Wenger should have delayed Everton game

Will obsession with fixture pile-up lead to long term regret?



Wenger should have delayed Everton game

Wenger: Confused?


As I really am a bad loser, I tend not to write just after a lost or 'negative' match. You'd end up thinking I'm a complete idiot, if I were to write something in the heat of the moment. So here I am on Monday. Well, with the Bolton game postponed last Wednesday and almost the whole of the Premier League opting to stop (whether rightly or not), I'd have preferred even our Everton game to be postponed, not denying the huge pain it would bring to me as a Arseaholic (erm...).

Never mind the games in hand piling up. I am not the most optimistic person in the world but, on Saturday, I don't think I was the only one to think that it was not going to be easy to beat this hungry Everton squad. You could sense that. Maybe it was Alex Song away in Africa, or Cesc still in the stands, or maybe it could have been the fact that we were not hungry enough. I'd like you to be honest now: it was an undeserved point. And as a bad loser (I don't like ties too, anyway), I was happy to settle for a point that might be crucial in the future.

But, I really think we could have done what other teams have done (Liverpool?): postpone the match and play it someday in the future, with Cesc, Song and Bendtner etc. on board. The truth is we have a genius of a manager that sometimes behaves like a stubborn child; the late postponement of the Bolton match is maybe a direct consequence of Wenger's insistence on playing the match to avoid games in hand to pile up. Playing on Saturday was, for baby Arsène, a mere compensation for the postponed match. And that cost us two points, and that could prove crucial too, in the future.

Our performance with Everton was far from convincing, Denilson and Diaby not being the ideal defensive cover we actually need at the moment, but everything could have been definitely worse, as we all know, so I won't complain that much. But now that the transfer window is open, and reportedly we DO have money, why not spend it? Even for the short term, as Arsene would put it?

As I said again, our manager is stubborn. He's fixed on his thoughts and he'll never change opinion. I don't think he's going to buy anyone, even though we badly need a centre back, a defensive midfielder and a striker (and a goalkeeper too, do you think you can cope with the Spanish Waiter in goal?!). Arsenal.com have come back to their deal-denying pastime, as usual in January and during the summer. Carlton Cole was given as a done deal by the press, just because Arsene said that we desperately need a striker. Nobody paid attention to the fact that Arsene said buying a striker depended on the results of a fitness test Bendtner had to pass on Friday. As it seems Bendtner is a fortnight away from comeback, we won't a buy strikers, let alone Carlton Cole.

The problem is, we need a scoring striker, not just a striker. Why point out you'd move on the market for a striker 'for the short term' when you have strikers like Eduardo that have never really convinced and you actually have the money to replace them for the long term?? (Yes I'm saying to get rid of Eduardo.) We were in for Hangeland in the summer, he was the towering power we needed. Nothing. While some guys get their deals extended, others slip away on a free (Flamini, Merida). It's anarchy.

Sol Campbell has been training with Arsenal for almost three months now but... why?? Why are we doing him this favour? Is he really going to replace Senderos? One thing is for sure at Arsenal: Arsene Wenger is a genius, a football guru, we're all happy to have him on board, but he's really confused in his mind right now. Maybe because he's leaving Arsenal in 2012?


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