Well, lets discuss the future of Arsenal, by future I mean next season. Let us say Wenger goes, we replace him with anyone from Max Allegri (we can all stay being AKB’s, oh what a conundrum for the WOB,), to little old Eddie Howe (not a chance in the world, unless its designed so his succession is not following the great man).

I’m told constantly that wouldn’t it be great just to break the cycle, even if it means taking one or two steps backwards so that we can then start taking forward steps again. Sounds reasonable, in fact sounds very reasonable, but often the great soundbites are that and only that, a soundbite, no substance, after all where is the extra £350M a week for the NHS, they are now looking to sell it off to American investors, good luck with that. Back to the taking a step or two back before stepping forward again. What could possibly go wrong?

Well lets think about that, what could go wrong? A couple of years ago one of the most noisy Arsenal blogs, LeGrove, claimed that Aston Villa were years ahead of AFC in their development, they were on the road to coming back after taking a step back, after the big Martin O’Neill gamble, the spending money they did not have, almost making the break through. The had brought all sorts of experts to run the club, or as LeGrove would call it, revolutionize the club, in fact they had even stolen one of Arsenal’s most highly thought of execs Tom Fox. Well it seems that state forces have repelled the Aston Villa revolution to such a degree that they are in the Championship, look like they will be in for at least another year. Crowds are dwindling, sponsorship has dried up, and only the BPL parachute payments give them an advantage over other clubs whose fans wanted to take a step back before charging forward.

Don’t get me wrong, Arsenal are no Aston Villa, despite what LeGrove would like you to believe, I do not see relegation on our horizon, just as I’ve never seen it in my lifetime, although we did in the mid 70’s come too damn close to it. We had taken our step back at that time, and yes we did take several, maybe even many steps forward, but 4 cup finals yielding one victory, our best players leaving for more money and more glory, big name signings were a buzz, but all too often they looked better in their wrapping paper than they did when we put them out on the pitch.

Of course eventually we got in the right manager at the right time, a couple of league titles, a few cups, and we at times it looked like we had taken that step forward, never to step back, but we got further and further from the league titles, and the cups were not enough, a bung seen the end of the manager, and I’m still not sure if our next manager was a step forward or a step back, I side on forward, as he gave us Dennis Bergkamp. Then we truly made a step forward, 3 more league titles(one unbeaten), a few cups, a big bright new shiny stadium, and there we were again, having taken a step back, our best players leaving for more money and more glory. Then we got a few nice new shiny big name signings, a couple of cups and an improving league position, but its not enough.

So what happens if our next manager is a step or two back, if we lose the £50m CL money, if we end up playing Thursday nights, or if we end up having midweeks off. Our two biggest named stars will have just 12 months left on their contracts this summer, will they might force their way out if we don’t make CL and Wenger is gone. If they do, how big a name manager, and how big a budget will we need to buy the players to not only replace them, but also the other players needed to take that mythical step forward, if we can’t or are unwilling to spend while in top 4, will we spend even enough to get us back to where we currently are.
Lets face it, we are nowhere in relation to the revenue streams Man Utd have, we don’t have their name either(yes ours is not bad, but they are the most successful English club by some distance in the last 25 years), and look at the problems they have had since their mega manager retired.
We also do not have owners who are willing to put in their own cash like Man City and Chelsea do.
Could the removal of Wenger finally give spurs the belief that would see them finish above us, you know once they do manage to finish above us, it might not be so easy to reverse it.
Liverpool have shown the transfer band that non regular top 4 clubs, with a big history(bigger than ours) work in, and have also shown that this bracket sees a cycle of taking a step or two back followed by stepping forward to where they had been, a spot that had their fans demanding a new manager, new signings, so they could take a step back before stepping forward again.
Liverpool were the be all and end all of English football for most of the 70’s and 80’s and early 90’s, league titles, european cups, fa cups, league cups, doubles all over the place, but are now looking at their 27th year without a league title.

But we are Arsenal, so it will be different for us, we, once Wenger is gone, will prosper like never before, leagues, champion leagues, fa cups, league cups, world club cups, will all be there for the taking. How do I know this, cos I’ve ambition, I won’t settle for any thing less, and I deserve it cos I chose to support Arsenal from when I was 3 years old, so I deserve it, oh and cos Arsenal match day tickets are the most expensive in the world. Or maybe we will become Aston Villa, doubt that very much, but we could very well become Tottenham Hotspurs, now that would be different.

eduardo792

Good morning Positivistas,

And what a long time a week is in football ?

Of yesterday’s game, yesterday’s defeat for let us not pussy-foot about, I think it was the most comprehensive we have suffered for a long while against domestic competition. Of course we have lost games against PL opponents this season and last but not, in my view at least, when we have been beaten by a side playing better football. Sometimes we have lost to more efficient sides, sometimes we were genuinely unlucky, and sometimes our grief was self inflicted. But yesterday we played a Chelsea team who defended very well, organised and decisive. We played a team whose midfield buzzed (Kante) and created, and whose attacking threat (Costa and Hazard) was sharper on the day than our own. We played a team who are by a distance the best in the PL and came up short, in the end by their three goals to our one. Barring a collapse of Devon Loch proportions over the next few games we were beaten yesterday by the Premier League Champions of the 2016-2017 season.

There may of course and are reasons for the disparity on the day. Our many missing players v Chelsea’s almost injury free season, the early injury to Hector, of one or more of our players having a “stinker”, of refereeing decisions disadvantaging us, of the greater difficulty of engaging in domestic and European completion, and of the home sides’ access to unlimited funds et cetera. In other possible worlds other possible results can occur. And Arsene’s exclusion to the stands a further negative in determining the outcome yesterday – Discuss. And all these factors and caveats have a place in categorising the result and salving the discomfort.

One point I must make and underline is that many of our players performed to their limit yesterday. Their performances were by no means bad. For long periods of the game we had Chelsea pinned back. The third goal from Fabregas was the mid-point paradigm of “unlucky” and “self-inflicted” ( see above). Possession was in our favour. Chelsea at times wobbled precariously at 1-0 and at 2-0. We made four extremely good chances, one scored, to saved and the other a shade away from the post. To suggest the Ox did not play his heart out, or that Alex Iwobi did not at times shine is nonsense. Danny Welbeck’s late introduction and the sharpened edge he brought all over the pitch gave us a glimpse of what might have, been on another day.

Nevertheless I prefer to embrace defeat for what is was, a reverse against a superior team, as a more optimistic attitude than the choice of indifference, ignorance or sham adopted by many.

And the reason for my optimism is that we shall learn, become stronger, players will return and we shall recover our balance. The first stage of that will be over the next few days in our preparation for the Hull game. I heard this week that Arsene gave the players two days off after the Watford. I anticipate there will be no days off this week as we prepare for what is likely to be a pivotal fixture in our season, domestically and as we move toward the showdown in Munich. There is only hard work available now.

One small silver lining in this morning’s news is the recovery of Mo Elneny from his calf injury to play against Cameroon in the AFCON final at 7 pm tonight. A 44 year old keeper – whatever next ! Good luck to our Egyptian and we look forward to your return with a winner’s medal.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Good Morning Positive Arsenal fans,

Or at least any of you with the energy to raise your head from the pillow and toward the internet after being kept awake by the squalling brat of defeat dumped on our collective footballing doorstep after 13 minutes last night. The nameless little bundle of noise and dribbling misery is quiet now, finally exhausted after bawling its lungs out all night. Inconsolable.

I have looked closely at the mite’s features and it reminds me of someone, but I cannot put my finger on the possible parentage ….. I am sure we all have ideas as to who is responsible ?

Of the game itself if I were structuring the match report like the action the first 300 words today would be random words and names, …. Curses, poor spelling, ……… Crossing out, Yelps of horror and groans of mighty despair,…………. culminating in my banging my head on the keyboard at Nacho’s insanely poor tumble. We all saw it and we know, and Arsene knows, and every player knows it was a bit of a shambles. Fair play to the Hornets though, they played their part with the custard pie that we ran into time after time.

Of the second half of the match review I am able to provide a smoother and organised writing performance, our players unrecognisable from just a few minutes before. I could even go so far as to say some of our players performed “well” in that second portion of the game. Alex Iwobi, in a 50^th appearance I hope he forgets about very quickly, being the most obvious Arsenal player who showed us what he can do with the ball. Ultimately though the uplift of that improved effort, and the lifeline goal with MORE than half an hour to go, would lead to a fractured closing sentence of frustration. As occurred in the quarter final last season having allowed Watford a lead we just did not have the guile to get enough goals to retrieve the game. So near as Lucas’ late rocket hammered the bar, but so, so far. Lucas is another man whose late entry exonerates him from responsibility for the evening’s events. We were not, in my opinion, “unlucky” to lose. We were conceivably unlucky not to get a point, but that is as far as my footballing generosity will extend today.

Is it the midweek evening games, is it the rain, or the floodlights ? Whatever it is while last night did not finally torpedo our Premier League ambitions ( thanks to Liverpool and Sunlun) it put a further hole in the vessel, and the water is rising.

Of our visitors a hugely welcome result for under pressure manager Mazzarri whose touchline ranting suggests a man “on the edge”. Of their players Gomes had a good game. One of those large, hard-to-miss keepers who is either very good, or very, very bad and last night he shone. Janmaat also looks about five times the player who fled from Tyneside last season.

Right then, that is me just about done this morning. The little child is gently waking up and cooing happily in his or her cot (I have not looked yet but the smell suggests I should). I shall feed and nurture the little person over the next four days in order that by Saturday lunchtime my new charge  will be fit and able to take the field at the Bridge of Stamford, and perform as they are required to from 12.30 onwards to 2.30, with no lapses.

Enjoy your Wednesday and chin up.

Maidin mhaith Positivistas,

That was easy on the eye eh ? All the more so because, at 5.30 yesterday evening I rather fancied we were in for (another) battle at St Mary’s and I would have signed the form accepting the draw with no prompting. Saints riding on a wave of achievement after their Anfield win and a solid home record. Arsene choosing to rest a couple of our bigger guns. It looked “difficult”. After about ten minutes I thought both sides had started well, speedy movement and pass well struck. Both looking for that “opening” and important first goal. And yet by the 36^th minute the contest was over. It was damage-control from the hosts in the second half and even that they fell down on toward the end. 5-0 for goodness sake, and five goals with Giroud at the shops, Ozil God knows where and Sanchez only allowed 25 minutes. By 7.20 I had watched THE most one sided game we have engaged in since squashing Basel.

Ultimately it is players, and what they do and don’t do individually and collectively, that decide games. Our youngsters at St Mary’s were Ainsley, Jeff and Rob all enjoyed excellent evenings. Did any of them put a foot wrong al evening ? Well if they did they immediately chased back and put the error right. It probably should not be but the job did Jeff the middle of the park was a revelation. For a youngster ( he just turned 19 last week) it was a confident, strong performance. I had seen in his occasional other games on the wings he has a good touch and a knack of finding a spare yard of space. To manage that in a crowded midfield as he did for 72 minutes is much more of a challenge, and I see he can tackle. I have no idea what Arsene has in mind for Jeff, probably a season on loan, but he is already an interesting player, a proverbial football work in progress. With a few more games under his belt, a little more confidence in his stride, he could be a mighty asset. We shall see.

Having extolled the excellence of Reine-Adelaide picking out other notable contributions in such a crushing win is difficult. The Ox definitely deserves praise for a creative midfield effort that cut Saints to shreds all evening. Danny’s opening goals announced his holiday is over and he is back in town and pressing for a start. I really enjoyed Lucas and his 90 minutes of quality last night, not just a finisher but some lovely link play and touches in the final third. As I said elsewhere Lucas would walk into all but one or two PL sides at the moment. Mustafi had a good evening. The appropriate word for the German is influential.

I cannot say much in Saints’ defence. As one of the commentators said last night perhaps they can only cope with one Cup per season. I appreciate they had injury problems and needed to rotate but the team that performed so well against us at the Ems in the League Cup was not so different from the players Puel had available last night. Yochida, Bertrand, Redmond and Tadic were sat on their bench – and did Fraser Foster really need a weekend off ? The “fatigue” suffered by goalkeepers is a purely second decade of the 21^st century phenomenon. I imagine, despite their good week, the home fans felt a bit let down by the thrashing.

Just a short break until we take on Watford on Tuesday. I think almost, bar Santi, Arsene has a full squad to choose from. A few dilemmas perhaps ?

Enjoy Sunday!