• Fo

  Happpppppy Birrrrrrthhhhhhhhhdddddddddayyyyyy Arsene!!

• ArseFan101

  < ![CDATA[Wow, it's Arsene's birthday today. How fitting that the team performed yesterday! Thanks for letting us know!

  Happy Birthday to Arsene!]]>

• http://kierandelaney.net/blog kierandelaney.net/blog

  Yeah, I know he doesn’t read the comments but congratulations all the same Arsene.

• Dan

  < ![CDATA[Of course he does Kieran, where else do you think he gets his ideas for next games line up?

  Happy B Day Wenger. I hope your still here in another 5!]]>

• Paresh

  < ![CDATA[A goalkeeper who can be as brilliant as he is disastrous. Two massively attack-minded full backs. A centre back pairing that has been stripped of an injured captain and contains a player who used to play full back in Manchester. Two good passers of the ball who can't tackle in midfield. A young Englishman on the right and an exciting new purchase on the left. Quick strong centre forward leading the line with a midfield player playing just off him.

  It could be a description of Arsenal or Spurs and yet one of them is in a Champions League spot and just broke an opponents 15 match unbeaten run in the CL and the other is five points adrift at the foot of the table and got a lesson from Stoke last time out (without wanting to denigrate Stoke, it is an easier away game than Istanbul). Even as an Arsenal fan I would admit that our players are not that much better on paper than those at the Lane so what is causing the huge difference in performance?

  Well it is hardly that Arsenal are playing a settled side or a settled formation. I can not think of two games in a row we have managed that, through injuries and rotation. The system and the personal are certainly comparable to one another in most areas as demonstrated above. Both sides lost two first choice players from last season (Berbatov / Keane and Hleb / Flamini) and if anything Spurs have strengthened more this summer. Yet Spurs are 9 places below where they ended last season and Arsenal are in the same position. Surely if the manager has similar resources and plays the same formation and system as his rival but gets significantly poorer results it is time to ask questions about whether the players are performing for him.

  So Spurs fans....do you blame the manager or do you blame the players?]]>

• devday

  Paresh, some interesting points there, but on paper or not, our players are much better than theirs!!!

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