Not nicked it

By Boris Mellor
April 15 2010

That Wenger's Arsenal has remained unbeaten by its North London rival for 11 years is a remarkable achievement, and the loss of that record will not herald a shift of power in North London. All records have to end sometime, but the demise of this one was not a complete accident.

Wenger has pushed his luck with a squad that is too thin for several years, and that squad is inadequate in key places. For example just imagine if Spurs had played with a keeper of Almunia's standard. The main difference between the two teams, if you ignore Arsenals overwhelming possession, was between the keepers. Gomes saved three great shots by RvP, Almunia weakly punched out a corner kick that gifted Rose his goal.

Going in at 1-0 down was bad enough, but coming out after half time and conceding after only a minute made it mission impossible. This time it was the woefully inadequate Silvestre who chose to run the wrong way leaving Spurs an open goal.

Thin Squad

This brings us back full circle to the issue of the squad being too thin. Of course it is true that any club missing players the quality of Fabregas, Song, Ramsey, Arshavin, Gallas and Vermaelen and RvP might have problems. But it's the quality of the players who play on the day that count.

Started season with no real cover for CB

Wenger was prepared to start the season with only one recognised stand in for centre back, Silvestre, enough said. True he signed Campbell at Xmas, and Sol was brilliant last night, but a manager can't depend on 70 years of CBs to replace Gallas and Vermaelen. Just imagine if Gallas and Vermaelen had been injured in February.

The second area of weakness that Wenger failed to address, for whatever reason, was that the goals dried up after RvP's injury. At one stage pundits were talking about a 100 goal Arsenal, that ended with Robin's injury; since then Arsenal have increasingly struggled to score. It was clear by Xmas that Arsenal had a goal scoring problem, but Wenger insisted that Eduardo, Walcott and Bendtner would manage, unfortunately not.

It was only the fact that Fabregas became the leading goal scorer that kept the wagon rolling. With his injury Arsenal's championship hopes went out the window. Unfortunately Nasri is yet to understand the role that Fabregas plays, he holds the ball too long, and drifts wide when he shouldn't. Rosicky has also failed to impress himself on games.

One Bright Spot

Bendtner has done quite well, and the encouraging sign is that he and RvP can play together. However, Nik's return to form was too late to make the key difference. It is also unfair to expect him to score all the time. The team's shape is better with him, but he needs another goal scorer in the team, plus he is not immune to further injury. Thus the one bright spot is not just RvP's 20 minute cameo, and his ability to switch the game, but the fact that he and Nik played well together.

Wenger's Method

Wenger has often been proved right about players, Song and Diaby are far better than most fans thought, but he is wrong about Almunia, and wrong that Arsenal didn't need another striker at Xmas. He was also wrong that Arsenal were not inadequate in the CB department. He always insists on having a squad that is too thin. Maybe the board do not give him enough money, but whatever the reason the squad does not have enough depth and that has been the case for the last 5 years. The squad always runs out of steam before the prizes are awarded.

None of this mattered very much whilst RvP and Fabregas were playing, the cracks were papered over. It certainly didn't matter when Gallas and Vermaelen were fit, but weak replacements for quality players does matter when you visit the local "Europa cup would be's" down the road.

Not all doom and gloom

It's not true that Spurs outplayed Arsenal, they had to park the bus at home to grind out this result. They got away with it because as Wenger said Arsenal were inefficient in the last third of the field. Until RvP came on there was a lack of guile in front of goal. With RvP on the field for such a short time Arsenal created the majority of their chances, what would have happened had he played for 90 minutes? Wenger bemoaned the immaturity of the team; I assume he included Almunia and Silvestre in that.

It will only take the purchase of two or three players to strengthen the squad. It's not a larger squad that is required, but a squad with more quality in one or two key areas. Clearly the team need a quality keeper, Almunia will be an ok second choice. The centre backs will need cover, hopefully Djourou will return and Silvestre will go. If Gallas stays then one quality replacement will do. If Ramsey recovers then the midfield should be ok, but it is possible that Eduardo and Walcott will not make the grade so the arrival of a new striker will be welcome.

The league has gone now, Chelsea only need six points and it will be beyond Arsenal's reach, but the Gunners will be in the real European competition, unlike Spurs. That's something that the pundits, at the start of the season, told us would not happen.