Injury Catch Up And Terry Neill’s A Good Bloke

International week seems to have passed off peacefully as far as injuries are concerned with Arsene  reporting that no-one is reported injured although the news that Bacary Sagna is out for at least three weeks is not good at all given that he has been the most consistent defender all season. Presumably, it leaves Arsene with two options; either drop Eboue into the Right Back slot and bring Walcott into Right Midfield or simply swap Sagna for Hoyte and leave the rest of the team alone. With five games in the next fourteen days, there is likely to be a mix and match on the approach he takes with the defence and midfield getting a fair bit of rotation.

It will mean opportunities for players such as Gilberto to play a few times before the end of the season. The Brazilian kept up the mantra of still being able to win the league, which whilst it is true, it is also exceptionally difficult. The thought crossed my tiny little mind as to how much of this is trying to convince themselves that it is still possible and how much is belief. Bolton will give a good indication of that.

Of course, if he comes in, then the hardest working midfielder without a new contract  anywhere in western Europe, AKA Mathieu Flamini, who received that “accolade” in a recently conducted poll, will get a well-earned rest for a game. Flamini said before the international against England that his Agent was talking to Arsenal which is more than Joseba Diaz will be doing on Cesc’s behalf at any time in the near future with reports emanating from Spain that the two have come to a parting of the ways, allegedly over Cesc’s desire to remain at Arsenal. Depending on which paper you read, Real and Barcelona are ‘greatly encouraged’ by the ‘news’. That this qualifies as ‘news’ is an indication of how quiet the week has been but at least we know that the summer ahead is going to be another one of ‘Cesc to Barcelona / Real Madrid’ and this is the basis of it.

Recent criticism of Arsene being impregnable in various quarters was going to bring forth a rebuke yesterday from myself but alas working time encroached from before dawn ‘til after dusk and in the meantime, Terry Neill did the job for me.

What I believe must happen – and, indeed, believe will happen – is Arsene will now transfer the responsibility to his players. It is time for each individual in the squad to ask himself ‘what am I going to do about it?’

Part of the frustration is that Arsene has not spent his ‘war chest’ and with the current dip in form, people question the wisdom of not doing so. It is of course, an unanswerable question because even if he had spent the money, there are several issues to be answered; firstly, would we be in the top three? Would the ‘new’ players make any difference now? Would they have been able to halt the dip in form? The answer is that you will never know. Neill agrees with this,

The strength in depth of our squad is not as good as Chelsea and Manchester United’s – that is a fair comment. But we are looking long-term here and, let’s be honest, at the start of the season if you’d told the average fan we’d still be in the race for the title with seven games to go they’d have been delighted.

On that one, Neill is correct; looking back at the pre-season comments left by you all, there is a fair smattering of the ‘we will win it’ optimism but the undercurrent was that the expectation was for a top three finish and being a lot closer than we had been in previous years. The gap in points ought to be smaller but that depends on the players winning their matches otherwise it will be double digits.

To measure the progress on that alone is misleading for whilst the history books show the statistics, the truth is that in the past two seasons, there has been no realistic title challenge. The team have learnt harshly that the season does not finish in February and that consistency post-Christmas ends with the glory.

As to Arsenal being impregnable at the club, I do not think that is the case. What you have is a manager who has told the Board of his long term plan and it was sound enough for them to buy into it. It also highlights the collective strength of character of the Directors that they are backing him to the hilt to see the project through. Or as Neill put it,

Arsene’s is a long-term project that will, eventually, bear fruit. It is easy to spend money and be reckless but that is not the Arsene way or the Arsenal way – and, for me, that is definitely the correct way to do things. If Roman Abramovich was to pull the plug on his little toy – Chelsea – they’d be in a horrendous financial position. People don’t fully appreciate the debt Manchester United have taken on.

This does not mean Wenger is impregnable as one commenter put it. If the club went into decline, he would be under pressure from the Board to rectify that although if you go by his comments last summer, he would fall on his sword before he was pushed. All successful clubs have dominant managers. It is no coincidence that before the 1990s Liverpool had a stable management position with succession planning making for a smooth transition. United have been successful with the same manager. They have stood by Ferguson through a transition because of his previous success and the Arsenal Board are doing the same with Wenger. Is that so wrong?

‘til Tomorrow.