Gotze, Capoue and Reina all in this summer! Wenger’s inspiration secures the points….

April 14, 2013

Morning all,

Just a bit of gossip up first and that is about summer transfers and the football journalists believe that Wenger will be making a record £30million bid for Borussia Dortmund’s Mario Gotze. In addition to him Wenger is considering a £10m move for Toulouse midfielder Etienne Capoue and the keeper he wants is Pepe Reina.

Those will be the three in and the rest of the squad will be bolstered by the younger players.

There you go, transfer window all sorted by some of Fleet Street’s finest here….

Doh!

Back to yesterday and what a meal we made of that!

During the first half we had something like a 75% v 25% of possession.

We had chances to score, not just any old half chance but, really good chances.

But, a heavy first touch, a badly directed shot or just pure inability to finish looked like it would cost us dear.

Gervinho showed a some nifty footwork but when presented with at least one golden opportunity to give us the lead, he was awful. Saying that, had other players had more about them, they would have been ready to pounce onto his misplaced shot!

Ramsey was also guilty of missing out of getting on the score-sheet. Some think his overall performance warranted a man of the match award. Sorry, not for me!

Giroud hit the crossbar, well, his attempt bounced off the top of the crossbar, Cazorla had a shot from distance saved and Giroud forced a save from Bunn when he tried to nod on a cross from Sagna.

0-0 at half-time, how I never know. But that line is all a bit too familiar…

Ten minutes after the break, Kai Kamara was felled by Kieran Gibbs just outside the penalty area and from the resulting free kick, Snodgrass curled in the perfect cross from the right. Defender Michael Turner was first up to head home! Where exactly were our defenders?

Mmmmm – now that wasn’t part of the script!

For once, Arsene Wenger didn’t wait too long to respond, the wasteful Gervinho was taken off, as was a very unfit looking Jack Wilshere and on in their place came Walcott and Podolski. Both players also looked a little off of their game, especially the German who missed a chance to control and bury a cross into the back of the net. Another chance went missing for our number 9 when the Norwich keeper saved down by his feet. The same two players were involved again, but again, Bunn saved well by tipping the shot onto the bar…

It wasn’t meant to be was it?

Actually, it was and the media will hate it.

A penalty decision was given our way. Alex Tettey had made a spectacular clearance with an overhead kick following yet another corner of ours and this was followed by a bit of shirt pulling on Giroud by Kamara. All seemed a bit 50/50 to me, but Mike Jones took the word of his man on the line and up stepped Arteta to bury the penalty.

1-1

Phew, surely now we’d go and secure all the points I thought even though time was running out.

Chamberlain came on in place of Sagna and he had an immediate impact. His fine cross from the by-line set up Giroud, although some suggest it was an own goal by Bassong, the former Tottenham Hotspur player….

Any doubts were then buried when an offside Theo Walcott pressed into the box and played the ball to Podolski. He’d obviously been on the pitch long enough to settle down and do what he does best and he did….

His shot, low and hard found the net to put the game beyond any doubt.

Many mischief makers will suggest that every goal we scored had a bit of good fortune behind it, well who gives a flying one??

How many times have we been on the receiving end of decisions similar to what we witnessed today?

Far too many to mention is my answer!

How many times have we said that footballing sides build their own luck?

We did that yesterday!

But, we had many many chances, by half time we could easily have been two, maybe three or more goals up but we weren’t.

Yesterdays result wasn’t luck, we earned it over 90 minutes..

Actually, I think Wenger earned it for us because every single one of his substitutions played their part in securing our victory..

So well done to him…

Another word from me has to go to Fabianski – he made a couple of top class saves at crucial moments in the match.

Maybe one of which kept us believing we could win all three points, so well done to him I say…

Third we wanted, third we now are.

Let’s step it up on Tuesday against Everton and make sure we stay there…….

Have a good day all…..

 

 

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Posted by rico

We are very rich! Replacing the underachievers from within.

February 26, 2013

Morning all,

You know me well enough by now. I don’t do finance reports, never have done, so if you want to know what was announced yesterday about how much money we have in the bank, then I suggest you search NewsNow, they’ll be plenty of info. But I do believe we have a sum around £120 million spare to spend.

Most of us knew that though eh, that figure has been creeping up over the last few seasons, and last summer it saw a huge profit made when we made more than we spent on summer signings.

Fan’s don’t want to hear about how rich we are, what we want to see  is a huge percentage of that money finally and properly re-invested into the squad.

Instead of a financial breakdown, here’s a really good post from Allezkev:

Defeat at home in the FA Youth Cup was quite a blow to our young Gunners.

But there were some good performances from some of our young prospects all the same.

One young English player, who has made great strides this season, is Isaac Hayden.

Equally comfortable at centre-back and centre-midfield, Hayden (18 in March), has a good eye for a long raking pass, turning defence into attack.

The noises coming out of the Academy are very optimistic, and we might see Issac fast-tracked next season via the League Cup.

Anthony Jeffrey has had a strange season. Despite a string of impressive performances, the club have yet to offer him a professional contract. He’s a proper winger, takes on and beats the opposition full-back and puts in accurate crosses.

Not only quick, but has good close control, the 18 year old can switch from blistering pace to mazy dribbling…

The word is, a pro-contract is on the table, so Anthony, ‘sign the ting’…..

Hector Bellerin is probably the reason that a new right-back won’t be signed if Bacary Sagna decides to leave…

Another blessed with pace, and a magnetic hold of the ball as he rampages down the right-flank, the Spaniard, who turns 18 next month, is another who we might see fast-tracked over the next 18 month’s.

Jon Toral has had an injury plagued season. His presense has been sorely missed in recent Youth and U21 matches. Toral is one of a host of talented & technical midfielders pushing for promotion into the League Cup squad. Next season could be when we see this skillfull Spaniard make the step up to senior football.

With Thomas Eisfeld, Serge Gnabry and Kristoffer Olsson maybe six to nine month’s away from regular involvement in the 1st team squad.

There is a lot to look forward to, and we may see these lads eventually replacing some of the recent underachievers who now find themselves out on loan.

I’d rather see our own lads, who have come through the club’s own academy and have a connection to the club, be given a chance.

Chuba Akpom at only 17, has already caught the eye of regular Arsenal Youth watchers. This lad has the lot. He can play as a target man, or in the No.10 role, he can play on either flanks or do the lone striker role. As long as he remains fit, I think it’s fairly certain that this lad is going to have some 1st team exposure next season.

I wouldn’t mind seeing him on the bench a few times this season, as it goes…

Jack Jebb and Austin Lipman are two other names we should all look out for in the near future…

So it’s not all doom and gloom, just right now it feels like it…….

Written by Allezkev

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Posted by rico

Walcott optimism, Nasri after a return & is there a better time to face City?

January 12, 2013

Morning all,

City have a few out for the match tomorrow, Kolo and Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero are banned, injured or away with the ACON’s. Of course they leave behind many more very good players but I’d rather we were playing against them without those I have listed.

They’ll be up for the game though, they need to string a long run of victories together if they want to catch Utd and I hope they do after this weekend. Out of the two, I want City to win the PL. For obvious reasons of course. My preference is for all of the teams above us to go on a dreadful run and we sneak a few places up the table…

Talking of City, Samir Nasri has dedicated his Premier League medal to his old boss:

If I’m here today it’s because of him. I’ll never forget what he did for me. I owe him a lot. He gave me confidence not just as a player but as a man as well. That is why I really respect him and really like him because he cared about the men, not just about the players.

For some managers they want you to be on the pitch and that is it. For him he wants to talk to you, to know a little more about you to give you the confidence, it was like a second love for me.

I played fantastic football for three years and I learned how to play at a high level with a lot of Champions League and I was always in the race for the title. And I played with great players, a great manager and it was a great experience.

Rumours were that Nasri could be on his way out from City, is he itching for a return, would we want him back if he was?
I’m not so sure….

Staying with Arsene Wenger, hasn’t he had a fine hair-cut! It’s amazing how much brighter he looks without his curling grey locks, add the smile to his face yesterday during his press conference and he looked a lot better than he has done of late. He did hint that Theo Walcott could sign a new contract soon, maybe that is the weight which has been laying so heavy on his shoulders of late?

Discussions progress smoothly but slowly. We are on a good road but in this situation, as long as nothing is signed, you are cautious.

But I am optimistic we will get to a happy conclusion. I was optimistic last week, but I am a bit more optimistic this week.

Until he’s signed, like Wenger, I’m going to remain cautious. RvP led us to believe his contract renewal was all going to be relaxed and easy to resolve over a nice cup of coffee.

Well that coffee must have been bitter because the outcome sure was!

Talking of Robin, Wenger says that he knew selling the Dutchman to Manchester United would give them the advantage over City in the race to win the Premier League.

Wonder if he thought he could have given us that edge had we kept him, and added one or two more than he did in the summer?

Bitter, I’m off to make a coffee….

Have a good day all…..

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Posted by rico

Wenger admits we were rubbish……

January 2, 2013

Morning all….

Something happened overnight, the gremlins popped into my laptop and stole the match report. Either that, or I failed to hit the ‘save’ button. I know which is more likely and it’s definitely gremlins..

Gone! Normal service resumed tomorrow I hope….

Arsene Wenger has had this to say:

We were not very good offensively, we didn’t create enough chances. I felt we lacked sharpness and desire. I felt we lacked purpose in our game.

Why? It was more mental than physical. Considering our  performance and the result of the game, I don’t think we deserved more today.

It’s two points lost if you look at the target we had over Christmas, yes. It’s frustrating and  disappointing because we didn’t create a lot today after having scored five at Reading and seven against Newcastle.

When you sum it up, the (lack of) goal chances we created, there is not a lot to consider. Our game lacked purpose, lacked penetration, lacked speed. All the qualities we have usually, we didn’t see tonight.

Last night’s match really was awful to watch wasn’t it?

Not only were we poor ‘offensively’, we were pretty dire defensively too and as for Sagna, that’s not the first time this season he’s tried to clear a ball by passing it centrally and into danger! He really is going through a bad spell.

Southampton showed passion and commitment yet we showed very little in that department, in my opinion.

If Wenger is to sign any player(s) this transfer window, I hope they are prepared to roll their sleeves up and put a shift in each week because some of whom we have right now clearly aren’t…

We can dissect the game in the comments…

Have a good day all….

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Posted by rico

Clause in Emirates deal will put the pressure on & another 3 points scraped….

December 23, 2012

It took a soft penalty decision awarded to us and a couple turned down for Wigan to get all three points but right now, do we honestly care?

Walcott didn’t dive, he just stumbled over after being gently caught from behind and as for the Wigan claims for handball, well blame the ref for that. Just as we have to when decisions like that go against us!

In fact, Jonathan Moss was dreadful yesterday. He booked Jack Wilshere for after making a wonderful, well-timed and accurate tackle in which he clearly won the ball but allowed Wigan players to commit fouls as and when they chose.

We weren’t at our best yesterday, not by a long way and Wigan contributed to that by closing us down quickly. The pitch didn’t help either but that was the same for both sides and it didn’t stop Wigan getting forward and creating chances. They were allowed too much time and space all too often and had they been able to cross and finish better, the result would have been very different, but they couldn’t and it wasn’t and that’s that!

We had the first chance, Arteta  broke away with the ball and found Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. His shot was pushed past the post by Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi. Kone had Wigan’s first chance but his soft shot was straight at Szczesny. He really should have done better.

The same player had another chance soon after. He was played through by Di Santo and as Per Mertesacker struggled to match him for pace, the player took his shot, but fired wide.

Wigan continued to get forward at every chance with Stam and Beausejour but couldn’t make any attack count, mostly because of their lack of  composure in the penalty area or the inability to find a team-mate when it mattered.

After the break, Walcott  had a couple of good chances after Oxlaide-Chamberlain set him up, but both chances were denied.

Walcott was forced out wide after an over hit cross. He played a one two with Santi Cazorla as he pressed into the penalty area. As he did so, he was caught by Beausejour from behind. Not a bad tackle, just a clumsy one and the referee pointed to the spot.

Arteta stepped up and made no mistake. 1-0

Wigan again threatened through Kone which Szczesny saved, he also denied another chance, this one from Figueroa. David Jones fired a chance just wide from distance  and then there was a moment of controversy when  a shot was fired in and the ball clearly hit Kieran Gibbs arms.

Wigan continued to try and get the equaliser but we held on to take all three points.

So what did that game tell us?

Walcott isn’t strong enough to play up front on his own?

The defence were all over the place at times and gifted Wigan far too much space and time down both flanks?

Our midfield is in desperate need of an organiser? We need a brute who will the battles both on the ground and in the air and protect the back four.

The positive side to yesterday is that we kept a clean sheet and went home with three points.

I just hope Wenger doesn’t think that three victories on the trot make things alright because it’s not…

Twenty three and maybe we will all start believing it is…..

Just a quick mention about The Emirates deal.

Emirates senior vice-president Boutros Boutros has confirmed that  the Dubai-based airline, are planning to impose results-based precautions as part of any new deal.

There are certain clauses, from 2015, that we pay them a percentage less if they don’t perform. 

The Champions League is part of the new contract. It’s just to keep them on their toes.

It’s fair to us and fair to them.

By 2015, I’d like to think that we are finishing in the top two, not just the top four! But, that little clause could be enough to make Stan dip a bit deeper into his pocket.
That’s if he’s still around at Arsenal by then…..

 

Have a good day all…….

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Posted by rico

Usmanov talks about Arsenal, Left back ‘heavily tipped’ to join us & Champions League Draw today…

December 20, 2012

According to the local newspaper in Southampton, Luke Shaw is “heavily tipped” to leave the club in January and his expected destination is Arsenal. This story has been rumbling since the summer and it wouldn’t surprise me if this turn out to be true.

Having just tied down five British players to long-term contracts, Wenger seems keen to add Luke Shaw to this list. Rumour is we have had scouts watching him but then again, so have Chelsea but surely a player of his age would rather join a club which doesn’t swap its manager every five minutes and play under a manager who would give play him and not just pay him?

I doubt Kieran Gibbs would mind a bit of healthy competition and our current left-back does struggle with his fitness but the bigger bonus would be that should this rumour become true it will surely spell the end of Santos…

The Famous Five?

The Famous Five?

In case anyone was asleep all day yesterday, the above five have signed new long-term contracts with the club. One of course caused a few ripples and that was Aaron Ramsey. Some suggest he should go, some just think ‘give him a chance’ after his long injury lay off, some say he’s our hardest worker and if he could convert the chances he gets in front of goal he’d be so much better.

Regardless of what we all think, he’s here to stay or at least if he does go, it won’t be for free. The Welshman has been talking about himself and his return from injury:

At the beginning, I was really excited to have an opportunity to have a full season and to be involved in everything, I played 44 times and that was quite a shock to the system at the time, having been out for so long. I haven’t had a full season before in my professional career so it was a shock and definitely took its toll towards the end. Hopefully this one will be different and the form towards the end of the season will be better. I’ll be more used to dealing with that.

Next year I want to progress as a player and turn into the player that I know I am capable of turning into. I know I still have a few things to learn. My aim  is hopefully to show what I’m capable of doing on a more regular basis, and to get more goals as well. Last season I had quite a few opportunities, and looking back, I could easily have got into double figures with the amount of chances that I had. That’s something I need to improve on. I need to be a bit more composed in those final situations.

The contract signings will ensure that none of five will be leaving for free in the near future and having moaned so much about our players being allowed to run down their contracts, this has to be a good move by the club.

It’s the Champions League draw today and we could draw:

Paris Saint-Germain

Malaga

Borussia Dortmund

Juventus

Bayern Munich

Barcelona

Surely we won’t get Barcelona again?

I wouldn’t bet against it but I quite fancy us to draw Malaga.

Finally, Alisher Usmanov has spoken in an interview about Arsenal and what he would do should he ever have a say. The Daily Mail have covered the story with quotes so click HERE to read more.

That’s it for another day, only five more sleeps…….

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Posted by rico

Arsenal open talks with Walcott and Huntelaar & Five new contracts set to be announced…….

December 19, 2012

Morning Gooners,

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Carl Jenkinson, Kieran Gibbs, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey, all five are expected to sign new contracts within days. Theo Walcott’s contract obviously needs sorting out and seeing Wenger finally playing him in a central role against Reading, that could mean all sorts of things. The main one of course is a compromise in negotiations of his position.

Each of the above are British, something we haven’t witnessed for a while and Five are English, even more unheard of for Wenger.

We could actually see Arsene Wenger fielding an Arsenal starting XI in the EPL containing five English players.

That’s right, FIVE… Heady stuff eh?

When did our esteemed manager last have the luxury of so many talented Englishmen to pick from in the Premier League…

A quick check, not scientific you understand, and (I think) the last occasion was during the 2002-03 season. Ten years ago…

The game in question was towards the end of a season that should have seen Arsenal crowned champions.
March 2nd against Charlton Athletic.

Those five Englishmen were:

David Seaman, Sol Campbell, Martin Keown, Razor Parlour and Francis Jeffers.

That season, Arsene used Ten English players in the English Premier League, the others being:

Ashley Cole,  Steven Taylor,  Jermaine Pennant,  Justin Hoyte and the unlucky Ryan Garry.

But if you know better, then don’t be shy, let me know, but remember, Premier League….

I might be mistake or even wildly optimistic, but I think that English clubs are gradually improving the techniques and development of their youngsters. We might not be quite up to the standard in Germany, France, Spain and Holland yet, but the gap is closing a little. Not as quickly as we’d like, but any progress, is in itself, progress…

Over the last few years, Arsene Wenger has not automatically been looking across the English Channel to his homeland and beyond for younger players, instead it seems that he is closely monitoring the Academy products of other English clubs.

It’s well known that Chris Smalling and Phil Jones were both on Arsene’s radar, before the Ogre of Old Toilet snapped them up. Of course, the ‘home-made’ product is preferable, those with Arsenal DNA and there’s a lot of talented and promising English youngsters coming along nicely in our own Academy.

Notwithstanding the five Englishman in the 1st team squad, we have a clutch of promising English youngsters on the brink of the senior squad.

Nico Yennaris is highly rated among Arsenal circle’s, closely followed by Benik Afobe and Chuks Aneke, both showing promise at Bolton Wanderers and Crewe Alexandra respectively. Behind that trio is Jernade Meade, Chuba Akpom and Jordan Wynter, they all have 1st team potential.

Whether of not Theo Walcott stays and keeps the number of English at five remains to be seen of course but many reports suggest that further talks have taken place. Let’s hope for a positive conclusion.

Let’s not forget, our five are all internationals too so those who once suggested Wenger was to blame for the demise of the English side, may just have rewrite their story but with a new twist!

Gossip as the transfer window draws nears:

The Times suggest that Arsenal have begun talks with Schalke over signing Klass-Jan Huntelaar!

The Metro suggest we are ready to swap Andre Santos for a River Plate midfielder Ezequiel Cirigliano, a 20-year-old Argentine who has been compared with Barcelona star Javier Mascherano!

The Daily Express reckon we are after Ajax defender Toby Alderweirel in January and let’s not forget that Zambia’s Stopila Sunza is soon on his way to Arsenal for talks about a move to us!!

Written by Allezkev

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Posted by rico

Which Christmas Arsene? Djourou looking to leave as five ready to stay.

December 16, 2012

Morning all,

Seems I missed the ‘Johan Djourou want’s Napoli’ story yesterday…

According to his agent, Djourou is surplus to requirements at Arsenal and was close to moving away before this current season started, now it seems he could be gone in January with Italy his preferred destination.

Djourou has been with us a long time now and surely if he was going to ever truly ‘make it’ with us, he would have done by now. He’s 25 years old and he should be playing football. Staying at Arsenal is not good for him or the club and having been the loyal servant he has, the club should now do the decent thing. That of course is to sell him. But don’t try and price another club out of the market, let him go for a sensible price and one that will ensure another club can pay him a good salary.

The same can be said for all our ‘deadwood’. Take Arshavin out of the equation, most we need to move on were signed either very cheaply or for free so the club won’t be losing much if any money when they go. What that will do of course, is save on the ridiculous wages they have been earning just for training and watching the others play.

I feel sorry for Djourou. Not because I feel is should be playing more often, mind you sometimes our defence have been so poor maybe he’d do no worse, but more because he has stayed loyal, he’s never knocked his manager or team-mates in the press and when he had a chance to play in the Champions League, Squillaci was selected ahead of him. Even when he did play last season, he was mainly shoved out at right back where he struggled and of course, what came next was criticism but he’s not a right back, and never will be.

In fact he’d a defensive midfielder really and maybe Wenger has missed a trick not playing him there instead of Coquelin when things have got pretty desperate. In my opinion, neither are good enough to be at the heart of our midfield but maybe Djourou could have given us a bit more stability.

Not as much as signing Capoue or similar would though!

Talking of signing, reports are rife that Jack Wilshere has agreed, and will soon sign a new £20 million, five-year contract. The 20-year-old England midfielder will be among five British players to agree new Arsenal contracts. Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Carl Jenkinson and Aaron Ramsey being the others.

Maybe even Theo Walcott will join in as the BBC report that talks are set to begin again and go into the New year.

Wenger’s update on the team news ahead of tomorrows game:

It’s difficult because some players are still not practising so I can still not tell you exactly who will be available on Monday. Koscielny should come into the training group today, with Walcott we don’t know but Giroud is back.

On Abou Diaby’s injury…

Slow progress. I cannot give you any fixed date because we are a bit in no man’s land on that front. He is working. We are waiting for him to come back but he is not ready.

On him playing over Christmas…

Over Christmas? Certainly not.

Which Christmas Arsene, he hasn’t played over one yet has he??

That’s it for another day, have a good one…..

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Posted by rico

Slipping down the table as Wenger targets home form to save us….

November 29, 2012

Morning all

Here’s the team line up, including the timing of substitutions.

Wojciech Szczesny, Per Mertesacker, Thomas Vermaelen, Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny (Kieran Gibbs, 4), Aaron Ramsey (Gervinho, 80), Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta, Theo Walcott, Santiago Cazorla (Francis Coquelin, 91), Olivier Giroud

Surprisingly, Wenger favoured Vermaelen at left back than Gibbs for this fixture, whether that was down to fitness or not, I don’t know.

We got off to the perfect start within the opening minute of the game, Walcott collected the ball just inside the Everton half, dodged a tackle from Jagielka, laid the ball off to Ramsey and continued his run on the left. The Welshman, returned a good ball back to Walcott who curled a right-footed shot into the far, top corner. A great goal, and who cares if it took a slight deflection?

Minutes later, Laurent Koscielny suffered what appeared to be a groin injury, so that’s him out for a few weeks now. He was replaced by Kieran Gibbs.

I don’t know whether the injury to Koscielny disrupted us but it certainly seem to lift Everton, even though it was so so early in the game. Slowly the home side raised their game, our right hand side was the target.

Just before the half an hour mark, Szczesny was called into action and any danger seemed to be gone but then Sagna played a dangerous ball to Arteta, causing him problems. Pienaar took advantage and the ball broke away into the path of Fellaini who shot past  Szczesny from around twenty five yards.

Should our Pole done better? I think so!

It was a funny old game after that really, we as usual saw a lot of the ball, but up front we were very tame. Whereas Everton often looked dangerous and on another day, would have buried the chances they created.

Jelavic missed a golden opportunity and Pienaar should have been awarded a penalty after being pulled over by Arteta.

It stayed at 1-1, another three points missed out on and with it, we dropped another place down the Premier League table.

A few pointers:

Cazorla was again too easily nullified

Arteta is clearly being wasted playing as a ‘defensive midfielder’ although he does a good job.

We seriously lack width apart from Walcott who could soon be heading off anyway.

We lack a cutting edge and we offered no real threat going forward.

We defended reasonably well apart for their goal and definitely got a way with a penalty!

Did Howard have a decent save to make the whole game..?

Wilshere had another good game. He tried hard to create but we just lack something as a unit…!

After the game, David Moyes said:

It was a certain penalty. We played against a really good Arsenal team and referees’ decisions often decide big games like this but we got nothing tonight. The players had to earn everything because we were never getting a jot from him.

Arsene Wenger said:

I thought 1-1 was a fair result and it is a good point here. The game was played with remarkable intensity and we had to show good spirit to get away with a point because Everton were really up for it. I am pleased with the spirit we showed.

We have played eight of our 14 league games away from home now – against both Manchester and Liverpool clubs – and if we play well at home we have the chance to come back. 

We had a few more chances on the counter-attack but we didn’t do well with the final ball. We could have been more clinical.

Where have we heard that before…….?

That’s it for today, home fixture up next so no excuses eh!

101 Comments | Match review | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by rico

Bendtner considers Totts move! Walcott set to stay & lose the nerves!!….

November 19, 2012

Let’s start with Theo Walcott, none of us need his contract situation explaining but it seems like he’s going nowhere, well not in January.

When asked if Walcott would be staying until the end of the season, Wenger replied:

Yes, my intention has always been to keep Theo. We continue to talk and the ambition is to find an agreement.

At the moment, we don’t have that agreement, but we have until the end of December to resolve this. I am always optimistic. I talk to Theo every day, but not always about his contract. I let his agents deal with that.

Well I think that is sensible, what is the point in selling him for a pittance when we need him? We’d only have to replace him and that would cost a lot of money. In any case, he may yet sign on that dotted line, he certainly looks happy enough but then so did you know who before he left.

According to Sky Sports, Nicklas Bendtner wants to return to London when his current loan spell comes to an end, and he would not rule out following in the footsteps of William Gallas and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Bendtner told bold.dk:

History is filled with examples of players moving between rival clubs and I can’t rule out clubs due to where I might have been in the past, it might not be the best idea but if the project matches my ambitions I would have to be interested.

Good luck there to Nik, he is certainly trying to ensure he never plays for us again.

Whilst talking about Tottenham, let’s go back to Saturdays game.

Many Gooners were whooping and cheering after the game no doubt. Before the game, many fans had little doubt that we  would send the pretenders home with their tails between their legs. Many said they were not in our league and the same fans suggested they never will be.

We can boast a good victory now that the game is over but whilst the game was 11 against 11 I didn’t think we looked very convincing. In fact we had gone a goal behind and could have quite easily conceded a second. We weren’t looking looking that good to me.

After Arsenal reject Adebayor got himself sent off, for what the referee thought was a straight red card tackle, the scales started tilting our way.

I am not going to argue whether I thought the challenge deserved a sending off or not but for a first tackle at such an early stage in the match, I was a bit surprised to see the red card being branded.

Personally, I have never thought that Adebayor was a dirty player he always seemed to me to be a very sporting kind of fella but it was a high tackle and rules are rules but I felt the ball was there to win.

Pundits and commentators were quick to point out that Adebayor was really pumped up for the game they felt that was the reason for the tackle. They also said straight away that if we went onto win because of the one man advantage it would be solely down to Adebayors rush of blood challenge.

I felt as if they were trying to tell viewers that there was possibly unfinished business between him and Arsenal FC which I don’t believe for one minute.

The game went on and of course the sending off made a difference, we came into the game, started to take control and we equalised fairly quickly and soon scored a second as Tottenham looked very shaky. They hadn’t come to terms with being a man down and despite doing all they could, they went in at half time 3-1 down.

During the break, AVB made a couple of substitutions but instead of trying to beef his defence up he set up to be more competitive and they did manage to stem the Arsenal flow for a while.

Inevitably though, we got a 4th goal  and at this point, I thought the opposition would collapse but credit where it’s due, they continued to attack our goal and managed to beat Szczesny to make it 4-2.

Arsenal players and fans were a bit surprised. I certainly was after our poor defending was again called into question and once Bale had scored, I was thinking that the game could yet end up being drawn. That is what our defending has done to my confidence or rather, lack of it.

Our fifth goal made me relax a lot more, knowing the points were in the bag!

Tottenham deserve full credit for never giving up they despite having been under the cosh since the sending off.

Arsene Wenger said after the game that he was very happy with the result. He praised several players but he also said that our confidence has been low of late and we were nervous out there.

5-2 with ten minutes to go and we still looked nervous, we tried to slow the game down, we tried to play keep ball and we even tried time-wasting tactics but the thing is we still looked vulnerable on the break. The result will go a long way towards boosting confidence but I still think we have problems which need addressing.

We should be confident, especially at 5-2 with ten minutes left of the game. We should have been battering on the Totts door, not allowing them to keep lightly tapping on ours.

Many supporters were singing the praises of Giroud but his lack of pace is very noticeable, the same can be said of Mertsacker, who was at fault for their second goal. His lack of pace cost us dear and I think it will again in the future.

We must lose our nervousness and let the free flow of our game rise to the surface again and get the pace back in our game that we found at times on Saturday, only when we are facing eleven players!

After all, we can’t play against ten each weekend can we……!

Written by Steve Palmer

233 Comments | Daily Bits and Bobs | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by rico

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