afc The Sunday Supplement on Wenger's Arsenal "Beauty is the beast"

[TF S4DK]

Arsene Wenger's obsession with the beautiful game means things are going to even uglier for Arsenal.That was the verdict of the News of the World's chief sports writer Andy Dunn as the Sunday Supplement looked back on a miserable week for the red half of north London.Pegged back by two late Spurs goals on Wednesday, Wenger's young side suffered their third defeat in 11 Premier League games on Saturday as they succumbed to Stoke's strong-arm tactics.It left the Gunners six points behind leaders Chelsea and, says Dunn, that will be where they stay until Wenger realises that playing the game the right way is never going to bring sustained success to The Emirates."He's probably not going to win a major trophy," he told the Sunday Supplement."I'm not saying he's going to be sacked, I'm just suggesting that as long as he keeps this philosophy in the face of formidable opposition from Manchester United and Chelsea, he's not going to be above them - as long as he keeps going the way he's been going, which has almost become an obsession."The legacy he will leave will be a team that plays the Arsenal way. They've become synonymous with beautiful passing football which we all love."I think we all agree that if someone gave us £20 to go and watch one team, we'd spend it on an Arsenal ticket - actually it's probably £50 or £60, I'm from the north - we would all do that. People say we want to play like Arsenal."ObsessedDunn and fellow panelists Henry Winter and Martin Lipton all agreed that Arsenal's problems stem from a lack of leadership on the field and a lack of defensive fortitude.They called for William Gallas to be replaced by Cesc Fabregas as captain and Dunn went as far as to blame Wenger for not only letting big names go, but also ignoring the stability at the back that brought about both the club's and his, earlier successes."The fact is he has become obsessed the point where he's neglected the fundamentals of getting tough in central midfield, full-backs who are proper full-backs rather than glorified wingers and having centre-backs who can defend," he said."It's almost as if he doesn't want to deal with the more prosaic problems that managers have to deal with."His initial success was founded on that defence he inherited - Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Adams and Winterburn - and in his second bout of success Sol Campbell was his rock and Jens Lehmann, loathe him or loathe him, was a world-class goalkeeper."And then Ashley Cole, well people tell me Gael Clichy is as good as Ashley Cole, but the fact is he's not. Ashley Cole did get forward but he knew what was paramount and that was defending."What Wenger has done is basically let these things drift and got in replacements that basically aren't good enough. Manuel Almunia is so far down Spain are happy for him to play for England and the centre-halves have been a disaster."MouldingThe argument that Wenger is doing the right thing in bringing unheralded players and moulding them into world-class footballers, as he did with Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, did not go down well with Dunn either.He pointed to the fact that Manchester United and Chelsea are more interested in the finished article, players with a winning pedigree, proven track records rather than unearthed gems.And he says, if Wenger does not abandon his policy, he will not get his hands on the Premier League trophy again."He will leave a legacy of playing a particular style of football but he won't leave a legacy of winning trophies in the latter part of his career," he said."You can't win titles in the face of opposition from someone like Manchester United or Chelsea if you're obsessed with moulding players."How many players do you want to mould?"

Link to watch - http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/b...bctid1892845427

[Buc Nasty]

There was a good point in that video about the new CL regulations.We can't risk finishing 4th and playing a team that finishes 3rd from either La Liga or Serie A and so on.Gonna get battered on Saturday imo.

[Guest LucaPiano]

couldnt be any further from the truth, not a truer word spoken.my best read ina long time

[Taurus]

Good read.

[Shatterstar]

Some valid points..The point on Clichy is bullshit tho