The Vermaelen story shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, I told you his recovery was far from certain a few weeks ago. Wenger confirmed as much yesterday, saying that the pain has come back and they’re clueless. A big loss for the team in general, even worse as Kozzer lost his appeal against his 2nd red card of the season.
A contract has been signed by a young Arsenal player that’ll please Gooner’s around the world. I’ll let Arsenal.com share the news first, it’s only fair.
On the Cesc front, from what I understand, it’s nothing to do with a lack of fitness, more to do with the mental side of returning from an injury. If Arsene was describe the problem, he’d say the Spaniard was playing with the handbrake on. If he wasn’t fit, he wouldn’t be risked, hopefully he’ll shake off those mental cob webs tonight.
I’ve also heard that the talk of Arsenal being after Croatian centre back Sime Vrasljko might not be fantasy talk, not surprising really, being 18 years old and all that!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jTsESCGbA&fs=1&hl=en_GB]
Onto the game…
We’ve teamed up with The Offside blog to give you a flavour of what to expect from the opposition. Why pretend I’ve got a deep understanding of the way Wolves play when I can get the detail straight from the bloggers mouth?
DJ from the Wolves Offside blog has kindly given us the low down… enjoy and let me know what you think of the format!
What do we think of Arsenal?
Everyone admires the football Arsenal play and they will always be likely to qualify for the Champions League without having the toughness and cutting edge to be champions. Seems like it has been like that for quite a while under Wenger. Maybe if they could keep Van Persie fit more of that cutting edge would be there but they always seem keener to walk the ball into the net than have a go at goal. And it’s encouraging that you don’t have a keeper. While there is plenty of respect for Wenger as a coach, a lot of that respect disappears when he opens his mouth. For an intelligent guy it’s surprising how often he talks without engaging his brain. His recent criticism of Wolves style of play seems a bit rich from the manager of a club bottom of the disciplinary league.
What you should know about Wolves
The memories of Wolves as one of the country’s top teams is very distant now as we try to re-establish ourselves in the top flight after spending most of the last 25 years on the outside looking in. At least we got a 2nd season this time and there is confidence that we will at least match last season’s 15th place despite currently being in the bottom three. It looked dodgy for a while last season too but in January McCarthy ditched his favoured 4-4-2 for a more conservative 4-5-1.
The result was a comfortable survival despite being the lowest scorers in the division. In the summer we invested in a new striker, Fletcher, and a new winger, Hunt to give us more firepower. But they were both unavailable through injury for the opening months and are only now fit to play. Fletcher though is out of the team as we again adopt 4-5-1 through a run of games that has seen honourable defeats against Chelsea, and Man Utd twice, and a win over Man City. After Wednesday’s game Wolves have a run of 7 games that may define their season with Bolton, Sunderland, Albion and Wigan at home, and Blackpool, Blackburn and Birmingham away.
The Wolves Manager
Not everyone’s cup of tea and most people find his interviews either entertaining or highly annoying. When he joined Wolves there was a real danger things would go pear shaped on a Leeds United scale. Most of the good players had left the club and we looked real candidates for relegation from the Championship. McCarthy bought in a host of young players from Gillingham, Scunthorpe, Colchester, Luton, Plymouth, Bohemians, Grays etc – and we all feared the worst.
The young team played refreshingly well and just missed out on the play offs. The following year was less progressive and the image we feared of McCarthy playing negative football and being a poor man manager were all surfacing. But in 2009/10 he regained the faith by winning the Championship scoring 80 goals and getting 90 points. And then last season he became the first Wolves manager in a generation to keep Wolves in the top flight. Can he take them further? Who knows but he has met his targets in the last two seasons so he deserves the chance to carry on.
The Wolves Team
We have not kept a clean sheet all season. That is partly through playing a more open game but also puts a question mark over the back line. Hahnemann has been a star since joining the club but doesn’t seem quite so solid this year and the late winner at Old Trafford was not the first time he has been beaten on the near post. Foley is an excellent right back and Berra a solid centre back, With Craddock injured Stearman has come in and done well in the last two games. Left Back Ward is generally regarded as a weaklink.
In central midfield Henry is an excellent defensive midfield player who has attracted plenty of unjust criticism for being a dirty player – although nobody will try to defend his daft sending off at Wigan recently. Milijas is a talented Serbian midfield player who helps us keep possession, delivers accurate dead balls and scores the occasional cracker.
Hunt has not yet found his form but gives the team balance, while the excellent Jarvis has emerged this season as one of the best wingers in the Premier League and is linked with an England call up. The other midfield spot has recently been occupied by Welsh international Edwards who has phenomenal energy but not too much skill. Doyle is a star as a lone striker and is vital to the way Wolves play. He doesn’t score too many but his all round play makes him a handful for any defence. Ebanks Blake and Fletcher are currently being used from the bench when we need a goal and despite not being in the first 11 are joint top scorers.
What will happen on Wednesday?
Arsenal will be favourites and anything Wolves get from the game will be a bonus. But we are playing well at the moment and it would be both a disappointment and a surprise if Arsenal won the game easily. If Wolves maintain the standards of recent weeks I can see it being 1-1.
Gooner thoughts…
Wolverhampton, a real delight of a city. I went there on business once and they wouldn’t let me fill up my petrol tank unless I prepaid. I wasn’t filling up at night either, it was 0930 in the morning, I was wearing a suit and I was driving a car that wasn’t exactly a banger. The club, is a bit like the place… a little nasty.
We’ve got that nasty little turd Karl Henry in the middle of the park to worry about. He’ll clearly want to uphold his panto villain character tonight, so watch out for the horror challenges I’m sure will be on show.
Arsenal need to pull their act together this evening. Wolves are no pushovers and we can’t afford to head up there with any form of complacency. We also can’t fear their physicality. This game has bad result written all over it. I’m hoping to see a reaction, I’m just not convinced after the dross that was served up this weekend.
Chesney
Sagna Squillaci JD Clichy
Wilshere Song Cesc
Nasri Chamakh Arshavin
Lets not muck about on the keeping front. Fabianski has cost us three points too many times to merit a place anymore. We all know if he plays, Wolves will target him all game and it’s just not a risk worth taking. Cesc needs to impose himself on the ball and Song needs to sit back and do his primary job. Chamakh will have to be bolder today and whoever is feeding balls into the box best make sure they’re top drawer.
Arsenal need to show character tonight, they need to realise that football is about winning every week, not just when the sun is out. I think we’ll nick it tonight and hopefully build from there… come on Arsenal, everyone is expecting you to cock this one up so they can say ‘I told you so’… don’t let it happen!
See you in the comments!
Lurch
We keep more clean sheets with JD.
And this is going back to last season.
He’s a brilliant defender.
People just put the clumsyness on a myth.
If JD played for Man Utd he would never get the fouls that are called against him.
That couldnt be more apparent than in todays match.
David you missed the point. You said JD gets turned less than kozzer, but Kozzers played loads more games.
Ask yourself why he’s played loads more games? Because he’s pretty much the best defender we have 1v1 – I’d say he’s almost better than Vermaelen in this regard.
So as far you so called ‘fact’ goes WTF does Rvp have to do with your point?
3 clean sheets from our last 4 Premiership game? Let’s hope there’s more to come
Yeah, got to hand to Wenger as far as Koscielny goes. Classic ‘who the fuck is he??’ Wenger signing.
He’s done extremely well and looks to be the future of the club.
Keyser
Its not a debate.
Bendtner is shite.
Rubbish Lurch
Kozzer played more games because JD was injured.
Simple as.
Yeah like the Bendtner vs Walcott debates.
Bendter has done a lot more for us in a shorter period of time than Walcott. He also has a better scoring and assist ratio. He’s also saved our arses countless number of times and has score hugely important goals.
Now that is a FACT.
FACT, I tell you.
Erm. JD’s been available from week one David. Rusty but available.
Listen, I rate JD – I just rate kozzer higher, much higher right now. Despite clean sheet stats.
haha are you seriously saying that JD is/should ahead of Koscielny in the pecking order?
Why then did he not play against Newcastle on Sunday?
Sometimes, I’m so happy Wenger’s manager and not people on here.
Marko i have to disagree with you there.
I dont see us Conceeding against New Castle if JD was playing.
He’s a big lump that doesnt lose challenges in the air as we’ve seen today and as we’ve seen all season.
He’s better than Squidy for me but all this criticism against JD is unjustified and more to the point not factual
That’s not to say Bendtner will turn out to be a better/bigger player.
They’ve both played more games than they should have because Vermaelens injured, you might even play them both together if we needed, we don’t know who exactly will be first choice when Vermaelen comes back, but for once it’ll be a good choice to have.
If you were watching MoTD David you’d have just seen jd’s cockups.
Yeah I agree Lurch he’s been available for 1 week.
So has RVP.
And he didnt play because with his injury record he would need a rest from the game we played in Ukraine.
Thats simple really.
No one has criticized him? I was pretty happy with his performance today.
All I said that Kosicleny is the better player and should be ahead of him in the pecking order.
Whisper this, but I daresay he should be starting ahead of Vermaelen. Although Squillaci would then be relegated to hte bench . I don’t know how happy I’d be with that.
That Briggs left back for Fulham is fucking shit! Why give someone their debut against chelsea ffs! Hughes is a fucking knobhead!
Yeah If i was watching MOtd
I would think Cesc is a dirty player!
Btw,
Which player doesnt have a cock up?
Week 1 David. September.
Yeah im not suprised Rohan,
By your reckoning Bendy should be starting ahead of Chamakh
Which in turn makes me say “I’m so happy Wenger’s manager and not people on here.”
HA! Its about fucking time Essien got a red for one of those tackles..fucking prick!
Pretty sure JD was injured for the start of the season Lurch.
When the bloody hell did I say that? Stop taking words out of my mouth.
David are you drunk?
Erm….wouldnt week one be august 14th, or whenever the season started?
Yeah stu. Thanks.
fuck me, Dixon is an embarrassment!!!
not a word about the Henry’s tackle, eh?
Lol, at JD not losing challenges in the air.
Dan the gooner/bbk/ANB
Surely Chamug cant be THAT bad???
The fact that Wenger even has a player like Bendy is bad enough but playing Bendtner for the final stretch of the season and not buying a Striker was criminal, negligen and truly shocking.
Im sick and tired of hearing how Bendy took us far into the tittle challenge.
We finished 11 points behind the winners ffs.
Rohan, the saying is “stop putting words in my mouth”, not “stop taking them out of my mouth”.
The latter implies you did actually say what David said you said.
So they’ve missed the Karl Henry challenge out, bunch of Cunts.
The reason he didn’t send Fabregas off is because Wenger should’ve/ Would’ve highlighted Karl Henry’s challenge.
Karl Henry didn’t even get a yellow.
hahaha Stu. Silly me
Fab’s such a dirty fucker. Long may it continue.
He scored something like 11 goals in 11 games with 5 assists. Even if we’d have bought a striker in January, I highly doubt he’d have been able to adjust and do better than that.
The reason we finished so badly were for other reasons. It was a massive injury catastrophe with Cesc, vp, Verm, Arshavin, Song, Gallas, Theo all getting injured.
Well you said JD is clumsy and positionally inept. Which classifies as criticism, and then you turn around and say your not criticizing him?
David, of course he kept us in the title race for so long. Im sure you remember his impressive scoring run. Imagine how far behind chelsea we would have been without him up front…far further back than 11 points, thats for sure.
How come everyone else is watching MOTD before me? Did it start earlier where ye are? Started at 11:15 here…Anyone?
Look at Stu the referee!
Christ, David. I’m saying that in general. Not just today’s game.
I’m only ‘critiquing’ him especially with respect to Koscielny. I certainly wouldn’t be comfortable with him as first choice in the long run.
11 in 11?
LMAO
August 14 stu!
1030 In blighty.
Joey Barton is a proper fucking scumbag, how the fuck he is allowed to play in the premiership is beyond me.
David. You’ve been twisting and turning continuously over the last 20min. Don’t get all moralising on us now will ya.
David
The reason we didnt win the Pl is because Theo is shit, it was basicaly 99.98% Theos fault.
Referee? Blighty? Now you’ve fucking lost me Lurch.
9 goals and 5 assists in the second half of the season.
At one point he had a 1:1 goal to game ratio.
If that isn’t impressive I don’t know what is.
gambon now you’ll get David pissed. His love for Theo is legendary.
Lurch
You dont even know when the season starts (lol) so your argument is laughable
Gambon
You are absolutely fucking right.
Too bad Theo had to go injure himself.
Bastard.
Shouldve stayed healthy and we’d have pissed on the league.
And it’s not just the sheer number of goals, it’s the importance of those goals. Proper match winning goals.
Cue David commenting on how ALL of Bendy’s goals were because of Theo. I myself can only think of one.
Well stu, you started correcting my posts, rohans posts – kinda like a ref.
Blighty is slang for engerland. Ie. MoTD started at 1030 in blighty=engerland.
Oh and it now 12am.
9 in 11 games.
Very impressive.
For all the chances Arsenal create even a fucking shite striker like bendy had 9 in 11.
9 in 11 and it dried out in the beginning of April.
Its too bad the season runs until the end of may.
Nice goal from beckford.
Just got back from the game , Ok Great save abd a win but tonight fab 4 again awful i thought his angry attitude manifests itself once again, aa 23 thought was off the pace in a big way , time for a rest and the mangers substitutions were again baffling, 1-0 Up wolves pushing forward leaving spaces and wenker brings on denilshite , who’s first act more or less is to get himself booked .
this team is crying out for a real winger imagine how many potential goals from crosses chamakh would score then ,
a good result if there are still holes to fix but we still play to narrow.
Now you’re having a laugh.
Fuck me, what the fuck do you expect from the striker. 9 goals in 11 starts or so is mighty fucking impressive no matter what.
Give the lad some credit for that. It dried out because he got absolutely no service. The whole team was out injured.
Fellaini out for our game on the Weekend now ?!
Dunno if that’s a good or bad thing really.
Well i guess thats that then Lurch.
David, if even a shit striker like Bendy can be apparently given 9 in 11 then why is that none of our other forwards, who according to you are clearly superior, never get numbers like that? Its probably been a long while since one of our strikers has consistency like that.
And didnt NB get injured around april..hence the goals “drying out”.
Mere technicality David. I could have been boring and checked. What’s your excuse for misunderstanding my initial point? Dislexia?
Night guys, just remember;
Bendy > Theo > Pol Pot > Tony Attwood > Keyser > Wagner > Wenger
9 in 11 is very impressive Rohan,
considering they were all tap-ins and a penalty.
Youre right.
No service meaning there was nobody to beat the whole defense and do all the hard work for Bendy to tap in.
Fellani being out for our game is a miracle.
That c8nt knows how to break legs.
thats what im saying lurch.
You dont have a fucking point.
+Consistency like that, especially at that point in a season as well as having Cesc and VP missing (i think).
Ridiculous reaction to Cescs tackle. They both slid at the same time and if anything it was Wards leg following through that forced the contact rather than Cesc going into Wards leg.
No mention of the Henry tackle which was studs up though.
For fucks sake, David. If scoring is all that easy, why the bloody hell don’t our strikers score 50 goals a season. Parto f the knack of being a goalscorer, is being in the right position at the right time.
Nicklas has that knack. His finishing and composure will improve with time. You can learn all that, but you just can’t teach someone instinct in front of goal.
Stu
Relax,
Theo is on 7 in 8 and Nasri is on 7 in 8 as well.
Plenty of time to get there.
And this is with the Benefit of not having to take penalties or score tap in goals, they’d all actually had to do some work to beat a defender.
I don’t know what Jimbo is on about, Koscielny, Chamakh and Squillaci are new to the league, and so far, each are way, way above average. You guys have to learn to cut some slack, after all, Vidic was shite his first season. That being said, good win, we needed it, Fabianski is no doubt good, but he still has more clangers than most good goalies…The Newcastle game should have been drawn at least. But for now, it’s looking like bye bye to Almunia. Still want to see Szczesny at some point.
We have so many options it’s good, wish Vermaelen wasn’t injured for the most part of the season. i WONDER If Wenger will get another CB or defensive midfielder, but the way things look right now, I doubt he is shopping in January.
I saw Tony Attwood on the way to the game on Sunday. What a cunt he looked in that fuckin purple hat!
Think of it like this David. If Bendtner wasnt there to tap it in then we wouldnt have scored and probably would have dropped loads more points..thus, he kept us in the race for as long as we were.
Theo hasn’t scored sitters?? Please.
As for nasri, he’s scored 3 penalties. Yes that’s right.
The point of Bendtner, is that we were under massive pressure and at one point was our focal point and our only goal scoring option. He practically carried us at times. He scored hugely important goals as well. Hugely important without which we may not even have made 4th.
And you resisted the urge to wedgie him Chozzer?
I’m not saying he should be first choice or anything. Far from that. All I’m saying that he should be given some credit. To be honest, I can’t think of a better third choice CF.
Difficult to say Stu,
in the 9 in 11.
Only 2 of those goals were actually match winners.
The others were in routs or in Losing efforts.
Id say Bendy is personally responsible for 6 points.
Very very very impressive.
But ultimately nowhere near good enough.
Ah yes David, but also remember that when Bendtner did it we were nearing the end of the season with players tired from overplaying and most of our best players injured.
Nasri and Theo, without trying to lessen their achievements, are doing it at the start of the season when most of the squad is fresh and while things are going well.
We;ll have this Bendy debate another time.
Fact is that JD is a beast.
And for me is better than Kozzy.
Blessing in disguise really.
we probably wouldve conceded through a set piece if Kozzy didnt get a red card.
The point for those that clearly missed it is JD is shite.
lol @ david. By that logic, most strikers would be left with 8 goals a season. That is the most flawed argument I’ve seen.
A goal is a goal no matter what. The fact that he scored them when we were under pressure only makes it better.
JD is better in the air, but he’s not all that great. You make out like he’s as good as Vidic or something. He’s decent enough as a back up but that’s about it.
I couldnt be arsed debating the merits of Bendtner with you again David. No offence but im sure you’ll agree its as boring as fuck because neither of us are going to budge so nothing will come us it other than wasted time.
Anyone got anything else to talk about?
We can talk about the revival of lukasz fabianski.
Rosicky saved our bacon with that goal line clearance.
i couldn’t watch the game but i just watch the 30min highlights:
i’d like to point out that although arshavin is lazy and tries weird things sometimes the bastard is still quality, his passing is awesome in the final 3rd he created 4/5 chances and took a few shots.
On fabianski, it’s good to criticise because at the end of the day this is how we improve. But i think it’s fair to give him credit, and true to say the goalie got us the three points tonight and put a match winning performance. I hope that the errors he made in the past doesn’t affect people judgement on the lad in the future. If he makes a mistake every now and then we should support him and shouldn’t forget the clean sheets and the good display like tonight’s.
wolves played very well and made it difficult for our back line.
i’ll download and watch the full game tomorrow!
chamakh!!!!
Nah, i think i’ll just go to sleep..
Night David, Rohan, Lurch, Chozzer, Dale, Gambon, Keyser and whoever i forgot..
Clichy also didn’t cock up tonight. Worthy of a modicum of praise.
Later stu.
On that note
Laters y’all. Good game.
watched*
we are the 3rd best defence in the league with 11 conceded behind shitty(10) and chavski(5)
let’s pray for the chavs to drop points this weekend!
nite people
G’Night everyone. Just for you gambon :
Bendy > Theo > Pol Pot > Tony Attwood > Keyser > Wagner > Wenger..
..
..
> gambon’s rectum > gambon.
Reading through the comments and Jimbo mate you’re trying far far too hard to find fault, it’s gone from Chamakh and Koscielny to Rosicky now.
Rosicky 30 seconds in takes a ball from Squillaci in his own half, turns and wrongfoots a Wolves player with some nifty footwork, sprints past him, completely bypassing Wolves midfield, passes the ball out to Song, who hits a first time cross for Chamakh to head in a bullet header.
Last minute of the game, takes a 50 yard thrown ball from Fabianski and with a first time touch lobs a ball over one of the few chasing Wolves players and into the path of Fabregas in acres of space, who picks out Chamakh again for the clincher.
It might not mean much to you, but soo many other players would have fluffed either of those simple things, Rosicky does it with ease and does it constantly throughout the game, he’s a top quality player, maybe not as good as he used to be a few years ago, but still a top quality player we’re lucky to have.
Well fucking said, Keyser. Couldn’t have put it better myself. Rosicky is a different player-but an important player-he does the simple stuff right and keeps it ticking over. Gives us a little more drive not to mention his defensive play is outstanding.
That monster shot of his and wonder passes will come with time.
Bendtner has all the attributes but he seriously needs to improve his first touch that lets him down a lot in the final third but as Rohan puts it, one can’t ask for a better 3rd choice CF.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYCKGG4VOZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0VAkPjrnWM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CO6ymxxLg8
What a cunt!
So happy about the result today. Haven’t seen a clear video of the goals. Poor video quality on Arsenalist, but at least we came through it.
On to the next one, which is Everton. One we won’t enjoy, but also one we could win with lots of hard work.
Also, Fab2 is starting to turn me into a believer. He will make mistakes for sure, as he did versus Newcastle, but he has saved points from Wolves, Mancity and another team now. He does have quality.
When Van der Sar had that howler a few weeks back no one said he was shit. That said he has a body of work that can stand up well to criticism, Fab2′s at this point cannot stand up to such scrutiny.
But he has done enough IMHO to go straight until January as the number 1. My only hopeis that Wenger doesn’t jinx himbuy coming out and saying he is world class and a world beater; every time he does that Fab2 has a howler.
Wolves put us under pressure for a team with 9 from 12 games they’ve not played that badly in recent times even with Karl Henry in their starting 11. but they couldn’t hold a flu ridden United side last weekend.
Both teams had good chances and despite some decent defending at times we gave them a bit too much space, thankfully most of their chances were missed or saved by Fabianski. Doyle for them looked good but he can’t hit a barn door right now.
^Sorry maybe barn door is harsh he did make Fabianski make a great save, but dragged a shot inside the box wide.
Morning all, don’t know how Fab2 will perform for the games to come but after looking at his save in the dying seconds several times it was unbelievable-the ball came through legs at great speed, how he got down that fast I will never know, he got us 2 points without a doubt.
link to the full game download anyone?
New post everyone!
Karl Henry almost broke Arshavin’s leg.Shocking studs up knee height lunge, Arshavin skipped back to prevent injury and the Wolves players had the nerve to say he dived!!
when ashley cole heard about drogba contracting malaria he nearly crashed his bentley, now he’s demanding a transfer unless he gets malaria too
Haha – 1000 comments on the day after we won?
NEW POST!