A fanbase, a team, and a manager at a crossroad

I’m gutted. I don’t think there is any other way I can explain how I feel after today. Actually it’s not just today it’s this whole season and in particular the last 3 weeks. Given how the season started out and the solid and focused work this entire team put in to get back to competing for the top 4 again, to have it all pissed away in these last 3 games absolutely is the worst feeling any supporter can have.

But we’ll come back. Because that’s what we do. We’re supporters. We support our team. We get angry with them. We piss and moan about them but they are our team. And we get awfully defencive when idiot pundits, plastic supporters or non-supporters rip into us because they are our team.

After what I’ve read and heard tonight after this game, you do wonder though how many will be coming back. At least in the forseeable future. The club collectively, the fans, the team, and the manager (as well as the board) are all at a very critical juncture of this season and the near future. The din for action is the loudest it has been. Even more so than the noise that came during the awful August we had. It is this loud, this angry and this frustrated because it is held over from that shitty August. And while it took time I think many of the supporters had felt we had turned a corner. But as the injuries rose, questionable decisions were made and our scoring dried up the questions from the fans started to be raised once again.

That brought us to January. We were told that it would be silly to drop points because of not having a left back. We were told that we were short up front because of the Africa Cup of Nations. I think many of us thought that the frustration we voiced in August had hit home because all the right things going into January were being said. But here it is three weeks into January and coming off of three losses and none of what needs to be addressed has been addressed. It has brought us to this point.

Supporters will criticize. If you pay for a ticket, support the club through their many other revenue streams and do the many things you can do to support the club, you deserve to have a voice. And the criticisms are loud and clear. How much louder those criticisms get is anyone’s guess. The displeasure voiced during the United match when Arshavin was subbed for Alex Oxlade Chamberlain was loud and clear. The manager should make no mistake the criticism was wholly directed at him. I was a little confused at first and thought they were booing the player which I thought was in bad form. But a few people at the Emirates let me know they were booing Wenger. The thing is – its just the first step. God forbid if Arsenal should lose a fourth match in a row, the response to that could be down right volatile. For the most part many of the Gooners I have spoken to want to give Wenger the chance to see this out. To right the ship and steer the team into the a solid finish. But patience is running out. Today was the day that clearly brought the frustration out into the public full bore. It won’t take much more to take what bubbled over at the match on Sunday to make it a full blown eruption. It is the worse it has been.

This team, this collection of players also need to decide what the intend to do with themselves. For the better part of the last half of the Fulham game, all of the Swansea match and the most of the United match they simply have shown a lack of heart or desire. Sure, there are parts to each of those matches that are beyond their control. The one thing that is in their control is their approach to the match itself. In the United match for the first half it was a a boring stroll through the park. In fairness to the team both squads played like that until Thomas Vermaelen took a moment off on the last minute cross that Valencia scored on. Still, the squad had to know what was at stake and not coming out with an urgency or purpose falls on their shoulders as much as it does the manager’s.

True, there are players that are simply not good enough on this squad. Johann Djourou is being ruined played at RB. It was clear that United thought he was the weak link and all day long they attacked him. They were right. He was the weak link. Arsenal were lucky not to be down earlier because of some of his mistakes. Now, you can argue that JD is not a RB and therefore can’t be entirely to blame for his performances. On a level you may be right. But even before he started playing RB his performances in the CB role were just as dreadful. It may be that he simply isn’t good enough.

But there are other players that are good enough who need to simply show up. I’m calling out Theo Walcott on this one. It’s almost time to give up on the Theo experiment. I am not sure what good he even did out there in the United match. If anything I would’ve brought Arshavin on for Walcott at least that’s a move I’d understand. Walcott was on fire for a while and then when he started talking about wanting a new contract suddenly went to shit. For a while I couldn’t complain about much with him because all that was lacking was a final ball. Now, everything is lacking, especially heart. Theo is not only in danger of playing himself out of the hearts and minds of the fans and a position in the club, but I can’t see how he gets a slot on the England team if he keeps turning in crap after crap performance. Theo may believe the hype in his own autobiography but until he delivers the goods he is not going to get the respect he wants or should get.

I’ve stated time and again that I think its time for Arshavin to go. If the last two matches don’t cinch it for you, I don’t know what you are watching. While there area myriad of other reasons why we lost on Sunday, Arshavin has to be one of them. He has absolutely no defencive ability whatsoever. And while he tried to get a boot in, he missed, miserably. Sure other members like Vermaelen missed but Arshavin is the guy who let United into the box that led to the second goal. It was pure and utter dross.

The team, all of them need to step about and make a good accounting of themselves. And it may have started after the match. There are quite a few reports in the press that Robin Van Persie and to some extent Wojiech Szczesny read the riot act to the team. It was  was from all accounts a rather frank and pointed discussion about players carrying their weight – all of them. The point was driven home that the performances in the last three weeks wasn’t good enough.

It’s a start and frankly a good one in my opinion. It needs to carry over and players need respond to it. The good news is that we are starting to get back some players and while many are wandering off in hopeless land, there is still plenty of season left to right the wrongs of the last three weeks. Need I remind you these players collectively made many forget about August based on their performances from September to December.

Finally we come to the manager. There has never been a time in his tenure at Arsenal that he has been as polarizing a figure as he seems now. There are fines lined up throughout the Wenger managerial spectrum. From the ardent, AKBers to boisterious Wenger Out Brigade. and everything in between. Supporters, ex-players, current players and pundits are all lining up with an opinion on Wenger.

One thing is clear alot of the change rests within his power to do. Frankly some of it cannot happen until the summer but some of it can happen now. Wenger has clearly laid down the minimum expectations for this team – Champion’s League football. That all seems very much at risk right now. And look at the implications if the team should miss out on that tournament next season.

• Difficulty in convincing Robin Van Persie to stay. Van Persie is a competitor and he is going to want to play with and against the elite of Europe. Were Champion’s League football removed from the Arsenal equation the difficulty in getting him to sign a new contract would be enhanced,
• Difficulty in attracting talent without the access to football’s biggest stage. You only need look at Liverpool for the effects of that. Sure they got Suarez but part of that was because he had a reputation for a bad attitude, but Pool also have gone into the English market and signed mediocre talent because they are not attractive to other major European players. This could be case for Arsenal should the miss out on the UCL, and
• Difficulty in developing new commercial deals. Again you only need at what Adidas had to say when they decided against re-upping with Liverpool. They said they would not sign on the deal Liverpool wanted because the style of football they played was not consistent with the big money deal they wanted. Sure, Liverpool got big money from Boston-based Warrior sports but let’s be honest it is a company that has links to the Liverpool ownership.

These three big things and many more things stand to be lost if Wenger doesn’t do something. he needs to adjust his squad and jettison the players who remain that constantly underperform Andrei Arshavin for one and quite possibly Theo Walcott for another. The Walcott experiment is slowly running it’s course and it won’t be long before Theo is getting the same kind of response Arshavin warrants.

Secondly, when he said in early January it would be wrong to lose points because we didn’t have a left-back – he needs to realize we’ve lost 9 points now since he made that statement. He also mentioned being short up front because of ACoN. The loan of Thierry Henry while nostalgic isn’t the long-term solution this club needs.

Wenger needs to buy. Now I’ve heard it argue that there isn’t talent available in January. You know what I say to that? Bollocks. At left back for instance there is Lyon’s Aly Cissokho. There was AC Milan’s Taye Taiwo who now is in London over at QPR. And let’s face it if we were really hard up (which we were) Wayne Bridge is collecting dust at Manchester City. For forwards there is Lukas Podolski. Whom  I think if the proper offer were lodged could be prised away from Cologne. The fact is quality players are out there. Wenger needs to stop being stubborn and trying to prove us all wrong by waiting for his players to return. By the time they do return it may be too late.

I don’t want Wenger out. I want Wenger to wake up. I want Wenger to realize he is not bigger than Arsenal. Unfortunately I believe he thinks he is. I believe that he thinks he made this club what it is right now and we should all respect him and shut up about it. Unfortunately we have shut up for 7 years. We are all hoping and praying Wenger is right but the product on the field is showing us that he may very well be wrong.

This is an important time for Le Professeur. He needs to remember what it was like back in the halcyon days of his reign when he delighted in making Fergie squirm, Spurs fans irate and the rest of EPL quake at the the thought of playing Arsenal. Alas, Fergie shrugs us off now, Spurs fans laugh at us and the rest of the EPL feels pretty good at going at us.

THE MATCH:

The match played our pretty much how I thought it would. The first half was less about chess and more about two teams not wanting to blow it. Unfortunately it was a blown coverage by Djourou on the right that let Giggs make the cross followed by blown coverage by the normally solid Thomas Vermaelen that let Valencia get an uncontested header.

The Gunners were flat and needed to respond and they did. The 11 players on the pitch took the match over and for most of the second half were clearly the better side. They were led by 18 year old Alex Oxlade Chmaberlain who in my opinion showed Sunday why he should now start in that position ahead of Andrei Arshavin. Frankly United couldn’t contain him. Even in the first half, he had footwork and skills that caused them problems and it was a nice sublime touch that set Van Persie free to score the equalizer. Another wonder goal by RvP as he nutmegs the defender goes across the keeper and puts it in the far corner.

For Arsenal though that should’ve been the second possibly third goal of the half. Robin Van Persie missed an perfectly set up sitter. 1 on 1 with the keeper in close. A shot mind you that he normally buries. He didn’t. Now I’ve been reminded that if Andrei Arshavin or Nicklas Bendtner had missed that shot I would’ve been all over them. True. I wasn’t all over RvP because the captain comes in and plays day in day out for a full 90 minutes. I can forgive him for missing the odd sitter here and there.

Then came the call. I will go into this in a bit. But we all know the response to the substitution of Andrei Arshavin for AOC. To me regardless of why it was made, it was the end of the match. While AOC was the debutante he was so good. Good at getting back and providing assistance on defence and good going forward. Andrei Arshavin is neither right now. His form, confidence whatever you want to call it is shot and in the buildup that led to the second goal it started by a half-assed effort by Arshavin to win the ball back just outside the penalty box. An attempt mind you he didn’t look like he wanted to make. It was followed up by two more shit efforts at stopping the man with the ball with the last half attempt coming from Vermaelen. Wellbeck scores, game set and match,. And while we had pressure on again the delay in getting the injured panty-waist Nani off tok away any steam Arsenal had trying to come back into the match.

People claimed that Arshavin was a scapegoat for the loss. I say he wasn’t. He had the first chance at stopping Valencia from bringing the ball into the box. He didn’t. He didn’t even try. Someone else may have. He gets the blame as much as any other player should.

THE SUBSITUTION

When it first happened, the collective WTF from Arsenal fans was heard world wide by everyone. it was especially heard inside the Emirates as fans let their feelings be known by booing. Now, it looks like i have to write another post on why people who boo should be defended by lets say that it now looks like they got it wrong.

‘Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had a calf injury. We did not know that but the boss did and brought Andrey Arshavin on.” – Robin Van Persie.

Many were speculating that Wenger had made the fatigue and possible injury of AOC up to cover what looked like a really poor tactical decision. As it turns out, AOC was fatiguing and the possibility for injury was concerning them. Hence the substitution.

And this is one of the reasons why I don’t boo. At the time a move may not seem like the right one but unless we have all the information how do we know why the decision was made?

THE LOOK

Alot was made by the response Van Persie made to the sub of Chamberlain. Some papers went so far as to speculate that there was now trouble with Van Persie and his relationship with Wenger. Rather than go into defending him myself, let’s let him speak for himself on the issue:

‘I was not having a go at the boss on Sunday — I was just sad to see Alex leave the pitch as he just gave the assist for our only goal.

‘I was not questioning his judgment — I know it’s not my place to challenge what Arsene Wenger does.

‘He is the boss, he makes the decisions and that’s it… end of story.

‘I have worked with the boss long enough to know there’s always a good reason behind his decisions — and there was again on Sunday.

‘When Arsene makes a decision, it is based on a lot of information that everyone else might not know about and he will never betray.

‘I admire him so much for that.

He added: ‘Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had a calf injury. We did not know that but the boss did and brought Andrey Arshavin on.

‘I have a lot of respect and admiration for Arsene Wenger. He is one of the best football coaches in the world, with a brilliant record of success here at Arsenal. I wouldn’t be here or the player I am without him.

‘The manager and I are fine and my relationship with the club is good. I don’t want anyone misunderstanding the situation here for a moment.

‘There is no problem, there is no conflict and there is no controversy. The boss knows that, I know that, the players all know that.

‘But it’s important the Arsenal fans know that and that people in the game know that.’

quotes courtesy of the Daily Mail. Read the full article here

Nuff said.

LOST THE DRESSING ROOM

I am not going write a thing about this – let Szczesny and AOC say it all:

“It was hard not to hear it [the jeers for Wenger], there were a lot of fans,” Oxlade-Chamberlain said. “It is always nice to know that the fans enjoyed your performance or whatever but at the end of the day, it’s the boss’s decision. He’s Arsène Wenger, a top-quality manager. He’s done a lot for this club so whatever he does and whatever decision he makes towards me and the team, I’ll have to respect and I do respect that.

Szczesny said: “No one will ever forget what the boss has done for this club. He’s still doing a fantastic job and that’s not a question, really, his position at this club. I don’t think his position at this club should ever be questioned. We’ve been here before [in a difficult situation] and we’ve reacted very well. We’ll do the same thing again and make sure that this club goes in the right direction and we finish the season where we should.”

Again, nuff said

PHILLY GOONERS

Finally, I’d like to thank the members of the Arsenal America Chapter in Philadelphia for welcoming me to Fado’s to watch the match. It was a great time complete with drunken Irishman (are there any other types). I had gone planning to live blog and chat from there but it was just too crowded. The Goonerverse will be happy to know that it is well represented in Philadelphia as we clearly outnumbered the Mancs, the straggling Spurs fans and the lone City fan that were there.

I will definitely be back. Thanks again.

until next time . . . Stay Goonerish!!

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