Thoughts From The Top Of The Blue Quadrant no.2 - "It's all beginning..."

Article by 'Perry Groves'.

At about 21:40, on Wednesday 29th October, I was beginning to feel cautiously optimistic about our season. We'd had a cracking win in Istanbul the week before, making qualifying for the next phase of the Champions League a formality. We'd beaten West Ham away at the weekend without conceding. And although the other teams in the title race were winning, we were 4-2 up against a rejuvenated Spurs, and were cruising. A good win which would keep us nicely in touch with the leaders. The dark cloud on the horizon was that we'd made three substitutions, all defensive, leaving us with no-one on the wing or up front with any pace to chase any hopeful defensive clearances. The guys behind us started signing "Make it 5". I responded "We'll need to with Eboue on".

And so it came to pass.

The catastrophic (and to many neutrals, hilarious) draw that ensued has been analysed within an inch of its life. Suffice it to say that none of the three players who came on filled me with confidence; Eboue is random, Diaby never seems to know where he should play, and Song seems to be so excited by the prospect of being on football pitch that he forgets to do anything useful at all. So, when a normally reliable player makes a stupid mistake, no-one else bothers to mop up, so that twice the Spurs attack can simply waltz toward the goal and smack the ball into the net. Except of course, on the second attempt they hit the post, and naturally our defence had fallen asleep enough to not get to the rebound first.

The stock response from the club, that we would get through this setback, that the team will learn from its mistakes, that the team is young and inexperienced but talented and is still in the title hunt, was predictable. And with our next game against newly promoted opposition, you would expect a team that should be fighting for the title to go and win handsomely. A team hungry for success would thump the next team to cross their path. A team ashamed of their abject defending on Wednesday would tighten up, and give the travelling support something to sing about. You would expect that, but it didn't happen. Instead, a team that looked like it didn't really fancy it huffed and puffed against a hard working, physical team, and to no-one's great surprise lost. And worse, three of the team's more effective performers managed to get injured, and Van Persie stupidly got himself sent off. I noticed at the Spurs game that Van Persie had been very angry with Adebayor at the chances he'd missed; sometimes frustration seems to get the better of him, but knocking the keeper over like that was a remarkably stupid thing to do. He's now left the club with just Bendtner and Vela up front, and whilst Vela has looked good in the times we've seen him, Bendtner just seems a bit too clunky to be a great striker.

Worse was the story doing the rounds that Song has simply ignored the captain Toure's order to move back to defence whilst Toure went up for a corner. If this is true it shows a terrible lack of discipline within the team, and it has to be dealt with immediately. If a junior member of the squad ignores the request of senior member (the acting captain), that player needs to be dropped to pass a message - there is a chain of command. I simply couldn't see someone doing that to Adams, or Vieira, at least not without risking physical harm. And this, to me, is one of the huge problems with this team - there is simply no culture of effort, of respect, of fighting together. There is no leadership and when things don't go our way, it's tough and go whether the team will respond. I firmly believe that we'd have lost against Spurs if we played a few more minutes, there was such disarray in the team.

It's not as though any of this was unexpected.

The first day of the season normally sees thousands of people walk over the railway bridges to the Emirates in bright sunshine, in replica shirts and sunglasses, with a few people showing obvious signs of having overdone the sunbathing. You certainly don't expect, in mid-August, to have to wear an overcoat. And the unseasonable weather crept into the bones of the Arsenal team, who spent much of the West Brom match at half-pace. It was a strangely unsatisfying game. All the usual Arsenal deficiencies were there in their glory - the endless passing, the lack of defensive concentration, the chances wasted, the over elaboration, and the lack of conviction. An early goal by Nasri at least gave us a victory, but the hard-working West Brom team, with a classic little-and-large partnership up front, could have easily got an equaliser, given our defences polite style of defending ("After you, opposition attacker, after all you are a guest in our lovely stadium!"). Of all the players on the pitch, Nasri was one of the few who actually looked like he was enjoying being there, and seemed to have quickly struck up a good partnership with Clichy. He looked like he'd been playing for Arsenal for years. Only Sagna and Clichy looked like they were raring to go; the rest of the team seemed to lack concentration and effort. Walcott still looked more athlete than footballer; Gallas had one great shot just wide but seemed baffled by a long punt upfield; Bendtner looked like he's been taking anger management classes over the summer as he was apologising to his teammates when he fluffed his chances; Adebayor did some useful running but was wasteful with his chances. Business as usual.

As for the midfield, it was one of the more bizarre decisions of Wenger's reign to put Eboue in the middle. For a good ten minutes I couldn't quite work out what was going on; it was as though we were playing three on the right with just Denilson in the centre. In fairness, Eboue didn't play too badly. He worked hard and although he was prone to some of his usual histrionics, he took a couple of shots and it was a reasonable performance. But this is the kind of formation you play in the Carling Cup Fourth Round at home to Rotherham, when you've got some injuries in the middle of the season, not right at the start.

All in all it wasn't a great start to the season, but you can't argue with three points. What you can argue with is then travelling to West London, putting in a dreadful performance and losing to Fulham. That performance has been picked apart on Arseblogger (and other sites) well enough; I only saw the MOTD highlights and quite frankly, life's too short to want to see the whole game. Every season has games like this, when you lose a match where you have played dreadfully, and in the seasons when you win the league, you learn from them (the one exception being the unbeaten season, where a combination of a great team, sheer bloody-mindedness and a bit of luck helped us make history). Of course, normally these come in October or November - remember Blackburn or Newcastle? - and last season it came away against Birmingham, where we failed the test; I don't recall us losing a game so early on and then going on to win the league. This loss indicated that there is fundamental weakness in the team from the start of the season. If your first team are suffering injuries after a few months off (Fabregas excepted, he hardly had a break) then you have to look to replace those players. Diaby and Rosicky cannot be relied upon and shouldn't be considered first choice in their positions, and with no-one able to fill the defensive midfielder role that Diaby is ostensibly there to fill, we have a problem. I've gone on about this enough, as has Arseblogger and pretty much anyone else with any sense; but Wenger doesn't seem to see what we see and didn't make any significant moves in the transfer window. Maybe we need to be more trusting of him. After all, he is the man who has brought everyone from Vieira and Petit, to Eduardo and Sagna, via Henry, Fabregas, Van Persie and the rest, to the club.

One of those players he brought to Arsenal, without quite so much success, is Senderos. I was living in Switzerland when we signed him and a number of Swiss friends - from people I played football with, to people I watched the Arsenal with (hello to everyone at the Nelson in Zürich), to workmates, said at the time that he was a really good buy. One guy described him as a young Tony Adams and they had a point; never the most elegant of players, but with a natural ability in the air, good at reading the game, and able to come forward (for those of you who don't remember this, Big Tone used to be more of an attacking player until George Graham beat this out of him). He was also a good communicator on the pitch - I once remember him shouting at Pires to drop back and defend more, and Pires, never a player who seemed to like being told what to do, jogged back to a deeper position without complaint.

As the main blog mentions, he was seen at the club as future Captain material. Yes, he made mistakes, just like Tony Adams, but he learned from them. But he's suffered from some injuries and has been unfairly lambasted by many fans. Let's not forget the fantastic performances in the Champions League run and FA Cup Final, where he helped the team to the CL final without conceding a goal, and marshalled the Arsenal defence against a Manchester United team that were strong favourites. Sadly, he's another player Wenger bought 4-5 years ago that has gone, and like Flamini he's an unflashy player who can provide a valuable service on the pitch. He's intelligent and apparently popular with the other players; I once heard a story that he would speak to each player in their own language and can comfortably speak four languages (English, French, German and Spanish with some Italian). It's been curious to see how many people, on many blogs, have said "I know that other fans don't think much of him but I really rate him". AC Milan, who are no fools, obviously think the same. I was even considering wearing my Swiss Gunners Senderos shirt for old times sake (I stopped wearing it after the Chelski home loss three seasons ago). Again, like Flamini, I really didn't want to see him go but can totally understand his reasons wanting to move, and again I'd wish him the best of luck.

Wenger's answer to sending Senderos out on loan was to sign Silvestre. Football fans, though sometimes fickle, can be remarkably loyal people. Sol Campbell moved from our biggest enemies and whilst he never became a fan favourite, everyone knew that he was a great player, and appreciated that he'd made a difficult decision to move and respected his dignified manner (they didn't quite appreciate his bizarre departure from the club, but that's another story, and I've not heard the kind of disgraceful chants from Arsenal fans that Spurs fans have been singing). Fundamentally, fans want to feel the players at the club are their players, so that those who work hard, even when not gifted, can become heroes at the club (Ray Parlour and my namesake being two). You simply can't sign a player who has been at another club for ten years, and has headbutted one of our players, and expect the fans to take to him. You especially can't expect much when the player has spent the last couple of years on the treatment table and the bench and is widely considered to be well past his prime. He was a very odd signing and I'd have much rather us bring a young player from another English club (eg Micah Richards), or an experienced player from a European club. It'll take a hat-trick against Man Utd (as part of a 7-0 drubbing at Old Trafford, with Gallas getting the other four) to win the fans over with this signing. Scoring a goal against Spurs was a start, but then being in the central midfield pairing that conceded four goals cancelled any good feeling he may have earned.

The transfer season ended with a good win over Newcastle, and wins against old foes Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers (after conceding a stupid goal) followed. Then it all started to go wrong again. The Hull game again showed our familiar weaknesses, against a newly promoted team who were determined to not follow the script. So after going a goal up, we sit back and fail to defend again, and concede two goals without reply. Again we wasted chances, again we had lots of possession, again we are let down by a central defence that is happy to let people take pot shots from thirty yards without closing them down. On the bright side, at least we all saw a lovely goal; just a shame it wasn't by one of our own players. And the response to this game was to go up to Sunderland and let them do exactly the same - score a beautiful goal without bothering to close the player down, after a stupid mistake by Song in midfield. At least Cesc was lively enough to score a last-minute equaliser.

Following the international break, we got straight back into the rhythm of conceding stupid goals at home. Thankfully the response against Everton was better than at Sunderland and we came out convincing winners. And then came our fourth league clean sheet at West Ham, and the traumas of Spurs and Stoke.

Three defeats, two against promoted clubs, in eleven games, is just far too many. That sort of form would leave us ending the season losing ten games, putting us into mid-nineties territory. There's something very, very wrong with the club at the moment. I've already mentioned the indiscipline. The lack of concentration from some players - Song, Eboue, Diaby and Adebayor being the worst offenders - means that attacks break down and opposition attacks are not cut out quickly enough. The lack of effort gives an energetic opposition the opportunity to play us on their terms, not ours. And the constant passing ensures we lose momentum and gives the other team the chance to regroup and defend. We're simply not quick enough, with a poor workrate, to be able to break down teams that close us down and fight for every ball.

But for lack of concentration, there is one player who really stands out. Our Captain. At Fulham, he was responsible for the goal that lost us the game. Against Hull, he failed to track his player for Hull's winner. I think he's been directly responsible for nearly all the goals we have conceded from set pieces when he has been on the pitch. As a captain, you can get away with being unpopular but rock-solid (Vieira seemed to follow this; he lost his credibility when he started making mistakes and Lauren punched him one); popular but with making some mistakes (Tony Adams being occasionally mistake-prone, but able to own up to them and thank players who rescued him); the very best are both popular and rock-solid. Gallas is neither. Worse, it's not the kind of mistakes that any defender could do, such as losing a battle against one of the best strikers in Europe (such as Drogba vs Senderos); it's not being able to defend a corner against a team that struggled to stay in the league last season.

His good points, such as a fantastic tackle against Villa last season, are being lost by general ineptitude. Put simply, I simply don't think that Gallas is the man that can lead us to a league title (at best), or the FA Cup and top 4 in the league (which is the minimum that should be achieved this season). His injury came at a convenient time for Wenger to try other options, such as a Silvestre/Djourou pairing, which at least didn't concede any goals against Fehnerbache. For me, Gallas's time at the club is over; he is an experiment that has failed and he needs to be replaced in January. I don't think there are any Arsenal fans who would be sad to see him go.

But would Wenger do this? Would he effectively admit that bringing Gallas in and then making him captain was a mistake? Wenger's position is now starting to be questioned by normally sane fans. The upcoming match against Manchester United is one of the biggest of Wenger's career at the club, and a loss, especially a bad one, could make the calls for him to leave louder, and more convincing. Previously these calls would be correctly dismissed as being from the lunatic fringe, but given his reluctance to strengthen the team in areas in which it is obviously weak, they may start to appear more sane by the day. His outburst about Stoke's tackling was also bizarre and has got even his most ardent defenders questioning what his motives were; Stoke were physical, yes, but hardly Allardyce-esque, and Walcott's injury looked more like bad luck than anything. What is happening within the club is something of a mystery, but for me, it seems as though he's either not being challenged by his staff, or he's simply not listening. It's a dangerous situation and one which simply can't go on, not if the club wishes to stay in the top four. Wenger is one of the finest football managers ever and it's sad to watch the club start what could be a slide down the table if the issues with the team are not addressed quickly.

This is sounding very negative; there have been some great moments this season. It's been fantastic seeing Vela in the flesh (one of his goals against Sheffield Utd was a thing of sheer beauty, even against Championship opposition); Walcott is improving game by game and is beginning to look like the finished article; Sagna and Clichy are still looking very good (despite the mistake against Spurs); Ramsay has looked the real deal in some of his performances. When we do start really playing, we are incredible, as Bolton, Everton and Newcastle learned to their cost. And the crowd has been quite entertaining so far this season; the atmosphere against Spurs (at least until the closing minutes) was great, and some of the chants have been rather good, in particular those for the Porto player, Hulk - "You're only green when you're angry". "You're only here to see Eboue" made me laugh too, as well as the new Walcott song "He's an Englishman at Arsenal". It's nice when football fans make fun of themselves and the team - ok, these aren't quite Manchester City-esque "We're shit and we know we are", but you've got to start somewhere.

But this season feels like it's going very wrong, very quickly. As the great Wilco once sang "It's all beginning to feel like it's ending", and without some changes, this club could be on its way down the table, shedding the best players and with a manager unable to see what's wrong. I love this club, I've been supporting it for thirty years, and I don't want to be telling my son in ten years time about the great team Arsenal once were in the way that Nottingham Forest fans must do. I want to be telling him why Arsenal is such a great club. Arsene, think long and hard about what is best for the club and its fans; remember that no-one is untouchable; remember that teams need strength and fight as well as beautiful passing and skill; remember why you're the best manager in the country. Alex Ferguson was in a similar position a few years ago and he clawed his way back out with some good signings (both on the pitch and on the coaching staff), you need to do the same. As he's the only manager who ranks alongside you, learn from his lessons.

§Starting today.