Greedy Wenger dents Arsenal’s title hopes

By 1970’s Gooner

I was very interested to see what Wenger had in mind when I saw Arsenal’s team sheet containing Rosicky and Walcott.

It was obvious that they were not going to be up to the physical approach that Birmingham have been renowned for this season.

And so it proved to be. Walcott was very quiet and Rosicky coming back form an injury lay off was pretty ineffective. He was almost at walking pace for most of the game!

The effect of this selection was that Arsenal had no width with which to stretch the game which inevitably meant that most of the play had to come through the middle.

But hell, that is where we were at our weakest. Especially against Bowyer and Ferguson who were both very combative indeed.

Song’s inevitable move to centre back (he had a fine game) meant that Denilson and Diaby had to act as the defensive shield. Neither did.

Denilson was not strong enough and Diaby was more forward minded than Fabregas even!

The lack of width and crosses also meant that Bendtner was not supplied the balls with which to do any damage.

It wasn’t until the two most obvious substitutions were made that we immediately began looking like we could score. And we did.

Arshavin and Nasri should have started the game. If they had we would have probably ran out winners from the first half.

What an earth was Arsene Wenger thinking of?

The answer is obvious. He was greedy enough to think that this Arsenal team could actually win the double! The Premiership and the Champions League.

That is why he rested these two players and Eboue as well. He intends to play them on Wednesday at the Emirates.

But surely the most important game is always the next one.

Wenger should have played his strongest team, get the win against Birmingham, keep us in the title race and then with confidence high go into the game against Barcelona.

But now it has backfired.

It seems that it is Chelsea who have benefited from getting knocked out of the Champions League.

Not us…