Is it? What of?Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Is it? What of?
Arsenal have allowed 50 shots on target this season - that's more than Bournemouth (48) and Watford (46). Petr Cech earning his corn.
He kept us in it yesterday, big part of why we got a point. He really is making a difference this year.
Really cant see us winning the league. It would be mind boggling on a scale greater than Fergies last title with a poor United side.
Getting comprehensively outplayed by the Spuds on our own patch is unacceptable, coupled with stomach churning performances in the CL.
Seriously who wants another 5 years of this?
I don't think it would be mind boggling, IMO we've got a squad that can compete, we're doing so so far.
We were outplayed yesterday for parts of the game but Spurs, whether we like to admit it or not, are a pretty good side this year. They've already played City and spanked them. The CL results have been bad but don't seem to have affected our league form so far so not really relevant to our title aspirations.
EDIT: Addendum - is it acceptable to draw away at Villa? A team who had only got 1 point from their previous 10 games and hadn't kept a clean sheet since the opening day...
Yesterdays game was a mini version of our inability to compete for the title under Wumger. Top of the league was there for us, we were at home to the Spuds, not Bayern, Barca or Man City - the Spuds!! & we were extremely lucky to get a point.
Its that will to win, the desire required to take you to the next level that we dont get under Wumger. We are happy with 2nd best (usually 4th best) because its now part of our make up.
Most of the Spurs team played on Thursday evening so lets stop the crap about being tired after the Bayern game. We started the game with 4 players who would struggle to get into the Stoke team, we ended up with 5 players on the pitch that would struggle to get into the Stoke team - therein lies our problem. The squad depth does not allow injuries to key players & we all knew this during the transfer window. We have had a decade of long term injuries to key players with limited back up. Lessons do not get learnt.
When we have to start relying on Gibbs as a game changer, you know we have problems.
If we really wanted to compete, we would have Augbemeang & Reuss competing for places with Walcot & Ramsey. We would have someone like Shawcross, defending like he's lifes on the line, alongside Kos as opposed to the dinosaur German we have.
We would have a centre forward who doesn't need 6 chances to score a goal. All these things should be in place by now if we actually do want to win the title.
For those that want to spout about us being 2nd in the league - wonderful, we've been there before Xmas in other years - proves nothing when you know you dont have the squad to substain the challenge.
For those same people, after our latest 2 performances - look at where Bayern were when we moved Stadium, look at where Spurs were & then explain how Wenger is taking us forward.
The wheels haven’t fallen off quite yet. We should have won the game but it’s worth chilling out. It’s not over yet.
Done well on the loans. Well he hasnt, last year he played 20 times for Villiareal and scored once. Before that he got 11 in 43 appearances in an easy league. He has had his chances here and failed to take them. You say he works hard, but then so does flamini.
and hes shit
You missing the point by around 36 miles. The points total now might tell us who's NOT going to win the title (the chavs, for example) but the actual business of winning the thing is still way out in the distance and will require consistency between here and there plus bottle when it comes down to the final crunch matches. Everything we are displaying so far points to another failed tilt. This is why the run-in last year was so important. Winning is a habit, a state of mind. Our club doesn't take winning nearly seriously enough. Paisley, Clough, Ferguson understood what winning was about. Wenger doesn't. We know this for a fact because of his willingness to chuck games he sees as less important. He's an accountant not a sportsman. For Wenger 3 wins and a loss is better than 2 wins and 2 draws. Which is smart, of course, because it gets more points. But a real sportsman would rather die than lose. And it's that win at all costs attitude that actually gets the wins at the top level. When it really gets down to it, a winner will go the extra yard and claw out the victory.
You dismiss Leicester as title rivals because you think they have certain weaknesses that will see them drop away when the sharp end of the season arrives (or even sooner). You're right. They just won't have the squad to push all the way. But they have done well so far.
As for us, we don't have the manager to push all the way. How do we know? Look at the last 10 years and compare to this year. Same shit. Okay, I accept you deny it so no point going on about it. But Wenger's self-delusion is also illustrative. After tossing 2 points at home against the spuds he consoles himself with the idea we've had 4 wins out of 5 and it's not unusual for a club to drop points over 5 games. Sounds reasonable until you analyse his spin in more detail. Because the reality is we've only won TWICE in the last five, having suffered heavy and embarrassing defeats against Sheff Wed and Bayern Munich and most recently letting our local rivals come and slap us around for a point. We've also played a shit first half against Swansea, before grabbing the points, and we beat a woeful Everton. If you view things as an accountant you can write off the bad stuff and just focus on the good. If you view things as a winner then we're actually on quite a shitty run of form.
But Wenger and some of the fans prefer accountancy, so looks like we are going to win the league. Or at least the most wins in the calendar year league.
For the rest of us, we'll know when the team is really on it and going for glory. Like the teams of Wenger's early years. Fans must surely remember that feeling of confidence every time the team took to the pitch? Can anyone, hand on heart, say they ever feel that confidence these days? Our expectations have tumbled along with Wenger's performances. Now some look at 2 points dropped against our bitter rivals and say, decent result. That's how far we have fallen. You look back over 10, 15 years and you can see patterns and decline and a falling standard. Those patterns haven't disappeared, they are still right here. That's why some already know there will be no title.
Or put in very practical terms. Summer transfer window. Striker required. Wenger fails to deliver making stupid claims there's nothing out there better than the chump we just saw miss a bag of sitters on our own turf against the spuds. This negligence exists whether we previously signed Alexis and Ozil or not. The argument Wenger won't spend because he spent on Ozil does not now mean we have a decent striker up top, does it?
After almost a decade he spent on a decent keeper. Well done. Only a decade too late.
Bayern brought Vidal off the fucking bench against us midweek. Wenger couldn't find anyone worth buying though.
Wenger finally bought a decent keeper and then played Ospina in the CL, who promptly threw the ball in his own net.
And so on.
It's all good - nothing to see. Move on.
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Flamini isn't shit either. He's just not title winning quality. But damn glad we had him yesterday, he got stuck in and stemmed the bleeding. He also got the goals last time we played the spuds. Shame a few of the other players, like that bloke we have up top who couldn't hit the Boeing factory from 6 inches, and the 1110 who stepped out to stroll the first half don't have the same enthusiasm as Flamini. We'd be flying if they did.
EDIT: Should be 10 not 11 because Cech is always a professional and it stands out a mile.
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