I suggest we ignore posters who come with “X, Y and Z are hopeless” posts.

Not sure why Diaby was preferred to Eduardo as a forward in a 433 – I guess for some reason Lord Wenger didn’t want to start Eduardo. Nevertheless, of our eleven potential forwards, we have too many injured. Arshavin, Walcott, Vela and Nasri are injured; Eduardo and Rosicky are not fully fit; Wilshere will only start in the EPL in the second half of the season. This means that in the last two games we started Eboue and Diaby as forwards. And we still were the better team for both matches. Why are supporters so negative?

Please allow me to hark back to a previous guest article. When Denilson was on the pitch, they scored from a set piece. Their other goals came after we took off Denilson.

On a more negative note, I thought that Bellamy had a great game. His tracking back was an example for us.

Clattenburg could have had a perfect day if he had booked Adebayor for his dangerous challenge against Cesc early on. You could see the vennon in the tackle, it was aimed at his leg-ankle an very very dangerous. Like I said before if Cesc would have kicked the ball the other way it would have been a leg breaking tackle. So a yellow card was the least Clattenburg should have given. Instead he talked with Adebayor. In my country they sometimes use the expression it was an orange card (yellow card but very close to red).
For the rest I thought he was rather tolerant for challenges from City players. I remember when Song got kicket by 2 players and lost possesion because of that and when Song kicked Adebayor in frustratino he got booked. There where many simular incidents that I noticed. But then again this has sometimes to do with the angle you look at it.
On the Van Persie incident : if you see a player lashing out with his foot towards an opponent this is always red. I must say I knew before that I had to look carefully because I saw that part of the game later on but in this case if the ref had seen it then he can be put in the same list like Dean. No ball in sight, kicking at a player : no excuse possible = dark red (as they call it in my country)
The hand of God – Barry – in this case : it was a penalty. No doubt. He jumped up with his hands wide open and if you do this and the bal hits your arm= penalty. I must say that because of the congestion in the box the ref maybe couldn’t see it. There were several bodys between the ref and Barry. So I wont condem him but if he had seen it he should have given the penalty.
So we can feel wrong done by some decisions, specially the incidents with Cesc en RVP, but I tend to forgive him the handball as I assume he didn’t see it.

as a referee yourself,there is very little comment about Mark Clattenburg’s part in this match. What was your opinion of how he handled the match ? Especially the tackles on Cesc and RVP and the Barry handball. It is relevent as the game could have turned, if the ref had been a bit more consistent.

Anup why don’t you ask that “arsenal insider blog” the opposite ? Maybe he is being payed by Usmanov to write those things ?

Well anyway, I hope that if there is money left Tony will remember me. LOL.

LOL Sorry Tony but couldn’t resist it.

Almunia is as good a keeper as any in the premier league (which of course might still mean that he’s not much good) and I agree with others that Clichy could use a rest as he’s not playing up to his usual very high standard. As for yesterday if Adebayor had been sent off as he should have been for the foul on RvP when the score was 1-1, the outcome would have been very different.

Let’s be clear though I love this site dearly I am not a full AKB fan. All leaders make mistakes and Wenger has many areas on which he needs to work – I have enormous respect him and think that he is the best man for the job.

The good thing is on here we can have a decent conversation about the areas of contention without it denigrating into puny insults and aggression!

these last two defeats are sure to be good inspiration for the players. we have just been beaten by two very good teams, neither time because we were worse. Arsene now knows how good teams score against us, and he will use this info to block up the holes.

the other posters (bar barry) have it right. we need to get some wins under our belts, points on the board and leave this past fortnight behind us.

There ARE areas of concern. I do admit to some strong doubts over Almunia (and the back up or lack thereof) and the team’s defensive steel and ability to close big games out. I also worry that when Gallas and/or Vermaelen are injured we are scraping the barrel in terms of cover. The Djorou situation was preventable and you have to feel we should have brought in one more defensive player as cover (using the money we gained through the sale of Toure & Vermaelen).

That said, defense is a clear area the team can and undoubtedly will address. Wenger has already identified it in his post-match comments as an area of concern.

I popped onto ‘Le Grove’ earlier and with sad predictability the D&G merchants are frothing at the mouth with bitter fury about Wenger having too much power, being past it, that he is killing the club, the players are jokes, David Dein is the real reason for success, the experiment having failed, the season already being over…I could go on & on!

The vitriol is startling for it’s aggression, viciousness and the finality behind the comments

Here is a sample from one Rob Green –

“I hope the people on here who defend wenger, the buying policy, song, denilson, diaby will now realize we are not as good as you think!! I am so pissed off!! wenger is a c*nt!! thats all I can say!! I am to angry to even talk about adebayor!! AKB’s when will admit than wenger does not know best!! We already have injury problems and lost two games!!!! and we have only played 6 games!!

Its a fucking disgrace!! Wenger will never change!! SACK WENGER”

It seems these people are happier to ignore the performances in question and are focusing purely on the last 2 results. In short they would as soon throw the baby out with the bath water.

I am sick of seeing our club hamstrung by the division amongst the fans. We all want the same thing and whilst Wenger should not be above critique, this appallingly ungrateful, rude and shabby treatment of a manager who has worked minor miracles to take our club into the modern era – without bankrupting it – is nothing short of disgusting.