It is getting better for Arsenal and us fans after a battling 10 man comeback away to the spuds and a cracking 4-0 win over Hull City in the FA cup. We can only hope that the Gunners can keep it up and that we have not left it too late for a decent tilt at the Premier League title and that we can get that record of three cup wins on the spin.
I have a feeling that the previous run of games, just three wins from 11 games culminating in three consecutive defeats to Barcelona, Man United and Swansea, may have done irreparable damage to our season and it has certainly seen the knives coming out for Arsene Wenger.
Both Arsenal fans and the football press have been raising questions about the prof and his future at the club and even though he has publicly dismissed the criticism it must be having an effect and I think it is starting to get to him. So the turnaround in performances and results over the last two games should have taken the pressure off the manager.
Not if he had nothing to do with it though, and that is how I take the words of Theo Walcott reported by The Mirror. The England international revealed that there had been a crisis meeting arranged by four senior Arsenal stars in which the squad vented their feelings and that seems to have triggered a positive response.
Theo said, “We are not going to lie – we know as a unit it has been tough and we all had a good chat amongst us behind closed doors, without even any of coaches or the manager knowing about anything.
“I think it is important that as a team [to know] we have got it in us. We just have to produce it more often.
“You had a sense of the Tottenham game especially, when you go down to ten men in a big game like that, the belief and the character was there.
“The never-give-up spirit was there as well. In the derby matches, they could be the matches that turn your season and we may have turned the corner maybe.
“We have quite a lot of experienced players in the dressing room. It came from Cech, Mikel, Per and Tomas. We have four good old heads there.
“I’d like to keep what was said among ourselves but it was very important. We have had a reaction from it anyway.
“The manager probably knows about it anyway – he’s got ears everywhere at the club! The manager respects the players’ privacy and what’s happening personally amongst us all. It was a meeting to express how everyone was feeling basically and it worked.”
It is good that this happened but |I have to wonder why it did not come from the manager. Should Wenger not have instigated something like this before the players felt they had to take it on themselves to sort out the slump?