ARSENE Wenger is trying to do it on the cheap, while pretending he’s not.
Basically, you can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time, however plausible you are on TV.
Has Arsene over-reached himself ?
He insisted that Arsenal borrow and build and move because they could not survive on crowds of 38,000. If they moved to Ashburton Grove, he would keep the City sweet by staying for the rest of his career.
So the board took a leap of faith. And never understate the size of that leap. It was massive. It was the biggest leap any British football club has ever made, and Arsenal is the only club who could have put all that together and made it all work. It took imagination and balls and stamina and a lot of sleepless nights and thousands of legal documents to get the £260 million loan from six banks and build the Emirates Stadium. It was a mega-project which took years and there were many obstacles and it was exhausting for all concerned.
But now, in 2007, after carrying the club on his back for ten years, and achieving so much, is the workaholic Arsene too fatigued to think straight ?
Against Fulham at the end of November, he put out a ludicrous team and lost 2-1.
There were some odd decisions in the winter but Sunday at Everton was the nadir. What he did was staggering.
He knows that Baptista and Aliadier are paper tigers and he will not keep them at Arsenal next season, whatever he says now. He lives on stats and he has all their stats – and their stats suck
Knowing his “strikers” cannot hit a barn door from inside the barn, and knowing that fighting Freddie only scores two goals a season, he decided to make sure Arsenal could not beat Everton by putting a centreback at right back, a midfielder at centreback, and a right back at left back.
Toure at right back, again, was a pathetic idea. Gilberto at centreback, ditto. A 19-year old, Fabregas, and a 20 year old, Diaby, in central midfield? Absurd. Ridiculous. What other team does that? Ever? Failure was guaranteed.
He talks about giving Fabregas a rest but has started him in 41 games already this season So he is running Fab4 into the ground while telling us the kid needs a rest. He says Walcott should have a shoulder operation but puts him on at Goodison and within minutes he’s knocked down and his shoulder pops out again.
It’s dire, desperate behaviour.
When managers do this sort of thing, and they all do it, you know they’ve lost the plot.
Having said all that, Arsenal fans should give more credit to the commandos of Colonel David Moyes, who had seven British yeomen in his platoon, plus four foreigners from USA, Nigeria, Portugal and Spain. Seven Brits : Andy Johnson (who is an Arsenal supporter from Bedford), Phil Neville, Lescott, Stubbs, Carsley, Osman, and James Vaughan, a 20-year old striker making his first Premiership start after a year out with a knee injury.
Vaughan was better than Aliadiere or Baptista put together.
Everton defended very well, intercepted scores of Arsenal passes, hit the post twice, and won the game with a fantastic finish from AJ in the 91st minute.
What a goal ! What a finish ! Last attack, last chance, last corner probably, and Andy Johnson makes it count.A left-footed shot by a right-footed player, who had headed the ball on himself, and when it came back from Gilberto’s feeble clearance, AJ kept his head down and rifled in a technically perfect bullet shot. A left-foot finish worthy of Eto’o, Larsson, Ian Wright.
Let’s face it, Everton were the better team. The superior team won that game. There was no bad refereeing decision, no disallowed goal, nobody wrongly sent off, no vicious fouls to complain about, no cynical negativity by nasty Northerners, just hard work by a highly-organised Toffees team who deserved the three points.
A friend of mine watches Arsenal’s away game in the pub when they’re on Sky. But he didn’t watch this one. On Sunday night he said, “I looked up the team on the internet, and when I saw the side he put out I knew we wouldn’t do anything.”
We all assume that Arsenal will finish fourth or third, so it’s time to sum up the season so far.
Summing up, what can we say?
The Emirates Theatre attracts 60,000 people to every show.
Those 60,000 people have paid £2 million per show to watch 23 home games. Of those 23 games, 13 were wins, and five of those 13 wins were against promoted teams or teams who might be relegated this season.
There was a 3-0 against Liverpool, who had lost four away games in a row when they came to Arsenal, and you could see why by the time Gallas was given a free header in 80 minutes to make it 3-0. A 2-1 win over Man United was tremendous but that 6-2 over Blackburn could easily have been 3-3. In two other FA Cup games against Blackburn, Arsenal failed to score.
They’ve had six 1-1 draws but there was nice passing in all those draws. As everyone knows, Arsenal don’t score enough goals. But you see nice passing.
On the other hand, going to Arsenal is very expensive. Premiership football tickets cost far more than tickets in Italy, Spain or Germany. And the most expensive ticket in the Premiership is at the Emirates, where you pay £45 to £90 per seat.
Remember this : ARSENAL is the most expensive football ticket IN THE WORLD.
Will the team be better next season ?
If not, will 60,000 pay £2 million per game to see nice passing ?