january 16th
I’m writing this in a lot of pain having played 90 minutes of footbal yesterday, drank the bar dry of Mojitos and having watched Arsenal play Bolton. 1200mgs of some of -buprofen should help with the pain in my limbs and head but they won’t do much for the pain of seeing Arsenal’s title slip away so early in the season. I know there are still 15 games to go and Chelsea still have to play us, United and Liverpool but I don’t see them slipping up in Newcastle fashion.
Bolton scored late in the first half, unusually sloppy defending from Sol allowed Jonny Spitalot to get a cross in, Almunia flapped and missed and the Bolton player beat our defender to the ball to head home from close range.
We had some chances through Robin van Persie and only Robert Pires will know how he managed to head wide from 6 feet after some good work from Henry and a decent save from Jaaskelainen rebounded to him. Thierry also had a chance, the kind he normally puts away in his sleep, but he seemed to take it a bit early when maybe he could have gone on with it. You knew then, if you didn’t already, that it wasn’t going to be our day.
Overall it was a pretty poor performance but these things happen over a season. However, in my opinion there are some fundamental weaknesses in the side this season and it’s not anything to do with young players or lack of signings. If anything typified what I’m talking about it came very late in the second half, almost into injury time. We were putting some serious pressure on Bolton and they headed clear from their area. Vieira was waiting for the ball with a Bolton player, it was about midway between the centre circle and their penalty box and our captain, the man who talks all the time about how he’s going to lead by example with his football, didn’t even challenge for the ball. He didn’t jump, he didn’t make it in any way difficult for the Bolton player, and they took possession.
We lack leadership on the pitch. Vieira quite obviously can’t provide that. I expressed the opinion here in the summer that should he stay after batting his eyelids and dropping his pants at Madrid he shouldn’t be captain of the team. I stand by that and honestly I think we’d have been better off if he’d gone. We’d have had £20m and time to buy a quality replacement. His performances this season have been so far below what’s expected from him to be laughable but anyone can have a run of poor form. What I can’t abide is a lack of effort and I’m now very tired of seeing Vieira with his hands on his hips ahead of the ball leaving a 17 year old to cover for him in central midfield. I’m tired of reading newspapers about how he’s going to get going, how he’s going to lead this Arsenal side by example then see him stroll back watching the opposition charge towards our penalty area. It’s no wonder we lost yesterday if that’s the kind of example he’s setting. He’s not Zidane, he’s not creative really, but he seems to think he’s the guy who should stand and wait for the ball to come to him so he can do some magic. What he is, or maybe what he was, is a fantastic defensive midfielder and the sooner somebody tells him to do that job the better. We can’t afford to suffer his vanities any more.
Ashely Cole or Thierry Henry should be made captain.
I also think we’re weak in goals. I know we’ve had a decent enough run with Almunia in goal and he seems like a nice guy and all but he’s not the kind of keeper top teams have. We need to find somebody who’s going to play for us long-term. We need to find a good young talent and bring him in as soon as possible. We don’t need someone like Edwin van der Sar who is 34 years old and as error prone as Lehmann or Almunia. Maybe we need to wait until the summer to do this but I’d prefer to coninue with what we have than make a panic signing like van der Sar. Finding a new keeper has to be a priority though. In the meantime I’d like to see Lehmann back in the team.
Now, as negative as all that is there’s still a lot to play for this season. There is the slight chance that Chelsea will buckle like a French airport terminal and we’ve got to keep the pressure up as much as possible and just hope. There’s the Champions League and the FA Cup so it’s not all doom and gloom but there’s a funny air around the club at the moment and I hope the boss can sort it out as soon possible.
Now, I have to go and eat some more tablets and drink more orange juice before I collapse. Have a good Sunday.
