Predictable, wasn’t it?
Two long throws by Rory Delap, two goals.
A late consolation when a Clichy shot deflected in off two defenders.
Having beaten Arsènal 2-1, Stoke are now 12th.
Chelsea are top, followed by Liverpool and Manchester United
Having lost again, Arsenal are 4th.
If Aston Villa win at Newcastle tonight, Villa will move up to third.
What should be done?
Four things. Arsene Wenger has four problem areas, so he needs to make four moves. His problem areas are goalkeeper, centreback, defensive midfielder and captain.
1. Drop Almunia, who can’t even dominate his six-yard box, let alone his penalty area.
Use Fabianski against Fenerbahce and let the Pole show us he’s a goalkeeper. All summer I thought Almunia would lose his place by Xmas. As Jens Lehmann said, How many big games has he won for Arsenal?
2. He needs a big , nasty centreback who is six foot four like Vidic. He uses raiding fullbacks but lacks an anchorman to protect his back four. He should buy two big, tough Belgians. There are dozens of them. Just buy a big Belgian and put the No5 on his back. Then put another one at No.6 in the Alonso role.
3.Defensive midfielder.
He lost Flamini and Gilberto after selling Diarra, so that was just Edu &Vieira revisited. Wenger is consistent, give him that. Denude midfield, then wonder why your results are patchy, why you concede too many goals.
In the summer of 2007 he made a bold and brilliant move when he replaced the Invisible Wall with the one-man whirlwind. A year later he lost both and did not replace either. If he wanted another Flamini, he should have signed Di Rossi from Roma. If he wanted another Gilberto, he should have signed Kompany.
Ten games into the Premier League season, the teams that have reliable anchormen are at the top. Man United have Carrick back, and Hargreaves in reserve, plus the energetic, pro-active Anderson, who is more like a left-footed Flamini. Liverpool have Mascherano and Xabi Alonso and Lucas. And Chelsea have replaced Makelele with Mikel, a big strong boy with a good touch. Aston Villa have Gareth Barry, who is similar to Alonso
Denilson, bless him, is a mini-Fabregas. But he can’t do what Fabregas does, he can’t do what Flamini did, and he’s too small and too young to do what Gilberto did.
4. Cesc Fabregas will walk in the summer if Arsenal go on like this.
Spain has become a proper team which has improved as Arsenal have declined, so Fabregas is now playing in the best team Spain has had for 50 years, and the worst team Arsenal have had for four years.
If you’ve played in a balanced, powerful team, you do not want to play in a flawed team where the keeper is a joke, the goalscorer runs offside all the time, and your Keystone Cops defence panics every time there is a high ball into the box
When Fabregas plays for Spain he knows that David Villa and Fernando Torres can score at any time. They are hot and can grab every kind of goal and score from half-chances ; van Persie and Adebayor are flaky and unreliable When did Villa or Torres miss the chances that Adebayor wastes? Would they petulantly barge the keeper as van Persie did at Stoke?
David Villa’s runs in Spain’s recent game against Belgium were quite amazing. And Belgium are not mugs. They are improving rapidly. Villa’s movement and finishing are fabulous. What a player ! And he wanted to join Arsenal last summer. Instead, Wenger bought a kid from Marseilles and a kid from Cardiff.
For Spain, Fabregas has the crafty, strategic Senna anchoring midfield, the tough Puyol at the back, Xavi, who can run and link all day, and the magnificent Casillas in goal. Spain is a real team that has won something. This Arsenal is an unbalanced team which has won nothing.
Fabregas is a steely player, very determined as well as very skilful. He is the most popular player and should be captain. He can rally the team and lift the crowd.
5. The best way to improve a team without buying new players is to tighten them up with a new training regime. Give them a new input from somebody. Therefore Pat Rice should be replaced by Martin Keown. It would be ridiculous for Keown to join Tony Adams at Portsmouth. Those two have never got on well because they are different animals.
Unfortunately, Wenger is a bit weird about Keown’s involvement in the Champions League run to Paris. From what Flamini and Toure said, his advice helped them. Arsenal kept clean sheets and got to the European Cup Final for the first time and lost 2-1 to Barcelona with 10 men.
But I gather that Wenger does not like to hear any mention of Keown’s contribution. It’s a secret we’re not supposed to know. Why would he be weird about that? Because he’s the smallest big man in world football? Because he’s a radical cleric, an ayatollah of attacking football who refuses to bother with such dull matters as basic defending? Is it : I am the way, the truth and the light, I am the true messiah, thou shalt worship no other god but me ?
Well, the radical cleric’s doctrine has failed. Packing the team with French and African kids has failed. That is what he did in his last days at Monaco, and it got him the sack. He got rid of all their experienced players and eventually the president said : Enough !
Basically, all managers lose the plot and Wenger had a bad summer. If you have a bad summer, you have a bad season. If your squad stays about the same, it’s going backwards.
However, the long-term slide is more worrying.
Since 2004, Arsenal has been a declining team, and this month they could get hammered by Manchester United and humiliated by Chelsea. Their title challenge is over already and anxious Gooners no longer want to hear a once-great manager say, “I believe in this group of players.” The fans don’t believe in this group of players. They really don’t believe in this group of players. Many of them would like to keep Sagna, Clichy and Fabregas and replace the rest of the team.
If he has any sense in this situation, Wenger would now concentrate on the FA Cup while carefully accumulating more points than Aston Villa’s well-organised journeymen.
I reckon Arsenal will finish fourth.
But if Aston Villa are fourth, I’m going to say : He has 26 scouts but he couldn’t discover Ashley Young, who was playing for Watford on the other side of a hedge at London Colney.