Simple question. Do you trust Wenger again? After Santos looked good last night, Koscielny has been immense, Arteta very good, Gervinho promising, Chesney sublime, and Mertesacker average to middle-ish...has your trust in Arsene been restored? Mine has to a very large extent. I've been a staunch supporter in the past, but my belief in his ability to do a good job was severely wavering towards the start of the season. I now feel he's really turned things around and Arsenal will push on. I'm terrified that the team is one van Persie injury away from a crisis, but...I'm definitely In Wenger We Trust.
Never lost faith in Wenger, have supported him throughout the whole Wenger Out nonsense and trohpyless seasons. He is a fantastic manager and clearly the best man for the job. He will do well this season and has really turned thsi team around - his signings are looking good and the team is looking strong. I have no doubt he will grab top 4 again and we will have a decent CL run.
Like Cym and afcftw said, I never lost faith in Wenger. It's only fools who wanted Wenger out. Same sort of fools who were calling for Fergie's head a few years back. Great managers are great because they can deal with issues and sort them out.
How can I change my mind just like that - until time proves he will buy more sensibly, employ better tactics, retain key players, sell the waste of time ones......yes of course we are catching up now the team is performing better - but we started as relegation material.
His signings have so far looked very good this season - particularly now they are settling into the team and style of play. So not sure why your unhappy with his transfer dealings or think he needs to "buy more sensibly" - or is that to do with when he made the signings? If so i don't think it's as simple as buy the players when you want to. Employ better tactics? We have adapted to more quick paced direct wing play as well as tippy-tappy - and last season against Barca showed the choice of different tactics - defending well, and the chelsea game last season with the very high pressing game. I think this is a load of nonsense when people go on about Wenger not being tacticaly aware enough - he is very good tacticaly. Retaining key players is not just about a managers choices - it is down to the players as well. And with the money being thrown around at the moment it's a difficult task. AW has dealt with the loss of key players well though imo and kept us competitive. And i think it's clear he wants to get rid of the rubbish but you have to have someone willing to buy them in the first place! We had a poor start to the season and have recovered very well and look good going forward. Can't see how people can be unhappy with Wenger for this...
No faith has not been restored at all. He is quick to say things change in football fast, well, I am using that same belief right now, a few good results have papered over many cracks to me, I'm not sure he has fixed anything at all .. time will tell.
so - the report card says ' fair progress this term - however, after a disturbing few years Arsene only works hard when it is already a bit late. Given the difficult situation he is working in with his peers, who are able to buy extra resources, the outlook has improved. An in-depth examination will have to take place if he is to continue with us after the standard 2 more years. He remains confident but can frustrate those who care about his stewardship'.
Having won the last nine games - I would suggest that this is far from 'papering over the cracks'. It was always going to take time for a new team to gel, and that's what we're seeing now. Some people are too quick to judge and condem. At the start of the season lots of people on here were calling for wenger to be sacked, some were even suggesting we do so to avoid relegation - and now those views are being exposed as being knee jerk and disproportionate to the reality of the situation.
???? We beat Dortmund, just beat Norwich, just beat West Brom, drew with a shocking Marseille, somehow beat Chelsea while conceding 3 goals, squeaked past Bolton, made tough work of Stoke, limped to victory against a poor Marseille in Marseille and just beat Sunderland - you want me to jump for joy about this ??? Wins are wins and I am happy we are getting the results but be under no illusion that I am happy. The only decent team we beat was Chelsea and they are having their worst slump since Abramavich bought the club and we conceded 3 against them. Dortmund have been having their own problems too even though they are out of their slump. We have papered over cracks, there is nothing defining about what I have seen thus far. Lets see how we cope with the winter fixtures, only then will my mind change.
I do not think it is about trust. There is a lot of fans that just dislike Wenger and his vision of football. As a rule they are secretly craving for a macho, bullish football, "English steel", "contact sport", £50 ml strikers, and all that c**p. They will raise their heads as soon as, do not worry.
Well the trust that was there in the first place was eroded by the youth experiment that led to nowhere. It was good while it lasted but it never lasted an entire season since come February we would begin our slide to fourth place. What got to me was how it seemed that Arsene could do nothing about arresting the slide last season. I don't need to go into the painful details save to say that the problem was compounded because we were so late in sourcing players in the transfer window over the summer. Even if I began to find some of that faith again I cannot help being mindful that we are not out of the woods yet. Just take away RvP for a few games and see where we end up. That is how much we are balancing on a knife edge. Until the entire team improve their finishing, our defence not give away cheap goals I'll have to say that no, trust is not altogether restored. As said often before, I would like to remember Arsene for all the good things he had done for the club and that includes the youth experiment. What he didn't do was to change tactics when he needed to and I'm not entirely sure if this is within him to do so. I also hold the entire board culpable for the erosion of faith.
TheHotHead is right though in that (Europe aside) we've played some decidedly average teams. Even Chelsea, whilst taking nothing away from our victory, are ****ety **** **** **** right now. We are taking small steps in the right direction but I certainly don't think we're there yet. Lest we forget every fecking season we have a wobble, get lambasted by the media for being arty farty fannies, put a run on, get knocked out of a cup and spectacularly implode. Last season was the worst of the lot and exascerbated by the players who left but it's a pattern we seem annoying fond of. I shall reserve judgement until the end of the season as to whether or not we're back where I feel we should be. As to Wenger, always loved him, always will but recently it's grown into the way I loved my grandad. Lovely man but over the years he's becomming a bit more of a nutbar! Plenty of positives at the moment to draw upon so I'm not my negetivepants, I just don't want to get carried away.
Mine wavered big time. I wanted Ancelotti in. It wasn't so much that I thought Wenger was a bad manager, but that a fresh start was needed and I couldn't see where it was going to come from. The team had lost its creative spark without sorting out its defensive woes. In other words, we were ****. However, with RVP's form, Walcott's improvement, Arteta, Santos, Gervinho and Mertesacker featuring heavily the team has a new feel to it. A new kind of strength. I like these players for their attitude and the way they go about playing for the team. I doubted Wenger but, I feel, for the right reasons. I never disliked him as a person or belittled his achievements. I was wrong and I am happy to admit that.
The games I didn't see I had full text commentary on BBC and at no point in the games I said were close did we look like we were running away with it. Late goals scored, nervy endings, mediocre teams. I have absolutely no confidence that when we play a proper tough team that we won't get rolled over - and I am only talking mid table teams.
Personally, I don't care if we win beautifully, ugly, nervously, luckily, assured, confidently, bullishly, doggedly, etc etc A win is a win and we've won our last nine games - basically that's all that counts.
Clearly you have never seen United win the premiership in recent years. Because that's exactly how they did it.
If we had a defence as solid as United's has been in those years we would've won more leagues. Ifs and Ands. A team with a ****e defence won't win the league, need I remind you of "1 - nil to the Arsenal ......." United may have ground out results but their defence was never pants.
