Wenger deserves great credit for Arsenal win by Sam P
When Arsene Wenger turned to the Arsenal bench early in the second half of a tough game against a Norwich City side fighting for their Premier League survival, the Arsenal fans were delighted to see Danny Welbeck getting ready to come on and with plenty of time to influence the game.
But when we saw that it was Alex Iwobi and not Olivier Giroud that was to be replaced, the delight turned to confusion and the boss got more boos for that sun than he did from the planned protests in the 12th and 78th minutes. I was a bit baffled myself, as the big Frenchman had really struggled to have any impact on the game.
Even though I thought that the way Norwich had set up and the lack of width from our so-called wide players was not helping him, I thought it was sure to be Giroud to get the hook, especially with his confidence at rock bottom after his longest goal drought since joining the Gunners.
So I think we should hold our hands up and give Wenger the credit he deserves for getting this right. Welbeck had more space to operate in out wide and he gave the team more width and that changed the shape of the game. Also, Giroud’s excellent work as a target man set up the goal, so you have to say the sub worked out perfectly.
The boss explained his thinking to Arsenal Player like so, “I saw the opportunity there, because Alex Iwobi comes more towards the ball but, with a runner in behind on our left side, there was some room to exploit, and Danny did that very well.
“That is good for his confidence as well. Overall I’m very happy.
“We were a bit subdued at the start – serious, but not fluent enough and not quick enough or sharp enough. During that period in the first half, we needed not to concede a goal.
“After that, we slowly took over and in the end we won 1-0. That’s what we needed above all. It was a bit of a strange atmosphere and the most important thing for us was to win the game.
“In these kind of games, you know that you will have a fight until the last second. We’ve just played two teams who fight not to go down.
“When people look at the table, they think [you will get] six points, but we have seen that you have to work very hard to get the points.”
I know we are all armchair manager’s at times and some of the decisions from Wenger leave us scratching our heads but we should also remember that he is a football manager with tons of experience and a proud record. Let’s give the man some credit shall we?
AW still “Da Man”…
…..with the best hair in the 60 to 70’s category.
sorry keegan
our boys got game
He is still the man for profit
4th place trophy is better than winning trophy
No big money signings
Cohesion
Injuries Bad tactics
Miss chances
Ucl round of 16 exit
Wenger in wenger out story of arsenal every year last 12 years.
Hahaha……….a sub done outta frustration and pressure @ 55mins…. Very much unlike him
Diabolically, Giroud and Ramsey will start again vs Citeh
So Yea….still da man! L()L
What confused me was why iwobi was subbed off after having a very good game, and giroud was wasn’t?
wenger used gazidis shiny head as a dolorean an went 88mph 1 hr into the future ….he knew giroud would assist.
take that koeman
#flux capacitor
Iwobi was likely not subbed because he had done anything wrong at all. It was a question of position.
Wenger likely wanted the 2 big men (Giroud and Welbeck) up front together because Arsenal could not score using the ground game. so it was either Alexsis or Iwobi who had to make way.
The real question should be why Wenger chose to start Giroud and Ramsey?? Of course we know the answer: He did it out of spite for his critics and because of favoritism for his “pet” players.
OG in the previous game set up Iwobi with 2 great chances. More than our so called assist men. Maybe he thought that having OG in there to knockdown a cross for a wide open shot was a good way for the team to win. He was right.
most fans have the tendency to overprotect some players when they are on a high, for example last season if someone dared to criticise sanchez he would get attacked left and right and now greg thought iwobi had a very good game and its his opinion and i can understand his thinking, but for me iwobi was okay, cause he had a lot of time on the ball but misplaced a lot of passes and i think iwobi like sanchez has the tendency to overplay/overdribble till they have a bad touch or lose their footing but because they are fast on the feet they do manage to pass the ball to a player but then the defense could manage to come back and form in a steady line, so i for example was happy to see iwobi get changed for welbeck cause giroud plays the ball much quicker than iwobi/sanchez and i thought it would be better if he had faster passing in the final third
and we all should know that giroud often manages to lay off the ball to willing runners (for example the goal of walcott against leicester i think) he often does it but we squander a lot of chances, well giroud is one of the main culprits in squandering chances.. sanchez too and özil squanders a lot of clear cut chances too… we absolutely need some killer finishers
and yep i agree fully with the author the credit goes to wenger on this one, but i know that a lot of guys here will start saying “no the credit goes to us for pressuring wenger into making early substitution and generally he should have started anyway with welbeck etc.”
im very sensible…im known for being captain sensible..sen to the sible homey.
when i say he made that sub due to my telepathy powers ….
so yes i will take credit
as arsene once said
” u cant make a ho a housewife”
hahaha i for one am giving you the credit! sorry that i just now got to hear the real truth behind this whole thing :O
Yes ..
And you can add that credit to the ‘Only’ other one that he got lucky with.. When Welbeck came on and scored the winner against 10 men Leicester! ?
But isn’t the real question … why the hell wasn’t Welbeck starting in the first place? ?
And What did Campbell do so wrong? ?
he was playing well, when given the opportunity!
There’s two sides to every story!..
And bias tends to choose the one that you prefer!
I can’t understand why Wenger started Giroud, Welbeck for me is ahead of Giroud every day of the week, still not good enough yet to be our main CF though…
Few people can understand that decision (Ramsey vs. Coq also) because most people think logically.
But when you consider Wenger’s motivations it all becomes quite clear. He started Giroud and Ramsey to spite his critics and to reward his favorite little pet players. Winning or logic were never factors in the decision process.
With a bit of luck Wenger will be able to turn round to Gazidis and say “See, I told you I need a top CF, now get me !”
Welbeck doesn’t shoot enough and needs to be told to shoot more often, I like him as he has all the attributes but the fact is Wenger didn’t want to sign him and he wouldn’t have if he wasn’t at the WC.
Great potential but I think we are all sick of great potential, we want some players who have hit their potential… or at least a lot more complete than the players we already have.
I don’t mean to knock Welbeck, as I said, I like the guy and keeping my fingers crossed he can make it. I am disappointed in the board for buying him when for all we know Wenger wanted to get a more finished player, we do not know who Wenger wanted, again sad to see fans blame him for not having a good enough CF when the board went ahead without Wengers consent.
Apparently it was SAF that advised Wenger to buy Welbeck.
What’s that Elneny. .. Oh .. Elneny says that he would not be surprised if Wenger told Welbeck to shoot less ? ?
As he said the same thing to him. ?
as long as u dont diss theo .we good homey.
we good
no one disses the kp peanut
the walnut whip
MD where ya been ?
enjoyin the sun with the missus.
an no i didnt have to ‘inflate her first’
u utter mongoose 🙂
Lol. That’s Mangoose 🙂
Blud man 🙂
Dat was a blud sub
Y’kno what I’m sayin Blud.
Your da man Blud.
Keep maken dem changes Blud 🙂
One Arsene Wenger Blud.
Bring on dat man again Blud. He alway score de goal Blud.
Wellbeck Campbell Iwobi de Blud bwuvers Blud.
We gonna win d league Blud Understand Blud.
We love ya Blud we do Blud 🙂 Showin da love Blud
We all Arsenal Blud. Blud bwuvers and sistis Blud 🙂
Hi davidnz let me repost my answer for the other topic here: thanks a lot ^^ you are one of the critics of wenger/commenters i do like along with fatboy and muffdiver etc.
first of all, yep i am indeed a fan of arsene but i dont think that he always knows best, and i also think that this season was a terrible failure, and the blame has to go to the manager and some players.
yep i think thats a sensible expectation, well the leicester winning thing is a one-off i dont think that because of it one can say that money doesnt play a role anymore, but yes it showed that money cant be always blamed, money is an indicator for chances of the title but arsenal has enough money, i agree with you there and yep hand on heart our beautiful football has disappeared! its one of the thing it saddens me the most, i think the last season where i was really proud and did think that we kept our beautiful football was the season with the most beautiful goal i have ever seen.. the wilshere goal against norwich and that rosicky goal against “dont know against whom anymore” but i think where our decisions differ is that i think that till the season 11/12, maybe 12/13 overachieved/ had success, cause some year ago in the 12/13 season you wrote that he underachieved in this period, haha i still remember that xD but after that he should have won atleast one title and its a disappointment that we never had more than 80 points in the last few years..
so i hope that you see that i dont blindly follow wenger i am disappointed to but for me sacking wenger is just no option and the fan in me still believes in him, i am up for the fight, in my view he got 3 years for his dedication and success in keeping arsenal in the top four while selling top stars cause i think that has to be considered as extremely difficult, and he has failed in 2 years and has one to go. thats my opinion
and i am up for the fight 🙂
Yes fair comments Krish.
Yes the Leicester win is
probably a one in hundred
year occurrence.
This year when all the top guns struggle we are beaten by an
amazing Leicester who will probably get relegated next season!!!!!
That is unlucky and I don’t normally like the lucky excuse.
Will go back and check 2011,2012,2013
to refresh my memory and I’ll let you know.
So if your manager next season who’s in who’s out?
Whats your 25 man squad (8 English players included)
Not now but some time…
Oh and who will be your manager? …. 🙂
midkemma yes i do like welbeck too as i like giroud too but yep i agree with you, they are both just good strikers an nothing more.. last season welbeck was really bad as a starting striker he scored like 4 goals or something, he has the pace the body and the technic but not the finishing, giroud an welbeck are great squad players but we do need someone like griezmann or even an unknown striker who delivers.. and i would really love to have a goalscoring front 3 who can exchange and share the scoring.. well yeah sure they dont have to be on the level of msn but not on the level of disappointment as GTA 😛 (giroud theo alexis 😛 )
So now we have sunk so low that we must “hail” Wenger for subbing on a player that actuality should have started in the first place?? Help.
i find it quite offensive that theres the aob an akbs what about ppl like me who make no sense an who bring nothing to the table but my rainbow scatter brain matter
thug life
Ozil and Alexis should demand wc players next season or demand transfer if they refuse to buy.