http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8500129.stm

AW @: 0:35

“It;s difficult to accaept a defeat like that. But at the end of the day, we were not awake…we were guilty…”

That is what AW said.
And what I said is earlier is written above.

Another blogger here taught me an expression, ‘lying by omission’ (Thanks!). It’s a lame tactic, if it is deliberate.

I think you’re doing it again in the next article, (well-endowed gooner.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:08 am) by stating that winning the the FA Cup was more important then finishing fourth in the league. Unfortunately, it isn’t. That’s the reality the club and manager have to deal with, they can’t change what they say and do as easily as you do upon their behalf.

If what you are saying is that the club can defend better, I don’t think anyone would disagree with you, but that isn’t what you seem to be saying. All I can say in reply to your Hidden Agenda that by observing that a Communication Breakdown that leads to a goal, or three, is down to tactics or a style of play, & because of ‘coaching’, is not a very useful statement.
Coaching is a general term, I don’t really know much about football on a tactical level but if it was that easy I’m sure we could all coach football. If what you’re saying is the team can defend better, no one would disagree with you. You could say that because they are all ‘foreigners’ that they don’t speak the same mother tongue, and that would make more sense then saying they can’t defend.

And to answer your other points.
I am completely ignorant of the clubs finances. But like Alan Green who hosts a podcast where he indulges all his emotions and vents all his rage, partially in caricature with others, it’s very funny because of that, but he quantifies that with his unambiguous assessment of the job he’s done for AFC. So, therefore, he can say what he likes on his podcast about players etc…IMO, but it is a different medium, more appropriate to such flippant banter. I note he spends more time abusing himself and the opposition then Arsenal, Hmmmm…

For me as well, in context, AW is not a crook, and has earned my trust.

But I believe people like to have wish lists:

So so to save time & energy I’m going to pirate a post by shotta-gunna too answer your whinge about transfers:

” If wishes were horses, all beggars would ride!

” I just love the English Solution. In the past two years alone the following teams have bought big name strikers at various points in the window, yet their current position is inferior to Arsenal. The Scum and ManArab have spent real big on 4 or 5 strikers in the hope they had back-ups for the back-up. The results are questionable at best sufficient to say spending-big is a crap shoot at best. Below are figueres from Wiki:
• Man City: (Tevez – £47 million, Bellamy – £14 million, Adebayor – £25 million, Roque Santa Cruz – £17.5 million) – Current league position 6th
• Spurs: (Defoe – £15.75m, Crouch – £10 million, Keane – £12/16 million, Pavlyuchenko – £14 million ) – Curent league position 5th.
• Sunderland: (Bent – £16.5 million) – Current league position 13th.
• Villa (Hesky – £3.5 million) – Current league position 7th

I have ignored ManUSA’s £30.75 million boondoggle in the form of Berbatov cause they are better placed in the League despite the Berba-swoon. I am sure that proponents of “Arsene should have spent big in January” will try to massage the raw data data to suit their point of view. But figures don’t lie, do they? ”

By: shotta-gunna on February 8, 2010
at 9:35 pm On ACLF ( Sorry Untold Arsenal)

http://11gunners.com/opinion/a-perfect-exhibition-of-the-elephant-syndrome/3081/

And you certainly don’t go sitting in a corner and act like a baby or a spoiled little child that doesn’t get a candy in the supermarket and is stamping on the floor and crying his longs out.
I’m past that age.

And Mark got it right……..the only thing that is preventing this group of players from winning trophies is SELF BELIEF.

Will we help them believe? Or will we believe in the other cunts who play for the teams we hate?

Vermaelen, is the dominating aggressive centrehalf we have been needing to complement Gallas. He has got a lot of potential and have been impressing hugely. His long balls and passing is adding a new dimension to the attacking play. He is, in my humble opinion, struggling with some players when it comes to keeping the balance between when to go into their bodies or stand off. This is something he will learn very soon, and certainly 95% of the time he is excellent. Good article, refreshing to read something else than the doom and gloom that is the opposite of where the club actually is

I wonder if it would be possible to create a sibling club at Arsenal.
Hear me out here.

It would be called Arsenal 2 and would have all the rights afforded to Arsenal. Image rights etc etc etc. We could then reconstruct Highbury, and either Arsenal 1 or Arsenal 2 could make it their home.

Okay, so you have Arsenal 2.

Its a franchise type thing I guess.

Then you sell it for a fantastic sum to a rich Arab/Russian/Oriental magnate/oligarch/sheikh/criminal.

It comes with complete rights to the Arsenal franchise brand.

It can be run on any model that the owner likes, but I would suggest the peceniary arboretum model.

The great thing about such a Franchise would be that it is “good to go” straight from the bag.

There are a guestimated 30,000 supporters gagging to support such a club…..hint they are called D and G -ers.

imagine all the positives.

We make fantastic sums selling the franchise, we lose the hangers-on, and we loosen up some stadium space for genuwine supporters……

If we had shared the points with Man U and Chelsea we would be top of the league.

The fact that we didn’t, and the way we lost to Chelsea and Man U at home has got the D and G ‘ers in a froth.

The real problem for this team though has, IMO, got nothing to do with quality. Nothing to do with new signings, nothing much to do with the manager.

The real problem is self-belief.

Viera, Bergkamp, TH, Petit, Adams etc all had high levels of self-belief.

Some of our players lack that right now – maybe the fact that we lost so badly at home shows that they froze.

If you picked out an EPl best 11 , we would have 3/4 players in there (Nasri, Fabregas, Sagna, Arshavin).

Most of our players are top quality, no question about it.

Arsene can try and instill self-belief, but ultimately only players like Song, Nasri and Arshavin can stand up and say:

“I am world class, and can prove it”

Until they believe that, the team cannot progress from prominence to dominance.

AW has done the right thing letting them play the game he has instilled.
Attacking football.

Why should we not?

If the players had true self-belief, we would end up putting Chelsea and Man U back in their box.

I’m an Antwerp guy like Walter, but now living in Thailand (for many years).
In my humble oppinion the biggest problem Arsenal are facing is the fact that none of his teammembers have faith in Almunia, and that there seems to be a bit of animosity between Fabregas and Arshavin.
I became an Arsenal fan whilst living here simply because except for the BPL there is litte football aired in Thailand and for me Arsenal play the most attractive football of all the BPL teams.I don’t need them to win siverware as long as I can enjoy what the players perform on the pitch.
However having said that can someone please tell A.W. that he should get rid of Walcott.
Best regards from a very warm Bangkok.
Stan

I’ve got nothing against the philosophy of sound finances. The idea of debt-driven football is abhorrent to me. But why are we doing the opposite? If 75% of a transfer fee must be reinvested in the squad, and we raked in 44 million from Toure and Adebayor, why didn’t we spend more than the 10 million on Vermaelen to replenish the squad? Why did we use that surplus to extend the contracts of the rest of the squad?

Let’s hope I am wrong about the season!!

Cheers.