Written by Mean Lean on Tuesday, 05 April 2011 13:02

The weather this morning completely reflects my mood today, especially my mood relating to the Arsenal. It has been raining and the sunshine has disappeared from a few days ago. I feel lethargic and unmotivated as my mind fights between playing football this evening or staying in and hopefully watching Real Madrid spank Tottenham. I should not be banking on our neighbours losing to pick me up, that is what Tottenham supporters have been doing for years.

The last few weeks have been very painful. The Carling cup final defeat left a large crack in our season and instead of cementing that crack,  the holes have just got bigger and bigger until the players are left holding onto the sides with their finger tips, we can indeed let go and fall in or climb the hell up.

Questions are being asked of the players, do they really want to put that effort in to get back up or are they just willing to fall?

I have purposefully steered clear of reading around too many places, I dread to think what has been said in certain quarters but I can understand the frustration of our supporters. That being said, I can imagine similar conversations being said amongst the Arsenal staff. When the players really needed the support, the fans were absent, instead using all their energies in sarcastically jeering Manuel Almunia, a goalkeeper who is trying his best but is currently below the levels of confidence that he needs to be at.

I am not shifting all the blame on the supporters, far from it. But it is ironic that so many people have accused the team of lacking back bone and giving everything until the end when a bit more support may or may not have made a difference to the team when it mattered.

Support or no support, the team have no excuses as to why they failed to up the gears in a match of such importance.

I have said several times that we are a momentum team, a team that works when injected with confidence. A team that can fly in September and October but is this feasible over the course of a whole season?

When our momentum is broken and we lose games then our confidence suffers which in turn prevents us from playing at our highest level. This has happened to us since the defeat to Birmingham City and then losing Cesc, Song and Theo Walcott.

Half the games Manchester United have won, they have not played well but they do not need to purr to win games. We have had a few exceptions but generally when we do not play well, when the ball is not moved quickly then we struggle.

Our 4-3-3 midfield has offensively been built around Cesc Fabregas and like the make up of our team, when he plays well then often our attack plays well but without the eye of the needle passing of our captain then Van Persie often becomes isolated and our supply dries up.

How do we fix these problems? That is for the manager to address. Should Arsene continue to manage the squad? That has been a question uttered by many and I am sure it is asked again as I write this but for me this is not even a sensible question.

While our recent failings has been difficult to stomach and our failures are in our face loud and clear, the bigger picture is sitting prettily and proudly in the background, behind all the screaming and wailing.

We are getting frustrated about our team not taking the all important last step. A very important last step that for whatever reason, these players have not been able to make.

My issue is that winning trophies hasn't just been one step, it has been a long distance trek that many clubs haven't been able to make before collapsing to the floor.

While fans are screaming for the money to be spent on players or else find another manager who will spend. Ask yourself the question.. where has that money come from?

Arsene Wenger has consistently bought players for cheap and then sold them on for huge profits when the time has been right. Kolo Toure, Nicklas Anelka, Emmanuel Adebayor are a few examples of that. Our managers ability to pick out rough diamonds and then help them fulfil their potential will not continue at that level without him at the club unless somehow the club could find a similar manager with that management gift.

While we all want that next step and for the manager/squad to address the short comings, let us not forget how we got to where we are today. I have been watching the likes of Rafa Benitez, Harry Redknapp, Mark Hughes, Martin O'Neill and many others spend far, far more than Wenger and none of those managers have achieved what Wenger has. Where would we be if we had a reactionary manager pissing all our money up the wall?

Our last long term manager left us bouncing around in midtable with an old squad and no youngsters to speak of coming through the ranks. Today 2nd is not good enough for us and that shows how far our manager has brought us.

This is not to say that Arsene does not have any weakness or can do nothing wrong, we all know that everyone makes mistakes. Even the supporters who list player after player to come in would make far more mistakes than they think they would. The same applies to Wenger.

The Blackburn match for me was strange. I look around the pitch at the outfield players and ask, which player would I replace? Nasri, Van Persie, Walcott, Wilshere, Song, Arshavin, Sagna, Koscielny, Clichy have all been outstanding at many points during the season. Whether you want to add leadership or dribbling ability, energy or goals, who gets sacrificed?

The abilities of the squad players are subjective, but what about the main core of Wenger's team? What or how do you improve what we have?

Many of those players are not at their peak. Many of those players have levels to go up and they will get there but how do you fix the problems that the squad have?

For what it is worth I think the team lack more fighters like Jack Wilshere, players who leave everything on the pitch. For that reason I would let Arshavin go this summer and replace him but then I go through our first team and I cannot say that player x just does not have the heart to win.

Players like Vieira, Parlour, Ljungberg, Wilshere, Rocastle, Winterburn, Adams, Wright, Frank McLintock and many more fought on the pitch and gave everything they had and I get a sense that part of that is missing from this squad. Sagna, Vermaelen and Wilshere have it every time they step onto the pitch but at times it seems like the rest pick and choose when they have it and it might explain why our defending from the front flickers on and off during the season.

I am not the expert, the manager knows the character of the players more than I do, especially given the last few weeks. So I am sure changes will be made at the end of the season.

It will be interesting to see how the players respond at Blackpool. I like many Gooners are not really interested in hearing the 'we will fight until the end' speeches. They should save that for the dressing room, the players need to prove that on the pitch and nowhere else.

Anyway, I shall continue with my doom and gloom but by the time the Arsenal come around, I will be supporting the team and hoping for the best.

Through good and bad, always Arsenal.

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Comments (11)

• 05-Apr-2011 14:19 | | Anonymous
  

  

• 05-Apr-2011 14:20 | | Gooner'79
  

  As per usual, a very sensible, measured and balanced view of where we are right now.
  
  The season isn't over yet and a lot can change so I'm still keeping my fingers and toes crossed even though the sensible part of me is telling me that the title is halfway up the road to Manchester already.

• 05-Apr-2011 16:44 | | CHGooner
  

  As I said in another post, you are looking in the wrong place for the wrong things if you look at individual performances. Wenger is a busted flush. Face up to it ML.

• 05-Apr-2011 19:10 | | dkgooner
  

  Me 2

• 05-Apr-2011 20:54 | | dkgooner
  

  Real 4-0. Will that do you. ML?
  And 2 from Adebayor, just to rub salt into the wound.
  Well done, Spurs. You got 1 round further than us.
  But we'll be there again next year.

• 05-Apr-2011 21:01 | | MeanLean
  

  It will certainly do for now. It is the first footballing smile I have had for a few weeks now.

• 05-Apr-2011 21:05 | | MeanLean
  

  Wenger knows what it takes to win trophies, he has done it more than once. Unless we nose dive down the league then I support Wenger and you would be blind not to see how much quality we have coming through. Quality like Wilshere and Szczeney. We are close and yes we have said that before but it is the case.

• 06-Apr-2011 00:11 | | Man United Killa
  

  Mean Lean is always dreaming.What quality are you talking about?If you think Wilshire and Szczeney coming through the ranks is going to win the title, think again.
  Apart from the fact that we have many captains but no leader in the team,we lack the quality,the mental resolve and the tactics to do that.
  Surely it's not a coincidence that every single goal keeper is Man of the match against us.
  We have to see this team for what it really it.Not good enough.Reality comes beckoning at our door.
  It seems to me,ML that you really enjoy being second best.Times are changing...so should your modes of operation.We wont win on the cheap..neither will we win playing tippy tappy with no effect in the box.Barcelona are the kings of elaborate footall but even they shoot from outside the box and waste no time when they get into the box.What do you attribute to those extra useless passes we make in the box?
  
  You keep talking about Wishere and Ramsey and Szczeney and .....those players will grow up to become quality players by which time Cesc and Nasri would have moved on because of lack of ambition shown by our club and then we will be back at square one.
  I dont chant Wenger out but if he wont make changes he might as well walk...and dont come back with all he did for us...he was paid to do it..plus it's not like Wenger leaving will be the end of the world.How many knew him before he joined us.Maybe just me,you and the dude that lives around the corner.

• 06-Apr-2011 02:47 | | richie  - Little Real pleasure for us
  

  We Gooners shouldn't judge ourselves on the demise of our neighbours, they have already won their league & cup double by beating us (at ours) for the first time in an age. Nevertheless I do think we should allow ourselves a broad smile, I do think thats permitted. Anyone think the Tiny Tots will qualify for the CL for only the 2nd time in their history? Or am I alone in thinking either Money City or Chelski will finish ahead of them? So thats thats! Can someone explain to me why having spent a fortune they ain't doing better? They've also got that famed English spine.........................
  I must have missed something.

• 06-Apr-2011 07:07 | | CHGooner
  

  ML, you say "he knows how to win trophies". 2005 was quite a while ago and he had a team and squad of players who were themselves winners without Wenger.Beware as well, recent performances hardly suggest a strong end to the season, 2nd is far from secure and before we laugh too loudly at our hapless neighbours, there is still a small risk that they (and City and Chelsea) could finish above us. We need to step up a gear in the coming games if we are to ensure a top 4 finish.

• 06-Apr-2011 10:20 | | MickeyG  - The Problem
  

  The problem is not the first 11, but the replacements. To name but a few:
  Sqillachi, Diaby, Denilson, Rosicky, Bendnter, Almunia, Almunia and Almunia. These guys are not good enough. Add Clichy to the mix, the guy has only ever had a couple of assists. How many crosses? Hundreds surely. How many apologies has he made to his fellow players for those squandered balls? None that I know of. And lets not even talk about his defending. We have no replacement for Alex Song. His position is critical and we have no replacement for him on our books. We have no pace up front and through the centre. Walcott is a striker but he may never be good enough to play through the middle. He is certainly not smart enough to get into positions where he can use his pace, which is virtually the same as having no pace at all.
  These are the issues and they do not require a massive string of new signings. What we require is a cutting of the fat and some better replacements. We did not lose this title because of the draw with Blackburn. Even the invincibles drew games like those. We lost it because of draws like the 4-4 against Newcastle.
  
  The weaknesses in our squad have been glaring for a couple of years. Fortunately the emergence of Chesney (and Fabianski as backup) finally spells an end to our goalkeeping misery. Djouru has proved he is good enough and Kos is good enough to compete with Vermaelen and Djouru for a spot. So Wenger has shrewdly addressed some of the issues by blooding these guys this year. Lets hope he just uses the cheque book to address the rest, following a clear out of the above. If he fails to do that then it's Wenger out for me... as soon as possible. But I think he finally has a budget that he can work with, so it's up to him. There are no more excuses.

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