Tag Archives: She Wore

Arsenal drop to 9th in UEFA ranking’s (but it makes no difference)

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The latest UEFA rankings have come out this afternoon and Arsenal have dropped to 9th place, being leap frogged by both Atletico Madrid and Valencia.

It is the first time that Arsenal, under Arsene Wenger, have dropped out of the top 8. ‘CATASTROPHE’ is what all the doom mongers are shouting. But in reality, it is not.UEFA

With Manchester United and Valencia unlikely to qualify for next years Champions League, Arsenal’s real position is 7th. With Porto on their way out and AC Milan not only out but sitting 11th in Serie A, Arsenal will not have a problem.

A few thoughts however come to mind. With PSG and Dortmund rising, Arsenal need a big season sooner rather than later where they reach the semi-finals. Or a few seasons of consistently getting into the quarter finals. Failure to do so would see Arsenal in the second seed of teams.

Is being in the second seed a problem though? If all league’s finished now, the second pot of the Champions league next season would look like:

Schalke
Dortmund
PSG
Juventus
Shakhtar
Basel
Zenith
Manchester City

Not exactly ‘easy’. Meanwhile, you could drop out of the top 8 and draw Benfica or Porto. Porto/Benfica, or Dortmund/PSG/Juventus?

Yes, being top seeds is favourable, but considering the strength in depth in European football this season, it does not make a massive difference.

You only have to look at some statistics from this years competition to see how little difference it makes:

  • Of the 16 teams who qualified for the knock out stages, 6 came from Pot 1, 4 from Pot 2, 6 from Pot 3.
  • Just 5 of the 8 top seeded teams won their group
  • The split in the QF was 5 from the top seed pot, 3 not

Like Atletico have shown this year, and Dortmund in previous years, if you are good enough ,you will progress, no matter who you play.

The second noticeable aspect is with regards to the Europa League. Benfica have leapfrogged Arsenal in the rankings. This despite being knocked out of the Champions League. Arsenal made the knock out stages, and played Bayern Munich.

Benfica got knocked out, and have since gained points by playing PAOK, Tottenham and AZ Alkmaar. In UEFA’s attempt to encourage teams to take the Europa League seriously (by offering a high number of coefficient points  for the next years Champions League) they have created a scenario where failure is rewarded. Benfica get to play easier teams, and have extra games (Europa League has 5 knock out rounds v CL’s 4) by virtue of being failures in the Champions League. Surely for it to be fair, those sides knocked out in the Champions League should receive no more coefficient points?

Finally, when looking through the list, you notice how insignificant the furore is made on twitter about Arsenal’s drop to 9th;

AC Milan – 11th
Inter Milan – 13th
Juventus – 17th
Ajax – 30th
Liverpool – 32nd

These are massive sides.

So we are down to 9th. Not only does it make little difference to next years Champions League draw, being potentially in the 2nd pot makes little difference in future draw.s

Keenos

Nothing to fear from Wigan

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It’s only bloody Wigan.

OK, I might be setting myself up for a fall here, but are we really so worried about playing Wigan? They are a Championship side with Championship players. We are 4th in the Premier League.

Put another way, had we just drawn them in the League Cup, we would be expecting us to put out our reserve side, and still get a victory. So despite us having up to 11 injuries, we should still have the players on the pitch to combat whatever they have to throw at us.

A potential line up of Fabianski, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Ramsey, Kallstrom, Gnabry, Giroud, Cazorla should be more than enough. A side littered with international’s. A side littered with quality. And what do Wigan have? Not much.

Yes, we might be in a spot of poor form, with just 2 wins in 9 games, but Wigan’s form is not much better. 2 wins in 6. They will also have one eye on ensuring a play off place and a return to the Premier League.

Wigan should be no problem. I do not understand the fear that is being generated with Arsenal fans. It’s only Wigan. Yes, if we were playing them at rugby, I would be concerned, but we are not, it’s football. This is our game.

Arsenal fans are deeply scared with the history of cup defeats. This is the fear which is in the fans mind this weekend. From Cardiff to Walsall, Ipswich to West Ham, Luton to Wrexham, Bradford to Blackburn, we are littered with being giant killed.

But this is Wigan. The odds dictate that, in a one off game, we will lose eventually. Before the Blackburn defeat, we had never lost under Arsene Wenger to a team in a league below us. Odds dictated that the run would end eventually, and it did. The odds are now in our favour. Wigan should not be a problem.

Tomorrow, wake up with a smile on your face. Do a few star jumps to get the blood circulating. Get down the boozer of your choice. Have a couple of bevies. Get yourself down Wembley and cheer the team to victory.

Keenos

Arsene Wenger to leave this summer

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I write this with a heavy heart this morning. Having been at the 3-0 defeat away to Everton, on the back of a draw against Swansea, and a thrashing by Chelsea, it is time, time for Arsene Wenger to go.

A little over a year ago, Andre Villas Boas famously said: “they are in a negative spiral in terms of results, to [get] out of that negative spiral is extremely difficult.”. How we all mocked him as Arsenal shot down the ten Tottenham points in the gap.

This year, however, we are in a negative spiral. In our last 11 games, we have won 3, drawn 4 and lost 4. DWLDWLWLDDL. The Premier League form guide for the last 6 games does not make pretty reading:Form GuideThe team is falling apart. And the buck has to stop with Wenger. When I look at the team that started yesterday, it contained 9 players who are regularly picked in the squad of their international side, and a total of 510 caps. It was not like we had a bunch of untried kids out there.

If the players are as good as they are, and we are unable to compete against Everton, let alone get a point, the buck must stop with the manager. Our capitulation against Everton, against Chelsea, against Manchester City, against Liverpool, is simply not acceptable. I often back Wenger by saying ‘name someone who can do a better job’. But surely there is someone out there who can do a better job then 0 points away against the top 5, conceding 20 goals.

Our results against the top 7 this year have been shambolic:

Liverpool: 2-1 / 1-5
Chelsea: 0-0 / 0-6
Manchester City: 1-1 / 3-6
Everton: 1-1 / 0-3
Tottenham: 1-0 / 1-0
Manchester United: 0-0 / 0-1

Played 12, Won 3, Drawn 4, Lost 5, F 10 A 24, Points 13.

13 points out of 36. Those games make up nearly a third of our season. How we can expect to compete for the league, let alone win the league, with that return. And it is a double edged sword. Not only did we only take 5 points from our title rivals, they took 11 from us. It is not good enough. Wenger is not good enough.

The side is lacking confidence, it is lacking quality. Yes, after 22 games, we were top. In a 3 horse race for the title. Now we risk coming 5th. That has to come down to the manager. OK, you could point to injuries, but how many years have we done that?

All the injuries expose is a) our medical process and b) our lack of squad depth. Whilst Manchester City have had a choice of Dzeko, Negrado & Jovetic. If Giroud get’s an injury or loses form, we have the choice of Bendtner or Sanogo.

As for our captain, Thomas Vermaelen, a lot of the talk has been ‘if he leaves we need to replace him’. After another inept display, it should not be down to him, he should be sold and replaced. He looks disinterested and is not the committed player he was during his first season for us. He should be shipped out. And the vice-captain is no better.

I am not being reactionary. Did I expect us to go and spank Everton? No I did not, they are a very good side, the 5th best in the Premier League. But it was our lack of fight. Our lack of chances. The way we played. When we went 1-0 down, I turn to my mate and said “that’s that then”. We just do not look like scoring.

The fact is, we are not good enough. We have £100m sitting in the bank. I know this has not been there a long time, but it is negligible that more was not spent in the summer, or in January.

Do I still think Wenger is the best man for the job? Perhaps. Yes. But that is based on the fact that he must spend. He must give his 10 transfer targets to the board, and let them sign the players he wants. He must not be let to dither over an extra couple of million. Hand the targets over, let the board, Dick Law, Ivan Gazidas, whoever, sign the players. Likewise, if we need a bit of extra cash to complete a spending spree, the board should release it. The money is in the club.

If he tells the board he is happy with the squad, that he only wants 1 or 2 new players, then that is it, ship him out. Get the new man in. A man willing to spend big. A man who will motivate the players. Yes, he might not win away to Chelsea, Manchester City or Liverpool next year, but a new man would certainly get the team putting up a better performance. Not accept capitulation. Not accept mediocrity.

Is it time for Wenger to go? My heart says no, my head says yes.

Keenos

Final Note: Let today be a day of negativity. Get it out of your system. Then tomorrow wake up. Be positive. We have an FA Cup semi final to win on Saturday.