Gunners can be the new Barcelona
By Avenell Dave
It’s often said that Arsenal play the most attractive football in England, a self-fulfilling prophecy which is all well and good when things are going smoothly, but doesn’t seem to apply when we’re stuffed by our nearest rivals yet again.
The Arsenal Addict silence over the past few days has not been a fit of pique over what has gone wrong, nor devastation at the defeat against the Ch*vs on Sunday.
The sad thing is that the defeat at Stamford Bridge was so, so predictable and there was almost a lack of tension amongst the Gooners because of the resignation that we just aren’t good enough.
So much has been written about the lack of a striker, the weakness in goal and our inexperience and we can only hope that there is a revision of policy in the summer so that the move to the new stadium makes us more competitive against the rivals as well as the minnows when the new season is upon us.
We can have a glimmer of hope about winning the Champions League but in truth, if we can’t beat the best in England, can we really expect to do so in Europe?
Graham Mac and I were lucky enough to go to Barcelona this weekend and watch Barca against Getafe at the Camp Nou.
It was surreal in many ways. The stadium was almost full, Getafe were in the top six and yet there was a lack of atmosphere, a lack of edge to the game with Getafe looking as if they simply wanted to show up and take it all in before going home without being humiliated.
Regardless of their position, the visitors hardly threatened, even when Barca went down to ten men.
It was all too easy for the home side, whose talent and experience and aura had clearly had a pre-match impact on their opponents.
It was only when Barca went down to nine men that Getafe slightly threatened, winning a penalty late into injury time that made the score more respectable but underlined how Barca had never really had to get out of second gear.
It underlined to us how different football is on the continent and reminded me that Barca, who don’t have a huge number of giants in their team, are so much more accomplished than Arsenal.
Watching the Arsenal match the next day, the first goal underlined a lack of defensive organisation, the second was a goal from the moment the Ch*vs started their counter-attack.
In so many of our recent games against the Ch*vs and M*nure, we’ve been out muscled and out thought or given a lesson in being professional by sides who may or may not be a great deal better than us.
But watching Barca on Saturday, it occurred to me that while they pay much bigger fees for players than we do, it’s only going to take three new players to set us on our way to similar competitiveness.
We all know Manuel Almunia isn’t up to it.
We all know we need at least one if not two strikers with height and pace and power.
We all know we will probably need an assertive central defender in the summer if Sol, Gallas and or Silvestre leave. Buying one last month would have given us time to bed them in for next season, so that’s a missed opportunity.
We all know we’re really NOT far away and if we can start beating our rivals as well as the smaller sides, we can start to get back that aura that actually makes lesser games easier, which has a knock-on effect in terms of injuries as well as points.
We’ve got to keep believing, Addicts.
Supporting Arsenal is an honour and, like family, no one ever said it would always be easy.
GM
Reader Comments (18)
Arsenal are a poor Barca, in fact......A PISS POOR BARCA! Mainly due to the fact they cant win a trophie and they are one of the most over rated teams on the planet.
dunno how many times ive heard this before, your starting to some more and more like wenger, though it just comes down to this: were not good enough. end of.
we need to support our team..because we cannot turn them down now..gunners till death
Arsenal have to develop our players. Win our matches against credible opponents, which would translate to trophies, then WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT BARCELONA????????????
Good post! Lets stick togheter.
reality need to be told here once and for all, arsene wenger should tell the entire arsenal fans all over the world if his fed up in coaching the club, because i can't explain how comfortable he is with the majority of arsenal players light weight on the field of play whenever we are playing the so call big team in the EPL and in europe.
for me i don't see arsene wenger winning any trophy in the next 5years for arsenal.
he doesn't care about the feelings of the fans!
Problem with Arsenal is that they have the mentallity but no tactic. You think the reason why barca play the ball from the back is because we want to prove that we don't need to dunk out (NO!!!) We play from the back to draw our opponents forward. When we have them out of position we creep forward slowly. That's the effectiveness of Xavi and Iniesta Combo. Even if we do lose the ball in the front, we have everyone gathered at various territories so the short balls wouldnt work e.g. CL Final vs Man Utd. Chelsea only option was to dunk out the ball to Drogba (the beast). You can't play possession football mindlessly. You have to strategize tactically. FORZA BARCA!
I’m a gold member and I also go to our away games, so I think I have seen enough of Arsenal to say that this is the worst team to date that I have seen for a long time. We are so bad I think Gus Caesar would walk into this side. Comparing us to Barcelona is even an insult to their reserves. During the transfer window, it was identified that we needed a striker, so what does the professor do? He gets a washed up defender. Almunia is a poor excuse for a goal keeper, unfortunately for us, its not if he makes a mistake, it’s when he makes a mistake. Last season we could have bought Alonso, but it has transpired that at the last minute the professor vetoed the move due to it would have disrupted Denilson’s development, in my humble opinion Denilson is next to useless. Walcott nice kid, but I don’t think he would make the grade, the professor should sell him to a Blackburn or a Wigan, that’s about his level. I will be going to the match tomorrow, and we will most probably lose again, the professor will come up with another stupid excuse like the weather was too cold for the players to perform. I honestly think if we don’t manage to secure at least fourth place this season, the professor should seriously consider his position at the club.
A fed up supporter
Shit the fuck up Fuzz. Enough time has passed after the chav game. Grow up.
We all know we’re NOT far away from being a great team & we have saying this for the last 4 years. But you know we have a Coach who doesn't want to take us to a higher level to greatness.
Good change from the standard negative blogs out there..., yeah yeah we are going through a blip but traditionaly we end the season well, so with all the big games out the way a positive run in (Man-u & Chelsea still have to play the top 7 teams) we have every chance, and what the hell is this "hope we make top four" mentality, as dark horse for the title I would expect top 3 minimum.
Instead of being pessimistic why not be positive,
Look at what happened to Liverpool yet nearly all their fans are behind the manager even though they are in the same boat as Arsenal in terms of not wining anything for years, but you have to hand it to their supporters because they know how to support a team through hard times, you only have to read the comments from star player like Henry, Cesc, Arshavin and many many more when they sing the praise of their fans..
Liverpool buy established top players.
Liverpool have won the Champions league under Rafa.
Don't use them as an example of top fans. I'm
bored of hearing The Kops there twelfth man etc etc.
Whatever. If you live them so much piss off, don't start having a pop at us fans who
go and spend good money to go!!
Settle back in your armchair and play Championship manager...
Back to topic.
Lloris would be nice, nick Puyol and a tall strong forward maybe Kenwyn Jones and crack on! All this Chamack BS is annoying me. He's on a free BUT will command a high signing on bonus, which will probably be the same as his transfer price was last month. When we really needed him!
C'mon you Gunners!!
the players need to stop waxing the hairs off their legs and start playing like real men
ha ha ha ha ha keep on dreaming that s what the whinger want s yu to beleive we re near barcellona and of course yu beleive him open your eyes my friend we re competing for 4th place its over with almunia denilson roscicsky nasri and no centre foward even to get a result out of a mediocre porto will be a gigantic task near barcellona ha ha ha ha ha ha
Same old ,same old every year we have the same mindless coversations about we only need a goalie,striker midfield enforcer etc to be the finished article.sorry lads but to compete with the mancs and chavs we need a jet wash to clear out the many players who only look good against shit teams.Walcott, Denilson Diiaby, Sagna,Bentner to name a few.The tight fisted board wont spend the cash to upgrade the squad to the level needed,So we will have to listen to Wengers rambling cover ups for some time yet
I love Arsenal and Wenger, he keeps us at the top always.
Alot of the complaining doesnt take into account the unfortunate injuries this year. We were kicking butt and then RVP gets injured, Eduardo comes back and starts to find from and the he gets injured.
The biggest problem doesnt have anything to do with personnel anyway, its a lack of focus and intensity on the defensive side of the ball.
What we need is not new players but renewed focus in my opinion.
Clichy leaves the line for the first goal and the question is why did he get so blinkin jumpy? he was in no mans land. This has nothing to do with quality but focus.
This team is good enough to win the PL and the CL if they remain calm and focused.
Thats what I think at least.
"nick Puyol"??? If only it were that easy, we might as well nick Messi, Ronaldo and Kaka as well. Look it's simple, Arsenal are going through a bad period but a few years from now we'll all look back at this and laugh. Then maybe Barca would be going through a bad period and their fans would talk about nick Verma. We are unlucky that we are the generation of Arsenal fans that have to endure the period of the storm before the calm but when the calm comes then everybody can suddenly change their tone but for now as fans we have to support. The night can never last forever and who knows the good times might be closer than we think, we are 9 points behind Chelsea with most of the tough games out the way even though we are now only 5 ahead of Liverpool. You might call me optimistic maybe even a wishful thinker but it's a lot better than sitting and feeling bitter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Y z mr.bean(wenger) so blind..man,5yrs widaut trophies,evry yr we start wel bt lose grip wen tha race z camng 2 tha end..y daznt he learn 4rm his mistakes..am jus fed up wit it..stressn his fans mekn us laughng stock..its tyms AW stops being stubborn n buy establishd playerz 2 win cups..