Arsenal are one point away from third. So what can we do?

By Dr Billy “the Dog” McGraw

Right let’s start with what you should not do – if you want Arsenal to do better on the pitch and rise up the table.  You should not attack the players, because it never works in terms of making them better.  If you feel this does work please do write in with details of all the players you know who have been lambasted by fans and then become a better player.   I’d be interested to see it.

At this moment I can’t think of any, but maybe there have been one or two.  Although even if that is a fact, the number is probably very small indeed.  But certainly far smaller than the number who have simply let it be known they would sooner play somewhere else.

And it is fairly obvious why attacked players want to leave.  None of us likes being criticised.  Criticising people rarely makes them change.  Instead they either give up, go somewhere else, or carry on doing what they were doing before.

As for attacking the players it removes their confidence, so they start playing more hesitatingly, and it makes it less likely that players who are not at Arsenal but might be choosing between clubs, will choose Arsenal.  Why go to a club where perfectly good players have been lambasted for nigh on 80 years?

Instead what you can do is support the team without any negativity.  Just give total all-out support for the team on the pitch – for every player.

In addition you can support the manager.  Complaining about him all the time doesn’t help anyone.  It might help get the manager the sack, or get him to walk out, but there is no certainty at all that the next one will be any better.

So does that mean that one should not complain at all?  No, I don’t think so.   One could, for example, complain about the owner and his entourage.

Now I know that a whole bunch of supporters groups and blogs led by the Arsenal Supporters Trust did this in the summer, but they made the fundamental mistake of not getting their facts right.  Just as some years ago the AST claimed that Arsenal were sitting on a pile of cash which the directors were deliberately not using for transfers, just recently they complained that Arsenal only had £40m in transfer funds – when clearly they did not.  If you are going to go for the owner, you need to do some research first.

So let’s turn to Kroenke.

The problem with Kroenke is that he has a history of doing what he wants (including moving one of his clubs to another city), and is reputed to be (as the Guardian so delicately put it) “not just a villain by NFL standards, but in the bottom tier of soulless billionaires the world over.”

Now some supporters might not worry about that if in return Kroenke delivered winning sports teams.  But as the Guardian piece continued, “Kroenke’s teams are somehow as athletically inept as he is stupendously wealthy.”

What is worse is that Kroenke owns multiple sports “franchises” and rather than having a history of turning modest teams into great successes, he has a reputation of doing the reverse.  To continue with the Guardian commentary, “it is fair to say that every sports organization Kroenke has touched – the Rapids possibly aside – has turned into an outright failure, and his fingerprints are all over Arsenal now, too.”

It is reassuring that none of Kroenke’s franchises has been relegated and given that this is the season we celebrate 100 years in the top division.   But I am not sure Kroenke understands relegation because they don’t have that in America.

Arsenal supporters who really do want to complain could stop complaining about the players and the manager and instead complain about the person who really could do something for the club – but who chooses not to.

Remember this simple fact.  Moaning about players always makes them worse players.  Moaning about the manager never helped any club and normally makes this worse.  So how you behave really does define whether you want to help Arsenal or make things worse.

9 Replies to “Arsenal are one point away from third. So what can we do?”

  1. So let me get your points;
    1. Its useless criticizing people because it doesn’t make them better. And this goes for all, referees, pgmo, FA,FIFA, fat Sam, Trump, the conservative party, the media etc.
    2. If arsenal fans want to complain, complain about Stan kroenke. Why? Not because he’s doing anything wrong at arsenal but because his other sports enterprises are not known for winning. He probably is jinxed.
    3. If arsenal fans want to complain they should do so about the owner who knows what to do but refuses to do it… But what that winning action is???? Probably to go to a voodoo priest to break the jinx????

  2. I agree 100%. Fans that do not want to support the team through good and bad times should simply quit supporting Arsenal and go support any of the other 19 EPL teams.
    The club has just cleared deadwood, brought in new players and promoted some young stars. Injuries have not helped so the manager has tried his best to put a strong team in each of the 5 matches played so far.
    The best we can do is to get behind the boys and the club especially when the we drop points.

  3. it is not that we are complaining about the players they and I assume they are playing to the orders of the manager who lays down the tactics.He has a record as a very able manager in his previous positions therefore to my mind he with the talent he has at his disposal I would expect a quicker assessment of how to mould them into a team who would be more consistent.

  4. Just a quick comment on the “failure” of Kroenke’s teams. Kroenke’s LA Rams won the 2018 NFC and were Superbowl finalists in January 2019. Perhaps…. just perhaps, Stan Kroenke plays the long game?

  5. Why instigating an instigation against Kroenke who has approved close to £100m for signings 5 new players for Arsenal during the last summer transfer window?

    If the players signed last summer transfer window who have been played in the PL several times this season have not performed well for Arsenal or in the case of a particular Gunner has played as if he is an Arsenal flop after the club have spent a big fortune to sign him. But us Gooners shouldn’t criticize them and him? Should us then be worshiping them for their mediocrity performance for Arsenal in the PL this season, I don’t understand? I think a spade should not be called a hammer but a spade that it is.

    Arsenal have scored 8 goals in 5 PL match outings this season. And credit should be accorded to Aubameyang who has scored 5 out of the 8 goals and Lacazette accounting for 2 goals with Torreria scoring 1 goal to complete the 8 goals scored.

    But Arsenal have conceded 8 goals during the same process in their last 5 PL matches under review. So, in outlook Arsenal have a bad defense-line selections that Emery has selected that have conceded 8 goals in 4 PL matches. This is bad and unacceptable! The Arsenal coach. Unai Emery should place the on the field good fortunes of the club first above his showing of favoritism in his Arsenal players selection for PL matches.

    In our next home match against Aston Villa in the PL, it will be astonishing if he still lineup the same defense-line he has lineup in the last Arsenal 4 matches in the PL who have conceded 8 goals without making changes to them while defenders like Chambers and Mustafi are available to play.

    Besides, Arsenal midfielders and defenders have not contributed any goals to Arsenal goals scoring tally in the PL this season. Apart of the 2 assisted goals that AMN has provided for Arsenal so far this season in the PL and the singular assist provided to Aubameyang by ceballos in our home match against Burnley in the PL, and the 1 goal scored away against Liverpool in the PL by Torreria. No any other significant contributions have been contributed to Arsenal goals scoring efforts by the Arsenal midfielders and zero contribution is recorded against the Arsenal defense-line defenders this season in terms of goals scored for Arsenal this season. All the Arsenal goals scoring efforts this season are being mostly heaped on Aubameyang and Lacazette to shoulder the burden for Arsenal. This has shown that the Arsenal team selections in the last 4 PL match outings are not balanced since only Aubameyang and lacazette are the only 2 Gunners who can be relied upon to score goals for Arsenal in the PL. Even if Pepe starts scoring goals for Arsenal regularly in the PL. Goals in their numbers should still be scored for Arsenal by their midfielders and their defenders too. It is in this mode that Arsenal can win the Pl title or finish in one of the top-four places.

  6. Didn’t Kroenke’s Los Angeles Rams get to last seasons Super Bowl ?
    I could be wrong.

  7. Dr Billy, be careful you don’t fall into the old Tabloid habit of distorting facts to suit your narrative.

    “The problem with Kroenke is that he has a history of doing what he wants (including moving one of his clubs to another city)” … he did move the Rams to LA … BACK TO LA … having been found in Cleveland in 1936, The Rams moved to LA in 1945 where they played until 1994, when the then owner managed to get a move of the team to St Louis by threatening the other franchise owners with legal action if they did not agree to the move !!!

    From Wiki: ” The owners eventually acquiesced to her demands, wary of going through a long, protracted legal battle. Tagliabue simply stated that “The desire to have peace and not be at war was a big factor” in allowing the Rams move to go forward. In a matter of a month, the vote had gone from 21–6 opposed to 23–6 in favor, with the Raiders, who left the Coliseum and returned to Oakland later in 1995, abstaining. Jonathan Kraft, son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, elaborated on the commissioner’s remarks by saying that “about five or six owners didn’t want to get the other owners into litigation, so they switched their votes.” ”

    The vote to return to LA in 2015/16 went through 30-2 !!!

    So I suspect most Rams fans outside St Louis feel Mr Kroenke was actually righting a wrong of the previous owner rather than demonstrating his own power.

    As has been said the Rams have become a very competitive teams the last couple of year, employing an exciting young coach in Sean McVay, causing trouble at other teams negotiating contracts by making Todd Gurley the most well paid running back in the NFL and building an amazing new stadium for the team in LA.

    None of this means you can’t criticise what is happening at Arsenal, but to suggest the Rams are not being invested in and being taken seriously on and off the pitch is just not accurate.

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