This weekend’s football may have lacked quality in the Premier League but it had its fair share of drama.
Manchester United could have been beaten by Bolton but managed to snatch a late winner, whilst Arsenal, but for the mega-flop in their goal, should have closed the gap on Manchester United. After both games, Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson told us their teams had the ‘character to win the title.’ The difference being, Manchester United are winning games whilst Arsenal have had a month to forget.
Arsenal fans must see the problem. Despite Arsenal dropping points, Wenger tells us how much character his side has for being able to come back from two goals down against West Brom. Are Arsenal fans really buying this? Do Arsenal only have character when they are coming back from defeats or goals down? Shouldn’t Wenger be addressing the real problem of why his team keep finding themselves in these positions in the first place? Arsenal are a great team and in the great majority of cases will be able to claw themselves back into a matchs against lesser sides. However, when they struggledd against Barcelona and Manchester United, they looked stumped, bewildered and incapable of working towards the right result. Character has to mean something. It can’t be a buzz word for getting yourselves out of trouble against a side who are relegation material.
In Manchester, Sir Alex Ferguson has increased the pressure on Arsenal by claiming his side’s belief and character is unrivalled in the Premier League.
‘No other club in the country has got that. We are fantastic at getting something out of a dead situation.’
Who could really argue that that isn’t the case. Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign at Manchester United has seen the Red Devils come back from the dead any number of times. From Steve Bruce’s winner against Sheffield Wednesday to Eric Cantona’s FA Cup winner against Liverpool and of course Barcelona 1999. This Manchester United side is not the best, but they have the winning spirit of their manager motivating them, pushing them onto bigger things.
Arsenal may possess greater quality, but is their mentality right? Arsene Wenger massages the Arsenal players ego’s. He tells them how great they are, but when they look in their personal trophy cabinets – there is nothing. Manchester United have the winning mentality because they have medals to back up their mentality. Beyond that they have the most successful British manager and on the pitch they have both Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. They have been there and done it as the pundits say.
With mentality weighing heavily on the outcome of the Premier League this season, it seems that it’s Manchester United who will have the edge.
Written by Tom Costello of This Is Futbol
First!
please don’t do that, it’s terribly annoying!
The other day RVP even said dropping out of the other competitions was a blessing so they could focus on the League. If that’s not a sure sign of losing mentatlity than I don’t know what is, and losing should never be seen as a positive.
I have to disagree about the point of Arsenal possesing greater quality because it’s just not true, eventhough pundits and even many United fans believe it. In goalkeeping? – no, defense-no, forwards-no. The only debate is in midfield, where they have worldclass players in Nasri, Fabregas and Wilshire, but after that there’s a huge gap in quality. Moreover, even within their midfield, their holding/defensive players are just average.
At best for Arsenal, our midfields are equal and then it’s our advantage in every other respect. Please stop propogating the myth that they have more quality and our only advantage is mentality.
“I have to disagree about the point of Arsenal possesing greater quality because it’s just not true, eventhough pundits and even many United fans believe it. In goalkeeping? – no, defense-no, forwards-no. The only debate is in midfield, where they have worldclass players in Nasri, Fabregas and Wilshire, but after that there’s a huge gap in quality. Moreover, even within their midfield, their holding/defensive players are just average.”
Very very true I think people confuse the fact that they have players that can play a specific was with them having good players. I remember a year or 2 ago people were creaming over Denilson saying he is one of the best cm in the league using stats to back this up. I have never seen such an average player! Like you said Nasri, Wilshere Fabregas and Ramsey (when he gets back to fitness) are the standouts that’s it
I hadn’t included Ramsey in that though he posseses the ability to be world class, he (for good reason) hasn’t had the chance to show that yet. Though I will retract in including Wilshire, as he hasn’t arrived to the place of being called world class either.
To take the argument even further, and break down more specific positions, our superiority is even more clear. I’d say we hold a clear advantage in: goalkeeping, centre backs, full backs, defensive/holding mids, wingers and strikers. That basicially leaves Arsenal with the advantage in creative/attacking mids only. The attacking mid role gains a lot of notoriety, so I guess it shouldn’t be too suprising that some come to the (false) conclusion that Arsenal posses greater quality overall.
Though I feel we could use an addition for that particular role, let’s not underappreciate our team and the fairly good depth we have in virtually every other position.
I think Ramsey was showing how good he was up until he got injured against Stoke last year. If he hadn’t been he would be well ahead of Wilshere but I’m bias, I like Ramsey a lot!