ale wrote:
Towards the Spring of 2008-2009, I called my builder Jimmy, who is a Gooner, mainly to ask him if he'd been to Arsenal much recently. He has season tickets and used to watch the reserves as well.

Jimmy said, "I haven’t been at all this season. I’ve rented out my season tickets. Wenger's f***ed up the team. We need more power in midfield, more power in defence. I’m not going back while he’s the manager."

is this bloke the ultimate spoilt bastard?...
Exactly what I was thinking.

Third in the Premier League, still in the Champions League and this big baby stays away in protest, with the journalist using it to prove his point.

Pathetic.

lee dixon on BBC site today:

During my time at Arsenal I am not saying that we, as a back four, did not get coached - we had been coached earlier and we knew each other well - but basically Wenger just let us get on with it.

Yet I am not sure who works with the defenders now. There is something really wrong with their organisation because, if they cannot defend breakaways - and they haven't done so at all recently - then surely they should be doing something about it.

The answer to Wenger's goalkeeping problem is playing at Griffin Park for the rest of the season. His name is Wojciech Szczesny.

garcia wrote:
lee dixon on BBC site today:

During my time at Arsenal I am not saying that we, as a back four, did not get coached - we had been coached earlier and we knew each other well - but basically Wenger just let us get on with it.

Yet I am not sure who works with the defenders now. There is something really wrong with their organisation because, if they cannot defend breakaways - and they haven't done so at all recently - then surely they should be doing something about it.

I stand corrected.

Although I'd be interested to see how that would have manifested itself on the training pitch.

Wenger:
Right. Heathens!!

*Gestures towards Adams, Keown, Winterburn, Bould, Dixon and Seaman*

You lot fuck off over there and do... whatever it is you do.

Artistes!!

*Indicates rest of the squad*

Follow me, Christian soldiers...

Cantaglo, is this true? Sczczeny had a game for Arsenal early on this season, and I thought he looked excellent. But is he really, say, Lehmann quality?

Clichy especially has been a liability the past few games. The 4-3-3 Wenger has playing lately really does depend on having superlative full-backs who can both dribble and defend (since clearly Eduardo and Nasri or Walcott or whoever is playing on the wings can't be relied on to drop back and defend).

Cantaglo, is this true? Sczczeny had a game for Arsenal early on this season, and I thought he looked excellent. But is he really, say, Lehmann quality?


Well, he's just 19 and he's only played a dozen games for Brentford but I have never seen a single player make such an impact on a team. He's tall, commanding in the air and has an authority that has bred confidence into a previously hesitant and nervous back four. (Admittedly the emergence of Leon Legge and Ipswich loanee Tommy Smith have helped as well).

And then there are the saves. There are at least a couple every game where you find yourself wondering just how he's managed to keep the ball out. Leeds, Carlisle, Norwich and Gillingham fans will know exactly what I mean.

Better than Lehmann? Potentially, yes. And he also seems to be a thoroughly well-balanced and likeable young man which would also be an improvement on Lehmann.

Have a look for yourself.

The problem is seemingly easily solved: employ a dedicated defensive coach. George Graham isn't doing much these days is he?

Except Keegan's (first) Newcastle didn't ship goals.

Well, They shipped every goal that man utd needed them to. actually newcastle were pretty much so dangerous with two wingers, ferdinand rampaging through the middle and beardsley knitting it all together, that it was only when they started to lose forward momentum after christmas that people started to notice that Peacock, barton, albert, srnicek/hislop etc just weren't very good at all.

But it wasn't that they made mistakes, Everyone makes mistakes, it's that they were punished nearly every time, particularly in the last couple of minutes of games.

I mean even against a blackburn team that were probably under instructions from jack walker to throw the game, shearer and fenton (two geordies) broke and ran up the other end to score two goals. Leading to a silence every bit as confused as when liverpool fans thought that they had just handed man utd a third successive title by beating blackburn in 1995.

Their heartbreaking run of late defeats and draws that fucked them up in the end like so many heartbreaking things was of course absolutely hilarious from a slightly different viewpoint.

Mind you, Wenger did also have a defence that had a long sequence of clean sheets during the run to the CL final in 05/06. There must have been some defensive nous from Wenger in there as Flamini, Senderos and Eboue were regulars...

to be fair, real madrid were utterly shit that year, Juventus were also completely rancid, and to a certain extent villareal just choked. Arsenal would have gotten a much tougher game from spurs (god help us) than real madrid that season.

Because I think that, no matter how well-schooled and well-drilled they may have been by Graham, they still would have leaked goals without the presence of a manager who knows how to organise a team. Plus, when most of that generation had moved on and the Invincibles were at their peak Arsenal were still resilient defensively.

I don't know if they were that defensively resillient actually. Wenger's teams in that era from 2001-2004 seemed to believe that the best form of defence was "we'll get our two early goals, and we'll see where we go from there." You forget how pissed scared teams were of henry, pires, and ljungberg getting behind them. They also had martin keown and sol campbell (at his peak) and a young kolo toure, so they had a very good balance of experience, speed, and sheer naked violence and aggression.

Something else that should be considered about arsenal's current back four is that william gallas is their tallest first choice defender at six feet tall. no wonder drogba loves playing against them. Not only do they not know what they're doing, but he can pick them up and carry them around if one of them actually gets in his way.

I think we're agreeing, TMK. I think teams can protect defences simply through being sufficiently threatening up front, as long as they have a strong midfield shield. Hence the difference Davids made at Barca, that losing Makalele made to RM, and that losing Petit/Vieira then Flamini did to Arsenal.

Flamini has been badly missed, definitely. Silly sod for going off to Milan to sit on the bench, like Hleb at Barcelona.

Panic over - we're going to win the Premier League again.

Johnathan Pierce toadying to Wenger,'It seems to be have a pop at Arsene week, but you're right back in the title race' Aeeee! I only saw it briefly, but that Fabregas handball looked a scandalous decision (Howard Web, how out of character) but nobody seems to be making much of it. If it had been for the other team there'd have been red-eyed conspiracy theories from yer man.

Kid A wrote:
Flamini has been badly missed, definitely. Silly sod for going off to Milan to sit on the bench, like Hleb at Barcelona.

But Hleb going was a good deal, wasn't it? He seemed rather a disappointment.

A handball maybe, outside the area, and much made of it on MOTD. However, it shouldn't have been a free kick in the first place. Honest Stevie's initial dive was so blatant he might as well have been wearing a hooped bathing costume and holding his nose as he went down.

The free kick was given for the foul on Kuyt not for Gerrard's loathsome dive though.

Talking of MotD, surely Hansen's defence, nay praise, of Nani for his mad two-footed studs up lunge on Petrov will make even the BBC realise he should be pensioned off? What has happened to his neck as well?

There was a season - 04-05, maybe - when Arsenal won the Big Four mini-league but not the title and somebody on the team whined that despite coming second (or third, or whatever it was), they were really the best because of it. This season could be the exact opposite.

Arsenal are clearly terrible - just fucking awful - against Chelsea and ManU. I mean, Wigan and Everton can handle Chelsea, FFS, but at Stamford Bridge Arsenal folded faster than Superman on laundry day. And yet, they seem unbothered by most trips oop north, unlike most years when the faintest hint of a Lancashire or South Yorkshire accent or the sight of a bit of mud on the field was enough to give the whole team yelping conniptions.

I'm kind of digging the Premiership this year. Any time Arsenal can sustain this level of mediocrity over 26 matches and still only be 6 points back with the easiest run-in in history is all right by me.

Talking of MotD, surely Hansen's defence, nay praise, of Nani for his mad two-footed studs up lunge on Petrov will make even the BBC realise he should be pensioned off? What has happened to his neck as well?

I heard gabriel marcotti on the radio talking about the nani red card saying that maybe it was a bit harsh etc, he didn't make much contact etc and I was wondering what it going to be like. When I saw it, It was one of the most cut and dried red cards you'll see. I see from looking at newsnow, that even ferie said that he gave the ref absolutely no option. I refuse to believe point blank that a professional footballer can accidentally launch himself two footed into a tackle. what was he doing? If you're insistent on being so blatant about it, you may as well maim an opposition player. you're going to get the same ban anyway. You may as well be a useful moron.

I caught a bit of louis saha's performance against Chelsea and it filled me with nothing but regret. well, regret and giggles. He could have been one of the best centre forwards ever to grace old trafford, if he wasn't either usually injured, or recovering from an injury. A bullet header from a corner, a chest kill and a vicious strike and a missed penalty. it was vintage saha. Even the penalty award gave me the horn (to steal from a particularly leaden derek and clive sketch) Ricardo carvalho committing one of his trademark sly fouls, coming up against a player counting on him doing exactly that, and prepared to make the most of it. The biter bit.

I'm afraid that I didn't catch any of the liverpool arsenal game, but I think that it would be unfair, having consistently made reference to mick McCarthy and his possession of the two longest losing streaks in the premiership, and being pretty much the most losingest manager ever, if I didn't congratulate him on doing the home/away double over tottenham. Congratulations to Manager Mick on reaching this major achievement for any premiership manager, and even though it was only tottenham, not that he's got his eye in, may he have many more premiership doubles in the future.

Antonio Gramsci wrote:
Cantaglo, is this true? Sczczeny had a game for Arsenal early on this season, and I thought he looked excellent. But is he really, say, Lehmann quality?

Don't listen to him. Cantaglo's lying. He's rubbish, and Arsene should offload him to Brentford on a free. Just to be on the safe side, insist on a clause that he's not allowed to leave Brentford. Ever.

cantagalo wrote:
The answer to Wenger's goalkeeping problem is playing at Griffin Park for the rest of the season. His name is Wojciech Szczesny.

The answer to Wenger's goalkeeping problem, it seems, is to employ the likes of Vermaelen and Fabregas as surrogate goalkeepers, shamelessly handling the ball whenever Almunia's goal is threatened.

Cheating cunts, as I'm sure the board's anti-Gerrard fraternity will leap to agree, once they have awoken from their slumbers.