Up next, the boys travel to the Hawthorns to take on relegation bound West Bromwich Albion. Currently the worst team in the EPL, by any measure, Arsenal have to be looking at Tuesday and hoping that WBA will provide the cure for our ills.
West Brom won’t be impossibly easy, like playing Arsenal on your XBox or something, but this match will certainly garner Arsenal 3 points. I’m not being over-confident here, because it’s impossible to be over-confident against a team as poor as West Brom. Arsenal are going to win this game, no doubt. If you can watch the match, go watch it, it will give you confidence in the club and I’ll put money on us coming out with a 3-0 win.
I’m confident not from some irrational place but because the things I’m hearing from Arsenal are all very positive. First, Wenger is clearly pissed about what happened with Fulham, responding to the question he stated flatly
I want to win the games and, when we don’t win the games, it’s disappointing. You know how much I want to get into the Champions League. For me, it is not important – it is vital – but you can only play your games and try to win them. I want to be in the Champions League because it’s the best I can be. If I’m not then I’m not happy – it’s as simple as that. You don’t play football to be average. I don’t manage in the game to be average, and the players want to play at the top.
He even went further, when asked what he thought of the fans booing him off the pitch he said
I don’t know whether supporters are losing faith. That is not my worry. What is important is that we show great attitude and do our job as well as we can. Fans turning on me doesn’t worry me, no. Not at all.
Those are both very positive signs. In the first statement you see that the hunger is still there and manifesting itself as an anger. If he unleashes that on the team then I expect them to come out and simply pound West Brom tomorrow. In the second statement, you see his confidence and professionalism. Again, if he turns this on the team they might have their pride pricked and again, that’s exactly what they need.
Did I say 3-0? I meant 6-0!
Ok, all kidding aside, I do think the next match holds something spectacular for us as Arsenal supporters. This squad is going to be up for this game and I expect they will play with Roma-esque fervor. If you remember, Arsenal could have easily won that Roma match 4 or 5 nil, so while 6-0 is me joking around, I really do believe we’ll see at least 2 Arsenal goals, if not more.
The signs that the team are already soaking in this new message are starting to show as well. Arshaviour gave an interview yesterday in which he spoke about the players ambition and the direction the team are headed. I’m not going to include the quotes here because they are in broken English, but the point is that the team feels the pain of this slip in form, acutely.
Good. They should. Something needs to kick them in the ass, I don’t care what it is at this point. Just get it done, take back our Champions League spot. Show us all that we’re wrong. I love being proved wrong.
Some other stories this morning made me laugh. “United to win the quint!” was the first. I was sitting here wonder what the 5th trophy was? FA Cup… Carling Cup… Champions League… Premiership… uhhh… Emirates Cup? Uhhh… Charity Shield? Wait… Club World Championship? LOL. If you’re going to count that, why not throw in the Charity Shield and say United are on target for the sextuple?
Sextuple… I don’t know, that word makes me giggle.
It is an incredible run by United right now, they have basically won every trophy they put foot in since they got knocked out of the FA Cup by Pompey. They have won 5 on the trot right now and look nigh unstoppable to win several more. It must be seen as vindication for the club standing by Fergie when his squad was so low just a few years ago and people were calling for Fergie’s head.
I wonder if there’s a lesson there for us and Wenger?
There was a bit of schadenfreude in that cup final when Bentley took a gamble on his penalty kick and came up craps. If asked before the match who I want to win between Man U and Tottenham I would have said “I’d like it if David Bentley did something spectacularly dreadful, like miss a penalty, the shit talking little weasel.”
I got my wish!
Now, if I could just get my wish tomorrow against Albion we’ll see a 6-0 to the Arsenal!
See you then.
United are garbage compared to last season – they are playing the best football in the Prem right now but that’s simply because everyone else is below standard. The EPL now is what La Liga was last season – the winner is the team that sucks less, not the team that is playing best. All the teams aside from Liverpool and villa are significantly doing worse off at this point than they were last season points-wise. If we were even half as a good as we were last season we’d have 7-8 more points since we’re about 15 points worse off now than we were last season. 15 points more for us – that’s top of the table this season by a more significant margin than last season. Can we win the WBA game? Yes. will we win it? who knows. You say the Roma game could have been 4 or 5 nil and I don’t disagree but it wasn’t and that’s the problem. The Fulham game could have been 4-3 too but it wasn’t. What can be and what is have been very different realities for the club this season. No one fears us anymore like they fear United. We’ve lost our reputation as a team that can dismantle opposition through an ingenious pasing game. Some teams are even beating us at our own game. Wenger says to judge him at the end of the season – he is either delusional or has a crystal ball that actual works like a crystal ball and not a glorified snow globe.
Whoa…
Cheer up WC. Things have to get better, they could hardly be worse!
For example, it’s stormy here in Washington and I said fuck it and drove my bike in to work. I’m glad I did! There were two rainbows, the temp was perfect, and I got the best parking spot at work.
Arsenal will win the WBA game, I’ll put $5 on it.
Yes things could get worse – Everton could end up in the 5th spot. They don’t even have a stable striker yet they are winning games against teams we’ve been struggling against.
While I agree in main that Arsene is aware of the problem, worried about not scoring, not making the CL and about fan reaction, I’m not sure he currently has the wherewithal to fix the problem. He has consistently put imbalanced teams on the pitch due to poor squad selection and formations.
Take the Fulham game for example where he started Arshavin and Vela on the wings with Diaby playing in front of Denilson. This left us without defensive balance in the MF and we were overrun in that department and therefore unable to dictate the game. Instead of sticking an unfit Arshavin on the wings where he had to run all day, play Arshavin behind the striker, put Eboue on the right and Nasri on the left and we would have had a lot more balance and Arshavin would have been fresher at the end of the game.
Arsene has some answers under his nose but seems to have lost his sense of smell. Rather than worry about the confidence of individual players he needs to put the best and more experienced players on the pitch who understands what it takes to deal with pressure and overcome it. Put Gallas as DM and pair him with Diaby at CM, pair Djourou with Kolo at the back, move Arshavin to support striker behind RVP, Nasri on the right or left wing and any other combination of Vela, Bendtner, Eboue on the other flank and we have a capable team. Notice the omission of Denilson and Song (LOL).
Until Arsene get’s over that hurdle we will continue to struggle.