After an entertaining and optimistic opening 15 minutes, Arsenal again fell behind to a top side and just didn’t really fancy it after that. Changes need to be made, but I’ll get onto that later.
Why Arsene Wenger insists on playing this 4-5-1 formation against the big domestic clubs is beyond me – we’ve been outplayed by Chelsea twice, Man United twice and Liverpool once. We should stick with 4-4-2 and stop being so negative.
One player who I just absolutely give up on now is Diaby. He’s an absolute joke, always has been and always will be. How on earth he is playing for a club like Arsenal is anybody’s guess. He is useless. He needs to be shipped out now, but I can’t see anyone taking him in all fairness.
Theo Walcott is slowly becoming the most frustrating player in an Arsenal shirt. He is probably the quickest player in the Premiership, but he has no end product whatsoever. He cannot cross, he cannot shoot from the right hand side, and he struggles to pick out an Arsenal shirt over and over again. I’m willing to give him time as he is still very young (unlike Diaby), but how long are we going to wait? 2 Premiership goals all season is not good enough. I’d actually be tempted to stick Walcott on the left wing and encourage him to cut in and shoot, as he’s always up against an acute angle when facing the goal from the right hand side.
Onto the player ratings:
- Fabianski (5)
- Didn’t really do anything apart from concede four goals. The defence seem to have lost faith in him too, but he’ll come good.
- Sagna (5)
- Going forward he looked ok today, apart from crossing the ball, but defensively he looks shocking at the moment. Give Eboue the last two games of the season at right-back.
- Toure / Silvestre (4)
- Both pretty dreadful today. We are crying out for a centre-back but who are we going to sign? Bear in mind, it’s not Football Manager where you can pick whoever you like. A good centre-back seems to be the hardest player to buy. We miss Gallas so much, and if he leaves in the summer then we’re in trouble.
- Gibbs (5)
- Mediocre game for Gibbs today. Still shows some inexperience at times, but that’s expected. I’ve no doubt he will be quality.
- Walcott (4)
- Missed a handful of good chances, and generally played pretty diabolical.
- Song / Fabregas (5)
- Both non-existent today. Fabregas was lucky to stay on the pitch, and he really needs to cut out the petulant side to his game, don’t worry about Frank Lampard, get on with your own game Cesc.
- Diaby (2)
- Once again, the worst player on the pitch. Does nothing for Arsenal Football Club, unless you class giving the ball away as a contribution. The guy is shithouse.
- Nasri (5)
- Quiet game for Nasri tonight. Why he’s playing in the hole is beyond me, when he has been so devestating on the left all season.
- van Persie (4)
- The most over-rated player at Arsenal. Seriously, he’s one of a handful of players that we really need to think about cashing in on. He’s accumulate a hefty sum and we really need to do it soon.
Subs:
- Bendtner (7)
- Looked excellent when he came on. He’s been our best striker this season. He hasn’t been given a long run in the team like Adebayor or van Persie, but he proves time after time that he can deliver. He’s only young and he will get better and better.
- Adebayor (6)
- Didn’t look too bad to be fair to him. I’m still gutted he’s committed his future to Arsenal as he’s another player we could expect a big sum of cash for.
- Denilson (6)
- I’m not Denilson’s biggest fan, but he was better than Fabregas and Song for the amount of time he had on the pitch.
All in all, a diabolical performance and Wenger really needs to start to think about the future for Arsenal Football Club. At the moment, we have some fantastic youngsters coming through and a lot of experienced players to come back to from injury, but the players that worry me are the complacent players (Adebayor, van Persie, Toure, etc). They need to step up. You may argue that van Persie did step up for about 6 weeks or so, but that’s not going to win you trophies is it? Maybe they should go to Gala Bingo!
I’m off to chin Diaby, see you later folks.
Arsenal News 24/7
Jamie Redknapp said something i thought was very interesting. ‘How many arsenal players would get into the man utd first team?’
And that’s just it. If you want to win trophies, you have to be better than the best!
Wenger is really aggrivating me lately, his insistance on mediocre petulant teens who may play well or may be non-existant is really making me angry.
Once again the arsenal fans turned out in force and created a cauldron of noise for the players. If you can’t get hyped up with that, then you should not be a sportsman.
Fabianksi (too uneven-can make a good save then commit a howler), Toure (meh), Silvestre (if you haven’t got anything nice to say…), Gibbs (its hard to be rough on a 19 year old kid who’s going to be so good), Sagna (great last year, mediocre this year), Song/Fabregas (terrible. And i love this man), Nasri (not so good), Diaby (OMG), Van Persie (i’ve never screamed…shoot…oh my god just SHOOT! so much at a bloke).
We are in real trouble folks if wenger remains pig headed!
Took it easy on Diaby after that performance. It doesnt matter who else plays if Diaby and Walcott are playing…completely agree with you Theo is not yet good enough – and he shouldnt be training in the first team –
I worry that Diaby will still be here next year – after all who would spend money on him.
problem is when you see that starting lineup who is scared…certainly not the others in the ‘top four’ and unless there are big changes Spurs, man City and Villa are all going to be pushing very hard next year. Think about it .. on paper who had the stronger team this week us or the Spuds? Scarey stuff!!
How many Arsenal players would get into the Man United team? It is a good question, and I think Nasri and Arshavin would be the only two players who come close to getting into their starting XI. Possibly Clichy, but Evra is a quality left-back.
After signing Arshavin, it’s clear that we need to buy experienced players. I hate to admit, but we are a one-man team.
Allow me to correct the first line of your last paragraph: Wenger really needs to start to think about HIS future at Arsenal Football Club
Bendtner was great, seems like one of his best games, we badly need Rosicky…
So we’ve had a bad run, and now people are up in arms. Yeah we’ve played crap this season, but we’ve also been dealing with lots of injuries. People also need to realise Arsenal are not that rich, they are still in debt, and the big money shareholders are spending money on buying shares, not putting money into the club for transfers etc. Its all well and good asking for more experienced players, but who would you buy, and how much better than the current crop would they be?
We only made it to the semi final of the champions league with an ijury struck team, of young burn outs, oh and arshavin didn’t really get us there, I mention this because people seem to think he is the only real good player at Arsenal.
I also wouldn’t have any other manager leading Arsenal than Wenger, and I think most people feel the same way. Wenger is not just a great club manager, he also been quite the influential figure in club football, and there are too many things to note, but I suggest and people that doubt him go look those things up.
As sush, I believe it is us who should be the ones worrying about Wengers future at the club, and not him.
Lets lick our wounds, and hope for a better season next time.
I was reading from an isndie source in arsenal that if wengerr doesn’t spend anything in summer 09 or january 09, and he wins nothing again next year, he’s gone!
There would have been a time where i would have almost had heart failure hearing that, but i’m actually starting to question wenger. Yes he HAS done great things for the club and HAS won trophies.
But the last one was 2005 and was a far from convincning performance. If you’re thruthful, man u should have won that final about 5-0.
We don’t need a lot fo big signings, just one in each position down the middle:
Hangeland at CB 10-15 mil
Xabi Alonso CM 15-20
Karim Benzema, Santa Cruz, Tevez or that russian bloke from Zenit.
Simple wenger, simple.
If you listened, it’s what everyone in the terrace is telling you to do.
Why not try the spending way for once. Arshavin walked in and scores 7 goals as well as a bag full of assists.
He must have been sitting in those stands on sunday saying, ‘what have i done?!’ Interest from barcelona, tottenham and real and i chose this lot!
Seriously guys, i may get some angry responses for that, but tottenham are looking at us like injured prey.
Hunter-hunted anyone? They speant almost a 100mil this season on transfers. Wenger, get your wallet out.
That Usamov has said he’s going to pay a substantial part of the emirates debt off.
What does wenger and the board say? NO! Because that might get the fans on his side for ownership! Well what does that tell you wenger? That’s what the fans want.
And by the way Ash, it’s not that arsenal have had a bad run, its the way they lost those games, poor defending, no heart, no inspiration and no passion.
If you say ‘lick our wounds and hope for a better year next season’ you are as delluded as wenger. History will repeat itself again.
Fabregas will leave if we go another couple of seasons with nothing as will Gallas, Arshavin, Van Persie, Vela, Walcott, Nasri.
We don’t want another progress year! If a class of students had this many ‘progress years’ they’d be 25 before they got there GCSE’s!
Change we can believe in. Obama for arsenal manager!
Ash, I hear what you’re saying but the fact is nobody has performed this season apart from Arshavin!!
I agree we need some changes, I am all for that. The one thing we lack most, as mentioned in another post, is passion from the players. That in my opinion is the biggest issue Arsenal face. We need a Gerrard, a Terry, people who always give everything they have for the club, unfortunately I doubt that is something we will ever get, as it has been a while since the days of Adams and co, and the way things are done has changed, even our academy players are from abroad.
We can sign some really big names, but that doesn’t mean they will solve all of our issues. Our players have the potential to be great, people talk about how the big clubs wont sign our players, I think that is nonsense, most of the players that leave Arsenal go to high profile clubs. Even useless crap like Adebayor is something of a prospect for certain big clubs, and for any doubts, recall players like Hleb and flem, who weren’t great when they came to arsenal, but left to join some of the biggest clubs around.
All in all I think wenger needs to get rid of the lazy, immature tosh, and bring in players that, if not for the passion of the club, then atleast for the money, play a thorough game.
@Leroy, mate if no one other than arshavin performed this season, and we somehow got into the semi finals of the champions league, semi finals of the fa cup, and secured a 4th place spot in the league, and lets be honest arshavin only really contributed to fraction or nothing to all that, imagine how we’d do if most of our players did perform.
Ash are you a spud?
I think I agree with what people are saying that Arsenal players don’t know how to play shot, they like the goal post where they will score. It is not like that any longer. If Arsenal must be strong next season, they should be very equipped with strong players. I believe in Arshavin, Gallas, Nasri, Fabregas, Van Persie and the rest. Arsenal players should put more effort next season in other to at least win one trophy. Wenger should also do this best next season. I like players like Iniesta, Thierry Henry, Rooney and Ronaldo. Please Arsenal players should try hard next season to please their fans.
LIKE of Arsenal