Where Can Arsenal Find That Winning Mentality?

I dreaded writing this post.  I considered quite seriously not writing it.  Getting through that horror of a match yesterday was tough enough but having to relive it?  Bleck.  But, avoidance would not do me any good whatsoever and is in all probability a bit cowardly. So on with it.

I was quite optimistic in my last post hoping for a 3-1 win.  I freely admitted that Newcastle were not to be discounted and could be dangerous, but I predicted a win nonetheless.  We were home.  We had come off of a bad defensive performance at Shakhtar without our star midfielders present.  This match was different.  We were at the Emirates, our Captain and all starters we back.  This was a chance to triumphantly gain back some confidence and momentum and to hopefully close the gap on the leaders at the top of the table.  We should have seen a team that was positive, confident, and full of desire.  An added bonus was the fact that our injury list is diminishing, we had RVP on the bench, which in itself should have been a huge moral booster.  So what the hell happened?

Frankly, I think it comes down to not knowing what it takes to win.  We have only one player who has been through the rigors of winning consistently in and out every week and that's Cesc.  He spoke about what was missing from the team back in mid-October.  The statement was widely quoted and blogged about, but I think it's even more pertinent today.

I'm very comfortable here, I like the club, lead the team, play football. We just need to start winning titles because we have a wealth of quality. A winning mentality is missing.''

When asked about his thoughts on Cesc's quote, Wenger explained:

“What is at stake for us isn’t the desire to win but to make history and to win trophies. As long as you have not won you are not completely certain that you can do it but that does not mean that you lack the desire to win.



“This team has a great desire to win but you have to show it week in week out. This life, at the top level today, in the best league in the world, is to turn up every single game running on full cylinders.”


I think both statements are pertinent to yesterday's debacle.  The players, being sportsmen, want to win.  If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be a fan of any club of any sport.  But, they still don't realize they have to perform at the very highest level all the time.  This is true even in training where I would suspect some aren't giving their all.  Practice makes perfect.  If players are not performing on the field one can arguably assume perhaps they're not performing at training.  Wenger gave an example of this when asked about Song's improvement.  Arsene discussed the fact that Song's stamina helped him with surging forward late in the game.  Here is what caught my attention though:

“He is now a good trainer but this was not always the case,” said Wenger. “That's why he has improved."

Well, I'm glad he's been training hard lately, but shouldn't he have been training hard for the last five years?  Is this how some of the players are approaching their three hours of practice (I'm guessing three but don't really know)?  I would not be surprised if this is the case because most youngsters need a model to show them how hard they need to push themselves.  Our squad really haven't had one.  They had Sol last year and Bobby for some weeks, but I don't think that's enough.  Cesc - he's a worker and is a model, but  I wonder  if he's too close in age for them to emulate?  And, one can't expect him to do it on his own.  Especially when he was such a shambles yesterday.   I really can't recall him playing so poorly...ever. He will, however I am sure, be the most hurt by his own play and by the loss. Other than Spiky Jack, I worry that the disappointment in the team's loss will shrug off like water on a duck's back.   When your leader is having an extremely off day, someone needs to step up and take his place.  No one did that.


So where are Arsenal going to find that mentality?  Will it just show up one day as our squad shrug off the last of their adolescent tendencies?  Or will it take bringing in an outside player to whom losing is intensely unacceptable or a coach who rides them at training?  I don't know really.  What I do know is that we can't blame November for our record.  We have to look closer to home.

Here's to our boys and manager finding the answer...before Wednesday.