gunner mania

So both teams are on a run of 3 straight wins in the Premier League

Spurs played 5 games against the 4 teams around them

Won 1 / Drew 1 / and Lost 3 (4 points from 15)

Arsenal played 6 games against the 4 teams around them

Won 1 / Drew 1 / and Lost 4 (4 points from 18)

Spurs remaining “big” games….

Arsenal (H)

Chelsea (A)

Man City (H)…5^TH Last game of the season

Arsenal remaining “big” games

Spurs (A)

Man Utd (H)…4^TH Last game of the season

If Spurs did beat Man City that might mean Utd have won the title by the time they come to us the next week. And if they’re still in the F.A Cup or Champions League they might play a weakened team. Could definitely see Ferguson resting RVP if the title was wrapped up.

We haven’t won at White Hart Lane in 4 Premier league games (since 2007…since 2 defeats and 2 Draws).

So with all this I think a draw would be excellent, it keeps us in touching distance and although 4 points is still a lot there’d be 10 games and 30 points still up for grabs.

I’ve seen some recent posts defending Wenger and blaming the board for this barren period and obviously none of us regular fans know the exact truth.

From those who have been close to Wenger it seems he does have a lot of control over the clubs decisions (wages, amounts to spend on players, who to sell, etc…)

But regardless of blame there are key weaknesses to this team and if they’re not addressed we are in danger of slipping further off the pace.

SCOUTING

What happened to one of the best scouting networks in the world? David Dein and Damian Commoli as negotiator and scout appear to be losses.

The landscape has changed since 1996, there are the mega rich clubs who can afford to have giant squads and when bidding on a player we want only help to inflate the prices.

Also, other “lesser” teams have copied us (i.e Newcastle) so all round we’re under far greater competition for those “bargain buys”

However I still don’t understand why we lose out on so many great buys (Michu, Kompany, Cabeye, etc)

Our percentage of successful transfers has greatly diminished whoever that is to blame and this is despite spending more money (Gervinho, Koscielny, Santos)

TACTICS

Now this you can’t blame the board for but conversely it’s never been Wengers strong suit. He doesn’t seem to pay much attention to our opposition opting to use the same format regardless of the circumstances. I can’t think of any other team other than maybe Barcelona that are so arrogant as to not factor in who they’re playing. That worked for us when we had one of the best teams in the country but not anymore.

Also how are there so many weaknesses in our play that have never really improved. We’re poor and scoring and defending set pieces. We don’t score many free kicks and most importantly how we defend, there’s no organistion to our back line and even if the quality of player is part of that reason the mistakes and errors they make must be blamed on the manager

“MENTAL STRENGTH”

I can’t take Wenger referencing this of the current team too much longer before I choke on my cornflakes.

It’s the thing this team as lacked the most, it almost seems like he’s being sarcastic now.

For example the recent run of horrible 1^st half displays seems to be a mental block for the side, once we have a perceived issue it only seems to manifest and become an issue the players are ultra aware of so can’t avoid repeating. This also includes our ability to choke on the big occasion, we’ve had enough in the locker to make 4^th but when it came to wining a knock out competition of the importance of 1-2 games is too much for us.

Again this is a failing of Wenger and his back room team needs to be blamed

Another unconvincing performance but at least there was 3 points gained to have some hope that we can achieve a top 4 finish.

What was highlighted again yesterday is that some players are clearly off form or not good enough yet due to excruciating lack of squad depth we are left to stick with them through this period. Where’s the pressure on these guys to improve their performance levels??

It’s frustrating because we (like all teams) had a chance to somewhat rectify this during the January transfer window but Wenger was holding out for “super, super quality”.

Szczesny

Has been poor since the end of last season, a horrific Euro 2012 (in his home country) and continued into 2012-13. Aside from Sunderland away he’s been possibly our most underperforming player. But who to replace him with? Mannone, Fabianski? Is this all we have to call on. Surely there’s a steady experienced goalie available on the cheap who’d jump at the chance to be here?? Man Utd have Lindergaard, Spurs have Fridel

Vermaelen

The captaincy might be partly to blame but truth be told he’s been poor for a while. A stellar first season including goals and fine defensive displays made us hopeful of the future yet several injury plagued seasons later he’s regressed to a clumsy, indescsive defender. Ask yourself honestly when was the last time he played  really well? IMO it was Everton away last year

Giroud

Aside from the recent week where he got 5 goals he’s been really off form. I know Wenger was rumored to be keen on David Villa but surely there must have been other options. Theo and Podolski are alternatives as well but it seems insane to not have another recognized striker. In his last 10 league starts he’s failed to score in 7 games!!

About 18 months ago Arsenal opened a new Medical Centre after touring the world and other sports to find best ideas and methods out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhKDlpO_L2Y

And to be fair our injury record has been far improved ever since…unfortunately/fortunately it helped the injury cursed RVP but also many others. There will always be the Diaby, Rosicky, Sagna issues but other than that we’ve actually done really well on the injury front this season.  Out first 11 have played in 78% of our games compare that to the unbeaten season which was 88%.

So going back to the squad issue Wenger typically relies more on having a solid 11-13 players and this season those players have just not been good enough.

However, even when we did stick to a core group of players in successful seasons we still had the likes of Wiltord, Kanu, Edu, etc for extra depth. I think even the less talented players were coming into a much, much better team and therefore able to perform to a higher level (Chris Wreh, Manninger, Grimandi, etc)

Some might bring up finances as the issue and the inability to spend money on fringe players however although there are examples of teams with benches costing more than most Premier League first teams, there are plenty examples of excellent affordable squad players on their books as well.

This summer we need some major reinforcements who are top quality but in addition we need some reliable, effective squad players who aren’t going to break the bank but will provide competition and the ability to rest players when needed.

 What might help with that is giving some of these upcoming youngsters more of a crack!! Why hasn’t Eisfeld been on the bench, or given a shot in the cup games?

A question posed from one fan to another is would you take 5th and a cup or 4th and no cup??

Wenger has been critised for 8 years and no trophies but has argued that getting Champions League is like a trophy.

I’ve started to wonder what is the real benefit to a 4th placed finish, the obvious benefits are..

1. The money…winning it can lead to 40M+ but even a successful group stage can lead to 10M+

2. More chance to retain your top talent

3. More chance to compete and sign quality new players

4. And obviously the chance to win such a prestigious cup, one we’ve failed to ever win

So I looked back over 8 seasons (counting this) to judge what benefit we’ve gained on those points.

POINT#1

The money only seems to have line the pockets of the clubs directors, the money on transfers has been generated from selling other players

POINT#2

Every season we’ve lost top talent

2005-06 – Veira

2006-07 – Cole

2007-08 – Henry (I know he was old but he still had a lot to offer)

2008-09 – Hleb & Flamini

2009-10 – Ade & Toure

2011-12 – Cesc, Nasri, Clichy

2012-13 – RVP, Song

POINT#3

The players we have brought in haven’t been superstars and more often than not none of the other big clubs were in for them.

Now we’re finding that despite Champions League we still aren’t competing even with teams that don’t have it (Vertonghen and Holtby both “supposedly” chose Spurs over us)

I think Podolski and Santi Carzola might have only come for Champions League football but undoubtley there have been better or similar signings who went to teams without Champions League football over the years (Suarez, Michu, Ba, etc)

POINT#4

Aside from 2005-06 how close have we really come to wining the CL?

2006-07 we finished level on points with Liverpool but they made it to another final

2011-12 we finished above Chelsea and they still won the competition.

We all enjoy the big games but we always get knocked out so where’s the point of the competition if we cant win it and don’t improve season over season

Aside from these points I realize finishing outside of the CL will make things tougher but we don’t appear to be making the most of qualifying each year.

How different with things have been if we’d have won a couple of F.A. Cups in those 8 years and finished 5^th those seasons?

Maybe we would have lost an extra player, maybe signed one less player but would the club be much different than we are now??