The Arsenalternative

Implications of Arsenal's Deadline Day Acquisitions

2013-09-03T03:19:00.000-05:00

Wenger: Maybe we’ll have a good surprise for you.

It seemed to take forever but we've finally spent and spent big this summer! In typical Arsenal fashion, we've left it late again and brought in two players on Transfer Deadline Day.

No, not Manuel Almunia but Emiliano Viviano

The first of which, is Emiliano Viviano on a season long loan from Palermo with a view to a permanent deal in the future. I remember Wenger trying to do a deal to get him from Palermo last year but he ended up at Fiorentina on loan instead. There, he made 32 appearances with 11 clean sheets to show for his efforts. While this isn't the marquee goalkeeper signing I was saying would be good for the club and for Szczesny, it does have its positives.

He is still a relatively young goalkeeper who is arguably on par with Szczesny and Fabianski. While he will provide some good competition for both Poles, they will also provide competition for him. Looking in hindsight, had a keeper of Casillas' ilk been signed, perhaps he'd easily walk into the first team and have had no challenge from Messrs Szczesny and Fabianski. It could have probably led to complacency on his part somewhere down the line. With three goalkeepers on pretty much the same level, they'll all keep each other honest.

Going into deadline day, it was a general consensus amongst Arsenal fans everywhere that the most crucial signing that the club needs is a back up center half. Incidentally, none was signed and while it seems risky business, I can perhaps see Arsene Wenger's reasoning behind it. Think back to 2010 when we signed Sebastien Squillaci. It was a signing that seemed to check the boxes for all the qualities we looked for in a center back: tall, physical, tasted cup success with his previous club, capped at the international level. So where did it go wrong? Well, in his time at Arsenal, Squillaci became what I like to term a "cold defender".

He'd spent so much time sitting on the bench that he'd lost his momentum, match sharpness and perhaps even his motivation, watching others playing all the time while he found it difficult to get into the first eleven. As a result of this, whenever he was chosen for the odd game due to someone being ineligible due to an injury or suspension, his performance was usually riddled with errors.

I think Wenger chose to avoid this happening again by not signing a back up center back. Instead, he felt that Sagna and Flamini would suffice as cover for the backline. Sagna has done exceptionally well when asked to fill in centrally and Flamini was always well respected as the best utility player at the club during his first stint with us. He was quite adept at playing in the full back roles. With his choice to use both players, he does not have a cold defender coming in. He'll have an option that will have been playing regularly enough to not have their match sharpness wane. This is just what I think Wenger's line of reasoning is anyway.

The other signing we made, and perhaps the biggest of the day (since Bale's signing was of course made official a day before) was the capture of Mesut Özil for a club record fee of £42.5 million on a five year contract from Real Madrid. He becomes the first player we've signed since Bergkamp in 95 who comes with a "World Class" reputation attached to his name. It is seen as a massive signal of intent by the club. About Özil, Wenger said:

Mesut Özil

“We are extremely pleased to have signed Mesut Ozil. He is a great player, with proven quality at both club and international level. We have watched and admired him for some time as he has all the attributes I look for in an Arsenal player.

“I have said throughout the summer that we have been working hard to bring in top quality players to this football club. This has involved many many people across the Club and I have always had the full support of the Club in making decisions on the football side.

“Mesut is a top quality footballer who will be a fantastic addition to our talented squad. We are all looking forward to him joining up with us after his international matches with Germany and working with us as an Arsenal player.”

From his quotes, it seems the deciding factor for Özil was the opportunity to work with Arsene Wenger. Of the move, the German says:

“I am thrilled to be joining a club of the stature of Arsenal and am looking forward to playing in the Premier League. It will be great for my own personal development as a player and I am particularly looking forward to working with Arsène Wenger.

“From our negotiations it is clear the Club has huge ambition and I look forward to being part of an exciting future.”

This transfer will have massive implications for the club. It's the first established world class player to join us while in his prime and you get the feeling it will only influence other players of a similar ilk to join us in future transfer windows. Something about it reminds me of when Manchester City signed Robinho in 2008. The fact that a high profile player went to a club who had previously struggled to attract players of that calibre, made other players in his class realise that the club had ambitions of achieving major success and they wanted to be apart of that.

What we didn't get though, was a striker. I am pretty disappointed but this was more to do with gamesmanship by Chelsea than anything else. We had made an offer to loan Demba Ba for a fee of £1.5 million, however, The Blues wanted £3 million. They later mentioned that while they're not forcing him out of the club, they have no problems with granting him a permanent move away from Stamford Bridge. They said a ~~fictional~~ club that they wouldn't name had come in with an offer to buy but he'd rather play Champions League football and this club could not offer it, ~~because of course, they don't exist~~. With just over 2 hours left before the deadline, they then made it clear they do not want to loan him to us because they don't want him going to a rival. Why I think this is gamesmanship on their part is if they'd felt that way, why didn't they say this right from the get go? Why string us along and have us spending our time negotiating with them when perhaps we could've gone and sought another striker elsewhere? Why leave it til when it was too late for us to broker a deal with another club for a striker, to tell us they're not keen on the move? Why other than the fact that it was their strategy to keep us from signing a striker, because they know we mean business this season and this was a tactic employed out of fear?

With these two signings, our team could now look like this:

Szczesny

Sagna Mertesacker Koscielny Gibbs

Arteta Ramsey/Wilshere

Özil

Walcott Giroud Podolski/Cazorla

Bench: Viviano/Fabianski, Jenkinson, Vermaelen, Wilshere/Ramsey, Flamini, Cazorla/Podolski, Sanogo

Out of squad: Monreal, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Bendtner, Park

This is a side that can now challenge for the title. What do you think?

Wenger Continues Search Around Clock For Signings While Transfer Deadline Day Looms

2013-08-31T23:05:00.003-05:00

Well, it's that time of the year again. I'm writing this 1 day and 21 hours before the transfer window slams shut. Arsenal fans the world over are no doubt worrying about said window slamming shut on Arsene Wenger's fingers. He, on the other hand, must be the calmest man on the planet as he doesn't seem the least bit worried about whether he gets the players his squad needs. Whether that's because he has a fool proof plan in place to get his targets or it's just down to his naivete is up in the air. It's hard to tell with him as he is easily the most enigmatic character in all of world football when asked about transfers in the summer. He's gone on record earlier this summer stating that he believes his current crop of players are good enough to challenge for the Premiership title. In another breath, he says Arsenal are in the market for players and are searching around the clock for the right additions to the team - that any player he signs has to be better than those currently at the club. Given this last statement, you have to wonder if the clock he's searching around might be Big Ben!

I'm very pleased with the talent we have at our disposal. I believe though that unless we make a number of signings in the 1 day, 20 hours and 41 minutes (yes I'm counting, how is it that you aren't?) remaining in the window we'll come up shorter than Andrey Arshavin trying to ride a roller coaster at Six Flags, in terms of winning anything this season. Our squad is simply just too small to survive the rigors of playing the over 60 games teams that win silverware at the end of seasons usually play. So I've tried to work out what positions we actually need to sign players in and who we should turn to in order to fill these gaps:

In Goal
We currently only have two relatively experienced goalkeepers on our books at the moment. Conventionally, teams should look to have three. When you consider that Lukasz Fabianski is pretty injury prone for a goalkeeper, the need to have three becomes more pressing. Wojciech Szczesny is obviously our Number 1 but I believe if we sign an experienced goalkeeper it would only do him a world of good. At 23 years old, Szczesny is still, in goalkeeping terms, a child in the game. I think Szczesny will be a world class goalkeeper someday but he has a few errors in his game he needs to sort out. Sign someone who's already been there, done that and worn the T shirt and Szczesny could learn a lot from him. It would also help to keep him on his guard as he'll know that if he wants to keep his spot in the starting eleven he can't slack off as someone is always lurking and waiting to take his spot away. Remember it happened last season with him being benched for Fabianski, until Lukasz hurt his shoulder.

I'd like to see us make a move for either Iker Casillas or Julio Cesar. We could easily get Casillas on loan since he's still being asked to warm the bench despite Mourinho's exit. Cesar, on the other hand, is still stuck at Loftus Road with Queens Park Rangers and needs to be in the limelight with a top club if he wants to keep his starting spot in the Brazil team. This is a World Cup year after all!

Iker Casillas

Julio Cesar

Defence

We started the season with only two fit defenders: Mertesacker and Koscielny. For a club like Arsenal, this is utterly unacceptable. Sagna has deputised well at center half but I hate seeing players being asked to play positions other than their natural ones if not necessary. You may say with Vermaelen out injured it was necessary but how can it be when we've had all this money at our disposal all summer long? We have Gibbs and Monreal at left back and should both pick up an injury, we have Vermaelen who could do a job there when he returns from injury, if required. At right back we have Sagna, who is always consistent and full of energy. We also have Jenkinson, who has developed leaps and bounds in that role. If both are injured, we don't really have another player who we could ask to play there, unless you're gonna look to Flamini or Ramsey. Since we desperately need a center back and we could do with someone who could play at right back in an emergency, why not go after Micah Richards at Man City?

Micah Richards

On The Wing
Podolski has a three month lay off with a hamstring injury and The Ox is out for a few more weeks. Our only option at left wing at the moment is Santi Cazorla. I feel the same about him playing on the wing as I do about Sagna at center half. He does a good job there but why not utilise him in his best position and actually use our money to sign someone else? Why not Angel Di Maria? Surely with Bale's imminent arrival he'll have far less playing time at Madrid, right? He's said he wants to stay but Madrid will be looking to offset the cost of Bale's world record transfer fee and I'm sure they'll listen to any offers they can get for anyone they might deem surplus to requirement. If Florentino Perez wants you gone there's a high chance you'll have to give in to his wishes and leave, regardless of whether you want to stay and try to fight for your place in the team. Like I've mentioned with the goalkeepers earlier, this is a World Cup year and no one wants to sit twiddling their thumbs all season and end up missing out on a place in their respective nations' teams at next summer's tournament. I'm sure Di Maria will be reconsidering once Bale's protracted transfer becomes reality.

Angel Di Maria

On the other hand, what's going on with Juan Mata at Chelsea? Since Mourinho's arrival he's hardly played at all for them. Couldn't we also tempt them, with all the money we have, to sell him? The whole not wanting to miss out on the World Cup definitely applies to him as well, especially since he plays for the hardest team to break into. I'd definitely take a punt on him!

Juan Mata

Up Top
If we want to mount a serious challenge for the title against the likes of Chelsea, and the Manchester sisters this season, one striker who'll bag you roughly 20 goals is just not good enough. We have Podolski who could come in at center forward should Giroud get injured but he's hardly played there at all since leaving Cologne. I could also mention Walcott there but while he's improved as a striker, I think he should stay in the wide right position. This is because if we use him in that role too often he'll easily be found out by other defenders. Sanogo is one of our two signings so far but from the little he's played he still looks raw. Every new player to the Premiership needs time to adjust to its pace. While this is what's happening to him at the moment, I think it's fair to say that a more experienced striker will find the adjustment period a bit shorter than Sanogo is. After all, he is only 20 and still learning the game.

My prediction is we might make a bid for Benzema but that would just be ridiculous. On deadline day, there's only a snowball's chance in hell that Madrid will sell their only experienced center forward with virtually no time to replace him. We'll then look a lot closer to home and perhaps take Fernando Torres on loan. With Samuel Eto'o arriving at Stamford Bridge, Torres has been pushed down the pecking order and might decide to go somewhere else for regular playing time. I could definitely see him on Arsenal.com holding up our kit on Tuesday morning. Keep in mind, we do seem to like knocking on Chelsea's door on deadline day. In the past we've signed Gallas, Diarra and Benayoun from them on this day and I don't see any reason for us not to go to them this year given how many signings they've made and how many players there are becoming concerned about their role in the team.

Fernando Torres

With all these players I've listed, I'm pretty sure we'd have a strong enough squad to not only challenge for the Premiership this season but also go very deep into the cup competitions. I'm just a guy who watches way too much football from his television and I've identified six players who could easily give our squad the quality it has needed for such a long time. Why can't Wenger find them too? Why does he insist he won't sign anyone unless he finds exceptional quality? Again, is it because he's literally looking around the clock for them? There's only 1 day, 19 hours and 29 minutes to go til the window slams shut. Tick tock, Arsene, tick tock.

Arsenal 6-1 Southampton: Saints Desecrated

2012-09-16T07:21:00.002-05:00

Well, what a win that was, huh?! We left Southampton reeling after a 6-1 hammering at the Emirates and now sit in 3rd in the table on 8 points, behind United on 9 points and Chelsea on 10. It's a good look. It's a really good look. Any talk of Arsenal being unable to find the net this season after the sale of yer man, van Stapleton to United has been well and truly put to bed after our last two performances where we definitely didn't look shy in front of goal.

The scoring got underway as early as the 11th minute as Hooiveld put the ball beyond his own keeper as a shot from Kieran Gibbs deflected in off him. Podolski got on the scoresheet in the 31st with a cleanly struck free kick which Kelvin Davis could do very little about. It took only 4 more minutes for Arsenal triple the lead when Mik Arteta saw Gervinho making an unmarked run into the box and played a great pass which saw the Senegalese through on goal to finish with aplomb at Kelvin Davis' near post. Two minutes later? Another own goal. Southampton's Nathaniel Clyne unfortunately bundled the ball into his own net after great work from Kieran Gibbs to get the ball into a dangerous area of the box. At this point we were 4-0 up and we seemed to lose concentration. We let Southampton's fox in the box (no really, his name's Danny Fox) pull one back when poor handling from Wojciech Szczesny saw him drop a ball played in by them, to Fox's feet and he fired home into the gaping net without any trouble at all. That's how the half ended and the disappointment of conceding our first goal of the season in such a manner was all too clear to see on Wenger and Bould's faces.

Southampton came out and looked a lot livelier in the second half and threatened our goal a bit more but they couldn't really make their spell in the final third count. The game was put to bed in the 71st when second half substitute Aaron Ramsey powered his way into the box and took a shot from a tight angle. The ball came back off the far post and was easily tapped in by an onrushing Gervinho. At 5-1 Southampton were pretty much done and dusted and Arsenal took charge of the game once more. You could sense there was more on the way. Gervinho, who was given a standing ovation, made way for Theo Walcott while Lukas Podoski came off for Olivier Giroud. Walcott came on and gave the Southampton left back hell on the right wing, with Alex Oxlade Chamberlain switching to the left, giving the Southampton right back hell on that side. The final goal of the game came in the 89th when new signing Santi Cazorla played a cheeky pass to skipper Thomas Vermaelen who made his way into the box and took a shot but the keeper parried it back to Cazorla. He took a slight touch and played it to his right to Walcott who blasted the ball into the unguarded net. It was a nice show of respect by him, not celebrating the goal, but applauding the Southampton fans because that's where his football career started out. It was another example of why people always say Walcott is a well behaved young man.

Post match, Wenger had this to say:

We had a good combination of pace, speed in our passing, quick combinations, and the movement was excellent. We were a bit lucky as well because they conceded two own goals, but overall I think it was a level of continuity with what we have shown at Liverpool and today. The game was very interesting to watch. In the second half we lost a bit of urgency, that is human, but we controlled the game and remained serious.

I think one of the main reasons for our continued momentum in our team play from game to game is that the team now has belief in themselves and belief that they can achieve something big by playing together. This could be the main reason for Wenger not succumbing to pressure to sign more players as the transfer window came to a close last month. He wants to do away with the days of the team being heavily reliant on one man and as such, coasting through games because they know he'll come up big at some point. To see the goals spread around the pitch in such a performance yesterday suggests that if we can keep this going, Wenger's plan will succeed and we'll have a much more consistent crop of players this season. We can only benefit from more consistency.

It's interesting to note that Wenger started with the much maligned Gervinho as the centerfold of the attack, rather than playing him in his usual left wing spot. He said he did it to exploit his speed against the central defenders and it was a very smart move. It paid dividends as he looked a lot sharper in front of goal with his finishing and you'll hope to see him continue to finish with such confidence since he's only had 2 goals this calendar year. Another reason to note why he chose to start with him as a center forward is that he felt Giroud needed a bit of pressure off him:

I felt that he is under much pressure at the moment and sometimes to get a little breather is good. What I will do on Tuesday I honestly don't know. I just felt that the time has come for him to not be under too much pressure.

You'd have to think that he chose to give him a break here because he feels with Montpellier our next opponents, Giroud has a higher chance of scoring since it's his old club and no one in the team knows their weaknesses better than he does.

Another player whose performance stood out, but for the wrong reasons, was Wojciech Szczesny. He let in our first goal of the season due to butterfingers and Wenger said:

I think he was disappointed. That's the negative of the day, that we conceded a goal, but we can swallow that. You have to concede at some stage but it happened like it happened.

Szczesny's biggest problem is he can't stay focused when he doesn't need to be. Yeah, when he doesn't need to be. What I mean is, it's all well and good making save after save after save when the opposition is camped out in your half. Most lower table goalkeepers can do that and do that alone. What sets apart a top level goalkeeper from those is how alert he is when he can basically take a nap on the pitch because the opponents aren't posing much of a threat. Szczesny, tends to switch off when a lack of pressure allows him to then sometimes he struggles to regain focus quickly. He is a young goalkeeper though and this is not something hard for him to correct about his game so I'm confident he can improve in this area. He should be looking over his shoulder though because there are two very hungry goalkeepers who were planning to leave the club for regular playing time, who now realise there might be a three way fight on for the #1 jersey.

So our attention now turns to Montpellier on Tuesday then Man City on Sunday. There's no doubt there'll be heavy squad rotation midweek as we look ahead to City. Check back in for more thoughts on that game later this week. Until then, dust!

Challenging Start To The 2011/2012 Season For Arsenal

2011-06-17T21:25:00.002-05:00

You know, when last season ended I looked back at it and thought:

"You know what, screw this! I don't want to be led on like this again. Damn you, Arsenal!"

Another season of Arsenal flattering to deceive had me thinking that I want to just hibernate throughout majority of next season and wake up at the tail end of it where I'll know where we stand. Season after season I watch and think "This might be our year". This is because of how well we perform throughout the first half of the season (although we usually seem to stumble for a short period in November). I've always noticed that whenever the Champions League knock out stages roll around, that's when every thing starts getting pear shaped and going tits up. It always leaves a bitter taste in my mouth when the critics start coming out in droves talking about how right they were all along that Arsenal can't hack it or that Arsenal haven't improved enough to really challenge for anything. I hate always holding that naive belief that that particular season will be the one we've turned a corner and then seeing everything fall apart when it matters most.

The FA have released the official fixtures list for next season and thankfully I might not have to go off to a dark cave for a six month slumber. We start the season with what many would deem three tough games.

The first has us travelling up to St. James' Park to face Newcastle. Arguably this fixture last season was what saw the beginning of the end for us from as early as February last season. That 4-4 draw pisses me off and still leaves me baffled as to how we allowed that to happen to us.

The following week sees us take on L*verpool at home. Personally this is a huuuuuuge match for me because, Barcelona aside, there's no team in the world I hate more than them. Arsenal have done me a great disservice by dropping points to them a few months ago, not only because we chucked away vital points in the title race that day but also because anything but a win against these grunting, drooling, knuckle draggers just won't do for me.

The third game will be against Manchester United at Old Trafford. This game is obviously one of our most massive games because it will show us whether our victory against them last season was merely a fluke or whether we've actually developed in ways to exploit their weaknesses. Also, three points for us that day could effectively hurt their title defence very early on.

I much prefer having our harder games towards the start of the season to see if Arsene Wenger has done his homework over the summer and to see whether the team has improved and will mount a serious challenge for the title. We'll clearly have to be very focused and not be complacent from early on. It will force us to start the season in the right attitude or be doomed to have a repeat of recent history where we come up short in the hunt for a title once more.

Then again, with all this change to come in the summer, we could just as well start the season without a proper team and crash and burn early on. Sorry, the pessimist in me had to notice that. I guess it all really depends on how wisely we do our business in the transfer market this summer and also on the tactical changes Wenger will be making.

Here's what our fixtures for the whole season looks like:

August
13 Newcastle (A)
20 Liverpool (H)
27 Man Utd (A)

September
10 Swansea (H)
17 Blackburn (A)
24 Bolton (H)

October
1 Tottenham (A)
15 Sunderland (H)
22 Stoke (H)
29 Chelsea (A)

November
5 West Brom (H)
19 Norwich (A)
26 Fulham (H)

December
3 Wigan (A)
10 Everton (H)
17 Man City (A)
21 Aston Villa (A)
26 Wolverhampton (H)
31 QPR (H)

January
2 Fulham (A)
14 Swansea (A)
21 Man Utd (H)
31 Bolton (A)

February
4 Blackburn (H)
11 Sunderland (A)
25 Tottenham (H)

March
3 Liverpool (A)
10 Newcastle (H)
17 Everton (A)
24 Aston Villa (H)
31 QPR (A)

April
7 Man City (H)
9 Wolverhampton (A)
14 Wigan (H)
21 Chelsea (H)
28 Stoke (A)

May
5 Norwich (H)
13 West Brom (A)

I'm Baaaack...Not Like You Care Anyway

2011-05-24T00:19:00.000-05:00

Much like a player who's been injured and out of action for many months, it's been hard to get back into the thick of things right away after a prolonged period away from doing what you'd usually do on a daily basis with ease. Granted I wasn't in a car accident that saw me in a body bandage, with each limb hanging from slings on my bed, but I have been so busy over the past few months it became really hard to find the time to blog. Not that it really mattered anyway...since it seems I'm the Babu Bhatt of the Arsenal Blogosphere. This might just be a short entry today since I've got to break myself back into the habit of blogging.

Okay so where do I even begin?

The policy of this blog is to bring something different to the table from the rest of the other Arsenal blogs out there so for that reason I don't really feel like putting the season under a microscope and dissecting the hell outta it. We all know that the season's been a vast let down in terms of expectations and achievements. While there have been negatives in terms of how poorly we finished the table, given the position we found ourselves in before the massive implosion, there were definitely some positives.

1. Jack Wilshere's emergence was a joy to behold. he's played with maturity beyond his years and despite the many bad overall team performances we've seen from Arsenal this season, I don't know anyone who can honestly say they saw a bad performance from Jack. I mean he didn't win the PFA Young Player of the Year Award for nothing, did he?

2. Wojciech Szczesny: Six months ago practically all of us struggled to spell his name correctly but the young Pole has become such a mainstay in the first team now, we've all familiarised ourselves with all the Cs and Zs in his name. What's great too is that we had to pay nothing to sort out our goalkeeping troubles. Although he's had a few errors here and there he's shown so many signs of a promising future and that he'll be a world class keeper someday. The future looks bright for us between the sticks.

3. We're no longer a team that gets intimidated by big teams in big matches. That's definitely something we struggled with in the past but this season has seen us beat Chelsea and Manchester United and have one of the most memorable games in the Champions League this season which saw us beat Barcelona. The only problem now is that while we're beating the teams many see as the hardest to beat, we're stumbling over the ones that we'd normally consider the smaller ones. Something drastically needs to change about this over the summer as not only do we need more experienced and hungrier players but Arsene Wenger's approach to mentally preparing his team needs to be reworked for next season.

Another thing I want to get off my chest is that I see a lot of people online calling for Cesc Fabregas to be sold. The general consensus among people with this view is that he doesn't have the heart to play for us anymore and he's no longer committed to the cause. (This is where I roll my eyes)

If you're reading this and you're one of the many who share this view, how do you know whether or not his heart is in it? Have you ever even had a conversation with the man? How is it that you're able to tell, from your tv screen, how someone feels on the inside about something? If anything, all we can see from Cesc is his passion and love for Arsenal FC. This is the same guy that took and scored a penalty for us against Barcelona with a broken leg just to make sure we didn't exit the competition. This is the same guy who rushed himself back to fitness to face Barcelona again this season in the second leg at the Nou Camp. Sure his mistake led to their first goal, but I honestly don't think he would've made that error had he been at 100% fitness that day. Are you forgetting that this is the same guy whose cameos off the bench has saved our asses so many times with goals and assists, especially in cup competitions when we were down a goal or just seemed like we were never going to find the net at all?

Many of the people saying this seem to have very short memory about all he's done for the good of the club in the last 3 seasons. Cesc's love for Arsenal shouldn't even be in question. He may not be as vocal or as aggressive a captain as Tony Adams was but in terms of leading by example there is no doubt he's the right man to wear the armband. Furthermore, how can we complain every day that we need more experience in the team and that Wenger isn't signing experienced players then in the same breath call for Cesc to be sold? Remember, he's a European Championship and World Cup winner. No one in the team has more experience than he does. He's arguably our best player as well. Ignore the fact that this season hasn't been his best. That doesn't necessarily mean he's become a bad player overnight. All it means is that he's suffered for his talent.

He's hardly had time to get a proper rest and vacation in since 2007. In 2008 he had to go off and play in the Euros and played all the way to the finals. The following year he played in the Confederations Cup and a year later he played in the World Cup, and while you might say he didn't start all of Spain's games, he still had to go to training every day and didn't get time to go and relax on vacation and clear his mind and come back fresh for the next season. He had only two weeks to rest before he was back into preseason training for us. This is why he's also been so injury prone (are you reading this, Jack Wilshere?). For that reason, surely it requires a bit of understanding why he's experienced a dip in form lately.

Why would you say our team needs experience and then ask that we sell our best player? How much sense does that really make to you?

There's a whole lot more to be discussed but there's no need to try to get through it all right now. We have a whole summer of speculating and bitching and whinging to do so it can wait until I decide to post again. I promise, the wait won't be as long as the last time. For now lets just be thankful that this train wreck of a season is all over. Whether we're doomed to repeat it next season because Wenger's wallet is as tight as virginity remains to be seen.

Arsenal 1-1 AC Milan (Emirates Cup): Post Match Thoughts

2010-07-31T23:56:00.002-05:00

Our first match in the Emirates Cup ended 1-1 against AC Milan today. The goals came from our new boy Marouane Chamakh and Milan's Alexandre Pato. While this competition is absolutely meaningless, I like watching it because it's very exciting. It's unique in that you not only earn points for winning or drawing, but also for each goal you score so it definitely promotes attacking football. I don't take the results to heart as this is just a meaningless preseason tournament, although it's interesting to note that in the two years we won the Emirates Cup we went on to challenge for the title in the subsequent Premiership seasons. When we won in 2007 we finished 3rd in the Premiership the season after, just 4 points behind winners Manchester United and when we won last year we went on to...well you know...push for the title.

My intention is not to dissect this match to it's minutest form but I'll talk about some of the things I noticed while watching today.

Why did Lukasz Fabianski start? You'd figure that since we play Milan today and Celtic tomorrow, we'd field our stronger team today and a lesser one tomorrow. Manuel Almunia was our first string keeper last season and he's clearly the better keeper of the two. Is it that he's being sold? I don't want to get ahead of myself here but it just struck me as odd that he didn't feature at all today and featured only once since we started our preseason training. It's not like he went to the World Cup and needed a rest either. I'll speak more on the keeper issue a bit later.

Marouane Chamakh has bags of skill. He shows lots of intelligence on and off the ball. He has great technique and nice touches. He roams the pitch a lot and has a high work rate. His goal came from a great finish which saw him tap the ball under Abbiati and into the net. He linked up well with Arshavin and Nasri today and I look forward to seeing more of the three of them working together as well as Chamakh linking up with Fabregas as the season progresses. He has the skills and technique I've been saying we've lacked up top since Thierry Henry left. He has that unpredictability about him that I'm sure will catch a lot of defenders out this season. To me he's a poor man's Cristiano Ronaldo. I just hope those mugs that play for teams such as Blackburn and Bolton don't resort to breaking his legs because they can't take him off the ball. I still think he needs to get rid of that haircut though. He looks like his stylist used a knife and a fork on him.

Laurent Koscielny, so far, looks to be a good ball winner. He's not exactly the biggest of players but he can use his size to his advantage as it will aid him when chasing attackers around the pitch. He looks pretty speedy from what I saw today and he was always busy breaking up a lot of plays.

Emmanuel Frimpong is very strong and hard to get off the ball. This is attributed to his low center of gravity. I noticed that he spreads the ball really well. I'd like to see more of him this season. I still think we need to bring in a back up defensive midfielder to Song but I'd like to see Frimpong given a chance as the third string defensive midfielder with Denilson used in a more attacking role, which he's more comfortable with.

Johan Djourou came on in place of Frimpong at defensive midfield. This is interesting to me because I've been saying Denilson isn't a defensive midfielder and shouldn't be playing there. It's why I think we need a new defensive midfielder. I remember when Djourou returned from his loan spell at Boringham he said he wants a future role as a defensive midfielder because it's where he likes to play. Now I'm wondering if Wenger is considering him for this role.

We conceded another set piece goal. This is something we still need to work on. Last season we conceded 41 goals and too many of them were from balls into the box over the top. Some measure of blame for the goal has to go to Lukasz Fabianski as well. He was caught wearing concrete boots and panicked when the ball came in across the face of his goal. Wenger was paying attention to his performance because he is weighing up the option of using him as our first string goalkeeper in the coming season instead of Almunia. He has also been looking to bring a new keeper in and two of the names being banded about are Mark Schwarzer and Federico Marchetti. Fabianski wouldn't have helped his cause to keep in contention for the starting spot with that goal he let in.

We play Celtic tomorrow and we're currently tied on 2 points with Milan while Celtic and Lyon are tied on 3 points. The second day of the Emirates Cup is always more exciting than the first, because it always come down to the wire and a set amount of goals are always needed for the teams playing last to try to win the cup. I'll be back with more thoughts after the Celtic match tomorrow. For now, tell me in the comments section what you think of what you saw today. Dust!

Eduardo Finds Greener Pastures In Donetsk

2010-07-22T08:29:00.000-05:00

Brazilian born Croatian striker Eduardo Da Silva has signed a 4 year contract with Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine for a fee believed to be around £6M.

Many had expected this transfer to occur because it became a fast spreading rumour as of Saturday when he missed the first preseason match against Barnet. He struggled to get into the team last season, making 10 minute cameos here and there before Arsene Wenger eventually decided to stop playing him altogether.

Some would argue that his departure came because Arsene Wenger forced him out of the team when he switched from the 4 4 2 formation to the 4 3 3. Some say he didn't belong out in a wide position and he didn't belong in the target man role up top either and his best position was as a secondary striker. It means that his natural position wasn't one afforded a role by this formation. I see it differently though.

Eduardo's days at Arsenal became numbered on February 23, 2008. That was the day he picked up this horror tackle (don't click if squeamish). How Martin Taylor was given only a 3 match ban for that is beyond me. Eduardo spent 18 months on the sidelines as a result of the injury he sustained. A whole issue was created out of the incident when members of the British press and Birmingham City supporters made Taylor into the victim and Eduardo the villain by saying Eduardo made a meal of the tackle and some even went as far as claiming it wasn't a foul. They claimed that Arsenal players are just too soft and that Martin Taylor was the real victim because of the emotional anguish he was put through. Never in my life have I heard such rubbish!

As I mentioned before, it took him 18 months to make a full return from the injury and it came against Cardiff City in the FA Cup. He scored that night and looked quite sharp. We all thought and hoped we got back that clinical striker who had a 23.5% conversion rate in front of goal but as the months rolled on they proved that it wasn't to be. His time ever since the broken leg was spent in and out of the team due to niggling injuries which arose as a result of the initial severe one. From there Eduardo became a mentally broken man. His conversation rate fell to 6.3% after and this made it clear that it was now the beginning of the end of his Arsenal career.

His demeanor on the pitch had changed. He no longer harried the ball in 50/50 challenges and in one particular game against Celtic last season he was so afraid to challenge for the ball in a one on one with Artur Buruc that he backed off, lost his balance, fell and won a penalty. The media had a field day with this, labeling him a diver and a cheat. These claims against him were both harsh and untrue as it happened due to the trauma from the incident in 2008. He saw himself reduced to a substitute role and when he did get the rare appearance he had ineffectual performances. Such performances frustrated Arsene Wenger who chose not to play him in the final 6 or so games of the season.

Credit should be given to Eduardo for his whole attitude, given what he's gone through. Not once did he give up hope on a return to the game and not once did he complain or show dissent in his body language because he wasn't being given playing time. He was always a class act and it's reflected in his parting message to the fans:

Before I start a new chapter in my career with Shakhtar Donetsk, I just wanted to send a message to all my friends at Arsenal.

The past few days have been very emotional for me. Although I am excited about the challenge ahead with my new club Shakhtar Donetsk, I am so sad to be leaving my home for the past three years – Arsenal Football Club.

Arsenal is a very special football club and I will miss so many people - my team mates, all the staff and of course, the wonderful Arsenal supporters.

I would just like to thank everyone for your support during my time at Arsenal. When I first came to England, I could not speak the language and knew nobody, but as soon as I arrived I was made to feel at home and part of this big family. Also, I want to say thank you to the Arsenal supporters - you have been fantastic to me and always sung my name and I will never forget this.

I had some very difficult times with my injury, but Arsenal was always there for me – the medical staff, the management, the players and the supporters. Thank you everybody.

Although I have now left the Club, Arsenal will always be in my heart. I will always look for the Arsenal results and of course, I wish Arsène Wenger and the great players at the Club well for next season and the future.

I can safely say that everyone associated with Arsenal Football Club - the players, management, and supporters all respect and thank Eduardo for all he's done in his 3 years at the club. He will definitely be missed by us all. We wish him and his family all the best in Ukraine and we wish him only the best in his future endeavours.

Now here's a very poignant video tribute to the former Arsenal number 9.

That's all for now. Until next time, take care.

The Great Big Cesc Scandal

2010-07-18T06:51:00.003-05:00

So after two whole months of publicly tapping up Cesc Fabregas, those pricks at Barcelona have ~~finally faced up to the fact that they can't afford him~~ decided that they'd prefer to make a serious bid for him next season. Their new president Sandro Rosell claims:

Arsenal feels very hurt by Barca. They don't want to listen to offers or sell and they are not putting the player on the market. There was a strong dispute a few months ago and they have not forgotten it.

He will arrive, even if it is not now, it will be next year. We will see. One thing that is certain is that we will not go mad trying to sign him.

No shareholder would pay €60 or €70 million for him. We will not go all out for him. We would only pay his value in the transfer market.

You know what, Sandro...

First of all, no Arsenal fan feels "hurt" by this. I think the best words to describe how this whole affair has made us feel is "fucked off". Hurt suggests that their actions weren't necessarily disrespectful to our club but we are the ones who took it the wrong way. Even in their attempt to try to look amicable they can't help being disparaging. And we should do business with them?

Obviously after the way they tried to bully us into selling our player and also with the way they publicly tapped him up as well, we would strengthen our resolve not to sell him. What the hell would you expect?! We're in a situation where we don't need the money and they don't even have that much money to begin with. Who has the upper hand then? They're the ones trying to buy him and then want to call the shots. That's absolutely ridiculous. Of course we'd tell them where to shove that £40M they tried to offer us.

He claims they're going to be back for him next year and who knows, maybe they will get him depending on how our season goes and if Cesc either feels frustrated that he can't win cups with Arsenal or if we've won the Premiership and perhaps the Champions League and he feels he's done all he can at the club and it's time to move on. I'm sure when the time comes for him to go we'll be able to adequately replace him. My only concern is that Barcelona will be back with their dirty attitude next season and we're gonna be forced to go through this whole debacle again because they'll want to try to force us to accept a fee much less than Cesc's worth.

Some more quotes coming out of that article have highlighted Cesc saying he wants to go back to Barca. Hold on now, before you get your Fruit of the Looms in a knot you should read what it says:

I have not spoken to anybody in the last few days and I want to ignore anything regarding my future for now. I want to enjoy my holidays and I don't want to talk about Barcelona at this moment.

I make no apologies for the comments I have made in the past. I have expressed my interest in returning and I stand by that, as that is my personal wish.

This is nothing that should come as a surprise to anyone. Cesc had made it no secret that he intends to return to Barca someday. With that said, there are some who are treating this as though he just came up out of the blue with these statements. He never said anything about definitely wanting to go back this season. He wants to return to play there to honour his grandfather. He wants to do it when he feels he's given all he can to us. That might still be a few years from now. What's wrong with that? His granddad took him to Barca games from the moment he started walking. He's already spent six seasons with us and the day's gonna come when he'd like a new challenge. It just so happens that he's eying a challenge back where he started and to do something for his grandfather before his time comes. There's nothing ungrateful about what he said. What's ungrateful is how fans are now turning on him. Cesc has never ever uttered a bad word about or been disrespectful to Arsenal FC or its fans yet he's somehow gone from hero to zero with some of our stupid impulsive fans.

Arsenal fans are so fickle that it's downright annoying. One minute they're praising you, naming babies after you, worshiping the ground you walk on, then the next they're badmouthing you, calling you all manners of evil and building a cross for your crucifixion.

During the season when he was scoring week in, week out he could do absolutely no wrong. As far as Arsenal fans were concerned he was the second coming of Christ. lately things have taken a 180 degree turn in terms of fan opinion of the Spaniard. With all that's happened for him this summer he should feel as though he's on top of the world and so should his fans but if he was to take all the vitriol being directed at him to heart how could he be?

Some of the things being said about him have just been absolutely appalling. I've even seen a few idiots calling for him to be stripped of the captaincy. The captaincy?! Are they serious? If Cesc was more of a captain last season, he would've bled from the ears. This is all because of that one very ambiguous video which surfaced a few days ago where people claim Pique (purposefully) spat at some old guy and Fabregas

Remember in the Barca match at home last season how Cesc slapped that penalty WITH A BROKEN LEG to keep us in the tie with a chance at the Nou Camp? He wasn't much of a captain then?

Or how about at Stoke in February when Ramsey had his leg twisted into a pretzel by that wet fart Ryan Shawcross? Who was it that shouted at each and every player on the pitch, whom I might add were very visibly shaken by the horrific injury, to not lose focus and rallied the team from scraping a 1-1 draw to win the match 3-1...scoring a goal himself? Isn't that the mark of a true captain?

Who ran the length of the Spurs half in the North London Derby at home last season to score a very iconic individual goal against our most hated rivals?

Remember when Cesc forced himself to be fit enough to make the bench for the Villa game and get on the pitch and score two goals when the game looked like it was headed for a scoreless stalemate? You're telling me that's not the mark of a true leader - knowing that he'd put his body on the line like that for the sake of the club's title chase and for the sake of the fans? How many players in the modern game would do that? Adebayor? Robinho? Berbatov?

Wasn't Cesc the skipper who captained our team to a close title race this season? Wasn't he the one who captained the team while playing through injury with a broken leg?

Who dedicated his World Cup win to Arsenal Football Club and its fans? Anyone who claims Cesc shouldn't be the Arsenal captain is just downright ungrateful.

What these people don't realise is that this is exactly the trickery Barcelona planned to get their grubby hands on Fabregas. All these incidents happening in the media that are turning the fans on Cesc will just prove to be a push factor to take him back to Barcelona. This is exactly what they want! Don't fall for it!

Anyway that's enough blogging for now. Leave your comments in the comments section and let me know what you think. Dust!

Where Do Cesc And Robin Go From Here? (Part 2)

2010-07-13T10:33:00.006-05:00

Robin van Persie has yet to have his moment in the sun. The only trophy he's won in his career since his move to Arsenal was an FA Cup in 2005. Many regard him as a player who shows brilliance whenever he gets his chance. The problem is that he doesn't get enough of a chance to show us what he can do over the course of a season. In his 6 years at Arsenal FC, he's never played a full season and it's all due to him picking up some serious injury somewhere along the line. He's always been on the brink of doing what he needs to do to prove to the world that he is a world class striker but misfortune always holds him back from accomplishing this. One thing he should be given credit for is that he knows this and he's frank enough to admit that he's not quite where he should be yet and he knows what's needed in order for him to accomplish this:

I can feel that the manager (Wenger) has faith in me, but I must remain lucid. I am clearly not in the same league as Leo (Messi). Moreover, I am injured too often. I'm dreaming about a season with 30 goals and 20 assists. Wenger knows that I can do it, but my body will have to hold on.

If he had won the World Cup, he would've added the grandest title of all to his resume and that would've helped him to establish himself in world football as a winner and someone who's performed on the biggest stage of them all and been successful. Sadly it wasn't to be and the anguish of coming so close but being still so far away from it was plain to see on his face after the match.

Most Arsenal fans (who aren't Dutch) probably first got excited that Cesc is now a World Cup winner but I on the other hand initially thought "poor Robin, he really deserved this and it's a shame he's gonna have to wait at least another 4 years". I wasn't the only one though. Cesc also admitted that he felt some remorse seeing a desolate figure in van Persie after the final on Sunday. He says:

The first thing I did was go to Robin. I had to go there instead of celebrating with my friends because he deserved it as well. He was injured for a long time and if it wasn't us that he was playing against I would be on his side. Even though I was really happy, I was sad for him.I really hope he has his chance again in two or four years. He is a great guy and a great leader.

Club football aside, Robin's best chance at a trophy is in 2 years time at the European Championship in Poland. You'd think the core of the Dutch team will remain the same and he'll still be their preferred starting target man. It represents his best chance at international glory because I think it would be a stretch to think Holland will win the 2014 World Cup. Apart from that, his role in the team might not be a certainty at that time. He'll be 30 years old in 2014 and he'll face competition from younger strikers coming through the Dutch set up so that makes it much more difficult for him to not only get into the 2014 squad, (if they qualify for Brazil, which is a whole other matter) but to start consistently enough to influence any success they could have there. In order to prove himself as still able to compete at this level for Holland, he'll need to be consistently good for Arsenal over the next 4 years.

Consistency is not something you have to worry about when it comes to Robin van Persie, provided he stays away from injuries. He's one of the most driven players in our team. You could even say he's fixated on winning a major trophy, as it's been 8 years since his UEFA Cup win with Feyenoord and 5 since his FA Cup win with Arsenal. His quotes in an interview with The Guardian last year backs that up:

My ambitions are very, very high and, I think, realistic. I want to be at a level where, as a club, we are winning things, not just every four or five years, but one or two trophies each year. That's what I think this club has in its pocket. I have won the Uefa Cup with Feyenoord and the FA Cup with Arsenal. I saw what it did to people in our big family – the fans and the whole club – and it makes life a lot easier. Some people might think my view is extreme, but that is what I want, and I want to do it here. I am not a guy who gives up. Otherwise I wouldn't be here.

It's quotes like those why I'm sure he'll be itching to get back on the pitch as soon as possible for Arsenal and right the wrongs of him not achieving major football success in many years. Finishing as a runner up in the World Cup will only spur him on to push harder for success with Arsenal in the forth coming season. While it's sad that he didn't taste victory on Sunday, for Arsenal it's gonna prove to be a good thing as we have a player who'll be hell bent on proving a point to himself and his critics next season.

Where Do Cesc And Robin Go From Here? (Part 1)

2010-07-12T02:50:00.002-05:00

Whether you're a fan of Spain or Holland, if you're an Arsenal fan you'd be happy to know that no matter who won the World Cup yesterday Arsenal would start next season with a world champion among our ranks. That player has turned out to be Cesc Fabregas.

First of all, congratulations are in order for the young Catalan whose pass in extra time provided the assist for Andres Iniesta to find the all important goal for Spain to claim their first ever world title. It now means that Fabregas has a World Cup medal to go along with his European Championship medal he won 2 years ago.

While I'm very happy for Cesc, I have to say I'm sad for van Persie. In my opinion, he needed this World Cup title more than Cesc because of what it could've done for his reputation. Whether Cesc had won the World Cup, he'd be known as Arsenal's world class central midfielder. Fabregas is always spoken of in high regard by many pundits, managers and players. Throughout the years he's always been regarded as exceptionally talented at such a young age.

At 23 years old Cesc has now won the World Cup as well as the European Championship and this is coupled with the fact that he's highly sought after by Barcelona. He's so sought after that we've slapped a £50 million price tag on him. This is why as I said before, he's in the category of 'world class'.

Many naysayers may say he's not truly a World Cup winner due to how much time he spent on the bench for Spain but they can go to hell. If not for Cesc's pass to Iniesta the game might've ended goalless and gone unto penalties and who knows what would've happened there?

On the international stage, he's won both major titles available to him and the only way he could add to that is to repeat the feat of being European and World Champion for a second time by featuring as a starter in the Spanish team the next time around, if Spain manages to repeat this success.

At the club level, however, Cesc has a lot left to achieve. He still needs to win a league title and a Champions League title and then he can think about being in the running for a FIFA Ballon d'Or.

Hopefully what the World Cup has taught Fabregas is that his time spent on the bench is just a foreshadowing of what would happen should he leave Arsenal for Barcelona. Cesc, although not given enough playing time at the World Cup, had given better performances in his short time on the pitch than both Xavi and Iniesta and each time he's been subbed on he's either looked likely to score or likely to create a goal.What I'm saying is that even though his performances have been better than both Xavi and Iniesta's, he's not been made to start due to the seniority both those players hold in the team. If he was to go to Barcelona, it would serve as a clear indication that the same would happen there. Even our chairman Peter Hill-Wood believes this:

If you want my opinion, I’m not sure he would even get in their team. Do they need him? I’m not sure that they do.

Cesc has a good head on his shoulders and while it's pretty clear he wants to return to Barcelona someday, it would be best for him to stay at Arsenal for another 2 or 3 seasons and achieve what he can here as our captain and try to win the Premiership and maybe even the Champions League with us. This would help to establish him as one of the truly great players of the decade. When Xavi and Iniesta have both aged and the Barcelona management are ready to move them on, Cesc will be ready for a triumphant return to Barcelona where he'll be sure to be a starter in that team as he'll still be in the prime of his career while Xavi and Iniesta will be heading downhill.

Our New Number 6

2010-07-07T20:17:00.002-05:00

by Rachid

Well it was really no secret but Arsenal have officially announced the signing of 24 year old central defender Laurent Koscielny from French side Lorient. According to the officials at Arsenal, the fee is said to be undisclosed. While this is something they do every time we sign a player to take pressure off him should he not live up to expectations, it is believed that the fee agreed is somewhere between £8.5 and £10 million. Koscielny will wear the number 6 shirt for us.

Since Arsene Wenger's in South Africa at the moment there weren't any statements made by him today about the signing but Koscielny had some words himself to say about the deal:

I'm very excited to be joining Arsenal. They are one of the biggest teams in Europe with many great players. I'm really looking forward to playing in the English Premier League and the Champions League with my new club. Also, in Arsène Wenger, Arsenal has one of the best managers in the world and I can't wait to work with him and do my best for the Arsenal supporters.

So what do we know about him really? We don't know how long his contract runs for but we do know it's a 'long term' deal. Like I said about him signing for an 'undisclosed fee', this is kept private to take pressure off the player.

Before coming to Arsenal, he made 40 scoreless appearances for En Avant Guingamp from 2004-2007. He then moved on to Tours where he scored 4 goals in 34 appearances from 2007-2009. He then moved away to spend a season at Lorient, scoring 3 goals in 40 appearances.

This is a typical Wenger signing as it's a player that no one really heard of until he was linked to us. Many are saying that he could very well be another Thomas Vermaelen in that he was a relative unknown before signing for us and had a significant impact on our performances right away. I can understand why people are saying that but many don't know that Vermaelen was actually Ajax' captain before we signed him and he was already a Belgium international. He was a relatively experienced player that we signed. This is not the case with Koscielny. He is an uncapped player who's only had 1 season of regular first team football. His other appearances for clubs before Lorient were made coming in off the bench as a youth player.

It's anybody's guess just how well Koscielny will do at Arsenal but he's been given the number 6 shirt and that shirt's been worn by Arsenal legends such as Terry Neill, David Court and Tony Adams. If Wenger had plans for him to take Senderos' place in the team as a backup then he probably would've been given a number in the teens. For him to get this number suggests that Arsene Wenger rates him highly and sees him as a potential starter.

I wish him the best of luck and a very long and successful Arsenal career.

Before I end, here's a little highlight reel of his career to date.

Are you excited about this signing? Let me know in the comments. Cya next time.

Don't Be A Sheep

2010-07-02T08:01:00.001-05:00

by Rachid

Cesc Fabregas had more to say on the silly rumours linking him with Barcelona. According to the Arsenal skipper:

I haven't said that I will definitely leave Arsenal. Everything is possible. Now I have my head and my focus on the World Cup. I am very proud to be captain of Arsenal and I love the club and have respect for them. It gave me such pride to be made captain.

Quite frankly I don't see why we're still on this. Yeah it's clear Cesc is considering going to Barcelona but it just won't happen. The last time he spoke on this issue he said he'll leave it in Wenger's hands and what that means is that Wenger will decide his future, not Cesc.

When Barcelona offered us a measly £25M for him we told them it's not enough and we will not be making counteroffers with them nor entertaining further negotiations. In other words, we said 'That's that, we're not selling him and that's final'. You'd think that the board saying this to them would kill those rumours, but no, they still persist.

Is it that the media just want us to lose our players that badly that they'd help Barcelona continue their bullying and tapping up tactics? I certainly think so. What's even worse is the group of mindless Arsenal fans who are willing to believe anything at all they hear or read or see on tv. They're the ones who allow these rumours to continue as they're the ones who keep falling for them and reacting to them as if they were true about him leaving. Why must Arsenal fans be like this though? Why are Arsenal fans so pessimistic? More importantly, why is it that whenever stories like these circulate and officials inside the club make comments to kill them, many fans prefer not to believe these quotes but take everything spewed out by media houses such as Sky Sports and BBC Sport as gospel? Don't they see that it's their mindless following that is allowing the media to perpetuate this kind of bullshit?

Moving on...

There's word Lorient's Laurent Koscielny has agreed personal terms with Arsenal and both clubs have agreed on a transfer fee but the deal's yet to become official as all that's left to be done is for Arsene Wenger to dot the Is and cross the Ts. Apparently it's hard for him to do that though, when he's in South Africa without his Blackberry. What it means, however, is that we can rest assured that we have a defender coming in.

Word on the street is that we upped our £6M bid on Everton's Phil Jagielka by £4M and David Moyes has urged his board not to give in to our request. What I've heard is that this has caused us to turn our attention elsewhere - to Werder Bremen in fact, where Steve Rowley has been scouting Per Mertesacker. It is believed we're looking to offer Bremen the £10M we were gonna offer Everton for Jagielka for his services.

We're also being linked to Rangers' Madjid Bougherra and Benfica's Rafik Halliche. Both of these defenders are Algerian and if these rumours are true then it suggests that Wenger's had a firm eye on the proceedings in Group C at the World Cup.

Something that really irks me is that people are stupidly looking at the fact that we've let Senderos, Silvestre, Gallas and possibly even Sol Campbell go and we haven't made any defensive signings as yet, to suggest that we're not going to be making any signings at all. What the fuck?! Seriously? Are people that fucking inane? If we really weren't planning on signing replacements then it would mean we'd enter the new season with Vermaelen and Djourou as our only two senior defenders in the team. It doesn't take rocket science to see that that certainly can't work, especially for a team with title ambitions. Of course we're going to be signing more players. How many times does Arsene Wenger need to say it for people to believe it? He doesn't even have to say it. It's actually a given that we will, really.

People need to chill the fuck out and relax. This is the summer and a World Cup summer at that. There are many players who have their focus on the World Cup right now and those that already participated and got eliminated are off enjoying their well earned summer vacations. It's hard to do business with players right at this moment.

Not only are players off relaxing but so too is Arsene Wenger. He's in South Africa doing media work for French TV but as peculiar as it sounds, this is how Wenger is used to spending his time off from the club. The man is off enjoying himself, relaxing and recharging for next season and it's quite fine if he's not ready to make his signings yet because there's a time and place for everything and right now he's not at work for us.

Are people really dumb enough to think that they realise that the team needs strengthening but Arsene Wenger doesn't? How dimwitted do you really have to be to actually believe that? Seriously!

I think while there are the sheep who are stupid enough to follow every maniacal ranting spewed against Arsene Wenger, there are those who look to chastise him for every single reason they can find. Whether it's because we haven't won a trophy since fuck knows when or because they got soaked walking home in the pouring rain. I don't get why Arsenal fans have to be so negative all the time and create panic around the club when there really needs to be none at all. I just urge all of you reading this not to be as mindless as those who give those jerks creating drama around the club a soap box to stand on and speak. Think for yourself and question authority.

Anyway, this is the end of my rant for now. Leave your thoughts below. Dust!

Just A Rant On The New Home Kit

2010-07-01T17:31:00.002-05:00

by Rachid

Above is a picture released yesterday of some of our players modeling our new kit. Looks as boring as I expected it to, to be honest. It looks like a training kit at best. Why the socks have no design but the Nike Swish is beyond me and what's even more bizarre to me is the reaction from many regarding it as 'fantastic', 'marvelous' and 'a dream'. What I've noticed also is that the only people who seem to love this kit are the English fans but every international fan of the club that I've spoken to that's seen it has said it looks boring, bland and unfinished.

What's there to like about this kit? Yes we've gotten back the traditional white sleeves but the red trim on it leaves a whole lot to be desired. It looks so feminine and Tomas Rosicky, who already looks like a lesbian, will look even more girly now. I'm not pleased because minus the broken collar and the gold streaks down the sides, this kit is no different from our kit in our first season at The Emirates, as shown below:

Even this kit was better because the trim on it was nicer and of course the gold streaks added a nice touch. If they felt that this needed those features back then, why do they suddenly feel that it needs nothing at all added to it this season?

Many of those who like this kit like it for the reason that it's bringing us back to our roots. I can understand that but it annoys me that every season we unveil a new kit we claim to be commemorating something. My problem with this is that when you spend every season commemorating something, it takes away from the value of the tribute. It's kinda like when you see couples foolishly celebrating every month they've been together. What's the magic in it if it doesn't happen every once in a while?

Why do we always have to be commemorating? It seems like just an excuse when whomsoever's designing the kit can't come up with anything aesthetically pleasing. We keep releasing boring kits season after season now and how can you expect a kit that was worn way back in 1971 to look relevant in 2010? That's just totally fucking ridiculous! I don't see any reason why we couldn't have paid homage to the team of 1971 with a kit that looks like theirs but also has some more modern touches and designs on it.

I think it's rude of Arsenal FC to expect us to pay £40 for this very bland, boring and done design. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Cya next time, Gooners.

Have A Look At What Might Be Our Fugly New Home Kit

2010-06-28T10:40:00.000-05:00

by Rachid

Annoyed, disappointed, underwhelmed. Just a few words that come to mind when I look at this ugly new kit that's supposedly ours as of tomorrow that I found on EPL Talk. God I hate it! The sleeves have such an ugly trim and the design on the torso is so bland and boring. Why did we take this long to release this kit? The design (or lack there of) of it looks like a template at best. I think the bold trim on the sleeves also makes it look a bit too feminine for a bunch of men to be wearing. Here are a couple more shots of it, if your eyes can bear the pain.

It's not confirmed that these are authentic but they definitely don't look photoshopped to me. Anyway, leave a comment and let me know if you find it as horrid as I do.

Until next time, dust.

Back To Merseyside On Opening Day!

2010-06-17T03:17:00.004-05:00

by Rachid

Arsene Wenger may not know what manager he'll be facing on the opening day yet but he does now know that he'll be making a trip to Anfield to play Liverpool. This is because the fixture list for the Barclays Premiership has come out earlier today.

We traveled to Liverpool last season but to take on Everton, rather than Liverpool FC. We won the game 6-1 and there's not a Gooner in the world who'd want to see this result repeated as much as I do. If there's one team in the world I really fucking hate...it's Liverpool...or Cesspool as I refer to them.

We've done the double over them last season and I'd love for us to do it to them again. How perfect would it be to get our season off to a flying start than to beat them? Not only would it be perfect for our season but it would also be perfect seeing them start their new campaign, under a new manager on a sour note.

I just hope we get our team straightened out with all the necessary signings in by that time.

Some other notable fixtures from the opening weekend are:

Aston Villa v West Ham
Chelsea v West Brom
Manchester United v Newcastle
Tottenham v Manchester City

For a list of all the teams' fixtures for the entire season, click here.

Later, Gooners.

More Thoughts On The New Kit

2010-06-17T01:54:00.001-05:00

by Rachid

If you read the last post on this blog you'd have seen me saying I love our new away kit because of the design and the colour of it. My views have since changed. When you look at a picture of the kit at first glance you'd think it has pinstripes. This was one of the main reasons I loved this shirt when I first saw it. It made it look unique and also modern. I'm tired of seeing Arsenal trying to rehash old jerseys and it annoys me to hear the stupid, old, fuddy duddy geezer fans who can't let go of the past raving about how cool these designs are. This is 2010, not 1971. I want to see a kit that fits our era. Not some outdated shirt that looks like it should be worn with a Beatles styled mop top.

Unfortunately though, I saw a video yesterday with the players wearing the kit and it seems that what I thought were pinstripes were actually stitches in the shirt. Also, the long sleeved version looks even worse. It looks so old and outdated, as if it was made 60 years ago. When you have a look at it as it in the video it actually looks a lot like the white away kit we wore 2 years ago except, it's of course, yellow. Here's the video so you can see for yourself:

Now that you've seen it in a real life shot, what are your thoughts on it? Have your views changed, like mine? Have your say in the comments section below.

Dust!

A Glimpse At Our New Away Kit

2010-06-14T19:47:00.001-05:00

by Rachid

Well here it is. This is supposedly our new away kit for next season. I have to say I am really loving this. The choice of yellow and red currant looks classy and it's made even better by the trim around the sleeves and the pin stripes. I'm a big fan of this kit and I'll be getting one as soon as I can. Will you? Give me your thoughts on it in the comments section.

Check back tomorrow for a look at the new home kit. Until then, dust!

Theo Made His Bed, Now He Must Lie In It.

2010-06-02T09:18:00.002-05:00

by Rachid

Hi there. I'll start with a quote from Arsene Wenger from last November:

For me, the big season is with Arsenal, not at the World Cup. We do not pay players to go to the World Cup, we pay the players to do well for Arsenal. The first pride of a man is to do well for the guy who pays you in life, not to go to the World Cup.

This was obviously because Theo Walcott was constantly talking to the press about his chances of making Fabio Capello's England squad for the 2010 World Cup. If you read my post season review of the players a couple weeks ago you would've seen where I commented that Walcott spent too much time talking to the press this season about his World Cup chances and it affected his performance negatively.

Well surprise surprise. Capello cut his list from 30 down to 23 and guess who didn't make it. That's right. Theo Walcott missed out and I can't say I'm surprised either. I rated him at 6/10 for his performance this season and it was due to how inconsistent he was. I'm sure that must've been Capello's reason for not including him in his squad and he had no one to blame but himself.

Of his omission from the England squad, Walcott had this to say:

I am very disappointed not to be included in the squad going out to South Africa, but completely respect Mr Capello's decision. I would like to wish the team the best of luck and hope they have a really successful tournament.

Clearly Arsene Wenger was right with what he said last November. Theo had spent all of the Arsenal season worrying about whether he'd be going to the World Cup and as a result his performance suffered because he didn't go into the games he played with the required concentration level. It goes to show how that players in the team still lack a certain level of maturity. What I mean is, had he been mature enough to focus on the matter he had in front of him - helping Arsenal in the title chase, his performances would've been better and him making the final 23 in the England squad would've been axiomatic.

There are positives to take from this though. It's no secret Walcott suffers from injuries. At least him not going off to South Africa means he won't run the risk of getting injured over the summer in an international game. It means he can have a proper rest and focus on making better showings for Arsenal next season. He can take some time out and think about this and use it as a learning curve. He can use it to motivate him to push harder to be a mainstay in the England squad. This would be by putting his focus on his club, the people who give him his pay cheque. As I said above, top notch performances for Arsenal equate to international selection. It's that simple.

Of the 6 wingers in the club, Walcott joins a list of 4 who won't be making travel arrangements for South Africa. The others being Samir Nasri who, like Walcott, wasn't selected, Tomas Rosicky and Andrey Arshavin. Their respective teams the Czech Republic and Russia failed to qualify for the World Cup.

I'll leave you with a video to enjoy before you comment on this post and go click "follow" over to the right of the page.

Until next time, dust!

Fran Merida Has Left The Building

2010-05-28T02:30:00.004-05:00

by Rachid

Fran Mérida has opted not to renew his contract at Arsenal and decided to sign for Atlético Madrid on a Bosman's. It is believed that he agreed terms to a 4 year deal at Estadio Vicente Calderón.

A quote from the club's official site says:

The Club Atlético de Madrid have closed the signing of midfielder Fran Mérida from Arsenal, whose contract expired with the London club on June 30.
The Catalan midfielder has been committed to the institution for the next four Red and White seasons and will be officially launched on Friday 28 May at 12:30. The event will take place in the VIP room of the Vicente Calderón Stadium and the player will be joined by Don Enrique Cerezo, President of Club Atlético de Madrid.

Now some of you reading this might think this is just sour grapes when I say this but I genuinely don't believe Mérida is a more talented footballer than Aaron Ramsey or Jack Wilshere. He's quite skilled but they're better than him. With that said, I think his reason for leaving is because he felt first team opportunities were not coming his way and he felt frustrated seeing others such as Ramsey and Wilshere get into the first team ahead of him.

I understand why he wants to leave but he's being too hasty. He's only 20. He can't expect to be a regular starter already. Our problem in this team is that we don't have enough leadership and experience. It's axiomatic that he's not ready for the first team yet. He should've sat and waited for his turn. Ramsey did and it was paying dividends until Shawcross' vicious assault. He would've had his chance if he waited. He's immature and he's gonna find out that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence.

Atlético Madrid struggled this season. Sure they won the Europa League but aside from that their season mirrored Liverpool's in so many ways. If he thinks his career will be better there than it promised to be here then he's joking. I hope he gets what he wants when he makes the signing official, that is to get into the first team straight away and play regularly but I just have a feeling it won't pan out exactly as he has it in mind. I'll be watching his progress at Atlético to see what becomes of his career.

Good luck Fran, don't let the doorknob hit you on the way out.

Cesc Finally Speaks...Well Kinda

2010-05-26T21:51:00.001-05:00

by Rachid

I've stayed away from the Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona rumours for as long as I could but today I saw something that forced me into giving my two cents on the matter. It was this video interview I found here on Sky Sports.

As I watched a few thoughts came to my mind which I'm now gonna share:

In the past Cesc would've just categorically denied any claims about him wanting to go to Barcelona within hours of the rumours coming out in the press yet today he's saying he doesn't want to say much about it. It's just like when a celebrity's asked about their sexuality. If they're not gay they'd just be frank about it and say "No I'm not." but when they are, they beat around the bush because of the controversy it creates. It's the same thing here. Cesc wants to leave and it's pretty obvious. He would've shot this rumour down when it started two weeks ago if he didn't want to.

I don't get why he wants to leave now. I mean, if he had said this last year it would've made more sense given the poor season we had then. Why now? Why now when we had a better season this year than last? Although the season didn't pan out how we hoped it would, there were definite positives to take from it. Wenger clearly has more money at his disposal this summer to spend on quality players to improve us. If we the fans know this then shouldn't the captain of the team know it as well? Why the impatience now?

He knows there are fans who are gonna turn on him if he goes. In fact, there are some who already have. He's trying to be gracious and diplomatic as to not piss the fans off. As such he's sugarcoating the interview by saying how much he feels at home here and how much he respects Arsene Wenger. To me it sounds like a man who's in two minds and he wants to play it safe just in case he does leave.

Cesc saying he had the most important conversation of his life with Wenger is a bit ambiguous. It could mean that he told him how important it is for him to leave and go back to Spain, confirming all the stuff Guillem Balague had been bleating about for weeks or it could mean he gave Wenger an ultimatum to improve the quality of the squad or he's gone.

If Cesc wants to leave we still call the shots. He's still contracted to us and we can either hold him hostage here or demand a hefty price tag for him. If he goes we get quite a lot of cash to replace him with a player of equal calibre. On the other hand, if he stays we have an unhappy player on our roster who we might not get the most out of because he'd rather be playing elsewhere. It has the potential to be a lose/lose situation.

Why is it that we seem to be changing captains every 2 years? We need some sustainability to the captaincy and if Cesc goes then Arsene Wenger needs to make sure we have a proper captain to replace Fabregas and make sure we don't have another Gallas situation on our hands.

Watch the video for yourself and tell me what you think in the comments section below. Be sure to click the follow button to the right of the page and follow the blog for updates on new posts. Until next time, take care fellow Gooners.

Marouane Chamakh Is Finally An Arsenal Player

2010-05-21T14:52:00.006-05:00

by Rachid

He's heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!

In typical Arsenal fashion, the signing of Marouane Chamakh was drawn out and became an uneventful matter but it finally took place today.

Chamakh signs for us on what Arsenal.com refers to as a "long term deal", which I'm guessing is 4 years. He'll be wearing the number 29.

About the deal, Arsene Wenger says:

"We are delighted that Marouane Chamakh has joined us. He is a player we have admired for some time now and I know he will provide our squad with great quality. Chamakh has proved he is a great player with his performances for Bordeaux and Morocco in recent seasons and we’re all looking forward to him joining us.

"Chamakh is a striker of real quality and has all the attributes suited to come to England and do very well. He is also a fighter, not only a good football player, but a fighter as well. He is very good in the air and also a good team player. He is a great addition to our squad.”

Chamakh had a few words to say too:

“This is a dream come true and a great joy to be joining Arsenal. My goal was always to play in the Premier League and Arsenal was the choice of my heart.

“Without any hesitation, Arsenal was my preferred club. The team and history of Arsenal, they make me dream. My goal was to join Arsenal out of the all the English clubs because it is a club that makes me dream and I have been a fan since I was a child.

“I’m very excited about playing at Emirates Stadium in front of the Arsenal supporters. I have heard many great things about the stadium and I cannot wait to be playing there in an Arsenal shirt.

“I will give my best to this Club, the Club that I used to support. We have many great players at Arsenal and I will be giving everything to help the team win trophies next season.”

Now while I'm obviously delighted we've signed a player this soon and we're showing early intent for next season I'm curious about the role Chamakh will play. I've seen him play for Bordeaux in a 5-4-1 formation in two different roles. He can be employed as a wide right or left striker, much like Cristiano Ronaldo but he can also be used in a target man role in the center of attack. It means he's a very versatile player and I look forward to that.

I hope Arsene Wenger doesn't use him as a target man unless necessary. By that, I mean I don't want to see him competing with the likes of Bendtner and van Persie for the target man role and he should play it those players are unavailable. Chamakh is a lot like Nicklas Bendtner as a target man. He even misses sitters just like he does. What I'm saying is that we need to add to this team - add things the team doesn't already have.

We need more consistent wide players as the likes of Theo Walcott and Andrey Arshavin have days where they perform and days where they go silent. Chamakh's pace and technique on the wings would be very useful to us because his crafty footwork makes him a bit of an unpredictable entity in our team. Do I think he has all the technical abilities of Thierry Henry? No I don't. I don't think we can bring back the flair to the team Henry has for a while but I think Chamakh can go a long way to provide that 'something out of nothing' to our football that it's lacked since Henry left. This is of course, if he's allowed to play a wide role where he's free to roam the pitch a bit. He's very energetic and I believe his work rate will allow him to be more consistent than Walcott and Arshavin have been for us over the course of the season. I'll even go out on a limb and say if used correctly in a wide role, he could do for us what Ronaldo did for Manchester United.

I'm very excited about this signing and I can't wait til the preseason matches start to see exactly what role he'll be playing in this team.

Are you excited too? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below and follow the blog by hitting the 'follow' button to the right of the page. Until next time, dust!

Time To Separate The Men From The Boys (Part 4)

2010-05-21T07:45:00.000-05:00

So now that we've wrapped up the individual ratings how 'bout we look at the team as a whole?

With all the cash splashed around by Manchester City in the summer, which saw them sign Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure from us for a combined total of approximately £40M coupled with the fact that we only signed Thomas Vermaelen in the summer transfer window, many pundits believed that Man City would break into the top 4 at our expense. There were even a few who suggested we'd be lucky to even place 5th.

Arsene Wenger had a plan to ensure this wasn't the case. He decided that this season we'll switch from playing the 4-4-2 formation, for a more Total Football approach, opting for a 4-3-3 instead. It seemed to work wonders as on opening day we gave Everton a nightmare start with a 6-1 drubbing at Goodison Park. Something notable about that victory was that 5 of the 6 goals came from midfield.

Our attack took a few games to get going under the new formation but once it clicked we became the best attacking team in the Premiership, scoring the most goals. That was until October when Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner both got injured and our strike force weakened.

While our attack flourished, our defence suffered. We had a serious problem defending set pieces, especially corner kicks and we also had a problem defending balls coming from counter attacks down our left side. It caused us to drop a lot of points and fall 11 points behind leaders Chelsea and Manchester United in the title race.

If there's one word that was relevant to this season's performance it's 'fortitude'. The team showed a lot of fortitude to claw their way back from an 11 point deficit to actually lead the Premiership early in the second half of the season. We fell away again, this time to an 8 point deficit, after losses to Manchester United and Chelsea and points dropped in a draw with Aston Villa at Villa Park. It was fortitude (and Nicklas Bendtner) that saw the team come back from such a huge gap to be in the title race once more up until mid April.

Our title dreams ended when we played Tottenham at White Hart Lane and lost 2-1. We just didn't play with any heart or desire. The absolute craven performances weren't over yet as days later we played Wigan away and were up 2-0 but with 10 minutes to go we somehow found a way to snatch defeat from the hands of victory and ended up losing 3-2. Another week later we found ourselves on the wrong end of another 2-1 scoreline away at Blackburn. The lousy performances continued that day and we found ourselves on the final day in a fight for 3rd place with Tottenham. We won our match convincingly against Fulham but it's upsetting to know that we let things get to that point.

Overall though, the team has improved in terms of our fluidity in front of goal but there are two main things which Arsene Wenger needs to address in preparation for next season. We need to work on our set plays and counter attacking tactics and we also need to do something about those players in the team who can't really seem to motivate themselves when they need to most.

It's a bit tricky to give this team a rating as there are improvements which are noticeable but there seem to be problems lingering from seasons past that we still haven't overcome. I'd say a 6.5/10 seems fair though.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Well thanks for reading, until next time. Bye!

Time To Separate The Men From The Boys (Part 3)

2010-05-20T03:53:00.001-05:00

Theo Walcott: Theo didn't play much at the start of the season due to injury. When he did play however his performances were very hot and cold. He'd have a good game here, then two or three mediocre games before he had another game where he was brilliant. Theo had his critics on his back but with arguably his best performance of the season coming against Burnley at home, they seemed to ease off and gained a little bit of patience, waiting to see how his season would pick up. Sadly, it didn't really change. Theo's inconsistency continued and after the loss to Tottenham his desire looked to be gone and all he seemed to care about was getting ready for the World Cup. Theo Walcott earns a 6/10 from me.

Eduardo: Eduardo had an absolutely terrible season. It begun mired in controversy because of what happened in the second leg of our Champions League qualifier against Celtic. He went after a 50/50 ball with Artur Boruc and went to ground after Boruc seemed to bring him down. We got a penalty and after the game Eduardo received a 3 match ban from UEFA for diving. It turned out in the end that he didn't dive and the decision to ban him was overturned. Eduardo was unfairly labeled a diver in the time that the fiasco happened. What really happened though was Eduardo expected the collision and in backing off lost his balance and fell to ground. There are some that say he was actually fouled but it's up for debate. Eduardo backed off because of that nasty challenge which injured him in February 08. It's given him a mental block and made him very timid when going into tackles. It is what affected him this season. With only 6 goals to his name he's no longer the player he was. In many games this season he's hardly had even 10 touches of the ball because he's too scared to get himself into a position where he'll be a threat to goal as he fears lightning striking him twice. Arsene Wenger seems to have lost faith in him too as he's left him out of the squad for many games towards the end of the season. It's sad to say it but Eduardo's now damaged goods and I believe it's in his best interest to start fresh in another league which is more technical and doesn't have the physicality of the Premiership. La Liga or Serie A would be better for him. Eduardo scores a 4.5/10.

Carlos Vela: He made most of his appearances this season in cameos off the bench. He had only 1 start in the Premiership which was in the penultimate game of the season away at Blackburn. A problem Vela faced was that he traveled across the pond a lot to play for Mexico and when he came back to London to get ready for Arsenal matches he had a problem with jet lag and missed many chances to stake a claim for a first team place. There was also the issue of the injuries he picked up in international matches. When he did play he showed flashes of brilliance but there were times when his work rate just wasn't high enough. I think we should probably cut our losses and sell him to a Spanish club this summer. Everyone wins that way. He clearly isn't adjusting to life and the climate in England and the pace of the game is too quick for him so perhaps a slower league like La Liga is more his cup of tea. He's already proven himself there with the time he spent on loan at Salamanca and Osasuna. 5/10.

Robin van Persie: Here's another player injury totally screwed over this season. He started the season a bit slower than the other attackers as he was still getting the hang of the new formation but when he started scoring he did it very consistently. Like Cesc, he put in game winning performances week in, week out. There's no doubt in my mind he would've had a 20 goal season if not for the wreckless challenge on him by Giorgio Chiellini in his international match for The Netherlands against Italy. Many people give van Persie stick for his injury record, saying he's always getting injured as if he has control over it. Really, if someone could determine when they're gonna get injured would they let it happen to them? What kind of masochist do they take him for? Robin van Persie is no doubt a world class striker. If he can stay fit he'll be up there with the best strikers in the world such as Ibrahimovic, Drogba, Rooney and even Messi. He can't however. He's always on the wrong end of really bad tackles. It comes with the territory though. He's such a good player that this is what his opponents resort to to take him off the ball. We had a lot of players out injured during the course of the season but we missed none like we missed van Persie. In his absence we had no out and out target man figure in attack. This was because Nicklas Bendtner was also out recovering from a groin surgery. It was left up to Andrey Arshavin to play the role of target man and his size left him disadvantaged. We struggled to find goals in many games and slipped behind Chelsea, who were leading the Premiership, by 11 points. Robin made his return to action late in the season in the loss to Tottenham but his brilliance shone through. He had an amazing performance and we looked a different team in the second half with him on the field. His performances thereafter were always high quality and he got himself 2 goals from the three games that followed. If he's not unlucky to have another bad injury like he did over the last few months, I can see him rivaling the likes of Rooney, Drogba and Torres (if he's still at Liverpool) next season for the golden boot. Robin gets an 8.5/10.

Nicklas Bendtner: There's no one in this Arsenal team that's as confident, and some would say narcissistic, as Nicklas Bendtner. For a couple of seasons I didn't like his attitude as I felt his bark was definitely bigger than his bite. He did a lot more to back up all his claims of how good he is this season by scoring 12 goals and assisting 7. You might say "Pfft 12's not that much" but live van Persie he spent a big chunk of the season out due to groin surgery. Something else about Bendtner is that in quite a few matches this season he's missed some glorious sitters that in seasons past would've pissed off the Arsenal fans but he made up for it with the goals he's scored. So many of his goals were crucial, many of them eventual match winners as well. Who can forget his strike against Hull to essentially send Phil Brown to the unemployment office the following Monday or his last gasp header against Mick McCarthy's Wolves at home? He's done enough to earn my respect this season and I'm excited to see how he'll build on it next season. I give him 8.5/10.

And so we've come to the end of the individual player ratings. There'll be 1 more part to this review (I promise) sometime soon but before you go enjoy the video package down below and leave your comments on what I've said.
(Special thanks to RVPSSARS23 for the video)

Oh, remember to click the 'follow' button to subscribe to this blog. Catch you next time.

Time To Separate The Men From The Boys (Part 2)

2010-05-19T05:26:00.004-05:00

Okay now where were we?

Abou Diaby: I've never really been a fan of Diaby and I always found it ridiculous to compare him to Patrick Vieira. That being said, I think he had patches this season where he showed improvement. He's gotten on the scoresheet a bit more and managed to stay fit for longer periods this season. However, he's had games where he seemed to just be getting in the way this season. The game at Old Trafford comes to mind when I say that. There are a few players in this Arsenal team who have been criticised for not putting out enough effort, especially towards the latter part of the season when our title chase fizzled out. Diaby is one of these players. He could be doing a lot better and I hope to see him with a better attitude next season. 5/10

Alex Song: Alex has developed tremendously over the season. His self confidence has risen and so have his performance levels. Alex was the ideal defensive midfielder for us. His positioning was excellent. He stayed back and made sure the defence line wasn't too pressured and in doing so he took a lot of pressure off his captain, Cesc Fabregas, to help out with defensive duties. I am of the view that if not for Song, Fabregas wouldn't have had 19 goals to his name this season. Many believe Alex is the most improved player over this campaign and it's a fair argument. Song scores an 8/10 for me.

Tomas Rosicky: There are a few who believe Thomas had a poor season but I disagree. Sure he had the niggling injury here and there but you have to remember that he was out of action for 18 months. I like the new role he has in the team playing as a wide striker. It suits him perfectly. He wasn't really among the goals or assists this season as he had 3 and 5 respectively but I commend him for the tenacity he showed in front of goal. Whenever he played he was a constant threat to goal, always shooting and always getting into dangerous positions. His work level was very high and I'd like to see him build on his performances in the coming season, scoring and assisting more goals. 7/10.

Samir Nasri: Samir's season started in October due to a broken leg he picked up in a collision in training with Abou Diaby in preseasons. He struggled at first to find form because he wasn't really used to the new 4-3-3 formation the team was playing though as the season progressed he started to find his footing. The injury to Cesc Fabregas meant Nasri found himself in a central midfield role which he is familiar with from his days at Olympic Marseille. In my opinion he played his best football here. One particular game where he shone in this position was our return leg in the Champions League against Porto where he scored arguably our best goal of the season with a remarkable solo effort. We went on to win that game 5-0. 7/10

Denilson: The Brazilian started the season promisingly with a stunning long range goal at Goodison Park in Arsenal's 6-1 opening day demolition of Everton. He found himself on the scoresheet 5 more times throughout the season with more goals from distance. He shooting from range has definitely improved but I'm not pleased with his performances in general. In the instances where Alex Song was missing from action due to the African Cup of Nations in January and injuries, Denilson was asked to deputise in the defensive midfield role and did a poor job. His performances were very lazy and he looked like he could've tried harder. He looked like he didn't really care to run hard to track his opponent when counter attacks were built against us. Two notable instances of this were in our FA Cup defeat to Stoke and the 3-1 home defeat in the Premiership at the hands of Manchester United. Denilson is one of the players I'd like to see on his way out during the summer. He scores a 5/10 for me.

Aaron Ramsey: One word comes to mind when trying to sum up Ramsey's season - tragic. Aaron had gotten off to a flying start. He found himself getting regular playing time, mostly off the bench and scoring three times in the Premiership. Two of those 3 goals came against Portsmouth in both fixtures. He also scored a vital FA Cup goal against West Ham at The Boleyn Ground. Then there was that infamous Stoke City game. That total neanderthal Ryan Shawcross, with the most wreckless of tackles you'll ever see, slid in on poor Aaron two footed and left his leg shattered and dangling. Season over for the young Welshman. A promising season comes to a horrific end. Ramsey had been getting his chances and started taking them and then that had to happen. The positive from it however was that it seemed to solidify the team and a siege mentality had developed in the club. It was a them vs. us attitude that developed that saw us push on in the title race til late March when we played Tottenham. The team wanted to win the title for Ramsey. There's no word yet on when he returns but I just hope the injury doesn't have the same effect on him as Eduardo's had on him. Ramsey gets a very deserving 8/10.

Cesc Fabregas: With 19 goals and 19 assists Cesc Fabregas' season speaks for itself. There was nothing more you could ask of the Spaniard this season. He was clearly one of the best players in the league and perhaps the way he played is responsible for the lack of effort and desire shown by some of his teammates. The way he picked the team up and carried them on his back seemed to make certain players rely on him to always deliver a performance. Cesc being so Cescy though never failed. What stood out to me most about him though was how determined he was to pull the team over the line to success this season. A 30 minute cameo at home against Aston Villa saw him return from injury to come off the bench and score two goals, one of which was a breath taking free kick, and had to be subbed off due to flaring up his hamstring injury while scoring the second goal. He also played with a broken leg and scored a penalty with said leg, just to keep us in the tie with Barcelona going into the second leg of the fixture. If there's one word to sum up his performances this season, it's 'heroic'. Cesc gets a 10/10 and who dares disagree?

Andrey Arshavin: I remember at the end of the 08/09 season Arshavin said that he had more to offer us than he did in his first six months at the club. He claimed that this is because he hadn't fully settled into London and was still adjusting to Arsene Wenger's training regimen. Unfortunately the pint sized Russian didn't live up to his words. He managed to bag 12 goals and 9 assists but many expected more of him. He had many games where he squandered a lot of chances but I believe criticism was unfairly levied at him as he spent the period of late October to early February as our target man. This was due to injuries to both Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner. His height (or lack thereof) worked to his disadvantage while he played this role. Journalists had a lot to do with the heavy criticism he came in for. He is known for his outspoken nature and journalists used interviews with him this season distastefully, rehashing old quotes from him at times in the season when things weren't going right. Hearing things said like he said [at a previous time] only stirred up bad reactions from fans. As such many felt he mouthed off too much and wasn't putting in the work to back it up. Anyway, I give Andrey a 6.5/10

Emmanuel Eboue: The man who used to put the boo in Eboue gets my vote for most improved player of the season. After that infamous Wigan game where he was booed off the pitch by his own fans many thought we wouldn't be seeing him in an Arsenal shirt this season. During last summer rumours strongly linked him with a move away to Fiorentina but he stayed and had become one of Arsenal's most consistent players this season. Eboue has been employed in a variety of roles. He's played at right back, right midfield, center midfield and even as a wide right forward in a couple games. He hasn't had a poor game this season in my opinion. He may not always give sterling performances like Cesc Fabregas does game after game but he has always been consistent. Kudos goes to him as well for the mental strength and character he showed to get over his depression after the Wigan game in 08 and to come back and show such fight and desire in his performances. He's now become a definite fan favourite at Arsenal Football Club. Eboue earns himself an 8/10 on this blog.

Fran Merida: Fran started the season with 2 appearances in the Carling Cup and he bagged a great goal against Liverpool there. He featured in the Premiership coming off the bench and he got 1 goal in 4 appearances there. The goal coming against Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium. He also had an appearance a piece in the FA Cup against West Ham and in the Champions League away in Greece at Olympiakos. In these few games that he's played he's had decent performances and both of his goals this season were well taken. It's rumoured that he's rejected a contract renewal from us in favour of a move back to his homeland to play for Atletico Madrid. I hope we see him in an Arsenal shirt next season and I hope he features more too. 6/10.

Okay that's enough for now and Part 3 will be published sometime in the near future with my assessment of our attackers.

Have a look at some more key moments in our season:
(Special thanks to RVPSSARS23 for the video)

Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section and click the follow button on the right if you haven't already done so. That's it for now. Dust!

Time To Separate The Men From The Boys (Part 1)

2010-05-18T00:31:00.007-05:00

by Rachid

I'll start today with my individual ratings for each player's performances over the course of the season.

Manuel Almunia: Had a shaky start to the season. It was so shaky that Arsene Wenger even had to drop him under the guise of a fake chest infection which he claimed lasted for 6 weeks. He eventually made his way back into the first team due to the failings and lack of experience showed by his understudies. He's had some games where he's come up big for us, such as the home leg against Barcelona but for the most part his performances had been found wanting this season. He's made errors in goalkeeping that have cost us important points. It's also worth noting that his defence in front of him at times doesn't seem to really trust him. He has a knack of miscommunicating with his defenders and found himself challenging them for balls in many matches throughout the season. In other words, his command of the area was very poor. Many are calling for his departure but I believe some more experienced competition for his place will do him some good and he should be reduced to the backup keeper role. Almunia gets a 5.5/10 from me.

Lukasz Fabianski: What can I say? Lukasz Loosehands found his way into the first team via the Carling Cup at first and gave some decent performances there. Unfortunately his form has gotten progressively worse as the season went along. As mentioned earlier, Almunia was dropped by Wenger and Mannone took his place in goal until Fabianski returned from injury. When he did, he took on the starting role and he had a torrid time in goal throughout the season. There were many occasions where his nerves got the better of him and his poor command of area allowed him to ship cheap goals. These goals cost us very important games, the first leg against Porto and away at Wigan are two of his worst games of the season. It's said Arsene Wenger still holds the Pole in high regard so many doubt he'll be leaving the club anytime soon. I don't believe he has the expertise needed to cut it at our level and he should be sold. Fabianski gets a 3/10.

Vito Mannone: We saw little of the young Italian goalkeeper this season but he managed to leave a good impression on us. He had a simply astounding performance against Fulham at Craven Cottage which saw him named Man of The Match in a 1-0 victory for us. He's only 22 years old though and that inexperience showed in a match against West Ham at The Boleyn Ground where we surrendered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2. He was benched ever since and never saw playing time again. He shows a lot of promise and I'd rather see him in the team than Fabianski next season. I give Mannone a 7/10.

Bacary Sagna: Didn't have as good a season as in the past. There were questions to be asked about his attacking, especially his crosses as many of them failed to hit the target. He is a defender however and his defending was pretty decent as a whole although he was found wanting in some of our significant games this season, particularly the 3-0 loss to Chelsea at home and the 3-1 loss to Manchester United, also at home. I think Sagna deserves a 6.

Thomas Vermaelen: For many he's our signing of the season. It's not hard to see why. He has been a stalwart in our defence and he deserves massive credit for how he's come into the Premiership and adjusted so quickly. There's a certain confidence about him and the way he goes into tackles that shows why he's played every single Premiership game he's been fit for this season. Many doubted him when we signed him, some questioning his height. It didn't matter at all as he's shown how good he is in the aerial challenges and he's also been very useful to us in front of goal as well as the Belgian snatched 8 goals in the campaign. Not bad for a center back, huh? Vermaelen gets an 8.5/10 from me and I don't think many will dispute that.

William Gallas: William has had his fair share of critics for his outspoken nature in the past in his time as Arsenal skipper. Ever since being stripped of the captaincy he's turned his Arsenal career around. He's had a very good season partnered with Vermaelen at the back. His tackling has been a lot better this season and it's not far fetched to wonder if our season capitulated because of his injury. It seemed to go downhill at just about the same time. Big Bill gets a 7.5/10 from me. I hope we replace him adequately this summer.

Mikael Silvestre: Didn't get much playing time this season as he was always just a bit player in our team who got into the starting eleven when a defender got injured. Most of his playing time came towards the end of the season when Gallas got injured and quite frankly he's been very poor. He hasn't done much to merit a contract extension and he, like Gallas, is on his way out of the club. 5/10

Johan Djourou: This is a guy Wenger has a lot of patience for but like Robin van Persie he's always finding himself injured. Unfortunately for the Swiss center back he picked up a knee injury which ruled him out for all games this season except the Fulham game on the final day. I hope he stays fit next season and push the new defender(s) coming in for a regular starting place. Rating not applicable here.

Gael Clichy: He's struggled this season. While there's no doubting his passion, heart and commitment to Arsenal Football Club his game was riddled with costly defensive mistakes. He's put a bit more pressure on Vermaelen to work harder too. I don't want him to leave but I hope he improves for next season. I'd give him a 6.

Kieran Gibbs: Much like Djourou, injury has been the downfall of young Kieran Gibbs this season. He made only 7 appearances and was pretty solid until he had troubles with his back. He shows a lot of promise and I hope things go better for him next season. 6.5/10 from me.

Armand Traore: Armand was rumoured to be on his way to Birmingham at the start of the season but he quickly rubbished those rumours saying he wants to stay and fight for a place in the Arsenal team. He had 12 appearances and while he wasn't exactly stellar he wasn't really bad either. He had an indifferent season. To be fair to him however, he's not a natural defender, but a left midfielder who's being played at the back by Arsene Wenger to learn more about the defensive side of the game. Whether he'll still be here next season remains to be seen. Armand gets a 6/10.

Sol Campbell: When the rumours swirled about his return to Arsenal I was pretty vocal about being unsure that we should be taking a gamble like that. He's 35 years old and I questioned his ability to keep up with football at this level. Man did he prove me wrong! This is one of those cases where humble pie couldn't be any tastier to me. In my opinion, he's been our best signing this season. He's been very active, more so than you'd expect of someone his age and he's been very solid and consistent since signing for us in January and you can see the leadership he brings to the team while playing. He'll definitely be around next season and I'm happy we have his leadership at our disposal. Sol Campbell gets a 9/10 for me.

I just hit preview and realised that this will be a really long blog post if I continue. I'll let you rest your eyes a bit and you can check back later for part 2 with the midfield and attack ratings. Before you go, have a look back at the season that was:
(Special thanks to radioactivesound for the video)

Leave your thoughts on the ratings, what you agree/disagree with as well as your own ratings in the comment section below. Also give your thoughts on the video.

One more thing, please hit the follow button on the right before you go. Take care and have a good one!