No longer a one man band as Arsenal Bouldly go
Key signing
By Boris Mellor
August 20 2012
I am unable to report on the opening game of the season due to the fact I refused to curtail my holiday for what was almost certainly due to be a non-event. Hong Kong proved to be far more exciting than anything Arsenal serve up first day of the season these days. I predicted a draw, and although that makes me a pessimist, a crime in many fans eyes, I was proved right, and inundated with frustrated texts of anguish from those who were there.
However, you will hear no predictions of doom from me based on one game, clearly there is enough talent in the squad to finish in or around the top four. However you will not hear any predictions of winning the league or CL from me either. For this team still cannot break down packed defences, and we will wait to see if the defence has actually improved. Of course it’s possible the team will win a lesser trophy, indeed anything is possible in football, after all who expected Chelsea to win CL with a weakened and aging squad. But to win a cup they will need to find the kind of guts that teams like Birmingham, or the detested Chelsea, show in finals.
It is also very difficult to preview a season when players are leaving the club right up to kick off (Song), or their future is still under doubt (Walcott), and new players could still come in (Sahin).
Indeed it is quite safe to go on holiday until about mid – September which is the time that Wenger now usually starts his season. The first month now replaces a pre-season training undermined by want away Captains. Of course we can argue about who is to blame for this state of affairs, but what cannot be denied is that the state of affairs exists.
Some Arsenal fans are beginning to parody the supporters of old communist state capitalist regimes, which every time an official fell from grace the party faithful declared they had always know the disgraced official was corrupt, greedy, incompetent etc, one often wonders how they went undetected for so long. Thus yesterday’s heroes become one season wonders, greedy, lazy or untalented, you pay your dues and takes your choice as to what term of abuse you use.
Not that these terms of abuse may not apply, after all footballers are indeed overpaid, and some are clearly lazy, but what is strange is that no one notices that, in most cases, until they ask to leave. To criticise Song last season was to bring calls of traitor upon one’s head, now fans queue up to denounce him. Once again it may be true about Song, I have no way of knowing, it’s just the sudden change in line that amuses and bemuses me. It does also raise the question as to why, if the alleged crimes have happened why the situation is allowed to persist for so long. If Song hadn’t touted himself around Europe would he have been asked to go?
To Bouldly go?
Rumour has it that Song crossed Steve Bould (who has no hair, but we don’t care) which if true more fool Song. I sort of hope it is true, because what is true is that this team, bar a few individuals, often lacks commitment. I would like to think that Bould will destroy the cosy conditions where under talented players are overpaid and molly coddled. Looking at Saturday’s team sheet it is good to observe that the influence of the Colney Creche is shrinking. Hard-nosed pros that deliver the goods (like Arteta) week in week out are what is needed, not players that fade in and out.
No one man band
Player’s like Carzola and Podolski will need time to settle in, but if they are seasoned pros with the right attitude then hopefully that won’t take too long. Arsenal were described as a one man band as RvP had his wonder season, not for the first time, remember Ian Wright and Thierry Henry. After all a one man band is better than a no man band.
The team can no longer look to RvP to open the scoring, the big question is can this group of players learn to play effectively without the one man virtuoso, or will they all continue to be unable to hit a barn at 10 yards, of whom Gervinho I think of the first. New tactics may be required, and new heroes will need to step up. Its early days, and as one contributor put it trudging home from yet another disappointing match, “it could be a long season”.
Indeed, it will probably be a roller coaster too, but to my mind the most interesting signing is Steve Bould. For ethos and lack of team spirit has been a bigger problem over the last few years than the weakness of the overall squad. True the squad, at times, has lacked depth, and investment, and it has also lacked true grit. If Bould can transmit his own sense of resolve and ethos to those that need it, and create a team that works and fights as a team, then the season could prove far better for Arsenal than the pundits expect. Whether he will get the chance to do so remains to be soon.
Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:08:26:18:32:04 by Padre Pio.
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
Since the end of WW1, 1919, when the FA restarted its 4 tier football league, with Arsenal fc in the 1st div, there’s only ever been one club to have never been relegated from Div 1/ EPL.
Arsenal fc
Let’s keep making history