Written by Phil Gregory on Friday, December 18, 2009

With an air of negativity surrounding the Emirates after our 1-1 draw with Burnley, the cynics and pessimists are out in force and sadly, out in numbers too. Much to my amusement, I've seen the Wenger out brigade is back in force. Let's have a little perspective please: we played against a team who had lost one of nine Premier League games at home. This draw, coming after a tricky game away at Anfield is hardly a bad result. Yes, it is disappointing, and we always want to win but the Wenger out reaction of some fans is ridiculous. Two tough away games, with a significant injury list to contend with; four points is a credible return.

Early on in the game, we had a few good chances to establish a two goal cushion and these are what cost us. Why weren't they taken? It could be something to do with the fact that our front three was completely different to the front three that started the season at Everton. While Arshavin was admittedly present in both, he's playing a different position now, one in which he has little experience. Bendtner, and of course Robin van Persie were the other absentees. Missing strikers, one of which was replaced by a forward who is still finding form after injury and we are disappointed with a point? And that's not even mentioning our best player leaving the pitch injured! Given the circumstances, it was a fair return. But Wenger should have replaced Adebayor so this didn't happen! Wrong.

Adebayor left us for £25million pounds. Yet we already had a internal replacement: Eduardo was fit again after making precisely zero league appearances in the 2008/09 season. Add to that, a shift to 433 and with it the need for one less central striker and Wenger needed to buy a striker? With van Persie playing centrally, flanked by Arshavin and Rosicky / Walcott we would have had a roll-call on the bench which read Bendtner, Eduardo, Vela AND one more. Lets be realistic here, who would've come in and been happy to sit on the bench during World Cup year? We've all seen the importance of dressing room harmony with the departure of Adebayor and Kolo.

But we should have bought anyway because Eduardo and Robin are too injury prone to be relied on, shouldn't we? Again, we have another myth. If, by injury prone, you mean a certain player is more likely to get injuries than would be expected, then yes, in the past you are correct that van Persie was an injury-prone player. Was. I can't dig out a link at the moment, but the medical staff corrected the problem that was leaving him prone to muscle injuries, apparently it was also to do with his technique in striking a ball. His injury on international duty was bad luck, in no way was an ankle injury linked to his previous muscle problems. He has been unlucky, that's all.

The same goes for Eduardo. He suffered with a few minor muscle injuries due to the sudden increase in use of the leg once he started playing again. He got over it, and in Wenger's own words "he has never known a less lucky player" said in the aftermath of the Champions League match versus United, where Rio managed to fall on Eduardo and injure him by accident. Should Wenger buy then, because he has an "unlucky" strike force? Of course not, because it is just dumb luck! These things happen.

Many believed Wenger didn't buy because he was stubborn, and has blind faith in his youth project. I won't go into how that is just blind speculation, but let's look at how Wenger's reluctance to buy has "cost" us. Consistently, this man has found us gems for bargain prices: pre-Birmingham Eduardo was showing plenty of promise and will again, Sagna, Eboue, Adebayor. All bought in cheaply. If we were held to ransom we wouldn't be able to pull it off.

Take Manchester United: they needed a striker, and spent much of the summer of 2008 haggling over price. Spurs weren't having it, and come deadline day, they got £30.75million, daylight robbery. When we had similar situations, we don't pay. For fans, this sounds stingy, but what about Arshavin? Would we have picked up our Russian genius for only £12 million if we were United, and always budged when we "needed" a player? Not at all. It works both ways, some we lose, some we win.

Flamini though, why didn't the boss offer him a new contract? Stingy. Too stubborn. Or perhaps, because he saw a young Alex Song who could grow into the role, who won't demand an enormous pay rise after a single good season. Oh, and Song with Cesc won't result in a central midfield pairing who can't win a header.

Arsène knows, the man is rarely wrong. Even the 2008/09 campaign has set us up with a squad for this season: Denilson and Song in particular are vastly superior to their 2008 counterparts. We know so little compared to this man it is insanity to criticise him. Who could have seen the rise of Song coming? Or the conversion of van Persie to a clinical target man?

Trust.

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