By Myles Palmer
I’ve now listened to five days of weeping and wailing about the 4-2 defeat by Charlton.
I’ve had phone calls and e-mails filled with bile and bitterness and despair, calling for Wenger’s sacking and Vieira’s transfer.
All across South East England, and deep into the furthest reaches of the Arsenal diaspora – in Brazil, South Africa and Thailand – the most dedicated,educated and discerning Gooners have been sobbing into their herbal tea.
What short memories they have!
Monsieur Wenger, in case you’ve forgotten, has brought brilliant footballers to Arsenal, and almost re-invented the beautiful game.He is one of the best managers in the world.
I know fans are up and down according to results. Always have been, always will be.
Arsenal played fantastic football for 25 minutes against Charlton,scored one goal, missed six, got caught by two sucker punches and lost 4-2.
You think you were upset?You think I was upset?
Arsene Wenger was more shocked, more angry, more demoralized than any of us.He was devastated. He was gutted.He was absolutely gutted.
Did you see his interview on TV? His face, his voice, his tone, told a story of utter depression.
He is a very resilient guy and I’ve only seen him like that once, when they lost 1-0 to Fiorentina at Wembley.
I was there one day about three years ago when he said, “I’m always angry when we lose – you feel responsible.”
And he IS responsible.
But the fact remains that Arsenal are fifth in the table and would have been second if they had beaten Charlton.
And they would have won that game if they had scored the second goal.
That is a valid criticism of the team, a point succinctly made by Martin Tyler on page 256 of The Professor : they don’t score the second goal often enough.
But the main reason Arsenal are conceding goals is simple. Changing centrebacks.
They have not fielded the same pair of centrebacks in consecutive games since Adams and Campbell played together in the 4-0 win over Leicester on August 25th.
If you have a new keeper, you need a stable defence in front of him. But injuries have meant that a stable defence was not possible.
Right now, after one win in five Prem games at Highbury, here a hundred things that could be said about the team. And there a dozen ways in which the team could improve and MUST improve.
But I will leave those for another day and just make the obvious but often ignored point that Arsenal are shipping goals because their defence has changed in every game.
That does not mean they cannot beat Spurs and Man United in the next two games.
Of the two, Spurs is the tougher game.
I heard on Monday that the club HAVE SPOKEN to Louis Van Gaal.
The Star got half that story on Wednesday when they said Arsenal had “targeted” the Dutch boss.They have already TALKED to him.
Holland play Denmark on November 10th and Van Gaal will then say whether he wants to stay on for Portugal in 2004. he is contracted until 2006.
If Arsene does not sign his contract during this international break the club will need to talk to other coaches as well.
Basically, I do not believe recent talk about Arsene wanting to bail out now. I DON’T believe he has taken the club as far as he can.
Actually, I think exactly the opposite.
He wants to take Arsenal into the new stadium so he will stay until 2005.
He is like a film director, a guy who enjoys his rehearsals, his cameras, his microphones, his actors, his exciting takes, his whole wonderful, glorious, fascinating train-set.
Arsene has built himself a lovely place to work and gathered the pieces of his train-set together.
Last summer he spent £20 million on five new trains.So he has a bigger train-set now, and he loves it because it is HIS train-set and he is very proud of it.
I don’t think he wants to hand over his train-set to Louis Van Gaal.
He signed three English players because he realised that the purchase of Pires,Lauren,Wiltord and Stepanovs had made the squad too foreign.
Pires and Lauren have proved to be FABULOUS footballers.
But this summer’s signings have not proved themselves yet.
Sol Campbell was improving until he was injured.
Van Bronckhorst is still playing Scottish Premiership football and needs to get stronger and sharper. And that is hard in a team which is changing twice a week and letting in far too many goals.
I think Jeffers will complement Henry very well, but he is still an Under-21 kid.
Everton fans now say Jeffers is a china doll and they were glad to get £8 million for him. We shall see. It’s still early days, far too soon to judge.
Sure, Richard Wright made a boob on the second Charlton goal.He mistimed his punch, that’s all.
But on the same day Neil Sullivan made a blunder on Ian Harte’s shot and Fabien Barthez fluffed a punch to let Michael Owen nod in his second goal in Man United’s 3-1 defeat at Anfield.
That was Liverpool’s fourth consecutive win over United. That reminded me of Tom Watt, the London Live radio interview I did about my book.
When we were talking in the studio off-air I said I wondered if Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Arsenal signalled their arrival as England’s No.2 club. But Tom poo-poohed that idea. He dismissed the idea immediately and totally.
Liverpool can draw games against Roma, Galatasaray and Barcelona, so they could reach the semi-finals of the Champions League. I doubt if Man United will.
Bottom line, Houllier and Wenger will be back.
Both are human. Houllier has been ill and Wenger has made some mistakes.
When he signs till 2005, giving everyone a boost before the Spurs game on November 17th, I might write a piece summarizing the issues he should address.
He understands all those issues already. But some of you don’t.
Bye!
8th November 2001.