Aston Villa Hangover 18 November, 2008
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
This week’s going to shit again. Not only is it international week, but we have a while week to think about the Aston Villa result. It was another poor performance off the back of a great show against Man United. Our inconsistency is frustrating, annoying and worrying – you now never know what Arsenal side is going to show up.
Sorry there was no match report this weekend. I’ve been really busy and I didn’t really know what to say about it. I sat down to write it up yesterday but it just baffled me. It was exactly the same team that started against Man United a week later with fresh legs and we were rubbish. It just doesn’t make sense. We even had a good result in the Carling Cup in the week so it’s not as if there could’ve been any pessimism going into the Villa match.
So next we play Man City. I want to know, are we going to play some great football and get a nice win against the Premiership’s richest club? Or are we going to play like we don’t give a shit again and curl up and die?
Gael Clichy says we must sort our our consistency but Arsene Wenger’s been saying that it’s not linked with experience in the side. I have to disagree, if you have a top player who has been through a lot of different scenarios as a player then he can inspire the team in the right direction, especially is he’s captain. We don’t really have anyone like that at the club anymore. When I look at the squad thinking who’s won things, lost things and played many games the only player I see is fucking Mikael Silvestre.
In that Arsene Wenger link above he explains the loss here:
“I think we were not, as a team, sharp enough to dictate the pace and be dominant in the fight [against Aston Villa]“
And here he also says this:
“We were beaten by a team who were sharper than us. You can watch that again on the tape; it doesn’t change.”
Gilbertosilver from Gunnerblog explores the meaning behind ‘lacking sharpness’.
As always with international breaks, they are brilliantly timed. Arsene Wenger has said how annoying this one is especially because he’ll get no chance to calm the players down after this defeat and some of them will even miss the City game with late arrivals back in London and the inevitability of more injuries.
One player who is definitely out of Saturday’s game is Bacary Sagna who is out for a month. He was stretchered off with an ankle injury in the build up to Villa’s opener. Here’s a list of everyone who has gone off to play for their countries.
Nicklas Bendtner believes he merits more first team starts. He’s been given that opportunity a few times recently and he has hardly impressed me.
Right I’m off, I’m getting pissed off with all this. I do apologize for my own personal inconstancy updating the site. Will do my best. Thanks for reading.
You sound like how I feel, nevermind lower expectations about this team may be a good thing. My one wish is that some players shut their mouth when they win a match, everytime they start talking about winning the league, just makes them look silly. Win 8 of the next 10 then maybe you can start running your traps.
the problem stems from wenger he is far to soft on his players,this has nothing do with experience this has do with fight and determination,arsenal were out fought aginst hull,stoke and now villathere was just no effort, arsenal are not lacking quality at all but what are lacking is fighters and will to win, they dont seam to have a distane losing,i dont believe the problem rests with gallas, he is the one players that has the wright winning attitude but because he came from club who has alllot leaders he only has focus on his own game but now he has been given the capaincy which wa another bad decision by wenger, another bad decision he has made he has not rested fab,he has rested all of the midfielders expect him, but he needs to get alot tougher on his players but he has alot cretaive players but only one realy defensive players in midfield and thats song, you can sell 3 dm and not replace one of them
Wenger is a fool. Just wait and see how he is gonna destroy all your hopes. I remember him saying he will buy players that will let all the fans smile and get their hopes raised but he ended up breaking even the little hope they had by selling FLAMIN and Hleb THEN NOT REPLACING THEM,
He was time and again told to stop his arrogance and buy experienced players to help the young players but zero .
What you people are watching is the exact WENGER ATTITUDE FROM HIS ASSEMBLED GROUP OF PLAYERS. Plus the fact that the whole group has no proven leaders, it becomes worse.
Don’t blame any player, everything is revolving around ARSENE WENGER, Buying players, Coaching, Training, Attitude, Desire, Motivation, Team Selections, Substitutions, Disciplining, Wedge Structures.
Wenger in AFC means no more trophies unless he buys proven players no hopeful.
There’s no fucking need to apologise, ‘chef. If my blog purely an Arsenal blog, I’d be scratching my head about what to say as well. It’s fucking depressing, and all our talk ends up revolving around the same theme – we need senior players along the spine, and we need to sort out the defence. Everyone can see it, and everyone has said, written, posted, and defecated upon it.
It was evident last season when our title challenge faltered. It was evident in the transfer season when we were linked with player after player. It was evident during this season when a series of great performances would be punctured by a complacent, lazy display. And it’s evident now, when our confidence is down, our players are discouraged, and there’s seemingly no way out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves.
And yet, the answer’s pretty fucking easy. Dip into that transfer facility, borrow about £30 million, sell Adebayor and buy an new CM, a CB and a GK. Hire a defensively minded coach to oversee the parts of the game Wenger finds repugnant; there’s even an ex-gunner in Keown who’s up to the job. And hire a MD who can manage the transfer negotiations so that Wenger can concentrate on the on-field stuff.
But I’m just regurgitating what everyone else is saying. There’s nothing else to say, because these truths are pretty damn self-evident.