From Nigel Keng : summing up
Hi Myles,
So we finally beat Man U and I have to say it was well deserved.
A really good performance and some amazingly committed and crunching tackles put in by several players in the second half including a few by Arshavin!
Really surprising. Is Arshavin trying to reinvent himself or trying to get selected more often? RVP didn’t have a great game but good to see him closing down Ferdinand and again one or two crunching challenges. Thought the two of them were going to come to blows at one point.
On the goal you wrote “Van Persie held the ball cunningly on the right, Walcott was in the centre forward position, Nasri sprinted into the box after Arshavin raced in there”…for once good movement in the box by the team…even better movement from Nasri given he came off at half time, Myles, and Arshavin replaced him .
I fear though that this result merely papers over the cracks and gives Arsene an excuse not to do anything in the summer…not that I was convinced he would do anything even if we had lost the game.
The result, whilst a good one, is a frustrating one as it raises those two horrible words, “What if?”
However, I think that Man U would have taken the points in that case, as they would have handled the pressure better than us.
I think Man U got caught in two minds, stick or twist.
They knew a draw was good enough. Good to see that Arsene isn’t the only delusional manager with Fergie blaming the ref and the lack of the penalty even though they’d benefitted from the same lack of a penalty in the first half…surely it doesn’t matter that the Vidic one was harder to spot…both teams benefitted from no penalty being given but Man U more so given their’s should have resulted in a sending off early on.
How many times have Man U not had a man sent off when they should have? They benefit more than
I’ve heard on good authority that Sir Alex will be retiring this summer.
Whilst a good performance from the team, I’m still worried at our inability to keep the ball once we take a lead.
Makes for nervy stuff, especially against decent opposition and especially when everyone knows we can’t defend. Chesney made lots of decent saves and made great efforts to run the clock down by moving the ball around the box and not picking it up until forced to. Great professionalism especially for one so young and especially for an Arsenal player!
But why oh why did he continue to punt the ball up field straight to Van der Sar?? If we’re going to concede possesion like that at least kick it into touch for a throw in the opposition half so we can contest it.
Have you seen the new kit? Interesting that Cesc is only in one picture on the website and not in any of the marketing emails.
I realise its the 125 year anniversary but the current home shirt has only been used for one season…if a shirt is only to be used for one and not the usual two seasons then the club should do the decent thing and sell it for half price right from the start.
Along with the rise in ticket prices I fail to see why the club are wanting to get more money from the fans…it won’t be used to bring in new signings!
Almost end of the season which means the usual wish -lists….somewhat worrying when everyone’s wish-list is the same and has been the same for the last 3 or 4 years but the one man that matters has a different wish-list.
Can someone please give him a kick up the backside, I really think 3 signings is all it would take!
Given Stan was introduced to Arsenal by David Dein, is there no chance of him coming back? I know he doesn’t get on with the board but Stan is calling the shots now and surely Dein’s influence could only be a good one for the club?
Myles replies :
Advertising and catalogues are ALWAYS a good index of who will leave.
Danny and Stan may have agreed last year that Dein must never come back.
But I think he still might.
The board is Stan and Ivan now. The old duffers are irrelevant and offer nothing. They should exit the day after the last game of the season.
Always remember, AFC is Wenger’s club.
It’s Arsene FC and Ivan accepted the job on that basis.
Ivan earns 1.7 million a year and works under the main man, who gets 6m.
If Dein came back, Wenger would have less power.
Most clubs find that signing good players is quite difficult – and far harder than fans think.
Years ago , in the summer of 1997, Dein and Wenger wined and dined Ibrahim Ba (Bordeaux) and Moussa Saib ( Auxerre).
Ibrahim Ba was an antelope winger from Senegal, a spectacular athlete with hugely explosive pace. But very erratic. He chose AC Milan but only scored one goal in 56 games for them.
Moussa Saib, an Algerian, was a tidy midfield craftsman who played 153 league games and turned down Wenger & Dein to join Valencia, where he played 14 games. Saib then joined Spurs and played 13 games.
It was a blessing that Arsenal did not sign those two clowns in May 1997.
Ditto Julio Baptista, who chose Sevilla.
When Baptista came on loan, he was useless.
As I say, signing good players is harder than we all think.
And mistakes are easily made.
That’s why Wenger sends out his 20 scouts to look for teenagers, toddlers and embryos.To avoid expensive mistakes that might cost him his job
It follows that Ivan Gazidis has a serious problem. But it’s a problem nobody ever talks about .
Gazidis has a secret wish-list of managers to replace Wenger.
But he knows that while a top coach would want Vermaelen (if fit), Nasri, Wilshere, Ramsey and the very promising Szczesny, he would be dubious about an unbalanced squad of mediocre squad players, kids and wannabes.
Nobody but AW can make sense of this Arsenal squad and that makes him much harder to replace.
His priority is to keep his job because there is no job like his anywhere in the world- and there never has been.
So Wenger’s policy protects his job. The club is a vehicle for his ideas, not a vehicle designed to with the EPL.
However, his beloved Youth Project has failed. He can’t grow a team that will win the league. That will never never NEVER happen.
Right now, the most shrewd and realistic Gooners will not believe transfer stories about Arsenal signing top players for 20 million quid each.
READ MY LIPS : HE WON’T PAY THE MONEY !