No one is smiling yet

When Freddie Ljungberg took control of Arsenal’s first team on Friday, he said he wanted to put a smile back on the faces of both supporters and players. However, after watching Arsenal struggle to a 2-2 draw against 19th place Norwich City…no one is smiling yet.

Now, on one hand we can’t blame Freddie for today’s overall performance since he had only one training session with the team, however, we can blame some of the 14 men he picked to step on the pitch. They started strong with some fire and passion, but again the defense made two critical mistakes allowing the two Canary goals. However, on the other hand, we can blame Freddie for the starting XI he put on the field. Mustafi, Kolasinac and Willock started, while Tierney, Pepe and Sokratis warmed the bench? And where was Rob Holding? In my opinion, this was both a strange and shocking team selection picked by the interim boss.

Thank goodness for the Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bernd Leno. If not for these two guys this game would have been a total blow out. Auba’s brace and Leno’s spectacular saves in the late going saved the day and the one point. I would have also have to tip my cap to Mesut Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi. Both gave good performances but couldn’t collectively find that one pinpoint pass into the box.

Okay, let’s look at some very dismal statistics…
Our last PL win was October 6th vs. Bournemouth.
Our last win in all competitions was October 24th vs. Vitoria.
In PL play we have won only 45% of the points (32 of 63).
In all comps we have won only 51% of the points (32 of 63).
The last time we won only 4 PL games at this point of the season was 1975.

So, where does Arsenal go from here? We have 8 games between now and January 1st. 7 of those games are in the Premier League.
There is potential to gain a lot of ground in the table, and a lot of points, but the question is, do we have what it takes to make any sort of move up the table? Do we have the right players, and the right manager to get this ship back on course?

Our season is slowly slipping away, and in my opinion the Gunners’ front office needs to make a permanent manager move sooner rather than later. The longer we dangle in the realm of uncertainty with a manager who has never lead at this level the more damage could be done to a team with such a proud and rich history.
This is no slight on Freddie. He is loaded with Arsenal DNA and loyalty…no doubt. It’s just this is a job bigger then his current experience can handle. This is a team with a lot of talent, but needs a strong hand, a tactical mind, and a pedigree of winning trophies to come in and turn this mess around.

Until then..no one is smiling yet.

Our recent poll results on who should manage Arsenal are in…
Arteta 66%
Ponchettino 22%
Freddie 1%
Others 10%

If you have a comment just click on the date at the top of the post, or email me at yankeegooner1953@yahoo.com.

Cheers. Gunner1953