King Kos

By Boris Mellor
May 20 2013

As I left the Bank at 8pm ish, fans were still celebrating in the local pubs and streets on one of the rare warm evenings all season. It has been extremely rare for the Bank posse to sit outside after a match this season. Just like much of the season it has been bleak with little to cheer about, but at last the sun shone through.

However the fans I spoke to, and I spoke to quite a few, were not so much celebrating yet another journey to nowhere in the Champions League, or what it means for the balance sheet, but the fact that the old enemy had been put back in their place.

There was great merriment over the false rumour (allegedly started by Alan Sugar on Twitter, you're fired!) that Newcastle had equalised causing celebrations amongst Spurs fans made victory even more delicious. I am sure you have all seen the photos. After all it’s the hope that kills you in this game.

No doubt stating this was more Bould than Wenger will upset a few, well tough, are you really arguing he has made no impact? Would the fact that he has made an impact after a full season demean Wenger in some way? Surely greatness is knowing how to delegate, it never did Ferguson any harm.

But more Bould than Wenger can be interpreted in different ways, maybe Wenger has decided the team should press harder, work harder and defend in depth. That may well be his strategic decisions, and would not be the first time he has done that, Man U in the Cup 2005 springs to mind.

It also has to be taken into account that there is a lack of quality in the attack. Yes Walcott delivers most, but not always, and Podolski and Giroud are still not up to the pace. The midfield can play well, but no one is certain what the best combination is, and if Wenger does know he has rarely had the luxury to play that combination. His favoured midfielders, Diaby, Wilshere and Arteta have all had serious injuries this season.

To sum up the squad has lacked depth and quality, true it has scored a goodly number of goals, but not enough to push into the top two, and certainly not against the top five where goals have been scarce.

However, the defence has gone from strength to strength as the season has developed, and the final game exemplified that more than any other game. Yes Newcastle huffed and puffed and nearly blew the door down, but they didn’t. Every attack was rebuffed, blocked, tackled and harried, yet how many great saves did Szczesny have to make? Most were lame shots from outside the area, and even when they got in the area they failed to make an impact.

Yes it was hair raising stuff, especially for Gazidis, who no doubt was adding up the cost (That’s enough slap headism. Ed) of failure to qualify, but the quality of defending was superb. Koscielny was Man of the Match without his striker’s goal, but this wasn’t about individual performances, it was team work, and the way that Kos and the BFG worked together was a wonder to behold.

One example was BFG going to ground in the area and failing to clear the ball. Kos was there to clear it immediately, real teamwork, the centre backs and back four all working together. This looked like the  old back four in the days of Adams and Keown. You only had to observe the way they attacked the ball at corners and free kicks, the way the shape was kept at the back. I refuse to believe this isn’t due to Bould’s influence, if it isn’t then what is he there for? It’s certainly has put a stop to the old we need a defensive coach chestnut.

Yes without the goal it would have been meaningless, but it was very much the defence that sealed the victory. At the same time it was a team victory, and everyone worked hard, the whole team deserves praise. Fans may choose to slag off their particular bête noir, but the failure to wrap the game up has more to do with a lack of quality than a lack of effort.

Yet when the final whistle went none of this mattered the several thousand fans watching on the Emirates screens celebrated long and loud. Are you watching Tottenham they sang, and all through the game they cheered the team on as if they could be heard.

Wenger had qualified for the qualifiers by the skin of his teeth, just as he had he did last year and  that does raise the question is this what Arsenal fans want to go through every year? Scraping 3^rd or 4^th, and being out of contention for the main trophies by March or earlier. If so then the year will arrive when instead of scraping through Arsenal could drop out of the top four. Once that happened the Gunners could discover, like Liverpool, that it is much harder to return to the top four than to leave it.

Wenger’s squad is suffering from under investment in world class players, the shortage of finance is no longer a valid excuse.