Match Reaction vs Swansea

[Seymour Butts]

Spot on by Carragher I am afraid to say.......................



“It’s the same things with Arsenal, it’s nothing new,” he told Sky Sports. “It’s the way they play, the way they understand the game, what’s coming from the sidelines and how they allow themselves to get in these situations week after week, season after season.

“They were winning 1-0 but for the equalising goal they were all pushing forward and got caught on the counter-attack again.

“Then the winning goal is down to a weakness – not being physically strong enough when the cross comes in. These are problems that anyone can identify.”

Carragher pointed out Jefferson Montero clearly had the beating of right-back Calum Chambers from early on in the match, yet Wenger refused to act – either by subbing his defender or altering his tactics – and Arsenal paid the price, with the Ecuadorian crossing for Gomis’ winner.

The Sky Sports expert put Wenger’s reluctance to alter his plans down to the Frenchman’s confidence in Arsenal’s attacking ability but also chastised Chambers’ team-mates for not realising the problems he was having with the winger and acting to address the issue.

“Yesterday at Anfield, Jose Mourinho saw Raheem Sterling as a danger for Chelsea and he had Ramires on that side to try and stop him,” said Carragher, referring to the Blues’ 2-1 win over Liverpool.

“I thought Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had a good game in terms of going forward for Arsenal but at half-time it was clear Chambers is having one of those days where Montero had got the better of him.

“I’ve been there as a defender and you need help. You can change it; Arsenal had Hector Bellerin on the bench, who is inexperienced, but is supposed to be one of the quickest players at the club. Could he have made a difference with his pace? Or tell Oxlade-Chamberlain, ‘stand in front of Chambers, forget going forward because we need protection. We need to stop this'.

“But Arsene Wenger has so much belief in his team and the way they play, he says ‘we’ll go forward, play our own game, do not worry about the opposition’. But it’s proving that you have to think about the opposition.

“We say it every year about Arsenal, in big games – not normally these sort of games – they go and play their normal game away from home and get batted 3-0 or 4-0. But the problem was obvious and something needed to be changed at half-time – but nothing changed. And they’ve ended up losing the game because of it.

“You talk about leaders in football, though, and that’s a perfect example. After a ten minute spell in the game, when your full back is up against it, [centre-back] Per Mertesacker should say to Oxlade-Chamberlain, ‘stand there, do not move for 15-20 minutes, until we kill this threat’.

“You never see that with Arsenal. You can’t always play exactly the same way. Games change. Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re behind. You can’t keep on playing the same way.”

[Özim]

That guy in the hat is a bloody bellend

That guy must be AW's little helper, what a joker.

[Özim]

We're only a point off 4th, so our season's objectives are very much in sight, so I don't think anyone at the club is going to be too worried by this defeat. As one of the fans said, no other manager would have got 4th place so often with such a small budget, I guess we should be grateful for 4th place, after all this seems to be the holy grail for most clubs.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Sadly, it is the holy grail for most clubs. It certainly seems to be for us.

As long as we keep achieving it and the money keeps rolling in, the Board are under no pressure at all to make the one change we desperately need.

[the notwist]

NQ - if you want specifics I'll start with this match. We start the game with an inexperienced centre-back playing right back, and immediately his lack of pace is a problem. Chambers is a fine prospect at CB, but plainly lacks the pace needed for a full-back. We have a reserve left-back as a CB. Monreal is willing, but the poor guy isn't up to dealing with a big centre forward.

Why are we in this position? Because Wenger starts the season with 15 players who can fill the 6 midfield/attacking positons, and a mere 5 players (6 if you count Monreal) who can play back four. One bad injury (Debuchy) would be a disaster. Lose a second (Kos) and it's a farce. What are Gibbs' chances of staying fit to the Xmas transfer window? How soon before Merts is totally knackered?

At this rate Wenger and Bould will be getting their boots ready to be paired at CB.

The stupidity of this season is that we have some serious gas back in the team and could start scoring for fun. I said "could" btw. But WHAT IS THE POINT if the manager fucks up the balance of his squad so badly?

Do I get to first base, NQ?

[Power n Glory]

Very serious. The tactics, preparation, in-game management, substitutions, post game analysis, player rotation, fitness and injuries, transfer dealings, are all sub-standard and the manager isn't close to making the most of the players and resources at his disposal. I'm pretty sure we all agree on that much by this stage.

But take the Merson incident. Merson getting on TV and shouting, "clueless, clueless", isn't going to do a damn thing except put Wenger on the defensive and give him an easy out where he can claim he works day to day with the team, he's got all the experience, he knows what he's doing and nobody else is qualified to judge him. And that's what exactly what happened. Why didn't Merson go into the specifics? Name names, give examples of the "clueless" tactics over time. So far the media has settled on a couple of instances of our midfield pushed up and leaving the defence exposed when we were in a winning position. That's a start. But a couple of instances isn't going to shift Wenger out of his trench. Fans who really want to highlight the problems need to build a proper case, with proper and extensive evidence. Put that in front of him, a case spanning several seasons and highlighting the same mistakes and misjudgements happening time and time again (as is claimed) and that's not so easy to brush aside. If it's true that Wenger is clueless and he's lot the plot tactically then it needs to be spelled out, it's no good just calling him names.

Get that Claude bloke to do it. What's the use of him ranting on on Arsenal TV? Either he wants to be a Z-list celeb or he wants to do something constructive to get his points across and to try to encourage real change. Wenger is here until 2017 as things stand. The board is certainly not going to intervene and make changes. They have stated this as clearly as it is possible to state it. We're good enough to grab 4th every season and maybe go on a cup run. The money is pouring in. One of the big objections about money not being spent in the transfer windows has been addressed. If anything, Wenger is more secure than ever. It's going to take some serious work conducted by serious fans to demonstrate the key problems that most perceive as holding the club back. Boycotts are useless when there's a long queue waiting to snap up tickets. Banners and shouting and all that crap just make us look stupid in the eyes of fans who would love their club to be 4th or on the CL or winning a cup. fans slagging Wenger on the Internet has no effect at all. The media are lazy bastards who will work with the theme of the day but will never dig deep.

If the fans really want to shift Wenger or force his hand then they need to do some work. That's my point. Don't give him an easy out like Merson just did. Lay down a case that the media will seize upon as their own (an easy win for the lazy bastards) and that other fans can get behind and something Wenger can't just brush under the carpet. That's the only way you'll see him walk before 2017.

To be fair to Merson, the 'tactically clueless' jab was aimed at the players. He avoided out right attacking Wenger but I think the gloves will come off if Wenger continues to throw such dismissive shots at his critics. It will snowball and pundits will start taking a closer look at all of his decisions. I've already read a few this morning. The zero experience argument is no defence and that will only put the pundits back up because it's so dismissive. For years, they've avoided taking aim at Wenger and have just accepted the 'lack of money' argument. In a way, he's been shielded from serious criticism for years. If results like yesterday continue we'll start to see a different approach. It already started with that Jacqui Oatley post game reaction. A lot of people in the press didn't like his reaction and I'm sure they'll poke at him some more.

But the press doing what they usually do won't change anything unless fans actually do something. Protests, banners, boycotts...it's something at least and he'll surely get the message that he needs to change things or move on.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

To be fair to Merson, the 'tactically clueless' jab was aimed at the players. He avoided out right attacking Wenger but I think the gloves will come off if Wenger continues to throw such dismissive shots at his critics. It will snowball and pundits will start taking a closer look at all of his decisions. I've already read a few this morning. The zero experience argument is no defence and that will only put the pundits back up because it's so dismissive. For years, they've avoided taking aim at Wenger and have just accepted the 'lack of money' argument. In a way, he's been shielded from serious criticism for years. If results like yesterday continue we'll start to see a different approach. It already started with that Jacqui Oatley post game reaction. A lot of people in the press didn't like his reaction and I'm sure they'll poke at him some more.

But the press doing what they usually do won't change anything unless fans actually do something. Protests, banners, boycotts...it's something at least and he'll surely get the message that he needs to change things or move on.

To be fair if I was a manager I'd be dismissive of ex professionals opinions as well, do I think Merson is right? Of course but at the same time this is a guy who has boasted about playing a drinking game with Gazza involving wine and sleeping tablets so he's quite easy for Wenger to dismiss.

The criticism needs to be coming internally, and it kind of makes an irony of the statements of support the board give him. If they were supportive of him, they'd be interfering more in the football aspects of the club. This nonsense that idiots like Stewart Robson perpetuates of Wenger being a dictator is facile because it goes against what anyone will tell you about Wenger, he is a man who hates confrontation and invariably is only in a position of unchecked and unquestioned authority because no one above him in the hierarchy is questioning him.
It's incredibly easy to think your doing well when nobody tells you otherwise
This is no defence of Wenger by the way, he's intelligent enough and being paid enough to identify what's wrong without being told. But the fact is his stubborn intransigence is not being questioned by those he might listen to

[Munchies]

8 players were all out of place before they got their freekick..

[rodders]

On Paper the best squad for years, results wise a right ruddy hames. Wenger tactically in the dark ages.

[Marc Overmars]

On Paper the best squad for years, results wise a right ruddy hames. Wenger tactically in the dark ages.

Even in the dark ages there was probably some sort of flexible or alternative strategy. What we're seeing is a complete reluctance towards in-game management, which is surely the very fabric of what being a manger is about. I'm not going to advocate giving the job to any flavour of the month, but it's not going to take a manager with a glittering CV to improve us. There are plenty of savvy and hungry managers who could make a difference on what we're currently seeing.