Others see it, so why can’t all Arsenal supporters see it?

55 Replies to “Others see it, so why can’t all Arsenal supporters see it?”

1. Except Chelsea won the champions league last season. And Man City won the premiership. Stupid article, don’t give up the day job!

2. never in doubt

3. wise words indeed… we can only hope that they are heeded.

   imagine this same team continuing into next season without selling any major player… that’s why i am glad that walcott sogned. also hope that sagna does. glad others like per and poldi have committed to stay… carzola and monreal are not home sick…

   this team has great things in store this very next season as long as no more major departures which happily seems n=more and more likely.

4. Walter,

   There can be but a handful of fans who expect Arsenal to win every game by a large margin and win every trophy. In fact, I know of none.

   Its quite similar to the polarisation of the finance argument… i.e. anyone who says we should spend is accused of wanting Arsenal to have a sugar daddy and take the club into debt. It’s just not true. These extreme arguments are used to justify extreme optimism it seems.

   The bottom line is that it has been a poor season again for Arsenal, whether we finish in the top 4 or not. We’ve won nothing again and we have looked very much second best in the big games we have played. We are 21 points behind the leaders and currently outside the top 4.

   If we don’t make the top 4 I will not see that as a disaster. I do not see the club bringing in top class players anyway, so even outside the CL we will still be able to bring in the same calibre of player we have been and in truth we have very few players left that the top clubs would want. Those that are coveted are committed to Arsenal it seems (like JW).

   A stint in the Europa League may not be such a bad thing. We have virtually no chance of winning the CL, but we would have a chance against the weaker opponents of the Europa League.

   I think you are also wrong to assume that supporting a club through thick and thin means being positive all the time. To me they are two different things. I am negative about our chances of competing with the top clubs and I don’t think the manager or the players have been good enough for some time, but I will always support the club. You don’t have to agree or like everything about the club to support it.

5. Don’t think one tweet from some random WestHam supporter is gonna change the views of the Arsenal fans(The word “fans” is used in the most loose sense as possible) who have made a habit of beating their own team to the sewer for the last 5 years or so.. Kudos for still trying though.. Appreciate the sentiment

6. Great to hear sense every now and then…

7. You lost me at “expecting to win every game and trophy”nonsense . What a bunch of idiotic dribble!

8. Im tempted to agree with jayramfootball, though not fully. Over the last 8 years the manager has shown disdain to the supporters at various stages by fielding weak teams in important matches(why try theo at CF when he hadnt played there for a long time for the amtch against bayern?), lying to us about signings, not signing good enough players( trying to convince us with fake signings such as park, squillaci, chamakh…), not training the squad in basic skills such as defence( i know people will say how i know this-the answer is in the results.We are s**t everytime a long ball is played into our penalty, we cant defend corners and cant use deadball situations…i can go on and on), no backup strikers( what if giroud gets injured,do we even have someone who has strength to play in the CF?) etc. I feel his time is up. A real team would have walked this league-given that united have a BS midfield, chelsea are in tatters, city have been inconsistent and totts have been, well themselves.Instead we are fighting for the 4th and people are even willing to accept finishing outside of 4th as if it is an achievement. To me this shows a lack of ambition and vision at the club. We need new blood at all levels and supporters have every right to moan and groan when we are just fleeced by the club with lies and deceit. And before you say…go and support the xyz, you have as much right to this club as me.I have supported this club for 16 years adn shall continue to do so.But dont ask me to be optimistic about a 4th place finish…

9. @Tom I agree

   Optimists have every right to be optimistic – their choice and we need to respect those views. However, it does seem a common reaction by the overly optimistic (in my view) to use non existent extreme arguments to try and characterise anyone who does not share their views. It is done in an attempt to discredit and belittle, but actually has the opposite effect. It comes across as rather silly and as you say ‘idiotic dribble’.

10. Sites like ANR & Le Grove are for the perpetual downers and anti Arsene brigade. Just hope that they accept how wrong they have been, yet again, about AFC finishing in the bottom half etc. What am I saying…they disappear until we lose!

11. @GunnerPete

    Can you link any article that said we were going to finish in the bottom half? I would call any statement like that overly negative for sure.

12. Can you name me any fan or indeed print any reply whereby people who do not agree with you have stated that Arsenal should be “….expecting to win each and every game by a big margin and win all the titles and trophies for which we enter…”?

13. The difference is, some of us SUPPORT Arsenal, whist others EXPECT of Arsenal. How can you support the team without supporting the manager? It baffles me!

14. I’ve said before that the biggest hurdle facing the club has been the xenophobic refereeing we’ve had to face. Chelsea were very canny, they hoovered up a lot of English talent (at great cost) which they have so far failed to adequately replace. The cost and scarcity of good English players means that those who can make them will always come out ahead financially. Even in their PLC days, United could not have afforded to buy all of Scholes, Giggs, Beckham and the brothers Neville on the open market.

15. This article could have been written in North Korea. Talk about deluded. NINE years at least before any hope of a trophy….

16. You really are a cock ! Wanting the team to compete with the money we pay is not wanting to win every game! Wanting to have a team of world class players instead of selling them to make profit is not wanting to win every game ! When a manager sells players for £30 m and replaces then with players worth £10m it’s fairly obvious we are not trying to compete , finally selling your best assets to make a profit has never been good business !! Is the club really run that we’ll ????

17. A blog is primarily someone’s opinion posted on the internet.
    but there’s a small matter of the comments section. if you do not want contribution(either in support or against what you post). please delete “the leave a reply part”.it is rankling and smacks of snobbery when you adopt a holier/i knowest more than thou attitude esp when contributors opine differently.and believe me most who “support all” you say on here may be just butt kissing. for me, this team perenially underperforms,some players shouldnt be in the team and the manager? pfffft.. has just not done enough for me( i didnt say he should leave or be sacked….yet)
    if people like me offend you.I am sorry but it doesnt make me a fairweather fan.this ” best of the rest mentality” that arsenal is gradually sinking into is what most of us are agrieved about.
    still your devoted reader from Nigeria

18. Amazing how so many (or the same? will check 😉 ) take out one sentence but ignore the interesting words of that WHU supporter. Oh well…

19. Well done Walter, keep fighting the good fight.
    There will always be soft supporters, they’ll learn or drift away in time.
    Allez Le Boss.

20. “Whao” a beautiful praise song coming from a compassionate brother, sadly he chose to remain anonymous, i would have loved to send him a bottle of champagne.
    All that is understandable coming from a westham fan. Every “west ham” fan will obviously drool at the prospect of playing in the europa not to talk of the champions league. However let me remind u, all real arsenal fan want somethin worth being proud of, somethin u can bragg about; sadly 4th place ain’t it. If u are so optimistic as u claim then i suppose u would welcome the idea of an owner that ” feeds his cow at least once in a day, if not always not one that only comes around when its time to milk d cow”.

21. @jayaram..(10:12 am)..

    Whats that last paragraph about?
    Any Tom Dick Harry and even Barry can support a club through thick. The thin is the part when the real colors are displayed…..of both players and the supporters.
    In your view the players who dumped us (is that the right word) were better than the ones who have decided to stay. Dont forget, those players were given time to develop.

    @Indian Gooner…

    16 years??……Lack of defensive training/ambition/vision. How much do you know about the inner working of ARSENAL. Some d@#$ &*^d in a talk show claims to know every thing at ARSENAL and you join his blame Wenger band wagon. If there was no vision or ambition ARSENAL wouldnt have been where we are today. We are more stable than any club there is in England and probably Europe.

    Why is there a talk about players leaving? As if ARSENAL have put them for sale. Its the players who have put themselves in the market.

22. William, you appear to have no concept of Arsenal’s heritage.

    You say all real arsenal fan want somethin worth being proud of, somethin u can bragg about; sadly 4th place ain’t it.

    That doesn’t work at all. Our history is a vital part of the club, and what is so important is that when we have a period of not winning trophies (such as the Wright/Swindin years, the latter part of the Mee era, the end of the Graham era and into the Rioch year) we need to stay near the top. The true supporter recognises the ebb and flow, and sees it happening in other clubs.

    What marks out Arsenal is that unlike Liverpool, Man City, Man U, Tottenham and the rest, when we have a downturn we still stay near the top. That is why 2019 is going to be an important year for us – although maybe you don’t quite know why.

23. @ARSENAL 13
    How do I know the inner working at arsenal?
    ans: I dont know. I only know pathetic defending when i see it. the game against bayern, tottenham and even wba signifies this. the proof of the pudding is in the eating.If we are not able to defend well then there must be something wrong in the training, attitude and heart.

    You say we are in this place because of the clubs ambition and vision.
    ans:What ambition?to fleece the fans of their hard earned money to win nothing? We pay the highest ticket prices in europe and have not even the carling cup to show for it.You call this mid table mediocrity that we are heading towards as stability?

    Why is there talk of players leaving?Why are the players leaving-tell me. They want to win things.Every player has a lifespan of 10 years to 15 years (if he takes good care of his health and doesnt get injured). In these 10 years every player wants to play at the top level and win.Why did arteta take a pay cut to come to us from everton?Because he had never played.competed in the CL and this was his best chance. If this is true, then why did cesc leave us?For him playing in the cl no longer held that much of a charm.He wanted to WIN the CL.That was his next goal. RVP left us coz of the same reason- to win something.We have a manager who manages to get us across the top 4 line every year and people are happy to take this as an achievement without questioning the sales of players, the blind faith in certain crocks that the manager shows, the way he treats certain competitions etc. This is because you cannot think for yourself and like every other AKB just jump on the bandwagon that AW is doing a great service for us by sticking with us while we let go of season after season.we are becoming the new liverpool.
    blindly follow the herd.

24. What an absolutely wonderful post to cheer me up during my lunch break.

    Of course ‘other’s will detract from this post by citing all of the things that could be done better and of course let’s hope that Arsenal are striving to improve even more. I’ll leave it at that for now.

25. It’s been mentioned many times on here – sites like this are desperately needed as a alternative to the many arsenal blogs out there that constantly wallow in the negative (especially the ones that spring up just to moan). The contributes on this blog aren’t idiots, they just understand the concept of support (even if they don’t necessarily agree with everything that happens at the club).

    Long may this site continue. I have a sneaky suspicion Untold and it’s football discussions will outlive a lot of the dross out there

26. @Indian gooner,

    Proof of the pudding? Yet to fail to eat the pudding infront of you. We have the 3rd meanest defense in the league and the best in away games. Try eating that for a change. No ones ignoring the fact that the errors have been made. But you fail to notice that the corrections are being done.

    Highest ticket price???? Looks like you are new to Untold. Or you prefer to ignore the facts laid out by TONY and Co. It all makes it VFM if there is a long long waiting list. And if 4 the is mid table, What is 10th?

    You look at the fact that the players who jumped ship have won things. Yet you ignore the fact that With all the players in a team, we dint win things.

    Cant think? Band Wagon? Herd?…Which herd you are in my friend. Are you the part of the herd which, in a couple of years, is more likely to eat shit???……

27. This site and the authors on it need medical help.

28. Walter,
    Loving a team and being critical to improve it is NOT suspect. It is love. Not blind love. But real love. Just as real as blind love. Still love. But that becomes lack of support, to advocate that we improve this way or that. The implicit loyalty tests that are celebrated here at UA as love or support are one-sided and you might (probably) know it. Let me ask a factual question: how many points have we taken from the top 3 sides this season in how many games? Your answer: we didn’t gel yet. Well, right. But it was predictable since the summer that there were flawed expectations about how long it would take for the gelling (that is not completed by the way, until this summer’s 70M – MAYBE – splash for quality) to occur; by which point, before January, we were already out of competition for winning the league. I feel that 4th place matters and is a victory of sorts that matters. But it is a necessary condition of a great team; not a sufficient condition that is self-satisfied and labels everyone who wants more as unloving or insinuates they are disloyal. And one last thing, is all you want here 1,000 variations on: oh you’re so right Tony; or you’re right again Walter; we are great, we are great, we are great. Is that what you want on this website? over and over? from a recurring 20 people? and watch your visitors numbers and clicks fall? and do you want to disappear the caring critique, so that we can improve and compete with the rest, to actually return to winning the table with the style, and grace, and fluidity, and passion and steel – that beautiful combination – that many worldwide have rightly identified with being Arsenal. If you want critique that cares, constructive critique – which you are thisclose from banishing in even this article – to depart, then say so. How far do you want to take it, Walter? And Mr. Attwood does count the clicks, so how far will we take this insinuation, eh?. And I will click for us, here, as long as there is space to love this club in the ways that those who want improvement do, and who also will criticize those who do hate and who do wish to destroy AFC, both on and off the pitch – and who, FFF, are not the demonic AAA – that you find so useful to have around, and which you have oh so courageously driven back into the sewers and into the darkness. Sorry, but I say “Up the Arsenal!” and by EVERY means available. Yours and others who have come here to say it, and in their way.

29. Arsenal 13:
    Let me ask of us true supporters a factual question: how many points have we taken from the top 3 sides this season in how many games? Now is that acceptable? Is it not caring to bring this up and advocate specific improvements in and since August? Or is it not caring to say that this does not matter because I support my side through thick and thin? Which is not caring? In fact I’d argue that genuine caring is deeper, far deeper and in the real world, than blind love. I invite (and duck in anticipation of) your reply.

30. sorry, all the bob’s above are the same bob. my misspelling let to the change of avatar, methinks.

31. Refreshing to see a WHU fan who gives us some perspective. I like the club (except for the obnoxious walrus of course). All the best for a top half finish.

    To the whining “fans” : Every club in EPL has had up and down periods. arsenals history is long ; more than the Wenger years (our most prolific ever in fact), and 8 years in the top four is better than relegation ( Chelsea, manure, spud, etc)
    And perennial mid table has-beens(Liverpool) .
    @jayramfootball: I agree with you that a balance of optimism and Criticism is needed. However you are not considering the context of cash flow in the top of EPL.
    To the spud trolls : Fear the Reaper. He comes. We trust in Wenger to guide us in thick and thin.

32. @bob,

    Your answer: Top 3 sides. I think its 1 point. And I think the ManUtd game it was not acceptable. But the rest we did show the glimpse of what we could be. A constructive criticism will always be welcome. But ridiculing and hiding in the guise of criticism should not be. And I dont think Tony, Walter and Co dont accept a constructive criticism.

33. As much as its positivity, this site stands in that there is none of the abuse dished out to the club, manager and players by so-called fans, and also to anyone who dares to disagree with their party line. Failure to win a football match or take a trophy is no reason to bring out hate and ridicule to the levels often demonstrated.

    The reason usually trotted out is ‘I support the club, not the manager or this group of players’ as though the two are completely separate. This goes with the assumption that anyone who doesn’t agree with them is complacent and lacking ambition.

    The worst of the sites are usually run by people who seem to carry a grudge and are just as concerned with their own self-importance as the well being of the club.

34. Really wise words from this hammer, refreshing. I knew before reading this article Walter that you were providing fodder for all those that had been in hibernation after our recent run which yielded 22 points out of a possible 27. I managed a little smile when i got to the comments section; nowhere are the comments from the usual posters who come here to congratulate the team each week, but mostly full of comments from people I had thought were not in these parts anymore due to their silence. To borrow an expression from one of the posts i read yesterday, this place doesn’t smell like heaven today. But I wish to thank you Walter, not least for sharing with us a very interesting view from someone not affiliated with Arsenal, and who can also see that there is group of fans that deserve to be called the AAA, despite them being in denial about it. Well done you West Ham fan, wherever you are.

    To those questioning the wisdom in selling £30m players each year and replacing them with £10m players, and saying that thats not a fighting mentality, I say, have united bought a player worth the £80m they sold Ronaldo for? No. Have they been accused of lacking a fighting mentality? Dont think so. Its not our manager’s fault if there are people with more dollars than sense, who are willing to pay three times what a player is really worth. AW pays the true price of what a player is, and that doesn’t make those players any lesser than the £50m ones or £80m ones. What would you then say, if for example, a player that was bought by AW for £10m today, is later sold on for £30m tomorrow. Does this mean the team that’s buying the player for £30m has a fighting mentality (because they’re buying a player who in their view is worth £30m)? If so why should AW not get credited with the same mentality for having bought the same player in the first place, albeit for a cut-price(true value, if I may add) of £10m? It just doesn’t make sense to blast AW and credit the other manager. Just like Walter said can you please make up your minds whether finishing in top 4 is a disaster or not! You cant have your cake and eat it too. If anything I’d say its the other manager that needs to be looked at for paying three times the true value.

    I think to some buying a player for £60m is intent to fight, whether the player is worth that or not. All these ‘marquee players’ that have been sold by AW for these high figures (allegedly to make a profit for himself and the board), he got them for next to nothing. So why then should we start blasting him when he goes and gets another player for next to nothing? Or are we saying it should be AW’s turn to stop being sensible when it comes to identifying talent and paying the right price for it, and start playing Russian roulette with our finances? Is that it? Should he go and spend £150 in the summer on 2 or 3 players to demonstrate his willingness to compete? I personally don’t know of any player whose true value is above £50m, let alone £40m. Anyone paying that kind of money is foolish, just ask some of the fans whose clubs are owned by ruble or dhiram currency trading owners. The Invincibles team was built with players got for next to nothing, proving there’s method to the madness. Why then should we discard that when it’s been proven to work?
    Our current team has players who have only been playing together for the last 18 months, and are really doing well at that. Players will leave not because AW wants to sell players for the fun of it, but simply because they are offered ridiculous wages elsewhere. If anyone cannot see this then I don’t think its really worth spending much time debating about this with them.

35. Dear Jayaram. I don’t know about any Dick , Harry or Barry but this Tom supports Arsenal through thick and thin . I just refuse to accept made up data being paraded as facts to support some blind fool’s theories. Much the same when I disagree with some of my government policies, it doesn’t mean I don’t support and love my country, or when I see my kids make mistakes and I point them out , it doesn’t mean I don’t love and support them. It’s always a sign of a loosing argument when you have to stretch or make up facts to back up your point of view.

36. AL,
    Ok, you win us the annual Sensible Accountants Trophy. None of that sensible mathematics stands up to selling off Alex Song so sensibly, nor getting less than market value for x-Cesc, nor (and I know this may be a lot to accept) selling RVP to GIFT the league to your (next to) worst enemy, and not buying two January’s ago to shore up a massively overstretched defense whilst trying to compete on four fronts, and not buying a proper DM this January to fill the hole left by Song’s encouraged-departure, and valuing a zero transfer window balance over a side that could compete at the top, and so on. And, like a lot of sides, there’s a lot on money wasted on the non-performers that don’t make our bench. Well, as you take so much pleasure and pride from getting better monetary value in “our” transactions, then godbless and continue to enjoy it. Some of us want and advocate something more qualitatively satisfying than that kind of trophy. Down the beancounters, up the Gunners!

37. Arsenal 13,
    With due respect, we could have had more than a “glimpse” this season, and as exciting as the current turnaround is and feels, it is less than what we could have been, and the gap comes down to mistakes in judgment, club fiscal policy (zero transfer windows and shunning the January window), wantaway player greed, refusals to say no to them (even from a position of our strength), serious refshite at specific junctures, lack of a clinical enough striker (after RVP), absence of a midfield stopper (after Song), etc. All these can and have been specifice ad nauseum hereabouts (by me at least, and I’m sick of it too). But hopefully, going forward, the glimpse will gel into something really substantial that supporters sense; but this supporter will look (perhaps with sheer insanity) to a world-class purchase or two (from the purported 70M) to bring us into proud competition at the very top which we should and can aspire to next season without excuse or wilting or habits of lowered aspiration.

38. Shamefacedly I admit to having sired a Whammer. He in turn was paid back and gave me a dedicated gooner as a grandson. I’m sure he never wrote that article but it was worth asking him just to get his reaction!

    In a similar vein and especially for Indian Gooner, Matt and others, well worth reading is http://positivelyarsenal.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/are-there-any-positives-at-arsenal-at-this-moment/

39. When Alan Sunderland scored against MU in 1977; I was a 7 years old… 12 years later, we won the league scoring against Liverpool after Michael Thomas scored near the end of the game.. . That is what Arsenal is all about. Gunners aren’t a big club until we had Emirates Stadium and the current financials. It’s funny that many uninitiated think Gunners are big and had unrealistic expectation. Note that the top Fotrune 500 companies are all slashing cost today while we expect Wenger to spend for Glory of the Club.

40. @Mr Attwood, First team to celebrate 100 years of top flight football.

    How long do Manchester United have to go, to equal that?

41. bob
    IMO the catalyst to players leaving is higher wages elsewhere, rather than AW & the board being enticed by raking in huge profits.A player gets offered thrice their current wages, and a manager like AW who cant employ bullyboy tactics usually lets such players go.
    I was not referring to any player in particular, but the irony of what you say is that when Song joined Arsenal many thought AW had lost the plot. Most people could never have seen what AW saw in him, or had any idea he would develop to be the player he was when he left. I dont think this is the end of it though, as I suspect in a few years time if any of the current ‘below average players’ we have at the moment decided to move, like say someone everyone loves to bash, AW will again be accused of selling our best assets to rake in profits and replacing them with not very good players(not your argument I know but someone said this above). Let me rephrase this, right now we have players like Giroud, Ramsey, Gervinho,etc who many think are not able replacements for players we have sold. In a few years time these players could be sought after by the richer clubs, and if they force a move, AW will be accused of selling to make a profit. Yet its the very same players that he’s being ridiculed for keeping at Arsenal today. This has certainly been the case in Song’s case. To a certain extent RvP too.
    I’m sure someone is going to more than adequately fill Song’s shoes very soon. Or RvP for that matter. As long as these financially-doped clubs are around we will always have this situation where players join us, have one good season, and agitate for a move to the highest bidder.Thats a fact we cant deny. What I dont agree with is the notion(again, not a point you raised, but something I gathered reading from some of the comments) that replacing a £30m player with a £30m player is the answer. It sounds like AW has to sign a player for that kind of money to signal his intent to compete. That is a flawed argument in my view. It does seem that some of us equate the cost of the player directly with how good the player is, but we all know thats not always the case(as Liverpool, Chelsea, etc have found out). We paid around £12m for players like Carzola & Giroud, where other clubs would’ve paid double or treble these amounts for the very same players.

42. AL,
    I do get it. But it’s situational. And yes, amount of money spent doesn’t equate all the time (even a lot of the time) to the quality of the purchase. But sometimes it does. The arguments hereabouts show when a big splash lands a flop. But there’s also lots of small flops that accumulate for what turns into big money. And there’s a relative handful of players that everyone/anyone can see are world-class, oozing with talent and clinicality (say), and some of whom would make any team into a champion. Two of them, i do hate to say were RVP and x-Cesc.

43. bob,
    I agree the losses of the two you mention are huge, would be felt by any team and not easy to replace. I take heart though in the fact when we signed them these are players few had heard of. I feel the key now is to keep this current bunch together for a few years, and like you said in your other post, add one or two good players in the process and we shouldn’t be far off. With FFP kicking in soon (hopefully) we might be in a better position than most think.

44. if this was around the beginning of the year would you have been speaking as such new players are needed getting into the champions league should not change the fact that fresh talented blood is needed

45. What I do not understand is if your so unhappy with the way things are going with arsenal and you really want to win trophys why don’t you go back to supporting. Man utd Football is all about feelings I will be attending several cup finals this year and I am loving it

46. not qualifying for the UCL could well be the blessing in disguise that we need to focus, stay clear of fatigue and injuries.

    i’ll support the Arsenal come win or lose, trophy or not … but i just miss watching the players CELEBRATE a tournament win so very much.

47. Great article, and despite no knowing or meeting any Arsenal fans that are part of the “Wenger out” brigade, It needs saying to give a little balance, as the media, (hello Daily Mail)would have us believe that the club is in turmoil.

    Results and league position state otherwise, but we live in an era, where sensationalist headlines are all that are read – and taken as fact. With keyboard warriors that don’t attend games or even follow the club stating opinions as fact of the masses.

    16 years of continuious Champions League football, whilst the club has had it’s best players hand picked and offered double their money….

    A club that was slated for not fielding a single English player – now has a core of British talent. It appears that you can’t win. The media will always take the negative angel as it sells papers or gets hits on a website.

    Try making your own mind up, based on the facts you see. Not what you read or are told by someone you have never met or who’s opinion has an agenda. This applies to all walks of life, not just football.

48. I am unsure why people who hate Arsene Wenger and think the team is in an unending death spiral visit a site that avowedly support this particular manager and is optimistic about Arsenal’s future. They are not going to change the views of the originators of this blog nor the majority of the people who visit with the vitriol they spew. So, why do they visit? Charitably, I can only think they are lost. Surely they would be more welcome at Le Grove or visiting with Myles Palmer. Or, they are just trolling for a reaction. Sad

49. I see great things in this team. However, I do think we’re 2 players light. As long as we keep our players and add a bit more speed and toughness in the middle and another striker up front, then we’re all set. We need to give Arteta a rest. Let’s face it, he ain’t getting any younger. So it’ll be great if we could bring in a worrier in the middle of the park or simply give coquelin / Frimpong a chance to see what they’re really made of.
    Up front we’re a bit too light and too predictable, need another striker for options and give Giroud a bit more competition.
    All and all, this is a good team, we’re capable of challenging for the title next year!
    COYG!!!!!

50. Never in doubt of the quality of this team. In fact I had very high hopes and believed 2nd place +may be FA is where it can achieve or at least a comfortable 3rd. Not something like a struggle to climb into 4th.

    With respect to the weaker teams(ie those without a big stadium or sound financial backing), how many “big” teams are there in the EPL?
    Top: Man U, $ity, Chel$ea, Arsenal(?)
    And then: Liverpool, Tottenham (you can add one or two more)

    We laugh about Real/ Barca losing in a two-team-league. Applying the same logic, ranking 4 in a six-team-league isn’t a reason to celebrate.

    Not winning much isn’t the most disappointing. What is disappointing is UNDER-PERFORMING and the way they lost some games…

    May be I shouldn’t be disappointed afterall if someone starts to tell me the likes of Santi, Poldolski, Wilshere, Wallcott, Giroud and Arteta are bad players while the back four and Ramsey are just rubbish so the team is over achieving.
    Come on! This team is a bit behind in $$$ but Wenger is supposed to make up for that with bargain buys and young talents; a lack of top players (which I do not agree btw) should be covered by tactic and team work.

    Anyway, hope Arsenal can climb to 3rd in the end which is descent result given the quality and resource of the team.

51. Btw, I am not very convinced with big signings and believe most signings over 30 M (if not 25M) just do not worth it. These signings are more about marketing than actually playing football.

    A 15 to 10M player can easily do as well as a 30M player if he fits the tactic, covers the weakness and form good understanding in a team.

52. “They thrive on secrecy and inbreeding: As Tony Attwood pointed out in a recent post on UA, Blatter and his dwarves have rigorously and brutally muffled any dissent and public criticism from FIFA’s employees or administrators. Such organisations cannot stand the light of day and in their hideouts in Switzerland, they struggle with the truth.”

    This sentence can be used – with only a few changes – right here. 😉

53. It’s a West Ham fan. No wonder he’s envious. If a Chelsea, City or Manu fan tweeted that it would be telling.

54. To those that keep going on about the wonderful West Ham fan, let me tell you that I could not care one jot about what a West Ham fans expectations of Arsenal are. Of course he would love West ham to be in Arsenal’s shoes, but so what.

    Find me a Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea fan that goes on about how great we have it at Arsenal. Don’t really care about their views either but at least we’d be getting a view from winners.

    Grasping at straws by using a West Ham fan is just another example of acceptance of our clubs decline.

55. YaaaawWwwwn. Another boring UA article. Like a doctor asking a roadside hawkers opinion on his(the doctor’s) financial standing. Some people actually take these articles seriosly?