They also don't buy a load of players who spend large portions of their career battling relegation from the premiership.
Why is Arsenal better than us?
- Thread starter redhorizon2
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Mikel Arteta.
Wenger's greatest impact has been in sucking every known form of life and soul out of Arsenal. You see it in their players, performances, ambition and fans. It is a club completely lacking in any emotional energy...positive or negative. And that manifests itself in two ways for them. They almost accept they will fall short against Chelsea, Utd and City so they don't get fired up for those games and they don't come crashing down after the defeats that follow. Those matches don't define Arsenal's season. In cricketing parlance, they are archetypal flat-track bullies. As long as they batter the bottom half of the table and hold their own over a season against ourselves, Spurs etc then they will finish where they need to and if they pick up the odd Cup along the way, great.
Part of our problem is we get so 'up' for the big games and we just cannot sustain it over a prolonged period. Matches against Chelsea and Utd are do or die cup finals for us. We win some and we think we just need to turn up against Crystal Palace so our (dare I say it) intensity levels drop and we get beat. Lose one of these big games and our brittle confidence takes a hit which has the same effect on the performances that follow.
And that's what separates us from Arsenal. We are all or nothing, up or down, champs or chumps riding an emotional rollercoaster. Arsenal just exist. Of course they have very good players and a system they all understand and that is enough for them to beat the teams they need to beat. But when they take their annual drubbing from Chelsea or Utd they just move on. It doesn't even register for the players, Wenger or a large part of their support.
When I think about what defines us and the top teams in England it boils down to:
Chelsea - a will to win fired by arrogance and greed (backed up by money!)
Utd - a sense of entitlement to belong at the top and a will to win fired by the self-belief and confidence that Ferguson installed across the club and which still exists today (despite Moyes!)
City - money.
Arsenal - completely soulless but they do what they need to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve.
Liverpool - the complete opposite to Arsenal and for all of the right reasons.
I'd love to see us become more consistent winners over the course of a season but if it means we lose the emotional fabric of the club it would take more than two FA Cups in 10 years to make me want us to 'do an Arsenal'.
Part of our problem is we get so 'up' for the big games and we just cannot sustain it over a prolonged period. Matches against Chelsea and Utd are do or die cup finals for us. We win some and we think we just need to turn up against Crystal Palace so our (dare I say it) intensity levels drop and we get beat. Lose one of these big games and our brittle confidence takes a hit which has the same effect on the performances that follow.
And that's what separates us from Arsenal. We are all or nothing, up or down, champs or chumps riding an emotional rollercoaster. Arsenal just exist. Of course they have very good players and a system they all understand and that is enough for them to beat the teams they need to beat. But when they take their annual drubbing from Chelsea or Utd they just move on. It doesn't even register for the players, Wenger or a large part of their support.
When I think about what defines us and the top teams in England it boils down to:
Chelsea - a will to win fired by arrogance and greed (backed up by money!)
Utd - a sense of entitlement to belong at the top and a will to win fired by the self-belief and confidence that Ferguson installed across the club and which still exists today (despite Moyes!)
City - money.
Arsenal - completely soulless but they do what they need to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve.
Liverpool - the complete opposite to Arsenal and for all of the right reasons.
I'd love to see us become more consistent winners over the course of a season but if it means we lose the emotional fabric of the club it would take more than two FA Cups in 10 years to make me want us to 'do an Arsenal'.
I think that might be the best summation of Arsenal ever seen on here. 'Arsenal just exist'. Perfect.
I'd happily take top four every year and a chance to win cups.
There was a time when people were able to criticise Arsenal because they didn't win trophies, just finished in the top four every year. Now they win trophies, and still finish in the top four the argument is changing.
Are we now in the realm of settling for moral victories?
Arsenal for years exclusively bought young players, now having built a decent squad they've still kept doing so but have supplemented the squad with genuine quality - Cazorla, Ozil, Sanchez and probably Vidal next. They had Suarez desperate to join them. And they'll be the main danger for Chelsea next season.
We're about five years behind Arsenal, derision is hardly what should be aimed their way.
There was a time when people were able to criticise Arsenal because they didn't win trophies, just finished in the top four every year. Now they win trophies, and still finish in the top four the argument is changing.
Are we now in the realm of settling for moral victories?
Arsenal for years exclusively bought young players, now having built a decent squad they've still kept doing so but have supplemented the squad with genuine quality - Cazorla, Ozil, Sanchez and probably Vidal next. They had Suarez desperate to join them. And they'll be the main danger for Chelsea next season.
We're about five years behind Arsenal, derision is hardly what should be aimed their way.
I'm not deriding them...I'm just saying, that's it, they are what they are, what you see is what you get etc.
And they have an incredible knack of finding players who are really massive knobs. Example: Wilshere yesterday, using their victory tour to wind up Spurs fans.
I know Emlyn Hughes once joked about the bluenoses but this is the second time this ghastly guttersnipe has done this and it's delivered with that inimitable London sneer that makes gooners so easy to loathe. 'Fank yew' indeed.
I know Emlyn Hughes once joked about the bluenoses but this is the second time this ghastly guttersnipe has done this and it's delivered with that inimitable London sneer that makes gooners so easy to loathe. 'Fank yew' indeed.
They have a quality scouting network and an experienced coaching setup from the youth to the first team. They have a manager and a board which is widely respected in the game.
We have Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh and a manager who talks about his 11th placed Swansea team as if they were the second coming of Sacchi's Milan.
We have Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh and a manager who talks about his 11th placed Swansea team as if they were the second coming of Sacchi's Milan.
Well we certainly have a poorer coaching staff, although don't forget that Wenger has been guilty of letting that stagnate to some extent, and since Rice finally left he's seemed disinclined to give Steve Bould much input into shaping the team.
As for scouting, well, our network is definitely as far-reaching and elaborate as theirs. There again is an aspect about which FSG have managed to avoid proper scrutiny. They charged Comolli with the task of revamping our overseas scouting teams, and advancing them in some areas, such as Uruguay, and we spent a fortune doing so. Then Comolli goes, Rodgers comes in, there's a further set of changes on top of the previous ones, and off we went again. The whole thing now is the most complicated mess imaginable. The sheer scope means that we're still picking up the odd player, but so we damned well should given the number of scouts we're actually employing full-time and part-time worldwide.
One... not as many as we do. We seem to buy someone every year from the bottom half of the table for a top price.
In any case... Arteta joined Everton in 2004/05 and left at the start of the 2011/12 season. In his time at Everton, the lowest Arteta had finished was 11th.
They can fuck off. And Giroud needs to be forcibly held down and have his head shaved. Twunt.
You have more knowledge about the inside workings of the club than I do. So I believe you when you say that our network is far-reaching and elaborate as theirs. But then why is the answer to most of our issues throwing money at Southampton and Villa.
The last time they finished 2nd was in 2005 (when we won our 5th European Cup). We finished 2nd last year. Since then they've finished 3rd, 4th, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th and 4th and won just one more trophy than us. Wenger has even pulled the wool over the eyes of Liverpool fans. Get into CL every year, fail every year. I'd rather get in it on occasion and win the fucking thing.
Utter cunt of a club played for by effete wankers, run by passionless bores, managed by a man with as much grace a Himmler and supported by self-important fucking tools.
Utter cunt of a club played for by effete wankers, run by passionless bores, managed by a man with as much grace a Himmler and supported by self-important fucking tools.
I actually am. I am just pointing out what I believe to be self-evident.
I definitely would. In fact I nearly did, thanks to my dad.
Agreed, it's just that I thought the tone was milder than other occasions.
What you forgot to mention was when their crowd shouts "Hoooof" and the complete lack of irony or understanding of their own recent history. I imagine the Emirates as a concrete bowl full of goldfish.
I've touched on that few times on here. 'Hoof!' Utter wankers.
It would have been Cov City or Villa for me. Purely due to proximity. There was no way my old man was having that!
This.
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