Dropped points

It should be suggested, even if it is not believed, that this season's Premier League champions will be the worst team for some years.

This is not because they play bad football at all times. Nor is it to do with the quality of the EPL going down. Instead I would suggest that average teams are better and the mercenary player who cannot love a club longer than 2 years, still has a role to play in the furthering of their own career by helping a club that they never would have aspired to join in the first place. Pennant, Tevez, Gyan and Wellbeck, Konchesky, Harewood are all examples as they have played a part in the consolidation of average/good teams who can turn over anyone on their day. All these players (with the exception of Tevez), remain untested in the EPL. The jury is out but their clubs have gained results not to be sniffed at.


If we look at the amount of points dropped so far, it is amazing. Man U - 16 of 60 (without loss!!!), Man City - 19 of 63, Arsenal - 21 of 60, Spurs 24, Chelsea 25. These teams can only really blame this on lower opposition as they have only really taken a few points from each other.

Why is this a problem for Arsenal? I look at it as a strange set of circumstances. Firstly, the Arsenal run-in is more in our favour than any of the other clubs. This is mainly because of the 20 games, 9 have been at home. Secondly, the squads and fitness pay and it looks for once that we may have a full squad to choose from which could only really be rivaled in experience by United and possibly Spurs, in depth by City and the quality of player at Arsenal is consistent, though I do not say good in all cases.

However, under current conditions, good enough to win the league I feel. This worries me as we are the only club from the above list who would not strengthen properly if we were to succeed. This would create an immediate dip in fortunes for the following season as Fabregas would be bound to leave on a high and Wenger has already bemoaned the lack of leaders. Arsenal are not a back to back winning club and the stakes are too high at the other clubs to let a economically stable club demonstrate that big finance is not the way forward.

So I feel that under Wenger, the only thing he could do to please me beyond winning the league, would be to buy big, not to 'kill' the likes of Wilshire, Nasri, Van Persie et al, but challenge them. He has conceded that the return from injury is down to more rotation and preventative work being eased somewhat, so we need to balance the amount of youth with experience in order to ensure that the rotation does not leave us short like Chelsea showed against us last month.

I am in a position of fearing winning the league because of the consequences. This cannot be right. But then we know our manager and know that he has a very 'alternative' way of doing football business. A little flexibility would go a long way.

It is a fear. (Sorry about any spelling errors as this was rushed)