Yesterday’s horror show at Anfield has brought out all the usual media clichés, memes and tropes about Arsenal Football Club. No fight, no leadership, no spirit, no heart, etc.
As readers are familiar, conventional ideas based on feelings and opinions have no appeal to me. There is need to identify the real objective reasons for this sub-standard performance and support real solutions rather than engage in hyperbole and vitriol. That is if we truly care for the club, rather than our own egos.
Arsene Wenger in the post game presser expressed his dissatisfaction with the performance:
“I think from the first to the last minute we were not at the level requested for such a game and not physically, not technically, not mentally were we at the level and we were punished and that’s basically it. You can of course analyse the chances we gave away, but I just think overall that the performance was not at the requested level.”
But he was careful not to offer his opinion as to why it was substandard:
“That’s a question that is very difficult to answer straight away after the game and there are some reasons, but I don’t think I have too much to come out on that now.”
We as fans are entitled to our own opinion. Many have been quick to suggest there was lack of commitment by want-away players prior to the close of the transfer window. Those of us who witnessed a very lackadaisical performance by Samir Nasri in his final game for the club prior to his Manchester City transfer have good reason to believe it is déjà vu all over again.
Outplayed in midfield
While there may be truth about lack of commitment by some team members, I am more concerned about how easily we were outplayed in midfield. Possession statistics are very misleading having Liverpool and Arsenal at 49% and 51% respectively. While Arsenal apparently had superiority, most telling was AFC’s inability to turn possession into goal-scoring opportunities. The data makes horrible reading. Liverpool had 18 shots on goal with 8 on target. In comparison Arsenal had 10 shots on goal, nearly 50% less, but zero on target. Watching the game it was obvious Arsenal’s midfielders were easily pressured and did not have the ability to retain possession or make forward passes into dangerous areas where the forwards could make good shots thus forcing the clearly skittish Kaius to make saves.
Whoscored.com summarized Liverpool’s strengths as the following:
- Created a high number of chances relative to their possession
- Stole the ball often from the opposition
- Were effective at creating goalscoring opportunities from the flanks
- Were effective at creating goalscoring opportunities from counter attacks
- Were strong at finishing
In contrast they concluded Arsenal had “no strengths.” (Brutal.)
Compare this to the similar fixture last year, Sunday, August 14th, at the Emirates when Arsenal lost 3:4 and the same analytics indicated Arsenal’s strengths as:
- Were effective at creating goalscoring opportunities through individual skill
- Were strong at finishing
Those with vibrant memories will recall Arsenal was playing poorly that day. The club was down 1:3 at the 61st minute mark when a certain little Spanish magician entered the fray and from his deep-lying midfield position helped retrieve some honor from a bleak position. It even worsened to 1:4 but Santi helped to stem the tide and bring it to a respectable 3:4 final score.
With Santi starting every game from then onward to October, when he finally succumbed to his current long term injury, Arsenal was an unbeatable force. I have kept banging the point since then. Arsenal’s midfield has a big giant hole, and needs a deep-lying playmaker to make the system work. This is a technically based team that needs technically accomplished players, especially in midfield, to play according to its DNA.
Arsenal’s midfielders are collectively inferior to main rivals
Based on EPL data, the brutal fact is, collectively Arsenal’s current crop of midfielders are arguably of inferior standard when compared to its main EPL rivals. I used data from Whoscored to compare like with like. For midfielders returning to their current teams I compared their 2016-17 data for Goals, Assists and overall Average Rating. By the way Whoscored classifies players like Alexis and Walcott as midfielders when in my opinion they are primarily wide forwards. In these cases and for similar players from other clubs they are excluded from the analysis. Similarly players classified as defenders but who played primarily as defensive midfielders, e.g. Emre Can, I include them in the analysis.
| Club | Goals | Assists | Avg Rating |
| Liverpool | 43 | 30 | 7.27 |
| Manchester City | 24 | 35 | 7.22 |
| Chelsea | 26 | 26 | 7.10 |
| Manchester United | 18 | 16 | 7.09 |
| Tottenham | 34 | 27 | 7.00 |
| Arsenal | 16 | 25 | 6.92 |
The data makes somber reading for all gooners. Among the top-6, of the returning midfielders from 2016-17 Arsenal is dead last in goals-scored and second from last in assists. Top of the list is Liverpool and hopefully the data should shut up the screaming imbeciles who think they are chopped liver.
What most concerns me is that although Wenger has bought quality players in Lacazette and Kolosinac to improve the forward-line and defense repectively, unlike his main rivals he has been unable to sign a top-top midfielder. Liverpool has brought Salah as an AM and he was rated 7.48 in the Scudetto, United has bought Matic who had a 7.01 overall rating at Chelsea last year, City has bought Silva who had a 7.29 rating in Ligue Une and Chelsea bought Bakayoko who brings a 7.27 overall rating from Monaco.
I am not arguing that any of these new players will suddenly become world class at their new clubs but they are clearly making an effort to strengthen with at least 7/10 players. Apart from Ozil, all other midfielders at Arsenal were less than 7/10 last year. This I would suggest is the root of Arsenal’s current midfield woes.
In my last blog I argued Arsenal will challenge based on the consistency of the club and its manager over the past 21 years and the evident efforts to strengthen the squad this season. The emotional outpouring of wailing and gnashing of teeth after the Liverpool defeat strengthens my contrarian conviction. There was a similar outpouring last year and the margin of defeat was far less. The data leads me to the conclusion that the manager knows where the weakness lie and will use the last days of the transfer window to try find a fix.
PS: I must take a temporary leave of absence from blogging to take care of some pressing issues. Hoping to return after the international break.
Positively Arsenal 
Shotta. I wonder why people are outraged… I think it’s fine dat Mustafi, in particular, stayed against all apparent odds. its 3 games in there’s plenty enough games to recover
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Here is an excellent rebuttal of the shambles meme, the new pet word of the Uber bloggers: http://babagrumpy.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/talk-of-arsenals-demise-is-unfounded.html
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Shotta
Great post at 617
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Now we learn via John Cross, that Monaco, after saying all summer that Lemar is not for for sale on Deadline Day make him available for 90 million. No way could Arsenal make that deal without selling Alexis for big bucks.
This by the way proves my theory from early in the summer that Lemar was our replacement for Alexis. But Wenger’s position was not to sell his biggest player.
As many have noted the Uber bloggers want it both ways. Blame Wenger for selling Alexis to a rival, blame Wenger if he doesn’t sell Alexis to fund Lemar. Total bullshitters.
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truly refreshing read…. so much perspective….
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By the way George this window proved you absolutely right. Midway last year you came out publicly and said despite his goals and assists Alexis was fucking up the way we play. When push came to shove the club was willing to sell him to City and replace him with Lemar. The cat is now out of the bag. No way can our Uber bloggers, tweeters and podcasters deny this reality.
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Now that the transfer window is over we can focus on the season. The Biggie for me is midfield. I think the pairing of Ramsey and doesn’t work as effectively as both are better going forward hence are more effective up the pitch. I hope Elneny gets more game time as he holds his position better and can cover the back. I like the way he keeps the tempo going with his quick forward passing. If and it’s a big if Wilshire can force his way in he and reinvent himself he could be the perfect deep laying DM. He has all the attributes just needs to keep himself free from injuries and avoid reckless tackles.
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Meant Ramsey and Xhaka
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Eddie NketiahVerified account @EddieNketiah9 37m37 minutes ago
Great win vs Poland U19s, happy to get another hat-trick for @England ⚽️🙏🏾🦁
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reports that Arsenal are going to add an extra 1000 seats to the stadium, in Club Level.
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Santi Cazorla not going to be back any time soon, he has been left out of our 25 man BPL squad, instead we have included goalie Iliev
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from jeorge bird
Akpom, Chuba*
Bellerin, Hector*
Cech, Petr
Chambers, Calum*
Coquelin, Francis*
Debuchy, Mathieu
Elneny, Mohamed Naser Elsayed
Giroud, Olivier
Holding, Robert Samuel*
Iliev, Deyan
Kolasinac, Sead
Koscielny, Laurent
Lacazette, Alexandre
Macey, Matthew Ryan Yes
Mertesacker, Per
Monreal, Ignacio
Mustafi, Shkodran
Ospina, David
Ozil, Mesut
Ramsey, Aaron James*
Sanchez, Alexis
Walcott, Theo James*
Welbeck, Daniel*
Wilshere, Jack Andrew*
Xhaka, Granit
Under-21 players (Contract and Scholars)
Amaechi, Xavier Casmier
Ballard, Daniel George
Balogun, Folarin Jerry
Barden, Daniel
Beckford, Jay Lloyd
Benson, Josh
Bielik, Krystian
Bola, Marc Joel
Bola, Tolaji
Bramall, Cohen
Burton, Robert
Clarke, Harrison Thomas
Crean, Alexander Felix
Daley-Campbell, Vontae
Dasilva, Pelenda Joshua Tunga
Dragomir, Vlad-Mihai
Eyoma, Aaron Jordan
Fortune, Yassin Enzo
Gilmour, Charlie Ian
Huddart, Ryan David
Iwobi, Alex
John-Jules, Tyreece Romayo
Johnson, Chiori
Keto, Hugo Oliver
Maitland-Niles, Ainsley
Mavididi, Stephy Alvaro
McEneff, Jordan John
McGuane, Marcus
McGuinness, Mark James
Medley, Zechariah Joshua Henry
Moore, Tafari Lalibela
Nelson, Reiss
Nketiah, Edward
Nwakali, Kelechi
Olayinka, Olujimi James Ayodele
Olowu, Joseph Olugbenga
Omole, Tobi
Osei-Tutu, Jordi
Pleguezuelo, Julio Jose
Reine-Adelaide, Jeff
Sheaf, Ben
Smith, Matthew Gerrard
Smith Rowe, Emile
Spencer-Adams, Bayli Alexander
Swanson, Zak
Thompson, Dominic
Tormey, Nathan Alexander
Virginia, Joao
Willock, Joseph George
Zelalem, Gedion
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Wenger said today that Alexis was not close to a move to Man City and that Lemar turned down the chance to sign for Arsenal as he wanted to stay at Monaco.
Wenger added that he expects Alexis to be fully committed this season, and that AFC will try to convince both Alexis and Ozil to sign new contracts during the season
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With all the moaning and groaning from the media about how Arsenal screwed up with keeping Alexis, how come I’ve not seen Chelsea raked over the coals about Diego Costa? I saw that he’s been included in their squad, even though he never returned for preseason and spent the first 3 weeks of the season sulking in Brazil. But hey, AFC can’t handle Alexis. Ok.
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Being positive, and true to the name of this site, as one who recognises the ability of one of our best and most unique players, who has been missing since last Oct, a fit Jack Wilshere, should that happen, and he be played ,can play to role of the great man himself.
Should have put a lot of IFs in there, but hopefully our fitness staff can do their work and Jack can once again show the world the incredible talent he has. The man who once took on and got the better of the Barca MF at their very peak.
And if we see the inner Jack, could be a season changer.
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Alabama
Good point. Unimaginable how much they- including a host of our former players- would feast on a Costa situation with us. Proof of the manager’s ineptitude, lost dressing room, shambolic upper management, the works.
They also bought out Remy’s contract- was he a 10 mill signing, 15? I don’t know and nobody seems to care. Obsessing over failed transfers or poor value signings, guys on good wages who don’t play much- that again seems mostly confined to us
With that and failing to get numerous targets, they’ve had plenty of troubles this summer
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Msm and social media still immersed in this transfer window shite – will it never ever end ?
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anicol
Maybe after a world war or worldwide economic crash, but other than that it doesn’t seem likely.
Only watched a total of about 10-15 minutes of sky sports news over the last few weeks, but there was a weird moment in that, when a manager ,who reminds me of a grotesque League of Gentleman character (Steve Evans, apparently a thoroughly unpleasant bloke, a lower league Pulis with less charm and extra nastiness, and a mug to match), was sweating profusely on their couch talking about what a wonderful service Sky provide over the window and what a great event they have made of the last day of the window…
Felt so bizarre to hear a manager say that. What do managers gain from it? What does football gain?
Somewhere in my brain, I have a recollection of some definition of marketing as ‘turning wants into needs and creating wants where none existed’ *
I am, as I reckon you know, far from immune from the madness- my excuse is that it’s blatantly true that excellent signings can dramatically improve a team, and when one arrives it is undeniably a good moment; the whole ‘transfers as entertainment/obsession’ phenomenon plays on those truths relentlessly and takes it into absurdity- but still, it clearly is madness the extent it dominates football now.
*scraped through a few marketing modules in Uni, so that may not be exact quote
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Ed
Talking about Jeorge Bird, saw him tweet yesterday about large numbers of our youth players who pick up mid to long-term injuries.
Suggestion is that we suffer more than most, and therefore are surely doing something wrong. To me, it’s more of a sobering reminder that as well as talent, injury luck is required throughout a career, especially at crucial stages of development. There’s at least 5 on your list who have recently had or now have serious long term injuries, but that might be normal for 40 odd players.
I don’t see how anyone can comment on whether we fare worse without finding out how other teams do, and i doubt Jeorge or anyone else has even tried to find out.
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Rich I have said it before, Jeorge Bird has now gone all doom and gloom for the clicks, he has digs at the club constantly, he has even added a little bit of little englander to some of his articles, you know the kind of thing – foreign lads get more chances than the local – and we let the wrong ones go and this or that player should not be getting game time ahead of x y or z. Likes a dig at Gatting too.
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The BBC really has lowered their standards, the other night I switched on BBC Radio 5 for the end of the transfer window, and they done a round up of the paper back pages, of course we know that the papers were full of anti Arsenal headlines, BBC presenter read them out and at the headline “Farsenal” there was a big laugh, thankfully the presenter named the culprit, although he did say they all liked it, anyway it was David Pleat. We had on BBC Ian Writh, Chris Sutton and several others attack Arsenal over and over. AS others have said, Chelsea have had a long list of players turn them down, 3 or 4 in the last 2 days of the window, others earlier, they have a striker who led them to the BPL title go on strike after their manager sent him an insulting text informing him he was no longer wanted at CFC. But not a single word is said about the “Shambles” of a window they have had. And on the topic of Shambles, its a disgrace that the media knowingly misrepresented Ramsey’s message to OX. Of course the ASB done it too.
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So no Cazorla till the new year at the earliest, he will have by then turned 33, and not have played in over 13 months, and only 8 league games in 2 years.
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Ed
Cazorla news a real downer. Don’t even know if that is how long it was always gonna take, i.e if his messages of gym work were with post-christmas in mind, or if there’s been more problems. A huge shame to lose someone who helps the team so much and is so good to watch. Fingers crossed he returns eventually.
Back to Jeorge B, lost a lot of trust once I twigged he always tends to write as though he has attended games or got information first hand, when clearly that often isn’t true. Pretty sure he writes a lot of match reports based on the limited information club puts out or the 4-minute highlights of games. That’s dishonest for me.
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4 years ago today Arsenal signed Mesut Ozil
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spot on Rich, since Arsenal restricted who can attend games at Colney, he is not in attendance but still tries to pretend he was. He cobbles together a match report from the clip on Arsenal player, or the match report from Arsenal.com, or from the tweets of those that are at the game.
He certainly has gone very negative towards the club.
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Iwobi expected to be back in training on Monday, and Ramsey expected to be fit for Wales games.
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Recommend having a look at stuff ex-Utd Chairman Martin Edwards has written.
Few days ago there was confirmation of Wenger being their number one target when Ferguson was due to retire, some talks being held, but Wenger not being that interested because, in Edwards opinion, he felt loyalty to Dein and Arsenal, and wanted to keep building.
This may well have been confirmed before, yet many will insist it is bollocks, and it’s a similar story with links to other huge jobs- Bayern, Real,etc.
I’m pretty sure that in reality pretty much every one of the giants approached him at some point. Hard to explain for people who claim Wenger was never that good, lucky etc, so they just dismiss it or deny it.
More interesting stuff from him today, including, deliciously for me, the suggestion Ferguson lied about details of how Cantona transfer happened. Only Edwards words, you could say, faulty memories, egos and all that, but I’ve always felt Ferguson was partial to revision and any other act to try make himself look good. His books certainly never ring true.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4845002/Ferguson-quit-United-boss-reveals-former-chief-Edwards.html
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FC BarcelonaVerified account @FCBarcelona 2h2 hours ago
Soler: “After weeks of offers, yesterday Liverpool wanted €200 million for one player. We won’t put the club at risk”
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I’m sorry Shorts! I love your positivity and passionate defence of the club and manager but I simply cannot agree.
The club seem to lurch into every season as if it has been caught completely by surprise! Each year we play like a pub team with defensive errors and a lack of organisation that would embarrass a school boy.
Add to that a lack or preparation in terms of squad augmentation and a mad trolley dash for the last shiny new toys in the shop and that is the Arsenal way! And that’s leaving aside the prwcarious situation that Sanchez and Ozil leave the club in.
It’s fucking embarrassing!
Are we stronger than last season? No. Are our rivals? Yes.
Wenger needs to go and he can take Stan and Ivan with him.
Have a great season everyone. I’m sorry for infecting this blog!
Up the Arse!
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I understand what people are staying about George bird however it’s difficult to slate him to much if you keep quoting him, like all blogs you have to take some of it with a pinch of salt.
So as it turns out Liverpool were prepared to sell their man and everybody has their price. Those criticising Ardent for constantly saying players are not for sale are clearly unaware of how to get the best price or how to delay a players exit something which all clubs do. Why people feel so personally offended by this amazes me.
While we didn’t do all the business we wanted to do, both in and out, and I think there were errors within the club it is clear all the top clubs missed out on players this window and for the second season running deadline day has been a damp squib for sky sports and the yellow tie brigade.
Personally I would still like to have seen an out and out up and down left winger at the club but maybe they don’t exist anymore and Perez staying in some capacity would also of been useful however you can’t have everything.
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dexter, there is no defending the pool performance but I doubt anyone saw it coming. that was just weird,
we added Lacazette and Saed, so how are we not stronger.
We lost Ox, but I trust Iwobi can replace him so…
kept giroud, alexis and Ozil, whats wrong with that?
we kept Mustafi, him wanting to leave was also seriously weird,
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Dex:
Get.
A.
Grip.
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Alli, Kane and Sterling showing hteir quality yet again agaionst the mighty Malta.
TBF to Kane he did score but did you all notice how Bambi came on, and immediately scored? Which means that our scuttling Bambi who “can’t finish” still has the best record in front of goal for a player who doesn’t start or play at CF (for England) that many will be able to recall, or find better if they look for the numbers.
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Playing Alli or Sterling at 10 is a crime against Football
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As soon as Welbz has sixth months of solid footy behind him, further confidence, we might geto see him back to where he was when he snagged that CL Hat-Trick* and then even push on from there!
*Sure not against the very best, but better then his peers have ever managed to date!
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i disagree with you dexter, not only your position but the rude way you spoke against the greatest manager this club has ever seen. your argument is just like many others who because they do not actually know what is really going on at the club just believe everything is wrong with everything in the club. with the way thing went down during the transfer window, i’m sure many, including us here are left perplexed. but one thing is sure, it is either wenger hasnt been provided with enough fund to execute his transfer plans or that the fund was made available and he refused to spend. so just saying that wenger shouid go and take stan and gazidis along with him is like giving judgement in a matter you do not know the full story.
personally, it is more convinient for me to assume that wenger wanted to strenghten the squad more but fund wasnt made available. so if that is the case, then why should i say wenger should go. and for a fan who love this club very much, i know that under such condition, we need wenger more than ever because only him can kee the club afloat and compete. until such a time when we have a owner who is ready to release fund enough to buy those players listed, let wenger stay. do you think mourinho who many arsenal fans secretly wish for, will ever accept to manage under this condition? or do you thing any manager in this world can use this present squad to win the league cup? be careful what you wich for.
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I just seen that Wayne Rooney has been charged with drink driving, and that his passenger was a women he had picked up in a night club by admiring her big tits, but she claims she is not a marriage wrecker, by the way Wayne’s wife is pregnant with their fourth child and is away on holidays.
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Barcelona: “Traditional clubs are no longer the main players in the [transfer] market – now it’s countries and investment funds.”
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Whats up folks! I hope you all are well.
Dont know what to make of Arsenal currently. It feels like confusion to me. I wish they would atleast address what is going on publicly, even if they get blasted.
Only winning the PL will quell the current feeling surrounding the club.
The saddest thing is that Wenger gets the crap end of the stick all the time. I think the board etc are using him like a shield when they are the ones making questionable decisions.
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seemingly Dortmund have a star in the making – Youssoufa Moukoko – he is only 12 and has been called up to the Germany U16’s after scoring 13 goals in 5 games for Dortmund’s U17’s
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well paul is the board making mistakes, are they hindering Wenger or the team, we signed Kolasinac, broke our transfer record for Lacazette, we know they bid several times for Thomas Lemar, also held talks at the very least for Mbappe, neither player wanted to join AFC, we don’t know what other targets Wenger asked for if any,
Most of what would be called the DeadWood have either been sold or loaned out, we lost one player that the manager said he wanted to keep, but after that players awful performance v LFC last Sunday, maybe Wenger changed his mind on that too.
The board backed Wenger in the Alexis situation, he was only going to be sold if we could get a replacement in, and were prepared to add over £30M to the Alexis fee to get that replacement.
Wenger says the board have never refused to try for the players he wants, they by and large hold on to the players he wants us to keep, and get rid of the players he no longer wants, what exactly are the board meant to be doing wrong, other than the majority shareholder not spending his own money on the club.
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I hear you. We got two good players (One on a free all the same). With that being said something still does not feel right. Far to often, there is a feeling of turmoil around the club. Just not good.
Two players who Wenger swore he would keep being sold at the deadline and one actually sold to the team that just blasted us? I just cannot see how that is good for morale. I cannot get with the fact that we could have sold two players to direct rivals.
Also, if we bid 92 mil for lemar why didnt we bid more earlier on?
Mahrez?
I admit that I am clueless about all that goes on but the powers that be have to find a way for the team to be settled earlier on. This last minute dash business needs to end.
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but almost every club were looking to sign players in the last days of the window, even the richest clubs, CFC just won the league and they were scurrying around for players, got one at 1am, two hours after window closing time, thats how late they left it. PSG and Barcelona were buying/trying to buy players right up to the last minute.
as for Mahrez, he is a right winger, we can’t find room in this new formation for the right winger who scored 19 goals for us last season.
Lemar, if we bought him for £90M mid summer, then its very likely that Alexis would have been sold for a lot less than the £60M finally offered by city.
you use the term “something does not feel right”, that is just it, all just a feeling, more than likely this feeling is encouraged or totally there due to the media coverage of AFC, not just mainstream, but the bloggers, the twitter idiots, but if you actually look at our squad changes this summer, what is there to disagree with, I would have kept Szcesny, other than that not one player who has left causes me even the slightest bit of regret.
Take away the media narrative, take away the uber bloggers, take away the twitter idiots, and I bet your “feelings” towards the state of the club would be a whole lot healthier and more accurate too.
Compare our squad now to the one that played the vast majority of last season. – Oxlade-Chamberlain is one of onlytwo players who played any significant number of games, and his best run was at Right Wing back and we only played 12 games with that system, consider his performance last Sunday, and tell me if you believe or not that he was forcing a move, I believe he was.
Gabriel was the only other player who left that played any large number of games, and he was by and large just a squad player.
OX, Gabriel, thats it from last years team gone, now what have we added.
Lacazette, for a record fee.
Kolasinac, which, even from what little you have seen of the new guy, would you rather have at Left Wing Back, Kolasinac or OX.
We have brought back Chambers after he had a good season out on loan.
Mertesacker is back too, don’t forget he played in only 1 BPL game last season due to injury.
We have brought back one more player, Wilshere, and for me, there is a much better chance of Wengerball being played by Jack than there ever was with the ox.
Paul, don’t fall for the ASB or the media, we might have only signed 2 players, but we have another 3 available to us that were not last season, a world cup winner, an england midfielder, and the england u21 captain.
position wise its a CB, a CB/RB, a LWB, a CM and a ST. But we lost the almost man OX.
We still have Ozil, Alexis, Ramsey, Koscielny, there is far too much doom and gloom being heaped on our club by those with a vested interest in doing so. The want you to “feel” things are not right, its the only way they can make money out of Arsenal, well that and selling cuff links (banned smiley)
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I will add that of course we would all be more confident if Arsenal had signed two or three more big name, big money players, there is comfort in seeing big name players arrive, but would us having more confidence actually make one iota of difference to the results, no, would it stop the ASB from attacking the club, not a fucking chance, too much time spent on that little hobby for them to stop now, and too many bloggers with a vested interested in keeping the attacks going.
one thing I am happy about is that finally we have a 25 man squad of players over the age of 21, some of course are unlikely to get a game, well one or two, at most 3 I would say, goalies Macey and Iliev, and maybe Akpom, I’d expect all the rest, including Debuchy, to get game time for the first team.
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Ozil calling out some so called Arsenal “legends” and the media on his facebook page
Mesut Özil
56 mins ·
It’s September 2nd, 2017. I’m with the German National team right now, and yesterday we took a big step towards the World Cup in Russia after beating Czech Republic 2-1. During the last couple of days my DFB teammates have been asking me about how everything is at Arsenal at the moment. They claimed to have read about the current crisis through the media, as pundits and former players are commenting on a daily basis. They say that this could be the worst team in years, even decades.
I’m writing this text together with people that are close to me, and we’ve got something to celebrate. Although no match was won, or trophy was lifted today, Arsenal and I are celebrating our anniversary! Four years ago I was transferred in a last minute deal from Real Madrid to Arsenal – Arsène Wenger convinced me. He told me about the great history of this club, about its living legends such Bergkamp, Vieira and Pirès, who owe a large part of their success to the manager. Arsène told me how he would help me to develop as a player, and this is something every player wants to hear, as it is great encouragement.
Although I initially struggled when coming to the Premier League, I accepted the challenge. I started as a left-winger at the beginning, and in all honestly, I am not a great admirer of that position for myself – I’m better as a ‘number 10’. When playing in the centre I can control the game and generate chances. The Premier League is physically much more demanding then La Liga or the Bundesliga. 1-1 draws are much tougher, and the smaller clubs also have very strong teams that can easily catch you out. Furthermore, there is no winter break, meaning the season is extremely long and exhausting, especially when you are playing at European and National Team level too.
We have achieved a lot in our four years together. Three of the 13 FA Cup victories have been accomplished in the past four years, with the other ten taking 75 years for the club to win. This is in addition to our three Community Shield wins. After all, six titles in four years is quite something. However, this only makes myself and the team even more disappointed for not playing a role in the title race at the end of last season – this is something we hope to change this year.
Personally I’ve had to accept a lot of criticism during my time in London. ‘Too expensive, too greedy, bad body language, and lacking fight’ – this is what people have said about me. Some of these comments are made by those who do not know me, some are made by former players – both successful and unsuccessful during their time here at the club. Although criticism is something that all football players have to deal with, I nevertheless expected legends to behave like legends – my advice to these former Gunners: stop talking and start supporting!
I would like to thank all the Gooners that have always supported me and believed in me. When I leave the Emirates after a game, I see the fans standing along the street cheering. When I’ve played well, I hear you sing my song, and this makes me incredibly proud, giving me goosebumps every time. I have been privileged enough to have met both Brendan and Charlie. They support the club despite their illness, and their strength and positive messages constantly motivate me. Moreover, I’m thankful for all the other personal relationships I’ve made over the past four years.
Even though I personally do not know how my career will continue after this year, I look forward to my fifth season with Arsenal. This is because Arsenal is a great club with great people and great traditions. I am glad to be able to wear your shirt, Gooners. I’ve had so many great moments in the last four years and I really appreciate what this club means to the people of London, the UK and all over the world.
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Arsenal need to build a fucking statue of Ozil, ya gooners ya.
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afcstuff @afcstuff 3h3 hours ago
Mesut Özil is in his 5th season at Arsenal, making this his longest time spent at a single club in his career. #afc
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GoonerGordo @GoonerGordo 42m42 minutes ago
“Stop talking and start supporting” translates to “Victoria Concordia Crescit” in Latin.
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It’s sad that a player like Ozil has to issue such a statement, but he’s 100% right. I’m not worried about him being professional and playing to the best of his ability even if he leaves at the end of this season. Alexis on the other hand …
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It’s interesting how the headlines are choosing to focus on Ozil saying he doesn’t know if he will still be here after this season, rather than the unprecedented nature of his post and the main points he is making. Yet they are not bright enough to think that perhaps if he is hesitating about staying it might have something to do with the constant unwarranted criticism? The toxic atmosphere being generated around the team by the media and anti-Arsenal bloggers is too much. They will never be satisfied until they destroy everything the club stands for. It’s up to us true supporters to prevent this from happening if we want to have a club to support into the future. And we can start by boycotting the source of the negativity, be it blogs or media then there is no chance of them infecting us with negative “feelings”, when we know very little about what is really going on at the club. Too much information, or more likely, the belief that we know more than we really do about the inner workings of the club, can be a dangerous thing. Let’s get back to just whole hearted support of the team on and off the pitch and stop acting like 5th columnists, destroying our own club from the inside to the amusement of others.
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