It’s Friday. The North London Derby is all of two days away, if not less. So naturally, the time is right for an Arsene Wenger press conference to provoke outrage.

Mental strength

Before the offending quotes, we had the usual press conference bingo from Arsene. He described how Arsenal showed ‘strength’ to come back from the Bayern and Blackburn defeats and win against Aston Villa, even if it was ‘unconvincing’ in his own words.

He spoke about the ‘relief’ in the stadium after the victory, and suggested it’s alleviated the pressure on the team that was often felt at the stadium. He has a point, but the team has to continue their league form to win back the crowd. A defeat at Spurs would likely spoil the rest of the season, with no trust or patience at all.

‘No plan’ for Monkey-Boy

It was while talking about the Spurs game that Wenger annoyed a few fans (and journalists). There’s been a lot of talk leading up to the game about Gareth Bale, and how Arsenal will deal with the winger who’s in great form at the moment, scoring another match-winning goal against West Ham on Monday. Perhaps Arsene had a man-marking plan for him, or would try and contain him in a certain area of the pitch.

Not so, at least according to what he said:

We don't plan for anybody. It is always the same - focus on our strengths and forget about your opponent."

"There is nobody special that you least like to face," he added.

"All players have different qualities."

This led to some wonderful claims that Wenger is ‘tactically inept’ and generally doesn’t understand how to manage a football team. You wonder how he managed to get a job here in the first place, being apparently totally clueless. There might be an element of not preparing for games properly, but a lot of teams don’t focus on their opponent specifically, instead, as Wenger clearly intends, trying to perfect their game so that it can’t be beaten by any one player or tactic.

And for all we know, he may have a plan, and just not want to reveal it to the press. Who knows? I don’t, because I’m not a football manager. A tactical genius and statesman of import perhaps, but not a football manager.

Stress

A lot rides on Sunday’s game, and a lot of people are very worried about it, from both camps. We’ve had pundit after pundit offer their opinion, and the coverage is almost non-stop. So it’s not surprising people want to turn their frustration on something, or in this case someone.

But you can’t help wondering if the manager of the football team you want to win is the correct target. While Wenger probably doesn’t notice what’s said about him on social media, it just adds to the division and the media talk. And if a united Gooner front is needed at any time, it’s now.

There’ll be more Spurz build-up tomorrow, as well as whatever transfer targets the papers dredge up. Stay tuned.

Latest: