Skip to main content

the weakest link


highlights of todays debacle

Roberto DiMatteo is no tactical genius but he clearly saw a chink in Arsenal’s armour today at the Emirates. Playing what was ostensibly a 7-2-1 formation he knew that by the law of averages WBA would have a couple of opportunities to have shots on target from open play. He also knew that Arsenal is a club with aspirations of winning the Premier League. However, he knew that Manuel Almunia is not a goalkeeper of the requisite ability for a title chasing side therefore the probability would be that those chances that WBA would have would, to a degree, be better chances due to the standard of our keeper. So it proved to be.
Their first goal was standard fare that we could have done better defending, but these things happen.
Goals 2 & 3 were poor goalkeeping. Yes we rallied in the later stages but realistically when you are in a position where League leaders Chelsea have dropped 3 points earlier in the day and you are at home to WBA you should be getting maximum points if your challenge is real. Those idiots at the ground today booing Almunia need a reality check. Manuel is selected as Arsenal's number one his ineptitude is clearly not a selection criteria. Don't boo your own players I say!
I said a few posts ago that Wenger’s decision to go into this campaign with the keepers we have may prove catastrophic; today (and to an extent Tuesday night) was one of those days where those prophetic words rang true.
Hansen once said ‘you win nothing with kids’ that’s as maybe be but for sure ‘you win nothing with poor goalkeepers.
the weakest link

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reasons to be cheerful?

So November arrives with cold weather and grey skies. Arsenal sit in 2 nd place with a great chance to make progress in the Carling Cup with a home draw against wigan Athletic. Poised to win   our Champions league group and with six months of the season left have 3 of our five tougher away fixtures out of the way, having taken a respectable 4 from 9. I say respectable as, the Man City away trip aside the draw at Anfield on the occasion of Hodgson’s first game was a good result and the Chelsea game I don’t think anyone can really speak of any injustice. That leaves away games at Old Trafford and Sp*rs (who as we know raise their game for this fixture). With injured players gradually returning and the Polish goalkeepers showing signs of optimism, we’re in relatively good shape. Or so you’d think. Yesterday at the Emirates West Ham were put to the sword late on after some stout defending, a good performance from Robert Green and a couple of missed opportunities. The level of indign...

There's something rotten in the state of Denmark

A number of blogs are pointing out what was evident to me yesterday; as a season ticket holder and Silver member i like thousands of others made plans to purchase an additional ticket for the Barcelona game using the frustrating and irritating online service, but guess what? no joy, just lots of waiting finger tapping and watching the dreaded 'loading' bar (to make matters worse I had asked my missus to do this as I was doing training). But no one got these additional tickets, that is no supporters judging by the general feedback! It seems to me that the additional seats will have probably gone to customers of a corporate nature. Ultimately for such a marquee (to use an American commercialism term) game I suspect that the club where never going to sell to supporters of the club, there is clearly a undercurrent at the Emirates that the club wants to have the stadium full of customers ie; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ognvWIwjKTQ The Emirates of the future? It will be interesti...

PERSONALITY TEST

Played 23, 10 defeats, 4 draws and 9 victories; that's the factual bit out of the way. What does that tell us? I guess it is a set of statistics that reasonably reflect a mid table team. How we got here is something that countless column inches and hours of debate have gone into. How we move forward is the bigger question. Naturally, learning from past mistakes is a key element to moving forward but have Arsenal Football Club done that? Have Arsenal Football Club realised that a clear vision and plan is needed? When you look at the current squad its relatively easy to see where the strenghts are, and the weaknesses. The manager too, has strengths and weaknesses but one thing that is intangible is the personality of the club. Not so much "where are we" as "what are we?" To know what the club is is to know what the upper echelons think, what their plan and philosophy is and how the manager processes  that information. We can assume that the club decision makers wa...