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By Walter Broeckx
Whenever we lose a game some of our supporters go into “worst ever” mode. The manager has to be sacked, the players are useless. Well we all know how they go around the internet with their slogans.
And let us just take a look at the situation in the EPL ahead of the Villa game.
| 1 | Chelsea | 14 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 28 | 9 | 19 | 28 |
| 2 | Manchester United | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 28 | 15 | 13 | 28 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 14 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 28 | 15 | 13 | 26 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 14 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 25 |
| 5 | Bolton Wanderers | 14 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 26 | 20 | 6 | 22 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 14 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 21 | 19 | 2 | 22 |
So apart from finding this the worst thing that ever happened to Arsenal under the worst manager we ever had at Arsenal I really cannot say that I feel bad about the current league position we find ourselves in. On Saturday morning we are 2 points behind the leaders. How on earth can this be the worst team ever? How on earth can this be the worst players ever. How on earth can this be done with a manager who “has lost it”?
Maybe some supporters should take a look at how we were finding ourselves in the same weekend last year. And yes I have the league table from that period and just take a look at it and just to let you know you will also find the total points in the last column :
| 1 | Chelsea | 14 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 36 | 8 | +28 | 36 |
| 2 | Manchester United | 14 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 30 | 13 | +17 | 31 |
| 3 | Tottenham Hotspur | 14 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 33 | 19 | +14 | 26 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 13 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 36 | 18 | +18 | 25 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 14 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 31 | 20 | +11 | 23 |
| 6 | Aston Villa | 14 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 22 | 14 | +8 | 23 |
Now you just take a look and another look and another look. Last year on this day we were 11 (eleven) points behind the leader who also was Chelsea. We were 6 points behind Manchester United. And disaster upon disaster, last year we were one point behind Tottenham.
Now I don’t know if my mathematics are still spot on as it has been a while since I left school so it could well be that nowadays being 2 points behind is far worse than being 11 points behind. But I can assure you that in my days at school being 2 points behind the leader is much, much better than being 11 points behind.
Now the most clever members of the congregation will have noticed that last year we played not as many games as the others. It was the Bolton game which only was played in January and when we went to the top of the table after winning it in fact. So if I want to change it with the hindsight (what a popular word for the moment) I have now but we didn’t have then one could say that we have 28 points and would be in front of Tottenham on that day one year ago. Feels better already.
But then again it means that we were still 8 (eight) whole points behind league leaders Chelsea. And again in my book being only 2 points behind is way better than being 8 points behind.
Losing a game is never a nice feeling. Losing two games is always a bad feeling. After all we love Arsenal to win every game. But no supporter can really believe we will win every game. Defeats are as normal in football as snow in the winter at the North Pole (or traffic jams in England on a friday night with 1mm of snow on the ground- ed). Hard to take, but an essential part of football. Winning every game is impossible unless Wenger proves me wrong at some stage in the next few seasons of course.
And yes I can understand being disappointed after a defeat and some defeats hurt more than others but why do we have to throw everything away after losing a game? Why do we pain ourselves that way? Wouldn’t it be more supportive to say: “F*ck, the ref cost us the game (as he did on Tuesday) come on lads better next time. “ Instead of the hysteria we see now from different supporters who cannot see anything good anymore in the whole team. The hysteria that once again is calling the heads of every player, even the ones that didn’t play. The calling for new players and if we would buy them all we never would comply with the 25 players rule by the way.
The calling for Suarez from Ajax and the pointing at his great goal scoring record for Ajax. And yes he has scored 35 goals last season in the Dutch league. But to think that if he would come to Arsenal all our problems would disappear is a bit short sighted I would say. We would be facing a lot of problems with the fact that Suarez is a very blatant diver. This will work against us in the EPL. After a few dives we will have to deal with defenders kicking his legs to pieces without the refs giving penalties. We have seen it before after what happened when Eduardo (who was not a diver at all) was prosecuted by the media last season and we didn’t get any penalties at all for a big part of the season. And after his biting incident last weekend he will be facing a difficult time I think.
And when it comes to players from Holland we must keep in mind that the game in Holland is a very open game and based on skill and technical ability. Players have room to express themselves and are very well protected by the refs.
And maybe we should remember another player who came from Holland a few years ago with a goal scoring reputation even better than Suarez. I am talking about Alfonso Alvez. Remember him? He scored 45 goals in 39 games in Holland before coming to the EPL and to Middlesbrough. They paid £20M for him. And he scored 10 goals in 42 games before being sold to the biggest team in the world: Al-Sadd. Never heard of them? Neither did I untill today. But this just to show you that it doesn’t mean a thing how many goals you score in Holland. I could have mentioned Huntelaar also who never really made it in Madrid, an in Milan and now Schalke after tormenting the Dutch league with his goals. People who think that they will just do it in the same way in the EPL are just deluding themselves.
As they are deluding themselves when saying this is the worst thing ever. Just look again at the two league tables in this article and then tell me we are worse of than last year. Look at it again and tell me we were in a better position last year. Because we were not.
And a final note: the league has changed. Maybe you were watching but didn’t realise it but the league has changed.
Stop worrying, by someone an Xmas present
There’s told told’s, told untold’s, untold told’s and untold untold’s.
Is Arsenal well and truly going down hill?
Want to argue against Wenger and his philosophy? Then you must read this first, or your comment may not be published
I’m 100% with you Walter – this “worst team” stuff is nonsense. Such people did not see the two seasons before Wenger came along.
And some twirps say, Wenger only ever won anything because he had Grahams back five – again just look at the reslts (or better still the video of the two seasons before him. Same players in the back five, and we came 14th and then 5th (qualifying for the doddle-woodle cup on the last day of the season).
And by way of explanation to my regular reader (hello Billy, how’s it going?) sorry there’s no proper preview this week. Phil is snowed under with work and I was snowed under last night with the threat of snow and traffic going so slowly I thought the universe had ended, turned around and was heading backwards for the big crunch.
But here is a team of sorts
Fabianski
Sagna, Squillaci, Koscielny, Clichy
Song, Wilshere
Nasri
Walcott, Chamakh, Arshavin
Looking sad and cold: Almunia, Gibbs, Djourou, Rosicky, Vela, Eastmond, Bendtner, Lansbury, Van Persie, Denílson
Another great piece of wisdom. Thanks to you Tony.
Some people are yelling, but in fact, as you say, we’re on 3 position, two points behind leaders. And those leaders (especially Chelsea) are definitely not in a good mood.
This week, I watch the Season Review 02-03. This is the season before the 49’s. We lost 4 games in a row between octobre and november, made a number of draw at home. Hopefully, we win the FA Cup. But when you look at the players during these particular season, you can only be puzzle : Touré, Cygan, Gilberto, Lunjberg, Pires, Henry, Bergkamp, Wiltord…. Awesome players for an awesome team… who failed in the Championship (and in Champions League too), but made a incredible season the year after. I think it can be a huge subject to study for people who are now crying and yelling.
Always a pleasure to read you. See you next
should be an amazing match today. we are anyways top of the away league. and if we didn’t ole ourselves in the 1st half against sp*urs we would be top anyways. got bored of playing too good and then lost the match!
this season is our chance to make an amazing streak of “trophies”. players should play their hearts out this season. build confidence and i am sure we will be unstoppable.
P.S. — > FU JOSE.
Spot on. Can`t really do anything but agree 😉
Although Huntelaar did pretty good at all his clubs (look at the figures) but never really got the chance (probably because he isn`t the popstar kind of guy.
Lets smash Villa and go top of the league, and forget the last two games (still in the process of forgetting the spurs game though..)
Lol…finally i’m back after a short vacation!! And arsenal losing both its games since i went…plus injuries comin back to haunt us!! Hopefully they’ll perform now that i’m back!! 🙂
It’s a nice article and all very well rolling out facts. But the football is terrible at the moment, I go home and away, the football has gone stale. One up front is very frustrating and for the second time in Europe 7 changes were made and we lost, proves those brought in are just not good enough. Wenger needs a new number two and a new goal keeping coach, someone to bounce off. Problem is does he want someone to bounce off. All started to go wrong when Dein was pushed out the door. One small point why do we have all 11 players in the box for opposition corners and free kicks, what good is it having Arsh or Theo in their would they not be better off giving us an outlet on the half way line.
Sorry for the mistake, I wrote Tonny, but I mean Walter (but Tony, you’re full of wisdom too ^^ )
Mr Tony, I have told you weeks ago, that we were going to see repeats of the West Brom game and you had said you didn’t believe that. Well we had the Newcastle game (same story) and we also had the Tottenham game which was actually worse. The target for a club like Arsenal which is in every way BEHIND its main competitors (United and Chelsea) is to improve every year and that’s exactly the thing we aren’t doing for the last couple of years. Again, if we look at the standings, we can see that we are maybe at the same spot like last year, we play against the WORSE Chelsea and United teams (United for sure) of the last five years and STILL we are behind them. I also can’t help but agree with today’s Mourinho’s statements, if you read them. The only thing I’m saying is that if we see no improvement for a third consecutive season, SOMEONE must be held responsible AT LAST. And that should certainly not be Song or Denilson…
Tony, just a nice little message from a supporter of a rival club – you’re a tosser.
See you later.
I can see what you mean, Walter.
Still, two remarks.
– I don’t think the ref cost us the game. We should have finished it earlier on. Refs make mistakes, you of all people should know that. 😉 We are responsible for our own fate. Still I hope that everything balances out near the end of the season.
– I’ve taken a look at the two league tables and they tell me that we have fewer points this season (if you count in the Bolton game, like you said). That’s what bothers me, especially because we were already in such a bad position last season. OK, we are not as far behind as last season, but it’s about time that we keep ourselves in the title race and don’t rely on the other teams to do that for us.
Still, you won’t hear “worst players, worst manager” talks from me.
Tony,this is the worst arsenal blog..everything about it stinks of bias/blind support/arrogance!I wonder why you continue in the same course of action?! There’s an african adage that says that pregnancy can never be concealed because as it advances,the tummy must shoot out!wenger’s flawed philosophy has been exposed and don’t get it twisted,am pro wenger but one doesn’t have to be genius to know that our roof’s leaking..what you and your tea buddies are doing is just pretending like everything’s all good,until the whole roof comes crashing down!maybe,that’s when you will realise that the roof has been bad all along.it aint about the villa match,it aint about being on top of the table,its about silverware!!!!!!as much as I like le prof,I love arsenal more and I want to see her pride restored and if at the end of the season,we end up trophyless,mr wenger should be fired unless,I will lead a protest myself..
——
Ed, I love you baby. Tony
Great post. Spot on. The glory hunters have no idea what they talk about. Let’s get behind the lads. Come on arsenal 🙂
Not only Arsenal that has underpreformed this year. So has Chelsea and Man U. The fact that the gap is so small says alot about their form to. With rooney back though. maybe Man U will step it up some notches now…
What’s all this? A sense of perspective and rational analysis on an Arsenal blog?! what’s the world coming to. Bloody disgraceful. Haven’t you heard the news? We are in crisis and that French bloke has lost the plot. This kind of weak-minded positivity will never do. Sort it out.
I actually enjoy mr attwoods blog…it is an optimistic view of the wonderful aresenal fc.I think statistics only give a very “thin” indication of a viewpoint and under further examination the viewpoint can be changed dramatically…look we didnt do that well last season either and scraped 4th the season before.Fact is we are losing games we shouldnt…aside from the chelsea game which seems an inevitable result!….
I hope im wrong but I dont believe this team has got what it takes to win anything this season.In fact im just hoping we finish above the spuds!
I may be deluded, but I’m confident of a 1-3 win today 🙂
Off to the pub now – enjoy all !!
great post, walter.
Err i’ve been following Untold for a while now and would have to agree its the best arsenal blog around, preaching pro-wenger ideas which i’m totally for…but just a thought that i’d like to share looking at those figures above, does it not look like we’re in the same place and its infact man IOU and chelski that have fallen behind from where they were last year?
Not trying to undermine walter’s wisdom(far beyond mine, as i’d like to believe) and Wenger’s. Just wondering.
The future is bright, the future is Red and White!
Love the work done on Untold, keep it up!
About Suarez, he’s also been having a bit of a dip in form the last couple of weeks. Hasn’t scored a [league] goal for Ajax since the 11th of September. That wouldn’t be such a big deal if he got some assists in that period, but in all fairness, he’s not at the top of his game at all.
His style of play fits Arsenal, but i agree that his goal stats in the Eredivisie shouldn’t be a guarantee that it will happen in the Premier League as well.
Kezman proved that, Alves as well. In fact, the only Dutch goalscorer that also proved it in England was Ruud van Nistelrooij in recent memory.
Well on the moment I am writing this we are not doing so bad for a team in crisis. A great 2-4 win at Villa who hadn’t lost this season at home until now and for the moment WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!!!
SACK WENGER!
😀
THANK YOUU GOOODD
What an exciting game, the quartet of Nasri, Arshavin, Rosicky and Wilshere played some exquisite football. We looked a bit stretched and vulnerable at the back for a while in the 2nd half but regrouped really well for the last 15 minutes, and scored a fourth to make it safe!
How Clattenturd let their first goal count I do not know, absurd decision. But that’s what you expect against us, an opposition goal doesn’t get chalked off unless one of ours is maimed or the player grabbed the ball and ran it into the net for a try. It could have cost us the three points.
But what a great result, Villa is a hard place to get a win and we did it without Vermaelen and Cesc, and with Walcott, RVP and Bendtner never leaving the bench. All that attacking talent missing and we still put four past them.
Harry Flowers – see the next post by Billy
2-4 to the Arsenal!
Nasri is quite the player eh?!
There are many ways to interpret the stats above.
IMO, Arsenal has stayed consistent after 14 games Year-on-Year with 26 points (last year it was 25 points with a game in hand. A draw game would equal 26 points but a win would mean Arsenal is behind by 2 points. Give and take, we are about there, but definitely no improvement, statistics-wise.
Chelsea did not improve.
The improving team is MU. Currently at 28 points, they were 31 pooints at the same stage last year. The statistics did not tell the fact that MU fucked up 4 games which they could have won easily. Add those points and MU would be sitting comfortably on top. And not forgetting that they have yet to lose a match. If you believe what the press had to say about ‘.. this is the worst team at MU for a long while..’ then we can throw all the statistics away.
So, take statistics with a pinch of salt.
EPL is becoming interesting. Teams outside the top 3 are getting stronger and it is becoming increasing difficult to predict an outcome. Punters in this part of the world are losing their pants. There will be games we lose unexpectedly and those we win otherwise.
Looking at the form for the 15 games, I believe MU will pit Chelsea to the title. Unless Arsenal improve defensively and tactically, we may be a also-ran in May. How else to explain the tentatively mood during HT and with a 2-0 lead? It wasn’t just me… I was at the Arsenal fan pub and fellow Gooners were biting their nails.. no wild jubilations as we braced ourselves for any sucker punch. Fuck… this is really good for the heart.
Nevertheless, the sight of Pires was very heartwarming… it brought back those happy days.