Match Reaction vs Pub Team Olympiakos (Home).

[Niall_Quinn]

Can't we just criticise the media anyway? Seems like the decent thing to do?

[Power n Glory]

Wenger is right about them being boring. That's for sure.

[IBK]

The squad needs tearing up, right down the middle of the first eleven and out wide too. A real striker, CM and CB, with a real, specialised wide player in there. Roy Keane was spot on at the start of the season. Added to that, there are too many quiet, good boys in this squad who take their beatings as good boys tend to do. Anyone with an edge has been shipped out of the club, forming a little choir school with no personality.

Wenger's biggest mistake and one that lies at the root of the issues we've seen over the past decade, comes down to the departure of The Invincibles. As Adams and co had instilled their mentality into the early 00's team, that had to be integrated on to the next stage. Except one of the most successful teams in the history of our club was dismantled in two seasons, preventing any sense of continuity. So we started from scratch, putting together teams based on Wenger's powder puff mentality which has led us to this point. Alongside the obvious Vieira, Dennis and Henry, we had Lauren, Lehmann, Campbell, Cole, Edu and Gilberto all gone in that space of time. Continuity was something that allowed Utd to stay where they were for so long and of course the spine of the Chelsea team.

Its simple, really. Wenger's permissive approach to players expressing themselves rather than being drilled tactically worked when he inherited/recruited players with character. But as time has passed and the manager has become increasingly messianistic, he has recruited accolytes rather than the type of player who will self-develop under him. In short, he has cut off his nose to spite his face. The worrying thing is that he doesn't seem to understand this.

[IBK]

To be honest, talking about Wenger's wife and marital problems is way below the belt, out of fucking order really. Fine, if it was your average celebrity dickhead exposing his life when everything is going well then bollocks to them, deal with the abuse when it all goes tits up. Until a recent article I don't think I've ever seen a picture of his wife. He clearly has no interest in mixing business with his personal life. His own problems are exactly that. Like ourselves. What has he done so catastrophically wrong to get cheap abuse about one of the most intimate relationships in his long life? Lost some games and upset some Gooners? Seriously get a grip of yourselves. Just because the tabloids need some cheap dirt to dish around for clicks and rotten gossip, doesn't mean you have to stoop so low. Are we going to sit here and look down our nose at scum like Chelsea, all the while parading such classless double standards? Talking about his wife is sprinting full on into Mourinho territory, it isn't funny, it's just nasty and makes you look like a completely despicable cunt.

This. Well said.

[IBK]

The problem for me is it narrows the criticism down to a single decision, which is of course how the simpletons in the media work as they treat their audience as even bigger dickheads but it excludes the other ongoing issues in the team. We should be hearing questions about the defence, midfield, general team selection etc. Wishful thinking I know but I don't think the reason we lost was solely because of our keeper. Widening the questions put to Wenger would truly put him under the spotlight and hopefully make life more uncomfortable as there is nowhere to hide. The media find one niche and hammer it to death because it's far easier to build a narrative around one point and then flog it to a mass audience. But if Arsenal fans want to see him held accountable for his mismanagement, then the heat needs come from several angles. I know I'm in dreamland here regarding the media, but a fella can hope.

Yep. The Ospina thing is a distraction. But I think that partly the reason why its been latched on to is that it exposes a lack of ruthlessness in the manager. Bottom line is that Cech is our best keper, but for reasons of his 'philosophy' he was not started in a crucial game.

[Letters]

I think it's too early to judge this.

[Letters]

We're out of the CL,

I think it's too early to judge that...