As it stands, this squad is fairly well positioned to compete for the Wenger Cup and make a deep run
in the Europa, if and only if we play
first stringers
in Europe and use the bench for the League and FA Cups... that being said, and based on the fragility of the manager and the
team in recent campaigns, it's more likely that Wenger will focus on a top 4 finish and the FA Cup... while the reasons for such an approach may appear logical, it would confirm a rather disturbing trend and appear counter intuitive for any
team which claims to have higher aspirations... I feel that Wenger simply can't afford to put all his eggs
in the Europa basket because if he fails the potential backlash could cripple any top 4
chances due to the aforementioned fragile psyche that tends to rear it's ugly head like our own personal groundhog day each and every February... furthermore, can you even imagine Wenger bringing
in the necessary recruits to adequately supply top quality lineups
in a Thursday / Sunday dominated schedule; based on everything I've seen
in recent years, I can't see that happening...
in fact, mark my words, it's more likely that we see Lacazette playing out wide
in Alexis's position with Giroud at striker, than we see Wenger make the necessary moves to right this ship... god, I hope I'm wrong but is it really that far - fetched considering what we've witnessed for past
several years
Both
teams spurned a number of presentable
chances, with the hosts striking the woodwork on two occasions
in the
first period and United goalkeeper David de Gea made
several impressive stops at the other end.
Ronald Koeman has had both great success and extraordinary failure during this time as a manager, but he was given little
chance of success when he took over a Southampton
team that saw the departure of
several first -
team players
in the summer.
Chelsea have been heavily criticised
in recent years for not providing youngsters with opportunities to impress
in the
first -
team, but there were some encouraging signs
in that regard last season, with interim manager Guus Hiddink giving
chances to
several prospects.