My take on last night, the BSM got as many people in the block 19 as possible but still didn’t have enough to over come the apathy of lots of the usual customers who watch the match from there. So the recreation of the clockend could be described as a failure if you want to be very negative but it was not for the want of trying and we tried, very hard.
Now the aggro….When the chavs scored they attempted to light a flare, at this point it all got a bit aggro (this happens even with out BSM in the block) and the problem was that OUR stewards were more intent on giving the home fans grief than the away fans..
At some point further a bottle was thrown from the away fans which ignited passions even further but again the stewards attention was wholly focus on the home fans not the perpetrators. At no point with either incident did I see an Arsenal steward go into the away fans to find the guilty parties. This of course exacerbated the feelings of “the club hate the home fans more than the away fans”…..
Lots did leave before the final whistle but to be fair most of the ground did last night, it was a bad performance on the pitch. I hope this puts the record straight from a row 22 perspective
Writing after a defeat is always tough. Especially a defeat where we did not deserve to win, where we have been knocked out of a competition. It can go one of two ways. I can become a depressing emo and write about how useless we are, or I can go completely the other way and be blinded by my love of Arsenal and bury my head in the sand, and find excuses for the loss.
There is a fine line and getting the balance between both is tough. Rather then attempt to get a balance, I am going to write both sides of yesterday’s story.
Wenger’s Fault
Arsenal lost to Chelsea, and there is only one man to blame. Arsene Wenger. The way he treats the League Cup is a disgrace. It is a trophy. A trophy that he has never won due to his disdain for the trophy. We have not won a trophy for 8 seasons. In that time we have made 2 League Cup Finals. Both times his team selection has let us down. And let us not forget Bradford last year.
He dropped 8 players from the game against Crystal Palace. He played Nicklas Bendtner and Ryo Miyaichi. This was not good enough.
Yes, it is a squad game and he should be rotating, but the squad clearly is not good enough. And it is Arsene Wenger who built that squad. In the summer, we all said we needed to buy 4 or 5 players. A goalkeeper. A right back. A top central midfielder. A winger. A striker. And what did Wenger do? Buy Mesut Ozil and get Mathieu Flamini on a free.
And the reason we lost to Chelsea? A mistake by our goalkeeper. A mistake by our right back. A lack of protection in midfield. And playing Ryo and Bendtner. Had we signed the players we needed, our squad would have been stronger. We failed to invest. Arsene Wenger failed to invest.
Top managers have Wenger’s number. They always have. Fergie and Mourinho use the exact same tactics when playing Arsenal. Defend deep. Defend well. Then let Arsenal make a mistake. And Arsenal always make a mistake. Take advantage of that mistake, score, then go back to defending, then pick Arsenal off on the break to kill the game. How often have we looked the better team against another top side, only to lose 2-0? A lot.
Arsene Wenger is at fault for yesterday’s defeat. He has let the fans down by not investing all he can in the team. Wenger Out.
Money Rules
Arsenal lost to Chelsea. C’est la vie. Whilst the performance was not brilliant, a few things must be remembered. Firstly, Arsene Wenger was correct shuffling the squad. Due to injuries, we have a very small group of players. It is therefore important to rest players when we have a chance. And the League Cup is a chance. Over the next 10 days we play Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United. All of these games are more important than the League Cup. The League Cup is the least important trophy.
Even getting top 4 is more important than the League Cup. Do not believe me. Ask yourself a question, would Mesut Ozil of signed for Arsenal we last season we won the League Cup, but finished 5th? The answer is no. The best players are attracted by Champions League football. We can now, going forward, afford the best players, so it is more important that we continue qualifying for the Champions League then winning the League Cup. The better players we buy, the more chance of winning the league. Winning the league is the ultimate goal.
Yes, Chelsea’s B side was stronger than the B side we put out, but it is unfair to compare the two sides. Chelsea currently have 1 injury, Marco Van Ginkel. Yesterday was basically there full 2nd string. Meanwhile, Arsenal had Flamini, Arteta, Walcott, Sanogo, Podolski, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Serge Gnabry (I am excluding Diaby) unavailable for selection. 7 players.
Now if you imagine our strongest starting line up is:
That is a side which is fair superior to that which started yesterday. A more balanced central midfield. More width and pace. And a better striker. We would have performed a lot better, especially in the last 3rd, where we got to with ease but struggled to break through.
And then we have the cost of both sides. The Chelsea side which played yesterday cost them £174.6m. The Arsenal side cost £62.3m. Over £100million difference. Of course Chelsea are going to look stronger, look better.
And the figures are similar throughout the entire squads of both sides. The Chelsea First Team squad cost £332.4m to put together. Arsenal’s meanwhile cost £180.9m to put together. A difference of £151.5m. Chelsea’s wage bill is also £30m higher then Arsenal’s. It should be of no surprise that Chelsea looked better than us on the night when you take into account these figures.
Yes, you could argue that we have more money to spend, but do we have enough to compete? We had around £100m to spend this summer. Even if we spent all of that, our squad would still of cost £100m less then Chelsea’s. As for the wage bill, we have no way in competing. Need I remind you that Arsenal made a profit of £6.7m last year. Had we had a wage bill equalling that of Chelsea’s, we would have made a loss of over £20m. We would be putting our club at risk.
To put something else in perspective, Chelsea have £61.1m worth of players out on loan. Remember the XI which started for Arsenal last night cost £62.3m. Chelsea are clearly at a financial advantage when it comes to their squad, and that came across on the pitch.
That fact it took individual errors for us to lose last night, and for much of the game we competed with them is testament to how good our players are and how well Wenger has done in assembling the squad. Football is all about money. The teams who pay the highest wages, have the most expensive squads, tend to win. The doped clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City are at an advantage, however our league position shows we are catching, we are competitive.
Last night was a poor defeat. But there is no need to point the figure of blame at anyone. The reason for that defeat is that Chelsea had a better side, a deeper squad. And that comes down to how much money they are able to invest in their squad. Money won.
Today, FIFA 14 is released to the masses. Adults and children throughout the world will be taking day’s off work to get their first taste of the new version – which is basically the same as previous versions with just a few tweaks. Most of them, having just completed GTAV would have just spent £50 on the game and it is this that they will play until Football Manager is out in October.
Over the years, football games have become more influential in the lives of football fans. No longer do they just watch a game on a Saturday, play themselves on a Sunday, and train mid-week, they now spend every woken day playing the simulators. Writing down squads whilst they are supposed to be listening to the teacher. Researching wonder kids during work hours. And spending hours day dreaming on what they are going to do when they get home.
Whilst games such as FIFA, Pro Evolution Soccer, Champions Manager and Football Manager are brilliant – I own a PS3 with just 1 game (or 2, now the new FIFA is out) they also cause my a lot of frustration. Often these games form the opinion of fans when talking about players.
Fans have begun to genuinely build an opinion on a player based on how they perform in a game. Take young players for example. Despite having never seen a young player perform, manager simulators such as Football Manager and Championship Manager will create an opinion for a fan.
Ganso, for example, was massively hyped up last summer. Barely anyone had seen him play. Not many people watch Brazilian football, and he only has 8 caps for Brazil. Very few could genuinely sit and say they thought he would be a good addition to the Arsenal side. Yet many did and many were getting excited over him. Odd.
But not odd when you then remember he has been a star on Football Manager for a few years. People built their opinion on him based on a computer game. They wanted us to spend £20 million+ on a player based on a computer game. It is ludicrous. And now? He is playing for Santos and a big money move to Europe looks unlikely. Football Manager certainly warps the opinion of players.
FIFA also does the same. Anyone who has played the game knows pace is king. If you do not have pace, you will struggle at the game. I believe this is one reason why Per Mertesacker is massively underrated. He is not a FIFA player due to his low pace rating. What FIFA has not got built in properly is how a player reads a game.
If you ever watch Per in real life, you will see he is one of the worlds best defenders. A brilliant reader of the game, he dominates forwards, no matter how quick they are. Pace means nothing if you can not dribble past a defender. And Mertesacker is extremely hard to get past. He will either intercept the pass, or stick out one of his big legs to win the ball. And he does it with ease.
Yes, if a player does get past him, he struggles, but every centre back in the world struggles when they are the wrong side of an attacker.
The problem here is people have built their opinion of Mertesacker based on his FIFA profile. They play with the likes of Kaboul or David Luiz, who are quicker and therefore more suited to the game. They then rate these two as better than Mertesacker, even though they are not.
They base this opinion on a game, not on what they see. Anyone who watch’s these 3 guys on a regular basis will recognise that Per Mertesacker is far superior to the other two.
People also rate Kyle Walker above Bacary Sagna. Again, because Walker is based on the game with brilliant pace. What the game does not show is his positioning is awful and he can not read the game.
The games also change how fan’s think a club is run. They make scouting seem easy. They make signing players seem easy. They make selling players seem easy. “Why can’t we just fax all clubs about Bendtner, offer them a free transfer with a 50% sell on clause” people ask. Well transfers are harder than that.
A game does not take into consideration personal relationships. Families. Wives. A game does not distinguish between playing in Spain, living on a hillside just outside Madrid, and living within the Arctic Circle in Russia. It makes the world of football seem easy. And it is not that easy.
When thinking about football. About players. About how the game works. People need to use their own eyes. Watch players play. Learn how football clubs and transfers work. Not base all their opinions on a game.
Judge players on what you see during games the highlights, or what you read about in reliable papers / magazines. Stop judging players on how good they are on computer games, or YouTube highlights (another frustration!)
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 