Excuses will get us nowhere

A very worrying sign hit me yesterday after the defeat at Ewood Park, after a very lacklustre performance where we all but dismissed our whole season as irrelevant, Arsene Wenger once again tried to conjur up a defence of why we lost. To be quite frank, we lost because we aren't good enough, and we were tactically and physically outclassed. I find it very worrying at the amount of times this season that tactically we have been found wanting, and with Wengers excuses in the post match interview, I don't see any change in his mentality.

I personally dont understand why we have come away from the way we was playing on earlier in the season, we pressed very well, we hustled in midfield, we were a nuisance all over the pitch and won the ball back in the oppositions half. All of these elements were key to our success in the early parts of the season. It seems as though however, that we have tried to do something new. Yesterdays game was a prime example of how we have been playing since the turn of the year. We showed no physical presence, no urgency, no hustle in our play. For a team that is 2-1 down with 25 minutes to go, you would expect them to try and throw the kitchen sink at the oppositions goal, but I don't remember us even having a shot after Samba scored the winner. Its embarrasing watching us lose games like we do, we don't even look dignified in defeat. Instead of Wenger taking responsibilty for the defeat, he makes half hearted excuses about the refereeing, and the tactical ploys of Sam Allardyce. Arsene needs to get over this because he has been dealing with this issue for the last 13 years and he still has not found a way to overcome it. I commend Sam Allardyce for how he plays, football is about winning, and using your strengths to combat their weaknesses, and Big Sam does this season in, and season out against us, when will we ever learn?

In the first half of the season we scored 51 goals in 19 games and conceded 21, we conjured up 19 wins in that period of time with 4 defeats. You may look at that stat and think 21 goals conceded is still a bit too much, but because we were scoring so many goals you tend to look past it, plus there was a 3-0 thrashing by Chelsea and a 4-2 loss to Man City, so that accounts for 7 of them. Now take a look at the stats for the second half of the season, we have scored 28 goals in 18 games and have still conceded 20 goals in 18 games. We have only managed to secure 9 victories and have suffered 5 defeats, along with 4 draws. Our season really has been a story of two halfs. We went to the team with 'the easiest run in' to now fighting to keep hold of that automatic champions league place. In our last 9 premier league games we have only taken 14 points out of a possible 27, that by top four standards is absolutly shocking. Normally you would regard Arsenal as a team, that finishes strong, but we have faded away into the darkness and now find ourselves 11 points off the top.

Our away form has not been good enough either this year. We have scored many goals away from the emirates but have conceded far too many. 7 defeats on the road, along with 4 draws, accumalates to 29 points lost in the race. Compared to Man united who only dropped 21 points away and Chelsea who has dropped 23 points away from home. Our form up North has also been nothing short of dismal also, 5 of our 9 defeats this term have been up North, against Man Utd, Man City, Sunderland, Wigan and Blackburn. Its the curse of the North once again that seems to haunt us once again.
Its time Arsene Wenger realises that the world is not always against us, we need to start grinding out victories away from home and holding onto leads, we don't seem to be able to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. These are the stats that have cost us the title this season, not teams cheating or referees performing poorly.

Thanks for reading, comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated