RvP, Arsenal’s MVP

Arsenal are on the up!

Image by Ronnie Macdonald via Flickr

Five wins in a row in the Premier League; it didn’t appear that such a run of form was possible after the disastrous start to the season, just three months ago.

However Wenger and the new captain Robin van Persie, turned things around. And boy do I feel like an ass for doubting Wenger’s ability to lead Arsenal into the future, with the departures of Fabregas and Nasri.

Fabregas in particular was thought to be Arsenal’s most valuable player. But with his mind set on a move to Barcelona, he had become a liability to the team, and was in fact a negative influence which probably contributed to some of the embarrassing losses they suffered.

Perhaps van Persie’s true talent was never really appreciated while Fabregas was around, but his true value has finally come to the fore. Not only is he scoring freely [currently the Premiership’s leading scorer], he has probably been instrumental in inspiring Arsenal’s turnaround.

But will he renew his contract and elect to stay at Arsenal? If anybody can convince him to stay, it has to be Wenger…

Arsenal………Aaarrrrrrgggghhh

Opening day of the English Premiership…and Arsenal kicked off the new season against Newcastle, much like they finished the last season – with a whimper.

The pleasure I once used to feel watching the Gunners on the field, has turned into anguish and even disgust, over the last few months. What has happened to the team, the Manager?

Wenger looks increasingly bewildered at the poor performances; temper tantrums in the technical area have replaced the euphoria we got used to seeing on his face. The team doesn’t look happy to be playing football – the lacklustre performance, the dejected looks, dropped shoulders, shouts out that they would rather be elsewhere.

In the weeks leading up to the opening game, the fans were promised the arrival of someone of “real quality.” Against Newcastle yesterday, the someone of “real quality” was left to warm the bench. What is going on?

Why haven’t the transfers of Fabregas and Nasri been finalised yet? It’s obvious these ungrateful shites don’t want to be part of the team; there continued presence can only be disruptive to those players who actually still have the club in their hearts.

The income could have been used already to attract real quality and experience to the club; instead Wenger continues to plunder kindergartens. Why not just convert the entire club into a training academy? Seems that’s all they’ve been good at for the last few years.

The fans have been rather patient and the trust in Wenger is still largely intact. However growing discontent begins to swell. How much longer will the fans put up with what appears to be the club’s slide into another mid-table wannabe.

Arsenal put on appropriate show for Kroenke, against Liverpool

Image via Wikipedia

The Arsenal worked very hard at home yesterday…to not put the ball into the net.

All that neat passing and intricate moves to get another non-result. Easy on the eye, they say. But not so easy, when you feel cheated afterwards. The investment of time and die-hard support has not been paying off for half a dozen years. Will it be more?

The game against Liverpool yesterday, once again demonstrated Arsenal’s monstrous naivety in defence. They’re like headless chickens, scampering about in utter panic, looking for their heads. And while we’re talking about heads, will Wenger find his? The mantra “Wenger knows best” and “In Arsene we Trust,” are starting to sound thin.

At least the quality of football on display was appropriate for Stan Kroenke the new majority shareholder to base some much-required decisions on; he now knows that he needs to get rid of some under-performing talent, especially at the back. And perhaps spend some real money next season on supporting Van Persie, Wilshere and Nasri upfront. But will he?

While Kroenke will be left puzzling over how to turn things around, Sir Alex, will have been pleased with what he saw. I’ll bet he left the stadium yesterday knowing that the Premier League title is United’s for sure…

Some invasive surgery needed to fix wounded Arsenal

So we lost the game to Barcelona. The aggregate scoreline of 4-3 suggests a close battle over two legs, but Arsenal did all the hard work in one game only – last night they just showed up to watch Barcelona pass the ball around.

Forget about the abysmal refereeing decision that led to Van Persie being sent off. That’s going to keep happening until FIFA realise that referees are not the reason people pay money to watch football; until FIFA start sanctioning referees for obvious bad decisions.

Let’s talk about the abysmal Arsenal performance on the night. The only players who were prepared to put in some work were Nasri, Van Persie, Wilshere, Almunia and perhaps Koscielny, Clichy and Djourou did enough. Diaby’s performance was atrocious and Rosicky continued his downward spiral towards has-been-dom.

But the worst player on the night, was conspicuous by his desire to please…the Barcelona fans. I have never seen Fabregas this disinterested in making an effort for his team before. In keeping with all the rumours of his intentions to move back to Spain, it was mentioned by a friend that he could be deemed to have started playing his first match for Barcelona last night.

The other player to have disgusted me the most last night was Bendtner. Seems that his lazy-arse approach creeped in again. Having the chance to win the game by scoring what would have been hailed as a wonder-goal, he couldn’t find that extra five percent to stick his leg out and tip the ball goalwards. What a loser! Strikers have that killer instinct in the goal area – Bendtner has just the lazy itch.

We really missed Song in the midfield and the pace of Walcott on the wing. Why are Arsenal’s most inspiring players always injured for the most crucial games.

Its time for Wenger to perform some drastic surgery. It’s time to cut the lazy players loose. I think we all know who they are.