And ours isn't either now. Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Sagna, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Santos, Djourou. That's not a bad group.
So did Chelsea, they were famed for their boring, nervy 1-0's, it cost Mourinho his job, because Abramovich wanted Sexy football. But it still won them still the league, in the same manner that George Graham did with Arsenal. I take as much pleasure from a lucky, last gasp scrambled winner as I do a silky and slick rout.
Not sure yet. But one thing I do like is the way we have been defending in Europe. Playing deep and waiting for the counter. That is not something we did last season. So one of things I wanted was an improved defensive strategy in place and he has clearly worked on that. We also need to use this same tactic in the big league games. While we might have beaten Chelsea, we still played a high line without pressing and gave away to many chances. City is the big test coming up and we will see how the new defensive strategy works against the best attack in England.
We played a brilliant counter attacking game. Santos and Kos played a big part of that, so we have got good options at the back. I think we should approach the City game in the same manner.
61 % I believe it was, but our only chances came on the counter, up until we scored, then we controlled the game.
A moot point, but acknowledged It was good to see the defence having a positive influence on the game.
I get the feeling some people with never be entirely happy until we're signing cheques the same size as City and Chelsea regardless of whether those players are better than what we have. AW is a genius and always has been, as I keep saying the financial playing field has moved to an entirely different planet in the past few years and AW is right not to try competing or he risks the long term security of the club
I like Wenger, i appreciate everything he's done for us, and the way he changed english football, but i still believe he's near the end of his time as our manager. Until this season, our transfers have been hit or miss (this season's transfers have been suprisingly good), results are hard to come by, and not forgetting our inability to win a goddamn trophy.
I wrote an article a couple ago saying that Wenger did well in the last transfer window. Ultimately there was nothing he could do about Cesc and Nasri - and in an over inflated market, he managed to strengthen in every area that needed it. Some people were talking about over the hill, injury prone, panic buys and the clamour that Wenger had 'lost the plot' was growing louder, especially when we started so badly. It was always going to take a while for the team to gel, but calmly and steadily this new group of players have found their form and consistency, which is being borne out in results. People should learn not to be so quick to judge and condem, because now it's starting to work, those views are starting to look a bit silly.
My trust is not fully restored and will not be until we are at least back in the Top 4 and looking like being able to challenge for top spot. We are still way behind where we have been for the last 5 years and that wasn't saying much. Yes we are winning games (mostly narrowly) which is an improvement over the start of the season but let's not get carried away, this is still work in progress and the jury is still out on AW's future. I want the team to win things in style and with the resources we have at the club this should be possible but we won't achieve this with a manager who has his own agenda e.g 'youth policy'.
It's the youth policy that has prevented us from spiraling into debt - if you think we have the resources to match the likes of City, Chelsea and Utd, then you're living in cloud cuckoo land. We have to do things differently and Wenger has always been the best man to do that. Personally I don't really care how we win, as long as we do. I never heard Chelsea fans complaining when Mourinho was grinding out 1-0 wins for them.
Wengers 'youth policy' failed completely in terms of winning us anything as most of them are sold off and a good manager should be able to win something with players who don't necessarily cost a fortune, that after all is the art of management.
PISKIE - so you don't agree that Wenger should have bought earlier? He clearly thought Nasri would stay - a misjudgement. He clearly thought we should keep Fabregas for the last season and lose - what £35m? a misjudgement. He bought tired over the hill players - Squishy (nobody will even pay the £4m valuation) and Silvestre are examples- cheap fill-in players instead of going for long term younger talent. He bought Oxo - but doesn't use him - that money would have bought Samba or Cahill for example. He tried and over played with players like Bendtner but had to give up on him - now hoping to sell. There are plenty of issues with his decisions.
@Bergkamp a Dutch master 1) i don't get what you mean by lost £35 million by keepign Cesc for the last season? Do you think we would of got £70mil for him a year earlier? Barca's previous offer was for £29mil wasn't it the year before? We also got a 50 sell on clause and 1st option to buy him back - and for a player who was only ever going to go to one club we did pretty well with the transfer imo. 2) Nasri - he's a class player and Wenger put too much faith in him staying - as you say a misjudgement - but you can't put him down for this - he was let down by someone he trusted - how do we know how things where going behind the scenes with this one and what Nasri was saying to wenger? 3) Squillaci. Everyone was calling for an older more mature defender and we got squishy - who actualy looked a good purchase before and for a last choice back-up was a decent player - but with injuries he played too often and wasn't good enough. We hardly broke the bank for him though and he will move on at some point - hardly a big issue for us. And he did go for younger talent as well by signing Kosc so it wasn't only a stop gap signing in defence that season. 4) He bought oxocube and doesn't use him. Well maybe that's because he isn't quite ready for the level of play? He has the ability to do alot going forward but needs to work on the defensive side of his game which i assume he is doing in training. He will get game time when he can (i would assume he'll play in the last CL game). We also have Walcott and Gervinho doing well on the wings and Arshavin as first choice back-up so it's hard for oxo to break into the team. I'm happy with this buy though as he looks a quality player. If you'd rather we bought samba or cahill your insane. You'd rather another CB player to sit behind the quality CB's we already have than an extra option on the wings after Nasri left and Bendtner no longer avilable? Samba wouln't get any game time at Arsenal either - Cahill might have got some apearances but would be battling with Djourou for 4th choice CB. 5) I think he'd be happy to still have Bendtner at the club as a back-up striker but Bendtner demanded more playing time than he would get at Arsenal - this is why it's hard to have a top quality back-up striker at the club. Bendtner is not as bad as people make out. So although you may disagree with his decisions they all have logic behind them and so far this season he has really got us back on track and imo is doing pretty well. Things look good moving forward.
Cesc would have gone for no more the season before. Wenger placed his trust in Nasri to sign a new deal, and offered him megabucks to do so. Nasri could have been a hero this season and led the way. It's a massive shame and perhaps Wenger was a little naive. Is RvP going the same way? Squillaci was brought in as first choice to partner Vermaelen. That's why he's on good money and Kos was signed on something like 25k / wk - he was expected to play 3rd or 4th choice for a couple of seasons at least til Squillaci moved over. Oxo clearly has amazing talent, but he was bought as a future investment in young British talent. You snap 'em up now and they're worth more in shirt sales, image rights, sponsorship etc. in the future because they're British. He is a great player on the attack, but Wenger has stated he needs to work harder defensively, and perhaps he needs to bulk up a little to deal with the physicality of the Premiership. He needs to sort that out, then he'll be playing regularly. He's still learning right now. I'd love to still have Bendy at the club. I'd prefer him to Chamakh and probably Park too right now. It was his decision to go though, and if a player is that age and really wants first team football, you can't keep him, or he'll be severely disruptive. Especially someone like Bendy who isn't the quietest of folks!!
What are you talking about ?? Nobody is saying sign cheques to rival Chelsea and City. I notice the naysayers, the In Arsene We Trust crew cannot form an argument that doesn't involve extremes .. they always refer to an extreme to make their point which is total and utter rubbish. Whats wrong with spending £15m or £20m ? If Aston Villa or Sunderland can .. why can't we ??
Dude, the only people who look silly are Arsene Wenger and the board !! Never forget, we had the worst start to a season in 50 odd frikkin years ! How is Wenger vindicated because we've narrowly beaten a load of relegation threatened teams and a team in crisis ??? Nobody was quick to condemn and judge, most of the players bought haven't improved the team at all - considering the players we lost. Benayoun ? Really ? Arteta ? Really ? OXO ?? Park ? Had he managed the team properly, we wouldn't have had to bring in half a team after the season started and "waited" for them to gel.
Oh do me a lemon !! The youth policy has done nothing of the sort. Remember how much Wenger paid for OXO AND Walcott, they were not exactly cheap. there are many players available for the sort of money Arsenal can easily afford, we got Mertesacker for £6m for example. Had Wenger not neglected the squad because of his insistence in proving the world wrong with his "project" we wouldn't have been caught out so badly with a lack of quality players. This youth policy you seem to think is a success, which one is that then ? How many successes have there been ? Ashley Cole and Jack Wilshere. Who else ? Vela is elsewhere, Merida left us, Nasri jumped ship, Gibbs is forever injured as is Diaby. Wlacott is beginning to come good (6 years later), where is Eastmond ? Denilson is shipped out. Bendtner is shipped out. Djourou perpetually injured. Where has this youth policy taken us ? Our wage bill is massively high and we have mostly kids. The kids have saved us nothing at all.
1) Bergy was saying Wenger was willing to take the chance to keep Fab this season and lose the £35m we got for selling him before losing him on a free. 2) Nasri was not going to stay, you could see it in the things he said, he basically told Wenger what he wanted to see to make him stay .. investment in the squad. What did he see .. Gervinho .. and Jenkinson (a Div 1 player) !! Wenger caused this problem for himself. 3) Squillaci - yes we wanted a mature player, but why buy one who has NEVER played in England and so isn't used to the rigours of English football ?? Surely he should've bought a player with Premiership experience !!! Utterly stupid move by Wenger. 4) OXO - to be honest I like the player's potential, but what we needed at the time were players ready to come in and do a job ! what was the point of buying him if we can't use him for another 6 years .. like Walcott ! Last season we had to rely on Squillaci, Djourou and Koscielny, WTF !! Samba and/or Cahill would've done a bloody better job than these players last year - Samba especially, at least he knows how to defend. 5) No problem with point 5.
