Arsene Wenger appointed as the new CEO of Arsenal FC

September 30, 2011

So Stan finally decides to speak after 5267 days of Arsenal interest and his insight into what makes a great throw in Gridiron was stunning. The football talk, well, I guess you’ve just read first hand why the old guard wanted the American in over the Uzbek… He’s only interested in keeping the status quo. As long as the dollars keep rolling in and the club get enough touch downs to qualify for the European Super Series, he’s happy.

“With Arsène, it’s his decision and only he will know that”

Any owner who comes out and says the manager should be the one who decides when he leaves is clearly not the progressive type. I mean honestly, how can any organisation in the world run like that? Alex Ferguson said a few months ago that the demise at Arsenal wouldn’t be tolerated at Old Trafford.

He’s right, it wouldn’t be at any global brand trying to become the best. That interview right there is why you won’t hear Gazidis saying anything different. What power can he possibly have when his boss makes ridiculous commitments like that? He’s been neutered, rendered impotent.

Stan Kroenke just appointed Wenger as the CEO of everything… bar the boring bits of course.

He said he’s been following Arsenal for 12 years, but then follows that by saying the Cesc And Nasri situations were unique? How were they unique Stan? Our best players have been leaving regularly for years now. We’ve 4 unique situations arising next summer in case you missed that memo on Stan.K@arsenal.com e-mail account you never open.

There’s nothing more dangerous in any area of life than giving someone carte Blanche to do as they please. Wenger is out of control and he’s being given an open contract to indulge his developmental management as much as he likes.

If I wasn’t so engrossed in what is happening at the club, if I didn’t have the benefit of recent history, then I’d read that interview and I’d probably be over the moon. I’m sure there will be plenty of muppets out there nodding along to what Stan has said today, his words were energetic, they were warming but sadly they were scraped off the same Pravda script Hill-wood, Gazidis and Bob Wilson use.

Never so desperately have we needed a footballing man with ambition at the club. I had this conversation with someone last week, who in our clubs recent history could step in as a footballing man? You know, like Nial Quinn at Sunderland, Zinedine Zidane at Madrid, Bobby Charlton at Manchester United? Well, interestingly, one of the names I thought of last week was Frank Mclintock. He’s a winner, an ex-Captain, he’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers and he clearly sees the game and the club how it is.

“We’ve let in more goals from dead-ball situations than any other Premier League team. So you would think that somebody would sort this out and that will improve us by 20-30%, but it doesn’t seem to happen.”

Stan Kroenke told us all that baseball mastermind, Billy Beane idolises Wenger. He’s the baseball coach who uses detailed statistics when he buys players, unearthing under valued players who serve a certain roles in the team. He’d over achieve on his wage bill massively, very similar to Wenger. I wonder if Billy idolises Wenger’s past success, or the fact he can look at a stat like, conceding 52% of your goals from set pieces, and totally ignore it for 5 years? Why haven’t we got someone in the club steering Wenger on issues like this? Why is the power so in the favour of the manager, no one would dare tell him the obvious problems Frank Mclintock (I’m throwing it open, if you have better suggestions, drop a comment) can see?

This is the overriding issue at Arsenal, we reward history, ignoring the present and the damage it’s doing to the future. Looks like it’s a problem that’s here to stay though. Unless of course, the manager decides otherwise.

Robin…

Tevez wants to leave City. City want to get rid of Tevez. Arsenal have Robin Van Persie. We have each others paypal details. You do the math.

Would I be devastated by that move? I would be from a talent point of view. I would be from a captaincy point of view, I think he’s doing an amazing job. But if we could get £35million for a player who only turns up for 30 games a season, I’d say that represented a great deal. Providing of course, there is something better lined up than a one legged striker from a relegated 3rd division Bosnian team who has great technical ability.

Sunday…

So injury news ahead of Sunday is that Gervinho, Kos and Theo all have late fitness tests. I’d be happy going into that game with Song at the back, he showed more form in one match than Kos has all year.

Up top, for me it is vitally important we have Theo, Robin and Gervinho. Say what you like about Theo, he scares teams and he opens up back 4′s. Gervinho needs to refocus and think about his end product and Robin just needs to continue playing his game.

The midfield has been the problem, sloppy wayward passing has stopped us controlling posession, if we could play Coquelin, Yossi and Arteta, I think that wild give us experience to control the tempo and efficiency of passing in a game we can’t afford to concede possession in.

It’s a massive game, it’s going to be high scoring and with the right attitude we could nick it. That defence has to play tight though. Our full backs will be under relentless pressure and Ade will be playing like someone told him there was a truckload of football boots waiting for him in the changing room if he scores…

More from Geoff tomorrow… Happy Friday everyone!

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Posted by Pedro

Arsenal take the spoils, but is our form enough to take us past Spurs?

September 29, 2011

Arsenal extended their winning streak to 3, which to the fans that bothered showing was a huge relief. The game didn’t mask the problems though, you can take the match as a morale boosting victory against Greek top 2 or you can take it as a massive warning for Sunday that we need to sharpen up.

The team we threw together was talked of as inexperienced, I’d scrap that and say it was just very average. Chamakh dropped in up top with Oxo and Arshavin. The midfield had Frimpong, Arteta and Rosicky and the backline has Song and Santos in the mix.

Has Wenger written down the Champions Leagues importance? Based on that team you’d have to say chasing 4th is the goal.

We put ourselves on the front foot almost instantly, Alex Song floated a beautiful pass into Oxo who controlled it, cut inside, lost it / gained it back, slipped into the box then banged it low back across goal for his first Champions League goal!

Down the other end some typically shoddy set piece play saw Arteta called into action to make a goal line clearance of note.

Santos put us two ahead when his ball into Chamakh made its way back to him, he dropped his shoulder and slipped the ball inside the keepers near post. A top goal from a very cool customer.

Chamakh had a chance to impress his game on the half when he timed his run perfectly to collect Andrey’s chipped pass, sadly though he dragged his shot hideously wide. Much in the same way Gervinho’s act of greed cost us against Blackburn, I wondered if this miss would cost us today.

Back up our end, Oxlade lost his man outwide, the full back picked out his cross and Fuster headed home unchallenged. A terrible piece of defending. Only Arsenal could concede a header against a team shorter than the Islington under 8′s.

It all turned rather panicked after that. Oxlade might be a dream on the ball but defensively he’s very naive. Frimpong was terrible in possession last night, far too casual and sloppy. We couldn’t string a pass together and in the end we resorted to hoofing the ball out of play.

The second half saw us tighten up defensively, the full backs partook in far less bombing forward and we settled the game. That still didn’t stop them creating chances. The best one saw them hit the bar from 30 yards out.

Song and Mertesacker put in a terrific shift at the back, many were stating that the man from Cameroon looks far better when he’s forced to tackle. The big German looked far more comfortable next to someone who was willing to communicate… The man hug at the end didn’t go unnoticed.

Our best chance came towards the end, Arshavin cut back in their box and toe poked across the keeper, he parried… Where was Chamakh for the rebound? Outside the box… he really is not an Arsenal striker.

The ground cleared out, the ref blew up, all thoughts were on Sundays massive show down.

Conclusions…

Wenger gambled on the game and it paid off. We had a few stand out performances. Andre Santos looks composed, brave and fantastic going forward. He’s presented Wenger with a paracetamol for the cure of the ‘oh no, Gibbs is my best left back’ headache.

Alex Song shouldn’t be playing at centre back. I said this in the summer. He’s either our best DM or he’s fighting it out for a spot in the backline. Fuck what Barca do, we’re not them. He played superbly though. He can play with both feet and he had to play with discipline. Something that doesn’t often happen in midfield.

Mertesacker was man of the match. He worked hard, hoofed when he had to and made sure he was counted. He’s not fast but he’s awkward and tough to get past. He’s our plan B defender for Stoke but he’s more than capable of being plan A.

Oxo looks very slick on the ball, a far more natural talent than Theo. He has nowhere near the pace but he has that unpredictable trickery about him that full backs hate. His tracking exposed us though, that will improve with shower room beatings from Sagna.

The two major disappointments were Frimpong and Chamakh. The midfielder was very lazy in possession and his weak passing destroyed any fluidity to our game time and time again. I like his hustle, but you need more than that to make it at the top.

Chamakh just hasn’t worked out, he can’t turn on the ball, he isn’t mobile and he has no instinct for the net. He is next in line when Robin breaks down. That my friends is scary.

Lots to think about for Sunday. Accountability from set plays is one. Ade is a set piece destroyer. We need to defend the player and the ball, not the space. We’ve also got to work out a way of creating chances, we don’t have the personnel to grind teams down with a million passes. We need to feed our front man quickly and take advantage of our widemens pace.

Sunday is massive for morale, expectation and the race for 4th… not to mention bragging rights. How do you see it panning out?

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Posted by Pedro

Injury woes or rested players? / Manchester turmoil! / Oxlade to start?

September 28, 2011

So lots of drama in the Champions League last night, plenty to chuckle about based on the forward assumption that we’re going to tear Olympiacos a new one this evening.

First up was that Manchester United conceded a 2 goal lead against FC Basel. They ended up 3-2 down before Ashley Young stepped up to the mark and levelled. United have a weak defence this year, De Gea for me is no Premiership keeper at the moment and his flappability has acted as a nervous contagion in the back 4. The main thing keeping them going is their front line. As we know, that form can’t last forever…

My reckoning? Barely top 4 this year…

Man City suffered at the class of Bayern Munich last night. Two goals from Gomez went without reply which was heartening. Bayern really are a team filled with quality. Ribery and Schweinsteiger are superb players. Gervinho reminds me a little of the beastly Frenchman, and I’m not talking about his penchant for buxom 17 year olds.

The bonus ball from that game was that Tevez told the manager he wouldn’t come on as a sub. Yep, leader by example, on pitch footballing hero, Carlos Tevez, would not play. Hilarious stuff. What a pathetic sulker! Mancini said he’d never play for the club again. What does that do for his value? £220k a week, long-term contract, unappealing attitude… I’d have him on loan!

Cringe moment of the night? Mark Hughes defending his behaviour because he shares the same failed used car salesman agent. Pathetic, embarrassing and hopefully a comment so shameful Chairmen around the world will take note and move him even further down the pecking order than he already is.

I guess this incident is the flip side of holding a player against their will. You have to remember that footballers are like children, they don’t know hardship and they don’t understand that sometimes you have to fulfil a contract you were foaming at the mouth to sign.

If we’d kept Cesc would we have faced the same problems? Or would we be in the situation Spurs are. Their man Modric is just about to pen a £100k deal to stay long-term. He’s forgotten his ambition of trophies and he’s getting on with it putting in performances like last year.

It’s a fine line to tread. My opinion is that the club should come before players feelings providing it’s all legal.

Arsenal…

Arsenal’s injury problems continued. Theo, Koscielny and Gervinho add to the growing list of problems. I think they’re more precautionary. If I was to hazard a guess, I’d say they’re being rested for Sundays game.

Wenger spoke about the Wilshere injury withdrawing speculative blame from the medical staff.

I don’t know how many times I have to say this, injuries are not the fault of the medical team. If Jack has a stress injury, that’s most likely a result of being put under 56 games of stress. If it didn’t heal quick enough, that’s not Colin Lewin’s problem. You can’t keep blaming the doctor for catching the flu…

I think Wenger is way off the mark when he tries to rewrite history by saying most wanted Jack to go to the under 21 championships. That’s simply not true, a tiny percentage of the press wanted to go, most acknowledged it was a ridiculous ask on almost every level.

Chezzer
Sagna   Mertesacker   Song   Gibbs
Arteta   Frimpong   Ramsey
Arshavin   Robin   AOC

Now, I’d be tempted to give AOC a run in the side. Theo’s pace is a massive asset to us and Alex comes somewhere close to what he offers, bar a bit more skill going round players and a touch more surprise due to his newness.

This game comes with a high importance tag. We need to win all our home games and I’m confident we’ll deliver. Alex Song in central defence always scares me, but I’d surprised if he’s put under too much pressure tonight. That gives an opening for Coquelin or Frimpong. I’d opt with the Ghanain for power and pace. Though Coquelin’s composure probably suits the Champions League. It’ll be an interesting night!

The second Champions League home game, let’s tear the roof off the ground and build a bit of momentum heading into the game on Sunday!

How are you lining up tonight? What do you think of Tevez and his childish behaviour? Let us know in the comments!

P.S. I have 3 spares for Marseille next week and I have a number of singles floating around for tonight. E-mail for more info.

P.S. There are spares galore for tomorrow night and I have 3 going for Marseille next week. E-mail for details.

 

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Posted by Pedro

Jack’s out for the season and Robin refuses to sign a contract. Deja vu anyone?

September 27, 2011

You can also say deja vous before anyone says something! So this time last season we had Vermaelen out and Nasri in the last 2 years of his contract, I wonder if we have learned anything, this year we have Robin in Nasri’s position and Jack in Vermaelen’s, last season we were told Veramelen would be out for a few weeks and it ended up a season, we did nothing to replace him and won nothing, and contary to what the manager says, we weren’t even close.

Earlier this season we were told Jack will be out for September and now we are told 5 months, and we know that means all season. Why it takes that long is one of life’s little mysteries, I broke my arm in 8 places and was hitting golf balls 5 weeks later (badly) first of all I’m a lot older than he is, and he has the best surgeons money can buy.

So we have lost Nasri, Cesc and Jack, our entire first choice midfield last season, great and replaced them with whom? 29 year old Arteta.

Well Arsene, if you want to win anything this season you really need to go out and spend some serious money on some world class players because Vermaelen is out as well. Thing is January is still 3 months off, I fear for us, I really do, with the spuds coming up and in form, and with Ade in their team, we could get hammered this weekend.

Now let me talk about Robin, I would offer him an extension, but just an extension, as captain of our club he should sign it, if he doesn’t, leave it at that, by the time his current contract runs out he’ll be 30, and who buys 30 year olds (don’t say we do) so his sell on value will be low, I don’t think it’s worth bribing him to stay if it stops us signing a younger injury free player in his place, don’t get me wrong, I love Robin, but I’m sick of us throwing heaps at players to stay, I’m sick of players refusing to sign contracts and Robin is still a bit of a crock, so for me I would say sign this or we’ll leave it.

We should learn from this window, players like Young and Mata are worth pursuing, players like Park are not. We should go out in the window and sign a few players that will genuinly change our season, players like Hazard and Cahill will make a difference, sign them before someone else does, before we can’t afford them and before our season implodes once again.

Arsene Wenger said this yesterday ‘we paid a heavy price to knock Udinese out of the Champions League, that was very demanding for us’ Well who’s fault was that boss? Had we finished in the top 3 and not collapsed last season we wouldn’t have had to have played Udinese would we???

I love these excuses, all self inflicted and not a hint of blame attached. It’s like qualification was thrown at us and there was no choice.

I hope we play a team tomorrow that will form the nucleus of the team on Sunday and not a young team that will screw up and cost us, remember, we need to win this group otherwise we could be out before the window opens and have no hope of attracting top talent, maybe now we can get Goetze and Schweinsteiger as we now have a top German in the team, that would be neat wouldn’t it!

I would try a forward line of Chamberlain Robin and Gervinho and see what happens, I think it’s clear Park is a dud as he got taken off against Shrewsbury, but he never admits to buying a dud so maybe Park will make an appearance and we” all see why he was bought, you can fantasize all you want, but to be honest beating Spurs still means more to me than most I can think of so straws it is!

Finally on a sad note, a great, great friend of mine, a lifelong Gooner and season ticket holder died yesterday, my thoughts are with his family.

Another loyal fan that never got to see Wenger’s end game, Colin, at least you got to see us beat Bolton!

Have a great day today Grovers, tomorrow we are at home, I never said it was in Greece you liars, given the state of their economy let’s hope they don’t take any of our players hostage and take them back to Greece with them as we are at home! Arsene, get Squillaci and Chamakh on the bench!

P.S. There are spares galore for tomorrow night and I have 3 going for Marseille next week. E-mail for details.

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Posted by Geoff

Arsenal contract rebel solution | My banner for the Spurs game

September 26, 2011

It does have to be said, it’s marvellous waking up on a Monday not having to launch a Spanish inquisition into the weekends collapse.

We won!

Yesterday saw a return to form for Armani Traore… He managed to get himself sent off for a second bookable which had Neil Warnock declaring stupidity and heavy docking of wages. Accountability is top of the agenda in the lower reaches, every point is vital. I wonder how many weeks wages were docked from our boys when they picked up their reds recently?

The shame of today is that most of the back pages are dominated by Robin and what we’ve been telling you all summer about his potential departure. This will be a familiar pattern. When Theo has a blinder the press will talk about his deal, same for Song and the same for Vermaelen if he ever returns to the game.

They’re all down to the last year of their contracts come what May. They can all see the direction the club has been taking over the past 3 years, so understandably, they’re all going to be too busy to sit down and talk about deals. After all, they do train for a whole 8 hours a week.

This is why I was torn on the captaincy. Once again, the focus isn’t on how he’s playing it’s on whether he’s going to leave. That’s not stability and that’s not respecting the prestige of the arm band.

Now from what I can piece together the Dutchman is doing a great job. He’s brought back player meetings and social events. He’s also brought back the passion that should drive clubs. Remember Cesc saying the team didn’t do shouting? Remember Le Grove telling you the atmosphere was the same win, lose or draw? A thing of past if dancing in the changing rooms after the game is anything to go by…

The shame now is that I can understand why the players would want to go, we’re not a competitive vehicle for a career. If Arsenal can get £40mill for Robin, we’d be foolish to say no regardless of the length of contract. He’s a top player, but if he’s never fit he’s next to pointless anyway.

If our contract rebels don’t sign by Christmas, we need to assume they’re gone and we need to start making moves for their replacements sharpish. I’m calling this now because unlike Wenger, I can see what’s coming and I can see the excuses next September 1st.

‘We were not expecting them to leave, they gave me their word. In football, your word is your spirit and the spirit was good.’

I’m not quite sure how Robin not being from Barca has an effect on things. Hleb wasn’t from Barca, Flamini wasn’t from Milan and Nasri wasn’t from Manchester… blaming Barcelona for Cesc leaving is ridiculous and I don’t see why people keep sucking it up like it’s true. We had the long term contract, yet we flogged him on the cheap. Spurs, who don’t even pay well, stood strong on Modric and he’s there for another year.

One trump card Wenger does have this year is the European Championships. If he has any sense, he’ll employ negotiating tactics and bend some arms.

‘Theo, the deal is on the table, if you don’t want to sign, we’ll field AOC from Jan onwards. We’ve got to build for the future, if that’s not you, you’re a waste of an appearance fee. You can train with the reserves. See how Capello feels about you then.’

I’d do the same with the rest bar Robin because if a City deal is on the cards for him, we need to make sure he’s firing, he doesn’t have age on his side. We might as well use the 2nd half as a test run, at least then we’ll know if Frimpong and AOC are the real deal, if they’re not, we’ll buy Hazard and M’Villa.

Ferguson pulled a similar move on Rooney. He dropped him in it with the fans as he’d caught wind he was up to no good. The fans protested on his garden, he signed out of fear and was dropped for 10 games for messing around.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way…

Banner time…

So the Arsenal marketing department have developed this cool new app where you can design your own banner, you should have a go, I did, this is what I produced for next Sunday. Click to enlarge, print a copy and leave it on Spurs fans cardboard box this fine autumnal morning (Or send them this link to remind them of their shame)!

Funny because they sung it...

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Posted by Pedro

Theo Wal-crock, Robin Van Riot and that missing Arsenal spark… Ratings and Review

September 25, 2011

Song blast home for the winner!

It’s cliché to open with a cliché about yesterdays helping of football being a game of two halves. That’s not going to stop me though. It really was a totally mixed bag. The team was mostly massively changed from midweek. It was pretty much our first team from now until Christmas. The back 4 introduced Kieran Gibbs into the fold, the midfield was Rambo, Arteta and Song… the front three were Gervinho, Robin and Theo.

We found ourselves in trouble almost instantly, Gibbs guilty of casually ball watching from a cross was beaten to the ball by a Bolton head, Chesney had to fly across his goal acrobatically to claw the ball away. Not a great start from a defence that was yet to prove it could concentrate for longer than 16 seconds.

Gervinho had our best chance of the half down the other end, his perfect run was slipped in with a perfectly weighted Arteta pass, sadly a heavy touch towards the end of his gallop allowed Jussi to smother the ball.

Robin had a freekick opportunity. He was actually given two, he duffed his first one, standard these days, but due to wall encroachment (guess), he was afforded another crack at the whip. This time Arteta rolled the ball to him and his rasping left footed shop whistled narrowly past the post.

Our defence was creaking, Kieran Gibbs guilty of urgency fail. It’s like he doesn’t realise a game is going on sometimes. He was caught out a number of occasions the wrong side of the defence or a million miles away from his man. Chesney and Mertesacker were also having a bit of a nightmare with some very risky back passing. Twice the Pole put the German in a spot of bother with a casual pass. You know you’re in bad form when you’re putting yourself under pressure from goal kicks.

Overall our first half play was bereft of ideas, it lacked quality and you did wonder where the spark was going to come from. The sloppiness of play was something quite new to most Arsenal fans. Simple 8  yard passes weren’t finding there man. Gervinho and Theo both tried to force goals with speculative shots, both shooting over from distance. It was nice to see them having a go though…

The second half started and thank the lord I was so hungover I wasn’t in the atrium necking beer. Gervinho pulled off a lovely cut back in the middle of the park, he was crunched over, Ramsey picked up play and powered forward, he gave the ball to Robin on the edge of the box, he peeled out wide, launched into the box and fired inside Bolton’s near post. Oh and we roared!

Theo caused a lovely piece of controversy when he was played in through the middle by Ramdo, he ran across the front of Wheater, he was clattered like a freight train, and he went down. The ref had no choice but to award Wheater the red card. Ha. Ha. Ha. I hope the press label that clever play from Theo. I’m pretty sure Robin either fired the freekick 4 miles over or he fatted it like badly timed golf shot.

Robin was at the centre of a bit of a one man Royal Rumble. Robinson took one of his freekicks to his special area, which was pretty damn amusing, he was on the floor, but we continued to play, Theo taking advantage of the fact Robinson was playing everyone onside. Our shot eventually came off and we struck just wide. Then an argument kicked off because world-class sportsman Robinson was on the floor. Robin wasn’t having any of it, going after anyone in a Bolton shirt. What amazed me and summed up our team spirit was that no one from our team stepped in until Robin started pulling bits off the stand to fashion a shank. Eventually some of our players ran over and it was broken up. Superb stuff, the crowd broke into a chorus of ROBIN VAN PERSIE!

He was our hero.

We really started to open Bolton up, their 10 men were tiring from the pace of Theo and the absolute battering they were taking, Robin nearly made it two after connecting well from a Theo chip.

Zat Knight actually outpaced Gervinho to a ball, I’m sure I saw that happen. If anyone can confirm that I’d be pleased.

Theo finally landed himself on the assists board when he powered down the wing, cut in and crossed well enough for Robin to tap in for his 100th goal! Super stuff, the crowd went crazy, Robing Van Hero had secured the game and a fantastic milestone that took an age to get to!

We still had time to score one more, Alex Song created some space for himself on the edge of the box and picked out the top corner perfectly to complete our afternoon and continue our two game winning streak! The only sad bit of news was that Theo broke down with what looked like a hamstring injury. Honestly, I didn’t see that coming…

Conclusion…

A deserved win in the end against a team who are suffering almost as badly as us. We pulled ourselves out of a dreadful first half and delivered the home supporters 45 minutes of pure football value and we rose to 12th in the league! Hopefully the clean sheet and the return to goal scoring form from our captain will help spark us into action over the next few weeks. We have a relatively comfortable opportunity to extend our run midweek against Olympiacos, and then it’s the big one on Sunday. Spurs. Away. First North London Derby of the season.

This game is massive on many levels. I had a long and rambling debate with some football loving pals of mine last night and they were all conclusively of the mindset for the first time in 15 years, Spurs had a better starting 11 than us. I battled this point regardless of truth, but the frightening thing is, they do now have more players closer to world class than us. Do they have the team spirit? Do they have the discipline to keep the pace for 4th all season? We’ll see… everything this week is about that game though. As we’re all fully aware, form counts for nothing, but passion and fight does.

The main concern I have from today is spark. We have very little of it in our team at the moment. Most of our creative play was centred around Theo’s pace yesterday. We have very few players in our side who can step up to the plate and make things happen in the way Cesc could. Our movement was laboured at times and our know how redundant. We’re still an alien side and the boys have yet to find an effective way of working together.

Player Ratings

Chezzer: Made one world class save in the first half that prevented a relapse and possibly saved the game for us. His shoddy passing from goal kicks frustrated me, he has to be careful he doesn’t put us under pressure from goal. 6.5

Sagna: Some solid defending from probably our most consistent performer. Still needs to work on his crossing. 6.5

Mertesacker: Too many people are writing him off as a dud signing. That for me is grossly unfair. He’s from a slower league and he’s been here a month. Yesterday he looked far more settled and he did what every few of our centre backs have managed over the last ten years, kept Kevin Davies quiet. A solid game. 7

Kozzer: Solid game from the Frenchman who is desperately trying to recover confidence. I think he’ll come good and I like that he doesn’t let previous bad games linger. 7

Gibbs: I’m not a fan of the left back. He goes to sleep far too often and he’s certainly no upgrade on Clichy at the moment. He needs to switch on and he needs to be made aware of how exposed his dozy play leaves the rest of the backline. 5

Song: A solid game in the middle of the park and a fantastic goal right at the death. 7

Ramsey: I like Aaron, but he is far to generous with his wayward passing and he has a tendency to run up blind alleys. He shouldn’t really be getting this much game time, but we’re in the position we’re in, so we’ll have to deal with the inexperience. He needs to tighten up put a little more thought into his play. He works hard though and he’s a massive improvement on Denilson. 5.5

Arteta: I’m still struggling to work out Arteta. He makes things happen from the middle of the park but his pace of passing is so much slower than the last Spaniard’s. He keeps things ticking over and he is a strong player to have in the middle, not spark yet, I hope that comes. 7

Robin: A super display from a captain I feel is isolated by our system and the players we have in it. He took his chances well and inspired us to a win. Someone should really have a word about those freekicks. 8

Gervinho: A bit of an anonymous game from the Ivorian. 6

Theo: Infuriating, then fantastic. He’s not the most naturally gifted when it comes to the mental side of the game, football doesn’t look as natural as sprinting and you can tell that by some of his poor decisions. However, that pace devastates and he doesn’t stop plugging away down that wing. Full credit to him, another assist to his tally. Shame he also has another injury to add to his terrible record. Bring on the Ox! 7

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347 Comments | New Review | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

Wilshere out till Christmas, what about Vermaelen, what is wrong with our medics?

September 24, 2011

I find it absolutely bizarre that we can lose players for so long and not do anything about it when it’s happening at the time and before the window shuts, oh how could it have been had we signed Mata, Hazard and Cahill instead of Park, Yossi and Santos.

By that I mean that we lost Rosicky for nearly 2 years, lost Eduardo for a year, Ramsey for 9 months, Vermaelen for 13 months (so far) Djourou for over a year and God knows how long we’ve lost Robin and Gibbs for.

You can’t do anything about injuries I realise that, but surely we should look at replacing players when we know they are out for so long?

So why don’t our medical team tell the manager that we’ll be without players for long periods, or that there is a possibility that we may be without them and allow us to start a season with a full squad, then when the injured players return we’ll worry about who the best player is and what to do with them, I know we have squad sizes but we do have a lot of kids in there that could drop out if need be.

Anyway there’s nothing we can do now, but we should take on board this situation from January, if Vermaelen is now a crock then he needs replacing, I would with Cahill, but then I would have done that in May.

Let’s hope we see the Cahill of last season today, the one that got sent off, today won’t be easy, because no one will be easy and this team is pretty awful, so the best we can hope for is for the defence to try and play like they did in Dortmund, Mertesacker is a good player, never mind his speed, Tony wasn’t fast and nor is John Terry, he’ll come good, it’s the hopelessness surrounding him that bothers me.

Still what will we do today? This would be my shout.

Chezzer

Sagna Mertesacker Miquel Santos

Coquelin Ramsey Arteta

Oxo Robin Gervinho

I would give Oxo another go and keep Theo for Wednesday, this team ought to be enough to see Bolton off, It’s not that I think we are that bad (really), it’s we don’t have a clue how to play together yet, we will, of that there is no doubt and maybe today will see that happening.

Don’t forget last season we were short of three world class players, a centreback a DM and a goalscorer, then we sold Nasri and Cesc, neither of them have been replaced and we still need the three we needed last season, so why are we surprised at the results? I’m not.

Anyway keep ‘em crossed and keep the faith, let’s begin our season today!

Have a great day Grovers.

1,035 Comments | New Review | Permalink
Posted by Geoff

Coyle backs Wenger and says Cahill is still on. As is 4-4-2

September 23, 2011

So first things first, Owen Coyle has backed Arsene Wenger as one of the world’s best managers and for anyone to criticise him he says is madness, funny how managers always defend managers, like Wenger did last week, rarely do they have a pop, in fact outside of spats Maureen vs Wenger, Ferguson vs Benitez you never hear managers saying another one has got it wrong and deserves to be sacked.

That my friends is called sticking together, they all look out for themselves and their large pay packets, they all lurk in the same pond.

I mean there are plenty of ex-players running pubs with no money, but how many managers ever work again after getting fired? They go straight on a long holiday then get another lucrative job, or work for Sky Sports/Talk Sport.

Anyway it was great to hear Coyle saying Wenger would be back in for Cahill in January, shame really because if we had him now we may not be at the bottom of the league and we do have a habit of signing players too late, (Baptista/Chamakh) so we’ll see.

Peter Hill-Wood said through his favourite media mouthpiece that the suggested signing of Joey Barton was rubbish, this is what he said – ‘It’s not something the board heard about and if it was a serious proposition I certainly would have expected us to’

Why? You aren’t important and Arsene does what he wants, ask Ivan! Why on earth would he ask you???

It was interesting to see the boss saying he played 4-4-2 against Shrewsbury as Park and Chamakh are forwards, and it called for that formation, well that was productive wasn’t it!

Good to see he will at last entertain 4-4-2, I wish he would try it with Robin in the team, maybe a new and bolder formation is called for against Bolton, what about this? And it’s 4-4-2!

Chezzer

Sagna Mertesacker Miquel Santos

Oxo Arteta Ramsey Gervinho

Walcott Robin

I know what you’re thinking, no Song, Frimpong or Coquelin but I’m thinking two out and out wingers, two proper midfielders, two centre forwards and a lot of pace may just surprise Coyle and his team of cloggers (not Cahill of course)

Forget Park and Chamakh, they proved how lethal they are on Tuesday, if we are going to put a DM in there, I would swap Ramsey with Coquelin as he is the one that has impressed me so far this season, Song has upped his game because of Frimpong, Frimpong I like but he needs to curb his over zealousness, Coquelin looks the part and has a bit of zip to his game so for me he would get the nod.

We need to start winning games or by the time January comes it will be clear the only way we’ll get Champions League football again is to win it, and by then Cahill may opt for someone that he thinks will.

That’s it for today people, next up Bolton and hopefully a resounding win.

Have a lovely day, tomorrow we get another chance.

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528 Comments | New Review | Permalink
Posted by Geoff

A tale of two Arsenal posts. Are you a real fan or a plastic one. You decide.

September 22, 2011

Part one, for the realists - I would like to begin this post by rebuking Pedro for not mentioning Coquelin yesterday, shame on you, all the papers did. For the two bloggers that complained, I’m sorry that it ruined your life, I have asked Pedro to run all his match reports past me in the future and he will spend all day in the corner of a darkened room with his hands on his head, to the other, when a comment starts off with ‘Dude’ I stop reading it, ‘Dude’ is only used by American B actors and nerds.

So I read with interest that Joey Barton would have joined us had he not got Gervinho sent off as Wenger was in talks, two things, Joey that will learn you, never upset one of Wenger’s favourites and it shows what a plank you are if it were that close, so I’m glad you screwed up.

However, he is the sort of no nonsense player this team could have done with and if Wenger was indeed talking, he must have realised it too so why on earth did he stop looking?

This is that time of the year, when we find out all the players we could have had because we were talking to them, ho hum, still at least after the Shrewsbury game Wenger has to see that we need a Djourou replacement, surely his 32 years of coaching experience can see that.

Gibbs the 19 year old well paid perma-crock has said the players are 100% behind the manager, there’s a surprise, sounds like John Terry with the last 4 Chav managers, name me a player that ever comes out and says the players think the manager has had it?

Someone said yesterday that we we are always on Wenger’s back, well that’s me actually, I’m on his back because he refuses to see the obvious, we have a rubbish defence and have had for 4 years, yes I rate Oxo and he will be a great player, but what we needed was a defence, at this rate next season we’ll lose Robin, Theo and Jack, then what? We need to address these defensive issues and that’s down to the manager, you can’t complain then walk away, he needs to act, the lowest crowd at the Emirates on Tuesday proves I’m not the only unhappy camper.

As for Gazidas and his interview, well we never said Wenger was an idiot, we said he wasn’t an economist, the fact that Gazidas has come out and defended him says more to me than keeping quiet, I like Wenger, but he runs an autocracy and will not be told, that’s not a good trait, and if no one stands up to him, we won’t finish in the top 4, he’ll go and then we are years away from being the club he thought he built.

The whole point of us standing up to him is to try and force change, Ivan come on here and let me tell you what is wrong, Brian Clough was a genius in his day, he won the lot with Forest, but then he lost it too, the board wouldn’t stand up to him and he took them down to a place they can’t escape from now, let that be a warning, every manager has his day, unless of course you are a Manc, but then Ferguson knows what you have to do to win titles consistently, you need to keep improving your team and freshen up your coaching staff periodically.

Gibbs said, ‘we make one mistake and it’s a goal’ Really? Then don’t worry about it, it’s not your fault.

Part two, for the people that have supported Arsenal since 1996 – I enjoyed watching us tear Shrewsbury a new one on Tuesday and thought Djourou was really unlucky, had he jumped for that cross he may have stopped that goal, but he probably thought the other guy wouldn’t head it.

Same problem on Saturday, I would hardly call them own goals, more ball to foot, it could have happened to anyone, I mean we scored six goals and they only got two, so really we won.

Ivan Gazidas said anyone calling Arsene an idiot is damaging football, he’s right, the way some of these morons go on you would think that Arsenal had been going for 125 years or something. Thing is, if people keep calling Arsene names the English Premier League is in danger of collapsing. Be careful what you wish for chumps, we may end up with a Maureen or someone.

I can’t believe the press are reporting we only had 45,000 at the Shrewsbury game, don’t those parasites listen to the announcer, ha, ha they probably weren’t even there.

As for the Manc game, people it was a one off, they only had 8 shots, yes I know that was 6 more than we had but we had suspensions and injuries, and we had a young team out, okay I know they had a younger team but there was no one in it that was better than we had, Arsene said he would only buy a player if he was better than we had, he didn’t, Ashley Young won’t have another game like that and I’m sure he lies about being a Gooner.

Gibbs said, ‘we make one mistake and it’s a goal’ So there you have it, that’s the reason, get off Arsene’s back and stop damaging football.

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Posted by Geoff

Arsenal: The 19 game analysis

September 22, 2011

Before Geoff comes on this morning, we have a guest post from blog resident Gambon. It outlines the massive challenge we have ahead of us if we’re going to pull ourselves out of this crisis.

19 Game Analysis…

I thought you may be interested in a little analysis I have looked at concerning Arsenal’s current position. It makes pretty grim reading, and in my opinion shows that we are not experiencing a ‘blip’ as a lot of fans have convinced themselves, but that we have a real long-term problem.

As you know I am not a Wenger fan, but this isn’t intended to be a slight on him, however I think the facts point out that right now we are being very, very badly run.

I have analysed our half season form, which is pretty significant. In any statistical analysis a sample size of 50% is certainly enough to give genuine insight into a long-term trend. I have looked at the performance of all 17 teams in the PL that have played both this and last season, to make it fair. So this is the last 19 games for all teams:

League Table (Games & Points)

1- Man Utd – 41
2- Man City – 39
3- Chelsea – 37
4- Everton – 34
5- Liverpool – 33
6- Spurs – 30
7- Aston Villa – 27
8- Wolves – 26
9- Fulham – 26
10- Newcastle – 25
11- Wigan – 25
12- Stoke – 24
13- West Brom – 24
14- Arsenal – 23
15- Bolton – 19
16- Blackburn – 16
17- Sunderland – 15

Goal Difference

1- Man Utd (+26)
2- Man City (+23)
3- Liverpool (+14)
4- Chelsea (+13)
5- Everton (+11)
6- Aston Villa (+4)
7- Wolves (+4)
8- Fulham (+4)
9- Spurs (+2)
10- Newcastle (-1)
11- Stoke (-2)
12- Wigan (-5)
13- West Brom (-6)
14- Arsenal (-6)
15- Bolton (-8)
16- Blackburn (-10)
17- Sunderland (-13)

Interestingly these tables are fairly correlated, suggesting we havent just been getting unlucky, we aren’t scoring enough goals in comparison to what we concede, and vice versa….and many of these games were in our ‘easy run in’.

We have all known our defence is weak for a long time, but how weak has it been over half a season? This is worrying.

Goals conceded:

1- Chelsea (18)
2- Man City (18)
3- Man Utd (19)
4- Everton (20)
5- Liverpool (20)
6- Aston Villa (23)
7- Stoke (23)
8- Fulham (24)
9- Newcastle (25)
10- Spurs (28)
11- Wigan (29)
12- Wolves (30)
13- Blackburn (32)
14- Bolton (34)
15- West Brom (34)
16- Arsenal (34)
17- Sunderland (36)

This shows us that we aren’t just struggling, we are literally one of the worst teams in the league defensively.

Finally I have looked at league position in comparison to wage spend. So many fans talk about how Arsene works wonders financially and bemoan the unfair financial doping that goes on, well let’s see if that’s true. I have ranked every team in terms of the differential when you compare their annual wage bill with their league position, to show who is under achieving and who is over achieving financially. For example if a club was 3rd in wage bill spend and 7th in the PL their score would be -4, if the wage bill was 12th and they were 3rd they would be +9.

Wage Spend vs Position:

1- Wolves (+8)
2- Everton (+5)
3- West Brom (+4)
4- Wigan (+4)
5- Stoke (+2)
6- Man Utd (+2)
7- Newcastle (+1)
8- Fulham (+1)
9- Spurs (+1)
10- Man City (0)
11- Aston Villa (-1)
12- Liverpool (-1)
13- Bolton (-2)
14- Chelsea (-2)
15- Blackburn (-4)
16- Sunderland (-9)
17- Arsenal (-9)

This highlights 2 things. Firstly, that we as a club, and Wenger, are certainly not performing well financially. Secondly, that we aren’t even close….we are miles off of everyone bar Sunderland over a 7 month period.

I think it’s massively significant that we are right at the bottom of every table of the last 19 games. And to those who say it is inaccurate, well the rest of the league looks fairly in line with what you would expect (It has to be said Moyes continues to be proved a very good manager).

I have noticed a lot of fans saying “we are now competing with Liverpool & Spurs” etc. Well on the basis of 19 PL games, 7 months, half a season, we are not even close to competing with them. We are competing with West Brom, Bolton, Wigan at the foot of the table. We shouldn’t go down, as the promoted clubs, and clubs like Sunderland & Blackburn will take the bottom spots, but make no mistake, over a fairly large sample size we are in the 11-16 bracket as nothing more than an average club, the only difference being we have a £120m wage bill, and the best paid manager in the PL on £7m pa.

I hope this opens some fans eyes up to the fact that we may not be able to afford to wait til January/May to evaluate where we are as a club. If we can underperform so enormously for our last 19 games, there’s absolutely no reason we cant do it for the next 19 games, especially when our poor form has seemingly accelerated in the latter half of these games (our last 9 games have been much worse than our first 9/10 in this run).

As an aside, i would comfortably predict no-one in power at the club (IG or SK) actually know these stats or understands the significance of them), if they did I don’t think there would even be a decision to make.

Heres to the forlorn hope that we will see some change and kick on this weekend with a much needed victory.

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106 Comments | Guest Post | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

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