Football blogs serve one important function and that is to provide an escape valve for supporters to vent their angst – and boy have we had cause of late. Such is the need to let off steam that AA has been flooded with contributors wishing to exorcise their footballing demons. Today we publish the thoughts of 2 new writers who are Arsenal to the core and through their own words have reached the same upbeat conclusion as to our prospects this season.

Part 1 written by Holly

Since September 1^st I’ve withdrawn from all on line sources of Arsenal news, I think my brain was about to implode with the frenzied wind up to transfer deadline day, so the break was welcomed. This allowed me to stand back and take stock of where we are at compared to the last home game of last season where those that turned up made their feelings clear that they were not happy with many things Arsenal. This is the bit where I shall embrace controversy; I think we are now a far superior team and squad and feel that not only is a top four slot a realistic shout, but a title tilt is far from beyond us also!

I know know, such positivity, I must be on the happy pills!

Think about it, from our squad last season we have lost really only four players that we could argue were regulars and even out of those four I could find you more gooners than not that were happy to see two of them leave, namely Bendtner and Clichy. So really it’s the loss of Cesc and Na$ri that leaves the ‘gaping hole’ I keep hearing about. I’m fed up hearing we’ve not replaced these departees but not only have we replaced them we’ve improved upon them. Like for like we are never going to replace Cesc, the guy is a one-off, a truly world class player, so rid yourself of any desire to compare like for like, it serves little purpose. Na$ri on the other hand, whilst admittedly possessing the potential to be world class, we only saw glimpses of it and therefore he is very replaceable.

Now let’s take a look at those who’ve joined us, whose primary remit would be to replace and improve upon the creativity of our departed. Let’s presume that Park comes in for Bendtner, and judging by his 4 goals in 2 games in international week I’m reasonably encouraged by this prospect. Then we have Arteta, Gervinho, Benayoun, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (AOC), and to a lesser extent Myaichi. Arteta is as similar a player to Cesc as certainly the premier league has to offer and he has made a big impact in training already with his quality. His guile, quick feet and vision will create many opportunities for our attack and he won’t require any settling in time. Gervinho has started his Arsenal career in fine form, his performance against Udinese suggesting that we have a big game player on our hands.

It may be a little churlish of me to point out that when we needed our big game players during last season’s title run in that Na$ri popped up with a grand total of one goal in fifteen games, images of him clean through at Bolton one on one will haunt me for a long time. Benayoun is another quality addition; I’m much happier with the prospect of him coming off the bench instead of Eboue, for example. Then we come to the player who with a bit of luck could do a Theo and be a surprise inclusion for Capello next summer (yes, I know I’ll get stick for this). If you didn’t see the six minute clip doing the rounds in the last couple of days of his second half cameo for the under 21s then I urge you to go find it and watch. One nil down to four one up thanks to four assists from AOC. Speed, power, control, end product, I could not believe how lucky I felt that I was watching an Arsenal player, this kid has the lot

If Arshavin’s form continues and (the ever improving) Theo picks up a knock then AOC could get his chance and if he does I’ve an inkling he’ll take it. Myaichi is an unknown entity at the moment but he did achieve cult hero status after playing just four months in Holland, so he certainly has something about him. Next week’s Carling Cup match against Shrewsbury may be interesting.

All in all that’s a very strong hand we’re playing with in an attacking/creative sense. Just behind them we’ve a more experienced Jack, the proverbial new signing Aaron Ramsey back after serious injury and more recently a man of the match performance against England at Wembley, and the emergence of the first real competition (Diaby/Denilson, I’m looking at you) to Song, Emmanuel Frimpong. For the record I would have liked us to have secured the signing of M’Vila before the deadline but maybe that deal can be done in 12 months.

Finally we come on to the defence. To Koscielny, Djourou and Squillaci at the end of last season we can add the returning (4-6 weeks they say, and I believe them, ha) Vermaelen and the vastly experienced and huge Mertesacker. Nobody could argue that a starting pair of Vermaelen and Mertesacker isn’t strong, and with good back up in firstly Koscielny and then Djourou I think we’re set fair at last in this position. Clichy left to very little fanfare and Santos comes in, in similar fashion. At the very least he will provide good competition for Gibbs but lest not forget he is a Brazil international and at 28 the right age for our squad. On the other side Jenkinson has shown enough for me to be confident that with the right guidance he will be a very useful squad member at the very least, in the mould perhaps of an O’ Shea up at Old Trafford, and before you laugh just remember that O’ Shea has 5 league titles, 3 league cups, 1 fa cup and a champions league winners medal to his name.

So come on guys, be positive, think big, get behind them, you never know, you may be pleasantly surprised. Latest odds for the title by the way 26/1…………

Part 2 written by Fatgingergooner

Sunday 28th August, Old Trafford, Man Utd 8-2 Arsenal. Now this is a game that will long live in the memories of football fans all over the world, but it is one that this Gooner is ready to move on from…..

I could sit here and write a full analysis of this game from start to finish, talk about whether or not lambs were sent to their slaughter for Arsene’s benefit in the Transfer Window, or whether it was the lack of tactics, confidence or football experience that was to blame for the defeat. There are some that would love to sit and discuss this for hours on end, after all, it is still the hottest topic in football and to many Arsenal fans it is still an open wound that can only be soothed by the counselling that is found on blogs. But for me, its a scar, one that i will have to carry for the rest of my days, but also one that has healed cleanly. There are 2 reasons why i have been able to move on:-

Firstly, no matter how many ways you look at the scoreline and the result, it will only ever read:-

1 game, 0 points, -6 goal difference

You can try and dress it up as a confidence shattering result for a club that was already on the brink (something the press have enjoyed doing over the last 2 weeks), but many of the players that featured in the game will not be taking to the field on a regular basis for the remainder of the season. People like Jenkinson and Coquelin will be used sparingly, Arshavin, Rosicky, Djourou and Koscielny will now play second fiddle to the new signings, and Traore has been removed altogether. In 2 weeks time we will have players coming back from injury and suspension, new signings bedded in and raring to go, and a different looking side from that which was subject to humiliation.

Secondly, I have accepted that this was a lamb that could have been slaughtered in 10 different ways! A crack CSI team couldn’t figure this one out! Was it the boards influence? The players naivety? The coaches downfall? Or was it Professor Wenger in the changing rooms with the football pump!!!???? To be honest, I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone else does either, and that is why we must move on.

We have a relatively easy set of fixtures coming up:-

Swansea (h)
Blackburn (a)
Bolton (h)
Spuds (a)
Sunderland (h)
Stoke (h)

During this period our rivals will be playing each other:-

Man U v Man C
Man U v Chelsea
Liverpool v Man U
Spuds v Liverpool

This is an important period coming up for this club and something that all Gunners should be looking forward to. We can close the 8 point gap and in my opinion get ourselves right back in the title race where this new look side belongs. Some may say that I’m deluded, or some of you may want to look back over the Old Trafford defeat than look to the future. I’m not here to judge, but think about this…..

1 game, 0 points, -6 goal difference…….no more, no less…………

As most of you know I like nothing better than looking for positives in an Arsenal performance, I also like to give our players credit where it is due, unfortunately following the display yesterday it is very difficult to do either. That is not to say that we had a strong side out, it was probably the weakest eleven we have fielded at Old Trafford, maybe ever under Arsene Wenger. It was certainly a lot weaker than a side which was roundly dismissed 6-1 back in 2001. That side was Seaman, Luzhny, Cole, Grimandi, Stepanovs, Pires, Viera, Parlour, Silvinho, Wiltord and Henry, admittedly they played a full strength United with exception of Cole and Giggs.

Compare that team to the one that took the field yesterday and perhaps the result looks better. I stated on Twitter yesterday at half time, and maintain now that add Gervinho, Wilshere, Vermaelen, Song, Sagna and Gibbs into that side and put Rosicky, Coquelin, Jenkinson, Arshavin, Djourou and Traore into the squad and the team looks a lot healthier and the squad a lot thicker.

It has often been said that we have lacked a spine in recent years, yesterday it was till absent along with a couple of limbs and very possibly a heart. We took the field with a team that had only two combinations that plays regularly together (Theo/RvP/Arsh and Kos/JD/Sz) around them and in between them were inexperienced or untested at this level players. That side from 2001 was missing one combination (the Centre Backs and Right back) that was painful enough, now take out Pires, Viera and Parlour and you get something like the side we put out yesterday regarding cohesion and familiarity. It is possible to carry maybe one or two players, not at Old Trafford necessarily but it can be done, to carry six is a very big ask.

The game started badly for Arsenal, United were chasing everything at high tempo and forcing the defence and midfield to rush passes which were easily picked off by United’s midfield and defence. To give credit to United they got a feint whiff of fear and went for the jugular.

The warning signs were self evident, after another uncontested long ball was won too easily by their defenders two quick passes later and Wellbeck was racing into space, Koscielny did very well to catch up and deny a clear shooting opportunity, minutes later and Coquelin was forced into tidying up when Young looked poised to shoot.

Despite these moments no one on the pitch in blue was capable of taking charge and just putting laces through the football for ten minutes or so, continually trying to pass and retain possession as is Wenger’s methodology rather than realising that we just needed to fight for possession and do everything possible to quieten their attacking endeavours, if this meant turning their back four and letting Theo chase lost causes then so be it, better than presenting possession in our half every time we lost the ball.

It came as no surprise when United opened the scoring, following more sloppy defending and failure to properly clear lines Anderson received the ball on the edge of the box and lifted a ball over the back four to Wellbeck who outmuscled Djourou and headed in from close range. The worst thing about this goal was the fact that the ball bounced before Wellbeck headed it home, as the ball bounces Djourou is trying to hold off Wellbeck whilst Koscielny is waiting for him to deal with it, I don’t think Szczesny can come and get it as the ball bounces on the penalty spot. He could have dealt with the ball after it bounced better but the fact remains it should never have been allowed to bounce and that is after all the first law of defending.

Five minutes later Johnny Evans pulled down Walcott and gave us a chance to get the match back on level terms. Unfortunately for the team and us fans Mr Reliable became Mr Sitter (sorry). I don’t think I have seen Van Persie strike a ball so weakly from open play let alone from a dead ball from 12 yards out. The penalty was so weak that even if De Gea had waited for the ball to be kicked before deciding which way to go he would have been able to save it.

As all good teams do United punished our profligacy from a nothing ball into the box Traore could only head the ball into the path of Ashley Young, he picked the ball up Coqeulin got close and he shifted the ball and unleashed a super strike from 23 yards out, as expected of a midfielder Coquelin gave Young very little to aim at but he conjured up an impressive strike that no keeper would stop.

The game continued to be very open, in fairness we were looking beaten already. With five minutes of the half remaining Jenkinson trying to compete for an aerial ball was naive. Young ran across his path and bought a cheap free kick. Up stepped Rooney to bend a pearler into the top corner.

Just before the half time whistle was sounded to give us a relief from the pain an uncharacteristically poor clearance from Evra was won in the air by Ramsey, Arshavin played to Rosicky he picked a lovely pass to Walcott who finished quickly between De Gea’s legs.

By half time in 2001 we were already 5-1 down, could Wenger work some magic to make this group of players believe that they had a chance still?

With the Arsenal fans giving a heroically tragic twenty minute rendition of “We Love You Arsenal” at the start of the second half things looked a bit brighter, we enjoyed some possession, and were at times dangerous going forward, the problem was United could now resort to their normal default setting against us of soaking pressure and counterattacking.

In that period Arshavin managed to miss the target when easier to hit it, Van Persie had a fine volley saved by De Gea. Admittedly United were still creating chances and Szczesny was called upon a number of times to keep the score respectable.

Wenger obviously thought Coquelin was looking tired or wanted to try to add something different and introduced Oxlade-Chamberlain for his Premier League debut. Soon after Djourou was deemed to have fouled Rooney off the ball, Rooney picked himself up to curl the ball into Szczesny’s side of the goal from the free kick. This is the only goal I will lay at the feet of our keeper who I thought performed well in difficult circumstances, shifting two paces to his left gave Rooney an enormous target to aim at and he didn’t need inviting twice. That said the wall was rooted to the floor.

Unfortunately that let the floodgates open again and soon United were 6-1 up, Nani cooly finished having found himself in acres of space in the eighteen yard box with Traore and Jenkinson both five yards behind the centre backs to make it five. Number six came soon after when Ashley Young picked Park out and he in turn found the bottom corner with his shot.

Amazingly there was still time for more goals, at least the next was one we could cheer, Arshavin dropping deep played a searching ball that the ever willing Jenkinson ran on to before delivering a good cross which was headed away, Jenkinson was first to the second ball and headed it back across the box for Van Persie to smash home a consolation, if only he had struck the penalty so true.

The task of damage limitation was made harder when Jenkinson received a second yellow for a foul very similar to that in the first half, this time Hernandez cut across him and Jenkinson was over eager, tangled legs and received his marching orders. Jenkinson was found out of his depth today, but I will say one thing in his defence he does not hide, he works tirelessly for the team and I still think we will see better from him.

Walcott was forced into playing right back and was soon nibbling at the heels of Evra and allowing Webb the chance to award the obligatory penalty to United at Old Trafford, Rooney wanted his hat-rick and stepped up and smashed it home.

Unfortunately there was still time for Ashley Young to pick out the top corner again in the ninetieth minute to complete the rout.

So how to summarise?

We were played off the park, as we were in 2001, the blog world was not as prevalent then as it is now, most of us only had dial up modems, but how would todays blog world have reacted to that one? Would Wenger have been demanded out? We would have surely missed out on two more League titles, three FA Cups and a trip to a Champions League final. All achieved after Wenger’s last darkest hour.

Should we expect Wenger to send a team to take the field playing two banks of four and go for the draw? Thats not in our make up as a squad, we fans criticise the big clubs for coming to the Emirates and doing the same, would be a bit hypocritical to encourage him to do it now. Fact remains at 1-0 we could have made it 1-1, at 3-1 we could have made it 3-3, we didn’t.

Some of the players that let the team down today were those more experienced the ones that you need to help the younger players out, but with so many missing pieces of the jigsaw it is almost impossible to expect the side to function anywhere near its best, remember Wigan away last year?

Wednesday certainly seems an eternity ago, are we at rock bottom? Probably in the Premier League.

Can things get better? Most definitely, with suspensions ending soon (Frimpong back for Swansea, Song and Gervinho back for Blackburn away) and hopefully some news about Wilshere and Vermaelen returning to the side sooner rather than later we should be in position to start winning games again very soon. I still remain excited by the possibilities of line ups that our full squad can produce.

Are we as unlucky with injuries as it appears? Definitely

Has ill discipline cost us 6 points? In truth Song/Gervinho or Frimpong/Gervinho would not have made a massive difference today, and I’m not going to be angry at Gervinho for slapping Barton, or Frimpong for being enthusiastic, I will criticise Song for petulance though.

Has Wenger got the desire to do it again? I hope so, if he decides to walk, I have serious doubts over what we as a club will achieve this season, this assembled group will play for their Manager of that I am certain. I’m not sure another manager would get instant results with this group of players so to change now without anytime to bring in players would be madness.

Are our away fans the best in the Premier League? Absof***inglutely and they deserve better than yesterday for their support.

Written by Gooner in Exile

As all football fans(except those of a pale blue Mancunian inclination) have looked in incredulity at the sustained, profligate transfer policy of the Abu Dhabi Royal families current toy(namely Manchester City) more and more of us are speculating on the impact, if any, of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play(FFP) rules on the modus operandi of Manchester City.

Since the takeover by the current owner, Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed al Nahyan to give him his full name, in August of 2008, the (Middle) Eastlands outfit have spent in excess of £450million, and that is with this current transfer window still open and petrodollars at the ready.

Clearly all these transfers will come with an attached wages commitment and while players have left the general trend is for higher and higher wages to be offered to players coming in at higher and higher transfer fees.

This is the first of three seasons in which FFP will be used by UEFA’s finance team to evaluate the financial performance of all European clubs wishing to take part in UEFA competitions with permitted deficits being £37million in years 2011-12 & 2012-13, and allowable deficits being £22 million and £11million in the next two years and a break even requirement in the following year.

The losses are only allowed if those deficits are funded by an injection of equity from the club’s owners, a share issue for example, like the Arsenal fanshare scheme that started last year.

“But what defines these losses?” you ask, if you’ve not all switched off at the merest hint of accountant speak.

A good question as UEFA do not merely intend to look at audited accounts, but at a statement of relevant income and relevant expenditure, using figures extracted from the financial statement by the clubs management.

Already there is a grey area as the definitions of “relevant income” and “relevant expenditure” are not exhaustive and therefore open to a degree of interpretation.

To further lessen the worry for any clubs worried by the potential impact of falling foul of the FFP regulations merely showing a trend of falling losses will be sufficient to avoid penalty especially if the losses can be attributed to contracts signed before June 2010, for example the huge contracts used to lure Carlos Alberto Tévez across Manchester and everyone’s favourite Togolese striker.

A major sticking point for relevant income is that of “related parties” and their influence on market value, perfectly exemplified by the naming rights “purchased” by Etihad Airways for the council property the trillionaires of the Middle East play their football in.

Currently UEFA have promised to gather some fair value benchmarks for naming/sponsorship deals but straight away this looks hard to define – how much more is the brand of Manchester City worth than old Bacon faces club for example, or Liverpool or even us ?

If the deal had been undertaken by unrelated parties then alarm bells wouldn’t have rung but as both Etihad and Manchester City are owned by the Abu Dhabi royalty then we cannot be expected to beleive that market value had been used in the deal.

Being the economist that our manager is, and the penchant for our hacks to ask him as many off pitch football questions as possible in order to ridicule his answers later, his response to the deal was:

“It raises a real question about the credibility of FFP. The difficulty and credibility of FFP is at stake. If it has to have a chance, sponsorship has to be at the market price.”

The club with the most cache in terms of world wide appeal is a club which neighbours Tarragona in north eastern Spain (OK, I’ll say their name Barcelona), and they recently concluded a sponsorship deal for 5 years worth £125million, yet Manchester City, a team with a fraction of Barca’s fan base and heritage of success on the pitch, “negotiated” a £400million deal over 10 years?

The feeling is in financial circles that UEFA won’t be able to, or have the inclination to, enforce any punishment of transgressors of FFP till around 2018 and while clubs can be banned from UEFA competitions that is very likely to be a last resort.

So where does that leave our beloved Arsenal, a club taking the implementation of FFP very seriously?

In the opinion of this humble blogger we are perhaps a tad too mindful of FFP as we seem to be handicapping our development in anticipation of FFP being implemented both rigorously and on schedule.

To not use the leeway of permissible losses in the next few years in our haste to be break even in advance of the date when it is required seems to be putting ourselves at an unfair advantage.

However I do concede anticipating just how strictly UEFA will enforce FFP will be a task that I’m glad is not mine to wrestle with.

Written by charybdis1966