I'm evidently (well we all are) pleased at defeating Wigan. But it's worrying. I thought the team this season had overcome their mental strength issue. But then we've lost the league IMO because we lacked the bottle, and had too many half-arsed performances. had we played at optimum against Stoke, City at home and Swansea at home, we'd be in a good position to challenge Liverpool now. So why are the players still weak mentally? Of course, Arsene must take some responsibility, but is it a case of too many technically good players and not enough bottlers? do we need players akin to Vieira, Petit, Gilberto, even Henry, Pires or Bergkamp (who would give their all for a match despite not being "hard men" as such)? I'd say we had success in the "winning Arsene years" because he melded technique with guile. yes, they did bottle it on some occasions, but then they were able to rebound (and IMO some bad fortune was interspersed with this).
I think it is less the mental weakness than the substandard quality of players AW seems to prefer, these days. No athletes, few players with true pace and power, the "Denilson" and "Hleb"ization of AFC. There are many players playing right now that have no place whatsoever in the starting XI of a top, top side: Monreal, Poldi, Arteta, Santi, Flamini. Rosicky is a good squaddie, but that's about it. You think Santi could start for Barfa or Real? No way. You can have all the mental strength in the world, but if you can't blow past your defender or get stuck in or dribble and specialize only in back passes and puny little square balls, there's not much that can be done. It would be great to have a Yaya Toure or Fernandinho bossing the MF. We sorely lack that type of player. They are only mental midgets because they are slow, plodding midgets in the first place. The blame falls squarely on the manager for forgetting what got us that 49 game unbeaten streak in the first place.
So let me ask this. We had no trouble handling Liverpool at the beginning of the season. Iirc, they had the same team as they do now essentially. What do we have? A rag tag bunch of players held together by Wenger and company missing most important players. When you have a small squad like Arsenal then these injuries come back to haunt. I don't think it is just that we need bigger or more athletic players. We do for a few positions but by and large we need a far deeper squad to compete. These guys playing now are physically and mentally exhausted. They need a spark.
We are not mentally weak, we just have a small, below par squad made up of the wrong combinations of players
We were still on the we-bought-Ozil high. It was already waning by the time December came around, and that is why it was essential to make a splash in the January market. Not so much for what the player would add on the field, but for the mental lift, because Wenger is incapable of providing it himself. The squad may not be great, but they do have psychological problems. Every time we stumble, Wenger and our players release a barrage of statements they hope that by voicing out loud will become true. There is no fight, or desire or to overcome even if it means clawing and scraping, and pushing even when the odds are against us. When was the last time you watched us beat a team in a league game, that was stronger on paper, because our players wanted it more?
I think the FA cup game against pool and spuds are good examples of the team wanting more. The game against City two seasons ago when we were on the ropes come to mind along with games against Bayern and AC Milan with more or less this squad. I agree that our record against top four teams is less than acceptable. I do blame Wenger 100% for not buying enough players to compete. When we buy or rent for depth, it is usually players like Kallstrom, Squillaci, and dog forbid, Sylvestre.
It's not just depth-there are a number of first team starters or semi regular starters (at least 5) that might as well be Tweety level hot garbage that need to leave like yesterday and are constantly defended by AW as "qualitee"). So so tired of AW's bulls*t. He can't even permanently bench garbage players. I really hope he does the honorable thing and fails to sign a new contract.
We really do live in ass backward world, when we're hoping this is honorable. Sigh. And yet, I agree with you. Double sigh.