ARSENALNFRIENDS - Arsenal Forum for Arsenal Fans

SO a few weeks into the new season and the secret to beating Arsenal is out.

Not that it is that much of a secret.

It is exactly the same way teams beat them last season, the season before and the one before that. By bullying them.

Arsene Wenger accused Manchester United of trying to kick his team off the pitch in Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford.

There is no point complaining about it. He needs to address the issue by bringing in someone who will stand up to the bullies.

If he does not, the manager's five-year wait for a trophy might go on even longer.

When I played for Arsenal, we never let ourselves to be bullied.

The likes of Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira would stand toe-to-toe with opponents and say: Have some of that!

Then, once we had won the physical battle, we could press ahead with the football. That is what the current team need to do.

Wenger's emerging team have no trouble with the footballing side of the game. The trouble is, they have no one who can have a scrap.

Arsenal sometimes claim the rough and tumble side of the sport is not football.

But strong tackling and rough-house tactics are as much a part of the beautiful game as a 22-pass sweeping move or jaw-dropping piece of skill.

And Arsenal must stand up to that if their neat football is ever to be rewarded with silverware.

But with the transfer window about to shut, the clock is ticking.

Arsenal need to sign someone like AC Milan's Gennaro Gattuso, an experienced, tough-tackling midfield enforcer who would not have allowed himself or his team-mates to be bullied by a player like United's Darren Fletcher.

It is no good Wenger complaining about a lack of protection for his young players. They have to protect themselves,


I guess we all agree with this one and have been stressing the need for it all the time but wenger just doesn't agree with us..i hope this doesn't come back to bite us in the us but the evidence suggests it just might;)

Very correct observations....

Interestingly, it seemed to me that Fabregas was trying to get into that role when other team members are bullied. However, as the main creator of the team, it will be bad if he gets too many yellow cards and get suspended for games. We really missed him against the gangsters last saturday.

I repeat again...We need one giant signing!

yeah right observation coolman, fabregas has been trying that and if he continues it i think as well it will be bad for him and also for the creativity of the team lets hope he gets back against the man city, we have to beat them

today is the last day if he is going to sign anyone.

DE-ROSSI. I hav said b4 and i hav said again he is the player that we need, we hav the money so lets go and get him....Also on another note, I don't no if any1 else has noticed this but the last say 10 matches RVP is fallen over far 2 easily and its starting to concern me that after the DU DU incident all were going to do is have every ref going after us.

We need to fix all these nonsense and get our season going. Hope there is going to be one more signing before it is too late.

Ian Wright is an idol of mine, he was such a lethal finisher, and I think he is still a Gunner in his heart.

However, now we've got a bit of time, maybe some injured player can recover (Nasri, Walcott, Djourou, Rosicky...), because we've got to ARSENALISE the City of Manchester Stadium.