It was all gloom and doom against Aston Villa for me and other Gooners. One thing’s for sure.I’m not gonna remember this season as a successful one in the future. The recent collapse makes me ponder over the current dressing-room situation at Arsenal and whether Arsene Wenger is doing anything to improve it.I still think he’s the man for us but his frustration of the pitch certainly doesn’t help the players on it. They play well and create numerous chances.But it’s either ends in a mis-placed pass or a shot destined for orbit.We even have a new foe(and it’s not referee!).The goal-post. Arsenal have hit the bar on more occasions than any other team.To be honest, I don’t know if it’s statistically correct but I’m quite sure it will be given our recent bad luck.
I’m referring to yesterday’s match as well as the second half of the season.Hitting the cross-bar is what our players look to practice in training, it seems. I remember a lot of such instances.Man City at home is the primary one.
Coming back to the match, we certainly didn’t deserve to lose given the players determination and the number of chances created. Chamakh finished one, but disallowed for a foul on Petrov. The 2nd half was much much better and our passing was much more incisive.
With Chamakh on the pitch, we looked more likely to create a chance.In fact, Arsenal have a better win percentage with Chamakh in the team than van Persie. I know that’s completely against the stats and what we’ve seen from van Persie in the 2nd half of the season but it’s true.Arsenal collected 36 points in the 1st half and only 31 in the 2nd(with a game to go). It’s not that Chamakh is any way better but his one-touch passing is always destined to open up organised defences.The van Persie and Chamakh combo worked pretty well yesterday and I wonder why Chamakh still doesn’t start. His shooting has improved and his headers offer us something that any other Arsenal player doesn’t.
Not sure how I will have the motivation to watch the last game. That freshness about the weekends is gone. One thing’s for sure, my relentless support for Arsenal will never die. It’ll always be there, but not so sure about the motivation level.There are some questions I’d like a proper answer to.If any of you could give them, please do in the comments section.Here they are:
- Is Arsenal the Unluckiest Football Club in Europe?
- Is our football still pretty to watch?
- Is Walcott worthy of a start rather than a bench role?
- Is it Arshavin’s talent rather than his commitment that makes him look so bad?
- Why can’t we play both van Persie and Chamakh together?
- Is it the quality of the squad that is not good enough?
- Why the HELL is Bendtner still at our club?
- Does Wenger get paid to throw bottles around?(sorry for that one!)
Delhi Gunner 
Very intresting read i agree with you we was better when Chamakh came on.Arshavin did not look interested yesterday the only players that looked up for it was Vanpersie Thomas V Sagna and Chamakh .The rest looked dejected ofter going 2 down.Really disported with the result.Very worried we might loose our 3rd place to those money grabbing Man City !!!!!!
Don’t understand fans wanting Chamakh out.He’s one of very few who puts his whole effort.Sometimes it doesn’t pay off but that’s understandable.Arshavin too me looks like he’s trying too hard but his body balance is terrible and that makes him look bad. People say its his effort that lets him down but in the recent matches he has worked a lot harder but still not played well enough.A role on the bench will suit arshavin.
Don’t you think most of our players that tried very hard yesterday.it wasn’t just our day.i liked the amount of work every one did and it was completely different to the stoke game where no one.and mean NO ONE, put a worthy effort.
I think man city will not overtake us as i’m sure they’ll drop points.We might but it’ll be too hard for our players having challenged for the entire season only to finish 4th.Just hope that doesn’t happen.
Hi Shubham,
Before I answer your question, Theere are certain things to point out. Firstly I agree that with Chamakh we played better. Chamakh and Vanpersie together causes more threat to a team’s defence. However I also agree that we did not deserve to loose. However we did not loose. I disagree that it was not the refree, because it completely was the refree, for me the scoreline yesterday technically was 4-2 to Arsenal. Ill explain how,
1st Goal of the match, complete child play by squilacci, he does not know what he is doing. We should get rid of him for sure.
2nd Goal of the match, Sagna tries to play Bent off side, he fails. He shouldn’t take this risk. However I do not blame him as he was brilliant on the pitch. He is the best RB in the league, no doubt.
Scoreline 2-0.
1st Attempt, Wilshere gave a lovely ball Xavi like loft to Ramseys chest only a second away from shooting, only for dunn to slide in not get anything on the ball and tangle up with Ramsey’s legs. Obviousl yellow card. In some matches it was a red seing as that’s what Barcelona did in the penalty box at the emirates last year to vbe sent off. Yet lets give the benefit there to the defender. However that is a 100% penalty no doubt, no one can say it’s not, and come on how many times would you see Van Persie would fail to score from the spot?
Score line should have been 1-2 to Astonvilla then at the breal.
2nd Attempt
Van Persie stayn in front of Dunn only to tunr quick with the ball to gain a 1 on 1 chance with the keeper which he did actually finish in the end was given foul to dunn? When dunn was the one who kicks Van persie and it’s a clear goal scoring oppertunity. 2nd Yellow for Dunn SENT OFFF… Did not happen. because refree is a retard.
Technically score should then be 2-2 equalised.
What a comeback it would have been.
3rd Goal. I like to correct you here Shubham, It was not ruled offside. It was a foul on petrov. The fact though is it wasnt. Petrov goes out of balance. Chamakh finishes it brilliantly. Goal disallowed. Free kick to Aston VIlla. Complete bullshit. Petrov just loose his balance and fall on the groud. These details were shown in the Match of the Day program on BBC one. It’s a program in UK they show all highlights and discuss about all matches played on the day. We had Arsenal Legend Lee Dixon who admit that was completely bullshit by the refree.
Technical score line 3-2 to Arsenal.
4th Goal. We did actually in the end acore a goal. Only reason that was not bloody disallowed is, because they knew we cant come up with a 2nd.
How many times did Man UTD came around to win after being 2-0 down? 3 occasions. They wouldnt have done if the decisions go their way. These decisions were not fair and it’s completely stupid.
Then comes to the brilliant part. Our own team boos us. Weldone the fans. I understand your extremely frustrated. Well guess what we are too. Yet we are not relegated. West Ham is. We are still 3 we can still finish 3 if the decisions go our way. It was our chance to cause some problems for Chelsea to gain the 2nd position after 4 years and the refree detroyed us. Yet the fans don’t see how we actually did score 4 only the refree to disallow 3 of them. So lets boo the refree and the away team who I thought should have had about 3 red cards. on kyle walker, Petrov and Defenetely DUNN. No they boo our team. Weldone fans you do us proud. brilliant. Excuse my sarcasm. It was embarassing how our fans are the most boring and ungreatfull fans I have ever seen. Cant believe these people. West Ham was 2-0 up only to surrender the lead and loose and relegate. Yet they sang and cheerd the team who is actually going to a league below till the whistle blew. What if we go down? I’m quite sure we wont have meny fans apart from this forum. These fans give me jokez. before we buy players, FANS!!!! Sort your self out for the next season if you want to see any trophies.
Now to answer your questions Shubham,
* Is Arsenal the Unluckiest Football Club in Europe? Yes.
* Is our football still pretty to watch? Defenetely
* Is Walcott worthy of a start rather than a bench role? He is. He did some great run in and put in great balls. If you listn to a legend such as Ray Wilkins praise him you would understand.
* Is it Arshavin’s talent rather than his commitment that makes him look so bad? Andrei’s situation is different. He has family issues. He brigns that frustration to the pitch. In a good game such as Man UTD he performed like the star we wanted to see. Not week in Week out. I think we should sell him while we can and get a young player like Hazard
* Why can’t we play both van Persie and Chamakh together? Only Arsene can asnwer that. I don’t see why not either. However in fairness to Arsene. Our attacking part havn’t really been bad at all. It’s the defence who let in goals. So why change? Van persie scores many goals. Team is scoring. So why change? I don’t see why not to change either. When the key plazers are injured maybe we rather play with a striker up front for that midfilder causing more threat. So why not? and why change? Should we question the consistant manager who has under paid stars performing brilliantly in the attack? Why question?
* Is it the quality of the squad that is not good enough? Yes the squad. Yet not the 1st team. We need to improove on under performing stars. Yes we got chamkah. Yet we need a back up for Van persie when he gets injured. Bendtner is no Van Persie. Midfield we have enough talent. Although I see that Song, Diaby, Eboue, Denilson and Rosicky are not winners. I’m not saying they are loosers. Looking at the bench of Man UTD and ours, our bench is simply not good enough. So a plyer gets injured. We are in deep touble.
* Why the HELL is Bendtner still at our club? Don’t worry he will be leaving.
* Does Wenger get paid to throw bottles around?(sorry for that one!) No but he is allowed to get frustrated more than the fans. When the players don’t live up to their potential and when fans are acting like dimwits.
Amazed at the fact that your comment was lengthier than my article itself.
Coming to the point,
it was a penalty and chamakh’s goal shouldn’t have been disallowed but I think the one that van Persie scored was a certain foul.van persie clipped the defender’s leg to prevent him from getting the ball and hence was fouled.So yeah we should’ve won 3-2 but in first place, we shouldn’t have allowed in 2 goals at least at home to villa.don’t blame it on a single player cuz arsenal as a team are poor defensively(not saying that squillaci was good).no matter how good a defender you put unless we work harder to win the ball back, it’ll always be same.
Anyway i understand the fans booing as even in previous seasons, i don’t think we’ve had as bad an end as this season.3 wins in march, april and may combined(only one of them was good).
the referees have always messed it up against us so it’s nothing new.at least for once, arsene didn’t criticize him too much as he knew that the problem was not the referee but us.no doubt the referee had some bad decisions but still we should have won.
Also I don’t think the fans are as bad as you suggested.everyone deserves to show their feelings and if they are not happy it’s fine by me to boo the team.the thing i don’t like about the fans is when we are playing well, even then they are not vociferous enough.
szczesny’s progress might be hindered with such a defence.it was only yesterday that our defence was responsible for the loss.before that it’d been the attacking part.
one thing you can expect is that Arsenal will come out all guns blazing next season and will end the trophy drought in style.i have complete faith in wenger to buy the required players and work on the tactical part of our game.
i think that a rock solid defence is also attractive to watch along with the slick passing.
its neither Arshavin’s ability nor his comitment shows he is bad have a look at his stats if you think otherwise. its the formation and the position wenger plays him in. arshavin is the great DB10 like player he scores and create goals by playing just behind the main striker and thats where he has played most of his career. i’d hate to see him leave as he is better than cesc in splitting the defense open if played in the right position.
I know arshavin has a lot of assists this year.But Bendtner also scored many goals for us last year.That does not mean he’s good enough for arsenal.Arsenal are a very good side and hence they create numerous chances which an average striker should be capable of scoring.in the same way, arshavin hasn’t played well this season no matter how many assists he’s had.Berbatov hasn’t been world-class but still at the top of the scoring charts.
I think even i’ll hate to see him go but also i don’t like when he starts.a sub appearance is the best he should get so as to change the game which he surely can!
I have a very strong feeling that, we will change the formation, Keep Arshavin, Cesc and Nasri. Sell Bendtner, Rosicky, Denilson. We may keep Diaby. He was outstanding last season and in the world cup. So I believe he would be given another chance. We will defenetely give away Almunia, no doubt. If we can sell him? God knows. With his recent mishaps, I doubt anyone would buy him. I think we would let go off squilacci. Get a good storng leader.
Scott Parker? I doubt it. He wants to play for rough sides. He may play for Spurs. I don”t mind us using Ba for Bendtner. He is a good stiker of the ball and can head like chamak. So either of Van Persie or Chamakh gets injured we can rely on him. i would prefer Lacina Traoré though.
Apart from all that and our youngsters coming through I do not see any new signings happening.
Specially after seing that Sakho, Benzema both stating they will be staying the coming current season in their clubs. I only see us signing a good defender who will partner Vermalen.
And to reply to shubhams comment on my reply, Everyone has different views. You might be right so I’ll keep an open mind about what you said.
However the foul on Dunn. I got Virgin + tv. So I can rewind and watch that scene for many times. Which I did, and found out, All Van persie does is turn with the ball, but gets tangled up with dunn’s leg while turn. Its not purposly done. At the same time if that was a foul its on dunn. Not on van persie. We should have least got a free kick.
Also on a special note. I’m 100% sure if Andrei leaves, Eden Hazard will defenitely be arriving this summer for sure.
Hzard has even stated he’d love to join a big club.
C’mon Arsene please grab him, will you?
Wenger did play Chamakh and RVP together in a 4231, it didn’t quite work. Chamakh and Walcott would work in a 442, much like Crouch and VDV.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/jeremywilson/100014356/robin-van-persie-v-marouane-chamakh-the-big-dilemma-that-awaits-arsene-wenger/
I remember it was against Partizan when both of them played. But how can u expect to strikers to gel together in the 1st game they’re playing.
fantastic