I attended the Villa game on Boxing Day - my first home game of the season - and I thought I'd share a few observations with you all.
Traditionally a group of us go to a game on Boxing Day and as two of us are Arsenal supporters and one guy supports Villa I thought this would be a good game for us to go to. How wrong could I be? This has to rate as one of the worse games of football I've ever seen.
Arsenal - and Villa but we aren't concerned with them - were appalling. The team created only four chances all game and all of those were long shots. The only players that even began to impress were Schwarz, who seemed to be everywhere, Bould, who was solid at the back as usual, and Dickov, who looked very lively and made a lot of intelligent runs across the Villa back four. He gave Teale a torrid time for most of the game and Teale's response was to kick him up and down the pitch - the ref made no attempt to put an end to this.
But for me the main problem with Arsenal was the utter lack of creativity from midfield. None of the midfield players ever seemed prepared to take on a defender and always opted for the sideways or backwards pass. GG had chosen to give 18-year old Stephen Hughes his debut but it would be unfair to judge his performance as no-one seemed prepared to pass to him - he made one good run in the second half but that was it really. Parlour played wide on the right but he really didn't look interested - he received a lot of possession but I don't recall him ever getting a dangerous cross in. In fact Steve Staunton had Parlour safely tucked up in his pocket for most of the game. Schwarz was involved a lot but never seemed prepared to spray the ball about a bit. During the World Cup I was very impressed with his passing for Sweden but I've yet to see him repeat the form he showed then for Arsenal. Morrow was playing just in front of the back four and did a fairly solid job but he never seemed to keen to get forward.
It is a bit unfair to judge the front two given the lack of service but Dickov was far more impressive than Campbell. He made intelligent runs and was the only player on the pitch who seemed prepared to give his all for the cause. Campbell had three opportunities in the first-half - all from long range - and he failed to hit the target with any of them. I've read with some interest the debate about him over the past week and have to say that I think his time is up. When he first came onto the scene he looked like a really talented player but something has happened since then and now he rarely seems to threaten the opposing goal. His first touch is, IMO, terrible and he just doesn't seem to have the confidence to pick up the ball and run at defenders. His most embarrassing moment came in the second half when he went down in the penalty box whilst chasing a ball that he would have kept in had he stayed on his feet. This happened right in front of the North Bank yet no-one, apart from Campbell, made any claims for a penalty - including the crowd. It was that obvious that it wasn't a penalty.
This event caused a heated argument between two guys in the row behind us. One of them started having a go at Campbell and the other one said that he should lay off Campbell and have a go at the whole team as they were all as bad. I thought we should have a go at Keown myself as he was truly awful. Here is a man who is a professional footballer who has cost clubs something like three and a half million quid during his career yet he can't weight a pass at all. Every time he tried to release someone by hitting a ball over the top of the Villa defence, and it happened far too often for my liking, he overhit the pass and it ran either out of play or into the arms of Nigel Spink.
In our post-mortem on the way home we reckon GG - or whoever is manager - needs at least 3 players if we are to ever challenge for the title over the next couple of seasons. I would say that we need a striker, a winger and a midfielder who can pass the ball. Jensen - who didn't play - and Schwarz are both good enough to play in a more withdrawn midfield role but we need someone to play in front of them who can pass, plus a winger who can beat his full-back and get a quality cross in. Then Wright needs a partner who might actually get a few shots on target.
I don't know who we should buy. Discussions are welcome. I took a friend to see Man United at Southampton on New Year's Eve for her birthday - poor misguided soul is a Man U fan - and I would put Matt Le Tissier at the top of my list. He might not be the hardest of workers but he has the vision and the skill to torment the best defences in the country. GG should be able to get him for 6 million. Perhaps we could nip in and steal Stan Collymore from under the noses of Man Utd and Liverpool too. Then get Overmaars from Ajax. Then we should return to the highest level.
Report by Andrew Powers