Get the balance right

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
16 May	12:45 PM	P	Manchester United (A)	0	0	Draw

Well, seeing as I didn't quite make it to a computer before this afternoon's game in Manchester, there is only one place to start and that is to congratulate Manchester United on title number 18. I guess today was a microcosm of why they are the champions, whilst we are, to all intents and purposes, nowhere. We absolutely dominated today's match in a way we never got close to managing in either Champions League tie, yet like the first leg of that match, we rarely looked like scoring.

Often the final ball is the problem, for me today, it was the ball before the final ball. That being said, that Cesc's 86th minute shot against the post was the closest we came, was down to a very defensive display from a team who only needed one point to be able to celebrate in front of their own fans. Their fans. Their fans who don't deserve the success they have seen. On the day they should have been looking forward to another title procession, they couldn't resist a little blast of that disgraceful song about our manager. Scumbags.

So, no Mickey Thomas moment for us today. That we finished the game with Andrey Arshavin, Cesc, Samir Nasri, Robin van Persie and Song all in the book after a game that never really matched the intensity of fixtures past, was a minor miracle. It says much about the top red carder in the Premier League, Mike Dean, to me. Arshavin's card in particular was ridiculous, at one point I said to Jo there was no way we'd finish with 11 players on the pitch.

The right team was picked today, with Ade left out again (we'll get to him in a bit), in the right positions and credit must be paid to the team for not allowing United one shot on target during the game. When, I wonder, was the last time that happened at Old Trafford? I thought the substitutions were positive. Though I still think if you have an attacking trio of Theo, Robin and Nick, Nick has to be central with Robin right and Theo left. Some day soon, maybe...

Funny to see Cesc shaking a smiling Fergie's hand at the end there. If a pizza really was thrown way back when and it really was Cesc, that seems to have been forgotten now.

Emmanuel Adebayor has been talking to the BBC and is seemingly as frustrated with us as we are with him. He's quite right when he says that if a paper says that Milan want to buy him, then that isn't his fault (unless he's been for a cheeky gelati with them) but we all remember how he told a press conference he was staying with Arsenal last summer only to tell Sky Sports News not half an hour later that he would decide on his future in the next week. At the end of that saga, of course, he did stay, but promised to win the fans back with hard work.

Perhaps he has suffered in front of a totally rebuilt midfield this season, something else we'll come back to, but even so this hasn't happened. To the point now that he realises that his song will never be sung with the same gusto as it once was. Maybe it will, one day but not by us and the player who once told Wenger he'd come for free has only himself to blame. In the week that he's been linked with a move to Chelsea, the situation has echoes of the Ashley Cole saga- without the car crashing business, of course.

And so to the Arsenal TV broadcast of Question Time. Actually, it's called Wenger's View, but again, in a week where Margaret Beckett was heckled on Question Time as the expense scandal continues, let's go with it.

We've all read that it was a stormy old affair, players being accused of not caring, too old, too young and Wenger of being irritable and seemingly at the end of his tether. Well, the propaganda wing at Arsenal managed to turn this event into something... positive, I guess is the word, for all involved. No mention of geriatric centre backs, thankfully there were none on the pitch today either, no real irritation displayed by the boss in an impassioned defence of his team, himself and his "shared vision" with CEO, Ivan Gazidis.

The Boss pointed out he has had to completely rebuild an exceptional midfield due to the departures of Flamini and Hleb and the unforseen season long absence of Rosicky. He didn't really explain why, with those departures added to Gilberto and Diarra, only Nasri and Ramsey came in initially. There is money to spend and he will be buying. In what areas he didn't say, but I'd suggest it's reasonable to assume we won't be seeing anymore playmakers coming in.

In response to a question about the defence, he managed to raise a few laughs by forgetting for a moment that the left back of the 2004 team was Ashley Cole, though he also forgot that Martin Keown did play a part in that season, particularly early on. As Ruud van Nistelrooy will remember. He observed also that defence begins from the front and I think this ties in with one of the frustrations with Ade this season. Nobody really minds a sitter being missed at times, especially if it isn't costly, but a lack of effort is never to be tolerated.

He turned a question about a perceived lack of leadership in the team on its head by saying that 9 different captains this season suggest we have captains everywhere. I suggest that it is just further reinforcement of this idea of shared leadership. It doesn't necessarily mean that the person wearing the armband is a leader, it's symbolism. Is that a word? It is now. He completely agreed that the team should be acknowledging the "fantastic" away support after defeats, apologising for the fact that they don't and later went onto say that he feels this young team will grown into leaders.

Wenger then went onto say that he was conscious of the need for greater physicality within the team. I have to say today's game showed that it doesn't have to be the team with bigger shoulders muscling you out, I thought we competed really well with United on that front today. perhaps Chelsea are a different matter, but as the man himself observed, they're a different matter for everybody.

"The future of this club is great... The basics are right, let's try to correct what doesn't work."

Two quotes taken a touch out of context, but it seems to me that there is an acknowledgment that some things have to change - the defence hopefully - but the club is generally "on the right track". I think, if you factor in a fully fit and ready to go Rosicky and Eduardo for next season, money spent well on a replacement for a man seemingly at the end of his Arsenal road in Adebayor - perhaps we don't even need to spend the money there with the forwards already at the club and the boss can make the adjustments needed in defence then he is, very possibly, right. I'd still like to see another central midfielder and defender in, but it does sound, at the moment, like this may well happen. But perhaps I've been swayed by the propaganda machine...

Right, I'm off to enjoy what's left of my Saturday night.

User Comments

Deano

Posted on 18 May, 2009 at 12:06 PM - Reply

Hit the nail on the head mate, comon the arsenal!

AG

Posted on 17 May, 2009 at 04:20 PM - Reply

Nice one mate, but that is a shambolic piece of spin by Arsenal TV for editing the Q & A session as you've said. The TV station is meant to air what happens behind the scenes, to keep us in touch with reality within the Club, and to paint a rosy picture when everyone knows that it was a rather stormy affair reeks of a lack of professionalism and deceipt towards its paying customers.

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