When over a number of years of a long-standing destructive campaign by a group of moronic so-called Gunners supporters’ campaign undermined the position of Arsène Wenger, Arsenal’s iconic manager of 22 years, the gang finally got their wish and he was driven out last season by disgusting abusive chanting from the stands and the holding-up their anti-Wenger banners – all of which undermined and completely demoralised their team ON the field and destabilised everyone including the boardroom OFF it, didn’t it?
Now, those of us who are longstanding football fans, but not necessarily a committed supporter to a particular team, were dismayed that a manager who undoubtably had brought such respect, fame, awesome achievements, and financial stability to a major club in spite of it building a massive 60thousand capacity new stadium, could be abused in such a manner by a mob of cretins, who even managed to undermine the loyalty of the Gunners’ real supporters.
You see, the basis of the crusade to oust Wenger was that that despite other major successes, Arsenal hadn’t won the Premier League since 2004 and that a new manager would. Those of us thinking outsiders though believed otherwise, because clearly the Club was simply incapable of competing in the current Premiership marketplace for enough top players where the current massive moneybag outfits of Manchester Utd, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Liverpool have secured pride of place, eh?
Some of us were of the view that under a different manager, Arsenal would struggle to achieve what Wenger had done for many years and that included the ‘demoralised’ team’s outcomes of last season’s – league 6th place and qualification for Europe again, Europa League group stage again, winning 8 games to reached the semi-final of that Europa cup competition, the final of the UK EFL cup.
Arsenal’s new manager is Spaniard Unai Emery, ex-PSG [outed for failing to reach the semi-final of the Champions league (eliminated at the first knockout round)] despite massive spend (£500million?) and ex-Seville, who brought in five players to Arsenal last summer [costing over £70million] when he took over the squad and afterwards which he claimed was ‘complete’. Well, he is not a name that rebounds around the place even amongst Arsenal supporters and he is not now, nor likely to be in future, someone who is a beacon shinning bright for Arsenal football club, nor is he likely to be the man to help Arsenal return to competing among the Premier League’s elite, is he? [defeats already by big outfits Manchester City (h) Chelsea (a), Liverpool (a) and only draws at Liverpool (h), Manchester Utd (a)]
They say he is a bit of a football obsessive killjoy whom is not good at managing really top players, but that shouldn’t really matter at Arsenal, should it? No, HE WON’T HAVE MANY TOP PLAYERS THERE considering itsvery limited shoestring transfer budget, eh?
No, so Emery needs to rely on his coaching skills to gain success rather than the big-buys allowed at PSG, but how’s it been going for him so far this season, do you think?
Certainly, Arsenal’s better success under Emery doesn’t seem to be on the horizon, does it? Not when you look at things like the setback of their home game’s defensive system failure 2 weeks ago, when arch-rivals Tottenham, to reach the semi-finals, knocked them out of the EFL Cup– Spurs’ first away victory over Arsenal in eight years, indeed? It may well be that this Cup isn’t the highest priority of either side but nevertheless Emery shouted-off his mouth beforehand on the value of reaching a cup semi-final.
The proof in the pudding though has ultimately to be Arsenal’s competitive position in the title race since that after all was the bone of contention that the bully boys of the terraces used to oust Wenger with, wasn’t it? Well then, are Arsenal with new manager Emery on board now at last real challengers for the Premier League Title this year, eh? NOT according to the betting odds, which puts them streets behind Liverpool the current favourites, and nowhere near Manchester City who are second, nor even north London rivals Spurs, or for that matter Chelsea. Oh yes, they are level pegging with Man U who equally are a long way short as well – but that is a team that has had a torrid mis-firing season under out-of-touch sourpuss manager Jose Mourinho, who got fired a week before Christmas as a consequence [moreover, things are already looking up for them with 4 good convincing wins since then].
Last January when the anti-Wenger brigade were in full flow with their vitriol, Arsenal after 21 games under Wenger (so half-way through the season), were 5th in the Premiership and not in sight of the then leading team Manchester City. This January Arsenal after 21 games under new manager Emery, are 5th in the Premiership and not in sight of the current leading team Liverpool. IN ANY WAY OR FORM THAT DOESN’T REPRESENT A PROGRESSION TOWARDS A CHALLENGING ROLE FOR THE TITLE, does it?
Certainly not, so what have the loud-mouth louts got to say now about their great strategy of last year for outing Wenger to bring the title home to the Emirates when it just isn’t happening, eh? NOTHING? [weeks ago some fans were chanting ‘We’ve got our Arsenal back” is some kind of perverse joke, surely?]
It’s all a false dawn because the team needs to be in the top 3 to really be a genuine contender, doesn’t it? Without doubt, a top four finish would be an essential minimum start, as the Arsenal chiefs will certainly have warned Emery, as they are missing out on the tens of millions in rewards that it brings [Arsenal reached the Champions League for 19 consecutive seasons out of 22 under Wenger]. That is increasingly likely to be impossible without investing in major new signings in the January transfer window, as while the team can certainly score goals, it leaks goals itself and only 8 teams have conceded more goals than them and while their goal difference is just 15 that compares to Liverpool’s massive 40 [the problem is that Arsenal’s defenders don’t do the job they are paid for and often abandon their posts to seek glory in the attacks].
[Arsenal would have been more likely to have been in the title mix this season as one of the contenders for the title if Frenchman Wenger had stayed in post, don’t you think?]
ramblings007 