Firstly we all have to admit it’s a difficult time for journalists, the speed at which the news has to break, the desire to break it first, the chase to remain the online advertiser’s first option which is largely driven by number of clicks or visits to your site. All these mean that journalists are under immense pressure to come up with stories or in some cases click friendly stories geared to attract visitors.
Really, the number of people that would click a link that says “Poldi set to miss Arsenal game against Southampton” would be incomparable with the legion that would click “Poldi storms out of Arsenal Training session” and that is what our friend Mr. John Cross of the Daily Mirror went for, in the process managing to break two of the commandments handed over to Moses by God in one post.
- Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbours
- Thou shall not kill
I’ve tried to picture his state of mind when he was writing those lies, did he receive the info from his sources within the club because we all know John is the same bracket as the likes of Jeremy Wilson of the Telegraph and David Ornstein of the BBC who have a close relationship with Arsenal or he just wholeheartedly concocted a story that has no iota of truth.
It’s a shame to be honest but what is even more shameful is the fact that even after Podolski has come out publicly to deny the story the Daily Mirror still haven’t retracted it and still made reference to it in another story that was a fallout of Wenger’s comments on Podolski after the game against Southampton. It’s shameful journalism to say the least.
On the issue of Podolski himself leaving the club, it’s pretty much a matter of when rather than if considering Wenger’s comments
“the first proposal was farcical. Of course (we are open to discussion). After they come back a bit more serious then we will see what happens. Inevitable in a transfer is very difficult to say, but we’ll see what happens.”
It has to be a really hard time for Lucas knowing his position at the club is at its end with him never really getting an extended run in the side after his first season at Arsenal. This is sad considering his was one of the smoothest transfers ever conducted by Arsenal. While most players would wait to see if we were in the Champions League before signing, the deal to bring him in was practically sealed before the transfer window opened with Arsenal announcing his arrival in April 2012.
With Theo Walcott, I feel Podolski is one of the best finishers in the club however a combination of the formation Arsene plays, Poldi’s inability to defend or to lead the line on his own proved to be the reason he hardly got games at Arsenal. Poldi is most likely aware that he is leaving and has already publicly stated his desire to consider his options due to lack of playing time which even makes the John Cross story on the Mirror extremely terrible. “THOU SHALL NOT KILL THE LOVE BEWEEN PLAYER AND FANS”
Extremely active on social media platforms, Podolski knows firsthand how much love the fans of Arsenal football club have for him and the last thing he most likely would want to do is anything that would damage that relationship. If and when he leaves us, I will forever be a fan of him as he mirrors everything fans like to see in footballers. Extremely passionate and even more extremely engaging.
About the game itself, it’s fair to say we were shit and we were lucky that the scoreline was somewhat respectable. Szczesny was at fault for both goals and at both times all he had to do was to remain calm, sadly remaining calm is Szczesny Achilles heel. While social media went agog with criticism of his display yesterday we really need to put some context into these things sometimes, it was bad day in the office for Woj but that doesn’t make him a bad goalie as some make it out to seem.
Personally I feel Woj was extremely critical to results we had over the last few games. He earned us the point at Liverpool, how many shots did he save that day? He was amazing against West Ham ensuring very little crosses beat him and against QPR he came up with some amazing saves to ensure we won. To suddenly throw the baby out with the bath water is extreme. Yes, Szczesny seems a little prone to error but the truth is his errors few and far between as they might be are just more highlighted because he is goalie. The whole team was abysmal yesterday and they should share some of the blame.
Or should they? How many games have we played in the last 12 days? Is it strange that no club in the EPL won all their games during the period? It’s a tasking period for players and clubs alike and while as fans we enjoy sitting at home watching them run themselves to ground almost every 3 days, you can’t expect that their performance levels would remain the same. Effective use of the squad is how to get past this period and our injury record doesn’t even allow us do this.
See the form chart from the last five games in the EPL
| S/N | TEAM | 13TH | 20th | 26TH | 28TH | 1ST JAN | PTS |
| 1 | Man City | W | W | W | D | W | 12 |
| 2 | Spurs | W | W | W | D | W | 12 |
| 3 | Southampton | L | W | W | D | W | 10 |
| 4 | Chelsea | W | W | W | D | L | 10 |
| 5 | Arsenal | W | D | W | W | L | 10 |
| 6 | Man Utd | W | D | W | D | D | 9 |
| 7 | Stoke | D | L | W | W | D | 8 |
| 8 | Liverpool | L | D | W | W | D | 8 |
| 9 | Swansea | L | W | W | L | D | 7 |
| 10 | Hull | L | L | W | L | W | 6 |
| 11 | QPR | L | W | L | D | D | 5 |
| 12 | West Ham | D | W | L | L | D | 5 |
| 13 | Sunderland | D | W | L | D | L | 5 |
| 14 | Burnley | W | L | L | D | D | 5 |
| 15 | Newcastle | L | L | L | W | D | 4 |
| 16 | West Brom | W | L | L | L | D | 4 |
| 17 | Leicester | L | L | L | W | D | 4 |
| 18 | Aston Villa | L | D | L | D | D | 3 |
| 19 | Crystal Palace | D | L | L | D | D | 3 |
| 20 | Everton | W | L | L | L | L | 3 |
*anyone still wants Roberto Martinez?
Whilst we tend to live one game at a time now, we need to sometimes sit back and put some things into a broader context. Are we really going to have a meltdown every time Arsenal loses? Arsenal lost a football match, can we have a discussion about the game, definitely the manager would feature largely in that discussion but does it really always have to be solely about him? Did you have a problem with the team sheet when it was released? Why couldn’t we score? Chelsea lost yesterday but they scored more than we conceded? What really is the quality of discussions we are having online rather than explaining everything with #WengerOut.
One day Wenger definitely will be out, some want it sooner than later but will the new manager sign a contract with Arsenal fans promising them never to lose a game? Sometimes I feel as Arsenal fans we bring in our 9 years of frustrations into analyzing one game. It’s okay to have an opinion that differs from mine, writing a blog doesn’t make one a custodian of correct opinions but I’m just a guy who likes to see things in context rather than emotionally reacting to every result.
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6 comments
Lemme correct the impresion mate. The frustration is not at losing one game. Its a culmination of dashed hopes n dreams of 9 years. The look into the future that the problems at hand are not even being tackled so the problems wud still persist. The ‘defeatist attitude that a club like Arsenal Fc only just competes for a place in champions league as a particiant. The realization of the fact Arsene Wenger is a stubborn guy that almost refuses to accept changes in modern day football. Ever since our champions league final in 2005, its bin more downhill that uphill. When its all sed n done, the pain is from the tears wasted on beautiful dreams that wer neva tasted.
All what you stated in agreed and I stated in the last paragraph of the post that it’s just harder to have a conversation about a game because of the frustrations from the past. So even if players are individually at fault, the whole blame is still tabled at the foot of the manager. My opinion is that we should also be willing to engage in other reasons why we might have failed. Injuries being a key part
Spot on mate. But. Truth is Arsene knew what the problem will be like just like every Arsenal fan about playing in a very difficult league like the BPL without a well tested and formidable DM. He kept faith in Mikel Arteta who is past his glory days. As for me the only way I will stop supporting the WengerOut Boys is for him to go straight into the winter market and buy a good Centre back and fantastic Defensive Midfielder. Let’s see where we go from there. Come On You Gunners!!!
You know my biggest fear? Is that even when we sign the DM we all seek, the results might not change but like you said Let’s see where we go from there
If the DM doesn’t make an impact, then I believe wenger is the issue. Cos it all comes down to tactics applied to different games, substitutions made and mentality/motivation. the attack of the team is very gud and diverse. Offensive players r gud (wen not played out of position), with a gud defensive cover, the defenders wud b relieved of pressure. So all wenger has to do is get the tactics ryt (And not by playin ozil on the left wing). Even if he doesn’t get it at the start of the game, he shud b able to read the game and make changes. I believe this wud improve our win rate in games we r expected to win. And move me up on the league standings. Both in the BPL and Canoncrested league.
Looool. Now I see where the bias is coming from… Lol
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