Kevin Whitcher
I had a ticket for Craven Cottage. However, my son’s under 9s team were designated to play their cup semi-final and (if successful) final at 1pm and 3pm respectively yesterday on the other side of London. I decided to let my Fulham ticket go after the Stoke game and watch my boy instead. At least I saw a team that played with greater heart and commitment than I have a good number of times when watching Arsenal this season, and the under 9s won their two matches to boot. I’ve missed a good number of the offspring’s fixtures this season, so felt little in the way of guilt at my sense of priorities.
So any impressions of the match at Craven Cottage are formed from meeting up with pals who had been to the match for a drink after the game, and watching the best 45 minutes of the action on ‘Football First’. So not claiming any authority on this one, but for what it’s worth…
For some reason, while watching the best of the second half of this match, my mind wandered to what the 2010/11 season Arsenal DVD might be called. And I had an idea that there was a film in the Carry On series called ‘Carry On All At Sea’. There wasn’t, but it would have summed up Arsenal’s play for a good portion of the season. There is no point in my repeating things I’ve already written about how disorganized and vulnerable Arsenal’s defending is, but the two Fulham goals merely underlined the point. Wenger’s team have conceded 43 goals in 38 league games, gaining 68 points to finish fourth. A year ago, it was 41 goals against, 75 points and third place. The team, supposedly building to domination through each successive year of maturity, has gone backwards. They are set to lose two of their best creative players because said stars do not believe they are going to win the medals their talent deserves due to the poor coaching and the mediocrity of a large number of the first team squad at Arsenal. To use a colloquialism popular a few years ago, it’s all gone Pete Tong.
Aaron Ramsey is supposedly the successor to Cesc Fabregas. He’s certainly learned from the master with a backheel intended for Jack Wilshere being intercepted by the opposition and a goal resulting. Johan Djourou is in a wretched run of form and looks nothing like the defender he was a few months ago. Arsenal’s offside trap would have had George Graham telling the players to forget starting their holidays today and come in for a few days’ extra training as punishment.
There was at least, some sign of change, with the team appearing to line up as a 4-4-2 with Ramsey and Nasri wide midfield and Chamakh and Van Persie in tandem up front. Whether or not this was responsible for two fine chances to score from headers in the first half, I can’t say, but at least it showed that Arsene Wenger realized something different had to be attempted. Sadly the players didn’t gel creatively and never really took the game by the scruff of the neck until Fulham were reduced to ten men late in the second half. It was end of season stuff, and after some of the recent performances, little surprise to anyone.
There were some chants of ‘Spend some f***ing money’. At one point Nasri went to take a corner at the Arsenal end and, in response to said chant, gestured to the fans to lower the volume! Yet, in truth, had the manager actually utilized the £40m he has had in the kitty since the summer of 2009, Nasri himself might be more inclined to stick around.
In the end, Arsenal plugged away and at least avoided defeat. There was a feeling of ‘thank God that’s over’ as a good many fans could not wait for this season to end. And that almost certainly goes for a good number of the players too. The form in the last couple of months has been relegation stuff. Something’s gone badly wrong, and although the players may have let the manager down, ultimately, he is the man who decided they were good enough for the club. A major freshen up is required, but there are fears that it may not happen. Arsene Wenger has almost three months to plan how he is going to make his team competitive for a full season as opposed to the first two thirds of it. Realistically, you can’t see the stubborn control freak admitting that he has been wrong to ignore defence as a priority after 15 years of doing exactly that, so the hope can only be that he will purchase players at the back and in midfield who will do the organizing for him – as happened in his first ten years in North London.
Let’s hope it’s the kind of summer 1995 was, when signings excited supporters and the club began a change of direction as a consequence. We certainly can’t go on like this. This group of players has consistently demonstrated that, as a collective, they are chokers. Change is needed to return the club to winning ways.
The end of season Gooner Survey is now online. I have a memory that you need to fill in the whole thing in one go, so maybe do not start submitting your entry unless you have half an hour to complete the thing. Just click here when you are ready to begin, but we’ll be giving it a couple more plugs over the next month, so there’s no rush. One entrant will be selected at random to receive next season’s home replica shirt for their trouble.
The current issue of The Gooner can be bought online here.
