Wengerball

At the end season where we’ve played such entertaining football, where we were top for 2/3 of the way, where we exceeded all expectations. We end with nothing.

Even worse than ending with nothing, we have now to live with one of our “rivals” being crowned champions of Europe. I had not given it much thought before, as long as there was another team involved it wasn’t an issue, but now looking at the possibilities makes my stomach churn.

So which team is the lesser evil?

• Manchester United
  I can see them now, The shade of red on the manager gum chewing, wrinkly mug. The puffed up gloating look on that annoying Ronaldo. We-are-the-biggest-club-in-the-world fuckers. Problem is they probably deserve it.
• Liverpool FC
  No way, first of all we lost to them, they can’t win, I forbid it. Their fans already think that they are the greatest team in the history of European football, they can’t have another trophy. A team that can’t even challenge for domestic honours shouldn’t come anywhere near that trophy (except, of course, if the team in question were to be Arsenal.)
• Then we have Chelsea
  No, no, no. To see Ashley Cole lifting that trophy would be even more of a slap in the face than the situation already is. Add to that Chelsea will be able to claim London bragging rights. But the biggest insult will be that money can buy you the Champions league

So who would I have? Believe it or not, Chelsea. Why?

• I kind of feel sorry for Grant, this would stick two finger up to those fans who want him out. And even more to the media who same to hate him for the fact that he is not their darling Mourinho.
• Hopefully it will shut up said Mr Mourinho (I know it wouldn’t but one can hope) who seems to be everywhere these days reminding anyone who will listen that he is still “the special one”.
• Lastly Abromavich upon winning the title he so craved will have nothing else to win in football, get bored with the whole thing and leave Chelsea to concentrate on other pursuits

That’s just me, how about you?

Arsenal not playing on the weekend created the ideal conditions for speculation and conjecture. Today the Independent is reporting Flamini is definitely off to Italy, AC Milan to be precise. Other sources have Hleb to join Inter.

Which makes me wonder, how on earth are we going to attract players if our own are leaving in droves? Who would really want to come to Arsenal except those who want to use us as a gateway to “bigger and better” teams?

We are in a really precarious position here, I understand Wenger’s attitude to the wage structure at the Emirates, giving in to wage demands in order to keep players is a sure way to destroy the club. Can you imagine paying Flamini an exorbitant wage just to hold on to a player who had 1 good season. Other players will react to that with their own demands, I would.

The only way we can secure the long-term future of our players is to win trophies, otherwise players are going to use lack of trophies as an excuse to leave (although we know that’s not the real reason). Do we really think that players like Cesc will stay on much longer If we don’t win anything?

Speaking of Mr. Fabregas, congratulations on winning the PFA young player award. At the very least some players are getting the recognition the deserve. Four Arsenal players were selected for the PFA team of the year, Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna, Cesc Fabregas and Emanuel Adebayor. Fabregas would prefer a different type of trophy though, saying

I’m very proud. It’s a very prestigious trophy. Football is a collective game and you prefer to win trophies with team-mates but it’s always nice to have this type of award. I dedicate it to my team-mates because without them I would not have won.

I almost forgot tonight’s game against Derby, we will surely field a second string team, due to our loooooonnnnnnnggggg list of injured players. That shouldn’t prevent us from winning, for most of the players tonight is an opportunity to stake their claim for next season.

We all knew that Reading was never going to test us, especially when Steve Copell admitted to being “afraid” of Arsenal before the game. Nevertheless it was very pleasing to see our team get rewarded for playing some fine football. You can read great reviews here and there.

It really was a comfortable victory, I only wish we’d put away more of the chances we had. Van Persie seemed to be enjoying himself, although he was constantly being fouled he took it all in his stride and never reacted. It seems that he has mellowed out a little bit.

Theo had the kind of game that will heap even more pressure on the much maligned Eboue, if he continues in that vein then it can only lead to great things for the team. He must have listened to Wenger, being a lot more aggressive when he has possession, always looking to create something. He should have had a goal but the crossbar contrived to keep him scoreless - same for Van Persie.

Cesc was asked about his future after the match, his response has been mashed and moulded to suit whomever image and likeness. The way these people can twist comments is amazing, funny even. The Daily Mail uses the same interview to make two completely opposing articles,

“More problems for Wenger as deflated Fabregas casts doubt on his Arsenal future” and “Fabregas aims to stay at Arsenal after all — but he wants trophies”

Meanwhile, Former Arsenal boss George Graham warns Gunners they must spend to bridge gap with Manchester United, funny that Graham tells Wenger how to do his job, nice.

Finally Wenger feels like both a boxer

“It is difficult to take moving out of everything in one week. You feel like a boxer who has got a good knockout. You are dizzy but want to continue the fight. But for three or four days it was very difficult.”

and a sprinter

“For me, we are like a 100-metre runner who loses the gold medal on a photo finish.”

He’s not in the market for David Villa

“We are not in the transfer market for David Villa,”

“He has said some very complimentary things about us which we take as a big honour. I rate him highly as a player but I will not make concrete investigations for anyone at the moment.”

According to the Sunday Mirror he’s targeting Klass-Jan Huntelaar and Raul Albiol

And finally Phil Vickery points to Gilberto Silva as one of the reasons for Arsenal failings this season. Among other things he contends that we lose our rhythm every time Gilberto comes on. I have to agree with him, Do you?

When Theo Walcott made that run leaving Xabi Alonso, Fabio Aurelio, Javier Mascherano and Hyypia in a cloud of dust, I was convinced that we would go all the way. It was all snatched away by a rookie mistake by one of the few veterans in our team.

Kolo Toure is one of my favourite players in the team, and when he commited that dreadfull error against Egypt, I hoped that it wouldn’t happen in an Arsenal game. Toure should not have tried to get infront Babel, not at that time in the game, it was uneccessary.

I am in no way blaming Kolo for all our failures, Senderos (who I have a lot of time for) was sticking out like a sore thumb. Liverpool was gifted a soft goal at a time when we had them hanging on for dear life. We have to learn to be decisive and kill teams off when they are on the ropes.

Little things can turn games one way or another, and Flamini going off with an injury was not an insignificant event. Gilberto is a competent player and performed admirably, but in him we lost the mobility Flamini offers.

We are a good team, a bit unlucky recently, and I feel we only need a little tweaking to get us through the wall that seperates a good team from a great one. Of course another trophyless season is hard to swallow but, we have surpassed our own expectations for this season, anyone who says otherwise is lying.

So though dissapointed, annoyed, and angry, I am hopeful, and optimistic about the future.

For the second game in a row Liverpool got away with pulling down Arsenal players in the box, it is reminiscent of Carragher escaping with the same infractions in the opening games of the season.

I am in no way suggesting that the referee’s decision cost us the game, the game was lost (I say lost because, we’ve finally lost the title race) by a combination of, squad size, fatigue, and good Liverpool defence.

We had a difficult first half culminating in a goal for Crouch, who is gaining a good rep against us, towards the end of the first half. We kept possession of the ball in the wrong areas of the pitch, and continuously was forced backwards everytime we ventured into the final third.

The second half was all Arsenal, we were much better as an attacking force than in the first. The problem was turning the good play into scoring chances, we just seem to be lacking the sharpness needed to get us some goals. This brings us the basic problem…

The team is tired

It is not difficult to see that our main players need to get a rest, but when every game is so important you need to be able to trust your squad, or else you risk burning out the first 11. Exactly what is happening now. It seems to me that the defeat at White Hart Lane eroded Wenger’s confidence in his squad.

So where do we go from here?

Champions league is our only remaining hope for silverware, first we need to negotiate our way around Anfield. Although Liverpool has an away goal, I am very sure that we will score at least 1 goal (a penalty would be nice), can liverpool score two against us? Maybe if we’re down to 10 men.

Once we get past Liverpool then Arsene must start trusting players like, Denilson, Hoyte, Traore, Gilberto, etc in the league and give the squad a rest in the league so they can concentrate on the Champions league.

I am confident we can go all the way, how about you?