There's a lot of nonsense on here about what is going wrong.
I thought I'd deal with some of the main theories and give my thoughts on them. Other thoughts and theories welcome.


1) Wenger doesn't care about winning.
This is obviously balls. Obviously he cares. He's won enough trophies in his time, why wouldn't he want to win more? You can see the way he acts so stroppy when things aren't going well that it hurts him. I saw an interview with Dein where he said that they still have dinner after home games unless we lose in which case they don't because Wenger is no company when we've lost. Whether he's able to do anything about it is a different matter, but it's not indifference.


2) The players don't care about winning.
Again, I'm struggling to believe this. Why wouldn't they? They must be very competitive people, they've got to the top of their profession. Just last season they won the Cup, that must feel good. Why wouldn't they want more of that? It's there for the taking this season, why stroll around cruising into 4th place when you could be champions? Yes, you don't get paid any more (well, maybe a bit more) but why wouldn't you want that?


3) The board don't care about winning.
Well, this is true but I don't see how that affects our results.


4) Wenger is a poor tactician/he doesn't prepare them for games.
There is more plausibility to this one but what special tactics and preparation do you need to beat Swansea?! And these faults - and I do agree they are faults of his - have always been there, they didn't stop us winning the Cup the last 2 years and last year we were "calendar year champions". A meaningless thing BUT it does demonstrate a long, consistent run of form which were it sustained over a season would see us be champions. It isn't "a few good games" as some have said.


5) Injuries always kill us.
Well, they do, and that is something which needs sorting out. But most of our players are back from injury now and our run of poor form continues despite that. Carzola is out but I don't buy he's our only key player, Ozil and Sanchez are world class, we are surely good enough to beat a team like Swansea without Carzola.


6) We don't have enough up front.
Well this one is clearly true but we should have plenty of goals elsewhere in this team. It's a factor but not the only one.


7) We always bottle it.
I don't really buy this. It may be a factor but it's not as big a problem, IMO, as some make out. Last year we won the Cup, winning at Old Trafford on the way - and that wasn't a fluke, we were good that night, we stood up. We were fantastic in the Cup Final, yes we should be beating Villa but it wasn't a nervous win, we hammered them from the start. This season we've beaten Utd and City at home, both good performances and wins in games where had we lost they'd have leapfrogged us. There was nothing particularly high pressure about last night that hasn't been so on other occasions this season when we have won and won well.


8) We lack a strong captain.
IMO this is possibly the biggest factor. We haven't had a strong captain since Vieira. Who is out there when things start going against us getting us going again? Adams or Vieira wouldn't have ALLOWED a performance like last night, certainly not as often as we're seeing it right now. It was a clear foul for their equalizer but these things will happen. REACT! FFS, REACT! You have 60 minutes to sort it out and instead of reacting and blowing them away in the 2nd half we just limp along, concede again and lose. Pathetic.




There just seems to be a general, collective malaise and loss of form right now. Ultimately the buck stops at Wenger (although I don't absolve the players from blame, we had enough out there to beat Swansea last night), but I don't buy that we 'bottled' it or either Wenger or the players or both aren't bothered.