Season starts now?

Having grown to become more "meh" with the state of The Arsenal over the last year, writing a blog regularly became a chore. I was bored of typing out the same thing, over and over and over.

Not sure why, but despite our current league position things 'feel' different now, maybe it’s because the fanbase seems more divided than ever (on twitter at least) that it's shaking me from my 'meh' state.
With the game against Stoke today it's the first time in a while that I’ve sensed the whole of our fanbase actually wanting to win the game. No knobheads spouting nonsense about "wanting to lose to force Wenger out", no "Giroud is no Van Persie" bollocks, no "Theo's an idiot" blah blah blah.

Maybe it's because it is Stoke. The Orcs. The 7th Nation. Pubis' Cunt Army. Regardless of how much we dislike the stuff going on & off the pitch at The Arsenal, we all hate them for Ramsey and because their manager wears a fucking baseball cap.

I also think the logical move of buying a new left-back has perked a few people up. It was very last minute and may not have been done had Gibbs not been injured but who cares it's done, and, most importantly, he's decent (according to the footballing hipsters). I'm not going to lie, I’ve only watched Malaga a handful of times this season and I was never watching because of him, but by all accounts he's a big improvement on Santos and will provide genuine competition for Gibbs. If that's not the purpose of the January transfer window I don't know what is. It’s also nice to buy a player who comes with a readymade chant.

Fingers crossed the front 3 can keep up their recent form and our defence can try and find some. 3 points please lads.

UTA

@UTAblog

Broken Records

So a fairly traumatic week following The Arsenal has passed and quite frankly we're deep in the mire.

With the defeats in Milan and at Sunderland yesterday our season is over and as Arse2Mouse says we're going to hear a lot of tripe coming from the club regarding 4th place being and achievement, 15 years of consistency etc etc. What’s the point of qualifying for the Champions League if we aren’t going to try and win it?

Flying out to Milan I knew we wouldn’t win the competition, and as such I said to my mates that if we lost in Milan we'd lose at Sunderland. I said that because the way this team deals with pressure and defeats is akin to a child running to their room and crying after being told off by their dad. When the going gets tough Arsenal get beat. I don't like knowing that, but it's sat there in my brain 24/7. You could hear the excuses for yesterdays defeat before the game kicked off...scheduling....pitch....injuries

When we went 1-0 down I wasn't the least bit surprised, nor was I surprised that the 2 'culprits' of the goal were Djourou and Squillaci. Time and time again Djourou has brain farts where he does needless things that lead to goals (yesterday's freekick wide out on the right), whilst Squillaci just has no luck at all wearing the red & white (of Arsenal). That's not to say that I think either is a useless player, but I don't think the correct course of action is rewarding either with a fancy new contract (as has just happened with Djourou).

This Sunderland match really has shown the gulf between the current Arsenal squad and those previous, and as many have said this Arsenal team doesn't need a few tweaks here and there it needs to be reconstructed from scratch. 

We have a nucleus of players we should fight tooth and nail to keep - Wilshere, Ramsey, Chamberlain, Van Persie & Sagna.

Whilst all the others simply aren't good enough to get this team back to the top of the premier league, there are some very good players who can have very good runs of form, but if they were good enough we wouldn't be getting beat by Sunderland, Fulham, Blackburn, Swansea et al. with our season done and dusted February 19th.

I think there will be a large turnover of players this summer, but the biggest changes of all need to happen at the board level. We've been in the Emirates for 6 years now and let’s face it we've cruised through those years, making the Champions League every year, making profit and occasionally challenging for honours. To think that we had a player as good as Cesc Fabregas in our side and we didn't win the league; it beggars belief and verges on being criminal.

Why weren't the obvious flaws corrected? We've heard from Hill-Wood or Gazidis that Arsene has had oodles of money to spend and he's unearthed some rough diamonds along the way, but the strategy,started after Flamini left, of handing out big money contracts has backfired dramatically. How can we have the 4th biggest wage bill in the league yet have Sp*rs managed by Harry Redknapp who’s won 1 FA Cup above us in the league? Ultimately they've got better players than us who are earning less money, meaning their players have to fight for greater rewards.

Our players cruise, knowing that when they get to 2 years remain on their contract if they've done ok, they'll get an extension and a pay rise. It really shouldn't work like that. A case in point is Carlos Vela, a decent football player who showed much promise, but a player who's done nothing of real note for Arsenal. This year he's out on loan and has publicly stated that he doesn't want to come back to Arsenal. This is a young player who Wenger publically stated was the replacement for Adebayor back in 2009, yet no longer features in his plans. He was rewarded with a new contract in the summer 2010, and is paid handsomely no doubt, yet has given the square root of zilch back to the club. Adebayor has never been replaced, meaning we’ve currently got 1 striker and we had to resort to having Thierry Henry for 6 weeks to try and galvanise the squad and get us to the 5^th round of the FA Cup.

The club needs to assume a much more 'cut-throat' attitude to its employees, and demand excellence, not just talent. I can demonstrate all the talent in the world in my work, yet if I'm a lazy prick and show no development I'll never get promoted or get a pay rise.

Sadly I think don't think Arsene can do this for us, it needs to come from the board and the owners, and they should be demanding trophies, not healthy bank balances. 4th place isn't an achievement it's failure; we've had 7 years of failures. We also need to face facts, we're simply not that good anymore; I don’t expect success, but as a fan of The Arsenal I expect the players to fight for the badge. This group of players doesn’t.

I still think Arsene is one of the best a mangers around, and we’ve had some terrible luck with injuries, yet he needs his hand forced here. I think he deserves one more summer to put right the wrongs and get the club going in the right direction again. Sadly I don't think the current owner-board structure is good enough to right all the wrongs, and give him the backing he desperately needs.

This season has been a right off since Cesc was sold last summer and the players brought in on deadline day were simply Arsene filling the gaps. They weren't the players he wanted, but then we never seem to get the players he wants. For his sake and ours, I sincerely hope he’s able to get the players he wants and needs to bring this club back to life, or I’m afraid his legendary status with the club will continue to spiral downwards and out of control.

RC

The time is nigh

So lots has happened over the last 3 weeks, and it must be said it's mostly been shit; 3  defeats and 7 points lost from point scoring positions, which would see us in 4th place.

Much has been said about the 3 games and the fallout of the Chamberlain-Arshavin substitution rages on (no idea why, it's 1 substitution?). But the biggest effect seems to have been the unity of The Arsenal. By that I mean the manager, the players & the fans. To say there has been a fallout between all 3 wouldn't be far from the truth.

The fans showed their obvious disquiet towards the manager with some frankly idiotic and mindless chants, whilst although the booing wasn't directed at him, Arshavin must feel like an absolute mug right now, as the booing continued when he replaced The Ox. I have no issue actually with booing the substitution of Chamberlain, but what shouldn't have happened is the booing once Arshavin had stepped onto the pitch. How moronic do you have to be? The bloke's at his lowest point since joining the club, yet we contrive to make him feel even shitter. All the nonsense afterwards from fans, especially on Twitter, of blaming the Russian for the goal need to take their Vermaelen-tinted goggles off. TV was at largely at fault for the first and should have stopped Wellbeck once he had evaded Arshavin, That's not to say I'm him blaming him solely for the goals, as Song was culpable for the second too, but we fans do love a scapegoat don't we.... Senderos, Eboue, Denilson and now Arshavin.

One 'pleasing' aspect of the fallout has been that the players appear to have had some frank 'conversations' in the changing room post match, which can only be a good thing. Former players have spoken about how such talks from previous campaigns ('91 can't remember the game and '98 post Blackburn) can have a positive influence on the remainder of the season, helping to get everyone reading from the same page, and focused on the job in hand.

The other positive is that we're only 5 points behind Chelsea. Yes we realistically need to get a few of our players back from injuries, but with  Sagna and Wilshere back, I genuinely can't see us playing as poorly as we have been of late. Lets not forget before Sagna and Santos got injured we had won 10 out of 11. That's not bad is it? With Sagna due back in 2 weeks (or so) and Wilshere, Gibbs  et al. not long after we've got every chance of hauling ourselves up the table. We've also got to remember we've got to play the Spuds and Chelsea at home yet, both of which we can win.

So what about Arsene then? I think it's fair to say that he's not covered himself in glory since the summer. Before the Fulham game he said that it wasn't worth losing games because we don't sign a left back. We haven't signed a left back and we've lost 3 on the trot. Add this to his comments about selling Cesc and Na$ri  in the summer and the picture doesn't look too rosy for him, long term.

I say long term as there is no chance of him leaving mid-season. There's no point even having the debate as it simply will not happen. Not that I want him to leave, but I do wish he would take his head out of the sand.
His stubbornness in always getting 'value for money' when buying players has allowed this squad to become very average.

There are 8 or 9 players on our books, at the club or out on loan, who shouldn't be and must be sold in the summer (at the latest). There's no need to name names as they're all pretty obvious, and hopefully Ivan Gazidis does "trim the fat" from the wage bill. We can't keep relying on injury prone players to be fit and pay them £60K+ contracts for nothing in return, it just doesn't make sense.

Hopefully, once the board lock-out ends before the season is out, we'll see a new board formed which can drive the club on to further success and insist on intelligent investment in the team. By intelligent I mean not scrimping on 1 or 2 million if it bags us a top quality player (i.e. Xabi Alonso in 2006) and demonstrates to our best players that we do want to build a title challenging squad.

All this is by the by though, right now our current squad, the manager and the fans need to pull together put aside our differences and drive the team on to the minimum of 4th place. We've still got the champions league and the FA Cup as opportunities, though not realistic, of silverware to aim for.

This is when we all need to stand up, be counted, and put the the Chavs and Spuds firmly in their place.

Va Va Voom 1 Dirty Leeds 0

So we all knew the script didn't we? It just had to be. King Thierry. 1-0 to The Arsenal against Dirty Leeds.

What can you say about the man, other than he's still got 'IT'. 5 Years since his last goal for us, it took him 10 mins to clock up number 227.

'IT' is also something the large proportion of our squad lack. It is also very worrying that our 1st team midfield trio really struggled to put Leeds to the sword. They obviously weren't helped by the pathetically impotent Chamakh, and the hugely wasteful Arshavin, but still for large parts of the game we were really poor.

Ramsey, Koscielny and Arteta were again our best players, whilst Chamberlain, Miquel and Yennaris had solid games without really excelling. But we really do lack the cutting edge in the middle; it was like watching the Arsenal of 3 years ago tonight, no drive, no conviction, no 'want'. It was just pass, pass, pass......

Thankfully the result was the important thing, as it always is, and overall a controlled performance with a very makeshift defence can be seen as job done. However, if it wasn't obvious we were lacking in creativity before, it's blindingly obvious now.

Too often Ramsey slows the play down at the point of the midfield trio, when he should be looking to release sooner; whilst I've no idea what we do with Chamakh. He started quite well with some decent hold up play, but then he just stopped. He knew he'd be subbed if he played shit enough and his blushes would be sparred by Thierry. As ever. Always the saviour.

I'm not meaning or trying to put a dampener on the night, as it was one of the moments that will live with me for a long long time, but if we're having to rely on a 34 year old returnee to provide support to RVP it really doesn't say much for the 'talent' that Wenger has brought through in the last couple of years. Park clearly doesn't have an arsenal career ahead of him, so it's imperative that we do bring in another forward over January.

Hopefully TH can spread his wisdom, calmness and composure to the young lads in the squad and the next 6 weeks will help the majority of this squad improve.

His finish tonight was the TH we all knew, know, loved and love again. Classic Henry.

Theo watch and learn.......

So what next....?

The defeat by Man City was a tough one. We deserved something from the game, no questions, and on another day Phil Dowd might not have been the complete tool he always is and given the penalty for the blatant handball by Micah Richards. That said the defeat did raise the same questions about the 'depth' (I use the term loosely) of our squad, particularly the attacking options.

I think it's clear for all to see, that Arshavin is a spent force, not through lack of effort, but his confidence is so shot, I think there is no of him re-discovering (if he ever really had it) his form. Chamakh is frankly useless to us as a team now. He comes on, ambles about a bit, does nothing and then runs off the pitch as fast as he can. At least Arshavin still tries to make the odd pass and will waste the odd opportunity, Chamakh doesn't even do that now, he is our Emile Heskey.

If these are our 2 best attacking substitutions and are to remain so for the remainder of the season then I think we'll struggle, simple because Van Persie can't play every game and without his goals and attacking prowess we look powder-puff at times.

So what the alternative? Again I think most fans would say it's blindingly obvious Wenger needs to buy in January. A striker is a must, as Chamakh will be gone for up to 6 weeks, and Park hasn't as much made the bench for the last few games (if Chamakh is getting onto the bench ahead of him, how average can Park be in training?), so despite Arsene saying Park, Arshavin, Chamberlain etc can play there, we really shouldn't risk it.

I think we're covered in midfield to be honest. The return of Jack will give us options to rotate the trio of Arteta, Ramsey and Jack. It'll also force both Arteta and Ramsey to play out of their skins week-in week-out as Jack ought to be starting every week when he's back. I would go as far to say that our best midfield would be Song-Arteta-Wilshere, as I personally think Ramsey is more suited to the Arteta role by controlling the tempo with his passing and Jack has the greater potential to play the 'killer' pass.

The next position that I think needs investment is out wide. I think Gervinho has done well since coming in, and despite the glaring misses, has added a much needed impetus to our forward play, that was sadly lacking with Arshavin out on the wing. I would love to see the Ox play, I'd have loved him to come on for Theo at City and just run at Zabaletta; that said I don't think Chamberlain is ready to play every week during the African Nations and I really don't want to see us return to the having the Russian out wide again.

I do however think Chamberlain should be our first choice substitute winger right now (followed closely by Yossi), ahead of the Arshavin. If we're losing and need some drive and spark to get back into the game, the Ox has shown he's more likely to produce, whilst Benayoun has played well every time he's come on. He's delivered whenever he's had the chance to play a full game (carling cup & Olympiacos) and I think he deserves more opportunities over the Russian.

Who we actually buy, I've no idea, but I think there are a few players who have just been dumped out of the champions league who could be available (from Dortmund & Lille), but I doubt we'll get them; Whilst the players I would like Cavani and Ayew are still in the competition so probably wouldn't move.

Whilst it's not all doom and gloom right now, I'm worried that due to the size of the squad it could all collapse in March. Again.

Arsene don't let it happen. Please.

Up The Arsenal

Ricky

The Chocolate Leg Does It Again

So we got the result and the 3 points from the potentially tricky fixture of Norwich away.

Overall it was a satisfying performance. We should have scored 3 times before they scored their first and we could/should have been 4 or 5 up by half time. Our profligacy in front of goal was worrying, but Norwich were playing so open at times we would always end up taking some of our chances. That said, Norwich did get lucky with having a player in position to clear off the line 3 times, especially with Walcott's first half effort.

The most pleasing aspect of the performance was that we are creating more chances; the front 3 are really gelling now, and baring injuries, we should be scoring more freely  moving forward through the season than we had up to the Chelsea game. As this team was struggling at the beginning of the season to create chances, let alone score, it's pleasing enough to see Gervinho and Theo get into positions. The goals will start to flow from these 2 and I'm now reasonably confident of our chances going into the games over the Xmas period that we're enough in our team to get the results even when Van Persie is rested.

I thought Walcott was our MoM yesterday, but I think Ramsey was outstanding as well. The guy is so tidy in midfield and has bags of energy, the thought of him and Wilshere playing centre midfield for Arsenal is well verging on orgasmic. Verging, not actually. It'll be interesting to see what Wenger does with player rotation when Jack is back and where he'll play him, but that's a while away yet, so it doesn't need worrying about now.

Obviously our mandatory defensive mistake cost our clean sheet, I've no explanation for what Mertesaker was doing, but overall I thought we looked quite solid yesterday, and Norwich only looked a threat when we played a too-high a defensive line and bar the goal I can't remember another time that we were genuinely worried by them.

As ever the criticism of our defence was over the top and media love to shit on The Arsenal, but they can't argue with the current run of form, 5 straight wins and now 3 points off third place. Quite frankly the media can go fuck themselves and go rim John Terry's racist ringpiece as we're all bored of the "Arsenal in Crisis" headlines, and today is the "Battle of the Racists". I do hope SKY are calling it that.

right to an awesome post-Arsenal win Sunday, and Dortmund midweek.

UTA

marvelous

3 points is all it's worth but oh they taste sweet.

The 'crazy' results keep coming in this years Premier league, and today's 3-5 win was quite frankly mental. How we weren't 2-0 down in the first 5 mins was anyone's guess but how Gervinho and RVP missed from point blank range inside the first 10 mins was a mystery. My mind very much went back to Chamakh's miss of last season, fearing the worse.

As it was I was right to have such fears, Lampard stealing in behind Per Mertesacker to give the Chavs the lead.

We managed to level it up, deservedly, with Aaron Ramsey playing a delightful slide-rule pass through to Gervinho who sucked in Cech before setting up RVP with a simple tap in.

You knew they would score from the corner and only Arteta know's what he was doing. Sky's 'pundits' slammed Per again, but if Arteta had stayed where he was meant to be then we'd have gone in at HT 1-1.

That said our defence (Koscielny apart) was woeful in the first half. I thought it was a bad idea to play Djourou at right-back and he was skinned time and again by Cole. Both Per and Santos looked tentative, which can be forgiven considering this was their first London derby, but these guys have 100+ international caps between them.

The team that emerged for the second half was more intense and tenacious with their tackling and hassling of the opposition. it paid dividends as Santos grew in confidence throughout the half and by the end of the game, looked almost 'comfortable' at the back. Per too grew into the game, reading the danger on the odd occasion that Chelsea threatened second half, bar Mata's long range effort and a Lampard free-kick I can't remember much else from the home team.

I think it's fair to say that we were lucky to still have 11 players on the pitch at the end as Chesney should have gone for taking out Cole, but it's nice to have some luck for once.

It goes without saying that RVP was clinical as ever (without actually doing that much) but our stand-out performers for me were Koscienly, who's growing into the defender that Wenger insists can be 'world class', Ramsey and Theo.

Ramsey is definitely back to his pre-stoke form and Theo has learnt that he can be so much more dangerous by running inside at the goal, not just down the wing. His final ball today was outstanding and his goal showed that his extra work on the training ground has paid off; the quick feet to recover from being on the floor to jink past Ivanovic and The Racist was something we've never seen before and the finish was emphatic.

For all the post match euphoria we need to keep our feet firmly nail-gunned on the floor, it's only 3 points, just like United only got 3 points from us and City 3 points from United. We do need to sure up the defence and we do need to keep RVP fit.

If we can do of that, then who know's where we'll be come May....