State of Arsenal

At this point, i don't think the club even qualifies for Europa. Nobody can center the ball (=Giroud rendered useless). Most of our strikers are on crap form (noballs-olski, Flopinho and Shatmakh). Our defense is error prone. We lack physicality in the midfield.

Only bright spots are Wilshere and Cazorla.

Wtf happened here? There seriously is a massive lack of quality on this team.

We'll get 4th, but nothing else really.

Our attacking line has been an absolute joke this year. We're known for our attacking prowess, but we haven't done jack shit all year.

It took us 60 mins to get our first shot on target against a League 2 team says it all really.

How are we going to get 4th??? City, Man U, Chelsea, Spurs, Swansea, Everton and West Brom can clearly take us. Liverpool is not far at all either.

Wenger will be forced to spend , this loss will led wenger to panic buy again

My take? This is a horrible run of form but I still think that the last CL slot is up for grabs. (Actually third and fourth are in play if Benitez & Chelsea don't get their act together.) Arsenal will have better runs of form in the remainder of the season, I wager. The likes of West Brom won't stay above the Gunners. (Everton? Well that one is possible.) I do honestly think that Arsenal will finish no lower than 6th, in an absolutely worst case scenario. Frankly I still think it's possible for them to turn it around to finished 3rd, if the club gets a few good signings & gels further as a squad. We'll see if that's the case in May.

But. Exiting the league cup to Bradford on penalties, with a near full-strength squad, is more than just embarrasing. It is symptomatic of all the problems with this Arsenal squad, both in terms of its poor form as well as in terms of its general failure to compete for silverware in recent seasons.

Personally I'm still pro-Wenger in the sense that I admire the man, he's a legend, and I'm not sure that any other manager who would/could come to Arsenal would actually be any better or more committed (especially right away). Frankly I think Wenger is a genius who has worked brilliantly within a lot of restrictions. But I don't think he's infallible and though he has better perspective & information than any one of us, it does seem mystifying to see the same simple problems cropping up consistently.

The papers say Wenger has tons of money to spend in January, but I honestly don't expect much. I think what will happen is that the club will go on with the season, maybe have a good run in FA Cup or Champions League, and finish 4th or 5th in the Premiership. There will be a couple signings in January but nothing really "big," and next summer we can see where things stand. Honestly I expect more of the same because the risks of kneejerk signings or managerial chance on a non-oil budget are so big.

What bothers me most, as I've said here before, isn't that Arsenal are losing matches sometimes, but rather that they seem to lose by playing so poorly and so heartlessly. Four matches out of five, this is not a team a neutral would want to see win (i.e. because they are playing with flair and invention and great teamwork). A couple seasons ago, it was.

no way in hell we get 4th. dont think im saying that because of the embarrassment today, I would've told you that a month ago. This team doesn't have it.


Arsenal has become such a lousy club over the past few years

I want the 07-08 team back

The all new Arsenal Premier League table



Only 2 points from the top, lads

22 games. We can do it. Fourth place trophy again! Come on lads!

Lex wrote:The all new Arsenal Premier League table



Only 2 points from the top, lads

I know this is meant as a joke and as a dig against the club's ambition - and I think the club deserves some criticism, too - but this is also why a kneejerk reaction won't necessarily get us anywhere. Yes, the team isn't playing well, but anyone who honestly thinks that Wenger & Co. are simply incapable of getting to a minimum of 4th above the likes of Spurs, WBA, and Everton because they're going through a rough patch now has obviously not been paying attention in these recent barren, but still consistently high-level, seasons.

Remember: last season, a bad season, Arsenal still finished above every single non-Manchester club in the league. All of them. And it did that after selling Fabregas & Nasri. A few points off fourth place at the present time means it is eminently attainable. Can we just assume it? No.

Well thats just it. This season has been an attempt at glorifying last season by redefining what "lows" are. Indubitably, worst season in the Arsene era.

For now, there has to be some internal changes; changes to the system, the style of play, the players who play and the methods the management are using to motivate these players.

Then, in January, we need to make some external solutions. Bring in a couple of players, try and get the most out of the squad we have and see if we can get into the top four.

As it is, we're just plummeting towards mediocrity at an alarming rate.

srigooner wrote:I want the 07-08 team back

Yep. Back when we actually felt we could take over...2010/2011 wasn't bad either.

Lex wrote:The all new Arsenal Premier League table



Only 2 points from the top, lads

In Arsene we trust

I am still assuming if Wenger has a good January we will finish fourth though. Lots of time to go, but December could be painful. I can't believe we've found a way to make last season look good

The thing that frustrates me the most right now is the fact that the future looks bleak instead of bright.

Before, there would be reasons to look forward to future games and seasons. We used to have highly promising young players, some quality players to go with that and a way of playing that made us enjoyable to watch. Even if we didn't have realistic hopes of winning things, I could still enjoy the games where we would sweep aside teams with style and have hope that the club would make some good additions in the transfer market because the manager had an eye for good talent.

Now, though, we don't have any of that. We have a couple of promising young players, but none of them are performing all that well. We have very little quality to compliment those young talents and a style that is boring to watch and painfully ineffective. Watching Arsenal this season, and certain times last season, is an ordeal, not a joy. There are very few games I actually look forward to, because of instead of expecting to see a good performance, I expect to see rubbish, no matter who the opposition is.

My hopes for coming transfer windows get lower and lower as each one passes, because I have to brace myself for our best players to leave and for less-than-adequate replacements to come in. Whatever knack the manager had for spotting gems has seemingly disappeared.

I don't think there's any worse feeling for a fan than the lack of hope that things are going to get better. I'm past the point of just having blind faith that they will.

Geeez.......There is a huge problem with our system it's not even funny. Like i've said a million times, Podolski, Cazorla, Wilshere, Mertesacker, Vermaelen (he's in a rough patch), these players are top players, they SHOULD be able to defeat Bradford, but when s*** like this happens, you have to realize it's not the quality of our players, it's the system were playing. Does anybody know what do with and without the ball? I saw someone get the ball on the wing, someone else was in the middle and he just waited for a pass to the centre, however when Rosicky came on, he found himself in the same position, and instead of waiting for a central pass, he actually made the run pass the fullback, and suddenly we were in a good position. That's another problem, no one is making the runs, and if they are, they're not making runs in the right areas, or no one spotted the run being made.

There's a huge internal issue that seriously needs to be sorted out and i'll just say that throwing money at it won't solve the problem, even if it will help us to get to 4th place.....

srigooner wrote:Well thats just it. This season has been an attempt at glorifying last season by redefining what "lows" are. Indubitably, worst season in the Arsene era.

The only reasons why last season was not worse that it was is that Rosa got healthy at the right time and RVP saved the season. Without them last year would have been as big a waste as this year.

I think he has gone mad.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/46294/wenger-reaction

"It's not a lack of quality. We couldn't convert our chances for different reasons. Overall it was a real cup game."
Arsene Wenger

What he said is true, we had some very good chances but he is to blame for not converting those chances. This is not the first time it happens, it has happend many times and he is not doing enough to change it.

Im mad as well then. We created enough chances to win 10 games twice. Missed the bleeping lot of them

Our season over in December well done Wneger and disgraceful board.

ivan gazidis should give back that *bleep* money he is stealing from us.

I expected us to get 4th last season, even after the 8-2. I knew we had players coming back and we had quality.

We still have one or two excellent players but a lot of over paid dross.

No way in hell will we get 4th. 7th will be a good finish looking at our team.

MASSIVE changes are needed. To personnel and tactics. If a league two side find it fairly easy to stop us playing we've had it.

Last chance for Wenger to recover imo. If we have a poor run over xmas and only gets in loan/cheap fixes in Jan...he should go.

Big transfers are possible in January but you need to move quickly and make an offer the player cannot refuse.

Dust the cobwebs off that wallet and go for some real talent. Not more average shite.

Fellaini. We are Arsenal. We CAN make the offer that Everton couldn't refuse and perhaps the player.

Huntelaar: Easy 6m

Wanyama: May not be easy due to the CL (he won't want to be cup tied). Celtic would accept 20m imo. He would probably accept a good contract.

Zaha: Not tried and tested, but seeing as he is the 'next bright young thing' , let's take the chance...as long as we get the above.

No reason that we can't make the offers for the above and secure most of them.

Like I said, we need to move early but the problem is Gazidis leaves it until 5 minutes before the deadline closes so he can save a few pennies (and therefore increase his productivity bonus).

Demonstrations are needed if the board let us down in January. If Wenger comes out and says he offered 20-30 mill for players but they didn't want to come then...ok.

Sell or release the dead wood. We may lose cash by letting them go for free, but they aren't contributing anything to the cause. Having lazy, carefree attitudes around the training pitch could rub off on others, particularly the younger ones. Just get rid.
But we MUST try and fix this shit. Quickly.

This IS a crisis.

i actually think that the fixes are pretty simple:

1- Diaby is always hurt. Forget him. Go and get Capoue or Sissoko. We need muscle in the midfield.

2- Podolski and Giroud are traditional box-type strikers you need width by other players who can center the ball. Gibbs, Jenkinson, Sagna, Ramsey, Walcott, Gervinho and Ox cannot center the ball properly to save their lives. SO, we need to:
- Sign Cabella from Montpellier. He's a creative type that can center the ball all day. He knows how to find Giroud.
- SIgn Debuchy and sell Sagna. Debuchy centers balls all game long.
- Have Gibbs and Jenkinson practice every day on centering the ball.

We just need to get the right type of players to complement our good players. Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla have already proven they can do well on the big stage. Put them in positions to succeed.

Playing players in wrong positions is setting them up to fail.

Playing players in wrong positions is because we don't have right players for those positions.

We built a system to best suit 2-3 of our players who have left since. Either change that system to what suits the current set of players best, or sell the misfits and splurge on players who can best fit that system.

That sums it all up. Simple. Logical. Concise.

I dont think Arsenal will ever spend some money and revise their salary structure without a change at the board and management level. I mean the fact that the CEO of a top football club can get a bonus for not winning anything in any competition that they participated in definitely indicates a systemic problem that can be solved only by changing the overall system.