Arsenal v Chelsea Match Reaction

[Niall_Quinn]

If you don't care about what Wenger sees in training how can you assess the situation and make a fair point ? For a player to be selected in the starting line-up , it depends on his physical and mental fitness and more importantly on his performances in training . A player who does not inspire his manage's confidence in training is more likely to warm the bench .

What about the mental fitness of the manager? Do we just assume Wenger knows what he's doing, in light of the performance yesterday for example? He keeps doing the same thing and we keep churning out the same result. Didn't somebody once say that's the definition of insanity?

[Dein-machine]

Seems like some of you fickle lot are back on the Wenger out campaign now after ridiculously spouting about our great manager having us top of the league. I get called a miserable bastard by the likes of Letters but at least I have been consistent in my assessment of our season. We have the players to play like we did at home to Man Utd & thrash most teams. We choose not to. Our manager chooses not too. He chooses to keep faith with players like Merts, Flamini, Ramsey & Walcott when they are simply not good enough. He has seen what quicker direct football can do for us with pace up front but he chooses to tippy tappy & try to play on the counter. His decision making is child like. For example, yesterday 1-0 down obvioulsy needing to score to get back in the game - is this more likely with Sanchez on the pitch. Simple answer YES or NO. If YES, which is what I'd expect most of us with a few brain cells would say - then why not do it a half time when he has 45 mins to make a difference. What did leaving Campbell on for the 1st 25 mins of the 2nd half do for us?
I am only surprised at how some on here are so upset with results like these. For me its simple, when you know its going to happen its easier to deal with. The last 3 games sum us up under Wenger - predictable, uninspiring & toothless. get used to it guys - nothing will change whilst he's in charge.

[IBK]

I still don’t get this assumption that we should be ‘walking’ the league or that our performance levels are not relative to averageness that surrounds us in the league. The two things are not mutually exclusive. The league has been declining for years, while the similarity of styles and tactics by the teams are all pretty much the same. The old clichés of ‘well next year the big boys will be back’ are of course being rolled because it’s easier to say than admitting how poor the PL is nowadays. Fergie winning the league with such an average Utd team was the first real indicator but again, he was lauded for beating real quality, when in fact, everyone else behind them was just as poor. If the league around us is poor, then by association we are also going to be just as average, which is what we’re seeing. It doesn’t devalue winning the title at all because when everyone is on the same level, you still have to be the best at that level to win it.

It's very simple. We are perennial top four finishers. 2 of the the teams we have tended to finish behind have had either poor (Manure) or shockingly poor (Chavs) seasons by their standards. They have both suffered a lot of disruption on either the managerial or the playing side. The other team - Citeh - have been astonishingly inconsistent by their standards, and it is clear that they too have been disrupted by speculation about a managerial change. Of the other 'traditional' also rans - we have Liverpool who are in transition, and have not featured as a threat; Everton - who have been disappointing; and Spurs - a team that in terms of stability are nearest to us.

By contrast - we enjoy the greatest stability of any team in the EPL, and Wenger has enjoyed the luxury of a lot of time - years in most cases - to work with his players and his system.

Next - the quality of players at our disposal. We are fond of bleating about those clubs with greater resources than our own, but Citeh aside those clubs have been taken pretty much out of the picture this season. And we have considerably greater resources; have a bigger and better squad, and a higher wage bill than most of the rest of the league. Our players are technically better than most other teams, and on paper we should beat most of them. Of course this is football, and there will be surprise results - but it is facetious to argue that over a period of time a stronger team, and squad should not prevail.

Then let's look at the players we have brought in - at huge cost in a couple of cases. We were top four finishers before Ozil and Sanchez joined Arsenal. They are both world class players - yet there has been no demonstrable change in terms of overall points won since they arrived and bedded in. To them we added Cech - the world class keeper who has already been worth quite a few points this season on his own. You would have thought that with 3 genuine world class players of the type we have not had for many seasons we would be stronger as a team - not be sinking to the mediocrity of the rest.

I do not expect to win every game. But given the factors above, I would have fully expected us to improve on our level this season - rather than to follow the rest. I do not understand your suggestion that because everyone else is mediocre, we will inevitably be mediocre too. It just doesn't make sense. And what's more - if that is really the case then we are about as far away from winners as its possible to be.

I think it is obvious that this season above all others is our best opportunity to win the league. And we should be winning it by some distance if we look at the number of average performances and needlessly dropped points we have seen from Arsenal.

I have never suggested that if we do win the league it will somehow be worth less. I don't subscribe to that view - as a title is a title and nothing more needs to be said. But we are doing our best to squander a golden opportunity to do so.

[Dein-machine]

What about the mental fitness of the manager? Do we just assume Wenger knows what he's doing, in light of the performance yesterday for example? He keeps doing the same thing and we keep churning out the same result. Didn't somebody once say that's the definition of insanity?

its what I said months ago - nobody is better at their job when there past retirement age as opposed to when they were 45. Maybe he is losing his marbles but nobody at the club has the balls to bring it up. Would explain alot about his decision making though.

[Kano]

It's very simple. We are perennial top four finishers. 2 of the the teams we have tended to finish behind have had either poor (Manure) or shockingly poor (Chavs) seasons by their standards. They have both suffered a lot of disruption on either the managerial or the playing side. The other team - Citeh - have been astonishingly inconsistent by their standards, and it is clear that they too have been disrupted by speculation about a managerial change. Of the other 'traditional' also rans - we have Liverpool who are in transition, and have not featured as a threat; Everton - who have been disappointing; and Spurs - a team that in terms of stability are nearest to us.

By contrast - we enjoy the greatest stability of any team in the EPL, and Wenger has enjoyed the luxury of a lot of time - years in most cases - to work with his players and his system.

Next - the quality of players at our disposal. We are fond of bleating about those clubs with greater resources than our own, but Citeh aside those clubs have been taken pretty much out of the picture this season. And we have considerably greater resources; have a bigger and better squad, and a higher wage bill than most of the rest of the league. Our players are technically better than most other teams, and on paper we should beat most of them. Of course this is football, and there will be surprise results - but it is facetious to argue that over a period of time a stronger team, and squad should not prevail.

Then let's look at the players we have brought in - at huge cost in a couple of cases. We were top four finishers before Ozil and Sanchez joined Arsenal. They are both world class players - yet there has been no demonstrable change in terms of overall points won since they arrived and bedded in. To them we added Cech - the world class keeper who has already been worth quite a few points this season on his own. You would have thought that with 3 genuine world class players of the type we have not had for many seasons we would be stronger as a team - not be sinking to the mediocrity of the rest.

I do not expect to win every game. But given the factors above, I would have fully expected us to improve on our level this season - rather than to follow the rest. I do not understand your suggestion that because everyone else is mediocre, we will inevitably be mediocre too. It just doesn't make sense. And what's more - if that is really the case then we are about as far away from winners as its possible to be.

I think it is obvious that this season above all others is our best opportunity to win the league. And we should be winning it by some distance if we look at the number of average performances and needlessly dropped points we have seen from Arsenal.

I have never suggested that if we do win the league it will somehow be worth less. I don't subscribe to that view - as a title is a title and nothing more needs to be said. But we are doing our best to squander a golden opportunity to do so.

Yes it is our best chance to win the league in a long time. But by some distance? No, that’s based on outdated clichéd ideas of where the game is in this country right now. We have maintained our level from previous seasons, if you look at the points season on season, we’re pretty much on a par. We do not exist in a vacuum. The quality of the league remains relative no matter who you are talking about – City, Utd, Arsenal, Leicester – and so the performance levels of all the teams – including ours – will be affected. So we remain the same, rather than improving and everyone else has gradually declined year on year. It hasn’t suddenly occurred for one freak season. It's easy to find excuses for other teams rather than our own but I bet on fan forums everywhere, the reverse is taking place.

[selassie]

It's very simple. We are perennial top four finishers. 2 of the the teams we have tended to finish behind have had either poor (Manure) or shockingly poor (Chavs) seasons by their standards. They have both suffered a lot of disruption on either the managerial or the playing side. The other team - Citeh - have been astonishingly inconsistent by their standards, and it is clear that they too have been disrupted by speculation about a managerial change. Of the other 'traditional' also rans - we have Liverpool who are in transition, and have not featured as a threat; Everton - who have been disappointing; and Spurs - a team that in terms of stability are nearest to us.

By contrast - we enjoy the greatest stability of any team in the EPL, and Wenger has enjoyed the luxury of a lot of time - years in most cases - to work with his players and his system.

Next - the quality of players at our disposal. We are fond of bleating about those clubs with greater resources than our own, but Citeh aside those clubs have been taken pretty much out of the picture this season. And we have considerably greater resources; have a bigger and better squad, and a higher wage bill than most of the rest of the league. Our players are technically better than most other teams, and on paper we should beat most of them. Of course this is football, and there will be surprise results - but it is facetious to argue that over a period of time a stronger team, and squad should not prevail.

Then let's look at the players we have brought in - at huge cost in a couple of cases. We were top four finishers before Ozil and Sanchez joined Arsenal. They are both world class players - yet there has been no demonstrable change in terms of overall points won since they arrived and bedded in. To them we added Cech - the world class keeper who has already been worth quite a few points this season on his own. You would have thought that with 3 genuine world class players of the type we have not had for many seasons we would be stronger as a team - not be sinking to the mediocrity of the rest.

I do not expect to win every game. But given the factors above, I would have fully expected us to improve on our level this season - rather than to follow the rest. I do not understand your suggestion that because everyone else is mediocre, we will inevitably be mediocre too. It just doesn't make sense. And what's more - if that is really the case then we are about as far away from winners as its possible to be.

I think it is obvious that this season above all others is our best opportunity to win the league. And we should be winning it by some distance if we look at the number of average performances and needlessly dropped points we have seen from Arsenal.

I have never suggested that if we do win the league it will somehow be worth less. I don't subscribe to that view - as a title is a title and nothing more needs to be said. But we are doing our best to squander a golden opportunity to do so.

Top shelf post this one.

[Letters]

Seems like some of you fickle lot are back on the Wenger out campaign now after ridiculously spouting about our great manager having us top of the league.

It's not fickle to change your mind about things over the course of a season, all teams have good and bad patches during a season and it is perfectly sensible for people's moods and opinions to be swayed by them.

My only consistent thought is that if we don't challenge for the title then Wenger should go. My feelings about our ability to do so vary over time. I don't understand why some people value a constant opinion so highly as if it makes sense to believe the same thing no matter what happens.

[Power n Glory]

It's very simple. We are perennial top four finishers. 2 of the the teams we have tended to finish behind have had either poor (Manure) or shockingly poor (Chavs) seasons by their standards. They have both suffered a lot of disruption on either the managerial or the playing side. The other team - Citeh - have been astonishingly inconsistent by their standards, and it is clear that they too have been disrupted by speculation about a managerial change. Of the other 'traditional' also rans - we have Liverpool who are in transition, and have not featured as a threat; Everton - who have been disappointing; and Spurs - a team that in terms of stability are nearest to us.

By contrast - we enjoy the greatest stability of any team in the EPL, and Wenger has enjoyed the luxury of a lot of time - years in most cases - to work with his players and his system.

Next - the quality of players at our disposal. We are fond of bleating about those clubs with greater resources than our own, but Citeh aside those clubs have been taken pretty much out of the picture this season. And we have considerably greater resources; have a bigger and better squad, and a higher wage bill than most of the rest of the league. Our players are technically better than most other teams, and on paper we should beat most of them. Of course this is football, and there will be surprise results - but it is facetious to argue that over a period of time a stronger team, and squad should not prevail.

Then let's look at the players we have brought in - at huge cost in a couple of cases. We were top four finishers before Ozil and Sanchez joined Arsenal. They are both world class players - yet there has been no demonstrable change in terms of overall points won since they arrived and bedded in. To them we added Cech - the world class keeper who has already been worth quite a few points this season on his own. You would have thought that with 3 genuine world class players of the type we have not had for many seasons we would be stronger as a team - not be sinking to the mediocrity of the rest.

I do not expect to win every game. But given the factors above, I would have fully expected us to improve on our level this season - rather than to follow the rest. I do not understand your suggestion that because everyone else is mediocre, we will inevitably be mediocre too. It just doesn't make sense. And what's more - if that is really the case then we are about as far away from winners as its possible to be.

I think it is obvious that this season above all others is our best opportunity to win the league. And we should be winning it by some distance if we look at the number of average performances and needlessly dropped points we have seen from Arsenal.

I have never suggested that if we do win the league it will somehow be worth less. I don't subscribe to that view - as a title is a title and nothing more needs to be said. But we are doing our best to squander a golden opportunity to do so.

Similar to how I feel.

[Niall_Quinn]

My only consistent thought is that if we don't challenge for the title then Wenger should go.

Even that's open ended. What do you mean by "challenge"? Within a point, within 3, 6? In with a shout until the final game?

Given the sub-par performance of our opposition, as you like to refer to all the time, why aren't we saying he should go if he doesn't win it? What has he achieved if all he can do is "compete" with mediocrity? Isn't it time we had something better?

For me, even if he wins it he should go. His decision making process is too screwed up to benefit us when there are countless decent managers out there who could make much more rational decisions.

[selassie]

It's not fickle to change your mind about things over the course of a season, all teams have good and bad patches during a season and it is perfectly sensible for people's moods and opinions to be swayed by them.

My only consistent thought is that if we don't challenge for the title then Wenger should go. My feelings about our ability to do so vary over time. I don't understand why some people value a constant opinion so highly as if it makes sense to believe the same thing no matter what happens.

Would you be happy if we finished say 2nd behind Leicester by 1 point or say 3 points behind City and Spurs in 3rd place.

Challenging for the title should be the bare minimum, Wenger has he has all the tools he needs to challenge year in year out irrespective of our rivals, it's gone way past that stage now.

This season proves beyond a shadow of a doubt it's got nothing to do with finances or what not, win or bust for me, if he doesn't win PL this season then he might aswell walk.