In The Greater Scheme Of Things Where Are We Now

[spid]

After a great run of form/results we suddenly find ourselves with the great chance of putting ourselves in the box seat for 3rd place. As soon as a little bit of 'pressure' came on, our 'warriors' went to regelation bound QPR and folded to Joey Barton and Bobby Zamora like the over paid prima donnas like they are.

Is this it? Was that not a big enough match? I expect us to go out on Sunday afternoon and beat Citeh. We are at least as good as them (and on our day could destroy them). We had a week off, no injuries, no distractions and we still couldn't beat a championship team.

I don't think this is good enough. We are accepting this; 'at least we're not Liverpool,' form of denial.

This has been the most open premiership in living memory and we have been bystanders for it all. Doesn't that bother anyone?

Has anyone seen Bilboa in the Europa League? We were like them once!

[N1Goon]

This is not the season to complain about our lack of silverware, if ever there was one in the last 7 years. Our 2 best players wanted out, and finding replacements for them on our budget was never going to be easy. 3rd and a stable summer, with quality additions and I think we can challenge next season for sure.

If Van Persie leaves, we will become a 'Top 4 Trophy' club for a few seasons until Wenger finds a gem out of nowhere. By the time we have found that striker, Wilshere and Chamberlain will be at City, however. This is the circle of Wenger life.

[safcftm]

It seems to be the same every year but it's yet another massive post season for the arsenal. Yet again having to ensure a star player stays and, in order to really convince him to stay, another end of season where we're saying you need 2 or 3 big signings. For me the issue is whether the board will sanction it- do they want to pay rvp bigger money and buy 3 players for large fees on large money or will they think 3rd is fine and be of the opinion that they won't catch city and united anyway?

That's always been my biggest thing about wenger, if it's the latter he needs to show some bottle and tell them that he won't accept seeing the club not do everything it can to win a title and threaten to walk away unless major investment is sanctioned. Whether or not he'd ever do it is a different matter- he seems to genuinely believe that his project can succeed without the major investment so he might never make such demands. A lot of questions, a big post season but as I say, you've been here before year after year- getting top 4 again might almost cost you if they choose not to invest having finished in a respectable position this season.

[SteveO 35]

It was slightly unreal to read Wenger's own comments suggesting there may have been a motivational problem at QPR - I appreciate the honesty, but if there was any complacency whatsoever going into a PL match at this stage of the season then it does throw up some serious questions about the attitude of these players

Away from home we have played seven teams from the bottom half of the table and W3 D1 L3 - not good enough by far.

The games tend to take a similar pattern too - at Blackburn we went 1-0 up, could have been 3-0 up in 20 minutes, the game becomes too easy, we spurn chances and then get surprised that the opponents spring to life when they realise they are not out of the game. At Fulham we should have been home and dry at half time, and against QPR when we got back to 1-1 the game was played out almost entirely in their half. At Swansea, we got the early goal and relaxed again.

The win at Wigan, when they were almost cut adrift was about the only time when we've looked comfortable in these type of games. At VIlla we were desperate at 1-0 up but just sneaked it and at Norwich the game was never comfortable.

Given all of those games and also how we have done at these sort of places in recent years it still amazes me when we turn up with anything less than 100% motivation and expecting a tough game

[Rosie_titters]

gone backwards,

few years back we were fighting it out with United for the title, now we are contented being almost 20 points behind them and worrying about finishing above Tottenham

and the funny thing, this isn't even a great Man Utd side, weird how they have managed to maintain there challenge every year, but we have fallen away...

[N1Goon]

gone backwards,

few years back we were fighting it out with United for the title, now we are contented being almost 20 points behind them and worrying about finishing above Tottenham

and the funny thing, this isn't even a great Man Utd side, weird how they have managed to maintain there challenge every year, but we have fallen away...

We have pretty much been in the title race at one point in the season for the last 7 years, sadly, our players are mentally fragile and bottle it. I believe we have been technically good enough to win titles in the last few years, though.

[littlefire]

In The Greater Scheme Of Things Where Are We Now?

Purgatory. Still.

[highburyJD]

we're in a decent position compared to the opposition we face now
Verminator + Koscielny are building a good partnership, Mertesacker is excellent backup
Szcz has solved our goalkeeping issue IMO (keppers rarely get injured I'm happy with another youth product at backup)
Sagna is the best RB in the league, unless one of Santos or Gibbs steps up we're weak at LB
the much maligned Song does need to improve his concentration but I think he's an excellent midfielder, Arteta is exactly the sort of experienced Prem signing we need, Wilshere has been a huge miss - and poses a big question: can he replace Cesc's role in the team next year?
We have lots of bodies for the wide postions next year: Theo, Gervinho, Ox, Miyaichi (maybe even Arshavin?) their all to some extent inexperienced.
RVP is awesome (but knackered/slightly off form) we need 2 x backups. At the moment neither Afobe nor Campbell have shown enough. Park and Chamakh must be kicked out. So I think we need another, as well as Podolski.

Where are we now? I don't think that far behind some pretty poor other Prem teams.
Problem is the opposition will all improve - Chelski & Citeh can throw big money at their problems,
ManUre just need to buy some midfield quality (who was the last great centremid sirMeatface bought..? Keane?)
Sperz will get worse. Losing some/all of Twitch, Monkeyboy and Modders. Parker and King will be injured more next year, can Friedel carry on into his 40s as one of the leagues best keepers?
Guess Liverpool have to improve (although, like Sperz, they need the new stadium we already have).

Where we are is not far from the top, in a poor league where are opponents are bound to improve.

[Red Member]

how some people can still say we are going backwards is beyond me.

we have been as good as anyone in the PL for the past SIX MONTHS!
Yes the early season and indeed pre season was not good but a lot of the factors involved were out of Wenger's hands.
it is to his credit that he has stuck with it. To get the team into the position it is now from where it was at the beginning of October is quite simply remarkable.

and the future looks extremely promising. this is a squad that WILL challenge for the title next season, we are not just grinding out results but more importantly are grinding out WINS, that is the mark of champions and which sets this squad apart from those in recent seasons. we have already won as many league games as last season and continue to improve.

man utd with giggs, scholes and fergie cant keep going much longer - we are best placed to step up and take their title

[storrmin571]

how some people can still say we are going backwards is beyond me.

man utd with giggs, scholes and fergie cant keep going much longer - we are best placed to step up and take their title

[flash gunner]

how some people can still say we are going backwards is beyond me.

we have been as good as anyone in the PL for the past SIX MONTHS!
Yes the early season and indeed pre season was not good but a lot of the factors involved were out of Wenger's hands.
it is to his credit that he has stuck with it. To get the team into the position it is now from where it was at the beginning of October is quite simply remarkable.

and the future looks extremely promising. this is a squad that WILL challenge for the title next season, we are not just grinding out results but more importantly are grinding out WINS, that is the mark of champions and which sets this squad apart from those in recent seasons. we have already won as many league games as last season and continue to improve.

man utd with giggs, scholes and fergie cant keep going much longer - we are best placed to step up and take their title

Cant argue with your opinions on the post but they are just opinions... but the last bit is just untrue. City are best placed to take over if united falter. Yes they might have done it by 'buying the title' but there is no getting away from it they are best placed right now

[Red Member]

fair enough about City - but they are finishing the season poorly - we are finishing better

if they dont sort themselves out over the summer they might find it hard to get going again at the start of next season

[safcftm]

tbh I think city will get rid of mancini who hasnt handled ballotelli or tevez well at all and who has crumbled under the pressure and I think they'll get a new man and shower him with transfer funds as well. I think Arsenal are roughly where they deserve to be at the minute in 3rd place and next season will probably be competing for the same place. Whether that is good enough or not is a subject for debate- the fans will presumably think not (especially bearing in mind the gap to 1st), the board have to decide if it isnt whether they consider changing manager (wont happen after a 3rd place finish) or whether they want to throw some money at it- my feeling is that they will plod along, it would take too much money to get arsenal competing for 1st so I think they'll be happy to see Wenger get back in the top 4 again next season. Mind this is why I have always felt that the board deserve more criticism than Wenger, unless AW is equally complicit in deeming it unnecessary to spend in order to get as high up the table as possible

[officepest]

At best we're treading water. For every decent run we go on there is a slip/run of games without a win to keep us in check.

We have again struggled to overcome "lesser" opposition, for whatever reason, and have been unbelievably lucky to have van Persie injusry free for as long as he has been. We keep losing players due to not being able to handle contracts correctly and so have to add new players often, and may again be bitten this summer. Conversely, we hand out crazy contracts to players who are blatantly not good enough and therefore have trouble shipping them out. This, in turn, means we can't pay tiered wages based on merit.

If we finish the seaon strongly and recruit well in the summer I will be quietly optimistic for the season next but lessons finally need to be learned at managerial level (cos he ain't going anywhere fellas) and I still can't shift the feeling of de ja vu.

[Red Member]

At best we're treading water. For every decent run we go on there is a slip/run of games without a win to keep us in check.

This simply isnt true. We have now won 9 out of 10 games, ok we lost to QPR - that is 1 game, it happens.
look at Man Utd last night at Wigan.

we have had just 2 blips this season and there are reasons for both.
1) the summer shambles
2) January games when we didnt have any fit full backs. This was Wenger's fault as he played Santos in a dead CL match and he got injured.

had he kept fit I do not think we would have lost all of those games. The RB problem was just really unfortunate. No club can afford to have 3 top class RBs. The fact we had our best 2 out for so long is just unlucky.