GENERATION NEXT

There seems little point banging on about Wenger and the board, I feel I’ve more or less run out of invective; therefore I’m going to talk about the team. The 14 players that appeared for Arsenal against Liverpool yesterday acquitted themselves reasonably well despite the scoreline.

Frimpong looked the best of the bunch in a lineup that was youth heavy. His inexperience led to his red card. Up to that point I think Dalgleish would have been happy with a draw as much as us. Going down to ten men and experiencing some ridiculously timed back luck cost us the three points.

Nasri, who was somewhat the centre of attention put in a good performance as did a number of the team. What the usually lackadaisical Arshavin lacked in quality he made up for with work rate. RVP was unfortunate not to score and Walcott had one of his indifferent days. Vermaelan was imperious and Cszescny was solid throughout; little he could do about both goals. The team was crying out for a little bit of experience in the ranks and we all know the answer to that is not down to the players.

The next two games are important for the shape of the season; Worse scenario Arsenal go into The Europa League and are on the receiving end of a morale deflating defeat at Old Trafford. Good performances in both will boost the fledglings and hopefully galvanize the older players. And of course some signing wouldn’t go amiss.

Despite the shortcoming and issues at the club it seemed to me that our team yesterday were almost in a ‘let’s just get on with it’ mood. The areas lacking have been well documented and this mixture of youth and experience looked to be playing for the shirt, if not the manager. Which is all you could ask for really.