So after what feels like 16 weeks without football, we’re out the other end gearing up for a what I’m hoping will be a thrilling return to football. Swansea head on over, brimming with naive new team enthusiasm, whilst our squad turn up hoping to banish the demons of the Manchester United spanking they were served up a few weeks ago.
This is a big game for us. We need to show there is form without Cesc and Nasri. We need to pull ourselves together, gel quickly and get this season back on the road.
On the injury front, Rosicky is a doubt with a knee injury. We’re missing, Wilshere, Diaby, Ryo, Vermaelen, Squillaci, Song, Gervinho, and Jenkinson.
So, that gives me the task of picking out a side I have, in the main, never seen before!
Chezzer
Sagna Mertesacker Koscielny Gibbs
Frimpong Arteta Benayoun
Arshavin Robin Theo
It really is too tough to call.I’m not sure where I see him playing Benayoun. From memory, he plays very well just in the hole. Will he elect for Arshavin when he’s in such dire form, or will he slip Park in there (he must be available if he’s not listed as otherwise on the site)? I’m not even sure he’ll play the same system he has been. From the stats, we know Arteta creates plenty of chances, but enough to replace Cesc’s vision? I’m not so sure. Either way it’s going to be interesting!
I think I’m most excited to see how Mertesacker slots into the side. How dominant can he be in the penalty box? How quickly will he take control of what we’re doing at the back? I think he’ll compliment the pace and attacking style of Koscielny, but he really does need to make sure he leads on marking and organising. We’ve got 3 players in that back line who have an aversion to talking to each other.
In the middle, I have no worries about Frimpong getting sent off today. The game isn’t intense enough. This is a good chance for him to get his positioning in order. Robin and Theo could have a field day out there. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of the Englishman cutting inside and using his pace to burn Swansea’s green back 4.
Wenger…
The coach was in a chatty mood yesterday, he reckons he could write a book about the summer he’s just had and he says it was more difficult than we imagine. From what I gather, he’s referring to the fact that we were hardballed by both City and Barcelona. They forced the transfers to take as long as they did by not offering what we wanted by a long shot from the start. Now, I can understand us waiting it out for Samir as that was an important deal to force through. I still don’t understand why we were in a situation where we couldn’t have taken more control with Barcelona.
‘It’s like in a company. When you’re half-in and half-out, it’s not as good as if you’re complete in. That happened at the start of the season.’
A very true statement. I’m not sure I’d want to be going into the season with a massively unhappy captain, we’ve seen first hand what that’s done for Spurs. At the same time though, I’m not happy Barcelona are telling the world they landed a great deal. It’s a touch embarrassing that we were out haggled when the power resided with us.
I find Wenger’s insistence that he couldn’t sign players before the last 24 hours a bit strained as well. Hardly any of the reasons made sense. He claims that he could only move late on Park and Santos when he knew Traore and Nik B were leaving. Why? Neither signing raised any sort of substantial revenue. He knew both were going all summer. Why couldn’t Park and Santos have been picked up early in the season? The most interesting part was what I told you the other day about the Vermaelen injury…
‘I knew as well that Vermaelen would have surgery the week before Manchester United so we needed to buy a centre-back.’
It’s unbelievable that Wenger would have gone into the next three months without a new centre back if TV hadn’t picked up a new injury. We were all sitting there wondering if Wenger would rue the mistake not to sign Cahill, instead he sits there and tells us Mertesacker was the response to the problem! Unbelievable really. He had no intention of improving the defence this summer.
‘Of course I’m not the only one who controls things [in this situation]. It’s the clubs who buy, the players as well, the determination of the players, because they change sometimes their mind as well.’
The above point was also interesting. One would assume our constant dithering on salaries and fees is the coaches reference point. As far as I’m aware, Alvarez and Mata were down to our cock ups and as we’ve reported before, flapping around in January is what cost us Phil Jones. I was also party to a very amusing story about another one of our transfer ‘nearly’ cock ups for a certain young player that I’ll tell you if ever join me for a pre-match beer.
Lessons need to be learnt this summer. A review of what went wrong and why it went wrong needs to be conducted so the board don’t make the same mistakes next season. It doesn’t happen at other clubs in the main and it shouldn’t be happening at ours. We also need to review how these contract problems keep happening to us. How many more players are we going to allow into their last year before we start tackling it? Remember, Theo, Robin, Song and Vermaelen could all find themselves in Nasri’s situation next summer. 60% of our outfield starting line up could be gone in a year. Not good.
Comments section…
The season is well underway now, the excitement of the window is behind us, so I’d like to take a few sentences to remind people that the comments section of Le Grove is probably one of most read in the Arsenal blogosphere, generally because the views that are expressed back and forth are interesting and well thought out.
I meet people out who tell me they watch the comments all day. The Grover’s who post are of huge importance to the ongoing success as a blog, some of you have been dropping regular comments for the full four years. Now, some of the comments have been getting out of hand lately, the comments section is not a free for all. Please remember you are in a public arena and think about what you post. Have an opinion by all means, just don’t lower the tone. It’s a football forum, keep it about Arsenal, save you slurs for the opposition. I see you all as friends, the last thing I want to do is stop people enjoying themselves on the site…
Support today…
First game of September is today, I’m excited, you’re excited, the new players will be nervous. Lets put on a great show and a massive two fingers up to Samir Nasri… let’s tear the roof off the ground and forget the past 3 months. There’s a real sense of renewed hope. We’ve got experience, we’ve got some class in and for me, the only way is forward!
Follow us on Facebook, subscribe to our daily e-mail or catch us on Google+!
Dont be so insensitive incesc. Theres 2 sides to every coin. Gyan probably moved for millions of good reasons.
its amazing how dale can write such a long post and say nothing at all of any interest
no offence dale.
arteta in a holdong role?
Ricky,
Klitschko beat the shit out of him, Adamek tried to do some damage, if only he was about a foot taller…
Jesus Dale! I hope you arent expecting us to read all of that.
A certain ex Arsenal 70′s legend speaks to the guy who sits next to me every week, thinks Rambo is affected by the injury & we’re finish 7th or 8th
dale was right. arteta in an attacking role rather than playing deep. I must admit after seeing frimpong today i was wrong…..song is far more superior at the moment
please dont stu for your own good
dale is american…
They are professional sports men Keyser not ayatollahs so we should ‘judge’ them with the same standards as we would ourselves or other professional for that matter. Sometimes, it does appear that they are victims of labelling by ‘moral entrepreneurs’. Now if you said Joey cunty Barton then we I’ll endorse whatever stone you throw at him…
Oh…american…ew.
Radio Raheem – Don’t really get what you mean.
I say good luck to Gyan, I find it funny that anyone would moan about it in leagues over here because the sporting side has been marginalised by money anyway, considering the wealth we’ve seen ploughed into the league here.
So incesc tell me what is wrong with moving for more money? Is this not a justifiable motivation? Please explain.
He is a footballer with a short career span. He has probably done more for his family, village and other charitable works than you can dream of in your lifetime. Don’t be too hasty Judge Incesc, things might not be what they seem eh!
hey man i do a lot for my village, dont judge me
Doublegooner – Through a medium ?!
They’d be able to tell if it’s affecting him stamina wise, think its far too early to tell if it’s just confidence and so on.
Looking back at match of the day.
The Van persie turn and shot was good, hit the post like normal to.
Arshavins throughball for Walcott was good, bit unlucky with the shot and the move for Chamakhs header including Ramsey’s pass was quality.
What don’t you get Keyser? I find it hypocritical and downright wrong when people cast aspersions on footballers who move for money, especially, when you live in the West.
incesc I said ‘probably’ you donut I can tell you are a village man – Chief Jaffa Juffu
keyser
while we are being positive
at the game arteta looked great
great eye for a pass, always puts the ball in the right place to carry on the momentum
if he can do it for 90 mins twice a week its a good piece of business and a partner for jack
Radio Raheem – Cast aspersions ? Live in the west ? I’d probably cast the same aspersions if I lived in the East to.
Thought that would be the case suga..
Adamek isn’t the biggest of light heavies so to step up to the HW division against any of the klits is almost an impossible task.. I do like adamek tho, i think he would stand a better chance fighting fighters like haye or chagev..
…and you would be wrong Keyser
Boxing? GTFO!
Nah, Keyser is never wrong. Dont you know anything Radioman?
Yes stu,
Between ricky & suga3, not ricky, suga & stu…
Ricky,
IMO, Adamek would absolutely murder Haye…
Radio Raheem – Mate, if Gyan refuses to earn more than any of the villagers he grew up with and shares his wealth out accordingly and does his utmost to improve the balance between the classes, I’ll admit I was wrong.
incesc – He’s a good player, it’s getting them to work together like that for the full 90 now.
We’re ages away from seeing them completely gel, thing is it’s going to get pretty dark pretty soon if they don’t and the fans are already on the players backs.
It’s why I’m upset about the Protest being cancelled, the doomers are seething they need to be seen to be doing something to appease the rabid blog contingent.
That brand of socialism you suggest is just as unworkable as extreme capitalism, Keyser. Even the staunchest most extreme socialist wouldn’t dare make such suggestion comrade Keyser. I say this as a critic of capitalist systems.
Not too sure about that suga,
Adamek is a straight forward type of fighter, he’s there to be hit. He’s boxing skills are less superior to haye’s..
Although i think haye is overrated he has better head movement then any of the other hw’s & he has lightning quick speed for a big guy… It would be a real good fight no doubt but i personally would put my money on haye beating adamek by knockout or tko.
Ricky,
Haye is massively overrated, the only reason he came out of the ring on his own legs against Klitschko was that he just kept running away from him throughout the bout…
Blimey, this is turning into a socal commentary. Where is Kwik with some music?
Gnarley,
When football gets too depressing i fall back to my other favourite hobby which is boxing cos there’s no personal attachment to any of the fighters like there is with supporting a football team.
Guess i’ll be watching alot of boxing this season. lol
You all forget Gyan is on loan. Its the same contract as he is on at sunderland. Whether he goes to qatar, japan, usa, france or the conference league doesnt matter-it just means someone other than sunderland are paying those same wages for him
if true, the person who sanctioned loaning out Gyan and bringing in Aryan Pele deserves a sack…
Well Ricky sit back & watch how a kid from Launceston went to Germany the other day & came back home the Champ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmEFY7vU7Uw&feature=related
where is kwik fit with the gayness?
87
for that loan someone (agent) made millions, some/half of that millions went to him
Good point 87g (but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t some sign-on fee to entice him)…I guess the reaction on here shows what can happen when there is incomplete information (or information asymmetry).
Anyway it’s past my bedtime. Buenos noches grovers
keyser
why didnt you protest?
you should do a protest against the doomers for not protesting
too fat
thats not gonna float now we know your a veggie
excuses…
87gooner it doesn’t work like that. When a player goes on loan his contract doesn’t always stay the same – he often negotiates a brand new wage level paid to him by the loaning club.
When Kerrea Gilbert went to Posh he negotiated a contract with the club, and although Posh offered him double what he was on with us he originally demanded even more.
Whether it’s himself or his agent Gyan has sacrificed any professional ambition he might have had because of greed.
He already earns enough money that he’s never going to have to think about money for the rest of his life, but those around him who get a cut have managed to engineer a move for him.
A,
get off your high horse, when one is employed by a company which is not going places and another of of the same sort comes calling, but at least offers much more money, what else is there to do?
Biggest puzzle of this season. Wenger was at a Coaching convention in Switzerland during the last two days of the transfer window.
What does that mean?
Just watched highlights (if they can be called that) of the game. All Newsnow is awash with “Arsenal kickstart their season”, “the season starts here” says Wenger, “it’s a new starts” says Ramsey etc. etc.
Does anyone else have a horrible nagging feeling this is simply another rogue W in a sequence of Ds and Ls that stretches back a long long way. I know we have a run of winnable games now and the new players could indeed bring the spark that the manager has mentioned… COULD.
But ultimately if the squad was flat and bereft of ideas before it’s because it had been allowed to decay unchecked for the last 3 seasons with critical amputations at inopportune moments when every transfer window could have seen one or two players bought in to strategically strengthen and every time we waited in vain. Wenger often mentions these character pitfalls present in the squad – the lack of experience, the inability to function in big games, the inability to get over the finish line when winning comfortable – as though he’s watching someone else’s team and he’s dispassionately dissecting it. It’s your team Wenger, your character faults and your inherent weaknesses.
For me the refusal to sign a defender last January is as criminal as the refusal to sign a DM for the last 4 years to challenge Song, a keeper to replace Almunia, or a back-up striker when we faced Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool in consecutive games in January 2010 with Arshavin playing as a lone striker. These are decisions made by a willful optimist who simply refuses to accept that players get injured more playing his style of football and apparently using his medical team.
What is of course more likely is he simply doesn’t have the money to cope with the challenge after what was a suicidal policy to reward obscenely large salaries for potential rather than achievement (though in the case of Almunia it was neither).
A little score and win is good in this condition. AW should concern the players more than his hidden temptation style and formation that may be happened in the last month of this season ,the fisrt of all is win and win( ugly win is good more than stupid lose like 8-2), the second is built the team confident Theo is not good in sharp, Ramsy is too slow and useless ,KG loss of the position and AA is little big and fat. Today,the AW’s kindness is destroy the good player more than built the player. AW should told the players to play the simple not too much complicated passing that make troble more than fantastic play . Back to the basic is the good in this condition.
All you miserable bastards just have a look at our next summer signing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqOlFMjScGs
morning chaps,
our only hope to get any thing this season, is to try to keep the distance not far away from the top until december, then sack arsene, appoint a new manager, bring in de rossi, mertesaker, cahill, hazard and a new striker, off load chamakh, squillaci, rosicky, diaby (maybe song too)….
then we can hope for a massive second half of the season
sorry but what we have surely isn’t a CL ticket material, let alone true title challengers…..
I have just read comments I made yesterday.
In the cold light of day my comments at 2.38 were out of order!
The comment was made as banter but I appreciate that it does not read as such.If I have caused any offence can I offer my sincerest
apology.
Lurch/Rohan/incesc you guys are the best!
NEW POST!