Montpellier v Arsenal review and ratings

Montpellier v Arsenal review and ratings

Good morning all, a pleasant morning no doubt sitting atop of 3 very sweet European points ; this morning I feel like a bee swimming through a river of honey, that’s the level of sweetness I'm talking about. Obviously there's no drowning in viscous sugars in my analogy!

The Champions League rarely throws up easy ties, chiefly due to the tough qualification procedures required for a spot in the competition. In England we have a team like Tottenham (who I know I should be calling shit and worthless) who don't get a spot for finishing 4^th in the premier league. They are deemed to have not enough quality, something I’d agree with, but there's no denying that good teams miss out because the standard of competition is so high. Whilst I realise that not every domestic league has the same level of competition as the Premier League does, obvs, it is certainly the case year on year that are “upsets” when a world renowned team underestimates a team from a lesser league.

I was confident that we could go there and take all 3 points; I even thought we may select a team that rested a few key players, just to ease some legs ahead of Sunday. As is often the case with Wenger though, he kept that rotation policy well and truly in the closet.

In my opinion, it definitely showed towards the end of the game that we were running on legs that had nothing in them anymore. I was getting somewhat irate at the lack of action from the bench in fact, and I genuinely thought it was going to cost us the game towards the end. Fair play to Mont-smelly-ier (childish joke apology), they came out in the second half and took home advantage all the way to the final minute, but we helped them along not freshening things up towards the end of the game. Perhaps it was a side effect of Steve Bould being in charge for the evening, perhaps he had instructions from Wenger to resist change if we were winning the game, who knows? We took off Giroud, who hadn’t covered nearly as much ground as our three midfielders in recent weeks, and left on the likes of Diaby, Cazorla and Podolski on the field. Diaby couldn’t run after 70 minutes, Cazorla was showing the effects of quite a few minutes played for club and country and Podolski was flagging as well. They were able to pick passes through our defensive lines because our players were too knackered to track back effectively. I was surprised that Oxlaide didn’t come on in central midfield, and bringing on Walcott and Coq with 2 minutes left seemed only to serve as clock draining.

Still, a win is a win and we got away with it. We rode our luck for sure, they squandered a couple of guilt edged chances, but onwards and upwards, roll on Man City (I think they learnt what it feels like to get plugged in the last minute yesterday, cheers Ronald).

Mannone: Had another good game, solid hands when coming for crosses, tipped a fierce shot round the post and only conceded from a penalty. Stood up and made a brilliant save late on too. Clear no.2 now? 7/10.

Jenkinson: I thought he was far too raw and inexperienced to play for us this season and had hoped that we would buy a right back, but he coming along very nicely. Think he’s the best crosser on the team and his assist for Gervinho was class. 7/10.

Merts: He generally had a solid game and there's no doubt that he helps Jenkinson out positionally. Over-committed late on which left them with an unchallenged shot on goal from a few yards out, but apart from that did well. 6/10.

Vermaelen: Gave away an early penalty which was unnecessary to say the least. He dominated after that though, conceding that he’d made a mistake in his post-match interview. 6/10.

Gibbs: The boy is doing well, an England place must be beckoning. Even though he’s not perfect positionally, Vermaelen’s influence and his natural pace helps him from being caught out too often. I thought he was our best player over 90 minutes last night. 8/10.

Arteta: Standard Arteta, pretty brilliant in every way. 7/10.

Diaby: Had a good first half and made one superb run in the second half, demolishing the turf in front of him. However he tired massively in the second period and started giving away possession, almost gifting them a goal. He should have been subbed on 70 minutes in my opinion. 6/10.

Cazorla: Played well in the first half but also tired towards the end of the second. No one has the ball retention skills that he does, skipping in and out of opposing midfielders and recycling possession all game. He eventually got the breather he deserved as he was subbed for Coq, and hopefully he’ll be well rested for Sunday. 7/10.   

Gervinho: Another game, another goal. It bodes fantastically well for us if he can keep his composure in front of goal all season. To be fair he couldn’t really miss yesterday, but his runs, pace and interplay were very good yet again. 7/10.

Podolski: Third game, third goal. We lost a world class lefty, we brought in a world class lefty, simple as that. We’ve often struggled with being clinical, wasting chance after chance while our opponents score the one effort that they have on target. With this boy, we have someone who doesn’t tend to miss an opportunity. 8/10.

Giroud: Unfortunately he didn’t score, but even worse was that he didn’t play that well in general. Aside from the nice lay off of Pod’s goal, he struggled all game. While he did well in flicking on goal kicks and the like, I think he found playing on old stomping ground a little too much. The longer he doesn’t score, the shorter his confidence will get. 5/10.

Ramsey: Came on for Giroud and did well, I thought he might start yesterday’s game but it seems he’s destined for a role on the bench unless players pick up injuries. When Wilshere is back I think he’ll be our 5^th option, maybe even 6^th behind Rosicky! 7/10. 

Thanks for reading, check back later in the week for more ramblings.

Adieu

@halls_dja

Montpellier v Arsenal preview

Montpellier v Arsenal preview

Good morning, afternoon or evening from where ever you're reading this, I hope you're sitting comfortably. This evening, morning or afternoon Arsenal embarks on their Champions League campaign (depending on where you are) in what promises to be tough fixture for both sides. Playing away from home in the Champion’s League is always a tough ask, and what makes it tougher is having to play the league champions from France. Last season we had to play the league champions from Germany and I've lost count of how many times we've had to play Barcelona in recent seasons, so we know what it takes to get a result against domestic champions.

While playing away from home is hard, it is also tough having to welcome a side that recently smashed six goals past a team in their league, who are yet to lose domestically and have only conceded one goal through a Flapihandski style piece of goalkeeping. Montpellier’s start to their league title retention has been going slightly less than swimmingly, and their own players and manager have conceded that they will need to significantly up their game if they are to avoid a drumming more severe than this man! Their manager has even urged their home fans to give us hell and intimidate us from the first whistle. I assume that football chants and jeers in France sounds anything but intimidating because of how fluidly their language flows…it must be like being drooled on by your grandmother’s dog; more of an inconvenience than anything else. The Stoke home crowd would represent more of a werewolf hiding on your wardrobe as you stand oddly stationary in your bedroom, starring in a cheap horror movie.

Whilst I doubt that we will go there and take them apart in the same way that we did with Southampton at home, I'm in no doubt that we can do the business at their place. They are yet to pick up a win so far this season and sold their best CF to a European rival, which must be almost as annoying as selling your best CF to a domestic rival. They have struggled with conceding silly goals in their last few games, and with the canons loaded and primed we are certainly firing well. A good result in the Champion’s League usually constitutes a draw away from home, and while I would certainly take that I think we can definitely go there and do some damage, hopefully making something of a statement to the rest of our group.

I believe that we have made two changes to our squad from Southampton last weekend, Diaby coming in for Arshavin and James Shea replacing the injured Szcz. Hopefully Szcz’s absence is more precautionary than anything else. While he had a poor game against The Saints, there’s no doubt in my mind that he is by far our best keeper and we could do with him having another season like he did last year in term of fitness (obviously there’s always room for on pitch improvement). It wouldn’t be at all surprising to me, given the quality of the opposition and the needs that some players have for minutes, to see a little bit of squad rotation coming in to rest some legs and energise some others.

I’d select a team of:

Manonne, Jenkinson, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Santos, Ramsey, Diaby, Cazorla, Walcott, Gervinho, Giroud.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Gibbs was given something of a rest ahead of what promises to be a tough afternoon for him in Manchester next weekend. Santos has barely featured for us so far this season so it may be a good chance to rotate whilst keeping our offensive potency. Koscielny could step in for 90 minutes to give Per a rest and perhaps offer the manager a selection headache ahead of Man City. With both Aguero and Tevez possessing lightening turns of pace it may be that he would prefer for the more nimble Koscielny to step in, and this game against Montpellier would be a good chance for him to find his touch for 90 minutes. Podolski  and Arteta both deserve a break; they are players who you would anticipate playing 90 minutes for every game that they are fit for, so it may be wise give them a bit of time off and allow for Ramsey and Walcott to stretch their legs. And what better place to get Giroud firing than on the pitch that he tore up the French league last season? If the gods didn’t want him to emulate Henry and Bergkamp and score against The Saints, they must want him to score against his old club.

Just when you thought UEFA couldn’t get any more ridiculous they are of course upholding Wenger’s ban for the next three Champions League games, if I’m not mistaken. For whatever reason though, I don’t feel apprehensive about Bould taking over in the slightest. Perhaps I’ve been caught up in the media storm surrounding him and his old school defensive attitudes, but I think we’ll do just fine. If we don’t show up in the first half I’ve no doubt he has the presence and authority to kick the players up the arse in the interval. Another clean sheet would do his reputation no damage at all. 

Please check back after the game for review and ratings etc

Cheers

@halls_dja.

Arsenal v Southampton preview

Arsenal v Southampton preview

Apologies to all five of you for my slight absence, the international week really drains me of all football enthusiasm. 

This international break has had the distinct feeling of a colonoscopy: there was the typical dreading of the 2 week-long event; the horrible experience of it actually happening; followed of course by the tortuous wait for the results to come in, specifically with regards to injuries to our, very often, overly fragile players. Well I'm pleased to report that the results were surprisingly positive, meaning that the expected injuries didn’t happen to materialise. Whilst Diaby may well need a games rest after beginning the season in full throttle, both internationally and domestically, we seem to be in good shape after two more annoyingly timed international matches. Thus far we have matched the three international fixtures with three domestic fixtures, following on from a summer which began with European internationals and culminated with worldwide internationals played in our very own country. If those internationals weren’t enough internationals for the most die-hard international fanatic then I don't what is, short of living your life as England boss on a permanent basis through the magic of Football Manager…many a month has been wasted in such a manner.

The Friday night beers are kicking in, so if you aren’t awfully averse to the idea I’ll move swiftly on to the business of team news, before I drift into “station missing” slumber and do just that. If I had asked you to name a player that would come back the slightest bit crocked, I would have bet money that you would have bet money on me putting some money on Abou Diaby, a player who has completed more minutes in the three games this season than he did all last campaign. Following on from his imperious game against Liverpool, he went on to secure his country’s victory by netting the only goal in their 1-0 victory. Such service comes at a price naturally though, and his involvement seems unlikely this weekend, if only because of precautionary measures. Looking at the glass half full we can’t really complain too much and for a player that’s been out for so long it may be a blessing in disguise that we have to rest him for this weekend. I'm sure that Diaby is constantly lingering around the fabled Red Zone that we were terrified Van Persie would reach last year, and we ought to not have too many concerns resting him at home against Southampton.

However, this now makes for an interesting midfield conundrum for the manager. If Rosicky or Wilshere had been fit, I’d have no doubt that they would end up slotting into the starting line-up this week. As it is, they will be keeping the likes of Sagna and company company this weekend, so as far as I can see the manager can either slot in Oxlaide or call Ramsey up to the fold. Bringing in Oxlaide would constitute removing him from our wide midfield options, probably meaning a recall for Walcott or Gervinho to the line-up. Bringing in Ramsey would allow for The Ox to remain on the flanks where he has started every game this season for Arsenal and England. After Gervinho’s pixelated goal last week, which may or may not have been world class (I couldn’t really see it), I’d probably rather see him start the game with Oxlaide in the middle. He brings the same level of on ball speed to our offense that Walcott does, and has a considerably more capacious locker of skills and dropped shoulders than Theo does. After watching Oxlaide play out wide for England I think that he can become isolated for large periods of the game, and the more he picks up the ball the better it is for whichever team he is representing.

Therefore I would select a starting line up along the lines of:

Szcz, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Oxlaide, Cazorla, Podolski, Gervinho, Giroud.

High fives must be dispensed in the direction of Vito Mannone for two clean sheets in successive starts, and high tens may be extended for assured performances whenever he was called upon to make a save or intercept a cross. I’ll confess that I approached the first game that he started this season with a certain amount of trepidation, after a couple of preseason fumbles. Yet however well he has performed I think that our number one keeper is quite clearly Szcz, and I can’t envisage the manager keeping a fit Szcz out of the line-up after injury alone prevented him from starting the last two games. It’s not as if Szcz had been injured for the whole season and Mannone had represented us for the entire campaign. It seems that the Pole may well be recovered enough to feature on Saturday, and as long as he is healthy I can’t see anyone else between the pegs but him.

Giroud is an interesting one, in as far as years of good performances and goals combined with extensive scouting reports apparently count for nothing if you don't score in your first 2 starts in the Premier League. I could tell you that both Henry and Bergkamp scored their first goals against the Saints but I'm not a superstitious man. However Gemini is rising in the eclipse of Venus’ lunar belchings, so if that doesn’t convince you to put on a bet I don't know what will. On a serious note though, this is the exact kind of time when we as a fan base need to remain 100% behind him and give him the time he needs to settle into the league. His movement’s fantastic, he just needs to find his shooting boots and we’ll all be laughing. 

Aside from that I think the rest of the team selects itself at the moment, especially if Diaby is too injured to feature in the starting line-up. The hops that I've consumed are really weighing down my eyelids, so I must leave it there.

All the best.

@halls_dja

            

Liverpool v Arsenal match review

It’s amazing the effect that football has on people like me. I could have been sacked on Friday, been fined on the train after forgetting to pick up my ticket than morning, arrive home to find that my house burnt down around lunch time, poaching my pet gold fish in process and then Saturday step in dog shit on my way to nearest council run housing estate. But I still think I’d feel this level of contentedness after winning on Sunday.

It wasn’t just the fact that we won at Anfield; it was the manner of the win that impressed me. From front to back we looked a class above the opposition, whether it was communication across the back four, movement in midfield or the efforts of Podolski and Oxlaide to work back and defend, we set a fine example of how to play the 4-3-3 formation.

In terms of team performance it was the best I've seen for some time, and we certainly looked like a mature and experienced squad of players. Straight through the middle of the pitch we had a core of established internationals that knit the team together and helped players like Oxlaide, Gibbs and Jenkinson to add a frill of youth to the fabric of the squad. We held a decent line at the back, catching them offside and rarely yielding any opportunities for Liverpool to create one on one chances with Mannone. The true level of Steve Bould’s influence is hard to tell at this stage and will only be measurable once the season is over, but on the face of it things look like a whole new level of organised. Jenkinson is naturally defensive minded, barely getting to their by-line (if ever) and ensuring that he is in place to help quash the fast break threats that the opponents may generate. Gibbs is very offensive, yet the last few games have found him restricting himself in the opposition half, again leaving us with a reinforced back line. Being that we are a team that tends to have the tiger’s share of possession, opposition attacks manifest themselves in fast breaks for the most part, but when we have our two full backs set and in formation with both our centre backs, we have a cover which is very difficult to breaks down; with our four defenders in play, we generally outnumber, or at least match, the opposition’s breaking players. It’s been well documented that we don't have an out and out defensive midfielder, so if we do get caught out in the middle we have the players already in place to cover Arteta or Diaby, who may have been left in their half.

One area I would like to see us improve on is the way we worked off of Giroud. We did play the long ball on a few occasions and as far as I'm concerned, if your big man up top gets any touch on the ball (whether head, shoulder, knee or bollocks) we have to be pouncing on the second ball. Towards the end of the game he looked really fed up of hassling for position only for our players to not bother working off of him. I can always squeeze a negative from somewhere.

Individually the boys put in a great shift and really fought for the shirt, and the twelfth man in the stands really helped to turn the game in our favour.

Mannone: He coped well with the few efforts that came his way and was definitely fouled a couple of times when coming to claim the ball, even though they weren’t given. One strong punch late in the second half proved his confidence, and hopefully this run in the side will see him grow from strength to strength. 7/10.

Jenkinson: He made a couple of poor passes in the first half that could have led to trouble, but fortunately they didn’t. Once he got his head in the game he didn’t do much wrong with the ball, and I thought he coped very well in the tackle. He no Sagna, but he’s coming along just fine as far as I'm concerned (and is getting me plenty of cheap fantasy league points). 7/10.

Mertesacker: They employed a high press early in the first half and he made a few missed passes early on, but his composure soon settled in and his distribution was good. Defensively he was outstanding, making tackles and keeping Suarez in his pocket. His long limbed leggedness came in handy in the first half; anyone under the height of 7foot 5 would have given away a stone wall penalty. 8/10.

Vermaelen: He gave a captain’s performance in every sense of the word, dominating from the back and barking out orders to all. It’s not normally the captains the job to do the cleaning but he mopped up everything that came his way, giving Suarez very little time to score. 8/10.

Gibbs: He remained disciplined for the full 90 minutes and has really made the left back slot his own this year. His pace is a tremendous asset for the team, and he carried the ball from box to box on one occasion out pacing everyone in Roberto Carlos fashion. 7/10.

Arteta: For me he is the footballing Federer, undeniably brilliant at everything he does and oozing class from every pore. He retained the ball in every situation, tackled hard and proving Wenger right when he says that we have the players to cope for Song’s departure. 7/10.

Diaby: If yesterday’s Diaby is the Diaby that we’ll see all season then we have our very own Yaya Toure. It’s fortunate for Arsenal Football Club that Wenger doesn’t listen to the people who reside in twitter or various forum/comment pages, because we have sold him long ago. Parallels with Vieira are banded about quite rightly, and if he plays anything like that for us over the next few years we’ll be in good shape in the middle. Who would Wilshere replace out of the current 3? 9/10.

Cazorla: I don't think I've ever seen a player look so at home so quickly when coming from another league. He looks like he’s been playing for us for ages and is the key we need to unlock we drilled defences like Liverpool’s. While you could put his goal down to bad keeping from Reina, his interplay for 90 minutes and his assist for the goal was world class, there's no other name for it. 8/10.

Podolski: It was great to see the German get on the score sheet today. He deserved a goal and took it brilliantly. We saw it in preseason and we saw it again today; he has the vision, ability and desire to pick the ball up in our half, lay it off to a team mate, bust his gut to get into their box and then finish off the move. The left attacking midfield position is his to lose as far as I'm concerned. 

Giroud: People lambast him for not scoring in three games but it doesn’t worry me in the slightest. I would be worried if he wasn’t getting into any scoring positions, or if he wasn’t winning any aerial battles, or if he wasn’t bothering to press the defenders and force turnovers through rushed clearances. He does all those things and goals will come for him, I have no doubt. Leave the slating of our players to opposition fans, they enjoy it and do it well enough without our help. 7/10.

Ramsey: He came on and did well, retaining possession and looking good on the ball. The little back heels here and there speak of his confidence, and he’s a great option off the bench for tired legs. 7/10.

Santos: There aren’t many better players to bring on and play keep ball. 7/10.

 Koscielny: Wasn’t on long enough to grade.

So it’s 3 points on the board, new players scoring and old injuries being left behind (hopefully).

S’all good baby.

@halls_dja

Liverpool v Arsenal preview

Liverpool v Arsenal preview

So it’s another week with another tricky away trip. Yes, Liverpool are a bunch of thieving scousers. Yes, they sign crap players for stupid amounts of money. Yes, they then loan/sell them for pennies a year later. Yes, they still play Jamie Carragher who lost all footballing ability about 3 seasons ago (but is still a world leader in getting away with blatant penalty fouls). Yes, they insist on surrounding a world class Gerrard with turds like Henderson, Shelvey and Lucas. However, Liverpool can beat any team that rock up at Anfield, and we’ll need to be on top of our game to take the 3 points on Sunday. Or we could just wait for Alex Song to chip a little ball over the top for Van Persie to volley home in the dying minutes……..oh.

The grapevine is reverberating with whispers about Szcz continued absence, which isn’t the best news I've heard all weekend (hearing AVB was still employed by Tottenham sits top of the pile at the moment). Combined with Fabianski’s injury it means that Mannone will return between the sticks for his second successive first team game, indicating that the “fresh start” feeling will continue through this weekend. He kept a clean sheet last weekend but in all fairness he didn’t have too much to do, which is a testament to our levels of possession and defensive organisation rather than a slight on him. As he attests, Liverpool will have far more of the ball than Stoke did last weekend so he’ll more than likely have to pull off a few saves to keep us in contention of a win.

Our longer term absentees remain just that, but positive news from the camp suggests that Sagna and Wilshere will be back training after the international-pointless-wasteoftime-noonecares-givemepremierleaguefootballeveryweek-break. Jenkinson has performed well in the opening two games according to me, but being up against the likes of Suarez and Gerrard will keep him far busier. I believe I also heard somewhere that Oxlaide was in for a start this weekend, which could potentially bring our English contingent up to four if Theo starts! Quite atypical.

I would probably go for the following line up, were I Arsene Wenger:

Mannone, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Diaby, Cazorla, Oxlaide, Walcott, Giroud.

Walcott was benched last week, which I hope had little to do with the contract farce that he’s staging. Hopefully Wenger realised that Walcott can be utterly useless against teams that are content to sit deep and never attack. Liverpool will be on the offensive like any self-respecting premier league team, so I'm sure Theo will be effective against their higher line. To be fair to him, he has a tendency to step up in the bigger games too.

I think Diaby needs games to reach his best, and while our options are a little scarce in the middle (Wilshere, Rosicky injured, Ramsey very much a bench option at the moment), we may as well run him ragged. From a fantasy league point of view I need Podolski to start so I’d probably rather see Diaby dropped for Oxlaide, but Diaby is held in very high esteem my Mr Wenger so I wouldn’t be overly surprised to see him retain his place.

That’s about it for this week. To any gooners travelling up for the game, please remember to keep you valuables on your person at all times, or your match day ticket won’t be the only thing you leave the stadium without.

I’ll be putting up a match review on Monday morning, so be sure to check it out if you have the time.

Regards

@halls_dja     

Pathetic

Pathetic

Well I hope you weren’t one of the gooners that took the day off work to enjoy the unveiling of that “special” player Arsene was talking about. I was in the office all day, but of course found the time to refresh various websites every 5 minutes, desperately searching for updates from the Arsenal camp. When it got to 17:30 I’d already reminded myself that the window doesn’t close for another 6 hours and that plenty could happen in that time, and happily skipped to the nearest pub to help the locals get rid of some of those beers they'd accrued. Even on the train an hour later, with signal coming and going more often than Charlie Sheen comes, then leaves, and whilst being diverted from one tunnel to another, I was still making my phone put in a good shift.  It was only at about 22:00 that I formally relinquished the ghost and pretty much lost interest, dejected in the knowledge that we were doing sweet FA to strengthen our team in line with our competitors and were letting another opportunity pass us by.

What surprised me so much about our inaction was that Wenger had been pretty loose lipped about our transfer business, maintaining up until the recent press conference that we were well and truly in the market for another player or two, even highlighting a couple of areas that he’d like to see an improvement in.

As it played out, every club in the league improved their squad with more purchases than we did. 

Whilst I realise that quantity is no measure of quality, it is a pretty good measure of how many players you strengthen your team with, funnily enough. Our squad is as thin as it was last season: no second keeper bought to pressure Szcz and compensate for Fabianki’s likely departure; no defenders bought in any areas when we conceded the best part of 50 goals last term and proved that we didn’t have the numbers to cope in all competitions; one central midfielder bought (who looks the business) but one sold to a rival champion’s league club, so no real improvement in depth there; one out and out striker bought in who scored goals for fun last season in France, Pod who can play both centrally and out wide, but we lost the best centre forward the premier league to our most competitive rivals.

Therefore we head into the season with two out and out strikers in Giroud and Chamakh, a situation which is a little more than confusing when Chamakh barely featured all preseason and wasn’t on the bench for either of the first two games. Wenger obviously doesn’t want him, and apparently neither does any club in Europe. That’s quite an impressive deterioration in status considering he was in a fair amount of demand when we purchased him. We couldn’t convince Walcott to sign a new deal and are hoping he’ll be the first player to “love the club” enough not to stab it in the back, push its face in a puddle, apply wedgie, then defecate. Walcott can sign a new deal at any time, it’s not really got anything to do with a transfer window, but it sends a strange message when we spend all summer trying to convince a couple of players to stay whose desires to be here are less than apparent, whilst getting rid of Alex Song, the one player who wanted to be here and wanted to sign a new deal. In the midfield area we have Wilshere coming back into contention, so I guess he’ll be our new signing (aim revolver at head), and with Rosicky returning too we definitely have enough bodies in there to cope.

We haven’t played with an out and out defensive midfielder for years now so I don't bemoan that lack of an M’Vila as much as some do, it’s more the principle. The principle now dictates that not only will we allow our best striker to sign for a direct rival (something they would never sanction in reverse), we will allow our statistically most creative midfielder to go when he still had 3 years left on his deal. So on the face of it we sold a starting midfielder and brought in one who is arguably more effective going forward but plays in a different position, one out and out striker to replace Persie, and the only true addition coming in Podolski who didn’t replace anyone (but looked like he was replacing Walcott for some time).

I can only envisage 2 scenarios: we genuinely have no money at all, we can only afford to buy once we have sold and therefore selling Van Persie and Song were necessary evils to fund the purchase of an extra body in Podolski; or we have a board and manager that hate the club and want to see it fail, die, burn, and have its ashes sprinkled somewhere we knew it didn’t want them. By the way I don't believe the second scenario, or the first, so I'm at a genuine loss as to what to think.

We are a club that is masquerading as a current superpower in the guise of a huge stadium and a faithful fan base filling the seats, but unfortunately we are clearly anything but at the moment. Yes we have a good squad still, yes we will battle for 4^th spot and probably make it, and yes we will be involved in some great games, pulling back 3 points when all seems lost, but do we have the capacity to realistically fight for the title alongside the Manchester clubs? I hardly think so. Do I blame Wenger for this? No. do I blame the people above Arsene at the club. Indeed yes I do, and while I don't believe in any way that they’re “lining their pockets” with banker-esque bonuses, I do believe that our financial prudency is a little extreme and may well come round to puncture our posterior on its parabola.

Thus, it was another transfer window selling our best players and amassing a profit. And there was me thinking the script was revised for this year’s production. 

  

Now all we can do is break a leg (preferably Persie’s).

Match preview up tomorrow.

Adieu.

@halls_dja 

We come to it at last...the great battle of our time...

“We come to it at last…the great battle of our time…”

Ahhhhhh, that Friday feeling.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that bank holiday feeling.

Smashing out nine hour days (commute not included) can really take it out of you I'm sure you’ll all agree, and there's no better feeling than an oncoming weekend of football. We’d better make the most of it before a spectacularly ugly “international break” rears its head, or an “international break” rears its spectacularly ugly head, which ever displeases you most.

So, it’s Stoke this weekend, and I think we only played them about 5 games ago if we include last season. I don't know about you, but this fixture always evokes a certain Lord of the Rings-esque, “Elves against the Orcs”, type feeling. It’s the beautiful against the ugly, the successful against the failed, the good against the bad, one style being a gross perversion of the other. That’s about as biased a view as one can hold if you ask me, but it’s what I'm known for.

Delving straight into team news and we have little difference from last week. Wenger mentioned in his press conference that Koscielny is still injured and resting, while our longer term infirms are all still infirm. Oxlaide is apparently ready to make an appearance however, which is a boost to the squad for sure. In the last game there wasn’t too much replacement material in the wide areas after Podolski and Walcott left the pitch. While Wenger has recently stated that Oxlaide officially comes under the CM label nowadays, he certainly has his uses out wide and can provide a huge injection of carbs off the bench. With Kos out for another week it all but guarantees Mertesacker a starting place for the second week running, no bad thing in my opinion.

I’d like to see a line up resembling:

Szcz, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Diaby, Arteta, Cazorla, Gervinho, Podolski, Giroud.

I think that while Jenkinson hasn’t quite blended with the teams attacking movements as yet, he had a solid defensive game last week and can offer this team a traditional right back, defending first and crossing second. I think the middle 3 pick themselves while Oxlaide regains match fitness and Rosicky and Wilshere are still injured. Wenger had better get in a decent supply of Lemsip because he’ll have quite the midfield headache when those three are all fit.

Walcott is stalling worse than I do when behind the wheel (contract extension wise); while he has unplayable qualities in certain situations, and I’d rather see him at Arsenal than anywhere else, he showed far less desire than Gervinho did to take people on and create threatening situations. Starting Pod out wide and dropping Walcott to the bench could remind him that he isn’t the guaranteed starter he might think he is. Giroud up top could be the battering ram we need to unlock this Stoke defence, much less the key. His physical qualities ought to give us a presence up front that we have lacked in recent seasons (read height and muscle and/or unparalleled handsomeness from that), and the sooner all the new boys are used to starting together the better.

If we can keep them from opening the scoring on Sunday I’ve no doubt that we’ll walk away with the three points. These affairs tend to be tighter than a tightrope walking, tight wearing tightrope-ist, so I think one goal will swing it either way. The ball will spend a lot of time in the air on Sunday, so we’ll need to see a dominant display from our 2 internationally renowned centre halves.

While I'm a big fan of Santos, I think his cavalier attitude towards defending would mean that Gibbs would always start in this fixture, and Wenger seems to have learned that just because a Brazilian calls himself a left back, it doesn’t necessarily mean that his. Wenger did say that Santos may make the squad, but apparently it depends on his behaviour because he’s still on the naughty step.

Anyhow, regardless of who starts where, I'm confident that we’ll bag out first 3 points of the season (driving licenses not included Santos…ahem).

Can’t wait boys.

Up the Arsenal.

@halls_dja

   

So Long, Song Billong

So Long, Song Billong

So Alex Song has signed for Barcelona, signalling an end to his affiliation with the club. I remember when he first came to The Arsenal, looking a little awkward to say the least. He didn’t seem to be particularly good at anything and was quite representative of our change in policy since moving to Ashburton Grove; buying a player for a pittance and hoping that he would become a first team regular through expert training and plenty of pitch time. There was at least one game where he was booed by fans, harassed and hounded and eventually subbed off if I remember correctly. His first touch wasn’t great, he was supposed to be a defender but couldn’t really tackle and didn’t dominate the air, he wasn’t overly quick, and his shirt always looked far too big for him.

 Quite the contrast to how he left the club, having blossomed into a fine athlete and a commanding central midfielder. He became quite pacey, he filled his shirt with knots of sinew and he could hold off players as well as he could hold onto them (a bit too much pre game opposition hugging for my liking). I don’t care if people say he wasn’t the out and out defensive midfielder we craved, he made more tackles and interceptions than anyone else did, and he developed a killer final ball in the last year of his tenure, something that the Dutch twat made full use of. 

   

He was the penultimate bastion of African vibrancy in a squad bereft of the likes of Toure, Adebayor and our cult hero Eboue (who should still be at the club in my opinion). There was no one to accompany him in a tribal jig after scoring a goal, surrounding the corner flag and making us all doubt our abilities on the dance floor. Santos seemed keen to join in the jives, but he clearly wasn’t up the standard that Song was used to, Gervinho’s forehead obviously hampers any dance moves he may wish to make, and Chamakh doesn’t possess quite the ilk of African vibrancy required. I don’t think anyone else in the squad could pull off the hairstyles that Song did on a weekly basis, and certainly no one looks as good as he did with green, red and yellow sweat bands on. I’ll be honest, I'm genuinely gutted that he’s no longer with us.

I think that anyone who claims that we don't really need Song is correct; but you could easily say that about any player. We've certainly had enough practice at saying it over the last two seasons, what with Cesc, Nasri, and Van Persie all making good use of the exit door. Yet the implications of his departure are less than decent from an Arsenal perspective. If you'd have told me during the middle of the last campaign, after having just lost Nasri and Cesc, that by the start of this season we’d have lost Song and Van Persie too, then I would have been flabbergasted. Don't be under any illusions; Van Persie and Song were the two first names on the team sheet last year, contributing towards 52 goals in the Premier League alone. The Van Persie situation is unique in that it was a player in the last year of his contract (so unique it happened twice in two years!), yet Song had three years left. For a midfielder as effective as he is, with the ability to pass the ball as well as he does, and who fits into our system as perfectly as he does (it was a system developed in tandem with players of Song’s generation), I'm staggered that we sanctioned his sale.

What turns that stagger into full on bewilderment however, is the feeble fee that he went for. £15 million for a 24 year old CM who has the passing potential, in basketball terms, of Magic Johnson. That is perhaps a slight over statement but you cannot deny his effectiveness for us last season.

Footballing intellectuals who sip glasses of orange juice on the Sunday Supplement like to profess that we are a “selling club”, and many of the keenest intellectuals that you’ll find sucking kebab fat from yesterday’s newspapers assert the same. The art of football journalism is a reactionary business. It considers only the previous 90 minutes if we are discussing the entire season, and only the previous season if we are discussing the fullness of association football history in this country. This is how toilet paper like The Sun comes out with headlines proclaiming that we are a club in crisis off the back of an opening day draw, even though in reality we are one of the best run football clubs in the world off the pitch, and pretty bloody good on it too. Simply looking at the Wenger era alone, we have always sold players; we sold Anelka, we sold Petite, we sold Overmars, we sold Vieira, we sold Henry. We’re not the only club; Sir Alex Ferguson sold Beckham, he sold Stam, he sold Van Nistelrooy, he sold Ronaldo, and they were some of the best players in their positions at the time. To be branded a selling club doesn’t necessarily mean that you lack ambition or lack a manager with the strength to rebuke all-comers, it simply means that you have a manager who functions in the real cold and unforgiving world where money doesn’t flow from a hole in the ground in the Arabian peninsula or isn’t taken at gun point by Soviet gangsters.      

In more recent times, Cesc felt the need to return to his home land, Nasri was in the last year of his contract and could earn us a pretty penny, as could Van Persie. The only point of question that I have with Song’s departure is that we didn’t get any significant money for him, and that he genuinely seemed very happy at this club. There have been rumblings of a rift between Song and Le Boss, the result of tardy arrivals to training sessions and complimented by a lack of focus during those sessions. As far as I'm concerned this is just speculation, and as with a lot of the unknown about Arsenal Football Club, we may only know for sure when (and if) Arsene releases a book.

Until then it’s a great player lost, another to add to our collection, but a position which can certainly be improved upon; we are crammed with talent in the middle of the park, so it’s probably the one area of the pitch I don't mind losing a player. Still, I'm pretty gutted.

Oh, and it turns out that Man United are a  club in crisis after losing their first game of the season, having spent £70 million on an aging centre forward who’s only had one decent season in eight attempts. Who’d have thunk it?      

Best regards

@halls_dja

Arsenal’s season over..? Match review

Arsenal’s season over..? Match review

I guess the result was something of an anti-climax in the end. In the build-up we had news of Van Persie’s back stabbing move into bastard country, leaving the last eight years of his footballing career in a brown and putrid mess on the floor. He assumed that our ship was sinking and hopped across to one he thought was sailing comfortably towards the horizon, leaving his mates behind to bucket out the sea water and patch up the holes from when we hit Ferguson’s transfer sniffing nose. I don’t know what the antonym for “mutiny” is, but that’s basically what our Captain did. The opening game at Ashburton Grove was going to be the big middle finger thrust firmly in his direction, a resounding “we don’t need you anyhow” bellowed up the M1. We could then sit back, enjoy Match of the Day this evening and wait eagerly for Persie to roll his ankle in his first match on Monday night, getting the working week off to a good start.

Yet rather than the game being read from that particularly well written script, the match turned into more of an impromptu improv session which didn’t rouse too many laughs. Even though we dominated the ball and held 70% possession, even though we our passing completion was over 90%, even though we had far more efforts on goal than they did, we took away the same number of points when Chris Foy chirruped his whistle. While Sunderland will be looking at their point with eyes glistening with happiness, most Arsenal fans will be casting our point a sour scowl. The result didn’t do too much to silence those who claim that we will be nothing without the Flying [north] Dutchman.

I don’t wish to join in the throngs of over-reacting fans who take to Twitter, Facebook and other online media platforms, slating missed chances, a lack of ambition etc blah and so on. It was the first game of the season; we dominated the ball, should have scored and looked comfortable at the back. We looked a little out of practise as you’d expect, but the recent additions bedded in well and looked at home in their new surroundings, suggesting a short acclimatisation period to come. While three points would have been the ideal start, the performance and the individuals that weren’t available make for an exciting month or two ahead. Sagna is set to return to right back in the coming weeks and having the driving forces of Wilshere and Oxlaide through the middle of the park is certainly no bad thing. As someone on Twitter mentioned, this time last year we drew 0-0 and had two players suspended for three games in the aftermath, so today’s result is a definite improvement.

The nature of internet football streams often means that the viewing of a game is anything but smooth, and as a result I may have missed the odd moment where a player did well or did poorly. From what I could gather however, some players did perform particularly well. 

Cazorla seemed to play with a level of comfort that belied his virginity on English soil, nipping in and out of opposition players to create space and link with our three forwards. His pass to Giroud was superb, cutting their line and creating an opportunity to score that really ought to have been taken, but our nouveau Frenchman spurned the chance that should have provided us with the three points. It was a shame because his movement to link with Cazorla was fantastic, so I'm hopeful that this partnership will be one that thrives in the coming weeks. 

From what I have read online, a lot of people seem to be put off by Podolski’s performance, yet I thought he did well in his first start. He acted as a surprisingly good target man, holding off O’Neill’s defenders and helping to link our forward play. He didn’t really get on the end of many moves (bar one which ended up going out for a corner), but he’s got undeniable ability and doesn’t seem like the kind of player who needs many opportunities to score. He was lunching off left overs for most of the game and didn’t have any clear cut chances, but if any fans are going to ignore how good he has been over the last six years and focus only on yesterday’s debut, then I’d say those fans are thicker than clay cake.  

Gervinho was our most effective player aside from Cazorla, and if you compare his efforts to Theo’s then there's only one winning performance in my opinion. Gervinho took players on, hit the by-line on multiple occasions to pull back crosses and genuinely made a nuisance of himself. While he did still commit the odd deadly sin (running the ball out of play for example) I was encouraged by what he brought and hope to more of the same in the coming weeks.   

  

For the rest, we look like a team that needs a game or two more to really come together and develop the clinical nature that games like yesterday required. While we had 23 shots on goal we only managed a less-than-poor 3 shots on target. Teams come to Ashburton Grove to park the bus and it’s our prerogative to break them down and get the result we need. We normally accomplish this but we stalled yesterday; the car isn’t broken, it’s just lost a couple of parts, gained some new ones and needs a couple of miles to run smoothly again.

However, was yesterday a symptom of a preseason focused more on marketing than football preparation? I’ll give that a bit of thought and get back to you.

Again, thanks for reading.

@halls_dja   

                 

Persie Ponderings and Sunderland preview

Well it's that time of the year again, the time when the talking stops and the action commences. All the pronouncements of oncoming club domination over pub tables dripping with lagers and ales, ciders and jams will be put to the test. It's been a typically volatile summer for The Arsenal, the usual highs and lows complementing each other beautifully like the ups and downs of the hilly countryside, until finally we roll into the congested station and the excitement begins.

 

I'll not rattle on with Van Pur$ie jargon as I'm sure you've read and heard enough over the last day or so to make your eyes and ears bleed (if you listened to his words about how signing for United makes him feel like a little boy I'm sure you'd have smelt enough bullshit to make you nasal exits bleed too!). One thing I will say is that there's anger, betrayal, and disappointment in the minds of all gooners, yet over shadowing these emotions is a wonderfully British adage..."keep calm and carry on". As a fan base, we seem to have collectively adopted to stance that many mid teenagers do when they first visit Amsterdam, basically "fuck that Dutch cunt".

 

We move onwards and upwards, in that order, and look forward to welcoming him back to The Emirates in late November.
Our squad has bounded forward in leaps over the last couple of months, and we're a piece or two away from a serious challenge to the reign of Manchester. We've added firepower, we've added midfield creativity, and hopefully with the know-how of Bould we can bring in some defensive team stability. We have the parts to create a solid defensive unit, I'm sure Steve will bring the manual to build our structure.

Tomorrow sees us face Sunderland in our first game of the season, and its quite a stiff test to open with. We rarely find it easy against The Black Cats, yet on our home turf we have a significant advantage, namely that we find it easier to play our passing game on a football field than a recently ploughed field. Wenger managed to squeeze in a comment or two about Sunderland in a press conference dominated by a certain serpentine usurper, and he mentioned their potency on the counter attack. We've been caught by them before in this manner, and hopefully this time our defenders ankles won't rupture during their fast break. The lack of littered farming utensils left on The Emirates field ought to help prevent this.

 

However, on a serious note we did look susceptible to a swift counter break during pre season, so it's certainly an area we will have to concentrate heavily on. I have far more confidence in us remaining organised at the back with Mertesacker present, regardless of how superb Koscielny and Vermaelen are individually. He brings a level of concentration and discipline that I think we can often lack with Verm and Kos, as they're both fonder of a wander over yonder half way line than our gangly German is. We haven't dropped any points to Sunderland in the league for the last two seasons and our home record had been perfect against them since they got promoted, so more of the same will be required tomorrow. Wenger has placed heavy emphasis on the need for a positve start to this campaign, and even though we lost our captain on the eve of kickoff, it doesn't quite feel the same as last year; we were in control of the sale, and we have adequately replacements ready to shine.

It wouldn't feel like the start of the campaign unless we were carrying a barrow full of injuries, and players haven't disappointed in this regard. Oxlaide and Wilsher will not be available for selection, along with Rosicky and Sagna and of course Koscielny.

Therefore I would pick the following team:

Szcz, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Santos, Song, Arteta, Cazorla, Walcott, Gervinho, Podolski.

 

Jenkinson is a young player who has red running through his veins (!) being an Arsenal lad, but I think he has a lot to prove with Sagna unavailable. While his crossing is probably the best at the club, and he has a fair portion of pace, his positioning can be rather poor so he'll need to be heavily marshalled by Merts and Verm. While Santos is clearly an attacking midfielder masquerading as a left back, he can make a tackle or two and his strides forward can be very productive. I'd start Gervinho based on his good work in preseason and his premier league experience, and tomorrow will be a good opportunity to show some "end product". Song appears to be on his way out of the club, yet while he's here we may as well make use of him.

 

Thanks a bunch for reading, plenty more to follow on the site.

UTG.

Hall's Debut

All I am intending to do with this initial post is gather the aesthetics of the blog, and how it will look to the viewer. Not only will this piece have nothing to do with Arsenal Football Club, but it will mention it just once.