There's a few things which are consistent with the Arsenal rhetoric this season. Both are easily summarised and plain for all to see :
* Injuries. Imagine if we had Wilshere, Vermaelen, Diaby, Koscielny, Djourou, Sagna all fit and playing since the first week of the season. I guarantee that Arsenal would not be in the current predicament if it was so. I'm not necessarily blaming injuries per se for the clubs lack of success, but it is the contributing factor. Our strongest starting eleven is still exceptionally strong, and good enough to challenge for the title. The problem is that we haven't seen Arsenal's strongest XI in a long, long time.
* The Nasrigas saga dragged on far too long, and whilst it was primarily out of the clubs hands, the situation with both players could have been handled better. But, it's easy to say such things from the sideline, without being privy to the intricate details. Simply, if both players had been sold for their value at the start of the window, the money could have, and would have been invested better. By the time Nasri had left, Arsenal had already played two league games, leaving insufficient time to find a proper replacement who was available so late in the window. The club of course (I'm saying club overall, as Arsene isn't in control of everything) would have known that Nasri and Cesc were leaving and should have lined up replacements as soon as possible - but, who's to say they hadn't? I read an article yesterday quoting the Lyon president, who said that Arsenal had made a bid for Gourcuff in the final days, but the player was not for sale. How many more situations of this could have, and probably did happen?
Injuries, a lack of appropriate foresight and our lack of knowledge of what happened behind closed doors are the three major factors for our early season failures.
I haven't watched the game, and frankly I wont, but I find it hard to believe that Wenger was "outclassed" by Redknapp, merely because the players available at the time were more appropriate. Yes, Arsene brought on Benayoun and Arshavin, both of whom are hugely experienced on the biggest stages, and who you generally should trust with being able to change a game. Apart from these two, who's the alternative? Henderson and Miyachi? Of course, there's the rebuttal that it's Arsene's fault for not signing 'better' players, but this point is directly related to the injury factor. Had Spuds been raped by injuries like we have been, Redknapp would be bringing on Livermore and Townsend rather than Sandro.
Yes, Modric and VDV as individual players are better than Ramsey and Arteta. As a unit, is VDV, Modric and Huddlestone better than Wilshere, Song and Arteta? Arsenal fans will say yes, Spurs fans will say no, but the fact remains that our strongest side is no where near the pitch at the moment. From all reports that I've read, Arsenal's midfield were the stronger of the two for most of the game?
