…is mortified! Not about Arsenal’s loss, but the margin of the loss. The Gunners partly shot themselves in the foot! But, let’s think about this. They led the league for about 90 days, but not only lost several really key players (Ramsey, Walcott & Wilshere for a long time, Arteta & Flamini for shorter periods -- Ozil has been MIA), but they have no depth on the bench, compared to the likes of Chelsea and Man City who have spent humongous millions. Big mistake not starting Flamini today. Apparently it was him or Oxlade-Chamberlain. This is ridiculous. Many of these players HAVE to be able to play in several positions, and they HAVE to be able to pass and strike with both feet. The Ox did show he could be a good goalie, by flying through the air to palm a ball away which was going wide anyway. Trouble is, he’s not the goalie, and giving away needless penalties is costly. The referees showed they could be just as weird by sending off the wrong man, Kieron Gibbs, who must have wondered what was going on! Arsenal’s momentum died at least a month ago, and momentum is important in any sport. Liverpool have it most at the moment, followed closely by Chelsea and Man City. Actually, I’m surprised Arsenal has done as well as they have. Can anyone name a team that so quickly lost three world-class players in a short time -- Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, and Robin Van Persie? That was devastating. Arsenal have had a huge financial burden paying for the new Emirates stadium, and Wenger has had to manage the budget tightly. I wonder how many folks know that Arsene Wenger has a master’s degree in Economics? However, they are now in very good financial shape and need to go out and buy some top notch players. They missed out on Suarez and a few others. Arsenal just don’t have an authority figure on the field, and they need a great holding mid-fielder like a Yaya Toure or Matic. Toure is actually third highest goal scorer in the league, and even a full back like Skrtel for Liverpool has quite a few goals. Tom Huddlestone would be a good addition, and is playing some fantastic football, distributing the ball everywhere precisely with great vision. The only player on the Arsenal team with any real fire right now is Tomas Rosicky who has shown he can shoot and pass with four sides of both feet. I feel sorry for Wojciech Szczesny who did brilliantly, but had no chance. Ozil started his season well, but has been a huge disappointment, and needs to go unless he can find some guts and character from somewhere. And how about a Craig Bellamy who has great speed up the right, is feisty with fire in his belly, gives everything for the team, and had a terrific game against Liverpool today? There are really no strikers in the Arsenal line-up. And, they need two up front--Sturridge & Suarez, true opportunists, work brilliantly together, and Wenger needs to emulate that. Arsenal need to take more chances, anticipate more, and throw themselves at the goal. They still try walking the ball into the net, overpass once or twice too many times, overthink the play, and don’t take responsibility for shooting. Podolski, Giroud & Cazorla are just no match for the likes of Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling, Hazard, Oscar, Eto’o, Aguero, etc. They are too inconsistent, and second rate at best with no killer instinct. Arsenal have scored far less goals than the top three other teams, and today, Liverpool, in a terrific match against Cardiff, passed their all time record with still 8 games to go. Both Chelsea and Man City are also scoring in big numbers.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 02:51:44 +0000
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