Signings Mata

By Boris Mellor
January 20 2013

I am not going to pretend I saw the game, I had a slight flu and drinking diet drinks in the local pub just wasn’t an attractive proposition, so I have to confess I listened to the game on Talk $h! te Radio. Even worse Stan Collymore was one of the reporters, but then so was Ray Parlour. 

Maybe they hate Chelsea more than Arsenal as they kept on about the coming recovery of the Gunners, meanwhile in the first half Chelsea battered the Wenger boys into the ground, sometimes literally. The commentators  were strangely solicitous of the Arsenal, maybe Ray being there had an effect, and at least we could reminisce over his cup final goal. But that’s all we have these days is nostalgia, and that isn’t what it used to be.

 In my day we had some terrific nostalgia, as the team failed to win week after week we could look back on Joe Mercer, Alex James, etc. Ah you respond but we can look back on Thierry, Bobby, Freddy and many more. True, but they are in colour, true nostalgia is in black and white with long white baggy shorts. Actually the shorts were a great tactical device as nippy little forwards like James could creep up hiding behind them for cover taking defences by surprise, but I digress.

Blame the snow?

It could be argued that the snow let Arsenal down, there was enough snow and cold to upset our mollycoddled players, but not enough to call the game off. In my day we had real snow, in the 1962-3 season Between December 22nd 1962 and February 12th 1963 neither Everton nor Liverpool played a single league match – the only action of any kind played by either side being a couple of FA Cup ties.  And they were lucky. (Daily Post 2010).

As game after game was called off a pools panel was created which included Ted Drake and Tom Lawton, but in spite of that I am not aware that any Arsenal fans won the Jackpot. Between 15 December 1962 and the 9 February 1963 Arsenal didn’t play a single game. So the snow certainly has a lot to answer for, real snow would have stopped the game and we would have avoided the ignominy of defeat today.

Now to  some of my readers recently out of short pants (And apologies to any postie readers as I know you wear short pants even in winter these days, as you are made to run around far more in a morning than a professional footballer, and not even gloves on the one I met in a blizzard yesterday.) I would point out that under pitch heating would not have solved the problem.  Some snow drifts were 15 feet deep, so the rail and road network had collapsed. True a few local games could have been played. Arsenal responded by installing under pitch heating. Anyway the point is real snow would have stopped this travesty.

 Blame the referee?

Having established that snow was partly to blame for defeat, what about the referee?

It is certainly the case that Chelsea were lucky to be awarded two goals, there again it seemed fortunate that Arsenal went in at half time only two down. Friends who had Sky told me the penalty was a con, and it’s a disgrace. I hope the FA panel do Chelsea for it. Yes Coquelin was fouled, but the team has to play to the whistle, just because someone is fouled it is not an excuse to switch off. Wenger raised this last week after a contested Man City free kick saw the teams switch off. Are any of them listening to him.  So that’s the ref partially to blame, but to my mind it doesn’t fully explain the fact that Arsenal are so far behind the leaders.

 Is the squad good enough?

 However, none of the complaints explain the situation Arsenal are now in, Wenger has now said openly that he fears his team will miss fourth place. Now the Ox was injured, or sick,  as was Podolski. No doubt we missed the Ox, but “sixty minutes” as he is now known as would probably have made little difference. Nor are injuries that prevalent, Arsenal are no worse off than any other team for injuries this season.

 But if you took a look at the bench, which to me is the test of how good a squad is who was there to give the team an attacking option? Arshavin was the only alternative, a player who has hardly started a game all season was the only attacking option, the bench was threadbare. Jokes about him being good in snow were off the mark, only mad dogs and Englishmen play in snow, Russia has a winter break.

 But rather than go through the players, or just one game, let’s look at Arsenal’s performance in the league this season to judge the squad. In other words how good is this squad compared to its peers? Well it has a win rate of 41%! A rate that drops to 14% if Arteta is not available.  Man U has a win rate of 78%, Man City 69%, Chelsea 56% and Spurs 52%.

Arsene is right to be worried about finishing below 4^th, even Liverpool now have the same points as Arsenal. Last year Arsenal fans had great fun with “Mind the Gap”, we all did, but this year we don’t have RvP to close it. Yes Walcott did well to score, but very often if he doesn’t score nor does anyone else, and he is not as prolific as RvP.  Maybe Wenger is right there are no good players available in January, but that begs the question why didn’t he strengthen the squad in the summer with quality signings. The league table doesn’t lie Arsenal are in decline.

 Quality Signings Mata

Within seconds of Giroud missing a nailed on chance Mata went down the other end and scored. Arsenal could have had Mata for a few millions more. Philippe Auclair  told a meeting of Arsenal supporters recently, that Mata had thought he was signing for Arsenal that it was a done deal.

 Maybe Wenger didn’t believe the club could afford the extra, but if Arsenal fail to qualify for the CL how much will that cost?