pommybird

Me, Fergie's got everyone in his back pocket......you don't get 19 titles without a bit of bribery and corruption

Former Lancastrian

Trouble is Arry couldnt grasp Fergies concept

pommybird

One day my son, all this will be ours, it's a long time coming, but we'll get there, in the meantime we're all quite content with #mind the gap

Captain Cheesestick

Arsenal lose in the cup then (in that awful kit too) - so that's 7 seasons straight without a trophy. Except this year they really look like they might be right on the edge of dropping out of the CL places.

And AVB dropping Torres at half time - wow. Guess that's over then.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17086053

Drogba giving the team talk!?

pommybird

Now I totally agree with kicking racism out of football, but believe it is equally unacceptable for opposing fans to chant 'Gareth Bale, Gareth Bale, Gareth Bale looks like a chimp, and 'what's it like, what's it like, what's it like to shag a sheep' at a 5th round FA cup tie

Captain Cheesestick

Well, what is it like?

So Harry played Gareth Bale in the middle against Stevenage. Not one of his actual central midfielders - but a winger. Who then played pretty naff. Then Kranjcar came on and played well. I'll never understand why managers do stuff like this. If you're one of Spurs 6 (yes - 6) central midfielders who were fit and didn't play that surely must make you feel like a twat. Harry for England? He'll have Crouch on the wing I guarantee you.

I know it's February - and I know Arsenal have folded this time for the last few years - but the way the loss against Milan and Sunderland is being used to portray Wenger as hopelessly inept is pretty odd. Arsenal are in 4th. They lost to AC Milan. Then they lost to a team 5 places below them in the cup. I know the argument is "how they lost." But still - it's pretty mental that in this modern football era that being 4th in the league (with Citeh buying their way up the table), still being in the Champions League and having the only solvent club in the top 10 is considered absolutely failing enough to sak the manager and bring in.....who? Steve Bruce? And yet Harry has one FA Cup in his entire history, spends money like a loon and he's apparently a genius. Oh - and Wenger deserves +10 for not caving in to the ridiculous pressure to buy Gary Cahill as if he was somehow Carlos Puyol.

Chelsea tho - not qualifying for the CL after buying the title for a few years is appalling stuff. Arsenal at least have the excuse that they're cheap and apparently have the worst physio in the Premier League judging by the constant injuries. But Chelsea spend obscene amounts of money to be playing like that. The balls of AVB to drop Torres though. I say balls - he's clearly getting sacked and will get lots of money to buy him out of his contract. He's only 15 as well so has plenty of opportunities ahead of him. Although what happened to that Lukaku bloke? Wasn't he supposed to be scoring 20 plus goals this year?

pommybird

Harry should have stuck Gareth on the left and made him stay there, but he's been giving him this free role of late, which has worked in the past, but the whole formation looked poop yesterday, we needed a 4-4-2. Bale was non existant yesterday, as was most of the team actually, we were awful. Modders was a sick note. The only decent player we had was Lennon and he only got the last 10 minutes.....bloody Stevenage and we've got a replay!

To give them their due though, Stevenage looked fanatstic, and their fans were behind them for the whole 90 minutes.

hopeful_Mark

I know we all think that players should play well against whoever is put in front of them bur it must be hard getting excited to play Stevenage town. I know last year when Arsenal went to Ipswich it was one of only a handful of away games I got to last year and really wished I hadn't bothered, we were terrible.
Don't worry Pommy you will turn them over at the lane, pain in the arse having to play an extra match but always good for the smaller clubs revenue.

Captain Cheesestick

I'm curious Mark - how come so many damn good Arsenal players are on loan and then Wenger has to desperately cobble together a team out of his own players who are somehow still fit? Miyaichi, Lansbury, and Watt look like very decent midfielders. Frimpong - before getting injured at Wolves - looked shit hot to me. And Carlos Vela and Bendtner are infinitely better than Chamakh and Gervinho. At least Bendtner - as big a twat as he is - scores goals.

I also listened to an interview with Joe Cole (who's on loan at Lille) and he said he has never ever been this happy in his life. But he's on loan and Lille pay something like 35k a week on their most expensive player. Cole gets 100k from Liverpool. Honestly - if I was that happy playing and that happy with life off the field too I'd take a big pay cut. He's already loaded.

hopeful_Mark

I wonder sometimes if managers want to experiment with player positions in matches they feel they should win, maybe Bale has expressed an interest in playing through the middle of the park from what I hear not very well.

Herpes, I will try to explain how it feels to be an Arsenal supporter at the moment it might make you understand where as fans it feels like failure. I am not a Wenger out fan, but this season my patience is finally at an end, that said I will not be booing, waving banners or protesting in any way as I still am always have been and always will be an Arsenal fan good times and bad. 4-0 loss to AC Milan normally I would have been going on about offside, no penalty defender slipping over, the first goal was top drawer though to be fair, but we had 11 players on the pitch that all looked like they wanted to be somewhere else it was one of the poorest games I have watched for years and that was close to being our best 11 on the pitch, zero heart, zero fight, zero pride in the badge. We need to beat them at home 5-0 or 4-0 and win in extra time or on pens I doubt very much we will even win let alone by such a big margin but we will see.
I had a bad feeling about Saturday after beating them in time added on the week before I knew Oneil would have his game plan spot on especially after Wednesday night and what a suprise they were all over Arsenal like a rash, and then to bring on Walcott and put him up front was a joke, I think he touched the ball 5 times, it may be where Walcott wants to play but he doesn't play there and to put him on like that was a big mistake, that said Henry was in New York and any other front players we have are shit at best.
For me the last 6 years have been hard to take but all the time we were building a team around Fabregas last year it started to look like we were close to having a competitive young team ready to challenge on all fronts, instead we sell him, along with Nasri and a few other good squad players Clichy, Eboue, Bendtner out on loan and replace them with Arteta (a good squad player but not a first choice attacking midfielder for me) Benayoun (not good enough for Chelsea then he is not good enough for Arsenal) Park (commercial decision to buy a Korean for shirt sales) Mertesacker looks ok but not great. When we sold players like Viera, Henry, Pires they were in their 30's best years behind them you can live with that as a fan, when we sell possibly one of the worlds best midfielders at 24 it is not funny, a player who the team was being built around.
I think the only way Wenger will be in a job at Arsenal next year is if they can find no one to replace him, I want to see him walk out with his head held high not thrown out because he lost the fans. Sundays game against Tottenham could be the biggest game of Wengers Arsenal career, lose that in the same manner we lost the last two I doubt he will make it out of the stadium.
I think Arsenal being 4th reflects how poor the league below the top 3 is at this time more than how well Arsenal are doing.

hopeful_Mark

Mate I wish I knew, Lansbury and Watt went for 1st team experience more than they probably would have got at Arsenal, Bendtner wanted to leave and no one would buy him so loan deal it was. I really have no idea why mid season when we were looking thin he put Ryo out and as for Frimpong I really have no idea at least he played with a little passion.

Manc

You forgot Park.

pommybird

Bale's getting too big for his boots, his agent's talked him up too much of late, and he needs bringing back down to earth.

As for Le Arse, well I feel sorry for Wenger, such a long, fantastic career with Arsenal, such success, and yet he's gone from hero to zero in such a short space of time, fans are fickle and football can be such a harsh, cut throat business at times.

I feel for Wenger and sincerely hope it doesn't all end here for him....there I've said it!

Captain Cheesestick

FACT

No Arsenal manager has gone as long without a trophy as Wenger has. They've either quit or been sacked before going this long.

FACT

Nerd points.

I looked it up too just to see. On May 12, 2005 Arsenal won the FA Cup (after just wrapping up the league title too) and on August 7, 2005 they picked up the Community Shield too. If they don't play and win the 2012 CL final on 12 May this year then Arsenal cannot win a trophy at all until February 2013 at the earliest. Which would be 8 years and 5 months (and however many days - the League Cup is usually the last week of Feb) for Arsenal to not win a trophy of any kind.

Ouch.