The Fall From Grace - Part II

A Ray Of Hope

So, where do Arsenal go from here?


In my opinion, the way forward for Arsenal is to look back.

The Arsenal team with which Arsene initially  had so much success was handed down from George Graham. This team had the meanest defense on the land.So much so that"1-0 to Arsenal" was the cliche at that time. What Wenger did to this team, after he came in, was that he bought some players with attacking flair to give our club some "Style". However, and most importantly, the back four remained unchanged. What I am trying to say is that we have to have a strong defense if we are to succeed. The team must be built from the back. If Wenger looks back in time, he will realize it. Obviously,he has not done so yet. He has even claimed many times that he will be happy as long as his team scores more than the opponent! That will just not work.Definitely not if the club sells its best attacking players each year!

We all know how the teams that have the best defenses or defend the best get to win trophies(Chelsea anyone?). Our defense is among the worst in the league. You might argue that we have conceded the third lowest number of goals in the league. But, at least in the league,the defense with the most clean sheets win. Just look at Manchester City last year or the Manchester United team this year and the previous years and Chelsea. It would be very bold to predict that Arsenal will keep a clean sheet, even if it is against a "lesser" side. Just look our recent matches. Bradford, we conceded 2, scored 2. Blackburn, conceded once and lost.Bayern,we conceded 3, scored 1. If we had managed to keep a clean sheet in all these matches, we would have still been these competitions. The thing with keeping clean sheets is that we give ourselves every chance of winning.

The worst part of all this is that, we can just sit there and point to our team's nooks. We know that our protests will fall in deaf ears and we can do absolutely nothing about it. Its painful and difficult. To look at a club's rise to the top and fall so dramatically. Well, we were with the club when Arsenal were at the top, lets get behind the club when we are on the way down. "Through Thick and Through Thin" as they say.

The win yesterday was a pleasant welcome. But again, we made it difficult for ourselves and until the final whistle blew, we never knew what could have happened, against one of the league's minnows this season, Aston Villa.