One of Wenger’s many questions during this summer should be how to produce winning football when the team is not clicking, either through lack of confidence or injury. This is part of the reason why Arsenal more than our rivals end up falling into a ditch without being able to climb out. Chelsea and Manchester United play more functional football that does not rely as much on combinations and movement and more importantly confidence  so when they do not play well, they are still more than capable of beating the opposition. More often than not, we need to play well to win games.
Going back to Van Persie’s comments, he is correct. It is down to the players to show that they can

Robin Van Persie has come to the rescue of bloggers and Gooners alike. Transfer rumours have come to a halt thanks to the words of our mercurial Dutchman.

Van Persie had spoken about several topics ranging from Thierry Henry to his own goalscoring form but the one subject that has interested many Gooners is his view on our title chances.

He said: “Every year it goes wrong in an identical way and that is frustrating. When you look at results in the last years, Arsenal shouldn’t be talking about winning the League because too many times that has gone wrong.

“Of course the hunger and desire is great but sometimes you have to eat and be realistic.”

Perhaps that has actually been the problem with this squad, they have been approaching certain games as if they believe they should be champions.

I can give you a few good examples from the season just past. When we faced Barcelona at the Emirates, we knew that they had a great team, they had talent to beat us so we raised our game, we closed them down all over the pitch and did not give up from the first minute to the last. It was the same against Manchester United home and away, even if we did little in attack in the away game.

Manchester City home and away we pressed, harried and fought for the points.

Against the so called lesser teams our approach has been different. Granted, the opposition’s tactic is often different against us than perhaps a top four side. When it comes to a smaller team they tend to drop off and let us have possession. You cannot hustle and harry your opponents when you have the ball so often.

But there has been a sense of casualness amongst our players on and off the ball against certain opposition and that for me above everything else has been our biggest problem for the last few years.

Without being a fly on the wall in the Arsenal dressing room or at London Colny, I do not have the foggiest idea as to what the instructions are from the manager and how much or little the players are taking in.

If I was to guess then I wouldn’t be surprised if the complacency often seen in the players is a result of Arsene Wenger trying to prepare his team to play without pressure, without panic and with plenty of patience.

‘Play your game and the chances will come’ are the words I envisage our manager saying to his players before they step out onto the pitch against a team set out to frustrate, waste time and spoil the game in order to come away with any result.

Arsene Wenger’s teams are built on confidence, fluidity and interchange. An anxious team will struggle to combine together, will struggle to score goals and will drop points. So perhaps Arsene’s attempt to create a free flowing team can often make his players look as if they are complacent.

One game that badly sticks in my craw was the Blackburn Rovers game at the Emirates. A game we simply had to win to stay in the title race and the team did not produce a quick enough and penetrative enough performance.

The team were obviously lacking self belief and confidence in their football during that period and that could well explain the stuttering version of Wengerball come the business end of the season.

One of Wenger’s many questions during this summer should be how to produce winning football when the team is not clicking, either through lack of confidence or injury. This is part of the reason why Arsenal more than our rivals end up falling into a ditch without being able to climb out. Chelsea and Manchester United play more functional football that does not rely as much on combinations and movement and more importantly confidence  so when they do not play well, they are still more than capable of beating the opposition. More often than not, we need to play well to win games.

Going back to Van Persie’s comments, he is correct. It is down to the players to show that they can win the league and not just believe they can do it.

Luckily these words have come from Robin and not from a lesser respected member of the squad as I am sure a section of Arsenal fans would have jumped all over this. Regardless of fans having the same thoughts.

However Robin believes that we are a few signing away from top honours once more.

“But I believe with the signing of a number of players, we should be in there competing for the prizes.

I think most Arsenal fans will agree with that, the trouble this summer is not a case of just recruiting new talent but keeping the good parts of the squad we have today. It is this issue that has caused us problems in the past.

I believe that silverware would have been obtained long before this season had we kept hold of Flamini, Hleb, Adebayor and built on those foundations. That side was broken up and a new team was slowly put together, this team was good enough to have won major silverware this season let alone the Carling Cup and my fear is that yet another team will have to be assembled and expecting instant success from newly assembled side is not an easy thing to do, regardless of the quality of incoming players into the club.

The invincible side is a perfect example of that. It took the likes of Pires, Ljungberg, Henry, Vieira and co a few years of being the bridesmaid before it all clicked and they blew everyone and their dogs out of the water.

All we can do right about now is hope that we can hold onto our stars just a little longer and add to them or hope that the new chapter at Arsenal can hit the ground sprinting let alone running.

Back tomorrow.