Couple of days ago, Arsene Wenger gave an interview to French magazine L’Equipe, where he admitted that his youth project had failed. Takes a big man to admit failure and this proves that the man’s ego isn’t as big as people (including yours truly) make it out to be.

Arseblog News has the English transcript of the interview, in which Wenger was asked if he thought the project he had started had finally come to an end. To which he replied:  ”For the first time since I have been here, I lost young players who were reaching maturity. I suffered. Because it is painful to separate with key players who you have invested a lot in, it’s painful when the results are not good enough. We are fighting with clubs that have far superior means to us. We cannot account for the difference in the financial potential of clubs like Manchester City and ourselves.”

He went on to admit that the summer recruitment wasn’t planned, and compounding the woes was the injury to Wilshere, Vermaelen, Diaby etc. Although the youth project didn’t work out, although we came very close to winning something, I think Arsenal now have a much better chance to win silverware than before. In Arteta we have a creative player who can also be a scrapper.  The midfield suddenly has the steel that we missed. Defensively we look more assured. In Dos Santos we have a left-back who can score goals, something we have missed ever since Ashley Cole decided to move West.

Would I’ve liked if Cesc and Nasri had stayed? Definitely. But I’m more optimistic about our chances in a long time. Let’s beat Dortmund tonight. C’moon you Gunners!

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It was a moral boosting win for the team too. Eight victories in the last nine games shows that the team is on the ascendancy now. The belief is back and I’m not saying they will win the title, but there is a very good chance that they will finish as one of the top four.

With no meaningful football for the past couple of weeks, my friends and I were discussing the developments over the season and it turned out to be quite an interesting discussion. One friend suggested that given the form that we are in, we could possibly go on to win the FA Cup at least, if not the League. While another suggested that it is still too soon to expect Arsenal to win something. Explaining further, he said that Arsenal and Arsene Wenger had known all along that moving to a new stadium would significantly reduce the club’s capacity to fight in the transfer market, and the only way they could keep themselves competitive was to qualify for the Champions League proper.

When asked to explain why, if this was the ambition from the very beginning, did the club not say so and why did the board and the manager always say that they had the money to spend if they wanted to, my friend said that ”Wenger never categorically said that we would WIN the league” and those who thought otherwise were being naïve.

The discussion trailed off to other things, but it made me realise how strong some peoples’ emotions are towards Wenger. Perhaps, for them Wenger is Arsenal and Arsenal is Wenger. I won’t deny that I think Wenger has taken our club forward and he is the best manager we ever had, but for me he is not the most important. Arsenal Football Club is more important than Arsene Wenger.

If qualifying for Champions League was indeed the ambition all along, then Wenger has been LYING to us all along. If we didn’t have the money to compete, then the board should have told the fans. Perhaps it was to ensure that the fans didn’t despair when the likes of Chelsea, United and City were buying players left, right and centre. But, for me, I’d any day like to be told the truth about the club’s financial capabilities rather than living in false hopes. In that respect, I must say I like Harry Redknapp. The old ‘twitchy’ tells things as is..a quality I admire.

What do you think?

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Against Blackburn on Saturday, the defence capitulated once again and Arsenal, from a commanding position, ended up losing 4-3.  The Gunners had an excellent start and dominated proceedings and deservedly went ahead through Gervinho.  Arteta, Ramsey and Song dominated the midfield, allowing  Gervinho, Van Persie and Arshavin to do what they do best.  Arsenal went ahead in the 10th minute and it looked like they had the game well under their control.

In the 25th minute, however, a clever pass from Junior Hoillet between Mertesacker and Koscielny allowed Yakubu to sneak in and flick the ball past Wojciech Szczesny into the net.  At that point it looked like a mere ‘footballing accident’ as Arsenal still dominated and Arteta duly restored their advantage with a superb finish. The score remained 2-1 in Arsenal’s favour at halftime.

Blackburn again equalised in the 50th minute when Alex Song scored an own goal from a freekick. Buoyed by it, Blackburn pressed Arsenal up the pitch, bombarded the area with aerial balls and Arsenal cracked.

Panic set in amongst the players and 2-2 soon turned to 3-2 and then 4-2, with Koscielny scoring another own goal.  Chamakh managed to pull one back late in the 85th minute but it was too little too late.  Arsenal now lie in the 17th position with just 4 points from 5 games and a goal difference of -8, their worst start in 58 years.

At this point of time the manager has to do some serious thinking about what is going wrong with this team.  Why is i that Arsenal always have defensive problems? Some years back the fans complained that the likes of Senderos should be replaced and better defenders brought in.

Arsenal fans saw the likes of Toure, Gallas, Senderos and that Machester United reject go,Koscielny, Vermaelen and now Mertesacker come in…but the defence still leak goal. Why?

None of these are bad players mind you. Djourou, Mertesacker and Vermaelen are regulars with their national teams and have enough experience. Then why do they look so disorganised when playing for Arsenal? Is it because Arsenal lack a proper defensive coach to impart his knowledge?

Arsenal do recognise where the problem lies and to be fair to them they are trying to rectify it. It’s just sad that their little experiment with zonal marking backfired badly against Blackburn.  Common sense dictates that while defending a corner, the tallest player should mark their tallest player.

Against Blackburn with this new system, Metesacker got drawn towards the front post, leaving the others to mark Christopher Samba.  Arsenal were lucky to concede just 4 goals because Samba came pretty close to scoring from corners on a couple of occasions.

Arsene Wenger is under tremendous pressure and it will take a Herculean effort to rescue the season. He must take it one step at a time, the first step is to sort out the defence.

Image Source: Arsenal.com

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Arsenal were a goal down at half-time and had to respond. Robin van Persie made it 1-1 and within five minutes the Italians were awarded a penalty after Tomas Vermaelen was adjudged to have handled inside the box.  Wojciech Szczesny pulled off a brilliant save to deny Antonio di Natale and keep Arsenal in the tie. Later Theo Walcott put the tie beyond Udinese by scoring the second. With the negativity and the media-created doom and gloom surrounding the squad, it was a very astute performance and the players showed true grit and determination.

Following the departure of Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona, Arsenal have sold Samir Nasri to Manchester City.  There transfer window closes on August 31 and Arsenal are yet to find a replacement for the duo, who were perhaps the two best players of the club.  Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere, although very talented, are still quite raw and it will be unfair to expect them to perform the way Cesc and Nasri did.  Perhaps it was a wise decision to let Nasri go, since he was on the last year of his contract and he had refused to sign an extension.  Next summer he would have moved for free so it was better to let him go. And when you receive GBP 24 million for a player who is on the last year of his contract, you really cannot say no.  So now Arsenal have GBP 70 million from the sale of Fabregas (GBP 35 million, Barcelona), Nasri (GBP 24 million, Manchester City), Gael Clichy (GBP 7 million, Manchster City) and Emmanuel Eboue (GBP 4 million, Galatasaray).

Now is the time to spend the amount to bring in experienced players to complement the youth.  With less than a week left before the transfer window closes, Arsene Wenger and the board must act quickly.  Emphasis must be put on the midfield now, because that is where the team are lacking right now in terms of creativity.

It is impossible to find a player to replace Fabregas, but worryingly all the players that were linked with Arsenal have either decided to stay back at their respective clubs or have gone on to join other clubs. This is a cause for worry because being the seventh biggest club in the world, Arsenal do have the financial strength to pay these players. Perhaps the players believe that they don’t stand a genuine chance to win anything if they play for Arsenal. If that is the case, then it really shows how far down the club have fallen since the Invincible days.

Arsenal have lost their chase for Juan Mata, who has joined Chelsea. The Argentinean that we were after a month or two ago has joined Inter, while Edin Hazard has decided to stay with Lille and then there was this story about Arsene trying to bring in Kaka for a season-long loan. Apparently Madrid want to sell him instead of loaning, which Arsenal dont want because at 29, he has no resale value.

The point is, defensively we need a left back because Kieran Gibbs is injury prone and Armand Traore is unreliable. We have three good centrebacks. In defensive midfield we have Alex Song and Emmanuel Frimpong who both are excellent. It is the creative side of the things that need immediate solution or else it is going to be a long and painful season ahead.

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However, to reach such a scenario, Arsenal must not only avoid a defeat tomorrow, they must win the match. The odds are heavily stacked against them. The Gunners were the last team to beat Chelsea at their home ground, when Robin van Persie scored both goals in the 2-1 victory. Since then Chelsea have remained unbeaten in 23 successive home league matches.  Chelsea have the best head-to-head record of the Big Four clubs this season, winning all three league matches without conceding a goal. Arsenal have the worst head-to-head record, losing three of their four matches and conceding nine goals. Didier Drogba, back from the Africa Cup of Nations, has scored 10 goals in his last nine matches against Arsenal in all competitions. The Gunners have only won two of their last 15 competitive games against Chelsea.

In spite of all the statistics, Arsenal can still go ahead and beat their title rivals.  The visitors must fight as a team and close down the Chelsea midfielders, deny them time and space to feed Didier Drogba. Above all, they must believe in their own capabilities, because on their day, this team can beat anybody in the world.

Commenting on the same, Manager Arsene Wenger said: “I know this team wants to do well. But because they haven’t won games against Chelsea or Manchester United yet they have made it harder in their head than it really is. When we get close to winning, we play with the hand brake.” Praising the team’s mental toughness, Wenger added, “But I know the team is mentally strong and dedicated. I see them everyday and I wouldn’t defend them if they didn’t have the right attitude. But they do have to find that final part to win the big games. ” “Last year, with the same team, we didn’t really lose big games. Before we went to Manchester United in the Champions League we didn’t lose a game between November and May. This year we have lost them but we have to bounce back quickly and show everyone how strong we are,” he said. Talking about the importance of tomorrow’s encounter, the Frenchman said: “I know how much the players need these kinds of wins to finish the development of the team. When you play at home in a big game you want to win. You end up frustrated because you know it’s not because the players don’t want it. It’s just because they miss the final push.”

Chelsea themselves have not been too strong in recent weeks. After pummeling Birmingham City, the Blues were held to a 1-1 draw by Hull City. They have also demonstrated a vulnerability to set pieces, which Arsenal must look to exploit.  They will go into the match without the services of Eduardo and Carlos Vela, while Abou Diaby will face a late fitness test.

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