Sunday, August 28, 2011

Gooner Ridiculous

I feel like adding a short second post as a postscript to the worst away defeat for Arsenal in a century. While it is clear that Wenger's project is in serious trouble, the apoplectic reply by Gooners is bordering on the absurd (rather than offer a series of links just go here for all the latest -- News Now). Are we really going to ignore the fact that eight players were out? Did anyway actually watch the first half, where Arsenal very well could have scored three goals themselves? And the major problem was the back line and the complete loss of form of Arshavin. We were missing our two best defenders -- Vermaelen and Sagna. We were missing Wilshire, Frimpong and Song and thus allowed Man U through the midfield and behind our depleted back line over and over again. And we were missing what is maybe our most creative player right now -- Gervinho. Um that's a lot! And Man U barely missed an opportunity in the game. That is not normal. Djourou is truly terrible and Jenkinson is not much better. The first should be sent to the third division and Jenkinson needs a lot more time to get to the first, or second, team. I do wonder why Miquel didn't get a shot after a decent game on Wednesday, but I digress. Many will critique the second half, but it was very close to 3-2 before the house collapsed and I don't blame Wenger for taking a shot that failed. This team clearly has a losing mentality right now and something needs to change. Is it Wenger going? Maybe. But who will replace him in the short term?

On to the issue at hand. Let's consider a magical three days for a moment and what it could mean. 1. We finally buy Cahill or Jagielka or even Samba, thus creating a very good back four if injuries don't plague us (Vermaelen, Saga, * and Gibbs (or one of the rumored replacements) or maybe Kocielzny moves over). 2. We sign Eden Hazard and then have Wilshire, Hazard, Ramsey (maybe), Song, Frimpong and hopefully M'Villa as our best midfield choices. 3. Park Young actually plays well along with Gervinho and, of course, Van Persie. And give Walcott his shot moving up the pitch. He's certainly been playing better, though I still think he needs to work on his finishing at times. I think that is a very different team then the one we saw in games 2 and 3 and could compete quite well, though the top four is certainly looking difficult at the moment. 

The next three days will not only decide our season, but maybe the future of Wenger and the club for the next several years. Let's hope reinforcements are on the way! But should Wenger really quit over this result? I think it's a bit ridiculous to even argue that.

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