It's what everybody has been saying for years, too many pus sies in their team

Same old same old for arsenal and arsene.
Pre season, win a few games, talk themselves up, title challenge, season starts, reality hits.
Still a good team, still a good manager, probably top 4.

Did they lose?

OTT comments from Neville.Very unlike him

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comment by Ruiney (U1005)
posted 7 minutes ago
It's what everybody has been saying for years, too many pus sies in their team
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I'd rather have pus sies in our team, than the likes of Coquelin.

Long gone are the days for Arsenal where they had the likes of Vieira, Petit, or even a Gilberto Silva in the middle of the park. All players capable of finesse, but their job was to use their brute strength first and foremost to win a midfield battle.

Smaller, weaker, more technical players have been brought in to replace them and the trophies have dried up. Ok, they've won back to back FA Cups, but over 10/11 years, that's nowhere near enough from where they used to be.

Initially, I think Arsene did change it around to a model he thought would bring the team to another level, but it's pretty much failed. So for me, it's definitely arrogance on his part.

The comments are so fair, they're almost kind. In fact, I think they amount to praise. It's an encomium.

Thats because Wenger worked with David Dein on the football side and he has missed his advise for years.

He hasn't won a single PL title since losing that kind of midfielder (Vieira) , so it's kinda hard to argue against the Neviller.

I've said it for ages now. They'll never win the PL again under him. He's had his time.

Would you have Wenger over LVG ?

Would anyone have LvG over Wenger at Arsenal?

The thought of that, actually...

Talking mainly to the United fans on that one.

Neville is spot on.
He wasnt necessarily picking on Cazorla ( who by the way has performed creditably well since he arrived); his point was that our players are too similar in the middle of the pack- small/slight technically gifted ball players .
Look at what City is constructing with their squad. Pace down the wings, strong pacy centre forward, steel and skill in midfield, pace and power in defence.
No one is advocating blowing the kind of money City is splashing out on players but even a limited footballer like Wanyama will bring a new dimension to our midfield.
The "arrogance thing " is also true. Wenger wants to be remembered as the purist who saved football from the big spenders. There is this "I must do it my way " attitude. The more criticism he gets, the more head strong he becomes to going in a different direction.
Pretty certain on the 1st of September the sound bite will remain: " if I find someone special, I will do it".

He is spot on with his comments. 100 spot on

comment by Genius_AppleCart_Space_Dude (U19099)
posted 2 minutes ago
Would you have Wenger over LVG ?
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No. I'd have Wenger as England manager though.

The list of players he showed spoke volumes about the type of player he signed but also showed how his hands were tied in terms of cash he could spend.

His biggest signing money wise was 17.5 on Reyes that shows how much the stadium impacted him.

But even with that he could have done more to sign a powerful DM

Just put this on a different thread about disgruntled arsenal fans -

I do get it from an Arsenal fans perspective to be honest. I think the majority of them can see what's missing and has been for a while, but it isn't being addressed. There seems to be a false new dawn every season for them.

That's not to say that this year they won't be challenging, just that the two positions that they have always struggled with are still missing and that's a striker and a leader in the middle. The latter in particular, I don't think they have ever replaced Vieira.

The other thing to mention is that there's a real lack of width at times due to how many players they've got that like to operate centrally, or at least move inside. It works in some games as it packs the midfield, but it needs everyone on song to get the passes moving and opening up the defence.

It must be frustrating as it looks as though Wenger will never fully address those issues. At the same time, he's a key reason as to why they have grown into the club they are, with the stadium and continued CL qualification. It's not going to change unless he makes the decision to leave, so it must feel a bit like just waiting for that to happen for a lot of fans.

If you think of that and the cost of going to see them nowadays since the move to the stadium, I'm not surprised some are disgruntled and voice concerns. Their board hasn't done enough from a commercial perspective to lessen the load on the ticket prices and either them or the manager has been reluctant until recently to put the money into the key positions in the squad.

They'll be up there, they always will be. Until Wenger makes the decision to leave though, it's hard to see them as anything else but perennial bridesmaids.

I don't think it's as black and white as Neville is making out. The main reason Arsenal haven't won much in the last 10 years is down to moving to a new stadium and sacrificing short term success to pay for it. The emergence of Chelsea and City haven't helped things on the trophy front.

Arsenal play a brand of football that imo is the best in the league but the problem with that is that I imagine you as a manager can fall in love with that football and can allow it to take over your thinking and make it the priority when we all know that most of the time you need to win the league by playing ugly, attritional football in this day and age. Even with Ronaldo we resorted to some very ugly football.

Wenger probably does want a big name striker but they don't seem to wanna come. And no doubt deep down wants a Viera style midfielder. Perhaps that's why he kept faith with Diaby for so long.

I wonder how Arsenal fans would feel if they got a new manager who played some ugly stuff but had them closer to the titles. They'd probably love it at first but imo they'd miss the stuff they see Arsenal play most weeks. When it's good it's very very good. Arsene has limitations but he doesn't deserve a lot of the criticism that comes his way.

He's not stupid. I bet if we sat down with him he'd have a very good explanation as to why he does the things he does.

Too many "pus sies" in the team apparently, typical cliche that means nothing. If Maureen had this set of players they would be far more organised, you wouldn't have seen such a shambles at the back in the first half, it might've involved parking the bus but we'd probably still have had more chance of winning.

I think Wenger is too laid back, has too much faith in the same old tactics and certain players (Ramsey out wide), too stubborn to sign the right players (striker and DM). Our net spend this year is lower than Newcastle, anybody would think we already had a dominant team with the lack of signings we've made. Don't have a clue what we're playing at.

comment by APantsArsenalFan - Diaby will succeed one day! (U11422)
posted 17 minutes ago
Would anyone have LvG over Wenger at Arsenal?
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Of course, LvG is a much better manager and has won it all

comment by Robb - Match of Depay (U20351)
posted 1 minute ago
Arsenal play a brand of football that imo is the best in the league but the problem with that is that I imagine you as a manager can fall in love with that football and can allow it to take over your thinking and make it the priority when we all know that most of the time you need to win the league by playing ugly, attritional football in this day and age. Even with Ronaldo we resorted to some very ugly football.

I wonder how Arsenal fans would feel if they got a new manager who played some ugly stuff but had them closer to the titles. They'd probably love it at first but imo they'd miss the stuff they see Arsenal play most weeks. When it's good it's very very good. Arsene has limitations but he doesn't deserve a lot of the criticism that comes his way.

He's not stupid. I bet if we sat down with him he'd have a very good explanation as to why he does the things he does.
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I don't even find our football entertaining, we do the same thing over and over, City are far more entertaining - they actually vary their play for a start and don't recall much ugly football from them. I don't think I'd miss this style if we were winning more and the same mistakes weren't being made over and over again, I wouldn't want a Maureen type but there aren't many managers like him at the top of football.

And obviously he isn't stupid, he's just too stubborn, and the faith he has in certain players is very frustrating.

I don't agree with Neville, pace and power in midfield is one way of winning the title, but Chelsea won it last year with the sluggish pair of Fabregas and Matic, while United won several on the trot with the ball-playing Scholes and Carrick. Besides Coquelin is more than good enough to play as the ballwinner in a title-winning squad.

Neville is partially right in that we're lacking pace, but it's in attack rather than midfield. What's costing Arsenal at the moment is the inclusion of Ramsey and Giroud which means our attacking play is laboured and congested. By playing a quicker CF who can run the channels, and a direct winger who can provide width and threat in behind (we have 2 of these...), it's a lot easier to stretch opposition defences and create those gaps our players thrive on. For all the technical expertise our players have, a lot of our best performances in recent years have been when we've employed a quick counter-attacking game. By being more efficient in attack it also means we can afford to commit less numbers forward, so we'd be more defensively secure too. You kill two birds with one stone.

I actually think our squad is good enough to win the league in its current state, could do with an upgrade at CF (we've been crying out for this for years now) but I think Wenger's ineffective tactics are what's stopping us more than anything.

The funniest bit was Henry squirming when Neville asked him is Coquelin/ Cazorla in cm would win you the league.