Okay. Time to panic. Losing to Stoke means we are four points behind Chelsea, down to third place losing second spot to Liverpool and possibly go down to fourth place if Manchester city win their games in hand. Not a good place to be an Arsenal fan only second to Manchester United with all their woes.
It is definitely not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination but some things need to change to salvage anything from this season.
First Wenger needs to stop handling these players with kid gloves.They are professional players paid a lot of money to handle the pressure they are put under. What was the point of a two day break if they were just going to look lethargic throughout the game??? He needs to rip into the players and bench the underperforming players. I know Wenger does not like to show the press how mad he is with his players, he prefers a private talk with them. Usually I would agree with Wenger but during crunch time like now, he needs to create a Mourinho/Fergie persona and rip into the players publicly to spur them and create that urgency.
Second, the players need to look at themselves and ask themselves are they perennial losers or do they want to prove a point to the doubters? What happened to the team morale they had at the beginning of the season? If they do not believe they can win the league, that’s fine. They should man up and come and tell the fans it’s not possible. We will understand. At least we won’t have to get our hopes high. If they believe they can do it, let them prove it with performances worthy of Champions on the field.
The third and most important point of them all is they need to stop that mentality of putting one competition above another. That has to stop! I have always said we need to try and win the treble. Can you believe the massive psychological boost we would get from winning the second leg against Bayern and going through to the next round? What’s the point of concentrating on the league and FA Cup and end up with nothing?
It’s not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination but it is threatening to unravel our season. The players need to keep their heads down and start returning their manager’s faith by putting performances worthy of been champions.