february 3rd
Well the internet drought didn’t last as long as I thought it was going to. I could write a lengthy rant about Telefonica, Terra and how long it takes to get anything done in this country but there are more important things to rant talk about just at the moment. Again thanks to Tom for writing yesterday’s blog – it’s never easy to write when you’re sick to your stomach after a game like that.
I’m not going to go over the game again or look at individual performances. That’s been done a hundred times over on all the Arsenal websites and forums – although I did like Goodplaya’s analysis of United’s disciplinary record. What we can do now is draw some conclusions as to the rest of our season and the summer coming up.
With the best will in the world there’s no chance of us catching Chelsea at this stage. That means we have two trophies still to play for and while the league will remain the bread and butter – and we have to ensure we keep fighting for second place – perhaps a bit more focus can be put on the two cup competitions, especially the Champions League. It’s been an ambition for the manager, the club, the players and the fans for a number of seasons now and if there was ever a time to really go for it then this is it. What have we got to lose?
The manager has some big decisions to make now. I think the first one has to be whether or not to bring back Jens Lehmann. Obviously he doesn’t see him as the long term occupant of the number one shirt – that’s something I’ll look at later – but in the here and now he’s the best goalkeeper we have at the club. Almunia seems like a nice guy and maybe some of the players prefer when he plays because he won’t shout and scream at them like Jens does but if we really want to have a crack at the CL then we need an experienced keeper and that’s Jens.
Manuel looked scared out of his shit in the tunnel before the game last night and with the greatest of respect to him his top-flight experience is pretty limited. Yes Lehmann made a couple of mistakes but show me a keeper who hasn’t. He certainly wouldn’t have gone scuttling out of his goal like Almunia did to hand United their third goal last night. Obviously something went on between him and Arsene Wenger but it’s time that either, or both, of them swallowed their pride and concentrated on making us more solid at the back for the rest of the season.
Now the back, that’s where we’ve had a lot of problems this season. Arsene Wenger has said as much himself. We’ve conceded 29 goals in 25 Premiership games, already 3 more than we conceded in the whole of last season’s league campaign. I think last season most of us did a little dance or sacrificed small animals because for the most part our back four picked itself and was ever-present. Certainly in the centre of defence we were lucky with injuries. Sol and Kolo were a brilliant partnership and I have no doubt they were a major factor in going unbeaten. This season we haven’t been so lucky. Sol’s season has been stop-start (his rustiness was quite apparent on a couple of occasions last night), Lauren has been injured, Senderos has been unlucky and picked up injuries at the times he might have got games, Cygan has been injured and we just haven’t had the solidity of last time round.
But it wouldn’t be fair to blame it all on the defence. We’ve also missed to extremely good players in central midfield for most of the season. Edu and Gilberto are both top class players, vastly experienced and as good as Cesc and Flamini are, and they are both very good indeed, any team would miss Edu and Gilberto for as long as we’ve missed them. They protect the back four, they give us composure and decision making in midfield and being without both of them has made life more difficult for us, without question. Obviously you can’t legislate for Gilberto’s injury but Edu’s contract situation could have been sorted out in the summer if the club really wanted to. I’m not apportioning any blame but we could have done with Edu in the last 4 or 5 weeks and he has been fully fit for quite some time. As well as that I feel we’ve lacked leadership in the middle of the park and while some of Vieira’s performances lately have been a vast improvement on previous he still doesn’t strike me as being happy where he is. Where are the crunching tackles? Where’s the bite and commitment we’ve seen from him since he made his debut? I wish I had the answer and I wish I knew why he was supposed to have flown to Madrid the morning after the Manchester United game.
Thierry Henry feels the squad doesn’t have enough depth and I would tend to agree with him. There’s no question we have some exceptional young players at the club and I’ve argued myself that signing established players in their positions would hinder their progress but this summer is going to be a very interesting one for us and for Arsene Wenger. He’s simply got to improve the squad in key positions. In my opinion we need a goalkeeper, a centre-half, a central midfielder and possibly a striker. As well as he played last night Dennis doesn’t have 90 minutes in him week in, week out. If this season is to be his last at the club then it leaves Henry, van Persie, Reyes (maybe as a forward), Bentley and Aliadiere as the forward line. With respect to the last two I don’t think they’ll make it at Arsenal so a signing becomes necessary. In injury to Henry and we’re shafted.
We need to sign a goalkeeper in his mid-20s who will be part of the club for the next 10 years. A long-term quality nvestment is what’s needed here. I don’t know enough about the world goalkeeping scene but it strikes me that Hildeogdenbrand of Stuttgart looks about right. Hotly tipped to be next German number one, he’s free and he’s the right age. With regards the other positions we can all speculate until the cows come home. Throw out all the names you like – van Bommell, Mascherano, Essien, Dellas and so on – and we’ll be linked to them, no doubt. What absolutely has to happen in the summer though is that if Arsene Wenger wants money to spend on top quality players then that money has to be made available to him. No arguments. Forget about urinal cakes at the Grove if needs be but give him the fucking cash. According to PHW the cash is there already but the boss didn’t want to spend for the sake of spending in January – I assume this means he has some very definite targets for the summer and wants to wait until then.
So what has to happen between now and the end of the season? Some bonding for a start. There was a very obvious unity and comradery between the players last season that’s not so obvious now. Petty differences between players have to be put aside for the good of the team. The experienced players have to stand up and be counted. Nobody can shirk the physical side of the game. If there’s a ball to be won but it might hurt win the ball first and worry about the pain afterwards. There are still 13 games to go and even if we can’t finish first it would be lovely to finish above United. Without sounding like a management consultant the team need common goals and they need to focus on those goals with 100% commitment. That means no secret meetings with other teams and managers a couple of days before crunch games, it means no more squabbling about who’s better than who, no flying off here there and everywhere, it means helping each other, it means doing things the way Arsenal players should always do things.
This is our squad until the end of the season. There’s nothing we can do to change it or improve it now. If they can get it together and show the kind of spirit and desire we know they’re capable of then I’m sure every single Arsenal fan will get behind them all the way and give them the help and encouragement they’ll need to achieve the things they’ll now set out to achieve. Remember this team was ‘unbeatable’, ‘invincible’ and ‘all-conquering’ as recently as October. Football pundits who over-exaggerated our performances back then are the ficklest bunch you’ll ever meet, just dying to replace the superlatives with their old favourites ‘crisis’, ‘shambles’ and ‘defeat’. Yes we’ve got some problems but there’s still enough quality in this team that if everyone does their job the way they should then winning something is not out of the question this season. It’s hard to cope with losing when you haven’t lost for such a long time but it’s not the end of the world provided you learn from it. There’s still lots to play for. Let’s go for it.
And finally in a quick round-up of stories: Sol Campbell is out for 10 days with an ankle ligament problem, Freddie didn’t like being loafed by Silvestre, Arturo Lupoli bags two more as Arsenal reserves beat Crystal Palace reserves 2-0 and who the hell is that with Dennis after his goal the other night (thanks to Oliver for that one)?
