Our part-timers are in for some chop.

“We came out with a different spirit, a different attitude and were much more dangerous and dominated” – Arsene Wenger speaking about our impressive second half. We still lost so it doesn’t really make any difference.

Far too often we “show up” in the second half, be it against Man City, Reading or London rivals Chelsea, it’s unacceptable.  This is a team of overpaid professionals and nothing more. In the first half there was NO sign of passion or desire, even Wilshere couldn’t sport his war face for the occasion, but we all know the latter is an irregularity.

In his post match press conference, Wenger blamed the first half performance on the frequency of games and, in a way, admitted that he is incapable of motivating his players:

“When you play every three days, it’s difficult to know. There’s a psychological ingredient in there for sure. I felt that in the last two games that we didn’t really go for it from the start.”

I guess it beats “jaded” and “we showed great mental strength but dipped a little bit physically.”

Pace, intricate passing, passion and a goal, our second half performance was a delight. That’s how we should be playing game in, game out. If a two goal deficit at half time is what it takes for the team to turn around their performance then we are in for a turbulent second half of the season. But then again, that’s been obvious from the start.

It’s hard to single anybody out as a bad performer in that game because everyone had their faults. But some players in particular stood out for the wrong reasons. Let’s start with Giroud, he didn’t have the best of games, it wasn’t his entire fault though, the crossing was atrocious. When our best crossers are on the left (Gibbs and the indisposed Podolski) and balls are flying in from the right, you can’t really expect much from a man who is most lethal when on the end of a cross. This leads me on to Sagna and his so called crossing. Oh how he has fallen; once the second best right back in Europe behind the seemingly invincible Phillip Lahm, Sagna is now a disinterested, ordinary full-back.  The entire match he’d lose the ball and not seem remotely intent on getting it back, provided bog-standard “support” down the right hand side,  quite frankly that was one of his worst performances in Arsenal colours, the man is a shadow of the player he used to be.

Despite redeeming himself in the second half with an assist for Walcott, Cazorla was non-existent in the first half, something that has been all too common recently. But can we really blame the Spaniard? No. It’s Wenger’s fault for refusing to rest him due to the lack of replacements. Rosicky’s mysterious disappearance combined with a lack of signings means Santi has to play week in, week out. It happened with Ramsey last season which resulted in a burnout and a huge decline in performances, something we really can’t afford right now.

Regardless of the transfers we bring in this month, we look set to continue our painstakingly long season.

Say what you like about these new commercial deals and the mythical war chest we have had ready since the summer, the underlying point is this: No matter how much we spend in this month – if anything – it does not hide the fact that our squad has a shocking attitude, partially down to the wage structure, and partially down to the [not so] great faith Arsene Wenger has in his players and vice-versa. He is far too patient when others aren’t.

The reasons for Wenger’s patience are the same reason behind the fans’ impatience: player progress. Look at the most recent example: a certain Dutchman who was hampered by injury for eight seasons then showed that he’s one of the best strikers in the world. And our most recent product, Theo Walcott, who, since the latter half of last season, has been our best player – or at least one of them. Obviously Theo isn’t as good as Thierry Henry or that Dutch bloke, but he’s still one of our best players and we’ve had to wait a while to be able to say that. But are we saying he’s one of our best because he’s good or because he’s all we’ve got left? We still have Wilshere (and the rest of the British core who all signed new contracts the other week), Santi Cazorla, Szczesny et al but my point is, now we’ve signed Theo, we need to build on that and not just sit back and hope for the best when May comes around. It’s the same story over and over again. No, I don’t want to wait for Angha, Eisfeld, Meade, Akpom etc to break through, we need new players and we need them now.

And for the fans that are patient, how much longer would you like to wait? If we wait any longer we will continue to be surpassed by our rivals. Rivals in this sense doesn’t mean Sp*rs, it means anyone who has a chance of finishing above us, which at the moment is a list too long for comfort.

Here’s a stat to dwell over: We have taken 15 fewer points from their 22 PL fixtures than last season – only Newcastle (-19) have deteriorated further. [via @SkySportsChris]

West Ham next, until then, try and remain sane.

@MylesBurrell

17 Comments

1. 

   highburyterracesteve

   23 January, 13 at 01:37

   Big match tomorrow for those still hoping for Arsenal to meet minimum requirements….

   I still find it compelling drama, but if we’re going to go back to the big picture, meta-narrative stuff, I believe the place to start would be the manager’s failure to change with the times and accommodate the “big” player. In the North American star players have made more money (and thus have been seen as more important) than managers for decades. In football it’s a new phenomenon and at Arsenal it has yet to happen.

   Theo Walcott has played his cards correctly and gotten his money. He’s on 100k week (notably for only 3.5 years…) but that’s good money. Is he as good as the 2 Dannys (Wellbeck and Sturridge)? In other words, is he a bit part player at a “big” club, but maybe helpful to teams (like us) scrambling below that level? Probably. By staying at the club he’s bought himself a ton of good will which I think he will need. Hopefully by (in the very end) being a “team player” he will be given a measure of credit in any success Arsenal has over the next few years.

   He and Poldoski are the closest to the manager’s salary and they are arguably less important to the current squad than a handful (or more) of the others in the squad. The only way I can see the team really bridging the gap to the top 3 teams is to pay SEVERAL players more than the manager and, frankly, I don’t think the board nor the owner is strong enough to insist upon such signings. This means that any player who truly reaches a higher level will be tempted to leave and players already at that level will not be brought in. Arsene’s Arsenal are administering (de facto) financial fair play rules in tandem with a salary cap. We will not spend more than we make and no player will make more than the manager.

   Those are the facts. Lament it as you will but there it is. There are ways to increase the pot (slowly lose the deadweight salaries, slowly increase the commercial revenues, keep raising ticket prices, get lucky and go a bit further in the CL, etc., etc.) but working within those strictures simply does not allow (real) competition with the money-down-a-hole-clubs. In fact, the best way to make money in this situation is to be a selling club (often to those big three above us) and continue selling off our most productive players year after year….

   For me, I can still find interest in it and, given the nature of the game, the minnows are always in with a shout (Bradford are headed to Wembley….for example), but I can understand if some cannot. Imagine the irony if we announce tomorrow that Mo Diame won’t be playing for West Ham because we’ve paid his buy-out clause and are negotiating personal terms…..

   Theo says the team needs self-belief, maybe of the sort that winning his contract hold-out has created for him. We shall see. These next few matches (esp. the 3 league matches at home) are make-or-break, backs-to-the-wall affairs. I cling to the (very slim) hope that we can get the results AND build confidence to maybe build a platform and spring an upset against the bigger clubs (Bayern, for example) down the road.

   Reply
   • 

     stag133

     23 January, 13 at 03:27

     There’s an easy way to pay several players more than the manager… FIRE the FU*KER who hasn’t won a damned thing in 8 years!!!
     But that would take the club caring about WINNING, and anything but making money.
     That would take new ownership, a new board, and a new way forward…

     You’re right. That’s not likely happening… which is why Bradford, a 4th tier team, making the finals of the League Cup… is a far more interesting and compelling story than anything Arsenal do.
     That’s why teams like Swansea, play a far better style of football, spend a lot less money, and might be a better team than Arsenal… with a better manager, who makes a lot less money.

     Maybe the powers in charge will see that a way to INCREASE profit, is to bring in a manager who makes a LOT less than Wenger… why pay him so much money, when they can pay someone less to NOT WIN A THING? once we fail to make the Top 4, I bet he’s off like a prom dress.

     Reply
   • 

     Kiwi

     23 January, 13 at 04:13

     Do you really think Arsenal won’t pay players more than Wenger? I’m not so sure. In all my years following football I have never sensed that was a limitation in practice. You might be right in Wenger’s case, but that is only because he has control of the transfer/remuneration kitty and he has become extravagantly well rewarded.

     For me, you can justify remunerating the really top level players higher than the manager for two major reasons. First, fans pay to see the players play – not to see the manager. And second, the period a player can receive top dollar for his skillset is very limited compared to a manager. I’m not aware of the stats but I’d punt at an average of 5-6 years in the top earning bracket for a top player. A manager can manage at the top level for 3-4 times that period.

     Wenger’s whacky approach(es) has created much of the motivational distortion we are now seeing. We’re lumbered with the ‘young and the listless’ who we’d like to offload. But they’re on money big money that is not ‘market’ – so they’re stuck. Once you get paid at a level you don’t want to go down – this rule applies to almost everyone and is not just a fiscal rule it applies to many areas of ones life. No one likes going backwards. Throw in the crocks and Wenger’s uber-sentimental attachment to crocky ‘special’ players that need to be moved on. It’s all Wenger – 100%. He’s created this little mess – no one else.

     The real issue is that he’s lost the formula. If he could pull out a win every other year he’d be fine – he’d retain the support of the masses. But he’s doubled down on hs folly and the slow decline is making his trump card CL qualification looking more dicey each year. If he adds no CL to no trophies he’s in real trouble. The CL is his ‘get out of jail free card’. The financial spinoffs and the allure of competing at the top table is all this board and majority owner aspires to. If he misses out on that cash cow he moves into shakey territory. His lustre will diminish and the owner/board will listen a little more nervously to the supporter unrest.

     What is absolutely apparent now after yet another year of abject hopelessness is that Wenger still doesn’t ‘get it’. He is as beligerent as ever. He feigns to buy, everyone gets sucked in, and then he sidesteps and backtracks and resorts to the tired old cliches that are so dead it’s not funny. Who really gives a rats arse if we get CL football just to have a rerun of this? What’s the point of getting it but never challenging for ANYTHING? No EPL, no CL, no FA cup, no League cup. Maybe the dark cloud of losing CL qualification is the price the club has to pay to get out of this meaningless rut. Cause nothing else has changed Wenger’s worldview, if anything, he’s got even more stubborn and determined to stick up a finger at those who criticise his M.O.

     To me Wenger in the desert years has become a talented COO but he’s not a football manager. His decisions are based on non-footballing considerations. He’s focused on the transfer/salary kitty and balancing the books. Let’s be honest, that’s not a football managers primary concern. A football manager at a club of Arsenal’s level is tasked to win competitions. You have CEO’s and CFO’s to watch the dollars and to balance a manager’s potential for excess.

     Reply
2. 

   Kiwi

   22 January, 13 at 00:25

   The signing of van Persie by Ferguson does shatter the principle that when you buy (spend) big you always have to buy with a eye to the players age. Van Persie may well have emerged from his fragile years and be enjoying a twilight period of good fitness and if so Manchester United may have struck the jackpot.

   What his signing does show is that buying what you need is a critical part of forming (maintaining) a winning team. Van Persie was what Ferguson needed and he went out and got him. The risk was clear – injury. The upside was enormous, a striker at his peak, huge hunger to win something and get something tangible from his career, and a player who would need no transition period – EPL ready.

   When’s the last time Wenger went out and bought someone at the core of the team who would integrate seamlessly and change our fortunes immediately? He did…his name was Sol Campbell. Cambbell replaced the legend Tony Adams. The team went from success to even greater success.

   The 63 year old Wenger lacks the confidence to make the mega signing today. He lacks a savy entrepreneur beside him, a Dein-like character, encouraging him and spurring him on to back himself to take a chance. Instead we settle for more modest signings that carry limited embarrassment if they turn out to be average (or worse).

   You can recreate a serious team to compete in the EPL without some serious players at the core. It’s fine to supplement the squad with young hopefuls and solid professionals, but you need the serious spinal players that give the team a shape and take responsibility.

   Anyway, question to self, why am I saying this? This is not the only major obstacle for Wenger to overcome. And addressing this alone wouldn’t ‘fix us’. The issues are deeper and broader. They’re also about our style, a lack of balance, and a lack of dedication to defence that Wenger simply does not possess and won’t acknowledge. Champion teams DO rely on defence. With some, the great uber-attacking teams, it may not always be obvious given their aversion to attack, but even they have a clever defence.

   Reply
   • 

     vibe4arsenal

     22 January, 13 at 22:02

     Great post.

     Reply
3. 

   Kiwi

   22 January, 13 at 00:06

   Robin van Persie…

   “If you go back to my injuries, people just look at stats and for a couple of years those stats weren’t great. But most of those injuries were impact injuries, they can happen. It was mostly unlucky,” he added.

   “I don’t think it was me to blame, or the club medical staff to blame. I was just unlucky.”

   A couple? Try 7 years Robin – unlucky for 7 years?

   You can’t deny he’s better off at United. Who wouldn’t want to be challenging for the title and other trophies rather than battling for 4th place.

   Reply
   • 

     stag133

     22 January, 13 at 02:32

     who wouldn’t prefer to play for a team that is about WINNING… wants to win, tries to win, will do anything to win…
     who wouldn’t want to play for a manager who doesn’t have his head up his Arse?

     Reply
   • 

     OziKenyan

     22 January, 13 at 23:11

     To be fair, that is Something that Josh has been saying for Eons.. Not that that means anything but it does seem there may be something to it

     Reply
4. 

   Kiwi

   21 January, 13 at 21:28

   We’re only in January and 22 points behind Manchester United. That sums us up.

   We have the capacity as a club to compete against United, but these days we never do.

   We’re stuck back in the mire of clawing our way into 4th place…or at best 3rd if teams above like Chelsea really implode. That’s why Wenger’s face looks etched in constant agony – the type you get when you can’t reconcile what you see with what you want to believe.

   If Wenger can’t do it why not let someone else try? Seriously, why not? Is that honestly worse than waiting for the day when he fails to get CL qualification – and we really slide, ala Liverpool.

   One of the sobering realities is that we must now look less attractive to the better players as a club to join. The sale of RvP to United sealed our appearance as a selling club unable to retain the players critical to our re-emerging as a threat. So all we are is a staging post for B-deck players looking for a big salary and a large stage.

   I read that Tony Adams who played as captain under Wenger for 6 seasons recently said he has no idea what Wenger thinks (on football or management). That very much matches my perception of Wenger. He’s elusive, which comes over as romantic when ones a winner but just a little dense when one isn’t.

   Reply
   • 

     stag133

     22 January, 13 at 02:35

     what doesn’t Tony Adams know? what do we know as fans? how can you possibly question Arsene Wenger?

     I mean, its only been 8 years of futility…
     Looking very likely we’ll do fuck all in the window, as usual….
     and if that happens, you can forget about Top 4.
     This IS the year, we fall from grace… I just hope that turns out to be the push/shove that gets Wenger out the door… and the fans to wake up!!

     Reply
5. 

   SPECTRUM

   21 January, 13 at 04:43

   The Michelin Man is whinging again. This time it’s because he reckons the two goals by Chelsea shouldn’t have been allowed. Perhaps. But then, what about the two goals that WE shouldn’t have had against West Brom a few weeks back ? He conveniently didn’t have anything to say about THEM, did he ? It all evens out in the end. Decisions go for you, and decisions go against you. Unless we have video replays to aid the refs. that ‘s how it is.

   Notice Wenger came out with his usual automated response – ” The team had fantastic quality and spirit.” He says the same tired old crap after EVERY game, even after we play like a Sunday league team. If you analyse our performances, there is a definite pattern to them. We always look disinterested in the first half, and as a result often go behind. Then in the second half, we come out with an entirely different attitude. This indicates it’s a psychological as well as tactical, problem. Wenger can only get the team motivated for 45 minutes per game. No wonder we can’t play consistently and win matches. I’d swap Wenger for Paris Saint Germain’s Carlo Ancellotti anyday. And the sooner it happens the better.

   ” In Arsene we rust.”

   Reply
6. 

   highburyterracesteve

   21 January, 13 at 00:51

   I’m trying to figure out what the title means.

   It’s a good rant and obviously the club needs to show some ambition to satisfy the author. Who exactly are we supposed to buy? What set of results would be satisfactory? Likewise, how do you judge the individual players and the squad as a whole? (I can see you have favorites and villains? Where was hero Jack today, who goes unmentioned, for example?) Do 2 goals given up in a half ALWAYS represent poor effort and poor motivation. Does a late winner (Swansea in midweek) or a consolation goal plus some huffing and puffing (2nd half today) represent “better effort” or “good play”?…..

   What I’m asking is the basic question. Do results tell everything? Does the table never lie? Are goals the ONLY measurement of output? Is the referee ALWAYS correct (or wrong)? I could go on and on….. Obviously we are not competing for the title, but aren’t you (one of) the same guy(s) who told us we could after a few clean sheets at the start of the season?

   If you were to read my posts from earlier today I’d say that there are a decent amount of positives to take away from today’s match. Given that neither we (nor Chelsea, in truth….) are competing for the title anything we might have gotten would have been a bonus and (it could be argued) that some luck (calls) fell against. Like sick-boy Poldoski says, “shit happens”. The key is how we respond. Spurs huffed and puffed and (finally) got a point on us today. Did they “deserve” that point? Who knows, who cares? We will need a result at their place and consistency over the rest of the season. Luckily, I think, a few things are falling into place, but I won’t repeat them here….

   These next three home matches are key. Seven points are a must. Hopefully we get them (AND a win at Brighton) AND some performances which inspire better times AND the correct additions (or continued development) to our squad to enable that to happen and create a platform for the coming months. It’s a lot to ask (I know) but I can at least see a path forward….

   CK calls me an optimist but I’m really just trying to keep it real. We’re not as good as we think we are when we win, nor as bad as it seems when we lose….most of the time at least…. Managing the results (and the psychology behind them) will be a tough task for the manager and the players but I would say it also applies to the fan-base.

   (Anti-)Rant over…..

   Reply
   • 

     MylesBurrell

     21 January, 13 at 13:23

     The title is basically me saying “we’re going to have a very very difficult season if we keep putting on half-arsed displays game in, game out”

     Agree with you in saying next three home matches are key, and I can also see “a path forward” it’s whether Wenger sees that path too…

     Reply
7. 

   Mohd

   21 January, 13 at 00:11

   Agree with Kevi, Wenger has lost the plot and is dithering in the tm. if he continues with this squad,it’s painfully obvious it aint good enough.I have all along believed the German is a timebomb. He maybe able to read thegame but mobility wise,is off the pace.
   I just hope Wenger goes to PSG.Arsenal have nothing to lose by getting a new guy.

   Reply
8. 

   The BearMan

   21 January, 13 at 00:02

   Wenger’s major problem is that he does not know how to play a full team, meaning rotating players to get the best result in every match. He would play certain players every match even when fatigue is clearly showing.

   I expect Wenger will start the process of panic buying now and had we gotten a result over Chelsea, he would not have spent a dine during this window. His only ambition is in finishing 4th.

   Bad judgement! Wilshere, Carzola and Saga should all be rested, but who do we have on the bench to replace them?

   Reply
9. 

   Caribkid

   20 January, 13 at 23:13

   Not much more can be added here Myles, well said. One particular observation I had and which was correctly stated by the commentators, was that we had no reaction from the bench when we were being slaughtered in the first half. Wenger sat still wearing his familiar frown and only got up to protest when the goals were scored. Saw no evidence of new tactics being imparted to the players, no change of formation, no compacting of the MF, etc.

   The team was left to bleed like lambs to a slaughter. Most other coaches would be active on the sidelines trying to change things, but not Arsene. Seems like the team has very little leadership on and off the pitch.

   Ashley Cole was mugging Theo on the wings , why not move him inside or to the left. We had too large a gap between the holding mids and the forwards which allowed the trio of Hazzard, Mata and Oscar to control the MF and attack with impunity. Why not compact the field and drop the forwards back. Why not try moving to a 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1. For god’s, try something.

   Just too pissed for words and just need to dis-invest myself once again.

   Reply
10. 

    Kevin Weaver

    20 January, 13 at 22:21

    Wenger is no longer the man for the job. I hope he goes to PSG in the summer.

    Reply