• Berth

  Tottz empires crumble.

• sean

  ltimately unsurprised by the result aswell as the dire performances from
  Gervinho and Ramsay. On the bright side, seing Rosicky back to his old
  self is good to see, and that young Meade kid, great to see players
  like that come through. I still have faith In Chamakh and believe that a
  run of games is what he needs to be of some use to us. Can’t be much
  worse than Gervinho of whom I have lost all faith In . Still waiting on
  Ramsay to produce his best form but I forgot he hasn’t reached the final
  year of his contract just yet. As for January Transfers, A bid for
  Hangeland really shouldn’t go amiss, should It?Anyone know If there is
  any truth in the strikers we are being linked to? (Huntelaar, Llorente,
  Lopez, etc.) Am I mistaken or are we not already equipped in that
  department in Wenger’s mind?

• Arsefan101

  Looking at the current team, who would get into Man City’s line-up?

  Maybe Jack Wilshere if he gets back to full fitness but unfortunately, I can’t think of anyone else.

• german

  The Arsenal empire is dis-integrating faster than we can watch it!!

• dean

  Watched last night in dismay. Our team is terrible. Rosicky was the only
  positive along with Meade who was on his first senior début so
  congratulations to him. Jenkinson did ok also. But as for the rest its
  very worrying. The Verminator should be renamed somethign else, where
  are the animal instincts gone? the OX has been converted to a lamb,
  worringly his progress path is beginning to mirror that of Walcoot.
  Gervhino is the only winger when in a one on one situation will never
  try to get past the oppposition, happy to run up the wing while defender
  easily shields him from the inside. Infact the only time I see Gervhino
  try and go past is when there are 3 or more defenders and it is
  physically impossible to get the ball past them even had it been shot
  out of a cannon. Ramsey is an articulated likeable young player, but at
  the moment he is useless. Gives away the ball more than most, has no
  positioning and his defending abilities are utter tosh. I don’t think he
  will ever amount to much, I hope he proves me wrong but for last 2
  years has done nothing. I don’t want replies about his injury, thats
  over and done with its about time he pulled up his socks. No point in
  point fingers at Squillachi and Chamack, any players who hadn’t played
  in so long weren’t going to come in and make much of an impression.

• sevin

  look, we’ve qualified for the knock-out stages with that squad. I
  think I’d be far more peeved if, for example, I supported a club who
  spent a millionty-bazillion on players with petrocash and didn’t manage a
  single win in the group stages. The only oil we have is the stuff
  plastered on the top of Chamakh’s head. So a little perspective is no
  bad thing. We might well be struggling but we’ve done what we needed to
  do in this competition so far.

  Some may complain that finishing second will give us a more difficult
  draw for the knock-out stages, which may be true, but winning the group
  would put is in the same pot as Real Madrid as much as second sticks us
  in with Barcelona. Depending on results we could get Malaga or we could
  get Bayern Munich. Whoever we draw it’s going to be a tough game,
  especially given the state we’re in at the moment, but it’ll be the new
  year when that game takes place and with some January additions maybe it
  won’t all seem so scary.

• sevin

  forget man city…that’s a different ball game..let’s first tackle the likes of stoke, west ham, west brom and more seriously liverpool…i seriously feel wenger is the problem and not the team…he cannot seem to muster any courage out of the players

• BergkampGooner

  So Tottz, the question is should Wenger stay or should he go?

• worldofarsenal

  There are some interesting points there.

  I do think Man City have an excellent group of players, and it’s safe to say a lot of their players would walk into our side. However, the reality is that it is two different ball games.

• limet

  Third or fourth isn’t good enough and the fans have become brainwashed
  into thinking its a great result. Lee Dixon hit the nail on the head in his assessment of whats happened at the club and it needs
  to change. I only had the volume on at H/T and F/T because I can’t bear
  listening to Andy Townsend calling Szczesny Sir Chesney all night. We
  are as you rightly say only 5 points off of third as was the case last
  year, problem is the other teams are getting stronger and Arsenal are
  going backwards, not necessarily quickly, just a little every season,
  buts that’s been the case for the last 8 years which leaves us what we
  are now, a team capable of playing really good football but incapable of
  challenging for a major trophy.

• limet

  Crisis you exclaim, what crisis, after selling their best players every year for the last 8
  it’s exactly what everyone expected to happen, Arsenal would become a
  very rich team that struggles. Don’t despair though, once again yet
  another annually re-built team will get stronger in the final half of
  the season, pinch fourth spot in the league, and then it all starts over
  again with even more money in the bank and more players sold. Bill
  Murray should be Wenger’s assistant, he knows all about Groundhog Day.

• sevin

  Like so many they start following Arsenal after a triumph in this case
  the double.I became an Arsenal fan in 1975 just after we had finished
  16th.
  If it’s purely about the way the club is run,then what you are saying is
  you want Arsenal to be like Citeh,Manure and the Chavs and just buy
  trophies which any true Arsenal fan should detest.
  Is it really that tough following Arsenal even when Arsenal are at their
  worst they were still better than 90% of the other teams to watch.
  The Hornbyesque it’s so difficult and I am so loyal to follow Arsenal is
  ridiculous,It’s easy following The Arsenal.
  Having to travel up and down the country to watch Stoke West Ham or
  Sunderland,now that would be hard.
  It all boils down to the fact that Arsenal are struggling and the WOB’s
  don’t have the backbone to handle it.
  Listening to them weep to the oh so pleased Adrian Durham last night on
  talk sport was so amusing.
  At least a couple Wenger supporters rang in to put them straight,even
  though as usual they were not listened to. As I have said before the
  media has an agenda they want Usmanov in and they use the weak Wob’s and
  people like Stewat Robson,Piers Morgan,Frank Mclintock and talk sport
  in particular to achieve their aims.
  How often do you hear these people say.”I feel sorry for the Arsenal
  fans,” and many Arsenal fans fall right into their trap.
  As my grandad would say “Up the Gunners”.

• chris

  it is rather amazing how many illiterates claim to be arsenal fans (i
  used to think that was a chelsea thing). only an illiterate will carry
  on with these ‘AKB’ or ‘WOB’ babble: if you are an arsenal fan, you are
  an arsenal fan pronto! you can express an opinion for or against the
  team, management, board or the color of the sky during the last game; or
  whatever you wish to express an opinion about. People can agree or
  disagree (it’s a free world); but those who come on here just to label
  others as ‘AKBs’ or ‘WOBs’ or whatever other fanciful acronymn are
  simply illiterates and are simply a minority as i have been going to the
  games for over 30 years now and majority of the fans i have sat next to
  over the years have been very intelligent, literate and i wish those
  folks can join the onlinegooner forum so we can move away from what we
  currently have, which is a majority of illiterates who only seek a
  cowardly outlet for their anger or issues elsewhere.
  Arsenal as a club needs a change; there isnt any other way to look at
  it. for years we wondered who could replace wenger; now there are a few
  credible managers out there (e.g. Pep Guardiola) but the unfortunate
  circumstances are that such managers may struggle to please a board that
  is used to having a golden donkey (wenger) who transformed from a
  winning-manager to a money-making machine
  eitherway, let’s put the club first; continue to give 100% support and
  have less of these self-centred rubbish about ‘divorce’ or ‘protesting
  mid-season’ and all those counter-productive crap that usually indicates
  a high level of illiteracy!

• sevin

  you’re having a laugh if you think I’m bitter like you anti-Wenger
  brigade. I’m not the one abusing a man who has given so much for the
  club and poisoning people’s minds with their negativity. Some of you lot
  even go as far as wanting the club to lose matches, because it might
  have a slight chance that the man you hate so much will get the sack.
  You lot should look in the mirror before calling someone bitter. I don’t
  fear change, but I find it amusing you “Wenger Out” rabble think it’s
  so easy to manage a football like the armchair managers you people
  really are. Wanting ridiculous requests like bringing in overrated
  managers and wanting to spend millions on players that will put Arsenal
  into further debt. Anyway, another one bites the dust, Chelsea is out of
  the Champions League. It’s funny cause a lot you WOB want Arsenal to be
  like Chelsea with their big spending and constant changing of managers.
  You lot should be proud that Arsenal managed to make it to the knockout
  stage and praise Wenger for getting us there. Arsene knows best.
  @Goonergirl: the only mercenaries in the club were the likes of Nasri,
  Adebayor and RVP, who the WOB still worships, even though he back
  stabbed the club and Wenger, the man that made him the player he is
  today. Walcott will be added in that list, if he doesn’t sign soon

• dean

  @sevin/limet…my ideas lie in between the two of you.

  One thing I do know though is that the manager’s post-match remarks
  are really beginning to grate, and it is this, as much as the results,
  which are putting him in danger of damaging his incredible legacy. He’s
  become a huge figure of fun, perhaps best illustrated by the superb
  ‘Wenger Knows Best’ Twitter parody.

  The jaded/handbrake lines
  have been dusted down and presented almost on a match-by-match basis in
  the past couple of weeks – so much so that I am unsure whether the squad
  needs a weekend at a health spa or a once-over at Kwik Fit. I suspect
  the latter, and can almost image a mechanic taking a look at the likes
  of Diaby, pursing his lips and saying “That’s gonna cost you a few quid…
  I’ll have to order the parts.”

  We must invest in January, of that
  there can be little doubt. Regardless of whose fault it is that the
  squad is so tired, you cannot simply keep running the same players into
  the ground week in and week out, especially when they are new to the
  Premier League like Santi, Podolski and Giroud, and expect them to keep
  performing.

  Equally, we cannot persist with those who continually
  fail to deliver, Gervinho being the best case in point. The African
  Nations Cup is back on in January and, while some Premier League clubs
  will be dreading the thought of losing key players for a few weeks, I’ll
  happily run Gervinho to the airport now if he wants to make an early
  start.

  As for Diaby, in whom the manager apparently placed so much
  faith at the start of the season, it has surely gone far enough now.
  Undoubtedly a talented player, we saw that at Anfield just a few weeks
  ago, he is now seemingly trapped in ‘Groundhog Three Weeks’. This is
  similar to ‘Groundhog Day’, but at the end of each three-week period, he
  is still three weeks away from returning to the squad.

  It needs
  freshening up, that’s my belief. Wenger almost needs to go out and do
  what he hasn’t done before and get some players in for the sake of it,
  not because we don’t have the numbers. We do have the numbers, but when
  you clearly don’t trust some of them to feature (Chamakh, Arshavin etc)
  then get rid of them and get some players in who will.

  I’m also
  not averse to him bringing in some more experienced players. The Lampard
  story is (probably) laughable, but he’s got an exemplary record, is
  allegedly fit and raring to go, has won medal after medal at Chelsea and
  has the kind of personality that our current, shaky team, really needs.
  I’m not saying that he’s necessarily the man, but you get the idea…

  Anyway,
  what was it that inspired these few words? It was this quote from the
  club website: “You have to keep the focus, the desire and the ambition,
  and turn it on. That’s how it works in the season. You cannot always
  jump to definitive conclusions from one game.”

  For me, this is the
  saddest thing – the hideous inevitability about it all. Come on,
  Arsène, no one is jumping to conclusions from one game, this has been
  coming, this is the result of a long period of mismanagement,
  stubbornness, non-investment, lack of ambition (delete according to your
  own preference – or add your own).

  Man City losing at home and
  then the media crying “crisis!” would be people jumping to conclusions –
  not Arsenal being outplayed by Swansea and losing at The Emirates.
  That’s like saying that Lee Cattermole’s latest red card is the first
  blemish on his disciplinary record!

  As I said, I don’t have all
  the answers, and I am sure that most of the supporters don’t either, but
  one thing we should all agree on is that it needs sorting out, and it
  needs sorting out fast.

  We do want our Arsenal back – the one that
  actually competes and looks like it’s in with a shout of winning
  silverware, even though we know that’s not guaranteed, and always
  finishes above Tottenham, while playing good football. That one…

• worldofarsenal

  dean sevin limet

  The key things are that we have to address the squad balance.

  None of the existing team would get into any of Wenger’s previous teams. We don’t really do one touch anymore.

  When Wenger was brought in, it was completely different ball game. Our scouting has been replicated and mass produced – therefore – what can we do that’s different to:

  1) Keep our existing players
  2) Sign proper players (not Gervinho + Chamakh)

  That’s the answer that Wenger has to address!

• limet

  Yes, but again we come back to the million $ question…does wenger actually know any of this?> He believes gervinho is world class, persists with the inept ramsey-think he has officially lost the plot..the sooner he goes the better

• veny

  Due to the nature of the line-up, this means very little to the team
  that faced Swansea last weekend and is likely to turn out for West Brom
  next. However, the lack of composure on the ball seemed very familiar. A
  word for the young left back Meade though. I thought he performed well
  all things considered. And a word for Chamakh, Gervinho and Ramsey… Go.
  Please.

• erwin

  There are two corners Arsenal need to turn: the much needed
  short-term one, and the more strategic long-term one. This post is not
  about the latter, but only about whether Arsenal can get back to winning
  ways imminently.

  In many ways, the start of the season has been bizarre:

  How is it possible that we conceded 16 goals in the PL and MU 21, and yet they are 15 points better off than us?

  How is it possible that we conceded only six goals in eight away
  games, yet only won two games, whilst MU conceded twelve but won six
  games on their journeys?

  How is it possible that our four top-scorers in all competitions
  have scored only one less than MU’s four top-scorers, five more than
  Chelsea and four more than MC, and we are still trailing all three in
  the league?

  Arsenal have scored 45 goals in all competitions; MU 50; Chelsea 55,
  and MC 40, and yet we are well behind all of them in the league.

  Initially, I thought it was to do with our goal-scoring record in the
  Premier League this season. It has not been great, especially in away
  games, but we scored one goal less than Chelsea and are yet five points
  behind them; and four goals less than MC and we are an eye-watering
  twelve points behind them.

  It is hard to come to any definite conclusion based on the above
  mentioned facts, but what they do tell me is that we are a team that
  needs to find a better balance between scoring goals and keeping a tight
  defence; that our team has not settled down yet and is still looking
  for its shape and rhythm.

  Is it too easy to say; it is the price Arsenal have to pay for
  letting once again two (possible three) star players go and having to
  incorporate three attack-minded players into our team? Maybe it is, but
  we are where we are, and I am at this moment in time, much more
  interested in what can be done to properly kick-start the season, so
  Arsenal can get the balance right and start winning games again.

• limet

  Did everybody’s hearts sink (like mine) reading reports in the Press
  that Sagna would be off this Jan or by the end of the season? There’s a
  poster today comparing like for like with the Invincible s – I remember
  doing the same, and with GGs title-winning sides, ages ago (when we
  still had RVP) – I believe with Steved, Arsh, Robbo, mightyg and others -
  and the consensus was that only Robin and Bacary would get a place in
  the Invincible squad and a place in GGs first team. So (it seems) yet
  another of our last first-quality players will be on his way. Along with
  Theo, it appears. Now we still get the lunatic fringe on here claiming
  that this is all Arsene’s doing (apparently he gets a massive cut of
  Arsenal profits). That’s why he doesn’t give a damn that his best
  players are sold off each year. And because the wage policy is HIS
  invention, he can’t abide high-earners on the pay-roll past their
  sell-by date (30 years old). And though he has always had £70m in the
  transfer pot (probably £140m by now) he doesn’t choose to spend any
  because that too would reduce his cut. Does any intelligent person take
  any of this nonsense seriously? Can you imagine what it must be like for
  Arsene to see his side sabotaged, dismantled each year. To have to
  comfort great and loyal players (Edu, Pires, Lundjberg, Gilberto – the
  list is endless) brusquely discarded. What kind of loyalty does that
  promote in those who remain? You have it on record here: Jack may well
  sign an extended contract, but you can bet your bottom dollar that his
  agent will ensure a get-out clause. And so he should. Because at 29
  years old, the most Ivan (heaven forbid he’s still around) will offer
  him is a one-year extension. Can you wonder at the low morale?

• anjam

  If all that you say is true, then why doesn’t Wenger say something eh?
  By his silence, he condemns himself. The reality is, he is as much to
  blame as the rest, because he supplements their policies with his
  compliance.

• cerd

  i can’t even bare to think of another defeat this saturday and what it would do to us as a club.the way we are playing is so hard to imagine because we do have some very good players at afc who are in truth not performing.i think the only thing you can do is put the work in on the training pitch and just wait for the players to gain confidence again. of course it would help as well if wenger picked his best possible side with pace in wide areas.a week,month are long times in this game and while there is a lot of doom and gloom at the club at the moment,but,that can change in a heartbeat.what gives us a chance is that the prem lge is not of a quality from previous one’s.we aint going to compete with the mancs although i do have to say that watching them can be dull and boring.their big advantage of course the cutting edge up front where they can play no better than us but have the recources to win the game and get 3 points. we have 5 big prem lge games this month plus an important cup tie at bradford next week.this next 4/5 weeks will define the rest of the season for me.oh wouldn’t it be nice to be 4th in the table,be in the semi-final of the lge cup,plus be in the forth rd of the fa cup come jan 6th.santa, please,i don’t ask for much this christmas

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