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100% agreed. Pretty much what I said in the last sentence only that I didn't single out Spuds as the team that will bottle it. So far, Everton and WBA are looking like they're willing to put up a fight. Whether they'll still be in 4th place contention towards the end of the season remains to be seen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ach
I think these sorts of threads pop up every season around this time, usually after we've lost to a big rival with a disappointing performance. I'm not saying that they're knee jerk, but on the whole I think we should learn to expect this from Arsenal sides till 2014 when hopefully things will change.
I used to be heavily against Wenger, for the reasons mentioned in this thread and a few others but to be honest if you look at the expected top three there's not really much we can do to compete. A team with the best manager in the world, miles ahead of his equivalents in this league, and two others with a combined net spend of around 110M, adding to squads that were already stronger than ours. Our team looks good on paper, I still believe that - give it a couple months and we'll play well, perhaps having a decent cup run with a chance of winning one of them. I don't think that the board believes we can win the league or the CL in football's current climate so we have decided not to go for either until things change - whether they do is another matter.
We're not the only team to have started poorly this season - everyone seems a bit off the pace, probably due to the Euros. Citeh were dire against West Ham, Chelsea average against Swansea and Tottenham dominated by Wigan at home. Due to the lack of serious competition we'll finish fourth yet again which is the maximum we can expect. I will slaughter Wenger if he does not treat the cups with the respect they should get, but expect this to continue in the league.
I don't think we can really use the "top 3 have more resources than us" excuse for how dire the performances have been over the past 6 weeks. It's not their fault we play Ramsey and Podolski as wingers, our captian is an accident waiting to happen or our LB is a clown and so on. These are managment issues and that's what Wenger is rightly being hammered for.
There is a level of understanding I think towards the financial aspect because it's obvious we can't throw around the sort of money the top 3 can, but when problems reguarly manifest on-field you've got to look closer to home.
Especially when you lose to Norwich and only manage 1 shot on target, a team with far far less resources than us and they have grant fucking holt.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Grant FUCKING HOLT!!!
Still can't believe it :angry:
You will always get one off results like that. All teams have off days.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gervinho's Forehead
This isn't just one off day though, I accept. We've had a fairly extended run of poor form but I do believe that we're better than recent form suggests.
Not convinced by this team at all. Wenger will have to make a lot if changes to the first team before I'm convinced.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
I'm not convinced by the way they're playing at the moment. The way we were early season looked pretty good.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
I don't know what's gone wrong recently but I don't believe we've suddenly become a poor side. Hopefully we can sort it out.
I take the valid points people are making that we are not 'shit' relative to the whole of the league, and yes, other teams may well bottle it.
But like Wenger, I prefer to look at our own team. And I have come to the conclusion that we are underperforming badly given the players and the resources at our disposal. We have the top scorer for the best team in France last season, and a very experience German international up front - yet they are misfiring badly. We have the best RB in the league; a prodigy from Spain as our creative MF; the fastest winger (and one of the best finishers) in the league. We have (in Arteta) one of the most reliable MF's around....and we are looking like a dog's dinner.
Its not the relative strengths of our players on paper, or the below par performances of other teams that concerns me - its the fact that we are clearly not playing to our players' strengths, have no real game plan, adn most importantly, no character, no life, no heart in this team of ours. Lets face it - when did we last go on a proper run when we played with proper fluency, and consistently prevailed against the opposition. We might have a scinitillating game, go on a little run of victories, but ultimately, it all comes back to performances like Norwich, like Manure. This seems somehow to be the default setting of Wenger's current teams - and there is something fundamentally wrong with this. The exception seems to be where you have utter prodigies like RVP or Fabregas - but for me this is a stupid way to set up your teams. The building blocks should be a system that gets the whole team playing to its strengths - with individual creativity/talent as the icing on the cake. We seem to do the opposite. I think that AW's whole style of play, while it might be suited to a team with Barca-like talent, is ill suited for the players that we are willing to attract to the club, and ill-suited for the EPL. That the manager persists regardless is stubborn and myopic.
And yes - be careful what you wish for etc. But there has to come a time where enough's enough. If this were the early years of transition - fair enough. But really, how many times over the past 7/8 years have we been where we are now? And every transfer season, its groundhog day. Clearly, the players can smell where we are going - and when you feature the talent that we lose every year, its hard to escape the conclusion that we are not just stagnating, we are in sharp decline.
:gp:Quote:
Originally Posted by Boss
GP mentioned earlier that Giroud is a 30 goal striker being starved of service and I agree he is a goal getter but we are playing him in a system that suited RvP or at least he showed he could handle.
I dont get why Wenger persists with this formation when it is clear that it doesnt play to the guys strengths, I mean how many times did we hear that Giroud wasnt brought in to replace RvP! ?
I really do believe we should be playing two up top, if Giroud is the focal tghen Theo or Pods to play off him.
What I cant work out is what to do with the midfield. . .Cazorla, Arteta and Jack will be fighting for the centre and we cant ignore the need for a bit of steel there.
wings to be occuppied by who doesnt play up front. . .although it is starting to look like Pods is not best suited to wide left and Theo doesnt want to play wide. , .in Theos case I think we need to try him up front before giving him what he wants or fecks off
The defence, I suppose stays as it is? But we have to shoot Santos, the guy treats every game like a kick around in the park, awful player. . .stick Sagna left and bring back Ghelkinson.
But what about that midfield?
I agree Boss, Wenger needs to and should always have been serious about the cups