Arsene Wenger says Arsenal have not gone backwards this season, insisting that injury problems have severely hampered his side’s title bid.
Sixth in the table and 15 points behind leaders Chelsea, the Gunners’ chances of a first Premier League crown since 2004 look dead and buried; a stark contrast to last year when the Emirates outfit topped the table going into the New Year.
Reflecting on the changed state of affairs, Wenger couldn’t help but underline how many players he’s had to cope without.
“I don’t think we have gone backwards in the quality of our squad because if you look at the five players that we bought, you cannot say that one of the five players is a failure.
“I can’t deny that we are behind much more than last year because we have had a depleted squad since the start of the season, and the fact that we got so many important injuries at the back cost us too much. We lost Debuchy and Koscielny at the same period for three months. It’s too much.
“After the World Cup, we had too many players who came back not ready to compete again and then you look at the number of players that we lost when they just came back to their best. We had no Walcott, no Wilshere, no [Mesut] Özil, no Debuchy, no Koscielny, no Arteta, no Giroud for long periods.”
Wenger isn’t the only one who believes that, on paper at least, Arsenal have a strong roster of players to choose from.
Speaking to the Telegraph ahead of the Boxing Day clash with QPR, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain made clear that he firmly believes his teammates are capable of securing more silverware to add to the recent FA Cup and Community Shield.
“If you look at the players we can get back, the quality we have is quite frightening. There are no worries that we don’t have the potential.
“I believe this group can consistently challenge and I do feel this squad is definitely the strongest that we have had since I have been at the club.
“It is not just a great bunch of players that has technical ability but there are characters. Everyone is a good down to earth person who wants to work hard for each other.”
Well, he’s not wrong.
He’s so right, he’s wrong.
It’s our tactics that are more worrying. Our players leave the defence woefully exposed and seem unable to cope with losing possession (which they do far too often) and the resulting transition from attack to defence.
Every body is blaming Flamini. Look at the Liverpoo game. Phil Neville likened him to a “windscreen wiper. Alone in midfield marking three of four players, no wonder he was useless.
Another poor tactic.
And yes, when our squad is fit we will be very exciting, Walcott and Ozil will be LANS X 2 and I am sure we will be more consistent.
Up The Arsenal
Man. Injuries. Just a shame this season . next season we’ll have everyone fit. Lol, jk.
The simple fact is that he took a risk before the window closed with a lack of defensive cover and it has come back to bite him in the bum, big style.
The injury situation has not helped but with the right back up and tactics we would not have lost some of those unnecessary points so far and would be much closer to the top.
Here endeth the lesson.Bring on 2015
Ye, who could have foreseen that we would suffer injuries this season. If only we had suspected this might come to pass and added more depth to the more shallow areas of the team like defense. But since we have never suffered injuries in seasons passed there was no way we could prepare for this eventuality, and frankly we we’re just caught off guard. Wenger, I love you, but please stop saying so much stupid shit. It is embarrasing. His post match interviews are also starting to anoy me like fuck. we could lose 10-0, and he will point out… Read more »
In the premier league according to Squawka: Giroud – 21 shots, 5 goals. Van Persie – 43 shots, 7 goals. Rooney – 34 shots, 6 goals. Falcao – 17 shots, 2 goals. I’ll just leave this here. P.S. I do agree that Arsenal is being wasteful of attacking chances, I do agree that Wenger was wrong in not buying defensive cover. However, I do not see what good would come of him blasting the team in a press conference or a post-match interview. That stuff is between him and the players, he should express his feelings to them in the… Read more »
True, blasting the players is a internal matter, coming and talking shit in media is just going to add fuel to whatever the media dose to wenger. And whatever said can be mis interpreted very very easily by the media, better to just claim the players where good. And come on, players also have half a brain dont you think they do understand sometimes they havnt played upto the mark? How many times they have come up on their own and told their play needs to improve. As an Arsenal fan I’m disappointed with the season. but that dosent matter… Read more »
“The best team we’ve had since I joined the club”
Yeah, spot on…
why let Jenkinson go on loan ??? he`s now playing well in a team higher than us , while we struggle along with an 18 year old who`s nowhere near ready
Please don’t. People that point to league standings with 5 months still to play in the season are not very smart. It doesn’t matter where you are in December what matters is where you are in May.
Yawn, feels like I’ve heard this before
Blah blah blah, it’s like only Arsenal players took part in the World Cup. Then he forced them to play together when not all were fully fit and didn’t purchase a CB cover knowing that Kos was carrying an injury. Behind, yes. Backwards, yes. The team forgot how to play together, that’s going backwards.
To go down a well trodden path again,,,, No sympathy for Wenger here, you cannot go into a season with only six defenders with two of them only 19, it was suicide and so it has proved. Add to that the club knew Kis had a long standing injury and its negligence not just from the Managee but his staff and the board also, across all levels there was a deriliction of duty. Some of the injuries were unforeseen, such as Giroud and Debuchy but history has taught us that players like Wilshire, Diaby and Ramsey have a history of… Read more »
Chelsea have 6 first team defenders, you’re only acting like some kind of expert in hindsight after the consequences of having injuries, I think we should have brought one more defender, but it’s completely understandable that we didn’t, we bought 5 quality players and our transfer window was successful. You can’t constantly buy players because there’s a risky of injuries, firstly the club isn’t that financially powerful and secondly there aren’t a huge number of suitable players who would be willing to come and sit on the bench, get real. Nobody could have foreseen the Debuchy injury and Koscielny’s injury… Read more »
At what point did kos’ chronic tendonitis which was going on since last season “heal”? It takes weeks for chronic tendonitis to heal, so when did he get that break? During the WC? We MADE Kos injury through overuse. What’s this bullocks about sitting on the bench? An aspiring club should get a CB to COMPETE to start, not to sit on the bench, of which they are many. Per doesn’t have a birth right to start, you know? As for your other nonsense about no money and being unlucky? Sure, the season we spend big and the 9th year… Read more »
Completely agree, but just a note on Lahm. He broke his ankle in November and is out for months, so possibly not the best example to use.
Fair enough on Lahm, my point being though that there was another 21 players in that German squad, they were all in the same position as Mertesacker of having to play for their clubs after the World Cup.
There should have been no need to rush him back if we had supplemented the squad properly.
chelski have 6 defenders + 2 youngsters. You can go even with 5 defenders providing they don’t get injured (theoretically). Someone should be blamed for all those injuries be it medical team or Wenger for rushing back players, training methods or maybe buying those injury-prone (if that exists) players (e.g. Vermaelen?). Not many people here were believing what Verheijen was/is talking but you can’t ignore him. Most of the injuries we have are muscular. Even Martinez said every muscular injury can be prevented. Nothing is changing, season after season. Had we not had so many of those injuries certainly we’d… Read more »
Chelsea have 6 defenders and 2 youngsters? Well, we have 4 defenders and 2 youngsters then. 3 if you count Isaac Hayden. Yes the injuries are a problem, but surely the fact that we went into a season with 4 senior defenders and 2 19 year olds, knowing that Gibbs is injury prone and Kosc has a chronic condition, surely that is as big a problem as the injuries?
Deb, Mert, Kos, Mon, Gibbs…. 4?
We are short, not quite that short.
Ah, my bad. I think I overlooked Monreal and added in Bellerin.
Actually we have 5 (debuchy, per, kos, nacho, gibbs) plus yougnsters. Gibbs is injury-prone that’s why we have nacho as back-up. It’s crazy Wenger knew Verm i going to be selled in may and bought no replacement – it’s his fault and probably knew a thing about Kos otherwise as Verheijen called them they’re “amatuers”. Kos has “chronic condition” because of overplaying, not having enough rest, playing him even Wenger knew it’s dangerous. He’s responsible for that. Somewhere in Telegrsph I read (probably Wilson wrote it) that last season players had lighter sessions, mainly concentrating on recovering while this… you… Read more »
I think a boxer or an amputee war vet has less injuries than our average player.
No he is not wrong, but he is in charge of training, and with our record it can’t be coincidence.
Yes but you are the manager and your job is to also deal with injuries – meaning that it might be a good idea to have a few extra backups especially in areas that you are short…
I agree with him, but not signing another defender in the summer has cost us so far this season. That and leaving our current defenders exposed due to neglecting the ‘DM’ role yet again.
Is it time that we start to question the player’s roles in fitness and well-being? In addition to the responsibility the coaching staff/manager have in ensuring they stay fit the players have a lot of responsibility to recover and eat well, which seems entirely self-moderated. Wilshere/Chambo/Ox are keen golfers for example, but surely something like that wouldn’t assist in their physical recovery? I also wonder about the roles they have in media advertisements, sponsors and within the community… do they have a negative affect to their health? I only ask this to stir the pot a bit. I get pretty… Read more »
Blah blah blah. I’m sure I’ve heard this same thing for the past 10 years in a row. No matter what happens, we get injuries to key players for long spells of the season. Instead if hoping for a miracle that our 6 first team defenders miraculously stay fit for 6 months, how about you try the opposite and think ok, we usually have pretty bad luck with injuries, maybe we will need 8 senior defenders this year like normal title challenging squads.
Spend that mulla arsene. Spend it.
Comments like this cause me concern. This shows there is no one at the club holding him to account for his squad weakness that could be spotted by any junior coach. The failings are so obvious to all that’s what is so concerning
This is a spin. Arsenal have a poor record against the top sides not last season but for four to five seasons. Repeated losses to the big 3/4 is criminal especially playing the same style and into the hands of the opposition. The defence has been poor for the last seven years and no serious attempt to fix it was made. He will have to go if he can’t make Arsenal competitive.There is no need to fear his exit will cause the gunners to go into melt down. On the contrary a new guy could ignite the gunners. You never… Read more »
lack of bottle.
I agree with you, even with a fully fit squad we still got a hiding from the top teams.
Injuries is just the excuse we would all like to hide behind but we all know that we still wouldn’t win the title if everyone is fit. The problem is Arsenal FV is very predictable nowadays on the pitch. Teams know how to play us, even shit teams.
When did we have a fully fit squad?
I’m in agreement with him. If you can almost field an entire first XI of injured players at any given time it will cause issues. BUT. Chucking a 3 goal lead vs Anderlecht had nothing to do with it. The same team that got that lead also lost it. The same team who somehow managed to lead at Anfield after 90 mins didn’t track an opposing CB from a corner, also didn’t have anyone on either post (using zonal marking!) etc. Those issues aren’t down to injuries, but on-field decision making which is shocking for any pro, let alone an… Read more »
Mohd – I agree with all your points; especially playing the same style and into the hands of the opposition. If the new man can be a proven winner like Klopp, I’m all for it. But a hint of caution is that we only need to look at United to see that a mangerial change can have catastrophic effects if the new man is not up to the job. I’ve heard people suggesting Martinez or Simeone on these blogs, and as much as I respect those two managers, they don’t have the track record or pedigree yet to manage a… Read more »
Rubbish.
Thank God the article clarified which ozil arsene was talking about 😉
He knew in the summer Walcott was out till Xmas and that kos was struggling with chronic achilles problems. You can’t say these are unforseen. He chose to go with 6 defenders, including 2 19 year olds. His naivety is astounding. Did he expect kos to magically recover and per to not have his long expected world cup hang over? We’re in a situation entirely of his making and how I would love a reporter to have the balls and ask him straight. As fans we never hear the questions asked we want. Let’s hear someone ask and see for… Read more »
I find it funny when I read about people urging Wenger to sign a defender and a proper DM.
Do u really, really, really, still think this guy can can take Arsenal to the next level regardless of who (defender or DM) he signs? SMH
good question!
In my opinion NO! But we still need DM & CB….
“I can’t deny that we are behind much more than last year because we have had a depleted squad since the start of the season”.
This makes me wanna self harm.
you made me laugh, thanks.
Yup, its the familiar failings that make us all want to self harm. Too many of the same issues too many times. We lack bottle when under the cosh, and we lack the courage and toughness (physical and mental) to come back from setbacks within a game. It is there in patches, but that is like Theo Walcott’s consistency.
Happy holidays and here’s to a good, enjoyable game tomorrow.
Arsene has no excuse for not strengthening the defence in the summer. He needs to be held accountable. Pure negligence.
Wenger is right here. Injuries have destroyed our season so far. And as frustrating as it is to go into the season with just 2 cbs (3 if you include chambers), let’s not pretend any of us know what actually went on behind the scenes. For all we know he got screwed over by an agent or the other team at the last minute and decided against doing whatever deal he thought was in place. Hope he fixes the problem in January though.
Bullshit
“We lost Debuchy and Koscielny at the same period for three months. It’s too much” – AW. Um, not going to disagree with the statement with regards to the players mentioned…BUT, I would argue it really is only “too much” when you have only 6 defenders to start with & play a back 4 each game. We lost 2 experienced defenders at the end of last season & everyone knew we needed strengthening in this area. Oh, then there’s the fact you let Jenkinson go out on loan & wouldn’t recall him. These combined are when it becones “too much”,… Read more »
These endless excuses and rationalisations are just embarrassing – and, frankly, he’s beginning to sound delusional. Worse, the unifying thread in all this is his apparent inability to acknowledge why we are in this situation. We have “had a depleted squad since the start of the season” because he failed to replace departing defenders and strengthen the squad in it’s areas of obvious weakness. I’ve never joined the Wenger out brigade but I swear, I can barely bring myself to read his press statements any more …
A lot of times, you could look at a situation and say that if we were on the other side of things, it would look like the manager is a genius. In this case, even if we hadn’t gotten injuries you have to say, it would just seem like he got lucky. We’d all have been relieved, but it would still have been down to luck. Unfortunately, we haven’t been lucky and have been punished instead. Hopefully it’s not an experience that anyone at the club will want to repeat…
Vermaelen and Sagna left, Jenkinson on loan and he bought only Debuchy to replace them. Chambers was supposed to only have a bit part role this season. Koscielny’s achilles problem was no secret, he missed a lot of matches in the WC even. Mertesacker was considered a liability even by Low.
So, the current injury situation is completely his fault and he should stop lying. His methods are quixotic, playing people out of position, playing them till they are worn out. He should resign at the end of the season, these excuses have got boring.
Not as boring as posts like yours, imo. Sense of entitlement?
Do people really think Wenger didn’t attempt to buy a CB in the window? This man, who’s been a part of the football scene for decades, coached top teams for decades and is known for his tactical awareness, failed to spot this problem whilst thousands of football “experts” who whine and howl at his incompetence from their couches and pubs did? Frankly pathetic – of course Wenger knows there’s a problem. Of course he tried to sign someone. It’s obvious to a blind monkey, or even a Sp*rs fan that Wenger is not THAT stupid to assume 6 defenders is… Read more »
“This man who is known for his tactical awareness..” No.. He is not known for his tactical awareness and he is not showing it in the big games anymore.. It was years ago since he had the winner mentality. The man is known for revolutionizing english football with his style of play, he took a club and took us to a new level. He made average players good, and he made good players fucking amazing. But whether he 100% always shave been a good tactican? No, I’d not say that has been his strongest attribute.. He is a complete legend.… Read more »
Klopp is in charge of a side that is struggling with injuries to key players, and that side is second from bottom of the Bundesliga, so how is that an improvement on a manager who is in charge of a side struggling with injuries to key players and is sixth from top of a stronger league? Guardiola and Ancelotti are both in charge of clubs that are historically far larger than Arsenal, so why the fuck would they want to move? Löw hasn’t got a good record at club level and, as numerous England managers have shown, international football is… Read more »
You do realise that Ancelotti have managed Chelsea? Who is a by far smaller club than arsenal in terms of ‘history’ and size. PSG etc etc. And yes arsenal do have the money to spend now. Also I’d even stretch as far as saying that arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the world and should effectively be one of the giants of european football. We are one of the biggest clubs in terms of support. There are houndreds of millions of gooners… I am talking about when the contract with arsene wenger runs out in 2 and a… Read more »
Tactical awareness? Not the aw I know. From his own admission we concentrate on us and not the opposition. Its on him that the players go out on the pitch under prepared and surprised at what the opp do. How many spankings do we need before we learn the lessons?
Your making excuses for him. There were cbs and dfm available better than what we have but he likes to do things on the cheap. There’s no excuse for failing to recruit in both these areas
Hello and welcome Demanderz! A good and well argued post, I second your points. Have a wonderful festive season; which will start with 3 points tonight. Fingers crossed. COYG!
It’s like the Chicago Cubs.
There’s always “next year”…and the results are the same.
Injuries have slowed us Down… Quality is definitely there but the performance has been poor this season
I seem to remember last season the club held some sort of internal inquiry into why we seem to have far more players injured than other top teams. What were the results of this?!
Surely it can’t just be that we have more injury prone players…
An internal enquiry into a problem of this type would take time.
If it’s finished yet then the cure will also take time.
I’m just curious of the transfer window showdown, and what Wenger has in mind
A kid needs this candy and he has d money for it, He goes and buys some.. It is that simple!! The defence has been a problem for too long wenger, do something and stop complaining.
What if the candy shop doesn’t have any candy he likes?
Is it still that simple?
The fact that we were TOP this time last season and now are languishing in SIXTH suggests that we HAVE gone backwards this season.
We had SIX defenders this season two of whom (Monreal and Mertesacker) are next to useless.
Wenger is to blame for this.
If we finish outside of the top four this season then surely it is time for him to move on.
Arsenal are going nowhere under Wenger….
With all the players back they still know jack sh*t about defending set pieces.
When did all the players get back?
When everyone is fit we have 6 first choice defenders with 2 centrebacks. He can’t moan about injuries with a squad that size.
It’s no ones fault but his own and his failure to build a big enough squad.
Best team we’ve had since Wenger took charge? He’s straight up lost it.
Bring back the banner!
I read somewhere above that the fact that we cannot seem to know how to play together proves that we have gone backwards. That is a 100% truth.
Dear Arsène you’re right, but putting a Wilshere as n°10 was a disaster tactically (remember Aston Villa and the first Galatasaray without him + the games we drew/lost when he was playmaker) and dear Arsène, this is YOUR responsibility. As well as the injuries, they don’t come out of nothing. When you say Özil came back injured from the WC, then why playing him for at least 8 games all the time? Please, stop messing up, let’s go back to last season tactics and buy us a great DM.
Loving the Christmas spirit people
People aren’t asking the right questions. The question is not if this team has gone backwards. Wenger is spot on in his answer. The question should be why does this team seem to have an overwhelmingly number of injuries year in year out?
Fix the injury problems and you’ll fix most of this team’s problems. What truly baffles me is how a team like Chelsea, who are playing almost the same starting 11 every week, are not getting injuries like we are. But we can’t keep our players fit for any significant number of time.
It just kills me that “there’s always next year” has come so early. We were written off over a month ago. 15 points behind 1st place (if we win today) with 20 games to go. We would need for Chelsea to lose 1/4 of their remaining fixtures and for us to win out to be in with a chance. I’m just hoping for third so we don’t have to suffer through the “fourth place trophy” memes and CL qualification rounds at this point.
But surely you didn’t realistically hope for a PL title win? Not when the 3 teams above us have had the funds to buy players of their choice for years whereas we haven’t. A challenge yes and that is still to come.
I expected the fight to last longer than it did, although objectively we are not the best team out there. With a solid, confident back line I believe the sky will be the limit.