As many of you know by now, I wasn’t in a position to watch the game last Tuesday so for the first time in maybe a year, I decided to go round some blogs when I came back to check how we played in the Champions League, and I was amazed at the optimism of many ahead of the Chelsea game.

Make no mistake, I was also confident ahead of yesterday’s game just as I wrote in the preview, but what surprised me was again the same broken record of dull optimism coming after winning an easy game, as if what happened before it never actually took place or should be forgotten, and I’m of course referring to the away games against West Ham and Sunderland, two games which clearly showed that there were problems which needed to be fixed.

I always made it a point not to feed my readers with lies, reason why sometimes I am pessimistic even after winning games comfortably as you don’t need to be an expert to understand that some problems may not hurt you in easy games but will be back to haunt you in big ones.

But anyway, we are now eleven points from the top, eight if we win our game in hand, but based on what I saw yesterday, there’s a lot of work which needs to be done if we are to keep our title dreams alive.

Wrong Substitutions

Problem number one. And a big one. Andrey Arshavin was not performing before having his World Cup dream destroyed by Slovenia and came back depressed after that. He clearly said he doesn’t want to play football, yet he started today and played the full 90 minutes. Samir Nasri, who was much better than the Russian, was instead substituted.

Second problem. Alex Song. The Cameroon International was not having his best game of the season but was the only one in midfield who was making his physical presence felt against the ring of blue fire put up by Chelsea players. Yet he was replaced at half time. Denilson, who started brightly but went back to his old immediately after the first ten minutes of the game, played until the end. I wonder what the statistics say about the Brasilian’s game by the way.

The Forward Line

Ok, let’s start from the obvious. With Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner out, how can you score goals? Arsene Wenger’s solution to this problem – as I’ve said last week – was the correct one. You have Nasri, Rosicky, Eduardo, Walcott and Carlos Vela, all offensive midfielders who can find the net so you go out there with four of them, hoping they can invent something.

There was no other solution, really. But last week, this solution simply didn’t work out and I believe it was because Walcott, Nasri, Rosicky and Eduardo are not 100% fit as they have been out for way too long to expect them to be on fire immediately after their return from injury. As for Carlos Vela, well he’s new to all this, is new to the Premiership and needs time to settle down.

But, I expected changes yesterday. From someone who is constantly labeled as a genius, as a professor, we saw no change at all for the Chelsea game. It was going on the wings, over and over and over again, with Sagna and Traore not really knowing what to do, simply because crossing would have been useless when you only have Eduardo and three other short figures in there!

Now if you ask me what sort of changes I was expecting, well Carlos Vela starting instead of Dudu was an option, something incredibly crazy and desperate like gambling with Sanchez Watt also was an option but experiencing 90 minutes of pain which we saw coming from the Sunderland game, I’m afraid was not an option.

Carlos Vela

I get plenty of e-mails from Mexican readers who want news on Carlos, primarily because we are blog partners with Carlos Vela News. And I enjoy answering them because I feel Mexican people are very sweet and care about what their National players are doing in Europe.

Here is therefore my view on Carlos now that he’s enjoying more time on the field.

Above I said that he is new to the Premiership and this is where Wenger and I don’t agree. Arsene failed to experiment with Carlos last season in the same way he experimented with Denilson, Diaby and Alex Song and the Mexican is now in a position where he needs time, plenty of, to adapt himself to Premiership football.

Wenger said he is the reason why Emmanuel Adebayor, but how on earth you can be sure someone who only played something like 120 minutes in the Premiership last season, is good enough to replace one of your main strikers who left in the summer?

I’m not saying that Carlos is not good. Contrary to Eduardo, and despite his young age, the 20-year old has a great first touch, vision and pace, but you can’t expect him to turn water into wine after only two games. I’ve read someone – elsewhere – saying that he’s not good enough for Arsenal. How nice! So Diaby and Denilson are good enough even if they have been shocking for a whole season and a half, yet after two “disappointing” games, Carlos should be sold.

Again, if there’s criticism to be made on Arsenal’s manager or players, I see no problem with that, but at least give the player some time before jumping to conclusions.

Is Arsene Wenger too soft?

You may not like them, but one thing I admire of Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho is that they are not scared to impose themselves as the boss of the team. These type of managers are not scared to make three substitutions at half time – and I’m referring to Mourinho here – if things are not going to plan. They are not scared, read Ferguson, to substitute the Cristiano Ronaldos and leave them on the bench crying like babies and to then sell them, to sell Carlos Tevez, if they are not in their plans.

Arsene Wenger, unfortunately, doesn’t fall in this category, he is one ready to throw away a full season hoping to see Denilson and Diaby become top players even if top players they will never be. He is one ready to stick with Eduardo even if the Croatian needs months to get back to his old level, just because Dudu suffered a horrible injury and maybe needs time on the pitch to settle down again.

I’m not criticising Wenger’s way of understanding football as everyone knows nobody is good as he is in teaching football the way it should be taught, but he needs to stop treating Arsenal players as if they are little boys who will go crying to mum if they don’t play or are substituted.

Looking Forward

There’s plenty to look forward to of course. Manchester City will host us on Wednesday, then it’s Stoke at home, where we will probably win easily and some will say Chelsea’s defeat was a one-off, then Olympiakos in the Champions League and then more and more football for December.

Let’s take it one game at a time, shall we? I’ll publish the usual preview and favourite line-up tomorrow.

Until then, take care friends.