Well here we go again then, Saturday lunchtime kick off, live on Sky Sports and one thing we don’t need is a repeat of last Saturday’s showing or Wednesday’s dull performance.
We know Cesc is out as is Eboue, Diaby, Vermaelen, Frimpong and Clichy. Oh, and Almunia! That’s according to AFC.com so if I’m wrong, blame them, don’t shoot the messenger… Some suggestion is though that Clichy faces a late test and Almunia is back in contention!
I’m not even going to guess at our first eleven, we’ll know that soon enough.
Onto Villa, a team under a relatively new manager in post, Gerard Houllier and a side which could include our old hero Robert Pires. Like us, they are having a topsy turvy season and the last two games has seen them throw away a two goal lead at home to Manchester United to draw and then last weekend they were beaten by Fat Sam’s Blackburn away from home.
We all know though, latest form and results mean nothing in this league, it’s all about who on the day has the more fight and desire to win. If we can turn up at Villa Park and show the commitment we did at Eastlands then we can win. Play with the lack of passion and desire we showed this time last weekend then no doubt we will come away with nothing.
Villa have some quality players, a strong goal keeper in Friedel, Steven Ireland in midfield who maybe struggling to settle at his new club but on his day he would walk into most Premier League sides and of course up front we all know how good Agbonlahor and Young are. Last weekend they were all off form against Blackburn, I’m hoping they continue that form today otherwise our defence are in for a tough time.
This is our second chance to go top and even if it is only for a few hours just being there might lift the players, make them realise that it’s not a pipe dream, it really is a possibility and we can win the league. But, we won’t if they don’t start working together, working for themselves and working for the club.
We have all chewed the cud in the past week, wondering what is going wrong, who’s to blame and how to put it right if we were the manager. Reality is, we are not and we can do nothing. One man can though and that’s Arsene Wenger. He’s had a tough week, watching his side throw a two goal lead against our rivals only to lose the game then going to Portugal and losing against a poor side in Braga. So yes it’s been tough.
It’s been tough for us fans too and as I’ve already said, one man can put right all that’s been going wrong. That has to come from his pre-match talk, his half- time talk, his instructions during the game and of course his timing of substitutions and changing of tactics if needed. Then, it’s down to the players to show why the club paid so much money for them and why they deserve to wear the red and white shirt.
So come on Mr Wenger, get the best out of your players today, put a smile back on your face and the face of every Arsenal fan.
Showing ‘bottle’ wins you games, throwing them will not!!
That’s it for today……..
Morning…..
Morning rico.i don’t want to see nasri play in cesc’s place.
Morning KT, who for you then…
Jack or Tomas??
Anyone see Mou’s recent comments about Aw?he said the excuses are getting old and that the likes of clichy,sagna,theo,rvp10,song,fabregas and AA are not young players but TOP players.i actually agree with mourinho on this one.also why did Aw have to attack madrid when his own house is out of order?mou has not lost a single game all season while we have already lost 6.he has topped his group while we are struggling to get out of the easiest group we’ve had.Aw should really shut it about other teams.right now madrid would tear us apart…
Yes, I saw them KT, but you know the way things go..
reporter ‘what did you think about the madrid sendings off’
arsene replies, instead he should just say its none of his business….
Rico tomas for me.he plays one touch stuff and he sees that early pass unlike nasri who prefers to take that extra touch.nasri has also settled well in the flanks and it wouldn’t be ideal to move him.he and rosicky can interchange but let sicky be the chief playmaker.jack looks knackered already and isn’t quite ready to play there in a PL game.
I went for Nasri KT as I think I read he likes to play in the middle, if thats his place then wenger should play him there, same with AA, he needs to be play the role that DB used to, not stuck out on the right…
Nasri will slow down our play rico if he plays there.tomas is more direct and has more experience playing there than nasri.however AA,tomas and nasri can all take turns interchanging depending on the flow of the game.
Im surprised mou rates clichy and song that highly…we are going to meet Madrid if we finish 2nd.UEFA will want a glamour tie and with Aw and mou throwing insults at each other the game will have an edge to it.
but he’s no slower than cesc KT 😉
i hope wenger plays 4-4-2 today and make us more direct, song must stay back to start too and see how the games pans out – if he starts bombing forward our defence will be exposed, young and Abby have pace and could rip us apart…
i see only one reason why jose keeps battling with wenger and that’s because he wants the job. he wants back in the EPL and what better place is there for him to go to….
Villa’s pace on the counter is another reason why song shouldn’t bomb forward as squillaci is pretty slow.
He would love to shadow Aw’s achievements here using the same players and maybe a few more.
But Squilli reads the game well KT,I hope he partners JD today, especially if Carew plays..
Jose would demand money from the board KT, Wenger should start to aswell…
Rico the money has always been there.we were prepared to offer €20mil for two young prospects FFS!!!
I know that KT, eveyone knows it, thats exactly what yesterdays post was about, €20m for two kids….. what i’m saying is any other manager would spend it, including jose. wenger needs to tell them he wants it now to spend… and not on his project diaper…
442 is a must AA23 as second striker. nasri or jack in he cesc role worked a treat early in the season and frankly they need to learn to play without him. he clearly wants out. body language speaks volumes. defense is the key. we need to get keown back as a defensive coach and teach these fairies about urgency and winning. we can attack all day but defensively we are so inconsistent it`s ridiculous
morning vinny, can’t disagree with any of that, AA is definately wasted on the wing, wenger trying to change his game so far and thats why he always looks naffed off too… let him play where he plays best and stop all this square pegs in round holes
You know supporters tickle me at times,Arshaven dos’nt like it being out on the right, someone else dosn’t like it here another dosn’t like it there, these players are earning 50 odd grand a week, its a fortune, pay me 5 grand a week and i’ll run all day and play anywhere, even do a sing and dance at half time leave it out and dont give these tarts more to whinge at
Steve, it’s not about that, its about getting the best from a player and playing him out of his natural position doesn’t get that… if wenger wants wingers, buy them, not try and turn a player into one when its clearly not them…
AA hasn’t got the stamina to play cesc’s role in the pl.
i tend to agree steve, but am yet to see your highlight reel so will stick with the lads whinging. it makes no sense to have a player like AA23 on the left or right where he is easily isolated. nasri or jack are more than capable of playing the cesc role if song sits back and does his job instead of bombing forward all the time and clogging the lanes. if we play with one proper, i repeat proper DM even theo will look like the player from earlier in the season. for me nasri has that little bit of edge and fight that bergkamp used to have and is slowly growing into the leader we have lacked in midfield since paddy was running the show.
i’m not suggesting he plays there KT 😉
vinny..
my gripe with arsene is that spends too much time taking away a players natural game – theo is a striker, so he sticks him on the right, nikki is a centre forward, he too gets stuck on the right in a 433, AA is a sriker and gets stuck on the wings and we wonder why we don’t take our chances…
Chamakh is a centre forward who in his first games scored for fun, now he coming back too far to try and get the ball, as does nik when he plays. all this is doing is clogging the midfield area and when we get the ball there is no-one up front to pass to..
Rico hleb took two seasons to learn how to play there.hleb also had some of the best close control helping us against teams that park the bus.AA tires very easily and is likely to be bullied off the ball.
That’s because he’s overweight KT 😉 he’s said it himself –
AA needs the ball and drive towards goal and take his chance, he isn’t a player to dribble around the whole team or keep the ball, its not his style, but then thats because his best position is playing off the striker, that’s what he did for Zenit and thats why wenger bought him…
I also think his goals have dried up because of where he plays…
Who’s Hleb KT 😉
Trust me rico AA plays a free role at our club.he has the licence to roam from there when he wants to like pires used to.under Aw’s reign the left wing has always been our most creative (pires/sicky/nasri) while the right more solid and direct (theo and ljunberg).Aw has altered our formation to have two holding midfielders to ensure at least one of them covers clichy when AA roams infield.AA himself said that in a 4-3-3 he prefers to play left in a front 3 but no.10 in a 4-4-2.
We have a team at the moment,in turmoil we have a manager who’s mind is in a French hotel, a young hopefull with more about his sex life in the papers than his football, losses against our bitterest rivals at home, had numerous chanches to head the table and failed misserably,players injured with conditions no one can cure, moral down to the lowest depths and you want me to feel hopefull i’m a Gooner iam used to all this
Thats just why i wish wenger would sometimes drop the 4-3-3, we don’t have the ‘right players’ to play that way and every other side has us sussed…
Steve, one blog suggests that wenger is taking legal action against the newspaper who covered the story about wenger…
Rico there is a reason why messi is a phenomenon.nowadays he plays the false nine role at barça with villa and pedro just beside him.he is very strong despite being small.we all know about his dribbling ability but what sets him apart is his drive and determination.when tackled he gets up and continues playing.AA was handed that role when rvp and bendtner were out last season and he struggled there.thats as central as it gets and he showed he didn’t have it in him to play there against big lumps unlike the little Argentine.he hasn’t got the stamina to play in cesc’s role and would leave us exposed.Aw has given him a free role from the left to make diagonal runs that are a nightmare to defend against.its upto him to adapt and improve big time.
Off topic, how can manure have secured the signing of the danish goal keeper outside the transfer window… ??
But that’s different KT, we had no-one up front and AA was almost on his own, he was the only striker at times. Also, arshavin isn’t messi KT, Messi is in a class of his own, thats like asking Song to play as well as Essien, you just know it’s not going to happen…
I see he’s been ‘defending’ the defenders. Perhaps Wenger shouldn’t have put us in the position of starting the season with only one CB with a full season of PL football behind him?
One full season out of the four of them!
Well the Sun of course but they are the Best selling paper in the land and photo’s of someone who looks like our leader and his smileing yea cant be him
Rico i was just driving the point home that AA best position is wide left where he is playing right now in this system.
I prefer to stay away from the alleged Aw affair.as he said its a private matter and i will not cast judgement based on allegations from the sun.
jekyll, i am truly hoping this is one of wenger little fibs and in january he will bring in some steel…
i know KT, he just frustrates me and we should be getting more from him than we are…
Steve, i hope he batters The Sun, even if the story holds any truth, it happens every day in the real world….
Rico,
just because somebody takes out an order to block people from publishing a story dos’nt mean it hasn’t happend.i can remember when he first came to us and an order was put in,but i still remember it.
Rico thats not upto us anymore.its upto him.id like to compare him to CR7.CR7 is a superb player but where messi has surpassed him is at playmaking and teamwork.ronaldo cannot play the false nine role well as he doesn’t have top notch playmaking and teamwork attributes.he is put wide left by mourinho with khedira covering for his defensive responsibilities.CR7 on the other hand will pick his moments when to go for the byline or when to cut in.this is a free role that AA like ronaldo has.CR7 has drive and determination to wrestle the ‘best player in the world’ tag from messi.if AA holds such lofty ambitions coupled with drive and determination he’ll rip defenders apart from that position.
I realise Steve, but i can’t see what he has done wrong in this case, IF it’s true.
I also don’t see it rico.
Mark Clattenburg is today’s referee, just what we need…
Not!
Lukasz Fabianski
Bacary Sagna
Sebastien Squillaci
Laurent Koscielny
Gael Clichy
Samir Nasri
Jack Wilshere
Alex Song
Tomas Rosicky
Andrey Arshavin
Marouane Chamakh
Substitutes
Wojciech Szczesny
Johan Djourou
Kieran Gibbs
Theo Walcott
Denilson
Robin van Persie
Nicklas Bendtner
Disapointed JD isn’t starting or Gibbs…..
Sir Bobby starts
Villa
Brad Friedel
Luke Young
Richard Dunne
James Collins
Stephen Warnock
Ciaran Clark
Robert Pires
Stewart Downing
Barry Bannan
Ashley Young
John Carew
Substitutes
Bradley Guzan
Eric Lichaj
Habib Beye
Jonathan Hogg
Chris Herd
Stephen Ireland
Nathan Delfouneso
Getting back to the football, do we know how much money we have for transfers or is it a secret ?
I don’t know Steve, but it has to be a tidy sum by now…
Right guys, back after the match, got to miss the first half 🙁 back in time for the second though….
I hope sicky plays cesc’s role.
Eduardo
Gallas
please not again
Pires
Hi all, now lets not throw this 2-0 lead, missed the game so far but sky reports its all us and we should be out of sight??
Whats the odds on us holding on to this lead
we will today steve, we will….
see you at F/T
If that isn’t offside then what the heck is, Clattenburg has naffed up big time….
Finally….. phew!!
If AA plays like that he can be a be a ballon d’or contender.
Finally, we bought a new dog lead, but can i be first to point out Gael Clichey, his lack of closeing down for their first goal he backed off and should have raced in to cut the shot down, i have allways been an admirer of Clichey but after that he would be on the bench and fined
Fabianski at fault for the second what the hell was he doing,his done his best in the last few games but he is definitly not the answer for us
AA looked damn hot today!
KT, if AA plays like he did today, he deserves a first team place….
steve, we’ve been critical of clichy for a while on here and agree re fabianski, he still doesn’t convince but i feel for him for their first, Carew was blocking his view…
K-TR7
even a blind squirel finds a nut now and again
He’s just he was freezing KT 😉
But, on a serious note, AA owed us that….
And, did I not suggest we would win without Cesc 😉
Rico,
Not his fault for the first i put that down to Clichey horendous,but he was bad for the second
The first was offside steve but yes, crap defending by clichy, who cares who was out on his wing, the villa player needed closing down and he was the nearest….
manure 3-0 up after half an hour…..
5-0 manure, lets hope this is all their goals out the way before we play them 😆
The away fans were excellent!
With minor tweaks here and there this could be an excellent side.
They were KT, absolutely awesome, could hear them throughout…
Minor tweaks = JD and another great CH and Gibbs in for Clichy, Kos and Squilli as back up… Chesney in goal and a top notch DM….
AA did everything i highlighted today.brilliant stuff!
So maybe Cesc does inhibit other players?? Second half AA was more central and involved in everything, but can’t take anything away from Wilshere either, he was another conductor today..
the team in general seemed more comfortable going forward….
All quiet so I’m off to enjoy my saturday night…
be good all, catch up tommorrow…
Night night
New post up