Football is a game that never cases to amaze me.
When a team is in a rich vein of form, the players anticipate every game with the mindset of destroying the opposition but there are moments when they are brought back down to Earth following a stinging defeat. After enduring a truly disappointing January, Arsenal hit top gear in a run that saw the Gunner ease past Blackburn, Sunderland, Tottenham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Everton and Aston Villa before that humbling defeat to QPR.
There are also other times when a team is going through a very horrible patch of form, where nothing seems to work out despite a few tactical tweaks here and there. After the epic encounter against Reading, Arsenal followed it up with an impotent performance in Old Trafford. The Gunners then managed to throw away handsome two-goal leads in consecutive games before giving the fans a North London derby to remember.
When everyone thought that the Gunners had arrived, two disappointing draws were followed by two crushing defeats against Swansea and Olympiakos that had ramifications. The loss against Swansea put the Gunners far away from the Premier League leading pack while the defeat in Athens ensured that the Gunners would be in for a tough Champions League Knockout draw.
A response was badly needed against a West Brom side ahead of the Gunners in the log and it took two Mikel Arteta penalties to get the victory. While the Gunners used penalties to win their last Premier League fixture, penalties proved to be their undoing when they managed to miss three spot kicks in the Capital One cup quarterfinal against Fourth-tier Bradford City.
Judging from the quality of the squad on the night, the game wasn’t even meant to go into penalties in the first place. Arsenal allowed profligacy to become its watchword that night and all Hell has been let loose in the aftermath of the humiliating defeat.
As expected, Arsenal fans were the first to react after the shocking loss and most of them took to Twitter raining trademark abuses on Arsene Wenger, Gervinho, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Chuck Norris. Arsenal’s self-proclaimed No. 1 fan on Twitter, Piers Morgan, continued his endless ranting, asking the manager to resign as well as tweeting other bull-crap that probably made him sleep well that night.
With Arsenal’s next game coming up in Monday, many football figureheads have continued to air their opinions on the club’s current predicament. Former Arsenal manager, George Graham, believes that the Gunners can never win the Premier League again,
“Whether I like it or not, the club are quite happy to finish in the top four. They have been doing that for the last 15 or 16 years. That seems to be the objective. Let’s be honest, they are not serious challengers for the Premier League. So finishing in the top four, I think the club are quite happy with that,”
“I don’t think Arsenal are ever going to compete with Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United. They can still pick up cups and qualify for Europe. But will they win the Premier League title again? I can’t see it”
Last season, CEO Ivan Gazidis, came out in the open to say that Arsenal will not suffer financially if they don’t qualify for the Champions League and we’ve heard the manager say that a fourth place finish is as good as a trophy. These quotes paint the picture vividly for everyone to see that Arsenal is not an ambitious club, but it’s a competitive team nonetheless.
Every Gooner knows about the dispute between Silent Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov as both moguls have different ideologies of how the club is supposed to move forward. Former director, Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith has lashed out on Silent Stan, stating that he has no passion for the club.
…A word on the owner (Stan Kroenke). I wonder how often he’s even updated? By whom and how honestly? Is it after every game? Does Ivan call or just send an email? Would you be surprised if it read like this:
“Natives a little restless, but we’re not far off fourth. Have to sell Walcott in January, but Arsene has a promising kid lined up… Stick a pound on the price of hot dogs?” –Culled from Arsene Wenger’s Zombie Apocalypse by Arse 2 Mouse
With Kroenke at the helm of affairs, Arsene Wenger’s position as manager can never be threatened. As long as the manager keeps making the profits, he’ll always be on good books and I won’t be surprised if Walcott and Bacary Sagna are flushed out soon. We have the Ox and Jenkinson remember?
Arsenal is like the mythical creature Hydra, you take one head our, another pops up.
Usmanov has been on the news as well, but he hasn’t said anything that has to do with how the club isn’t run well or more crap like that. The billionaire wants the King to return back to Arsenal in a permanent post that could see him support Arsene Wenger in a non-playing role. Usmanov made reference to Monsieur Patrick Vieira’s exploits at Manchester City, stating that Arsenal shouldn’t allow Henry to slip through their fingers when he decides to hang up his boots.
Thierry Henry is an inspiration to everyone concerned with Arsenal and he was voted as the greatest player to ever play for the Gunners. After scoring 226 goals in seven seasons with the club, he returned in a second loan spell and did pretty well, scoring two goals in seven games.
Elsewhere, Ray Parlour has played down the rumors of a rift between Arsene Wenger and defensive Dark Lord, Steve Bouldimort.
“People will speculate very quickly about training bust-ups and whatever, but whenever I’ve been there Steve Bould’s been next to Arsene Wenger and they’ve been as good as gold.”
This was in the wake of ex-Gunner, Stewart Robson’s remarks that Arsene Wenger’s middle name is Admiral General Hafiz Aladeen, and that Arsenal is his Wadiya. Wenger needs to prove to everyone that he’s not a dictator and I’m sure that all thoughts of a rift will be quelled if this happens again,
Many more people have pointed fingers at Wenger for his team’s disappointing showing all season long. The manager has taken responsibility for his team’s recent struggles but he has pledged to stick to his policy of developing players within the Premier League club rather than splashing out large sums of money on transfer fees.
Under Wenger’s tutelage, youngsters like Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and more recently, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have risen to stardom and have become essential pieces of their national team’s jigsaw puzzles. Wilshere has become an established England international while the Ox has already gotten a taste of playing in a major tournament. Ramsey on the other hand had been honored at some point in his young career, with the captaincy of his national team.
The club is close to securing long-term contracts for the aforementioned trio, whilst trying to tie Walcott and Sagna as well. Experience has thought Arsenal the importance of securing deals for players on time, before they are enticed by more money and jump ship without blinking twice.
Wilshere and the Ox have shown promise beyond their years but Ramsey is still struggling to hit top gear after suffering that long-term injury. These players will be a formidable force to be reckoned with in the future and it’s good to know that they’ll be getting deserved pay, unlike those deadwood still present in the club.
Sayonara
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