After getting a serious dressing down on live TV by former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson last night, as the Gunners toiled against Champions League minnows Anderlecht in Belgium, Arsene Wenger and his players have come in for more criticism today.
One of our unlucky opponents from last night, who must still be wondering just how they managed to lose after leading by 1-0 with injury time due to begin, has blasted the Gunners for our performance, tactics and declared that we are a million miles behind their previous Champions League visitors and the team we are hoping to overhaul in the group, Borussia Dortmund. He really gave it to the Gunners with both barrels, as reported by the Daily Express.
Anderlecht midfielder Steven Defour said, “Arsenal were hoping for a moment of brilliance from Alexis Sanchez or Danny Welbeck and didn’t have many runners from midfield.
“Dortmund’s midfielders seemed to be coming from everywhere three weeks ago.
“Three weeks ago, Dortmund outplayed us and we have to accept they were the better team, but I don’t think Arsenal were stronger than we were.”
As if that was not bad enough, Arsenal fan and former player Emmanuel Frimpong unleashed a string of damning tweets during the match, as reported in the Daily Express. The midfielder was clearly enjoying the game about as much as Merson. Most of Frimmy’s rantings concerned the somewhat confusing transfer policy of the Arsenal boss, which has seen him add more tricky midfielders in the last couple of years while ignoring the need to strengthen elsewhere.
He wrote, “Said it and will say it again we need a F****** centre back with Laurent [Koscielny], a bloody DMF and a bloody striker.
“And before u start going down on me it’s bloody true all our players are so similar Jack [Wilshere], [Aaron] Ramsey, [Mikel] Arteta, [Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain] Chambo, Sanchez, [Mesut] Ozil all too similar.
“FFS Sanchez has had a good season but no disrespect would have been better using that to buy a centre back and a DMF bloody sick of it man.”
The 22-year old who is currently playing in Russia for a club called FC Ufa, did finally send a happy tweet praising Lukas Podolski for his last gasp winner. I wonder if the Frenchman takes any notice of this sort of criticism, but you would hope that it spurred him and the players into proving it wrong.
Should have kept Dench. Dude needed a bit of nurturing, but he would have been our Tiote…
” no runners from the midfield”
Exactly what I have been saying. Wonder why it all changed after the substitutions?
@galaxygooner
People complained to no end about Olivier not scoring. Why. Because our mid field won’t make any runs. Wellbeck like Olivier had 2/3 defenders hanging off of him and Jack/Ramsy wants to hoof the ball up to him, then sit back and see what happens. Instead of trying to draw some the defenders with them by making runs. I guess thats why Alexis was looking so pissed. He was the “only”guy get behind their defense or at least trying to.
Alexis looked properly annoyed yesterday. He’s so much better than the rest of the team it’s embarrassing at this point.
Not talking about danny
we have many players who are similar in style cazorla/wilshere can’t play 2gether esp cazolra on counter attacks he slows down the momentum allows opp 2 regain their pos
Because we’re playing too many creative players at the same time, two or three every game instead of two wingers, one creative player, one box to box and one defensive midfielder as we should have.
Welbeck hasn’t been moving as much up top either. He gets around, tackles, defends even, but there weren’t really any attacking runs from him last night, or against Hull either.
If we’re crying out for one player at the moment, it’s Theo Walcott. Alexis and Ox are quick, but they don’t make runs without the ball like Theo does, they run at defences instead of in behind. Theo is what we’re missing. What we’re also missing is Ramsey, he hasn’t looked like he did last year, not yet at least.
Mick Alexis makes many runs in-behind without the ball, but is seldom found, as the ACMs can’t get it to him. When watching the game yesterday it was pretty obvious that Alexis felt if we were going to win the game it was going to come through him so he started coming back for the ball to take over. No surprise he played in Calum for his ball to Gibbs; and made the second goal for Podolski. Would’ve made an earlier one for Podolski but Santi intercepted it.
The team needs balance. Welbz up to, theo and alexis wide; santi or mesut at the 10; jack or aaron as CM; and a new CDM; a new CB – and then we’ll be good to go.
Ramsey is struggling because Wenger is starting him too high up the field. Jack is struggling because he’s being asked to do something he’s not capable of.
Joel campbell is playing with the parking brake on and afraid to make a mistake because he rarely plays. Had we balanced the team selection more, that kid would be in fine form already.
@TH14atl
Spot on about Joel. Dude looks like he’s been neutered. If he were to cut loose, he’d be up there workin 100% like Alexis.
Spot on mate.
Wenger lost it. Believe me his zero tactics are letting us down, why not put aside his jack project and make the team’s creativity multi dimensional because every time jack’s out we play well create and score and i don’t believe it’s a conicindence.
We need 1AM and 2Wingers if any one noticed both goals came from wings
Frimpong? Like seriously? Where does he play again? And then a frustrated player losing the game they thought is in their pocket for 90 minutes? One lesson : the game is ended when the ref whistles the last time. They were warned with our late goals so no excuse for them.
As I said, there’s no way for me to say that we did not play like $hit but in the end of the day the score line is what remains after.
Why criticize frimpong ? He is frustrated just like the rest of us. An academy graduate. He will always be a gunner. He wasn’t out off line in anyway.
Well, if our academy is producing only Frimpongs then there’s something wrong there.
Bad loosers!!!
Frimpong come on take a break. The season is long, remember Chelsea last year they were playing awful in the Champions league.
Dude please. Ita time we discard the illusion of calling ourselves Chelsea’s rival anymore. We are not. We are now rivals with Spuds, Everton and possibly Liverpool. Lets stop flattering ourselves by comparing ourselves with Chelsea and face the reality.
We’re now being called a one-man team (Sanchez). With Walcott back, hopefully that won’t be the case anymore. Sadly, Ramsey seems to have lost his way and doesn’t know how to come back.
Ramsey is the guy who worries me the most. He is just so far away from the player he was last year. Even the most maligned player right now (Wilshire) seems closer to finding his form and has moments of near brilliance (there was one turn in the first half that was amazing but followed by another missed pass). Ramsey, I’m not seeing anything. If Diaby is ready I’d like to see him start above both of them.
Play ramsey beside the DM in a 4231 and watch him regain form.
Where’s Diaby?
So many people have made so many disparaging comments about yesterday’s game. Perhaps they are right or even wrong but some comments are such that wishes that we had lost the match so as to prove how right they have always been than mere observations. I ask again, should we play well and loose or play badly and win? How much do we know about a true champions if not that they manage to scramble a win at odd displays. We played so well against Hull and yet grinded out a draw. We played so badly according to many of us but still have the 3 points against anderlect. Many expected a five-star display and walloping but instead got poor display as well as the 3 points. Every dog has its bad days. most importantly, we won and are on the brink of qualifying for second round.
Spot on Chima. Two years ago ManU won the PL in part by winning a shed load of games in the last few minutes after playing like muppets for 80-85 minutes. Their character was praised. If Arsenal continue to play like last night, we won’t win a thing. On the other hand , if we can’t win games like this when we are shite, we won’t win a thing once we start playing well.
Truth is, I saw a kind of hunger in Arsenal in the last two games. A determination not to loose no-matter-what kind of hunger. If we compare the two games, u realise that there was real determined fight and not the usual giving up before the final whistle.
well u won’t win anything if u have to grind every match…what people are complaining is that most aspects of our game is shit..it is not so much as the opposition playing well..its more of us being shit !
Even if they both were right wenger is too stubborn and unmoved even when being given critism for his unsenseable sctions! Coyg!
Somebody tell us..Where is Diaby..?
Our dm signing in january ?
some socalled fans are just unbelievable..
arsenal lost they complain
arsenal won they still complain
please what do you guys really want the club to do..
real professional football is different from FIFA 15..
every champion-to-be-team cant always win with an excellent all round performance….
at 87th minute most fake/plastic arsenal fans wanted the team to lose so they could have some reasons to ridicule the club and insult wenger on his birthday….
lol….
God bless sanchez that player is the most devoted arsenal player this season..
I wish we had atleasst 4 sanchez in the team…
The fact that Frimpong is essentially calling Sanchez, the man who is carrying us right now, a luxury buy says all I need to know about his punditry skills.
We have only won 5 games and is almost november.
We’ve been playing like absolute sh*t bar 2-3 games.
Why on earth should we be happy…
Can I just say, having an inexperienced 19 year old as our backup centre back is unacceptable. Back up right back? Maybe. And Monreal covering centre back? Unacceptable.
I don’t just mean unacceptable as in we need to fix it as soon as possible, I mean unacceptable to the extent that it should cost someone their job. It’s that bad.
Wenger only takes criticism from Wenger.
which btw never comes 🙂
It’s ridiculously simple. It’s not brain science except for Wenger
Have 2 specialist wingers (Walcott and Sanchez, Sanchez can play on both sides so you can play Campbell or Ox on the other side), a creative midfielder in the center (Ozil or Cazorla) and striker up front
Stop playing Ozil and Cazorla on the wings. We have players for that ie Sanchez, Walcott, Ox, Campbell.
Also, if a player is not performing well do not start them. Keep them on the bench, like Wilshere who is not performing well.
Also, last night: Chambers should have replaced Monreal and Bellerin should have played right back. Monreal has been great this season as left back but looked uncomfortable in centre.
Fred I only disagree about Chambers replacing Monreal. Chambers did not look settled last night. His distribution was poor, and his tackling worse. He’s too handsy in the challenge when it’s not necessary, and is no surprise he’s already got 5 yellow cards. He’s got to settle down a bit.
Everything else you said was spot on.
When Sanchez first came to the club everyone was blown away by how hard he works in training. lol. that says it all right there. You would think that everyone else would step up to his level and work their *ss off but we haven’t seen any of that so far. Everyone else is just lazy. Wenger pampers and massages their ego.
The fans know we need top quality CB & DM
EX Pros know it
Ex players know it
Only the man who can do its stays stubborn and every game we struggle
The telegraph states 70% fans want wenger out , my question is who are the 30%
In my opinion if we start winning I would still like someone to change the ways of the club now, this season is over for the PL and CL so give someone time to build the team properly
Our season is far from over but as the saying goes it’s not over until the fat lady sings,heard Wenger wants to sign bella emberg in January ! Lol
The reaction to this game is ridiculous, it is always said that the sign of a good team is one that doesn’t play well but that gets a result. The worrying results have been the games that we have been on top for 90 mins but still can’t get the win. This result is a good results from a poor game, and to be honest I would take a few more of those than more 2-2 draws.
please fix this issue…comments are written but its like they are posted in invisible ink
ADMIN COMMENT – It looks fine my end. Perhaps try using a different browser?
Cazorla and Ramsey sacrificed to accommodate Wack Wilshere. This is getting beyond a joke. Wenger knows it but still persists.
@RVP
CTFU@ Wack Wishere. Lil dude reminds me of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch…
Wenger has said that his tactical gamble paid off (subs after customary 75 min). This is what the biggest drawback of the win. That delusional fool now thinks he is capable of tactical changes and win the game. FFS. I am lost for words now!!
If we had a better manager we would be a lot better no motivation players to comfortable hardly any winners in our side lack of will to win at all costs.
We are just pathetic right now if we play anyone half decent and I mean even teams like Stoke I can see us losing easily.
This Wenger’s way of playing a player out of position needs to stop. Wenger thinks it makes the player versatile. But this works for those players who are still learning and do not have a specific strength or weaknesa so they can be moulded in different ways. Like Ramsey of last to last year. Like Wilshere when he was 19. Like Campbell right now. Bur you dont fu#king play players like ozil, ramsey, cazorla out of position game after game when they are already well established players for a certain position. It creates uncertainty in their minds and affects their understanding in the match. Even if it is acceptable to some extent playing mf or forwards in multiple positions , it is NOT AT ALL acceptable for a lb to play as cb. FFS you just cant do that in defense. It is such basic understanding. Wenger has made AFC a comic freak show. So embarrassing.
Hmm I wonder where hes going to play walcott wen he comes back mayb CDM that # brainless man #AW
Walcott set to be on bench against Sunderland on Saturday but Koscielny unlikely to be fit, acc 2 reports.
it’s not just frimpong everyone has this opinion teams no longer fear us they know how 2 beat us yet wenger doesn’t change his tactics
Arsenal’s Wellington Silva has been called up to the Brazil U21 side, he is having a great season
Wellington: “Arsenal have invested a lot in me. They made sure that they want to count with me as soon as possible”
Both spot on and glad they said it. The whole team needs to get their sh*t together soon or our poor play and attitude will rub off on the new and enthusiastic players, can already see the start of sanchez being disillusioned! Also Per’s comments saying he’s strugglibg for motivation, is this code for ‘don’t give a toss/ can’t be bothered’?
Exactly lack of motivation is spread right through the club. Even the chairman Sir ‘Fish & Chips’ says if the manager has a plan we back him (even if the plan is useless) and if not we do nothing (which translates as ‘we, the board couldn’t give a toss as long as the manager can continue to hood wink the fan into paying the highest ticket prices with one silly excuse after another’)
Frimpong is 100% right and good on him for having the balls to say something. All our midfielders are similar and we do need a world class CB, DM and striker. Whoever disagrees with Frimpong knows f#$k all about football. Did anyone read Sam Allardyce’s recent comments about Wenger? Even he said in a polite way that Wenger has lost it and all he does is buy midfielders that are 5’8″. Sanchez was a great buy because he is playing in his normal position. You look at how many attacking midfielders Wenger has turned from good to bad recently, Asharvin, Carzola and now Ozil. Do you think its the players faults or is it just by coincidence, Wenger.
Martin Luther King had a dream, so do I. Pep Guardiola as manager and Theirry Henry assistant.