Saturday, March 31st, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Phil Gregory

Just a quick one from me, as I’m supposed to be building fences this morning…

Arsenal travel to QPR to face a fairly mediocre side struggling to avoid relegation. QPR are a great example of the logic that spending doesn’t necessarily improve a  side as you would expect, and that too much of it can actually make a side worse.

Even from my own basic coaching experience, it is clear that bedding in more than a couple of new signings into an eleven means that the team will perform as less than the sum of their parts for some time, and a longer term improvement is reliant on the signings coming good.

Many fans take this latter point as a given, but how many times has an addition not lived up to the hype? For a manager, it is much easier to promote from within: no bedding in period and you know exactly what they will bring. Wenger’s approach seems to be along these lines; looking internally where possible and then buying one or two when necessary.

Last summer however did show Arsène’s effectiveness in the transfer market: big departures were replaced by an array of signings, so it just goes to show that a spree can be done efficiently, take note Messrs Bruce, Warnock and Abramovich.

Back to the game, however. Koscielny looks to be back from his injury, abating concerns of another defensive injury crisis. Meanwhile Diaby won’t feature as expected with another minor problem delaying his comeback.

So here we go again…

Szcznesy

Sagna Koscielny Vermaelen Santos

Song Arteta

Rosicky

Walcott Van Persie Chamberlain

It will be interesting to see what approach QPR take with this game. Playing for a point isn’t really wise when there are a limited number of games left this season and they are still mired in the relegation battle.

That said, a point is better than nothing, and an open, attacking style would surely simply earn them a pasting from the Arsenal. Most likely they’ll look to use the Dean factor, kick the hell out of us and hope that can get them something out of the game. No wonder Sky didn’t want to televise this one.

Anyroad, I’m getting shouted out now so I’ll wrap up here, with apologies for the proverbial half rations. 2-0 to the Arsenal for me. A very wise commenter pointed out that a few of our results on our recent winning streak could very easily have been draws, and as Wenger mentioned recently, sometimes the luck that can make a difference has been falling our way in recent times. With that in mind, dropping points wouldn’t be the end of the world and indeed is likely to happen eventually. I would not like us to break the consecutive wins record that we’re nearing, but I’m always very pragmatic in my outlook.

Enjoy the game!

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QPR v Arsenal

Ref Watch: The issue of confidence and for the fifth time it is Mike Dean

Top games:  The preview of the top teams’ games this weekend.

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Match fixing: Media rush to deny match fixing takes place

History: Bob Wilson – Billy Wright’s problem and Bertie Mee’s solution