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By Tony Attwood
Just imagine what it would be like if we just had a first team with a few reserve players who could pop in when things were not quite on the boil. That first team would be playing every game, league, FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League. They’d be stitched up when injured to just go out and make up the numbers.
Instead we really do have a double set of players, with a very minimal amount of overlap. (And if Diaby had not been a very naughty boy he could have given Song a rest on Sunday).
Man U are of course playing the same game – two teams, one for the big games, one for the little ones. They squeezed through against Crawley, we drew away to Orient who are a couple of leagues above Crawley and have less money to spend.
Which suggests that the backup squad isn’t quite as good as it ought to be in either case.
But then just how good can you make a backup squad, without ending up with players who think, hang on if I went to Wigan or Tottenham or Blackburn or Bolton or Liverpool, I’d be able to play in the Premier League each week (unless until they get relegated).
Of course there is a counter argument to that which is Bentley, who believed he could rush his way into any club, and encouraged by certain elements in the media and on the blogs, started to believe that Wenger didn’t like English players and always deliberately held them back. So off he went on a meander which eventually took him from the edges of the Arsenal first team, to Tottenham Reserves.
Of course he doesn’t play for Tottenham Reserves any more, but that in part is due to the fact that Tottenham wound up their reserve team and don’t play in the league any more.
This season we have a squad of around 23, something like 18 players out on loan (by the way did you see that Carlos Vela scored on his debut, and that Cardiff – for reasons not yet clear to me – dropped Ramsey and so went on to lose), and then a reserve team – which is where Ignasi Miquel came from (as predicted in this very blog).
So the only question is, why is our second eleven not that little bit better that they can sweep the likes of Orient aside?
Several reasons I think. One is that it is not as easy as we might believe to sweep lesser clubs aside. For them it is the cup final, and they will give everything to get a game out of it. I seem to recall Man U slipping up with Burton and Exeter in recent years, and Liverpool (OK not a top notch team but still with a few decent players kicking around) being knocked out by Northampton.
Herbert Chapman, as we all have read in the history books, took the champions to Walsall and lost 2-0, and as I’ve pointed out several times, we had the devil of a job getting past Port Vale when doing the first Wengerian double.
It is not impossible of course – I remember trotting along to Yeovil to see us win 3-0, and Man City knocked the stuffing out of Notts County (two for Patrick you will have noticed), but it is not an automatic 6-0 thrashing each time.
Another reason is the irregularity of the reserve team playing together as a team. If only they could get more matches together that would really do it, I think. Which takes us into the whacky world of some of Untold’s reforms which just don’t seem to be on the cards (playing a team in the Scottish second division and another in the Spanish second division, or even playing a team in the English Championship).
We are helped by the fact that there is an Arsenal way of playing and we don’t change things around just to suit an individual player, but still, more games for the second XI as a unit would be helpful.
Which is why these replays aren’t such a bad thing. These players get another bash at a game, and of course those who want to get to a game but don’t usually get the chance will be able to buy tickets. (The replay is, I guess, the final cup match on my season ticket which means I’ll have to fork out for the quarter finals of the Champions League, but, ah well. That’s life.)
A final thought: we have got through this season without Vermaelen – clearly our best central defender last season. And yesterday we saw Ignasi Miquel, who looks like he could come through the ranks like Djourou before him. Maybe that’s why another defender hasn’t been bought.
And there’s still…
- Aaron Ramsey
- Carlos Vela
- Kyle Bartley
- Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
- Henri Lansbury
- Craig Eastmond
- Vito Mannone:
- Sanchez Watt
- Benik Afobe
- Ryo Miyaichi
- Gilles Sunu
- Francis Coquelin
- Armand Traoré
- Wellington Silva
- Pedro Botelho
- Samuel Galindo
A very personal note from Tony: Barclays Bank made £11.6bn profit last year and paid 1% tax in Britain. It’s not football, but for me it is just as important. Read the Guardian article if you find it troubling that more is paid in bank bonuses than in tax.
Good article Tony. I have a feeling (I think I read it somewhere but can’t remember where) that Ramsey was injured so he could not play.
I think two best comments I have read about the draw in blogs were : “Arsenal helps economically Lower league teams, they get good money from replay and we can get money for paying our loans” and “As there are fans who love to moan about our player and manager team now gave them chance to do it”. (last one was the idea from Arseblog I think).
Ugandan thanks for the links. I think the Ryo video proves that he really can be a great player. And yes he loses the ball every now and then but which player doesnt? I would love to see him running on our left flank like that. Can you imagine Theo on the right and Ryo in a few years on the left? Oops, off to change my pants.
I think this combination would give many defenders nightmares….
‘ walter
teams are just going to park the bus, it is going to be standard practice when you play arsenal all 11 plyaers stay in the goalkeepers area and just keep kicking the ball out, offside is going to become extinct against arsenal!
ryo didn’t have a good game against den haag by all accounts and he was a victim of quiet a few niggly tackles, but he kept that whole wing quiet.
as for coquelin, i like his fighting spirit and his growth , most people remember him a sthe 16 year ld but just look at the pure athleticism he brings to the game and i think he has acouple of inches to grow yet, a leaner meaner flamini in the making.
A good club PR article:
1. It’s quite possible that Ramsay didn’t play against Forest because he had been on loan for them earlier and there was a gentleman’s agreement. Or there may be some rules which stop him. I don’t know.
2. You can’t run an article a few days ago implying that quite a lot of the youngsters won’t make it at Arsenal (names were after all freely mentioned in that analysis) and then go on about how wonderful it is that Arsenal have them. Make your mind up whether Lansbury, Watt, Eastmond, JET, Vela et al have a future at Arsenal and then, and only then, extol their virtues in articles about how wonderful Arsenal’s squad is. You look like damn fools, particularly when you rant about Arsenal Haters twisting their stories at will……..
3. Vieira scored two goals for City because he’s an unusually good player still playing at a reasonable standard despite his legs being shot for the highest of high levels. He left Arsenal 6 years ago, so you sound like a groupie with no meaning to life trying to claim credit for that. It’s pathetic.
4. Ignasi Miquel is one for the future. He’s not proven, in any way, that he’s ready for the EPL this season. I repeat what I wrote on this site yesterday: do NOT, repeat DO NOT, try to say that Miquel is the reason Wenger didn’t buy a defender. Wenger didn’t buy a defender because he wouldn’t get his cheque book out, which means the finances are more important than tilting the odds in his favour to win the title. That’s a reasonable position for a manager to take, but that’s the position he took. If you think Miquel will win Arsenal the title this season, you say so. I’m sure Wayne Rooney will be looking forward to locking horns with him……..and I’ll be the first to cheer if I’m proven wrong on that one………..
5. Bentley left Arsenal because he wanted to play football and he told Wenger he could see players ahead of him who he couldn’t better, notably Pires. He behaved completely properly in his departure and for you to imply otherwise is a slander you should be pubnished for. Withdraw that comment or I will report you to Arsenal FC for conduct prejudicial to the good reputation of the club………….please return to the public comments of Arsene Wenger about that transfer and publicly brand him a liar. I’m looking forward to you printing that….because either you must withdraw this comment or your Lord Wenger is a liar………your choice, mate………
One more thing: I didn’t see you extolling the skills of Ashley Cole from the penalty spot.
As a former Arsenal player, I’m sure you must have been gutted for him……….
Not forgetting Emmanuel Frimpong!
Critic – seems a bit immature to call a gooner fan an idiot because they express a view that is different to yours. But maybe its a cultural thing.
I like Bendtner a lot but I do wonder if he is going to get enough firsst team football with us.
Rambo did not play because he had a thigh injury. ANd if you read the Cardiff City blogs they are desperate for him to staay lonnger and have rated him at 8 for the last couple of games.
They are not so kind about JET – say he is slow and has a bad attitude.
@Rhys Ramsay was reported doubtful for the game with a leg injury on Friday with a test scheduled for the following day. Obviously he wasn’t fit.
I’d agree that Miquel is probably not yet ready for the big time game though with the little had to do on Sunday, he did it very coolly, calmly and collectedly…and that 50 odd yard pass made me purr with contentment. As for their equaliser, I suspect that many better players may have been caught out by that bit of Messi-anic skill.
@ Rhys, I love the way you are trying to be pathetic and the fact that you don’t read bitween the lines, obviously not a usual reader of the great Untold Arsenal.
I am pretty sure Tony would agree more with most of you say as an external reader and so do I.
Indeed Miquel is not ready, just 18, one game in hand, who could say he his ready to fire with big guns?
Also do you really think you can compare the Cashley story of the departure of Vieira or Pires? comon, get back to earth, I hailed Vieira this week end for his 2 goals, he has been our great captain and help arsenal to achieve things, what cashley have done for arsenal but to give headaches to us