December Holds The Key For Shell-Shocked Gunners
Nov 30th, 2009 by 'holic
Did you ever wonder what it was like to support a side playing against George Graham’s Arsenal at their height? Well, after the visit of Chelsea I am sure you have a very good idea indeed. I haven’t seen the stats, but I suspect they would tell you that Arsenal shaded possession and territory. Not for the first time they wouldn’t tell the story of the game.
Chelsea defended in numbers, pretty sure that we could not hurt them if they did not have any gaps for us to work our intricate patterns in. They cleared their lines without fuss, and generally in the direction of mobile strikers who used the width of the pitch to stretch our own defence. I’m sure Graham would have had a wry smile on his lips.
Chelsea are not big on pretty football, but they used to say that about us. They have a system, a belief in what they are doing, and impose themselves both physically and mentally. On another day our fleetness of foot and speed of thought could have done for them, but this was not another day, sadly.
I don’t need to go over the goals again. You will all have seen them, and probably more often than me. I witnessed them once, in the flesh, and that was enough. Big games hinge on big moments and they took full advantage of theirs.
In the last twenty minutes they gave us a masterclass in killing time, and the game, in clinical fashion. I hope that Song was removed from the fray as a result of a minor injury, and not as a result of a tactical decision. We missed him badly after the break.
Our chances depended on a sureness of touch that unfortunately Eduardo currently lacks. In each half a key opportunity was presented to him to set up a one-on-one, but rusty control did for him. That, as much as a lack of physical presence, made us second best on the day.
However, we cannot buy another striker until January, and even if Bendtner returns by then we cannot rely on him staying fit and on form for the remainder of the season. The cheque book will be the object of a major search at Highbury House between now and January.
That leaves us a nervy December on the back of our worst two league performances of the season. That constitutes the potential beginning of a bad patch. Nothing more, nothing less. Who will come into the attack and either score or create the chances to take us past the challenges of Stoke, Liverpool, Burnley, Hull, Villa, and Portsmouth. Our league season will be determined in these next four weeks.
Those are the first six of twenty-five games that remain. Plenty of time to recover lost ground. Have we the character, and the type of forwards, who can effect that recovery? That is the conundrum that will vex most Arsenal fans today.
46 Responses to “December Holds The Key For Shell-Shocked Gunners”
Hi..
My first post here..
A very well thought practical post,
I think the next 4 weeks are extremely crucial,and lessons MUST be learned from these 2 games.
these 2 games games should make us more determined to go on a winning run…
we havent been clinical in final half after rvp injury…hopefully if we sort that new problem very soon,up front without rvp then we should hopefully win those crucial games of december…
common arsenal…i believe we can..inshallah
Morning ‘Holic. Can’t help but feel as though a stint in an Amsterdam coffee shop would do more to impair my short term memory and quell my frustration than an early drink, but bottoms up. Seemed to me Eduardo didn’t lack the skill or control to keep the ball in tight areas and move it to an onrushing midfielder, rather, he seems to be afraid of contact, and understandably so. But we have no room for fear in our game, fearlessness in fact, is its very essence.
I agree with you! December is a crucial month.
Last year table at this stage:
http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2008-2009/table/2009-01-10
United lost as many games as we have done this season so far, but they won because… we need to replicate what they did last season. If we do that, then we will be up there come May.
Wrong link posted..
the correct link: http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2008-2009/table/2008-12-01
Holic I need a brandy to wash down the bad taste in my mouth!!If only we could turn back time!!It’s one Sunday i hope to forget and fast!!F**k!! I am truly gutted!!
The only consolation is, we still have a long way to go and they beat the other top 4 sides. Not much but it will do for now.
I dont see the next 4 weeks being crucial due to the fact that Chelsea are 11 points ahead of us and 5 clear on 2nd place; I dont see them dropping 11 pts….. I dont want to sound down on the Arse, maybe I’am righ now cause yesterday hurt, no pissed me off especially some of our players with slummped heads, and I’m sorry Denilson was terrible (again) he gave the ball away like Diaby, but worse imho. I know I’m upset, I love the Arsenal and I will never quit supporting them, I just hate we put in such a passive shift yesterday vs. those blue scumbags……..’nuff said…….
We cannot buy another striker in January because we are having 3 centre halfs contracts run out at the end of the season. I don’t understand why people don’t see this as an issue. Ok, Djourou will return, Nordtveit is well thought of and the kids that won the FA Youth Cup will go on loan but we need that money to buy another Vermaelan or two, not spunk it all on a player that will stop Chippy Vela become a superstar.
Yesterday was frustrating but in the end it is just 1 game. From about this time we went on a 20-odd game unbeaten run last season, and without Cesc or Theo and Arsh for some of it. Or season isn’t over, it’s just harder. The boys have matured, some into men. Some into superstars (stand up Alex Song). If you didn’t know we were in for a slow, difficult process with plenty of bumps along the way- did you only start supporting Arsenal when we put 6 past Everton?
Watching Denilson, Song, Diaby, Theo, Gibbs – our players grow up, it brings a special kind of pride in my team. These aren’t thugs, rapists, money hungry fuckwads. These are smart young individuals working hard and seeing improvement to the point where in the future they could end up as celebrated a team as any in history. But I’m not naive enough to suspect they are or would be today. No, I’m just enjoying the journey.
It was a terrible game. I thought Cesc and Eduardo in particular had a proper off day. Pointing fingers though on blogs seems to only do more damage (stand up Big Phil Senderos, oh how we helped in yr confidences downfall). Hopefully we can learn from it and look to find a proper balance of midfield. Nasri/Rosicky/Eboue’s role in particular looks confused as to what they should be doing and when. I still think the Barca 4-3-3 is the future but Barca spent over a decade figuring it out, we are naturally going to have problems not playing it for more than 6 months.
Nice article ‘holic. Hair of the dog for me.
Huge disappointment for fan:-(
We had nice passes but rarely threaten.
Walcott is not doing well at the moment. His dribbling sometimes confuse himself:-( I am puzzled on the decision to take Song out. Eduardo too was not performing.
But life goes on. Hope the players pick themselves up.
Outplayed,outfought,outthought,outclassed,and Out of the title race.
Over and Out.
Put to the sword by a Chelsea team chock full of tough seasoned internationals in their prime,no shame there.
The main damage will be to the egos and fragile confidence of our players.
8 days ago we were being touted as one of only 2 sides that could beat Chelsea to the title.
That has been shown to be a mirage.
Injuries cannot be used as an excuse.
Any sensible Arsenal supporter having seen the games against Sunderland and Chelsea,know in their hearts that our title challenge is over for another year.
Last season we lost 5 of our frst 14 games and Wenger said that cost us any chance of the title.
Well we have already lost 4 of 13 this season,so we are almost the same,and we have a tough December to come.
3 results to ponder,
Sunderland 1 Arsenal 0,Spurs 9 Wigan 1 and Wigan 1 Sunderland 0.
The sheer stupidity of the loss to a very average Sunderland side
last week is now shown up as the immensly damaging result it was.
According to Wenger,that loss affected the deep down confidence of the players far more than it should have.
Who is to be held responsible for that.???
Finally,the team from down the road,that we thrashed only a few short weeks ago,are now looking down on us from a lofty third position in the table.!!
Oh Woe is me.
I’ll have a Banana and Blueberry Smoothie with skim milk and a double shot of Cointreau please Holic.
Maybe we should have start with the following:::
Almunia
Eboue
Gallas
Thomas V
Sagna
Nasri
Rosicky
Song
Cesc
Arsharvin
Diaby
But it’s easy to give hindsight solution,,… so let’s just move on
moc: well then we would have had 1 injured player on the pitch and no strikers or left backs, but ok.
25 games to go but sadly i think this is going to be a repeat of last season. Our defence isn’t any better and without RvP our attack is blunt. We have improved the midfield with Song’s sudden improvement and Rosicky’s return but with no goals and a leaky defence, I daresay this will be another season without a trophy where we our main issue will be finishing in top 4. Look at the league table, ‘Pool who are supposed to be in crisis are jsut 2 points behind us.
Clive, ponder Arsenal 3 Spurs 0 while you’re at it. None of these results make much sense when you take them all together, unless your conclusion is that the Premiership is getting even harder and less predictable.
If you think our season is over after our 0-3 against the Chavs, think how Spuds fans must have felt after their brave boys in white capitulated to us without so much as a whimper. And now they’re a place above us, courtesy of an extra game.
I’m with ‘holic. This Is A Low, as Damien Whatsisface once warbled along with Blur. Or was he called Darren? I don’t remember. Anyway, I don’t underestimate the difficulty of replacing van Persie’s influence and turning this around, but I don’t think it’s beyond us. A formation shuffle might have to be the answer.
‘3 results to ponder,
Sunderland 1 Arsenal 0,Spurs 9 Wigan 1 and Wigan 1 Sunderland 0.’
You forgot Wigan 3 Chelsea 1. Either way football is not horse racing, there are no formlines, so it’s pointless to post up a bunch of results like that and find any real meaning in them, aside from to say ‘bizarre results to happen’
Very bad day all in all, and getting a Premiership side away from home in the FA Cup (whilst Chelsea got their traditional home tie against cannon fodder opposition) was the crappy icing on the cake.
I may be underestimating Man Utd here at my peril but I have the feeling that even by the end of this month Chelsea will have left them in the dust too, and we’ll have a 2005 and 2006 type season all over again with Chelsea cruising it whilst everyone else dozes off.
I think AW is deluding himself by saying Arsenal can still win the title. For that to happen Chelsea must implode spectacularly like Arsenal in 2003 and 2008. Ancelloti is too pragmatic a coach to allow this to happen. He doesn’t believe in beautiful soccer ie pass and pass. He believes in winning with economy of effort.Therein lies the differencee between AW and him.
Bf gunner fans gun for me ,I admit I have the greatest of respect for AW. But I think along with other fans he has lost the plot and is on a one man crusade to play beautiful soccer at the expense of results.
Until he changes his philosophy of buying ready made /quality pllayers in place of wc kids Arsenal will be stuck like they hace been these last five years.
Charlie
you missed the point of my 3 results to ponder,we get beaten by sunderland who next up meet a wigan side just thrashed by spurs 9-1,and Sunderland manage to lose to wigan 1-0.
It was meant to highlight how poor a result it was for us to lose to
a very average sunderland.
No more no less.
You really do hate Sunderland don’t you.
Sunderland was a bad result but you can’t quote results in a fashion of ‘Sunderland lost to a side that lost 9-1’ as 100% evidence that they’re rubbish. I may as well trot out stuff like Sunderland almost winning at Old Trafford and use it as evidence to say that they’re pretty good, or that Chelsea losing to Wigan means that they’re not all that.
It hurt me that Arsene offered more or less the same postgame explanation as Redknapp after we had beaten Sp*rs – “until the 42nd minute we were even, the result didn’t reflect the game, etc.”.
In the end it was the same result. Painful 3:0. And this is what counts, not the first 40 minutes.
The worst part of losing to Chelsea yesterday is peoples knee-jerk idiotic reactions.
We had no chance of winning yesterday anyone with a brain could see that, why? because Chelsea were able to field a side of players that have played together for 5 years week in and week out with very few changes.
Arsenal however had to field a team of players that have only played together twice this season, yes, twice! Nasri, denilson, walcott, vela, eduardo, traore haven’t played together enough to create an on-field understanding. That was glaringly obvious yesterday and at Sunderland.
Nobody seems to understand this concept at all so let me put it to you in terms you might understand, imagine a team that fielded 5 new signings against a well coordinated and highly effective team that have played together for years, what would the result be?
It was only the individual brilliance of our players that prevented the result from being a mauling.
We had no penetration due to Chelsea having the best defence the league and arsenal having players that couldn’t intuitively pick out someones run because they have no understanding. It’s that simple.
I see lots of comments saying BUY BUY BUY, yet that does not address the issue of on field bond, a new signing isn’t going to change that, just make it worse.
We could use Chamakh though for those head height crosses, although when bendtner comes back that problem will be solved, have patience, this team just need to start getting games, we saw signs in yesterdays match that our players are good enough to compete, the amazing run we had was due to consistently fielding the smae group of players and we will regain that form once these players start to get more games together.
Charlie
i do not hate Sunderland.
I was just using them as an analagy re our title aspirations.
A very average side that we should have taken 3 points from.
Both Chelsea and Man U had easy home fixtures the same day,against Wolves and Everton,which meant it was imperative that we win as well.
With the talent we have in our team, it drives me mad when we can’t put these sorts of mid ranking teams away.
I think we need a new defensive coach, and for someone to get it into the players heads that you CANT cross into a box to find players like eduardo, vela, arshavin and fabregas against players like ivanovic, terry, carvalho, lampard. You shoot from OUTSIDE THE BOX. You draw them out with your fancy passing, and take a shot.
The sad thing is, I don’t even think wenger will change anything in our system even after this performance. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen arsenal perform this bad at home. What an absolute disgrace. I wish I could slap Wenger. PLAY DENILSON? HE WAS BACK 1 GAME AND YOU THINK HES THE MESSIAH? My god. I don’t even know what can change to fix this problem. It’s fundamental, its foundational in the style of play.
It’s like genital herpes. For periods of time it will look that everything is fine and dandy, and then you get periods where under stress, you see something is HUGELY wrong. Seriously.
@ Xerxes
Just like our current problems genital herpes isn’t that bad. Like Genital Herpes our problems will go away on their own so there’s no need to go buy a new expensive cream because you can’t get rid of herpes only relieve the symptoms.
I’m hearing calls for Wengers head again this season, but that would be like choppoing off the penis and sowing a new one on, again this doesn’t cure the herpes.
The only solution is to recognize the early signs and deal with the problem before it becomes an issue.
Let us all be honest for a second. We were beaten by a bloody good Chav team. As horrible as it is to admit, that is the fact of it all. We were second best on most parts of the pitch. They played better as a unit, defended better and were more clinical. The stats will tell you that we had 55% possession and restricted them to only 4 shots on target. But in my opinion I do not think we looked like scoring.
I thought we were poor for the first 2 goals. How in God’s name was cashley allowed so much time to put a cross in? Not once but twice? Basic really. Without the likes of RVP or Bendtner we were toothless up front.
The thing that saddened me the most was that they seemed to want it more. They lost the ball up front? Drogba and Anelka chased all over the pitch. We lost the ball up front? Arshavin sat on his arse and watched them break. As a unit they were a long way ahead of us yesterday.
We do need to add a few new faces in January but I really can not see us challenging for the title this year. I just can’t see us getting 11 more points than the Chavs. You have to ask why more were not added in the summer. New faces add freshness to a squad and keep those there on their toes.
I am sadly not expecting too much from the kids against a full strength Citeh side so we will need a really convincing result against Stoke. Anything less will be looked upon as weak.
Good comparison with GG’s teams holic. Nice to see you being positive, bring on Stoke, Liverpool, Burnley, Hull, Villa, and Portsmouth. Only a teeth gnashing, furious and rest of the season long reaction from us is acceptable.
Hugely wrong? We lose our two main CF to injury so yes that’s fucking hugely wrong. Do you think that Chelski would have won without Drogba and Anelka? And do you think they’ll have a full-strength side all season with mainly 30+ players and the ACN coming?
I agree not everything is rosy. Arsene made very questionnable choices:
1) The strategy was wrong form the get go: we have no central striker and 6 players with very little game time this season (Traore, Vela, Walcott, Rosiki, Nasri, Denilson) against a full-strength Chelski. 4-3-3 doesn’t have to be a dogma and a draw can be good result to aim for.
2) As a consequence AW set totally unrealistic expectations. We should never have lost at Sunderland but that does not mean we had to win against Chelski to make up for it.
3) Substitutions were terrible. Song off? Denilson alone to boss midfield in his first full game after a 3 months layoff? We’ve done this at Citeh and we should have learnt.
On the bright side:
1) Traore had a resonnably good game considering and he will get many more opportunities to prove his worth in December.
2) Both vela and Walcott are the real deal. For their second appearance of the season in the league against a watertight defense they did well. With more game time in December they could become lethal pretty soon.
3) Nasri and Rosicky are also coming back strongly.
If these players can get an injury-free run (that’s a big if), we’ll be dominating games sooner than later.
the weather was rotten, the game hurt like mad but i did have one highlite to the whole event, haveing a drink with yourself and the little french fellow with funny hair, before the game. great seeing you holic, cant mention the game, it hurts, roll on the worthless so we can move on
The pleasure was ours dizzy, although it was good of you both to head back to the Spanish sun and leave me freezing my cobs off here 😉
You’re mixing with the wrong crowd ‘holic.
I’ll have a glass of that stout drink, the really cold one, and those cheesy footballs seem to have been sat in that bowl on the bar for about 3 weeks now. Can’t we have some mixed nuts and raisins for a change?
We’ve had plenty of mixed nuts in here down the years, Snail 😉
yourself and the managment are always welcome to come and stay with the dizzys holic
“I think AW is deluding himself by saying Arsenal can still win the title. For that to happen Chelsea must implode spectacularly like Arsenal in 2003 and 2008.”
Or the Chelsea of last season? It’s weird how people have forgotten the Scholari false dawn. They were 8 points ahead (like they are of us now /game in hand pending) and finished third. He was hailed a master, the true successor to Jose.
Barcelona last night started with Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Busquiets, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. The commentator said that when Zlatan came on, he cost the same as the starting eleven. Barcelona are the champions of their own country, champions of their continent and last night beat their closest rivals on a starting eleven budget of £45ish million. They put their faith in individual players of talent from developed from their academy to gain experience and become the best. Sure it was supplemented by players bought from elsewhere but they spent wisely on improving their own players.
Song, Denilson, Cesc, Theo, Clichy – these players are all under 25. Ramsey, Gibbs, Wilshere, Nordtveit, the FA Youth Cup winning team – all under 20. This is a team that requires patience. I know we have gone through 5 years of relative hurt (tell, I dunno, a Millwall fan how hard it is supporting a team that has seen Cesc and Henry don the shirt in the past five years) but if you canot deal with gradual development, support Chelsea.
Now I am not discouraging the idea of buying players altogether. I am encouraging using your smarts when discussing buys. Some points to be made, in no particular order:
1. No have very limited funds (in comparison to our talent bracket. We obviously can outbid West Ham or Burnley.)
2. We have an immense amount of young talent at the club (Vela may not be ready for the week-in week-out but quite frankly he has the sort of potential one can see in a future Ballon D’Or winner and I’d prefer to keep him available than some mercenary.)
3. Considering we have scored joint-highest in the league, it seems absurd to me that people are calling for forwards to be bought. Even if our main choice is out, our second is someone with better than a 1 in 2 record. Eduardo may have had a rough first two games as the lone front man but try not to forget it took van Persie a while to settle as well.
4. Our limited resources should be focussed where most needed and not on flashy purchases. I.e. our defence is letting us down and Senderos, Silvestre and Gallas are potentially out of contract in the summer. Another Vermaelan-esque purchase or two/Gallas’ contract re-negotiated is where the money should be focussed. And then a keeper who can control his backline.
Overall it’s a pretty good season. I started supporting at a time when we were a cloggers drunken disgrace- this team has supplied me with plenty of joyous moments and has the ability to win a trophy or two. There are 6 months left, let’s enjoy them.
Nice, Samuel, nice…
Evening ‘holic,
Evening Gents,
Rough weekend, but hey, sometimes you’ve just got to hold your hands up and admit that you were beaten fair and square by the better team on the day. Let’s look forward to the distraction of playing Merc City in the CC this week and get back to the business of the PL on Saturday against Stoke.
Straight up vodka for me please barman, and whatever Samuels having. (nice post)
Cheers.
I painted Spurs with the brush that they’d beaten nobies and come up well short against the bigger teams. Defeats to City, United, Chelsea and Sunderland leave me thinking that we’re in the same boat more or less. The gap between Chelsea and Arsenal is 5 fold that between us and Spurs worryingly.
I must admit I do not get all this talk about being patient. Are we throwing in the towel already? That for me is just not good enough. Not good enough at all.
AW has stated several times that this team is good enough and the best he has ever had. Well at the moment I would tend to disagree. We were beaten by a side who were better than us in all areas of the pitch yesterday. Why? Is RVP that big a loss? If he or Bendtner had been abvailable would we have gone on to win the game? I think not. Difficult to win the game when you don’t make Cech make a save.
I love all the hype about the young team we are trying to develop. Reminds me of those great Liverpool sides of the 70’s. Big difference is that we seem to let players go far too easily. Why have we not kept older players? Why have we let valubale experience go? I love the idea of all these kids coming through. My worry is how many of the established players will be around still in 2 years time if we are still coming up short?
AW said that the Chav game was a test. A big test to see if this team was up for it and good enough. Sadly, I think he got his answer. Will they be good enough in the future? Who knows, but I believe that he needs to add some quality to this side to assist in the development.
The last few seasons I’ve worried about our squad, not so much the first team. This season is no different. There are a few spots we are struggling for cover, notably central defence with Djourou out for the season, probably everyone is worried about Song going to ACN also.
As for striker, unfortunately I’m not sure Eduardo or Vela are even the right type of player to be playing in that spot, regardless of them being good enough or not (a bit of confidence certainly wouldn’t hurt them). From what I hear about young Afobe he has pace and power, couldn’t hurt to give him a go? Maybe it would have been too much to ask against Chelsea anyway. My point is Vela/Eduardo/Walcott/Arsh would probably play better around a more traditional center forward (would love to see someone like Dzeko in the squad competing for a spot – right now would settle for having Bendtner back from injury).
Unfortunately I think it’s our lot to suffer for a couple more years. I still believe those true supporters will be rewarded with an avalanch of trophies in the next 5-10 years. This squad will grow up, we just have to hope the really good ones stay put, supplemented by the odd astute buy. And put up with fellow ‘arsenal supporters’ telling us how each player is terrible and all the top players we need to buy as replacements :]
Love the site..
Late to the party and I don’t expect this to be read, but hey, that’s never stopped me in the past.
Good post, ‘Holic. A wee bit harsh judgement on Chelsea. I thought they played within themselves overall and had a bit left in the tank. But just imagine if they’d turned up without Drogba and Anelka (so Kalou and Malouda up front), bit like we did without, at least, Robin.
There are many intertwined and conflicting themes in today’s drinks ranging from “we’re Barcelona in disguise” to “we don’t need a forward, we need more central defenders”.
Well that depends. It depends on WHAT we want to be and WHEN.
– I think the young core of this team (& emerging talent) has the potential to be GREAT. Barcelona standard? Sure.
– That doesn’t mean, in the absence of at least one WORLD class striker that it has the potential to win anything THIS year.
– We absolutely do not need to buy a new CB. We have four (plus JD20). They’re very highly paid. They’ll all stay if that’s what AW wants and Nordtveldt, Ayling, Bartley, Hoyte are poised to emerge.
– We finished last year with two world class strikers. We now have NONE. Major issue. Steve T, Robin’s absence is MASSIVE. He was on fire. Holic is absolutely correct. IF we want to win something THIS season, that will need to be addressed with the cheque book. It would not if either one of last season’s finishers was available. They’re not.
– Don’t think Nick Bendtner’s return will tick the world class striker box. It won’t. He’s good, but young with a long way to go, lots to learn. Similarily, Theo and Vela.
– So, who to buy? Holic implies “doesn’t need to be a physical force”. True, look at Eto and Messi, two of Barca’s prolific strikers last season. Both fast, great on the ground, remarkably good with their head (Including RvP I don’t see a ball header in our attack).
– With the $40 mill in the bank, we need to be thinking Torres, RVP, Villa, Drogba, Anelka, Rooney, Messi standard. Chamakh won’t cut it as the principal. He’d be OK as a support act (maybe).
– We know the going rate. We sold one of our two for 26 million to a huge round of applause. OK, let’s see who we can get by spending the same amount. Don’t think he’d only be needed till RvP returns. We need two great strikers going in to next season as well. The RvP calamity isn’t exactly a one off.
So:
1. Stay the course, develop youth, no trophies this year.
2. Invest in one world class striker, get in the hunt.
Just depends What we want to be. And WHEN.
By the way. I WISH “stay the course” would get us there. I don’t think it can. It wasn’t just Chelsea. Sunderland game was very, very similar.
Drogba says it better, there lies the difference:
“Every time we had the chance to score we did. We took our chances. Physically we defended well and were really strong, mentally as well.
“I don’t know about Arsenal, but it is our strength to perform when it matters. Even against Manchester United, when the game was really difficult, we won.
“We know how to go through difficult periods when the game is hard. That is why when we get a chance we know how important it is to score.
We need to keep building the team to get to this mental state. Great teams have this ability to resist and rebound and this is what we must do more often. Starting with Stoke and hopefully with the kids showing the way against Citeh. 8 points is not the end of the world but now it’s time to dig in and grab 3 points game after game. We have a hell of a run up to the last third of the season (around end of February), we’ll have other setbacks but so will the others.
BtM: I’m sorry to disagree but if we win silverware this season it’s going to be independently of a the acquisition of a new striker.
Even if the perfect striker that would hit the ground scoring at every game was to join us in January, we have 12 games until then. If Arshavin does not recover from the Russia WC setback and neither of Walcott, Vela or Eduardo hits form by then we’re toast. We need some of those players to start clicking now, next week-end at the latest. If no one steps up, no January signing will save us because we’ll be too far behind.
I’m not against buying a top striker mind you as it’s one of too many injuries for RVP. I love the guy both in style and attitude but in the end we need a striker who can play more than 50% of the season if we’re to win something.
Our fixtures are hellish until end of February and then we have the easiest of runs. We need to dig deep and find the solution within.
My money is on Vela and Bendtner.
Arshavin already knows he is going to pull a Hleb on us next summer IMHO, Eduardo is seriously lacking confidence and has yet to prove that he has recovered and Walcott could be the one if he wasn’t so injury-prone. That said a goal or two go a long way in restoring self-confidence.
Now it’s all on Wenger’s and Fab’s shoulders to restore the team’s self-belief for the next game. More than anything else we need the right attitude, resolve and mental strength.
Firstly, whoever it was who said lets try Afobe- the guy is 16! I know we have a youth policy at this club and we like to hype youngsters but come on! Sometimes I just dispair at how people think about football.
BtM: I’m not sure that would work anymore. Villa and Aguero are, in my opinion, the only two ‘available’ ABSOLUTELY WORLD CLASS STRIKERS. (Well, unless we go for a cheeky bid for Thierry maybe.) I’d be surprised if either go for less than 40m. Adebayor left for so cheap because of a shocking season, disruption in the dressing room and being offered around like a whore by the club, just to get rid. Balotelli maybe? Gossip says he and Jose don’t get along so maybe he can be got on the relative cheap and Wenger surely knows how to calm his types (Vieira, rvp etc.)
But the centre of defence is a pressing issue no matter how you parse it. If Gallas signs, great. Djourou is certainly talented and has a great future ahead of him. Tommy is certainly talented. But Gallas is getting older and him and TV are shipping goals together. Move Song back and we need a new DM. Senderos and Silvestre don’t cut it (unfortunately in Phil’s case, I had high hopes for him) and look almost certain to leave in the summer. Nordtveit looks good but is way too young to be anything other than 4th or 5th choice. Ayling and Bartley will most probably go on loan. It all points towards us needing to allocate 15m or so to making sure we can buy an ABSOLUTELY WORLD CLASS CENTRE BACK, someone who isn’t going to go join the bloody forwards every minute because he’s bored and be out of position when the opposition break. Zapata, Kjaer, Sakho, Fazio – all look like potential buys. If we were going to gamble on the cheap, I believe Metzelder’s contract is up in the summer.
We also need to sort the keeper situation before the 20-deep forward line but fuck knows what is going on in Wenger’s mind there.
We got turned over good and proper on Sunday, no doubt about that. I’m alarmed by the hieght and weight stats (I think our team was a stone lighter and four inches shorter on average than Chelsea were), but we were without Bendy, Diaby and RVP, all strapping six footers. Apart from RVP I don’t think the other two would have made all that much difference, although Bendy couldn’t have been any less hapless than poor old Eduardo. What has happened to Eduardo? He looked completely out of his depth on Sunday, was very sad to see. Off the top of my head I can’t recall him doing much against seriously good opposition since he joined us – even before his injury.
When Theo is back 100% I want to see him given an extended run as our main striker, if not now then when will he get this chance? I think it could be the making of him. I thought he should have played there in Sunday if fit – his pace alone could have given Terry and Carvalho the sort of trouble we were unable to create via the tippy tappy route.
So I want our team to look like this for the foreseeable future (when Bendy is back he can take Nasri’s place, and Nasri will go back to midfield in place of Rosicky). Bendy and Theo could be swapped around if needs be. We really need to put lots of points on the board before the difficult sequence at the end of January – United / Villa / Liverpool / Chelsea in succession. Hmmm.
Almunia
Sagna  Gallas  Vermaelen Silvestre
        Song
 Fabregas    Rosicky / Nasri
Nasri / Bendtner   Walcott   Arshavin
Criko, did I say Silvestre? I don’t know what came over me. I meant Traore. Hopefully Clichy will be back in a couple of weeks.
1. We won’t buy a central defender. Put it in a brown envelope and post it to yourself. Open the envelope on February 1st. Check the content.
2. AW’s plans for the year are savagely impacted by RvP injury to the extent that he WILL buy a striker.
3. An Arsenal source* tells me that the bad spirit in the dressing room was caused by none other than Kolo and his ongoing tussle with Willie G. Ade wasn’t the cause. Witness Denilson’s comments six weeks ago “I really miss Ade…..”. He’s not the only one. So does AW.
4. I wish we could win big with the current strike force. I hate to say it, but they’re not yet delivering on their promise.
* The source is Wee Jock McTosh the turnstile man at S43. He’s every bit as reliable as Pierce Morgan, The Sun/NOTW, etc sources that others choose to quote.
Come on you Gunners. Keep smiling ‘Holics.