Arsene Wenger and pragmatism. There you go, one of the very few times you’ll ever see it in the same sentence. Cast your minds back to 2005 & the FA Cup Final in Cardiff. What do you remember?

Thierry was injured, so we played Dennis up front as a lone striker; it’s actually quite funny when you think of it. We went 4-5-1 and stunk the place out. Utd battered us, but poor finishing, resolute defending, luck and good keeping saw us nick the cup when 4 came up as the last number in the penalty lotto.

Did we celebrate? Of course we did, we ended a 12 month trophy drought and beat our deadliest rivals. Very soon after though, you realised it was a smash & grab victory. We more or less played Liverpool off the park in 01, only for little Billy Elliot to ruin it at the end. That must have been how Utd felt that day.

Compare it to 03. A remarkably boring final against a team we should easily beat, eventually won by Super Rob. 2002? Huge pressure game for us, challenging for the double & played before the end of the season (how fucked up is that!). A very tight game, decided by 2 pieces of individual brilliance; who could forget “It’s only Ray Parlour”, Freddie leaving JT on his arse and Dixon celebrating behind the goal before the ball had even crossed the line. 1998 was pretty easy really. I remember Tony Adams saying that he wished NUFC had at least pulled 1 back to make it interesting. Not sure I can concur with TA6 on that but I can see where he’s coming from.

Finals can be boring, rarely do you get a 79 or 14 and even 93 was a turgid affair only saved by Andy Linghan’s broken nose breaking Sheffield hearts. The result means so much more than the performance, so I guess it’s hardly surprising that 2005 seems to be the only sighting of the Lesser Spotted Alsace Pragmatist.

So, last night and the capitulation of a 3-0 lead in 30 minutes to those giants of European football Anderlecht. Shit weather seemed to mean a low attendance. I had a spare I tried to get rid of all day for just £35, but no takers. Atmosphere in the ground was pretty quiet as we settled in to watch us ease into normal home game format with lots of possession and passing. Early on they looked threatening on the break, better passing or decision making could have seen them nick a lead. As it was, a very clumsy looking challenge gifted us a pen and so it was 1-0. Alexis took a shite free kick, hitting the wall point blank, however the ball spun up nicely and he leathered it through the now broken wall and past the keeper, 2-0.

I had spotted that Arteta had been stretching his hamstring for quite a while in the 2nd half. So does he tell the bench early, so Flamini can get warmed up? Seemingly not as by this point I think we already had Theo, Podolski & Tomas warming up. Great goal by Ox for 3-0 and it was cruise control now. Unfortunately this seemed to be the point where Arteta could not go on, yet still no Matty Flame warm up. Does our captain do the smart thing to break up the game and go down to receive treatment, allowing MF to have a little jog and then come on as he limps off the pitch? No, he hobbles around for a few more minutes, basically putting us down to 10 men and Anderlecht pull one back. Eventually he drags his sorry arse off the pitch. Where is the professionalism? Or did he think at 3-0 it was no bother. You wouldn’t get that in Sunday League.

Offside goal? Definitely. Shit happens, a lot to us it seems, but how did they get in the position to play the ball across is the question. Dubious penalty? Haven’t seen it other than live, looked clumsy, but again, why is our CB wrong side of his man. The 3rd goal, well Podolski, on for Welbeck or ‘God knows why’ depending on how you view our little SM darling, gave their player time & space to look for options. Having got out a protractor, sextant, wind sock etc, the guy whipped in a peach of a cross and their sub gets across Per (again) to glance a diving header in. 3-3.

My how we laughed.

We’ll still qualify in 2nd place, mainly because I can’t see Anderlecht winning in Dortmund last game, although that could depend on how many players Klopp rests given their poor league form and guaranteed top spot already. So we’ll get another 2 games at least in a competition we cannot currently hope to win. Why do we put so much store in being in it then? Well, 14 million to 1 are the odds of me winning the lottery & yet I still buy a ticket each week. Of course the real reason is that we cannot afford and yes I literally mean this, not to be in it.

I caught Merson’s rant. Here is an ex pro, ex Arsenal, not dressing it up as anything other than poor play & tactics. To the delight of many, they can try to belittle what he says by accusing him of being ineloquent, even seen some Gooners sink so low as to mention other factors in his struggle to sometimes put his passion into words. Well shame on them. Bet they weren’t digging him out when he was MOTM in 93 LCF or when he more or less won us the league with the goal at Anfield in 91. He is right with what he said. We are clueless. There is no leadership on the pitch and I worry at the lack of it in the dugout. Why is no-one saying to the team at 3-1 to hold what we have, keep the ball, push them back and don’t give them another sniff. Why is Theo not brought on for Santi for last 15/20 minutes to push them back in fear of his pace? Why is Sanogo not brought on to hold the ball up and give us an outlet instead of Szczesny going long to Santi and Alexis? When you need resolve, why bring on Podolski?

At one point last night, 3-2 up and 90 minutes on the clock, we gave away a free kick 25 yards from their goal and we had 5 of our players nearer their goal than the ball! What the fuck is going on in their heads and that of their manager. Merson is right, clueless!

But never fear, because Arsene is angry. Well I don’t know about you, but I would not want to be in Per or Nacho’s boots right now. Angry eh. Well what I saw last night was a lot of anger from the fans, but even more worryingly, a lack of shock. A sense of being resigned to the fact that we are more than capable of clusterfucks like last night. Groundhog day fellas.

Why should we be too surprised, this is the team who when 4-2 up at home to spurs with 5 minutes to play conspired to let them nick a 4 all draw, which was as bad as a defeat when it’s them involved. Are we above taking the ball in the corner to waste time, because I believe if we did that sometimes rather than always looking to add an unnecessary goal, some of these situations could be avoided.

So back to that 2005 final, bag of shite that it may have been, the result is what mattered. I wouldn’t want us to play like that often and wouldn’t expect Wenger to betray his principles that much but perhaps he could consider this when a match situation dictates and try to use it in his in game management. After all, this is the man who saw fit to start both Flamini & Arteta at home v the bottom club in the league.

I’m not suggesting we park the bus for entire games, but maybe we could stop trying to drive it to Berlin on half a tank of petrol.

Mark

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Wenger: “We gave a poor defensive performance from the first to the last. We never felt comfortable. There was a bit of bad luck because the first [Anderlecht] goal was offside but our defensive performance was not good enough. Across the pitch defensively, we were very, very poor.”

The world and their dog knew that without reinforcing the defence this summer,every now and then this season we would get shown our arse and last night in the space of 30 minutes Anderlecht managed to score 3 against us at our home.

This type of result was coming and no-one should be shocked, but to put the blame the players solely is unfair.

Nacho Monreal is an average Left Back at best. He has been shifted into CentreBack as our 3rd choice Centreback, whose only 19 was shifted to Right Back, due to our 2nd choice Right Back from last season being on loan at West ham. Meanwhile, last seasons 3rd choice CentreBack and captain was sold and not replaced.

We only had 2 defenders not fit and that resulted in 2 players being played out of position due to lack of cover.

Wenger said should Vermaelen leave, the club will find a replacement because the Belgian is “an important player in our squad”.

Now the draw last night isn’t the end of the world, we need 1 point from the last 2 games to get the money spinning last 16 games and either way we would’ve finished 2nd in the Group.

Jurgen Klopp could pick 11 players off the pitches at Market Road and still get a draw against us. It begs belief that with 30 minutes left last night we go from having the job done and being able to rest players in the last 2 games to 2 tricky final games.

Arsene Wenger has blamed “Fatigue” after just 18 games (including last night) of this season, but to be fair we have looked poor all season.

Wenger: “I think when we lost Mikel Arteta we lost out because he was one of the few who defended well. That didn’t help”.

Mikel Arteta is as much a Defensive Midfielder as Theo Walcott is. It’s not his natural position and when he was in his prime at Everton he played in an advanced position. Wenger even bought him to replace Cesc Fabregas, who is obliviously not known for his defensive capabilities.

Matheiu Flamini is our only real Defensive minded midfielder and he came on for Arteta for the last 30 minutes, just in time to be on the pitch whilst the wheels fell off.

Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey have been poor all season. It did not come as much of a shock they stumbled and faulted for most of the game. But to be fair neither of them will ever be the best at tracking back, again like Arteta it’s not there natural position. Never has Gilberto been so missed as this current squad.

With 10 minutes to go and with the score at 3-2, Wenger bought on Tomas Rosicky and Lukas Podolski in an attempt to kill the game. The former lost the ball with his 1st touch, the later is not known for his ball retention skills. Between them, they made 2 successful passes.

The greatest shame about last nights game (apart from half the ‘fans’ in the East Stand deciding a train home at 3-2 was better than supporting the team when they most needed it) is we should be now falling over each other to declare undying love for Alexis Sanchez who was head and shoulders above everyone on the pitch.

Not only was he our best attacking player he was also our best midfielder and to quote @husaby1 from twitter “Shame he wasn’t in goal for the penalty”.

Alexis had a hand in all our goals, He was tigerish in tracking back, he ran at them with strength and control, he threaded balls with precision and accuracy and his goal was instinctive. It was like watching and I don’t say this lightly a mix of Dennis Bergkamp and Rocky Rocastle, pure class. Maybe instead of singing ‘he scores when he likes’ we should sing ‘He carries our team’.

Our majority shareholder, who has as much a clue clue about ‘soccer’ as he does for discreet hair pieces must know where we are going wrong. But does he care as long as we win the 4th place cup and get into the last 16 of the Champions League? probably not.

Ambition at anything in life must come from the person in charge, be it a company or a ‘sporting franchise’. As a club we are constantly going 3 steps forward and then 3 steps back. We resolve our forward lineup in the summer, only to weaken our back line and for too long under Stan and Wenger we have been 2 or 3 players short every season.

A strong owner would put pressure on his manager to gather together the best players he could with the money available, apart from us, we prefer to show off how much is in the bank.

A change is needed desperately at the club and has been for a number of years now. Giving Wenger a 3 year deal as manager in the summer was a huge mistake, he wont change. He will continue to be tactically naive in today’s game, he will continue to under spend the resources he has, he will continue to buy too many players who just are not leaders on the pitch, he will continue to play players out of their natural position, he will continue to  make daft substitutions, Welbeck and Ox for Podolski and Rosicky last night is a shocking example.

Wenger really needs to sit down today and listen back to what he himself said after the game, look himself in the mirror and then do the right thing ask Stan to find a new manager.

Gav

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1) If we win and Gala lose to Dortmund we are into the last 16 stages with 2 games to spare.

2) Even when playing badly in the away tie we beat them.

3) Monreal seems to be a better CB than LB.

14) Theo should have another cameo performance tonight.

5) Anderlecht have lost all 4 of the Champions League games played on English soil and tonight is a must win for them.

6) We only have Jack Wilshere, Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil, David Ospina, Yaya Sanogo, Abou Diaby, Olivier Giroud and Mathieu Debuchy Missing with injuries.

17) ALEXIS SANCHEZ !!

8) Podolski, this is the kind of game where a second of space will result in him banging one in

9) Anderlecht have won just once in their last 6 games.

10) Wenger knows – Win tonight and 2nd place in the group is all but guaranteed and a big money spinning tie is on the horizon which will keep his bo$$ happy.

My starting 11 – Chesney, Chambers, Monreal, BFG, Gibbs, Flamini, Ramsey, Podolski, Ox, Alexis, Welbeck

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