The Premier League campaign - 2011/12: Page 12 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

The Premier League campaign - 2011/12

lorddulaarsenal

I know what she means. The characters in last seasons squad were quite unsavoury

YounGunner

People talk about injuries when it comes to Arsenal but all it takes is an Injury to Silva and suddenly they lose a big part of their team. You could say that same about Man utd and Rooney. Alot can happen this season but i'm content with a 4th place finish

y va marquer

I did to a large extent Captain, but there was always that Cesc shadow hanging over the team, plus characters like Bendtner and Denilson who felt either aggrieved, patently didn't care about the club or believed that they were better than the club.

I guess I just think the players as a group are more likeable this season, less self invested egos involved, more of a team.
Possibly has a lot to do with the new players and the experience they bring as well.
Maybe it's also because they've halted and reversed the downward slide set in motion by last season's team.

RC8

Captain wrote:
You didn't feel connected to the team last season when they were flying in all competitions?

Even after defeating Barcelona, and as exhilarating as that was, I was personally not very connected to that team.

Having our captain flirting with Barcelona made me feel like whatever we accomplished we wouldn't even be able to build upon. I couldn't relate to a team with Nasri, Fabregas, Bendtner, Denilson, etc. Too many aggressive characters who were more focused on their own interests than in the collective team they belonged to. Chamakh, Rosicky, and Arshavin are what we've got left from that team, and I feel them too incredibly distant.

It's fresh to see players who look at each others' strengths to make things happen. Haven't felt this way since the season before Flamini left.

There's less losers now.

Mello

RC8 wrote:
It's fresh to see players who look at each others' strengths to make things happen. Haven't felt this way since the season before Flamini left.

There's less losers now.

Agree on both. It really feels like 'my' arsenal more than it did last season.

Claudius

Agreed. There is that burden lifted by the departures of Fabregas and Nasri, two self-interested players. There is also the stench removed with the loans of Denilson and Bendnter, two characters who had an inflated sense of their value. There is also just the hope that comes with the arrivals of veterans like Per and Arteta.

In addition, the tippy-tappy nature of Fabregas and Nasri has been replaced by a more powerful, direct approach from Ramsey and Gervinho respectively. The latter players aren't as good as the former, but the attack does look more purposeful.

Finally, RvP is showing the kind of goal-scoring prowess we haven't seen for 5 or more seasons, and that's exciting.

Mirth

I don't blame Fabregas for the tippy tappy. Hleb, Nasri, Denilson and anybody else who preferred to move sideways were far more responsible for that. If anything, they all looked to Cesc for the killer pass.

Definitely agree on the addition of genuinely decent footballers who want the club to succeed instead of thinking about their next transfer. Denilson, Bendtner, Eboue, Gallas, Nasri and Adebayor were all dickheads one way or another. I feel it's harsh to class Fabregas in that group but he wasn't exactly the heart and soul of the club either.

The only 'loser' left in the squad is Chamakh. I don't really mind Squillaci or Almunia because a) their too far down the pecking order b) they don't actively mouth off to the press or think everything is beneath them.

Gazza M

This what I felt when we signed the players we did. Everyone knew they weren't super quality, but they are good footballers that want to be here. For guys like Arteta this represents the height of their career, and their last chance to win silverware at this level. They're hungry for it.

Rex

You think we are good now? Wenger should have bought an Arteta and a Mertesacker 3 years ago. By that I mean he should have strenghtened the squad properly, not just replaced good players with lesser ones. Imagine how good we would have been then.

y va marquer

“It [the international break] is certainly not a joy for me but hopefully it is not a pain because I hope the players will come back in good spirits,” said Wenger. “But it could be a pain if we lose some players through injury“I don't believe [it will upset our rhythm]. It's always a challenge to get the focus back quickly when players come from international games but let's hope we can sort that out.”

Post defeat to Spurs I thought the International break helped players.
Ramsey in particular seemed to benefit from the confidence boost he got playing with Wales.
This time around none of the players bar Rosicky, Park, Coquelin and Chamberlain are involved in serious competitive games.
Friendlies are a waste of time and a drain on our nerves 🙂

Klaus

Humble Rex wrote:
You think we are good now?

The only people who genuinely believe that we've got a better starting eleven at the moment than we did last season are the same ones who wanted to bet their house on us finishing outside the top four just a month and a half ago. Better to not pay attention to it. Fabregas had the best final pass in the world. He was the antithesis to sideways passes and poor ball control. We would never had lost 8-2 to United with him in the team. We wouldn't have had a negative goal difference at the beginning of november. We wouldn't have parked at the lower half of the table for two months.

I'm glad too that the current squad is beginning to find its feet, but let's not take the praise too far. We lost top quality in the summer that hasn't been replaced yet.

kamikaze

i agree with klaus. we had enough talent to finish 4th with our panic buys - hopefully we do. but we are a van persie sprained ankle away from being hardly able to score. it's not that different from the year we had to panic buy arshavin because we didnt score in the league for a month when van persie and fabregas were out.

fabregas was a tremendous player and he was not part of the problem. wenger probably let him have too much freedom, but that's on wenger, not the player.

the losers in the squad were the problem, and by and large, they're gone now (eboue, bendtner, denilson, almunia). replacing someone like denilson with someone like arteta over the last few years could easily have been the difference between winning something and not. the maturity and hunger on and off the pitch is so refreshing to see, but like a lot of wenger moves, i have to ask why it seems like he always does the bare minimum? it's always too little, too late with him.

Biggus

And if RvP gets seriously injured we're fucked........

y va marquer

Nobody is saying that we have a better starting eleven than we did last season are they Klaus?

Nobody denies the losing Fabregas and Nasri weakened the team in terms of quality.

What people are saying is they prefer this team, not that this team is technically better.
You can't overlook the fact that even with Fabregas and Nasri we fell asunder last season and finished fourth.

You can say that with Fabregas we would not have lost 8-2 to United but that's about as valid as telling us what will happen the next time we play them - you don't know so as a point it's not valid.

Remember too that one of the only games we won towards the end of last season was against United and Fabregas did not feature.

We were in the second tier (third / fourth place challengers) with him, we are in the second tier without him except now others have joined that rank.

It's worth pointing out that until Saturday we had not won four PL games in a row for two seasons.

Everything will depend on how we cope with setbacks either caused by injuries or adverse events on the pitch.
We have a history of collapse in these situations.
Let's see if this season Wenger can devise a strategy that keeps us afloat, keeps us earning points even when we're missing vital players.
He's already taken one step towards adressing it by pitching discontented players and buying experience.

Captain

I, for one, am glad Fabregas is gone. Can't stand the slimy little fucker.

Captain

lagos wrote:
y va marquer wrote:
We were in the second tier (third / fourth place challengers) with him, we are in the second tier without him except now others have joined that rank.

The dynamics have changed though Yva, the 1st tier of Chelsea, and the manchester clubs will share the top 3 spots among themselves, the 2nd tier of Liverpool, Spurs and US will battle for 4th. 3rd is not on the cards for any 2nd tier club.

Chelsea will be below Tottenham if spurs win their next game. Just as you suggest that Arsenal fans shouldn't get ahead of themselves, Chelsea are undeserving of your plaudits.

Captain

No, I actually bother to watch the games.

Captain

We're 11 games in to the season mate; this isn't a week to week analysis.

Anyone who has been watching will tell you that our squad is every bit as good as Chelsea's this season. And so is Tottenham's unfortunately.

Captain

Where is their 'far superior' quality then? Fill me in, it should be easy as it's so obvious.

Rex

IMO Chelsea are performing below par because of what Villas-Boas is asking the team to do. You revert Chelsea back to what the players are used to and they will, at least in the short term, perform better. We created more chances chances against them in our last encounter than we have done for the previous 6 games combined! I can see what he is trying to do, but it will take time and probably different players.

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