In 2008, British sitcom The IT Crowd aired an episode called Are We Not Men? The running joke throughout was that one of the nerdy men would try to sound like he knows something about sports by saying “Did you see that ludicrous display last night?” This would prompt the other man to say “What was Wenger thinking, throwing on Walcott that early?” and then the nerdy man would reply “The thing about Arsenal is that they always try to walk it in.”
It’s funny because the last bit about trying to walk it in is true. Arsenal under Wenger have typically taken the fewest shots from outside the 18 yard box. It’s also funny because even 9 years ago, Arsenal were known for our “ludicrous displays”.
In Amy Lawrence’s most recent column she identified 20 matches in the last 5 years that were the goriest of horror shows. She’s taking us back to the 8-2 loss to Man U on 28 August 2011. Which is technically 6 years but was five full seasons ago. Who am I to quibble.
That season Arsenal had three major implosions: the 8-2, a 4-3 loss to Blackburn, and the 4-0 loss to AC Milan.
The next season, 2012/13 was pretty quiet. Arsenal lost a lot of the games against the top 4 opponents but there were no wholesale ass whuppins like the ones we got the year before. But by 2013/14, Arsenal’s curse came back with a vengeance.
We lost the home opener, 3-1 to Aston Villa. Man City put 6 past us in December and Liverpool won 5-1 in February. Chelsea hung another 6 on Arsenal on the occasion of Wenger’s 1000th game 22 March 2014. It was supposed to be a celebration, but it felt more like a funeral. After the match Wenger said “I take full responsibility” and his usual thing now about turning up for the next match. The next two matches would be draws: 2-2 to Swansea, and 1-1 to Man City.
Those two draws were followed by a 3-0 defeat to Everton. After that match Wenger criticized his team for letting in a soft goal and said “defensively we have to get back to basics. We have to defend much better than we did today.”
We are already up to 7. That’s 7 major, blockbuster, soul crushing, defeats. Arsenal were battered but not completely defeated, however. They won the FA Cup a few weeks later, overcoming a 2-goal lead by Hull, to win on an Aaron Ramsey goal in the final minute.
Maybe winning the FA Cup did the team some good. There were defeats the next year, 2014/15, but nothing like a 6-0. But I’m not as generous as Amy. Some of the lower scored defeats were just as crushing. And they form a pattern that I think a lot of Wenger’s staunchest supporters fail or refuse to see: after most of these defeats, Wenger blames his team.
Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Arsenal – 16 September 2014. Dortmund 22 shots, Arsenal 4. This was the match that convinced me that Arsenal were no where near the level needed to compete for the Champions League. Podolski forgets his shin pads. Graham Souness describes Arsenal as playing without a midfield. Wenger agrees, “They were stronger than us in the midfield.”
Swansea 2-1 Arsenal – 9 November 2014. Calum Chambers eviscerated by Montero. Martin Keown gives his analysis – “The Gunners got the balance of their team wrong in the closing stages at the Liberty Stadium. For them to throw it away after what happened in midweek was quite unbelievable. At 1-0 up, with 15 minutes to go, when they should have been solid, they committed too many players forward. There were seven Arsenal players ahead of the ball in the opposition’s third of the pitch when Swansea broke away to win the free-kick from which Gylfi Sigurdsson scored their equaliser.” and “So, the key was not to run the risk of leaving themselves isolated and exposed at the back. Arsenal did that for Swansea’s first goal, when there was a huge gap between their defence and midfield. Everyone charging forward meant only Gibbs and the two centre-halves were in contact, which was criminal. They paid the price.” Does that sound familiar? It’s 2017 and we just heard that exact criticism from almost every pundit after Arsenal’s 4-0 loss to Liverpool.
Arsenal 1-2 Man U – 22 November 2014 – Gibbs own goal. Gibbs was dropped for the next match but Monreal injury early in the very next game allows him to return. Wenger says “At the moment defensively we are a bit naive.” Gibbs would play a few more matches but as soon as Monreal was healthy again, Gibbs was permanently benched.
Stoke 3-2 Arsenal – 6 December 2014 – Wenger confronted on the platform in Stoke train station. Joel Campbell told to get out while he still can. He didn’t. Wenger says “We were not decisive enough in the defensive challenges. They started strong, you have to give them credit for that. We were a bit inexperienced at the back. We couldn’t play Koscielny or Monreal and altogether we were a bit soft to cope with what they offered us.” Chambers gets a red card. He is used for the remainder of the season sparingly. The next year he is dropped. Then loaned.
Southampton 2-0 Arsenal – 1 January 2015 – The Szczesny Match – Wenger says “They defended better than us in the final third and we made two big mistakes on the goals. That’s the difference for us.” Szczesny is dropped and a story circulated that he was smoking in the showers. Szczesny becomes Arsenal’s cup keeper. Then is loaned. Then sold. He now plays for Juventus.
Tottenham 2-1 Arsenal – 7 February 2015 – Arsenal battered 23 shots to 7 – Wenger says, “The only regret I have today is that we gave two cheap goals away.” This was my first indication that Tottenham were better than Arsenal and that they might win the League. Leicester won the League but the underlying stats actually favored Tottenham.
Arsenal 1-3 AS Monaco – 25 February 2015 – Wenger says “It is just not right to give goals away the way we did. We missed chances and were suicidal defensively.”
Bayern Munich 5-1 Arsenal – 4 November 2015. The 2015/16 Champions League season opener.
Southampton 4-0 Arsenal – 26 December 2015. The Premier League is a shambles and Arsenal have a chance to go top of the table. Arsenal were pushed around in midfield, Ronald Koeman deploys Victor Wanyama and he wins all of the midfield duels with 6 tackles and 10 interceptions. After the match, Wenger blamed the referees. “We lost too many challenges and that explains why we lost the game. But that’s one aspect, so well done to them.The second aspect is that on the first three goals we were really unlucky with the decision of the referee. The first goal was offside, the second goal was a foul and the third goal was a goal kick, so if you’re a bit below par and on top of that you have the first three goals against you in the decision-making then it’s even more difficult.”
Arsenal 0-1 Chelsea – 24 January 2016 – Yet another chance to overtake Leicester at the top of the table. Per Mertesacker is given a red card for a foul on Costa in the 18th minute. Arsenal lose just 1-0 with a Costa goal. But after the match, in a now familiar pattern with Arsene, Mertesacker is dropped for the next two matches (after his suspension) and played in a few cup games, benched again after a 2-0 loss to Barcelona, played, then benched. He is Arsenal’s captain and hasn’t played in any of the last 105 Premier League matches. I once called dropping the captain the “nuclear” option, meaning that you only get to do it once before you lose credibility. Mertesacker was the third captain Arsene dropped, the first was Gallas. The second was Vermaelen.
Barcelona 5-1 Arsenal – 16 March 2016. Aggregate score 5-1 over two legs. Arsenal once beat Barcelona. When they were Barcelona in the pomp. Now Arsenal routinely beaten by top teams in the Champions League.
Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal – 4 February 2017. An emphatic beating by the eventual champions. Wenger given an excuse when Chelsea’s first goal looked to be a horrible foul on Bellerin by Alonso. Though Wenger does accept some responsibility, I mean, he assigns some responsibility to the players “On the second goal we were really naive. We were not clinical enough in our defending.”
Bayern Munich 5-1 Arsenal – 15 February 2017. Wenger is clearly rattled after the match. Arsenal’s naivety doesn’t seem to be disappearing. And not only that but Arsenal now seem to have a habit of conceding goals when they have taken a corner. He says “I think we were unlucky on the second goal – the referee gives a corner for us, the ball is on the pitch and we concede the second goal. I think the most important thing in the second half is we lost Koscielny very early and it looked like we collapsed. We mentally collapsed.”
Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal – 4 March 2017. Yeah. This was the match where Wenger dropped Sanchez after some reports of unrest among the players. Then after a horrible performance in the first half, Wenger brought him on in the second half. “Our performance was not at the level we expect in the first half but that is down to a lack of rhythm, we have not played for a while. The collective response was very strong in the second half.” Arsenal would never recover and finished the season in 5th place.
Arsenal 1-5 Bayern Munich – 7 March 2017. 10-2 on aggregate. Arturo Vidal is man of the match. Koscielny red card. Wenger contract turmoil. Alexis unrest. Fans fighting in the stands. Wenger blames the referee, “The referee was very very powerful for Bayern tonight.”
West Bromwich Albion 3-1 Arsenal – 18 March 2017. Arsenal’s 4th defeat in 5 League games. Arsenal concede two goals off corners to the team who have scored more goals off corners than any other team. WBA were playing under Tony Pulis who has, throughout his entire time as a manager, played for set piece goals. After the match, Wenger said that they were naive… “It was a tough performance. They caught us on set-pieces and one break and that made the difference. Overall our record against set-pieces is quite good. We were a bit naive, maybe, on the corners. Then we were punished. It’s a shame.”
Crystal Palace 3-0 Arsenal – 10 April 2017. Michael Butler, working for the Guardian, summarizes the match thus: “For Arsenal, that should all but confirm their first season outside the Champions League places in 21 seasons. But it is not just the defeat that is so damning here, it is the manner in which they folded. Sanchez and Ozil were as bad as I’ve seen them all season, and without Koscielny, they look so poor at the back, bereft of leadership. You can’t see Arsenal announcing a Wenger contract extension any time soon. They lost 3-0, and the biggest disappointment is that nobody is particularly shocked.” Wenger promises a response. Arsenal get a response: Wenger invents the back three.
Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Arsenal – 30 April 2017. Arsenal’s new look back three has given some stability to the team but once again Arsenal’s midfield is overrun. Wanyama owns Xhaka. Spurs took 20 shots to Arsenal’s 12. They created 5 big chances to Arsenal’s 0. Wenger blames the offense. “We couldn’t afford to lose the game. We didn’t score, we didn’t score at Palace or West Brom. We have to play more and create more than we did.” The final score is flattering. Arsenal are out of the Champions League places. Fans are nearly united in calling for Wenger to resign.
Liverpool 4-0 Arsenal – 27 August 2017. Wenger doesn’t resign, he re-signs for two more years at Arsenal. Ivan Gazidis calls for a “catalyst for change”. Alexis wants out of the club. Ox wants out of the club. Ozil’s PR firm keep fans on his side but he too looks like he wants out of the club. Mustafi wants out of the club. Wenger sells Gabriel. Wenger plays a back three to start, then switches to a back four. Arsenal are overrun in midfield. Arsenal are overrun in defense. Arsenal concede a goal from their own corner. Daniel Taylor in the Guardian says,
Where to start? As tragicomedies go, it doesn’t get much better than Granit Xhaka trying to back-heel the ball to his own goalkeeper and putting it out for a corner. There was the attack when Georginio Wijnaldum took the ball past Aaron Ramsey, then went back to do it again. Or how about the moment Rob Holding aimed a simple pass out to Oxlade-Chamberlain on the right and could not even get that right? Holding missed his team-mate by several yards and gave away a throw-in. It might be harsh to pick out one player after a performance of this nature but Holding looks out of his depth and opponents have worked that out. He looked shot before an hour had been played and, for his own sake, he could probably do with a spell out of the team now.
Wenger says “I think overall the performance from back to forward was not at the level requested and it raises many questions. I still believe you have to think these players are good enough but it is sure that today we were not at the level.”
It’s not the players. There have been dozens of players at Arsenal who have been dropped, called naive, and blamed for Arsenal’s losses. It’s the manager. The manager is to blame if the players he buys aren’t “at the level”. The manager is to blame if his players are “naive” – it’s his job to teach them not to be naive. The manager is even to blame for the players not performing to the level requested. If the players are refusing to play for him, then he needs to go. But more than just Wenger, this is a top down problem. Ivan Gazidis, Josh Kroenke, and Stan Kroenke all let this situation get to this point.
Ivan Gazidis and looked back at the last five years, at all these defeats, these humiliating losses, and the repetitive nature of those defeats and came up with this quote:
If you look across the world of football, you don’t find better candidates than Arsene Wenger.
All I would ask him is “Did you see that ludicrous display last night?”
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be – Lao Tzu
Hahahaha Jack Action. Perhaps we frame this and send it to Stan Not the man.
By the way, this is the first piece here that I will not finish reading. I probably will finish it but I had already reached my pain threshold by the halfway point.
Painful reading. All I could do was shake my head and smile ruefully.
The board is full of gutless geezers and Gazidis may be the most spineless of them all but as I said in my comment on the previous article, our biggest problems are on-field and thus the priority for the fans should be to remove the manager.
Mate, you are a great writer and great analyst of the game… you have real talent but pouring over every disaster to create an anthology is not healthy for any fan-club nexus. Every club has disaster games. This just feeds the melodrama we are seeing around Arsenal at the moment. People are manipulating emotions and arsenal fans rise to the bait every time. Melodrama sells. Three premiership clubs have their best players, point-blank, refusing to play for them, but we are only incessantly hearing about an Arsenal crisis..fine. Our North London rivals, with a devastating attack and formidable defence, got knocked out of Europa last season by who…No one said anything but Arsenal lose and it’s a crisis…cue “Arsenal Almanac of Defeats”..Please mate, inject some objectivity. Your next article has to be something positive to redress the balance, at least a bit. How about 3 FA cups and 3 Community shields in 4 yours – to create a record of 7. Look back on the last five years and see that….as well as the defeats…Work to be done but not really that bad.
I get the sense that had you been in Rome while it burned would you have remarked at the sweet music Nero was playing.
Hahahah…LOLLL. OK Jack repect that made me LOL. I guess I am just an optimist.. can’t help it.
I think it would be unfair except that he’s not simply poring over individual games, he’s showing us the patterns, i.e., do you see what these have in common besides the fact that they all happen to be disastrous performances? It’s the “manner” that’s of more interest here, not the scoreline.
Arsenal just dropped out of the champions league and are absolutely not getting back in this year. The article is pretty balanced, giving acurate quotes by wenger that show a disturbing pattern. The subject of the post is pretty well timed considering arsenal have been dragged into probably the worst crisis in the last 20 years.
And the cups….hollow memories when the very soul of your club is being eaten away. No one on the board or the manager have any credibility whatsover. So….what is the plan for arsenal…what are the clubs objectives? Because to say they are to win the league, and compete in the champions league, like we have been recently told, is an absoute lie.
See, the FA cups have given us something to cheer about. That’s not enough though, is it? Arsenal have not given a proper title fight for more than a decade. That is enough time to build a squad either full of young players or, buying in the transfer market.
Arsenal have had a chance to do both in the last 5 years. Mourinho has spent close to 300m in 2 seasons and put together a team truly capable of winning the premier league. We have had 10 years and we are still not close.
I feel Tim’s article is well balanced as it brings out a pattern, a pattern which we are all familiar with but, fail to acknowledge. The team no longer has a strong offense nor, does it have anywhere near close a good defense. To put that in context, Tony Pulis (a manager loathed by us fans) has a far better defense with lesser talented players than Wenger.
Well done Tim. That must have been painful. But this is exactly why it’s ridiculous for Wenger supporters to claim “it’s just one game everyone is over reacting.” It’s a pattern of a handful of games over multiple seasons. Games in which Wenger repeatedly blames the loss defensive naivety, cheap goals, weakness in physical challenges, etc. It’s NOT just one game.
Judging by the headshots, the biggest problem at Arsenal is clearly a lack of razors.
Great piece Tim.
The Ox has now gone, Gibbs as well although the Gibbs deal is welcome. No doubt Sanchez will be gone tomorrow. Our main target not for sale, no doubt we’ll panic buy someone tomorrow, probably Mahrez or Jonny Evans FFS. A totally depressing situation with top 6 a realistic target for the season. Please Arsene just go!
No Evans – Mustafi deal to Inter has fallen through! We have a back-up right back now and won’t have to keep Debuchey. I have a feeling United are coming in with a HUGE bid for Debuchey.
That was a hell of a recap. If I had doubts about still supporting AW, now they were completely vaporized. What a mess.
Ox to Liverpool done deal.
My Liverpool and United friends have stopped troll/bantering me. They just wonder wtf is going on at Arsenal. As if gooners themselves know.
Sigh. We took the guy on pre-season tour, and he has played all games. What a waste of time for everyone involved. At the same time, we completely froze out Gibbs, a decent servant of Arsenal, Perez and others we did not want. Should have decided definitively in May who’s going, who’s staying, and who’s coming in. True, there were mitigating factors, but painful lessons here.
My theory is he tried with Ox what he did with Walcott three years ago; played him, played him in his desired position, greased him up and got him to re-sign. And now look – Walcott a marginal player.
I give credit to Ox for seeing he had a limited future at Arsenal with Wenger. Maybe he won’t be a starter at Liverpool but he gets a fresh shot with his boyhood club and a dynamic manager.
What I don’t understand is why this airing out meeting with Wenger, Ox and his agents didn’t occur at the end of May and not last week.
But he didn’t even play Ox in his desired position, which makes it even more bizarre. It’s almost like Wenger was doing it to make a point: you will never play centrally. Never. But here’s £180k a week! No? Play anyway!
Its complete mismanagement, isn’t it? Too much power on one man who is apparently clueless on what needs to be done and at the same time struggling with his colleagues on different topics.
The power needs to be back with the football club and things need to be done which benefits Arsenal and not individuals. For far too long, we the fans have rued the days post Wenger but, not accepting those days are upon us are hurting us further.
Clearly, there was no planning for a post Wenger era which ultimately led them to give an additional 2 years. As a by-product of the Wenger uncertainties, there were no player recruitment plans put in place. Players were not identified for whom contracts needed to be extended.
Now, on deadline day, we have players who want out, we have no replacements lined up and last minute deals falling through as players and clubs all know the desperation Arsenal have landed upon. Feel sick to my stomach.
https://twitter.com/bbcsport_david/status/902951267772837897
According to Ornstein – No money for replacements. This club is an absolute joke honestly. We are going to end the window net positive, having removed over 150k worth of wages (more if Sanchez goes) and we have no money?! Everyone else seems to have no problem with wage limits, why do we?!
The accountants were calculating with little bit of the handbrake on and were not strong enough in computing. They were naive in their basic arithmetic and it was an unacceptable performance. As well, we were unlucky in the decisions of the tax collector who are always biased against us.
Ha!
“Why don’t we”
A great question – why is Liverpool and other able to spend buckets and we can’t. I know the story about high wages for middling players but there is something much more toxic going on.
Reading this was painful, but made clear to me that not a lot has changed with respect to Wenger and his teams’ perennial failings. What has changed is the optimism amongst supporters that he will turn it around. It’s pretty damning evidence that AW should go that after we’ve bought good players (albeit without meeting positional needs within the squad), the new stadium financial restrictions disappear and we have some success in the FA Cup, but collapse in the league (and CL) worse than ever.
Even though it wasn’t a loss, I remember the 3-3 draw to Anderlecht being particularly painful, given we surrendered a 3-0 lead.
After the match: “We had a poor defensive performance from the first until the last minute. We never looked comfortable and we got punished.
Annoyed? Yes. It is very disappointing. We were very poor.”
and the Dinamo Zagreb defeat..
Both of these caused me to question whether Arsenal had what it took to mount a challenge in any long-ish season. Always though, there was the issue of not having enough reinforcements, a deep enough squad, etc. The promise of improvement. Now, I don’t see it as possible. I just want Wenger gone as quickly as possible. I want all the players gone. I want a new owner. Whatever it takes for change.
Great post.
Shout out to another great one, if folks haven’t seen it:
https://arseblog.com/2017/08/arsene-doesnt-know/
This Ornstein quote that we have no money for major signings has to be the greatest piss taking of all time.
It’s being reported that we had a 50 million budget all along. So lies about a war chest. Mbappe, Lemar, 300k/week for Sanchez – lies.
Supposedly all along we needed to trim the wage bill and fund any incomings with sales.
This would explain the impetus to get rid of Mustafi on 120k/week.
If we needed to sell players to fund transfer activity why did we not drive harder deals for Szcesny, Gabriel and Gibbs? Why a lack of urgency to get Perez, Wilshere, Debuchey, Chambers, Campbell and others off the payroll?
Ah man, the meltdown tomorrow when the clock strikes midnight will be ferocious.
Ah man, the meltdown tomorrow when the clock strikes midnight will be ferocious.
===
It will simply join the collective meltdown already occurring amongst fans, a meltdown that at times looks like rage, but at other times boredom. I’m sort of in the latter camp. I’ve come around to the idea that whatever is wrong with this club can’t be fixed by transfers. It doesn’t matter who comes in. Wenger will misuse them, and they will join a roster of players who don’t trust each other or the manager.
I don’t think Mustafi was on 120k a week. Believe it was more like 90k (though I could be wrong, of course).
I think your two questions cut in opposite directions. We couldn’t drive harder deals because we were desperate to get them off the payroll; or the flip side: we’ve been slow to sell certain players because we’ve been trying too hard to drive harder deals. Still, even if this is the real story, it’s hard to think we’ve got the balance even close to right: E.g. sell Lucas for 1-2m quid less already! Etc.
Makes no sense. How can we not have any money? Was he being facetious?
Excellent article btw.
Makes complete sense. Arsenal no longer a football club, just a business. Kroenke out!
Its incoceivable that Wenger could be so ignorant of the basics of football, but when you add it all up that is the number that tumbles out.
Just liquidate the club
Well we’ve gone from solid (Invincibles) to soft (Current squad of invisibles) and with the amount of fans at boiling point (Steaming) i’d say the liquidation process has already been in action.
Some thoughts: we don’t need to buy the Wenger memoir because it will just be revisionist history.
I feel sorry for Lacazette who has to be saying WTF have I gotten myself into.
Giroud’s stance looks more stalwart than ever.
Sanchez is a cancer in the locker room.
Wenger’s charm offensive on these players and their families have given us Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ramsey. Nuff said.
The charm did not work on Mbappe and his family and now we know there was no money to sign the player either. A fake transfer feint.
We have to assume that Arsenal’s StatDNA, analytics firm, unearth these transfer gems: Mustafi, Gabriel and Xhaka. Arsenal should have saved that million pounds and just bought FM 2017.
Come December, we could be looking for a British retread manager to keep us up in the EPL.
Bate Borisov wipes the pitch with us.
Can we make Ramsey into a four letter word. Conte would have been indicted on Sunday for first degree murder if he had Ramsey in his team.
Sanchez is a cancer. I’m now of the opinion he should go. If we’re going to weather this storm (as in, not get embarrassed this season by a mid-table finish on account of the shambles that is our management), we’re going to need the players to work together and build morale, and Sanchez is going to do the opposite of that. We’re not getting to CL football next season, regardless of Sanchez.
Squad harmony is overrated. They’re a bunch of professionals with a common aim, not a Five-a-side of some mates. Tony Adams or Henry were famously prickly, Lehmann, Vieiria, do you think they were particularly nice? How do oyu think they would have reacted to this dressing room of content guys just coasting by, and deadwood players that somehow are still a the club picking up their paychecks.
Is Sanchez a cancer? I suppose based on the Telegraph story he is but that could just as easily be a false rumor or exaggeration from the club to lessen the uproar over his sale tomorrow. My guess is rather that he’s a highly competitive, petulant, ambitious player who perhaps feels that the club and Wenger have misled him about their true sporting goals. He sees what her perceives as complacency and a lack of real ambition in Wenger, certain players, and the ownership and he acts out based on that. So I could easily see him being disruptive and upsetting in this particular dressing room but I would question whether or not we need MORE players like him, not less.
I’ve been reading this column since it started, not quite as often as of late. The overall tone has shifted dramatically, which is a natural consequence of the team’s performance, very well covered here. Like Tim, I have had enough. Still love Arsenal, but have to say that I now enjoy watching other teams play much more than watching the agony that is Arsenal. There is no joy – compare to ten years ago, where they often bossed the game even if they lost. Their game was unique, fluid, pleasure. Now it is confusion, boring, and wtf. They became a mid ttable team years ago, pretending to have aspiration. Wenger is kept on because the bottom line is black, not because he knows any more how to develop players, tactics, or transfers. The whole thing is shite. That the Ox was willing to take a pay cut to go to Liverpool says it all. If W had a clue, he would have left after the FA victory in May. But the delusion that he can fix things and help the team return to real glory is in his mind only. Who else actually believes this?
Excellent article. Its not a compilation of just the losses, it exposes the patterns, the covering of the cracks with paper.
A lost manager and even more lost the players.
I am glad the Ox is gone, for whatever his reasons may be, he did not want to play as was apparent at Anfield.
Alexis should leave as well, so should Ozil. In Ozil’s case, I think he will suck wherever he plays.
I want youth to be given a chance, players who have a point to prove and would run their socks off. Perez included in that narrative.
“Mertesacker is dropped for the next two matches (after his suspension) and played in a few cup games, benched again after a 2-0 loss to Barcelona, played, then benched. He is Arsenal’s captain and hasn’t played in any of the last 105 Premier League matches.” How can he not play in 105 Premier League matches, when You just wrote that he played on 24 January 2016!? He also started at the end of that season. 105 games is almost 3 seasons, so this is some serious miscalculation for a stat guy
Wow. I alluded to this pattern in a comment some time ago but this thorough look at the club’s regular implosions exposed Wenger once again.
His is the mug shot that should be most prominent or perhaps the only one that the article really needs to make the final point.
I am more sad than angry, though I feel both emotions strongly about Arsenal right now.
A board and owner that couldn’t care less about a once great man who can neither coach or manage his way out of paper bag and who twice refused the opportunity to go out a winner with the last two FA Cups. I have no sympathy for him any more.
‘Liverpool have paid Arsenal a fee believed to be in the region of £40m.
In 199 appearances for the club, he scored 20 goals, two fewer than Laurent Koscielny.’
Oh Arseblog.
I’ve heard before that “one game can’t get a manager sacked” but I disagree. In fact, I would even say that just one decision can get a manager sacked. Starting Ox last Sunday, when he already made it clear he was leaving, against the team he wanted to eventually join, is an example of such a sackable decision.
And he will probably score his first of the season when he returns to The Emirates as a Scouser. Always liked the hair though.
We are the Arsenal: always is and will always be. Making money while in the thick of things. One failure in 20 yrs.