It’s going to be a strange week for Arsene Wenger. After a setback like the one against Villa you want to get your players on the training ground and work them that little bit harder, but with a round of meaningless international friendlies in midweek he’s going to find a lot of his players away.
While it would have been a good time to work on the defence his entire ‘first choice’ back four of Sagna, Clichy, Gallas and Sylvester are away (well, Sagna would have been but he’s now out injured for three weeks and won’t be available).
Nasri will be gone with France, van Persie with Holland, Cesc with Spain, the two Ivorians will be gone, Fabianski will be with the Polish squad, Walcott with England, Ramsey with Wales, Bendtner with Denmark and Djourou with Switzerland. So he’ll have a rag-taggle bunch of players on the training ground and with the others not due back until the Thursday he’ll only have Friday to work with them ahead of the Man City game.
Hardly the ideal preparation but then a solid week’s work after the United game didn’t seem to do much good, did it? Manuel Almunia has described the performance against Villa as ’embarrassing’ and I suppose it’s good that there’s that level of honesty amongst the players. What exactly will be done about it remains to be seen.
Former Arsenal player Steve Sidwell, part of the Villa side which won on Saturday, said:
You look at the top four and you come to Arsenal thinking you can pick up points. That’s how it looks to me. You can get points at Arsenal. I believe you play Arsenal home and away and think you can get a result.
There was a time when teams were beaten before we even got on the pitch. Now, I’m not stupid enough to think that lasts forever but the perception that we’re a soft touch hurts a bit, I have to say. I’m not blind to the problems of my team or its players but I get all defensive when someone else starts pointing out what’s wrong with us. I do not like it. It’s just the way of the football fan, I suppose. I can listen to any other Arsenal fan criticise the team or point out its flaws but if I hear Alan Hansen making the exact same point I want to press his face on a hot frying pan and hear that Scottish sizzle.
We’ll be without Cesc for the Man City game too as he has picked up five yellow cards and gets an automatic one match suspension. Goonerholic suggests sending him back home for a bit to let him recharge his batteries so he can come back nice and refreshed. In one way it’s a nice idea but ultimately when he comes back the problems will remain, in my opinion.
Cecs is going through probably the worst run of form since he broke into the first team. He looks sluggish and lethargic and he looks like a player who isn’t enjoying his football at the moment. He looks worn out and I don’t think the players he has around him make it any easier for him to get himself out of this slump. It’s easier to lift yourself when you’ve got quality around you and with the greatest of respect to Denilson I don’t think he’s ready yet (but I maintain he could be a good player if he were to brought through more slowly and able to learn from more experienced players) – and I look at central midfielders of not too long ago and I just do not understand what the manager sees in Alex Song.
We have a wonderfully gifted player in Cesc but I don’t believe we’re doing, or have done, as much as we should to get the best out of him. Yes, he can play better but it seems as if he doesn’t have the confidence in his young midfield partners that he did in Gilberto or Flamini (whose style of play did so much to make Cesc so good last season – even if Flamini were to have left then he should have been replaced with a similar player). I’m sure he was disappointed when we failed to sign Xabi Alonso this summer, having talked up his Spanish colleague in interviews. We know that Arsenal wanted him but for the sake of, perhaps, a million or two, we didn’t make the purchase.
So while sending him back for some home cooking might not be the worst thing in the world I’m not sure it’s the full answer. What is clear though is that we need Cesc to find his form again and quickly. There’s nothing the manager can do in the transfer market until January (that’s if he does anything at all) and there’s a lot of football between now and then.
Sorry for the glum start to the week but what can you do? This is Glummy McGlum reporting from Glumtown for Glum TV.
