Oh please let us panic and throw all and everything overboard

24 Replies to “Oh please let us panic and throw all and everything overboard”

1. The one flaw in your cunning plan is that we are about to enter the busy Xmas period missing a lot of key players. Thus there are a lot of points that can be dropped before January.

   We run the risk of falling behind, and those players returning too late for us to overhaul any deficit we may have.

   I almost wish we’d gone out of Europe.

2. Harry, you sound as if all the players who are injured now will be out till the rest of the season? In a few weeks time we will have several players back like Theo, Jack, Danny, Alexis. Only Coquelin will last a bit longer. Hell, even Rosicky might be back for some FA cup football.

3. nice perspective Walter…

4. you might all enjoy this : http://s89.photobucket.com/user/nomibear/media/Funny/HeadlessChicken.gif.html

5. I find it funny that so many are saying we’re only this close because the PL is cr4p this year, whereas the truth is that the PL seems to have even more depth this year and there are 15 (maybe 17) teams that can all beat the top 4 teams if they’re given a chance. usually it’s closer to 10 teams that can do that whilst the balance of teams can only aim for a draw with the top 4 teams.

6. You are bang on Andy, but I think you need to add a little to that. It isn’t that they can only aim for a draw; it is that they can only aim to keep the other side from scoring (at the cost of not being able to score themselves), the end result of which is the 0-0 tie.

   Which is part of the reason why I once suggested that a team not get any points from a game unless they scored.

7. It is not the loss at all, but HOW we lost. We did not close down like we do in “important” (thought all games were) games. It’s almost as if we were scripted to draw that game.

   Score a goal then relax, this is suicidal and i only wonder why we keep on repeating this mistake.

   Fact is we could have taken that game, but we let Norwich play and that was our detriment.

   Anyway as you say we are still just 2 pts behind leader so not all doom and gloom.

8. Panic – Does it ever help?!

9. http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/patrick-barclay-ryan-bennett-s-push-on-alexis-sanchez-was-cowardly-and-fa-must-take-action-a3126041.html

10. Is Danny Welbeck due back that soon? I hope so. What concerns me is the away games yet to come, two against the Manchester teams, two against the Liverpool teams and Spurs, Stoke and Southampton. We don’t have a stellar record against some of that lot.

11. @ Rantetta
    December 1, 2015 at 6:09 pm

    Rantetta I liked the link you provided on the ‘Decline of Chelski’ read. Thanks for that.

12. @Sammy the Snake,
    The only apparent panic appears to be within the ranks of the club followers.
    The managerial seats rarely express any real view on how the match is going.
    And witness the touchy feely exchanges between rivals on the field, AFTER the game. Their work is done, a few days without training and their grotesque
    wages are assured. All is well.
    PANIC? WHAT PANIC? 😉

13. OT: Football Corruption

    —

    Merry Christmas you Septic Bladder

    ESPN (the world wide leader in being ESPN) is reporting that Adidas, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Visa and Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch want independent oversight into FIFA reform. And are expecting this to be an ongoing process, not a one off.

    http://www.espnfc.com/blog/fifa/243/post/2735744/fifa-sponsors-demand-independent-oversight-of-reforms

    —

    The World Association of Leagues is to come into being in January, and among other goals is to work closely with scandal-tainted world football governing body FIFA. The English, French and Spanish leagues will be joined by 20 others from around the world.

    http://tenplay.com.au/news/2015/12/02/professional-leagues-set-up-new-association

    I can’t find who the other 20 are.

14. colario, thanks.

    For anyone interested, here’s a link for you to read 3 free chapters of the book, The Special One. It starts with Chapter 12, then chaoter’s 1&2, followed by a little of chapter 3:

    http://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780007553044/the-special-one-the-dark-side-of-jose-mourinho/web-sampler

15. Harry Barracuda…..here’s another way of looking at it….as UA always does;

    The many positives in our cunning plan are that; we are about to enter the busy Xmas period with a lot of key players coming back (Ramsey, the Ox, Theo, Welbeck,Alexis, maybe Rosicky . Thus there are a lot of points that can be earned before January and our adversaries seem prone to drop points rather prolifically.

    We have the possibility of actually gaining on our adversaries, and those players returning will make certain that it is never too late for us to overhaul any imagined deficit we may actually,currently NOT have.

    Most true Gooners are happy we’re still in the CL and not the Europa and look forward to us surprising everyone by remaining in it as well. If you don’t yet realize that Wenger goes for every Cup he can and never chickens out, then you have missed far too many games!

16. I went looking at The FA for information, hoping to find that Norwich was to be investigated over deliberately injuring Alexis.

    But instead, I found that the charges relating to Chambers are partially resolved. Maybe they are completely resolved, I don’t know. This news is a week old, but I don’t remember seeing it anywhere.

    http://www.thefa.com/news/governance/2015/oct/arsenal-and-alan-middleton-fined-over-calum-chambers-transfer

    —

    Oh, Moaninho’s ban/fine stands.

17. The title gave me a good laugh, Walter.

18. This season is very rapidly starting to look like 2013 all over again – a good title challenge decimated by injuries…

19. Two observations:

    While Alexis is out with injury, we are going to play Sunderland (h) and Aston Villa (a), both winnable matches in theory even without Alexis (not easy but not the toughest imaginable either). In a way, this injury strikes at the right time.

    Compared to the previous seasons, we have 4-7 points more at this stage. The outlier was 2013-2014, with 31 points. The difference I can see between now and then is that while the result then was to a large extent due to Ramsey’s sensational run of form, this time it’s much more of a team effort, with the goals spread quite evenly. That for me is the real reason for optimism, as the team collectively raised its level.

20. Agree with this article, there are to many drama queens out there moaning that this season is over when we are only 2 points behind. We had an amazing second half of last season, there’s no reason why we can’t do the same this season. Let just hope there will be no more injuries from now on.

21. Probably the most interesting table is 2013. Look at where the later champions Man City is… 6th place and 9 points behind first place.
    Well they are all interesting in the way that in most cases we have a much stronger second half of the season than the first. 2013 being the exception in fact but we lost Özil then for a few weeks in the money time of the season.

22. @Walter,
    Your piece looks and sounds so obvious that I thought it needed not be stated in so clear terms, thank you very much for it. But I also realise that there are many ‘hindsight’ football managers for whom this enlightenment would do a bit of good. However, there are some others whose default mode is misery, doom and gloom I don’t know if their default mode can ever be changed like in an app! Then there are those for whom nothing Wenger does, win or lose, it is all his fault. These ones would criticise ad nauseum, perhaps for the sheer pleasure of getting an illicit high from bringing down others.

    I used to hear of constructive criticism and then there is the other type. The latter is all we hear and read so much about. There is this fella that thinks Wenger’s teams have been so injury prone in the last 5 years or so that it is therefore time for him to go as manager. He also tried to compare his record with Sir Ferguson’s at Manchester United. He has forgotten that the contexts are as dissimilar as night and day. In all his ranting there was not one single suggestion on what he would have done, or Wenger could have done, given the same circumstances and resources at Arsenal over those years. The critics will continue to spout their venom, no matter what happens or what sane supporters do or say in support of the team. Carry on supporting the Arsenal team, regardless!

23. Crovax, we do have a bit more depth than 13. Yes it could all fall apart or the team could start to get their heads into the game and grind out positive results. We’ll see which option in the coming weeks…..

24. Einstein reputedly said the definition of madness is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results. I expect Arsenal will do enough to scrape 4th place or maybe 3rd, because that is what they have done regularly for about a decade and not doing better arguably due to the lack of squad depth and the number of injuries to key players. I am not in a panic about it, but I see no reason to have any different expectations. I seriously doubt there are many Arsenal fans ‘panicking’ about it – most of the non-‘Wenger evangelists’ are more resigned than panicking, having seen this sort of thing many times before. The only people ‘panicking’ may be the evangelists who actually believed this was the year, despite almost everyone else saying it was unlikely.

    Had Wenger bought another DM (and a number were available), they would have had enough to grind out results come what may (i.e. given the likely injuries to more attacking players). As it is, going into the season almost wholly dependent on Coquelin staying fit all year, the current situation was somewhat predictable. Yes, they are only 2 points off, but they got to that position with Coquelin playing. All the evidence indicates Arsenal can’t sustain this without him. Panicking? No. Resigned? Yes – happy to be pleasantly surprised, but not expecting it.