When is the humpy-bumpy rollercoaster ride about to end?

Written by Asser Ghozlan on Thursday, December 4, 2008

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
30 Nov	4:00 PM	P	Chelsea (A)	2	1	Win

Sunday evening has, according to many, put us back into Premier League contention. Admittedly, it was a magnificent victory that I never saw coming, made all the more special by our second half comeback and the admirable fighting spirit and quality that reduced Chelsea to a mere one shot on target in the second half. However, to say that we are back in the race for the title would be premature and naïve in the extreme, bordering on pure nonsense!

After all, just how many times have we said that already this season? Smarting from an embarrassing defeat at Fulham, a run of three stylish victories had us top, before succumbing to an even more embarrassing loss at home to Hull City. Since then, to say our form has been patchy would be an understatement, and after beating Manchester United everyone was certain we'd be in the mix once again. But then came Aston Villa and Manchester City, inept performances and humiliating defeats against the two teams likeliest to challenge the "Big Four" over the coming years; the former due to its astute management under Martin O'Neill and his ability to combine experience with skilful youth and power, the latter due to the endless oil-sodden money pit.

For the first time in a while I found myself agreeing with a clearly jubilant Arsène Wenger in his post-match interview at Stamford Bridge: "It is much better but not good enough".

Indeed. For we might have beaten two of our direct rivals and with some style and conviction, a huge sense of regret cannot have deserted the manager and the players in that dressing room after the match at Chelsea, as the diabolical performances that we have been subjected to over the past four months will have cast an ugly shadow over them; an unnecessary and possibly irretrievable eight-point gap.

My question to the players would have to be: where was that fighting spirit and solidarity in our five defeats, not to mention our shambolically inexcusable collapse against Tottenham Hotspur and our inept performance at the Stadium of Light? Meanwhile, my questions regarding Wenger's stubbornness and the apparent lack of strength-in-depth are well documented, although the victory on Sunday will provide temporary subsidence to such accusations, temporary being the key word.

On Tuesday night it was back to the drawing board again, as our youngsters were unceremoniously dumped by Burnley in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup, paving the way for holders Spurs and Manchester United to battle it out for the trophy. I don't know about you, but this, for me, was the most disappointing defeat of the season to date, as it left me pondering the agony of yet another trophyless season.

Which means we simply have to gain some new momentum in the Premier League, and this time keep it going for considerably longer than ninety minutes!

If we want to get ourselves back firmly in the running for the championship, this terrifically frustrating inconsistency that is more akin of a Disneyland horror rollercoaster ride needs to come to a sudden halt, and right now. We almost certainly cannot afford any more defeats, and, although we are definitely in tandem with the theory that coming out on top in the "Big Four mini-league" is decisive towards deciding the destination of the title, I cannot help but think there will be more days of the Fulham, Hull City, Stoke City (you get the picture) variety, simply because there are many matches yet to play if anything. Add to that our prayers that all three of United, Chelsea and Liverpool suffer some embarrassing beatings here and there and you soon realise that the probability of us clawing our way back into it is near nil.

The Emirates needs to become a fortress again and not a gift shop, and that starts with Wigan's visit on Saturday. All this pretty football and outpassing the opposition is not always effective in the modern game and could well end up with the team suffering a catastrophic dearth of ideas in the final third, and that was precisely what happened against Hull and Villa.

We might have (somehow) managed to bring ourselves within single figures behind the leaders of the pack with that outstanding victory on Sunday, but this is definitely not a time of celebration, nor is it even a time of contemplation on how well we could have done, but it is a time of concentration on the future, a time to realise that enough is enough and that the real Arsenal will stand up.

I have been delighted with the decreasing number of press reports quoting several of our players, another disgusting habit that we need to cut out. No "Adebayor confident of title success" or "Gallas warning to rivals" etc... this week, and this, to me, suggests that there is an internal unity once again, a desire to carry on working.

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier that I agreed with Wenger for a second time in a while during that same interview, stating that "we need to come back tomorrow and do our job".

And, although we crashed out at Turf Moor 48 hours later (it was technically a different team we had out), one hopes that we are indeed finally off the rollercoaster and on the right track, with a thirsty sense of craving that football weaves its oh-so unpredictable magic.

User Comments

3

Splurger

Posted on 4 Dec, 2008 at 06:22 PM - Reply

Very good points you make there, though I think our win against Chelsea does show that no one should really doubt Wenger and that he can still cut it at the very top. We just gotta hope for some consistency now like you say!

2

delboy

Posted on 4 Dec, 2008 at 05:07 PM - Reply

asser, I taught you had gone. Good to see you back to your pessimistic best. You should know that when media quote players it is taken completely out of context. Cheer up and remember the glass is sometimes half full!!

1

Yousif

Posted on 4 Dec, 2008 at 12:43 PM - Reply

it seems to me that wenger's policy of giving everyone time is not working..

he should play players who are on good form in consecutive games, until they tire out, THEN replace them.. this means players get rotated according to form & fatigue, rather than what competition the upcoming fixture is part of (i.e. like wenger has now, a CC side and a EPL/CL side; the competition at hand on the day determines the starting 11).

Wenger still doesnt have a squad, he has 2 teams.

Alex ferguson has a squad, as good or bas as they may perform on the day..

If wenger were to change his policy to the one i suggested above, we would have seen arsenal wallop burnley last night, give the IN FORM players an excercise, and maintained a 'squad' mentalityt.

I reallu am starting to think that this (or something like this) is the problem.. any thoughts?

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