As you will all know by now, Arsenal reached a new low today having led Newcastle 4-0 up til the 67th minute only to leave St James’ Park with a draw.
Times like this are incredibly painful and difficult for gooners, who look to the blogs for support, to see what we’re all feeling, to feel like we’re not alone in our misery.
I think it would help if Arsene Wenger could be more critical of the players at times like this, rather than putting their well-being first. Obviously a big part of his job is to keep morale up and make it easy for them to recover from disappointment, but there are limits.
How many of you are actually THAT surprised by the result? If you had to pick any team in this league, and perhaps the world, to draw a game from 4-0 up, wouldn’t it obviously be Wenger’s Arsenal? If this EVER happens to a team managed by Sir Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho I will change my name to Igor Stepanovs.
I know that, bizarrely enough, we actually gained ground on United today after they lost to Wolves (no unbeaten season for you, you bastards), and yes, United, Chelsea, Man City, Barca, Real Madrid and all the big teams out there LOSE games to teams they shouldn’t lose to sometimes, but would they ever blow a 4-0 lead? Or even a 2-0 lead? Although I don’t know the numbers, United’s record at winning games after they take even a 1-0 lead has been very good in the Premier League era.
So why does Wenger so ruthlessly side with his players? His post-match interviews get more inventive all the time, and here is today’s effort:
“We were worried too much on protecting our lead after that because we were down to ten men. Instead of continuing to play, we invited pressure. Afterwards we were very unlucky with some decisions as well. I cannot do anything about that.”
Whose fault is it that a team feels uneasy about protecting a 4-0 lead?? This is HIS team ONLY, he takes the praise for it when it goes well, so he has to take the criticism on days like this. HE wanted to build a team of players from a young age. HE signs them, HE has made them the players they are today; brilliant at football, but an absolutely SHOCKING lack of winning mentality.
“It was a completely unnecessary sending off and I believe Barton was very lucky to stay on the pitch because of his tackle on Diaby.”
Wrong. If Diaby reacts like that, whatever his reasons may be (it wouldn’t surprise me if Barton said something provocative), then he has to go. Perhaps Barton should have as well, but it’s not like we haven’t won games with ten men before. Where was the spirit that once existed at Arsenal, when in 2001 the team went down to ten men at Anfield quite early and went on to win 2-1?
“I was surprised by both [penalty] decisions. But I am not the referee and I don’t think my opinion is very important now because we cannot come back and change it.”
I’ll give you the first one, Arsene, but not the second. I’m much more surprised by the fact that you give Tomas Rosicky money to play football and his only contributions today were to bring down a player going nowhere dangerous, and to fail to do the most simple thing of kicking a ball hard enough to clear it before conceding a stupid free-kick for the equaliser. Some gooners think Wenger is good with money, yet he offers long-term big-money contracts to the likes of Rosicky, Almunia Eboue, Denilson and Squillaci. Nice one.
Treat the fans with some respect, and admit that Rosicky can’t play at this level, and that Squillaci is a wimp for moving out of the way of Tiote’s shot.
Do something to stop this distance between the club and the fans growing any further.
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