Quote Originally Posted by Marc Overmars View Post
For there to be under-performance, there first has to be some kind of good performance to begin with no? I'd like to know on what evidence are we under-performing? It can't be the league because we've finished 5th and 6th now, with this season in particular breaking all sorts of records for being shit. We choked in the League Cup final (why couldn't we raise it again like we did for Chelsea last year?), we froze when presented with a huge opportunity to reach the EL final and we've been soundly beaten by all of the teams above us bar Chelsea who we drew twice with.

Sure we have some decent players who would benefit from a better coach but we haven't been anywhere near the title for a long time and the league performance has got progressively worse. The cup win last year was a minor miracle but if anything that probably suggests we over-performed on the day because everything either side of that final has been atrocious. That was a huge anomaly of a victory.

We probably should be doing better but I think the new manager has a big task on because I don't think this squad has shown enough to suggest it can do better. There are a lot of run of the mill players in this squad who should count themselves lucky to be playing for a club as big as Arsenal.
The new manager has to first train the players to unlearn everything Wenger "taught" them. Some players will survive the process, others won't. But just a few simple lessons might transform the team, like kicking the ball up the other end of the pitch when defending. Or the striker running into the box when we are attacking down the flanks. The stuff all normal teams do.