Arsenal Blues Redux

Well, a typical Arsenal game since the Birmingham debacle last year. Two leads wasted. Terrible at the back. Terrible on set pieces. Djourou reaffirming his position as one of the worst defenders I've ever seen in the Premiership. Plenty of chances squandered. A missed offsides on one of the Blackburn goals. And another poor away result after being the best away team in the league last year. There is little to say, though I will anyway.

Arsenal could easily see themselves relegated this year if their defense doesn't improve, and one has to place much of the blame with Arsene. He is the one that selected Djourou (always terrible), Squillaci (awful) and Koscielny (very uneven). He is the one who took Mertesacker over Cahill. He is the one who doesn't seem to be able to coach or motivate his team to play well on set pieces or on defense for 90 minutes (or in general at key moments).  

The worst thing about this loss is how strong we looked on the offensive side. We moved the ball wonderfully, Song distributed well, Gervinho scored his first competitive goal, Arteta scored again, Ramsey looked good, Chamakh finally scores (for the first time since last November) and the team easily could have had 5 or 6. And yet it wasn't enough because of two own goals and a lot of missed opportunities. Even at the end, we could have stolen a point if Mertesacker puts an open header in the net, Chamakh puts another in from the left side or Walcott finishes one on one. I think it is almost time to write off the league, put a strong focus on the Carling and/or FA Cup and seriously consider a major signing or three in the winter transfer window. If things don't change, I assume this will be Wenger's last year. This is a team with a losing attitude and I'm not sure how, or if, it will change ...