Written by Mike Le Bras Thursday, 12 May 2011 13:24

GunnerTalk Blog

By Mike Le Bras

It may be a great day in a Gooners calendar, when St Toteringhams Day appears and welcomes us with its welcoming sight and lets us celebrate that we have once again finished above them lot from around the corner.  But then again, why is St Toteringhams Day the ONLY celebration we seem to have nowadays, (EVERY year since the FA Cup Final in 2005?). Apart from the odd win against the other ‘big’ teams around us, which in its own right is great when it happens but just does not make up for an unsuccessful season! And should happen more often.

The worst thing is, we as fans, are becoming less and less surprised with the outcome of a trophy less season. The great start to a season, with a little dip, then another good spell from Christmas until February always ends in a disastrous March and April with a pointless, drawn out, pointless May.

This year is no different and no more surprising.

Time and time again this season we have seen our team fail to progress from previous seasons. To other supporters our team are known as ‘bottle jobs’ and results this season has made this harder to ignore. The leads we have given away - the 2 goal leads we had against spurs which ended in a defeat and a draw, the injury time shenanigans in the Liverpool home game and of course the historic, recording breaking 4 goal lead we had away to Newcastle ending in a 4-4 draw are to name a few. The games in which we should be winning (or at least be putting up some kind of a fight) wounded our title challenge as well – Sunderland, Newcastle, West Brom and Blackburn at home, West Brom, Stoke City, Sunderland and Bolton away – all these games have been winnable games and yet we have not managed to do so, resulting in our chance of winning the title being harder to reach when really it shouldn’t have been.

In the cup competitions the same happened. In the Carling Cup we had a good run (apart from the dire performance at Ipswich) and managed to reach the final only for us to be beaten (deservedly) by Birmingham City. We were odds on favourites to win the final and as the match went on it just seemed like the players thought it would be a walk in the park. We all know what happened there and the players only have their selves to blame.

 In the Champions League we did eventually get knocked out by the hot favourites of the competition, the so-called ‘best team in the world ever’ but when you look back we should NOT have been facing them so early in the competition.  As soon as the Group Stage was drawn, we were considerable favourites to finish top of the group, a so-called easy group awaited and yet this did not happen.  We beat Braga, Partizan and Shakhtar easily at the Grove but away at Shakhtar and Braga was a different ball game. Once again we seemed to go to those two places half-assed, we just did not seem bothered and it was those mistakes that cost us 1st in the Group and led to Barcelona – a fantastic win at home came but a total beating at the Nou Camp followed. Yes, there was a very poor referee decision to send off Van Persie but we had no shots on target and they were all over us throughout. It could have been so much better if the self-proclaimed, super Bendtner actually had some talent and could get that shot away, but he didn’t, anyone surprised?  

The FA Cup was another failure, we failed to beat Leeds at home and we could have lost if it wasn’t for a Fabregas penalty towards the end.  This meant we needed to play ANOTHER match in an already busy January (9 games in total) but thankfully we won. Then it was a home fixture against Huddersfield, and although we won the match 2-1, it was yet another dubious performance. Then Leyton Orient away, where we drew 1-1 which was fantastic for Orient as they got to play at theGrove but it just added another match to our schedule and it was a match against Barcelona which was the previous fixture to this one which did not help, luckily we won convincingly. To the quarter finals, and here we faced ManUre (the train from London Kings Cross to Manchester is always extremely packed when this fixture comes about). We played a slightly strong team against basically their 2nd team and yet we lost 2-0, thanks to some poor defending (when will it end?!).

Out of 3 competitions in a month.

So what do we need to do to stop this happening again next season?

1.      Buy some experienced players.

The ‘experienced’ players in our team are VanPersie, Fabregas, Verminator, Clichy and maybe Song and Arshavin but that is not enough. Let’s face it, apart from Van Persie we have had problems with the others mentioned. Verminator has been injured throughout the season, Fabregas has his heart somewhere else, Song consistently makes stupid fouls, Clichy has dropped his ability dramatically in the past few season and Arshavin is one of those players who are frustrating to watch – brilliant and dangerous one week, hardly seen another. So we need experienced players (or at least well-known talent) to come in to the team and make these players fight for a place in the starting XI and work well with the younger players.

2.      Choose a different captain.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Fabregas is amazing and has been one of my favourite Arsenal players for a good few years but I have never thought he would make a good captain. The role of a team captain is to be a good leader on and off the pitch, be committed to the team and have a great work ethic. Fabregas has always seemed to have a good work ethic but as we all know, his heart is somewhere else (Barcelona) which does not help his fellow team members and neither does his interview with some Spanish paper about Arsenal needing to decide whether to be a Youth policy club or Trophy winning club. I agree with him but it is something the captain should not say because it sends out the wrong message to his fellow players. With the likelihood of him leaving this summer we will need a new captain anyway, my pick would be the Verminator because when he plays he seems to have command of his defence (if possible), he has experience and was captain at Ajax.

3.      Have a plan B

How many times do we see Arsenal trying to score the ‘perfect goal’ time and time again throughout a game? Plenty of tippy-tappy passes in triangles but NO god damn shot! When we play teams who are parking the bus (which is most games at the Grove) we start by doing all this tippy-tappy nonsense but when, we as fans, can see that it just is NOT working the team has nothing else to offer. Maybe we play the best football in England but when we aren’t scoring any goals it is frustrating that Wenger cannot change his tactics, by at least thinking about making more crosses, more shots outside the area and maybe the possible long ball (god no!). Also Wenger needs to make decent substitutions once in a while. For example, bringing off Walcott for Bendtner, just to come on and play in EXACTLY the same position is pointless, because at least Walcott has got pace and could maybe trouble the oppositions wing backs. If anything Bendtner should be in the middle, waiting for crosses.

Then there is Wenger. He has been fantastic for us over the years and there is no denying this. He has brought us numerous trophies and fantastic football to our already fantastic club but for the past 6 years he seems to be too occupied with his youth policy. Relying on players who have been at the club for a few years but continue to show us average quality and hardly any progress. We do have some quality youth prospects (Wilshere, Chesney and Ramsey, come to mind) but we need experience. Wenger makes mistakes when in the transfer market, for example this season the Verminator had been injured for a while, surely an opportunity to add some cover for him, but no. Keep dreaming for him to buy in the January transfer window! (Apart from Arshavin,of course). I’ve already mentioned about Wenger’s bad tactical decisions above so I won’t go over that again. When his plan goes well, it’s great but it doesn’t every game and he should know this.

I am not an AKB or AMG, I am one of those who are still in the middle. Even with the problems I have mentioned above, I still have some sort of faith in him (maybe it’s my mental strength) but he NEEDS to address the problems I mentioned above and maybe some others which readers may think of, otherwise sadly us Gooners are going to get more and more frustrated and he will have to go. We will have to move on one of these days!

The days when we had a team with great belief, passion, a strong work ethic, mental strength and a willingness to perform under pressure now seem to be long gone. And if we continue to not address our problems, those days will be long gone and yet again the ONLY thing we will be celebrating again for seasons to come will be St Totteringhams Day.