The Arsenal legend Ray Parlour watched Arsenal only end up with yet another point on Saturday, and he is very sure that the best that the Gunners can hope for this season is the usual Wenger Cup for scraping into the Champions League, but he doesn’t even think that will be easy!
‘I think Arsenal are fighting for third or fourth place,’ Parlour was quoted as saying in the Mail. ‘You look at Manchester City and Chelsea and they’re in a different league compared to Arsenal.
‘They’re so far above Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs. I think all these teams are fighting for two places, they’re fighting for third and fourth.
‘Chelsea grind out results. They’re so clinical in the way they get results and Manchester City stand a great chance, particularly if (Sergio) Aguero can keep playing like that. He was fantastic (against Tottenham), absolutely different class.
‘Those two teams are far apart from Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Spurs, so that’s what Arsenal are left fighting for.’
Parlour is only telling us what we already knew in our hearts, but with Man United and Liverpool already above us and Spurs on level points then we still have a massive fight ahead of us. Personally I’m more qorried about Southampton than Spurs!
Here we go again! Every year, we dream of being in title contention, but only to be brought back down to earth in the realisation that we are far behind… Not the same Arsenal as 10 years back. It will take a while to rebuild a title contending team, 2 years at the least, just being realistic.
Right you are Mr.Legend.
The Romford Pele is the only former player who says the truth about us season in season out. For real we have to many sorry players in the team, no fight at all just excuses. Smh.
Until Wenger stops his arrogance of not wanting to address our problems in the team, and as long as our current players stop being pansies and start fighting for real then we will stay stagnant.
I understand what you are saying, but its quite hard for the players to keep motivated when the board aren’t showing any ambition. I mean, if you as a player are told that we will settle with 4th, will you be motivated?
I think Wenger has done a good job in his time here, but he is now tactically out-played. I would respectfully ask Wenger to step upstairs, where I think he would do a good job, and allow a fresh manager with ambition to take the reigns and breathe new life into this Arsenal team!
I would lay off the players the manager is the problem. If our players are ‘pansies’ (and I don’t believe they are they are just poorly managed) then the manager is responsible for buying them and keeping them.
Example: Sanchez has started out enthusiastically trying to put himself about, give him another month or two and he will be strolling around the pitch with his hands in his pockets (metaphorically speaking). Wasn’t he dropped/rested for a while by AW because he was interfering with the arsenal ‘mode of play’ and needed to be integrated or some such nonsense.
FFS!
After 8 games we are already out of the title race, all thanks to wenger
At least we know where we stand early.
No point building False hope
Premier league changes little.
Top 7 Middle 6 Bottom 7.
Sign the two players we need – cb and dm we finish 3 or both. Sign no one we finish 5th, 6th or even 7th. Just my early prediction.
3rd or 4th….even. I we stick with them flam and per, (bsg) will be our undoing!
Wenger has no excuse this season not to be successful, he had everything.
I have a degree in ‘AKB’…theres always excuses 🙂
I failed at that course four years ago. So i’m not sure about it.
We will still finish in the top four, this i know. But we need to go for the players that can really fill the void in the team.we need steel in the mid and at the back
The ‘invincibles’ where borne out of the defensively solid team put together by George Graham. As Wenger came he added a little movement to the team and we saw one of the phonominal sides in eanglish premier. But as the core players of that era started dropping out due to age and various reasons it started unmasking the real Wenger. The glory days cannot be credited to Wenger alone but also to tactical defensive tradition he found at Hybury. What we see today is what Wenger is all about. He is trying but he seriously lacks those qualities to take him to those levels. What he needs is a technically sound assistant to seriously depend on for the remainder of his term. Maybe he might rescue a bit of tattered image.
I understand your point but the invincibles were not from GG. Lehmann, Lauren, Toure, Campbell and Cole were bought in by AW. Sorry, not splitting hairs. But Viera was shown the GG way by the old guard. So I suppose the GG system was still in there
I read thin morning on Daily Star that Carlo Ancelotti what EPL return. He said ” I love England” why not give him a chance at Arsenal we all know him that his a top couch….”Wenger Out” still go on
Some sorry bunch of whinin b*tch as mufukkas. 8 games in an most are already throwin in the towel.
F**KN Pathetic Lot…
This has become JustArsenal’s trademark.
@Ezat
Feel sorry for yourself punk. Save your pity for all the weak azz’d whiners like you.
And goddamn right I’m arrogant. At least I got a f**kn spine and its ramrod straight.
wwhile i am mad and sad, and almost agree with the lot and with Parlour because there are facts in their arguments: I also have to look the other way and to say that, still, there are some facts in our favor.
What was City’s position inthe table last season atthis point?
My factsare mathematics, but wenger does need to upgrade the defensive fragile squad, asap
@nygunner. I agree with you a little but its the manner of cra*ness and appearance of total disorganisation that I find boggling! We need to get oir sh*t together quickly.
@Ronny331
I feel ya dude. And agree, sh*t ain’t lookin rosy for us right now. But to lay down and wave the white flag 8 matches in is a”Traitorous” action.
Many on here holler endlessly about our team needing “spine” Some Gooners need to grow a boatload of it. always whining and b*tchin bout the same damn lame sh*t.
To them I stand by this.”Buck up, suck it up and STFU. Or move the f**K on…
This is a VERY telling comment. Because Ray Parlour has a history of being very pro Wenger, actually a Wenger fanboy and nearly always saysa good things about Arsenal.
If Parlour thinks there are problems then there definitely are.
So it’s not just the fans, not just the press, not just the football experts and former players, now it’s Wenger biggest supporters.
Mr Wenger please put us out of our miseries
1. Play Ozil, Cazorla as number 10
2. Sign defensive reinforcements (doesn’t need to be £32 million Hummels but someone of top quality) and top DM (Wilshere, Arteta, Flamini won’t cut it and Diaby is too injury prone)
3. Sign a top striker (Welbeck is very good and is young and could become world class, but we need someone like Falcao, Costa, Aguero)
4. Make a decision about Podolski, Campbell. Them not playing doesn’t help us nor does it help them. If you want to sell, loan then get players like Reus, Draxler, Cavani, Benzema etc. If you want to keep them then start giving then more minutes
Also
5. Off-load players that don’t cut it anymore (ie maybe Arteta, Flamini, for example)and loan players who need more playing time like Sanogo
Bla bla bla bla…
Most of the fans here, were calling for Wenger to extend his contract after the FA Cup win (Wigan won it the year before… But hey, people thought we were going on a winning pattern… Some “deluded” fans were even talking about winning the League and challenging for the CL…!! Yeah Right!)
Again, you look at the game on Saturday, we play much better when Wilshere went out… Wenger looks a depicted figure on the bench and it is the players, ONLY the players, who worked their socks off.
Wenger has the easiest job in the league… “Don’t do much (cannot do otherwise since he is tactically limited and lazy) and hope for the players to do the job”.
I don’t even think bringing more players in January would change anything (may be get closer to the top four) because the “man Management” is just ridiculously poor…!! It seems that every player coming to Arsenal is getting worse…!!
The injury sparte keeps going and going. The new physio said “it will take me a full year with the players to slightly rectify the situation…”
Tony Colbert is still around and in contact with the players as well as most the confirmed “incompetent” medical staff.
We have no chance, we never had a chance.
On Saturday we went with Monreal/Mertesacker as a CB pair… And Wenger is talking about a “must win” game… Deluded fool !
Wilshere is the catalyst, when he plays we struggle, what does it tell us??? I am not Jack hater, but the stat’s and results show.
I usually don’t comment after or during games for fear I would be banned from this site due to my anger and the language I would use plus I like analyzing / reviewing games after a day or so.
Well back to the topic at hand I think Parlour is spot on, we are miles away in terms of quality as compared to the City or Chelsea squad. BUT what angers me most is the fact that Arsenal is a VERY VERY big club which can easily match them, better them, or even be at par (its not all about the money its also about the manager forming a title winning squad within the available funds ), we’ve seen this at Man U (fergie time), Dortmund, Athletico, etc.
We cant win the league with Arteta, Flamini, Mert, in the squad and relying on underperforming players week in week out. Affordable but quite good players were available such as Caulker, Diame, Tiote, Wanyama, hell even Reid who all would have been a huge step up as compared to some players in OUR, dare I say it 1st 11 and these aint even WC most of us out here cry for!!!
If the board don’t want to suck Wenger let them atleast find him a suitable assistant who can actually help push the club forward. As it stands we wont even make it into the top four as there other teams playing way better and deserve a shot in Europe than us. Sad to see players like Sanchez who tries so hard only to be let down by our other weak minded players.
Why the hell does our manger play with a high line knowing we have Mert and Flamini at the core of our team!!! Our team play against us knowing will hit them on the break or on set pieces and don’t worry this is guaranteed as Arsene CANT change things.
We need to play to our strengths and not go out there looking clueless.
If Sanchez left after one season i would not hold any grudges whatsoever he is top class and deserves to be in a team challenging on all fronts he will never achieve that with us so instead of wasting his time he may as well move on to bigger and better things good luck to him if he does!
all in all, as much s i agree with some statements, how were the results with Song as DM?
I dont think it was close, to Silva and Vieira
What is Wenger’s actual vision and goal?????
Arsenal has the highest ticket prices in Europe and is one of the most profitable companies, oops i meant clubs 😉
what do they have to show for it? 1 FA cup in 10 years. The fans whom blindly support this company year after year thinking naively that the club has ANY ambition besides staying profitable and acquiring more companies are left crying game after game. Just look at some of the interviews. Moreover, the manager keeps lying to the fans knowing fully well the club has no ambition of winning the title or champions league while having 280 million dollars in the bank.
what a club!!