Fulham 1 Arsenal 3 “A thoroughly professional performance.”

August 25, 2013

You have got to love Martin Jol; he sets out his teams in the same attacking formation every time he plays against Arsenal and every time they lose, ok there was the one exception but that, as far as I am concerned, only proves the rule; he certainly was never able to beat an Arsene Wenger team while manager of Tottenham and he was no where near doing so yesterday.

Arsenal carried on from where they left off on Wednesday against Fenerbahce beating Fulham at Craven Cottage in what turned out to be a convincing style. 3-1 to the good guys was just what we needed to get the media off our backs, to stop rogue Arsenal supporters taking swipes at the club and to set us up nicely for the coming game against Tottenham.

poldi v fulham

Wenger rotated his squad (lol) leaving Wilshere on the bench, moving Rosicky further back and adding Podolski to the front. This was a very attacking move that had the much desired effect, in my view, of helping Giroud avoid being isolated which he appeared to for the best part of the game against the Turks.

The tactics seemed to be to play our way past Fulham’s onward rushing attack and pick our way round their defence. This required accurate, pin-ball passing which as the game went on Arsenal were doing with more and more fluency and speed.

The break through came after a long range shot from Ramsey was deftly, yes deftly, controlled by Giroud before poking it past the keeper for his now customary goal per game. I have noticed that since the Frenchman has been scoring so regularly that the priority signing to some is shifting from wanting a striker to wanting a centre back, well not for me; I still feel that Suarez would score twice as many of those kind of goals if he were to come to the home of football. That said, I don’t want to appear to be ungrateful to Ollie, the man works like a Trojan, always putting in a shift; he really is the perfect example of what a team player should be.

Being a goal up forced Fulham to come onto us and that in turn forced the focus onto our back line which I must say I thought put in their best performance to date, there was a real understanding between them: Mertasacker oozed confidence, Sagna got better and better as the game went on, Gibbs was simply very good once again and Jenkinson never seemed to be caught out of position, as he is sometimes prone to doing, with Sagna there watching his back.

During the game I was trying to work out, if I were to write the report, who I would award the MOTM to? For ages I couldn’t see anyone who stood out as every player seemed to be doing his job very well; Ramsey may have been given it by the BT sports and indeed he did play well but no better than Cazorla who seems to have finally digested that massive paella he consumed during the close season; the magic in those boots is back, the twists and turns that takes him past opponents are one of the vital skills that makes us a better than the likes of Fulham. I toyed for ages with the MOTM going to the team but then it became clear, there was one player who produced something over and above what I think we have come to expect – Lucas Podolski is my MOTM, scorer of two goals that gave us the points and put smiles on our faces this Sunday morning.

When we are one up space appears and Theo usually starts to shine, yesterday was no exception and it was one of his runs, combined with a Cazorla shot, parried by the Fulham keeper that fell for our Johnny on the spot, Lucas Pololski to side foot in from 18 yards, no easy task, the man did well and gave us a two goal cushion to go into half time with.

If Theo starts to shine at one-nil up he becomes lethal when we go two up, it was his charging run and the quick feet of Cazorla that brought about the third goal for Pololski who rifled home, low and true.

Wilshere came on and added a bit more steel to the defence, Nacho got a run out and Sanogo got a few minutes, I can see him going on loan when the real deal arrives.

Anyway, we took our foot off the gas a bit and this allowed Fulham to score but that only had the effect of focusing the team again, enough to see the game out and bring the points home.

Happy, happy.

Be afraid spuds; be very afraid, the mighty Arsenal are hitting their stride.

Written by LB

117 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by LB

Fulham and a Naked Beautiful Lady

August 24, 2013

Anyone confident of coming away from Craven Cottage with 3 points?

What has changed? The Cottagers remain a club destined to be mid-table and one which we should beat both home and away. Is it really the lack of new signings which has reduced expectation? And if so, why? The team which smashed Fenerbahce are more than good enough to beat Fulham.

OK, we have central defensive problems and in Bent and Berbs Fulham have pace, experience and clinical finishers. But, Bent couldn’t get into the AV first X1 and Berbs despite being a great player is almost as old as his manager.

I would be exaggerating if I said I was confident but I see no reason why we cannot do well today. The performance in Turkey was very good, Sagna is the best right back converted to CB in to country (possibly the world), Cazorla should be over his jet lag , Giroud is banging them in, Theo is in fine form (well, he was for 45 minutes). Ramsey is in the form of his life. I could go on but you know the positives.

Unknown-1

And the negatives: Think back 7 days, plus Koscielny.

Fulham: They won at Sunderland with one shot on target. Bent’s arrival will certainly add some bite as will Scott Parker – are we the only club who haven’t signed him? (rhetorical question). Taraabbt is a strange player – capable of brilliance but never consistent, he has Bendtner-esque self-confidence, and perhaps this has held him back from becoming the superstar his early time at Spurs promised. I like Martin Jol and think he would be a fine short-term manager for us until one of PV4, DB10 or TH14 takes over the long-term reins post-Mr Wenger (but that is another discussion and post). Should Fulham win today it will be the first time in the PL that they have taken 6 points from their first two games.

Arsenal: The team almost picks itself. The only areas of doubt are Gibbs or a returning Monreal and Giroud/Podolski.

Gibbs has been playing well and deserves to keep his place – he can be rested on Tuesday.

Giroud despite having scored twice has not shown enough for me. Yes, he works hard and has yet to have a decent cross to attack but I want more (which is why we are looking for strikers). There must be something going on between AW and Pod. Such a strong player but he has yet to show his true form in the red and white – how much patience can AW have with him? From Podolski’s point of view, he hasn’t been given a decent run in the team in his chosen position. I question why Mr Wenger bought him if he really wanted a left-sided winger/back-up MF; it is clearly not Pod’s game who flourishes closer to the box.

It has been wonderful to see our Little Mozart finally get a run of injury-free games. He looks a terrific player and is showing just what we missed over the past few seasons. Stay fit, Tomas.

I expect Theo to run the ageing Riise ragged. Fulham will concentrate keeping him out, which should allow space for Ramsey to take the space created by the Fulham midfield assisting Riise

My team:

fulham v arse

The bench will be a little light and I cannot understand why Bendtner remains alienated. If fit, he must be an option whatever his difficulties with Arsenal. We pay him, he should play.

Yet to think of a theme so for today I will bring you a touch of my hometown.

The Little Mermaid statue who sits so prettily not 400m from my home celebrated her 100 year birthday yesterday. Created by the sculpture Edvard Eriksen, she was a gift from Carl Jacobsen, the founder of Carlsberg beer, to the city. The Little Mermaid is  a story written by Hans Christian Anderson and has been performed as a ballet, play, and of course, a Disney movie.

Jacobsen had been to the ballet to see The Little Mermaid performed and fell for the charms of the lead ballerina, Ellen Price. Thinking to himself, “how can I get to see this beautiful woman naked?”, he came up with the idea of creating a statue which would become the symbol of both Copenhagen and Denmark. Eriksen designed the mermaid and Jacobsen approached Ellen Price who told him to “sling his hook because she was a respected professional not some cheap trollop”. So, Eriksen used his wife as the model for the body and Price for the face.

images

Hundreds of thousands visit her every year and almost everyone says “I knew she is called Little but I didn’t realise how little”.  Small but beautiful.

No need to stress the importance of a result today. Spurs play Swansea which is a home banker, Chavs already have two wins and to be 6 points behind them after just two games would be a poor start

We won at CC 1-0 at The Cottage last season and a scrappy victory it was, but I would love a similar scoreline today.

COYRRG

Written by Big Raddy

248 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Erik the Red

Aaron Ramsey : A Lesson in Patience

August 23, 2013

This week saw Aaron Ramsey put in the kind of performance that many of us have hoped for since his return from that injury. This wasn’t a one off this has been a slow gradual process, towards the end of last season we started to see signs of his importance to the team and how valuable his stamina and work rate were. Now we are seeing his range of passing and his shooting come back to the fore.

It hasn’t always looked like he would make it back, he suffered dogs abuse from the fans, on blogs, on twitter and in the ground.

But what he never did was hide, it’s what convinced me he we would be ok. He constantly showed for the ball and tried to do the right things with the ball, it didn’t always work, let’s be honest in some games he gave the ball away more often than finding a teammates boot.

But that refusal to shrink in to the background is now paying off, eventually things started to go for him, and now we are seeing the benefit of that game time.

This raises an interesting question, whilst Jack’s injury was nowhere near as severe as Aaron’s the lay off was as long. How long will it take Jack to rediscover the magic, and where should he do it?

The interesting question for me is the second one. Jack like Aaron is too good to be loaned out, but the team will potentially suffer as he regains his match sharpness. But he can’t regain the sharpness sitting on the bench or playing in the reserves.

We the fans will need to be patient, and learn the lesson that Aaron Ramsey has taught us.

Written by Gooner in Exile

97 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gööner In Exile

Champions League, here we come.

August 22, 2013

Firstly, I think the important issue needs to be addressed: dark blue shorts? Daark — Bluuuuue — Shorrrrts……..in all my days, I don’t know?

Ok, onto the game, so it seems that news of Arsenal’s demise was a little premature, a three nil thrashing of Fenerbahce in Istanbul will certainly force the media to do an about face over their suggestions that our season was over before it was even a week old.

There will be many who point to the fact that the Turks were poor and indeed they were but it equally needs to be said that you can only beat who is in front of you and that is exactly what the boys in red, white and, umm, dark blue did and as it turned out they did so quite comfortably.

I say as it turned out because although for the first 20 minutes we looked the better side there was still more than a hint of caution in Arsenal’s play, the hang over from the Villa game lingered on; we had plenty of possession but a goal seemed a way off.

Probably the most significant incident of the first half was Koscielny getting kicked in the head, according to the telly the cut is one of the worst the doctor had seen suffered during a football match. Mah, he’s of Polish stock, they make em tough in that part of the world, I am sure he will be fine for the spud game.

Anyway, the loss of Koscielny had a useful side affect, it forced Sagna into the middle and Jenkinson onto the right. Let’s be honest, Jenkinson is far better at going forward and Sagna is a better defender, the result is that Jenkinson was able to add to the attack that had about as much cutting edge as a knife blade that had been dragged along a concrete floor.

Unsurprisingly, we went in at half time, not having scored; we were not playing badly but a little bit of magic was missing.

Queue the second half and queue the bit of magic the game was crying out for; I thought Theo’s passing had been pants for the whole of the first half but he does seem to have a knack of more and more often doing something very special in a game and that pass to Gibbs for the first goal was special, very special, not as good as the pass that Ramsey made to Theo in the first place, that was brilliant but a very good goal all round I thought and a great relief.

gibbs scores

One nil up and Fenerbahce had to come out a bit more which in turn created more space for Theo and from that point onwards he just got better and better.

Enter the scorer of the second goal and enter the man of the match: Aaron Ramsey’s low pile driver into the corner is the thing that heroes are made of. Wenger said at the beginning of the game: look at our first eleven and show me the players that are available who would improve that. He does seem to have a point, doesn’t he? Never mind all those new spuds, as far as the midfield is concerned Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla are all better.

rambo scores

On the subject of the midfield they grew in confidence as the game went on and as the goals went in, Rosicky ran, seemingly tirelessly, showing as much energy if not more than Wilshere, ten years his junior. But that is not to knock Jack; he played well but he is still not fully match fit although this should improve week on week.

Penalty? Yes, Theo brought down in the box allowing Giroud to have his confidence massaged for another game, good pen actually. Three nil, job done.

giroud pen kick

All that is left for me to say is that I thought Szczesny was excellent, the back line were fine, midfield very good, the attack?

Ahhhhhhh, spend some money lol.

Written with a huge smile on his face by LB

112 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by LB

Fenerbahce. A win starts our season.

August 21, 2013

How many times do we read that a match is of “vital importance”? Are they? Is any match vital to the long -term success of the club? We all have our opinions but mine is that the CL is an adventure and good for earning money – but let’s be honest, is there any Gooner who really believes we can win the thing? OK, you over there in the red & white shirt covered in dribble, but anyone else?

Unknown

Don’t get me wrong – I want us to win tonight and win handsomely but I will not be calling for the heads of the entire management team if we don’t.  Man City & Chelsea didn’t even get into the knockout stages last season which gives an idea of how tough this competition is and perhaps, just perhaps, we may be better off out of it. (I did emphasise, perhaps! ). Mr Wenger says asks what is the point of battling to get fourth spot and then losing in the play-offs; he has a point. In the unlikely event that Spurs had been 4th and AFC 5th we would be suffering badly, and yet we do not even bother crowing about it.

Fenerbahce: Don’t know much about them but they have a corruption charge hanging over them which will be resolved after the tie is over – another example of the work of the overpaid lunatics who run the CL. What I do know is that Turkish fans are committed and loud. They will do all they can to make it a torrid night for the Arsenal. Whether their team is good I cannot say, but Turkish football has been improving for many years and in Mereiles they have a decent player.

Arsenal: The fears about our lack of players are somewhat exaggerated; we can raise a decent team though there remains some doubt as to whether Koscielny and Cazorla can play as they got cards last season. Going by the info from other sites it appears that they will start tonight.

My team:

fenerbahce v arsenal

If they play as we all know they can, this team is good enough to win. My fear is that without Arteta we may be porous in defence which could prove costly. An early goal would settle the team and the tie; as such it is important to approach the game in a positive frame of mind and attack from the start.

As always patience and concentration are essentials. I would love to see Wilshere start to boss a game, we know he has the talent and the drive, a touch more fitness and confidence and he will flourish, perhaps tonight is the night.

We have come through hard CL qualifiers before – anyone recall how tough Udinese were? This will be the same with hopefully a similar result.

On a side issue. Had Newcastle agreed to sell Cabaye, would he have been available to play play tonight?

Big Raddy

250 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Erik the Red

Falling out of love with Football

August 20, 2013

There was a time, not too long ago when football wasn’t about money, it was about a manager, assembling a squad of players to challenge for titles, promotions and avoiding relegation.

In those times many teams could win the League or FA Cup given the right manager and the right players. The manager would choose the playing style and would build a team to compete, in those times everyone started the season with a glimmer of hope star players were spread throughout the top league, some even stayed with their teams when they were relegated or not doing as well.

Fans who went to games and watched their teams discussed the players on the pitch the decisions of the manager on the day, the news during the week was not much to do with football, it might have had the odd reference to an injury or the occasional transfer (as this was pre transfer window).

Players contracts were irrelevant as the club held the registration even if the contract had expired, that was up until Bosman.

But mainly post game we discussed who had the best players, which team had employed those players best, and what an idiot the referee was or otherwise.

Normally we were biased towards our own team, and rightly so like anything we love we forgave their flaws and focus on the good. I mean I used to defend George Graham’s long ball tactics because it won us trophies? No because my team were using them. Just like Stoke fans did under Pulis.

Maybe I’m wearing rose tinted glasses, maybe I am just fed up with being out manoeuvred by Oligarch clubs, afterall most football clubs were owned by a few wealthy individuals, who normally had to reach into their pockets to find the money to fulfil the managers ambitions.

Maybe part of me wishes Arsene Wenger had never come to the club and given us the greatest football I may ever witness as an Arsenal fan. Because even if it hasn’t happened I would still be going to the Arsenal when I could, I’d still be watching every game we played on TV, but what I wouldn’t have to deal with is defending the club from those from outside and in who think we are somehow entitled to expect more than we currently achieve.

When I first started going to Highbury challenging for titles was not on my mind, all I cared about was going to football to watch my club play football. I certainly wasn’t thinking about the business side of the club, now admittedly I was a kid, why would I, but the thing is I still want to be a kid when I go to football, I don’t want to think about the things I can’t control. If we had the fortune to put a good season together of course I was excited to try and win stuff, who wouldn’t be.

I love talking football, the various tactical nuances the pros and cons of defenders and goalkeepers, but I can’t remember the last time that’s all I spoke about, now it has to be about transfers, spending, ticket prices, profits, owners etc. Things I understand admittedly, but not really what I want to be discussing. I try and explain the situation we are in to alleviate the frustrations felt by others, because seriously I couldn’t give a shit if we never win another trophy in my lifetime, I’ll always be an Arsenal supporter and they will always be By Far The Greatest Team, and I know I’ll now be labelled as the problem the unambitious type that allows the club to say 4th is a trophy, but here is the thing it wouldn’t bother me if we finished 10th I’d still go, as many of you would. In fact I think we’d all enjoy it a little bit more.

I want to discuss the one thing we can see on the pitch, the performance, the team selection and the tactics.

Take Saturday’s defeat to Villa, we missed Arteta, we were done by the ref, Wilshere and Ramsey need to find a way to work together, Sagna had an off day (even before he was moved to left back), Theo disappeared. They should have been the discussion points, but it turns into an argument about what the club have or haven’t spent who is or isn’t responsible. Is this why anyone started following football? Is this why anyone loves football, is this what got you hooked on the beautiful game?

I’ve signed my son up for Junior Gunners, I’m starting to think I made a mistake, living in Norwich I see the majority of lads wearing Norwich City shirts, the fans enjoy the ride, yes I hear them moan and complain about performances, but they are happy to go to games together as a community, if I’m near the ground on matchday I hear On The Ball City ring out across the City. I’m jealous, jealous that they still go to football for the right reasons, a sold out ground with little chance of success, but they enjoy it. I hear the moans after defeats, they are not talking about how they should’ve signed x y and z, they are talking about which players did well, what the manager should have done. That’s not to say they haven’t had issues, Season Tickets being thrown at Bryan Gunn, but this was a team that two seasons earlier were in the PL and were having their asses handed to them by Colchester in League 1, just a bit of a comedown (still a sold out ground though).

I think I need a break from blogging, I need to enjoy football again. I’m not doing that on blogs, I’ve had more rational conversations with Liverpool and Spurs fans over this weekend than I’ve had on the web.

Gooner in Exile

207 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by peachesgÖÖner

We Still Have 111 Points to Play For

August 19, 2013

The fall-out from our weekend defeat to Aston Villa has been an unedifying spectacle to say the least.

Fans turning on fans, seasoned bloggers sulking off, the Underminers* out in force.

I understand the frustration. We lost our opening game of the season for the first time in 13 years; we lost our opening game of the season at home for the first time in 20 years; our squad resembles something from The Walking Dead; we don’t have any shiny new players to get excited about…

But come on! Let’s keep some perspective.

We have lost one game – and we lost it because of an (at best) incompetent referee.

We were better than Villa for most of the match and had the chances to at least equalise even after we were down to 10 men and a goal behind. I have no doubt that if Koscielny had not been sent off we would have gone on to share the points or win.

Referee Taylor’s eagerness to give Koscielny a second yellow (for not touching an opponent, let’s remember) stinks like a week-old kipper and deserves further investigation. Not that it will happen.

But read the press and wander through the Arsenal blogosphere and you discover that actually, no: the result had nothing to do with the extraordinarily bad officiating. It was all to do with Arsenal not having brought in enough players so far this summer.

I happen to think we should have signed some reinforcements by now, but I don’t think that had much or anything to do with losing to Villa.

And at the very least I am prepared to write it off as a bad day – the sort of bad day that will also happen to Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and those darlings of the media, Toddling Potty-Smears at times during the season.

We play 38 league games in an EPL campaign, for a maximum of 114 points. Three of those points have now been flushed down the lavvy, but there are still 111 left to play for.

Talk of our season being over before it has begun is (while understandable) really a bit knee-jerk and emotional and supporters need to calm down and regain their sense of perspective. One headline on Newsnow (from a supposedly Arsenal supporting blog) scweamed: “Thanks Arsene, out of title race before it even started.” Seriously? After the first game of the season we’re out of the title race? Come on! Like no team has ever won the title after losing on the opening day.

Likewise, the idea that potential new signings will be deterred from joining us because we lost a single game while some of our rivals won their single games is far fetched.

The club itself certainly bears some of the blame for this atmosphere of irrational hysteria, as does the media, but we fans are not obliged to fall into line with such a discordant tune.

The players that managed an amazing run in the last 10 games of last season are still there. Referees won’t always be so biased against us (although they do line up in our oppositions’ colours more often than seems to happen to other clubs). Injuries will pass and we will win games.

We certainly need to strengthen the squad before the end of the transfer window if we are to have any chance of competing for trophies this season, but I am also confident that good players will be brought in (if they are not, I will be singing a different tune).

So, we can’t be happy about the Villa result, but we can keep our feet on the ground, take a chill pill, let the toys stay in the pram (insert metaphor-of-choice here) and, most of all, not despair. Better days are coming.

  • “Underminers:” opposite of “Supporters.” See Post in archives from April 15th 2013 for a full description.

RockyLives

242 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by RockyLives

Arsenal 1 – Aston Villa 3 : How Not To Start A Season

August 18, 2013

I’m not even sure where to start, as no one else has offered to do the report i’m going to try and fill the breach.

I have to admit that I missed a portion of the first half between our opener and their equaliser (parenting duties called).

There were no surprises with the team and bench, we are down to bare bones before a ball has been kicked, the absence of Arteta was a concern to all. We had seen in the Emirates Cup that Ramsey and Wilshere are not yet ready to partner each other in the deep lying midfield roles, this is due to a mixture
of inexperience and lack of understanding between them when it comes to one staying and one going.

We started brightly our opening goal a lesson in how to break quickly and clinically, Rosicky playing a great ball down the line to Oxlade-Chamberlain, he in turn picks out Giroud who finished well having made a good run in the box.

What was all the fuss about? We were going to prove the doubters wrong.

What followed was a combination of our old failings, individual errors that brought pressure and lifted Villa, an injury stretched squad
picking up more injuries in innocuous challenges, and our complete inability to get a ref to do us a favour once in a while.

The Villa equaliser came from a bit of good play from Abonglahor, he drifted past too many half challenges with ease no one getting close enough in red and white and was hurtling into the box, Szczesny had few options….stand big and hope he fluffed his shot or go for the ball, he chose the latter and raced out to the feet of Abonglahor, he lost the race Abonglahor pushing the ball past him and taking the contact. Taylor let play go on to see if there was an advantage but as the Villa player stuck it in the side betting he brought it back for the penalty. (Remember this later when I give a full assessment of Taylor).

Szczesny got down well to save the initial penalty but Benteke was first to react and nodded it home. That was disappointing as when watching the replays you see Benteke stop after he takes his kick which should have meant we could at least make his second chance more difficult but Szczesny was left exposed and the Villa front man nodded gratefully home. I should say I think Szczesny made a bad choice on the rebound, he jumped towards the ball, which made Benteke’s header a bit easier…..not that I am blaming him, it’s just another lesson our young keeper can learn.

Not long after we were being forced into a reshuffle, as Gibbs challenged for a header, his forehead connected with the back of the Villa players head. I was surprised at the amount of blood on Gibbs forehead and unable to be stitched and return he was substituted, I guess with the midweek trip in mind as much as for the players safety.

This is where the first calls about our squad lightness will appear. I have two comments:

1) If Monreal had been fit it wouldn’t have been an issue, if anyone believes we should have three senior left backs in the squad please do not moan about squad bloat or paying too high wages to squad players ever again.
2) Even if Monreal was fit he wouldnt definitely be on the bench, after all you don’t have one player in each position on the bench, and we could have easily seen Jenkinson on anyway.

For me I would have left Sagna at right back rather than switch two positions, although to an extent I can understand why you wouldn’t want to young players making combination on the left.

We made it to half time at 1-1 with a couple of scares along the way and not much more created going forward.

We started the second half ok, Cazorla on for Oxlade-Chamberlain another injury….Cazorla seemed to help the team retain possession and do a bit more with it but it also unbalanced us, there was no real cover for Sagna on the left side of midfield.

That was until we undid ourselves again, the ball moved far too easily through the midfield leaving Koscielny tracking back to win possession, which he did with ease, clearly playing the ball, it looked good on first viewing it looked better on replays, Taylor and his linesman decided otherwise awarded the penalty and booked Koscielny. Koscielny’s look of disbelief and smile said it all.

Benteke took the spot kick and sent Szczesny the wrong way.

Just six minutes later Taylor decided to put the icing on the cake of one of the worst refereeing performances I have seen by producing a second yellow card for Koscielny, he had hardly touched the Villa man (if at all I haven’t watched a replay) but he made another step before sprawling himself to the floor. Taylor bought it and showed Koscielny the second yellow.

At this point it was game over, if we wanted to get anything from the game anyway, we could have opted to shut up shop and go away with a 2-1 defeat, but instead we tried to find the equaliser, which was always going to leave us wide open at the back.

We went close a couple of times, Rosicky sending one high and wide and another into the body of the Villa keeper. Giroud had a half chance to hit one with his right peg but chose instead to try and bring it back to his left.

Villa took the opportunity to add a third as we had over committed to attack and Szczesny was left 2 on 1 and no chance.

It is hard to deny we are light on numbers, however the only position that would have helped us yesterday would have been defensive midfield, as with (the panic bought) Arteta missing there was too often a big hole in the centre of the park, and I would guess with his presence we would not have conceded so much ground on Villa’s opener. But this comes down to when we want to spend and who we are trying to spend the money on…do we want a Premier League defensive midfielder or a Champions League one? In two weeks time it may be irrelevant, but surely better to wait and buy the best we can get than rush in and buy average, remember no one likes average squad players on good wages.

As I said earlier despite injury to Monreal surely spending on a left back would be frivolous unless we plan to let one go as well. A centre back would be handy at this point, loaning out Miquel seems crazy if we don’t plan to buy big in this area, as I’d prefer a young centre back raised the Arsenal way to another Squillacci.

The same goes for the spear head of our attack.

And now the ref…..where do I start. He allowed Villa to get away with numerous fouls before being booked, the same did not appear to apply to us. He played advantage on their penalty, but rarely have us advantage for innocuous fouls when we had the ball. I can remember two clear occasions, Rosicky fought to turn his man, once he had turned and had taken him out of the game Taylor blew his whistle for the foul to allow Villa to reset, a late foul on Wilshere by their full back in our half, the ball was with Cazorla ready to get moving and Taylor pulled it back and allowed Villa to reset. Garbage,

And then bookings:
Koscielny 2 fouls, 2 bookings
Cazorla 1 foul, 1 booking
Abonglahor 4 fouls (repetitive ankle taps) 1 booking (last one)
Westwood 4 fouls 1 booking (last one)

And then the curse of rotational fouling, we suffered 18 fouls, 8 on Wilshere, targeted? Just a bit! Allowed to get away with it….absolutely….but of course it’s up to Arsenal Football Club to protect Jack for England…do me a favour!!

So what did we learn, well nothing new really we already knew it all, but it makes it harder to judge when all the other footballing gods appear to be against us.

I do know that this coming fortnight is going to be very tough, and we will see signings one way or the other, it’s just a question of what level of player they are.

If anyone wants to rate the players they can, I can’t after that result because I don’t think it would be fair.

Gooner in Exile

168 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gööner In Exile

Villa Pre-Match

August 17, 2013

At last. A chance to concentrate upon what matters – the 90+ minutes of pitch time. This has been a long and frustrating summer for many Arsenal fans but in the words of Mr Wenger “what is important is the quality of what you do on the pitch, so let’s not create a crisis from nothing,”

He is right. The three points on offer today are vitally important because I fear the wave of negativity should we not win and win handsomely.

Unknown

Trouble is Aston Villa will be no pushovers. They are a team in transition but with a lethal striker and a manager who is determined to become to succeed. So let’s have a little look at Aston Villa…..

Much has been stated about how they have signed 7 players through summer. Slightly misleading as the most expensive is the Nord Sjælland Danish star Okore who has cost all of €4m. Of more interest is the Aalborg striker Helenius who is a big young bruiser and could do very well in the PL.  However, it will be the players who gave us trouble last season who will threaten today; Benteke, Weimann and a rejuvenated (?) Agbonlahor are sure to be dangerous on the break.

I am not expecting a bus-parking exercise from AV but they will attempt to close of the supply lines to Theo and OG by stifling Wilshire and Cazorla. A packed and aggressive midfield battle will be the order of the day for Villa.

Hoping not to put a bok on the lads, I expect a win. We looked very good against City and have the weapons all over the pitch to damage Villa. Podolski and Theo will need to be aware of the free running and dangerous fullbacks – Lowton has justifiable confidence in his long distance shooting.

Arsenal: Concerns rest around Arteta’s long term(ish) absence and I have to agree. Although I believe the team will cope with his loss but miss his midfield leadership. Starting 2 babies, Mozart and Cazorla, who despite being a genius is not a leader; we lack someone to organise the shield in front of the back 4. That Arteta was the league’s leading passer tells a story – we must hope his absence isn’t too costly.

Conversely, this is a chance to see the future midfield of Arsenal. Wouldn’t it be great to see Ox, JW, Ramsey and Santi start – but the risk is too great. Could Ramsey play the Arteta role or would Wilshire who sits deep? However, Rosicky will start (if fit), if Rosicky, AR and JW can gain a deep understanding perhaps we will do away with the traditional DM .

Defensively we are sound. The same back 5 which did so well at the end of last season.

My team:

arse v villa

The bench may be lacking experience but hopefully only the Ox will be required as Podolski never plays 90 minutes!

Should Villa score first we can expect the underlying frustrations to rain down upon the beautifully coiffured head of Mr. Wenger. How that helps the team is beyond me but I am an old fashioned fellow who doesn’t understand much of the attitudes of the modern generation! (e.g. what is the point  of graffiti??)

This is the space left for my non-football ramblings but a summer of sloth and excessive drinking has resulted in my musings achieving nothing …. I have no idea of the theme for the season. Any suggestions are welcome or perhaps we are better off without .

This fixture usually produces goals and I expect the same today. Benteke has proved he likes to score at The Emirates, nonetheless the Raddy gut-feeling is that after a few thrills and spills, we will pick up 3 points. Why? Because our lads play better in summer!

COYRRG

Written by Big Raddy

320 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Erik the Red

An End to the AW era?

August 16, 2013

So much angst has been expended and so many blogging hours have been spent fretting about the capability of AW to do some business on the Transfer Market, and yet what are we talking about?

After 8 fruitless years or so, Gazidis has told us the club are now in the happy position of being able to afford new, quality players. Yippee!

We have all become impatient watching the big spenders go out and buy all the goodies in the shop with a plethora of top quality players ending up with Real, Barca, Citeh, Chelsea etc, and all of them winning trophies while we end up holding the wooden spoon after buying Denilson, Santos, Arshavi, gervinho et al.

But, so far in this window what has changed? We have only one token freebie player in Sanogo to show for it. Although to be fair we have made promising noises about Suarez, Rooney and various others rumoured to be ‘eyed’ or ‘trialled’ by our illustrious manager.

This state of affairs has made even some of the longtime Wenger supporters, including me, get itchy under the collar, and others to become genuinely depressed.

There has been much understandable grumbling from fans about the cost of season tickets in an economically difficult climate, as well as the increased travel costs etc, whereas Arsenal we are told are coining it with TV deals, gimormous sponsorship deals and money flowing in from our Asian fanbase, blah, blah. We have dosh coming out of every orifice it would seem.

But where is the pay back? Why have we come to within one day of the start of the season and sod all has happened with regard to transfers?
As someone who might be called a Wenger loyalist, I have to agree that many of my fellow Gooners are on edge, and if the window closes without significant additions, there is likely to be an Arsenal fans summer revolution with boos sounding out around the ground at the first sign of a poor performance and goodness knows what will happen when we lose, heralding protest groups who will arrange marches at every turn.

The tom tom beats of disgruntled fans on the blogs should send out a wake-up call to AW and the Board that they must buy and buy now, but not just any old player, there must be at least one marquee signing!

Arsene has enjoyed considerable support from the fans over the years, but many of us will feel the urge to call for his head if this season peters out to being yet another massive disappointment as regards trophies or even at least fighting for the top 3 in the EPL.

Frankly it cannot be denied that the Board have given Arsene a huge amount of leeway in which to run the football part of the club, and if he does not deliver this season, sadly it might be time to call for an end to his era.”

written rapidly by Red Arse

165 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Erik the Red

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »