The Vision’s Wizards

Gooners’ Views: In Coversation With Alden Sing, Joe Guarr, and Maire Ofeire

Gooners’ Views is the Arsenal Community’s own version of a “Roundtable,” which has been a popular innovation in Bleacher Report.

Gooners’ Views brings Arsenal fans together to discuss and dissect various issues—and boy, do we have some issues these days!

I caught up with valuable Arsenal contributors Alden Sing, Joe Guarr, and Co-Community leader, Maire Ofeire, to ask them what they had thought about certain issues surrounding the club off late.

1. What according to you is the definition of a “crisis?” Are we in one?

Alden: After beating Manchester United, nobody would ever label a club in “crisis”. But in Arsenal’s context, crisis is a word that has been bundled around fans ever since their defeat against Fulham earlier this season.

After losing to the likes of Fulham, Stoke, Hull, and most recently Aston Villa, Arsenal is indeed in some sort of a crisis. Beating Man Utd certainly helped lift the gloom around the Emirates but every football fan worth their salt will tell you that if you want to win the title, a team can’t lose more than six games.Arsenal has lost four.

Based on their current level of consistency, it will not be surprising that Arsenal go on and lose two matches and more.

Joe: Arsenal is not in a crisis, far from it. They’ve slipped up against the newly promoted Hull and Stoke sides, as have quite a few other clubs this season. They’ve also lost to a very talented Aston Villa squad. While Arsenal didn’t play well in any of those three games, that hardly constitutes a crisis.

It’s very unrealistic to expect a club to play perfect football in every match of a 38 game domestic season, plus Europe and domestic cups. Arsenal still has a legitimate change at winning the league; they’re only in fourth place and have a better goal difference than Villa.

A crisis would be starting the season like Tottenham had. If Arsenal had played that poorly for that long, their title hopes, and maybe their European hopes, would be sunk. A crisis would be a team in a financial tailspin struggling to avoid going into administration. A crisis would be having a squad filled with players not capable of stringing together 7-10 straight victories. This is a slow start, nothing more.

Maire: If you look up any dictionary, it will tell you that a crisis is an unstable situation of extreme difficulty or danger. This is a definition used to describe Leeds United in 2003-04 and it was warranted. The club were unable to pay back huge loans they had taken out to buy and pay players, had to sell their best players, managers were falling out with chairmen, fans were protesting and in the end the club got relegated.

Looking back it seems that one year Leeds United were playing a Champions League semifinal and the next they were stuck in League One (Not the correct time line but that is as it seems). Now that is a “crisis”.

arsenal aren’t in a crisis in any means of the word. dialect mayhap some of the fans are but that is of their own making. yes we bring into the world lost four games to teams we should be beating—fulham, hull, stoke, and aston villa—but we are motionless in fourth and while villa are considered to be playing quite well, arsenal are considered to be well below par, that says it all categorically. i don’t see any huge pressure being placed on us for fourth place. so we are fourth in the league, virtually assured of our place in the last 16 of the champions league and still contain the carling cup and fa cup to have a good time for, if this is a “crisis” there are many other clubs out there that would love to be in it!

Canis lupus

2. What do you make of those who call for Arsene Wenger to leave/to be sacked?

Alden: I find it absolutely ridiculous that fans are actually calling for Wenger’s head. He is a good manager. Arsenal fans must remember that it is this obscure Frenchman from a faraway Japanese league that has come and transformed Arsenal into a powerhouse.

People are often quick to forget success and remember only the failures. With that been said though, I do know that history counts for nothing if the current side is performing below par.

I am still confident that Wenger knows what he is doing. It has been bold of him to focus on youth. But the four defeats acheter cialis this season will tell him what he lacks in this current Arsenal side. Wenger has received enough criticism. And the last thing he needs is to hear the fans that he has spoilt, turn on him and call for his head.

Joe: There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re overreacting. Wenger has had to deal with injuries, departures, and tight purse strings due to the new stadium. A lesser manager would be producing lesser results. Wenger has proven himself more than capable during his time at Arsenal.

I’m surprised tha …

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