Wenger's Rocket Distracts Guys In The Press Room
Nov 4th, 2008 by 'holic
Bonfire night is just around the corner but the whiff of gunpowder is already in the air, particularly in the corner of North London that is forever Arsenal. The press conference ahead of the clash with Fenerbahce in the Champions League was a spiky affair as Arsene Wenger turned on those who have crticised his side as lacking bravery.
It was a wonderfully calculated display designed to take the heat off of his under-fire side. “I read that my team were not brave. I can say that they are brave and, for me, you need to have more courage to play football when you know that someone is tackling you from behind without any intention to play the ball. The one who is tackling is not the brave one. For me the brave one is the player who is trying to play football.”
Wenger knows only too well that hacks will exaggerate his tirade and already all of the early headlines concentrate on accusations of cowardice. So who will play against Fenerbahce? You’ll look long and hard to find that in the reports.
We know that Sagna, Walcott, and Adebayor have joined Gallas, Eduardo, and Rosicky on the injured list. With those six out there are few options for the boss as he seeks to get the side back to winning ways. I would like to think Eboue will slot into the right-back role he knows, and where he once seemed an adequate performer. (*Update, thanks Dutch. Sagna is ok and Eboue is gone in the fetlock. That’s a bonus).
The midfield will provide the most interesting selection. Surely Samir Nasri will return to add the width and creativity so sadly lacking at the weekend. Denilson could switch to the right, with Fabregas and Song in the centre, and Diaby playing in the hole as he did to such good effect in the away game a fortnight ago.
A younger than usual bench will provide a few interesting alternatives if the hosts need to change things around. I am hoping we may see Carlos Vela at some stage. When prompted by a Mexican journalist at the press conference, Wenger waxed lyrical about his young striker, but suggested there are concerns about his ability to deal with the robustness of English football.
The real story tomorrow could be about us, the fans. There will be more than a few in the press box eagerly anticipating the first signs of discontent in the plush red seats. There is no doubt we have been let down by the performances in the closing stages against Tottenham, and throughout Saturday’s painful defeat.
That has to be put to one side. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of the season, and no good will come of increasing the pressure on a side already lacking a little belief. We have our part to play too. So if you are going tomorrow sing out loud and proud. The contract we have with this club of ours is not a one way thing.
COME ON YOU REDS!
21 Responses to “Wenger's Rocket Distracts Guys In The Press Room”
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lets hope we sing are harts out for are team cum on you gunners
nah mate please don’t cum on the gunners.
lol
Eboue is injured too! Wenger is spot on with his comments, but they do sound like they come fram a man under pressure. Anyways, this weekmight just see the making of players like Bendtner and Vela, many Gooners have been calling for the dropping of Ade, Gallas, RvP, Eboue etc. Well, now we have bugger all choice! So let’s give the players our full support, four home games will say as much about us as it will our players.
I liked AW’s combative comments because it creates a siege mentality for the players. He passionately defended the bravery of his players and rightly condemned the belief that players who deliberately go out to injure opponents and who DON’T go for the ball are “brave.” Of course the moron pundits and AW-bashers will interpret his comments as “excuses” for the Stoke loss when they were nothing of the kind. They were in response to punditry calling his players “cowards.”
Sagna was training with the rest of the squad today so he’ll no doubt play tomorrow night.
I agreed with most of comments but i dont think it tactful
they have already been twisted as ud expect
I just think wenger is fairly emotional or “passionate” and he just got angry with what delap said and what else might have been written
he was gracious in defeat on saturday until it became clear that delap may not have been gracious in victory and he let out all his negative thoughts
Evening `holic.Fine inspirational blog.
Wenger is a master of taking the pressure of his players.The headlines tomorrow will be all about him.
There are always going to be teams who play against us like Stoke.
We have got to learn to deal with it.
P.S. I have just seen John Obi Mikkel made to look a complete mug by the Roma player Vucinic .It led to Roma`s third goal.
3-0.
We go into tonights Champions League match with a 5-2 advantage so that should give enough confidence to eliminate the Stoke, Spurs, Hull and Fulham disasters, if not we`re in for riot in north London.
Lime and Soda please ‘holic, it is a school night after all.
Oh and a packet of those Hot Devil Doritos – they should Stoke the fires after a chilli weekend.
Famagusta are certainly taking it to Moanhinio’s side.
I’ll drink to your latest offering, ‘holic.
Mine’s a Guinness tonight.
Fucking swedish(I’m swedish as well) ref’s. First that(can’t remember his name) swede piece of shit didn’t give us a penalty against Liverpool. And now, some other swedish piece of shit gave Liverpool a penalty, that clearly was no penalty.
Fucking scumbags.
just watched steve gereard with a scandalous dive to cheat and win liverpool a last minute pen,if that was one of our foreign players the word cheat!! would be used a lot but it was just a “soft pen” because it was steve g
Great article ‘holic, heres hoping that the players pay Le boss back with a spirited, united, scintillating passing and goal scoring performance tomorrow night….C’mon you reds!!!
those swedish refs all buy in2 the anfield b*llsh*t fron when they where growing up – the guys even CALLED Hansen, I wonder who he followed as a kid….
Blimey, forgot the ‘holic pound! Obviously the punters haven’t arrived yet to see what to avoid 😉
3-0 Arsenal.
Peace guys !
3 – 0 to the arsenal
Although AW is perfectly correct to call certain players cowards, all he gets is reports of his `tirade` or of having a good whinge just because we lost. Unfortunately the `mis-timed tackle` has been elevated to something of an art form. Make certain that you get a little bit of the ball, even though your primary objective is to clatter into the man, and you can claim the tackle was mis-timed. Until all two-footed challenges are banned (punishable by a yellow card), the problem will remain. I suspect that until Christiano Ronaldo is done, nothing will happen. Anyway, I will travel up to tonights game full of hope that a good win will help restore any confidence that may be lacking, prior to the big one. Come on you Gooners!!!
A fetid performance. I fear the worse for this weekend…