So third place in the table with 6 games to go, who would have thought, after the start we had. We now have the best away defensive record in the league and the best home goalscoring record. We also have a terrible record against the top teams though. I'm interested to know what people think that our poor start and lack of a challenge against United is down to: A) The team took too long to gel. Too many new players particularly in the forward line. B) Wenger is naive tactically. The fact that we have the best defence away from home and the best attack at home, shows that we are a good team, as long as we get the tactics right. C) The players needed to wake up. They were complacent and lazy at the start of the season. D) We have just been lucky. The team still isn't good enough and we just are starting to get the breaks and the calls from the referees, that is all. E) United have just been too good, too consistent, and too lucky. Without them, we would still have a sniff at the title. F) Our team is too young and too naive. We lack United's consistency. We need top mature players in order to win. It takes too long to grow your own stars and they leave too often. I don't believe people when they say we can't outspend United, City and Chelsea, for the top players that want to play in England. We need to spend and spend big. G) It is just football. Too much happens that is out of a team's control. We gave it a good shot, but the Gods are against us. The Premier League is far more competitive now. H) All of the above, except without anything positive. Nothing is right with the club. We need a change of manager, the board, the team and a change of strategy. These clowns don't have a clue about what they are doing. It's just a false dawn every year. I) All of the above except the bad stuff. We are a lot closer than some people think. We need one or two players that can be signed for a reasonable price. Then we are only a bit of luck and a retirement from Mike Dean away from another invincible team and 3 trophies next year.
A couple of reason's as to why he have not made a challenge for the title. 1. No world class forward, and two of our forwards were new to the league and had to adjust to their team and new surroundings. 2. The defence. Vermaelen,Sagna and Szczęsny have all had a season to forget, and these guys despite their form, have played a lot of games and they cost us points with their performances. That plus our defensive organisation has made for some terrible defending. 3. Our performances in the big games. Lost to Man City,Manchester United,Spurs and twice to Chelsea. 4. Our mentally is not that of a title winning team, in fact not a title winning club. We are no longer in the business of winning things. We are team that competes for the top four and it's something our players know how to do.
Where is the option for We cant afford to compete with the top teams with the cost of the stadium and the Arsenal philosophy so have become a second rate team punching above our weight to even qualify for the Champions League every year and leaving those in our shadow competing in the Eurodisney Cup.
We are not punching above our weight in trying to qualify for the CL. For those places, we are competing with Chelsea,Everton and Spurs. Only Chelsea have greater resources than us and that's because of their sugar daddy. We spend way more on wages than Spurs and Everton and make way more money.
You didn't complain that I called Arsenal second rate. Shame on you. But I was only....cant think of the word I want at the moment and cant be bothered to think
I was thinking about the Ramsey leg break a few days ago so I decided to check the matchday squad from that game and only 6 out of 18 players from that game are still playing at the club. This was only 3 years ago. That is shocking.
I've voted for 'too young and not strong enough' although I don't think age/experience is an issue, for me the simple truth is that we haven't been able to keep our best players and the players they been replaced with are inferior. AW made too many transfer mistakes 3/4 years ago buying average players which tied us to huge wage committments whilst weakening the squad, with the exception on Arteta and Cazorla I think every one of our signings has been an imitation of the talent we did have. I think we need 4, 5 maybe 6 top players (and despite recent performances I still say the back line needs serious reconstruction) which won't happen in one window so I don't see us competing (for the league) next year, maybe a couple of years we'll be OK....
We replaced the league's top scorer with a striker that currently sits at joint 8th in the top scorer's table. For some reason, despite decent defensive personnel, we can't defend for toffee, although replacing Vermaelen with Koscielny has helped. Our bench, although stronger than past seasons still looks pretty underwhelming. I think we need a world class striker, our formation and style of play demands it. We also need a dominating CB and a physical, destructive CM for the big games. Otherwise we'll continue to get bullied by the big teams. Can you remember when we played Chelsea at home? If we're honest with ourselves, they dominated us and should have scored more. We were second to every 50/50 that day. We don't seem to have the fight to compete at the moment ad we don't have a world class forward who can relieve the pressure. I think 3 top signings (maybe four if you count a GK) then we would compete when we travel to Manchester and Chelsea.
I think the fair play changes are going to squash that one. It was music to my ears to hear FAT SAM moaning about Andy Carroll last night.
I don't think that these fair play changes will make any difference. All the top clubs - including Arsenal - have 'creative' accountancy and legal consultants who will drive massive juggernauts through any legislation.
Not sure I get the "Big Clubs are smarter than little clubs" argument. West Ham obviously don't think they can creatively account their way round the regulations, even on the small scale they are talking about. If the West Ham owner cannot set up a sponsorship deal (which would be very possible on their new stadium etc) then how are Man city or Chelsea going to manage it for 10x that? If West Ham are whingeing then there IS something the whinge about.
x) Our team isn't good enough to win the league (young excuse won't fly no more), Wenger was naive tactically in competitions we could win (FA, CCCCCCC) Maybe the latter part is unfair on Wenger as the players also had a **** attitude, but responsibility ultimately lies with him on that too.
