Oh, this is not the wake up call we want… but we may very well need this for the long term good of the club. Am I happy? Absolutely not. We got what we had coming to us. Everyone could see that we were one injury, one major loss away from making this season VERY hard on ourselves. Well, we may not have one, not two, but three issues to contend with going forward and the first weekend of action isn’t even over. Couple that problem with a big blow in the loss column after we took control early on in the match (and had the lead)… well Arseholes, things may get worse before they get better.

The card count today was ridiculous. The game seemed unnecessarily out of hand as the Ref essentially handed out 10 yellows (the red came on a second yellow to Kols). Arsenal controlled the first part of this game nicely but you have to wonder why we started without Santi to begin with (granted, his presence didn’t help too much in the end once we went down). For our opening goal AOC took the ball and pushed ahead well; it was a nice squeeze into a perfectly placed Giroud foot. Great start. Exactly what we needed to start the season off right this year. And then, like my golf game after the turn, it began to crumble…

Our starting backline is exactly what I (everyone) expected: Sagna, Kols, BFG, and Gibbs. Solid, experience, and so long as no one goes down we should be fine… whoops. Bacary pulls up a bit lame (wonder how that impacted his defense as the game went on) and Gibbs goes out in the 29th. Good thing we have Mon– what’s that? Oh, no. Jenks goes in and he is generally solid but this is no way to start the game. And then there is the bit with AOC coming off for Santi (who should have been starting anyways but maybe not in place of a forward but another MF?)… Man, this just wasn’t going to go our way today. Benteke gets the gift of a blocked PK right back into his head and then the goal… and then Kos gets nailed for the first weak yellow and the second bad call (which may be defensible given the Ref’s position BUT the linesman could clearly see it was  a perfectly timed tackle). No, this was not meant to be our day.

It’s hard to explain the feeling toward the team, or management, right now. I don’t want the players to suffer. I don’t want their confidence shaken. Hell, I want to see Wenger rise to the top and take Sir what’s his names place. BUT, We haven’t picked up any depth where we need it and we now have potential knocks on the places where we are incredibly thin (Monreal-out, Sagna-lame, Gibbs-out, Kos-suspended, and TV5 injured). So even if we go out and spend a bunch of money we now need to add 2 players immediately to our backline in addition to adding a DMF (desperately) and possibly another striker. We are going to wear thin fast and everyone could (did) see this coming. Again I ask, what exactly are we try to prove this offseason?

In the words of The West Wing President Bartlet, what’s next? It’s obvious our problems partially stem from an inability to sign players. No, not the ref. Not tactical decisions (at this point we are so thin who the hell else do we start?!). If we continue along this path it wont matter that we haven’t any silverware, we may not have a starting eleven!

I do not hide the fact that I am an ardent Wenger supporter. I think his style of football is beautiful and the players he does bring in mold well to his play. But we need someone to start adding quality players to this roster and Wenger seems incapable of doing so at this point. One only has to look at our hated rivals to see that signing quality players is not impossible and they aren’t even a team that has played Champion’s League football the last 16 years running!!!

No, this is not the position we need to be in for Wednesday or the next few weeks. But, like many other things in life, you get what you pay for. Right now? That would be a big fat nothing…