Fozzy 
This was an even worse performance than the Norwich game, and I didn’t think that was possible. Full of expectations at seeing The Arse in the flesh again after the meaningless international break, I was well up for this one. Such a shame that the players weren’t.
What was going to be the excuse this time? Perhaps it was too long a journey in the private plane from London Colney Airport to Highbury Fields. Whatever the reason, this was abject stuff. What on earth was Wenger thinking or doing, trying to play with nobody out wide? We all know that Ramsey is not a wide player, so why even attempt to play him out on the right? There was no link-up with The Jenk and no end-product. The left side was even worse. Fatty Santos had no idea whether he was an attacker or a defender and so many times he was caught in no man’s land. It didn’t take the opposition long to realise that he was our real weak link and he was consequently exploited to the maximum. Now, I am just a fan who cares and not an expert, but if even I could see that Wenger’s team selection was woeful, why did it take 75 minutes to change it? And why did none of our players come to tuck in either just in front or behind Santos when it was obvious he was having a nightmare.
Mannone was very fortunate not to give away a penalty and even to remain on the pitch after fifteen minutes, when he clearly took away the legs of the attacker and, if it wasn’t for BFG throwing himself in the way, Schalke would have gone in at halftime at least two goals to the good.
And now we come on to Gervinho. I thought that we had got rid of a clown with a number 27 on his back, but here is an exact reincarnation, only this time he is wearing a syrup. Every attempted pass in the first half went straight to a blue shirt, and that included two particularly risky clearances out of defence. On the one occasion when he was clean through, although he had the speed to bear down on goal, he dithered and lost time trying to cut inside the defender and the chance was gone. I finally lost my patience with him in the second half after he had overrun the ball in the box; he then took a dive and was quite rightly yellow-carded. I have no time for cheats and I would rather leave those antics to the likes of Rooney and Suarez. I won’t be disappointed if I don’t see Eboué-in-a-syrup play again for us. He was never going to score as long as I have a hole in my backside, so why he was left on the pitch until 15 minutes before the end?
Just before Schalke banged in the first of their two deserved goals, the ball was on the edge of our box with BFG looking for some movement up front. There was none. He therefore passed the ball to the Verminator who may have had a better option. There was none. Our captain passed the ball back to Mannone who hoofed it up to the halfway line where a Schalke midfield picked up the ball with no red shirt anywhere near him.
The match ended with just my son and me sitting alone with empty seats all around us in block 103. We stayed to applaud the Schalke players off the pitch and watch their superb supporters. In fact it was lovely to see their players celebrate with their fans and showing a close affinity with each other. Would any of our overpaid and overrated individuals even think of doing the same? No chance.
Wenger may well try to absolve himself from criticism for this abject display by claiming to be upstairs collecting fares with the prawn sandwich brigade. Er, I don’t think so. After the Norwich debacle he had the opportunity to have them all back to work on Sunday in an attempt to iron out the faults from Norwich. He also had all day on Monday and Tuesday to prepare for this one. Where was the plan for this game? What were the tactics? We saw none of these, yet this was the Champions League no less, the competition that we dream about, yet none of our lot were up for it. So what have we got to look forward to? It’s back for more with the QPR game on today. That nasty piece of work Hughes must be rubbing his hands with glee. Wenger, you’ve had two full days to get it right.
