Good news Chelsea fans: The Arsenal board have rewarded Wenger's decade of failure with a whopping pay rise. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...new-three-year-contact-Arsenal-sign-days.html Unless his team has a personality transplant Arsenal should not be a genuine threat to us.
Compare Wengers net spend to Chelsea's over the last decade He's done a pretty good job to keep them in the top 4 IMO, and only ignorant people can't understand that. If you gave Wenger similar financial muscle to what Chelsea have had, he'd win loads more trophies. At the end of the day though a clubs league position is usually very close to there position in the wage bill table, you can't get away from it
Exactly you can't win trophies regularly if your not spending more than the rest, or atleast on a par
If he gets some grunt in his back 4 and a bit of power in midfield, Arsenal can be a real threat to anyone. Trouble is, Wenger puts his faith in 8 stone, 16year old kids.
I've said it many times. I dont see Arsenal as ever progressing beyond perennial top 4 spots and the odd trophy every 10 years whilst Wenger is in charge. Not that that isnt good.....but he needs more than one tactic if he wants to outfox his title rivals and actually win the league. It's all well and good winning it when you have a team MUCH better than everyone elses (as he did in 2004), but when your squad isnt the best, you need to use your loaf and adapt to get results. Also not sure how he trains his players, but its wrong, because they cannot stay fit for 10 straight games. Wenger has proven that he just doesnt have that in him. Unless they spend close to £100m on a striker and a new back 4, I dont see them challenging for the whole season. Some early good results followed by the usual fall away into 4th by March as players pick up injuries in the new year beckons!
Well in the last decade wenger has won 1 league title (invincibles), 1 community shield and 2 fa cups. He also reached 2 league cup finals and a CL final. All the while maintaining a top 4 spot which no other club has done in the last decade, competing with the new mega rich clubs and overseeing a period of financial tightness due to a new stadium which has set us up for the future. And he's maintained an attractive attacking style of football throughout. He's done a good job and anyone saying otherwise either hasn't looked at the circumstances of the last ten years or is being a wum.
Our back four have been quality. Sagna is one of the best rbs in the league (shame he seems to be off to city) and the mert-Kosc partnership has been very good. We could add some depth at the back but our starting back 5 have been really good for the vast majority of the season.
Your back 4 is decent, but you need backup. When I said a new back 4, I should have said another back 4. If you get injuries (as you do ALL the time, Arsenals injury record is appalling), then you are in big trouble because you have a threadbare squad. And that still doesnt fix the biggest problem facing Wenger, even if he had Real Madrids squad, he is still so tactically inept it is unreal. You cannot play the way you do against ALL opposition. He just doesnt change it up.....ever...... Multiple times this season Chelsea went in at half time 1-0 down or drawing 0-0, and we came out in the second half with a change of formation, player, or tactic that won us the game. Thats down to Jose's tactical nous. Wenger either doesnt seem to have it or is just too stubborn to change things up. Arsenal have everything in place to be a dominant force in football, a good fanbase, big stadium, lots of income. But you wont go to that next level until Arsene goes.....trust me! Thats why I was overjoyed to hear he was staying.
I think it's unfair to say he doesn't ever change tactics. We have played with a far more defensive approach in recent seasons, particularly in the way we set up in Europe. We've seen Montreal and flamini used to close out games by adapting the way we are playing and our formation. We've seen vermaelen brought in to make a back 3 to hold onto a game. We've seen arsenal go 442 this season when we are chasing a game. I'm not suggesting he hasn't made tactical errors, such as the way we set up to start away to you guys and liverpool. But to say he doesn't ever change the way we play or the tactics we are using is incorrect.
Maybe they are so subtle that I fail to see them. And when he does do it, is it effective? Within the first 5 minutes of the games against us and Liverpool, I knew you would lose. The FA Cup final was the first time in a long time that i can remember Arsenal coming back from a bad position, and again, that was mostly due to the fact that your squad was 1000 times better than Hulls rather than any tactical change. Hull got 2 lucky goals early on and your quality saw you through the next 80 minutes, as it should have. I also do not see Arsenal ever winning the Champions League as long as Wenger is in charge, the top managers can outfox him so easily (hence why your record against the top 6 PL teams has been so dreadful in recent times).
I concur with the Arse. It has not been long since Arsenal broke their iron clad wage structure. They have always put the club before glory. The power struggle in the boardroom must be a worry for those who have been used to such stability. Arsenal are the only club never relegated from the highest English division, they have only ever played there. OK the never picked their own shirt colour, they adopted another club's colours as Arsenal were brassic at the time and were changing kit in an old artillery wagon next to the pitch, still they've come a long way since then. I would never compare Chelsea trophies against those of Wenger as money has indeed been a major factor. Also I wouldn't want to be seen a a 'glory' hunter. It is true massive amounts of money does not guarantee you instant success, but it does buy you time. Gone is the constant financial pressure and the knowledge that come whatever you can always afford to eventually get the team right. Just look at the Chelsea trophy cabinet before Abramovich. Be assured Arsenal's long history of success was also founded on secure finances and a boardroom that knew you can only win if you aren't fighting on two fronts.
In Chelsea Arsene trusts - for giving him the fourth place trophy year after year!! for once you got the thread title all wrong London, Homer too nods
Wenger is a good manager, develops players very well and has done a good job keeping Arsenal top 4 year after year. I don't fear him in any way though and think it's got a bit too comfortable down at Arsenal. Can't see them winning another title with him there.
I think Wenger did quite well motivating his team at Wembley 2-2 after 9 years going into extra time must have been an underwear changing experience for them.
