A guest post by Seebs @arse_or_brain
Apparently, according to many ARSENAL fans on twitter, our 3-0 win away at Villa was just a blip and we will soon be back to losing ways. Quite how despondent people can be after a good win to a team having only conceded one goal in a good start to their season amazes me and so I thought about what really is their logic.
In 2004 we won the league without losing a game, a considerable feat, the year after we won the F.A. cup and then in 2006 were unlucky to lose the final of the Champions’ League after having a player sent off at the start of the game and only conceding at the end of the game.
I believe it was around this time Arsene lost his mind and lost all football knowledge.
So 2007 until now we have been failures, the story goes, but how many fans and teams have bettered us and how many would switch places?
Well in that time we’ve won one cup, come close in the league a few times and been consistent in qualifying for the Champions’ League. So the only teams domestically that have done better than us are Chelski and the two Manc clubs. All three massively funded beyond our capability and so you would expect them to do better unless they were underperforming by a large margin, considering it cannot be us that has overachieved.
We have built and self-funded a new stadium. This has not been achieved by any other club in this time and so any arguments about how much money we have is largely dispelled as this handicap, along with the arrival of the sugar-daddies makes the spending argument largely irrelevant as whatever we forked out, the other clubs would still be able to find more.
In these failure years the likes of Alex Ferguson have said ARSENAL would have won the league if it wasn’t for injuries; so that blows the ‘tactics falling out Arsene’s head’ theory out of the window. I’m pretty sure even the most ardent wobs would admit you can’t win the league without tactical knowledge. This is backed up by the great Johan Cruyff who thinks Arsene is a great tactician, although the critics do have Piers Morgan in their corner.
This brings us to those injuries. Again, Arsene’s fault apparently, as his training methods are to blame. Incidentally these are same methods that brought us the doubles and invincibles, although we still do well at the end of games and seasons, so fitness can’t be a problem, surely a more logical reason would be the style of play we use draws more fouls both punished and unpunished and a build-up of these leads to injuries. This is just an assumption of course but then no one knows the reason behind the larger than usual amount of injuries we suffer.
- So in summary only 3 clubs have bettered us in the failure years.
- All three clubs can outspend us on the pitch and behind the scenes
- We are still servicing a debt and the fund comparison with the other clubs makes the argument about our cash reserves irrelevant.
- Injuries have impacted on our success.
- All of the above makes the tactics argument a myth
- I haven’t mentioned we consistently played the best football in the league
So what are people groaning about? Well could we have achieved better in the last few years? Maybe.
Could we have bought better? Maybe.
Could we have set up better in some games and even made better subs and tactical switches? Maybe.
But all those are assumptions and even if they were correct, would that make our manager a lunatic or our club a joke?
Quite clearly not.
But it does call into question the metal astuteness of anyone who suggests this is the case.
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks Seebs: top stuff always good to hear from another delusional follower relying on blind faith!
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DC
I don’t think any research is required! We’ve got the example from 2010 of two players who went the distance in the summer, albeit not playing every game they came back with niggles and didn’t return till Oct/Nov – the infamously harsh but necessary dropping of Chamack because he was the second choice – teams form dipped for three game whilst his replacement got up to speed.
Then we had our beloved Gilberto who returned exhausted in 2006, was given a few months off because he needed it, and then struggled to get up to PL speed thereafter without any kind of pre-season – he came into a few games and if you all remember he looked like he was running in treacle, and lost his place for the season.
We can compare all that above with the quicker return given to the two not fully fit strikers at the two oil clubs this August. As Anicoll/Andrew wisely and accurately observes above, they have a record of treating players differently then at AFC (don’t tell the AAA Chelsea fanboys!). Kolo Toure complained when he was let go, suggesting his treatment was equally poor at AFC, but I note that he left to earn more money.
No research required!
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Well said mate, fed up with hearing from all the so called Arsenal fans that Arsene has to go, bollox to them. Its Arsenal blood that courses through Arsene’s veins, and long may it continue.
In Arsene we trust.
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Whoops, didn’t realise I’m on the wrong article! Haha sorry Ian!
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Cheers A-or-B.
You should see the moderate and moderately intelligent spuds fans (I know don’t laugh) I follow on twitter, They have zero hopes for their team next Saturday.
I have to keep reminding people which team has conceded the least goals so far this season – ok it’s only 5 games.
Chelsea? No
City? Yes, but only 1 less than AFC.
Liverpool LoL No.
Yes the much maligned good old Arsenal have shipped a goal less than Chelsea, and without a DM as well. Busting myths is a fab gas.
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Fins
Imagine Wenger used and abused Agrueo the way City do?
There would be a fan meltdown on a Chernobyl scale.
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Incendiary stuff here. A must read. Remember, it has been said that Wenger will not buy a player owned by a third party. This explains much. Also, the old adage “there is no honour amongst thieves” describes the sugar daddied clubs that are polluting football.
http://tinyurl.com/q2tec6y
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GP thats a really interesting link, as were not mentioned intheir at all I wonder if we wont use him
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Great post Seebs
I concur with everything. It’s also a great summary of the last few years with some nice context and perspective.
Those wondering why AFC didn’t buy Diego Costa or Carvalho may get a idea from the link I posted above. I strongly recommend it!
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mental astuteness I think you mean. Good article though
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Ian & GP
Arsenal FC may not use the likes of Mendes since before the arrival of AW* but he tries to use AFC at every opportunity to raise the price for his cattle e.g. never interested in Costa, because he is a Mendes pawn. Any rumours and links made with AFC were just to up the price:
https://twitter.com/hashtag/HowToBeAFootballAgentForDummies?src=hash
* We’d better not tell the groaning AAA, this exclusive information might just undermine their entire logic, and that would be cruel!
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Good stuff AoB
“although the critics do have Piers Morgan in their corner”
Surely that should be enough to tell them they are fools.
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Super, super article, Seebs, deserves a very wide audience.
***
There is an irony not lost on many of us here in having a man with the brilliance of Wenger hounded by the likes of those for whom the lights may appear to be on, but who quite clearly, are no longer at home.
The genius of Wenger is conversly offset by the rank stupidity of a noisy band of barackers, modern-day hecklers who long ago forgot what it meant to support, who today visit upon the club as disconnected strangers sadly oblivious to the maxim of supporting through thick and thin.
Together this limp collection of disbelievers rally together with the single hollow bond of those claiming to love the club to the ends of the earth, but who in reality, as Bergkamp memorably observed, love merely the version with trophies.
They lightly skip, trip and stumble over what they would have us believe are the issues of the hour. Meanwhile the club grows and develops, moving purposefully and with grace, ever forward towards a goal and a destiny born of breathtaking ambition.
A destiny in which we, the fans, had just one job.
We just had the one job.
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All I know is I wouldn’t want to be a red Manc right about now. Managerial merry-go-rounds take years to sort themselves out.
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Good post, Seebs. It’s a well-known fact that Wenger bumped his head as he entered the Stade de France for the CL final. That bump led to him developing a rare disorder that prevents him from ‘maximising the potential’ of anything. At home, he only waters the plants every other day. When he cooks, he doesn’t use any seasoning. And at work, he refuses to buy the ‘monster’ DM the whole world tells him he needs. It’s only muscle memory that enables him to keep Arsenal in the Champions League places year after year. Such a sad fall from grace.
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Great post Seebs,preaching to the converted on here mate off course,I’ll always take Bob Wilson view on things over Piers Morgan every day off the week.
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For the sake of balance, we have to admit that the Boss has made mistakes from time to time.
I’m sure he has put a spoon of sugar in his tea once.
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Top post Seebs.
Being the blind loyalist that I am, I’m glad to have the one-eyed Wenger as my King. With this weakest defence in the history of Arsenal FC.
DC – Spuds are pissing in their pants. I hv no doubt the boys will throw the kitchen sink at them. This game is for Walcott.
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Interesting story from Neil Ashton this morning about Man U, claiming that a “source” reported that during a heated discussion in the immediate aftermath of the Leicester game, one Man U player asked loudly why Di Maria was taken off. If true, then I wonder who the player was? I also wonder if this suggests a lack of confidence in the manager from a senior player? Guessing the source was a Leicester FC employee hanging around outside the dressing room. If more substantial than that then even more interesting. and of course (and this is most likely) it may be just a bit of made up journalism.
But I like the fermenting sense of unrest and disquiet that is coming out of Old Trafford at the moment.
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Foreverheady – one detects a sense of relief from those players fortunate enough to have escaped Old Stalag. One can just imagine it’s a pressure cooker existence for all involved: Existing players trying to prove themselves, new players trying to justify their embarrassingly bloated salaries and LVG just trying to scratch a point or two before Old Trafford is rendered permanently deafened by the match day silence.
***
Not certain of the provenance of the following alleged quote from Man Citeh’s Vincent Kompany:
“We’ve seen good things from Chelsea. But maybe even better things from Arsenal so far. It’s a three way battle for the title.”
This is from someone almost uniquely qualified to judge, having just played out two titanic battles against both sides in the space of a week. Given that AFC is clearly still bedding in newbies and missing certain other key contributors, then this counts as one of the more significant statements I’ve read in a while.
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Kompany has made comments like that before, specifically about Arsenal being the best opponent he’d faced in the league, so I can believe he said something like that
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I hope the home fans do the club proud as did the away fans did when supporting Diaby tonight. Sure, some would’ve sung the player’s name with a little irony during that game at the end of last season, but at least they were singing!
Looking forward to the game. And the selection. Akpom Whenger, don’t forget to unleash the Chuba.
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Correction to my comment above at 8.18 p.m.
I thought I’d better attempt some research, just in case:
Gilberto (one my all favourites) came back fatigued after winning the 2007 Copa which would’ve been his second consecutive summer without a proper break, so the club physios/staff gave him an extended period of R&R…
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Foreverheady @9.15 am, if anyone, that would be rvp – he has previous. And left another club when Manager and Board did not take too kindly to his attempts to tell them how to run tings!
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Looking forward to tonight’s encounter – League Cup always a favourite competition of mine largely due to the showcasing of the immense talent just bubbling under the first team. The atmosphere is invariably excellent at the Ems on these nights as huge numbers of the audience comprise so many unable to get in for League matches. Before I was lucky enough to finally get my first season ticket (in 2006 after a 7 year wait in the queue), very often the only games I’d get to in a season might be a few League Cup matches, possibly an FA Cup fixture if very fortunate. Consequently, even when watching the lowliest of opposition, the event to me and many, many others felt like a final.
Even today I can hardly wait to set off to the game – word has it an excellent line-up awaits Southampton, themselves proven to be no mugs.
#UTA
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Hang on a second.
What’s wrong with having sugar in your tea?
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Good shout Passenal! RvP all over press this morning with heart breaking accounts of how hard he took the retirement of ol’ Red Nose.
Must admit I thought he had a ‘special relationship’ with van Gaalactico; maybe it’s another one of those ‘when winning’ arrangements rather than anything too thick or thin? Incredible to think LVG doing worse than Moist; even more extraordinary is the idea you would take di Maria off with 20 mins still to go and no mid-week match to worry about.
But that, as they say, is none of my business.
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Andrew (& others going) you pub it prior to game? If so, which pub, when and what colour cravat might you be wearing? My regular group on the whole not there this evening so I’m wandering around alone and lonely looking for friendly chat.
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These games are coming fast and furious and I anticipate a high scoring open game tonight with both sides blooding youngsters and promoting the bench.
I see some ( on Twitter) are a bit peeved that it is not the live game tonight.
To be fair we are almost never off live TV and it should help to get the ground full.
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I, for one, commend Manchester United’s new populist approach. They make many more people happy by losing. United’s poor performance is particularly warming because it follows such a huge investment – except where it was most needed, in defence.
For tonight, I am most looking forward to the possibility of seeing Abou Diaby make his return.
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Anicoll,
Yep can’t understand the whinging re not being tv given villa game was first this season that we weren’t.
Great nights these league cup ones. Always something interesting to see on pitch.
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Hi Steve – probably aim to hit the Tolly by around 6 pm if you are around. Calamity Jane will hopefully be holding court in one of her fabulous and world famous dresses so see you there?
Just read a tweet saying it’s a sell-out which, if true, is quite something for a club in crisis contesting a competition no-one’s interested in winning.
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Enjoyed your article immensely a_or_b. Thanks.
Really excited for today’s match. Pumped to see Diaby, Rosicky, Podolski, Campbell and the youngsters.
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Ok will head for tollington and hope to meet you there.
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thanks for all the kind words everyone, i know it was a bit basic and i had to leave alot out because I wanted to keep it short.
Im already nervous about tonight because of how much i want the individual players to do well on top of the added pressure of us winning. TR7 starting, Abou starting, the return of Campbell and le coq plus all the youngsters Hayden, Bellerin, Ajayi and Chuuuuuba and of course a first chance to see our other world cup signing. So much to look forward to COYG
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Doomed doomed we are all doomed
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Be really interested to hear how the game actually was. Just listened to the commentary on Arsenal Player and it sounded a good match with decent performances in particular from Hayden, Bellerin and Diaby. Shame to lose but can’t help but feel a slight sense of relief that that is one less thing to worry about.
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We were crap. The better team won.
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Blessing in disguise. And the Wenger haters wonder why Podolski can’t get a game. Poor from Rosicky but great to see Diaby back and purring.
Consolsbob has lost the plot hasn’t he? What happened to that guy?
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Goodness knows Loomer, But I wont be reading and trying to work it out.
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“Consolsbob has lost the plot hasn’t he? What happened to that guy?”
Might be all that cider he makes and drinks.
Good game to watch but a shame we lots. Never mind on to NLD
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Positives tonight – Hayden is the real deal. Abou is back! Considering how long he has been out, I thought he did well. Alexis is not only a fantastic player, he works so damn hard for the team.
Less positive. I’m fast running out of patience with Podolski, he was a passenger tonight. Even if you’re not quite up to speed, you need to give more as one of the most experienced players on the pitch. I found him really frustrating this evening and was surprised he didn’t make way for Akpom earlier.
I was disappointed by this result as I thought we made an average Southampton team look good when we had enough quality on the pitch to have won that game. In fact I was doubly disappointed that a player of Rosicky’s experience would make such a tackle in that part of the pitch to gift them a goal from the penalty and then for Jack to stand off Clyne for that hit and hope that admittedly could have gone anywhere but equally could and did end up in the back of the net.
Still, it’s only the Carling Cup and we’ve got bigger fish to fry, but it means fewer opportunities for our fringe players to get a run out to keep their match fitness up or for our youngsters to get some more game time.
Other honourable mentions go to Ospina who relaxed into the game after a nervy start as did Chambers. Also I thought Coquelin did a good job at left back so I see why Arsene kept him around as a squad player.
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Decent summary Passenal and agree with your observations.
I’ve always liked Podolski but I’ve long felt he was a bit of a square peg in a round hole; a terrific player, clearly, but not especially well suited to the kind of game we play. Hugely disappointed not to see Chuba from the start and he may now struggle to get a full first team appearance now we’re out of this cup which is a huge shame imo.
That all said, on a night where the performance neither fully thrilled nor fully disappointed, the sense of relief that this is one competition less to worry about was palpable as talk turned to Saturday and beyond.
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I agree Andrew, and it was refreshing to hear the perspective and lack of moaning about having lost a game, however unimportant- FFS, they even moaned about losing a pre-season friendly!
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our game suffered tonight because we lack the point man in our attack. sanchez a great player but not a center foward. i see the reason wenger uses sanogo whenever giroud isnt playing. our game has evolved since the arrival of giroud. now we cant really play effectively without the big figure in the opposition box. maybe wenger should have tried joel of akpom there instead.
but there are lots of positives to be taken from the game.
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i think poldi is more useful in the dressing room this days than on the football pitch. he is a likeable guy that any mannager will loathe to lose. but he is too annonymous in games that you find it difficult to play him in important games.
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A very poor performance from too many senior players tonight.
But let’s not forget the game was won by the team that really wanted it tonight.
Rosicky will never have another game where he plays worse for Arsenal – and he may be given very few chances to prove otherwise.
Diaby showed everyone that that he can compete again with a very solid Southampton midfield, Most of who were supposed to be gunners by now according to the internet experts.
It is a real shame for some of the academy kids, many now won’t get a chance to play in front of a big crowd again this season.
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How much of the share of criticism does Arsene Wenger deserve to take?, and how much should the senior players who played take?
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I think Passenal summed it up pretty well. I enjoyed the game–it was exciting, the atmosphere was really quite good, at least in my section. Lots of young fans and a very diverse crowd. Unfortunately we are out of a competition so early but with our injuries in defense, maybe that isn’t a tragedy.
I too am really disappointed with Podolski. You see the effort of Sanchez and wonder how Poldi can stroll so nonchalantly… Communication among our defenders was a problem been if the goals weren’t their fault. TR was quite off. But Bellerin was superb and Coquelin very lively. Hopefully our first team does better.
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coquelin is a very good fullback. he is better in the position for a big and attacking club like arsenal. it will be in his best interest to think about switching role if he wants to have a career with us. ofcourse he will do well as a defensive midfielder for a mid table club.
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