The battle for the top 4

donaldo · Post by **donaldo** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:17 pm

We finished 4th with Cesc and Nasri in the team so how the fuck are we going to finish top 4 with this shower of shite We are 15th and RVP hasnt had his 4 month break yet

Red Member · Post by **Red Member** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:19 pm

it is worth remembering that last season we went unbeaten in the league from mid December until towards the end of April. We even went into May with a mathematical chance of the title.

in the interim we have lost 3 first team players, Fabregas, Nasri and Clichy, and bought in some new players so I don't believe we are that far away. where we have been unlucky is with injuries to Wilshere, Vermaelen and Sagna. Had they all played yesterday I don't believe we would have lost.

Wenger has addressed some criticisms too.
everyone said we needed a tall, experienced defender - so we have bought a tall, German international
a lot of people thought Gibbs should be first choice instead of Clichy - so now he is
everyone said we needed a deent goalkeeper - so we have got a young Pole who could end up being one of the clubs greatest keepers
everyone expected Wilshere to step into Fabregas boots this season - and he would have done without being injured

the problem of the whole summer and what appears to have thrown everything off course is Nasri, and not getting a suitable replacement.
whether that is Wengers fault or the boards is open to debate.

fadidaeus · Post by **fadidaeus** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:01 pm

Whilst I do think our fixture list opens out a bit I'm not so sure we'll be able to take advantage of it. We just cannot defend at all at the moment & with Sagna out now it's not going to get any better, we have no creativity in midfield at the moment either (Ramsey'spassing has been absolutely shocking this season). I'm also thinking that this must be RVP's longest injury free streak for a while & if he goes down we are in really big trouble.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that if we lose aginst the big clubs but pick up 3 points against the smaller ones we could hang on in the chase for 4th (I remember Norwich & Everton finishing in the top 4 with negative goal difference) but I just don't think this team (under Wenger's management) has the mental toughness to grind out the results needed to achieve that.

SteveO 35 · Post by **SteveO 35** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:06 pm

Red Member wrote:it is worth remembering that last season we went unbeaten in the league from mid December until towards the end of April. We even went into May with a mathematical chance of the title.

in the interim we have lost 3 first team players, Fabregas, Nasri and Clichy, and bought in some new players so I don't believe we are that far away. where we have been unlucky is with injuries to Wilshere, Vermaelen and Sagna. Had they all played yesterday I don't believe we would have lost.

Wenger has addressed some criticisms too.
everyone said we needed a tall, experienced defender - so we have bought a tall, German international
a lot of people thought Gibbs should be first choice instead of Clichy - so now he is
everyone said we needed a deent goalkeeper - so we have got a young Pole who could end up being one of the clubs greatest keepers
everyone expected Wilshere to step into Fabregas boots this season - and he would have done without being injured

the problem of the whole summer and what appears to have thrown everything off course is Nasri, and not getting a suitable replacement.
whether that is Wengers fault or the boards is open to debate.

In case you've forgotten, back in April and May, what was being discussed and widely recognised as required is that the club would actually improve the squad i.e. we would keep our best players and the 2-3 key players we needed to kick on to the next level.

Instead we lost 2 of our best players in Cesc and Nasri, sold our regular left back of the past 5 years as he enters the peak years of his career, sold our reserve right back, farmed out Denilson, Bendtner and Vela on season long loans plus countless other fringe players.

So for my money, in order to improve upon last season, all of those players should have been replaced PLUS two centre halves of the required standard for the Premier League, another commanding midfield player and a striker to supplement RvP (as Gervinho now seems to be being played as a left winger).

Why is that people seem to forget what it feels like in April and May ?

FFS, we were hearing our manager bleat on about keeping our best players and our CEO talking about a busy window of investment. Is that really what we ended up with ? Is it hell

Red Member · Post by **Red Member** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:13 pm

So in that case our CEO has got some explaining to do.
what does he do exactly???

Boomer · Post by **Boomer** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:15 pm

Red Member wrote:So in that case our CEO has got some explaining to do.
what does he do exactly???

Rumour is someone (maybe him) forced him to make transfers after the Man U game. I've been hearing a different side to Ivan that we don't publically see.

SpanishJoe · Post by **SpanishJoe** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:25 pm

I think we'll be battling L'pool, the Scum, Villa etc for a top 6 place and if we achieve that, sadly, we'll have done well because with the small, weak squad we've got we shouldn't expect much more and that's a sign of how far behind we've fallen.

Red Member · Post by **Red Member** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:31 pm

I still think (and I know I will get slaughtered for saying this) that we have only had one disappointing result so far this season- the loss to Blackburn away.

we drew at Newcastle (currently 4th)
we lost to Liverpool (currently 5th)
we lost to United (currently top)
we lost to Spurs (currently 6th) ok because it was Spurs this has to be disappointing too

so we have already played 4 of the current top 6 in the first 7 matches.

SteveO 35 · Post by **SteveO 35** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:39 pm

Red Member wrote:I still think (and I know I will get slaughtered for saying this) that we have only had one disappointing result so far this season- the loss to Blackburn away.

we drew at Newcastle (currently 4th)
we lost to Liverpool (currently 5th)
we lost to United (currently top)
we lost to Spurs (currently 6th) ok because it was Spurs this has to be disappointing too

so we have already played 4 of the current top 6 in the first 7 matches.

You'll avoid getting slaughtered if you offer a bit more explanation. How can anyone not be disappointed with losing 8-2 to United ? OK, I take the point that a loss against United in itself is no terrible thing, especially given their record breaking home record. But, the nature of that defeat was so galling and no matter what anyone says it has floored whatever confidence this young squad may have had.

And I'm sorry but a home defeat to Liverpool is disappointing, first for a decade.

Rosie_titters · Post by **Rosie_titters** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:49 pm

Red Member wrote:I still think (and I know I will get slaughtered for saying this) that we have only had one disappointing result so far this season- the loss to Blackburn away.

we drew at Newcastle (currently 4th)
we lost to Liverpool (currently 5th)
we lost to United (currently top)
we lost to Spurs (currently 6th) ok because it was Spurs this has to be disappointing too

so we have already played 4 of the current top 6 in the first 7 matches.

mate Newcastle are shit, and in a false position, they will finish about 8th or 10th in the league, The liverpool result was awful, they hadn't beaten us in about 20 years, Man Utd i expected them to win but not fucking 8-2. Blackburn is the game when Wenger should of resigned. and spurs game once again i didn't expect us to win, but spurs were shit on the day and we still loss

Step · Post by **Step** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:54 pm

Lets face it, lets face it now (for you Franksav) we are already 5 pts behing Spurs and they have a game in hand.

They have already played some big teams.

We will beat crap teams at home and struggle against them away.

We will loose the vast majority of games against the more significant teams.

Why:
Because we have a witless embarassing myopic manager who can't motivate the team or train them to defend.

We take on potentially good defenders and then forget to continue to teach them the art of defending (prefering to develop their attacking prowess instead).
Clichy became an awful defender, so did Senderos, so did Djouru and the same is likely to happen to Mertesacker unless we get a proper defensive coach in place (step forward Mr Keown Champions League final with flamini at full back right up to the final anyone)

We will be bottom half.

Games away at places like Bolton, QPR, Wigan are going to become relgation 6 pointers unless it is sorted now.

Boomer · Post by **Boomer** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:54 pm

Red Member wrote:I still think (and I know I will get slaughtered for saying this) that we have only had one disappointing result so far this season- the loss to Blackburn away.

we drew at Newcastle (currently 4th)
we lost to Liverpool (currently 5th)
we lost to United (currently top)
we lost to Spurs (currently 6th) ok because it was Spurs this has to be disappointing too

so we have already played 4 of the current top 6 in the first 7 matches.

Really just...

Hang on based on that logic how did we manage to lose our starting position of top of the league!

Yankee_Gooner_Dandee · Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:11 pm

ive been saying it for about 4 months now. we have a relegation battle on our hands. one day you fuckers will start to believe it and throw away you top 4, top 6, top half arguements. there is no chance in fucking hell we finish top half of the table.

Post by **I Hate Hleb** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:21 pm

SteveO 35 wrote:
Red Member wrote:I still think (and I know I will get slaughtered for saying this) that we have only had one disappointing result so far this season- the loss to Blackburn away.

we drew at Newcastle (currently 4th)
we lost to Liverpool (currently 5th)
we lost to United (currently top)
we lost to Spurs (currently 6th) ok because it was Spurs this has to be disappointing too

so we have already played 4 of the current top 6 in the first 7 matches.
You'll avoid getting slaughtered if you offer a bit more explanation. How can anyone not be disappointed with losing 8-2 to United ? OK, I take the point that a loss against United in itself is no terrible thing, especially given their record breaking home record. But, the nature of that defeat was so galling and no matter what anyone says it has floored whatever confidence this young squad may have had.

And I'm sorry but a home defeat to Liverpool is disappointing, first for a decade.

Save your breath SteveO. This guy looks more and more like a WUM with every post he makes.

franksav63 · Post by **franksav63** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:24 pm

[quote="Step"]Lets face it, lets face it now (for you Franksav) we are already 5 pts behing Spurs and they have a game in hand.

They have already played some big teams.

We will beat crap teams at home and struggle against them away.

We will loose the vast majority of games against the more significant teams.

Why:
Because we have a witless embarassing myopic manager who can't motivate the team or train them to defend.

We take on potentially good defenders and then forget to continue to teach them the art of defending (prefering to develop their attacking prowess instead).
Clichy became an awful defender, so did Senderos, so did Djouru and the same is likely to happen to Mertesacker unless we get a proper defensive coach in place (step forward Mr Keown Champions League final with flamini at full back right up to the final anyone)

We will be bottom half.

Games away at places like Bolton, QPR, Wigan are going to become relgation 6 pointers unless it is sorted now.[/quote]

The boy can make it with girls!!!!

I can also see us struggling to beat the shit teams at home, especially when the crowd, quite rightly, get on the player's backs, this whole squad of gutless players are just not built for a long arduous season and I'd hate to see them in the relegation battle.