Betalogue

Another woeful performance by the Gunners, and the season is already starting to look like a write-off. Ashley Cole is probably stating the obvious — although he’s probably not in the best position to do so, having played his own disruptive part in the past few months when it comes to team spirit and motivation. Inability to apply the finishing touch up front, lack of impetus in mid-field, mistakes in the back… Not looking good!

With Thierry Henry set to miss for a month, it’s going to be a very painful start indeed for Arsenal this season. And unless there is someone in the team who is willing (and able) to step up and take charge of things, this is a team that is going to be very hard to support.

With the depth in Chelsea’s squad (and their never-ending run of luck), other top teams can ill afford to slip up, and the Gunners have already done so twice in four games! Abramovich’s wealth might have created an uneven playing field, but that’s no excuse for the lack of inspiration and motivation that was on display at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday.

Of course, Wenger also has to put some of the blame on his own shoulders… The recruiting during the summer months was not particularly inspiring, and tactically on the pitch he seems to run out of options a bit too quickly. Vieira’s departure was disruptive, of course, but the mark of a great team is that they are able to overcome such challenges. In that respect, Arsenal still has a lot to prove.

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Monday, September 12th, 2005 at 9:11 am and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.