We Are The Arsenal

February 5, 2013

Arsenal Fans Are The Best!

We are The Arsenal, a club closely associated with classy attitudes, financial prudence and for famously decent, well behaved fans. Right?

Well, yes, in the modern era, that is essentially true, although for a relatively short time in the 1960s and 1970s we, as fans, along with the fans of nearly every other club, were swept up in the general social malaise and unrest of that era, which resulted in feral gangs who gloried in ‘unusual’ gang names and tried to terrorise the fans of other clubs.

But that was just a blip, would you not agree?

woolwich arsenal_1888_squad

Maybe, but were you also aware that the Woolwich Arsenal were the first English League club to have their collar felt, and have their ground closed for extreme naughtiness by their fans?

This happened in the late 19th Century for a period of 6 weeks in the 1894/95 season.

It happened as a result of the Arsenal fans taking it into their heads to thump a rubbish referee after a bad tempered, violent home game against Burton Wanderers.

They believed that the referee was an incompetent, cheating pillock, although some of us might not accept that that was really a sufficient excuse to beat up the fellow, because if this vigilante attitude extended into the current era we would be exhausted with all the rigorous physical exercise involved in administering corporal punishment to every miscreant official who officiated at the Emirates, but anyway, regardless of that, it was sufficient excuse for our naughty forebears to mete out their version of justice.

The original draconian sentence proposed, as a result of this kangaroo justice, was that the Arsenal ground would be closed for the rest of that season, but a short time later, cooler minds prevailed, no doubt with a little ‘nudge nudge’ skulduggery, and that sentence was reduced, after furtive negotiations with the FA, to a relatively minor 6 weeks suspension.

The FA having set a precedent, though, then proceeded to play fast and loose with their ‘justice’ system, and after another referee bashing incident, this time by the fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers, the following season, resulted in only a teensy weensy 2 week suspension.

Surely, this was a fore runner and a clear and early example of the rough and summary justice handed out to the mighty Arsenal. Five months reduced to 6 weeks, for us, but only two weeks for Wolves. Hissssss!!

Around the same time there were sporadic ‘engagements’ between Arsenal and Spuds fans, which became somewhat ritualised and led to a lot of bad blood, which even, astonishingly, led to an ex-Arsenal player, who had been transferred to the Spuds brutally punching out the lights of an innocent Gooner who was allegedly subjecting him to “foul and insulting language”! Ahh, diddums!!

It seems to have been the custom and the ‘right’ of disgruntled Arsenal fans to verbally abuse all and sundry, the referees; the away team; the away fans; the police and also their own Arsenal team, if they were deemed to have played poorly.

Of course the social and working demography of the time was very different from today, with the majority of the population working a sould destroying five and a half day week, so their precious ‘week end ‘ meant they wanted to let off steam, while also enjoying themselves, supporting their beloved club.

Part of that enjoyment was seen as their entitlement to dish it out, having paid their precious, hard earned entrance money, and yelling at and abusing anything and anyone at the ground was par for the course.

Home team players who were seen as playing rubbish, did not have to suffer the vitriol of the modern day internet, but because the fans had an intense sense of belonging to their local club and community, any player who let themselves down by missing a ‘tap in’ or letting in a soft goal, or left the club for another club, or in any other way screwed up, were subjected to extremely volatile and painfully humiliating abuse, on the premise that they were unforgivably also letting down their local club and community.

Tribal?

Yes, but perfectly understandable, and all the players understood and accepted this behaviour as a fact of life.

By contrast, the rather demure and civilized expressions of disappointment and betrayal aimed at Brave Sir Robin pales into insignificance by comparison.

Our forefathers were honest, hard working, decent men, but you messed with them at your peril.

It was from those modest origins that the classy, decent, special way our club is currently perceived came about.

Long may it last.

Up The Arse!

Written by Red Arse

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Posted by Rasp

Gervinho Ready To Fire Gunners To Glory

February 4, 2013

Good news everyone!

Gervinho is coming home to Arsenal from the Africa Cup of Nations sooner than expected.

His Ivory Coast team were knocked out of the tournament at the quarter final stage yesterday by Nigeria. It was a surprise result as Ivory Coast had been favourites to progress.

So the Dreadlocked Wonder returns to us having had a decent – if ultimately disappointing – campaign in Africa.

He scored twice in the group stages and was reckoned by observers to be one of the players of the tournament to date.

Yet it’s probably safe to assume that his next appearance at The Emirates will not be greeted with fanfares and garlands.  His name will not be ringing round the stadium. Banners saying “We’ve Got Gervinho” will not be draped from the walls.

Montpellier Herault SC v Arsenal FC - UEFA Champions League

If fans were ambivalent towards Gerv the Swerve last season, they have hardened their hearts this time round. Not all, of course. But right know he’s about as popular as an adder in your underpants.

Is this fair?

Gervinho can show touches of brilliance: he is fast, he can turn defenders inside out for fun and he has tucked away some nice goals.

But then there’s the other side of our Ivorian: what I like to think of as his “Afghan hound” side. I once knew the owner of an Afghan hound and she told me that they could be incredibly frustrating dogs.

Most mutts, when let off the leash, will hare about madly for a while but they will always zero back in on their owner. But Afghans were bred as high endurance hunting dogs and, according to my friend, once let loose they like nothing more than to head off in a straight line. And when you think it must be time for them to turn round and head back… they just keep going.

Gervinho’s inner Afghan is apparent on all those occasions when he has beaten one or more defenders out on the wing and – obviously – needs to either cross the ball or cut into the box. Instead, he keeps going in a straight line right off the pitch, ball and all. If it wasn’t for the small inconvenience of a short wall and a large crowd, he would probably be half way across North London before anyone could stop him.

I think that’s what frustrates fans the most: that he seems to do the hard work (beating people and getting into good positions) then all too often fluffs the final ball either through bizarre decision making or poor execution.

His stats make for interesting reading. Last season – his first at Arsenal – he scored four goals and provided eight assists in 37 appearances. Not bad but hardly stellar. This season he has five goals already in 15 outings, but no assists.

Contrast that with some of our other wide players:

Walcott has 18 goals and 13 assists this season in 29 appearances; Podolski has 12 and 11 in 31 and even Oxlade-Chamberlain has 2 and 3 in 23.

By those standards Gervinho is very much our third choice wing man and arguably fourth.

He should be scoring more often and, despite the skepticism of the fans, he has the ability to do so.

In the two seasons before he joined us – at Lille in the French league – he bagged 18 goals each year. That fact perhaps goes some way to explaining why Arsene Wenger played him through the middle earlier in the season: you don’t get 18 goals a season in a European league – even the French one – unless you have an eye for goal.

I would like to think that a good ACN will mean he returns to us full of confidence and ready to help us fight for a place in the top four and a run at the FA Cup and Champions League.

Unfortunately our experience of players coming back from that particular tournament is not good. If they haven’t gone off radar for an extended party or contracted a tropical disease, they often return injured or simply knackered.

Let’s see what we get with Gerv.

I still feel he has something to offer and that he can perform better than he has been doing so far – but if patience is a virtue it’s one that’s in short supply at Arsenal in these inconsistent times.

My fear is that his mistakes will continue to draw loud groans and his confidence will fall further, leading him to make even more so mistakes and more groans and on and on into the vicious circle.

So what do you think?

Is Gervinho a returning asset? A liability? Or simply irrelevant to our struggles to come?

RockyLives

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Posted by RockyLives

1 nil to the football team …..

February 3, 2013

Some thoughts on the game (some of which I have wantonly culled from comments I posted earlier this morning):

1. Arsenal looked laboured at times, but they held their concentration facing a Stoke side that did virtually nothing with the ball but which held its shape without the ball extremely well. We were too often forced to cross the ball, which only plays into Stoke’s hands, even with Giroud up front and despite the fact that Walcott put in a few very good crosses. It was certainly not a pretty spectacle, but that had everything to do with our opponents. I’m just pleased our players and fans didn’t panic, and stayed focused and patient. The substitutions were made at the perfect time, and being able to introduce a fresh Cazorla and Podolski with 25 minutes to go worked very well. It was good to see some genuine squad rotation, with Cazorla and Podolski starting from the bench.

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2. How the linesman even thought there was a possibility of an offside (whether for Theo or the deflection, if it had come off one of our players) is beyond me, it was clearly not offside. Well done to Chris Foy for putting him right. As for the complaints to the officials, both sides were doing it, so Pulis’s whinge about us being out of order is just one more example of his hypocrisy.

3. Begovic would be an excellent signing as a second choice keeper if we did try and rescue him from his purgatory in the summer. And with Butland joining Stoke then, one of Sorenson and Begovic will surely move.

4. Did anyone notice that Shotton (the new Delap) has a special piece of material fitted in his shirt to substitute for the towel he gets to use at throw-ins at the Britannia?

5. You remember that “Same old Arsenal, always cheating” we routinely get treated to by the enlightened souls of clubs like Stoke? It’s funny, when Matthew Etherington (a player I happen to quite like) dived to the floor right in front of the Stoke fans, to earn Stoke one of their very few attacking opportunities, the Stoke fans didn’t complain. And I don’t seem to hear much from Pulis when his rugged, muscular, it’s-a-man’s-game players dive to the ground in the mode of Filippo Inzaghi. Funny, that………

6. The Stoke time-wasting was ridiculous, starting in the 15th minute. Chris Foy’s laid back approach to refereeing is good in many ways, but there are times when you have to get a grip on cynical behaviour like that. A couple of early yellow cards, for example when right in front of the ref, Huth threw the ball away after fouling Wilshere, and the time-wasting would have ended there. And of course, once Stoke were a goal down, they suddenly started doing everything much more quickly. It was funny to see Ryan Shawcross complain in the 91st minute about the speed we were taking a free-kick. Well Sweet Little Ryan, if you hadn’t wasted so much time in the remainder of the game, you might have been able to get more attacks in when you were chasing the game.

7. As the pundit on Arsenal TV said (was it Stephen Hughes?), Stoke deserved nothing from the game and they got nothing. Playing ten men behind the ball the whole game is pathetic from any team, a real admission of weakness, but from a side that has spent tens of millions of pounds and has qualified for European football, it is even more ridiculous. Of course, it’s up to the opponent to deal with it and break it down, which Arsenal did – 1-0 was a pretty measly scoreline given that we carved open numerous good chances yesterday: as well as the goal, Ox, Kos, Giroud and Cazorla all had excellent chances to score. 3-0 would have been about right.

8. Any right thinking person of course hates Stoke and detests Pulis. So it was enjoyable to read that he’s been whining about unfair treatment, and tried to play the “we’re so poor, we can’t expect to win these games” card. It’s been a source of a lot of frustration for me that the journos lap this stuff up, saying in effect that it’s fine for Stoke to play the style they do, even when it verges on the violent, because they’re a poor, itsy bitsy club. The trouble with that theory is that Pulis has spent vast amounts of money. Stoke are about 6th in the list of spenders over the past five or six seasons, yet are allowed to say they are David to our Goliath. It was therefore good to see on newsnow that someone had done some sums and concluded that Pulis has spent £120m more than Wenger. Not a level playfield? On your bike, you prat, you’ve had an incredibly soft ride and, given the resources available compared with the likes of Swansea, Everton and West Brom, Stoke should be doing much better than they are.

9. In recent weeks, the prices sometimes charged for away fans at Arsenal have become a subject of controversy. Here’s a thought: perhaps the prices should be linked to a creativity index, so that the more creative or engaging the opponent, the cheaper the tickets for their fans. So Stoke would still be able to play their desperate version of the game, but their fans would be financially punished for it, while Swansea’s fans would be able to attend for about £3.50. I’m going to start writing to Ivan Gazidis now.

Some rough and ready ratings:

Szczesny: 7 – For staying awake.

Sagna: 6 – Did nothing wrong but didn’t show a lot when going forward either.

Mertesacker: 6 – Did fine.

Koscielny: 7 – Battled well, including pressing in midfield areas, and had a good effort on goal.

Monreal: 7 – It’s impossible to judge from one game but first impressions are good, especially given that he was playing against a side about as far from Spanish football as one can imagine. He was energetic, good with his passing, judicious about his overlapping runs and always seemed to track back. Of course, yesterday was hardly the most testing of attacking opponents, and we’ll have to see how Monreal goes in the coming weeks, but other than one terrible long-range shot he did well.

Arteta: 8 – Great to see him back, he makes such a difference. His tidy passing from deep in midfield is excellent.

Diaby: 6 – Was OK in the first half but tired early in the second.

Wilshere: 8 – Very sharp, often looked dangerous, his thinking was always ahead of his opponent. And lovely to see tomorrow’s England man tell yesterday’s England man, Michael Owen, where to go after the set-to with Arteta.

Walcott: 7 – Pretty dangerous at times, and managed to get behind the defence a few times. But then he was facing the weakest player Stoke have, Andy Wilkinson, so it would have been disappointing if he’d been completely played out of the game. Walcott clearly felt he wasn’t given enough protection by the referee – I’m not sure about that, we’ve seen worse, and it was a Wilkinson foul on Walcott that earned the free kick from which we scored.

Oxlade-Chamberlain: 6 – Had some good moments, especially when he had a shot saved well by Begovic, but overall didn’t manage to make too many inroads on Stoke.

Giroud: 6 – As ever, worked hard, but he didn’t have the same impact in terms of lay-offs etc as he has done. Also made a poor choice to chest the ball for someone else when he had a clear chance to have a header on goal from close range.

Cazorla: 8 – Lifted the pace of the game at the perfect moment and found lots of awkward pockets of space. Should have scored when through on goal.

Podolski: 7 – Typically teutonic energy from Poldi. Got the goal of course, albeit via Cameron’s boot.

Ramsey: N/a

Written by 26may89

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

A Baptism of Fire?

February 2, 2013

Last time we played Stoke was early in the season, a 0-0 draw at the Britannia. I remember being disappointed by the draw but  more so by our inability to score. How different it is today …

Note the Nil for Stoke. A Nil. This shows that our defence was not breached; that a team of giants could not score from a cross into our goal area. It is now 6 PL games since our last defensive Nil. In those 6 games we have conceded 11 goals – almost 2 a game.

Yet, our Back 5 looks so solid on paper. Rasp has been saying since season’s start that our defence is the root cause of our inconsistency, a point of view hard to disagree with. My early thoughts were that with Steve Bould to educate and train them our back 5 could become the best for many season. BR  had faith in the skills of Santos and was happy with our LB situation.

How wrong was I?

But no fear …. Nacho to the rescue. Rarely will a player start a game under so much scrutiny. Is he the saviour? We shall see, but let us not judge Monreal on this afternoon’s performance; he will need time to bed in and The Orcs are a baptism of fire.

Unknown

Nacho Man

Stats: Stoke have only won one away game this season. They have scored 8 goals in 12 away games. They have not won for 5 games. Stoke have never won at THOF. They are Orcs.

Pulis (how I hate typing that word) has created the Volvo 760 of the football world. Big, ugly, efficient and does what other cars do but with far less panache. His brand of football takes the entertainment out of the game. And the supporters …… if they weren’t such a shower of  **** one would feel sorry for them. Not only having to live in a town which under any caring government would be demolished, but having to pay to watch a Volvo 760.

Unknown-1Stoke’s First Team Photo

An Arsenal stat: If the PL was based on halves, Arsenal would be 12th on first halves and 2nd to Man City on second halves. The solution is simple – give the lads some smelling salts prior to kick-off.

Todays team:  Arteta is close to a return but I wouldn’t risk him against The Orcs. Diaby or Ramsey? Ramsey for me – Chief Orc Shawcross is sure to receive his usual warm Emirates welcome.

Thinking about it, the pairing of Shawcross and Huth reminds me of this …

images-1

We have been missing Ox for a few games now. It hurt to see him as an unused sub  on Weds night. We had 20 minutes to finish off an on-the-ropes Liverpool but AW chose not to attack; mistakenly in my view. Ox needs game time and I hope he gets at least 20 minutes today.

Runners & Riders:

arse v orcs

Todays Explorer: George Mallory (1886-1924). Another great Englishmen who deserves further investigation. Huge doubts arise about who was the first man to ascend Everest but recent theory suggest it was Mallory and not some New Zealander. One of the world’s foremost mountaineers he made a number of explorations of the Himalayas before attempting to climb it’s highest peak. When asked why he wanted to climb Everest he responded with 3 classic words, “Because it’s There”.

Mallory died on the ascent, but perhaps it was during the descent and herein lies the mystery – we will never know. Mallory’s body was found 75 years later.

Such was Mallory’s esteem that King George V,  the Prime Minister Ramsey Macdonald and all his cabinet  attended his memorial at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

images-2

May have been one of Britain’s finest but … No Facial Hair, no Knighthood

February is traditionally a good month for The Arsenal. A win today would set up us nicely.

COYRRG

Written by Big Raddy

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Posted by Erik the Red

We All Love Nachos

February 1, 2013

So the mayhem is over and we bagged a player. That is one more than many thought we would get, but probably 10 too few for some fans on other websites. I can already hear those keyboard warriors punching in We__er O_t quicker than your David Beckham designer boxer shorts would disappear on a Come Dine With Me evening at Evonne’s.

To be fair Arsene had already expressed his distaste for wholesale buys in this window and had suggested 2 should be the limit, so he was hardly going to make himself look hypocritical and get more than this.

Nacho1

So who did we get. Step forward one Ignacio Monreal Eraso or soon to be better known to us as Nacho Monreal. I don’t know much about him but the early reports sound promising. I am sure in the ensuing AA discussion we will be able to collectively get snippets of information that will give us a better idea of what we have acquired. Peaches has already identified a song for him and I am sure if you all ask nicely the next time you see her she will give you her personal rendition of it.

There has been a consistent theme amongst us all on which areas of the squad we needed strengthening in, and this was one of those key areas. What it means to me is that our left flank will now be very strong with good strength in depth. With the addition of Nacho we have even, in a roundabout way, accrued a new attacking left winger who goes by the name of Andre Santos.

So both flanks look strong now to me, but what about the spine of the team. Up top David Villa was mentioned. Did we need another striker? I am not sure as we seem to be gelling and maturing in this department recently. Attacking central midfield I feel we are well covered in, possibly boasting the strongest in the EPL in this department. I had thought about an experienced keeper as back up / competition to Szczeny. We didn’t get one and I don’t feel the need to throw my toys out of the pram on this one, and am happy to see how it pans out this season. Ditto with the CD’s. I have mentioned the possible requirement of a beast of a CD in the Sol Campbell mould, but am happy again to defer judgement till the seasons end.

The one area I would like to examine a little more is the defensive midfield role. Many of us, if not most of us, and I would include myself in this, have called for a powerhouse of a defensive midfielder. A beast of a man, (I do like my beasts), a midfield “destroyer”. So I thought I would look at what we have already got and what it is that we really all want for this role. What is it we are crying out for?

You could form the impression that we are all looking for something akin to a Marvel Comic Book superhero, with superhuman strength and unusual powers, and I must admit I sometimes enter that frame of mind. However, I do try and step back and ask myself what is it I want and why? I would say that in our 3 man midfield you could set up in one of 2 key ways. The first would be with 2 deeper lying defensive midfielders who can work together to provide a defensive screen. This would leave one predominantly attacking midfielder with a more free role. The second is when you want to have 2 attacking or advanced midfielders with one lone defensive midfielder sitting behind them. That obviously places a higher degree of responsibility on the lone defensive midfielder than you have with 2 deeper lying midfielders working together.

Lets look at the current main candidates who for me would be :-

Diaby, Ramsey, Arteta, Coquelin, Frimpong.

Frimpong has gone on loan so I will not dwell on him and we can assess if he can still offer us something at the end of the season.

My opinion of Diaby, Ramsey and Arteta is that they are suited to playing in the 2 man defensive midfield system but don’t quite have the necessary strengths to play the lone defensive midfield role, especially against better opposition. Just my opinion and I would love to hear from other AA’ers on this.

The player that I feel could offer us the best option in the lone defensive midfield role is Coquelin. Not big enough or powerful enough I hear some saying. The question for me would be, is size and power the most important attribute for this role? Does this player have to resemble Frank Bruno on anabolic steroids? They obviously have to not be afraid to tackle, and be willing to get stuck in. If we all go back some 10 years, how many of us would have claimed Claude Makelele as being the best defensive midfielder in the world at that time, as many of his fellow pros seemed to think. That is all 5 foot 7 inches of him, according to Wikipedia.

I have often thought what is the most important natural physical attribute for this role, and I keep coming back to pace. The ability to cover ground quickly at a moments notice, “nippiness” if you like. I feel that the defensive midfielder plays a role that is more reactionary, in other words they respond to situations as they unfold.

Makelele, as well as reading the game well seemed to be able to quickly get from one point to the next to intercept danger or put in a tackle before the opposition could get the attacking move going. Diaby, Ramsey and Arteta, for me, all share the one characteristic of a lack of pace, that would allow them to play that lone defensive role.

You only have to be ½ second slower from point A to point B and then you don’t intercept or don’t have the chance to get the tackle in and break up play.

Coquelin

Coquelin in my opinion has that surge of pace that the other three don’t. His recent games, until injury, have seen many of us give him some high praise. So my question is, injury permitting, do we already have that excellent defensive midfielder, the one we are all crying out for, sitting there right under our noses?

Written by GoonerB

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

A point earned or 2 points dropped?

January 31, 2013

Well I will say from the outset, that for me it is the latter, despite coming from 2 goals down. Once again there were many positives from this game, in our attacking department, but that can’t gloss over the bad aspects of our defence.

theo equaliser

At the start of this season I would have happily argued that we actually had top draw defenders in our squad, but that what we lacked was the cohesive discipline to make it work as an effective unit. The sort of instinctive understanding that only comes from drilling it into the players on the training ground, so that everyone understands what their role and job is at all times when defending.

After this game, with the defensive frailties shown, which are not isolated incidents this season, I have started to question whether this is the case, or if basically our defenders just aren’t good enough for the level that Arsenal football club require, and should be aspiring to. I didn’t feel that Liverpool had to work very hard for their chances, while I felt they made us work hard for ours.

As I watched this game I remembered a comment regarding our defence from yesterdays post. I looked back through them and realised that it was Rasp that said it, and I feel it summarises my feeling after this game, so I will, (more or less), quote :

“Much as I’d love to sign a top striker I am adamant the problems lie in our defence. If we fail to make top 4 it will be down to goals conceded not failure to score”.

After watching this game and reflecting on it, in conjunction with other games this season, I find it hard to disagree with this assessment.

I couldn’t fault the general effort and urgency with which the team played in this game, which has been an issue recently, that we have all mostly been aware of. In fact I thought we were genuinely excellent in our attacking play for much of the game and should have had many more than 2 goals. Unfortunately to counteract this both of their goals involved a mix of poor positioning of our key defensive players at the required times, and a critical failure to clear our lines when the opportunity was there, in other words putting it into row Z. As a result, in addition to their 2 goals we presented to them, we offered up a few other gift wrapped opportunities to them, and could have seen more than the eventual 2 goals in the against column. This game could have easily gone either way but, for me, we were overall the better team. Our performance with the ball was very good but without the ball, well…….

A quick question to the AA faithful from me would be, “if we had Sol Campbell, (in his prime), and Vincent Kompany, currently as our 2 CD’s, would we have conceded the goals as we did in this game”?.

I have always advocated that a top notch defence gives you a platform to attack more freely through the attacking players. Better defensive players can make you a better attacking outfit. Poorer defensive players, for me, can drag your attacking players back to help bolster the defence and make you less effective in attack. I would surmise that we need serious consideration in this department and lo and behold we have less than 24 hours in which to possibly address this issue. It could be argued that it is more the way we train and defend that is the issue and not the quality of defenders, but could an issue like that really go on for so long at a club of this standing? I will let the AA responses determine whether it is the quality of the defenders, the way we drill them. Or a bit of both.

We have now been the nearly team for many years. I do however, feel that this team is close now, and that it requires only a couple of i’s dotted and t’s crossed to complete it. Onto the player ratings :-

Szczesny 6

He made a couple of his normal good stops, but was in no man’s land on a couple of occasions and still needs to make better decisions on when to come out and when to stay on his line and let defenders deal with the danger.

Sagna 6

Still improving after injury, but I still don’t feel we have the energetic box to box attacking full-back we used to have. Slipped for the comical first goal.

Mertesacker 5

At times his positioning and reading of the game is top notch. Tonight it was not so. We know he lacks pace, but when he is on form he overcomes that, but not tonight. Is it a permanent worry or just temporary? Turned his back for the comical first goal rather than take one in the face and stop it.

Vermaelen 6

Was covering a lot for under-performing team-mates tonight. Not been so good in recent weeks but I still feel he is a top CD and will get back to his best. Failed to clear for the comical first goal.

Gibbs 7

Looking the top class LFB he was destined to be dependant on injury. Lets hope the injury tonight is very minor.

Wilshere 8.5 and my joint MOTM

He is the real deal. The Arsenal and England teams of the future will be moulded around him. Most of our drive came through him

Ramsey 6

Decent, but I feel there are certain games he suits more than others, and it probably wasn’t this one. Ramsey, to his credit, is always a trier and will run all day for you, but I felt this game needed a more dominant defensive CM to release Cazorla and Wilshere. Near the end Ramsey looked like his legs had gone.

Cazorla 8

Not bad in the first half but excellent thereafter. A truly world class performer who plays with a genuine smile on his face,

Podolski 7

No goals but he is always a threat and was a constant thorn in their side. On another day he possibly gets a hat-trick.

Walcott 8.5 and my joint MOTM

Some things didn’t come off, but he always seemed to make the keeper work. I thought he was a constant worry for them whether he was attacking from wide to provide for a team-mate, or going for goal himself more through the middle.

Giroud 8.5 and my joint MOTM

Like Walcott a constant thorn in their side although in a different way to Theo. The 2 of them seem to be striking up a very good partnership working off each other.

SUBS

Santos for Gibbs 6

Not dreadful but not great either. I believe there will be many worried fans checking on the severity of Gibbs injury today, on transfer window closing day of all days.

Written by GoonerB

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Suarez to Arsenal?

January 30, 2013

Why? Because this guy is as close to Ian Wright Wright Wright as we have seen since the retirement of the great man. If I had a choice of any striker in the PL, or perhaps even the world, it would be Suarez.  Brilliant player, plays for the team, runs non-stop, huge ego, controversial, he has the whole package and alongside OG would be superb.

How much would he cost? €40+m probably, but we have the money and  ……

OK, OK, calm down. It’s only a fantasy. Why would any club sell their lethal striker to a rival???

Unknown

 26/5/89. Deep Joy

Tonight we will see if the recent improvement in our team can continue. 2 consecutive wins were vital after the previous losses.

Liverpool’s recent humiliation at the hands of the mighty Oldham is history and we are unlikely to see Rodgers experiment with his defence, though it should be noted that Coates who looked totally out of his depth cost over €8m.

This is a very important game to both clubs. A loss tonight would be costly and painful. So, we won’t lose. Stupid defensive mistakes must be eradicated. Thankfully, Liverpool do not have a strong aerial threat and rarely throw the ball into the box from distance. No, they tend to attack at pace and try to get Suarez one on one with a defender. BFG beware.

There are loads of stats about this game none of which interest me enough to put into the post. I recommend Newsnow.

I was going to write about the old days when Liverpool and Arsenal were The football forces in the land, of the Keegan days and the Dalgleish era and the Barnes/Rush team who were the second best English team I have ever seen live (you know who is first :-D). But tonight is about the new era of both clubs as they struggle to compete with the Oilers.

Liverpool have spent a fortune trying to sit at the top table. Huge amounts of money wasted upon players who don’t get near the first team (some reduced to West Ham). Perhaps things are finally turning in the right direction – it is high unlikely they will repeat their  8th position and 37 points off the top.

Some good alternatives in midfield mean they do not have to rely on Stevie Me for inspiration, though he is in fine form. Shelvey, Allen, Henderson,  Lucas, Downing and Suso are all good players.

Upfront, the emergence of Sterling and the purchase of Sturridge means that the Scouse have weapons all over the pitch. Thre are still defensive lapses and the reliance upon Carragher gives us hope.

As does the fact that Liverpool have yet to beat a team in the top half of the table this season! (sorry, dull stat)

Onto the Good Guys…..

Can OG continue his scoring run? Carragher and Agger are both strong men who cannot be bullied but OG has other weapons in his armory, Have Liverpool the pace and organisation to stop Walcott?

In my opinion, the game will hinge upon Wilshere. If he gains control of the midfield and I fully expect him to, we will win.

Runners and Riders:

001L

Given Ramsey’s recent performances I am tempted to let him continue as Diaby regains his fitness and form, but Diaby is a special player and he needs to play. Mr Wenger may well rest OG and play a 4 man midfield, but I hope he takes the more attacking option.

Today’s English Explorer: Sir John Smith (1580-1631). Once more we delve into the Days of Yore. This fellow was the first to map and explore Chesapeake Bay in North America,  furthermore, he named the area New England. In North America he was captured by  a Red Indian tribe, the Powhatan, and saved by the famous Pocahontas (later immortalised by Disney – real story well worth a read)

Unknown

Full Set. Knighthood.

Leaving home at 16 Smith became a naval mercenary, fighting the French, Dutch and Ottmans. Smith was an expert duellist and was knighted for killing 3 Turkish commanders! He was eventually captured by Turks and sold as a slave before escape. On return to London, Smith joined the Virginia Company setting sail for America and fame. He died in London in 1631. A fascinating man and well worth further investigation.

Arsenal are close to having a very good team, a few considered signing and the world is our  lobster. Forget Diame. Forget Wanyama. Sign Suarez and we will win the CL (at the very least)

COYRRG

Written by Big Raddy

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Posted by Erik the Red

Why did Wenger sell Alex Song?

January 29, 2013

Because he was………add your own four letter expletive.

I am sure this is the view of the majority of people who have stumbled across this site via NewsNow and thought they would give it a peek.

But this is not the only view: some of us rated him highly.

The list of reasons is long as to why Arsene sold him to Barcelona. They range from the straight forward idea that he was simply not good enough which is a slightly more polite version of calling him a four letter expletive but the sense is the same, to the idea that Wenger made a mistake, especially when the calls for a defensive midfielder who can play centre back are as loud as they are right now.

The most common reasons given by the group who didn’t think he was good enough were that he picked up needless yellow cards and that he was not disciplined enough in his positional play. We also had the rumour that Song was a bad influence in the changing rooms; he was late for training and acted as though he didn’t care.

I have been waiting a long time to explain my theory as to why he was so hastily despatched and it is not connected with any of those views above.

No, it is all about tomorrow. For the first time this season all the midfield heavy weights are fit and Arsene Wenger will be faced with a serious team selection dilemma when attempting to pick his side to face Liverpool.

Wilshere, Rosicky, Diaby, Ramsey, Cazorla and Arteta

So tell me, with all these players available how would Alex Song have fitted in?

The answer is he wouldn’t. We would have had too many midfielders and this, in my opinion, was anticipated by Wenger and was the reason why the deal with Barcelona was completed so quickly.

Barcelona to Arsenal: Are you interested in selling Alex Song, if so how much?

20 mil……..12………15……….done.

Alex Song vehemently denied that he wanted to leave the club in interviews given after he had signed for Barcelona; he also emphasised that he was fully committed to Arsenal. You may say, yeah, yeah, yeah but the unusual thing is that he said this after he had signed to Barça. Can you imagine Nasri or Van Persie saying such things?

Wenger can be quite ruthless when it comes to making room for the new. Silvinho was told not to return from Brazil to the UK to make way for Cole; Lauren was never played again after his injury to make way for Eboue (lets not go there).

A similar thing has happened to Jack Wilshere; our captain in waiting is Arsenal’s most prized asset; he is a player who when fit has to be played. This would have meant that Song might well have had to spend the best part of his new contract on the bench which would have been an absolute waste and so for that reason he had to go.

Alex Song brought so much that went unappreciated to the table, the most tangible evidence is just how less effective Arteta has been without him.

Song didn’t leave because he was home sick, he didn’t leave because the little boy in him was always Manchester United, he didn’t leave for City’s millions; the fact is given the opportunity he would have happily stayed.

The fondest memory I have of Alex Song is the superb pass he made to Thierry Henry enabling him to score on his return, tell me you didn’t go wild and I will tell you that you shouldn’t be on this site.

So Alex I thank you for that memory and wish you and your family happiness.

Written by LB

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Posted by LB

Oxlade-Chamberlain Out On Loan

January 28, 2013

Let me start by saying that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is a very gifted young man who will become a huge player for Arsenal.

And yet… I really think that the best thing for his development would be to be loaned out to another Premiership club for the remainder of this season.

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In his 14 starts and eight substitute appearances this season, AOC has had some great moments and showed no shortage of skill and determination.

But he has also, mostly, looked a bit out of his depth.

In his last two outings (as a starter against Brighton on Saturday and a late substitute against West Ham) his displays were characterised by wrong options taken and little in the way of end result.

Against the Hammers, we were already winning 5-1 when he came on, but he twice took ridiculously ambitious shooting chances when a simple pass would have been much more likely to yield a goal.

Of course there are mitigating circumstances (aside from his age and inexperience): he was playing with unfamiliar line-ups and untested partnerships, as with Jenkinson at the weekend.

However, in the moments when he has had the ball he has seldom seemed to do the right thing and was generally not on the same wavelength as his colleagues.

Many young talents have a “second season dip” and AOC is probably just experiencing one of them right now, before he kicks on next season.

But he is not good enough to command a starting place and, therefore, his opportunities in the first team will remain limited to cameos for the rest of the season unless there is a serious injury to more senior players.

With that in mind, I feel he would learn a lot more by going out on loan to a team where he could expect to play most games – rather like the experience Jack Wilshere had during his loan spell at Bolton.

Jack came back a tougher, wiser player and I would expect Alex to do the same.

If he were to spend the next few months at somewhere like Wigan, Norwich, West Brom or Swansea he would get a lot more than just extra playing minutes. He would start to learn about the responsibilities that come with being a team player (responsibilities he has been neglecting recently in the red and white).

A few bollockings from good pros who don’t have anything like Alex’s talents but are prepared to work as hard as they possibly can for their team mates will do him a power of good.

And experiencing a life that won’t be nearly as cosseted as that afforded to the Arsenal players will also be good for reminding him just how fortunate he is.

He would – like Jack – return to Arsenal a more rounded player and man.

A final advantage will be that he will be out of the firing line of the more volatile element among our supporters – fans who don’t seem happy unless they have a hate figure to shout at.

Alex is possibly only a few iffy performances away from starting to attrach the sort of groans and abuse that have dogged Theo Walcott for years.

All this is not meant to sound like an attack on AOC. As I said at the outset, I am really confident he will turn into a huge talent for Arsenal and England.

But if a loan-out was good enough for Wilshere (and Szczesny and others), why not Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain?

RockyLives

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Posted by RockyLives

BRIGHTON 2 ARSENAL 3 – A Star is Born. MATCH THOUGHTS

January 27, 2013

When the draw was made, my first thought was “yikes”. Here is a team with their priorities firmly focused on grabbing one of the play-off places in the Championship. Playing in front of a packed house at their fabulous new ground, The Seagulls will go into the game with little pressure, and can enjoy the possibility of causing an upset.

When I saw the team sheet, my reactions were twofold. Firstly, I wondered whether this eleven had ever played ten minutes as a unit, let alone ninety. Second, I was delighted, and surprised, that both Santi and Jack would be rested.

However, I felt that if we could be solid at the back, and the midfield could find a way to gel, then with the Pod, Ollie and Ox up front, then we’d have enough to score more than them.

Well, what a Cup Tie!

The game lurched this way, then that way. Arsenal, understandably, did not show the continuity and fluency so evident a few days’ earlier. Despite going behind, it was clear the home crowd were going to enjoy the day and lift their team, while Arsenal were never going to be allowed an easy passage into the next round.

I am not going to give a minute by minute, blow by blow, account of the game, but before I dwell on something very dwellable, I will point out some understandable negatives.

Neither flank operated well. It has been very apparent how in recent games, the Podolski/Gibbs axis is really beginning to gel and operate as a well oiled unit, serving both the attack as well as defence down the left. This kind of cohesion simply was not on display yesterday.

Similar problems down the right. The Ox/Jenks teamwork operated ineffectively. I have on other occasions aired my concerns about Alex, and his progress since his debut against Shrewsbury a few seasons ago is something that really bothers me. I have said a few times how I think his final role will be more central, and finding ways of giving him constructive learning pitch time there needs to be addressed, if indeed that is his optimal role

I am not going to dwell on individual incidents that may be blamed for conceding, as I want to do some serious dwelling as I said earlier.

Olivier Giroud. Oh Boy.

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At half time during the W’Ham game I made a borderline genius comment:

I pointed out that Big ‘Ol was far better with the ball to feet that many assume. The second half of that game began with a cleverly worked corner that saw the ball played in low and hard, where it was buried by the on-coming Giroud.

Now, like many on here, I have watched Mallard’s clips of both of his goals over and over again. Sure, the first goal was brilliant. The second however, and I have watched this about thirty times so far, is absolutely sensational. Great and perceptive though the pass from Diaby certainly was, it was slightly over hit for anyone other than a sublimely skillful footballer. Look again (and again). The way Ollie took the pace off it before his superb finish was technically top drawer. This was the goal of the season for me by a country mile.

I am not doing player ratings for two reasons. One is that I can’t be bothered, and the other is that I’d have to mark a few players lower than others, and given that they are not first choice starting XI’ers, I think that would be a little harsh. I will, however, compromise a little. Giroud 10.

It was a tricky away fixture fraught with dangers. There were five goals, we are in the hat for the next round, and in my view a Star has been Born. What’s not to like?

Written by MickyDidIt89

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

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