Arsenal won’t be able to challenge for the Premier League title unless they sort out their error-prone defence warns Kenny Sansom, and he has urged Arsene Wenger to address his side’s frailties by giving defensive coach Steve Bould more responsibility and allowing their attacking talent to flourish.
Arsenal have got their season back on track by putting a convincing run together, winning eight of their last nine games, including a stunning 5-3 win against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, a game which may have highlighted the need to sort out the defence.
Sansom recently told talkSPORT:
‘You’ve got to address it because if you play against the big teams it’s going to be tough and you can’t concede goals.‘
‘It’s a major factor; [Wenger] has got to get the defence sorted out. Steve Bould is at the club and I think he was as good as Tony Adams. He’s a very good coach, he knows the game and he knows how to defend.‘
‘If you give the back four and maybe one or two of the sitting midfield players to Bould for 45 minutes a day he would sort it out very, very quickly and then you look at Arsenal’s frontline and you’ve got some very good players but if you don’t sort the defence out you’re not going to challenge the two Manchester clubs.’
In my opinion, Sansom is right to say we have to sort out our defence in order to challenge for the title, but whether or not our defensive coach does have time with the players, I’m not so sure.
If we keep conceding heavily against major opposition, although fighting back is wonderful to watch, I’d rather take the lead and keeping them out as we all know how the team can sometimes crumble under pressure despite the form they have managed to put together.
This is a season where everyone seems to be leaking in goals. So if we can sort out our defence we will be able to defy more critics in a season that has seen the club suffer heavily and been under a lot of scrutiny.
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even a chid can see what the problems are, Wenger just buys makeshift defenders and thinks they will do. Well mertesacker is the latest acquisition to be brutally exposed in the premier league. He is getting to grips with the pace and power of the hardest league in the world, but without good coaching of the defense as a unit he will look vulnerable. The problem lies with wenger, a stubborn egotistic deluded man that has “rubbished” the idea of a defensive coach. This man’s arrogance will be the reason the defense will let us down in matches we could win.
Against chelsea the “line” of defense moving up was all over the place with djourou not having a clue where to be. Its no good wenger crowing about the win against chelsea, i would expect a real professional to work on the weaknesses and to just be quietly happy about the offensive side of our play
@greenius, it is people like u dat makes me sick, all u ever do is sit down, critisize & complain, u never see good in the club or positive improvement. The club lost 4 matches at the start of the season people like u complained, mocked & asked for Wenger’s sack, now the same team is blending & has won 8 straight matches out of 9, u people still complain, what exactly do u guys want? It’s not a must dat u should remain an Arsenal fan, if u’re fed up with the club’s steady progress, go join another club & leave us alone,cos we dont need shit from ur type period.
quite simply fuck off duke…im not wasting any more words on a fool like you……wenger is a muppet….8-2 tells you all you need to understand. love arsenal hate wenger