Monthly Archives: January 2013

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
January 26, 2013 posted by arseblog

Brighton preview + quick Saturday round-up

Brighton preview + quick Saturday round-up

A quick one this morning because my head feels like there are evil little creatures in it banging away on the pipes with hammers. Ugh.

It’s the FA Cup today and a trip to Brighton. Obviously it’s a big game, given the importance of this competition to our season, but I’d still expect a little bit in terms of rotation. There’s still no Arteta or Coquelin, while skipper Thomas Vermaelen misses out after picking up an ankle injury in midweek against West Ham.

Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky are back though [insert Walking Dead joke here] and both could start, with the manager looking to the latter to have the same impact on the team as he did last season. I don’t doubt his quality at all, I think he’s almost unique in this team in terms of what he brings to it, but his injury problems have stopped him achieving what he should have in the game.

I don’t think there’ll be too many changes up front, simply because we don’t have that many options anyway, but seeing Jenkinson get a run at right back wouldn’t be a big surprise. As for our opponents, I don’t know a great deal about them other than they’re doing well enough in the league and they beat Nouveauchâteau in the last round. But that hardly makes them unique this season as Alain P’arjuif’s men have been, you know, shit.

Arsene Wenger says:

There is a long way to go in the FA Cup and, of course, we will give our best. We will not neglect the game if that is what you want to know; we will be completely focused on winning the game but football is football remember. You have seen that with Bradford and Aston Villa this week.

We take this competition seriously.

In the absence of Arteta and Vermaelen, Jack Wilshere could captain the side today, if he plays. And it was interesting to hear the manager talk about how it was Thomas Vermaelen who handed over the captain’s armband on Wednesday night when he went off:

Honestly, Vermaelen made that choice and I let him make it. It is always interesting to see when Vermaelen is out who he feels spontaneously should be the captain.

I think there’s sometimes too much emphasis put on who wears a little bit of cloth on their arm, but it’s part and parcel of the English game. Captain is a ceremonial position, more than anything, but it’s a role which has been carried out with distinction by great players down the years, and sooner or later Wilshere will be that man for Arsenal. At the moment though it’s nice that his importance to the team is recognised, and he seems to take something from it. He is a natural leader, as the manager says, and not just because of the way he plays.

He’s only back in the side after injury but he’s not slow to tell people what he expects of them on the pitch and I think that’s a really good thing, especially for an Arsenal side where conflict isn’t something you see often. It can be positive, having someone demand more from you won’t make you curl up in a ball and cry. It’s top level sport.

Anyway, it’s a big game today, cup football against lower league opposition can be the slipperiest of banana skins at times, but let’s keep fingers crossed that we’re up for it today and that we pick up where we left off against West Ham on Wednesday.

–

In other news, Emmanuel Frimpong has joined Fulham on loan until the end of the season. It’s a big move for him and one which you have to feel provides his last chance to show that he’s got a future at this club. The recent spell at Charlton wasn’t particularly impressive by all accounts but this is a chance to show he can do it in the Premier League. Good luck to him.

Wojciech Szczesny tells Amy Lawrence how much the cup means to the players.

And, of course, there were comments yesterday from the manager about transfers, his squad and how he has two good players in each position etc. The conclusion I drew from it is that we’re unlikely to see any new faces before the window closes. It’s possible that he might surprise us but he really doesn’t like doing business in January as the list of recent arrivals shows:

2006 – Emmanuel Adebayor, Theo Walcott, Abou Diaby : 2007 – nobody : 2008 – nobody : 2009 – Andrei Arshavin : 2010 – Sol Campbell : 2011 – Ryo Miyaichi : 2012 – Thierry Henry (loan), Thomas Eisfeld.

So the last time we did any ‘significant’ business in January was Andrei Arshavin, coming up on four years ago at this stage. That was a signing which obviously had a positive effect in the short-term but can hardly be deemed a success given where we are now with him. Last season, when we were in a similarly difficult position in the league, Arsene Wenger packed him off to Russia on loan, and that was, essentially, the end of his Arsenal career. He wasn’t trusted or relied upon when the going was tough.

But when you look at the list it just shows you how reluctant he is to make signings in this window. His comments about unfairness and how the number of players can buy should be limited are almost indecipherable. It’s an open market, anyone can do whatever they want, it’s not unfair. And where frustration grows from is the endless changing of message from the manager. One day he’s going to be very active, the next he’s got a ‘complete squad’. We’re busy, then the whole idea of the January transfer window is anathema to him.

There’s an interesting piece on Wenger and Arsenal’s financial outlook by in today’s Financial Times, and it there’s a quote from Ivan Gazidis who told Simon Kuper:

We don’t spend more than we have.

And while that, I think, is the only way to properly run a business, that’s not the problem with Arsenal. It’s that we don’t spend what we do have. If we had no money, or extremely limited resources, then the clamour to improve the team and the frustration when we don’t would be much less. Yet figures show us that there is money for the manager to spend, he simply chooses not to.

So far this month the lack of squad depth has contributed to poor results and the over the course of the season it’s been a factor in us falling 19 points behind the league leaders. The idea that any manager wouldn’t want to improve their team, given the opportunity and resources to do so, is inexplicable to me, so I’ve basically given up trying to make any sense of it.

I think if players were going to be bought they’d have been bought by now and as such I’d be very surprised if we got the chequebook out before Thursday night. Maybe he’s got something up his sleeve but if I had to guess what it is at the moment I’d say it’s a snot dampened hankie.

—

All going well there should be live blog coverage of the game later on, check back later for a post with all the details or bookmark the default live blog page.

Until then, have a good Saturday.

Arsecast
January 25, 2013 posted by arseblog

Delicious quietness + Arsecast 264

Delicious quietness + Arsecast 264

Morning all.

I slept it in a bit this morning. I was dreaming I was playing in the Champions League final for Arsenal against Bayern Munich but 85 minutes of the game was taken up by an extended version of the Champions League music while Michel Platini was carried around on a throne like a Roman emperor. By the time the game kicked off I was so furious I got sent off within 10 seconds.

It’s pretty quiet from an Arsenal point of view and I have to say it’s quite welcome. Winning games, and winning them in the style we did on Wednesday night, means less discourse. There’s only so many times you can say Podolski was fantastic or that Giroud’s goals were great or how cheeky Cazorla’s finish was. There are, as most of you will well know by now, endless ways in which players, manager, board, club, the colour red, the colour white, cannons, all the letters of the word ‘Arsenal’ and pretty much everything else to do with us can be criticised after a defeat.

It is Critical Infinity. Just when you think there’s no way somebody can come up with something new … well, they don’t, they just re-hash a catchphrase or a theory and it all kicks off again. None of which is to say there isn’t merit to criticism when we don’t play well, when squad weaknesses are exposed and results are poor, I just prefer it when we win. The same way I prefer a pie filled with steak and Guinness to one which contains the worm-infested poo of sickly hippo and gravy made from the dirt found under the talon-like fingernails of hobos.

For those interested in transfers and what have you, there’s nothing doing. There’s a bit about the guy Diame at West Ham but it is the classic story of how Arsenal have ‘missed out’ on a player that we probably had no interest in whatsoever. It’s curious that all these stories emerged about his release clause, almost as if an agent were feeding that information into the public domain just in case it might spark some interest. Although that would suggest that the whole transfer market is nothing but a cynical merry-go-round of people trying to make as much money as possible and, frankly, I’m not in the mood to besmirch our beautiful game like that.

Ahead of the game against Brighton tomorrow, a couple of the new boys have been talking about their roles in the team. Firstly, Lukas Podolski says he’s got no problem playing on the left:

I played on the left for Cologne sometimes and also for the national team. It is not something special. When I play as a No 10 or a striker, I am in the position to score more goals and I can shoot more. But with the style of game at Arsenal, I do well on the left side and I am happy to play there.

What’s interesting to me is that you can see how he could do it down the middle. He’s quick enough and he’s got a left foot like Thor’s hammer, but the quality of his delivery from the left hand side is fantastic. The ball all the way across to Walcott on Wednesday night could not have been more perfect, and with someone like Giroud in the middle, who looks as good a 6 yard box poacher as we’ve had for some time, then it makes a lot of sense to play him out there.

And speaking of Giroud, he’s happy with what he’s done so far but is looking for more:

It is good thing to reach this number, but I want to keep going and score more goals. I know my team-mates very well, so I feel really good in games. I have scored 11 goals and I have nine assists but I know I can do more.

I think he’s a decent player, one who seems to be finding his feet in English football now, and while people will always compare him with the Dutch Skunk (just because he’s the one who replaced him), I think that’s a bit unfair. It was obvious the jazz-handed, traitorous gleet-hound had something special underneath the layers of bandages and knee braces, and Giroud is a bit more conventional. But he was brought in with Podolski to replace those goals and they’ve done ok.

The bigger issue, of course, is that he’s the only central striker we have, and thus becomes a lightning rod for criticism when we don’t play well or drop points. It’s not his fault he’s the only option. Still, I think there’s more to come from him, and Podolski, and if by magic we actually bring in another forward then perhaps it’ll be good for all concerned.

Right then, onto this week’s Arsecast and I’m joined by @thegoonerholic to shoot the breeze about West Ham, Chelsea, Theo Walcott and a trip to the seaside.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download this week’s Arsecast directly – click here 24mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

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Right, there’s a press conference this morning, we’ll have news and updates on Arseblog News (and on the Twitter account), so check there for all the info you need.

Finally for for today, the winner of our Dennis Bergkamp print competition is Amelia Chan. Well done to you, I’ll be in touch to get all the details – and don’t forget to check out Dan’s store where you can buy your own or one of his other Arsenal related prints.

More here tomorrow with an FA Cup preview. Till then.

Columnists
January 24, 2013 posted by Tim Stillman

Elegantly wasteful

Elegantly wasteful

If ever a week neatly summarised Arsenal’s season so far it has been this one. Listless, insipid and gripped with fear in the first half against Chelsea. In the second half, the midfield four spread out a little and we saw some improvement. But the first fifteen minutes of the second half against West Ham ranked amongst the best football played by Arsenal this season. It gave us a tantalising glimpse of what this team is capable of.

The issue this season has been consistency. There have been several games in which the front four of Walcott, Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla have combined and interchanged to devastating effect. The respective goal and assist tallies of the aforementioned are testament to this, but the problem is that the figures are distributed over too thin a spread of games.

At the risk of leaving you reaching for your golf visas and adding machines, at least three of that quartet have scored in the same game on five separate occasions. (West Ham home and away, Reading in the league, Spurs and Newcastle at home). There are all sorts of graphs and pie charts that supplant those numbers, especially around Theo, Santi, Lukas and Olivier assisting one another for the goals in those games.

When the chemistry bubbles at the right temperature within the front four, the results lead to an explosive cocktail. If you’ll forgive the slightly grotesque imagery, they are capable of a footballing version of mutual masturbation. But when they don’t click, then that tends to be that. They aggressively tug at the duvet, announce they have a headache and turn the light out.

Nobody embodies this bafflingly erratic attitude to attacking nookie than Olivier Giroud. Prior to the demolition of West Ham, he had taken 20 shots on goal without scoring. Yet against the Irons he was able caress the ball into the net with two of his three attempts. From frigid fumbler to lithe lothario in one fell swoop. That said, his link up play is always excellent. The touch to loft the ball over the top of the defence is becoming a Giroud patent, and there was that gorgeous touch for Wilshere against Swansea.

So how to explain the wild fluctuations in the graph needle? I think the midfield has a lot to do with it. Teams have often been able to suffocate the supply by strangling our midfield, which has a knock on effect. There’s also the rather glaring fact that we lack options from the bench to come on and affect the pattern of a game. The biggest indictment of the attacking options we possess clung to the bloated frame of Andrey Arshavin at Stamford Bridge. That he was able to get near the pitch with love handles that size makes me want to weep with frustration. He looked like a weeble.

There’s a larger issue of responsibility here. We struggle to conjure anything creatively in tight games, though I think that Wilshere could go some way to fixing this as he takes over the “number 10” mantle from Santi Cazorla. Podolski took most of the plaudits against West Ham, but Wilshere’s penetrative passing was at the heart of many of Podolski’s decisive touches. Liberated from the more rigid confines of the trequartista role, Cazorla has drifted infield to good effect to create goals for Theo at Stamford Bridge and to tee up Giroud’s delicate touch for Wilshere’s volley against Swansea.

A deeper delve into the goalscoring habits of Arsenal’s strikers shows that Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott don’t have a “winning” goal between them this season. Giroud has two equalising goals, Walcott has none of those either. Podolski excels in this regard. He has either scored the winner or put us a goal ahead on six occasions this season. He has equalised twice as well. The German scores at decisive moments.

About a fortnight ago I wrote that Arsenal don’t really tend to win games one or two nil. Giroud and Walcott in particular need to learn how to be more economical strikers. They need to develop a nose for a chance in a tight game and, crucially in Giroud’s case, be clinical when it arrives. This would need to be a consequence of honing their games, but also of reaching between their legs.

The latter point strikes up a tune the whole team should be looking to groove to. The manager has spoken about being more assertive in big games. Much has been made of Arsenal’s habit of waiting until the half time team talk before they start playing. Questions can be asked about preparation, but there’s also an issue of direction and leadership here. This is not the sole responsibility of the captain.

Others need to step up and identify when the team is either being too timid or that something is tactically awry, rather than bashfully waiting for the manager to cut their meat for them in the dressing room. The destination of the captain’s armband doesn’t address this; it needs to be much more collective than that. Tony Adams would have been barking instructions into deep space had he not had the likes of Bould, Dixon, Seaman, Smith, Vieira and Bergkamp helping him to marshal operations.

Whilst on the subject of responsibility, I wanted to construct a defence of Bacary Sagna. Popular consensus says that he has lost form and, in our never ending search for conclusive narratives, this is because he is terminally pissed off and leaving / totally finished at the top level. (Delete as applicable). Whilst it’s true that Sagna hasn’t demonstrated the best form of his Arsenal career of late, I think there is plenty of mitigation.

In an attempt to both address the balance of the team and tempt Theo Walcott’s scribbling hand, we have allowed Walcott to play a kind of winger / striker hybrid role recently. This has put an awful lot of pressure on Sagna to cover the entire right flank on his lonesome. It’s no coincidence that Sagna has performed excellently in games where the flank has been covered more effectively, when the midfield has worked and Wilshere and Cazorla have drifted to the right more often. For instance, in the home matches against Swansea and West Ham.

Carl Jenkinson showed some very promising form early in the campaign, but he would have struggled more than Sagna has against this contextual backdrop. Let’s not forget that Jenkinson’s last action in an Arsenal shirt was to lose the ball on the right flank, leading to Swansea’s second counter attack goal in December’s 2-0 defeat. This precisely because he had no passing option on the right hand side and was forced to steer frantically back towards shore without a comrade in sight.

Around me at Stamford Bridge, many were turning on Sagna, which I found rather sad given the quality of his service to the club. Those visceral howls of frustration levelled at him failed to note the conditions he has been operating in in my opinion. I do wonder if there’s an element of us comforting ourselves as a fanbase ahead of his likely departure. It suits us to believe that Sagna is ready to be put to stud and that Jenkinson can immediately assume his mantle much in the same way that it suited us to believe that Gael Clichy was better than Ashley Cole.

Jenkinson’s time will come, but we are still a team carrying some inexperienced, if talented, young players. Wilshere, Gibbs and Chamberlain each have fewer than 100 senior appearances. It stands to reason that one of our most experienced and accomplished performers is retained to redress the balance of cognizance. With the appropriate amount of support on the right wing, Bacary Sagna is still an incredible full back. In a team that lacks overall leadership, he is still very much a must. LD.

Follow me on Twitter @LittleDutchVA

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
January 24, 2013 posted by arseblog

Arsenal 5-1 West Ham: Podolski stars as Hammers hammered

Arsenal 5-1 West Ham: Podolski stars as Hammers hammered

Match report – By the numbers – Player ratings – Video

At last, something to smile about. West Ham were blown away by a wonderful flurry of early second half goals, and it showed what this side is capable of when they click.

The first half was a fairly even affair, both sides could have led at the break, 1-1 seemed fair. They took the lead after Jack Collison’s shot from the edge of the box flew past Szczesny, but if we were supposed to go into our shells and let heads go down there was no sign of that. Jack Wilshere’s cute pass sat up perfectly for Lukas Podolski, and anything Collison could do he could do better, lashing a shot from close to 30 yards which just screamed past Jussi Jaaskelainen to level the scores.

Aaron Ramsey saved our bacon, clearing a Carlton Cole effort before it could go in, while the incredible Santi Cazorla took a free kick with his supposedly weaker left foot which forced a good save from the keeper. But second halves have been our thing in recent times, we came out fired up against both Chelsea and Man City and it was the same against last night.

Theo Walcott almost forced a Tomkins own goal after a run down the right, and after sustained pressure we took the lead from a corner. At first I thought it was another poorly hit set-piece from Walcott but if you watch it again you see Mertesacker start at the near post, he runs back into the area, taking his marker with him, allowing Olivier Giroud to make a run to the near post. And when the ball arrived there he stabbed it home to put us ahead. That was clearly a training ground move, and it came off too.

A couple of minutes later it was 3-1, Santi Cazorla’s sublime back-flick rounding off a brilliant Arsenal move, and shortly after that Theo Walcott tucked away Lukas Podolski’s cross at the back post after a great pass from Jack Wilshere had put the German free down the left. And before anyone could catch their breath, it was 5-1, Podolski again the provider, Giroud’s run and close range finish were both absolutely perfect.

At that point the game was well and truly over, Arsenal knew it, West Ham knew it, and although there was a lengthy stoppage for what looked a worrying injury to Daniel Potts, the 12 minutes of added time at the end of the game were fairly pointless. They were down to 10 men, Arsenal’s players decided it was time for a bit of shooting practice, none of it troubled Jaaskelainen unduly and in the end the scoreline remained the same until the final whistle. Any kind of comeback was too difficult a tusk for Walrus’s men.

Afterwards, Arsene said:

We got a good response. In the second half from the start on we created chance after chance and played at a very high pace. From there on it was great movement, great quality in our final balls and in our combination play.

And on star man Lukas Podolski:

He had an outstanding game tonight. He scored a very important goal. He has an unbelievable shot because the keeper had no chance. After he gave of course two great balls as well.

Two great balls indeed, but three assists and a goal is a very healthy return from the German, who certainly had his best game in an Arsenal shirt last night. The goal was brilliant, it’s been a while since we’ve had anyone who can leather a ball the way he does, but the passes for the Walcott and Giroud goals in particular were excellent too. And while I’m still very much of the opinion that we could use more firepower, 11 goals and 10 assists for him, alongside 12 goals and 9 assists for Giroud are not bad numbers for players in their first season in English football.

With Walcott netting his 15th and Cazorla his 8th of the season, there are goals in that group. Not as many as we would like, or have needed in recent times, but it was good to see them click last night. It was also the first time in quite a while that I’ve seen Arsenal move the ball that quickly. There were moves that went from our back four to the front in no time, and the precision of some of the first-time passing created the space which we exploited to make the goals. It’s long been a trademark of Wenger’s sides but sadly absent too often during this campaign. It’s a bit early to say it’s a corner turned but I’m happy to be encouraged by it.

A word too for Aaron Ramsey, a player whose mere presence on the team-sheet can send thousands into fits of wailing, self-harming apoplexy. Played as a deep lying midfielder, I thought he had an outstanding game. Statistically, he completed 117 of 123 passes (95%) and he kept the midfield ticking just as well as Arteta has this season. He was switched on defensively, as we saw when he raced back to clear Cole’s chip before it went in, and what was most noticeable is that he added some discipline to his game.

The main problem has been his insistence on taking too many touches, slowing things down, and then trying outrageously ambitious Hollywood passes when there’s an easier option on. He simplified his game and it worked – he was much, much better. Hopefully this is something he’ll take stock of going forward, because if he does he might just reach the potential Arsene Wenger sees him a lot sooner.

The only negative was an injury to Thomas Vermaelen (funnily enough in the incident when Ramsey cleared the ball) which will probably rule him out of Saturday’s trip to Brighton, but the manager says it’s nothing too serious. Fingers crossed on that, and while questions obviously still remain, it’s nice to write something about how well we played to earn the three points we so badly needed.

Onwards and upwards. Till tomorrow.