Arsene Wenger Needs to Think Less About Himself and More About the Fans

“Now we are in the position where we just want to finish the job in the three competitions that we are in—that means secure a Champions League position, try to win the FA Cup and win the Champions League."

                                                        - Arsene Wenger (Friday April 18th 2009)

This is just one of the many sound bites emanating from the Emirates over the last few weeks from Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

It was not one of his more smug comments where he was telling all those nasty reporters and mean fans that he had told you so, that his kids were coming good and only he could foresee it.

In a way, Wenger was counting his chickens before they had hatched.

Credit must be given to him for taking Arsenal on an unbeaten run in the league since November which has seen the club move back up to fourth spot. 

In this time the club had also reached the final four of the Champions League and FA Cup. A season that had seemed so miserable saw a light beaming at the end.

That was until Wenger decided to undo the good in Saturday's FA Cup semifinal against Chelsea.

He claimed on Friday that we will "try to win the FA Cup." Not attempting to be pedantic but in my opinion Arsene Wenger wasn't trying to win Saturday's FA Cup semifinal, he was attempting not to lose it.

Yes, Arsenal was severely hampered by injuries at the back with Manuel Almunia, Gael Clichy, William Gallas, Johan Djourou, and Bacary Sagna all out.

However, injury doubt Kieran Gibbs was passed fit before the match and was questionably Arsenal's man of the match.

In goal, Lukasz Fabianski had a day to forget. He got beaten at his near post for Malouda's equaliser and then came out when he would never have reached the ball as Drogba easily rounded him to score the winner.

However, it wasn't the Arsenal kids that cost them a place in the final, it was the manager.

To say his team selection baffled a few is an understatement.

Of course Wenger's hand was forced in selecting the back five due to injury but the decisions he made basically handed Chelsea the tie.

The main critiques have been the exclusion of Andrey Arshavin, Alex Song, and Samir Nasri in order to play a defense minded 4-5-1 formation. Robin van Persie was placed out on the left wing where he never has much effect with Diaby roaming around midfield and Emmanuel Adebayor up front on his own.

Personally, this formation was Wenger waving a white flag to Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink, saying we are scared of your midfield.

Instead of doing what Arsenal do best and attack, Wenger tried to play Chelsea at their own game, a game very few can win.

Many have argued that Andrey Arshavin was left out of the starting line up for one of two reasons. One, he could not cope with the physicality of the Chelsea midfield and two, Guus Hiddink's game plan would center around stopping the Russian as he knows him like the back of his hand.

Both reasons I find hard to believe.

Since coming to England, Arshavin has very quickly found out just how physical the league is and to a degree the Russian seems to love it.

He has played in extremely physical games against Blackburn and Newcastle and every time he was elbowed in the face or kicked in the ankle, he got up, dusted himself down and went after the ball again.

If, as claimed, Wenger wanted Denilson and Diaby in for their added height, strength, and protection for Gibbs at left back then he was mistaken.

Denilson is all too easily bustled off the ball while Abou Diaby gives the ball away as often as Adebayor is offside.

Why the recently improved and in-form Alex Song was not in the starting midfield for his strength and protection is baffling.

Wenger came out with the line that Song was "slightly tired". The young man is 20—I'm sure he could manage two games in a week.

At the start of the season Alex Song was poor and Arsenal fans left it be known. All credit to him he has played better in recent weeks and had formed a good partnership in the middle with Cesc Fabregas.

So, somehow in Arsene Wenger's head it made sense to drop him and Andrey Arshavin, Arsenal's two most in form players, for the stuttering Abou Diaby and Denilson. Why?

Furthermore this idea that Guus Hiddink knows Arshavin too well is ridiculous.

Arshavin is like Messi or Ronaldo, you can know them as well as you want but they have the capability to come up with a moment of magic no one can predict. Or as Johnny Giles says, "he is that kind of player that you know what he is about to do but you can't stop him."

Besides, if Arsenal face Barcelona in the Champions League final, will Pep Guardiola drop Thierry Henry to the bench because Arsene Wenger knows him too well?

I doubt I need to answer that.

Basically the team was set up to protect the back four, especially the left hand side. Did this mean Wenger didn't trust Kieran Gibbs as much as he would let you believe?

If anything Arsenal fans were more worried about Mikael Silvestre at centre back than Kieran Gibbs at left back.

Credit to Silvestre for keeping Drogba quite for the majority but again it was the same type of goal that Drogba has scored against the Gunners for years that has proved to be a killer.

It was simple in the extreme. A long ball over the top with Drogba using his strength and speed to killer effect.

Surely this tactic was gone over in training?

At 2-1 down Arsenal still had a shot. Robin van Persie made way for Andrey Arshavin (finally) after 75 minutes. 

Finally Arsenal had the width needed to hurt Chelsea with Walcott down the right and Arshavin down the left.

It should have been how Arsenal started, getting players into wide positions and floating in balls and taking shots at Chelsea keeper Petr Cech who has been more than dodgy in recent weeks.

Except with less that ten minutes to go Wenger inexcusably took off Emmanuel Adebayor instead of the ineffectual Abou Diaby as Nicklas Bendtner came on.

Yes, Adebayor was having another lazy day at the office but he had that against Villarreal over the two legs and still scored. It was at this point Wenger should have put Adebayor and Bendtner up front and gone for broke.

Might as well lose 3-1 as 2-1.

Sadly, the game ended and Arsenal's greatest hope of silverware disappeared.

Wenger came out with his usual excuses about the pitch and being tired but its just not washing anymore.

Even the injury debate doesn't wash. Andrey Arshavin wasn't injured nor was Alex Song. They were anything but injured.

What hurt most as an Arsenal fan was that it seemed that Wenger wasn't overly bothered about the defeat. He seemed more interested in the Liverpool game on Tuesday.

Forgive me if I am wrong but this Arsenal fan would rather finish fourth with an FA Cup Trophy in the cabinet than just finishing third.

Wenger seems to care about the FA Cup as much as he does the Carling Cup.

Of course the trophy has lost prestige somewhat in the last few years but try telling that to the young fan in the stands at Wembley who's grandfather was trying in vein to console him after the loss. 

Try telling the FA Cup isn't prestigious to Arsenal fans who have not known success since 2005.

Arsene Wenger seems to be more interested in fulfilling his Utopian dream of bringing in young players, teaching them his ways and keeping them together for ten years as they go on to win all around them.

He seems to think they can grow and bond as some kind of football family.

Wenger needs to stop that folliness now. He can't go a summer without losing players so how does he expect to keep these players together for years?

He also seems to have forgetten the fans in all this.

All year he has virtually castigated the Arsenal support for booing the players or somewhat turning their backs on him and the team.

It's not that the Arsenal fans don't care, it's that they care too much.

He seems to forget the Arsenal fans pay more than others to follow their team. He seems to forget the thousands of fans who travelled to Porto to see a shoestring team get beat. He seems to forget those that travelled to Stoke to see the team be humiliated.

The vast majority of Arsenal fans love Arsene Wenger and what he has done for the club, I know I do, but that doesn't mean we will sit by and watch him waste season after season.

How much longer are we expected to wait for these kids to grow?

Will next season be yet another one of rebuilding?

I think everyone will appreciate that Arsene Wenger does not have the budget of Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool but he isn't exactly a pauper either.

If he can afford to leave £30 million plus worth of talent in the form of Andrey Arshavin and Samir Nasri on the bench for an FA Cup semifinal then the poor mouth needs to stop.

Everton got to the final with half of Arsenal's budget and through a harder route.

Arsene Wenger has yet again seriously underestimated the power of winning the FA Cup.

He certainly has underestimated what it means to the hundreds of thousands of Arsenal fans who felt just as sad as that young boy did Saturday evening.

It shouldn't be Wenger's decision to throw away any competiton, it should be his will to win them all for the fans, at least try.