Today the players that apologised for their dreadful showing against Ipswich have the chance to put things right and I am backing them to do just that, because if we can’t beat West Ham home or away, then we’ll win nothing again this season.
Remember though, only a late Alex Song goal last time out beat this team.
I watched Wenger’s interview on Arsenal.com yesterday and he seemed to get irked when challenged about his signings, hmmm, it says something when even your own TV channel isn’t allowed to ask relevant questions anymore.
Aside from Vermaelen we should have a full side to choose from today, the manager told us that Denilson had a strain and he wasn’t sure if he would be fit, blimey, has he not picked up that Denilson not playing is great news to every Arsenal fan? What is he watching, not the same game we are are, that’s for sure.
I did have a little look around at the ‘we love Arsene’ sites yesterday as well as looking at a few of their commenters, how funny, they were all as bemused as we are as to their team’s performances, gone are the ‘Arsene knows best’ mantras, ha, ha, boys, welcome aboard to the ‘have your own mind’ blogs!
Today I expect this team out.
Chezzer
Eboue (no choice) Djourou Koscielny Clichy
Wilshere Song Cesc
Theo Robin Nasri
I hope Ramsey makes the bench and talk of him going out on loan is bollocks, I think if you can afford to keep loaning out players that are older than 20, then you have too many players.
I hope also that if certain players aren’t cutting it today then they should be taken off when we need to, not on 67 minutes.
Wayne Bridge starts his fourth club today on loan for West Ham, he only ever looked good when he played for Southampton and John Terry humiliated him last year, since then he’s been as effective as Eboue, and Eboue is only in my team because we have no back up full back, and that is bizarre, how can we have all these players and only 2 DM’s, 2 left backs and 2 right backs??? I say 2 DM’s because I’m not sure where he sees Ramsey, so that could be 3, Frimpong is injured and Eastmond will never step up.
I’m going for a big win today, somewhere around 3 or 4 nil and a clean sheet, Chezzer to start finding his feet, I like this kid, I also like Djourou but I hope he drops Arshavin and tells him that he is in last chance saloon, as for Denilson, I hope we never see him again, he is a joke, and a lazy one at that, he has an attitude that stinks and we should use January to have a clear our and bring in a few, come the summer those we want will double in price and the manager will tell us we can’t afford them.
We need a defender, Samba will do, he’s better than Squillaci, we just loaned out our latest signings Wellington and the Japanese kid, all for the future, you know what boss, I’m fed up with waiting, Nordtveit and Vela were the future, and sometimes the future never comes, concentrate on now, this season, a few decent signings and it could happen, but then that’s the same every season, isn’t it.
Have a great day Grovers, we could go within a point this weekend, I think!
P.S. Any late spare for the game, let me know!
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Jimbo…my point with Drogba is..He was at Le Mans, Ligue 2, he was not prolific, he moved to Guigamp and scored about 19 or so goal, was never in Europe, HAD WE SIGNED HIM, You’d say we signed an unknown SHIT French speaking player who misses goals, as he did with Guigamp and started to improve at Merseille…Mersielle only bought Drogba for a mere 3.3m….he wasn’t world class when he moved to O’M….I’m trying to draw comparison into how people don’t give players time to show they can actually be really good.
Because, Zorr0, I think you’re making things up, basically.
Song isn’t Gilberto. He’s not as good defensively, but he’s 10 times the footballer than Berty was.
Dale – the goalie wasn’t really in no-mans land for the Chelsea goal. And as for blaming Cesc for the FK, well, FK’s happen every game, you have to learn to defend them properly.
As for the Ipswich match, go and watch it. 61 mins, Koscileny gets completely caught out by a ball over the top. Same thing happened again later. See the pattern? Don’t be a muppet.
Keyser…YOU ARE TOP MAN, EXPLAINED WELL! Our attack and Midfield DID extrememly well versus Chelsea, this made our defenders solid when things cam there way, The one goal conceded was due to Cesc fouling in the wrong place, even though Son was right in front of the advancing opponent. At Ipswich, Cesc and co along with Bendtner an co did not scare Ipswich, and our fullbacks ventured way too forward leaving 2 CB exposed for the long ball while keeping high lines. Jimbo..you gotta be fair and rational in your opinions about certain players.
Jimbo….Gallas’s last season with us…go watch video on how many time he got done for over the top. Come back and report your analysis.
I’d prefer Lansbury to Denilson if he was playing alongside Song, or another DM.
Lansbury couldn’t possibly play as the lone/main DM though, and would be much worse there than Denilson imo….
I wonder if Denilson could go in the summer with Frimpong, Coquelin, Lansbury returning from loans/injury….
Keyser – you say you read my posts, but I always seem to have to repeat myself to you, so I can only presume you just don’t understand them?
Ipswich DID start playing the ball long a lot more in the second half. And Koscielny and Djourou did a really, really poor job of coping with it. I can’t believe you’re trying to pretend that didn’t happen – both players were poor, letting the ball bounce in front of them, getting caught out of position, flat-footed whilst the striker ran past them.
As for the Chelsea game, Koscielny is supposed to be a CB. OTher players could have marked better, and that’s the story of this team for years, but the CBs are supposed to be the best at that job, and Koscielny was asleep with his thumb up his arse.
Dale – are you going out or not?
What about Gallas’ last season? Why do you keep making completely irrelevant comparisons?
See, if you wanted to try to tell me that Koscielny is an inexperienced player, inexperienced players make more mistakes, but he’ll cut them out, then fine, I’d give you more time. But trying to pretend that these mistakes just aren’t happening basically robs you of all credibility.
I could listen to the former point, and take it seriously, even if I think that Koscielny’s just left it too late in his career to ever gain the composure he needs, and the concentration he needs at this level. Yes, there are exceptions to this, and sometimes, rarely, players do figure things out later in their career. But most of the time, they don’t, and players who make too many mistakes in their mid-20s tend to keep making them their whole career. And generally, players in their mid-20s, who’ve only had one season in any league in the top flight, shouldnt’ be bought and placed in the middle of the defence for a club that’s supposed to challenge.
Ha ha..Jimbo..wanna come out?
It’s not irrelevant when you see that even the best get done\fucked embarrasingly time to time. What makes them class is that they get up, and do the business next time around and do it looking good. Koscielny, for a newby, gets back on it and does some really good defending after a “MASSIVE” MISTAKE, Gallas played in the system, and my point is, the system is very complicated, Even the great Rio Ferdinand would make silly mistakes, such as JD’s, Vermaelen, Gallas and Toure at one point.
OK, JIMBO what mistake did Koscielny make today!!!???? Which one? name it? By today’s game, JD made the mistakes, and it’s ok…we kept a clean sheet! Kos marked out Cole, and did it looking good!
Jimbo, Gary Cahill is what, 25 you think he has it all figured out? Case from where I’m standing, Cahill isn’t any better than Kos. AND HE PLAYS IN THE PREM!
Jimbo – Don’t take the piss, I’ve explained that in part in my response.
You need to go watch the replay of the Chelsea goal, Koscielny didn’t fall asleep, he’s one of the only ones who did actually get back. It’s the lack of a challenge that stood out.
Again you’d have to wonder if Fabianski called for it, because he starts to come and stops, if he did then that would explain it anyway, apart from that he actually gets back, there was about 3-4 free players.
I’m guessing because it’s a well practised free-kick for them.
Ipswich game – I did actually think that both players were poor after about the 60 minute mark, but I don’t buy the same reasons. We were inept up front and it was a very poor team performance, and unless you’re going to be overly critical of individuals you have to look at the team as a whole.
If you compare the two performances and how much sharper and focussed some of the same players were today, Fatigue isn’t a massive stretch.
There’s no team in the World where players won’t make mistakes, we gave up far more chances than we should have against Ipswich for all their possession, and sometimes defenders will end up giving into the pressure
It’s called luck, Kos didn’t have it all figured out cause things didn’t line up for him,, who knows maybe he had or has a bad agent…that surely does not mean he should give up on playing football, cause i’m waiting on you to tell me he should give up on playing football, cause France hasn’t called him up. Fuck me, he should have just played for Poland.
i still think you guys are concentrating on the wrong areas of the pitch kos will be a fine player next to tv as will jd and squid you really miss tv, be fair and honest who can you realistically get who is as good as tv?!?!? no one, no offence but the top centre halfs aint gunna come for the prices arsenal/wenger wants to pay!
For me you need another quality defensive midfielder and you need an out and out striker. Granted you got 4 goals today but thats againnst a very poor west hamm team without their best players! And even with their best players you should beat them!!!!
“But most of the time, they don’t, and players who make too many mistakes in their mid-20s tend to keep making them their whole career.”
That just isn’t true with centre backs.
Rio Ferdinand was still mistake prone at Leeds, and in his first season at Utd, at the age of 24/25. Vidic was mistake prone when he first arrived at Utd, at the age of 25. Those are imo the best two centre backs in the country.
Alex when he first arrived at Chelsea was very mistake prone, again 25. Carvalho in his first season at Chelsea too, having arrived at 26…. Gallas too having arrived at 24.
I can’t think of many centre backs who weren’t mistake prone in their early/mid 20s in fact, Sol Campbell perhaps?
I think it’s myth that kos is error prone.
He’s doing quite well, made acouple of mistakes early on and from there some people adopt what psychologists call confirmation bias. They over weight incidents that confirm their perception. It’s perfectly natural, most humans do it.
Lots of people rate cahil, I’ve only seen him a few times really and I don’t watch A’s intensely A’s I do arsenal and he always seems to have poor games against us, so every time I see him, I think hes really rubbish. Probably my confirmation bias.
Kozz isnt good enough for us atm.
But he did very well today.
Keyser,
Kozz didnt “make up” for mishitting the Volley.
JD saved his bacon.
Matter of fact JD and Squid have been saving his bacon all season.
So there you have it…Tommo ( another teams fan), A and QoS all sum it up…goodnight lady and gents!
LOL…..Squillaci saving Kos Bacon all season…LOL
David – Djourou let the man run from behind him to pressure Koscielny anyway, he just let him go had no idea.
Not much of fact there either, out of all the defenders you think Squillaci had been saving peoples bacon ?!
And today, it was JD who perfectly saved his own bacon. I like our defenders, i just want our team to play well as a unit. Pressing in midfield, while the defenders mop up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a2Ig_m90iQ
Yeah
I think it was Stu that pointed out that squid goes behind the defender incase the first defender misses a clearance.
There’s no doubt that Squid was the better defender in the earlier parts of the campaign.
Marginally so tho.
Theyre both shyte.
Naa
Keyser that was Kozz man and he just cocked it up.
JD had to do alot of sprinting to catch up and eventually clean up the mess.
Chozzer, that was almost ESPN like…nice shot! LOL You saved our bacon there.!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA4KBxZ61YM
David – Hah, so this is your thing for this year, to replace the Bendtner/ Adebayor thing.
You mean Stu said one sits deeper than the other ? That doesn’t mean he saves his bacon there were a few times when Koscielny mopped up for Djourou against Ipswich.
Two poor games for Djourou now ?!
David – He had to spring, because the striker just jogged past him, while Djourou was day dreaming.
The black guy asleep is ‘Jaguar knows nothing about football’!
*sprint – to catch up.
Start of the season I agree Squillaci was our best defender – looked like it would be Squillaci and Vermaelen as first choice pairing when Vermy was back.
Since then though Squillaci has gone off the boil and I’d say both JD and Koscielny have now risen above him and are undeniably our first choice pairing with Vermy out….
I think JD just needs Sagna back, hopefully the last two games have just been a little blip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80niZnYCB04
A, weren’t you saying that JD was shit and wouldn’t make the grade a while back?
Yeah 12-18 months ago I firmly believed that chozzer, but he’s won me over in the last couple of months, although hopefully these last two games where he’s seemingly gone back to his old self are just a blip….
Same as Diaby, I’d written him off completely until this season, now the same has happened with JD, THUS far anyways.
JD could easily be this year’s Diaby though, he’ll get injured in March then everyone will just forget that this season ever happened and he’ll be mentioned next to Denilson and Diaby’s name in the scapegoating!
Rubbish Keyser,
What do you expect him to do when Koscienly was supposed to have delt with that comfortably?
Daydreaming?
Does he have to baby sit the CB who’s supposedly more experienced and Older than him?
You cant rewrite the story.
Kozz cocked up. JD cleaned up after him.
Simples.
A,
You need to watch the home game against Barca to realize just how much of a passanger Diaby is.
I used to really love Abou.
But he doesnt commit himself at all to winning the ball back.
At least Denilson tries.
He just doesnt have the strength to do so.
Diaby does.
David – Bollocks, so they’ve got one striker and you’re not even bothering to keep tabs on him ? Or at least see where he is.
Thats pathetic, Djourou has to have more sense than that and maybe it was just an off day.
I honestly hope he’s got more sense then that becaue if he’s thinking like you, then we’re fucked.
We need them to work well together not thinking oh he’s got it I’m off to have a fag.
Depends what you’re looking at David. imo Diaby was very good against Barca at home, and a big big part of why we managed to get a draw.
Diaby last season was close to if not as important to the balance of the team as Cesc and Song, and his absence was as noticable.
Just as it has been imo (even with Wilshere’s development) this season, especially in the home games against weaker opposition, as well as the likes of City in their park the bus mode.
The reason our home form has been totally turned on it’s head this season compared to last is equally down to the absence of Diaby and VP in my eyes. If either or both of them had been fit for our home games we’d be a good 9 points better off at least
If he’s thinking like what Keyser?
That his CB cant make a simple routine clearance?
I really hope not.
Would hate for the poor boy to feel like he’s out there all by himself.
With no confidence in his partner whatsoever?
Rumours of Andy Carrol to City – would be a very silly move for him, just to be backup to Dzeko, or I guess if he has enough belief in himself he could compete with Dzeko for the number one slot.
Adebayor to Madrid then – how can someone fail upwards to such an extent?! Absolutely crazy. If Mourinho could get him working hard for the team then he could be a real asset for him I guess, just a battering ram which the skilful players behind him can play off
A
Really cant see how you see that?
The one good thing diaby did in the Tie was to assert himself away from home that led to the Theo goal at the Nou camp.
But by and large Yaya Toure had him in his pocket the whole game on both legs.
Abou was jogging back and forth and watching things pass him by instead of looking to get himself involved in the game.
Thats the sort of player he is.
Where-as with Denilson at least he’s always looking to have the ball on his feet even though its very weird how he cant seem to make a pass without looking down at the ball first even if the pass is 2 yards out! (I digress)
But you give way too much Diaby credit A,
He hasnt impressed at all in a very long time.
Nah if he’s thinking about his warm bed and how much he wants his eyes to just droop closed and how comfortable the grass looks to lay down on.
They need to work together, and they have worked well together most times they’ve played, so if one covers the other it’s not saving his bacon it’s what you expect of team mates.
If you’re on the pitch thinking I’ll just stroll along he’s got it covered, thats when it leads to fuck ups, luckily most of the time they’r both clued on.
Fags, are not good for you Keyser.
You should know that.
Yeah Keyser they can work together if Kozz yells out to JD and tell him
“O shyte bruv, Help me out, Im about to cock this up really bad”
You mean he hasn’t impressed YOU at all in a very long time David.
With me I’d completely and utterly written him off last summer. Now I consider him one of our most important players. He gives us another dimension that we totally lack without him playing. So much so that Song has been employed to try and give us that, and with remarkable success, but still nothing like that which Diaby gives us.
Last season we steamrolled everyone at home regardless of whether they parked the bus or not. A big part of that was Diaby’s ability to just break through the opposition’s line of five across the midfield, break the barrier and that set up the entire attack for everyone else. Without that this season we’ve struggled at home, lost three games against poor opposition, and in other games where we’ve got the result it’s still been tight.
Yaya Toure didn’t even play off the bench in the first leg. Diaby is the one thing that Barca lack, and that they can’t handle. He isn’t our best player but he gives us something that noone else in the squad currently does, and that scares teams.
You totally written him off last summer A?
So in what game this season did you have a turn around?
David – No, he says “oi dipshit look behind you, keep an eye on him, *slaps him*, wake the fuck up, you can sleep after the game”
and afterwards, “look fuckface, that ball was coming from over my shoulder as I’m running back to our goal, at least tell me you’re not going to bother tracking the player or tell me he’s coming”
Your giving Diaby way too much credit A,
I think youre fantasizing too much.
Name a game where he broke down a 5 man midfield?
The park the bus thing has been an issue for us forever.
We struggled to break down the same teams that Park the bus with Diaby in the team
Hull, Wolves, Birmingham.
You should write fiction books A!
David – Didn’t you mention Atlanta as a team you support ? Did you just see that touchdown ?!
fuckface?
Nice touch Keyser.
Im guessing Johan would be too stunned to reply.
He’d probably say something along the lines of
“Grow the fuck up and stop needing people to change your diapers ever time you get constantly outdone by long balls over the top and you play like a division 2 player.”
Should throw in the word Cunt by default ofcoarse.
Keyser
If the Eagles arent playing.
I dont watch.
The super bowl might as well be a holiday.
Social event to get drunk and pick up chicks.
Nobody really cares who wins tbh.
This is tedious now, Koscielny and Djourou make a pretty good partnership, and it’s because they have a complimentary skillset, unlike Kos and Squid because they’re both similar in their makeups.
Either way check the record when they’ve played together it’s pretty good. Only blemish is the Ipswich game.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - –
You mean no-one cares where you live or because teams like the Saints, Colts and Eagles are out ?!
I wanted the Eagles to win because they had game, but they flopped last week, so not too bothered, seen some good games today though.
David last season we beat EVERY team at home outside the top 4 by at least two goals. This season in the first game of the season we won by 6 goals with Diaby playing, and since then when he’s been out, we’ve lost to West Brom, beaten Brum by an injury time winner, scraped a 1-0 win against West Ham, lost to Newcastle, lost to Spurs, beaten Fulham by one goal….
The contrast between our home form last season with Diaby, and this season without is amazing.
Last season we won 15 of our 19 home games, this season we’ve already dropped more points at home than we did ALL last season, and Diaby is a big big part of that imo.
You don’t analyse it with specific examples, the whole point was that it wasn’t noticable, because we didn’t struggle to break down teams at home because Diaby gave us that balance in midfield
Fiction?! I think you need to get your facts straight David.
Last season we beat Hull 3-0 at home, against Wolves as you say we didn’t win comfortably (the only game we didn’t win by at least 2 goals at home) and funnily enough Diaby wasn’t playing…. Brum we beat 3-1
Last season the only park the bus team that we struggled against at home was City.
In the entire season we only failed to win 4 games, Everton in the snow when Denilson got injured and they ran through and scored, City at the end of the season when it was all over and we had nothing to play for, Utd and Chelsea. We won every single other home game, and all but 2 by at least 2 goals!
I hate the Saints, I hate the Falcons, I hate the Giants, I fecking HATE the Cowboys (shudder), I hate the Jaguar’s (no pun intended), I hate the Redskins.
Basically I hate everyone in our division and I hate everything from Boston.
If you gave me water from New England, id throw it in the sewer where it belongs.
Where i live people are crazy about the Panther’s which is a bit of a joke really.
We’ve had a shite QB forever and Steve Smith (bless him) has been playing his midget bollocks off for us forever.
The one shinning light was Julius Peppers but the thing about the NFL is they are obssessed with doing things the Wenger way.
They love doing things on the cheap, which is why most sports teams as long as there is a crowd, they couldnt give two shytes whether they win or not.
All about the money.
I still say youre giving too much credit to Diaby A,
The whole team was playin well at home, we still managed to beat teams like Stoke and Az Akmaar by 2 goals without Diaby.
So there is also proof to the contrary as well.
Honestly, some of you lot are totally detached from reality.
yeah we beat Stoke, Sunderland, AZ Akmaar, Wolves at home all who park the bus without Diaby.
There is no evidence to suggest that without him we struggle to beat teams at home looking at last season stats A.
I call that fiction.
How can you call it fiction David – that just makes you come across like a bit of an ass.
There is strong evidence to suggest that there’s a correlation between Diaby being in the side and our ability to score goals against and beat poor teams. If you worked out the average goals we won by with or without him playing then it’d be higher with him.
Obviously there’s nothing categorical about it, but for one to claim that it’s either fact or fiction just makes said person come across as a wee bit of an idiot
Not to mention the fact that mentioning Wolves as an example that we struggled to break teams down last season, then upon finding out that Diaby wasn’t playing mentioning them again as an example of the other extreme of the argument just illustrates that you’re not interested in discussing or debating, you’ve made your mind up about things and you’re just trying to find ways to make your close-minded opinion credible!
Lol.
Youre point isnt coming across so you resort to name calling.
Typical.
You said we beat teams with an Average of two goals with Diaby?
Correct.
We beat teams with an Average of two goals without Diaby.
Also Correct.
Thats why its fiction.
Well its pretty simple,
I mentioned Wolves without checking the facts now that ive checked them, I corrected myself appropriately.
Whats wrong with that?
Wolves is the only game without diaby we didnt win by 2 goals.
Just as there are games we played that we didnt win by two goals with Diaby.
Liverpool at home for one springs to mind.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1347547/The-Bollywood-billionaires-Blackburn.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1347554/Real-Madrid-boss-Jose-Mourinho-labelled-rude-uneducated-Franz-Beckenbauer.html
Well Said!!
I fancy the mancs to batter Spurs tomorrow
I dont care either, the mancs wont go unbeaten.
We will cunt them at ours and they will have lost 3 games before that happens.
they are shit, not as shit as Stratford spurs though.
Jaguar called 3-0 didn’t he. Vp getting his touch back, good news for us and Wenger. Hammers were shit though but Nasri and Cesc were great, Wilshere at times good. Their is a bettter player waiting to break out, Wenger needs to let him play more and get a better defensive mid then denilson. Jd did well, I was wrong on him before and he has really shown up all the doubters. This wasn’t his best game and he had mistakes maybe but at times was terrific too. Long term I can see him as a valuable CB in rotation with Koscielny and Vermaelen. We probably need a fourth though as Squillachi prior injuriy dropped off alot.
Good win, congrats Gunners! Now lets stay in all four competations next two weeks and beat down Wigan.
Christ, it’s really a bitch to argue with David isn’t it. He sticks by his guns no matter what.
Rohan
David is American, you cant expect him to fully understand our game.
I love “Goodfellas” But I’m not from Brooklyn.
Excellent performance yesterday.Van Persie is just class.Cesc seems really happy to play with Nasri.Leeds next.Don’t have much hopes because i am pretty sure Denilson will be back in the lineup for that one.He played for like 10 mins yesterday and west ham players were skipping past him.What a useless cunt!
Oh shit…David..you’re still arguing the Kos is shit argument? Fuck it, I love the Giants and Jets…..I hate the Patriots! and i hate the Cowboys..i marginally like the Eagles cos of their QBs, in the last 5 years and especially this year.
That being said, David, you seem a reasonable guy…but you make some really bizarre arguments…it’s like yo are designed to counter everything logical…Keyser or A or myself or QoS or anyone are not saying that Koscielny is without faults, but that he is FAR from shit. When you say the things you Jaguar, Gambon, Jimbo and others say, it is borderline or right on the money fictional and mythical.
Defenders make mistake often, and defending starts from the attackers. Kos ha splayed well with Verm and JD coincidentally he makes mistakes when playing with Squillaci, Not that Squillaci is zero, but he himself has done ok with JD…CB partnership is based on chemistry. Something Terry and Ivanovic are struggling with ATM. I f you can’t see that Kozzer is a good footballer, then that’s your perogative, but don’t try to convince the whole Arsenal that you are right by scrapping at non-facts, but human opinion.
Now i just got back from Chaucer’s, full of sushi and saki…i’m gonna go lay down now and dream of the Red and White Shooters.
Oi! David is American, and i am, we see things differently, so don’t assume all Americans see things ignorantly when it comes to Soccer
what’s soccer Dale? kind of burger?
Its such a nice weekend when The Arsenal win isnt it? Even when its pissing down all day outside and nursing a hangover after too many Sol.
Solid game all round for the most part yesterday. Theo Van Nasrigas was in full flow
Ably assisted buy a great double act in Song Billong & Jackie Boy.
Well, that was a spot on post Geoff.
NEW POST!