The Champions League is over for Arsenal, and we know we are not going to win the league this season either, but FA Cup glory is just two big wins away. I don’t know about you, but if we win the FA Cup by beating the Northern Oilers and than the Chavs or Spuddies (ideally) in the final, I reckon our season would still have come good. Wenger can then either leave on a decent high or indeed stay on for another year. Both options have their plusses and minuses, but it will be entirely up to him.
There is still every chance that Wenger will have Arsenal finish in the top-four; and who would bet against him? If he wins the FA Cup as well, I reckon 2016-17 will still be regarded as a successful season. It would also lift this team for the coming season and Wenger can add to the squad whilst letting one or two players go who are past their best or do not fit in anymore. From now on, Wenger should bench Alexis and give Perez and Giroud a chance to gel and deliver the goods together. Theo and Danny may also have a strong finish to the season to get us over the line.
Yet some are putting money on the bar table to pay for a sorry plane to fly over the home of football and demanding Wenger to va moosh. Wenger, the human eagle, will soar above it, no doubt, but just have some class ffs. The season is not over and there are plenty of very big games to come as well with both Mancs club still visiting and a NLD game in the league alone. The FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, and then hopefully the final there as well, will also be fantastic football occasions we all live and die for. So let’s get behind the team full-hearted once more, stop the winching and take ourselves a bit less serious again.
Victoria Concordia Crescit or just COYGs!
By TotalArsenal.
Bergkampesque 
Good positive write up TA.
This weekend’s game will determine where we will end our league season. We need to get back on track with our winning streak, and the way is starting with ROX holding the midfield up.
We have enough good players to win all matches, and we need a better mentality. Last Saturday we did well to curb the attack, and somehow the non league team got star struck after Ozil came on. That was when we did better and had more breathing space.
So, we need our season back, Gunners.
TA, thanks for this post. We are incredibly hard on ourself, and seem even bent on self destruction. For what sin? ATM : Last 16 CL, semi final FA, top 4 battle PL. This huge wave of uncalled for resentment is sweeping even the most objective of us along. The club is unprepared for Wenger’s departure. The hole such a departure would leave behind will mess the club up. Not that we have the kind of financial muscles that Man U has been employing to pull itself up and still reeling. The compromise I see is a one year or yearly extension for Wenger that would give the club time to begin to plan for a life without him. Everything though depends on Wenger himself.
I suspect Sanchez has climaxed with his antics and might come up with his best football now. Against Lincoln he was passing to everybody and threw his hands up only once.
Some details have left Perez unconvincing in my eyes. Things are so dicey now, it’s unlikely Wenger would gamble much with him. One of the poor buys am sorry to say.
PE, I would rather play Perez on the wings and Alexis in the middle. They could work better that way. Perez passing to Alexis is better than Alexis passing to Perez.
Nice one, TA…brief and to the point…
Unfortunately, that’s not my style… I might also send you an e-mail regarding writing future match-previews…
I see the protests, including the signs and flown banners which do cost money, as you suggest) as that loudest group of fans (I cannot call them supporters, I fear…) who demand “satisfaction now” no matter what the cost, just as in the days of dueling with pistols or swords. Of course, the vast majority of supporters are quieter types who would also like some satisfaction, but, instead of (the symbolic victory of) Wenger’s head on a pike, they’d prefer to see it with results and performances on the football pitch. Still, when we lose at Chelsea (or at home to Watford) or see decent fights against the very best (Bayern Munich) implode into lopsided losses, it’s easy for even the best supporters to want something different. As always, the long term vision of technical prowess and teamwork–“the togetherness of the collective,” as AW might phrase it–allowing for the ability to calmly compete both domestically and in Europe–is sacrificed to shows of (individual) passion and (self) righteousness.
This is why punters (generally…) prefer Alexis’ and Ox’s runs forward with the ball (and out of position in case of a turnover…) to Xhaka and Ozil’s passes. Both approaches move the ball forward, but the former shows the individual qualities of a fighter (willing to die for his cause…) rather than the skill and intellect of the quiet worker prioritizing the team over his own show of bravado.
In this day and age, it’s even worse. You don’t even have to shout. ANYBODY can tweet their dissatisfaction (and simplistic answers) but who wants to be bothered by long-winded explanations or descriptions…just like this one?… (On that note, it’s an interesting day in Dutch politics, no?…)
Unfortunately, I don’t share your optimism. Like your post a month ago (“In Three Games We’ll be Top of the League”) I just don’t see it happening. The (loudest) supporters WANT us to lose so why bust a gut for them? They are demanding that the captain abandons his ship so why should the sailors be willing to go down with it? (Any player with any level of choice wants away from the rotted vessel and its poisoned atmosphere…) Maybe we’ll get an odd win or a draw or two somewhere in these tough matches (starting Saturday at WBA…) but I can’t see us beating Man City (twice) or (cynical) ManU or Spurs at WHL. I’m sure there are even some Gooners who want us to lose that match (and see Spurs finish above us) if it means a fresh face (i.e., anybody but Wenger’s) on the touchline.
Am I hopeful .he can keep the troops together and maybe rally us towards a top 4 and success at Wembley? Sure I am… (And the late games will be coming thick and fast with all the ones that need to be made up so there is a possibility for some positive momentum to be built)… On the other hand, does anybody give a poo about what I think? i.e., is anybody still reading this. In the end, you can only spit into the wind so much before you’re covered in slobber…
Hey retsub… Now who’s killed the blog… 😀 😦
Also, I enjoyed your joke…
I’ll probably scout a bit of Man City later this afternoon… Not too much was edifying about Leicester advancing except that I don’t miss Vardy nor Nasri all that much…
Guess it’s just me here today…
Monaco just need one now…the goal by way of M’Bappe, the “New Henry…” Another one and maybe City will buy him….
That was Fab…Fabinho, in fact…
Current scoreline puts Monaco through…An hour to go, however…
Sterling’s shot was saved but right to Sane, who puts it in… Monaco have 20 mins to get back on top. Truth be told, just as they were the better team in the first half, they’ve only been hanging on in the 2nd…
ok 17HT you humoured me by liking my joke, soI will join the crowd (you and me?) City just got an all important goal, could get quite exciting
It’s actually a pretty good game but amazing how the teams, er, adjusted to going from chasing the game to defending a lead (and visa versa)…Can Monaco do it again?
At least neither team has resorted to flopping…
Yes they can!! Set piece goal puts Monaco back on top!!
wow Monaco hit back
City was a good cup draw for us. they are just as likely to implode as we are
Gotta run, but thanks for popping round, retsub… It was feeling like an echo chamber there for a bit…
Monaco go through with all those “skill” players looking reasonably calm throughout. Their keeper played well during that period when City were on top…
Now our games with City loom large. If we can do OK in them will it be all for POT (Pep Out Time)?…
Leicester City = England’s last hope…
Strange times…
Hahaha! Nice job, both of you.
Strange times, indeed. Who would have thought the day will come when England’s “hopes” would rest on minnows from a humble background, eh? The English sides have to turn this around next season; I don’t see United winning the Europa league.
17ht, re your post on the near hoplessness of our run-in, I do feel we can surprise a few. It was important to win well against Lincoln city in order to restore some of the lost confidence. Beat WBA and we should be back. A fully confident Arsenal can go on to win all of the remaining fixtures (sounds far fetched, but it isn’t as if we haven’t done so before, when we needed to do so) and finish on 86 points.
Someone needs to build up team spirit, take away pressure from the lads (no one expects much from them) and just have them go for it. Pity, not all the fans are on board but, that should make it all the more sweeter.
One can hope, right..
Evening TA and fellow BKers. Strange times indeed. I welcome your post here as all the noise and vitriol has pretty much driven me away from reading around the game and feeling connected with what we are up against. Our camp is split, it must be hell for the Wenger, and what all this distraction is costing us in points I can only guess at – but it will be having a direct impact on that front. And of course the lack of stability can only compromise our ability to attract and retain the very best players.
For all that our season is hardly in crisis as your post points out. You pose an optimistic possibility. HT gloomily suggests more doom than late bloom. Where is Glic with all this doom going down? And I’m somewhere in between. I don’t feel at all optimistic over our chances in the cup, whatever the maths might suggest. But we should hold on to the real prospect of a late push to stay in the top 4 – not a meaningful triumph I know, but important for all that – given our record on that front. Viewed in isolation that is no cause for all the anguish thats been flying around. It might be no better than ‘ok’ but its no disaster. Thus far anyway.
The real problem though is not this season, but the trend/pattern over a number of seasons and whether we see this extending or changing? As we have moved into a period of greater spending power, that has seen us both hold on to our best players and buy in at the very top of the market, we would all have hoped for an improvement in our quality and competitive performances, and our level of challenge at the top. For whatever reasons (and that’s a couple of big posts alone) this has failed to materialise. And there is a legitimate question over whether the current top team can change this.
Its hard to know quite what to wish for. As someone who has admired Wenger throughout his time with our team I can only hope that he leaves on a high with his reputation strong, deservedly recognised as the greatest manager in our history. It pains me to see his stock reduced. I would love it for him to bounce back stronger, but I would hate to be faced with further evidence of decline. Which emotion is the stronger here? I don’t know. I have no confidence that change will bring us better results let alone a better squad; it will be a gamble, and we are more likely to slip back for a while than we are to kick on. But who knows, it must come sometime.
But for the moment, this site is about the only one that is retaining any sense of perspective about the season, as well as respecting basic values such as loyalty, which no one at Arsenal deserves more than Wenger. We must back the team and its manager. Trust them to secure something respectable from the season, and lets take stock at the end of it, whether that be for another round or something new.
AB glad to hear from you. It’s time for all good hands to be on deck. Strange how we belittle ourselves so much. All of a sudden Arsenal is the most unfancied team in the world. The players we have all want to leave. Players in the market wouldn’t touch us with a pole. What balderdash! The real truth is we are still where we were, not at the very top but very close to it. All the hullabaloo stems from the untutored frustration of out inability to make that final step in a blink of an eye. So we pour our venom on anything in sight most notably on Arsene Wenger. Patience is a virtue, it is left for us to show class.
TA, a post in your box.
It’s been fairly quiet these few days.
Last week was quite good, but we need to play a little more prolific in front of goal and we should be ok.
PE, it is us who played this way. Wenger gave the team more freedom to play, but in the end we looked like lost ducklings.
I suspect most of those stories are media talk. And there are nothing much to talk about us off the field.
AB, good to hear from you. Agreed with that you said. Even the respected Arseblog is touching the line of anti Wenger. TA and HT is doing well in this blog.
Thanks for comments, BKers. 🙂
We have a new post!! 🙂