Post Wigan catch up 21 April, 2010

There hasn’t really been a lot of news since the defeat to Wigan which is partly responsible for my week-long absence but I also just needed a little break from football! The past couple of months have been quite intense Arsenal-wise and the final ten minutes of the Wigan game was enough to make me say I’ve had enough of Arsenal for one season. Obviously that’s not true and I’m now looking forward to the Man City game at the weekend but a little break from football has done me good.

The loss to Spurs was upsetting but understandable, they wanted it more and they got a two-goal lead and defended it. However the loss to Wigan was quite frankly unacceptable at any standard at football and as Arsene said after the game, injuries or no injuries, no Arsenal side should lose a game the way we did there.

There’s no point in getting back into what happened because it’s over now and to be honest I don’t really want to think about it. However it can pretty much be summed up as a lack of interest from the players. There was maybe one or two that looked in the slightest bit bothered about the game and all it took was for Wigan to get one back and the next two came naturally. There wasn’t enough commitment and this ‘mental strength’ that Wenger keeps going on about was non-existent. With Spurs beating Chelsea the day before it meant a win would put us three points behind them again and two behind United, a very strong position. However we paid for our sloppiness and are now out of the race for 1st and indeed 2nd.

What bugs me the most is that we seemed to have made some progress this season and it was all pretty much undone in one game. I know we had some vital players out but the Arsenal spirit should remain throughout the whole squad but it was like I had no relationship with those players after the game. I haven’t been this annoyed about a single match in a very long time, this just seemed to really get to me.

The more pessimistic/realistic fans probably thought we’d end up in third anyway and the title race was a long shot but it was worth being in it. I never thought we were nailed on to win the title but I thought we had a shot if we got the results, I wasn’t expecting anything but it’s horrible for it to be ended the way it was.

In the long run the Wigan result might help us; Instead of trying to fight for the title and ending up third, crashing out (and hopefully ending up third) might give us a bit of a kick up the arse. There’s already been a lot of talk about a summer clear out of the players that just aren’t up for the job; some players might pay the price for their lack of interest on Sunday by being moved on. This Arsenal squad has too many passengers and maybe this will be a bit of a wake up call and we decide that enough is enough.

There’s been a lot of transfer speculation since the game and Arsene has hinted already that there will be work done over the summer. A new goalkeeper looks likely to be high on the shopping list as Wenger’s usual policy of bigging up Almunia and Fabianski seems to have been dropped. He pretty much said before the game that Fabianski would play out the rest of the season but then after another fucking cock-up performance I wouldn’t be surprised to see that changed. No one has confidence in our top two goalkeepers and Mannone is far too young. As is Szczesny (who Brentford would like to keep) but some people are still calling for him, he’s done really well in League 1 but so would Fabianski and Almunia; we’ll have to look at Szczesny and see how good he really is but I suspect we might bring someone in.

There really is a lot of work to do this summer, we need a ‘keeper, we need a defender because Gallas, Silvestre and Senderos will all move on this summer and then there’s anyone else that leaves and needs replacing. It’s set to be a busy one for once but we’ll look into that nearer the time.

We have to remember that the season isn’t quite over yet, a Man City win on Saturday could put our position in third in doubt and that would be an absolute disaster if we were overtaken, especially as now the top three teams get automatic qualification to the Champions League. Early team news is that Arshavin is fighting to be fit but we’ll get a full round up for Wenger either tomorrow or Friday.

It’s going to be a massive game, title race or no title race. They’ve got Vieira, Toure and of course Adebayor all returning to face Arsenal and will be looking for a win over their previous employers. A couple of them will get great receptions but Adebayor will get a tough time from the fans and Toure has reminded him to keep calm. It’s probably for the best really, the mood some Arsenal fans are in at the moment he might find a couple hundred fans running the length of the pitch to get to him this time around.

Anyway build up to the game to come in the next couple of games. Thanks for reading.