A dark day for football

Money can certainly buy trophies, but can it buy you class, respect and dignity?  Not judging from Chelsea's performance tonight.  Another extremely lucky result from a side that played some of the most dire and defensive football possible, and it must be remembered that Roman Abrahmovich has had to manipulate billions to finance this pathetic little racket.

Roman Abrahmovich sums Chelsea Football Club up.  Here is a man who has made billions as a result of theft from his own people, he now throws around his money in a wanton fashion, he spends unsustainably and arrogantly, Chelsea are losing almost 100million a season at the moment, and then he achieves the most pathetic and hollow of victories.  This is a man who no one likes, people only feign an interest in him because of his money, I am sure the same can be said for the whores in his life too, and that includes his ex wife.

Football is in a very sorry state at the moment, there is no level playing field, Munich are a great club that is run in a healthy sustainable fashion, the very opposite of Chelsea, Manchester City are just like Chelsea expect they are losing even more money a year, about 200 million a year for City.

This is not sport, this is not competition, this is an unfair game where those with the most ill gotten gains are guaranteed success, while the honest clubs who break even are given no chance in such an unpleasant environment of unsustainable greed.  The honest viable clubs are being driven under by the likes of Chelsea and this is an utter disgrace.

Strangely I have sympathy with Tottenham fans, they have now been bumped out of the Champions League by Roman's classless chavs, and this is despite the fact that Tottenham are a club that has been managed responsibly and sustainably, just exactly the opposite of the shameful Chelsea Football Club.  Chelsea deserve no credit for their success, they have spent many hundreds of millions that has been stolen from the Russian people and that has not been earnt, they are a disgrace to football and sport in general.  Shame on Chelsea on this dark dark day for football.

RVP, our scum support and eleven Yossis

I have been away and unable to blog for the last week, and I must say that I enjoyed my holiday considerably more after we had managed to secure 3rd spot by squeezing past West Brom by the narrowest of margins.  It wasn't brilliant any means, but the bottom line is it was enough and qualifying automatically for the Champions League means that we can now hopefully set about properly strengthening our squad for next season.

The three big players with just a year left on their current contracts are RVP, Song and Walcott.  Talks have begun with RVP and the truth is that no one really knows what is going to happen, much of the speculation has been based on nothing but gossip or a rumour, it is best ignored.  The fact that some moronic fans have decided to abuse RVP and his wife on Twitter, I truly despair at the ignorance and stupidity of these cretinous wastes of space, does sum up just how pathetic and aggressive this loud minority of our support is.  I wish they would leave our club alone, they do nothing of help, they often unsettle the players by propagating their small minded negative hatred at games.  Scum the lot of them in my humble opinion.  It is worth remembering that a significant element of the abuse may well be coming from fake accounts, sadly I doubt we can entirely blame the abuse on others.

Whether this trio sign on or not, the club can and will go on without them, football is a team game and it is vital that we build on the team spirit that we saw at times last season, and to do this we need eleven fully committed players on the field at all times.  Hence if any of these three do not sign on then they simply must be sold and replaced as best as possible.

One man that showed just how important attitude and commitment are is Yossi Benayoun,  I would like to pay a special tribute to him for his highly professional contribution to our cause.  He could have sulked, he didn't get many games early in the season, he didn't, he kept working hard and eventually he got his chance, he then took it and in every game I saw him play, he gave his all for the Arsenal shirt, he ran non stop, he chased and defended every ball, and his two vital goals against Norwich and WBA may well end up being absolutely massive in the club's history when we look back on them in a few years time.

Yossi Benayoun is the kind of character that we need at the club and he is a great example of what you can achieve if you have the right attitude.  No matter how talented a player, if they are not fully committed to the cause then we should move them on, the impact of having eleven players as committed and determined as Yossi on the field at all times cannot be underestimated.  I would like to wish Yossi well wherever he ends up next season, he is a truly class act, there are not many like him in the modern game, a true professional and a real gent.  We need more Yossi types for next season.

One thing on my mind

I do not care for transfer gossip, I prefer to concentrate on the here and now, and that is why 3 points this weekend is absolutely massive in many ways for the club.

The game needs no hype, holding on to third spot is essential for the club to build a challenge for next season.  We need to show our true colours, we need a committed, a solid defensive and a disciplined performance this weekend.

I hope that Arsene lines up with Coquelin and Song in the midfield three alongside Rosicky, I think Ramsey needs a break, his form has been poor, this would leave room for Jenkinson to come in a right back.  It would also be good to see the Ox start with Benayoun's work rate also in the front three alongside the lethal RVP.

Three points are a must, come on you Gunners!

The simple analysis - repeated naive errors

I do not want to get carried away with the doom and negativity.  Our recent dropped points must be seen in context of some excellent results earlier in the year, while the deep problems in our squad are not something that can be quickly remedied overnight, failing players on big long term contracts cannot be moved on easily overnight.  I have summed up our failings, demonstrated particularly against Norwich and Wigan, and this is where I feel we need proper meaningful action:

Defending as a team: The problem here is related to the manager, coaching and the players.  Without having inside knowledge, it is hard to know exactly how to apportion this blame.  It is clear that our team does not have the right defensive balance, the midfield are not helping the back 4 out enough, the whole team is not defending in a coordinated disciplined fashion, some defenders are playing with far too much reckless abandon at times in bombing forward.  In particular without Arteta's disciplined defending in front of the defense, the midfield three of Song-Ramsey-Rosicky did not do anything like enough defending and did not shield the back four well.  The communication between the players on the pitch has to be questioned, if a defender bombs forward then they must be covered, big gaps cannot simply be left for the taking.

Depth in squad in terms of midfielders who can defend: Overall this problem is extremely complex, it is to do with not having sufficient depth in our squad in terms of combative midfield players, it is to do with the manager arguably not selecting a solid enough blend to start the game with, it is also to do with the instructions and advice that the players on the field are given by the management.  Song looks exhausted, Ramsey adds very little defensively and there is not enough strength in depth.  In conclusion we are so vulnerable to the counter attack it is untrue, and our opponents have learnt about this Achilles heel, it is now being viciously exploited in game after game.

There are many other issues, including the massive amount of squad dross that we have accumulated on big wages (Denilson/Almunia/Bendtner/Squillaci etc), and our lack of backup for RVP which has been partially addressed by the early purchase of Podolski, a good move for sure.  The big concern is that we could lose several big players this summer, Theo/Song/RVP all have one year to run on their deals and should be sold if they will not sign up.  They must all be replaced, if they leave, and we need to strengthen on top of this.

Personally I think some of these issues go hand in hand, it appears that the whole squad needs a generic kick up the backside.  There has been a worrying level of complacency and arrogance present in too many of our performances against the smaller sides this season.  I think several of our squad need a good old fashioned rollicking and brutally clearing out a few of the wasters in our squad should help reinforce a basic message to the players.  Nothing less than a hundred percent commitment is acceptable if you are to be an Arsenal player, no matter how talented you may be, if you pull on the Arsenal shirt you must give your all in every game, as this is the thing that has been frustrating many of us fans so much of late, we want a fully committed Arsenal XI in every game.

Complacent and arrogant? Again and again

I have lost count of the number of times that we have come unstuck against the weaker sides this season, it is staggeringly frustrating.  We have beaten all the top sides other than ManU but we keep making the same mistake, that mistake being that we assumed that all we need to do against the smaller sides is turn up and we will win, how many f*cking times do we have to make this mistake?

Blackburn 3-4, Fulham 2 -1, Swansea 3-2, QPR 2-1, Wigan 2-1 and then today.  The words of the manager are damning enough:

"....but maybe subconsciously [we thought] we would win it........We lost too many challenges and it is surprising because recently we were quite good, but today I feel that defensively the whole team was very poor."

It has happened too many times, we have been complacent and arrogant against too many sides this season, and it is costing us dear.  The words of Norwich player Steven Morison are even more damning:

"I think Arsenal thought we were going to be a pushover today."

I do not expect to win every game against the weaker sides, but I cannot accept the levels of performance and complacency that we have seen against some of the lesser sides this season.  If we had treated all our games equally and shown more respect, pressed harder and worked harder against these lesser sides, then I do not think we would have dropped so many points so lazily.

The manager knows which players are complacent and arrogant, and I suggest that he moves them all on in the summer, I only want players who are prepared to put in their all in every single game they pull on an Arsenal shirt.  I can take losing if we give everything, however I cannot accept the complacent dross that we have seen at times this season.  I haven't even started on the schoolboy defending.....

Frustrated, gutted and defensively not good enough

Today's game summed up our season.  There was some incisive attacking football, we could have scored way more than the 3 goals we ended up with.  There was also some terrible defending as a unit.  Typically there was some absolutely awful refereeing.  We so nearly escaped with all three points but couldn't hold out, I just wish I didn't care, but sadly I do and it is hard to find words appropriate to sum up my dismal frustration.

Firstly immense credit to Norwich, they were excellent on the counter attack, the problem was that, much like in the Wigan game, we set ourselves up so naively and so open to the simply fast counter attack.  Norwich could have had more than the three goals they had too, our midfield just didn't shield the defence and play with enough discipline, the defence also made big errors of their own, notably Szczesny's poor mistake for the opener and Vermaelen's poor positioning for their third.  Again it was no naive, so predictable and so frustrating.

The set-up of the team was all wrong for me in terms of a defensive strategy.  Song and Ramsey didn't do enough to help out the back four, while the 4-3-3 formation did leave the back four incredibly open to the counter.  The problem was that this has happened in so many games this season, notably the Wigan home game, we simply have to be more organised and more disciplined as a team.  Arteta's absence seems to have coincided with this run and this is no coincidence.  I would have been tempted to start Coquelin in the holding role today.  Both the manager and the players must take their share of the blame for our defensive woes.

An amazing statistic is the fact that we have not had a single penalty at home all season in the Premier League, make of it what you will but the chances that this is down to bad luck are extremely slim.  We are one of the most attacking sides around and we are a top side, these both contribute to making this an incredible statistic, one that is rather damning in terms of casting doubt on the neutrality of referees in this league.  Again we had a stonewall penalty turned down at the end of the game as RVP was cynically fouled when about to tap the ball home.  The Norwich shouts in the first half were weak in my eyes, Coquelin won the ball for one and the other was just a two sided tussle.

Overall it summed up our season, fundamentally we simply have to blame ourselves because our defending was simply not good enough in so many ways.  We were naive, indisciplined and too open on numerous occasions. We now have to rely on Newcastle and Tottenham slipping up.

Gary Lineker is a weak coward who cannot bear to apologise

Firstly I would just like to keep this all in an appropriate context, Gary Lineker's pathetic attempts at mocking Arsene Wenger are not a massive deal, but they are certainly something that should not be ignored and for this reason I just want to ramble on briefly about the aftermath of Lineker's foolish outburst.

There was no doubt Lineker's actions were a tasteless and poorly executed joke at best, at worst they were a rather unpleasant piece of small minded bullying tinged with a bit of xenophobia, you can make up your own minds.  There is also no doubt that no other manager has been targeted like that in the past on a serious sports program, it would be a different thing entirely on a satirical show or a comedy program.  The point is that people like Lineker have to be seen to be vaguely impartial and objective, the BBC is funded by us, the tax payer, and has responsibilities that come with being a public sector broadcaster.

The Mail quite rightly followed this story and it was interesting that Lineker was largely condemned by most fans, whether Arsenal fans or not.  John Cross was quite right with his excellent Mirror piece, correctly pointing out that Lineker's joke has back fired and that it bordered on xenophobia.  In fact the worst thing about the BBC's coverage was largely ignored by the media, Arsene Wenger took a lot of racist abuse from Stoke fans last weekend being called a 'french ****' and the BBC chose to portray the Stoke fans as having a great sense of humour, hardly glowing objective coverage on their part.

Gary Lineker has felt the need to come out to speak on the matter and has again failed to cover himself in glory.  He has failed to apologise, merely stating that he would never intend to offend Arsene Wenger, a bit of a Shawcross defence really, intent doesn't really matter, it's the offensive end product that counts in my opinion.  Gary would have done much better to come out and say sorry, by not apologising he just makes himself look like a small cowardly weasel.  The BBC have handled this whole affair very very badly, a quick apology would have killed the whole thing, instead they have defended the indefensible and covered themselves in shame.

Apparently it is just a few Arsenal fans being angry with Gary because he played for Tottenham!  Frankly I don't care who you played for Gary, I just think your behaviour was utterly pathetic and not fitting for a BBC sports presenter.  Mind you compared to Robbie Savage's mere presence, it wasn't that offensive in the grand scheme of things, how the BBC's standards are slipping!  Apparently this is all now 'boring' to Gary, well maybe he should have considered this before his tasteless outburst?  Why not just own up to your mistake and apologise?  Only a proper man would do this though.