Wenger – The rotation at Wigan nearly worked!
The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger made eight changes to the team he took to Wigan on Wednesday and was roundly criticized for resting nearly all the players that performed so well against Chelsea at the Emirates on Monday, but the Frenchman is certain that he made the right decision.
Wenger believes that the team that did play were good enough to take all three points at Wigan. “It’s not necessarily down to the players,” he said. “I decided from the start when I saw the fixtures that I needed to rotate. You can do four or five in one game and four or five in the other game but I decided to go with the whole lot in one game and come back with the whole lot in the third game. ”
Wenger also says that although Arsenal dropped two points in the race for the title it was still the right thing to do. He accepts that some fans may say he made an error but he is not worried about what others may say about his decision-making.
“In fairness, I am used to criticism!” he continued. “I can understand that I was criticised but I think what is important is that I am paid to make decisions. Strong decisions are better than half decisions. I took a decision and it nearly worked, we were a little bit unlucky. I could have played the same team three times and lost at Wigan and tonight. I consider that we dropped two points at Wigan but you can also say that Manchester United dropped two points at St Andrew’s. Over the festive period we were the team with less recovery time than any team and the team who played, along with Manchester United, twice away from home.”
Seven points is not such a bad haul from three games played in six days, but surely he won’t be making eight changes again for Wednesdays game against Manchester City……….
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The line up against Man City will definitely be interesting. Is the Chelsea/ Birmingham our best line up? Thats two great results against tough teams. I mean no big team beats Birmingham at home so I say stick with what we have. Atleast stick with Djouro!
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City is 4 days away, I am against too much tinkering with what seems to be our best playing XI, go Gunners!
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I am hoping with 4 days to recover instead of 2, these super-fit athletes should be able to manage a home match, against a team that have played the same day as us!! Honestly i seem to remember Frank Mclintock playing about 70 matches one season, he used to drink like an old sailor, and grab a half time ciggy, crikey how times have changed…..BTW he went on to lift the double that year as captain and win Footballer of the Year
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We are very close to our first x1, if we can just get TV5 fit and Arshavin firing on all cylinders, the team should look as close to this in every important match, only rotating for dead rubbers and dead certs.
Fabianski
Sagna, Djourou, Vermaelen, Clichy
Wilshere, Song
Nasri, Fabregas, Arshavin
RVP
First Choice Bench – Sczcesney, Eboue, Koscielny, Ramsey, Rosicky, Walcott, Chamakh
Alternative Bench – Mannone, Gibbs, Squillaci, Denilson, Diaby, Vela, Bendtner
Obviously there could be chances, due to injury and suspension for one or two to get on the bench outside of this 25 (Lansbury, JET, Frimpong, Miyaichi??) But we are now in the run-in, i want to see the CC cup wrapped up next month and a stay in the FA Cup too. Sure i would love to see us beat Barca, but unless we can play a completely different system and have all our first choice defence available, i am afraid i cannot see us being in the CL much beyond March 8 – Hope i am wrong. Also we need to be realistic with TV5, even if he does come back soon, will he really be able to play every match? If he cannot, I would like to see us sign another CH. Also would not bother me if we sold Denilson to pay for the other CH as i believe Lansbury and Ramsey can cover that “loss” adequately, however, i would also like to see a DM come in to cover the injury proned Diaby and if we let Vela leave on loan, then we should not let JET go on loan. .
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I dont have the facts to prove this but everytime we seem to play denilson in the starting lin-up , arsenal usually have problems.. Any comments?
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i really think wenger should go for one player…..vertonghen
6 ft 2″ , plays as CH, LB and DM…..under 10 mil…and issued a come and get me plea to arsenal in the summer
and to pay for him, sell denilson
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First of all congrats to Arsenal for en emphatic win yesterday.
Like all Arsenal fans, I’m veru happy but not overly excited as Wigan match still haunts me.
I’m really pissed with Wenger’s comments in this post …
He’s still the ever arrogant, self-proclaiming nuisance…was he waiting for the Birmingham victory to comment these words…now that we have won against Birmingham, he is coming out & giving sermonic statements…wonder what he would have said has the result been different…
Come-on Wenger, pls for once accept yr follies on the Wigan match… you just can’t tinker too much with the line-ups…8 changes from the match that we beat Bormingham & Chelsea…u must be over-confident or stupid or both ( may be the later )- could you see what difference the midfield made yesterday…
Against Wigan u had – Denilson ( horrid ), Rosciscky ( clearly off his prime ), Diaby ( senile burly one with no pace & match-practise ), Arshavin ( do I need to say anything !!! )
Compare it with today – Fab, Wilshere, Song, Walcott, Nasri
Did we really need to change the entire midfield ???
Not to mention that both RVP & Nasri were also not there & so was Djorou who looked the better one amongst all the CDs… and to combound matters more, he played Eboue as left back ( the most ridiculous change considering Eboue doesn’t have a left foot, has anyone ever see him kicking with his left foot ever )
M sorry to sound so sore – but two matches against Clesea & Bir have clearly shown that we are too much dependent on one arrogant coach for whom the only motive is to step up his ego & to prove that his decisions are ALWAYS right… that’s the worry AW – we would love to be proven wrong… but then at least on occasions where almost all the Arsenal fans & the so called football pundits are clamoring to understand yr nuisance decision to change 8 players from a winning combo – pls have the guts to accept that yes, making so many at one go was a mistake. If you had done that, people would have loved & respected you more. We would all like to see you eating the humble pie for a change….
What would you do now against Man City ??? Rest these players… I can bet on anything that you would field the first 11 that you did today…. so Mr.Dictator – pls have the courage to accpet yr mistakes…
And are we buying anyone this Transfer window specially one CD at least….
Djorou was seen limping yday midway & I was crossing myself to even think of the partnership of Kos & Sqi… agreeed Vermealon would come back end-Jan…but wouldn’t be too much of an a sking from him to be back with full force from day one ???? Just a thought- would be glad to receive feedbacks from others in this post on the issue of CD… In my mind, we really need one Big-statured, strong & aerial CD…
Mind you, we play Stoke twice this year & we all know how they play…Delap’s throw-ins have been a nightmare for us for the last two seasons….Can Squi/ Kos handle them??? M not too sure…
And while Fab is a very good shot-stopper, m not too convinced on his positional sense- when to come out & fist out the ball – he is albeit improving & yday had a real good match…
But we just can’t afford any more slip-up in yday’s game with 5 pints behind Man U…
Really wish Man U lost yday – West Brom completely dominated them – missed a penalty when they could have been 2-1 up, didn’t get a genuine penalty & Neville should have been sent off with Man U playing with 10 men for entire second half… and to make matters owrse conceded such a soft goal to give Man U 3 points…
Hence we should not look at Man U slip-ups… if they happen ( and hopefully they happen ) well & good – but we should not give any more team any chance…
Go Gunners – hope 2011 will be ours….
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Yeah, we need a CB. Mertesacker is being suggested, am not too sold on the idea, he may not really suit our style. Someone who would relegate Squillaci to 5th choice is fine by me, if Djourou continues in this vein, we can live without a FIRST CHOICE CB. As for goalie, Fabianski is improving, he needs a run of good games before I can really relax. Whenever he comes out to punch, I am scared out of my wits, he still lacks that reassuring touch about him. Still City next, we should win, and hopefully a CB is on the way.
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spot on Asif the chap is very arrogant,he should apologize to the fans at this stage no able thinking mind does what the so called professor did at wigan
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If reports are true Bolton has shown interest in Vela on loan…we can pressurise them with a move for Cahill who really looks quite impressive … he has a good reach, reads the game well, clears the ball away from own penalty box with aplomb… plus he is good at aerial balls….
Most importantly, he is not cup-tied … if you look at our fixtures after Man City match, we have a ” relatively ” easy round-up…would be great if a new CD can be attained at the earliest & given time to adjust…really looking forward…
Karthik – spot on… Fab with his punches are a worrying sight … would love to have a top-class goal-keeper but i guess with AW at the helm, it would be too much of an asking :-_
Isaaciru, yes he must admit…
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The rotation at Wigan did not work – Simples!
We got a bloody draw 2-2! Against 10 men struglers Wigan. If that worked then he saw a different game! These players are all physically fit enough to play 3 games in a week. I am fit enough to play three matches in a week easily! Most of my friends could play three matches in a week comfortably! You win the league by playing your best players in all matches. You rotate your squad by a few players to give the ones who are overplaying a rest. You forget before Chelsea they had a 2 weeks holiday from the cancelation of Stoke! Rubbish!!!!
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Wenger you are doing a good job. Some supporters will never be grateful. they will always find negatives
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Regarding Vela, he has the talent, he really does, sometimes he looks a little physically out of his depth, he HAS got to go to a Premier League club. No point in him going to Spain, hell, even the Championship would do, since all he needs is some game time in English conditions. And I’m really hoping someone beats United’s pants off, they’ve had it coming, they’re playing like shit.
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mats hummels.
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actually i think you find wenger was right when he says we were unlucky not to win at wigan , 1, the wigan first goal was no penalty,in fact i dont think there was any contact at all let alone it being outside he area.2,the wigan keeper made two if not three good saves especially the save against arshavin,and chamakh was very unlucky with a header that narrowly went wide(though i think kemp would off scored it and do a backward flip at same time)3, we were quite clearly cheated out off a penalty by the referee,how he could not see it was not a penalty is beyond believe and should be banned from refereeing in the premiership till he learns to referee properly.
this is a big problem in football and the fa don’t seem to care how poor the refereeing is getting in england now.
so for me i thought we were very unlucky against wigan, but also you got to remenber wigan are no pushovers,and will always push no matter how many players they got on the field.
as for denilson,in reply to oz_gooner, he is a player who i think lacks concentration, so many times he is caught ethier ball watching or daydreaming,he got the ability but tends to let his mind wonder,i think he is time at arsenal is coming to a end,reports saying he could be off to germany are still going around, it be a shame because if he concentrated more i think he could be a really good player, but wilshere is a much better player in that position at moment.
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I think that Mr Wenger’s comments are quite unfortunate.The least he could have done was to apologize to us for dropping points in a match he should in all fairness have won by 5 goals. Seriously does he not feel any shame? Mr KNOW IT ALL WENGER
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@demongooner, if a goalkeeper makes some great saves, we need to applaud him & that’s his job – to save the goals… how on earth we consider ourselves unlucky that the Wigan goalkeeper saved some efforts ???
Yes, it was a penalty for us that day… so what ??? Why should we leave it to that to rue us ? Mind you, they were playing with 10 men & yet they scored an equaliser… that wasn’t luck, right ? Our great defender Squi netted an own goal- again that doesn’t say bad-luck to us- that’s stupidity specially as a CB when u r facing yr own goal from a set-piece….
Analyse that match man & you would clearly see we were rubbish that day & it all started with the team-selection…
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@demongooner, if as per AW we were unlucky against Wigan ( what a lousy comment ), we must acknowledge our luck till the first goal against Birmingham – RVP was not fouled at least onj that occasion…. And RVP’s handball could have hurt us with a penalty decision- so you see there is no point in moaning abt referee’s decision…at times they wud fo for you, other times they would bite you…
Let’s accept Wigan was a mistake & move on… and hope our oldie doen’t repeat the same mistake against Man City
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We were really unlucky to draw against wigan and was not the time to lose 2 points the selection was wrong for me also, with bendtner and chamakh plying in the regular formation just does not work the movement was just not there between them, but there was enough class out there to win, due to the error it cost us 2 points, however i have no fear that MANU will soon be dropping points again and it will be ours to take, MANU has Chelsea to play and i ma sure they will be losing those matches, for me MANU have been lucky but it will not last forever
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Are you an Arsenal fan Asif? ! What is your problem?
I have a great idea, why don’t you write to the Arsenal board, tell them why Arsene is crap and offer your services. Let me know how you get on?
Maybe I’ll see you managing Arsenal one day soon instead of moaning like an arse on blogs?
Happy New Year!
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To: Kemp, Asif and others like them,
Same old nonsense and half true from you as usual? You simply do not want to accept the fact that refereeing was against Arsenal in Wigan match, like it was against West Brom in match with ManU. You don’t see that from time to time Arsenal is simply robbed by referees and criminal challenges from players like Tailor and Bowyer (luckily, Arsenal plays did escape couple broken legs in Birmingham). How much of complaining and nonsense we would have to read in your writings, if Fabregas and Sagna would have been injured and Arsenal (and Wenger with his rotation strategy) would have lost this game in Birmingham?
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asif you really starting to talk like a prick now ,are you baz and kemp in disguise ?
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If any of u remember rvp handball came because of jeromes dive and djourous yc
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and i dont think arshavin need to start the game, he must sit on the bench and came up as a super sub, he has the ability but he’s old and cant make an impact on the start of the game.
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@ demongooner, I am ad as I thought u had better brian & intellect. Instead of trying to figure out whether I’m baz or kemp or likewise, it would be better if we keep respecting each other’s opinion & try to find out if there is a common thread which can see our beloved team win. M sure u r blinded with fury/anger as yr logic might not be always acceptable…. never mind… cheers
@ Naglis, what do I say on yr post ??? Answer is simple – if you don’t like our post, don’t read … take a chill pill & snore to glory….
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@demongooner,Tom and any other person who has a problem with Asifs posts, I suggest u drink sum coffee lay down and think about what Asif is writing, he has the balls to tell it as it is,he has true love for the club and a winning mentality unlike yourselfs!! Sum people are winners and sum losers u guys fall in the later! Me, Adam,Asif and a vast amount of others here can see the mistakes made by wenger,we can see he’s five years past his sell by date and we state his faults, what’s the problem in that??
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