Friday, October 31, 2008

After the derby

"In my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows, and poop butterflies." 

- Katie, from Horton Hears A Who; it's one of the DVDs I watched today, and the quote's something I suspect Wenger's guilty of thinking about his team

I was bored and tired, and didn't feel like trudging off to see another castle or palace or amazing mountain vista. Instead, I spent most of the day eating, watching DVDs and checking what the Arsenal blogs had to say about last night's result.

Turns out we're all upset about the draw.

Wenger's angry because we didn't attack enough in the last 6 minutes. Adebayor's angry because we didn't shut the game down. And a host of Arsenal blogs are angry because we're not experienced enough, we're not hungry enough, we're not defensive enough, and because we're as far away from the Premiership as we were a couple of years ago. 

I've kind of calmed down now. It hurts, of course, but what can you do? On the bright side, we're still 3rd on goal difference. We've still got essentially the same side as we had when we thumped Fenerbache and everyone thought we were awesome. Almunia's still the same much improved 'keeper that he was a couple of games ago. Clichy is still the best left-back in the Premiership, and Song Billong is still an awesome prospect with great, great hair.

We're not doing too badly. We need a defensive midfielder, and someone to knit the defence together. We need someone on the training pitch teaching our players how to defend. And ideally, we need a physical centre-back and a better goalkeeper as well. Otherwise, we're alright. We're not going to win the league this year, but that was apparent at the start of the season. This is another transition year, and we're waiting for Song, Denilson, Djourou and Senderos (if he comes back) to grow up. 

We'll challenge next year. We might even win something. And hopefully, Wenger will wake up to himself in between this season and the next, and buy the quality and the experience we desperately need. After all, not every player he signs is a pony that eats butterflies and poops rainbows. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I picked them up from the airport and had yum cha the next day. They seem very happy and relaxed after their trip.

Ces has passed her exams. Most likely, you are currently the only Australian with a sister in law who is a Victorian accredited business law specialist travelling in Romania; probably the only one in the whole of Eastern Europe.

Darren

WEG said...

That's very nice for Cecelia. Please congratulate her for me. I'l have to have cards made up: brother-in-law of the only Victorian business law specialist. Or maybe a couple of T-shirts?