Have Arsenal run out of steam?
Frankie from the SL forum pops the question:
4 Successive draws against Birmingham, Wigan, Aston Villa and Middlesborough. 8 points dropped in just 4 games. Six points dropped against teams battling against relegation. Two very lucky draws in the last 2 home games; equalisers with 5 seconds left against Villa, and with 4 minutes to go against Middlesborough.
Have Arsenal run out of steam?
One or two draws would be understandable, but Arsenal have effectively left the title up for grabs with United and Chelsea both having an advantage going into the final run-in.
Arsenal are now level on points with United and only 3 points ahead of Chelsea. Both United and Chelsea have games in hand; games they play in midweek against Bolton and Spurs respectively. Next Sunday is the double-header: United v. Liverpool, Chelsea v. Arsenal.
Then there’s the little matter of a tough away game at rough-house Bolton followed by the triple-header against Liverpool and the clash at Old Trafford: all in the space of 15 fateful days.
At least this time it wasn’t the Emirates pitch that was causing problems, was it?
But they should at least be safe in 3rd place – there’s little chance of Liverpool and Everton catching up, unless Wenger’s Arsenal choke in the worst way possible.
So have Arsenal run out of steam or can they still push on and win the tough away games at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge?
Topics: Arsenal, Chelsea, English Premier League, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United
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i think you’re right – it seems that in the league anyway that they have run out of steam. quite simply, they shouldnt have lost so many points against those teams
March 16th, 2008 @ 09:03the gunners must learn to vary their game if there are to win the championship, a team does not have to always play beautiful game to win games, sometimes you have to play dirty to get all the 3 points like the game at Everton arsenal played long balls and scored 3 goals, but at wigan even when the pitch was not up to scratch the gunners still wanted to play a passing game whilst they could have easily played long balls to nicklas and ade up front, in the game against boro, the gunners should have uped the tempo by moving the ball faster, wenger, arsenal players should also learn to switch position amongst themselves, if Hleb is not effective on the left he must switch with RVP and play behind Adebayo whilst RVP plays on the left, wenger also has the tendency of seating down even when he can see that the team is not laying well worst still he would even wait for the 70th minute to make a substitute, a player from the bench will require atleast a couple of minutes in most cases to adapt to the pace of the game and by the time he has caught the pace of the game the opposition is now going back to defend in the dying minutes of the game
for arsenal to pick itself up, arsenal needs plan B during the game if teams have packed their defence, players must switch position on the pitch, centre backs especially toure must learn to move up with the ball like lucio does for bayern, walcot must be introduced atleast on the 60th minute
March 16th, 2008 @ 09:12AW can only win a tropohy if nd if the premiership ends in February= ie never. Because his team is alive till February only
March 16th, 2008 @ 09:30doesn’t playing long ball at home qualify as a plan B?
March 16th, 2008 @ 09:31playing long balls at home does qualify as plan B but in yesterday’s game what plan B did arsenal had? none, like i am saying players must learn to switch positions during play, i gave an example of Hleb moving in behind Ade and RVP going to the left, wenger should also learn to stand up on the touch line and shout instructions when the team is not playing well not just seat there and hope a miracle will happen, its is high time Arsenal start buying more recognised players, Queresma is out there, Samir Nasri is out there, Modric is out there, we need another quality left back to back up Clitchy that young traore should be sent on loan to gain experience his positioning and reading of the game needs to improve, Hoyte must be released he is not good enough for arsenal or atleast be converted into a right winger he is not a born defender
Diaby should be used in his natural center midfield position, with vela coming in next season wenger should consider playing Hleb more in the middle of the park with Flamini, move cesc a bit upfront and use the pace of vela on the left, play rosicky on the right and drop one striker
for now, the team needs to start having belief that they can go al out, we need wins against MANURE and chelsea to claim something if we dont win those games then the league title will remain in mancester
March 16th, 2008 @ 09:45Usual bullshit. “We’re running out of steam†are we. Then how come the Chavs and Manure are not running out of steam. Because come the business end of the season which is now their panels are of sufficient depth and quality to sustain a sprint to the endline. On the other hand we are a tight arsed club not willing to spend proper money on quality players. Each year Wenger tells us every summer and January window that we will not be buying new palyers as we have sufficient quality and do not need to spend. That we have 70 million if we need to spend. Christ he’s been at it again this week.
March 16th, 2008 @ 09:52So if that is the case why can we not beat Middlesborough, Wigan, Birmingham etc, etc.
How come the rest of the big four are not running out of steam but are instead going from strength to strength. Because they are not tight arsed like we are. All it would have taken would be two players per season to augment all the young players being brought through.
Don’t forget we could have signed Torres during last summer but we didn’t. So watch painfully as the league title again heads off into the sunset and again for the same reasons as the past three seasons. Running out of steam my arse.!!
What is the opposite of ” When the going gets tough the tough get going”? Because that is where we are at at this moment in time.
I pay my money like everybody else at the Emirates. I know how bloody dear it has become. So no more poor mouthing and no more ” We don’t need players”. Running out of steam my arse”
With the physical intensity of the EPL and no winter break, fatigue is a perennial problem for managers bidding for the big honours. It is a truism that the title race is a marathon where there is a premium on physical endurance rather than artistic impression.
May be Benitez was right in principle about wanting to keep his best players fresh for the spring offensive. His problem was/is that his back-up players were simply not good enough and this contributed to Liverpool dropping too many points in the autumn. This is where Chelsea without Terry, Lampard, Ballack, Carvalho, Cole and others for long periods of the season were better served by the strength of their squad.
The business with Hicks and his undermining of Benitez at a critical time, probably affected the focus of both manager and team. It is probably not a coincidence that Liverpool’s form dipped at the time the stuff with Hicks blew up; not that United or Chelsea are complaining!
Arsenal have got some talented kids who have done well in the League Cup over the past couple of seasons. Now is the time for Wenger to use them: it’s time for these kids to step up to the plate and perform. At least they’ll be fresh. For Arsenal, all is not yet lost.
March 16th, 2008 @ 10:05i think to tell the truth arsenal does not have money, its just a stunt there are pulling on us that they have 70 million to spend if we have that much why dont we use it to strengthen our squad, i guess the arsenal board is just happy to see the team competing for nothing, whilst making good business in the gate takings, if they really cared about wining big, then we should have bought players like torres, tevez, quesresma, samir nasri, robinho, but here at arsenal we are happy just to sign 15 year ld, and hide behind building for the future, it has been 4 years without a trophy and we are still building for the future how long are we gonna build for the future, we have to start buying quality products right now cesc is fatigued because he does not have an equally competitive person in the team as him, the same with clitchy, i dont see arsenal wining anything for 5 more seasons to come trust me we are a shoddy team position 3 is best suited for us, even spurs is going to leapfrog us watch this space, and worst still wenger is going to leave us in a mess, with a buch of kids and no plan B,
March 16th, 2008 @ 10:15No, I don’t think Arsenal has run out of steam….just out of healthy players. I still think, even with all the injuries, they’ll pull it out and go on to the league championship,
March 16th, 2008 @ 10:17thomas – I think the ‘money available for transfers’ is more of a marketing strategy and doesn’t take everything into account. Last season we heard about 40m being available, and then we later found out that this was an overdraft facility available to Arsenal (i.e. a loan they could take).
i’m betting that they included the overdraft facility again in the 70m that was recently quoted and that this sum is also for staff / squad wages.
March 16th, 2008 @ 11:53at the end of the day i think arsenal fans must wake up and smell the coffee and be realistic arsenal does not have the ambition that teams like manure and chelsea have, thats why the board is refusing to allow foreign investors to inject money into the club, i think dein was right to have sold his stake, there is no ambition at arsenal its only by luck that for this season the club has played very well beyond everybodys expectation but the question is what does playing count for if you dont win trophies at the end of the campaign.
mr wenger must come out and tell the fans that there is no money to spend on buying world class players in today’s football a team’s profile is raised by having world class players and depth in the squad, this is lacking at arsenal
imagin what would happen if hleb was to get inured, cesc was to get injured, flamini was to get injured
unlike at manure, there is scholes, carrick, hagreves, anderson all equally competitive and talented midfielders, you cant talk of gilberto his time has passed, dennilson is still learning, effectively arsenal has got only two competitive central midfielders in flamini and cesc, its a shame for a team of that stature
mr wenger wake up and start buying players, start with samir nasri, then queresma, then go out and shake the market for kaka or even ronaldinho, try to lure samuel eto to arsenal he wont refuse or even stephen appiah of ghana can fit the bill
March 16th, 2008 @ 13:04Thomas:
You touch on an important point. At the top level, you need a lot of players of similar quality for the midfield area. That is the area of the field where players do the most running, where it is most competitive and where you are likely to pick up injuries. You need high class back up from players of a similar level.
In the EPL over a long season, if you want to challenge for trophies on all fronts, you must be able to rotate the central midfield to prevent fatigue or to cover for injuries. This is where Chelsea and Man Utd are now so strong. Look at Chelsea, in central midfield they have available any two or three from: Ballack, Lampard, Essien, Mackelele, Mikel, plus others. United were a little light in this area in the past, but now have Scholes, Anderson, Hargreaves, Carrick, Fletcher – all competing for 2 or 3 places each game. (United and Chelsea also have a variety of options in wide midfield that they can rotate from game to game e.g. United can play any two from Ronaldo, Nani, Giggs and Park, and Chelsea have Cole, Malouda, Wright-Phillips, and Kalou who is sometimes used wide).
In central midfield, Arsenal have quality with Fabregas and Flamini, but it is spread too thin. You cannot expect those two to play in every big game and carry the team for the entire season. I’m sure that Wenger is aware of this, and that he’ll address the problem in the summer. Gilberto’s form and lack of motivation has been an unexpected disappointment.
As for now, things are not as bad as they look. Arsenal are still in a great position. Level on points at the top of the EPL with Chelsea three points behind. Come on, be honest, which Gooner would not have bitten your hands off at the start of the season if you had given them the choice of being in this position in the middle of March, with just 8 games to go.
Lighten up, Arsenal still have everything to play for. It’s too early to write their chances off.
March 16th, 2008 @ 13:46yes! they are, after that chelsea will take over then they will win the premier league title………………………
March 17th, 2008 @ 02:46i’m just waiting to hear arsen’s comments bout the dip in form arsenal is going thru, i just dont understand what the gaffer is thinking of here, wake up wenger we need players, you have let diarra leave, next up is nicklas, hoyte, gilberto, diaby, they will all leave, mr wenger we need a winning team
March 17th, 2008 @ 06:03yea this has been so fucking frustrating as a arsenal supporter im in america i pay 30 dollars extra each month to get my daily dose of football i have a walcott shirt $125 a Arsenal FC shirt 25$ Arsenal FC watch 95* Arsenal scarf 26$ where the fuck is all the money spoken about are we just some cheap bloody bastards WE’RE 2 PLAYERS FUCKING AWAY FROM WINNING THE CL OR EPL HELLO! we could have lured eto’o kaka adriano – now in brasil dani alves quaresma benzema WHOSE YOUNG! RVP is out for half of the year all the time what about atleast tryna buy gigi buffon? at GK? i see my 2 cousins 1 a Chelsea FC supporter the other a Barca FC supporter WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE REINFORCEMENTS OF COURSE ITS FUCKING FATIGUE NO EDUARDO NO ROSICKY RVP JUST COMING BACK HELLO!!!!!! PLEASE FELLOW GOONER SHARE MY PAIN!!!!
March 17th, 2008 @ 08:26Whats the USA prat talking about?
March 17th, 2008 @ 10:09Anyways I think it’s too early to write off Arsenal.
They still have a big part to play in the title race – they still have potential to beat both Chelsea and Man United (they did beat us at OT last season) and they would be right back in joint top place, remember United still have to beat Chelsea and Liverpool to stay top after all!
This is going right down to the wire baby!
i fell you man USA Arsenal, we all fel the pain and i mean we are now becoming a laughing stock is like we are a buch of kids who run the distance only to let the other teams to run the whole mile you know i’m saying, we all feel the pain we just dont understand where the money is all going, look at this we sold freddie, we sold pires, we sold thierry, we sold viera, we sold reyes, we sold lauren, we sold diara, we sold wiltord i mean we have sold a whole lot of quality players but we never bought any world class players
now we are running scared and shit at the most crucial time of the season, we have never won the championship for 4 years we have never won the champions league, we are trailing manure by 3 points if they beat bolton, chelsea will catch us up if the beat us on the weekend, we dont have the depth other teams enjoy, look at our fucking bench when we play you see walcot, bedtner, hoyte, denillson all these guys are still rookies learning the game
at manure you have hagreves, carrick, tevez saha, scholes giggs on the bench
why cant we go all out buy players like queresma, samir nasri, modric, diego at werder bremen, robinho, dani alves, where is the money going?
its all fucked up at arsenal i hope mr wenger can read our concerns an start acing up
we cant afford to go 5 seasons without trophies and get humiliated along the way spurs scored 5 goals manure scored us 4 goals what the fuck is wrong at arsenal
March 17th, 2008 @ 16:12Thomas:
You talk about the size and experience of the Utd squad, but there may be one factor that you are overlooking.
Man Utd have British players who’ve been at the club since they were schoolboys. This is one factor which makes it more likely that they’ll remain at the club even when they’re no longer able to command an automatic place in the side every week. United have Giggs, Scholes and Gary Neville as the best examples of this phenomenon, but you’ve others like John O’Shea who you could see going the same way. The likes of Ronaldo, Anderson and Nani are likely to be on their bikes mid/late twenties; the likes of Rooney (albeit recruited as a teenager) is likely to remain at United for his entire career. What’s the difference? One’s English, the others are not.
The problem with Arsenal’s non English/British recruitment policy has been that too many of their players have a loyalty not to the club, but to the pound (£). When these foreign players reach a certain stage they’ll be off elsewhere to maximise their income during what is a relatively short professional career. You can’t blame them. If we were in a foreign country, we’d all do the same. Particularly if you could swop a cold, wet, grey country for the sun and a Mediterranean life-style (and the babes!).
But wouldn’t Arsenal be better off with a few more homegrown players like Tony Adams, Arsenal men through and through, man and boy? Imagine if Vierra, or Henry or Pires or Wiltord (or any 2 of them) had remained at Arsenal like Scholes, Giggs and Neville have at United? Imagine the additional options that would give Wenger, the experience they would bring to the dressing room of winning big titles, and the help they could give to the younger players in the first team squad. In a squad you need the mix of youth and experience, the foreign and the home grown.
By all means recruit and play good players from all over the world, but what’s wrong with a little English heart? Chelsea regularly play 5 or 6 Englishmen: Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, Lampard, Bridge, Terry, Wright-Phillips. United regularly play 8 or 9 Brits: Ferdinand, Brown, Neville, O’Shea, Fletcher, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Rooney and now have the boy Foster who looks a real quality keeper. Arsenal on the other hand regularly play none. Is it mere coincidence that the last 3 titles have gone to Chelsea (twice) and United?
The moral of the story is that if you want to keep experienced players at the club it might be worth trying harder to develop and keep your own indigenous talent, or alternatively it could simply mean that you’ll just have to sink your hands into your supposedly deep Emirates pockets and pay them more!
Having said all of that, I repeat: this year’s title race is not over yet (I’m beginning to sound like a broken record!). It’s too early to start cussing out the Arsenal board and manager. One victory at the weekend at Chelsea would change perceptions once more. Is this Arsenal side capable of winning at Stamford Bridge? Yes, they are. Will they? This time next week we’ll know the answer. Until then at least, put off the suicide!
March 17th, 2008 @ 19:03Frankie i feel you those are some very important issues you have touched, but once again look at it this way, to buy english players is more expensive, look at how much carrick cost, rio, wayne rooney, darren bent SWP, all these players dont come cheap and you cant tell me that SWP is the best winger in the EPL, arsenal had players like Bentley in their squad, Steve sidwell, Methew Upson, but all these players never made the grades at arsenal because the team at the time had much more better players and those boys never wanted to stay up and compete thats why they left
we used to have nigel winterburn, tony adams, martin keown, david seaman, ian wright, but that was when we could afford to buy home grown talent but ever since chelsea’s roman abromovic came to the EPL the price for our home grown players has rised up and thats cut out teams like arsenal from buying home grown talent because the team is broke as it appears
how much did theo cost us? around 18mil but look at what we spent on sagna, eduardo, cesc, flamini, toure, clitchy, almost less than what SWP cost to chelsea
and once again you should also remember that the arsenal policy is that we dont give a contract more than 2 years to players over 30 years, so that rules out the likes of viera, pires, bergkamp, thierry, freddy, campbell etc
so frankie i still maintain that the downfall of arsenal is fatigue there is no depth in the squad, wenger must come out tell us that the team has got no money to beef up the squad simple, our season is over, remember that chelsea has never lost a game at the bridge for like how many years now 3? and it will be a hard ask for arsenal to go there and win, and remeber that we have liverpool to play and its on hot form, torress is scoring left right and centre, we still have to go to oldtrafford, we still have to play bolton our hoodoo team its gonna be really tough for the young guns
arsenal will be luck to be on position two atleast for automatic qualification for the champions league
its tough reall tough
March 18th, 2008 @ 06:22Dropping 8 points at this stage of the season while your main rivals drop none is probably terminal.
I believe that Sunday’s match at Chelsea is a defining game in Arsenal’s season. Lose it and they’re gone, regardless of other results. Pyschologically dropping 11 from 15 points and seeing Utd and Chelsea (almost certainly) ahead of them with just 7 games to go would be too hard to take for most teams but this young team probably don’t have the experience to overcome this.
It’s interesting to see Arsenal fans on here lamenting their strength in depth when earlier in the season it was all talk of brilliant young players and the talent in their reserves.
I think teams have learnt how to play Arsenal as the season has progressed. Just look at the fall off in goals lately from Fabregas and Adebayor.
Unfortunately, a capitulation in the league could negatively impact their chances in the CL. It’s likely that when they meet Liverpool their confidence will be low while Liverpools will be high.
Considering how much they have contributed to this season it will be hard on the team to crash and burn with a few weeks still to go but that’s what looks like happening right now.
March 18th, 2008 @ 06:39all we are praying for is win all our remaining games, starting off with chelsea, remembr that we were the last team to beat them at the bridge before morinho arrived so we will be the team to beat them come super sunday!!!!!!!!!
i hope wenger plays 4-5.1 with Hleb behind adebayo, RVP on the left, eboue on the right, cesc and flamini in the middle and i want to see RVP switching with hleb in the second half, then we can introduce walcot around the 60th minute for eboue and drop hleb in the middle with flamini and play Cesc a bit forward
i sense we can get all the 3 points at the bridge
i am also definate that libafool will beat manure at oldtrafford by a solo torress goal, then we will be level with manure
March 18th, 2008 @ 08:37Thomas:
It’s good to see that your mood has lifted. But surely, you’re now beginning to dream a little (or is that a lot?). Both United and Chelsea to get beaten on the same day in home matches. When is the last time that happened?
If the unlikely events you’re praying for were (with the intervention of the Gods) spectaculately to happen on Super Sunday, you might not be too happy with the result ultimately.
Liverpool winning at Old Trafford would leave them only 8 points off the top of the league and enthused with great confidence. With that form and that confidence they’d not only knock Arsenal out of the Champions League but could also go to The Emirates in the EPL and take all three points. Then, they’d definitely be back in the title race, and you’d be out the CL. Do you really want to turn what is a three horse race into a four horse race? After they play Arsenal, Liverpool probably have the easiest run-in of any of the Big Four.
With an eye on the triple-header against Liverpool, wouldn’t your best result at Old Trafford be a draw between Liverpool and United, whatever your result at Stamford Brige?
March 18th, 2008 @ 09:22Thomas:
Looking at the points available, Liverpool definitely can’t win it even if they won every single game to the end of the season. The maximum points they could end up with is 83. United already have 67 points with 9 games to go. So, United ought to be able to manage 5 wins and 2 draws (or 4 wins and 5 draws)from their remaining games to reach at least 84 points.
Rather, Liverpool’s continued good form could help Chelsea push Arsenal into third place (so no automatic qualification for CL next season) and if Arsenal implode Liverpool could even challenge them for 3rd place.
So the question remains, with Arsenal’s triple header against in mind, just how well do you want Liverpool to do against United on Super Sunday?
March 18th, 2008 @ 11:50Thomas, you’ve gone from complete depression to overwhelming optimism in this thread:
“i sense we can get all the 3 points at the bridge
i am also definate that libafool will beat manure at oldtrafford by a solo torress goal, then we will be level with manure”
Well you can but dream, for a few days at least.
What time are you expecting the Easter Bunny??
March 19th, 2008 @ 01:11Thomas u my dude – look first off van persie could have and should have been sold to bayern munchen when they were asking fabregas flamini all have to get settled adebayor is gona ask for a upgrade theo theo oh man what a headche um see the final yr of his contract or whats the market value for him sell eboue have hoyte come in jens let him leave fabianski is coming up eduardo could be out for 15 months thats great isnt it TIME TO START BUYING FUCKING PLAYERS! and the real sad sad part is people say we’re not serious about winning that instead we’re a buisness im starting to beleive that we’ll either draw or loose at stamford bridge and all hope is left in the champions league who care about the league anymore play a carling cup team for the rest of the season if we drop points and in europe fire on all cylinders
March 20th, 2008 @ 11:06USA-Arsenal:
If Arsenal go down to a heavy defeat at Chelsea and United win, you may not be too wide of the mark as to what Wenger would do in the next game up away to Bolton. This is likely to be a bruising encounter.
Wenger might then reckon that being 6 points behind United with only 7 games left, the odds had shifted against them catching United. He might then gamble with using 3 or 4 of his Carling Cup side so that he can rest some of his top players for the season defining triple header against Liverpool, which start just 4 days after the Bolton game.
By Sunday night we’ll know whether Arsenal’s best chance of honours this season lie in the CL. If so, with only 4 games between Arsenal and another CL final, might be best just ot concentrate on the CL games.
March 21st, 2008 @ 00:05Chelsea 2 Arsenal 1. Arsenal are out of steam and are out of the race for the title. They won’t win it. They probably will not even finish second. It’s now between United and Chelsea: the teams with the form, momentum and squads to the EPL. Arsenal are lacking in all three.
Look now to the Champions League, Arsenal. That is now your only chance of honours this season. But it won’t be easy. Get past Liverpool, and 2 juggernauts may be lying in wait in the semis and final – Chelsea (probably) and then Manchester United (hopefully).
March 23rd, 2008 @ 19:44