ARSENAL 5- 1 EVERTON: TAKEAWAYS AND THINGS TO KEEP AN EYE ON

The past 2 weeks or so have been quite eventful for anyone who follows Arsenal. Within that period, the club lost Alexis Sanchez who over the past 3 years or so has been talismanic to the club, then wiped the floor with Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace, booked a trip to Wembley for the league cup final, lost in a shocking albeit familiar performance to Swansea before thoroughly dismantling Sam Allardyce’s outfit after Big Sam had made smug comments about Arsenal having a weak defence. Big Sam’s opinion on Arsenal’s defence honestly is not off the mark, I mean Arsenal’s defensive frailties are there for all to see. However, if this game showed anything, it’s how dangerous it is to throw shots in this game of football as Everton’s defending (especially in the first half) was a masterstroke in how to make your opposition look good. Huge gaps, not tracking runs and so on.

Also, within this two-week period, there is also the matter that Arsenal have brought in both Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as well as resigned Mesut Özil to a new 3 year contract. The latter two especially brought one of the biggest waves of optimism to the fanbase in recent memory. And as always, big signings and business off the pitch generate a lot of chatter which has certainly been the case. Everything from the supposed backroom “power shift” with what has been affectionately termed the “Gazidis Squad” comprising Ivan Gazidis, Huss Fahmy, Sven Mislintat and Raul Sanllehi supposedly wrestling power from Arsene Wenger in terms of transfer dealings to how these signings will affect the teams put out by the Arsenal manager has been doing the rounds. That last point is what this piece will attempt to focus on using the game vs Everton as a case study if you will.

LINEUP

Arsenal lined up in the 4-2-3-1 shape which has been Wenger’s defacto formation for a large majority of the last decade. However, Arsenal have not played this shape a lot this season. Running through the line-up, Petr Cech kept his place in goal despite some very questionable form in search of a clean sheet to reach the magic 200. The back 4 (from right to left) was made up of Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny and Monreal. A midfield pivot of Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey then a trio of roaming playmakers in Alex Iwobi, Mesut Özil and newcomer Henrikh Mkhitaryan playing behind the debuting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Its worth saying that when the game settled, Mkhitaryan was mostly working from the right flank with Iwobi from the left and Özil in the middle even though very early on it was Iwobi on the right which is a position that limits him and Mkhitaryan on the left.

 

MIDFIELD SETUP

Arsenal’s midfield setup is always a bone of contention with so many different opinions on the best way to solve the issues stemming from that area of the pitch. Looking at the midfield in this game, Xhaka-Ramsey which seems to be the manager’s first choice as that has almost always been the go-to pivot over the past 12 months once both players are available. However, most times, this has been with a back 3 due to the fact that that pivot may not be as defensively astute as desired but against Everton, the pair started together as a pivot in front of a back 4 for the first time in a while (vs Swansea, Mohammed El Nenny started behind them to form a midfield-trio). The difference here was that the 3 players in front of the pivot are very technically gifted and very much attracted to central areas of the pitch. The kind of setup which has scarcely been seen at Arsenal since the first half of the 2013/2014 season and just like in many games over that period, this game was punctuated with an outstanding showing from Aaron Ramsey. It stands to reason that this is not a coincidence as when the team is setup like this, these playmakers starting in wide areas stay tighter to the midfield than out and out wingers or wide forwards would. This provides a measure of cover when Ramsey makes those difficult to track off the ball runs from deep that have become his selling point. One thing also worth noting is that the players starting wide here are very comfortable in half-spaces and very "sharp" so playing them wide does not totally cripple wing play as we saw at times where Aaron Ramsey played wide as Wenger searched for this type of balance. In addition to that, leading up to signing his new contract, Mesut Özil has put in great performances where he has looked more like a midfielder on the pitch than he ever had for Arsenal. By this I mean, Mesut in recent months is now more adjusted to being able to drop deep to support in build up play when required and has become much more reliable in terms of packing the midfield when Arsenal is out of possession. All this bodes well especially with the rejuvenated version of Jack Wilshere we have seen this season set to return to the starting 11 imminently. Something worth watching for in fact is who in fact gives way for Wilshere when Wenger (inevitably according to his comments) reintroduces Wilshere. Another important thing to note is what this setup meant for Granit Xhaka who has struggled a lot this season. This setup gives Granit 4 players ahead of him that are normally in between the lines that he can find quickly. This should go some way towards mitigating the number of cheap giveaways he is responsible for going forward which would help the team massively as cheap giveaways from Xhaka have been a hallmark of many Arsenal games this season, so this is something to watch for going forward in terms of whether or not the number of giveaways is mitigated.

IS THERE ALREADY TOO MUCH RELIANCE ON AUBAMEYANG?

This might seem an absurd point given that Aubameyang has only played one game for the club which was a comfortable 5-1 win where he got (only) 1 goal (that was offside but shh) but like the last point details, with the likes of Alexis and Walcott leaving the club recently, the idea seems to be to have as many playmaker types as possible in the starting 11. The issue with this (as we have seen in some Arsenal games recently) is such a midfield requires an outlet ahead of them with the speed and power to give the opposition enough to think about (in terms of runs in behind) which deters them from just congesting the space around the edge of their penalty box. This then creates the pockets of space for these playmakers to work their magic be it individually or collectively. We saw Aubameyang carry out that role effectively in this game against Everton and based on his career so far, one would think he would continue to do so using his blistering pace. The issue, however, comes when you ask the question “What happens if Aubameyang is unavailable?”. This is because the alternative (Alex Lacazette) is not blessed with such pace and for all the quality he has shown thus far in his Arsenal career, we have seen him struggle when he does not have people running off him. Many people thought that this issue would be mitigated by playing Lacazette and Aubameyang together as that may give a better-balanced attack, but it seems that Wenger is not interested in that at least for the time being and given how much getting the midfield to function without a back three has been a very stiff task that then sacrificing a midfielder for an extra striker is likely to make more difficult. This is one that is worth watching maybe up till the summer as ideally, the club would add a wide forward who is also an above average technician to at least compete for one of the 3 spots behind the central striker. However, before then, it will be interesting to see whether this issue manifests and if it does, what attempts at mitigating it would be employed. Also, as a quick aside, while Aaron Ramsey’s runs from deep do mitigate this issue a bit, his recently spotty injury record means that it is probably best to consider another option at least in tandem. Another option again is Danny Welbeck but he also has a spotty injury record and is far too profligate in front of goal to rely on.

WENGER STILL TINKERS UNNECESSARILY

Arsene Wenger in recent weeks leading up to this game vs Everton has done two things that have left me a bit confused, to say the least. The first of which was playing Laurent Koscielny on the right of the center back pairing with Shkodran Mustafi on the left. This is eyebrow raising because to anyone who has watched both players in recent years, it is quite obvious that this is the opposite of what both players would prefer. In trying to come up with a reason for this, I felt that this might be a way to try to curb the more adventurous instincts that Mustafi has shown throughout his Arsenal career to this point but even that can not be justify the change especially when you look at how Mustafi has never looked comfortable. Against Swansea, this issue was well on show as Mustafi’s positioning was almost always off which led to a significant gap between him and Monreal who was the left back on the night which Swansea profited from mostly through Nathan Dyer. Against Everton, Wenger changed it back to what should be the norm with Mustafi RCB and Koscielny LCB which begs the question of what the point was. In a similar fashion, the game vs Everton marked Granit Xhaka’s return to playing at the base of midfield with him playing from a significantly higher position in recent games. Having Xhaka in this position was by no means the best use of his attributes and with it being reversed now, it again begs the question of what the point was. The issue here is that it is not an isolated incident. To cite an example, last season, Arsenal started well with Alexis playing as a “false-9” type and Walcott supporting him from wide right before without any warning, Alexis was back on the left-hand side with Olivier Giroud upfront. We have also seen it with Alex Iwobi being switched from the left to the right of midfield for no apparent reason. This kind of tinkering while it can lead to one or two pleasant surprises is ultimately risky and you would think such things should be tackled in pre-season. With all the talk of Wenger surrendering power off the pitch, there is sure to be more scrutiny on how Wenger sets the team up on the pitch and tinkering like this will not inspire confidence from anyone.

WAS THE SUMMER TRANSFER WINDOW A WASTE?

In the summer Arsenal brought in Alexandre Lacazette for a (then) club-record transfer fee as well as Sead Kolasinac with both set to have crucial roles in the starting team going forward yet here we are at the start of February and it does look like neither of these players is seen to be of first 11 quality by the manager. There are rumours that Wenger went after Aubameyang more out of disappointment in Lacazette than as in an attempt to replace Alexis Sanchez. Now, while these are rumours, at least at the moment, these rumours do not seem to be far removed from the truth and if the rumours are indeed true, what does that say about the club that a player deemed worth a club record transfer fee only six months ago is now not of the quality required. Kolasinac, on the other hand, was a free signing but is reportedly on a significant wage packet and in recent weeks, it looks like Nacho Monreal and Ainsley Maitland-Niles (a midfielder by trade) have edged ahead of him in the pecking order at left back. That is worrying. Against Everton, Lacazette did not get off the bench while Kolasinac came on for Monreal at half time due to what one can only assume was an injury. Kolasinac then proceeded to put in a performance that will only strengthen his detractors claims with former Arsenal Winger Theo Walcott leaving him ragged more than once. The picture by the end of the season may well be very different but for these two signings to be in such positions just six months removed from joining the club deserves at least some attention especially when you see that there is a running theme. This running theme being that recent Arsenal signings do seem to have struggled to fit in as required. The likes of Cech, Xhaka, Mustafi, Chambers, Welbeck fall under this umbrella. Perhaps something along these lines has been deliberated on behind the scenes thus the rise of the “Gazidis Squad”? Only time will tell.

Emmanuel Pius-Ogiji

@Emma_V2

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SUMMARY OF MAJOR DEALS BY TOP CLUBS IN EUROPE

The transfer window came to an end a while ago, and no matter the team you support, you cannot help but admit that it has been a very eventful one. A lot of players were linked to a lot of teams, and while some of these links materialised, to the disappointment of some fans, they did not. The most expensive so far was Manchester United’s re-signing of their youth product Paul Pogba for a fee of £86 million in a deal bound to rise to an excess of about one hundred million pounds. Outrageous to some, Paul Pogba’s transfer was greeted with happiness by the United faithful, as he was an addition to the already star studded list of transfers they had already made which included names like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and relative unknown Eric Bailly would feel like it was a profitable window this summer for United. Their “noisy neighbours” across town have also made some seemingly positive reinforcements this window. Manchester City made quite a number of significant signings this summer, bringing in players like Nolito, Ilkay Gundogan, Claudio Bravo, Leroy Sane, John Stones and the talented Gabril Jesus. Chelsea made a number of signings including the capture of Olympique De Marseille’s Michy Batshuayi, but the most notable remains their recapture of David Luiz from Paris St. Germain. Liverpool have not been quiet either, signing Loris Karius , Georginio Wijnaldum, Ragnar Klavan, Joel Matip and Sadio Mane. Much to the surprise of Many, Arsenal fans also seemed quite content with their team’s transfer dealings despite some nervy moments between the period they signed Granit Xhaka and when Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi were added to the team.

Meanwhile across Europe, Barcelona snapped up a couple of key players including Lucas Digne, Paco Alcacer, Andre Gomes and Samuel Umtiti. Atletico Madrid added to their ranks Kevin Gamiero, Nico Gaitan. Real Madrid recaptured Alvaro Morata, making him one of the latest players to return to his former team in a transfer window where that has already happened a couple of times already. From Madrid to Paris, as PSG spent the summer getting the likes of Hatem Ben Arfa, Jese Rordiguez, Grzegorz Krychowiak and Thomas Meunier. In Germany, Bayern Munich got the teenage senation Renato Sanches and also recaptured Mats Hummels from Borussia Dortmund whilst Borussia Dortmund recaptured Mario Gotze from Bayern Munich and got hold of Moussa Dembele, Emre Mor, Mario Goetze, Marc Batra, Sebastian Rode, Raphael Guerreiro, Dzenis Burnic, Andre Schurrle. The round up concludes with a look at Juventus who completed arguably the most controversial of the summer with the purchase of Gonalzo Higuain for £76. 50m. They also completed another controversial acquisition of Miralem Pjanic from AS Roma. Moraccan International Mehdi Benatia came in from Bayern Munich. Dani Alvez, Marko Pjaca, Mario Lemina, Juan Cuadrado were also brought into the club.

It has been a busy transfer window for most clubs in Europe. All the transfers made make football fans and pundits alike ask the question “Who did the best business?”. In all truthfulness, this question can only be answered by time. We watch and season how it all pans out, for now, enjoy the season

By Dopamu Jojololaoluwa W.s

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WHAT IS A DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER? EXAMINING WHAT IT IS TO PLAY THE POSITION AND WHY MOST TOP TEAMS PREFER A MEDIOCENTRO

Ask most what a DM in football is and they most will reply you "defensive midfielder". This is true on the surface of it, but what most mean when they say defensive midfielder is a destroyer. Football is like a science. It evolves. From a tactical stand point, things change from time to time and can also be recycled from years gone into use in the present. Now the "destroyer" or "Makelele role" as some would say is from an era gone. We are in the era of a DM not necessarily being a bruiser who intercepts, tackles, hassle and does the work in the defensive phase or defensive transition, we are now in an era of a deep lying player maker or a mediocentro or regista (as they are known in Spain and Italy respectively).

It is for a fact that most top clubs in Europe (class A and B) employ a player of this profile. Barcelona (Sergio Busquets), Bayern Munich (Xabi Alonso), PSG (Thiago Motta), Juventus (before his ACL injury Marchisio). Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Manchester City are the only other clubs not mentioned here. Pep Guardiola will surely implement that with Fernandinho/Ilkay Gündogan. Atleti have a "special" way of playing so they are exempted from this. This leaves the current European champions, Real Madrid. It is a strange case. The club adopted the idea of having a mediocentro with Xabi Alonso contrary to popular opinion that the club hasn't had a "dm" since Makelele. Then after the Spaniard left, Toni Kroos was drafted into the role. The German is a cerebral player and he took to that role slowly and steadily. He played the role for a year under Carlo Ancelotti, played there a few times under Rafa Benitez. The other times he didn't play there under the Spaniard, Casemiro, a destroyer in every sense of the word, was drafted in. Under Zidane, Kroos returned to the dm role again, but after the Madrid derby defeat in late February, Casemiro became a starter for the club whenever he was available. At the time it was seen as Zidane trying to give the team shield while he worked on other aspects. The off season has come and gone, Real Madrid made no real efforts to sign a box to box or another mediocentro. Zidane was interested in Paul Pogba, but Florentino Perez wasn't willing to pay the asking price and that was that. It now seems that Zidane has planned for this season with the Casemiro has the holder. Most would agree that it is okay considering the club won the champions league with him as holder. This is true, but it is also true the club had a rather easy route through to the final. You could argue that, there's no 3rd midfielder in the current squad, but James Rodriguez performed that role well under Carlo Ancelotti. Isco started playing the role under the aforementioned Ancelotti and still plays there well enough. Mateo Kovacic although he doesn't play there often those have the attributes of one who will excel there. The issue now is, what type of DM Real Madrid should play with. A destroyer (Casemiro) or a mediocentro (Kroos). A club of Real Madrid's nature, it is essential, a mediocentro is occupying the deeper midfield role. Now I'll describe the basic responsibilities it takes to play the role.

* Build up: The player in the role must take charge of this phase and know when, to whom and at what pace to pass the ball to a teammate in order to advance the play in an organised manner. Merely passing it or hitting diagonals is not enough. Each pass must carry a meaning and an idea.

* Offensively: The player must offer/create a consistent passing lane to his teammates in order to add ball circulation at various points of the build-up 

* Defensively: The player must be able to do what a typical destroyer would, intercept, tackle (when needed), hassle and also form part of the defence when it becomes necessary to do so.

From the above description, most destroyers carry out only the defensive phase and do very little when it comes to the build-up & attack phase. This reason on the surface explains why most teams who play with a mediocentro play better aesthetically pleasing football, because they have one more player to facilitate and essentially be the brain of the 1st phase of the build-up.

Using the two players used as case study, we apply their attributes to the role.

* Casemiro: Getting this out of the way, the Brazilian exhibits most the traits you expect of a player of his profile. The player most times is over zealous and goes in for the ball aggressively which will tend to recover balls for his team as much as giving away free kicks. The Brazilian lacks the positional awareness to anticipate where the ball will likely be played and how best to place his body in order to win possession without going to ground. In the attacking phase and build up phase, lies the major problem with Casemiro and this position. Basic understanding of how to start or indeed facilitate the build-up in the first phase and at any other phase do not exist. Ability to also use the ball with or without pressure is also minimal for the player. You can see it in his game, that he avoids having the ball as much as possible. Although when forced to, he can pass it but there lies a sense of nervousness with the ball.

The graphic here shows Kroos deeper, after passing it to Casemiro, the Brazilian immediately knocks it backwards towards the centre backs

The graphic here shows Kroos deeper, after passing it to Casemiro, the Brazilian immediately knocks it backwards towards the centre backs

* Kroos: Toni in one word. Cerebral. He understands every phase of the pitch through years of playing as a number 10, a normal central midfielder and the times he played deepest. Match this to his incredible ability to give a pass from any area of the pitch to another to precise accuracy. Always trying to involve team mates as much as possible. From side to side, vertically, into the final 3rd. Left or right. Defensively is where the problem comes with the German. There exist a myth that when pressed, he loses possession easily. This isn't necessarily true, he has an excellent body shield on him which results in him winning fouls most times or finding an angle to pass off the ball whilst protecting the ball from the opponent. The defensive good traits of Kroos, is his pressing and interceptions (this is severely underrated). The German will barely go in for a slide tackle and his pressing comes off as passive at times. He also isn't fast nor is he aggressive and for this reason can easily be beaten in a 1v1 which could leave his back line exposed.

 At Real Madrid currently, there is a myth that Casemiro brings balance and frees up Luka Modric & Toni Kroos. This is true in the defensive phase only, but outside that, the Brazilian offers next to nothing in the build-up phase and offensive phase. It is clear at this point that in the face the does not offer the balance and freedom to his midfield partner but rather handicaps them as they drop often to perform duties meant for the Brazilian.   

The image shows how the two interiors (Kroos and Modric are deeper than the actual “dm”)

This problem seems clear to team as a whole, as the defenders now see to ignore the Brazilian in the build-up phase and try finding other team mates

Notice Kroos trying to help Sergio Ramos dictate by pointing to Casemiro, but he is ignored with the defender preferring the longer ball forward which is lost as shown below

The graphics used to describe these two issues may have been from one game, but this has been a reoccurring occurrence in the game play of Real Madrid. A lack of confidence from the team and the player himself to gain possession is a problem as much as having him in the team is "solution". 

An argument could be made it is better to play Casemiro as the safety measure as his flaws in the role are less harmful to the team as is Kroos' flaw in the position. This argument is not necessarily true because, in time, teams will notice this issue and try to offset it by applying a press in the their attacking and midfield zone which as shown by Real Sociedad & Celta vigo in the first two games, will need to be seen through by either dribbling or passing through, both of which instantly nullifies Casemeiro and makes Real Madrid handicap, with ones less player in such tight situations. Real Madrid won those 2 games, but neither would be called a vintage Real performance. Clearly the quality of players at the club mean games will be won regardless of this tactical handicap but there also will be days when the quality will have off days or the quality of players on the opposing side will be on par whilst having similar knowledge of how to stop this Real Madrid team. Those are the days when the club could suffer most by dropping points on off days or failing to beat teams that could harm them with quality too (in CL for instance)

To conclude this piece, the demands of the roles have been explained. Also, defending is not exclusive to the defenders and the DM. Football is a team sport should be done as a team. Not one position or more is limited to specific duties. Defending should be done as a team, as unit, with each player knowing doing their part for the collective good. Therefore, it is in my opinion that in this era, where the elite clubs want to play aesthetically pleasing football as well as win games,S having a mediocentro over a destroyer as your "DM" is absolutely paramount.

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REACTION TO ARSENAL FROM MANCHESTER UNITED VS ARSENAL (3-2)

  In what could turn out to be the biggest bottlejob Arsenal have produced in the Premier league under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal were effectively rolled over by a Manchester United team missing a number of key men, one that had no natural central defender and a number of inexperienced players in the XI. You look at the teams on paper and it was almost a no brainer to go for an Arsenal win but for those of us that have been following this club for long enough, we all know of the x-factor of this club which is the ability to produce bottlejobs literally from thin air.

  Starting with the lineup yesterday, we were supposed to be lined up as a 4-2-3-1 and I guess defend in a 4-4-2 as we have been doing for a while now but however, due to the personnel involved yesterday, we effectively had a 4-2-4 and left the 2 in the midfield pivot with a sea of space to cover which left us basically crying out to be counter-attacked and that turned out to be the case with the 3 goals conceded coming from effective and quick transitions by United and fairplay to them for how well they ended up playing but I feel we really did basically play into their hands. There was an interview recently where Olivier Giroud said we are our own worst enemies and its hard to disagree based on this evidence.

  It is very easy to point at players and say "You know that Aaron Ramsey guy is shit you know, Barca robbed us for Alexis, Walcott is a pub player etc". The fact is looking back today after removing myself from the flood of emotions that came after the match, I realised that our squad is full of what I call niche players. These are players that thrive either only with a certain type of player next to them or within a particular gameplan/system basically. I'm a big Aaron Ramsey fan (and yes I know he was terrible yesterday even lucky not to be sent off) but its clear he is one of these niche players. Think of Aaron at the peak of his powers, you see him receive the ball in the second phase of play, make a clever pass to advance the move, arrive later from midfield to finish the move. Notice I said second phase, as its quite obvious Aaron is not suited to being in charge of the first phase of play as he is not what you would describe as a controller thus meaning he has to be partnered with someone ready and able to do that job as we saw was the case when he was partnered with Mikel Arteta. Francis Coquelin and Mathieu Flamini are nowhere near this ilk thus its no suprise Ramsey struggles beside any of them. They (like Ramsey) long to have a distributor beside who is happy to receive the ball from the defence and effectively play passes in between the opposition's lines to the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez to allow them attack the opposition's defence and thus create chances/take shots. Speaking about that defensive midfield position, I wrote about the importance of the position a while back on this site Here. I personally feel that in order to move forward though, we need a defensive midfielder in that deep lying playmaker ilk to take charge of the first phase of play because in a team like Arsenal we are going to have more of the ball than our opponents in at least 70% of the games we are involved with which makes the first phase of play very very important. Quite frankly it is mind boggling that we do not have such a player in the squad and that has to be another string to the "Wenger Out" movement's bow. The jury is still out for Mohammed El Nenny as from what we've seen, he is seen at the same level as Mathieu Flamini which is worrying. Although, El Nenny's cameo yesterday was a bright spot in the whole disaster.

  Now, Theo Walcott, my goodness, his performance yesterday would be the outcome of an experiment to create a diabolical performance in a lab. He had just 17 touches, lost the ball 10 times and made only 6 passes, also didn't take any shots. However, is there anything that was suprising in all honesty? Theo is limited and is the definition of a niche player. What he is good at, he is quite good at but offers nothing much more. Theo is good at attacking space and latching on to through passes and slotting home but he doesn't offer more. The fact he is our top earner is quite shocking but again surely this has to be on the manager because we all know his limits. In the 12/13 season, The team was built to service his strengths and he delivered 21 goals in that season. However, I feel there is no way him or in fact Giroud should be first choice at this club if we are to reach where we want to be.

  

  Now, there's a feeling from a large number of Arsenal fans that if Cazorla was fit, everything would be alright based on our 2015 form. I really disagree because I feel that front 6 of Coquelin-Cazorla Ramsey-Ozil-Alexis Walcott was flawed because the midfield pivot could not function without a central midfielder out wide (anyone who disagrees should watch and compare our 2 matches against Bayern Munchen) which then forces us to need our left winger and centre forward to be outlets and from close inspection, Alexis doesn't seem to instinctually want to be an outlet and then Walcott, my previous paragraph is enough for his case. It was just a system that just didn't seem sustainable at all as it just could not cope with injury or loss of form to any of those players as without Cazorla, we could not build, without Coquelin we could not defend, without Ramsey, the pivot was exposed. To be fair that team sort of has the feel of a patch job. Ultimately again, you have to feel that we need more investment for where we are trying to reach in European Football.

  

  Now, this season, Honestly, I feel like the dream of winning the Premier League in this season that has done everything to spoonfeed us the title is gone and ultimately I do not feel that there is any case to defend Wenger's position because it is literally the definition of insanity. I would love nothing more than to eat the words I just typed and drown myself in alcohol and joy in May but ultimately I feel we should at least review the situation in the summer even if we do win the league. I think questions have to asked about where we are trying to reach in the game and what steps we are taking to reach that point. However, we have a board with hardly anyone who is a footballing man that can try to hold Wenger accountable and try to shepherd the club to where we want. Ultimately, I feel that Arsene is someone right now who would rather not do anything than risk making a mistake. Look at our transfer business and team construction over the past few years and you see that Wenger has essentially stumbled upon things by accident, the current squad agrees with that, the likes of Coquelin and Bellerin support that notion in the sense that they have done well but let's be honest, no one would have counted on them when planning for the season and rightly so. It becomes a case that maybe the wrong signings like Santos, Gervinho, Park, Squillacci, Podolski and Arshavin have scarred him and this is a job where any ounce of cowardice should not be entertained. We are actually trapped in a vicious cycle of do well, hope for the investment to push us, Wenger lets us down, we bottle in a key period and around and around we go. It’s quite sad. However, it should be noted that with the kind of board we have, Wenger leaving could leave us off worse as he virtually does everything in the club. Maybe we should consider bringing in a Director of football but I guess my point is things should be looked at at least at the end of the season because at the end of the day, it’s the fans that are left to suffer.

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