Arsenal News » How to knock the Arsenal: a journalists’ guide

By Walter Broeckx and Tony Attwood

Knocking the Arsenal is an important part of the job of every reporter.   To be fair some do back off when we are playing brilliant football and winning stuff (only the Guardian and Observer did snarling cynical pieces about the club in the days after we finished the unbeaten season).

But moments like that aside a week in football journalism isn’t a week in football journalism unless there is some way of knocking the Arsenal.

And sadly some bloggers pick up copies of newspapers and instead of seeing them as a dire warning of what can happen when you let the ill-informed write stuff they instead see them as a blueprint for how it should be done.

Every now and then a new approach for knocking Arsenal is devised and everyone jumps on the bandwagon.  This week it is a two pronged attack:

Arsenal in crisis: three defeats in four matches

and

How many of these kids ever make the first team?

The reason that these new ideas have had to develop is because the old one (he doesn’t like English players) is fading away after something like five of the starters in the Champs game this week were English and one Welsh.  Although that didn’t stop ITV saying that in Wenger’s first game at the club 10 of the 11 were English.  (They failed to admit that this was the team he inherited from Rioch who had stumbled and struggled into the UEFA Cup on the last day of the season.  Also it must mean that Bergkamp wasn’t playing – I must check up on that).

So let’s consider the last Euro game.  We fielded a team with an average age of around 21. If you take out Silvestre it would be even one year younger. This was a team that apart from Song had no players on the pitch that are regulars in the first team during this season so far. In fact most of the players never got a start in the EPL this season and they probably will not have a start for the remaining of the season. Only if the injury crisis we are dealing with gets worse then it is today some of them could have a start.

The first impression of the whole game was that we played well but couldn’t finish. We had 54% of possession during the game and don’t forget, we played away from home gainst a team that still was fighting for a place in the next round.   It is rather amazing to recall that we were never outplayed during the game. In fact we were in control for most part of the game and the statistics confirm this.

If you take the shots statistics Olympiacos had a total of 15 attempts in total during the game and we had 13 attempts. This also confirms the fact that we didn’t get played off the pitch.

We saw an Arsenal team on the pitch which had great composure, good technique and vision. And this for a team built on teenagers.

But the journalists and the doom and gloom brigade will point at the one statistic that stays in the history books: we lost 1-0. Off course in the good old fashioned style they have to get some players to be singled out as the sinners.

They paraded Theo Walcott as their first victim. Yes, Theo wasn’t at his best.  But how would you be if you had only played 90 minutes of football all season?  In fact Theo is now where the most players were on July 21.  So how can you expect Theo to just walk on the pitch and destroy teams in the Champions League ? He needs games without being kicked off the field in the first 20 minutes.

Another player they picked was Vela. Yes, Vela missed a lot of chances yesterday. It is clear to see that Vela is looking for his best form. But then again look at his injuries since the beginning of the season. He also had to play a lot of games for Mexico during the summer,  plus WC qualifiers during the year and he got injured by playing those games.

Vela’s problem was his finishing and to finish you must have confidence. During the past season in the Carling Cup he showed great promise but then he was playing as a second striker next to Bendtner – probably a better position for him than the one he took on, on Wednesday.

His running off the ball was rather good. In fact to miss those chances he had to make good runs in the first place.  So with a little bit of luck and a bit of the confidence that will come with a goal, he will be back to his best.

Wilshere also got some criticism, and yes Wilshere didn’t dribble past all 10 players from Olympiacos and then make brilliant pass to another player to finish it off.  But he is 17 years old and a great talent. Yes he is not finished yet but what do people expect?  Do the commentators really think Messi at 17 was as good as he is now? Actually he wasn’t.

In his early days he lost more balls then he won. He dribbled himself against the wall more then he got trough. This is a normal learning process and this will be the same with Jack. He needs time to know when to dribble and when not. This is a thing that comes with age and experience. So please give the kid some room to develop.

The major gain could be seen on Sunday as we will have no first team players out for our next game in the EPL.  What would be the benefit to go to Greece with our first team, win the game and then get 3 players out with new injuries ?

Let us consider the benefits we got.  It was a great opportunity and encouragement for our youngsters, who can see that they are getting closer to being in the first team.  How long will we keep Merida if we don’t give him games?

Second, think of those teenagers who are yet to come to Arsenal.  They, and their parents and agents will have noted that Arsenal resolutely put the lads out for certain games.   There has been a load of criticism of Wenger for not putting experienced players on the bench, having them ready to come on if it all goes wrong.   But that insurance policy shows a lack of faith.  Arsenal blood even younger youngsters on the bench, and that means the kids on the pitch are not looking over their shoulders all the time and the kids in other teams are thinking “that could be me”.

Finally the issue of bringing youngsters into the first team.   We’ve had this argument before about who constitutes a youngster coming through the ranks.   Cesc?  Theo?  Bendtner?  Ramsey?   No, say the critics because these players were transferred.   But one can say, yes, but at such a young age there was still a lot to do in their development.

• Clichy, Traore, Djourou, Gibbs at the back?
• Song, Merida, Wilshire, Cesc, Denilson in the middle?
• Vela, Walcott, Bendtner up front.

No, no, shout the critics, none of those because you didn’t sign them age 10.

Well, OK, but what about the perseverance factor?   Think of all the bile thrown the way of Song, Denilson and Bendtner as Wenger has brought them through the ranks.  And anyway if that is the argument, just wait another three years, and watch what has happened to the Youth Cup winners, who were mostly playing together in the Arsenal under 11s.

Finally, you’ll know if you have read this column before that it has been  ending with an advert for the book MAKING THE ARSENAL.  A new review of the book has just gone up on the Online Gooner site.   It’s at http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=1429

You can buy the book via amazon.co.uk or direct from the publishers (with a request for the author to sign if you like) at www.woolwicharsenal.co.uk