devday
Swansea 3 – 2 Arsenal: 7th loss of the season. Very worrying.
Posted on Sunday Jan 15, 2012 by devday
19 WOA's
Seven losses this season before the end of January makes it a very worrying time for Arsenal at the moment. Having never been out of the top four in the Arsene Wenger era, we’re very very close to it happening this season, without doubt.
The 7 losses this season have been:
- Swansea 3 – 2 Arsenal
- Fulham 2 – 1 Arsenal
- Man City 1 – 0 Arsenal
- Sp*rs 2 – 1 Arsenal
- Blackburn 4 – 3 Arsenal
- Man United 8 – 2 Arsenal
- Arsenal 0 – 2 Liverpool
Despite having injuries to various left backs and right backs, the core part of the squad – the likes of Van Persie, Walcott, Song, Koscielny, Szcznesy and Ramsey are all first choice and good enough to make the team tick. That was the negative part about the result – that we do have talented players, but they are not good enough.
Out of all the missing players, I think Arteta was the key one – Song is used to having the Spaniard next to him and today, it was clear that Benayoun and Ramsey weren’t working as well with him as Arteta would have. We lost the calmness in our midfield and that caused us problems throughout the game.
Our line up was:
Szcznesy
Djourou – Mertersacker – Koscielny – Miquel
Benayoun – Song
Walcott – Ramsey – Arshavin
Van Persie
The missing players, just in case you’d like to know were:
Fabianski, Sagna, Jenkinson, Vermaelen, Santos, Gibbs, Coquelin, Arteta, Wilshere, Diaby, Gervinho, Chamakh
For the goals, Van Persie’s was excellent – the little Russian putting him through and the Dutchman opened the scoring with a sublime right footed shot – but we got instantly complacent which let the home team back into it – and a very strange decision to award Swansea a penalty saw then equalise from the spot – Dyer actually stamped on Ramsey and then was awarded a penalty. Swansea went ahead in the second half when some very good play saw Dyer in and free and he smashed the ball past Szcznesy. We equalised with half an hour to go, through Theo Walcott, good finish and good through ball from Djourou – but seconds later an excellent run from Graham saw Swansea go 3-2 up. Having put Henry, AOC and Rosicky on, we did look much better, but were unable to find the equaliser.
Losing this game was a game we could simply not lose. Arsene needs to have a deep look at the squad and if decide how we can improve. Whether it’s more players, or whether it’s a different approach on the pitch, formation, style, design. We need to do something different. We’re battling it for a Europa spot at the moment with Liverpool and Newcastle and that’s not exactly where we’d like to be.
Arsene seems to be lost at the moment to understand how we’re not performing and spoke after the game:
“I still don’t understand where the referee found the penalty [for Swansea's equaliser], then we defensively made some mistakes that we should not have done. When it was back at 2-2 we knew we could score a third but it was important not to make a mistake. But in the last games we have made mistakes that are difficult to explain. It is unbelievable, it happened at Fulham the same and again today.”
It’s a little worrying when the manager doesn’t quite have the answers.
We’ve got United next week and it’s important to focus on getting our injured players back and looking at our defensive organisation. There are 7 days until the next game, which will leave plenty of time for discussion.
Stay positive.
Til tomorrow.
Can we stay positive?
With this performance, we will see us 7th
or 8th next week.
I know Ramsey is a good and talented player
But I think he is not ready to take the responsibility
Arsenal and Wales put on him, not yet.
He panics, he looses the ball way too much
and in danger places on the pitch.
We need a good experienced attacking midfielder
who can be a role model for him while he polishes
his talent and learns his trend.
Right now, he can be a good, useful squad player.
Not the key player in the middle of the team.
He is not there yet.
agree with Amrigooner. Ramsey has never yet displayed the necessary consistent composure to be starting games.
Where are all the “just trust Wenger, don’t try and second guess him” fans today?
Don’t get me wrong, I love Wenger. He is the footballing version of Yoda. A wise tactician, motivator, and business person.
We all know that it is the board that refuses to loosen the purse strings on the significant funds the club has made from selling our best players. Of course Wenger knows better, but he is the consummate professional and he is towing the corporate line. Don’t blame Wenger. But the board? They are breaking our hearts
please replace ramsey with some else !!! tired with him keep losing the ball. remember 8-2 game at manchester?
@ prime:
I don’t want us to lose Ramsey at all.
He has great talent in him and in a few years,
I beleive he will be one of the best midfeilders around.
We should be patient with him because he is still an unfinished
product yet. But, being patient doesn’t necessarily mean being
patient with him on the pitch making all those mistakes costing
the team valuable points.
Many times, Wenger refuses to bring players in to avoid inturreption
of young players’ progress.
I beleive, sometimes, we should bring players who can help the team
and HELP the progress of the young players.
The pressure on Ramsey in that role at his age is holding him back
in my opinion and doesn’t allow him to progress normally.
Wenger? A wise tactician?
You must be kidding. His tactics is: go on, boys, you know the numbers, play as you wish.
Motivator? I’d motivate my chair to play football better that he does to his team.
@ AmriGooner:
Very true – Ramsey loses the ball in VERY dangerous positions.
He is an attacking player – and should be played further up the field. Unfortunately though, we’re so short in midfield that we’re asking him to cover.
I have never been one of the “Wenger out” brigade, but& it’s becoming more and more convincing. I always figured that Arsène needed to change a FEW SIMPLE things, but he has continually failed to even SEE our issues let alone make the required changes. And then it hit me – what if he’s just not able to? What if he has taken us as far as his weary legs can? There’s absolutely no shame in that – after all, people like Martin Luther King, William Wallace and Moses didn’t make it all the way to the “Promised Land”. When we attain that seemingly elusive “self sustainability”, I’m sure he’ll get the credit for his contributions. But please& let’s consider that perhaps he has run out of ideas and has become a liability to the club (against his intentions, I’m sure), and would do more for the club at this point if he made way for some fresh ideas. I think he has survived enough on the merits of his previous achievements, but we must now act solely in the interests of the club, look forward, and create new history.
Wenger can lose every game for the rest of the season and it would not matter. Results are not important “winning things isn’t everything” is what Wenger said and what did the board say about that remark ? Nothing ! No, as long as he is making profit that is all that matters. The key problem here is not the board or the manager its the people who renew their season tickets every season and the people who pay to watch this garbage every home game. As long as they have money coming in the board will not give a toss about results – the key to change lies with the fans.
Just read it:
The 7 losses this season have been:
Swansea 3 – 2 Arsenal
Fulham 2 – 1 Arsenal
Man City 1 – 0 Arsenal
Sp*rs 2 – 1 Arsenal
Blackburn 4 – 3 Arsenal
Man United 8 – 2 Arsenal
Arsenal 0 – 2 Liverpool
WOW!
For a guy that doesn’t like to lose, he does it very often!
WEll well well, what do we have here another pathetic loss and the dunce manager is blaming ref’s. Well as i said before until this vermin is not got rid of we can accept the dross that we have. I expect man u to thump this team to pieces. crush them and batter that wengers ego.
What we are left with is, for the most part, a highly overpaid bunch of underachievers who cannot perform to the levels they are capable of on a consistent basis. For a few weeks in the autumn, things were looking up, but reality has bitten us on the backside even earlier than is traditional. There are a handful of decent players, but the squad needs an overhaul, and specifically more leadership, so that should the likes of Vermaelen be absent, there is someone on the pitch doing the job the team is crying out for. Van Persie may or may not be a good club captain, but he isn’t going to sort out the defensive side of Arsenal’s game. And if he has any footballing ambition, he will only be a one season captain anyway.
The manager is at a loss to explain the lack of focus in his players. I’d suggest his methods are probably the reason for it. Is anyone going to have a word?
I can’t believe how pissed off am getting at this team. Constantly under performing and the lack of heart to play for the shirt on their backs.
Frankly I’m coming to the end of the line myself. I really want things to change. Either the management structure or the board as things are going from worse to pathetic, we bypassed bad to worse. This includes some of the players. If they’re not good enough get them out. No more Mr Nice Guy. You either perform to your ability and if its not good enough then take care and goodbye.
Richest Club in North London and we have that to show for it.
I said it at the start of the season. Too much pressure is gonna be put on ramsey’s shoulders this year. it’s the guys first full season playing first team premiership football, having had a bad injury.
We’re actually very lucky ramsey or arteta haven’t picked up a big injury yet, given both there pasts. I’m not sure what’s in mind if they do. Frimpong and lansbury are out on loan, diaby can only manage one game every 3 month and rosicky quite frankly shouldn’t even be wearing the shirt after his performance at old trafford. he’s well past it anyway. yossi benayoun is never gonna give you any sort of bite playing centrally.
Also. Can someone please tell me why mertersacker is so bad? wow. people told me he was sh1t but i wouldn’t have it, after all, you can’t win all those caps for germany without being decent. well, as it turns out, you can, because he is terrible. the guy can’t jump and goes down like a bag of sh1t anytime anyone goes anywhere near him. oh yeah, and he’s even slower than JD.
out of all our panic buys on the last day of the transfer window, only arteta has been worthwhile. i could understand the benayoun signing, and to be fair, he hasn’t had much of a chance. the rest were never going to be good enough were they. shades of chris kiwomya, mamma harteson and glenn helder before GG vacated the position. Question is, how long will we have to put up with these clowns before wenger finally admits he made another few transfer blunders?
Deja vu, we play man utd again toward the end of the transfer window. how many do they have to put past us this time before we sign somebody? You buy sh1te, you buy twice. or in wengers case, you buy sh1te, you replace with more sh1te, replace again with sh1te, and then maybe sign a half decent player. very economical.
to be fair, i don’t think we’ll lose next week. but top four is still looking unlikely. that will have major ramifications.
Wenger says Arshavin is still an efficient player, I wonder what he sees that i dont !
if we win next week it would be a relief…if…
Wenger is the problem – period. has been since 2005
The win on sunday would simply paper over the cracks
Alex would probably be our 2nd best cb if he signed for us. he’s a good defender. a bit surprised chelsea are letting him go but is suppose ivanovic and luiz both have youth on their side and terry is their captain. QPR, i thought someone bigger than that would have snapped him up. i guess they have money though.
still below the age of 30 as well. i’d be tempted to buy him and bin JD off. I’m now of the opinion that JD won’t be up to scratch despite looking good last season. Binning him off and bringing in alex would make good sense to me. alex being in his late 20s wouldn’t stand in the way of bartley and miquel for too long either.
who’s the LB we are supposed to be close to getting on loan? my money’s on bridge.