“We live in a world where everyone can have opinions, but it’s people who have responsibilities who make decisions”.
Wise words from Wenger this afternoon as he faced the ravenous press-pack ahead of the Chelsea game on Sunday. Words which will certainly be ignored by the Arsenal blogosphere as the demand for big-money headline-grabbing signings prepares to reach unprecedented levels of shrillness and urgency.
But words which are well worth keeping in mind as Gooners everywhere prepare to while away the summer scribbling speculative shopping lists everywhere from the backs of menus and old bank statements to the communal scribble-zones that are Arsenal blogs. It’s fun, and it’s something to think about when no-one’s actually playing, but it would be nice if people remembered that no-one with the remotest connection to the decision-making process at the Emirates is reading them
The problem, you see, is that people forget. They form uncompromising cabals, reach a consensus and demand immediate action according to their recommendations. We the readers of Blog X have decided that we must punish most of the squad by selling them off to Portsmouth and that we should buy Villa, Gokhan Inler, Brede Hangeland… etc
That’s fine. Everyone’s entitled to have an opinion and express it, especially if it has some basis – eg having seen the player actually play. Just please don’t expect anything to be done about it once you’ve formed your opinion.
Personally, I think Wenger’s hitherto unwavering confidence in his players took a bit of a battering this month. You could see it in his post-match, thoroughly pissed off TV interview. Not that I expect wholesale changes, I just think he knows we need to get quite a bit stronger if we’re not to see the same old story next season. United have set the bar very high indeed – there aren’t many Arsenal teams I would have backed to beat them over 2 legs – and we’ve got to find a way to compete.
Andrey Arshavin is Sick. Not merely sick in a “bare sick, bruv” kind of way either, but actually ill, fluey, off-colour, peaky, diseased. Which means we probably won’t beat Chelsea on Sunday. Sad but true.
Speaking of Chelsea, am I literally the only Arsenal fan who felt a teensy bit *gasp* sorry for them on Wednesday night. Now I hate the lot of them with a vigour bordering on the violent, and when I saw Ashley Cole in a state of emotional collapse after Iniesta’s incredible strike, I leapt to my feet and performed the international gesture for “suck my balls”. But somehow it all looked very unfair.
Not just a bit unfair, but actually so unfair that you start to feel guilty about enjoying it, and you also worry that Barca won’t be good enough to trouble United in the final. Forget slagging off Drogba, I say. If I’d been in his position I’d have done the same thing, or worse. Most Arsenal fans are proud of Keown for his big gloat at Van Nistelrooy and of Parlour and Lauren for backing him up. I just don’t buy this moralising swill that the journalists seem to think is somehow original. Drogba was right. It was a disgrace deserving of all manner of obscenities.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
mate, i humbly disagree with your assessment of united.
this CURRENT arsenal team could have beaten them over 2 legs, i dont think the bar is quite wat it seems.
with any kind of performance in the first leg, we might have been good for a away goal at least, even if we wer stull beaten
but still, 1-0 was ok to take back to the emirates.
see, in the 2nd leg we were playing pretty well until the first goal, which we all know was caused by an unfortunate slip by our youngest player.
had that not happened the game would have been far more interesting, u know wat we’re like, when faced with an impossible task most of the players sort of give up, which im not sure is the worst thing in the world, its not nice to watch but its unimportant in the scheme of things.
and turn the tables, imagine we were facing man utd without evra (clichy) and ferdinand (gallas), in both legs, and without say rooney (van persie) and evans (djourou) in the first leg. and then these players were rushed back a bit for the 2nd leg.
and say we had all our best players, including rosicky or arshavin, at decent levels of fitness. we’d surely win that 9 times out of 10
I know thinking like this is a bit fantasy football or w/e but this is what happened.
and i guess its true they have better cover than us when we do get injuries, but they really are not That far ahead, they’ve had RIDICULOUS luck in a lot of premier league games again this year. A number of poor penalty decisions have actually won them games they looked like theyd draw and could have lost even. This gives them confidence also that carries over to next matches.
Btw, I would have felt sorry for chelsea until someone mentioned that last year when We were cheated out in the liverpool games, nobody said anything bout that really. there was no outrage.
Our players got angry but they never got out of hand.
Not that drogba really offends me or anything, i think the stewards holding him back made the whole scene look worse.
May 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
@ davi:
I am not as optimistic as you that a full strength arsenal side would beat a full strength united ‘9 times out of 10′. Whilst we might be good we are not that good. The simple truth of the matter is they were by far the better side and they would have grilled any side in the world with the performance they showed against us.
I think an objective way of assessing our squad and united’s squad would be to draw up a first eleven of current form – regardless of injuries. I am aware that this forgoes loyalty and to draw this team up is heresy to the gooners but this is how I view the 11:
GK: Van Der Sar
RB: Sagna
LB: Evra
CB: Ferdinand
CB: Vidic
RW: Arshavin
LW: Ronaldo
CM: Fabregas
CM: Carrick
FW: Van Persie
FW: Rooney
So in my eyes I would see them beating us in selection 7 to 4. This is before the depth of each squad is looked at.
May 9th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
skatman i reckon you have been pretty generous there and havent foregone loyalty at all. I would personally have manuel over edwin at the moment (bar ronaldos free kick) but no way would fabregas even make the bench on current form-for me he has been the most disappointing player of the past few weeks, anonymous in games we really needed him and not much of a leader either. Nor has van persie done anything to warrant being in there
On our day we can indeed beat anyone-but ‘on our day’ is in reality an optimistic way of saying quite how inconsistent we are.
I disagree that arsene wont pay any attention to the scribblings of blogs etc. General discontent causes pressure, and its not supposed to be us vs the manager-its supposed to be a joint venture-considering that generally the same issue is being aimed at arsene from all corners including ex stars like Petit and his own players, i think wenger will certainly be listening and planning some change.
having said that i can understand why he would make that press interview-why talk about it now when the season isnt over
May 10th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Skatman – I dont think i said we’d beat their 1st eleven 9 times out of 10, I meant to say – if we had our full strength side, and they had injuries equivalent to those we had (particularly) in the first leg, we would then beat them 9 times out of 10.
I think if both teams had all their players fully fit for a match, there wouldnt be too much between the 2.
Man Utd do have a better squad h/e this is true – we need strength and stamina to bring in in the middle of the park imo
May 10th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I think our best starting 11 could match United’s, even with Arshavin out. As it stands we haven’t had our best 11 available in quite some time. Wenger needs to buy not just because everyone says so, but because it’s the right thing to do. He’s already broken one of his cardinal rules of Jan. transfers and look what he got – the best player on our team for the past 2 months or so. Usmanov figures we need 100M to compete with United but really that’s just Chelsea talk. If we keep the squad together as it is we really need just 2-3 very select players. We lack experienced depth and it shows when you compare the benches. We don’t need a 30M Berbatov sitting on our bench and being a waste of space, but at best a solid player like Song or Rosicky who is content to play whenever and wherever and give 110%. We cannot have a subtitute bench full of “who are theys” anymore.
Wenger has let the egos of the kids get to them and he really needs to put his foot down. They’ve accomplished nothing for all of their publicity at a young age so really they’re not superstars like they think they are.