We need a striker and a CB. Many fans were already before the season began saying we potentially need a new CB. And even last year, everyone still wanted a world class striker alongside a top dmf. Oh and we needed a gk too, we sorted that one out.
Only just back from work. Didn't see the game but was getting updated on my phone. I'll watch the game on MOTD later, but first thoughts are disappointed to chuck a 2 goal lead away into a 3-2 scoreline in 8 fcuking minutes ! But good to come back and draw. Before the game I would have taken a point. West Ham have been very good at home this season.
I need to address these two sentences in three separate points. 1) I don't know what makes you so sure we will improve, having not displayed any signs of progression this season from the last. We've lost more games and will most likely finish with a lower points tally compared to the previous two campaigns. We will finish in roughly the same position as the last two seasons, but we don't have any silverware to show for it. The two teams ahead of us at the moment have no right to be challenging for the title, yet we languish 10 points behind the leaders with 6 games left. We've kept saying that we will improve for the last 12 years and we haven't shown substantial improvement at all. Every year, we complain about the same things. Why do you think next season will be any different? 2) Are our players at good ages though? Mertesacker, Monreal and Koscielny are all in their 30s and we don't look to have any solid back-up as of yet. Gabriel is at the ripe age of 25, but question marks hang over whether he's good enough for us. The age of the defence does concern me greatly. Also, Cazorla is 31, Rosicky is 35, Arteta is 34, Giroud is 30 this year, Flamini is 32 & Cech is 33. A lot of these positions are in urgent need of revamping, yet given our previous transfer windows, there's very little evidence to suggest that we should be optimistic of replacing these players properly. 3) I understand that we've heard it a lot that Arsenal will be in trouble for many years now, but if we don't add fresh faces to the squad, we will genuinely be in trouble for next season. I'll explain why. West Ham are moving into the OS for virtually nothing, so they'll be getting more income without having the burden of having to pay for the stadium like we did. Their bargaining power in the market becomes stronger. Spurs have looked very sharp this season and will look to add to their squad, so they'll be up there. Klopp at Liverpool will be granted the opportunity to sign the players he wants this Summer. United have large financial muscle and will be there or thereabouts as they always are. City under Guardiola will be difficult. Regardless of whether you think they'll be successful or not, the new manager effect always seems to work for the first season. Chelsea will be back up there under Conte's management, who will steady the ship and will also have unlimited funds too. Then there's Everton who are rumoured to be getting an extra £200m of investment, so they'll have more pulling power. And if Leicester win the league this season, they will still have to be taken seriously the following season, whether this season has been a once off or not. So you see, with all these major changes and with the new TV deals in place, the PL will be even more competitive. So we can't afford to be standing still. We need to add as many new faces that will improve our squad as we can.
The same things been said every season (including me) but this season has shown beyond doubt that Wenger hasn't got it. Yes he's not a bad manager and he still has the knack of getting top 4 finishes, but he simply can't cut it against the elite. Next season won't be any different under Wenger.
although am not confident we can beat you for your fourth place trophy .. but to assume you have secured it already !!! that is just childish and ridiculous.. we were 8 points ahead of city in last 6 games and we lost the title .. is football everything can happens.. is unlikely but possible.. is football man
Shwan, Arsenal have not finished higher than 3rd foe thirteen years. The likelihood of them doing so this year is about even with them finishing out of the top4, if we beat Spurs tomorrow (which I have my doubts about) we will be 3 points behind them and they still have to play City. A87 doesn't want to admit it but at the moment anything can happen, if we lose tomorrow they should be a lot safer for top4.
With the GD it's effectively four points. You've going to have to win two more games than we do even if you beat spurs away. We've got four home games against bottom half teams and two tough away matches (City and Sunderland). You've also got four home games (one toughie against Leicester) and three tough away games against good teams or relegation fighters. You like to think A87 is worried to make yourself fell better, but I doubt he is. I'm not. Why would he be? You think you're going to beat spurs AND win two more of the remaining six games than us?
I'm never worried about top 4 these days, you can pretty much bet your life on it with Arsenal, we are the kings of top 4. We've done it with much worst sides, and from much worst positions as well.
Just amazing, how we have gotten to this: Squabbling over top 4 with one of the worst United team in living memory. Amazing also United fans have suddenly found their voices. If I had a team playing such dross football, I would be ashamed to come to a rivals board and spout rubbish. I guess we have brought this on ourselves. We should be looking upwards and not behind us. With the way they have played this season, they really have no business in the top 4.
I know him from when he ventures onto the PL board. Didn't realise he behaved that way in his own back yard though!
is football..anything can happen .. even Arsenal winning it anyway . looking to Leicester today .. GOD .. how much any club can achieve with the right manager anyway so far , Arsenal are having slightly better season than us ,, and they deserve the 4th place trophy more than us .. yeahh they will have tough match facing City. .. meanwhile UTD are unpredictable, we can beat spurs today away and lose to Aston villa the next match
I was just exaggerating to make a point ... but again is football ... with this UTD squad i expect everything .. we draw twice with NU this season .. lost to Sunderland .. to Norwich .. but beating stronger sides ..
I know, he takes some perverse pleasure in revelling in Arsenals ****ness, when they perform badly, he gets wood every time they concede a goal, thinking of all the put downs he is gonna post on here to upset his fellow Arsenal fans. Its actually quite pathetic. Arsenal's problems seem to be well entrenched into the clubs Psyche. What you have here is a board who are making cash hand over fist, with a very good fanbase nationally and worldwide, the second biggest stadium in the country, no debt, and wage bills FAR less ridiculous than some others (Namely Chelsea, City and United). The board seem 100% content with how things are going, because they don't give a **** about winning trophies, they are businessmen, not football men. As long as the cash is rolling in, then they couldn't give two flying ****s what Arsenal achieve. This is the only reason Wenger is still at the club.....because he has proven time and time again, that he will achieve top 4 with the resources made available to him (which are ample). He is not so great that he can win the league or the CL with said resources (like maybe SAF or Jose might have pulled off), but you can be sure he will get you in the Champions League every year. This is why people are starting to lose respect for Arsenal, its the complete lack of ambition. Say what you want about Oil money and all that bollocks, but at least those owners were willing to risk that money in order to win silverware and appease the fans. Arsenal's boards attitude comes across as "Shut up you ungrateful ****s, stop moaning and just keep giving us your money. Why should we take any risks at all, you are pumping cash into the club. We are giving Wenger the bare minimum he needs to ensure that the team does well enough for the money to continue rolling in and we are skimming the rest off the top and lining our pockets. By the way, want to rent a flat in North London? No? How about a weekend stay at Rancho F u c k o, we have acres of land here where you sit in a field crying at your teams lack of drive and ambition. And the best part is, you silly bastards paid for it all! Sound good?" I have thought Wenger should leave for the last 2 years to be honest, but now I am not even convinced that will solve your problems. What do you bet Wenger is offered a contract extension in the summer? He is the safe option, he will get you in to the Champions League every year. Of course any sane fan would be thinking, "the **** is the point being in the CL when you have no ****ing chance in hell of winning the tournament....EVER?!" Listen to the many fans on Arsenal fan TV (Like DT for example, or Claude even though he is gonna give himself a heartache the way he carries on). They agree with this. And Moh, he went into a long rant about the systemic attitude around Arsenal and its higher ups, who really couldn't give a **** about their fans, and treat them with contempt almost. Like I said, I would much rather have a billionaire owner, who believes in his investment and wants the club to win things, than a pack of money hungry suits who are just here to drain your club of its resources like a pack of ****ing Vampires......
We have the squad guys. Despite the lack of a top tier striker. The squad is there to win this league. Management is the issue. A team is the image of its manager. Since Wenger started buiding his teams from scratch we could see a soft underbelly. There's brilliance, arrogance but no steely determination. It is as simple as that. We have a very good squad. Bacon face, Pochettino, Klopp, Simeone and even Billic walk the league with our squad (this season).
With Wenger in charge the script will remain the same. With this squad as is we have enough to do better.
A fanciful little narrative, but not true though. I agree that there are things that both Wenger and the board could do differently. I'd like to see them take more risks in going out to get the top players that we need, because our squad always seems to lack the 2 - 3 players that it takes over the whole season. But lack of ambition and content just to get top 4, not true.
You state that like it is fact, but then again I stated my narrative as if it was factso fair enough. But what further evidence do you need that the ambition isn't there? The money is there, we know that much. And Arsenal fans have been crying out for a new striker since Van persie left, and he was never replaced. Giroud is a decent player, and would be a great back up, but he he is not going to grab you 25 goals a season, every year. And it was plain to see, this last summer just gone, that the personnel you had for your back four were woefully inadequate. Why was no one purchased? You can argue that there was no world class players available for those positions, but there were players available that were a damn sight better than Gabriel, for instance. Did Wenger even make any bids, for anyone other than Cech? There was nothing in the media (such as when you tried to get Suarez, or Chelsea tried to sign Rooney, for example). And his team selections? Why was Petr Cech not playing if he is fit? So Ospina made a couple of decent saves in your last game, big deal, Petr Cech is still, for me, one of the top 5 keepers on the planet, and easily one of your best players, leaving him out makes no sense. Why does Theo Walcott keep getting minutes over, say Joel Campbell, who has looked decent every time he has put on an Arsenal shirt? Care to explain this? Theo has looked jaded and disinterested all season. Why did it takes so long for Wenger to start playing Elneny after signing him? Why did he persist with Flamini, who is clearly passed it? If he signed Elneny, it was clearly because he thought Elneny was better than Flamini, if so why did it take him a month to give him minutes? And if he wasn't as good as Flamini, then wtf was Wenger doing signing him in the first place? If the board is not complacent, and DO intend to make a title winning squad can you answer why.... a) Wenger hasn't spent anywhere near the amount of money he should have had available to him and b) Why Wenger is still at your club despite failing to mount a serious challenge for the title in over a decade, and especially since your debts were paid off? Like I said, its purely because Wenger is safe, he won't do anything spectacular, and he won't run your club into the ground. He will keep them top 4, with the odd chance of a cup run or two every decade. Then you ask "Well if he leaves who we replace him with? We may end up worse off?" Worse off how? You may not qualify for that competition that you will never win, for a year or two? Worst case scenario.
