Writing a blog post as early as April on how we have failed (yet again) to lift a trophy is not one that I planned for at all. Its been 7 years since patrick Viera's last kick in an Arsenal jersey which won us our last trophy till date,since then,its been one heart break or the other .Potential,faith,mental strength,believe,hope are words we Arsenal fans have been forced to adhere to over these barren years and sincerely speaking,its getting really frustrating and depressing
Like I keep asking my self over and over again,what could have gone wrong? The loss to Bolton this afternoon was undoubtedly the last straw that broke the camel's back ,now where do we go from here?
On a personal note,i sincerely think these crop of Arsenal players clearly lack a winning mentality,they are not hungry for success and the spirit of champions is one that cannot be bought which is one thing we lack in the Arsenal squad. Only Cesc and RVP have won a medal in this team and gone are the days when the Arsenal team was described as a young team,these players have been together for almost 5- 6 years,so calling them a young team sounds more like an insult these days
The 4-4 draw to Newcastle,the 3-2 loss to Sp*rs,the 1-1 draw with Liverpool and the Carling cup final loss has showed that we lack the ability to kill of games and hold on to leads when it matters most,we cannot keep blaming Wenger for all our woes cause there are actually 11 professional on the field of play who in-spite of the huge salaries they receive keep letting the team down. we sure don't expect Wenger to get on the field before we can defend a 4 goal lead after half time. To be fair to Arsene, he has showed too much faith to these boys and backed them even at the times when they fail to perform. these players have failed him woefully and its time for him to stop blaming referees,opposition managers and the FA for problems that lie deep within the team.
Injuries have come at bad times for us this season,RVP, Wallcott, Fabregas and song were missing when we needed them most,lets just say mother luck beefed us for most part of this season which has hurt our quest for the title. We have used four different goalkeepers this season which has led to inconsistency in the defensive line .i also feel the whole medical team has failed woefully too,since the exit of Garry lewin,his brother collin has failed to fill the huge role his brother left behind,take the vermaelin injury for example,they failed to get to the root of his injuries instead they kept on promising us week after week that he is close to full fitness. same goes to Cesc, RVP,Djourou, Eboue and Theo who have failed to recover at times given by the medical team,they either come back earlier or later.
We have a very poor home record which always get me thinking if someone truly buried a sp*rs jersey on the Emirates ground during construction. Damaging defeats at home to Newcastle,West brom ,sp*rs and the large number of draws we amassed at home have hampered our chances of winning the EPL.To think the loss to Bolton was only our 3rd loss of the season makes it more sad,pathetic,abysmal and disappointing, weather its the home crowd or the formation we use at the Emirates,some thing must be wrong some where cause that Higbury factor is definitely missing. And its like, Arsenal's players are allergic to shooting,we don't have a planB or C.we play United and stoke with the same tactics we play Bolton and liverpool ,we can always predict who is going out for who which makes it very easy for teams to play us. A good example is the 0 0 draw at home to City,we knew city parked the bus but we still couldn't revert to a suitable formation to break down the expensive bus city parked at the Emirates.
I really hate to admit this but we lack a general leader in the team,please forget Cesc's potential and talent,the boy is no leader ,i even see Jack as more of a team leader than Cesc.we lack a Gerrard, a Terry or a Vidic who are natural leaders and their commanding abilities on the field never goes unnoticed. The Arsenal captain's band has been passed around like a cheap Allen slut alot which has made it lose its importance. We need a natural commanding leader on the pitch,who can motivate his fellow players when they are a goal down ,need to hold on to a lead or need to get a goal, preferably English who has got real passion for the game besides any other added incentives,to me,scott parker isnt a bad idea at all.his performances this season got him the Football writers player of the year award
We also seriously need to employ a defensive and goal Keeping coach,Martin keown shouldn't be a bad choice for a defensive coach and I feel Mad Jens should be retained since he has been training for his goal keeping badge at the club,these people have an insight on the background of the club and will surely go a long way in helping. We should invest on a set piece coach too because our corner kick to goal ratio is very poor. we hardly score from corners and set pieces which is very bad considering the fact that we get a lot of them in games. i also feel Pat Rice is just a “yes man” to Arsene Wenger,i know he has been a loyal and dedicated servant to Arsenal,but he retiring this year may just be good news after all. im sure a Steve Clark or a Ray Wilkins would have done better than Pat Rice in is usual dark specs inthe past few months.
I am not a big fan of spending big in the transfer market cause it doesn't guarantee silver ware but we may just need to dig deeper this time around. Arsene once said to win the league,we need a world class goal keeper,scyzesny (ignore my spelling) is no doubt a good keeper but he is no Van der sar,we need a top notch world class goal keeper who can single handedly win us matches like Van der sar did against us in the FA cup quarter final,a commanding center back(sakho),a midfielder(hazard) and maybe a striker may just be what we need to strengthen the team in the summer if the money is available. We hope we can generate money from player sales and I for one will not like to see a Denilson, Eboue or Diaby in an arsenal shirt next season.
In conclusion,we really dont need to over haul the team neither do we need to spend big or buy big name players,and me being a Wenger groupie,i find it absurd the fact that people are calling for Wenger's head,you and I know this is neither possible nor feasible as wenger is the reason why we are here today and we owe him that,he will rather not renew his contract than the board sacking him. Arsene has helped transform Arsenal to the level it is today,from the legacy to the stadium and its financial status,all was down to Arsene so in “Arsene we trust” i believe these calls for Wenger's sack are from fans who joined the club after our FA cup Triumph in 2005 as they are yet to taste success with the team since then which is quite understandable,I still maintain that we really dont need to change the manager,we just want the manager to change.
This is just an opinion of a disgruntled, frustrated and soon to be depressed Arsenal fan and it does not in any way represent the view of the general public.please ignore all grammatical errors as this post was written in anger and on an empty stomach.
