Papering Over The Cracks

Yes, I know Arsenal won last night. But whilst the bare facts say one thing, deep down we have to admit that this was another sub-standard performance against a distinctly average side. I know we've got a load of injuries and you can try to excuse this and other recent performances if you want to. But... Arsenal were lacking in confidence, in pace, in drive, in aggression; all round, simply not good enough for a club with the ambitions it has (or rather, its supporters have - quite what the owner is happy to settle for, I'm really not quite sure). And as a result - bear with me please - this is going to be a bit of a rant.

I didn't see much of the Hull game - I was out of the country and couldn't get a feed on my iPad - but by all accounts it was much the same as last night; laboured, if I had to sum it up in one word.

So what's been going wrong at Arsenal Football Club, following the FA Cup win and the feel-good factor in engendered? I'll tackle it on three levels: 1) The Owner, 2) The Manager, 3) What happens on the pitch. 

Let's get straight into it:

1. Stan Kroenke, for all his massive wealth, is precisely the type of owner that supporters cannot abide. Distant (literally!); apparently uninterested in reaching the heights of competition to which a club like Arsenal should aspire; happy to merely see his investment grow and now happy to start taking money out of the club for 'services rendered'. He appears to know very little about 'soccer' itself, and leaves the running of the club to his appointees - all well and good in theory, but due to a vacuum at Board level, there appears to be a lack of drive towards anything apart from maintaining the status quo, and lining Stan's already well-filled pockets. Meaning that far too much power has been devolved to the Manager. Kroenke is known a Silent Stan for a reason; we have never heard what his ambitions for Arsenal Football Club are.

Looking around the higher echelons of the Premier League, who could one cite as a model Owner/Chairman from the fans' point of view? Let's rule out United and Spurs (whose respective regimes are frankly dysfunctional); and Manchester City, who have the sort of money that most people can not even imagine but whom FFP is frankly treating rather inequitably; plus Everton, who due to circumstances don't have the resources to break properly into the Top 4. That leaves Liverpool and (I'll whisper it...) Chelsea. 

Liverpool lost Luis Suarez in the summer, and their owners didn't hold back on spending money in an attempt to replace him. OK, they don't appear to have succeeded, but replacing a world class player never is (unless you have lots of others, and Liverpool aren't Real Madrid). I'd settle for owners who are prepared to give it a go like FSG.

Chelsea have in the past represented everything that made me cringe about modern football. Huge amounts of money to chuck around; a ruthless owner, not the slightest bit averse to changing Managers almost every season; attracting the sort of characters to play for the club that you wouldn't want your daughter anywhere near; a set of arrogant, unpleasant, thuggish fans (present company excepted!); a Manager so full of himself that I want to commit physical violence on him every time I see his smug face on TV or hear his voice on the radio. Yet, yet... Those 10 years of awful excess have moved Chelsea Football Club on from a mid-table club to a world powerhouse, with a fantastic side, a brilliant Manager, and due to astute transfer dealings a base from which they can now remain at the top indefinitely. 

Which Arsenal fan, today, wouldn't want an owner like Roman Abramovich? Kroenke has the money to do something similar - and if he is unwilling it would appear that Usmanov would happily step into that breach - yet Arsenal just chug along, achieving the bare minimum that their resources indicate they should.

Kroenke Out. There; I've said it.

2. People have been saying Wenger Out for years now. The fallow years, as a result of the move from Highbury and the simultaneous rise of first Chelsea, then Manchester City, have as time gone on dragged on a little too long. If Wenger has changed in that period, it has not been with the times; one just has to look at the size, power and pace of teams like Real and Athletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Chelsea and compare them to the current Arsenal squad to see the difference in their make-up. And it is clear, from where I am sitting, who has got it right and who has got it wrong.

Up to the middle of last season, I was a big apologist for Arsene Wenger. No longer. The FA Cup win merely papered over the cracks. It gave the regime the excuse to give him another three-year contract, and him to carry on in his not-so-merry way. Yet again this season the squad is just two or three players short of being really good, and yet again it will fall short. Despite the signing of the excellent Alexis Sanchez, there is plenty missing and if we can all see it, why can he not?

Yes, we again have the ready-made excuse of a long injury list. But that's all it is - an excuse. Even at full-strength, the squad is not quite good (yet again) enough to hit the summit. And lack of money is no longer an excuse. Where's the depth in defence? Where's the big defensive midfield enforcer on whom EVERY other top Manager insists? William Carvalho? - I'd settle for Steven N'Zonzi!

I wish I could understand the man's psyche. It's almost as if he is doing it deliberately; leaving the squad short as a ready-made excuse. Well, people aren't buying it any more.

Don't get me wrong; I love the man for what he helped the club achieve between 1998 and 2005 and will always be in awe of those great sides. But those days are long gone. And the worst thing about it is that when things are going badly on the pitch these days, he does not seem to have the capacity to change things, or to inspire his side to do things differently.

Which brings me on to...

3. When Arsenal (almost inevitably) fall a goal behind, I don't see any change in attitude. Last night - and by all accounts against Hull also - they carried on as before; with the only difference being that their confidence (already not high) dropped, thus making things more difficult. Where's the change of gear, of tactics, of pace? Even Guardiola says that Tiki Taka is dead.

Let's see a change to 4-4-2 - or at least a return to 4-2-3-1 and no more 4-1-4-1. Just... something less predictable. It's almost as if there is no planning; Wenger sees a shiny Ozil or Alexis bauble and feels he had better have it, with no thought as to what to do with it. And what would we do for Cesc Fabregas now! The shining jewel in Chelsea's crown...

This season, unless I am much mistaken, the Manager is not sure of his best side (even if he could put it out). How to accommodate Ozil and Sanchez is a problem he has not solved, and playing your most expensive player out of position simply cannot be the answer. Yes, he was badly out of form before his injury, but what came first; the chicken or the egg?

Make no mistake, Gibbs' sublime volley and a typical Podolski finish got Arsene Wenger out of jail yesterday; but bringing on Campbell, and then Podolski with just 7 minutes remaining, were no more than desperate throws of the dice.

Something has to change. What, or how, I do not know, and it doesn't help that Debuchy, Koscielny, Arteta, Ozil, Giroud and Rosicky are all injured, and Ramsey and Walcott only just coming back; but he is not making the best of what he has. Whilst a fully-fit squad might just about be able to challenge, he is to my mind making the wrong decisions, both before and during matches. 

Plus the Monreal centre-back experiment has to stop now. In the absence of the two Frenchmen, Chambers must play in the middle and Bellerin at right back. Play people in their natural positions, Arsene; not positions in which they are uncomfortable. You got us into this mess by not reinforcing the squad; now think more logically, please.

And as I have mentioned before - how about Jack and Aaron as the back two in a 4-2-3-1 - playing in the old Vieira/Petit manner that if one goes the other sits. At least they have more energy than either Arteta or Flamini, plus it frees up an extra spot further forward.

OK, I've said my piece. I could go on, but if you're still reading then I congratulate you! What is likely to change in the near future I do not know, but it's already abundantly clear that the best finish we can hope for in the Premier League is third, and that's merely because United and Liverpool are currently in such a mess. And third will NOT be an improvement; Arsenal were just 7 points off of the title last season, but I reckon we're going to be looking at more like 20 this season and that, my friends, it totally unacceptable.

Lessons we can learn from Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0

Lots of short points to make:

1. Chelsea's team is simply better than Arsenal's. They have better players from front to back, and individuals who can and do make the difference when needed. As we saw from Hazard, Fabregas and Costa today. How many of Arsenal's squad would make Chelsea's? Maybe 5? 

Arsenal's leading individuals are yet to produce - and I am convinced that Alexis will do so - or are currently not doing so - and I am amongst many others beginning to get extremely frustrated with Ozil, who if he hadn't spent £42m on him I'm convinced Wenger would drop.

2. We saw solid performances all over the pitch from Arsenal players today. 7+ out of 10 for Chambers, Gibbs, Flamini, Cazorla, Wilshere and Alexis. If they play like they did today in games against lesser opposition, the team can go on a real roll. 

However, I'd have to (generously) give Ozil no more than 2/10. He looks devoid of confidence, and gets worried off of the ball all too easily. I'm not willing to write off a guy who I've seen influence a Champions League Final and a World Cup Final, but something's not quite right, and it's not just because he's been played in a number of positions. M Wenger needs to sit him down and have a long chat with him. The look on Cazorla's face when his number went up said it all,

3.  Tactically, despite the result, M Wenger can use today as a blueprint for big games in the near future. The fact that Chelsea's defence is so solid, and that they have top individual players, meant that today things didn't work out, but the statistics show that they created few chances and despite a lack of cutting edge that was a vastly improved performance from Arsenal compared to many last year.

4. Chelsea have had an 8-year start on Arsenal spending massive amounts of money. Therefore, Arsenal may be up to 8 years behind catching up with them. We have to accept this, but Gazidis surely has to ensure that the manager spends all the money made available to him. The fact that there are glaring shortages of numbers in defence, and quality in defensive midfield; plus - currently - right up top need to be addressed over the next two transfer windows.

5. Following on from that, it must be noted that for all that he may be a loathsome individual, Chelsea's manager has done a superb job in assembling the squad he has done. Added to that, his pragmatic use of tactics to suit every situation is highly impressive, and he is rarely out-thought by opposition managers. Which makes his myriad character flaws all the more difficult to swallow as he is a top football man.

6.  Despite a much better performance from M Wenger today - the tactical switches, and of course the excellent dugout hand-off - I am simply no longer 100% convinced by him. He must do better in January - and I'm frankly sick of saying that window after window!

7.  Arsenal fans should have realised some time ago that we have no divine right to win every match we play - and that when we are beaten by a superior team we should acknowledge that. That was the case against Dortmund, and was the case again today. The areas that need to be addressed are glaringly obvious; over to you, M Wenger... or move over. 

However, Gooners, calm down - what did you really expect would happen today?

Pre-Chelsea; the culmination of a big week. Plus a plea to AW

It's been a mixed week so far for Arsenal fans. but with the potential to become a bad one. I can't envisage that any Arsenal fan is truly looking forward to this afternoon, with all its potential for embarrassment and disaster. But back to that shortly.

Let's start with Tottenham; a shabby performance and a disappointing result. They're really not very good; one can see what their new manager is trying to do with them, but their forward players have neither the work-rate to do the job he requires, nor the speed to hit on the break. In essence, they were gifted a goal due to a combination of some undue faffing about at the back (which we have seen before) and lack of ball-control and awareness from Flamini. From then on, one always suspected that pressure would lead to an equaliser - or more - but there was something distinctly uncoordinated about the way they set about things and a victory would have come about more by luck than judgement; disappointing, as they were there for the taking.

On to Galatasary; well, they weren't very good, were they? And deploying their best player - Wesley Schneider - in a deep-lying role negated much of his effectiveness. So whilst I am not going to knock the Welbeck hat-trick, nor the Sanchez goal which was set up by a pass of exquisite genius by Ozil, we should probably factor the quality of the opposition into any euphoria over the result. A good day at the office, which will hopefully bump up confidence for the task ahead.

Because - mark my words - Chelsea are as good as they come at the moment. Whilst their defensive organisation needs a little bit of work - and their manager will get to the bottom of that - going forward they look devastating. The additions of Fabregas (grrr...) and Costa have made a massive difference to a side that wasn't too shabby in any case. They addressed the issues they had early in the transfer window, and have looked comfortably the best side in the Premier League this season (amusing Lampard equaliser notwithstanding).

And this is a team which 'literally' (thanks, Jamie Redknapp) destroyed Arsenal at Stamford Bridge last season. Forget the case of mistaken identity - it was already 2-0 - because they tore Arsenal to shreds from the start. And if Wenger doesn't alter his tactics this afternoon, they may well - with Cesc pulling the strings and with a devastating centre-forward - do the same again.

So what to do, Arsene? Make things as difficult as possible for them, and use the pace our forward players possess to look to hit them on the break. Sit back, and invite them on. Well, that's what I'd do, because the current 'tactics' - allowing both full backs to go forward at the same time without the requisite cover - will be a recipe for suicide as I can see Mourinho looking to do exactly as he did last year and exploit the space they leave behind. Let's give him a problem, and see if he can sort it out.

So please, Arsene, don't ruin our week. Adapt to the threat you face. There's enough pace in the side to do them damage, so let's give ourselves a chance.