End Of Term For The Class Of 09 – Could Do Better
Dec 2nd, 2009 by 'holic
Oh well, that’s it. Another year of Beer Cup football is over and the kids will be put back into reserve, or out on loan, for another year. There is no doubting the agenda that Sky have set for the discussion that follows. Should Arsene have gone with a stronger side to counter the full-strength side deployed by City?
For my money, you’ll not be surprised to hear, I think the gaffer probably did the right thing. Already the debates are raging, but can you imagine what would have been said if a first team already shorn of key players had been asked to put their bodies on the line in the Carling Cup, and another couple of key men had picked up bad injuries and missed vital matches in the three major competitions that loom large on the horizon?
Already we have lost Alexandre Song as a result of a fifth booking this evening. I’ll play the devil’s advocate and ask what the hell was he doing in that side tonight to earn that yellow card? You see, there is always more than one way to view a situation.
As for the result, well we can have no complaints really, can we? Yes, there were mistakes linked to all three goals, but the first two really were sublime finishes, and reflected I thought on the determination displayed by most in a blue shirt.
I say most. There was a notable exception to that, and I was astounded to hear Sean Wright-Phillips praising the work rate of the ‘two up front’. He must have meant Bellamy and Tevez, because sh.., you-know-who, found himself gasping for air at the final whistle having spent virtually all of the night in Mikael Silvestre’s pocket.
I’ll hold my hands up and say I am a long-time critic of the French defender, but I thought that he responded magnificently to being consistently exposed by a lightweight midfield. I don’t want to be openly critical of any individuals ahead of him, because they were set a stiff examination tonight, and for once they failed to reach the pass mark.
That should not detract from their achievement in reaching this stage of the competition. Hopefully they will resolve tonight to make every effort not to sample the bitter taste of defeat the next time opportunity knocks for them.
The final whistle brought with it a regrettable playground scene. Arsene was wrong not to acknowledge, even grudgingly, his opposite number. However, one can understand, if not condone, his frustration as a beaten man. A graceless winner is a different proposition, and the prick in charge of the ‘Tottenham of the north’ could have reacted with a little more class. Oh, hang on, this is Mark Hughes. No, he couldn’t.
So City march on, and I really wish the likes of Kolo, and little Seany, bless him, well against United in the semi-final. Meanwhile I shall have to avoid the over-reaction that is almost certainly raging on Arsenal websites as I type. Time for another extremely large Black Grouse, I think.
43 Responses to “End Of Term For The Class Of 09 – Could Do Better”
Well said
Well, so ends another Cup run.
I didn’t think we did too badly, but again, we’ve been ruthlessly punished by our opponents who have gleefully taken their opportunities while we squandered ours.
I’m sure the headlines tomorrow will be full of the usual, with “Sore Loser” emblazoned in big letters above a picture of the gaffer.
Anyways, must now hang head in sorrow and hope for a halt to the slide at the weekend.
Time for a Glenfiddich double, methinks.
Great report ‘Holic!
Let’s not waste more time on this, it’s the yearly ritual of kids losing in the CC.
I’ll open a bottle of Chablis to soothe me until Arsene sorts out the attacking puzzle for the Stoke game. Anyone care to share a glass?
Fear not! They won’t be parked in the reserves just yet. There’s a no cost game against Olympiakos coming up. I’ll venture we’ll see a good few of them get their CL badges in that game.
Yes we were up against a players that cost over 100m to assemble. But that is three loses in a row. Beginning to look familiar…
Mistaken you most certainly are. How many did Standard beat us by last week then?
I the last four years it feels like we are getting used to losing too much. I’m not saying sack the manager, but we don’t look much better than last season
Great to read a mature response to tonights game – I’ve read a few blogs tonight and it makes me feel sick to see a reasonable percentage of comments calling for wengers head… As did sitting next to a guy at the emirates last week who said the game felt like a loss against liege because we didnt score more goals…. Now’s the time we need to get behind the team! Lets not start getting on there backs and have a repeat of last season!
Problem is, not sure that getting behind the players helps us win if the players are not good enough. We need a quality goal keeper, quality defensive backup, quality powerful midfielder and a quality striker. That’s the answer
Thanks Andrew. It would be very easy to get extremely negative about tonight, and that would be hugely unfair. We have rejoiced when this young side has beaten strong Premiership opponents down the years, so we should be a little more circumspect about losing to arguably the richest club in world football and their mercenaries.
I’ll accept sensible debate about the make up of the side, and should we have strengthened, but I still think most would have been up in arms if, say Fabregas, had played tonight and picked up a major knee knack that kept him out of the rest of the season.
Your right Goonerholic, but we need a team that is not so reliant on one or two players to be successful
Well getting on the players’ backs won’t help either. I think that possibly we’re lacking both a truely world class goalkeeper (too many times this season Almunia’s just palmed the ball back into the middle of a goal rather than catching, getting the ball away) and a plan B when going forward. As much as I like Eduardo and Vela, I think the lone striker role for either is asking too much of them…
Still some very big games to come this season! Hoping for a big atmosphere at the Emirates against stoke and lets get the team over this blip!
Different argument altogether, Mistaken, and one on which we would find common ground.
I agreed earlier in the season when people spoke of our strength in depth. We have more quality midfielders than you could shake a stick at. Sadly we only have two strikers wth any degree of physical presence, and losing them both has caught us out. Losing Song from that spine will catch us out in January, unless we replace him. If Vermaelen is injured we will be fucked (pardon me) at the back. We have no depth in the spine of the side.
As things have turned out we should have paid the eight million pounds, or whatever it was that Bordeaux asked for Chamakh in the summer. However, given the current formation had the strikers stayed fit you would have had two of him, Bendtner, or van Persie regularly on the bench or the wing. I can understand why we didn’t meet their demand for a player with a year left on his contract.
Tweedy pie was horrible. Caught out by the wind, blade of grass and a camera flash from row 40. Song was baling him out all night.
Very disappointed in Rosicky…should have shown more leadership. Eboue was poor. All these were the most senior players we had, would have been better to put the 18 year olds
As for the ref, it’s expected that our boys will get battered and showed their frustration. Bellamy should have seen a yellow with a clear kick out on Rosicky. It a common theme this year and now our 18 year olds are getting punished.
His late thrust thru young jack and song for their third was caused by both carrying yellow cards. If bellamy was booked earlier I doubt he would have been motivated that late.
This was a good performance by the youngsters in the first half and to see that prick hughes gloat at the final whistle for dispatching a bunch of 18 year olds was laughable.
No class.
Just a shame we cant buy a quality striker, midfield enforcer and a quality goalkeeper. Do we really not have the cash?
Another different argument M, and not one for tonight. There is money. There is also another phase of development at Queensland Road to be funded. The arguments about that are for another time.
Perhaps we should be more grateful that the custodians of the club are investing in our future?
I strongly believe needing better players or not, that without us supporters behind them they will deffinently not do any good, What happend to the 12th player? in my team at home shirt no 12 is given to the supporters. that is how important they are and how much the club appreaciates them. That would be unthinkable in arsenal. Why? Because most of the supporters turn their nose after the wind. if we win oh we love arsenal and Wenger. If we loose, oh lets just call for his head and yell higeher. I sometimes wonder why you people support Arsenal. Is it because you want trophies? What if i say that i cannot see us winning any throphys for the next 10 years but we will keep our 4th spot in the league. Will you still be an arsenal fan? Will you still sing for your team even when they loose and preform bad? If your answar is no then maybe you are not a true fan. I think everyone is allowed to have opinions and maybe dislike things about their club. But you always support the players! thats just how it should be!
Good write up. I tend to agree with the latter debate. Why on earth was Song playing? He will be a big loss against Stoke. They only have an aerial threat and now he will be missing as well. How does that happen? Madness.
Kids caught cold in the end. They fought manfully and I agree completely re Sylvestre. Perhaps he will come in and play the holding role on Saturday?
The lack of signings has come back to haunt us. We debated it at length on here pre season. It seems painfully obvious where we need to add quality to. But for some reason we have not. I have no idea why we did not spend 8 million on Chamakh. Especially when we had just collecetd 40 million from Citeh. I love the idea of producing our own players but we have to get the right ballance. At the moment we do not have that. I agree totally re Vermaelen. I dread to think what we will do when he is missing.
The fact is that our strongest 11 is as good as anyones. After that we do not look quite as good in certain areas. Time to restore the equalibrium before another season jogs off over the horizon.
Holic. You say about investing in our future but has anyone actually stopped to think about what our future holds?? At the moment we are light years away from the Chavs. Citeh with all of their dosh must be taken seriously. Even the spuds have put a run together. The truth is that the top 4 as it has always been is not so secure. I don’t care what anyone says at the club, we need to win things and we need to play Champions League Football. Fans pay a great deal of money to get to games. We continue to produce financial results that show us as one of the richest clubs in Europe. It will not take long for the fickle to turn, especially if we end up trophyless and out of the top 4. Our future would not look as bright then????????? It needs to be adressed.
Don’t think we will drop out of the top 4 but our reputation as a successful club is eroding
Sorry, one last thing. If AW has refused to shake Hughes’s hand then I am sorry but that is shameful. I don’ t care how hurt he is or how much of Knob Hughes is, there is no excuse for that.
Mistaken. I agree with you. At least not this season. I also agree that in not too short a time peiod we will be classd as also rans. We are in real danger of being left behind.
I will accept that argument, Steve, when we are knocked out of the top four. However, I’ll argue for a while yet I still expect us to be top two or three this season, and I haven’t wavered from the start in that respect. Down the years many clubs have spent more than us on players, and Tottenham are the classic example, but City too will discover this season that you need more than just money. We have invested hugely in projects that should give us jam tomorrow, but it is a remarkable fact that we are once again through to the knockout phase of the Champions League, and there is no hard evidence to suggest that is not likely to continue. Keep the faith.
Sweet mother of God, look at the time. Cheers ‘holics for taking my mind off the game, and back on my favourite subject, the Arsenal. Time for bed.
Thanks all.
thats good that song got a yellow card, that way he will be out for the stoke game and back for liverpool were we will really need him. if had not gotten the yellow we could half risked him getting a yellow against stoke and missing the liverpool game.
Holic, I hear what you say but I am trying to prevent the horse bolting and the subsequent reaction. I do not think we need major surgery but like you felt we needed to add to the squad in the summer. Bringing the odd new face in helps to freshen things up if nothing else. I think we missed a few tricks. Fine when we do not have injuries etc. Not so clever when we don’t. I am aware that hindsight is a wonderful gift but I also believe that we need to prepare better for the possibility of injuries, loss of form etc etc.
The thing is many Arsenal fans are much more pessimistic than the neutrals. We’re scaring anyone including the big clubs if only because “on our day” we can beat anyone.
The facts are: we’ve had a terrific start of the season that the last 2 league defeats have turned into a solid start. Despite those injuries we’re still the (joint) league top scorers. The season is still long and the title is not out of reach.
If we recover from what would be a blip then there is no problem. We may or may not win the title, as long as we’re fighting pretty close and obviously progressing it’ll be okay.
Now if we have a resurgence of the Birmingham syndrome we can start worrying for real and obviously the injuries to both Bendtner and RVP are not reassuring. As excellently written by GoodPlaya, the main problem we face is not so much what happened in the last 2 games but what is going to happen next.
New players or not in January, this season is going to be defined by the next 10 games or so before we can bring anyone in. Lose too many and we’re out. Win them all and we’ll be breathing on Chelsea’s neck.
Now how is Wenger going to address the striker problem? I think we have still a wealth of possibilities that most clubs would envy. Unfortunately none of them has played enough yet to find their mark. It took a few games for RVP to start scoring and 8 games for Henry. Whoever slots in is not going to be different Luckily for us we have more different scorers than players on the pitch so we undoubtedly will find the net sooner than later.
Triumph without peril brings no glory.
S: Yes we need to be supportive but the reality is that the big teams all have their share of glory hunters who don’t have a clue what supporting a team means and how much it can make a difference. At first I thought it would unsettle the players but since it’s happening at every big club with perhaps one exception in Liverpool (although they’re barely a big club nowadays ;-).
That said our away support is superb and I feel sorry for them today. They deserved better.
Finally although I would rather not have us in this conundrum, I’m pretty happy that Vela will be given more opportunities to shine. He was the only shining ray on our side last night and despite an atrocious performance from the midfield he managed to make a nuisance of himself. With his pace, agility and technique he looks to me as having the qualities to become a legend.
Largely agree with the report card, teach. Good team selection. We were promised youth even before the season started in the beer cup. No one should be too surprised by the swish of the cane.
It’s no coincidence that our reduced rate of goal scoring, the blackening mood in the blogosphere and Robin Van Persie’s departure into placentadom have all occurred simultaneously.
Without his ability to lead the line, score goals and set up chances from free kicks, the attack is quite impotent. More evidence of that tonight. We didn’t look like scoring. Vela was swatted off like a fly even although Toure looked porous as he has for City for most of this season. Good offload.
Pretty simple for me. Complete absence of a world class striker. We had two. We have none. Chamakh’s not the answer. No 8 million quid striker is. The cheque book needs to appear and a much bigger number needs to be in the frame. We’ve got lots of clever feeders, but no punishing powerhouse. Great promise from several too, but on current evidence, they’re a couple of years away. They need a lead figure to help them grow.
The midfield is strong, will do just fine against Stoke on Saturday, even without Song who’ll enjoy the break. Nasri in there. Question is, who’ll break down the Stoke defense as we strive again through the centre?
The centre of the defense is pretty sound. Silvestre had a good game up until SWP skinned him for the second goal (when Traore had gone walkabout). So it would take three injuries from Willie, Vermaelen, Silvestre, Song, Senderos to put us in deep, deep CB doo doo. Unlikely frankly. Not where I would spend. AW won’t either.
Tactically, I’d like to see more width (and not just from full backs who can’t cross). Tonight’s result wasn’t unexpected and its not a disaster. Good experience for several and I hope they’ll have more in Greece.
AW made his first mistake of the season by not shaking Whatsit’s hand. No excuse for that. He just looks petty and does not need the press.
Horlicks with a wee whisky in please barman. Been to a whisky reception. Time for the land of nod, some zzzzzzz’s and dreams of a fit RvP.
As a coda, it’s interesting how a defeat for the reserve kids prompts a discussion of the weaknesses of the first team, as though one were the same as the other.
I know it’s still an Arsenal team wearing the red and white and we all want them to win, but we have to have different expectations here.
Ah well, football fans are fated to walk around with the thundercloud of defeat hanging over them until the sunny rays of victory return.
hola holic. good blog, i am a fan, although first time writing on here, or should that be ordering a drink..
at the moment, we don’t look like scoring at all. big test of AW’s nous this month to get this team scoring (freely) again. Watt might be worth a punt upfront, alongside Vela, from what i saw of him today. time to switch to 4-4-2 maybe, restrain the full backs a bit and add some defensive solidity. last season, after a poor run, Sagna came out and said he had abandoned his forward game a bit, cue the 21 game unbeaten streak.
A glass of red for me to fall asleep in this cold Boston night, please. Cheers.
p.s Walcott is overrated. would not mind seeing him swapped for SWP.
Who’d you think he is going to target in January upfront? David Villa, anyone?
Walcott is not overrated, at least not yet. He just turned 20, had his development hampered by multiple shoulder issues (supposedly behind him for good) and has only played twice as a sub in a losing side since his return from a 3 month lay-off.
People are not machines.
Roll on Olympiacos where we’ll see the ‘kids’ again. They need more experience, and playing against Citeh, and then in the Champs League will be vital to their development.
I do ‘Keep the Faith’, mainly due to watching us for the last 30 years, and remember the lean times more than most. (Judging by alot of the comments)
Malibu and Cherryade pls ‘holic!
Are there many youngsters coming through the ranks with a bit of size about them? I know our style of play is more suited to the little guy with quick feet but they can’t play in every position on the park.
Seen a few (probably completely unsubstantiated) rumours linking us with Dzeko, could be a good buy – big guy, scores a lot of goals, still young at 23/24. Thoughts?
Great blog, It’s nice to a more mature response to the match. Favourite blog alongside the Arseblog.
On the issue with Song playing, I’d rather he miss the game against stoke than potentially picking up a yellow in the game against stoke and missing the liverpool match. We should be able to cope against stoke without song.
Great blog. loving this.
Who would have thought a Chelsea team without Anelka would lose to Blackburn?!
We are fine as long as the boys recognise this as the little blip it is. Simple.
I watched the game last night (albeit on sky), but the thing that amazed me most and it seems that the press seem to gloss over it was MH’s reaction on the line throughout the game, he was behaving like an overexcited bully, at one time late first half he openly verbally abused AW right in front of the fourth official and nothing was even discussed, the man lacks class and I back the boss in ignoring someone who quite frankly will be out of a job as soon as soon as someone half decent becomes available. I mean every under pressure manager will now use the row to deflect their own shortcomings, Megson has already had a go, Phil Brown won’t be far behind.
Finally,a blog that talks some sense…well done.
It seems to be all the forums are filled with haters and moaners.
Although a loss hurts, it has to be put in perspective; everyone knew at the start what kind of team we’d play in the Carling cup and like previous years they haven’t failed to entertain.
PS: Mark Hughes got the respect he deserves.
holic, YOU ARE SIMPLY FLAT OUT WRONG ABOUT ARSENE NOT SHAKING HUGHES’ HAND.
Hughes baited, insulted and abused Arsene throughout the entire match. Hughes yelled at the ref to get our players booked and sent off throughout the entire match. Hughes dispresected Arsene for over 90 mins.
And then he whinges to the media that Arsene didn’t SHAKE HIS HAND???
It was a DELIBERATE, CYNICAL, meanspirited tactic by Hughes to get the media on Arsene’s back. Hughes hates Arsene, this was totally deliberate on his part. He’s a lowlife scumbag hypocrite. Arsene’s far more honest about his feelings, nor does he run to the media and complain about how managers treat him (like the way that Brown and Horton cursed at him last season).
As to the game… never mind the fact that these were young players up against a full strength zillion-pound squad. I saw the same problems as with the Chelsea game: when our players don’t have the ball, they don’t fight for it, they have no clue what to do. They just stand off and let opponents do what the hell they like.
And it was the SENIOR players last night who were the most guilty. They provided ZERO leadership, ZERO guidance, ZERO commitment. Eboue and Song played like they wanted to be anywhere else.
Amy Lawrence’s excellent article about this idiotic hypocrisy the English have about managers shaking hands, and how it’s totally NOT an issue in other parts of the world:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/dec/03/mark-hughes-hypocrisy-english-outrage
When culture and protocol require a hand shake, you sink lower than your opponent if you can’t even comply. So take what you said about Hughes and position AW below it.
In other parts of the world, they don’t eat roast beef and yorkshire pudding for Sunday lunch. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be eaten in Chipping Snodbury.
Song played well by the way and it was a good run out for him in a position in which he may have to double in the event of injury.
Well worded ‘holic.
How was the Grouse? More importantly will you be in two places at the same time over the next four days?
That is the plan, Boston, and a few more besides, no doubt. The Grouse was wonderful thanks. It may not survive tonight. 😉