The Definition of Madness

Ok, so it's been a highly amusing weekend - particularly Sunday - but Schadenfreude, a good dose of hysterical laughter and a bit of pathos don't win you titles. Liverpool's struggles, Manchester United's pathetic excuse for a defence (perhaps they'd like to borrow some of ours?... no, wait - that would be tricky), Frank Lampard, and Tottenham being Tottenham; all great viewing etc., but we've still got it nagging away at us if we're Arsenal fans, have we not?

I decided to wait until after the Villa game to see if I could write something that wouldn't be the same as everyone else would be writing after Tuesday, and even though matters might look a bit brighter after a comfortable 3-0 win I still have a feeling that nothing has really changed. Because it's OK to thrash the also-rans of the Premier League, but it really doesn't answer the questions that need answering, and hasn't taken long for all the questioning of Arsene Wenger to start again. And these are the questions:

1. Why did he allow the Transfer Window (why the capital letters, you may ask? Blame Jim White) to close with only 6 defenders in the First Team squad? And one of those a rookie?
2. Why did he not buy a big, strong defensive midfielder?
3. Why has he been playing our most gifted footballer out of position?
4. And why continue with the gung-ho tactics that undid his teams again and again against the big clubs away from home last season? Is he blind, or merely stubborn beyond comprehension?

I couldn't bear to listen to the Sky Sports dissection of the Dortmund 'performance'. Not have I read anything about it on Blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc. or in the newspapers, or listened to Podcasts. I simply couldn't bear to; I knew what was going to be said. I knew that a) I couldn't fail to agree with it and b) that in circumstances like that it is becoming virtually impossible to back Wenger any more, for all he has done for Arsenal Football Club. It's OK to send your side out to go and express themselves when you've got Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Vieira et al on your books, but that's an unrepeatable vintage, so tactics are probably required these days?

If you'll bear with me, I shall answer my own questions:
1. Inexcusable.
2. Incomprehensible.
3. Unbelievable.
4. All three of the above. Although, granted, 2 and 3 mean exactly the same thing, I think that you get my drift.

I have heard it said that the definition of Madness is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. In which case, Arsene Wenger is mad. For all that I love the man and all he has done for Arsenal, if he alone cannot see that he is repeating last year's mistakes then he needs a reality check. So at the risk of repeating what I am sure has been said and written since Tuesday evening...

Once more, away from home, a powerful side look to press high and overwhelm the Arsenal defence and midfield by giving them no to time to settle - go back to Liverpool, City, Chelsea last season for previous examples... and Klopp would have done his homework - but he seems to express a blithe indifference to these tactics. Arteta (surely unable to hack it now against top class opposition?) being harried by two or three men, the central defenders having attackers pressing right up against them; Wilshere and Ramsey unable to do anything constructive with the ball; the forwards finding it impossible to hold the ball up at all - yet he still allows the full backs to bomb on AT THE SAME TIME?!?

Irrespective of the injury to Debuchy and Chambers' illness, and irrespective of the relative form of certain players and the strange tweak in formation since last year (influenced by Low's playing of Ozil on the left wing during the World Cup, no doubt), the lack of pragmatism and lack of flexibility were there to be seen once more. Would Mourinho have set a side out like that? Of course not, and I doubt that the likes of Pulis or even Warnock would have done either. Last year, for the first time I can recall - and I sat all the way through the 8-2 OT debacle - I switched the TV off three times. And it took great restraint not to do it again on Tuesday.

So what's to be done about the myriad of things that are wrong - at least until January when Wenger surely must act? Here's my take:

1. Ozil is the most gifted player in the squad. He must be played in his best position, for all that may affect Jack Wilshere's role in the side.
2. Ramsey is badly out of form, and his decision-making is suffering as a result. I can understand that Wenger wants to keep him in the side, but the last time we saw Ramsey like this Wenger had a chat with him and got him going back to basics; doing the simple things first and then expanding his game as his confidence returned. He's an all-action player who doesn't hide, so how about this for something revolutionary... drop the struggling Arteta and play Ramsey and Wilshere (who did it for England two weeks ago, let us not forget) as the two in central/defensive midfield, and try to replicate the Vieira/Petit axis - one stays if the other pushes on.
3. Put Ozil in in front of a Ramsey/Wilshere axis, and play Alexis and Cazorla either side of Welbeck. Worth a go? I think so. Ramsey would be forced to go back to basics and show discipline, and he and Jack can look to feed a gifted front 4 as quickly as possible, playing between the lines. We can test this out against next weekend's limited opposition before the biggest test of the season.
4. Tell the full-backs that if one goes forward, the other stays back to give numbers/cover when attacks break down. Too often we see players running at speed through the Arsenal midfield, exposing just two men - one of whom I'm pretty sure that even I could outspeed!. A little pragmatism, please, seeing as there's quite enough fire power ahead.

If you're reading this, what do you think? And if you like the sound of it, please pass it on to AW. I'm sure you all have his mobile number. Because unless he changes things Chelsea will tear Arsenal apart again on October 5th; and how could we bear that?

No case for Arsene's Defence

OK; let's make this clear from the very start of this piece. Plenty of people are moaning that it's 'only' Danny Welbeck, but in my view he's a very good player who hasn't been given enough opportunities at his previous club in the past year or so - he got a reasonable amount of game time under Ferguson, after all - and he's a good addition to the squad who, judging by the way he plays, will fit the Arsenal system very well. He has pace, from what I can recall he makes intelligent runs, and he'll be almost straight into the side and with 4 months to establish himself as Arsenal's Number One Centre Forward. I've got no issues with the signing on that count.

However, plenty of questions still need to be answered about this Transfer Window from the Arsenal perspective (plus ca change!). Let's ask them:

1. Perfectly understandable that we wouldn't be in for Falcao. He is very expensive and coming back from serious injury - simply not Wenger's idea of fun - but did Arsenal get Welbeck purely on the back of the Falcao to United deal? Almost certainly. And if that's the case if looks - like the Ozil deal - to be a happy accident and not the result of any planning. Will he ever learn?

2. Quite a few strikers have moved in this Window. There is a case for saying that Arsenal were light on real class up top BEFORE the Giroud injury, so why has he again waited until past the 11th hour, only to have Welbeck fall fortuitously into his lap? Can he not see what we can see, and if not why not? 

3. This deal pushes Podolski and Campbell even further down the pecking order. So Arsenal are ridiculously top-heavy in attack with players who probably won't even make the bench once Walcott is back. Lack of planning, wouldn't you agree?

4. Other critical areas of the side have not been addressed fully. A team that let in 6 away at City and Chelsea, 5 at Liverpool, and three without reply at Everton last year is shorter in numbers in defence than it was last season, and still lacking the Matic-type figure that might just stop the lightning raids that exposed the defence last season. In defensive midfield, Arteta is a year older - and injured - and Flamini... well, recently-promoted Leicester exposed him on Sunday! Faffing about over Carvalho with all that money in the bank is surely self-defeating, and whilst Chelsea have much more money than Arsenal it's not as if we're paupers - they made everything they wanted to happen, happen, yet we haggled and then missed out. Explanation, please?

5. As for the defence... well, I have little problem with the quality of the individual parts (nobody's perfect), but there simply not enough of them. Despite the following criticism: Debuchy is still bedding in but is not, in my opinion, an upgrade on Sagna; Chambers is a callow youth, if extremely promising - we are an injury or suspension away from having him in central defence through lack of any other choice; Mertesacker, for all his excellent positioning, is very slow and can look incredibly clumsy; Koscielny is still prone to huge gaffes; Gibbs is injured almost 50% of the time; Monreal, whilst seemingly improved, is not great when people take him on. But even saying all that I can live with all their foibles... except that's it - 6 players (one often injured) for 4 places in 50+ high intensity matches. If that's the basis for challenging on every front, then I'm Louis van Gaal (a Dutchman - get it?!?).  Unless there's some free agent somewhere who he can draft in as cover (Titus Bramble is available, I understand...)?

And this final point is where I take real issue with Wenger. Too many in midfield and up front, but insufficient cover at the back. And that's no basis for a title challenge, no matter how anyone may try to dress it up. Last year he just about got away with it, but this was supposed to be the year that we were able to compete with the super-rich elite, and I just can't see it happening. The post-Wolrd Cup optimism has somewhat evaporated now.

Despite winning a trophy last season and signing a new contract on the back of that, I can see that Wenger's future will boil down to a) the decision not to re-sign Fabregas and b) trusting to luck with defensive injuries and suspensions. And the alternative is a new Manager for 2015-16, because AW may well be in the act of squandering the opportunity for which he has worked so hard for so long. I hope that I am wrong.