Even though Arsenal are going to finish the calendar year of 2014 outside of the Premier League top four when we began the year on top of the tree, and having been knocked out of the Capital One cup at the first hurdle, Arsene Wenger has claimed that Arsenal have done very well over the last 12 months.
In an Arsenal.com report, the manager has been looking back over the year and seeing it in a very positive light. The main achievements he points to are the increase to 79 points and obviously the FA cup triumph at Wembley in May.
But the main reason for positivity in the Frenchman is that the Gunners have done all the things we have, including getting through two more Champions League groups, with an awful and terribly long list of injury problems. Without all those holding us back in the second half of last season and the first one of this, Wenger reckons we could have done a lot better and he also thinks that our bad luck on the injury front must have run its course.
He said, “Overall it [has been] a positive year, because we made 79 points last season and won the FA Cup. In the Champions League, we went out against Bayern unfortunately. But overall I think it was a positive year.
“This season, we’ll see where we get. But I think we are some points short of what we could have achieved. It’s time to catch back the points that we lost now until the end of the season.
“I feel it is nearly impossible that we will have the same bad luck on the injury front that we had in 2014. What is explainable in 2014 is that we had many players injured because they played in the World Cup.”
The boss thinks that things will improve from now on and although that may not be enough to really challenge for the Premier League title, he is determined to do his best and be ready if the teams above us do slip up.
Wenger said, “We will fight to be as close as possible [to the top]. We are not in a mode of calculating, we are in a mode of ‘let’s go to the next game and win it’.
“You give your best and if there is a weakness in front of you, you want to take advantage of it. I don’t know if there will be any weakness in front of us, but what I know is that we can give our best until the end of the season to have a chance to do it.
“I believe that there is a deficit between the potential we have shown and the number of points we have. That’s what we want to get right. I feel we were very, very unlucky with the injuries we got. With the number of injuries we’ve had, we have survived quite well.
“But I believe that hopefully in the second part of the season, we’ll have more stability, especially defensively, to be more consistent.”
So do you agree that 2014 was a good year for the Gunners? And will 2015 be a better one?
Our worst start in 32 years, definitely his fault
Compare the mentality of the man and the like of Moureeno,Guardiola etc…
The man has no pressure to deliver from the board,just balance the account that he does well(why not convert to to finance?),does not care for the feelings of the supporters,players who are not his favourites and the pundits.
At the start of the season we were closed to be in the talk with the big one needing by any one opinion a DM,a CB and a srtiker.
We got Wellbek by sheer luck but we missed on the most vital need,the Dm and the CB.
The good strikers of the world lick their lips at the prospect of facing the like of Arteta at DM and BFG at CB.
Like moureeno said,this culture of looser mentality is allowed only at Arsenal,anywhere else he would have got the sack.
It s true he did a good job helping the club going throug the stage of changing stadium and keeping them at the near top but the period of not being competitive has lasted too long,Arsenal don t seem to progress no more with him,let the supporters fight to get back their clubs from those at the command who don t really care about it.
Getting more than 79 points won’t be possible I think, but claiming the third spot is on, very much on, we can do better in that perspective
defending FA cup will be hard if we don’t get reinforcements, there’s a slim chance of that happening
But we can do better in Champions league, we got a rather easy draw in 2nd round, if we break that jinx, so much can happen beyond our expectation
#coyg
nope we could hv won the league…if wenger had signed proper player in jan window instead of kim kardashian
The World Cup excuse again………..
Simply put….no.
It speaks volumes what Arsene considers “doing well”. The FA cup win was nice to get the media/pundits/rival fans off our backs for a period, but the mediocre stagnation has continued again this year.
Done well? Oh Arsene…I’m praying he gets his mojo back, because he’s going out a shadow of the man who took us to new heights.
It’s only arsene that believe that we did well, we couldn’t even get up to 7points from other big teams league games this year
I want Chelsea to drop like 5 points, and then city lose a match or 2 too, just to make lead into single digits, not that we stand a chance, but it will feel better.
we want better players than kim kardashian this jan window!!!
The most pathetic things we can say is that we hate to watch Chelsea and Manchester United.These teams went out in the summer and bought quality players. Chelsea went out and spent over 90M on Diego Costa, Fabregas etc Manchester United spent over 150M to add great talent to there team, what did arsenal and Arsene do?
1) We bought a C-striker ( Welbeck) whose first touch is atrocious
2) We didn’t get a defensive midfielder( still waiting on Diaby ” God knows where he is”)
3) No defensive cover
4) Average players that no top teams would even include in there squad. These include
MERT,Wilshere, Sonogo, Gibbs Monreal, Flamini, Arteta, Welbeck.
Excuses after excuses from Wenger he keeps blaming the World Cup for the teams bad performances well Mr. Wenger 90% of B. Munich team played in the World Cup they are top of there league and they top there group in CL. My grandma use to say “you can’t teach a old dog new tricks” I am not by no means calling Mr. Wenger a dog but I am saying he is out of tricks(tactics). Even Southampton looks a better team than arsenal.
In his eyes we did! Settling for mediocre performances and wenger, seems to go hand in hand most of the time! We need to show better ambition than that!
The answer is quite simple. What team that is 3 nil up at half time can quite easily concede a defeat? There were several games this season that we dominated, and had the lead but threw away to a draw or loss, crippling our chances of winning the title. I believe this boils down to poor player positioning, wrong and ill timed substitutions and most importantly lack of planning for the inevitable injury crisis we have year after year. Arsene gets a lot of things right, but the things he gets wrong are massive like the above. Song was the closest thing we had to a decent DM, when he left we have had a gaping hole in that area for years. Every year we have injuries, every year Arsene blames it but never plans ahead. Players like Diaby should be let go…he is not contributing to the team at all, eating up the wage bill and using up a squad position which could rather be utilized by another fit player, like a DM or CB. On top of I am extremely surprised that Steve Bould sits there with weary eyes game after game and does not try and address these obvious issues…the money is probably to good for him to open his mouth and speak up or risk losing his job. It is plain and obvious to see that Chambers is NOT a good RB, he is too slow and been made look stupid by several wingers this season. Play him CB with Kossie where his height and ability is more suited, and then play either Debuchy or Bellerin RB where more pace is needed. Also I still have no idea what they see in Mertesacker…everytime Koss does not play, he looks like a bag of nerves, too scared to tackle and cannot win air balls regardless being well over 6ft. The exact reasons why Louw benched him for the WC finals.
What scares me the most is that pundits, ex-professional players and basically everyone who has analyzed Arsenal this season and before agree with everything I have said, but our manager cannot see it? Fix these flaws Wenger, sign a top CB and DM if possible in Jan and next season we will be competing for the title and have a much better chance in the CL. But right now, this season has been a failure because we have failed to fix issues stemming from years back.
Ya lets not look into why we have been getting the same injury record for the last 10 years, and pray/hope/imagine/speculate/put theories that it would be impossible this may happen again next year.
Apply this whole delusional approach that it is either luck or referees to tactics, transfers, substitutions, training, communication with fans, etc. and you will get a team like Arsenal; never good to win the big trophies, but never weak to get its average deluded manager/dictator out.
Yes wenger did said it right that we are doing good. He know his team qualities, he know he can’t complete with the top club, he know we belong to the 2nd tier team and we achieved a 4th and fa cup so is not a bad achievement.
Maybe he still think we still can get the 4th as usual with his spent less and earn more for the board and think other teams will remain as their positions but this season more teams want to join the 2nd tier so more competition so he on the edge more this time.
YES I still think wenger can nick the 4th because that his job and he is good with but if you all want trophy than you all have to wait for luck, see which micky mouse cup that top club don’t want.
I can see arsenal will remain as 2nd tier as the time of period cos that how arsenal run. One thing good about our board and Wenger, they really know how to sell arsenal. The board know how to use wenger cos wenger got a lot of die hard followers so even if he can’t achieved, they will still there.
If arsenal want to be a top club only when the board change their philosophy or change the board. Wenger will still be around till he is not longer can be used, physically. Mentally he is gone. Opps I take back my words.
It’s all good
In Wenger we trust
At the start of 2014, we were 5 points clear at the top of the table. We eventually finished the season in 4th position.
It infuriates me that Wenger can smile and come up with stuff like that in the press conferences.
Do you think SAF or Mou will come out and say things like that?
HELL NO!
This is the average mentality running though the club at the moment, right from the board to the manager and eventually the players.
he needs a kick up the ars-ene if he thinks he did well
he’s been mediocre at best for the last 9 years if compared to top level managers
No he wrong Arsenal are 9 points down on last year and the way we played the last 3 matches makes me sick. Taken our front men off and putting on defenders on this is not Arsena.
Is this all Wenger has left in his locker, if it is he should just go.