We Arsenal fans don’t do boring old disappointment any more. No. We prefer utter desolation.
Perspective? Who needs it when the whole of the internet is just waiting for you to crap your anti-Wenger/anti-Fabianski/anti-Denilson/very-suddenly-pro-Song vitriol all over the messageboards?
The message we’re hearing loud and clear from fans like the bloke who demanded a “public apology” from Arsene is that failure in ANY game, regardless of the quality of the opposition or a defensive injury list FIVE names long, is completely unacceptable and must be met with public castigation/sacking/ instant resignation.
So never mind that Chelsea have a full-strength team of world stars, managed by a legendary manager. Never mind that they just beat Liverpool 3-1 at Anfield and then stopped their comeback in its tracks. That’s all irrelevant because we, the fans, have a God-given right to see Arsenal win every single game.
It’s just infantile. Even Piers Morgan, the man who puts the “cunt” into “reactionary”, wasn’t moaning too much this time.
I’m not going to defend Arsene’s team selection. It worked for the first half hour and then it started to struggle. But I’m not going to savage him either. Sure, most of us would have started Arshavin and Song, most of us would have left out Diaby, but it’s facile to put the defeat down to these decisions alone. The defeat felt avoidable because we played poorly in the second half and because elementary errors were made on both the goals.
Well, guess what? That can happen to a football team. Sometimes they just don’t play well. And when you’ve only got one of your first choice back 5, it’s not that surprising when the defence is shaky, is it?
The opinions of many of our fans seem to come out of a memory spanning one week max. We beat Wigan and it’s giddy excitement, Wenger is the greatest manager ever and Denilson’s looking fantastic. We lose to Chelsea and we’ll never win another game with Arsene in charge and we’ve got to sell our entire midfield.
Grow up.
On a lighter note, I would like to make a plea that the FA’s Dubious Goals Panel reassess Arsenal’s goal yesterday. That scallywag Walcott tried to claim it, and was widely credited with the goal, but anyone could see that it was in fact an own-goal from the hapless Ashley Cole. Justice must be served.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
You are totally rediculous. This is a load of BS. There is every reason for the fans to get upset about Wenger choosing to slash any real chances of winning a trophy this season against the wall. Wenger picks teams with no reference to form. This is a given, if you want proof of this I have one word Diaby.
He is in a pathetic rut of being totally useless but he seems to be clocking up an awful lot of minutes. Alex Song has done nothing wrong since christmas appart from playing well.
Would you choose to play really defensively against a team who have been defending like a drain? Attack is the best form of defence and when your defence is broken you score goals to fix it.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
They’ve beaten Liverpool at Anfield, but they’ve also shipped 7 goals in their past two games. And still we didn’t try and exploit their obvious defensive frailties. In not attacking them with more zest, we invited them to come at us and with that back line it was obvious how it was gonna end.
And of course we always seem to loose the important games against them. The Carling Cup final two years ago, and now again. Granted, Drogba is a handful for any defence, but he only needs to show up and we’re beaten, that’s at least how it feels.
And conceding against long balls is what we seem to do better than any other team as well. Just hoof it up and one or our defenders will let the ball go through.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
NONSENSE POST.GO HOME AND THINK BEFORE YOU POST
April 19th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
u basically say its ok for wenger to pick a poor team, why? im not saying i want wenger out but who cares about liverpool on tuesday. arsahavin was fully rested, song hasnt played as much as say denilson, rest him on tuesday instead, y play vp and fab out of position? every arsenal fan knew we were in trouble with that line up and the lack of change and poor subs rubbed salt in the wounds. we were no threat at all and chelsea always looked 10x more dangerous
April 19th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
good post pitch was to blame.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
NONSENSE! total and utter cock up from Wegner. Dont be a berk. Insipid team selection and two jokes in the centre of park and HE does’nt go back to 442 early enough. He tinkered a winning team and to do it against Chelsea in a cup semi! what a twonk of a decision. Most fans went UH-Oh when we saw the team sheet. Dont defend the indefensible…..WEGNER COCKED UP…..lets hopr he does’nt try that crap vs. United or it certain Good Night Irene….P.S. Last time I check ed we lived in a democracy Wegner can accept he cocked up like Fabianski. Fine we will all move on but to criticise people for pointing out the obvious you might as well blog from North Korea.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
same old story. AW should have spent 15m on a world class CB and 10m on an Argentinian def MF hardnut after Drogba terrorized the defense last time.
the money is there has been there, it hasn’t been spend and yet again no trophies.
sorry but Arsenal arnt the 2 bit club that scraps for 4ths spot these days.
WAKE UP!
April 19th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
i really don’t agree with this article, there was no need yesterday to leave arshavin and nasri on the bench cause ok we have to play liverpool on tuesday but we aren’t title contenders and we don’t look in danger of loosing the fourth place. it is so strange i’m talking about arsenal the fourth place and not title contenders, we must be fighting every year for the first place we are full of the fourth and without a trophy
April 19th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
chelsea play long ball football, we pass along the ground. you could see during the game that the pitch meant advantage chelsea. and any advantage to any other big four team is as good as game over. FA is a joke !!
song should have played ? 2 months ago every1 said he was shit and diaby and fab are our 2 midfield options. point is whoever is picked needs to play well. hindsight is great, am sure if wenger picked your team u would have blamed eboue, ade, bendtner, etc etc hleb flamini ? gary lewin, martin taylor…..
it was a game of football, we lost
move on, be ready for mancs !!
April 19th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
diego, what makes you think money is there….did the stadium grow itself ? yes we have a kitty, which is apparently 40-70 mill. that doesnnt mean u spend it. kitty = hard earned savings, which once spent it is gone. when we do spend it u can guarantee it will be on class like arshavin.
if your girl friend asked you to empty ur bank account on her, youd tell her to fuck off.
diego fuck off !!
April 19th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Greta article but it is wasted on the vast majority of fans that feel it is their god given right to win every game. No loss since november but they still find reason to whine.
Yes mistakes were made of course they were but nobody is infallible. In many ways our fans gained too much success under Arsene Wenger and forgot that there are only 3 trophies available every year if you count they League cup. Everything has to go your way in order to win just one.
Anybody out there have the feeling that “everything” is going our way? How about “anything”? Didn’t think so.
Grow the fuck up and get behind your team and manager in this difficult time.
You can’t always ride the train. Sometimes you have to help pull it.
Again great article.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Bravo!
A brilliant article to remind us of that negative mind set and vagrant cynicism that seems to have become a virus amongst our supporters.
Now, I do agree with some of the tactical points of he arguments above, mainly that we did invite them to attack us, but I feel that the Diaby comment is ridiculous! It was only before his groin strain that everyone was lauding him as the next Viera! Even I wouldn’t go that far, but he is certainly talented…
Admittedly, he didn’t show it yesterday, but the point is, that after everybody has taken a deep breath, counted to 20 and re-read what they just posted on their blogs, is that Wenger is DEVELOPING these talents from scratch and they must be given TIME to really make their mark.
So dry out those tears, give yourself a pat on the back if you can hold your chin up high and still proudly call yourself a Gooner and please read some decent journalism (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/apr/19/arsenal-arsene-wenger-youth-policy) instead of some of the trash out there. Remember, we have to rely on our own strength to give support to our team…express it well…COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!!!!!
April 19th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Ye just don’t get it. nobody minds losing…its part of life BUT Wegner blew it today with that team selection. If you can accept that then you know little about football.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Well said, at last someone with perspective.
I believe we started well but faded as the pitch cut up and both passing and controlling became difficult / impossible. The ‘going’ was very heavy (shame on the FA for a pitch one might expect to see on Hackney Marshes) and that suited Chelski’s hoof-it game. They are like Wimbledon in the 80s, relying on power, strength and the long ball. Our makeshift defence could not cope and we lost by one late goal. How can AW plan for a defensive howler like that? Only one team could win and it wasn’t us, so I’ll grieve and then prepare to cheer on the team in the next game.
I’m not saying I agreed with his team selection, because Diaby wouldn’t get in my Sunday League team, but AW is the best manager in the world and has my full support. To be fair, he got us to two semi-finals in a year ravaged by change and injuries. The man is a genius.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Very well written article
Its a wonder how people get any enjoyment out of watching football when they act this way.
We lost, get over it, Chelsea are in fact a very good side, above us in the league, and in the CL semi-finals.
Get over yourselves – your not any more worthy of seeing Arsenal win than any other supporters. Be grateful you support such a succesful well run club before you mouth off after one loss.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
fuck yeh song shuld hav played, dont say stupid stuff like 2 months ago every1 was sayin he was shit and expect dat to be good enough reason to not play him wen he has been playin at mascherano level for the last mth… he was playin shit two months ago so we say he was playin shit and demanded better and now look…. we as fans arent stupid wen the team was strugglin we complain not becoz we dont luv the club but becoz t was obvious to everyone the team wasnt gd enough at the time…. walcott was lightweight every1 said so he went to gym and now look at his game…. wenger can say his distracting statements like i always knew the team would cum gd & i believe right after a gd win but the truth s as fans wen websumthin “obvious” s wrong its our duty to complain… im not sayin complain that if we lost a game in which we played the strongest 11 possible and they played their hearts out n we still lost we complain…. that can even be applauded but for f***s sake dont play a weakened in the semi final of the fa cup and then say ohh its a game we lost….. wats the point of restin song for the liverpool game wats that gona achieve………
wenger threw this game away 10 mins into the 2nd hlf wen he couldnt change the team tactically to compensate for the fact that denilson was bein man marked by lampard and diaby was bein marshalled by essien guus made his changes early wen he saw the problems v.p n diaby were causing by switchin who played in the hole in the 1st hlf
April 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
i traveled all the bleeding way to wembley (2 stops) and payed 44 pounds of my good mate’s money and for what! grabber, it really is a tad ridiculous to chastise fans for being reactionary after a huge disappointment. i and many other fans left the stadium, singled out one policeman, took off our shirts and screamed ‘rent boy’ at him until he called for backup. another standard reactionary response which in retrospect, may not have been entirely well thought out but which, surely, was justified at the time.
whilst it is undoubtedly true that the margins between top teams at this level are miniscule, such is the level of the football, it is for this very reason that our shortcomings are so glaringly obvious. whilst the pitch didn’t help, the team selection was baffling and ultimately wrong and chelsea looked quicker (with the exception of walcott) and stronger (where was song) than us throughout.#
yes, chelsea are a good team but this continuous dropping of expectations from many fans and blog writers seems dangerous to me. we rightly expect this team to challenge for trophies and are naturally disappointed when we lose. i still love and trust in arsene but he does occasionally demonstrate a kind of autistic streak with regards to decision making and i do find myself yearning for some sort of explanation.
whether or not i deserve it is another debate altogether, plod would probably say no.
April 19th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Goonergetya, why don’t you become a football coach? When Nasri played against VR, how many chances did he create? And yet he’s a playmaker with France.
Common sense dictates that if you have a shaky defense, then strengthen the midfield and thats what AW did. In fact if i were you, i would give our team much credit. Look at the lad Gibbs, he fought like a man, and in the end Eboue gave away the first goal. Silvestre was a joke in defense, and yet he was the only one we had. You did not expect Toure to do all the work in defense, did you?
Had they not scored at the time they did, we should have gone on to win because AA23 and Nasri would have stretched them and a winner would have come.
In any case, we don’t have any guaranrtees that had AA23 and Nasri played, then we would automatically have won.Please accept that it wasn’t to be. What would you say if we beat ManUre with the same lineup come 10 days from now?
April 19th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Good article.
Let´s move on, beat a gerrard-less liverpool on tuesday and stop acting like nervous schoolgirls!
April 19th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
And I accept David’s comments but only just. AW erred when he did not make substitutes early enough, but not the selection. Denilson is much faster than Song (who is more physical you would say) and more accurate with his passing. I want you to envisage AA23 in the RVP role from the off, how many minutes of productive football would he give us? I say, not many because Chelski was really physical yesterday. Yet when he comes on when they are tired, he gives you decissiveness. To understand this, you try to remember the Wigan game, they are really physical, and AA23 was flustered on many occasions. Believe me Chelski is not Wigan.
On Tuesday we shall be playing Loserpool, many of the points i’ve made here will come to pass. I’m almost certain Song will start, and he will be roasted. VR is slower and not physical, that’s why Song stood out.
April 19th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Nobody shld blame arsenal fans for reacting the way they did, it is going to 5yrs since we last won a trophy and i can’t figure out where the next Trophy is coming from.The fans are just frustrated and nobody should blame them.even a patient dog bites at times so dont go about blaming the fans we all are just getting frustrated.Why cant we beat Chelsea if Essien and Drogba is in the team? obviously Wenger should have known better b/4 that lineup.
April 19th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Gunnerblog suggests (and I agree) that AW set out to beat Chelsea with almost the same young team as the Carling Cup Final in 2007; had he played (£15m) Arshavin from the start and he was subsequently integral in an Arsenal win, he would be conceding the point that you have to buy talent to win trophies. And he is nothing if not damned stubborn about that policy:
http://gunnerblog.com/?p=1644
April 19th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Hello boys,
Seems I’ve touched a few nerves then! One or two responses kind of make my point for me, I think.
I was gutted yesterday, sick as the proverbial parrot, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t be disappointed or that Wenger didn’t make an error or two yesterday. It’s just that some of the hysterical raving (see above) is uncalled for and makes you look like a prat.
It’s all very well to slaughter the midfield selection, in fact it’s piss easy. Another selection might have fared better, or it might not have. The fact is that Chelsea scored off 2 chronic defensive lapses, without which we could very well have won.
Football’s like that – you win some and lose others.
@ Chuks “Why cant we beat Chelsea if Essien and Drogba is in the team?” Well, it’s not that we can’t beat them so much as that we can’t realistically demand that we beat them very easily every time, can we? Against a team of such quality, it’s not a surprise if we end up losing.
Where did this absolute confidence in the quality of our players suddenly appear from anyway?
If the whole responsibility is Wenger’s for yesterday’s defeat then that must mean that the players are so monumentally good that even against a team like Chelsea they just need to turn up in a non-fucked formation and casually destroy the other team. That’s the only logical conclusion to take from those placing all the blame with Wenger.
Well, where did those players come from, I wonder?
April 19th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I totally agree with you!!!
Don’t get me wrong, I was distraught yesterday but the way people immediately bash Wenger after every bad result is a joke. I mean like you say we are playing Chelsea here, not Burton Albion. And we lost 2-1, we were’nt outplayed, or out-thought. Tactically I don’t see what people’s problem is. Because the shape WORKED. Early on it was all Arsenal. It was clear after the first 20 minutes that the shape was working well. It was two defensive errors that cost us the game. If you look at it, we had as many chances as Chelsea. The difference between the teams was that Ivanovic and Cech didn’t make mistakes. And Eboue to a degree and Fabianski did.
And rest assured that if Wenger had Sagna fit he would have been playing. Bakary would not have let Malouda cut in so easily. And as far Fabianski, well he would have played anyway, being our cup goalkeeper this season, but he was too easily beaten at the near post.
After Chelsea’s goal, the shape went AWOL. We got nervous and dropped deeper and deeper and Chelsea camped in our half before the break. For the second goal it was Fabianski’s error again.
I personally don’t see how one can blame Wenger for the defeat. The formation dictated the personnel who played, not the other way around. We were beaten by our defensive errors. Errors which I am sure our first choice defence would never make. It wasn’t Lampard, Essien or Ballack who beat us. It was Drogba and Fabianski. So enough of the midfield barracking you pretentious w*nkers.
April 19th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
here here!!… love your club… no matter what!!… its fucking pathetic!… fucking fair weather fans… if you dont like it… fuck off and support Chavski… or Man shit… twats…
arsenal are a great team… and trophies WILL come.
April 19th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
You’ve obviously had too much to drink, before posting this useless palaver.
Arsene is a horrendous big game tactician, the worst of the top four teams. He personally lost the game for us with his dubious team selection. Arshavin rested? Song rested? For f88king what? He should bring in Houillier as his right hand w8nker–even he could have done a better job yesterday. Blaming the pitch only compounds what a whiner Arsene is: f88k off you blew it, idiot, and you can only blame yourself for the loss.
April 19th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Goons_with_Guns , been a supporter of arsenal for how long ?
you dont even know what arsenal was like b4 wenger. if you did you woundnt talk shit. either that of your shit hart lane.
fuck off
April 19th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Goons with guns shut the hell up. Arsene a horrendous big game tactician? Did we not beat Chelsea and Man United this season? Did Arsene not win four FA cup finals?
You say that the blogger has had too much to drink, I’d be surpirsed if you’re old enough to drink as you seem incapable of recalling the hoards of trophies already won under Wenger’s tenure, the most successful in our history.
Arshavin wasn’t rested, you twat, he was benched because he didn’t fit into the formation. So shut the f*ck up and support someone else you arsehole.
April 19th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Another good post, spot on.
Arshavin was left out and it was a disappointing decision. But it seems pretty clear that Hiddink knows Arshavin’s game inside out and would know exactly how to shut the boy down. So leaving him out isn’t exactly nonsensical is it?
We had a decimated backline, and only lost by a goal in the last couple of minutes. That’s football.
April 19th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
@ Goons_with_Guns
um, he didn’t blame the pitch. he said it was shite (which it was) and was bad for both teams. he explicitly refused to put the blame for the defeat on the pitch.
why is it that i get the feeling that some people never read on past the headlines? don’t you know that the press love to make wenger out to be a moaner?
witness a month ago where he said something to the effect of “i wish arshavin could play for us in the champions’ league. of course i knew this when i bought him, i just think the rule’s a bit pointless”
all the papers ran with “moany wenger blasts uefa over arshavin exclusion” as if he was making excuses. he wasn’t, he was just making a good point.
April 19th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Your write up and the follow up comment ,neither makes any sense at all. Guys like you shouldn’t have sites to write loads of crap to hurting fans.still trying to get over wenger’s obvious sellout of the match,and you come up with this? you’re an Asshole.
April 19th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
No, lil wayne, you are an asshole. Its quite funny though that you said his write up doesn’t make sense when your comment literally makes no sense. Like it’s incomprehensible.
Let’s galvanize and use our mistakes from the Chelsea game to beat Man United in the Champs League.
April 19th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
@ lil wayne
just because YOU don’t understand what I’ve written doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make sense. read it again, slowly this time, and try and think about what’s being said rather than getting all worked up.
April 19th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Chaps and ladies,
Surely some of your comments are frankly absurd? We can’t proclaim Wenger as the second coming and the anti-christ within the space of two weeks. He’s clearly and has always been an excellent manager who’s brought us great success since he’s been at the club, and in big games. Fair enough yesterday I didn’t think we were great – I couldn’t really see the effect of the pitch as my seat was so high up in Wembley that I sometimes even missed calling Ashley a cunt because I couldn’t see which of their players were on the ball – but I think some of our players could have looked a bit hungrier challenging for the ball etc.
However, the fact remains that although all Arsenal fans are obviously hurting after yesterday unless they’re on some weird hallucinatory trip where we won 4-0 and Drogba broke his leg in 6 places, but saying that Wenger fucked it up is crap. Remember we’ve no idea what kind of fitness etc the players are actually in and have been in in training, because only Wenger and Pat Rice etc are there. Maybe Song and Arshavin were only just on enough form/fitness to make the bench. And why the hell would Wenger sell out a match? Because he secretly wants Chelsea to win? Your intellect seems about as big as your soubriquet lil wayne.
We’ve got to remember that losing a semi-final in the cup to a very good side, reaching the semi’s of the Champions League so far and being 4th in the Premiership is not exactly shit. Yes clearly it would be better if we were in a position to win all 3, as opposed to just the CL but it’s a hell of a lot better than most of you moaners were predicting earlier in the season. All the papers and experts praise Benitez as a big-game tactitian and Pool as having a fantastic season but they’re in real competition for fuck all this season and we’ll hopefully beat them on Tuesday when I’m sure you guys will be queueing up to blow Wenger.
So chill out guys, get behind a great team and a great manager and remember you don’t know everything that goes on behind the scenes.
April 19th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Tommy you’re a fucking CUNT!!! what is there to understand.Are you guys not tired of sounding like a broken record ” let’s galvanive and use our mistakes”. Utter rubish,with idiots like you we will remain trophyless for decades to come.Just incase you’ve lost the plot like your friend the coach,competitions is about winning.
April 19th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
lil wayne – with ‘idiots like you’ we will be bankrupt in a year after throwing £40 million at someone like David Villa for a quick fix.
“competitions is about winning” – well observed, ‘competitions’ iz about winning bruv. But only one team can win, the best team in the world can have a bad day and get knocked out in a cup competition.
You’re a tit mate and you’re making a fool out of your self!
April 19th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
FFS chocolate leg……who said f***kin anyting about david Villa……just play our best f***kin team in 4-4-2 and take the f***kin pets Diaby and Denilson off the pitch….A shit formation and team…..and to whoever said anything about their fitness….why were they on the bench?? Nasri, Song and Ardsahavin on the bench!!! oh FFS…
April 19th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Wegner got it WRONG WRONG WRONG yesterday….play the pitch, play the fitness, blame what you want..
April 19th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Wow. What’s with all the fuckings? Really strange how you just thought you’d try and tone it down a bit there with some asterisks. My point is i’m sick of ‘F**KING’ tits like that one there, and you, whining the moment something goes wrong – the most common complaint being that we don’t spend money we don’t have.
Now calm down love.
April 19th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
got you attention darling…
April 19th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
not a come back to anything, just a show of proud support to the writers on this page.
up The Arsenal.
April 20th, 2009 at 4:28 am
Also not a come-back, but a show of support for Chocolate Legs, who has summed it up quite nicely really. I suspect we have some teenagers or Spuds posting on this blog.