Tonight’s game, tonight’s moan, Mr Wenger replies, the teams… « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. 800,000 visits last month

By Tony Attwood

There is so much vitriol pouring out against the club that I almost wonder if it is worth writing anything more today.   The attackers are out, attacking the club, with only a few people bothering to do any analysis to back up their assertions.

But maybe we should just establish one or two minor points.

First this site is, and has always been, pro-Wenger.  Unlike most anti-Wenger sites we have declared our position and maintained it.  Maybe that’s why we get such a big audience.  Many writers call us biased.  Yes we are.  That’s it.  We are biased.  It is obvious.  It says so on the masthead.

Second, the site is not in any way linked to the club.  Nice idea, but utterly untrue.  I have gone into this in more detail in a reply to one writer who made the allegations recently.

So, the AAA follows its friends in the media who feed the AAA because they know they get good readership there.  Those of us who follow a different model – that of supporting the club, the team and the manager, take a different view.  Different views, different opinions.  If you find all the articles on this site boring and dull or just utterly stupid, simply stop reading.

It looks like we might see some changes tonight.

Maybe a team that looks like this

Mannone

Vermaelen Koscielny Mertersacker Sagna

Wilshere Arteta

Carzola

Walcott   Giroud  Podolski

Ramsey is out, Oxlade-C is out, Gervinho, Rosicky, Diaby… all out.  And so is Gibbs.

Walcott is said to have a stomach complaint – so that’s a difficult one to choose if he is not there.  I am taking it that the Wilshere double yellow means he misses the next league match on Saturday not this one.  So if Walcott doesn’t play we will have Arshavin playing on one side and Podolski on the other.

That would leave a bench of

Martínez, Jenkinson, Yennaris, Djourou,  Coquelin, Gnarby, Chamakh

Mr Wenger’s commentary was reported in the Telegraph as

“I think what is most important right now is that we find our game back. Our game is about creating chances, about going forward, about having an offensive drive.

“That, at the moment, is missing a bit. I believe I have a team of great players and perhaps they have forgotten a little bit how good they are.

“What is most important is that we play again with our enthusiasm, desire to create chances and enjoy our game, more than thinking about if we concede a goal or not.

“In the past we have been criticised for giving chances away but we are not used to being criticised for not creating because we have a team based on that. That’s why I think it’s important we come back to what our game is all about.  We have analysed Saturday, we have watched it, spoken about it. We know that we didn’t play as well as expected. There is only one way to respond to that and it is to come out with a good performance.

“Result is always linked to performance. You cannot go into the game and think ‘no matter about the performance, we just want a result’. We want to think about playing well, that’s what we focus on.

“Schalke are a very good side.  You can see that in their league position.

“They are a very tight team but we have learned from that. We did not have a lot of chances against them at Emirates Stadium and so we have got to switch better from defence to attack.

“They did not have many chances either but they had clear-cut ones and that’s what we of course want to stop.   But, as I said, I believe for us it’s important that we create more than we do at the moment. Our game was always about that and we have to worry about being better at our style of play.”

But isn’t it strange?   At this point last season everyone was screaming that we didn’t have a good enough defence.  Now we have the meanest defence in the league, so people pick on one player, and the attack.

So it goes.

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The books…

The sites…

The articles…

• “You don’t know what you’re doing…”
• Rolling grass, beer, roofs and the Würfel. Travelling to tonight’s game
• Errors, mistakes and details and yet…
• Arsenal down, all our servers down, is there anything good to say?
• Untold – an apology
• Manchester Dean v Arsenal. A preview. Of sorts.
• Comparing Arsenal, Tottenham, Newcastle, Man C, Man U, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool: this year against last season
• Everyone is somewhere most of the time, and dancing with Elaine
• England run by idiots, players arrested, racism untouched. Just another day in football.