Le Grove – Arsenal blog featuring Arsenal news

Arsene often refers to his team as being intelligent footballers… but today, I saw no evidence of that. Bolton enjoy long ball football… they play it, they practice it… so you’d presume they are quite good at it… so why did Arsenal play long balls into the box all game? That is playing to Bolton’s game plan… and that is why it took so long to break them down yesterday.

Arsenal should have played to Bolton’s weaknesses today… but they didn’t… instead we struggled away for 85minutes… picked our game up at the end and showed a bit of vintage Arsenal by squandering countless chances only to grab it at the death.

There were a lot of complaints in the stadium about the way the game was played out… understandable, it wasn’t pretty and the first half was nothing short of shambolic from an Arsenal perspective. However, I will defend the coach on this one… becasue nothing has changed since last week. The proposed signing of Arshavin was never going to make an uncreative team become creative… so yesterday was to be expected.

Arsenal crabbed the ball about quite nicely… if there was an award for the most sideways passes yesterday, we’d have won it hands down. The teams confidence seems so fragile at times, that no one is willing to risk that killer pass incase the crowd get on their back. This started to change in the second half with introduction of our Mexican magician, Carlos Vela. When he came on Bolton began to waver. The problem Bolton had with Carlos is they couldn’t sit back from him… when they did that, he’d go round them… and this was a key contributor for Bolton losing their shape and eventually, the game.

Arsenal really started to play after about 65 minutes… Nasri moved into the middle and began to orchastrate the revival… Carlos hussled and harried out wide… The young frenchman began to work some magic and slowly started to unpick the tightly organised Bolton defence. Adebayor was the first to be played through with a superb ball… he found himself in acres of space, but he panicked, took an age to mavourver himself and the first clear cut chance of the match was defended well.

Nik B then entered the fray… he looked like a man with a point to prove. Almost immediately he latched onto the end of a high ball into the box only to be denied by the Bolton keeper. 5 minutes later he found himself in the box, but he couldn’t craft anything meanigingful on the shot/pass. Then, right at the end… Clichy played RvP through with a well weighted pass… RvP floated a ball to the back post and Nik B buried the ball hard and low into the bottom corner. The crowd erupted, and Arsenal held on for a win.

Player ratings:

Almunia: Another weak performance from the Spaniard. On two occasions he didn’t call for a ball and confused his defence. He has also started punching crosses again… which is a sign of a keeper low on confidence. 6

Clichy: I thought the ref did a superb job of not protecting our man from the sporadic attacks by Kevin Davies. Gael played well though and started the move for the winning goal. 7

Toure: The difference in defence between Kolo and Gallas is that when a 50/50 ball is up for grabs… you know Kolo will put his neck on the line to win it. I thought Kolo showed the passion and heart we expect from a captain and I hope his new found responsibilit will be the starting point of great things from the Ivorian favourite. A spirited performance. 7.5

JD: I can’t fault him really. He and Kolo mopped up all day at the back and I think they dealt with Bolton’s sometimes physical approach well. 7

Sagna: A few of his crosses were a bit wayward, but it says a lot about his game that I have to criticise that… because his defending is always top notch. 7

Nasri: A very sparky performance today. He is starting to show consisitency and he is starting to justtify that price tag. He floats accross the midfield, linking play and always looking for someone in a good position. He doesn’t waste too many balls and the rest of the team are starting to look to him now. He looked great in the more central role, and I wouldn’t bet against him ending up there. 8

Diaby: A man struggling to make his mark in this Arsenal team. Having bucket loads of ability means nothing if you can’t show that in a game. He reminds me of the kid at school who was amazing in the playground and could do all the silky skills till the cows came home… but when thrown into a game where tactics and positional play are more important… they’d fail. 5

Denilson: Superb performance today. He was productive in the middle of the park and he was diciplined. I really am beggining to enjoy this guys game and though he lacks dicipline sometimes, I really believe he is trying his best to become a great player. 7.5

Eboue: I thought he played ok today… well, in the sense he didn’t make too many bad passes and he didn’t do anything silly defensively. However, in the grand scheme of things, he doesn’t create and he doesn’t really defend that well. When you throw him into midfield… you are just throwing a body into the team. You need goals and creativity… if you can’t offer either out wide, why are you there? 6

Adebayor: So used to reading about how much the fans dislike his high line play… Ade appeared to be playing a lot deeper today. This reduced his overall effect on the team and took something away from his game. He fluffed his lines when we were at 0-0 and he looks like a player in need of a goal. Currently, Arsenal fans are witnessing a power shift… 5

RvP: That power shift is moving towards Robin Van Persie. He is the man who is taking over as numero uno at the club.. The status quo is returning. The Dutchman was superb today… he fights for everything, he is strong and he creates. The only thing missing from him today was a goal, but an important assist will do. When Robin starts firing… we will have a player on our hands. 8

Subs:

Vela: Has all the ingredients to make us a real threat. Why isn’t he started? 6

Nik B: Has he taken a good long look at himself in the mirror and decided he needs to work for his place at Arsenal? Could have done… he looked like a different man out there today and took his goal brilliantly. 7

Rambo: Not on long enough to pass comment.

So not the best performance, but 3 points against a team who have been our bogey side for many years… made all the more important because the bindippers drew and Villa won.

Lets take the positives and move on to the next match in the hope we sign someone up pretty sharpish.

See you in the comments!

P.S. Thanks to the guys in the Hen and Chicken for letting me join them while I waited for a mate!

So Kolo Toure at last realises his long awaited dream and becomes captain of Arsenal, well done Kolo and well done Arsene, he should have got this when you dissed Gilberto but he didn’t, so credit to you boss for giving it to him know, I can’t think of a more deserving player, or a fan that wouldn’t concur.

I guess that means Kolo and Djourou forming the centre back partnership and that has to be good news, it’s one I have wanted to see all season, two young’uns and neither with any history from other clubs, so good luck boys.

With the news that Kolo will be captain until Cesc returns that must also mean he not only intends to keep him, but that he intends to play him, so that may also give him his zip back and we’ll see the old Kolo, he’s only 27 and centre backs don’t come of age until they’re 29, so this could be the pairing we’ve been waiting for.

This will free up the funds to bring in the defensive midfield player we need so badly, we already know he’s after Arshavin so with luck he’ll go out for the big name midfielder, maybe Veloso, our options are fast disappearing with Alonso and Barry out of reach, Cana and Inler no longer on the radar, and the ItaIians saying no, I just hope it’s not a small African from an obscure French side, because that will hurt us at ACN times.

Onto today, I expect a message to go out that King Kolo is back, Almunia said that Arsenal are discovering the will to win again, oh thanks Manuel, I hope your wages are docked for those matches when you all lacked the will to win.

4 nil to the good guys!

P.S. Tickets are running low on Le Exchange… if you have any spares, don’t waste them… see if you can pass them on first!

This post is aimed firmly at the Arsenal hierachy, the people who sit down and make decisions on how to make even more money out of its fan base, instead of working out ways of keeping their customers happy.

The only other company that I know of that operate this philosophy are the public transport companies, and you know how popular they are, don’t you.

This appears to be your mantra…

You have no choice, you’re Arsenal fans by birth, you can’t change now, so sit down, shut up and get your cheque book out, and if you have no money and are hungry, then go and eat cake. (Marie Antoinette)

As you know, Le Grove have been putting ticket holders in touch with each other for the best part of 6 months now with Le Exchange (L’exchange for the anal out there). We have been doing it for two main reasons, firstly, our beloved Arsenal should always be full and secondly, season ticket holders should have an alternative for getting their money back for tickets they don’t use themselves other than Arsenal’s woeful ticket exchange.

The law in it’s strictest form denotes touting or scalping as ‘any resale of a football ticket’ regardless of the price (Due to Hillsborough and fan violence). This means that every time you pass on your tickets to a mate for half price, you are breaking the law… which is why Le Grove could never develop the idea of it’s exchange past simple middle man e-mail’s.

So that means no money changes hands, all we do is put fans in touch with other fans and what they do has nothing to do with us, we merely provide a conduit, a bit of value added at no cost to the already hard up fan.

Some Premier league clubs however have authorised sites like Viagogo to sell on unwanted tickets. So my question is this… when are Arsenal going to stop being so mean and start doing something similar? The current exchange idea is poor… you give Arsenal your ticket back, they then deduct a 10% handling fee and give you the balance back… off next years season ticket!

Honestly… how greedy is that? You’ve already taken a shed load off me… now you are saying that if I want to pass on one of my tickets I can’t reimburse myself unless I renew my ticket next year, 6 months in advance and then I get that ticket value knocked off less the 10% that you take.

This is just Arsenal squeezing every last penny out of its season ticket holders. The fans, in the last 3 games have shown the board what they think as thousands of empty seats littered the ground… thousands of seats that could probably have been passed onto to people who wanted to go.

What a shame… how long before Arsenal react to what the fans want? How long before Arsenal set up a fair ticket exchange? How many more empty seats do I have to see before Arsenal wake up?

The embarrassing thing is Arsenal then tell the world the ground is full, They are deluded, they refuse to see what is under their noses, la, la, la tell the morons the ground is full and they will believe it, the thing is, what happens at renewal time? It’s like the flats, when it comes to parting with your hard earned cash, that 58,000 waiting list will cease to exist, the trouble is, the board don’t believe that, boy are they going to get a shock.

If Arsenal treated their season ticket holders as partners or even customers and gave them value added instead of trying to make money at every turn, they might garner some loyalty. Stop ripping us off Arsenal, or next season we won’t be there.

Let me give you another example of greed, a friend of mine has a box, not a cheap one either, in fact it’s on the halfway line, they have been there for three years, I have been in it and thoroughly enjoyed myself, save for the away fans everywhere and the warm bottled beer, you would think for £100,000 a year, they would at least make sure the beer they put in there was cold, wouldn’t you.

Anyway, he’s been there 3 years and Arsenal asked them if they would like the furniture changed, it will cost £15,000, my friend said interesting, who owns it then, Arsenal said you pay for it, but we (Arsenal) own it.

So the only people who get anything from Arsenal are the players and the management, apart from the huge salaries, they also get free clothing and free tickets, and incidentally I know this for a fact, many are sold on to supplement their meagre incomes, go figure.

So Arsenal, beware the deserting fan, we won’t stop being fans, we have no choice, we made that decision years ago, but we may stop coming, save our money and watch the game on our laptops. I watched the last 3 away games online for nothing and when I missed the Portsmouth game because I was protesting about the behaviour of the stewards, I watched that online too, so there are cheaper alternatives that don’t involve travelling and being treated like the enemy when I do go.

Arsenal should also watch they don’t alienate the next generation of fans, so it will soon be time to renew Arsenal, you have two months to get some decent players in and this post to reflect on what you’re doing wrong.

Danny I really like you and you don’t deserve the stick you get, I don’t think you make these decisions, if you want to talk to us, please email me. We are the most commented on Arsenal blog, we have a great and loyal following of real hardcore fans and from all over the world, we are not an obscure site that no one reads.

Arsenal football club, beware the Ides of March!

I have believed for some time now Arshavin would be an Arsenal player and have been waiting for Wenger to come out and say ‘he’s not a player we are looking at’ he hasn’t and that confirms to me that negotiations are advanced.

He can go on a free next year, buy himself out of his contract and probably do a Webster all at the same time, so Zenit, knowing the worldwide meltdown we are all in will sell for what we are offering, the fact that their manager is saying it now, will make it impossible for him to stay in Russia next season.

Our only problem will be if another big club comes in, I think that although he is a playmaker he’s mainly a winger, we need a winger but the other so called big boys don’t.

It’s just a shame we didn’t get him in the summer but I suppose he would have cost a lot more then, at least this way round he has had a good rest from the Euro’s and the Russian season and will be raring to go.

He has also been shown around the training ground in an attempt to show him in England we don’t eat gruel and raw potatoes when not playing, I just hope they didn’t show him the sick bay, where Rosicky has apparently now moved his furniture and family into.

People are already questioning what happens when Cesc and Rosicky come back, really? if Rosicky comes back! Anyway he plays in a different position and would free the likes of Nasri, Ramsey, Diaby and Wilshere up to play in the middle and show us what they have, playing in their rightful positions.

You can never have too many quality players, so well done boss, this guy is just what we need and it’s a new signing, just what the players and the fans need too.

So who else? I still think we need to bring in a centre back and a defensive midfielder, Djourou now is a shoe in, Gallas is getting on and Kolo has a question mark over him, we talk about pace, I don’t think we need pace, we need someone who can defend set pieces and distribute well, Upson ticks the boxes for me, Kolo has pace, Gallas has pace, but they let goals in, what we need is intelligence, Kolo, Gallas and Djourou are for me all better than Song, so if we don’t buy a defensive midfielder, a centre back will suffice.

I was watching the FC Twente game last night and Almunia was a different player, coming out, standing tall, can you show him that video please Arsene? I want that goalie back and I promise, I won’t mention Given or Green again.

If we buy Arshavin and get past 11th place Roma, we’ll have Rosicky back for the important games and that will be perfect timing, same for Cesc, we could do with resting him at times and replacing him with Song or Eboue doesn’t do it.

I would like to see Jack get a few starts, now he’s 17 he can show us what he’s really got, I petulantly said I would swap Song for an empty bottle of Gatorade yesterday, I wouldn’t, I would swap him for nothing.

It’s been a while since we had a world class signing and I for one can’t wait.

With all this talk about clubs having no money, I’d like to know how on earth can Tottenham keep spending? I know they got the Berbatov and Keane money but they also bought Bentley (ha, ha) and Modric, and for the last ten years have spent enough for us to pay off our stadium, so how on earth can they keep doing it?

Eboue said that the boo boys have made him stronger, great, it’s a shame they didn’t teach him how to play football, maybe then he could contribute more and we’d all like him again, like we used to when he was a right back (sort of).

Today could be the day that we finally make some progress toward winning some silverware, let’s hope so eh?

Have a hopeful and rewarding day Grovers.

That's not a screwdriver is it?

Historically the best time to buy a house is when the market is on it’s knees, if you can’t afford to buy then, you should paint the old one and make it look good for the future.

How can Arsenal learn from this tried and tested method? Let me explain.

If we can’t afford to buy an Arshavin now, we never will, (especially as he’s 27) so if that’s the case then offload the players we know won’t make it and part ex for those we could do with to salvage the season, here’s a few thoughts.

Gallas and Kolo are unsettled, we can’t keep them both, so what about this for an idea then, swap Gallas for Flamini plus cash to sort out our defensive midfield problems and swap Bendtner for Upson to cure our defensive woes, that way we can keep Kolo, who I think still has it, get in a world class defender and solve the problem we clearly have with big headed Bendtner who along with Gallas seems to be a problem for moral within the team.

If not that then swap Kolo for Richards or Ireland plus cash and achieve the same thing. Or what about Kranjcar for Song and Eboue and cash? Portsmouth need a replacement for Diarra and swapping Eboue for Kranjcar would save them money and give us a decent midfield player, all this could easily be done and still leave us with a reasonable amount of money left in the kitty, these players are players that we all have views on, Kolo can still do a job but Gallas is getting on and will probably be off in the summer anyway.

We have Eduardo and Rosicky coming back soon so we don’t need to wait for Bendtner to improve and with Vela, Ramsey and Wilshere all committed to the cause, the next few years look sorted, Song and Eboue will never make it but could do a good job for Portsmouth and Upson still has four good years in him, if he can stay injury free.

It’s win, win as far as I can see and takes away all the ‘have we, haven’t we got any money’ questions.

Either that or just come out and say he’s buying no one and let us get on with life and stop the speculating, it’s getting boring.

With some of these additions I can see us kicking on, with Flamini back we’d be sending out a message to the ‘want-aways’ and keep people like Theo and Robin from looking at the green fields far away.

What do you think, could Le grove have sorted out the problems or is this just wishful thinking?

You decide. I’d like to see a Kranjcar, Flamini and an Upson in the side for the Bolton game wouldn’t you? we don’t necessarily need the silky skills of an Arshavin but more the tenacity of a few tough tackling players that could shine in a decent team.

Not that I don’t want Arshavin, but as the month goes on and the rhetoric continues unabated I am beginning to lose hope there.

Have a great day Grovers, yesterday we signed the most talented youngster outside of Messi in world football, today we could seal the deal for someone that will win us trophies again.

So Sagna came out and said Wenger could manage a great club like Real Madrid, that sort of comment makes me laugh, Real Madrid, a ‘big club’… says who?

I know that Arsene has come out and said he was going no-where but I thought I needed to shed some light on this ‘big club’ thing. So here goes.

What is the criteria for being a ‘big club’? The clubs in this category are who? ManU, Milan, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern maybe?

I would say the criteria is having a big ground with a large crowd capacity, Madrid tick those boxes, but remember, apart from the Barca game and the odd European night, they are rarely full.

What else then, the amount of trophies they win? Well, Spain is sort of third world and going through their history the trophies have been divided up mostly between them and Barcelona, a bit like Celtic and Rangers, my mother could manage Celtic and win the league, I mean Strachan does doesn’t he? What did he do in England apart from getting Southampton and Coventry relegated, he goes to Celtic and wins the lot, say no more.

So no great achievement there then Real, European cups? Yes, I think 6 times, now that’s what makes a club a ‘big club’ a European Cup, so how do they manage to do that, with an empty stadium in a third world country then?

Simple really, the one ingredient that all the big clubs that have won in Europe have, they spend a shit load of money, they attract the best players in the world and guess what if you add 2 and 2 it makes 4.

They or Barca or Milan never seem to have money problems though do they? They worked out that by winning trophies, the money takes care of itself.

So do you see where I’m going with this Grovers?

If Wenger went to Madrid he wouldn’t do well because he doesn’t like spending money, he likes to nurture kids, he wouldn’t last a year, or would he?

Perhaps his experiment is just for us, perhaps he realises that his experiment is doomed and that the only reason that ‘big clubs’ are successful is because… …wait for it… …they spend money!

Yes I know there are exceptions like Porto and Ajax, but they are hardly big clubs now and even a blind squirrel occasionally gets an acorn, we nearly did didn’t we?

So if you look at the big clubs that have won in Europe you’ll find throughout their history they have spent money, Liverpool, Juventus, Milan, ManU, Barca and Madrid.

The big difference between us and all the above us, is we fill our ground regularly but we spend nothing. The frustrating thing is we have the manager and if he spent some money, we would soon become a big club, just like Madrid, but the really frustrating thing is if he went there, we all know he’d start to spend their money in a nano second.

Finally all this Wenger to Real Madrid cobblers has been commented on by Sky sports token Spaniard ‘Guillem Balague’ that Fabregas may go with him, if he does indeed go, he said the speculation will intensify and as even the most ardent Arsenal fan will admit, the London club’s ability to compete on a domestic and European front will influence any decisions taken by Cesc regarding his future.

Well Cesc the reason we’ve won sod all is because the manager, the one that you may go to Madrid with, has refused to abandon his doomed experiment, perhaps you should have a word, because if he and you go to Spain hand in hand you may win nothing there as well.

I also realise that Barcelona have only won the Champions league twice, but they are still considered a ‘big club’ however we have never won it and we aren’t considered a ‘big club’ so maybe if we did win it then these rumours would go away, if we buy a few decent players we could win it and that is what’s so irritating, so Arsene, over to you, it’s not too late and before we lose Theo and Robin, go and take care of their contracts, you took care of Alexandre Song’s didn’t you.

So the FA Cup begins and we welcome Plymouth Argyle to the Home of Football today.

I don’t know too much about them other than they have a defence that is worse than ours, so given the talent we have in our youth we should hammer them for sure.

He said he would field a strong side, funny that, we don’t have many left to choose from, I expect it will be similar to the side he put out against Wigan in the worthless cup, plus a couple of grown ups.

Maybe we’ll all get to see Bitchslap today and see what all the fuss was about.

Wenger made this comment yesterday,

‘What I do know is that I have worked harder than ever, tried to be intelligent and was more committed than ever’

Losing Flamini and Gilberto and replacing them with Bischoff who hasn’t made a first team appearance so far this season wouldn’t appear to back that up, but I will reserve my judgement until the end of the month, I still think he’ll sign Arshavin as he is the only player he hasn’t said he not after.

Still onto today, I was going to write about Real Madrid, but I will save that for Monday, I felt today we needed to once again get behind the team and send out the rallying call, I feel we need a big score and I believe the only Arsenal team capable of doing that are the kids, I would suspect he may play Bendtner up front with Vela and have Ramsey in midfield with Jackie boy, I hope we’ll see Coquelin, because he’s already better than Song, but that’s not hard is it?

Seriously this kid will be a star, so I hope he plays today. At least I hope we get back to playing decent football so I can say the journey was worth it, because recently it hasn’t been.

So I’m going for 5 nil, with the kids to impress, but this time Arsene I would like to see you send out a team that you would send out in the Premier league, not one you would try in the Carling cup, let’s see what they have and if they haven’t you’ll know what you need to do in the window.

Have a great day Grovers Arsenal go, Plymouth Ho (ho)

Groundhog Day...

Morning Grovers! Oh, and happy new year from Pedro and Geoff our first joined at the hip post, we feel we need to do this because our Emperor has lost his clothes and his boss has lost his marbles.

Peter Hill-Wood, our bumbling Chairman has been talking with the Daily Star again (You would think a club as big as Arsenal would use a paper more serious than a morning wank rag to leak stories), and the news is familiar in an almost Ground Hog Day kind of way,

‘I don’t think there is a lot of money anywhere’

‘One has got to look ahead – in the future there is probably not going to be much more money coming in’

‘We have got money, but I am not sure we are going to spend it. We’ve got to continue to run the business in a sensible way’

‘It may sound boring, but we are not going to rush out and spend fortunes on people who won’t help us achieve anything better than where we are at the moment’

‘Arsene has a lot of young, talented players at the club and I think he will probably give a chance to one or two of them’

Peter, we all understand global economics and the problems you are facing at the moment, but we haven’t seen anything other than prudent spending in the transfer market in the last 5 years. If you were so keen on being prudent, how come our wage bill topped £100million last year?

If we continue with this talented youngsters theme we will not qualify for the Champions league and people will not renew their boxes or season tickets. What you fail to understand is that we’re all fed up with the experiment, when will you all see it won’t work? What supporters want is to see new and exciting players bought, like the Bergkamp’s, the Pires’s, the Henry’s the Charlie Nicholas’s, that is what football is all about, when Beckham signed for Milan the crowds turned out, when Ronaldo signed for Madrid the same thing happened, fans want to see stars, not players like Alexandre Song, you need to wake up, because the new young crop of supporters won’t come to Arsenal because their dads do, they’ll go to teams that have ambition, the only ambition Arsenal seem to have is to pay off the mortgage double quick.

You aren’t being prudent, you’re being naive, if you were being prudent you wouldn’t pay the kids over the odds wages or charge us a fortune to get in, you will lose support, we don’t even play attractive football any more, the last three games have been like the old Arsenal of the early 80′s so wake up before you kill the Goose that lays the golden egg.

If you and Wenger don’t think there are players out there than can improve this team you both need to think hard about your positions, you are killing this club with your misguided rhetoric.

Act before we lose all that has been built up, because if you don’t, you’ll firstly lose the fans and secondly lose the decent players we do have because make no mistake, they want to win trophies as much as we do.

You have less than a month, don’t be a prat.