Yep. I believe their cycle over the last three years has been:
1.) Great start, talks about winning the league.
2.) Rapid decline in results and performances at around january, Arsenal drops 5th or below.
3.) Strong finish, manage to just about reach the 4th place.
Sounds about right
Wenger is mostly to blame, Ozil has a history of not being the fittest player yet he still made him play 90 minutes continuously until he was burned out and then had to take a break mid season as he had no energy left.
Wenger does it with a few of his players, he doesn't rotate enough and it all catches up with them after the flying start they have.
True that. We have a lot of decent creative midfielders out there, I really hope Shad knocks some sense into Wenger and makes him treat Ozil a little more cautiously; he isn't the fittest person in the world, and if you run him to the ground he's going to give you weak performances ala the second half of last season.
@Fred Arsenals new captain is Arteta, and his deputy captain is the BFG.
I was thinking since Arteta's future with Arsenal will prolly end after this season, they prolly should have just named the BFG as the captain.
I was really hoping so, because Arteta being captain means he will start for the vast majority of next season, I think Wenger might have given up on getting a DM after Khedira's wage demands, Sportings high pricing of Carvalho and S'hamptons stance on Schneiderlen. It would be really disappointing, and means we are yet again leaving our weaknesses unaddressed.
Ocelot knows whats what
Sad thing about making Arteta captain is it basically ends Arsenal title hopes, since him being made captain means he will for sure remain starter (cant have captain on bench again like Vermaelen), which means that there wont be a quality starter DM/CM signing that they badly need to take them to next level. Wenger pretty much signaled the status quo of 4th hunting with this announcement.
Ya, the first thing that popped in my mind when I saw that. If we really are sticking with Arteta as a starter, then I think we'll just get overrun by the bigger teams again and again. Status quo it is, its as if we did nothing in the transfer market.
Yesterday Arteta was protected by having two CM's in front of him in Wilshere and Ramsey. I doubt Wenger will use that midfield shape very much though, as that would force Ozil on the wing.
True, haven't thought about that yet...
They would actually be rather dangerous with a second quality holding midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 next to Ramsey, even with Giroud upfront.
Are there any concrete rumours yet with which player they're planning to replace Vermaelen with? Chambers played at CB today, but that surely can't be a permanent transition.
Another remark, did anyone else not really like Sanchez' performance today? I mean as I already said, I fell asleep at the 40th minute and woke up at around the 80th, so I missed a substantial part of the game, but what I saw during the time I watched didn't convince me at all. Sure, he showed his amazing close ball-control and dribbling, but also made very poor decisions for a player of his profile at times and was largely ineffective. As Zach would say, a lot of flair and fancy with no end-product.
I agree about Sanchez, I hope its just him getting used to the pace of English football, and the fact he needs to make decisions faster than he's used to.
Wenger said that if he sold Verms, he'd bring in another player, he might not have foreseen Chambers playing so well as a CB so soon, that might change his mind.