Wigan 2-2 Arsenal
A beautiful high is always going to be followed by a crash, but things really aren’t as awful as people think they are. There is some absurd comment flying about and whilst everyone is entitled to an opinion, a bit of rationality can go a long way.
Athletes at the top are becoming more and more injury prone, this goes for every profession. There are countless examples in football, look at Rafael Nadal in Tennis, Johnny Wilkinson’s fitness struggles in Rugby, Andrew Flintoff when it comes to Cricket.. the body can only take so much strain (not just competitive matches, the training schedules are punishing). Take into account our injury record and a disaster could have taken place at a vital stage of the season.
Things need to be weighed up though.
Is it better to have 60 minutes of Samir Nasri and Alex Song for example, or 20 minutes when we are needing to score and they have not had ample time to warm up and prepare. What is the greater risk?
I can fully understand the eight changes, one of course was enforced with the absence of Cesc Fabregas – but the omission of van Persie from the bench annoyed me. He has been back for the best part of two months but he has very rarely played, again I understand not starting him but not having him even as an option on the bench is quite ludicrous. I guess what I am trying to say is that it is fully understandable making the changes that were made, but not having sufficient players to bolster the side if it comes to that point is more of the issue. Arsene Wenger’s substitution decisions frequently get on my nerves but that is something that just isn’t going to change. There is no right or wrong verdict on his team selection really, we lose its a bad decision, win its genius and draw… a wasted opportunity yes, but the bigger picture is also important.
Would I have made those changes? Most of them is probably the answer. I would have kept one of the midfielders from the Chelsea game just to try and keep some of the nucleus of that team, but that is about it. The situation with Djourou is clearly that he can’t take back to back games and is being managed by the boss to as and when he plays, that is fine, but it doesn’t excuse the major flaw of this team: the central defence.
I have not gone to air on my views on Koscielny and Squillaci – here you go:
Koscielny has big potential, I see it, technically very good and he is a very good decision maker. Right now he should be fourth choice though. Squillaci is also a fourth choice type defender, and in my opinion not good enough for Arsenal at all. At times our center backs look like flies headbutting a window, they just never seem to learn and also lack communication – something that is so, so important in defensive situations and for, yes you guessed it, set-pieces.
We need two defenders, one to improve on Squillaci.
Back to my original point though, some of the reaction has been astounding. I am not really talking about blogs, I’m talking about 15-20 minutes into a game and people are writing off our title chances. Each football fan is a little bit balmy and the nature of the game means we are all fickle as hell but come on, get real and get behind them. Even if you don’t like a player or even the manager – fine, you are entitled to that but support the club, the club is bigger after all.
It is worth remembering that this is only our third draw of the season, we have lost five and United have drawn those five games, it is a negligible difference and I think part of the frustration boils from that. A draw away at Wigan isn’t an awful result, especially given our immense improvement in results in the north-west, Arshavin has also scored nine goals in that region. Lethargic, frustrating and lazy? All accusations with substance. However, he gets results. That also has substance.
Keep on supporting and believing. Win against Birmingham and we have had a very fine festive period, win against City at home and it would be a massive launch-pad for us to try and bring home a silver pot in the new year.
Thanks for reading.
Mate, totally agree. So many negative Arsenal fans out there, when we’re 3rd in the Premiership and very much in the title race. Some people just love negativity in their lives.
Great post Martin.
Win at birmingham,you having a laugh,we can’t even beat wigan.in arsene we rust.
OMG!! What a bullshit excuse!! Come on Ice Hockey players have 82 games sometimes 2 or 3 in 4 days. Its wenger madness what is killing the team. Nordveit supposed to be the new Adams now we sold him and still have the likes of fukking Squichy in our squad. We have the most injuries of all time imo. Hope Diaby never comes back!!! Him and RVP should be sold.
And Scottpuffin we will be out of top4 after the city game. Dzeko and Tevez will shot us down with this bunch of idiots in defence. Wenger has no clue about tactics nor good players!!!
Wenger even said he is happy with his current back 4 so there wont be any changes in jan. 1 word madness!!!
spot on daniel!!
clearly the koscielny/squillaci partnership is dysfunctional. however, it is what he have at the moment.
any more on those rumors/inside info?
personally, i felt the side we ran out yesterday had more than enough quality to secure the 3 points. the draw was disappointing only because of the faith i do have in the team. but one cannot expect a side to overcome some of the worst officiating ever, as well as play a wigan side that was clearly up for it. in other days we would take the point and be happy, but because wigan is locked in a relegation battle we expect the 3 points. seems arrogant. the match did not end in the fashion it should have, but things could have been worse…the non-penalty-penalty could have resulted in wigan earning 3.
we need weeks to seal a deal for Squichy and Kos but all other clubs can clinch deals in 1-2 weeks. Wenger is to slow and stubborn for being our manager!!
@arsenal4ever, I don’t care to predict what’s going to happen in the future because right now we are sitting pretty and we’re in the title race.
I could argue that Man United are going to lose their next 10 games and we’re going to win our next 10 games, but you’re probably wondering how I know what’s going to happen in the future, right?
You lot are far too negative. Get behind this team, and believe in them.
And, don’t tell me that drawing at Wigan is not championship material, yet Man United can draw at Fulham and Birmingham, both below Wigan, yet nobody questions their credentials.
Live in the present chaps. It’s all good.
Totally agree with the article. I think the majority blog writing/ comment posting arsenal fans seem to expect that we win every single game, and when we drop a couple of points that were out of the title race and call for Wenger to be sacked. What a load of Arse. Even with Man Yoo 5 points in front if they win their game in hand, they still have to play Chelsea home and away, where i doubt they will take 6 points. Plus, they are also dropping lots of points to lower teams, so we are still in with a very good shot of winning this league. Come on you reds (As we used to say!)
Plus, we’ve played City, United and Chelsea away already this season.
We’ve beaten City and Chelsea, yet we can’t beat big teams!!! I’m sure someone will not argue that City had 10 men, and Chelsea were rubbish. If so, I’d like to apologise for beating them both.
scott Iam just realist and cant see WEnger splashing the cash on a new defender which is surely needed. I still support the Arsenal but Wenger is not Arsenal.
60-65 min mark, your up 2-1….why in gods name wouldn’t you bring on walcott and nasri to try and kill the game with a 3rd goal!!!!! why wait till the 82nd min!!
I dont buy that someones such Mr Wenger, who has coached over 1600 games can get it so wrong. ever since dien left something hasnt been right.
MAYBE NANI REALLY IS 1600 TIMES SMARTER THAN WENGER!!!
Maybe a point at Wigan in isolation isn’t that bad but you’ve also got to take into account the performance which was poor. Throw in the points dropped at Sunderland and home to WBA and Newcastle and the disaster which was the Spuds game and things aren’t looking good. To say get behind the team and support them is rubbish because every true fan does that every game. There have been problems over there for sometime and AW doesn’t seem to be able to address them.
Was in a pub that shows the Arsenal games yesterday, and to be honest I was embarrassed at some of the things being said about our players from people wearing Arsenal shirts. There are no easy games in this league right now,nor are there equations as to what our future performances should be just because we beat Chelsea – Different day, different team, different place.
We need consistency to win the league, we have not achieved that yet, and the only team that has is United, and we are there or thereabouts. Get behind the team, actually support the team.
So sick of people who know nothing about football piping up when the chips are down.
agree with MK … Too many mistakes from wenger. nasri and walcott should have come on at 60. Im beginning to think that people that blindly support everything he does are the ones that are not true the true arsenal fans.
We had a two week winter break between the Man Utd and Chelsea games FFS.8 changes by Wenger showed a total lack of respect against a team who beat us last season.Why no Djourou he didnt play at OT so the Chelsea game was his first for 3 weeks he wasnt tired the same goes for RVP and Walcott.And what made Wenger put the usless Eboue at LB utter madness.One thing is for sure Szczesny must play at Brum
I think AW is being careful to set us up for a run of results in the Spring. The world cup took a lot out of this league’s top players (Tevez, Rooney, Cesc, Torres). Look who is on form – often they didn’t even go: Nasri, Berbatov, Walcott, Andy Carrol(!), so maybe AW’s right about this.
It’s clear that this team is still short a bit of luck, leadership, one or two top players hitting serious form, and defensive training on set pieces. I’d say we are still one or two years short of being a dominant team. Still a bit young, not enough British players (to sway the refs), one or two too many passengers, not enough arrogance, and so on. Plus, we really need a battling Cesc on the pitch every game.
Everyone knows this, and everyone knows that other clubs (and managers) have shortcomings, too. The only thing to do is keep supporting and wait for things to click into place, get us on a good run, and see what happens.
Spot on article. What a bunch of moaners on almost all the blogs. As if Arsenal has the divine right to win every game.
Go and support another club (perhaps also better for your nerves).
seeing what we have over the last couple of years with and especially ‘the year (2010) of the fold’ you cannot expect fans to remain tight lipped and reasonable with their feelings.
its all well and good saying ‘pipe down, look at where we really actually are’ is frankly taking the piss. its december and this is where a squad of arsenals size/standing/class/strength/wage structure should be regardless.
trouble is if not strengthen defensively or addressed/remedied this jan window ‘broken records’ tend to finally break.
all the major teams around us will bolster their teams yet when called upon it looks like wenger will bury his head in the sand again (when most needed), demand extra belief rather than go that extra mile (could be only a few metres tbf) and aquire the quality (one player will do!!!) centre back/goal keeper/defensive midfielder to benefit the rest of the squad, the club and ideally us the supporters!
As soon as Wigan went down to 10 men any manager worth his salt would have brought Chamakh or Bender off and played Walcott as an out and out striker to use his blistering pace and for us to have an out ball.But Wenger didnt make any changes and the rest is history.Wenger just doesnt know how to make tactical substitutions check the WBA and the Sperz games for reference.The two points dropped were down to Wenger.Bad team selection then a failure to make changes when they were needed.In January we need a CB brought in like Cahill or Samba because what we have is not good enough.Dont hold your breath
why bother eh ??
in all my 40 years of following Our Beloved Arsenal i never though we would accept what wenger is doing …he is far more interested in making money than winning…clear to see….utterly disgraceful…
and to all Gooners who went ballistic over the chelski win..how many times have we beaten them lately….and at least admit it was chelski in poor form…
gazidis ..get the hell out of our club and lets get Dein back..at least he managed to get the deals done….but heey…im truly sorry gazidis you are not here for the Team…you are here to bag lots of money so that the board wenger and yourself can have a healthy payday,,
wenger…when winning is not the goal anymore..well the you have lost it…i beg you please leave the Proud Arsenal alone…
Agree with the post that many fans go OTT when we drop points but I think a lot of the frustration comes from the lack of spark in many of the squad players.
If you compare our squad to any of the other top 6 clubs, looking at prem experience, quality age and skill. Our squad is arguably better than all of them…. yet many currently lack the fire needed to play in an Arsenal shirt.
The Chelsea game showed that when we press and play with passion we are one hell of a team. We had Jack flying into tackles, Theo pressing all over the park and the whole team keeping the ball as far up the field as possible. This pressing game made our defence and Fabiansi look solid because they had little to do.
The team we put out versus Wigan, on paper should have won at a canter IF we had played with the same drive and determination. WE DID NOT
These player had rested for over a week, watched a proper Arsenal performance vs the Chavs and yet sauntered around as if THEY had played 48hrs earlier. Bentner, Arshavin, Denilson, Diaby ALL have the skill to play for the Arsenal BUT most of the time not the DRIVE.
Diaby is FAST when he wants to be and if he had ran rather than jogged back for break that led to the penalty any tackle he made would have been nowhere near the box. The problem last night was not the quality of the players on the pitch but there attitude and I am sorry to say that is Wenger’s job.
Not saying he should go (far from it) but this team is too comfortable and maybe we need a change in the backroom staff to drill into them would it means to play for our great club. (Adams ? Keown ? Patrick V ?)
Martin
in your article you said Djourou cant play back to back games well that means he cant play in both the Brum and City games then can he.So we have a guy who cant play 2 games in a row and two clowns as CB’s What bullshit why is our team full of crocks?We have £56m profit FFS spend some of it on a commanding CB or kiss goodbye to the title.Wenger needs to wake up and do something
Totally agree! To be honest a lot of our fanbase really piss me off these days. They swallow the media bull that we are in crisis because we have “Gone 5 years without a trophy” blah, blah, blah! I used to think that Arsenal fans were a cut above. Now I know that many of them are daft as arseholes and twice as nasty. Thick as shit like other fans and the footballers themselves. Fanbase at war – Supporters vs Media puppet, moaning twats!
I cannot help but chuckle at the “expertise” displayed by some of the commenters here, even when they do not know the inner workings of the club. You see the team on match day like most fans!
@arsenal4ever really cracks me up- what epl team do you manage? And how many games have they won?
absolute dreamy wishy washy tosh!….if you believe this is good enough to win anything barring the mickey mouse cup then you are living in cloud cuckoo land!.
Wenger has lost the plot totally….mad professor or what?
I agree with the last comment by ken:a centre back is an absolute must….lets hope AW isnt frightened of splashing the right money.
The chuckle brothers at the back wouldnt make any premier league side!
It’s always a war of words between the supposed “doom n gloom” & the AKBs.
The word “faith” is used ever so often by the AKB. Faith is a powerful word, it can turn a kind man into an explosive device.
The word “buy” is used ever so often by the doomsayers. Agents love that word, so clubs would pay millions for the “next Messi”.
My point is, don’t use “faith” as an excuse for incompetence & don’t use “buy” as a solution for a deep lying disease.
Baring a mass exodus, I forsee a great team to emerge in 5 years time. As for now, just be entertained by the current crop for all their worth. Moderate your expectation, or it’ll become your greatest despair.
The feeling of the fans are like roller coaster. Everyone was very happy on the victory against Chelsea and suddenly feel that we might have a chance to win BPL. Then this happened, a draw against a team like Wigan who played with 10 men.
I am not sure how I am going to believe Wenger that we will win title but I am going to give a try AGAIN (after all, had been doing that for the past 5 years whether by forcing myself or not) by believing:
1. The other teams are going to drop more points than us. A very passive way.
2. Suddenly our defence performance improve a lot.
3. When our defence are bad, our attacking power increase dramatically until we can score at least 3 goals against any team.
Perhaps one question to Wenger, “how did you manage to believe on the defence after conceeding so many goals?”. I think he might have a tough to convince me to share the same belief as he does.
By right if we still have great players like Henry and gang, with MU and Chelsea having a low form compare with the past few years, we should comfortably sitting at the top now, but looks like we also struggling like them. Perhaps it is a question on when he will rediscover their form or when we can return the glory days when Henry and gang were still around.
i believe in arsene, i believe in every one of the squad and i still believe in my heart that arsenal are going to win the title. but it is no good me believing in them if they dont believe it themselves, come on guys YOU CAN DO IT.
“A beautiful high is always going to be followed by a crash,”
No.. no it shouldn’t for a title winning team. They can happen occasionally, very occasionally, but not to the point that we, as supporters of this club are now used to them and from that statement expecting them.
“Yay.. we beat Chelsea. Too bad we know we are going to drop points the next match, no matter who.”
The problem, guys, is that people have these huge egos. They want everyone to hear what they say and for them to think, “This boy knows what he’s talking about because he says it with such conviction.” But they don’t know what they’re talking about. Any protracted argument with one of these FRAUDS exposes them for the know-nothing, team-jumping, fair-weather fans that, deep down, we all knew they were from the first comment.
@arsenal4ever – The number of things I want to say is mind-boggling so I’m going to go through everything you said point by point.
1. The ice-hockey statement is absolute crazy-talk. It’s 4 15 minute quarters played by 4 different lines rotating at the coach’s call… I really don’t see how you can equate that to the 90minutes of hard work that we all saw the boys put in on Monday.
2. Wenger madness is damaging our club? Where do you get the notion that any other manager would do a better job? I look around the premiership and I don’t see one preferable option… Maybe you could argue Feguson but you’d have to discount the trophyless years at the start of his rein when it was only the owner’s faith in him that allowed him to course-correct. If anything “special” is about to leave your mouth just take a look at what he leaves behind.
3. Nordtveit looked an excellent prospect when he came in. He didn’t develop as far as they thought he would. He’s getting sold on… What’s the problem? We have plenty of youth coming through. A bit worrying that the current under-18s aren’t living up to the high standards of the last generation but there’s plenty of time for them to develop.
4. In your opinion this is the most injuries we’ve had? Either this is your first season as an Arsenal fan or your opinion is a waste of everyone’s time.
5. I’m not getting in to who you think we should sell but suffice it to say, “you’re a moron.”
***missing out your random prediction***
6. We beat city 3-0 at the CoMS at the end of October. If we lose next week it won’t be because the team we have isn’t capable. No doubt it will be a hard test but the result will come down to determination and confidence rather than tactics.
7. If you think Arsene Wenger has no clue about good players, there really is no helping you.
8. Where did you get your figures for “all other clubs” completing their deals in 1-2 weeks? No seriously! Show me evidence of that statement having ANY kind of grounding in reality.
9. Stubbornness is an essential characteristic in a leader because he needs to be decisive when the choice is hard… I have no idea what you mean “slow”. Do you mean stupid? Because that would be a REALLY stupid thing to say.
10. Do you even know what a “realist” is? What you are is opinionated.
@Daniel….LMFAO! “……In Arsene we rust” HAHA
totally agree.
Everyone is getting paranoid over the Wigan result. Think about it, calmly. We had a bad penalty decision against us (outside the area) and gave away an og. On the plus side we scored two lovely goals and had a certain penalty denied.
RESULT: A bit of a blip, nothing more.
@ incredible g: actually, hockey is played in 3 20 minute periods. it is very fast paced (indeed, played at sprint levels for 90-120 second shifts), checks into immovable objects, and fighting is allowed. so, yeah, not a tiring sport at all. but you are right, the comparison of different sports is often tiresome…like claiming american football is a harder sport than rugby. take the pads off and then let’s talk, which is similar to what you are saying regarding arsenal4ever…he is a malcontent with an opinion and only an opinion.
tonstoned,
you are either a liar, a moron or stoned out of your head. correction, or all three. if you really would have supported arsenal for 40 years you would have to know that wenger is the best thing to happen to this club since chapman.
To all you Anti-Arsene fans, please – look at the table: 3rd place, joint top scorers (39), 4th in letting in the fewest goals, played the other 3 top 4 teams away (3/9 points), played 1 other top 4 team at home (3/3). I’d say we’re pretty well positioned. With a far better squad than ManU and Chelsea.
If I were Arsenal’s manager, I’d rotate 2-4 players every game and adjust with subs another 2. We have 3 games in 6 days and with the reconstitution necessary for top athletes, a level of rotation is necessary.
arsenal4ever. 90 minutes of football is much harder than any game of hockey i’ve ever played in my life
oh, and i can’t stand reading your posts. you’re just an angry kid who wants victory for arsenal so you can brag about it to your friends. no more, no less. jog on.
besides that, in 82 games, rarely does a player stay fit. there are only a few examples of players who’ve had injury free careers.
“nicky says- RESULT: A bit of a blip, nothing more.”
Just like Newcastle at home was a blip.
Just like West Brom at home was a blip.
Just like blowing a lead v Spuds at home was a blip.
Too many blips each season = not winning the title.
I think most who are labeled ‘doomers’ are arguing and are annoyed with having so many “blips” every season which has lead to that thing that gets mentioned so often… the lack of trophies.
They whinge about the fact we haven’t taken care of the amount of “blips” that keep us from winning it and get frustrated with the seeming lack of caring from the “true fans” that will say, season after season, of seeing the same “blips”, “oh well, we will come good next season. It’s injuries, refs, and ‘blips’ that are keeping us from finally dominating.”
It might actually be something else but they get called ‘doomers’ for daring to postulate it might be something about the squad or the manager.
martin now tell me your source didnt see this coming:
http://www.teamtalk.com/arsenal/6623608/Wenger-won-t-buy-in-January
He is a fukking lier playing with our minds.
Comment #42…Wenger is a great manager but also a frustrating one. Why 8 changes 4-5-6 but not 8, thats a whole new team that hasn’t got the ‘Up feeling’ of beating Chelsea. Also all year fans and critic’s have questioned Arsenal’s CB’s, its clear, we are weak in central defence and the 2 new guys are not the answer. We are so close to winning the league this year and stupid dropped points could end up costing us, fix the CB problem and win the league. If Arsenal need to spend 20 million on a world class defender in January SPEND IT! They will recoup 1/2 of it in the summer when they offload the dead wood back there. Clenched fist / desk thumping frustration please turn to cleched fist / air pumping joy!
@Frenchie – I didn’t say it wasn’t tiring at all, just that it can’t be compared to Arsenal’s performance against Chelsea.
@Busch – Actually it’s that argument to which I take most offence. The self-righteous cod-shit about “daring” to speak up suggesting that everyone else either thinks the same but says nothing or are blissfully unaware. It’s that combination of ignorance and arrogance that renders a person completely impossible to argue with.
We are all aware of the issues at Arsenal but those of us with a brain are also aware that EVERY team has issues and that they are working on them. If Barca played in a league with as many competative opponents as we do, their flaws would be equally apparent.
@arsenal4ever – Arsene Wenger does not exist to please you. He tells the press what it is necessary for other teams to hear. If he goes about saying we need to buy a defender he will suddenly find that the price for defenders coming to arsenal will hit the roof. You need to be smarter if you’re going to go around shouting your opinion on things.
@iamozgooner – Yeah we should pop down the World Class Centre-Back Emporium and pick one up on the cheap. This isn’t Football Manager! The best players are playing for top teams who treat them well and have very little intention of moving on. The 2 new guys are NEW!!! Do you have any idea how lucky we are to be where we are with 3 CBs who had NEVER played together?!! We are one of the top teams in one of the toughest leagues in the world. All things considered, they are adapting very well and don’t deserve these ingrates bandying their ignorance about.