Former Gunner to rub salt into Arsenal striker wounds

Arsene Wenger will be hoping for a few things when Arsenal head south to face the Premier League new boys AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Sunday. A first win in five EPL games will be top of the Frenchman’s list of course, but after that he will be desperate for an end to all the talk and taunting from the football media and rival fans about the striker crisis at Arsenal.

One way of doing that would be for us to score a few goals and with Mesut Ozil in the sort of form that saw him set a Premier League record for the season of creating 10 chances on one game, the likes of Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott should have plenty of opportunity to ease the pressure on the manager.

But if the Gunners fail to find the target again, there is one more thing that the prof will be praying for and that is for the new Bournemouth front man Benik Afobe to also draw a blank. After Wenger let the Arsenal academy graduate leave for good after various loan spells around the country, Afobe has been banging in goals for fun and on Sunday will face his former club for the first time.

The Bournemouth forward is reported in The Mirror as saying that he bears the club and our manager no ill will, but that he will still be looking to pile the pressure on Wenger.

Afobe said, ““I’ve got a job to do for my new club on Sunday and there will be no friends out there.

“But I don’t hold any grudges – I’ve already scored three goals in my last three games, so I’ve got nothing to prove to Arsenal.

“It was their decision to sell me and I’ve moved on. It’s been years now – I would have liked to have got my chance there, but it didn’t happen.

“I’ve got nothing bad to say about Arsenal. I’m here in the Premier League now, scoring winning goals for Bournemouth, so I just want to enjoy and keep improving.

“Arsenal were a massive influence on me because I was there from the age of about six, they helped me to progress as a footballer and I’ve got a lot of reasons to thank them.”

Wenger’s decision not to at least give the lad a chance to flourish in the first team was a little odd because he had a great record at underage level and is proving himself now. It will look even worse if Afobe scores on Sunday while Wenger’s chose ones fail in front of goal once more.

Tags Afobe Bournemouth Wenger

27 Comments

  1. Wouldn’t be bothered if that would be the final straw to Sack WENGER…
    10 years is unbearable…

  2. He will score. Big and powerful is something we cant handle and especially as he has a point to prove to Arsene for picking Sanogoals instead of him… another masterstroke by our great manager!

    I do think we will win on Sunday,
    If i take a step back and stop being so annoyed about previous results then we should be winning this and if we manage to not win then we all know the answer as to if we are really up for this title race as we should be blowing Bournemouth out of the water from the get go.

    Sunday answers alot of questions. If we win we play Leicester at home after that, so could easily be back init as City play Leicster this week and Utd play Chelsea who are 5pts behind us! Spurs now could be darkhorses in this title race and we have to play them yet too. Some massive games coming up tbh if you look at it from a neutral fan its rather exciting ? the title will be won btween the last 3 fixtures of the season. Not over yet but lose Sunday i dont think we can do it!

    1. “I do think we will win on Sunday,
      If i take a step back and stop being so annoyed about previous results then we should be winning this and if we manage to not win then we all know the answer as to if we are really up for this title race as we should be blowing Bournemouth out of the water from the get go.”

      (1) U and I have no effect over the game ….only wenger and the players do(sometimes the ref do…..and by that, i dn’t mean to sound like wenger in the tunnel)

      (2) U dn’t just blow Bournemouth out the water just like that……they are a solid side….. Pls remind me of the scoreline in our last meeting!….. And to think Arsenal are so damn good at scoring Loads of goals….my foot

    2. + Sol Campbell in his prime was the last Arsenal defender to handle big and strong forwards…
      + Vieira in his prime was the last Arsenal player to really man our midfield like a winner…
      + Henry in his prime was the last Arsenal player to single-handedly wreck a whole backline.
      I’m tired of the highlights of old days… Like Thierry Henry has said, Arsenal really need to avoid being like Liverpool.

  3. No hard feelings, a great team would admit fault and try to resign a player they once choose to let go.

    barcelona does such things all the time. Wenger is just to old and to stubborn to do such things

    1. Wenger has to go no matter what happens with the title, he wins it then its on to next season to defend it and see out his contract, no nee contracts please. but blow this massive chance of a title then has to go this summer. One more person has to go as soon as and thats ShadyStan, usmanov is an arsenal fan and will spend our own money whilst balancing books (getting rid of deadwood players and staff on the ridiculous wages most are on) he likes wenger but fans would mean more to him if he was the owner i could near guantee it we would see major ambition changes at the club… its funny though he would only be spending what we already have in the bank after this season is over and there will be more than the 200m quoted time n time again by the media.

      1. I remember then wenger was at his lowest, and we played in the finale and won the fa cup after who many years. He came out and admitet that even if he would have lost the game, he would not resign.

        This man plans to be here till the end, till some sicknes kicks in and forces him to leave. Many arsenal fans like wenger and some players are comfortable with the way things are going.

        The ones who stuck long at arsenal grew tired, and moved on the moment a great club showed interest in them. Same thing will happen with Sanchez and Ozil. Dont give me that bs that they came bec of wenger and arsenal. They are here today bec they havent found a better place to make their money. Di maria came for the same reason to manure and moved on to psg later.

        Sanchez and ozil are currently on their peak of their careers, wasting this precious time with the likes of ramsey and giroud is just wrong and criminal. Players have left the club with reasons you cant bring your self to adres treason. Wenger is the traitor and not the players.

    1. Be sure to give him a standing ovation if he gets on the score sheet…

      And be sure to give wenger the tongues after that!

      * @NYG…. Pls dn’t troll my comment *

      1. @SA
        What. You can dish it but can’t take it? The problem with you internet muppets is you feel like you voice is the only one out here.
        You blow which ever way the wind does dude…

  4. When you see mid table teams outscoring us(Everton/tottenham)
    When you see us being so uncovincing defensively.
    When you see such a performance from a midfield .

    You just see how close we are to total disaster.
    Wenger has always been the same person.
    Unless one man decides to step up to save wengers arse you can always see us being in a downward spiral.
    A team like the one wenger has now or its resources can easily be a leadinfg force in football.
    But we have a very lazy irresponsible manager who hates being bothered and being pressured.
    He looks like a man too tired for his job.
    He needs to leave as soon as possible and the board as well.So that no other manager who comes after him can feel he has security.

    Wenger out

  5. Wenger out, he is a loser and will win nothing with him.

    Maybe we must do a Chelsea for the idiot to get sacked

    1. Wenger is a loser? You must be looking in a mirror because he is the most successful Arsenal manager ever. And the second most successful in the history of the Premier League. You need to take a long hard look in that mirror….

  6. Am never one to excuse our continuous failings and Wenger’s general ineptitude but all this talk of Afobe been another one we missed out on is a bit preposterous and very very premature…yes he’s scored a few goals for Bournemouth but can we all take a step bck and recognise that playing for a team who will be happy just to avoid relegation is very different from playing for a club which demands trophies and high achievements every season (yea, I know we have been found wanting on these fronts for a long time)…some players are better in small clubs with limited expectations and very neat to no pressure…that is why history is littered with stories of good players who went to big clubs and flopped only to go down a few levels and find their form again….i rue us nit signing a world class striker, its a strange decision picking Sanogo over Afobe but am not going to say he would have done any better for us because I don’t believe he is good enough for now….give it a full season at the top level and lets see how he gets on before saying he is another that got away…

    1. There’s a big difference in ” The one that got away” to “The one who was Sold away” ??

      Small club, Big club, doesn’t always make a difference to a proven goal scorer! .. Afobe was doing good against championship teams and he seems to have upped his game against the premier league teams so far!

      Vardy is a good example from stepping up from the lower league’s!

      1. Consistency is the hall mark of great strikers, lets see what becomes of Vardy 3 seasons from now before we start using his story as a reference point..Doyle was a hit with Reading in the EPL for a season, people were quick to say he is better than Schevchenko but after one good season he disappeared…every season springs a one season wonder, only the special talents actually do it season in season out, even Kane that has done it 2 seasons consecutively can still not lay claim to been the real thing…..are you comparing scoring in the Championship to the EPL?…there is a reason some players can score down there and find neigh impossible to do so in the EPL…Jerome Campbell score for fun down there, Hull’s top striker this season was a flop in the EpL…Afobe has just scored 3 goals for Bournemouth and all of a sudden he is what we are missing? That is just plain laughable…..Bournemouth took a punt on him because its a win win situ for them cos he is proven in the Championship, i he flops in the EPL and they go down they have a player who can handle the pace of the Championship and who can shot them back up but to insinuate he is the player that could have made the difference for is just farcical…..for all we care to know that could be all the goals he will get this season so please let us be circumvent here, Afobe is STILL not good enough for us….we have enough duds that score the odd goal here and there, we don’t need another ww will wait another eternity for!!!!

      2. We blame Wenger for been indecisive and keeping hold of players that are taking forever to bloom and yet when he does exactly that and cut players who don’t make the grade we still moan….and I still reiterate my sentiments, many players are better suited to playing for smaller clubs with very little expectations and less pressure and I can name loads of very very talented players who just don’t have the big club mentality, players who bloom and shine when they are the main attraction, the big fish in a small pond but who will whither and fade once they make the step up to bigger teams…with Arsenal Afobe will just be another player, another upstart who will find the pressure of delivering week in week out or be out of the team hard to deal with…at Bournemouth he has time to settle into his pace, if he misses chances like he did on his debut for the club he will still be given chances after chances, just like it happened withn him

    1. Oh my. Did the season end while I wasn’t looking? Leicester and Spurs have NEVER Finished above Wenger’s Arsenal. Or is that just your favourite fantasy?

  7. Fixtures piling up City Spurs
    Arsenal and Leicester will
    all be tested to the limit.
    Who has the quality, the depth
    the ability to cope with the pressure?
    Squeaky bum time has come early 🙂

  8. Most of our old player’s have scored against us,
    So, it would be nothing new,if Afobe adds to that long list.

    What makes me laugh, is that Wenger is that type of muppet who would try and sign him back for 30 million next season.
    ??

    Anyways! … I’m expecting us to smash Bournemouth and Leicester in our next two game’s, because that’s what we do after going though a rough patch! And then kick on with a winning run in the league.

    The title race will definitely go down to the last game this season, it may even be won on goal difference, So we really do need to start hammering teams from now on, instead of trying to hold on to one goal leads.

    Even though we would have been better equipped with another striker being added in the transfer windows! But hey!… that’s Wenger’s choice and trust me, that will cost him his job, If he fails to win the premier league this year!
    And if that is the case, there’s talk of the board wanting to replace him with an X-Player of ours! ….
    they didn’t say, Who?

  9. I can see why Arsene likes Akpom, even though Afobe is better finisher Akpom has similar physique to the athlete type of player which Henry and so many other AFC players are also. It was a mistake in my opinion to get rid, many others too seem to believe. Sonogo and Akpom don’t have the knack that Afobe has, I expect Arsene to write Sonogo off as a swing and a miss. He’ll give Akpom more time but if he doesn’t sharpen up a great deal then he’s out the door. None of these three players look likely to be Arsenals first choice, I think that’s the only reason why fans aren’t tearing Arsene to shreds about letting Afobe go, but he could improve further so it could still happen, however I expect he will turn out looking like a good second or third choice option at best.

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