Out of ideas and running short of time
Following the comments I made to Faisal Mohammad`s blog I have read many reports of the City Game and other blogs on Gunners town. The consensus of all of them is profound disappointment with the Arsenal performances of late. The causes which are cited are also almost universal. They are 1. No commitment 2. No fight 3. No plan 4. No inspiration from the manager 5 No tactical use of substitutes 6 key players disappearing, in particular Ozil 6. A willingness to accept defeat, without an effort to overcome adversity.
Ian Wright has joined in the criticism of Ozil and he expects that the “Arsene out” brigade will be clearing their throats again. I have no truck with the abusive, violent thugs who parade obscene banners and vile posts on social media, but I am now firmly on the side of those genuine fans who see no future for Arsenal with Wenger at the helm. I did not post any hostile blogs during the summer break and I resolved not to do so until he had had a chance to see if he had learned from the same mistakes which have been occurring repeatedly and often. I note that Mark Irwin of the Sun has posted a feature today on Wenger`s fixation with the 70th minute substitute and he has shown a table of the earliest times that all the other managers use their substitutes. It is conclusive proof of something that I have been highlighting for two years. That is a constructive way of proving a point, and should not be vilified by the Wenger disciples who will not hear of criticism of their Messiah.
Predictable in time and who the subs are
Look at his performance after the game. His face was twisted in anger and he regaled the 4th official with verbal abuse because in his view, both City goals were offside. I happen to agree that Mane`s goal was offside and I could not believe what Gary Neville was saying when he showed the still of the replay to show that he was parallel to the Arsenal player ( It think it was Monreal ) and therefore not offside. I looked at it three times and Sane`s right foot which was furthest away from the camera was clearly over the line. In any event; to argue that it would have made a difference would be to ignore the ineptitude of the Arsenal performance and frankly, I would not want to watch a team which played so abysmally and would have to rely on refereeing errors to scrape a result.
Offside maybe but…..
In highlighting Ozil`s vanishing act, I am not highlighting one player in particular. I actually love the way he plays (when he plays) but when a player of his class actually becomes a liability to the team, there has to be something wrong and in my view it is Wenger. His ideas are obsolete. A year, or two years is a long time in football. The time between World Cups is long enough for world football to have changed and for the tactics used by managers to have changed. It is the same number of years for three world cups to have passed and Wenger has not won any important trophies in that time. His tactics have not changed. What has also not changed in recent years are his assertions that his team has great character, Great Spirit, great commitment great solidarity. Sadly they must have left all of those in the kit bag on Sunday. What has also not changed is the annual collapse from being genuine title contenders to scrabbling for 4th place. That has happened so often that he should be looking out for it and inspiring his players to concentrate on achieving results whatever the time of year. He has comprehensively failed to do that and we are going into our 13th year of failure. We used to resent Mourinho`s jibe that Wenger was a “specialist in failure” but unfortunately every passing year bears witness to the accuracy of that statement.
A jive we resented too close to home
Many Arsenal supporters will see this blog as negative and that is something which I simply do not understand. I try to analyse the whole situation. I present logical reasons for my opinion and I point to the empirical evidence to support it. In doing so I, like many of the other bloggers on Gunners Town take the time to do so because we love the club and we want to see it in its proper place among the best in the world. This is my challenge to the Wenger supporters- If you believe that blind faith in Wenger is constructive and good for the club, I would invite you to explain the logic of supporting someone who has admittedly done great things, but who is guilty of all of the faults I have described. To maintain the status quo is in my mind negative because we know that we are not going to get better.
Arsenal now have the greatest revenue in world football assessed simply on gate receipts. That means Arsenal fans support their club financially and personally at more cost than fans of any other club yet we are doomed to be top 4 in the Premier League at best. Being inspirational and looking and moving forward is being constructive. Staying as we are and watching our club accept a minor place in UK and European football is negative but that is what the negative `Wengerites` want for us.
A sophisticated, articulate Arsenal Man of Mystery. Aged 70 and a bit.
So we lost two games.
In three weeks time we will have won four.
Relax and have a good Christmas.
Your New Year’s resolution should be to give up blogging.
Beating bottom half teams will not change the facts and this blog by Victor is well written.
Winning games against anyone wins points and that alters situations.
Losing two away games against goodd teams is not unexpeced or necessarily disastrous.
Lots of people can write well but it’s better if it’s sense.
Jenkinson, before I think of giving up blogging, I suggest that you learn to write one which makes sense.
You obviously didn`t understand the points which I spent a lot of time considering, as I am well used to the illogical response to them from people who really don`t have a reasonable argument.
I hope Santa is able to understand your letter this year.
I guess you are not going to stop blogging.
I suppose I can always read Le Grove instead.
100% correct, I expect Santa will because he’s used to children 🙂
If you class Everton who had won 1 in 10 prior as a good team we are watching different leagues.
Sorry, just because you don’t agree doesn’t mean it does not make sense!!?
it’s not because we lost it’s the way we did, same old same old with Wenger, I agree well written.
Precisely, that is the mentality you have that Victor is writing about! So how will you win the EPL if you don’t beat good teams away from home? That’s what Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea have done over the last 12 years, while Arsenal are still searching for their first EPL title since 2004. During this Arsenal drought period, the other three teams have won 11 EPL titles between them, not to mention the UCL titles won by Man Utd and Chelsea (still Chelsea added the Europa League title in 2013). Shame on you!
What is the matter with these people it’s two games against two teams..we are a massive club that sd be wiping floor with everton and comfortably winning against an understrength city this is what’s wrong with our club supporters who are happy with bloody 4th
Odd is it not
I thought that Arsene stayed at Arsenal to prove his point, to complete his job at the club with a good note. I was therefore, sympathetic towards him even if I didn’t like some but many of his performances on the pitch. I know now for sure that I was wrong. It is as simple as this, the city game was at his scope in terms of tactics and players. He could have won it comfortably, instead he gave them ‘artificial’ dominance. Because many of his judgments are clouded by reasons that we know, we guess and we don’t know.
I saw when Arsenal was beaten massively by united (8-2), Chelsea (6-0), liverpool (5-1), city (6-3), Bayern (5-1), not to mention tremendous number of games with goals below 5. But in all these games there was some other reasons that could help you forgive. but you find the real reason on the last game.
Arsenal fans could simply be at the receiving end of psychopathic punishment from the club. I think we should start to worry about ourselves than for the club. If the club performance is not very irritating for highly paid staffs and owners, what we see from the club could be a purposeful act. They know fans are not happy for a long time, they know millions of fans around the globe are leaving, they know the club is losing confidence every coming year, they know, they know, they know my friend, and they are not helping it. So I think we should start to help ourselves.
From my observation the manager is highly motivated to silence his critics, sadly his critics are his own fans. That is exactly who he is. He has said it many times, he is responsible for the performance and result of his team, I want him to be responsible as well. I don’t want to listen the reason small teams give whenever they lose to big teams.
Finally and sadly , I want to say that I will never miss him.
Very good points NT.
To all of you fans who have contributed to this debate, I am very grateful. I do not see any abusive dialogue or obscene insults which is what I hoped for but I do wish that some reasonable Wenger supporters would join in. It is always best to hear the other side of a debate provided it is meaningful and constructive.
This club needs to have these issues aired jn a mature fashion. Surely as adults we can try to make a difference to Arsenal without hanging dirty washing on the line. I have made my points and I hope that more of you will carry this on. If we simply shout and scream at each other, the main loser will be Arsenal FC.
You often harp on about the 70th min subs like you are the only person to have noticed it. Fact is mate, thousands of us noticed it years ago and if you have only realised he does this in the last two years you are a few years behind the rest of us. Catch up fella
Wonderfully concise comment James. Pity it is so wide of the mark. I have been writing blogs on Gunnerstown for nearly two years and I have consistently mentioned the 70th minute substitute during that time. That is because I had already sussed that long before I started blogging. I`m grateful to you for taking the time to write your comment but a bit disappointed that you did not address any of the other issues mentioned.
I think that if you had looked at the rest of the argument you would find it hard to insist that I need to “catch up”. Obviously you need to consider your own position.
I already know le clown is a fraud so I dont need to highlight that point but you did feel the need to highlight your observations about the 70th minute subs, fuck me you a little touchy arent you, you old duffer.