 but Giroud and Welbeck or Alexis and Welbeck is no where near Henry and Bergkamp or even Kanu and Wiltord lol
He is definitely giving Giroud chances due to the French national team which is a major tournament for him due to the ban of Benzema and lets face it Giroud is good when plays with France who is a completely different player for them than Arsenal. If Arsenal can get their hands on a dangerous striker with goals on him we can assume Arsenal can win against teams who come to sit at the emirates.
Wenger, the board & the players deserves equal blame!
1) The board for not putting enough pressure & making Wenger accountable more than before. Also having a proper plan of what the club as to go for as a priority. It felt that we were all over the place first the UCL, than the title race than we lost our ability to compete for FA cup because we wanted to play it all.
2) Wenger for making only one sole addition in the summer window & failing to set up the team properly at times (both mentally & tactically). He knows what it takes (when you marvel at Barcelona ability to score or look at the collection of players at Bayern) so why always looking for bargain. Finally holding the players accountable & making hard decisions.
3) The players for letting Wenger down when he called upon them. In fairness to some Wenger puts in a role players who will never be that/failed to show that they can be that (Giroud is one example) and expect to do so. Lack of leaders on the pitch, which in my opinion you need at least one on each line with a strong captain spearheading, both leading by example but able to shake up with words of wisdom. Sometimes they came into games thinking they had it from the get go or didn’t show the heart to make a come back or hold the score.
And same old same old: lack of finishing, discipline, mental toughness, not living up to expectation & dodgy defending, injuries that once again has derailed to a degree the balance of the team…If Wenger doesn’t go some of those things will have to change…Some players are for sure heading out this summer a prime chance to make some smart moves & promote players for more playing time (like Iwobi).
My view is that people fear change, so they will accept (or even support) high level mediocrity – i.e 4th place in the EPL. Yes we won 2 FA cups which is great, but there is no credible ambition to win the league, whatever AW says.
Change is a fearful proposition, but come it must at some point, the queston is, when??
Probably not this year because the board sees AW as successful, which he is if you count consistency as success. Let’s be fair, many teams in the league would be ecstatic with 4th place for a few years, but for more than 10 years? Maybe not…and that’s the problem as I see it.
I think we are stuck with him, because to any team outside the top four and indeed most PL managers we are seen as successful, but winning the league is the pinnacle, and we seem content with less than that, which is sad.
I understand both sets of fan but those who want Wenger out who do we go for? Pep, Klopp & Ancelotti (my pick las year) are taken. Than you have Simeone who is battling for a historical double & looks comfy where he is!
R. Martinez brings more of the same & that includes suspect defending. With what he had to work with at Everton he has underachieved. Koeman has overachieved at Southampton but can he take Arsenal to that next level…too many unknown!
The one that seems most equipped at the moment & could be tempted is Tuchel but he isn’t leaving Dortmund yet specially with the kind of season he is having and they look to be stronger next season…needs to prove a bit more as well before making the jump.
That leaves us with Mourinho and I can’t disagree that he could probably win major silverware immediately after his arrival…too much of a cultural change thought . There are risk of issues with media, players & board like the ones at Chelsea. So I think we all pass…
Unfortunately we missed the boat if we wanted to change him sooner rather than later…Pep was the perfect one out of the bunch could we have tempted him? Probably but my guess is the board didn’t think about it not even once.
Arsenal are obviously a club based on stability. So if you really want a worthy replacement for Wenger then it would make more sense to get someone that bleeds Arsenal and guess what it ain’t the managers fans have been crying for. I might get mocked for this but I think Henry should be groomed for the position or even reach out to Bergkamp who’ve had some experience now at Ajax. Can’t get any better than an ex-player, fan and club legend.
Can’t agree more…Henry now seems a no brainer best suited for the job pending he does something with the youth set up next year & gets his pro license but if he is the one to take over than we might be with Wenger for not only next year but even the year after so 2 more years.
Truth been told. I careless anymore about Wenger. He he likes,,,,he should let his statue couch arsenal after he is dead. I don’t care. I will definitely learn to love another club.
I said it before I will say it again. Arsenal FC is run like a Mafia with Wenger and Kroenke pulling the strings. It was very strange that the protest was organized by the “so-called” biggest fan bases, namely the BSM and RA. Yet the majority of fans are backing Wenger. Something is weird about this.
1-0 Southampton Shane long
Shane long really took mangala to the cleaners in scoring that goal!
It’s now Southampton 2-0 man City! Mane scored!
As unconvincing as our performance was yesterday we still managed to get the 3 points. It would actually be a great weekend if the Saints could do the business on City and give us some breathing room for 3rd since that’s the best we can honestly do right now. Liverpool lost and Leciester held Utd so that’s a good start.
P.S. I hope Chelsea smash you know who tomorrow. Then technically Leciester would have won the title at Old Trafford. Lol
Good weekend for us so far. Unconvincing but a win yesterday, manu drawing and manc naw losing 4-1 to southampton.
A sign of how depressed us fans our is the lack of comments here. The manu and manc matche are important for CL next season and our ability to attract top players. Normally the latest article would be full of comments about these games. I think it is a real sign of how disappointed we are with this season, we should be winning the PL with the opportunities we have had and we all know it. Wenger and the players know it as well
I haven’t read all the posts , so i may be repeating comments , but I have to totally agree with the article , 12th and 78th minute protests ? OMG , it was pathetic.
I have several friends who are devout Wenger fans and they ( quite rightly ) ridiculed me. It is true , no matter how much we rant and rave on this site , the reality is that a vast majority of supporters still think Wenger is great.
I really am stunned , but you know what , I am not so arrogant to believe that I am right while so many others disagree.
For me Wenger’s faults are clear as day and I am bewildered that most supporters are not prepared to challenge the club on them.
I genuinely give up as there is no point becoming the dribbling idiot .talking to himself in the corner of the bar.
I am no longer interested in discussing things because it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
As I said to one of my mates , Arsene FC have £200 million in the bank , make £24 million profit each year , pay Kroenke £3 million every year for strategic services , last year spent less in the transfer market than the managers salary and have Giroud as their main striker.
And most Arsenal fans are happy with this ?
Sorry I’m off. Life is too short for this frustration.