Wenger Referendum II - And this time it's personal

[Letters]

I think you understand what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is we did what we could to put pressure on Chelsea but ultimately, after our poor start, it wasn't enough. Chelsea came and parked the bus at ours although by then it was too late anyway, a win would have put a bit of pressure on but they were still too far ahead IMO.
The ideal in sport is that every team gives 100% in every game but you know the reality is that no team does, there are always games where for whatever reason it doesn't happen. The title was gone but top 4 was secure. There was a Cup Final to think about. I can forgive them for a bit of easing off. Every team does it. Even, as we saw last night, Chelsea. Their 'job done' was different to ours of course, but they don't have a Cup Final to think about so why would they ease off? Why not press for the maximum points? You're an apologist for them, but hammer us.

Of course we should be challenging Chelsea but after 12 games we were 15 points adrift. That is not acceptable, clearly, but Wenger and the players deserve some credit for digging us out of that hole (even though they dug it in the first place). I don't have the energy to be that bothered about us losing a silly game at home when top 4 was secured and the title was gone.

I will be cross if we drop points vs Sunderland, they smell of wee. Finish 3rd and win the Cup Final and I'll be content enough with the season.
I'd have taken it at the start of the season, I'd definitely have taken it after 12 league games. Do that and only Chelsea could be said to have had a better season.

[Niall_Quinn]

You'd have taken 3rd at the start of the season

Wenger must be your dad.

You have the chav thing exactly reversed. Their season is over. Doesn't excuse them for chucking it in against WBA because it's entirely unsportsmanlike and disrespectful of the league and the clubs that are jostling with WBA for finishing positions and cash.

Us, we can't afford to drop 1%. Our season is not over, we need to go into the cup final at the top of our game. Taking on Villa with one foot already at Butlins is far from understandable. The gypos haven't eased off, btw. We had a game in hand on them and they couldn't have caught us had we won our remaining games. But we collapsed as usual, they didn't and now they have 2nd in the bag. 5 wins on the bounce compared to our 2 wins, 2 draws and a loss. It's a total mystery to me how you could settle for that at the tail end of the season when the chance to finish above a club we apparently can't compete with was in our hands.

Wenger is going to get away with it again. A nice day out at Wembley and our failure to finish out the PL with any sort of composure will be forgotten - until it happens again next season.

[Letters]

3rd and the Cup? Definitely.
A season is never a complete triumph, unless you win every game and do the quadruple but unless you're playing FIFA that is impossible.

At the start of a season all fans surely think about what would constitute a successful season, and what that is depends on who you support.
If you're Spurs then you're not thinking about winning the league (unless you're Glory gGory's version of Ollie), you're targetting a top 4 finish and maybe a cup. If you're Arsenal you should be thinking about the title and maybe a cup but it's not as simple as the title = success and 3rd place = failure. There are shades of grey.

Obviously I'd rather we were champions than win the Cup, but after the early season form we needed Chelsea to go through a bad patch and they never really did.
Failing that we've finished comfortably in the top 4. Add the FA Cup then it's been a reasonably successful season.
Could have been better, obviously, but it could certainly have been a lot worse.

[Özim]

Of course we should be challenging Chelsea but after 12 games we were 15 points adrift. That is not acceptable, clearly, but Wenger and the players deserve some credit for digging us out of that hole (even though they dug it in the first place). I don't have the energy to be that bothered about us losing a silly game at home when top 4 was secured and the title was gone.

The bad start was his fault, he didn't dig us out of a hole in reality as he's the one that put us there in the 1st place. As for the finish to the season, what it kinda proves is that we'll never challenge for big prizes under Wenger because either we'll start well and fall away or start badly and then come good and then fall away again when the finish line is near. We've seen it enough times now to know that's what's going to happen.

Momentum is a big thing in football and teams that fall away or lack motivation in the final furlongs when there's still things to achieve clearly aren't setup to win things.

[Letters]

The bad start was his fault, he didn't dig us out of a hole in reality as he's the one that put us there in the 1st place.

That's pretty much exactly what I said

[Letters]

As for the finish to the season, what it kinda proves is that we'll never challenge for big prizes under Wenger.

You previously said we'd never win a trophy under him again

(tbh after the Birmingham debacle, I kinda agreed)

[Power n Glory]

The bad start was his fault, he didn't dig us out of a hole in reality as he's the one that put us there in the 1st place. As for the finish to the season, what it kinda proves is that we'll never challenge for big prizes under Wenger because either we'll start well and fall away or start badly and then come good and then fall away again when the finish line is near. We've seen it enough times now to know that's what's going to happen.

Momentum is a big thing in football and teams that fall away or lack motivation in the final furlongs when there's still things to achieve clearly aren't setup to win things.

Our slow start to the season is no coincidence. It comes down to bad preparation. It was a World Cup year and besides the usual stalling on transfers, we only played 4 preseason friendlies. 5 if you count the Community Shield. Just compare that to our rivals.

Arsenal – 4 + 1 (Community Shield)
Chelsea – 10
Man Utd - 6
City - 6 + 1 (Community Shield)
Liverpool – 8

It’s bad enough we go into the season looking wafer thin at CB and up front during a World Cup year. There is no way he could have seen from preseason that Chambers or Sanogo were ready for the league. He didn’t get a good look at Coquelin during the preseason and loaned him out instead. It’s bad preparation and I don’t know what we were doing to be so unprepared. We felt it and struggled through the season as expected.

[Letters]

Wenger definitely deserves criticism for the poor start, but he's responsible for all results good and bad so he should also be given some credit for us picking up.
Ultimately a season should be judged as a whole at the end. If the end result is 3rd and the FA Cup then I think that's a pretty good season overall.
Not one I'd be sacking the manager for, personally.

[Power n Glory]

Wenger definitely deserves criticism for the poor start, but he's responsible for all results good and bad so he should also be given some credit for us picking up.
Ultimately a season should be judged as a whole at the end. If the end result is 3rd and the FA Cup then I think that's a pretty good season overall.
Not one I'd be sacking the manager for, personally.

What if we don’t win the FA Cup?

We’ve had this season after season. We’re always falling short because he’s not prepared to do what’s necessary to get us to the top. He doesn’t act like a guy that learns from his mistakes or cares about the criticism. It goes back to what was said in another thread yesterday, I don’t know how his ego can take such a poor record against his rivals and going so long without a trophy. It looks like complacency but that makes no sense unless you’re satisfied and comfortable with your position.

[fakeyank]

Of course we should be challenging Chelsea but after 12 games we were 15 points adrift. That is not acceptable, clearly, but Wenger and the players deserve some credit for digging us out of that hole (even though they dug it in the first place)

This.

A few years back, a poster on GW (cant remember who) posted that many Arsenal fans suffer from the battered wife syndrome, and your statement is a reflection of that perfectly. Someone beats the living daylights out of you and then offers you painkillers to soothe your pain.. rather than be unhappy about getting beat up, you thank this great 'humanitarian' because he gave you painkillers.. unbelievable!

He'll do the same thing again next season.. and the season after.. and we will always have someone ready to give up their first born to defend Wenger!