Monthly Archives: November 2010

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
November 30, 2010 posted by arseblog

Wigan preview, Carlos Faila + Leopold returns

Still cold and snowy here in Dublin and it seems as if the IMF has sent the UK some of the cold weather too as thanks for the billions you’ve contributed to our bailout. Hopefully it won’t affect the football later on – keep an eye on my Twitter as I’ll update there as soon as I see someone else give out the relevant info somewhere else.

If the game goes go ahead it looks as if we’re going to have a fairly strong attack. The boss says that Walcott and Bendtner will play and Robin van Persie looks as if he’ll be in action too:

Robin will certainly play, yes, but I haven’t decided my starting line-up yet. Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner will be involved but I don’t want to give the team out. The only thing I can promise is that we will take the game seriously.

Fitness permitting I think we’d be mad not to start with all three. They need games, that’s for sure. Theo’s great start to the season was derailed by injury and he’s been unable to force his way back into the team due to the form of Samir Nasri. Bendtner and van Persie have spent a fair amount of time out and just need playing time now. How he goes about it remains to be seen. He could play a traditional 4-4-2 with van Persie and Bendtner up front and Theo on the right of midfield, or fiddle around with the forward three in the regular set up.

Theo could easily go left, van Persie plays on the right of the three for Holland regularly and Bendtner could be the middle man, although it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he used the latter two the other way around. It might be the Carling Cup but all three of them have points to prove tonight for different reasons so let’s hope we see them do that.

At the back Sebastian Squillaci is out with a little knee problem, meaning Koscielny and Djourou will play at centre-half, while Emmanuel Eboue has made a ‘miraculous’ recovery from his knee injury and will be involved. I have to say I’m slightly suspicious that an injury that might have seen him out for two months is better within a week but I suppose it’s welcome news and the Ivorian should start at right back.

Wojscez®© in goal, Gibbs at left back, Denilson, Rosicky and Wilshere in midfield should make up the rest of the team. I know he’s used Craig Eastmond in this competition this season but it’s a quarter-final and I still think the youngster is a bit out of his depth at this moment in time. I’d have strength on the bench too. This is a competition we should take seriously and if we need to call on the quality of Nasri, Arshavin etc then we should be able to do that. A fluttering of youth too, I suspect JET will get a place on the bench along with Carlos Vela.

We’ve got some history with Wigan in this competition. In the final season at Highbury they scored a gammy goal late on to knock us out in the semi-final and then went on to get spanked by United in the final. It should have been us that got spanked in the final, so we owe them one tonight. On their day they’re a decent enough team so there can be no taking this lightly.

Let’s put November to bed with a good home win and good performance. We need to start making the Grove a difficult place for teams to come again and with a place in a semi-final up for grabs there should be no lack of motivation or spirit this evening. Fingers crossed it goes ahead.

–

In other news it’s interesting to note the brother of Carlos Vela speak at the end of the Guardian piece linked above. He says:

He just wants the chance to show what he can do for Arsenal and maybe if that doesn’t happen, he will think about his future. Important clubs are interested in his services. Now he has a European passport, it could open the market for him.

We’ve been used like a Peruvian who marries an Irishman she met in a chat room just so she can get a European passport! In seriousness though, his future looks quite uncertain. If you need a guy to come on and score a nice goal when the team are already cruising then Carlos is your man. If you need to bring on a player to help win or save a game when the chips are down then he’s about the last person you’d think of.

He’s barely been involved in recent weeks and when he is he hardly looks as if he’s busting a gut to show what he can do. Unless this is him showing what he’s willing to do so he can get a move somewhere warmer. I have to say I’d be inclined to say ‘Adios and don’t let the enchiladas hit you on the way out’ but he’d probably just eat the enchiladas. All we can judge him on are his performances and on that basis they just haven’t been good enough to suggest he’s got a real future at Arsenal.

Aaron Ramsey played about half an hour for Nottingham Forest last night as they were beaten 1-0 by Leicester City. I flicked over and watched bits of it between laughing my hole off at Mourinho and he looked ok, somewhat smaller than I remember and a player in need of games. Despite my initial fears I don’t suppose it will do him any harm at all to get match fit before returning to us in January.

And finally for today, I sent out the call, went to the top of a tall building and illuminated the Arseblog equivalent of the bat symbol (instead of a bat it’s an image of a pregnant lemur breast feeding an adoptive kitten) and lo and behold Leopold answered.

He’s been answering some readers emails as his sack was throbbing. He’d be happy to answer more questions too, his email address is the bottom of the new piece on the real ANR.

So that’s that. All going well and the snow not affecting tonight’s match I’ll be doing a live blog of the game. Check back in later on for a new post giving you details of that.

Till then.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
November 29, 2010 posted by arseblog

Irish government, FA Cup draw, Bashchamakh

Dublin weather

Fuck you Brian Cowen

Good morning from a freezing cold Dublin. I know many of you who live in colder places will scoff at the cold snap we’re having here but yours, at least, is natural and consistent.

Due to the ineptitude and outright crookery of our government I can only assume that we’ve given away any warmth we got from the sun to the IMF. The IMF will then lend us some heat at punitive interest rates and we’ll have to ration it to just a few days per year.

Tepid summers I can deal with, I’m used to them, but this kind of igloo making, eating rotten shark and hand to hand combat with snow yeti shit, no thank you. And the irony is this government has been propped up by the Green Party. “Oooh, we’ve got to do something about global warming”, they said. Well done fuckers. You’ve finally got what you wanted. I hope you freeze in hell for all eternity.

And while I’m on the subject of people who ought to be flayed alive then fed to their children before setting the now plump children on fire in front of their own children, the FA Cup third round draw was made yesterday and we got Leeds United. I remember some epic FA Cup games with Leeds back in the day. Anders Limpar racing the whole length of Elland Road one night, then turning back, going up the other end, then beating all the Leeds players again … just because he could … before scoring.

I hate Leeds. I hate them with all my liver. Comes from my school days in East Yorkshire. No, really. Long-time readers will know this already but being forced by a much older woolly-headed, over-hormoned mutant to say you love Leeds while he twisted your arm behind your back to the point where it was sure to break does nothing to create a good feeling about a football club.

Their brief rise in the early part of last the decade under Ridsdale and O’Leary troubled me greatly. Leeds, Champions League semi-final? NO. Still, it was a small price to pay for their subsequent decay and plummeting down the league. No, it’s not terrible to see a proud club with ‘great fans’ suffer relegation after relegation. It’s fucking brilliant. For me Leeds are the John Terry of clubs. Leeds would shag your bird then draw the hot bath after buying her a bottle of Beefeater.

I can’t wait for this game because I want to kill them. In the face. Then take the face and hold it up for their mum to cry over. This fixture takes place on the weekend of Jan 8th/9th.

Meanwhile, Marouane Chamakh is finding English football somewhat tougher than the game in France. He says:

Every ball that’s contested here I get ploughed into – and the referee doesn’t blow for it. After a Premier League match, I walk off with my body aching, with scratch marks, stiff muscles. Three days later, we go again.

He’s taken a battering in fairness. I think it was the Birmingham game where Roger Johnson elbowed him in the head after they took umbrage at him being cleaned out of it in the area, but he’s done exceptionally well overall. He’s not perfect but lets not forget the injuries to Bendtner and van Persie, and then Bendnter’s histrionics, meant he’s been the focal point of our attack for most of the season so far. It’s a tough job up front on your own, we know defenders in the Premier League are physical, so fair play to him.

I suspect he’ll get a rest tomorrow night against Wigan as it’s a good opportunity for the manager to rotate a little bit but even though Chamakh’s hair defies description in its ridiculousness I’ve grown rather fond of him. And the best answer to getting roughed up is scoring goals, so far he’s hitting them where it hurts when they hit him where it hurts. Long may it continue.

It’s a bit early to talk about the Carling Cup game tomorrow night. There’s a whole blog waiting to do that tomorrow morning. We can have a good speculate on the team and the changes the boss might make then. Provided I can find a good stream, as I don’t think it’s on the telly, we’ll be doing a live blog so if you’re stuck in work or out and about it’ll keep you up to date. More details on that tomorrow.

And really that’s about it. This morning I have go somewhere and it’s cold and slippy outside. If I chill or take a tumble I’m taking this poxy government down once and for all.

Till tomorrow!

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
November 28, 2010 posted by arseblog

Villa 2-4 Arsenal: We were top of the league

At the end of the first half yesterday I tweeted that Arsene’s team talk should consist of just three words – “Remember last week”.

Almost straight away that was turned around by someone who suggested Gerard Houllier’s team talk should be exactly the same. Funny but there was no way it could happen again. No chance. I mean, we’ve learned the lesson. And to be fair we held out for exactly one minute longer in the second half against Villa than we did against Sp*rs.

Bale’s goal last week came in the 50th minute and we had the resolve and resilience to make Ciaran Clark wait until the 51st minute for his. I have to admit I had a slight touch of the deja-vu going on.

dé·jà vu

–noun

disagreeable familiarity or sameness – the sense that Arsenal are about the repeat the some horrendous mistakes as they did last week against the mouthbreathing scummers

It was all very familiar, wasn’t it? A first half we’d dominated and in which we should have scored more goals, against relatively poor opposition, and yet the game was very much in the balance. It had taken us a while to break Villa down. Friedel made good saves from Chamakh, we fired a couple just wide, didn’t necessarily make the most of other opportunities and then Villa’s centre-half kicked an invisible ball, let Arshavin have it out wide and the Russian drove forward, jinked inside and buried in the bottom corner.

His first goal in 11 league games and a timely one too. It was his corner that created the second, Nasri had been left free at the edge of the box and his first time volley was sweetly struck, flying past the keeper with a slight deflection.

So 2-0 and surely the dressing room would have been a place of concentration and focus. Urged, entreated, implored not to make the same mistake as last week. And yet … and yet. The goal itself should have been disallowed. John Carew was as offside as a bastard, clearly in the way of Fabianski who didn’t see Clark’s excellent shot until far too late. How any official can deem he wasn’t interfering with play is beyond me and it’s not the first time we’ve seen a decision like that in the Premier League recently.

The other thing about that goal was Gael Clichy. As the ball is headed out he sees the danger, moves towards Clark and then something switches off in his brain. It’s almost as if he’s been implanted with a device opposition managers can activate from the sideline. ‘Defensive Clichy off, hapless spacker Clichy on’. Regardless of the fact Carew was offside Clichy running away from the man taking the shot was just ridiculously bad defending. He copped an earful from Squillaci and rightly so. “Gael, vous çunt”.

What we needed was to see a response from Arsenal and we got it. Rosicky played in Chamakh who got there before Friedel to toe-poke home our third. That’s more like the Arsenal we know and pine for. A bit of balls, a bit of steel, a bit of oh cocking bollocks Villa have scored again. 3-2.

Now, I know many of you probably went through the mill, fearing the very worst. Not only were we going to blow a two goal lead again, we were going to do it twice in one game. I have to say I sat there watching in terrified resignation, awaiting the inevitable, knowing it would come when we had no chance to hit back, but Villa didn’t really threaten again. We had lots of the ball and at times I wondered to myself, in my most swearingy inner-voice, why Alex Song was bombing forward when really we should be maintaining some kind of defensive discipline but I have come to accept that what this Arsenal team knows about closing out games you could fit in the world’s smallest book (right behind “Things I do that aren’t cunty” by Jedward Sheringham).

Jack Wilshere scores against Villa

In injury time a bit of keep ball is required, we end up with four or five in Villa’s box, Denilson’s shot is blocked, Chamakh dinks a cross to the far post and Jack Wilshere is there to score his first league goal for the club with a diving header. 4-2. Game over, done and dusted. And with a whole 85 seconds to spare!

I’m not one of those people who will add too many caveats to a win, clearly what happened last week was fresh in the minds of the players but they showed good character to respond when they needed to. Villa weren’t great, lots of young players who look good but lack experience, and we made hard work of it really. Still, we went top of the league for a few hours – until Fat Sam bent his team over to have their salad tossed by Demento – and you can’t find too much fault with that.

You can read what Arsene said afterwards here. Some of it made my eyebrows twitch more than if my eyebrow was Carlo Ancelotti’s and it had been impregnated by Harry Redknapp.

There were some very good individual performances yesterday. Chamakh was fantastic up front, working so hard for the team, and the onlooking Bendtner needs to realise that’s what it takes to be considered an almost automatic choice for the team. That’s the standard. If you can’t, or won’t, do that then your future is bleak.

Arshavin looked much, much better than in recent games. I realise that’s not too difficult, considering, but he is an important player and we need to see more of this Arshavin than the other one. Nasri was excellent again, Rosicky’s industry in midfield was important too, as was his assist for Chamakh’s goal. I do fear he’ll never, ever score again though. And while I thought Djourou was unlucky to miss out I thought Koscielny had a good game at the back.

Overall, a slightly more scary and nail-biting game than we’d have liked but perhaps repeating the early second half error and responding in the way we did might just give them the belief they need to cope with those situations when they happen again. I mean, we all know they’re going to happen again, right?

Anyway, we’ve got the wheels back on and we’re chugging forwards again. There’s a Carling Cup quarter-final on Tuesday then Fulham at home in the league next weekend.

In other news this Sunday the Mail is reporting a £10m January bid for Bolton’s Gary Cahill. Bolton are in trouble financially and need to sell players to raise funds. Cahill looks a decent player to me but what it suggests about the injury to Thomas Vermaelen is a bit worrying, to be honest. Five centre-halves is too many to keep everyone happy. We shall see.

Also, don’t forget to check out the new Arsenal Video section of the blog.

And on that note I’ll bid you good day from snowy Dublin (a thaw is required urgently lest 5-a-side be cancelled later. A thaw or an orange ball and some snow boots). Till tomorrow.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
November 27, 2010 posted by arseblog

Villa preview + Pires and the real ANR

Morning all from a very cold, very strange Dublin. Thunder, lightning and snow. Don’t think I’ve ever seen those conditions before. Clearly they are portents of the doom about to be unleashed upon us at Villa Park in a little while.

It is a game we simply have to win. Even if the position at the top of the league is up for grabs only temporarily to blow the chance on successive weekends would really beg questions about this team’s desire and ability. On our day we’re pretty damn good, let’s be honest about that. Amidst the misery and self-flagellation when we click we’re fun to watch and we show all the characteristics we want to see. It’s that we’re equally capable of bottling it and of showing our worst side that brings about the frustration.

The lack of consistency is both troubling and damaging to our league and european campaigns and the perception that we’re a bit brittle is, understandably, one that grows every time we struggle. I suppose it’s summed up by two headlines not too far apart on NewsNow this morning.

Arsène Wenger hits back hard over attacks on Arsenal’s ‘soft centre’:

When you don’t win your games people always find problems with the team. But is it the main problem we have? I’m not convinced.

Alan Smith: Aston Villa wingers will target Arsenal’s soft centre in clash at Villa Park

After two poor second-half displays defensively, first against Spurs and then against Braga, that Arsenal back four needs to shape up if they want to leave Villa Park with all three points.

So one man’s meat and all that but there can be little doubt there’s a fragility. We saw it last weekend against that pack of soil-eating cuntswains from down the road. And what made it worse was it came after some dogged away displays where we demonstrated the good qualities of our game.

The centre of our defence will be tested but I hope the manager sticks with the more physical Djourou today. He was unlucky to miss out against Sp*rs and for various reasons I think it was a poor call by Arsene to bring Koscielny back. But as we keep saying defending is not the sole domain of the defenders, they should be offered the right protection by the midfield and as I expect Nasri to move into the Cesc role that means Song and Denilson/Wilshere will be tasked with that job.

And if that’s their job then they’ve got to do that part of it first. With Chamakh, Arshavin, Walcott (I think) and Nasri further ahead there’s no need for them to bomb forward leaving us exposed. Song, in particular, needs to rediscover that part of his game. Or, to put it another way, Song needs to be instructed, firmly, where his main responsibility lies.

And instruction, or lack of clear instruction, seems to be an issue. In the Guardian article linked above Arsene spoke about the team’s need to be more cautious, questioning why, when we were down to 10 men, we threw so many forward to try and win the game on Tuesday. A very good question, it has to be said, but do you really need to tell 10 men not to overcommit lest you be caught on the break? It seems as if you do, so it begs questions as to why you’d need to do that in the first place and why it wasn’t done in the second.

We simply have to respond today. It’s been a miserable week and despite it all we have the chance to go top of the league this afternoon. Let’s see evidence on the pitch that the team are hurting, that they have the desire to turn things around and prove some of the doubters a little bit wrong. Let’s see a big game from Arshavin, rested during the week, with this fixture in mind no doubt. Let’s see something from van Persie or Bendtner if they get a chance today.

Above all else though, let’s see a bit of The Arsenal in these boys. Timid capitulation is not the Arsenal way. Some pride in the shirt, some pride in themselves, a lot of hard work and effort, will to win, will to go top of the league. That’s what’s at stake today. If we give it everything we’ve got there’s no reason why we can’t win this game. Fall short and it’ll be difficult as we’ve already experienced. Total focus, let’s see the ‘winning mentality’ the manager claims they have.

We blew the chance to go top last week. Let’s not do it again. Come on Arsenal.

—

In other stuff – I read this bit on the official site explaining why Arsene left Bendtner out of the Sp*rs game, and I’m none the wiser. If Chamakh was ‘dead’ … I dunno.

Today we come up against Robert Pires (fnarr!) and he talks about his return to English football. I’ve always been of the opinion that we let him go at the right time so perhaps re-signing him wouldn’t make much sense … until you stop and think about what he might impart on some of these players about what it means and what it takes to win things. I hope he’s quiet today but does well the rest of the time.

Finally, the real ANR has been re-jigged and redesigned. I’ve attempted to make contact with Leopold Mendacious but every time I ring I just get his answering machine which plays a Captain Beefheart cover of A Whiter Shade of Pale. Leopold obviously tripping the light fandango somewhere. I’ll keep trying.

And that’s about that. Back tomorrow.