Tag Archives: Arsenal

As Arsenal are changing, some fans also need to change

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A great man once said “do you like Arsenal? Or just Arsenal with trophies”.

I was reminded by what Dennis Bergkamp said as I scrolled through social media on Monday following Sunday’s disappointing draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

It was like suddenly we were transported back 12 months ago, with the fan complaining, moaning and criticism that defined the end of the end of the Arsene Wenger era.

One comment I saw that really resonated with was that this Arsenal was the Arsenal they fell in love with. That their Arsenal “were a winning Arsenal not just making up the numbers”. This was amongst many tweets that I read they made me realise that some of our fans will never be happy unless we are winning trophies.

But it is not just trophies that they want. It is these trophies. The Premier League, the Champions League.

These same people complained that winning the FA Cup was not good enough. So it is not that they only love Arsenal with trophies; they love Arsenal with league titles.

We all spent 6 months or more (I saw one idiot saying he has been Wenger Out since 2001!). That change has come.

Arsene Wenger. GONE. Ivan Gazidis GONE. Majority of the coaching staff. GONE. And in his come Unai Emery, with his own staff, alongside Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat. Change has happened, and Arsenal have moved forward.

But some of these fans have seemingly not moved forward. They demanded “Time to Change” but they have not changed themselves.

They are on to the next one. Criticising the players, already on the managers back. Moaning that the club did not spend enough money, and demanding Stan Kroenke to put in his billions or leave.

And it is billions that Kroenke would have to put in.

We have all read the stories about Manchester City and the £2.7bn investment that Sheikh Mansoor has put into the club. It is with that huge investment that has enabled Manchester City to have one of the strongest 25 man squads seen in the game.

Yesterday Arsenal looked short on the bench. On game changers. Manchester City’s starting XI was without Kevin de Bruyne, Vincent Kompany, Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus & Ilkay Gundogan. These 5 players would start for every Premier League side. And City brushed aside Manchester United 3-1 without them starting.

These fans who are moaning will not be happy until we win the title. City is what we need to match, need to beat, to win the title. I think anyone who would expect an owner to put in £2.7bn, to write it off, are completely unreasonable. There are two sides in world football doing this at the moment. City and PSG.

The fact that fans also think Kroenke has the spending power to compete shows how naive they are when it comes to business, and net worth.

Forbes estimate Kroenke to be worth $8.5bn (£6.5m). But this is net worth, this is not how much spare cash he has under his sofa.

This worth is tied up in hundreds of investments. From personal homes and ranches, to various sports clubs around the world. The recent buy out of Arsenal shares valued the club at £1.8bn. That is 27% of Kroenke’s net worth.

For Kroenke to be able to put up the kind of money Manchester City have spent, he would have to take huge loans against his businesses. Against Arsenal.

Would you be happy Kroenke mortgaging Arsenal further to the hilt to win a league title? I certainly wouldn’t.

Imagine the outcry if it was announced Kroenke was taking a £1bn loan out against Arsenal to spend on transfers, salaries and more. It is that kind of action that could make Arsenal the next Leeds or Portsmouth. Where you are in debt up to your eyeballs.

Matching Manchester City’s spending power is just not realistic.

“but Liverpool are challenging”.

You are right, Liverpool are unbeaten and just 2 points behind Manchester City after 12 games. But last season they finished 25 points behind them in 4th place.

They were also in 4th place the year before, 17 points behind champions Chelsea (and just 1 point ahead of Arsenal). So how about we judge if Liverpool have put up a title challenge once we are in the business end of the season.

Also, by putting Liverpool as the example of a side competing makes it even more silly that fans are already getting on the back of Emery.

Jurgen Klopp is in his 4th season at Liverpool. He has had 6 transfer windows. Spent over £380m. It we are going to compare Emery to Klopp, should we not give the Spaniard the same time the German has had before becoming critical?

In his 3 completed seasons at Liverpool, Klopp has led them to 8th, 4th & 4th with no trophies won. It is odd that the fans who are moaning that we currently sit 5th. That Arsenal without trophies is not the Arsenal they love; yet they praise a Liverpool side that has not won anything in a decade.

Most sensible fans would have known that it would take Emery more than 6 months and one transfer window to fix Arsenal.

We are still a left back, a centre back and 2 wingers short of being a side that would compete for second (and another £2.5bn off a team that could be champions).

Klopp has had the time to build Liverpool in his vision. He has spent big on the likes of Allison, Virgil van Dijk & Mo Salah. Arsenal will make these signings as time goes on. But we can not expect us to go out and spend £250m in one transfer window to immediately close the gap.

A final thought is right now fans will say but what about Leicester.

It is about time the fans realised that Leicester was a one off. And one of the main reasons they won the league was because of Manchester City’s failure.

Leicester won the league with 81 points. City got just 66 points that season.

To put that into perspective, Arsenal got just 3 points less (63) last season than City did in Leicester’s title winning season.

I am of the feeling that for teams to finish above City, you firstly need them to have a poor season. You could have a brilliant season, get 85+ points, and City will be near or above the 90 point mark.

Emery needs time. The new Arsenal regime need time.

If you are not willing to give the new management team time; or demand that we replicate Manchester City style spending, then you clearly do not love Arsenal. You only love Arsenal with trophies.

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 1 – 1 Wolves

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Arsenal (0) 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (1) 1
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Sunday, 11th November 2018. Kick-off time: 4.30pm
(4-2-3-1) Leno: Bellerín, Mustafi, Holding, Kolašinac; Torreira, Xhaka; Aubameyang, Özil, Iwobi; Lacazette.
Substitutes: Cech, Sokratis, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Nketiah, Ramsey, Mkhitaryan.
Scorers:Mkhitaryan
Yellow Cards: Bellerín, Özil
Referee: Stuart Atwell
Attendance:circa 60,000
It seems somehow hard to believe that the last occasion that we hosted a match against today’s visitors was on 27th December 2011, when Gervinho scored for us in a forgettable one-all draw. Can it really be seven years since we last heard that distinctive Black Country patois on our terraces, with their unique humour and song? More to the point, a club as big as Wolverhampton Wanderers should never have gone away in the first place. Anyway, it just so happens that the Molineux men and us share a unique piece of football history; in another time and place, eighty years ago last summer, Arsenal signed 25-year-old Bryn Jones from Wolves for the princely sum of £14,000, which was the second highest transfer fee in the world at the time, and a price tag that is now worth £915,000 today. And for a top international footballer as well! Ponder on that information and do feel free to research the subsequent fate of Brynmor Jones at your leisure if you will.
Those of us of a certain age would surely remember an old Rolling Stones record called Off The Hook; well that sentiment would surely apply to Arsenal today. Not good in defence, inept in midfield, blunt in attack. Wolves, however, started the match fresh, and keen to impress the Emirates crowd, which they did almost from the start.
They exposed Arsenal’s weaknesses and their pace and close passing led to confusion in the Gunners’ defence. After just fifteen minutes, fired up by their loud and unrelenting supporters, Ivan Cavaleiro scored from close range at the end of a fast movement that Arsenal should really have neutralised back in midfield. Arsenal were just coasting for the rest of the first half, and although they had one or two chances to score, they went into the half-time break not only one down, but spritually tired as well.
Arsenal normally get into gear in the second half, but not today. They looked lacklustre, bereft of any pattern and their sloppiness in midfield became evident for everyone to see. As usual, late in the game, Mr. Emery made vital substitutions, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Aaron Ramsey for Mesut Özil along with Hector Bellerin, but even with inspired legs, Arsenal still did not look like scoring, although to be fair, they did come close on several occasions. The final breakthrough came on 86 minutes when a cross from Henrikh Mkhitaryan beat the Wolves goalkeeper to level the score. In the final minutes, Wolves became the more likely side to score with Diogo Jota’s shot blocked by Bernd Leno, and literally at the death, 18-year-old Morgan Gibbs-White’s shot hit the underside of the crossbar before bouncing down and out and back into play. The final whistle went minutes later and both sides went away from this match with a point each.
Although Arsenal have extended their unbeaten run to 16 matches, today’s game was a close call. For the most part they looked sluggish, and unable to break down the Wolves defence, and in doing so embarked on   a period of horizontal passing which thoroughly bored the crowd, particularly in the first half. The players looked lost and confused and in need of some inspiration, which never came. The worrying part however, is that not only did anyone in Arsenal refuse to take responsibility and show leadership skills, they looked lost and uninspired for most of the game. Somehow they managed to drag a draw out of this match, but it is worrying to think that another club with a bit more quickness of thought could punish us badly. The next two Premiership matches are against our old rivals Tottenham Hotspur on 2nd December and Manchester United just three days later; although we are a team in transition, we desperately need to get points from these games if we are serious contenders for a top four position come next May. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

https://twitter.com/shewore/status/1060812505205874688?s=21

Arsenal look to return to winning ways against Wolves

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After 11 wins on the bounce, Arsenal have spluttered a little bit in recent weeks.

The last 4 games have seen them win just once – a 2-1 victory over Brentford in the League Cup.

An away draw against Crystal Palace in the Premier League was followed up by a home draw against Liverpool. Ending the run was the Thursday 0-0 bore draw against Sporting.

A concern for Arsenal will b just 1 clean sheet in that 4 game run. Coincidently that game (against Sporting) was also the only game that they failed to score in.

Up next today is Wolves at home, and Arsenal will be desperate to get back to winning ways.

A failure to collect 3 points against either Liverpool or Crystal Palace has seen the club slip out of the top 4 – at the time of writing prior to the any of the Saturday games they sit 1 point behind Tottenham in 4th.

The bigger concern will be the 4 points that they have fallen behind Chelsea and Liverpool in the race of second.

With Manchester City topping the league and not yet out of 2nd gear, the others are fighting it out to be “best of the rest”. It is a fight which Arsenal should be in, one which we need to be in. A failure to beat Wolves could see them fall to 6 or 7 points off 2nd place, and see a return to the questioning of the squad that he derailed the team in recent years.

Wolves have been disappointing this season.

Sitting 11th with 15 points – 9 clear of 18th, would be seen as a success for many newly promoted clubs. However Wolves fans would have had much higher expectations for their club this season.

Due to their links with super-agent Jorge Mendes, they compiled a squad in the Championship that was already fit for the Premier League. The likes of Diego Jota and Ruben Neves went from playing Champions League football for Porto to Championship football for Wolves as they romped home with 99 points.

Over the summer they added Rui Patricio and Joao Moutinho to their squad. Nearly 200 international caps between them, both had been key members of the European Championship winning squad in 2016.

Add in Leander Dendoncker, Raul Jimenez and Jonny, all of whom are capped for Belgium, Mexico and Spain, and a lot was expected of them.

Some went as far as saying they could be an outside bet for the top 4. Most put them down for finishing 6th, behind the Big 5 and Tottenham.

Instead they find themselves behind the likes of Leicester City, Everton, Wolves and Bournemouth.

No shame behind that, but Wolves fans will be a tad disappointed if they end up marooned in mid-table this season.

Arsenal have not lost at home to a team outside the Big 5 and Tottenham since the beginning of 2017.

With Tottenham (away to Crystal Palace), Liverpool (home to Fulham) and Chelsea (home to Everton) kicking off before Arsenal, the pressure will be on.

victory will take the club into the final international break of the year filled with confidence. With early December games against Tottenham and Manchester United looming, Arsenal need to ensure they keep winning to remain in it.

Finally a shout out to Islington Sports Bar and Grill.

Today is the first game day for the new establishment on Holloway Road. It is where the old Herbert Chapman used to be many years ago.

with so many pubs closing throughout London, and on Holloway Road, it is good to see a boozer reopening. One run by Arsenal fans, catering for Arsenal fans.

Good luck lads.

Keenos