Joe Fitzpatrick 
It is only now, on the 25th January, 2012, that I can sit at my keyboard and begin to write about the scenes that I witnessed outside Ashburton Grove Stadium on Sunday after the 1-2 defeat against Manchester United with any kind of perspective or clarity, such was the impact on my psyche as a lifelong Gooner.
Two groups of Arsenal fans were arguing and chanting at each other with a palpable hatred (almost as if they were fans of rival clubs) all because one group wants Arsène Wenger out of the club ASAP because of his perceived stubbornness, lack of tactical acumen and refusal to spend available funds, while the other group has remained staunchly loyal to their once-glorious leader and believes that, if Arsène Wenger had more financial backing from the Arsenal board, he would be winning trophy after trophy after trophy.
Of course, there is a lot more to be said about the arguments presented by both the Wenger-Out-Now Liberation Army and the Pro-Wenger loyalists but, when I try and condense the arguments down into a single sentence, that’s the best summation of the situation I can put forward.
The Pro-Wenger loyalists were heard to be chanting “there’s only one Arsène Wenger” at the Wenger-Out brigade, but I couldn’t help but wonder whether there are actually two Arsène Wengers or, at the very least, two very distinct yet opposing personalities contained within the same individual man.
The first is Arsène Wenger 1996-2005, who brought us title-winning performances, F.A. Cups, an unbeaten season and a Champions League final. This Wenger brought in powerful, athletic and determined players who were willing to fight for the right to play their attractive brand of attacking football.
The second is Arsène Wenger 2005-present day, who has failed to win a single trophy and has brought in players who are obviously far less physically imposing than players like Vieira, Petit, Lauren, Gilberto and Kolo Touré, and lack the ability to consistently fight for the right to play their pass, pass, pass, tippy-tappy never-crossy, never-shooty brand of football.
It seems that the Wenger loyalists are still caught up in their devotion to the 1996-2005 Arsène Wenger, while the Wenger-Out brigade are more concerned with the current incarnation of our once-glorious leader.
Regardless of who is right or who is wrong on this important issue, I can only say that it is a truly sad and sorry state of affairs when fellow Gooners look more like bitter enemies than brothers-in-arms, and it would be awful for the overall health of the club if we were to witness further outbreaks of physical violence amongst sections of our own support again. We all know it has happened before and I don’t want to go into the embarrassing details here once again.
I sit in the West Lower, and a couple of seats down from me is a lovely chap who sometimes feels the need to vent his frustrations with some of the current Arsenal team (using the most colourful language imaginable) and who was recently challenged by a fellow Gooner to “Shut the f*** up” and “See me outside after the match”, all because he was slating the performance of certain individuals for the benefit of his own sanity and, I presume, for the amusement of some like-minded fans around him.
Firstly, I would like to point out that it is ridiculous that fans of the same club should be so angry with each other’s opinions that they choose to resolve the argument with physical violence and, secondly, it is a sad indictment on the volume levels inside our stadium that an argument between two individuals more than ten metres apart could be heard so clearly in the middle of a sold-out Premier League match.
I’m sure that the one thing that all of us can agree on is that we badly need more investment into the quality of our playing squad but, as a former hardcore AKB myself (until 2011), I am going to have one more stab at deprogramming the rest of the AKB cult-members.
Arsène Wenger has inadvertently turned us Gooners against each other because of his post-2005 idea that copying the Barcelona model of a 4-3-3 system that is played using smaller, more mobile players would eventually confound and confuse our opponents and lead to Premier League domination simply because of the sheer technical superiority of this system over the more traditional 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 formations.
What Wenger has failed to realise is that, in order for his new system, or indeed any system, to work in a tough and physically-competitive league such as the Premiership, your players must put in 100% effort, 100% of the time and fight for the right to play the possession/passing style of football.
The passion and commitment to the Arsenal cause displayed by Henry, van Persie, Koscielny and Vermaelen in recent matches has provided a stark contrast to the lack of effort and commitment displayed by players such as Chamakh, Arshavin, Bendtner, Denilson and Diaby in recent seasons, leading a lot of informed supporters to question why these players are (or were) given numerous chances to show that they are not passionate about, or committed to, anything except their sky-high wages.
When I watch Barcelona and see Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Villa, Sanchez and Fabregas all busting a gut to regain possession and running their socks off for their team, I often wonder why some of our less-gifted players are not always willing to do the hard work that provides the platform on which the success of Barcelona F.C. is built. The only answer that I can come up with is the lack of proper man-management at Arsenal under Wenger, and his inability to get the best out of players lacking confidence, ability or motivation.
It appears that van Persie, Wilshere, Vermaelen, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Koscielny are self-motivating players who have an innate desire to succeed and to win, while Arshavin, Chamakh, Denilson, Diaby and Bendtner are players who need a wake-up call and a bit of “hairdryer treatment” if we are ever going to see any more out of them in an Arsenal shirt.
The question that has to be asked now is “How long would it have taken Mourinho or Ferguson to drop these players?” because, although they too have been guilty of signing a few dud players in their careers, such as Kezman, Crespo, Djemba Djemba, Kleberson, Veron and Taibi, it didn’t take them long to realise that these players were not good enough and needed to be moved on to other clubs.
So, how long would it have taken Ferguson or Mourinho to decide that Chamakh, Arshavin, Squillaci, Djourou, Diaby, Denilson, Almunia, Bendtner and Fabianski needed to be shown the exit door? We’ll never know for sure, but I am quietly confident that none of those players would still be on the Arsenal payroll under either Ferguson or Mourinho.
Would Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho substitute their best-performing player in a tight match against a top-level team for a player whose commitment, fitness and desire has been found wanting all season? No, of course they wouldn’t - that would be silly. Would Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho persist with a 4-3-3 formation with no fully-fit full-backs available? No, of course they wouldn’t - it would put too much pressure on the centre-half playing out of position.
It is now time for us to finally realise that Wenger doesn’t care about what the opposition are going to do (as revealed by Cesc Fabregas in an interview during 2010), doesn’t have a clue of how to coach the defensive aspects of the game (as evidenced by our goals-against statistics and inability to hold a one-goal lead) and, finally, doesn’t have the man-management skills to turn around underperforming players who obviously have ability, such as Arshavin and Chamakh.
