Daniel Jones
I was at the ‘Reebok Stadium’ last Sunday and it was easily the worst ‘away day’ atmosphere I’ve experienced. Our fans were rarely in tune and I couldn’t help but look around and see the agony and frustration on the faces of my fellow supporters. I perhaps didn’t realise how angry some are with Arsene Wenger. Very few found the courage to sing his name and I think there are now more fans that want him to leave the club than not. I only realised this because of two incidents I experienced come the end of the game.
Immediately after the referee blew his whistle, some Arsenal fans stood on their seats and angrily flapped their arms around in the direction of the team. The language I heard was disgusting; ‘F*** off Arsene! Just f*** off you c***s! We pay your wages. Effortless!’
Andrey Arshavin obviously still struggles with the English language, because whilst these insults came in his direction, he continued to applaud the Arsenal fans for their support at the end of the game. Most players were too embarrassed to applaud us and headed straight down the tunnel, except for Jack Wilshere who threw his Arsenal shirt into the crowd. (Jack, the only positive thing to have come out of our season).
‘Effortless’ was the perfect word to describe our performance at Bolton. We lost 2-1 and the two goals we conceded were both headers from corners. Some poor marking and tracking on both occasions cost us the game. Both were ‘errors’ and these are errors that can easily be and should be stamped out of our game. 54% of the goals we have conceded this season have come from set pieces (the highest in the Premier League).
The second thing that took me back was listening to Alan Green on ‘606’ on the journey home. I’ve never sensed such anger in the voices of the Arsenal fans. Every caller but one said that Arsene needs to go and it saddens me deeply to hear such words. A few fans will possibly take their remarks back because it’s only natural to feel anger after such a poor performance, but this is why I can’t help but feel that most fans want Arsene to walk.
Just for the record, I want Arsene to stay. I still have faith in Arsene Wenger. Yes, Arsene’s project has failed, but he has set us up beautifully to still win something in the short-term. Arsene won’t be leaving anyway! He won’t walk and nor will he be sacked. The manager has the full backing of the board.
I feel that we are so close, but yet so far. Yes, we need to make changes, but axing our manager is drastic and not the way forward. Therefore I propose some of the changes or tweaks that we all hope Arsene can follow;
• I hate criticism from fans about how we may walk the ball into the back of the net. Yes, we may score goals if we shoot earlier, but we wouldn’t score the goals we have scored if it wasn’t for passing and moving, even in the opponent’s box. Every pass ensures that possession is kept and increases the team’s chances of scoring. I’m a big fan of possession football. I believe it allows a team to control the game. The only ‘attacking’ change I would make is the speed in which we counter. Theo Walcott will help, but our movement seems so slow of recent and if teams are now coming to ‘The Grove’ and sitting back, it is important that we break quickly, but efficiently.
• 4-3-3 is the formation for Arsenal, providing the team works hard. It is this generation’s formation. We would all like to see two forwards through the centre, but if we take a man out of the middle of midfield, getting the ball back and controlling the game will prove difficult against opponents that play three central midfielders. Robin Van Persie does get isolated as a lone striker, so let him play out wide like he did for Holland. He came to Arsenal as a winger and with Robin Van Persie much deeper, he will get more of the ball and will create things out of nothing. This will also allow Marouane Chamakh to play consistently as the middle man. I think Chamakh will soon repeat the form he showed at the beginning of the season, but he needs to be playing week in, week out.
• If Pat Rice departs this season, then let Steve Bould take responsibility as ‘assistant manager’. We need someone on that touchline drumming it into our players about defensive duties and work rate. He should also implement something in training to do with our defending. This needs to be executed as soon as possible. Even if it means sacrificing a ‘passing session’, we need to work desperately on defending, especially defending set pieces. If we get this right, our players will be organised and our fans won’t have a nervous breakdown every time the opposition win a corner. Steve Bould has done a fantastic job with the youth team. I would also like to see Dennis Bergkamp come back as a technical coach. He can learn from Arsene and maybe in the long-term will go on to become Arsenal manager.
• The main reason we have failed at this stage of the season for the past few seasons, is because the players deep down into our squad aren’t good enough. Man Utd have some awful players at the club, but when they come in to the first team because of injuries and suspensions, they do a job! Our players do not and for me, there is nobody in our squad that can immediately replace Alex Song and Thomas Vermaelen. Some players in our squad are just not good enough for Arsenal football club. The following players have to go;
1. Manuel Almunia – Can he possibly play another game for Arsenal? Does Almunia himself have the confidence to play in between the posts once more at ‘The Grove?’ He has cost us so many points, but it’s not his fault that he has played 109 games for us. He should never have been given another opportunity when he went wandering at Highbury in 2005, when leaving Christiano Ronaldo free at the back post. Five to six years later he went wondering again, this season on both occasions we met West Brom.
2. Gael Clichy – He did a great job at first when Ashley Cole left for Chelsea. If there was one player that gave his all every game it was Gael Clichy. However, of recent times, Clichy often dramatically slips and lacks concentration. Dare I say it, we all know what happened at St. Andrews a few years ago, but it wasn’t the only time Clichy was found wanting. 4-2 up at home to Spurs with a few minutes left, Clichy slips to let Jermaine Jenas in and we subsequently went on to draw the game 4-4. He makes mistakes and seems to struggle keeping a line with the rest of the defence.
3. Sebastien Squillaci – Awful! It’s hard to believe that a few years ago he led Monaco to the Champions League final. I thought it was a great signing at first! Squillaci is a winner. He won league titles at Lyon before doing well at Sevilla. Unfortunately as time passed, we learnt that Squillaci was another ‘Pascal Cygan’.
4. Emmanuel Eboue – A good utility player only because he is versatile. I also understand Eboue is a big dressing room player because of the humour he offers. However, I don’t like his play-acting and I can’t help but feel the last thing Eboue will do in a red and white shirt, is recklessly and ‘stupidly’ bringing down Lucas in the penalty box and end any title dream our club had. Nelson Vivas made a bigger mistake in 1999 when leaving Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink free at the back post and he never played for Arsenal again.
5. Denilson – Is he really Brazilian? It’s hard to believe that he captained the Under 17’s to a final of the Under 17’s world championships in 2005. I had hope he would go on to dictate play in the middle for Arsenal in the future, but even his short passing can be embarrassing and the Premier League is no place for this player. I’ve lost count the number of times Denilson has been dismissed in possession.
6. Nicklas Bendtner – I hope he’s frustrated that he hasn’t started many games this season for the club and he probably will be considering a move now because Bendtner believes he’s one of God’s best with a football. I just wish he was half the player he thinks he is, but Bendtner is just not good enough!
7. Carlos Vela – I’m a big Vela fan and always have been. Even ‘Football Manager’ can recognise his potential, but I hate to admit that Vela is too lightweight for the Premier League and I think it would be better for both him and the club if Vela finds a club in ‘La Liga’ where he will be much better suited. It’s sad to think that Hernandez at Man Utd has settled into English football immediately, when Vela is of the same size and both came from the same club in Chivas.
I’d hope most fans would agree with the above and if all these players leave the club, it is mightily important we cling on to the rest of the squad. There will be talk of players like Samir Nasri and Andrey Arshavin leaving this summer, but I just hope they want to stay. Of course, I want our skipper, Cesc Fabregas, to stay, but if he wants to leave then I can understand. He’s been with us for eight years and has made more than three-hundred appearances for the first team. Cesc is from Barcelona and we all know his role-model in football is their manager Pep Guardiola. The man that gave Cesc a signed Barcelona shirt when he was just fourteen. A time of difficulty for Cesc was when his dad became ill. Guardiola said then, ‘One day you will wear the number four at Barcelona’. I can’t blame Cesc if he wants to leave and it means with the millions we will obtain from him, we can look to improve the quality of our squad.
That leads me on nicely to the last of my points. Arsene will need to improve the quality of our squad this summer. He will need to spend and won’t be able to gamble as much on unknown players, because at this time he is under immense pressure and needs to get it right fast. However, we must continue with the business model we have and I ask Arsene to spend with only the money we have available from our own resources. He will need to spend wisely because we don’t have a transfer budget as high as some of our rivals and I don’t want Stan Kroenke giving us an injection of money, because I love our principles and they must continue. I don’t know which players would be suitable and I hope Arsene with his intelligent knowledge of world football will have the answers.
