I can’t hold back this morning. What happened yesterday at Anfield was nothing short of a disgrace. It was symptomatic of Arsenal football club under this tired and dated manager who mollycoddles and placates a collective of underperforming premadonnas who do not deserve to put on the Arsenal shirt.
Yesterday was the culmination of a build up that has been coming for quite some time and the result of defeat by four clear goals doesn’t even tell half the story: it flatters Arsenal.
Everything was wrong about yesterday. From the second the team was announced there were Arsenal fans all over the globe scratching their heads.
The Bundesliga’s best left back last season was left on the bench as we played our right back in his position.
A guy who wants out was played at right back.
We have five fit centre halves. Two played.
The young kid who looked so impressive last season at centre half was fed to the lions as Oxlad-Chamberlain offered him no protection whatsoever.
The midfield had more holes in it than a massive slice of emmenthal.
Xhaka gave a shocking ball away for their first goal for the third game in a row.
Ramsey wasn’t even watching the ball when the first goal was crossed in.
Özil was utterly abject and disappeared for the whole match.
Danny Welbeck was preferred after a performance last week that suggested he can’t lead the line. Within five minutes he’d blazed a ball over that you just know Lacazette and Giroud would have probably touched away in their sleep.
I could go on and on and on. But what’s the point? Arsenal are broken and there is no way this gets fixed by Wenger. He is a relic of an era that should have been put in the cupboard and appreciated years ago, but is no longer relevant today, as other teams move on and we go backwards.
People talking about signings but that too is pointless. Yesterday we had two of our great signings on the bench. You can’t cry ‘fatigue’ in August folks. I’m sorry but that’s just not true. This guy in charge of our club doesn’t know what he’s doing.
And it’s painful to watch. It’s painful to see such a man shrivel away like an old piece of fruit that’s been left on a patio in the summers sun. Once so full of life, now just a pathetic looking shell of its former self.
Pete Cech is the only man who can say he deserves a little bit of credit, but he’s part of this team that is creaking and shuddering so horrifically at the moment.
There was no passing cohesion. Players couldn’t do the basics. For the third goal Hector Bellerin couldn’t even control it. He doesn’t even have the same levels of recovery pace that he used to. Why? Perhaps because he doesn’t care as much any more. He wants to head off back home to sunny Barcelona where defenders only have to worry about two or three games a season against one of the Madrid teams. He has established himself at Arsenal but now fancies life elsewhere.
Who can blame him though. Nothing about Arsenal under Wenger is appealing any more. We don’t play exciting football. We don’t have a system. Plus if you’re a good player you’re only guaranteed game time if you’re a Wenger favourite. Aaron Ramsey should be hauled over hot coals for that first goal. How as a central midfielder can you be in the right wing position, facing away from the ball, pointing at the Ox and not actually defending? It’s a dereliction of duty.
But who cares? He probably doesn’t, because he knows he’ll play in two weeks, because he’s a favourite of Wenger’s, so there’s no real consequences. There’s no punishment at Arsenal, because Arsène will just forget about what went wrong and put this down to some kind of anomaly of a performance.
It’s not a fucking anomaly. This shit has been happening for years. Almost at the exact same point in time, too. 8-2 anyone?
We have two years of this. Two years of being told that he’s the bet man for the job. A man who seems like he’s picking the team and positions from a bag of balls with names on. It’s a travesty that we have to witness such a crumbling of an empire.
But it’s been crumbling for some time. Some people refused to acknowledge it, but I can’t see many people this morning who don’t see Arsenal and Arsène for who they are: finished. Done. Finito. Outdated. Stale. Chuck any adjective you want in their direction that is similar, because I’m running out of words to describe the shameful and gutless performance of yesterday.
What other ‘big’ club loses as heavily as Arsenal do? Even when we’ve battered Chelski, United, Liverpool in the past, normally they at least shut up shop at 3-0 so things don’t get worse. Not at Arsenal. Our players look at their feet and sulk like my four year old niece. It’s pathetic and the team is in the image of their manager. They don’t play for him any more.
Change is a year and a half away. Until then we have to sit through more of the same.
Catch you tomorrow.
As someone who was at Old Trafford for the 8-2, was at Anfield for the 5-1, was at Stamford Bridge for the 6-0, I can assure you what happened yesterday was far worse than any of the others. Have a look at some of the goals United scored six years ago – they were exceptional. Yes I was furious with Ozil in Feb 2014, but Liverpool were amazing that day. And the game at Chelsea was made worse by a red card (probably the worse of the three though).
The worse thing that can be said about yesterday is that Liverpool didn’t get out of second gear. They didn’t even have to try it was that easy for them. I’m giving Arsenal until 11am to announce a full refund for yesterday. If they don’t I’ll be giving the club both barrels.
Spot on Tom.