In Wenger we trust… no more

I know it’s a cheap shot blaming just Arsene Wenger for Arsenal’s woes. There’s probably more to their decline than just him.

However, as the coach he is responsible for their on-field competence. The board and other sinister behind-the-scenes goings-on can’t be held responsible for their shoddy defence and inability to put the ball in the back of the net.

Calling their defence shoddy is actually a kindness. It is in reality non-existent. The 2-1 defeat to Tottenham is a glaring example. Their situational awareness in front of their own goal is unbelievably pathetic. But that’s not all – their situational awareness in the opposition goal area is just as bad.

I’m sick to death of hearing about how the team has heart, and mental fortitude… when they manage to scrape the odd win. If they had real heart, they would be winning more games, not by the skin of their teeth, but by impressive margins. Sadly the impressive margins come far too seldom; the shattering losses far too often.

This team is on its way to becoming just another mid-team side. The fans, so used to the high quality and standards will not tolerate this slide for long. It’s time for Wenger to acquire players with real heart, with real mental and physical toughness. These nancy boys who are just interested in picking up a paycheck will simply not do.

The alternative off course is for the Arsenal Football Club to withdraw from the EPL and concentrate on being a training academy. Because that’s what they do best at present. The fans want to see winners, not profitable stars-in-the-making.

Lessons for Arsenal in fantastic Chelsea win

I think the consensus of opinion is that 10-man Chelsea played perhaps the best game of the year against Barcelona last night, in the Champions League semi-final. And the win by Chelsea against great odds was definitely well deserved.

Would an Arsenal team forced to play Barcelona under the same circumstances as Chelsea have done as well? I think the consensus of opinion would be that they would have capitulated quite easily. But perhaps the same opinionated people would have to concede that Arsenal is a superior team to Chelsea in several areas.

But not in the one that mattered the most last night.

Chelsea could teach Arsenal a thing or three about defending resolutely. And about hanging on, no matter what. Arsenal have the class of Barcelona, but without the tenacity and sheer will to win against great odds, the physical and mental toughness, they are not going to become giant killers like Chelsea or consistent winners like Barcelona.

Arsenal have however got probably the best manager in the business in Wenger, and a crop of promising players that have the potential. But will that potential mature in time for next season?

Let’s wait and see…

In defence of Arsenal

There is none! It’s that simple.

The defensive is a shambles. It’s like watching a bunch of headless chickens running around, stumbling into each other and falling over. And oh, how painful it is to hold one’s head in horror, watching the comedy of errors at the back, week after week.

The regular injuries to the players at the back point to a clear lack of training and focus in that area. Either that, or Wenger has spent a lot of money on clearly incompetent players.

Even Vermaelen, who everyone hailed as the saviour for Arsenal in defense, makes far too many mistakes. Perhaps that’s in large part due to the hopeless team-mates he has at the back. And even though Szczesny is constantly improving in goal, he is still far from the sort of confident take-charge person that is required in this position.

And let’s not even waste time discussing Johan Djourou. He does not belong in any position in any football team, let alone in the Arsenal defense.

Arsenal’s defense does not strike fear into any advancing opposition. In fact, every team in the league must surely be licking their lips in glee, knowing that scoring against the current Arsenal team, is liking taking candy from kids.

And it was never like that.

What’s changed? Has the pursuit of profits taken precedence over the brilliant football that Arsenal are were legendary for?

And will the fans stick around in the future to find out?

Arsenal find the net at last

Image via Wikipedia

After four frustrating games, the Arsenal find the net again against Blackburn… and with regularity. Seven times in fact.

I’m sure the fans, like me, were beginning to wonder if the players had forgotten what the nets looked like. All except van Persie off course. He has not forgotten and seems unlikely to forget, getting three more past the Blackburn goalkeeper. And thank the fictitious gods for that.

Wenger is fond of telling us that his team showed great spirit in losing after every disappointment. Yes, there’s great spirit in those pretty passing moves, but we’d prefer less spirit and more hunger. Hunger to convert the pretty passes into goals.

Perhaps it’s time for Wenger to teach his players to find that great big hole between the uprights with more consistency; surely they’ve mastered finding the holes between defending players.

……………………………………

On a more cheerful note, Theo Walcott played more good football in this one game against Blackburn than he’s played for the entire season. Good on ya lad; more of same please.

Thierry Henry also managed to get on the score sheet, returning to play for the Arsenal after five years. That was certainly a real groovy feel-good moment for the fans and history of the club; no less for Henry himself, I’m sure.

If Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has raised a few eyebrows in his few first-team appearances prior to the Blackburn match, he’s got everyone howling to see him as a permanent first-team pick in the Arsenal team from today. The youngster was extremely impressive in scoring his first brace of goals in the Premier League.

Things are looking up. Let’s hope they continue to do so.

Wenger is a stubborn ol’ goat

Photograph by Olaf Nordwich

Yeah, I was happy the Gunners won against Olympiacos last night. Why wouldn’t I be?

But that defense troubles me greatly. It is not porous; it is non-existent!

It would seem that Wenger pays no attention to it whatsoever. He persists in concentrating on the forwards and forward play. How else do you explain that the defense are clueless about the critical role they should be playing in the team?

Why hasn’t a specialist defensive coach been brought in yet? Does Arsenal need to develop into more than the laughing-stock of the Premier League at the moment, having leaked more goals than all the teams, except one?

But it does not stop there. It’s fine to leak goals at one end, but you need to make up for it at the other. Football is after all about scoring goals. Perhaps Wenger needs to remind his forwards that they need to PASS the ball into the net too, not just each other. And I do mean, the opposition’s net, not their own.

I cannot understand why he persists in using Arshavin and Chamakh. These guys are just too lazy for me. It’s quite apparent from watching them play, that they’re content to just show up, and give about 80 to 90%. That’s not good enough at this level; we need players who are willing to give more than their all…and then some.

There seems to be some improvement in their recent showing, but dramatic changes are required to turn things around.

How about it Wenger? How about being a Gunner instead of a goat?

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.

Well then Mr. Wenger, so far so good, but not quite there yet

Dear Mr. Wenger,

I’m hoping to make this my last rant about your team selections. I’ve noticed the dramatic improvement in Bendtner. Seems all he needed was a firm kick up his Danish butt.

I’ve also noticed the remarkable improvement in Arshavin. His radar seems to have come on-line again; but perhaps some fine-tuning won’t hurt. I think you need to have a look at his boots though; maybe it’s affecting his shooting.

But I’m still pulling my hair out over Denilson. The guy is absolute shite. He’s getting worse by the game. His mind is definitely not on what’s happening on the field; and he spends far too much time falling over and sitting on his arse. Maybe he needs some time off at Ipanema Beach [sitting on his arse] to get his head sorted out; or maybe a permanent holiday at some other club.

And while we’re noticing shortcomings, what about Chamakh? I’ve noticed that he craves to be inconspicuous on the field. He rarely gets involved in the action. What’s with that? Seems some of that laziness from Bendtner seems to have rubbed off on him too. Please get him sorted out very quickly; he’s certainly talented, but he still needs to put in the hard graft like everybody else.

Okay, I’m done.

In you we will always trust,

Sincerely,

Lenny

Ok Mr. Wenger, so you dared…

Dear Mr. Wenger,

They say “who dares, wins.” So you played Bendtner anyway…and won.

I’m not going to take any credit for instilling some urgency in that lazy Dane; that was your doing. How you did it? Who cares! He played more football in that one game last night against Ipswich, than in all the games he’s played since the beginning of the season.

Let’s hope his arse stays in gear, and he performs like this for the rest of the season.

But now, I need to question your judgement with regard to the bumbling Brazilian and the radarless Russian. Denilson’s tackling is woeful, and he seems to have forgotten what his teammates look like because he has made a habit of passing the ball to the opposition. As for Arshavin; his passing is way off the mark, and I think some of that Bendtner laziness has rubbed off on him.

Can you do something about these two? How about docking them some of their pay for every boob during a game? And I’m not referring to the female supporters.

As always, in you we trust.

Lenny

Please Mr. Wenger, don’t you dare…

Dear Mr. Wenger,

I know you’ve been telling us repeatedly that you can’t play the same team all the time. And yes, that’s true; we understand that players need to rest and recuperate and thus you need to rotate them.

But please don’t for the love of the beautiful game, ever start with that lazy-ass Dane Bendtner, ever again.

I know you’ve been telling us repeatedly that your players are starting to have great belief in themselves and their ability to win games. And yes, that’s true. However, Bendtner has great belief that the ball will magically come to him as he strolls lazily around the park.

Please Mr. Wenger, if he doesn’t start making an effort to get to the ball, get rid of that loser as quick as you can. But in the interim, he should be given time off to get into shape; he does not belong on the same field of play as the others.

In you we will trust.

Lenny