Happier times

By Boris Mellor
December 17 2009

What amazes me is that some Arsenal fans expected to win this game, which to my mind was completely unrealistic. Firstly they should show more respect to Burnley, at home they are not "bum of the month". At home they have not been beaten by one of the current top four.

Why would Arsenal do better than Man U or Villa on a cold night on a pitch that reduces matches to slow motion? I knew this would be a harder game for Arsenal to win than the Liverpool one. Arsenal could not breach the Burnley defence at all in the second half.

So what about the Déjà vu? Well last season Arsenal beat Chelsea away 2-1, then beat Wigan 1-0 at home and then drew away at Boro. A poor result of which Wenger said that on their day Boro could beat anyone, except Boro failed to beat anyone at all and were subsequently relegated. And all this happened in December.

The point is that whenever this team has a good result, it's followed by a poor one, and so it goes. This team is not on a learning curve, it's on a carousel. Of course Wenger can complain about the fixtures list with some justification, but that's not the point. The point is that these pile ups happen every season, real champions deal with it.

What the Burnley game illuminates is that just a few key injuries has reduced Arsenal's high scoring team to a powder puff outfit with little penetration. Liverpool proved to be a softer touch than Burnley. Size might not matter, though I have my doubts, but a complete lack of strikers does.

I wouldn't write off Walcott and Eduardo forever, it's not rational to do that with players who have been off injured so long, and I think it misses the real issue. The issue is that a formation without RvP is hard to reorganize; Arshavin might work as the solution at home or against a team as poor as Liverpool for one half, but a team with a collective spirit like Burnley can isolate a lone midget striker.

Walcott is playing poorly, but nonetheless when he was moved alongside Arshavin against Liverpool it did create space for the Russian. At Burnley he remained isolated on the wing, and once Fabregas went off Arshavin was isolated in the middle.

Wenger and his team have not quite adapted to playing without strikers.

It is possible that without any injuries this team might have been better than last year's, but with injuries, and a squad full of inside forwards not quite back on form it's looking like Déjà vu all over again.

Déjà vu all Over Again? Not a Learning Curve but a Carousel

Discussion started by Arsenal Times , 17/12/2009 19:55

Arsenal Times
17/12/2009 19:55

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:12:18:21:45:50 by Padre Pio.

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celine dion
17/12/2009 19:57

A lot of Arsenal fans expect Arsenal to win every game 3 or 4 nil.

These people are at the bottom of the prediction league, we are somewhat nearer the top.

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Padre Pio
17/12/2009 20:06

Yes my second 3 pointer of the season, should have been three of them, but couldnt face putting prediction that we would lose at Sunderland so chickened out and put draw

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

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celine dion
17/12/2009 20:13

I would have 4 but deleted 1-0 to Olypmpiakos 5 mins before kick off and changed it to 3-0

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Padre Pio
17/12/2009 20:18

May be we should move to the Greek League

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

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karteta16
17/12/2009 20:22

Don't play prediction league these days but things will start hotting up soon as people are not surprised any more, There wasn't many threads on how@#$%&the team is after the Burnley draw.

Theodore roosevelt - In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

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Bring back stepanovs!
17/12/2009 21:56

spot on padre .same old same old

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Merlion96
17/12/2009 23:24

Spot on.
My personal opinion as well.

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