Saturday 13 December 2008

The Mad Professor strikes again................

I've ended up with egg on my face. There was me telling anyone who would listen that I believed Arsenal would win today. I believed Arsenal would win convincingly too.

I even had a bet. I had a bet on Arsenal winning 4-0. That's how confident I was.

I wish I had a different bet. I wish I bet that Arsenal would turn in another shocking performance. I would have won a lot of money.

I can't say I'm surprised at the performance really. It's happened so many times this season it's becoming the norm at Arsenal.

I was tempted to blame everything on the midfield. Without doubt this is the poorest midfield that Arsenal have had under Arsene Wenger.

Its so poor I wouldn't blame Cesc Fabregas if he did want to leave Arsenal. Imagine having Song as your partner. Quite scary really.

There was no pace or penetration from the midfield. I lost count of the amount of times it became so congested in there players were getting in the way of each other.

The blame must lie with Arsene Wenger. I can't understand why he persists with playing Denilson on the right and Diaby down the left. Both were desperate to keep going into the middle, causing all sorts of problems.

Why does Wenger leave making his substitutions until it's too late? Bendtner came on with 10 minutes to go. How is he expected to make an impact?

A change around the hour mark could have changed the game. The middle of the park was congested so why wasn't Vela given a chance to stretch the play with an appearance down the left?

That's why he was on the bench. To change the game if need be. So why not use him?

The subs must have sat there thinking to themselves, "Whats the point of being here?" Arsene Wenger may as well only pick 11 for the match day squad.

I don't want people to think I'm picking on Song here but many times did he give the ball away? He is supposed to be the holding player yet I continuously saw him 15 yards further up the field than Fabregas.

Again Wenger should have acted earlier. He should have told Song to hold his position and let Fabregas go forward to influence the play more.

It is me or do this Arsenal side look lazy? For the 'Boro goal the deflected clearance should have been dealt with. Song was the closest player to Tuncay yet he reacted like he was stoned. A little glance over the shoulder was the best he could muster.

There was little or no creativity from the midfield. Le Boss must have seen this. Fabregas was being suffocated yet there was still no reaction from Arsene Wenger.

I've said in the past that the title was over. How can I change my mind when I see a performance like that?

Arsene Wenger has some serious work to do. If he doesn't make any signings then Arsenal are in deep trouble.

He also needs to take a deep look at himself. I know he hurts when he sees Arsenal play like this. He wants beautiful football but it's time to end his stubbornness.

This team needs help. January can't come fast enough for me. If Arsene Wenger doesn't make any signings then on his head be it.

Keep it Goonerish...................

44 comments:

vinny said...

what are we going 2 do 2 more points pissed away

Anonymous said...

WE ARE CRAP.

Forget the title, PLEASE.

Start thinking about 4th place. We have a real fight on.

I think we know Arsene won't sign anyone in January. His comments yesterday are early warnings for us to get used to the idea.

We don't even play that great football anymore.

Anonymous said...

It's horrible to watch him being so stubborn. Really losing patience with Wenger

Anonymous said...

Couldn't agree with you more, I was saying the exact same things during the game. Why wenger made no changes before the 81st minute actually baffles me, the formation choice was shocking. There was never going to be any creativity from the midfield and to be honest i felt sorry for cesc I feel he shoulders way to much responsibilty in that team, he needs help and fast.

Anonymous said...

The longer it goes on, the more he picks incompetents like Song, Diaby, Denilson and Bendtner the more foolish Wenger looks. I have serious doubts that he has what it takes to turn us around. I still think he'll say the players he wants aren't available in January......and to be honest, the players we need probably won't be, but that just makes his failure to sign anyone decent in the summer even more ridiculous. He is teetering on the edge and so are Arsenal as a top four side.

Anonymous said...

Lost confidence too......might as well, the team has lost it's confidence also AND IT IS DOWN TO WENGER! Make no mistake-this is his fault.!

CFitz said...

I hate to second guess the manager, but...I'm not sure why he persisted with such a narrow midfield. I also don't know why he waits until 10 minutes are left to make changes. I thought Bendtner did change the game, but it was too late. I would agree with most of the comments. Surely Vela, Wilshere, or even Eboue would have brought some much needed width and pace to the midfield. I just don't know how Wenger can't see it.

Anonymous said...

Wenger has runout of ideas.
Even a blind man can see we have no pace or width in the team.
The only time we look a threat is when Clicy was running at defenders.
Song Diaby are not good enough and Denilson is not a winger
This is a game we needed to win so why did Wenger wait until the 80th min to bring on a sub and why did he not replace Diaby with Vela and denilson with Wiltshire ?
Why are they on the bench if he is not going to play them ?
Wenger has lost the plot he should go now where people will remember him for being a great Manager and not wait untill he drags this club down
Since the Invincibles we should have dominated football we have been in reverse ever since we dont have the right to a top 4 spot it needs to change now even a win over Liverpool wont hide the fact we are lacking in pace width and a holding midfielder also i think another attacker to play up with Abe
GO WENGER PLEASE GO

Anonymous said...

PLEASE PLEEASE NO more .. Arse dix are NOT back in the race .. you were NEVER in the race No shut the f££k and beg for 4th you french biatches !!!!

Anonymous said...

Imagine Wenger was judged on performances since May 04. Would he be the Arsenal manager

Anonymous said...

It is just sad. I believe history is repeating itself much like the tail end of GG era. We lost Diarra, Gilberto, Hleb, Flamini and NONE was replaced. Nasri should have been an addition to the above and Not a replacement. The board are just waiting for the Highbury cash and they will sell. They dont give a shit. Mark my words.

Anonymous said...

Arsene cant go on with fielding theese players. They just dont giv a shite!

Bendtner and Adebayor will never pass 2 eachother, Diaby is clueless, denilson and Song will NEVER become good enough for the Arse, Wenger waits until the 80. minut to make a change (in a must win game where we never looked like creating anything) and then he goes and brings on the most out of form striker in europe, -Leaving the creative force of Ramsey, Wilshere, and Vela unused, Amazing

Anonymous said...

your article is pretty accurate Wrighty7 but none of us should be surprised. you look at the team sheet and you see Den on the wing and diaby on the wing and you know they are both fish out of water before the game starts. for that blame wenger.
Song actually blocked and tackled a hell of a lot. thats his job. he is not there to ghost past people and set goals up. he had a decent game, the wingers did not.
wenger sat on his hands for 80 minutes. Is the man blind or stupid? we have Vela, Ramsey, wilshere and Nik sat there thinking what the F is going on?

no closing down for the Boro goal. Diaby and RVP just watched Tuncay and made no effort to get the ball. wenger just wont punish players that are lazy but as you say laziness all over the pitch is really affecting results.

Anonymous said...

Saw his interview he's whistling in the wind again only seeing things that nobody else does

Anonymous said...

It is clear for everyone to see that the what we lack is pace and technique in the midfield. I was watching the season review from last year and my god we miss rosicky, hleb and flamini!

Anonymous said...

I can't understand why we don't have palyers who play in the natrual positions.we are chock full of CMs but we them out of position like Diaby and Denilson and since Reyes left we hav'nt had a left winger which was showed up today with Diaby cutting in all the time.

Anonymous said...

Wenger has been digging his own grave for four years now.

Anonymous said...

although he didnt have players to play wide in midfield, i reckon its his mistake to not sign players in summer.its just so dissapointing.wenger just saying "They know about my passion for Arsenal" wont work.U have to show it by wanting to win.The squad lacks in depth.If he dosent sign 2-3 already ready player then V r going nowhere.And i wont be surprised the see Cesc leave in the summer.

Anonymous said...

Danish Gooner you are an idiot- can none of your wenger haters see that the only reason you are being critical of this team is that you have been treated to an unprecedented level of success under arsene. Most of you probably started supporting during the wenger era and dont understand where we were before him. PLEASE PLEASE can someone give me a potential replacement? Imagine if we got rid of wenger, every single club would want him. We DO NOT have the resources of Chelsea or United and even some of the clubs below us like City or Spurs but Wenger has kept us in the top 4 and he will continue to do so. Last year we almost won the league remember. Today was actually not terrible- Boro are a very decent side especially at home, and we got punished for one error which they scored from, if they hadnt we would have coasted the game. We are currently being punished to the maximum for every mistake. Add to this the injuries we had in wide areas- walcott nasri and rosicky and maybe you will start to appreciate the problems we faced today. If villa drew away at boro would it be a bad result? NO. We have to realise we are not in the same league as united and chelsea.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for giving a little bit of perspective, Anonymous. We are basically very unlucky and our squad depth is being shown up. However, to not play Wilshere or Vela - both of whom have tricks and can beat a man - is insanity.

Gazzap, thank you thank you thank you for having a brain and realising that whilst Song may not be Ronaldinho he is a very solid useful player and miles better than Denilson in that position. Yes, he gave away the ball a couple of times but he was a tough-tackling for most of the game and broke up the Boro play a lot. How many chances did they really have apart from their bolt-from-the-blue goal? Not many. And Song helped with that. Believe it or not Fabregas gave the ball away a fair few times too but you don't hear him slated all the time. Song is good.

The problem was the fact that we could not score more than one goal against the makeshift back-4 of a rubbish team. That is shocking. And that is why Wilshere or Vela should have come on for more creativity. We weren't under serious threat for most of the game. And Wenger's fear probably costs us 2 points. 1 point isn't good enough when Villa look so good..

Anonymous said...

anonymous , you are a prick and one of the wenger knos brtigade who will still support the guy even if someone unearthed a videotape of wenger in a nazi uniform giving oral sex to peter hill wood on a pile of pound notes, while they laugh about how they are taking the paying punters for mugs....

'top 4' you say? is that trhe extent of your ambitions? what about the fucking title?

'who would we replace wenger with'? what is he the only guy on the planet who can mangage a top football club? so by coming 4th year in year out is the best we can hope for then by your logic? there is no other manager out there who can get us above that?

fucking fool.


yes, i am well old enough to remember what it was like for many years before wenger. for a club that was one of the english games most famous and succesful we were not doing too badly before wenger came. mate, it was the famous back line he INHERITED that he formed the backbone of his success so dont tell me we were shit before wenger came.

the 110 years BEFORE arsene came were not too bad, mate.

wenger didnt create arsenal, so get stuffed.

Anonymous said...

Why do you all sign in as anonymous havnt any of you got the bollocks to use your own id?
It dos'nt matter who thinks who played good or bad the bottom line is we are very poor.

Theres not one to motivate the players no width and not one takle in the midfield.
Yes Arsene has been great but he has run out of ideas with his small young inexperenced squad and whos fault is it? if he cannot see that the squad needs deseratly improving in january not NEXT season the he should consider his postion. Before you accuse me of not being a real supporter (what the Fxxx is a REAL supporter)I have been going down there thick & thin 45 years

Anonymous said...

Don't moan about Wenger unless you have the red and white stripey gloves. You "plastics"

Alright Wrighty.. F. O. thought I'd nip over to say Hi..

Anonymous said...

i hate it when fans say we do not have the resources of chelsea or manutd or liverpool

we found about 700mil for a new stadium and a load of propery development, so why cant we find a few million for a few quality players,

chelsea have spent less money than us, theyve just invested soley into the team, so it looks like theyve spent more but they havent,

over the last 5 years weve spent more money than anyone, only differance is, it hasnt been on the football side of things, and the last time i checked, we were a football club. not an estate agent.

the people who say they are real fans are the ones who beleive the drible that comes out of the board and wengers mouth every week.

we have always been a major club in england, wenger didnt create arsenal, its been around years and will be after hes gone,

but although hes done great things at the club, we are now a club in demise,

all our best players want to leave every year, we have an overpaid overatted group of players who no longer play the football we are known for under wenger.

this team are not good enough, the simple facts are that young players learn from mistakes or older players, cesc learned from henry vieira, pires, bergkamp to learn from, these young players have no one to learn from and are learning from their mistakes, mistakes a top 4 team cannot afford and they are losing confidence because of it,

they dont have the talent or the confidence and wenger anf his followers are blaming the rest of the fans.

but we arent stupid, you lot keep thinking we dont have the resources, my first paragraph would argue we do, and you lot keep listening to wenger and blaming the other fans for the players poor form. they are just not good enough and the results and the table show we arent.

5th in the league in december, with stand out defeats to hull, stoke, fulham, mancity, villa, amongst other dodgy performances,

the team and the manager arent well,

the fans are being lied to and enoughs e-fucking-nough.

time to drop this fucking stupid youth project and go back to the good old tried and tested way of buying the players you need.

wenger is wrong, weve waited patiently 4 years for this team to come good and we are getting weaker and weaker.

his project and vision is flawed and the club is suffering to the extant the fans are turning on eachother.

The best thing to happen to this club is the new CEO, he will hopefully sort this shit out and give wenger the kick up the arse he needs badly, before we finish outside the top 4.

Anonymous said...

TO 19:59,

SO WHAT IF PEOPLE SIGN IN AS 'ANONYMOUS'?

SO HAVING A 'USERNAME' IS BETTER? DOES A USERNAME TELL YOUR I.D? MAKE YOU MORE 'LEGITIMATE'? MORE 'CREDIBLE'? DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO SIGN IN AS ' JOHN SMITH 167 CRABTREE LANE'? WOULD THAT BE BETTER?NO IT wouldnt so shut the fuck up.

Anonymous said...

SORRY THAT COMMENT WAS TO ANONYMOUS 20:13.

ANONYMOUS 19:59 CAME WITH A WHOLE LOTTA SENSE...

Anonymous said...

Personely I thought Song played well. Gave away some passes but broke up alot of the opposing play and won many headers. The main problem was that we lacked any pace wide which would have put boro on the back foot. For some reason Wegner believes in this youth policy but contradicts himself by not putting vela or wilshire on the wing,instead he persists with diaby and denilson. I like denilison, but he is not the solution on the wing. Round peg square, square hole.

shinding said...

song played well ?!?!?! r u on f%#$in crak mate ! he was woeful, pathetic, gave the ball up whenever we built up pressure , was running around like a headless chicken and was by far the worst palyer on both sides of the pitch ! i think he is a decent CB but shouldn't be allowed to step into the midfield - the same goes for eboue. weng keeps puttin Defensive players in middlefield and that seriously needs to stop with either ramsey, vela or wilshire comin in instead or him buying adequate replacements in Jan. if he needs to put any more defensive players in an advanced role it needs to be clichy hands down ! we arne't winning jack with this sort of team set up - wake up!

Anonymous said...

another trophyless season, cos you're shit and you know you are.

Anonymous said...

Do you remember Bill Nic?

Fuck me we have reached a low if the spuds take the piss!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wrighty, i agree with you.
I guess with just have to put up with 4th position for another year.

Anonymous said...

How much longer are we going to have to suffer this cr*p???

Wengers all round managerial decisions have gone from bad to worse over the last 4 years and still he stubbornly refuses to take the actions that scream out to everyone! When you see the players he has let go (Henry, Vieira, Pires) all performing far better than the poor to average bunch that have replaced them (Denilson,Song,Diaby etc., you just cannot grasp where Wengers assessment of quality comes from???

Our team today was full of Wengers first team sqaud players, so no excuses, yet the team play was poor, the individual play was poor and the drive was non existant!

It's almost got to the stage now where I expect us to lose / draw rather than win.... and I will ask everyone to be honest here can any one say that even when we scored did you feel confident that we would go on and win??? I didn't I was just waiting for Boro to score and was not surprised when they did.... now that is sad isn't it??

I must say I don't know if anyone else feels the same as me but this possession play where we knock it sideways and backwards is boring when we have no finish to our game...gone are the incisive thrusts of the days of Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Ljungberg, Overmars, Vieira...... the majority of our players are simply not good or quick thinking enough to do it.

It's going to be a long season this one..... and we had better get used to the standard of play because with Wenger there he will not chnage the policy he believes in so much!

Am said...

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....it realy is a SAD ending for ARSENAL and ARSENE with this team,honestly guys all previous years i used 2 wait ALL wk just for the next arsenal match,EVEN knw we havnt won anythn the last 4 YEARS you CANT say we played badly in 2 games in a row NEVER MIND 20 sumthn so far,iwasnt pleased with NOOOO performnce this year and i watched EVERY game 4 them,maybe the 2 ties in the CC with the kids bt that dosnt count 4 me,i USED 2breath arsenal and stil do and ALWAYS WILL but thats not the arsenal i supportd my all life and enjoyd supportn verryyyy much even without trophies coz they WERE enjoyable 2 watch nearly ALL the time before,seeing all the picz around my rm and all the picz of me at highbury and emirate previous years with the REAL and BIG GUNZ on them and all the joy iwz gtn 4rm arsenal just makes me THINK 4 HOURZ what had hit us and WHY,WHY,WHY WENGER?????????????now with SONG and DIABY and Almunia you just see how much we have gone down in term of Quality.SAD jus SAD

Am said...

yeh players IN 4 me this jan is a MUSt more than EVAAA,NO 1 out coz we havnt the SMALLEST squad 4 a BIG club in the ALLLLLLL WORLD(mayb loan out sme kids),TOURE a MUST,with his height and power we will improve alot,and TWOOOO WINGERZZ,forget diaby,denilson,eboue,ramsey and even wallcot and nasri arent a prober wingers and thats the TRUTH,jus look at our x wingers(mr.pires,fredie,reyes,hleb and even rosicky coz he counts as x player now!)now thats the REAL wingers,who can go past defndrz,gt good croses in and make clever moves which NONE of our SO CALLED wingers has,and that include wallcot and nasri.THREE players 4 me would be TOURE(NO1),DIEGO CAPEL(the kid is amazzzzzn,honesly he WILL BE the BEST LW in the WORLD take my word),and finally ASHLEY YOUNG or AGBANHOUR to play as winger as he used to,3 players in and NEXT YEAR we will compete.peace

Anonymous said...

AW is too stubborn and arrogant to change his soccer philosophy. It shd be obvious to all and sundry that signing young players and loaning them to get experience isn't working but to AW it will come good in three to five years time. Is there any guarantee.
I feel he has taken Arsenal as far as he can. To the Arsenal board he seems indepensable.I for one do not beleive that anyone is greater than the club.
If you watch other teams,Arsenal seem to take hours to score due to their laboured approach. Much has been talked about the wastefulness in front of goal. It shd be obvious to all this disease is still affecting the present strikers.
I hope I am wrong but the cl is beyond Arsenal and fourth spot could be a problem with all teams improving.
And by the way all repeat fans want a winning team not one with beautiful passing with no points. If the beautiful soccer carries on with no trophies and the gunners out of the cl,do not be surprised the attendance drop to 40000.
Then what?

Unknown said...

If so called supporters and worst still bloggers, dared to rubbish your own club.i seriously suggest yu chance your allegiance.Maybe to Spurs. They are the club for youand all the others. Change is their second name. And every season they will give you guys false hope. Spend big on players and then change manager.

Anonymous said...

kc

your missing the point

the fans are being lied to

we are being told we are challengers for trophies when we so clearly arent

the team is shit yet wenger continues to tell us they are good and pay them the 2nd highest wages and charge the fans the highest prices to pay them wages

we are being ripped of big time so we are tlling it as it is,

but you carry on being happy to be ripped off, your obviously under wengers spell and you are a fool.

Anonymous said...

I think its time for wenger to move upstairs and bring in a new manager who has fresh ideas and a plan b ....Because a 11 year old on football manager could of out witted him on saturday ....

Anonymous said...

Song is not good enough, there is absolutely no doubt about that. Would he play for any other team in the top 5? no, I doubt he would get into any team in the top 10. It really annoys me that AW is telling us that he is quality when we can see that he is not.

We needed players added to our 'squad' from last year, but we instead lost Flamini and Hleb, who were consistently responsible for many of the matches we won last year.

We have been at least 3 players short of being serious contenders for 4 seasons now. Enough is enough, spend the money that we supposedly have. This is AWs last chance to sort it out. Regardless of his previous success (we all appreciate what he has done for Arsenal), but he needs to be performing as a manager NOW, and I'm afraid he is not.

Anonymous said...

play Toure in center mid with cesc coz song is shite...that might add a bit of bite and urgency in midfield that we are currently lacking...

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised no one's notice this but whenever we have a throw-in it's practically us giving the ball away to the opposition.

Am said...

PISSD OFF u r spot on,i think toure will do a better job than ALL THE SHITY DM we have,till we get YAYA!i mean he dosnt hav 2 buy big big in jan,jus 2-3 plyrz,yaya like 7m,diego capel 10m or so and mayb Quaresma from inter coz hes out of the squad ther.i would say 3om and we r GARNTEED PREM and FA cup.
my team after jan hopflly b
fabianski
sagna toure gallas clincy
YAYA
Fabry NASRi
Quaresma Capel
Adebayor

subs:Almunia,Djouro,Eboue,WAllcot and rosicky we hes fit fingrz cross

uneatable and unplayble init guys!!
and our defence IS NOT SHIT lik everybody says,its our DM,thats why i bn sayn all along that yaya is a must with hes physique coz thats what we misd 4rm Paty time.

Anonymous said...

There are alot of Clowns on this site.

Wenger has done more for Arsenal than any other single man.

You call for his head like we are in a relegation battle.... it's madness.

This blog is so negative and even ths simplest of folk can see the quality of the whole league has grown in the past few years - there are no weak teams.

You moan that we have the best stadium, you moan that we won't challenge for the title, you moan about the players - Why do you bother?

If you really don't like what you see - go else where - you offer nothing to Arsenal. Go to the Bridge where the sack a Manager every other year and spend loads every Window - if that's what floats your boat.

Footbal supporters support their team - here it's like a load of old women moaning without anything constructive to say.

No real supporters here. Plastic clowns who probably jumped on the band wagon when things were going well.

Anonymous said...

You know whats funny is at the start of the season a lot of people on here were saying this, but all you wenger boys were calling us plastic fans and telling us to go and support chelsea.

Woken up now have you?