Written by TL Gooner on Sunday, 17 April 2011 14:39

You couldn't make this shit up could you? Arsenal seem to be the weirdest team in the world. Spectacular at times, silly and immature at others. The same unanswered, unresolved problems keep coming back and biting our team in the backside. Don't give me all this rubbish about having 11 captains on the pitch Arsene, we have no captain. No-one who can sort us out and organise us and make sure the players stay switched on in a situation like the 100th minute incident today. People say it all the time that we have no leadership and I defend Arsenal because I don't really buy into the captain needing to be a nutter with anger management issues that shouts out instructions all the time to players, but I'm starting to doubt my own views on that as we are seeing too many examples of not having a Jamie Carragher, Tony Adams, John Terry like leader at the back who will sort the team out and organise things.

It is an absolute disgrace that play played on after Suarez's freekick today. It's bad enough the whistle didn't go before that even. 8 minutes of stoppage time and Arsenal score in the 8th minute of it and yet play goes on afterwards. That isn't right. Maybe you could say time from the celebrations should be played but that's between 30 seconds and a minute. After Suarez had missed the freekick that should have definitely been time up. It was last chance saloon for them, either this goes in or game over. Why keep playing on?

To make matters worse Liverpool had been time-wasting their arses off for most of the game and yet they feel the benefits of this later in the game as when we get a last minute goal, the referee plays on presumably because of the time- wasting in the game. But Arsenal had scored, Liverpool shouldn't have had time added on for their benefit after they were the ones time-wasting. In fact, that time goes into consideration for the decision on how much stoppage time should be added on at the end of the 90 minutes, so the referee can't even use that as a reason for playing until 2014 today. Why the hell time was still playing in the 111th minute I do not know. And yet again, Arsenal are robbed by a stupid referee. How many times this season? Countless. The trouble is that there are too many referees in this country that respond to pressure from the crowd and players. Liverpool players played hell with Marriner when he gave a freekick in the last minute instead of the penalty and when Lucas goes down a minute later in front of the Liverpool fans and they scream for a penalty, combined with the pressure from players and the imminent abuse from Dalglish as he comes off the pitch, the pressure from those Liverpool fans results in a penalty. Just like Dowd at Newcastle.

It is stupid but Arsenal should never have let Liverpool get in that position. Once the referee has made his mistake and not blown for full- time when he should have, Arsenal should be putting everything into making sure Liverpool don't get to put any pressure on them. Clear the ball anywhere, hoof it, foul players in the middle of the pitch if you need to. Don't let them get anywhere near your box. It's not even like they had a few minutes to get an equaliser, they had a minute at best. When Szczesny has the ball after Kuyt's shot from the kick off he should be wasting time, putting the ball down and picking it up again and hoofing it as far away as he can out wide preferably in the direction of Bendtner. Just make sure Liverpool don't get to mount any last gasp pressure on you, but no, schoolboy errors come back again, inexperience costing us year after year, silly mistakes week after sodding week. It's time this shit stops happening. Stupid things all the fucking time. The Carling Cup final embarrassment, the Newcastle and Tottenham horror shows, the horror show at Wigan last season. Man Utd don't make fools of themselves like this and we do. It frustrates the hell out of me.

And now our title chances hang by a thread and we are in danger of being caught by Chelsea and not even finishing second after being there for most of the season. Our next 4 games sound bloody hard- Tottenham away, Bolton away, Man Utd at home and Stoke away. Yet Chelsea's next 3 are at home- the next two being Birmingham and West Ham. I am worried.

However if we win at Tottenham on Wednesday we'll have a chance of the title, stay above Chelsea and confidence among fans and players will be boosted and it will be some much needed joy for us fans that keep suffering painful blows with Arsenal at the moment. If this happens it will be great, revenge on Tottenham and a big confidence boost and more comfort in second place. It will also be the ideal way to go into the remainder of our tough run- in as we will have more confidence and more a chance mathematically.

Mean Lean's Response

Good piece there TL Gooner,

I can feel the passion in your writing, passion that many of us felt at the final whistle on Sunday.

I do agree that we lack that bit of vocal leadership at certain times, in certain situation. Wilshere's recent comments about Jens Lehmann's on pitch management was interesting and it seems that we do not have that usually. Most times our ability has got us through situations but those pressure moments has seen us cave in when we have needed to be strong.

Where the referee got his extra minutes from is a mystery to me. Can you imagine Manchester United being ahead at that time and the referee adding on extra minutes in a game that they needed to win the league? Never ever in a month of Sunday's.

Like I said in my post yesterday, I thought we didn't show enough going forward and if we did then this wouldn't even be a talking point.

Wenger needs to look at why we are failing to score goals. Why we are looking so predictable. If there was one issue that would be looked into this summer then that would be above leadership, defensive failings etc in my opinion.

As you rightly point out, we have to be careful that we do not lose our second place spot because Chelsea have some straight forward fixtures, while ours are tricky.

Let us hope there is a change of fortune for the remaining games.

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Comments (6)

• 19-Apr-2011 11:14 | | klon
  

  We scored a goal via penalty hence the ref adding more time, seems logical to me. But that should be beside the point the point here is again our inability to keep a cool head in these sorts.of circumstances. Lets get the next few games out of the way and dissect away at the close of the season. Big game tomorrow take it one game at a time.

• 19-Apr-2011 12:36 | | Spectrum
  

  What are you all worrying about ? Even if Chelsea finish above us, we'll stll make the top 4. And isn't that our new definition of success now, under Wenger ? Winning things is for mugs.
  "******************"

• 19-Apr-2011 12:41 | | Arselicked  - Madness
  

  Some madness all round again, people are calling for Cesc to go back if he wants to. We need him for that midfield to be alive. Our problem seems to be at the back but i feel that it is at the front.
  
  Our top goal scorer can only manage 15 goals per season yet we talk about winning the league. Man U had an injury ravaged season at the back but they are still leading the log, why? Because their strikers are so efficient that who ever they play at the back has time to organise and be ready to defend, whereas for us, if Cesc is not playing its spells and spells of pressure.
  
  I'm glad that AW has seen this by now and i think he will try to do something about. I think we will do better if go 4-4-2 with Cesc, Song, Nasri, Theo, RVP and Chamack for mid and attack. Theo and Clichy have crossed so many times but hit nothing but the defence in the back because RVP is down in the middle. He shouldn't be playing too deep, he should be harassing defenders upfront like Drogba, Torres, Suarez and Carroll.

• 19-Apr-2011 14:16 | | TL Gooner  - Madness
  

  Arselicked, are you seriously suggesting that van Persie needs to be more like Torres?!
  
  How can you criticise him for scoring 15 goals, he has the best minutes to goals ratio out of any striker in the league. He also scores all the time, he has been missing for half the season so far and yet is still averaging over a goal a game since January.
  
  The reason we are struggling to score goals at home is because teams come and 'park the bus' and play 10 men behind the ball. I agree we need to find a way round this but anybody wuld struggle to break teams down when they do that. Besides, this time we actually did eventually break them down. It is hard to look fluent and stylish going forward when you're coming up against so many defenders. It isn't a coincidence that it's only at home where we're struggling with this at the moment because teams play more open against when they are at home- West Brom and Blackpool away for instance.
  
  And Spectrum, where's your pride? Don't you want us to finish above Chelsea who've had a poor season and finish as the highest ranking London team for the first time since 2004? We want to be the pride of London and finish above our rivals. Plus, second would show progression from last season.

• 19-Apr-2011 14:45 | | Arselicked  - Madness
  

  I hear you mate but he has been giving us 15 goals for the last 6 or 7 seasons. Too injury prone and plays too deep. Relying on him is like Everton trying to rely on Louis Saha, great player same problem. It is no wonder RVP has got only 1 hat-trick in his EPL career.
  
  We have to finish above Chelski and the best way i see it is if we go 4-4-2, find some space for Chamack who is willing to get behind the defence and stay up there to relieve our midfield and backline of pressure.
  
  I have seen too many times Walcott and Clichy cross the ball, only to find nobody has made a run behind the defence. Arshavin, Nasri, Bendtner and RVP keep passing the ball back into the midfield and this allows opposing defenders to re-group and get organised. I feel this is wrong.
  
  We were smashing with Henry, Bergkamp, Lunjberg and Pires and i feel they made Viera and Petit look good because teams were afraid.

• 21-Apr-2011 00:02 | | TL Gooner
  

  I see your point better now pal. I get what you mean, I was too young to remember what Arsenal were like then, and how different the league may have been but nowadays most teams play 3 in centre midfield and we may get outnumbered in midfield.
  
  BUT
  
  I think in home games vs the likes of Blackburn and Sunderland we should play the 4-4-2 you said.

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