From Anthony Benson : Voting with feet
Tickets for Arsenal vs. Liverpool are open to Red Members!!
1st home game of the season – and it\’s a big game – and tickets are available to Red members. Wow!!!
The only thing this week that I thought was as shocking as that was something I read on here, ANR – that Arsenal would sign 3 players this week… or did that include existing players (such as Bartley) “signing†contract extensions?
I was at the Emirates on the Sunday of the Emirates Cup.
The PSG-Boca game was entertaining. The Arsenal-NY game was not. Even before the 2nd half substitutions made the game as exciting as watching paint dry on a cold wintery afternoon – the play was just boring.
Lots of (Denilson-esque) sideways passing, no real / consistent tempo, no real enthusiasm (though Afobe stood out), no real entertainment – (let us not forget that the Sky-fuelled football is meant to be just that – entertainment).
It is due to the boredom that I endured on Sunday that I am not exercising my (expensive) option to buy a ticket for the Liverpool game.
With regards to the booing after the Bartley own-goal,my sense is that those who booed weren\’t doing so at Kyle, but at Arsenal FC. Boos at Mr. Wenger for lying that it would be a busy summer of transfers & boos at the board for allowing these lies to continue.
I was at the Fulham-Arsenal end of season game in May… Arsenal\’s away fans, those deemed most loyal made their feelings knownwith chants of SPEND SOME F@@@ING MONEY.
I hope that Arsene & Arsenal are busy in the next week or so that makes this comment redundant. But if I thought that was going to be the case I wouldn\’t be sending this to you.
All the best, and please keep up your excellent blog.
From Michael Yee : Why Arsenal will finish 5th
Hi Myles,
I am going to publish this article on my own blog (http://www.afc4life.co.uk/ but was wondering if you could feature it on your website?
Always been a big fan, Myles (one of the reasons why I started my Arsenal blog!) and would like your opinion on what I have wrote:
I\’ve tried to think about predictions for the Top Six next season, based on the transfer activity over the summer, and concluded that it could very well end up like this:
1. Chelsea
2. Manchester City
3. Manchester United
4. Liverpool
5. Arsenal
6. Tottenham Hotspur
While I might get shot down for this early prediction, and while it could be well off, here are my reasons for this particular top six finish.
I believe that next season will be a three-horse race between Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United, and, while it will be very close, I think Chelsea will be the team that top the league come next May.
They have recruited Andre Villas-Boas who, despite claims to the contrary, is essentially a Jose Mourinho Mark II.
In his only season managing Porto, he won the Portuguese Super Cup (their equivalent of the The Community Shield), Portuguese Primeira Liga, The UEFA Europa League and the Portuguese Cup.
And during Chelsea\’s pre-season this summer, Chelsea won the 2011 Barclays Asia Trophy. His record is fantastic and winning the pre-season tournament shows that, like Mourinho, the only thing that matters is winning. So don\’t expect beautiful football from Chelsea but they will certainly be effective.
Manchester City will be a much bigger force next season. They struggled with consistency at times last season but winning the FA Cup has given this very talented squad the hunger for more success.
Like Chelsea under the Mourinho era, the most important trophy for them was their first, and once they won the Carling Cup they went on to win numerous titles and honours over the next few seasons. It is a similar story at Manchester City, who have by far the strongest squad in the entire league, but for me not the right person at the helm. Under Mourinho or Ferguson I\’d heavily back Manchester City to win the Premier League but under Mancini I think they will just come up short.
Manchester United have proven year after year that even with a “weak squad†they manage to finish in the top three. Alex Ferguson is a phenomenal manager and it hurts to say that as an Arsenal supporter.
They lost Cantona but kept on winning. They lost Beckham, Van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo and kept on winning. The fact of the matter is that it doesn\’t matter which players have left or are still at Manchester United, the ethos throughout that club is win at all costs.
Every single one of their players has that winning mentality instilled into them and that\’s why I think they\’ll easily finish in the top four, very close behind Manchester City.
Liverpool are my final pick for the last Champions League spot.
Under Kenny Dalglish they have hugely improved and they have spent big over the last two transfer windows, investing in Suarez, Carroll, Adam, Downing and Henderson. They have added young, talented footballers to their squad who have something to prove and are hungry for success. They have the best goalkeeper in the league in Pepe Reina and will be pushing at the top next season.
Then to Arsenal. They are going to and will always finish above Tottenham but this time only in fifth place.
The view that Arsenal will only finish fifth next season may be an unpopular one but statistically speaking, Arsenal (after Liverpool did drop out of the Top Four) are the most likely to drop from the Champions League positions. Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool have all strengthened while Chelsea still have a squad full of winners, despite the fact a lot are on the wrong side of 30. The facts are that over the last 6 seasons (of which are the ones considered to be Arsenal\’s dry spell), they have finished 4th, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd and 4th.
Arsenal may be strong in the early part of the season but during the last month or so they tend to collapse, and this repeating trend year after year will eventually be punished. This is arguably the most competitive Premier League season we have ever seen (I know we say it every year) but with the signings our rivals have made they have improved upon last season, whereas we have not. Cesc and Nasri could still conceivably leave and if that does happen then we will be the only side in the Top Six that are weaker than last season. Arsenal\’s (or Arsene\’s) refusal to strengthen the squad in the key areas will come back to haunt the club eventually and it could be this campaign.
We\’ve brought in Gervinho to strengthen the one area of the pitch Arsenal don\’t need strengthening! Going forwards we are fine, it\’s the midfield, defence and goalkeeping positions where we need reinforcements. The new season is only less than a couple of weeks away so even if we did bring in some new players it is a lot to expect them to fit into the team just like that.
The key difference between Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and the rest of the Top Six teams is that throughout their squad and management, they have proven winners and a winning mentality. They have managers and more importantly, players, that have won major trophies in their careers. From Arsenal\’s current squad, they have Van Persie and Almunia that have won something with Arsenal and even then they played a bit part in that FA Cup success in 2005.
The biggest problem that Arsenal have is they have key flaws defensively and no leaders on the pitch.
And that\’s why so many Arsenal fans want someone like Joey Barton to join the club. The very fact most Arsenal fans would like Joey Barton to come to Arsenal goes to show the poor state the football club is currently in. Do you think Chelsea, City, United or even Liverpool fans would want Barton anywhere near their football club? Exactly. Is Wenger finally becoming aware of the value of British players?
Myles’s opinion : too soon for a preview.
From Max Glover : reclaiming an English core?
Myles,
If reports are to be taken with a very substantial pinch of salt, Wenger is at the least making enquiries about Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka, whilst it is not impossible that rumours linking Arsenal to the two Scotts (Parker and Dann) had some kernel of truth. Whether we will ever actually see any of them in an Arsenal shirt is another matter. At least enquiries are being made.
The major positive for me over the last year or so, and this close season, is that Arsenal look like they could be on the cusp of reclaiming an English (British with Ramsey) core.
We’ve got Wilshere in the heart of the side, and Jenkinson and Lansbury on the fringes: all North London/ Hertfordshire boys. Gibbs is from Lambeth, I think. Then there’s Walcott, and young Benik Afobe, who spoke about how delighted he was to make his debut last week, whilst Kyle Bartley has just signed a new deal: a proper centre-back.
Do they care more about Arsenal? Yes.
That’s only natural – it isn’t discriminatory towards Song, Diaby, Traore or anybody else. I doubt Wilshere would care as much about playing for PSG as Diaby would.
Wenger has signed so many French-speaking youngsters that they don’t need to bother to speak English at the training ground, or anywhere else. They hang around at their luxury pads in Elstree or Radlett and play on the Xbox. Apparently Woodgate and Owen did the same thing at Real Madrid, Beckham to a lesser extent obviously.
One of my earliest memories of the Arsenal is being a kid of about ten or eleven, and seeing the first team use the gym I used to go to when the training ground burnt down. Must have been about 1999/ 2000, around then.
The first player I saw was Emmanuel Petit on the treadmill. Completely aloof and instructing a member of the Arsenal staff to keep the autograph-hunting kids away from him. In contrast, Seaman and Dixon were chatting to people in such a friendly and easy manner. Tony Adams came up behind me and gave me a gentle karate kick on the back (must’ve seen my replica shirt). I’ll never forget that.
My point being that by mingling with Gooners in London, Herts and Essex, chatting with them in the pubs and shopping centres and restaurants, these blokes were really aware of what Arsenal meant to the fans.
It will be the same with Wilshere and Lansbury. They will have gone to Arsenal-dominated schools, a lot of their mates will follow Arsenal. And it means that they give that bit more. They want to be at Arsenal Football Club, not just any club who will pay their wages.
It could give us a solid base for years to come. Look at Man United. Not just Giggs & Scholes but Fletcher, O’Shea, Evans, Brown. It means something.
I know a lot of people won’t agree with me, but it’s just my opinion. Always a silver lining.
From Daniel Roberts :The madness of King Arsene
Myles,
I read your comments after each game and sadly these days struggle to argue with them.
As a season ticket holder for over 20 years, I am seeing parallels with the last 2 seasons of Gorgeous George – With the obvious exception that we actually won trophies back then.
The main similarity is the fact that the man can quite clearly no longer motivate the players and has lost all innovation that he once had. His blind persistence with playing one forward even against League One opposition at home in a cup tie being one such example.
George showed too much loyalty to dross like Campbell and Hillier and Wenger is clearly doing the same. Whilst Rosicky played well in the last two friendly matches, he, alongside numerous others, is never ever going to be a winner – a champion.
The sad fact is that Wenger is about to alienate himself from all loyal Gooners – and even the plastic Johnny Come Lately’s won’t want to watch this much longer I can assure you.
I’ll go to half a dozen away games and enjoy the day out, but I’m not expecting to enjoy Wenger’s last season as a whole.
It’s going to be long, slow and painful.
Myles says:
No comments after Benfica defeat. I watched all of it.
Pre-season is for managers.
Newcastle is important but Udinese matters more than Liverpool.
If Arsenal don’t beat Udinese, they won’t be confident enough to win their first home game in the league against Liverpool.