It was a huge disappointment for Arsenal fans to lose to Manchester United, as it always is. But the anger and frustration was heightened so much because they were there for the taking and just like last season, Arsenal let them off the hook. So I can understand the fans being furious, but I do not think we should blame Arsene Wenger for this one.
THe only way the Le Prof should be held culpable, in my book, is that we were having to play with Nacho Monreal alongside Per Mertesacker because of his failure to sign another centre back in the summer transfer window. And the injuries to Koscielny and Debuchy were simply unlucky.
After that, however, Wenger got his tactics right, while his opposite number Louis van Gaal’s decision to play two inexperienced centre backs in a back three was not a good idea. And the Dutchman should be the one under pressure today, but he probably cannot believe his luck. Instead of getting thumped they went home with an undesereved three points and in the top four.
The reason we didn’t punish them, despite controlling the game, creating plenty of chances, and never being troubled by the United attack until they scored, is simple. The players did not perform. Ramsey, Welbeck, Wilshere, Chamberlain and even Alexis were guilty of over playing and poor finishing. That is not something you can blame on Wenger and I am fairly sure that it was not his idea for Mertesacker to go high up on the right wing and leave Monreal with Rooney and Di Maria to deal with on his own.
Wenger will take the responsibility as managers do, but the players must start to help their boss out and take some responsibility of their own….
Fairs
Why doesn’t Wenger spend 80 million in the Summer window that buys him world class players that haven’t played Champs lg than spend 40million in summer then a further 40million in Jan that only buys back up players as the better ones are Cup tied, can some one explain that or am I silly like Wenger CB
Man, you just upset a whole bunch of reality dodgers. Cue the ad hominem attacks in 5, 4, 3, 2…
Wenger must be the only manager in the history of football that is never held responsible for the way his team performs. Its always someone else’s fault. Now that’s reality dodging.
@nickw
Guess instead of reading the article, you just followed in lock step and started making false assumptions.
Keep hope alive…
I read it, I just disagree with it that’s all.
@nickw
Fair play to you then…
Stop the stupidity NY, just stop it. There is nothing left to defend about Wenger. The team is Ina free fall, we need a change, we can not Cham
Meg all the players but we can change a manager who has been extremely poor for many seasons now. He has failed to complete the team, to motivate the team and create a tactically astute team. This is all his fault, he has bought and traines every single player in that squad. There really is no one else to blame. He has to go for a chance of anything good happening to this team.
When we won the FA cup, I called a friend of mine who lives in HK, a true Gunner, he was not happy at all, he just said this just means more yeArs with Wenger – how right he was.
Whatever needs to happen for that old fart to resign and go back to France. – whatever terrible score or finish to the league needs to take place for that asshole to leave, I would be happy with it.
@jimbeam
You need to get over yourself dude. Maybe you’ve been downing too much of your namesake…
I always said he would one day put Mertasacker on the wing. It happened.
Must be an absolute nightmare to play alongside Mertesacker. Thought that Monreal did OK but as for all the Sacks partners there is too much to do. I don’t want to keep banging on about this but am I alone in thinking that this guy is a liability ?
I disagree with your point about Monreal. Wenger could have and should have played Chambers in the CB position and played Bellerin in the RB position.
Nevertheless, Wenger has made lots of tactical errors this season. In addition to the above, he has made tactical errors with positional play of Ozil and Cazorla, not playing Campbell and Podolski, late substitutions.
Regardless of him not signing more top players, even with the players we DO have, if Wenger had not made these errors of judgement we would have MORE points.
Therefore this season Wenger has:
1. Not signed enough top players
2. Not played players in their right positions
3. Not played the right formations
4. Not made the right substitutions and made late substitutions
For a top club, How do you defend a manager who does this? If he did better in these 4 points, I would lay blame on the players
What I don’t get are fans that always say “Wrong formation”….
We can say anything about players and their positions, can comment on the manager lacking tactical awareness and in game tactics etc..
But saying wrong formation is beyond most of us, we can say things like “I think we should have tried this formation, or played this player in his position etc”.
Fans think they know what formation we should play but If you are to ask 5 of them to name that formation everyone will come up with their own.
There is no Wrong formation, it’s just a personal thing for every manager…
Once a formation is not working then it’s a wrong formation its as simple as that…..@ GOONSTER
He makes these same mistakes year after year. Bellerin will never get experience until he’s aloud to play
Oh he will get his time when he goes on loan why buy him if he can’t get a game He is a full back he should be given his time now he can’t be any worse than Chambers who would be better at Center back and drop Mertisaker PLEASE CB
This is d season; the period that Wenger will run out of aLl possible excuses.
Well sad Bob – Terry Barry
Sorry – that should read ‘Well said Bob’ – Terry Barry
Wenger selects the team.
Wenger allowed the team to commit 9 bodys forward with monreal alone to defend, ofcourse a 2nd goal was comming.
Exactly.!!!
Bob you say
“The players did not perform,
over playing and poor finishing.
That is not something you can blame on Wenger”
Who do we blame then? The man in the moon?
Wenger has had many of these players for years
but he or the board simply can not or are unwilling
to take this team to the next level.
We know 4th place is the goal each season
and the Manager and the players know too.
They know they can afford to drop several games
because winning the title is not required.
Manager board + players are uinder no pressure to actually
win a big trophy that’s why they lack that extra edge.
Yes, but I disagree that the players are under no pressure. They’re probably under the MOST pressure. They have to go out and perform under bizarre circumstances like being played out of position(monreal, ozil, cazorla, chambers), not being played at all, (podolski, campbell), adjust to poor tactics and substitutions, play through injuries (koscielny, ozil), not play at all because of injuries(long list), adapting to new positions(arteta at CDM, Chambers at RB).
No it’s just wenger and the board that are under no pressure. Wenger’s they’re best friend. Basically a member of the board himself already because of his knowledge of economy and good business. Why would they fire him?
Nope I’m sorry to say this cause I respect the man. But Wenger is our own worst enemy at the moment.
Time for Wenger to go, enough is enough.
Well, was he actually just sitting there wondering why Mertesacker was so high up the pitch like the rest of us spectators???
I can see Giroud player CB soon… 🙂
Nothing is impossible with that joke of a manager.
The only way Wenger will willingly leave is if we finish outside the Europa league spots… Even with that, he could come up with another excuse like “we are privileged to be in the BPL”…!!
We played well yesterday. We dominated the game, had so many chances, we just didn’t take them. Is that Wenger’s fault? No, but it looks like we need some more shooting practice in training.
Was Wenger to blame for the goals we conceded? Well, kind of.. I won’t go into the first goal, other than saying that I don’t see it as Wenger’s fault. The second goal however was just unbelievable. You can play that way in perhaps the 89th minute plus stoppage time, but Mertesacker started playing as a CF from about the 70th minute. Monreal was the only man back. Plus Arteta diving into tackles instead of tracking back when we were hit on the break highlighted our weakness in the DM role again.
Again it goes back to Wenger taking a gamble in the summer with only two centre backs in the squad and inadequate holding midfielders. The gamble didn’t pay off, now we’re paying the price.
Was Wenger solely responsible for these decisions? Who knows, but someone was responsible, and that someone has cost us dearly so far this season, perhaps even cost us Champions League football next season..
I don’t put that loss down to Wenger. I put that loss down to our team not being able to put the ball in the back of the net when it’s on a plate for them. Nonetheless I still think we need a change.
On a slightly more positive note – we actually looked a threat from corners that game, for once. Good delivery and organisation. Much better, though unfortunately we didn’t score..
We stop to stop making excuses for Wenger. The simple fact is that all this could have been avoided had wenger made the signings everyone was begging him to make. This happens every season. WE SHOULD BE TIRED OF SETTLING FOR MEDIOCRITY.
Mate even if he had made those signings we still wouldn’t be challenging,cos Wengers been left behind in all aspects of the game.We are a club in transition until Wenger leaves
With the years behind him Wenger should have the experience to cover for defense casualties he knows are going to happen. He needed an extra centre back and fullback, that was standard,
you don`t have to be on his wages to understand that. He didn`t even attempt it. To give the team more defensive capability against the best strikers on the planet he need a central defensive midfielder to break down the counter attacks, he was not naïve here, he was ignorant.
Bergkemp may not like aero planes ,but we need him as manager and Theirry has no problems with flying so he can go in his place as assistant and coach. With all the modern technology we have he can be on the side line sat in his chair at home and running the scheme.
May I add. What Bergkemp and Henry would bring back you can`t buy, they would lift the Arsenal spirit. Their statues stand as evidence of that.
Arsenal draw with Anderlect Wenger says we were naive, we lost to Swansea Wenger Wenger says we’re naive, we loose to Manu Wenger says we were naive, he’s the manager for crying out loud and if the players aren’t doing what he wants then change it, what’s naive is those we who thinks Wenger is not to be blamed. He’s seems unable to get his point/desire across, or the players are simply ignoring him, and if that’s true then it’s time for a change
True, we created chances that we couldn’t finish.
But we still have issues on offense. We misplace so many passes, no one is really making runs, and there’s on cohesiveness in the middle.
And still. STILL. We don’t have consistent player to take our set pieces. Wha guan with that?
So with 75% possession and 9 shots on target compared to 2 we’re describing this as a terrible performance ? The reality is finishing was uncharacteristically poor and defensive errors were made but do not forget that for their first goal Gibbs was shoved into Szcesney by Fellaini and the officials must have seen it. Luck does play a big part in some games and on another day Arsenal would have won this 3-0. No doubt the defense lack experience and new players are needed at CB and LB. What has happened to Kieran Gibbs ?
To me Gibbs was not as bad as you all want to believe. he was shoved into the goalkeeper by the Fellaini!
This is the same manager that managed the invincible team, he knows what they should be doing and do you think they are not told to keep players back ? Sometimes players simply aren’t intelligent enough to follow basic instructions.
save your breath these people know nothing
The league has moved on its much more competive now than it was 10years ago,Wenger hasn’t moved with the times,tis what made Fergie so great.So im afraid mentioning the invincibles is just not good enough,that was then he’s lost it now
You can say we were solid in midfield, and we should’ve got more goals up front – down to the players, but the defence were appalling – like they’d not done any preparation at all. It didn’t help that Monreal and Chambers were yet again being played out of position, and of course everyone knows about Wenger getting rid of three class defenders – Jenko, Verm and Sagna and only recruiting two, thus weakening further our defence, and not recruiting the DM we have needed forever, but Steve Bould used to be one of the best defenders around – I can’t believe that he has coached them to play like this? And why didn’t Wenger change the forward line up earlier? It was clear the current setup wasn’t working by the amount of goals we’d missed. The whole Podolski situation is really irritating as well – we needed someone to smash the ball into the net, and who does that? These are all clearly management and coaching errors – other managers change up and use different players when the situation dictates or players aren’t performing, why can’t ours?
I will continue to say this: give a morinho these same set of players and he will win the title. Wenger has lost it period!
Mourinho would never manage a team with the budget Arsenal have had. Chelsea are successful because of Abramovich more than Mourinho.
Mourinho would never agree to work with the budget given to Arsene. It is Abramovich, not Mourinho, who has really brought success to Chelsea.
i know people don’t understand this. they think pep and mourinho are great coaches but they would be sh*t on the budget wenger had
F*ck that, this season budget is no excuse, he had the money to buy the right players but he didn’t he made very poor decisions like selling Vermalean and not replacing him and remember he admited that mistake, Welbeck is not even a Wenger signing, he loaned out Jenkinson, did not sign a DM,
Pep Guardiola is a very good coach, otherwise he was not gonna be given to take charge the Barca team, when he came to Barcelona he changed almost the entire team, he changed the way they play and he won 14 cups including a Champions L in 4 years. Now that’s a coach with a vision and that’s why he can be entrusted with great teams like Bayern because he guarantees titles.
Mourinho won the champions League with Porto, so i think he could work with the budget Wenger has.
How many games do you have to win to win the Champions league? Have you seen how Chelsea won it? So you must not always reference that.
Now i see, stupid comments gets thumbed up just because it is antiarsenal or anti wenger, if i say arsenal should end in the rock bottom of the table i might get 30 thumbs up, lol, this homies need psychiatrists. What a dumb, dumber, dumbest, comment ever, why didn’t mourinho win a cup last season with the players he had?
Soz for repeating. It told me that the first comment failed.
Wenger said it himself not so long back that our target every season is to ensure a top 4 finish
He is to blame. Any serious manager with attacking resources like Podoslki, Giroud, Campbell, Rosicky would have made some changes. LVG said Welbeck is not scoring enough goals and we took him and he appears to be worse than Giroud. Did you see how he tried to backheel a goal yet he could have turned with the ball and score!
I agree. Wenger has personally cost of lots of games this year with poor tactics and the wrong lineup and not getting substitutions right. The Man U game was not one of them. His only error was starting Monreal but he got away with that mistake.
Can I ask who is responsible for 9 of our 10 outfield players being in the Man U half when Rooney was set free for his goal? Surely Wenger should be on the touchline shouting for someone to drop back and add a little defensive cover in case we lost the ball? I guess he’ll blame the players for that.
Why did the team play so narrow. It seems that most of our attacks were confined to the middle section of their 18 yard box. When we did exploit the wings we had success. So in my eyes Wenger IS to blame. Everyone knows his system, everyone knows he has no plan B. We don’t have the players we did 10 years ago who could out score the opposition and even if we did football has evolved way past Wenger’s philosophies. The problem is he either won’t or can’t adapt. I personally feel it’s a case of he won’t. He is desperate to prove his way still works.
Now i’m by no means a fan of Brendan Rogers, but he at least has come out and said he takes full responsibility for Liverpool’s defeat to Crystal Palace. Why can’t Wenger do the same. Instead he appeared to stare out onto the pitch with a look of disbelief almost. How dare Man U score against us like that, it’s not fair because we only had one defender back. Well Come Wenger like I said you could have called one or two men back but you didn’t.
Our other problem is the lack of depth in the squad. However even with more depth I doubt we’d be doing much better. Almost every regular first team player knows that all they need to do is stay fit and they are in the team. No-one is there to compete so why would the regulars have to worry or perform to a higher level when they know they will play and know they will get paid handsomely no matter how they perform.
I’ve said this so many times now. Thank you Mr Wenger for all the great times, for the doubles, for the Invincibles, for allowing me to witness the likes of Bergkamp (I know he was bought by Rioch), Henry, Pires, Overmars, Petit and so on. But now the time has come to say farewell. To all the AKB’s, when your car, washing machine, fridge, TV etc keeps going wrong you don’t keep repairing it in the hope it’ll get to be as good as new again, you buy a new one. The same principles need to apply here. There is a growing number of fans who have accepted that under Wenger we will not be the dominant force again that we once were. We don’t need to abuse him for his failings now. We need to guide him away. Let him know that we love him for what he has done. But we need him to realise his time has come. The best thing he can do is stand down.
I honestly believe we could have the likes of Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola. why wouldn’t they want to manage a huge club? We also need to remind the board that it is US the PAYING public that keeps their pockets lined. Our money allows them to live the life of riley. Our money goes into filling those seats week in week out. We deserve to have a team that WINS, the challenges for titles, that is up there with the giants of Europe. Just like we were told we would be when Emirates stadium was being dreamed up.
On Saturday night, for the first time in my life, I watched MOTD after Arsenal had lost. Never before have I been able to do that, the pain was always too much. My passion for Arsenal too much to see them being defeated. But sadly I have reached a point where I have accepted that we aren’t good enough. Accepted that defeat is becoming a more common experience. I can feel my love for this club slowly draining away because I feel like that only thing that matters to the hierarchy of this club is their bank balance. They feed the fans lip service but ultimately they all go home after a match, shrug their shoulders and settle back into their big sofas in their big houses behind big metal gates somewhere in Hampstead or Surrey or whatever posh area they live in, whilst the fans go home £100 per head poorer. What has happened to my Arsenal?!!
I feel you man, I feel you.
same mistakes in three consecutive games and you say the manager is not to blame? Who is responsible for the style of play? “we attack as a team, and we defend as a team”. Who said that? Wenger did. “I am an attacking manager”. Who said that? Wenger did. Every player out of the 11 players on the field has a role to play. Strikers are to score goals, midfielders are to dictate the flow of the game (play makers), and defenders are to, well, you guessed it….DEFEND!I don’t think Wenger has been ruthless enough in the dressing room with the way the team defends. If he has, Per with all his experience would not have been bombing forward the way he did and leaving ample space for Rooney and Di Maria to exploit. He did it several times in the match and Wenger should have stood his butt up to shout instructions from the sidelines.