Auld Lang Syne: Match Preview.

December 31, 2011

With the warm glow of a trip to the Emirates still pervading the senses I am back at the pre-match keyboard though having read the excellent work done by my substitutes I have much to live up to.

Before discussing today’s Derby, I would like to look back to the Wolves game. I feel we dropped two points through a mixture of bad luck and poor management. The bad luck is symptomatic of this season (4 FB’s out for min. 3 months??), a deflected shot hits an unknowing Fletcher who diverts it into the only part of the goal not covered by Wn1; he couldn’t repeat that header in a month of Sundays. The poor management is another matter; it was a mistake to rest Ramsey because we were already missing Theo on the right which resulted in having no balance in the team. JD is no RB, a decent defender perhaps, but as an attacking force he is useless. Switching The Gerv from wing to wing just caused him to fade from the game. It was no co-incidence that we looked so much better once AA and AR came on.

Onto today: QPR are one of my favourite teams, always have been, BUT this season they have plummeted in my estimation because any team that employs Joey Barton deserves relegation at the very least. And to make him Captain –  The Lunatics have taken over the asylum! I know Evonne likes him (which is beyond understanding) and as such I shall stop here except to say I hope Gervinho tears him a new one.

On the plus side SWP is an exciting but hugely frustrating player who is a bullet dodged. I have to admit I was hopeful he would sign for us prior to his Chelsea stint and even when he went to The Oilers, in fact I was furious with his Dad who encouraged him to go up North. In retrospect I am deeply grateful Wrighty!

Islington lad and huge Gooner Jay Bothroyd should start upfront for Rangers, I was there the day he threw his shirt at Don Howe and was one of those who gave him serious abuse for such a disrespectful act, but fairplay to him, he has worked hard and created a fine career.

Another ex-Gunner is Armand Traore who is best remembered for taking a knuckle duster to WHL which is evidence of his intelligence – a yoyo career at AFC ended following our blip at OT. Had he stayed he would undoubtedly be playing in red and white this afternoon.

Managed by Warnock, QPR have done well. He is the right manager to get a team into the Prem and keep them up. Warnock’s tactics will be predictable and we can expect a very large bus to be brought onto the perfect Emirates bus for the duration of the game but he has some creative players capable of turning a game in seconds – they even have their own Nik Bendtner in Taraabt, a player who believes he is World Class and very (very) occasionally proves it. We will have to be on our guard this afternoon.

As to our lads. I was shocked to see both TR and Benayoun start against Wolves and would be surprised to see a repeat. The ARS has worked very well for us and unless there is an injury we should play them every time until the return of Wilshere. Theo is fit, The Gerv has at last scored, RvP is a cert and the defence, though creaky, picks itself. I would like to see everyone shift across one place to the left and play Kos at RB with TV back at CB and Miquel continue his development at LB, but I expect Mr Wenger to take no risks.

My team:

We have such an experienced bench and yet no-one who can really threaten in attack a problem solved with the arrival of Thierry. I have to say that unlike some of our bloggers I am very, very excited by his return – my man love for TH holds no bounds, to have him back at THOF is my  best Xmas gift.

In a year when Royalty has been so much to the fore it is fitting to end the year with a Royal Gooner. Not surprisingly there are many to choose from but I have chosen a man who started the Royal Gooner tradition, King George V. A fine man who regularly attended games between the wars.

KGV wearing the Home Kit @ 1930

This is the final Arsenal Arsenal post of the year. 2011 has brought us both joy and pain, from the beating of Barca to that awful Wembley afternoon but above all it has been a year of great banter, heated discussion, abundant laughter and heart-warming camaraderie on this the best blogsite on the web. Thank you all who have joined in the fun and thank you all for reading.

Big Raddy wishes you a very Happy New Year and a 2012 filled with adventure and silverware.

COYRRG

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Posted by Erik the Red

Thierry Henry – The Gunner Galactico

December 29, 2011

Written by Jamie

When Thierry Henry scored in Madrid in 2005, the ITV commentator, Peter Drury, I think, called him “the gunner galactico” and since we have now given our record scorer a statue, it seems a fair representation of his greatness.

In April 2004 I stood in the lower east stand, just over an hour before kickoff. The gates were open for a morning kick off against Liverpool. A game which after losing and FA Cup Semi Final to Manchester United and a Champions League quarter final to Chelsea only days before had taken on increased significance.

If Arsenal were to fail now, that would surely be the end.

There were probably only a hundred gooners in the ground. Henry was making a joke of the fitness test Gary Lewin was asking him to perform.

Jogging round cones with all the enthusiasm of a teenage boy doing the washing up. Gary Lewin shakes his head with a wry smile. As the five/ ten minute session ends on the sundrenched Highbury pitch both Lewin and Henry walk for the tunnel, Henry seeming to plead like a kid who had not done enough to earn his pocket money.

Henry started the game with a back injury and had an awful first half but did manage to lob Dudek. Arsenal ended the half 1-2 down.

Months later the players were asked what Wenger said at half time and they replied that the only instruction was to keep passing.

Suddenly Ljungberg and Pires where everywhere and pretty soon Pires had levelled the score from close range.

Then it happened, Thierry Henry picked the ball up just inside the Liverpool half. Faced with a wall of white shirts he first jogged then sprinted, faced with Carragher a change of feet was enough. Each row in the East and West stands rising as Henry went passed.

Then faced with Dudek, Henry side footed the ball to the corner of the net. You often hear the phrase, that lifted the roof, well that doesn’t do it justice.

After a week of torture, everybody convinced we would blow it, we came back from the dead and blew Liverpool away.

Henry often recalls this to be his favourite goal, largely I assume because of the significance to the team. You see, that is what great players do, they take a bad day, they take fear and panic and they blow it away in the blink of an eye.

Henry went on to score a lucky third and Arsenal went on to win the League and become the first English team since football became a serious game to go a season unbeaten.

That moment changed the course of football history.

Arsenal had other great players, gladiators like Campbell and Vieira, the extraordinary Bergkamp, First goal Freddie and Thierry Henry’s delightful sidekick Robert Pires.

As Bergkamp was in his earlier career, Thierry Henry was now Prima Ballerina, the star turn, and elegant mix of dexterity and finesse. The perfect first touch, pace, poise and technique.

Henry had his moments though, he sat in tears after the 2001 FA Cup Final defeat against Liverpool. Henry among others missed a hatful in a game that Arsenal dominated and lost. He was out of sorts in Copenhagen 12 months earlier as Arsenal lost the UEFA cup final to Galatasaray.

Henry would lead the Arsenal’s scoring charts again in 2001/2 as the Gunners went on to lift the double. Henry and Pires were telepathic by now and the first two thirds of the season swept all before them.

The following year Arsenal were to throw away the league title after having held a big lead over Manchester United.

Henry had been incredible at times including a stunning hat-trick in Rome and a monumental performance against Spurs at Highbury in a game where for the last ten minutes Henry and Pires continually humiliated Spurs’ Stephen Carr after Carr had flattened Pires in the first few minutes of the game.

From 2001-5 he and Arsenal got there rewards for the work the team had put in since Henry’s arrival in 1999 as a replacement for Nicolas Anelka. The trophies flooded in.

Dennis Bergkamp played a role in Henry’s development, Henry spent the first two years of his Arsenal career trying to bend shots around the keeper. The Bergkamp-esque curler, something which he eventually mastered and made his own.

Bergkamp taught him where to run. Pires taught him how to hang out on the left and let the game come to him. Like Cruyff’s theory of creating space by standing still.

Late in a game Henry would stand, hands on hip on the half way line, usually on the left. Arsenal defending a lead, only to spring to lightning paced action should the ball be fed to him on the counter attack.

  • The trademark dummy and drag back,
  • the blind runs to the by-line only for him to wriggle a way out,
  • the explosive one on one finisher,
  • the frustrated whack from outside the box,
  • the corner flag showman in the dying minutes,
  • the pumped match winner in Madrid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry-M8F1fp2M

Whatever you remember King Henry for I am sure you will be recalling it now with a smile on your face.

It is also time to dispel a few myths about the great man.

Idiots might tell you that Henry didn’t score in the big games, He scored great goals against Manchester United, Real Madrid, Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Roma, Inter Milan and Juventus.

He didn’t score against Barcelona in Arsenal’s the 2006 Champions League final defeat.

He did go on to play for them though.

Henry scored his final Arsenal home goal to win a tight game with Manchester United.  As Sky’s Martin Tyler remarked, “a great moment from the great man”.

Henry was excellent for Barcelona and won everything he hadn’t already won with England and France. He might not of recaptured his Arsenal form but he did edge Ronaldinho out of the left side of Barcelona’s attack.

My favourite memory of the great man is probably this.

In 2003 I travelled to Milan to see the second group stage game against Inter. The first a 3-0 home defeat fell like an axe.

In the San Siro, minus key players Arsenal won 5-1. Late in the game Henry picked up a ball on the break and sprinted towards the box. He stopped, waited for the Inter defender to catch up, teasing,  only to shift the ball past him and smash a left for shot in to the bottom corner. The away end went bananas and I got very drunk in one of Milan’s Irish bars.

Arsenal had been slated for the first Inter game and the Old Trafford brawl which followed but as Henry’s shot smashed the net it was all consigned to history.

Thierry Henry, The Gunner Galactico.

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Simply the Best. Your Favourite Goals?

November 15, 2011

“A good ball by Dixon finding Smith – onto Thomas charging through the midfield, Thomas – it’s up for grabs now. Thomas , right at the end. An unbelievable end to the season.”  My favourite goal of all time, probably every Arsenal fans favourite goal. There have been plenty  more beautiful (TH v MU 2000) but certainly none more dramatic. Those 15 odd seconds have been replayed in my mind thousands of times – times of stress, times of sorrow and times of hardship but when the muck hits the fan and I need a lift, a quick mental reference to Liverpool on the 26th May 1989, and for a few seconds all is well with the world.

Why bring that up here and now? Well, because we are in the midst of a veritable desert of football,…..and because GIE suggested I write about my favourite goals.

2nd. ” It’s all over I think. Some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over – It is now.” Geoff Hurst 1966. I was in Switzerland at the time on a school holiday. I had attended the Quarter Finals and was in that wonderful stage of childhood when football is everything – before girls came along and ruined  changed everything. Our hotel was packed with German kids and I wish I could say we were magnanimous in our victory. Sadly, the worst of our jingoism came to the fore…….. Brilliant.  This was THE time to be English – The Beatles, The Stones, Carnaby Street, the Mini (both car and skirt!) WC Winners etc etc. A year later Sargeant Pepper was released which changed my life but nothing came near to the feeling of seeing that rocket shot fly past Tolkowski and seeing The Kaiser’s (Franz Beckenbauer) head drop.

3rd.  “Hutchison and now Bould. And it’s Tony Adams put though by Steve Bould. Would you believe it? That sums it all up”. TA Everton 1998. Perhaps my favourite day ever at Highbury. The weather was brilliant, we had a fantastic team, we had won the title, I hadn’t spent too long in the Gunners Pub, I was with all my Arsenal mates – friends with whom I had travelled all over Europe and shared pints, train journeys, thousands of motorway miles,  and all the highs and lows of following OUR team. And Tony was not just Our Leader, he was Mr Arsenal; to see him finish the season like that brought me to tears –  and I am not exaggerating.

This signed picture stands on my desk as I write

4th. “There’s Pires. He’s picked out Bergkamp, It’s Bergkamp with a chance and he’s taken it. Brilliant goal.”  DB10 Newcastle 2002. I could have picked any of DB goals – he scored so many great ones . The hatrick at Leicester  in ’97  was awesome, probably the best I have ever seen, but this goal was something spectacular. The vision, the strength to hold off some Orc, the composure of the turn and the finish, all the mark of a genius of a footballer. I recall when we signed Dennis – I was in shock. At the time we had gone through some of the worst football ever seen at Highbury – winning teams but simply dire football (apart from the best defence ever seen). Suddenly DB arrives and heralds a New Dawn. Mr Wenger came soon after and together they created something very special. Thank you Dennis.

I could go on and on. Thierry scored so many fabulous goals but 3 stand out – MU 2000 scored right in front of me at the Clock End, Spurs when he beat the whole team, and that marvel at the Bernabeu; Ray Kennedy at WHL  ’71, Charlie George at Wembley, Freddie at Cardiff, Wrighty’s lob and volley versus Everton in front of the North Bank, Smudger in Copenhagen,  Liam Brady at WHL, Kanu at the Bridge, Wiltord at OT, RvP v Barca ++++++.

Which are your favourites and why?

Written  by BigRaddy

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Posted by Erik the Red

Something to celebrate

October 14, 2011

At last this boring International break is coming to an end and we can look forward to some Arsenal Angst this weekend. Faced with another non-Arsenal news day I thought I’d have a look in the archives and see what this week had been about in times gone past. It turned out that this week 11th to 18th October is historically really very exciting.

Sneaking in on the 10th of October ( if I’m writing it I can change the rules ) we have the birth of Mr Arsenal himself, Tony Adams in 1966 and Charlie George in 1950. Two mega Arsenal Legends born on the same day – that must’ve used up a lot of luck. On the 11th October in 1976 John Devine signed professional terms but I had to google him I’m afraid. He played 111 games for Arsenal and succeeded Pat Rice.

On October 12th  in 1996 Arsene Wenger took charge of his first game against Blackburn Rovers which we won 3-1.

In 1928 on October 13th  Herbert Chapman was involved in some transfer shenanigans and signed inside-forward David Jack from Bolton for a then record £10,890.

We don’t do score lines like this anymore but on October 14th 1893 Elliott and Henderson both scored hat-tricks as Woolwich Arsenal beat Ashford Utd 12-0.

Surely something else must have happened on an October 15th other than in 1971 Ex-Arsenal striker Andy Cole was born in Nottingham. He made just 2 subs appearances.

Now this next date is really important, oh happy day, on this day October 16th in 2004, anyone want to have a guess what happened………, on this day Arsenal beat Aston Villa 3-1 to go 49 games unbeaten. Will that great feat ever be repeated?

On October 17th 1925 A Jimmy Brain hat-trick helped the Gunners to a 5-0 home win over Cardiff City.

And so we come to another amazing day to celebrate in our great history, as on this day, October 18th, in 2005 our fantastically talented  Thierry Henry scored two goals against Sparta Prague and so smashed Ian Wrights record of 185 goals scored and sent him into the record books. What would an ounce of that ‘va va voom’ do to our forward line now? Enjoy the match report here

This week we can celebrate Arsene’s first game, our unbeaten run and Thierry’s ever present ‘va va voom’. It’s possible that this most dreadful start to a season under Arsene Wenger will also find itself in the history books, maybe because we go on to crash and burn or maybe because against all the odds we’ll pull ourselves out of it and still make it to a  Champions League position. Rough ride ahead.

peachesgooner

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Cesc Will Rue The Day He Left Arsenal

July 23, 2011

Not many players leave Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal and thrive.

Look at Alex Hleb.

The ‘new George Best’ sold his soul for a Mr Whippy with extra sprinkles and quickly went from Barcelona to the heady heights of Birmingham FC.

Now, still owned by Barca but not wanted by anyone, he floats in the footballing ether, dribbling in mazy circles to nowhere and declining clear shooting opportunities to his heart’s content.

Matthieu Flamini, after finally having a good season at Arsenal, showed all the loyalty of a two bob hooker and decamped for Milan. One of his main gripes was that he had been forced to play so many games at Arsenal as a left back.

No such problem with the Rossoneri. They played him at right back instead.

Thierry Henry won some gongs when he joined Barcelona, but he was literally a peripheral figure (pushed back out to the wings, from where Arsene had rescued him all those years earlier). A classy, brilliant player, but no-one can doubt that we got the best of him and sold him when his decline had started.

Now he’s some kind of showman in the Americas, wearing a Stetson and juggling footballs on the back of a rodeo bull while toting a Colt 45 or somesuch.

Patrick Vieira? Like Henry he was too good to vanish into obscurity. However, when he moved to Italy he had the bittersweet experience of winning numerous medals – but only as a bit part player. When he stumbled across the ATM that never stops churning out ten pound notes (otherwise known as Man City), who can blame him for retiring to its warm dressing rooms and well varnished benches?

Ljungberg, Pires, Adebayor, Reyes, Petit, Overmars… I could go on, but the point is: Arsene knows when it’s time to let a player go. In most cases it is when he has judged that their performances have crested the zenith. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad, just that they will never quite reach their peak again and will, in fact, decline.

Even those he has been forced to sell reluctantly, like Flamini and Anelka, have never subsequently had the central, starring roles they had at Arsenal.

So what about Cesc?

Have we seen the best of El Capitan? When he leaves us will it be for a few tortured years of bench-sitting at Barcelona, plagued by ever-worsening hamstrings and haunted by the curious longevity of the Xavi-Iniesta partnership, still winning the Primera Liga well into their thirities?

Will we Arsenal fans nod sagely to each other and repeat the mantra that players just never do as well when they leave us?

DON’T BE STUPID.

Cesc Fabregas is one of the best four or five players in the world. I would put Messi and Ronaldo ahead of him, but after that…? The man is a genius. Of course he is going to have a marvelous career at Barcelona. If he is not a regular first team starter by January London will eat his red-and-white socks*.

And yet, you say, your headline referred to him rueing the day he leaves Arsenal. If he goes on to win Spanish title after Copa del Ray after Champions League what will there be to regret? What tears will little Francesc possibly shed?

Let me tell you.

Cesc will rue the day he leaves because when this Arsenal team, whose talisman he has been for so long, finally starts to win the big prizes without him it will pierce his heart with the brilliant sharpness of one of his incredible passes through the Totteringham defence.

If Arsenal win the league this year – and I am one of those who believes it is a real possibility – then Cesc will be disconsolate. It will be a failure for him that will live with him throughout his career and his life.

He will have given eight years of his life to a project – and not just any project, but a glorious, ambitious, eyes-on-the-stars kind of project – and then walked away just before it reached its crowning glory. It would be as if Neil Armstrong got to the Moon’s orbit and said: “You know what, I’m fine, I’ll just stay here in Apollo 11 and look out the window…”

Never mind whether he has a championship medal in Spain, a Champions League title and has been chosen as Miss Catalunia 2013, there will be a hole in Cesc’s soul that will never be filled.

He will rejoice for his erstwhile teammates, but deep down he will know that he should have been with them. And for that, I will grieve with him.

RockyLives

*That’s OK isn’t it London?

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Arsenal’s Crisis is Arsène’s Opportunity?

July 7, 2011

Written by Double98

Arsène Wenger has so far built 3 distinct teams.

The first team 96-00 was built on the rubble left by George Graham. At the time he got great credit for rehabilitating and actually improving the side but then revisionists like Myles Palmer started to justify their own agendas by questioning his achievement declaring it to be a George Graham Built Side that won the double in ‘98. It wasn’t – Graham and Rioch had left a team of mentally weak, drunks and drug addicts who were running on empty – Wenger transformed them in to confident, arrogant top class modern players. That team was broken up over the raids on our club by the Spanish giants and Wenger set about replacing the older defenders and filling the holes caused by the departures.

The second team 00-05 was built on the same blueprint but had a superstar spine with Campbell, Vieira and Henry. Wenger built a squad of players to suit Henry (on and off the pitch), youngish, french(ish) and easy going- but Henry started doing tv ads and hanging out with Roger Federer and Tiger Woods and again the Spanish Giants came in and destabilized and broke up the team so Wenger went about building his third team.

Both the first two teams were built on attacking Pace and Power – there was no great defensive system just a collection of natural defenders who knew how to beat their man. Wenger doesn’t teach defensive systems. He teaches technique.

The next team was to be built on Possession and Craft, the defensive philosophy is the same, however the caliber of natural defender is not the same. This is a hard skill to spot – you have to somehow remove the defender from the defensive unit and imagine how he’d react with out a script.

The 05-11 iteration is a team built around perhaps our most naturally talented player ever, Cesc Fabregas but has never fully delivered. Oh how the Manager has indulged Fabregas and his friends (Hleb, Flamini, Nasri etc) in an attempt to unleash their potential. He has mostly shunned older, experienced players in the transfer window, so that Fabregas can always be the Alpha Male in his pack.  Now Cesc and his crew believe that they are somehow not in the slightest bit responsible for themselves not winning medals. Cesc even said that to go to Barca is to win things… If I was Guardiola I would think twice about bringing that complacency to the club.

Wenger’s mistake was to treat Fabregas the same way as he had treated Henry. Henry was older and had done his time. His on field entourage (Pires, Lauren, Edu, Vieira) was older and had already been in the trenches. Bergkamp even lent himself to creating the “Henry” legend. Henry was also a more precious personality type who needed the “love”. Fabregas started out a much tougher character and the “love” has weakened him – Spoiled him. Look at the Cesc Fabregas Show on Sky a couple of years back – who does that? Who allows them?

Suddenly the Invincibles were gone and Fabregas is surrounded by his contemporaries in a youth team that relies on natural ability and a need to retain possession almost to the point that it borders on being an anal retentive fear of shooting.

Sure Wenger has his share of the blame. But in fairness to him, he was trying to compete in a world where he was building a new stadium in an economic collapse and the economy proof Spanish Giants were suddenly joined by newly rich Chelsea and “willing to take on huge debt” Manchester United who could buy players at any cost and forced Wenger into a different player recruitment strategy, The good news is I don’t think that Real, Barca, Man U, Man City or Chelsea care anymore about who we buy as they know they can let us take the risk and then buy the diamonds from us after we have sorted and polished them.

We need Wenger to analyze the current team in this light and build his last great team, to restore his legacy at least. He owes us this and as supporters, we owe him that. He can do it quickly, as can be seen by his rapid building for teams 1 and 2. Maybe we are better off without Fabregas or perhaps in an ideal world, Fabregas becomes the king maker (ala Bergkamp) rather than the king – If he stays, great but if he goes thats great too.

Arsenal’s crisis is Arsène’s opportunity. He has delivered great teams when faced with crisis before, he reacts better than he proacts. And this summer is a crisis in the full meaning of the word, but what a great opportunity to reinvent the team and restore Arsene’s Legacy.

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Arsenal’s Best Signing Ever

June 27, 2011

Who is the best player ever to have been signed by Arsenal?

Last summer I wrote a post about ‘Arsenal’s Best Transfer News Ever’. The point of that piece was to determine which piece of transfer news was the most exciting when it was announced, regardless of how that player went on to perform for the club.

So, for example, Clive Allen was on that list even though he never played a game in anger for Arsenal and so was Davor Suker, who was never more than a bit part player.

This time I want to know which signing (as opposed to home grown player) has been the best piece of business we have ever done.

You may want to weigh up factors such as what they cost, what their impact was on the team, what legacy, if any, they left behind, their achievements versus the expectations we had when they arrived and so on.

I’m not including anyone who has come through the Arsenal ranks from apprentice up, or has been recruited at too young an age to be considered a mature signing (so there’s no room for Cesc Fabregas).

For starters, here are what I consider to be some of the main contenders:

Cliff Bastin

Cliff was spotted by Herbert Chapman playing for Exeter away at Watford. Chapman had gone along to keep tabs on a promising Watford player but was so impressed by Cliff that he snapped him up at the end of the 1928/29 season. It was an inspired piece of business and was crucial to the Chapman revolution that led Arsenal to dominate English football in the 1930s. Bastin’s scoring record for the Gunners was not outdone until Ian Wright surpassed it in 1997.

Ronnie Rooke

Arsenal’s dominance in the Chapman era was ended not by any other team, but by the Second World War. When football began again afterwards we returned as a severely weakened side and narrowly avoided relegation in 1947. But the following year we bounced back to reclaim our crown – and the vital ingredient was a tough, experienced centre forward called Ronnie Rooke. He was nearly 35 when we signed him from Second Division Fulham and he had never played in the top flight – so he was a real gamble. However, his 21 goals in 1946/47 helped stave off relegation and he followed that with 33 more the next season as we marched to the title.

Frank McClintock

Our Double-winning hard man was brought up in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, which explains a lot. He was signed in 1964 after seven successful years at Leicester. Starting off in midfield before moving to the CB role (and the captaincy) he was a rock throughout the relatively fallow years of the late 1960s and, of course, led Arsenal to the Double in 1971.

Alan Smith

Another Leicester stalwart, signed in 1987. “Smudger” was an awkward-looking, ungainly centre forward, but there was no-one better at holding up the ball and bringing others into play – skills that, along with his eye for a goal, proved to be vital in our title-winning seasons of 1989 and 1991.

David Seaman

After winning the league in ’89 most of us were happy with John Lukic between the sticks, but George Graham decided that he wanted the best and went out and got Safe Hands from QPR in 1990. It’s no exaggeration to say that Seaman was an essential ingredient in every subsequent success achieved by the club during his time with us.

Ian Wright

Although he would not win a champions medal until 1998 and the arrival of Arsene Wenger, Wrighty was a mainstay of the Arsenal team in the later George Graham era, when we stopped winning championships and started winning cups and when our flamboyant attacking midfield was replaced by pragmatic journeymen. Arguably, without Wright’s goals during that period, we might really have struggled.

Dennis Bergkamp

I’ll admit to being biased here. Dennis is my all-time favourite Arsenal player – but what a signing he was in terms of ambition and imagination. Bruce Rioch was the boss when Dennis arrived in 1995 but his signing is widely attributed to David Dein. The English league did not have much in the way of foreign superstars at that time (Eric Cantona apart) and Dennis showed the way forward for many of the great foreign players that followed. His touch, vision, passing and reading of the game was a damning indictment of the type of players being produced by English clubs in the Route One era.

Sol Campbell

Sol’s signing from the N17 knuckle-draggers was the sensation of the close season in 2001. The fabled Adams-Keown-Bould back three was near the end of its days and a significant reinforcement was needed. You don’t get more significant than Big Sol, who went on to become an immense figure in our defence, even if he did go a bit loopy at the end.

Patrick Vieira

Signed in 1996 from Milan, Paddy took the EPL by storm and is arguably still the greatest midfielder to have strut his stuff since the Premiership was formed. Arsenal captain, Arsenal legend, fearless, tireless, gifted… what more is there to say?

Thierry Henry

After Arsene Wenger’s first Double in 1998, we were all gutted when young goal machine Nicolas Anelka was persuaded by his greedy agents (his brothers, no less) to walk out on us the following year. But we need not have worried. Arsene went one better, bringing in Thierry Henry fresh from France’s 1990 World Cup triumph. He was a winger with va-va-voom, but Arsene converted him into the deadliest striker the Premier League has ever known.

That’s it.

My choice would be Dennis, because he completely transformed Arsenal and helped transform English football. He also stayed with us until the end of his career and is clearly still a devoted Gooner.

What do you think?

RockyLives

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Proud to wear the Shirt?

May 1, 2011

Another game we need to get 3 points from, however in this case we must be underdogs. Following a very poor run of results (too disappointing to discuss) the team have a choice – either we settle for an underwhelming 3rd place  or we fight to the end, I expect to see some fighting spirit.

Unfortunately, United are in excellent form having strolled through a Champions League semi-final on their way to Wembley, where most right minded people will be hoping for a Barca win. Much has been said about this MU side, mostly to it’s detriment – dull, workmanlike, efficient, lacking flair, not as good as SAF’s previous sides, the worst side to (potentially) win the PL, and above all inexplicably lucky; yet their fans will look at the Silverware and the 2010/11 season with pride. Once again the Purple Conked Glaswegian has shown he is the best manager in World football, who else can make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear?

But, But But  …. the little angel on Big Raddy’s  left shoulder is screaming at me ……. this season has been about us throwing away a title not MU winning one. Alongside the  West London Russians we have contrived to gift United the title, we have consistently thrown away important points, drawing games  we should have won, losing games we should have drawn. I am no statistician but it would be interesting to know how many points we have lost to goals in the last 5 minutes of games – enough to win the title one would imagine.

Before we doff our proverbials to the excellence of SAF’s management of so called “average players,” let us take a closer look at his team. Oh, this is a surprise, it is packed with extremely expensive talent; 3 players who cost over £30m, the most expensive defender in EPL history, a midfield that (taking out Giggs) cost almost as much as our entire team, a forward line with an average cost higher than our most expensive ever signing. And how many of the regular MU players are home grown? Take out the  ancient  Giggs and Scholes and the answer is NONE. This MU team could have a bench that cost as much as our entire squad !! Yet the press cream themselves about how SAF has guided an average team to such heights, a team he has expensively cobbled together – how has this myth been spread? I will tell you – because SAF has the press under his control in the same way that the ref’s and linesmen are too scared (it would be churlish to say corrupt) to give 50/50 decisions against the Red Devil.

I could write a whole post on Nani. Without doubt the most odious player in the  PL.How can any decent football fan pay money to watch this cheat week after week? We have players who are prone to theatrics but this guy who is undoubtedly a fine player takes “simulation” to an art form. The only players in his league are Alves and Busquets at Barca (may I refer back to a fine post by Dandan highlighting the appalling cheating by Barca players midweek). I realise I am old fashioned, but what happened to honesty and integrity? How can SAF allow Nani to perform like this week after week? –  anyone who saw SAF’s playing style would know how he would have reacted to Nani had he been on the pitch against him. And they say a cheat never prospers!!

Hernandez has been a revelation and is just the type of player to cause us problems. The fox in the box who has superb reactions – AW says he was monitoring him, so why not splash a few of our millions on him and sell Vela? Sadly, this guy has the potential to become a United legend.

Our team? Kind of picks itself – we play the best we have. The major disappointment to me of the past 3 weeks is that we have underperformed when having an almost full squad; no injury excuses (apart from TV) and exhaustion cannot be a factor –  today’s opponents have played as many games with a smaller (and worse) squad.

SAF’s usual tactics when playing us is to employ a very physical forcing game and hit us on the break; the game at OT earlier in the season was typical, as was the Cup game when SAF sent out a team with a hugely defensive bias, expect the same today. If Fletcher is fit to play, Cesc and JW can expect a good kicking – the man is the essence of SAF’s  chosen midfield general (Robson, Ince, Butt, Keane, Scholes etc). I like Park, a man who must despair of Nani and Rooney’s cheating abilities, he is a player who would fit well into our squad, an Asian Ray Parlour!

Thanks to our poor run what should have been a title decider has become another interesting game –  a game that SAF can afford to rest Giggs in. Yet today remains one of the highlights of the season. Home to MU has always been a huge game. Some of my all-time favourite  goals have been against MU; a brilliant George Graham scissor kick at the Clock End in a 2-2 draw with Best scoring in front of the North Bank, Alan Sunderland at Wembley, Wiltord at OT, TH14’s goal of the season at Highbury, Freddie’s first goal for AFC, David Platt’s last minute header in a 3-2 thriller at Highbury, PV4’s last kick for the Gunners etc etc. So many great memories – I am sure you can add your own.

What I would like to see from Arsenal today is for AW to get his tactics right and send out a team to match the opposition. Keep Rooney out wide, stop playing such a high defensive line,  allow Nasri to play more central, push RvP onto the shoulder of Vidic – he has the pace to turn him. And above all, the team have to show the fans that they value their shirts, that they are not just professional footballers but that they are immensely proud to be Arsenal players.

Angus Deayton, Eamonn Holmes,  Steve Coogan, Mick Hucknall, Gary Rhodes, Sean Connery, all big MU supporters …………. all live in the South 🙂

COYRRG

BR.

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Posted by Erik the Red

A Thierry Henry hat-trick saves our week – April 2004

March 10, 2011

Some serious cheering up needed today. There’s no shame in going out of the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona although having to listen to how Arsene Wenger sent his team out to park the  bus and play negatively is almost beyond the pale. Anyone who watched the game will know that we hardly touched the ball and that was because they didn’t let us. We’ve done that to countless teams and now we know how it feels. Ouch.

Waking up, though,  to find that our arch rivals have progressed to the quarter finals is more than upsetting. I’m in two minds whether I wish Barcelona on them or not, to have them crowing about entertaining Barca at the lane or them playing at the Nou Camp is asking a lot. I’d rather they got the chavs really. Spiteful, moi?

I turned to the fixture list after the disappointment of Tuesday night to see when I could next be called upon to cheer and encourage my beloved Arsenal only to find that we don’t have a home game until 2nd April – thats still another 3 weeks away! How cruel the fixture list is sometimes, just  when you want to be there to prop up the team you find they’re going to have to play without you.

I reminded myself of a week not long ago when we went out of the FA Cup on a Saturday to the manks and then out of the Champions League to the chavs on the following Tuesday. We were playing Liverpool at home on the Friday of that week, it was Easter and Thierry had picked up a back injury and wasn’t starting. The disappointment of the weeks previous results was pretty crushing and I was desperate to get to Highbury to cheer the team out of the tunnel. For some reason I was worried that the crowd would hold back on their support, how foolish of me. The noise that Highbury created that day when the team ran out brought tears to my eyes, to a man we stood and cheered them until I thought we would burst.

The game started off badly and by half-time Liverpool had definitely scored 2 goals and I think we’d scored 1 but in the second half Thierry came on and scored a hat-trick and the tears rolled again.

It was 2004. It was the eighth game before the end of the season, the season where we would go unbeaten. I believe Theirry Henry saved our unbeaten run on that day, coming off the bench with a back injury and single-handedly winning that game, but he was always my hero anyway.

This team have 2 difficult away games before I can take my seat and be part of our history but from the comfort of my couch I will be shouting loudly in my support and just hope its enough. We still have a double in our sites, lets go and grab it.

Written by peachesgooner

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Where’s our YouTube Striker?

January 14, 2011

Written by MickyDidIt89

A couple of things have got me thinking a little more laterally just now. One is the presence of Thierry Henry around the camp, and the other is transfer window talk. Lets see. We could buy a Right Back as cover for Sagna or even a top notch Goalkeeper. Maybe another Centre Half. Perhaps a world class leader in as a Midfield Dynamo. However, I have had an epiphany. I have noticed how scoring one more than the opposition can quite often win matches. Unsuprisingly, we have not won a trophy since Henry played for us. Robin van Persie is not an out and out striker, nor is Chamakh, and Bendy may have great hair and super footwear,  but is hardly prolific in front of goal.

I shall get straight to the point. I am talking about the League now, not Cup games. We are over the half way point, and here are the goalscoring figures for the players who are, or have played, the central striker role:

Chamakh 7  Bendtner 2  Van Persie 1

Overall, our “Goals For” tally is very good. This is largely down to the weighty contribution of 9 goals from Nasri.  The “Goals Against” is not so pretty, however this pales into insignificance when compared to the number of “Games Lost”. The presence of TH has made me hark back to the invincibles season. The Great Man scored 30 League goals.

There is much I like about Chamakh, sadly though I believe he is entirely the wrong type of player for us as first choice striker. Apart from his great work rate, he has a marvellous ability to hold the ball up and bring others into play. Therein lies my beef. By the time the ball gets to my striker, there should be no-one to “bring into play”. The ball into him should represent the last pass before the strike on goal. I want someone so utterly selfish when confronted by the whiffiest of whiffs of a goal that he would make my mother in law look charitable.

I am not going into the pros and cons of playing the high line, and the lack of opportunity it gives us to hit fast against smaller numbers on the break , but what it does mean is that many of our goals are going to involve a thread, a needle and the pin point accuracy of a damn good surgeon. Attack is a very effective form of defence, but in football speak, the attack must end in a goal. Playing a high line must not be interpreted as a form of attack, it is not. It is a positional stance. In the same way, sitting deep and hitting on the break is also a positional thing, and not therefore a defensive stance.

Everything about our football says “no” to the high ball into the box. Why drill nine outfield players in the fine art of pass and move, and then employ the tenth whose main asset is his heading ability?

Marouanne was bought to add another dimension to our play, and he does. For a first six months in the premiership, his goals scored figures are impressive. What I have not seen are the “You Tube” clips. The moments of individual brilliance that single handedly turn a dire team performance into three points. With MC, as well as Bendy, it is all about the inclusiveness in the build up play, which cannot be their primary role. TH’s first season was not littered with YouTube moments, so can MC go on and do a TH? At 27, I don’t think so. For all this, I love the man and his attitude. He is not one of our strikers I would be happy to see the back of.

Please don’t think for a moment that because I raise the striker issue, that I am saying this is our sole or even primary concern. I am not. All I am doing is highlighting one of my “lateral” thoughts.

To underline that, I have asked Rasp/Peaches to include this pic of Martin Keown. Firstly, because I got up twenty minutes early to write this, so I choose, and secondly to hint at  my other concern! The bit we are going to need this weekend.

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

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