Last season, before Arsenal were devastated by injuries, they we top of the league and looked to be the best team.
Theo, the pace in the team was crocked , AOC had been out for the first half of the season and we were left with Gnabry .The super star of the season, Aaron Ramsey got injured and missed 3 months ,then Ozil went out also. We now know Koscielny was playing though conic tendinitis and several other players also suffered the “normal” knocks and injuries.The team wasn’t the same, and results showed just that. A disappointing end to the campaign brightened by us winning the FA cup.
Lets be fair though. for two thirds of the season we had the hope of winning the league. It was a real title contention.
Sadly, this season started with us being absolutely devastated by injuries. Long term injuries to Giroud, Ozil, Ramsey, Arteta. Debuchy, Theo and Koscielny saw us fall far enough behind Chelsea to mean the hopes of a title challenge was realistically over by October.
Despite the addition of players. that once bedded in.would prove major upgrades to the first team, this was hugely disappointing.
However. since the return of these key long term injuries we have accumulated more points than any other team. Also we have progressed to the semi final of the FA cup.
So what does this tell us?
Well I don’t know what you conclude from this, but I take it that with a squad that includes most of our most important players we take more points than any other team. That sort of makes us at least as good as anyone else.
Now, I know detractors will say that injuries are part of the game, and they are. but no other team could cope with this volume and the of length of injuries to as many key players .
As far as I can see, when Arsene has the players that he has signed and nurtured available he cant pick a team that wins more than others in a style that is more pleasing on the eye than others, with tactics that work because the players are good enough to execute them.
I mean who would have thought that the best players, play the best football and win more often?
For years I have been reading blogs from laymen who spout absolute bollocks about tactics and formations while pointing out how inept Arsene is in these areas. But we see time and again, Arsene using different formations and tactics, all of which work when the best players in the squad play and execute them.
Of the top of my head, here is a list of players that have been labeled “not good enough for Arsenal” by these expert bloggers, tweeters and worst of all, pretentious Podcasters.- Giroud. , Welbeck, Koscielny, Walcott, Gibbs. Monreal, Mertesacker, Cazorla, Ramsey, Arteta, Wilshere, Famini, Rosicky, Diaby, Ozil, Coquelin, Chambers and Szczesny !
I shit you not. I have argued with people and seen so called knowable fans have a go at each and every one of these players.
Given that our squad cost a fraction of MCFC, MUFC and Chelsea, yet when we have a reasonable amount of fit players, gather more points than them, surely it time to accept that our manager is simply better than theirs?
So my advice is understand you are nothing more than a layman fan, let the experts do their jobs, and support the fecking team.
You might even enjoy watching football that way !
Positively Arsenal 
Good article and so true I so wish we hadn’t had so many injuries at the start of the season because I’m convinced we are every bit as good if not better than the chelski and definetely a better squad dept but the so called experts on BBC sky and bt just want us to lose and of course everybody wants to knock Ozil who is different class, they only gave wenger motm hoping the curse strikes that we lose after he gets it and the same with Giroud I really hope we do a number on the pool because I’m sick of Rodgers snide digs and remarks!
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Good points well made, George.
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As usually common sense prevails thank you Sir!
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Spot on, PG.
Support the fecking team!
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This the most glaring hole in the AAA’s argument “IF” we had the money but just didnt spend it, “IF” injuries are all Arsenes fault then without tactics how could we have finished top half let alone top four for for an amazing number of seasons. Basically you cant have it all ways you can believe one or two parts of the argument but to assume all three doesnt add up, it doesnt stack, it is so plain that for anyone not to realize it is illogical. Unfortunately many people often are.
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ah but you have to now face the AAA argument that the whole host of injuries is Wenger’s fault for several reasons
1 he bought these injury prone players – Diaby is their favorite player to mention, as is Rosicky and Debuchy and lets not forget Ramsey
2 its his stone age training methods that cause these injuries
3 (my favorite one) its the style of play – tippy tappy – that leaves our players open to injury causing assaults or its the very football we play that causes these injuries, what ever the reason its Wenger’s choice that we play this way
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I love the silly begger gripes in the last couple of days from the AAA,
Arsenal wasting millions(no actual figured mentioned as club has not reveled the cost) on new floodlights
Arsenal wasting £4M on buying an 80% stake in a 16 year old argie player who we will not sign for another 2 years, never mind that this £4M (if indeed we are in for him at all), could turn out to be a very cheap deal if the lad turns into a star.
oh yes and its Arsenal’s fault that Hull are charging our fans £50 for a ticket – a full £15 up on last season, and £34 more than Hull charged QPR fans recently
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The stats also back you up:
Since the start of last season injuries have fundamentally imbalanced Arsenal’s performance in two runs of games – 12 games in Spring 2014 and 8 games at the beginning of this season.
In those 20 games we racked up 23 points (1.15pts/match or 44pts/season).
In the other 48 games we got 116 points (2.42pts/match or 92pts/season).
In other words, had we only had injuries at the level that Chelsea have had in recent seasons, we would very likely have won the league last season and would be comfortably leading this season.
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A very sharp piece on a very Good Friday George – not long now before the whistle blows and Rodgers faces the form team of the PL.
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Spot on George. The international break has thrown up the usual round of mindless speculation as well. Bloggers and pundits seem to be in a race to prove how they are much smarter than Wenger in determining the future of Walcott andCoquelin in particular. One headline was along the lines of Coquelin is too good at what he does (sic). Why? Because it makes it difficult to justify signing Schneiderlin. I nearly spat out my coffee. Gawd help us.
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Good stuff George.
In truth we don’t need to sign anyone new this summer in order to win the league next season, however if Arsene does want a few new faces, I’ll be buggered if I’m going to tell him who I think should be purchased.
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George you picked a good day to write your piece, as I seen an article today from one of those AAA that you so sum up when you call them “thick experts” , the title of the article is “One more win for dinosaur Wenger to secure CL place”, the standpoint of the writer can be summed up by a couple of lines from the article.
“If Arsenal beat Liverpool tomorrow, the Premier League will hold no further interest for me and that will be it for my season – I won’t watch any of the club’s remaining games.
Depressingly, Wenger will still be at Arsenal next season”
so someone who claims to support Arsenal, and takes the time to write for an arsenal blog, declares if we win tomorrow he will not watch Arsenal again this season, you really could not make it up, no one would believe it. the AAA really are a sad lot who have done untold harm to the Arsenal and within its fan base. Sad really.
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Eduardo @ 5:42 pm – After years of reading similar stuff, I am increasingly convinced tha people who write that kind of nonsense are usually agent provocateurs from other clubs who prey on the insecurities of some of our more weak-minded fans or chancres like Piers Morgan who are stirring discontent for their own self-aggrandizement.
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I know a couple of season ticket holders who come out with stuff like in that particular article.
As stated in a previous post earlier in the week, the AAA are so far down the moan fest road that they even complain about the club putting in new floodlights, it really don’t matter what the arsenal related topic is, they will find a way to complain about it
One thing George did not mention in his article is that the AAA’s will always change the actual topic being argued, such as if you are talking about how, like George is, a fit Arsenal squad is a match for the best, and therefore so is our manager, but the AAA’s will not answer this point, they will change it to, its Wenger’s fault we don’t have a fit squad very often, which is a different point, the AAA’s do this time and again.
We only want Arsenal to win a trophy now and again – win the FA Cup – its only the league or CL that count
We only want tickets to Arsenal games to be cheaper so we can afford to go – Arsenal make COC games £10 and Cat C games £26 – we don’t want to see Arsenal play Burnley and the like, we want to see Man Utd, city, chelsea and tottnum
We only want Arsenal to spend some fucking money – Arsenal sign Ozil, then spend nearly £100M in one summer – we want Pogba, Cavani, Hummells, Cech, Reus, not cheaper players
We want our Arsenal back – oh you mean the one that won only one fa cup between the double of 71 and the league cup of 87, and in that time came close to relegation, seen the club on more than one occasion beg the fans to turn up as our attendances did not meet our outlay (we needed 22K per game and could not manage it), we did not qualify for any european competition for the many seasons – no no no, we want the glory seasons like the invincibles(but we are not glory hunters)
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Eduardo, why waste your time? Try a Liverpool site?
It would appear that:
“The Premier League will break extraordinary new ground this weekend when fans are taken inside the dressing room ahead of Arsenal vs Liverpool.In a first for top-flight football, both pre-match team talks by the captains will be streamed live to the world from the Emirates on Saturday.
As they bid to keep track with the latest technology, the Premier League has convinced both clubs to take part.]
But it was only rubber-stamped last night after the rivals agreed to a strict number of rules that will ensure neither side is left at a disadvantage.
Although the teamtalks by Per Mertesacker and Jordan Henderson will not be screened on Sky Sports – who are covering the match live on TV – fans who own a smartphone will be able to tune in.
Everyman and his dog, now know that Liverpool line-up 3-4-3! Thank you Gary Neville.
I would suggest that with Sam Allardyce in mind, Liverpool must play for a point?
ALL teams start with a point.
By the bye, PG a good dig at the sites that must not be mentioned.
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notoverthehill the captains team talk thing was only an April fools day joke, Wenger had a good laugh during his press call yesterday at one journo who actually believed it
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The laymmen who say Arsene doesn’t do modern tactics are shit faces.
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George this article is far too rational, reasonable and coherent for the self-declared Expert to digest.
Well said.
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Surprise, surprise
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Well done George: Just the job. What I find most irritating is the money that people make out of sites that peddle the no tactics line. But I suppose bad news always sells and there have always been offal-eating raptors that like to circle around what they perceive to be terminally ill cases.
But sometimes I think it is more insidious than that. I find it easy to imagine a situation where press and pundits are effectively in the pocket of, let’s say for argument’s sake, an influential board member whose ambitions would be furthered by a period of instability at the club, an insatiability that would best be achieved by removing one of the best managers that has ever graced the game.
On that theme, does anyone know the truth behind the big story that splashed a couple of years ago about a massive buy-out. It hit the back pages in a major way.
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