Arsenal is a selling club that aims at fourth place.
Or maybe third.
Beyond that, it\’s just a vehicle for the manager’s ideas and a way of pumping millons of English pounds into French football.
The Fulham debacle showed that Wenger\’s myopia is incorrigible.
But, right now, Arsenal is on course for the kind of success that the club aims at. Third keeps Champions League football and fourth probably keeps Champions League football, as Wenger can always beat Celtic or Twente or Udinese.
After Djourou was sent off at Fulham, and Arsenal lost 2-1 with ten men, Wenger blamed referee Lee Probert.
He said Djourou’s first yellow card was incorrect. And his second yellow card was incorrect as well. By saying that, Wenger brings shame on a respected 125-year old football club that pays him £7 million a year. He’s humiliating grown men and women who have supported Arsenal for 50 years.
Those fans used to watch Merson, Overmars and Pires. But now they have to watch Gervinho,Walcott and Djourou.
At Craven Cottage, Djourou and Squilacci gave Martin Jol his first victory over Arsene Wenger in nine attempts as a manager.
Memo to Djourou : Stay on the pitch.
Question for Djourou : Have you seen it on television?
Koscielny, a giant this season, had it covered. He read the situation beautifully. He started to run before the ball was passed because he saw what was about to happen and reacted appropriately But when the striker got inside Djourou on the edge of the box, he panicked and put his hand on Zamora’s shoulder to hold him back.
A professional foul. It would have been more professional to remember that : I’ve already got one yellow card. It would be much more professional to think : You can\’t beat my keeper from there, mate.
Wenger blamed the referee to protect one of his favourite proteges.
His team had chances in the first half but keeper Stockdale only had to make one great save from Ramsey. The follow-up shot hit the keeper’s wrist and he knew almost nothing about it.
Second half, Arsenal didn’t turn up.
Arsenal missed chances in the first half but didn’t turn up in the second.
Wenger knew Robin van Persie was too tired to run but his substitutions made no sense.
He brought on Rosicky for Walcott in 65 to keep the ball better and nick it 1-0.
Koscielny had headed in from Ramsey’s deadly cross after 21 minutes that Arsenal had controlled.
But after 74 Wenger took off his other quick forward, Gervinho, and put on Benayoun to consolidate. And when Djourou was sent off in 78, he took off Ramsey, who could have done a shift at right back, and brought on the appalling Squillaci.
Eventually, Sidwell headed in for 1-1 in 85, after Wenger had taken off two forwards with pace at a time when RVP had run out of steam. Thereby inviting Fulham to attack and keep attacking.
Wenger’s pathetic excuses embarrass the club, year after year. But embedded reporters just type out Wenger’s excuses verbatim and feed them to a gullible public.
What happened to football?
We know what happened to football: it sold its soul to Murdoch in 1992 and turned thousands of average players into millionaires. But what happened to journalism?
Arsenal, having lost Fabregas, decided to make their best striker the main man, so the team that had been built round Henry, and then built round Fabregas, was now built round Robin van Persie.
The new team started achieving consistent results because RVP scored in almost every game.
But when Robin Van Persie doesn’t score, Arsenal don\’t win. Why is that? Well, the Fulham game told that story clearly.
GERVINHO is a bantamweight French league player.
WALCOTT is a dolt who has nothing but pace and a pretty face.
DJOUROU is not an Arsenal centreback or an Arsenal right back. He lost the first game of 2012 by getting himself sent off. If he’d let Zamora go, Fulham would not have scored.
SQUILLACI isn’t up to it and never was. He was a headless chicken who didn’t know what he was doing.
With the score at 1-1 in 93 minutes, Squillaci headed the ball to exactly where Martin Jol would have wanted him to head it.
He headed that ball to where every Fulham supporter would have wanted him to head it. Straight to an unmarked striker. And Bobby Zamora had time and space to place a controlled left-foot volley into the bottom corner to win the game.
That was how Djourou and Squillaci gave Martin Jol his first victory over Arsene Wenger in nine attempts as a manager.
The good news was that Coquelin, who was Arsenal\’s best player at Tottenham in midfield, had an excellent game at left back.
Newcastle were tremendous last night.
Vibrant, athletic, spirited, roared on by a big crowd on a stormy night in St James’s Park, Newcastle hammered Manchester United 3-0.
That\’s a great result for Spurs.
If they draw win their game in hand against Everton, they\’ll be level with the champions.
Newcastle scored goals because they played with two strikers.
Tim Krul took a free-kick outside his own box, Shola Ameobi beat Phil Jones to win the flick-on, and when the ball bounced waist high, Ba lashed it home before Rio Ferdinand could move.
On a stormy night, you can’t beat a Route 1 wonder-goal. Even if Ba did shin it.
1-0 to Newcastle in 33 minutes.
Phil Jones was booked for a wild bodycheck on Ba , then saw Cabaye crash the 30- yard free-kick in off the bar for 2-0 early in the second half.
In 90, Krul launched another monster kick that bounced a yard beyond the penalty spot on the right, and Phil Jones ludicrously leaned down to try to head a ball that hit him on the thigh and bounced over the line, wrong-footing keeper Lindegaard.
After 94 minutes and 40 seconds the game ended with Manchester United’s first league defeat on the road.
Only Newcastle\’s fourth ever win against United in the Premier League.
Sir Alex said, “Two fantastic strikes put them in the driving seat.”
Alan Pardew said, “We believed that United were vulnerable at the back, whoever they put in there.”
Too right. Manchester United need Koscielny, Tiote, Cabaye and Demba Ba.
Cabaye is a great signing from Lille for £4.3m but not as good as Demba Ba, who joined from West Ham on a free transfer.
Demba Ba has scored 15 goals this season and is ten times the footballer Adebayor will ever be.
Just think : Wenger waited 18 months to get Chamakh on a free.