How do you feel about Arsene Wenger and Andrei Arshavin?

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
07 Feb	4:00 PM	P	Chelsea (A)	0	2	Lost

After Chelsea strolled to a 3-0 win at the Emirates earlier this season, people laughed when Wenger said Chelsea would drop enough points to allow Arsenal to remain in the title race.

For a while he was right, but he didn't count on the fact that we would probably still drop too many points to keep up with them.

As I said after the United defeat, when we play the two teams only a few points above us, their superiority is clear, even if the table doesn't show it. I still expect us to be beaten tomorrow, but I still don't think it matters that much.

For one thing, Chelsea and United could still drop silly points, and will have more games than us as they are both still in one of the cup competitions. We have been poor against the big sides, but arguably more convincing against the smaller sides.

We're not the best team in the league, but I feel United and Chelsea's inconsistencies will allow us to at least compete for most of the season.

Still, is that good enough? Not really. Wenger insists that finishing 3rd in this league is harder than winning the Carling or FA Cup, but comments like that are alienating him from the fans.

Perhaps us supporters are a bit shallow, but then again, we're not really expected to know the day-to-day workings of a football club. We don't know the intricate details of the club's bank balance, and we don't see the players in training like he does. Perhaps he should show a bit more empathy.

Fans are not going to be happy with finishing 3rd every year and making a profit. It has no immediate effect on us. We've put up with it for nearly five years now, and we're told that it's meant to be leading somewhere, but there are no signs of that.

In theory we could finish 3rd and not win a single trophy every season for the next twenty years. It might be an achievement in itself to remain so consistently near the top of the league, competing in Europe and making a healthy profit, but we won't go down in history for doing that.

On the other hand, controversial Russian winger Andrei Arshavin has come out and said that, with our squad, it's surprising we're as high as 3rd place as it is!

There's a good discussion going on in the forum about it, with some mixed opinions. Should he be publicly criticising the team? Should he be scoring more goals? Should he pass to his team-mates more? Should Wenger continue playing him out of position?

He's no striker, so it's sad to see him isolated up there, but to be honest he hasn't been himself for most of the season, wherever he's played. He seems dissatisfied with life. His manager plays him out of position and a lot of his team-mates don't pass to him, so he doesn't pass to them. There definitely looks like there's friction there, and don't accuse me of trying to stir controversy. It's not so inconceivable to think that sometimes people don't get on with each other. At any work place around the world there are people who don't click. There are always outsiders.

Nasri, Denilson and Diaby like to play their 'pretty' short passing game together and Arshavin doesn't really fit in with that. He's more direct, and he likes to take players on, which isn't really the way Wenger has got the rest of his youngsters playing. We don't accommodate Arshavin enough. We don't play to our strengths, or his.

Should he be publicly criticising the club? Probably not, but it happens, and I can't blame him. To be honest, I cringe when fans who have been slagging the team off all season for lacking winners have a go at the likes of Gallas and Arshavin for voicing similar opinions. You never hear the small-timers of the team complaining. You never get the impression that Almunia, Denilson, Nasri or Walcott expect to achieve a bit more than finishing 3rd or 4th every year.

There are some frustrated inidividuals who, like the fans, have tasted success and want much more, and thought they were coming to a club that matched that ambition.

Wenger's early success, plus the stadium move, have helped Arsenal achieve a big-club status that can attract big players, but as I said earlier in the week, that won't last long if we don't win trophies. We are already at the risk, it seems, of losing Arshavin and Fabregas at the end of the season. They're good enough to get into any team in Europe, and play in teams that can defend and don't play midfielders upfront.

Anyway, we won't win tomorrow, and Wenger knows it, which is why he tries so desperately to remind us that trophies should not be the most important thing to us. You can't keep this up for much longer, Arsène.

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