Written by Mean Lean on Tuesday, 03 May 2011 10:40

Hello there,

I am Mean Lean and it is nice to meet you. It certainly feels like my first ever post such is the length of time since I last wrote a blog. Before you hammer me for hiding away when the going got tough, I would like to point the finger at my lovely hosting company. They decided to suspend my account without informing me that a renewal was due. Ok, mistakes happen. I shall just pay it and then I can get back to waffling about the Arsenal. No, not so simple. They thought it would be fine to take my cash and then disappear off the face of the earth without putting the site back to live.

As you can imagine, Mean Lean turned into Meaner Lean and I was not at all happy especially when I had plenty to say.

For those who can be bothered to revisit the match, I have scribbled down (with my computer) my thoughts here.

It has meant that I have missed what is I think my first ever Match preview which isn't much on the face of it but it slightly messes up my head as historically the site is now incomplete maybe in the summer I will be disturbed enough to write one and sneak it into the site without newsnow and twitter finding out. That would be a little worrying and sad wouldn't it? *ahem*

Oh and don't worry my prediction was incorrect once again. I went for a 0-0 draw so nothing changes there then. I look at my predictions as a Robin Van Persie free kick. Used to be good and still hope that it will come good only to see it horribly fail.

I remember the good old days when I got the score correct and even predicted that Van Persie would score his first free kick of the season and I got them all right. Perhaps I have lost my prediction making confidence.

Which actually brings me onto something I wanted to say a few days ago when Arsenal Vision was wrongly locked away in suspension prison.

I want to talk about the confidence of the team and the Carling cup final defeat. Many have pinpointed the final defeat as the turning point, the point where our confidence has vanished but the more I hear that the more I scratch my head. Personally I didn't think we were anywhere near the level we should have been at from the start.

The last time we sparkled was the home tie against Barcelona 11 days earlier. Domestically it was against Wolves four days prior to the Barcelona game. Something happened after that Barcelona game because our performances were not the same again afterwards.

We drew away at Leyton Orient with a second string side then scraped through against Stoke at the Emirates. A performance that had worried me a little. Cesc had gone off injured and the team lost their fluency, lost the urgency, lost the pace in our football but most importantly lost the fight.

Why did this happen?

Once it went then that was pretty much it for the season. We almost lost the hope of silverware by beating Barcelona at home.

After that defeat, these were our following results.

Arsenal               2 - 1      Barcelona     (CL)
Leyton Orient      1 - 1      Arsenal        (FA)
Arsenal               1 - 0      Stoke          (PL)
Arsenal               1 - 2      Birmingham   (CC)
Arsenal               5 - 0      Leyton Orient  (FA)
Arsenal               0 - 0      Sunderland    (PL)
Barcelona            3 - 1      Arsenal         (CL)
Man Utd             2 - 0      Arsenal         (FA)
West Brom         2 - 2      Arsenal         (PL)
Arsenal               0 - 0      Blackburn      (PL)
Blackpool            1 - 3      Arsenal          (PL)
Arsenal               1 - 1      Liverpool       (PL)
Tottenham          3 - 3      Arsenal         (PL)
Bolton                2 - 1      Arsenal         (PL)
Arsenal               1 - 0      Man Utd      (PL)

I would go as far as to say that we didn't look anywhere near our best until the first 45 minutes at White Hart Lane. That is 12 games without the usual sharpness and fluency in our play. Perhaps the huge amount of fixtures that we had to deal with in such a short space of time took their toll. Perhaps the energy of the players went down to empty at the crucial time but I refuse to believe that a Carling Cup final defeat can destroy a season.

I cannot fathom how a player would think during a match 'oh I cannot put in the effort to close that player down because of that CC defeat'

No team in Premier League history had as many games to deal with in such little time and that could well be the reason for the slump. If that is the case then perhaps the manager deserves a portion of the blame as clearly the rotation of the squad was not adequate enough.

Wenger will strengthen the squad in the summer and I understand that it needs reinforcing but I truly believe that we had more than enough to win the league this year. I believe we are the best equipped squad in the league and should have been successful this year.

A team that has beaten Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea at the Emirates as well as the best away record in the league clearly has what it takes. With an average age of 23 years, I am honestly astonished at the anger by Arsenal fans but I clearly understand the frustration at dropping the ball in such a good position.

I totally agree with absolutely everything that Wojciech Szczesny says today.

“It’s ridiculous really,” (Criticism of Wenger) he said. “If you ask any of the players they will stand by the manager. He built this team from nothing and I believe he is the best manager in the world.

“We are a young team, we still believe we have a lot of years ahead of us and a lot of trophies to win. Let’s be patient and show that we are good enough.

“We all take individual responsibilities for our mistakes. Everyone has played their part in this season’s disappointment and I think we have to take it as a team. You can't blame the boss because he stood by the team the whole season and supported us.

“Next season, we need to prove that we can step up. I believe we are good enough to step up and win the league. Let’s show everyone that we are capable of doing it.”

I think everyone needs to shoulder some blame this season but the foundations are clearly in place. That sounds as if it is the beginning so I will change that. The building has been erected for use of a better word, the foundations are more than solid and the mortgage has been paid unlike many other clubs who have crumbly buildings that are falling apart whilst they struggle to pay the rent.

Anyway on another note, what do you make of the new kit? I quite like it and even the badge is pretty good. People don't usually like change and I am the same but I actually like the leaves.

Ok, I am off. Enjoy your day.

Back tomorrow.

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Comments (11)

• 03-May-2011 11:42 | | Goonerfish
  

  Welcome back ML.
  
  I have to say that I think it was the way we lost the final that hit the confidence, not just simply losing it.
  If you watch our games back after that one we started Ok (not great but ok) but as the games went on into the 60th minute and beyond, especially in the league 0-0's the players seemed to assume it wasn't going to be our day again and almost lost heart and gave up. Unlike previous squads that fought till the 94th minute, if things are not going our way or something goes wrong (i.e the opposition score) then the players assumed the worst. The first I actually noticed it was against Newcastle, as soon as they scored to make it 4-1 our heads dropped as though they had just taken the lead, the way we lost the final just made that attitude easier to adopt.
  
  Mental strength is the missing factor from our inevitable success and we as fans need to be patient because it comes not only with experience but also age.
  
  Make no mistake, this squad will dominate European football over the coming years.

• 03-May-2011 12:03 | | Zama
  

  Yup i miss the prediction monster that mean lean was . Was it the Amsterdam tournament when you got your match scores & first scorer spot on. Forget it ... seems like an eternity ago.
  Back to the present, we conceded at the worst possible time in the CC final and through the mistakes of the best performers in the competition till then. SO that had have an impact on the players' psyche combined with stigma of "choking" That we lost to Barca was not surprising at all, seeing how the ref was in their pocket or his pockets were full bcoz of them.
  But the hard truth is that these boys did not grit their teeth and fight against the adversity often enough to make a difference this season. Where was the Nasri who single handedly tried to salvage something against WBA, where was the Cesc who scored a penalty against Barca with a broken leg, where was the Arshavin who scored four against 'pool. Where was the Song who shat all over the Chelsea and Man U midfields. This season leaves me with a bad after taste. It was to be the one where Wenger's philosophy, patience and faith finally paid off. The one where we could shout from the roof tops "TOLD YOU SO" But the boys have disappointed again. And we are left to wonder what could have been.

• 03-May-2011 15:46 | | matlee
  

  hi Mean Lean, i agree its too easy to pinpoint the cup final as the turning point. i think there are a number of reasons which have led to our usual springtime slump.
  1 - replays in the cups added to the already congested fixture list. 'our fault'
  2 - combinations of key players missing large chunks of the season ie, Song, RVP, JD, Sagna and Cesc. when 2 or 3 of these are missing we can't cope for more than 1 or 2 games. Schezny broken finger at critical time, 2nd choice already out then in comes almunia and the rest is history. he has served us well but the negative history of big matches is impossible to shake.
  everytime we face barca a 50% fit Cesc and Rvp are patched up to face Messi.
  'our fault'
  3 - the media half truth that Arsenal are weak said often enough has given the minnows a real belief they are going to take points off us (understandably who wouldnt try harder to prevent a defeat to a bunch of weaklings) while in contrast
  they are happy to get out of old trafford and the bridge with a point or narrow defeat as the media have told them they'd be lucky to do so.
  4 - our team is used to the euphoria of an injury time winning goal and have found it difficult to deal with the reverse. losing a late goal and dropping points can be character building but the amount of times we have conspired to drop points is just soul destroying. these lessons will serve us well in the future but its just too much to come back from during a season.
  5 - players making rash judgments at key times and referee howlers.
  
  just a few reasons here and there are more but these reasons should not become excuses. these problems won't change anytime soon and that means that we have to learn to win inspite of the re occuring issues.
  Arsene should note that at present the gap to the top is small but we need to anticipate
  the top teams could go back to losing 1 or 2 games the whole season. i'm unsure if this season is a blip or the shape of things to come so lets be well prepared with the strongest squad possible.
  after all the injury misery of Rosicky, Eduardo and Diaby
  how great was it to see Ramsey score the winning goal against utd. i was hoping to witness Eduardo score the winner against barca or utd in the champions league final but this was just as sweet.

• 04-May-2011 09:55 | | sapman  - hi there
  

  yes i was worried.....too much negativity in other arsenal sites ....
  
  keep up the good work
  
  most english arsenal fans get manipulated by bad press and rivals taunting
  
  real played wenger tactcis last night and got a draw away and could have won too ...
  
  wenger first played with high defensive pressing in middle third of the pitch, tight marking and quick releases in numbers since lines were close to eachother.
  
  wenger did it with a bunch of babies and a team that doesn cost more than 50-60 mill and real;s ronaldo alone is more expensive than the hwole of our team combined
  
  and arsenal fans call our manager useless at tactics ?
  
  
  lol ....clueless bunhc of gloryseeking cretins ...the quicker they pi55 off away from arsenal the better i say ...the real fans will laways buy tickets..the real fan does not care ..the real fan and supporter creates shiled of protection to his team.

• 04-May-2011 10:14 | | sapman
  

  goonerfish
  
  our players are way too young and inexperienced to be able to "manage" match conditions which go against them ...they dont know how to do it yet ..they are in the process of learning how to handle situations. part of thatis of course the leadership factor ...but cesc is no superhero to take them all by the hand and bring tot he land of deliverance. with vermaellen in the back to share some of this leadershiop with cesc things would have been very different ...still though our defence were a rookie from ligue 2 and an unestablished player who came back from injury.
  
  
  not too bad i would say ....and let the english media and our rivlas say whatever they want ...since when do we listen to idiots spitting bile about our team ?

• 04-May-2011 10:27 | | sapman
  

  A team that has beaten Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea at the Emirates as well as the best away record in the league clearly has what it takes. With an average age of 23 years, I am honestly astonished at the anger by Arsenal fans but I clearly understand the frustration at dropping the ball in such a good position.
  
  
  english arsenal fans in their majority aint got a clue what the manager is building for them
  
  they react for things which are temporary and normal
  
  jealousy and emotional frustration from watching other teams BUY trophies has turned the myopic stupid section of arsenal fans against the club ..
  
  like osmoenm said last week..these cretins are poisoning our club ..the sooner they are removed the better ....

• 04-May-2011 10:33 | | sapman
  

  But the hard truth is that these boys did not grit their teeth and fight against the adversity often enough to make a difference this season
  
  like i said to goonerfish
  
  our players are way to young to be able to handle such situations.

• 04-May-2011 18:24 | | john  - Rip Off
  

  manures dearest season ticket over £900. Arsenals around £1900. Absolute joke. Arsenals true fans getting more isolated and unable to support the club they love at the Emirates. we are a financial business now not a genuine football club. Football spectators may attend the Emirates but not true Arsenal fans. As far as i am concerned the Arsenal board can p*** off.

• 05-May-2011 11:46 | | sapman
  

  and which true arsenal fans would that be ? do u mean those moaners who cant identify with the progress and internationalism at arsenal?
  
  those 50 yearold people who have apparently seen their team compete on so many levels prior to wenger that they dont even know what theyre complaining about?
  
  or the late johhnies who decided to support arsenal after the 04 season?
  
  
  sorry mate ...i remember arsenal going for nearly 40 years with only one league win to show for it (70-71) double ..and i have seen my team fluctuate between positions 12th 7th and 10th prior to arsene wenger;s tenor
  
  and you can complain as much as you want ..wenger has never allowed the club to drop below 4th even if he fields eboues and wilsheres

• 05-May-2011 17:28 | | Man United Killa
  

  I agree! and Wenger should deliver or walk! what rubbish!

• 05-May-2011 17:38 | | john
  

  Yawn..

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