Just what on earth is going through your mind, Wenger? I have tried, in the recent past, to help you through these pages, but you choose to bite the hand that feeds you.
Over 60,000 watched this latest debacle, plus a few million more who laughed at us when they saw it on the box. It doesn’t take a genius to work out why it ended in tears. Here is some basic stuff to consider:
1) Why are you refusing to communicate with Steve Bould? Yet again, your defence let you down, and you can’t blame Fatty Santos for this one. Zonal marking? You are having a laugh. I was off my seat in the North Bank screaming at somebody to mark Berbatov when Fulham were awarded their first corner. Lo and behold, with the boys in red watching shadows, the obvious happened. From Arsenal being able to close the game down against a very poor team, Fulham were suddenly back in with a sniff, which duly occurred five minutes before halftime with Mannone undone again, thus undoing all the good work in the first 25 minutes.
2) Why aren’t you trying to properly manage a team that is so short of confidence? They need you on the touchline rather than slouching in your pit. The likes of Orville Cazorla, Wiggy Arteta and Podolski were yet again well off the pace. These are your signings, Wenger, so please sort it out.
3) What was the point of replacing Le Coq with Rambo after 55 minutes? This was a time when we needed some inspiration with the introduction of The Ox, and not a like-for-like swap. Although The Ox did end up getting on the pitch, it was only for the last 13 minutes and not long enough to make a difference. As we all know, Rambo is not the answer. He was lucky to have stayed on the pitch with his nasty challenge soon after he’d been booked.
4) It was obvious that Wiggy was having a nightmare of a game. His contribution was minimal, he gave away the penalty, and the decision to trust him with the last kick of the match to put away the penalty was complete madness. From where I sat it was obvious that he didn’t fancy it. Instead of sitting in your pit, you had enough time to have a word.
5) I am fed up watching a load of Deckchair Denilson-lookalikes just passing the ball backwards and sideways and getting nowhere. Verminator, you have been one of the worst offenders in the past few weeks. Please cut it out.
So here we are again, with more points dropped, only this wasn’t anybody decent. This was Fulham.
I would like to remind you, Wenger, that the crowd did its utmost to help secure three points. The atmosphere was spot on, but at the end we were all rather shell-shocked. We thought that the idiot Dowd had given us a Get Out of Jail Free card, but to no avail. We were looking for a reasonable performance and yet again it never happened.
On Saturday, it’s the Odious Neanderthals from up the road and it’s cost us a King’s ransom for the privilege of watching. You have two choices, Wenger. Either get your team to put up a performance that makes us proud to be Gooners, or get out.