So, KGB Fulham has turned into a London version of Athletico Madrid in the Jesus Gill era. You’ll remember Gill – if the manager didn’t win the league in six weeks he was out.
Mr Absent Abramovich now takes a similar view clearly, and is seeking to move on managers faster than the Tiny Totts.
Sadly this comes at a moment when some Arsenal fans are seeking to replace the Lord Wenger. With whom? Scholari?
Scholari is a decent manager – although one who is unduly influenced by astrology. He did win the world cup as manager of Brazil though, which is not a bad start on the CV. And even though most of us disliked the “special uno” there is no doubt he knew how to manage. Remember what he did for Porto?
The insanity of four teams all believing that “we are going win the league this year” and that anything less is unacceptable seems to be gripping everyone, and quite clearly it is non-sustainable. Manchester Bankrupt are managing to stay on top because Sir Alex F-Word is untouchable – and he will drive Manchester further into bankruptcy knowing that he can walk away in a year or so, as the absolute hero, leaving the rest to pick up the pieces.
And what pieces they will be. Fragments more like. Meanwhile Liverpool Weetabix can only survive with the Arabs in total control – and we need only look at Manchester Arab to see what that means. KGB Athletico Chelsea can only live if Absent Abramovich puts more money in, which he will not. Aston “hold your head” Villa can only survive as long as the refs agree to ignore their cheating. (We saw the effect of their action on Sunday when the dopey ref refused to take action about Clichy covered in blood. I’ve never seen Tott fans as vampires but their baying shows how the origins of that club are clearly Transylvanian.
This is a world in turmoil, and it is a world in which we urgently need a dose of sanity.
If you would like to join in the debate, reflecting a positive attitude towards Arsenal, you might like to consider writing a piece for Highbury High, the magazine which with Untold Arsenal, reflects the positive side of our club.
If you are interested, there’s a new edition out soon. Drop a line to the HH editor and regular contributor to these pages, Ian Trevett at ian.trevett@ntlworld.com and he’ll be pleased to consider your piece.
There is a reality out there – for me it is simply not the one offered by most of the other clubs in the EPL.
(c) Tony Attwood 2009
“I’ve never seen Tott fans as vampires but their baying shows how the origins of that club are clearly Transylvanian.”
It’s funny you should say that as I was watching the replay earlier and thinking how much Luca Modric looks like a vampire and being quite surprised to see him out in the daylight without bursting into flames!
maybe I will try out writing for HH.
With the turmoil at Stamford Bridge and the upheaval in the dressing room Arsenal must capitalise on this if we are seriously considering breaking back into the top 4. Chelsea have had a very poor run of late and their next game is against Villa. That means someone of the two will drop points, whether its a Villa win meaning we move to 2 points behind Chelsea, or a Chelsea win and we move 4 behind Villa or a draw and we move closer to both with a 3 and 5 point gap. One things for sure Arsenal need to up their game
Intresting post from onlinegooner: “Arsene uses the word “intelligent” to describe footballers he admires as frequently as Sven used the word “absolutely” when answering in the affirmative inane questions from the British media. But there was nothing intelligent in Eboue’s latest antics. Of course he was frustrated at the injustices; Sagna should have conceded a throw-in, not a free-kick (again Sky’s “experts” agreed), but an intelligent footballer would have walked away after his first or second jibe. Not Eboue, though, who got his first booking. The second yellow, as Arsene concurred, was inevitable. The man many Gooners hypothesise to be Arsene’s illegitimate love-child is, shall we say, a loose cannon?
A question. If Arsenal finish outside the top four (I still think we’ll make it but it’s looking less likely), would we fans prefer to also be outside the UEFA Cup places? May seem a silly question but think about it. We’ll be forced to pay – through our season tickets – for matches we don’t want to witness.
On a positive note… Amongst all the doom and gloom, it’s well to remember that this young, injury-ravaged team have not lost a meaningful game since the catastrophe that was Citeh away. I’m generously ignoring 2-0 reverses away at Burnley in the Carling Cup and Porto in the CL, when Arsene fielded a Carling Cup-type side as we’d already qualified. So the effective unbeaten run is 14 games. With 5 of our next 6 games at home (if we prevail against Cardiff, that is) and the other at WBA (whose best player will be ineligible!) that run could and should get into the 20s.
The Cardiff game should be brought forward to 14th February, and to hell with complaints from supporters’ WAGs and Setanta. Then the winners could play Burnley in round 5 on 17th or 18th February instead of being a round behind come 7th March (quarter final day) if Arsenal win through. But TV must come first in couch potato-land.
Finally, with Cesc and Theo being touted for early returns, Eduardo already selected for Croatia and even Rosicky forecast to play within the next three years, I’m far less pessimistic than most Gooners. Our midfield may look formidable before too long, especially once Arshavin gains match fitness and acclimatises to the various demands of the Premier League. If middling sides such as West Ham and Bolton continue to demonstrate the lack of ambition witnessed against Arsenal of late, one centre back may be enough in the final half hour if we are still chasing the game, although getting Arsene to re-work his formulaic substitutions’ policy may be asking too much.”
The problem i have now is fighting for fourth spot against chelsea. That won’t be a very easy task. We need to take advantage of their present situation. I also hope that there is no further injury damage for our team. This period players are coming back should be a boost for us if there is no further injury. I am sure ade will come back better because he will have ti fight for dear life for his shirt if edu and vela do a perfect replacement job.
I am still trying to come to terms what has gone wrong with eboue. He used to be an admired player, now he is a total flop, booed by his own fans, trying to win their heart back then putting on such a silly show of shame (real kids stuff). knowing you were already on a card. The back four was very OK. and more comforting is the fact that djourou is a worthy sub this season. i can’t wait for theo, cesc to return. with edu and arshavin on the bench.
Song has also been quite impressive. it shows that with a run of games, players can adapt to any postion. The only time i think he was not up to the task was when sagna was injured and song was deployed to rigtback position. Nasri has been a bit quiet, ade has been nowhere to be found(probably because he does not get the usual delivery).
What else can you say about VP!
We need to find our goal scoring form.
Mr arsenal, back in unemployement market, scolari needed more time.
All in all, asides Zola, all player coaches (recent) have lost their jobs. Keene, Ince, Adams…
I’ve said all along, Eboue doesn’t deserve to be part of Arsenal. But him aside, what disappointed me before he got sent off was, 11 against 11, Spurs were the better side. They were winning all the 50-50s, they were getting to the ball first, keeping possession, making wave after wave of attacks. On the other hand, we just couldn’t keep the ball. Their midfield was closing everything down lightning quick, whereas we just weren’t capable of doing the same. Palacios and Modric were seeing a lot of the ball and looked dangerous. Palacios was deservedly man of the match. He was the one man out of the 8 midfielders (of both teams) who was controlling the midfield. Why we didn’t sign him, I’ll never understand. He was on trial with us before we recommended him to Steve Bruce.
As much as it pains me to say, Eboue was the most penetrating player on the pitch before his sending off. But I also happened to notice that Nasri was nowhere to be seen. I don’t remember seeing him until after Eboue got sent off, when he had to multi-task. Maybe he was trying to help Clichy out by marking Lennon or something. I don’t think he saw the ball till after 30 or so minutes, though.
Eboue aside, our team played quite a shit first half as usual ! Our first half performances have to improve. We are continuously playing garbage football in the first half.
I think the problem lies in the central midfield partnership, apart from obviously not having a strong right midfielder in Eboue. Song + Denilson is just not strong enough or efficient enough in attack or defence.
I was surprised that Spurs weren’t able to nick a goal after we went down to 10, and get the win. They had so many chances. Keane’s header was one of the clearest chances. I wonder where our CB’s were for that one. Some people have said their performance today was great and the best they’d seen for a while from our CBs. I can’t understand how. Just because Spurs didn’t take their chances doesn’t mean our CBs did a great job. They weren’t there for the Keane header among other mistakes. We were definitely lucky to get a point in the end. But that’s just not good enough. There are still a lot of games to go till the end. But Aston Villa don’t look like they’re going to drop points soon. Chelsea have just lost a manager I heard. Shocked ! Maybe this means they’re going to face a tough run, but they have the players to win every game. Liverpool are faltering thanks to Benitez himself. So, it’s us against either one of these teams. At least it doesn’t look as impossible as us beating ManUtd to the title.
They say that the only certain things are death and taxes, although I would like to add Man Utd winning the premier league (yet again) this season to the list. I think that Liverpool have done enough to secure at least 3rd position although with Gerrard out who knows, particularly if somebody nobbles Torres. I have just been looking at the other teams fighting it out for a Champions League spot, namely Chelsea, Villa and Arsenal.
Actually, to be honest what I have been doing is trying to convince myself that Gooners will be following footy on Tuesday and Wednesday nights next season, watching the likes of Barcelona and Bayern, rather than that other tournament that the spuds have been in lately….I think it’s something called the Eufa Cup. And what a close race it is turning out to be.
Arsenal have not been this bad since 05/06 season when we just snuck 4th at the end. We had been 5th or 6th for the whole of 2006 and then bingo, we beat Wigan 4-2 on the last day of the season whilst Spurs lost to the Hammers. The comparison between this season and 05/06 is interesting: after 25 games in 05/06 we were in 5th place on 41pts, three behind Spurs and seven behind Liverpool. Right now we are 5th on 44pts, five behind Chelski and seven behind Villa. We managed to accumulate 26pts in the last 13 of the season, including 8 wins (one being a 5-0 against Villa) and overhauled Spurs. Can we overhaul Chelsea or Villa this time around?
Ok well now seeing where we are in the table 5 points behind the chavs and what do you know Scolari is sent packing so I guess on some levels when ppl are calling for AW’s head its not entirely unfounded but the problem with Chelsea is they do not respect the rules of Big English clubs you dont sack your managers! Benetez was meant to have had the most unstable top 4 job but look he is still here. Fergusson at one point had a wobble and they stuck with him so now we just have to hope our manager gets us back to where we should be by realising the errors of the past and correcting them im sure if that is done all sins will be forgiven. The chelsea sacking of phil although misguided shows how much they are willing to change to get the right kind of results! Its unfortunate they didnt get rid of the deadwood like Drogba who is clearly disenchanted but cant blame them we have had the same situation with Adeboayor his heart just doesnt seem to be in it anymore. So overall my message is this if we ever needed a catalyst it should be that our london rivals chelsea are becomming unstuck so by all means let villa get a champs league spot but lets take advantage here and make sure its not ours. Time to get in a do a job fellas enter stage left Arsenal exit stage left Chelsea!
Has Felipe Scolari just earned the easiest £7.5m of all time? I mean, what has he actually done at Chelsea? They still look, by and large, like Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea: same players, same formation, same annoying arrogance. Scolari, however, hasn’t bothered with the more tricky parts of the job that Mourinho mastered, you know like motivating the players, deflecting criticism from them, outwitting his fellow managers tactically and making game-altering substitutions. He hasn’t even bothered to learn the language properly. And then, after seven months in charge, he walks away with £7.5m and can simply say “well they didn’t buy me Robinho” as a defence. Nice work if you can get it.
It seems to be to be blindingly obvious that what Chelsea need is a young manager who is hungry for success and who can rebuild their team with players of a similar mindset. Chelsea have been thinking too short-term for far too long and, as a result, have an ageing squad that lacks motivation. Scolari was not the right man to take the project on, as the signing of Deco illustrates. It seems he was only in it for the pay cheque and, having walked away with millions of pounds for basically achieving nothing it seems he’s got exactly what he was after.