The other day Arnie put up a picture of an Arsenal Youth Cup squad and Exile listed their current whereabouts. Only three of the players shown are still at Arsenal, Wilshere, Gibbs and Coquelin.
This led me to ponder on the value of our Academy, I’ve been unable to find out just how much is spent annually on it but mention was made some weeks ago about a plan to upgrade the facilities at a cost of several million pounds. I understand that it is already reckoned to be among the best in the country
Despite the money spent and the best efforts of the coaching staff the output, as far as future first team players for Arsenal is concerned, is pretty minimal
Indeed we are continuing to hunt the globe for promising youngsters at other clubs academies. It looks likely that Wenger is planning to sign a young full-back from Ipswich Town, while during our recent defender crisis it was not considered feasible to play any of our home-grown talent either at centre-back or left-back.
You have only to look at some of the incoming youngsters to see what can be done at other academies, a certain Spanish mid-fielder, Walcott (a terrific player but injury prone), Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Chambers.
I know that it is the socially correct thing to give local youngsters the opportunity to make a career in football, but is hoovering up the young talent from around the globe the right thing to do. Particularly when so many are discarded after a year or two.
Is the Arsenal Youth Academy a worthwhile project, or should it be scrapped and the money saved put into the kitty to buy established players?
Recently ArsenalArsenal ran a terrific article, but one which for us fans, was a dire read that underscored where Arsenal were standing with respect to the equivalent fixtures last season. The bottom line: the Gunners were -6 points adrift. From where can they gain those points back?
After the publication of that article, Arsenal kept pace with the next two 2013-14 victories, QPR home and WHU away. Particularly challenging this year was the match against West Ham, who were ahead of Arsenal in the table. How did Corporal Jenks feel, prior to that match, to be above his beloved Gunners? Conflicted happiness? Bittersweet elation? Whatever the case, Jenkinson did not need to play against his mother club, and Arsenal repeated last season’s win, which rearranged the ranking. (If this stays the same to the end, the Corporal should save some therapy money.)
Having registered two consecutive wins, Arsenal had an opportunity to reduce the equivalent-fixtures point deficit: Southampton away, which was a draw last season. This was a match where Arsenal could put themselves back into Champions League contention and build confidence for the remainder of the season. Unfortunately, the team lost further ground.
Now the deficit is -7 points, and there is less than half a season left. Here are the upcoming fixtures, with the corresponding 2013-14 results. (* denotes away games.)
Fixture
2013-14
Stoke City
W
Manchester City*
L
Aston Villa
L
Tottenham Hotspur*
W
Leicester City
W
Crystal Palace*
W
Everton
D
Queens Park Rangers*
W
West Ham United
W
Newcastle United*
W
Liverpool
W
Burnley*
W
Sunderland
W
Chelsea
D
Hull City*
W
Swansea City
D
Manchester United*
L
West Bromwich Albion
W
Six opportunities remain for Arsenal to gain points.
Man City away (Loss): Facing the champion in a mid January match, will Arsenal have enough players back and functioning fluently to improve over last season’s result?
Aston Villa home (Loss): The disastrous first fixture of 2013-14. Surely Arsenal will do better, especially after the long break at the end of January.
Everton home (Draw): Everton has not been the force it was last year. Can this be another match for Arsenal to gain back points?
Chelsea home (Draw): I have heard suggestions that Chelsea play for away draw. Is that true? This fixture is scheduled for late April, when the BPL race will be heading toward its final month. By this time, will Chelsea and Man City still be one-two? And will Arsenal have enough to spoil Chelsea chances? My heart says, “Yes,” and my head says, “Would be about time!”
Swansea home (Draw): Arsenal have not had it easy against Swansea lately. Can Arsenal break that trend?
Man United away (Loss): Last season ManU was not a serious contender, yet Arsenal did not manage to get more than 1 point out of 6 against the former champion. So far this season Arsenal have not managed to do better. Do the recent Arsenal teams have a mental block when facing ManU?
Of course Arsenal could also lose points from these six fixtures, but because half of them were already losses, the worst would be -3 points. I’m guessing Arsenal will be +5 points from these six. What do you think?
The remaining twelve fixtures were wins last season. However, there is no guarantee the results will be the same. In fact, Arsenal most likely will do worse in a few. Here are some challenging fixtures:
Stoke home: At home, Arsenal should overcome the rough tactics of their visitors. However, after the disappointment at Southampton, one might wonder. With hope, ten days separation between these two matches (plus a good third round FA Cup performance) gives the team enough recovery time.
Spurs away: Rosicky scored a beauty in the second minute, and Arsenal kept a clean sheet for a 0-1 away win. That most likely will not happen this time around. Will the result be the same anyway?
Liverpool home or in fact any one of those six 2013-14 victorious fixtures: The 2013-14 results arranged in the 2014-15 sequence require Arsenal to win at least six matches in a row. This season, Arsenal have yet managed to win more than two consecutive matches. Even with the notoriously unbalanced schedule of 2013-14, Arsenal longest winning streak was only five. Can this (so far) inconsistent Arsenal team do it?
Pessimistically I believe Arsenal will be -6 points from the twelve remaining wins of last season. How about you?
Of course each season is different, as the surprising Saints demonstrate. Last season Arsenal were only seven points from first place, yet they finished fourth. How will it end this season?
How composed we were in the second half at 1-0 up. We didn’t do the usually cavalry charge trying to find more goals. Instead we were content to sit back, not over-commit and to control the game. The FBs in particular were careful not to get too carried away. The well deserved second came as Hull tired themselves out.
The BFG: he loves the Cup!
Coquelin: our best player against Saints (though that’s not saying much), he had another fine game today. To me he looks a better option at DM than Flamini.
Campbell: yes, a bit wasteful, but he worked really hard and some of his link-up play was very good. Given how little first team minutes he has had he proved that he’s a good bench option.
Santi/Rosicky: two very good playmakers who worked really well in tandem.
The First Half: the movement of our front three (supported by TR7 and Santi) was excellent at times and we were unlucky not to be 2 or 3 up at HT.
Ospina: not a lot to do, but he did it well.
Arsene Wenger: top marks for listening to my suggested formation, given our injuries! (Against Saints I found it mystifying that he would give a first-ever start in a DM position to young Chambers when he could just have gone with Coquelin, with two more forward-minded MFs in front of him. That’s what he did today and we looked much better, albeit against weaker opposition).
Overall: the thing that pleased me most yesterday was that throughout the entire game we actually looked organized: the players looked like they knew their jobs and what was expected of them, which is not something you can always say about Arsenal.
Life as a Gooner exiled in the cold, wild and windy lands oop north has its advantages and disadvantages. The possibility of making occasional memorable trips down south to watch the good guys play is just a fantastic previlege that life in Sconny Botland offers. Well, that was the plan the moment the Arsenal defeated Wigan in dramatic fashion and got to the finals of the FA Cup 2014. Such a fantastic opportunity to support the good guys get their first silverware in 9 years may be a long time coming.
Alas, the ticket allocation for the finals at Wembley were paltry, and there was not one in a million chance to lay your hands on a ticket. Well, except if you were a regular, likes the Vines family, or by clandestine means, as Micky and 26May would testify to. 😛 But the AA faithful were not to be daunted. In a fantastic gesture towards fans, the club offered to make the event family friendly and erected large screens in the Emirates to telecast the game live. Peaches and Gooner in Exile suggested a trip to the Emirates on the day. Fantastic. Such an opportunity for a substantial AA presence at the Emirates could just not go to waste.
Mrs and myself planned to join in. But to make this an even grander experience, we planned to make the 1000 mile trip (well not quite a thousand, but fifty short) by car. So far so good. Food, clothing, sleeping bags and drinks loaded on to the car the day before in eager anticipation.
However, there was a small problem. I had been to Glasgow for work, and instead of making my way back to our lovely city Dundee in the evening, had to make a late trip to Edinburgh to help a colleague whose wife was taken ill. Mrs was in Edinburgh as well and stopped in her tracks wile making her way back to Dundee. We decided to cut some journey time next morning and spend the night in Edinburgh. All nice and fine, except that it got so late that we could not book a hotel. Hence it had to be an emergency arrangement: use the sleeping bags and catch some sleep on the floor of my office in Edinburgh.
In the event, there was nervous anticipation and little sleep, but also a somewhat delayed start. But off we went. Cross country to the west coast and then down south.
First fuel stop in the Lake District. A quick look into the AA space, still nice and quiet, Raddy blissfully asleep but the motning crew up and about. Micky planning his moves for cosying up to the enemy, Chas on a surf hunt for “Kauli Vaast, 12 years old, Teahupoo”.
Second stop just north of Birmingham, already pretty congested on the roads. Raddy’s prematch up nice and early, eager anticipation all round, but WordPress would not allow me to make comments. Anyway, a quick change into my red and white tartan shirt, and hit the road again.
The moment we hit the M1 south of Birmingham, the smell of gunpowder hit the air. Alarm bells started ringing. It started with brief flashes of yellow on the mirrors.
But quickly the environment turned oppressive. It appeared as if the whole city of Hull had descended on the road to Wembley. Literally every three in four cars were painted in the tiger stripes. And the din of their horrible heart-sinking honks continued all the way up to London. Occasionally we would come across a Gooner car and try to grab their attention. To no avail, they were fixated on the road.
And proceeding thus, at some point in the early afternoon, we reached Peaches’ house. If we were nervous, Peaches seemed to be even more so. She offered us some nice lunch and hot drinks, showed us the damage on her shoulder, and the damage from her shoulder to the very foundations of her house. 🙂 And finally, we left the car at her nearby station and off we went to the Emirates. The Gooner fandom had already gathered next to Finsbury Park and the show was on. All in good humour and nervous anticipation. Peaches, Mrs and myself enjoyed the show for a bit and then tried to hit The Tavern. Bad idea, there was no chance in a million of entry. So we got ourselves a can/bottle of beer each and chatted on.
Suddenly the sky grew dark and the towering frame of the Gooner Goalkeeper in Exile swept in. This was the first time I was meeting Exile, but I had seen his photo on AA earlier, so I knew who he was. And he knew as well. Such a great pleasure. So, we decided to hit the side streets to try and dodge the police. We had open bottles of alcohol on us, but on the day, it did not seem to matter too much to them.
We had time on our hands, so we decided to pass by Highbury redevelopment. With childlike exuberance, we sneaked into the housing complex, and took photographs inside and at the gate.
Sneaking into Highbury. Wither tension!
Intruders!!! Taking a tour of Highbury redevelopment.
Highbury redevelopment. A view from the outside!
And then, we walked past Arsenal tube station and on towards the Emirates. I do not remember what we spoke of but we chatted away such a lot. Perhaps to hide our excitement, or was it tension? In between, Micky gave a call from Wembley kindly asking whether I would like a copy of the matchday programme, an offer that I immediately accepted. 🙂
Get yer hats and scarves
Happy happy, nervous? COYG
On to Emirates then. The march was on, and so were the songs. Exile’s voice was getting hoarse by the minute. Eddie joined us in a bit.
The March is On! “Red Army”
“She wore a yellow ribbon”!
And then, on to the stands. There was free seating. It was a bit of a challenge to find 5 seats together where we had a good view of the screens. We found good seats and settled down. The game was about to start and the tension was mounting. Liquid refreshments were required to ease us on our way.
Drink and sing along
The game is now a bit of a dream-like daze. We played well and completely shattered Hull out of the pitch. Most importantly, Rambo scored and we won!
Disaster, Mark 1
Mixed feelings!
Deficit removed. On with the show!!!!
Rambo scores!
Happy gooners!!!!
At the final whistle, there was madness. Such overwhelming sense of elation was truly exceptional.
Final whistle!!!!!
FA Cup Final Whistle As Seen At The Emirates
And then we happy AA Gooners emerged into the outside world, happy and merrily singing. On the way to the tube station, we grabbed a quick photo op outside the Marble Halls
Post match outside Marble Halls
On the train, Exile had some fun with Hull city supporters and so did we (Peaches, Mrs and myself). Finally, we met up with Rasp as well, had a meal and chatted into the night. Happy happy happy!
Oh what would we do in life if we were not Gooners? How can one have a life without The Arsenal?
Postscript 1.
Next day, I had a work meeting at the house of a friend. In Kew. The moment we reached, the air felt heavy. The house was draped on the outside in tiger stripes. And inside, the yellow and black baloons had not yet been set down. Oh dear! I had completely forgotten that my friend’s wife was from Hull.
She avoided any eye contact and hardly spoke a word. I could hardly suppress my grin. Ah, what sadistic pleasure!
Postscript 2.
Back to Botland, and a week later, the postman rang the bell. It was the matchday programme kindly sent by Micky. Micky, a couple of drinks are still due! Soon. 🙂
All in all, a perfectly satisfactory thousand mile trip. Perhaps this is stuff that dreams are made of!
“Ooh to! Ooh to be! Ooh to be a Gooner!”
“Ooh to! Ooh to be! Ooh to be a Gooner!”
What a pity we have to meet Hull again in the FA Cup so soon.
Arnie.
Photo and video credits: Gooner in Exile and Mrs Arnie.
This is not a match report. If you want to re-live yesterday’s slop bucket of a performance you’ll have to look elsewhere. You masochistic saddo.
In the aftermath of the game I contributed a comment with some “Reasons To Be Doomy.” Perhaps the kind organisers of this Blog will republish it in the comments below when this offering appears.
But today is another day and I am putting doom and gloom aside.
Let’s face it, we weren’t the only “big” team to get slapped in the face with a kipper on New Years Day (take a bow, Jose).
But as we look ahead to the second half of the season there really are reasons for all Arsenal fans to feel optimistic:
The Spuds Are Ahead Of Us
This may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s actually a good thing that they have climbed past us in the table. During their lean spell it has gone far too quiet in N17 – no gloating boasts about a “shift in the balance of power”; no cries echoing across the burnt-out wastelands that “this is our year.” Well, now that will all change. Indeed the “One Point Above Arsenal” celebration video is probably already in production. The reason it makes me happy is that we all know how this story ends: God, being a Gooner, has already scripted it out and He loves nothing more than to give the Spuds a hatful of hope before ensuring that their dreams turn to ashes in their mouth.
Returning Stars
Theo is back. He got a decent run out against his old club yesterday and, even better, didn’t expend any energy because he didn’t do anything. And by the time we entertain those nice young men from Stoke a week on Sunday hopefully we will also have Ozil, Welbeck, Giroud, Flamini and possibly even Arteta.
Transfer Window
It’s January and the shop window is open. Of course it doesn’t mean we’re going to buy anyone, but there is always the possibility that we might – which means we can dream. And there are precedents for interesting arrivals coming in the January window – Reyes, Arshavin, TH14 (Mk 2). Be hopeful fellow fans, be hopeful…
Topsy-Turvy Season
Up until recently people were saying that Chelsea were nailed on champs and all the other teams were struggling to find consistent form. Well, now even the supposedly unstoppable Chavs with their supposedly infallible manager have found that the course of true footy does not run smoothly. With the form of teams like ManUre, ‘Pool and the Spuds proving as reliable as a Network Southwest train timetable over the festive holidays, our own inconsistency has not been punished as harshly as it might have been. And with some of the players we have coming back in the near future we have a better chance than most of putting a good run together.
Arsene Wenger
He’s an infuriating, stubborn, bewildering, frustrating, enigmatic, surprising, dignified, intelligent, workaholic genius of a man. We underestimate him at our peril. I’m backing him to get an excellent second half of the season out of our squad.
The Champions League
There’s something in my water (well, something in addition to the residue of festive alcohol over-consumption) that tells me we’re going to do well in this competition this year. Many of our best players will be coning back having had their own mid-season break (thanks to injury) and if we get our groove going we could surprise a lot of people. Can we go all the way? The Chavs did it with the worst team to ever grace a European Cup Final pitch, so the answer is yes, of course we can.
We Support Arsenal
Even if the wheels fall and off and we slip down the table and out of the cups, always cling to this one thought: you support the best club in the world. Just imagine how soiled you would feel to have to pull on a Spud shirt to watch football? Or to be obliged to steal car radios on your way to home games at Anfield? Or to sit in silent, entitled smugness at Old Toilet. Or, Dennis forbid, to have your brain removed and replaced with sewage so you can join the Morlocks* at Stamford Bridge. Thankfully you don’t have to do any of those things because you, my friend, won the lottery of life.
RockyLives
*Morlocks: from H. G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” – a race of troglodoid, subhuman beings who represent human evolution gone wrong.
At one end of the scale you have a Manager like ‘Arry. He likes to change eleven players from one game to the next, and at the other end, you have Maureen, who will pretty much pick the same eleven, and play them in the same order.
At Arsenal, we really don’t know as Arsene has not had the luxury of choice this season due to injuries, but many of us armchair experts like nothing more than playing Manager, and I am the leader of this particular gang. I do “Best XI’s” all the time, and with our injury list seemingly easing, this is becoming increasingly difficult, and nowhere more challenging than the No10 role.
Now before all the real experts leap up and down saying we don’t play with one, and that we have stealth this and false that, it’s my post and my rules, so let’s not get bogged down with facts and details, ok.
So, for the sake of today’s little chit chat, I’m making some assumptions. Staggeringly, I’m opting for a Goalkeeper as well as four defenders. Also, in front of that lot, two defensivey types, and if you want to refer to one of them as a box-to-boxer, then rock on if that’s your bag.
Finally, we will play with at least one of Ollie and Danny, so that leaves, at best, three vacancies.
So, we need someone to orchestrate. Another thing I’ve factored into my thinking, is that we simply aren’t creating enough chances when we dominate possession, so we need the eye-of-the-needle-threading-passers very badly. Best of these are Mesut, Santi and Sanchez.
We are where we are. Not much use ruminating. However, there is a job to be done. Gaining 3rd or 4th in the EPL. And this will require all feet and heads on board. But also strategy?
Which brings us to the question. Does Arsene do strategy? Or are we one-dimensional, playing the same way all of the time. If we do strategy, what strategy would work best for us?
Following the admission recently by Arteta that we prepare for a game based on who our next opposition is, there has been some discussion on AA in the past few weeks. But the bubble burst spectacularly against Pool at Anfield.
One of our keenest observers of the game, Norfolk Gooner, wrote (December 22, 2014 at 3:56 pm):
“I think there was a plan……. of sorts,
1) Keep it tight at the back for the first twenty minutes. DO NOT concede an early goal.
2) If successful, try to hit them on the break before half-time. DO NOT concede a goal.
44 minutes gone and the plan is working.
Oh no it’s not!
We give the ball away and there’s no Corporal Jones to shout “Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic”.
We panic and go one down.
Plan goes out of the window, everyone bombs forward and, wonder of wonders, we score with our first attempt on target.
Half-time team talk,
1) Repeat item 1 above.
2) If successful try to hit them on the break before full-time.
19 minutes gone and the plan is working, we hit them on the break and score.
DO NOT concede a goal.
Deep into injury time and the plan is working.
Oh no it’s not!
We give the ball away and there’s no Corporal Jones to shout “Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic”.
We panic and it’s two all.
Deja-vu all over again.”
Which brings us to the question. Against the Hammers and Soton away, what strategy, if any, should we adopt?
There can be very little to celebrate about yesterday’s result except that we managed a point in a game where we were second best. Most of us have posted comments repeating things that we have said many times before regarding the reasons for our frailties …. quite frankly its become boring.
The table below shows the like for like fixtures compared to last season (it pays homage to GiE’s much maligned swingometer) We won all 6 games against newly promoted teams last season and so any draws or losses to this years newcomers is a worse result.
The conclusion is that we’ve been better in 2 games, the same in 10 games and worse in 5 games … hardly progress 😦
Make of it what you will and give us your views in comments.
With the January transfer window looming any true football fan starts speculating – if we buy, who is coming our way, where do we need reinforcements? It is my educated guess that this year the majority of the Arsenal fans would agree on the answer – we need another defender.
Sanchez, Ollie, Danny and Podolski are all capable strikers and therefore we don’t need another one.
We have a formidable midfield, temporarily unavailable, but expected back very soon and hence it would be pointless to bring another midfielder to the squad.
Defence however is a different ballgame altogether – we need another strong CB. The team were recently considerably weakened by the absence of Koscielny. It was painfully obvious that Per struggled on his own. Perish the thought that both of our CBs were unavailable, as we simply have no one to take their place.
I won’t beat around the bush anymore – I have a perfect candidate for our squad ticking all the boxes. Please stand up Ryan Shawcross. A big, consistent, hard working, experienced and EPL proven professional, who at 27 is at the top of his career and at £8 million a real bargain. Perfect addition to our team.
Now tell me if you would like Shawcross joining our ranks? Is football really all about money and buying trophies?
Posted by Rasp 
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