Monthly Archives: November 2012

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
November 28, 2012 posted by arseblog

Everton preview + Sagna contract update

Everton preview + Sagna contract update

Time to put Villa behind us with another tricky away tie this evening at Everton.

In terms of team news, Theo Walcott returns after his shoulder knack and I expect him to come straight back into the side in place of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. I think we’ll also see the return of Thomas Vermaelen (who scored the winner at Goodison last season) at left back and Bacary Sagna on the opposite side, while Jack Wilshere will come into midfield – more than likely at the expense of Aaron Ramsey. Other than that I don’t see any changes to the team that drew at Villa Park.

Unless there are some tired legs or some minor niggles we don’t know about it’s not like we have a great deal of choice anyway. Giroud, being the only striker Wenger has any faith in, will continue up front and while Gervinho is fit again it’s difficult to see him start ahead of Lukas Podolski.

While Arsenal didn’t play particularly badly against Villa we were certainly missing some attacking verve and with just one shot on target throughout you can see we struggled to create, but I suspect the return of Wilshere, somebody who can get through the lines, may help us out in that regard. Not to mention Walcott’s pace too but he faces Leighton Baines who certainly won’t make life easy for him.

The manager knows it’s going to be tough and wants the team to take advantage of the fact that Everton have been going through a difficult time of their own. They’ve won just one of their last seven games and after an unusually bright start to the season have struggled a bit recently:

They fight at the top of the league every year. They are one of the contenders for a Champions League spot as well. It is a period where we establish consistency. To go through with a positive result is very important.

They have gone through a more difficult spell as well recently. It is just down to us and the quality of our performance.

And while there’s no doubt the Villa game was frustrating, perhaps some of that was because it had come off the back of two very good results – the spanking dispensed to that lot in the North London derby and the controlled, professional win over Montpellier in the Champions League. We knew that the two away fixtures this week were going to be difficult and of the two Villa looked more winnable, but victory tonight would make the points haul perfectly respectable.

Of course, Arsenal being Arsenal, we’ve heaped the pressure on ourselves by not winning the more winnable game and needing to take three points from the more demanding one, but that, my friends, is very often the way we do things. We’ve spoken this season about the character in this side and while some might scoff we have seen there’s a bit of backbone to us (even if said backbone appears to have some jellyish spots).

So we need the players to react. They’ll know that Villa was a good chance of three points and one they didn’t take advantage of, thus tonight is crucial both in terms of our league standing and to continue to build some momentum and an unbeaten run. Come on you reds.

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In other news, Arsene Wenger says that the club are talking with Bacary Sagna about a new contract:

We are in talks at the moment. We are hopeful. He had some big injury issues but, with him and Carl Jenkinson, you need two players and we want to keep them.

That’s certainly positive news. It wasn’t long ago that Sagna revealed that he had yet to be approached about a new deal, and when you consider that, injuries aside, he’s been one of our most consistent players it’s hard to understand. I like how Jenkinson has progressed, and I think he can develop further, but I think keeping Sagna is hugely important.

It was interesting to hear the manager admit that the new sponsorship deal will help him keep existing players as much as bring in new ones, and perhaps Sagna is first to fit that particular bill. That said, knowing the way we do business, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if we allowed the Frenchman to run down his contract and leave on a free in 18 months time. At which point you’d be looking at an even better Jenkinson to take over, but my feeling is that letting Sagna go that early (he’d still be only 31) would be a mistake.

A team needs experience and reliability. You know what you’re going to get with Bacary Sagna, that’s 100% in every single game. He’s an important player and we should, with this new money on its way, ensure that we cut out this process of selling off experienced players when they can still bring a lot to proceedings. Running to stand still is no fun.

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If you can’t see the game live tonight there’ll there’ll be full live blog coverage 7pm. That means up to the second text updates which you can follow on your browser, tablet, phone etc. Check back here later for another post with all the information and team news, or simply bookmark the default live blog page and updates will begin automatically.

We’ll also be sending important updates, goals, red cards, half-time etc, directly to Twitter from inside the live blog.

And remember, if you fancy betting on the game, Paddy Power will give you a £20 free bet if you sign up and bet £10. Simply click here to register.

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Finally for today, congratulations to John O’Reilly and James Gasson who have won a pair of tickets each to the Swansea game with thanks to Thomas Cook Sport. I’ll be in touch to get your details.

We’ll have news throughout the day over on Arseblog News, back here later for the match. Until then.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
November 27, 2012 posted by arseblog

Clean sheets, Szczesny and Wilshere contract

Clean sheets, Szczesny and Wilshere contract

Morning all.

It’s cold and dark and I can’t believe we’re nearly into December. Time flies, eh? Even when you’re not having much fun. Or maybe that’s just part of getting old. Anyway, I have coffee and coffee is good.

There’s obviously been lots of discussion about Villa and where it all went wrong over the last few days. And perhaps it’s a sign of the times that it all going wrong is a 0-0 draw. As frustrating as it was it’s not the worst result in the world, and maybe at a time when Arsenal fans can find the cloud in every situation, we need to look at the silver lining a bit.

I think it’s quite unique and symptomatic of the modern game and Fanalysis that there could be outrage and complaints about a new commercial deal which will provide us with £25m more per season to work with. And in football terms, while there was much to be frustrated about at Villa, there were some positives.

1 – Clean sheet

2 – We didn’t concede

3 – They didn’t score

4 – Our net minder didn’t have to pick one out of the onion bag

5 – Their forwards didn’t get off the mark

6 – Villa made no positive inroads into their goal difference

7 – The large rectangular piece of cotton, or some other fabric (depending on how fancy you are), which is placed on top of the mattress, remained unsoiled.

8 – Erm …

Well, you get the picture. It’s the first time since the opening weeks of the season that we’ve kept consecutive clean sheets and that is something we can build on. I think it’s reasonable to assume that Everton are going to be a bit more threatening tomorrow night and hopefully we’ll go into the game a with a bit more defensive confidence.

Without wishing to jinx him like a common ocelot (hugely prone to being jinxed by other large cats, bear that in mind if ever getting a pet because you could end up in the danger zone without even knowing it), I think the return of Wojciech Szczesny has been important. Mannone did ok, in fairness to him, but the Pole transmits an aura of security to his defenders. It’s hard to quantify really, but if you try and visualise the team it just feels stronger with him in it than without.

Much like our midfield feels better with Jack Wilshere it or how you’d prefer Giroud to Chamakh. Which isn’t to say others can’t do a job but some people are just better at stuff than others. To me Szczesny looks focused and determined to put a difficult few months behind him. He says his ankle isn’t 100% yet, but good enough to play, and I think the fact that he’s been brought back despite still carrying a bit of a knock is illustrative of how important he could be for this team.

He’s been talking about tomorrow night’s game too and says:

It will be a six-pointer. It will be a very good game for us to win. We managed to get three points last year and it was a really tough match.

We have managed to get a couple of good results recently. It would have been good if we had won on Saturday but we shall take it game by game and hope for the best. We need to climb the table and hopefully do well in the other competitions as well.

The usual kind of stuff, nothing particularly groundbreaking, but there’s no time to dwell on Villa. The games come so fast at this time of year that there is the chance to put things right quickly, which is a good thing in my opinion. I do worry that talk of the players being tired is kind of self-defeating, and as an excuse for poor results or performance it’s one of the most frustrating to listen to, but we’ll see what this lot are made of tomorrow night. More on that game tomorrow.

Meanwhile, there are various reports this morning suggesting that Arsenal are talking to Jack Wilshere about a new contract. Which makes perfect sense to me. For a start he’s not heading into the final year of his current deal and, well, he’s one of our best players and should be a huge part of our future so let’s get him tied down. Its hard to envisage any real issues with this one. I’m hesitant to say Jack loves the club because footballers are adulterous bastards at the best of times. One minute they love you, the next they’re packing their things and moving in with some old red faced, saggy-moobed Scot up the road, but I don’t really think there’ll be any problems here.

And when it does happen, with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Gibbs also in discussions, following recent new deals for Jenkinson, Koscielny and Vermaelen (who let’s not forget pledged his future to the club at a difficult time last year), it’s further evidence that when there’s the desire from both sides to make a deal happen it usually goes down without much fuss at all.

Beyond that it’s fairly quiet this morning. I’m assuming there’ll be some kind of pre-Everton press conference but given how tetchy things were after the Villa game on Saturday I wouldn’t be surprised if the midweek travel etc was used as an excuse not to have one. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Update: there is one

Finally, if you fancy winning one of two pairs of tickets for Saturday’s home game against Swansea, check out the competition right here.

Right, that’s that. Have a good one, Ocelot fans. Till tomorrow.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
November 26, 2012 posted by Anam Hassan

Tactics Column: Arsenal’s lack of “depth” shown against Villa

Tactics Column: Arsenal’s lack of “depth” shown against Villa

It’s difficult to make sense of the decision to substitute Olivier Giroud when Arsenal needed a win for the defensive midfielder, Francis Coquelin, but it certainly didn’t warrant the chants aimed at Arsène Wenger. When Wenger did remove Giroud, however, on the 86th minute, it was ten minutes after they had attempted what would be their last shot of the match – by Aaron Ramsey.  Arsenal’s game had started to become inaccurate and whilst that doesn’t make any clearer whether Wenger actually “knew what he was doing” (and the inaccuracy of their forward play might have just boiled down to their desperation to get the three points), such outward thinking to freshen Arsenal’s tired approach should perhaps even be applauded.

Coquelin’s fresh legs would bring energy to the team – some direct running – and anyhow, it was evident Giroud levels had dropped considerably in the last quarter. The two substitutions Wenger had made previously, bringing on Gervinho and Andrey Arshavin, added to that feeling of inaccuracy as both are more known for being mercurial threats rather than trusted arsenals. Indeed, Gervinho then moved to centre-forward and had a couple of chances to get behind which Wenger thought wasn’t happening all game. Four minutes, though, was a bit late for such a considered style.

The substitution, in a nutshell, sums up Arsenal’s lack of depth. Marouane Chamakh patently wants out as he didn’t even figure on the bench while Jack Wilshere was only there – carrying a knock, no least – as a last resort option. But it also summed up Arsenal’s lack of “depth” from a tactical viewpoint. Once again, Arsenal passed pretty well despite Aston Villa putting decent pressure at the back but the team lacked ideas in the final third. It was a shame because as Wenger says, Aston Villa gave “room to play”, particularly in the first-half (while in the second-half, they naturally dropped back and split defence and attack).

Arsenal didn’t have the tools in their armoury to make use of the extra space. In the 3-3 draw against Fulham, we saw how both sides, who had trouble passing it through each others midfields, broke through defensive lines through players who can spin into space. Dimitar Berbatov and Bryan Ruiz were key for Fulham while for Arsenal, they relied mostly on Santi Cazorla to step away from markers and then the release quickly of wide forwards.

Against Aston Villa, the passing failed to stick on a greasy surface and as such, it needed players of exceptional ball control. Cazorla was overly relied upon but he was unable to dictate the game but the rest of the team, you wouldn’t describe as good dribblers in tight situations. In that sense Arsenal missed Wilshere although Ramsey had a strong game and his running to try and break through was at least positive (and was Arsenal’s main threat too). Last season, Tomas Rosicky and Robin van Persie were the players who quickly spun into space and changed the direction of Arsenal’s attacks and this season, Abou Diaby started in that vein. The Gunners need more players who can change the emphasis from the neat and intricate. “The key to Arsenal playing well, being penetrative and dynamic, is when players turn on the ball,” says former Arsenal midfielder Stewart Robson. “When they’ve got their back to goal, suddenly they turn and look to play the next ball forward.”

The team missed also, the Bacary Sagna-Theo Walcott axis who have been Arsenal’s most dangerous weapons, especially when they play their quick give-and-goes. That was replicate in sorts, by Kieran Gibbs and Lukas Podolski on the other side where most of Arsenal’s danger came from.

Returning to the subject of a lack of “depth”, it said that top attacking sides must “make the pitch as big as possible” when going forwards and make it as “small as possible” when defending. Vicente del Bosque adds that there are three facets that contribute to a good performance: “possession, pressure and depth.” By and large Arsenal, within their own means, achieved good pressure when defending, winning the ball back many times. But going forwards, they lacked men who could stretch the pitch. At a number of times with possession deep, Wenger urged his men to push forward and play as much as possible, in the opposition’s half. The failure to do this is illustrated by the person who found Olivier Giroud the most during the game: Per Mertesacker with ten passes, each time when the striker was forced to drop deep.

When Wenger told Giroud to play closer to the “offside line” after the 2-0 win against Montpellier, it was not just to use his strengths in the air. When Giroud’s movement was lateral as opposed to backwards on Saturday evening, he created the best chance by crossing the ball to Laurent Koscielny. Indeed, Arsenal’s crossing game can only work when the ball is moved wide quickly; catching the opposition by surprise otherwise it’s easier to defender. As such, if that doesn’t happen, you are more and more likely to see this (although is crossing really a default tactic to rely on?).

However, saying all this, it was a good bad performance by Arsenal considering the result. Their shape was superb, mirroring how they defended at the start of the season, Koscielny in particular having a fantastic game; it’s getting the attack to click which has been the main issue. More depth can be the only solution to the problem.

Competitions
November 26, 2012 posted by arseblog

Win tickets to Arsenal v Swansea

Win tickets to Arsenal v Swansea

Arseblog has teamed up with Thomas Cook Sport, official travel partner of Arsenal, to offer two lucky fans the chance to win a pair of tickets to their home game against Swansea City on Saturday 1st December 2012.

The Gunners left Emirates Stadium with all three points last season following a 1-0 win and to be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the following question:

Who scored the only goal when we beat Swansea in that 1-0 game last season?

a.    Theo Walcott
b.    Mikel Arteta
c.    Andrey Arshavin

Send your answers to competition@arseblog.com before 7am Wednesday morning, winners announced in that morning’s blog.

Please note: this competition is open to UK residents only.

Thomas Cook Sport is the UK’s leading sports tour operator and official travel partner of Arsenal, offering Match Breaks to Gunners fans for the 2012/2013 season from £109 per person. Wish you were there? Book your Match Break by visiting www.thomascooksport.com or call the sales team on 0844 800 9900 to be able to say #IWASTHERE.

Share your day at Emirates Stadium with us by posting pictures on facebook.com/ThomasCookSportUK or by tweeting @thomascooksport, including the hash-tag #IWASTHERE.