2011 started on just the right note for all of us in the Gooner Nation, three points and three unanswered goals against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s. The win in the Midlands capped off a satisfactory Christmas/New Year run of three games with Manchester Citeh still to come on Wednesday night at the Grove. That’s another six pointer if we’re to maintain our challenge in the League.
The draw in the north-west against Wigan Athletic was very frustrating. Still at least we got a point there which is more than we got last season. It was a game we could and should have won however.
Having reflected on the Chelsea game I think the result spoke as much about their decline as a force as it did about our ascent. Yes, we have made some improvements over last season but the same vulnerabilities to the ball in the air into our box, goalkeeping, tactical awareness, discipline and team defending still remain. We also remain dogged by injuries.
This can appear worse than the problem once was due to players not been risked in these times of big squads than would have been the case even twenty years ago. Go back forty years and players who could hardly run were hopped up with pain-killing injections and sent out to play. We now know that many players whose performance we berated at the time from the stands and terraces were playing through crippling injuries. I happen to think players not having to play hurt is progress. So many retired players from that era now live with constant pain and disability through having played when they shouldn’t have.
I remember watching the 1980 European Cup Final in Madrid between Nottingham Forest and Hamburger SV. Two things remain fixed in my mind. The first is Forest and Scotland central defender Kenny Burns kicking lumps off Hamburg’s England international and two-time European Footballer of the Year Kevin Keegan every time the latter went anywhere near the ball. Burns wouldn’t have lasted more than half an hour under the current interpretation of the laws. The referee would have had him off. He would have been right too in my view.
The second was Hamburger SV’s West German international centre-forward Horst Hrubesch who had been unable to be selected for his club’s starting eleven due to injury being given cortisone injections in his injured knee on the touchline before coming on as a substitute to try and save the game. The ploy didn’t work and Forest were crowned European champions for the second consecutive season, having only been promoted from the old Football League Second Division (now the Football League Championship) three seasons earlier as runners-up.
Under one of Europe’s great managers Brian Clough, ably assisted by Peter Taylor, a small provincial club conquered the game’s commanding heights. It’s very difficult to see that happening today with the concentration of digital subscription television being concentrated in so few hands, including ours.
It was also a very different era in that England had only just opened its doors to non British and Irish players the previous season in 1978/79 after the World Cup in Argentina. The regulations then restricted the number of non British Isles players to two. Likewise the regulations applying in Germany only permitted two non German players at each club.
In an era before the television billions, how many and what quality of players a club could put on the field was restricted not only by the curbs on foreigners but also the size of their gate takings from punters actually attending their games. Commercial and broadcasting income was tiny. Gate takings were king.
I’m not a football Luddite. I don’t want to go back to that era. I would have wished however that the game had prepared itself better and had a real vision for the distribution of the new waves of income into the game for a far more universal benefit than has been the case here in Blighty and elsewhere. It is a contradiction that in an era when the game has riches inconceivable even three decades ago that more and more clubs are in financial trouble through spending money they don’t have.
So what can we expect from the remainder of this season? We have to be optimistic about our first competitive appearance at the new Wembley in the Carling Cup Final at the end of February. With all due respect, Ipswich Town beating us over two legs in the semi-finals, the second of which is at home, would be major shock. We have to ensure that confidence doesn’t spill over into arrogance though. If we think we only have to turn up to win the tie then we won’t. I hope that’s a lesson we’ve learnt by now.
If we do go through we’ll face either Birmingham City or West Ham United in the Final. We would have good chances of beating either team. Likewise we must be favourites to beat Leeds United, a club which is a classic illustration of much of what ails the modern game. From the Champions League semi-finals to the third tier of the professional game in England and Wales is what happens when you spend money you don’t have like a drunken sailor on shore leave. Likewise the club’s ownership by the odious Ken Bates, a man who has now owned three football clubs, Oldham Athletic, Chelsea and Leeds United. He is an ill-mannered loutish bully whose only loyalty is to his own wallet. He and his like are a pox on the beautiful game.
If we win through to the FA Cup fourth round then future progress will be dictated by the draw and other demands on our playing resources in the other two competitions we’re still in, the Premier League and the Champions League.
We face an uphill battle against FC Barcelona in the Champions League. They comprehensively dismembered us last season. Again the second leg is away in the Camp Nou which makes the task facing us even harder. Under José Mourinho, the new George Graham, Internazionale showed that Barcelona can be stopped. In a fashion typical of his teams, Inter threw a stifling defensive net over the Catalan giants in the semi-finals, going on to beat Bayern Munich in the Estadio Bernabéu in Madrid. No doubt this was to the considerable relief of Real Madrid fans who would never have been allowed to hear the end of it if Barça had won European football’s biggest prize in the home of their greatest rivals. Just think how it hurt Spurs when we won the League at White Hart Lane in 1971 and 2004, delicious memories for all of us citizens of the Gooner Republic.
If we do manage to beat Barça and qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals it will be a real achievement. Likewise if we maintain our challenge for our first League title since The Invincibles season of 2003/4. I confess I have real doubts however. I’m not suggesting that we try and change our style to that of Inter or Chelsea under José Mourinho. We do need to get a little more balance, tactical discipline and concentration in our game though. I’m also now convinced that Łukasz Fabiański isn’t going to be the long-term answer for us in goal.
Fabiański doesn’t command the ball in the air into his box nearly as well as all top goalies do, nor does he command his defence. In my view we’re still trying to replace David Seaman, the last goalie we had in whom I reposed complete faith. Jens Lehmann had his moments. He could be an excellent goalie and has his place in the Arsenal pantheon as a member of The Invincibles. He had an outstanding season in 2005/6 on our run to the Champions League Final in Paris in 2006, capping it off with winning a starting place in the German national team that won the bronze medal in the 2006 World Cup on native soil in Germany.
He was however inclined to occasional implosions, three come to mind, all in the Champions League, away in Kiev against Dynamo, away at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea and in the Final against Barcelona in the Final at the Stade de France which led to his dismissal. He was also a complete bread ‘n’ butter. Lehmann was however the closest we’ve come to replacing David Seaman, albeit a very hard act to follow. The only team I can ever remember who were good enough to get away with a sub-par goalie was Brazil at the World Cup in Mexico in 1970.
The lapses of the occasionally hapless Felix were more than made up for with what was quite simply the most exciting potent attacking force I’ve ever seen. The clash between them and England in Guadalajara in the Estadio Jalisco, including THAT save by Gordon Banks from Pelé, and the iconic post match photo of Pelé and England captain Bobby Moore embracing and shaking hands whist swapping shirts is a great, great football memory – and I say that as a proud Welshman.
There is an old football cliché that attack wins games but defence wins trophies. We have to bear that in mind as we enter the New Year and embark towards the business end of the current season. We simply must find a way to ascend from the plateau upon which we have become becalmed towards the game’s commanding summit.
I don’t expect much inward activity in the winter transfer window. I remain convinced that our problems are far more concentrated in the area of tactics, mental toughness and discipline that they are in deficiencies in the playing squad. Liverpool remains a classic example of how easy it is to waste money in the transfer market. I remain baffled at the veneration displayed by so many Liverpool supporters towards Rafa Benítez, newly unemployed after a short and what I always thought would be a doomed spell at the San Siro managing Internazionale.
Yes, he took the club to its fifth European Cup/Champions League triumph in Istanbul in 2005 and to another final, this time unsuccessful in Athens in 2007. But he cluttered the club with unsuccessful and expensive player signings. I’ve never been convinced about his tactical abilities either. Under his management his constant tinkering, not only with team selection but also tactics always seemed to lead to the team never quite being on the same page to me.
We could be doing a lot worse than we are. As Gooners we sometimes lack a sense of perspective and proportion. We’re far from the finished article at the moment. There are challenges to be addressed both on and off the field. Let’s do our part from the stands and give all the support we can towards the goal we all share – success and trophies for our beloved club.
Keep the faith!
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