Arsenal - who have essentially been one of the fringe Big Four along with Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool in the English Premier League the past couple of seasons after selling off Thierry Henry - ended their recent two-match skid against against the big four having previously lost to Chelsea and United the past two Sundays by beating Liverpool for a third time this season yesterday, 1-0.http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=739905&sec=england&cc=5901
Although Abou Diaby's header gave the Gunners a much-needed three points in the EPL pulling them within six points of Chelsea and five of Man U, who both slipped up on the day dropping points, it was a win over a beleaguered and injury-plagued Liverpool squad, one that has struggled all year.
So basically Arsenal did what it has done the over the last three seasons including this one, pick off the weaker teams, play well in the first half of the season, and then fade as the season wears on. Taking away Arsenal's three wins over Liverpool this season, who really are not the same team they have been the past 3-4 years with Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard having lengthy injury absences this season - since the start of the 2007/08 season Arsenal are a lousy 3-12-6 against the top other Big 4 teams. And of those losses, last season the Gunners were bounced by Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League, and two seasons ago it was Liverpool doing the deed in the UCL.
With an ever growing trophy-less dry spell, Arsenal fans like myself, have become increasingly frustrated by the team's lack of direction. Arsene Wenger - Arsenal's brilliant tactician and manager - plays perhaps the most attractive brand of football in the world featuring quick touch passing that's always going forward. Yet, it is frustrating that Arsenal and Wenger fail to seek out a competition that would be a priority to win.
In recent years Wenger has used the Carling Cup (a small tournament in English football) and the FA Cup - the oldest domestic lead tournament in the world that allows any organized professional team to enter the tournament at the smallest stages of the tournament - as games to give his young 20-and-under players time with the first team club. That sacrifice by resting most of his first team players for the young guns has eliminated Arsenal early on in those competitions.
But as Wenger admitted yesterday in an ESPNsoccernet story and what has been widely believed, Arsenal have had limited funds to go out and improve the squad via the transfer market because of the cost of the team's relatively new Emirates Stadium and the team's owners needing to recoup funds.
"If you go on high transfers, you go on high wages - it is linked, but we cannot afford," Wenger said. "We have gone for a policy and we need to be strong and patient and sometimes get knock-backs but still persist. Football lives in an artificial world at the moment.
"People ask me 'Why do you not buy a great striker?' Tell me one who has moved from one club to another - not one. We tried to sign players, but it didn't work."
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=739452&cc=5901s
Yes, Wenger was able to make a giant coup buying Russian sensation Adrei Arshavin a year ago in the January tranfer market, but the team has lacked a prolific goal-scoring forward like the one it sold off in the offseason to Manchester City - Emmanuel Adebayor. And when the team sold Adebayor, it did not reinvest the money in the squad.
This type of practice has left Arsenal in the dust behind Chelsea and Manchester United, and even Liverpool (not this year) in recent seasons. Those teams have been able to buy enough depth so that even when they suffer the eventual injuries throughout a long, brutal grind of the 9 1/2 to 10 month Premier league season, they have fresh legs coming off the bench that are world class players. The same cannot be said for Arsenal, who often have to revert to their youth team players.
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