Arseblog, the arsenal blog
7:55 am May 13, 2013 posted by arseblog - 280 arses

Arsenal have clarity in a crucial week

Arsenal have clarity in a crucial week

Morning all and welcome to a brand new, and incredibly, important week in the life of Arsenal Football Club.

As expected, there were no favours done yesterday. Sp*rs won against Stoke, no surprise whatsoever, and the other results at the bottom end of the table had a direct impact on Wigan. Both Norwich and Newcastle won which means that the FA Cup holders now have to win both their final games in order to stay up.

None of it really changes our situation though. While it might have been nice to have some margin for error, that was lost long before this weekend. It suits us to point fingers at the Orcs but the reality is we’re responsible for where we are and looking for that lot to do us a favour just isn’t right. There was an inevitability about Sp*rs scoring the winner but nobody was predicting anything other than three points for them so it’s no surprise.

Here’s the table as it stands:

table

Anything less than a win tomorrow night needs us leaving a favour from Sunderland at White Hart Lane on the final day of the season. If we win, a win at Newcastle will guarantee us at least fourth, and we could finish third if Chelsea lose their fixture at home to Everton. A win also relegates Wigan which means that Newcastle will have nothing to worry about on the final day. Update: Newcastle are already safe.

Yet, although the pressure is on, there’s absolute clarity about what we need to do. Two games, two wins. That’s always been our target and that hasn’t changed. We go into a game tomorrow night having had 10 days off. There can be no excuses when it comes to effort and endeavour. At this point of the season it’s practically unheard of to have that amount of time between games. It’s normally a slog from one game to the next, legs are tired, injuries and strains and aches shape team selection, but we should be in good shape.

And that’s something we need to take advantage of. Look at how we started the game against Manchester United a couple of weeks back. Think back to that awesome performance against Chelsea a couple of seasons ago. High-tempo football, pressing all over the pitch, giving the opposition no time to be comfortable on the ball. If we can’t manage that for two games as important as this, well, then we’ve got real problems.

Wigan will arrive with plenty of confidence having won a trophy, and beaten last season’s champions to do it, and, of course, they beat us in this fixture last season. But there’s also a reason why they’re staring relegation in the face and that’s what we need to exploit. The importance of Champions League football next season is impossible to ignore. It will shape what we do this summer, and how we can do it, and the players need to be aware of that.

On the one hand you want them relaxed and feeling good, not overly-burdened by the task at hand, but on the other these are professional footballers and pressure comes with the territory. If you can’t handle it, you’re in the wrong game. But our form is good, we’re 9 games unbeaten, the players have shown some serious resolve in certain fixtures even if we’ve struggled in others, and they should feel confident about this one.

It’s the final home game of the season, Champions League football next season is in our own hands and after some of the crap we’ve produced this campaign I don’t think we’re in any position to complain about the situation we’re in. Heads down, work hard, get on with it.

We’ll get some team news later on as Arsene meets the press this morning. I don’t think there are any fresh problems – unless somebody’s done something in training that hasn’t leaked – so we should have as full a squad as possible bar the suspended Giroud and Diaby. We can take a proper look ahead to the game tomorrow, and all the other bits and pieces.

Until then.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
9:48 am May 12, 2013 posted by arseblog - 593 arses

Cup final thoughts and Sunday round-up

Cup final thoughts and Sunday round-up

Well, despite the best efforts of all and sundry to make the  Beer TV Company Electronics Corporation Money Lending Institute Washing Powder FA Cup Final as tawdry as possible, Wigan returned some of the magic of the competition yesterday by means of … football.

You know, the thing it’s actually about. Not relentless punditry, daft kick-off times and commercial tie-ups. A late winner gave them the win they thoroughly deserved on the day, and it’d be a hard-hearted person – or a Man City fan, obviously – who didn’t enjoy what it meant to them, the manager and their fans.

A tiny club like that beating off the oil rich billionaires and their hapless bunch of think-they’re-so-great players. Roberto Mancini can complain about his squad all he likes, he bought those players. He went hell for leather to get Samir Nasri from Arsenal on the back of a three/four month purple patch when, if he’d asked any Arsenal fan who’d watched him game in game out, he’d have been told this was very much the exception and not the norm. As you might expect, after talking a lot beforehand, Nasri was the first player taken off and another big game passed him by.

Mancini, trying to win the FA Cup let’s remember, then took off Carlos Tevez and put on Jack Rodwell. Think about that for a minute. It was only fitting when it was Rodwell’s lack of marking on Ben Watson allowed Wigan to score the winner. That’s not conservative, it’s just terrible management. Taking off a striker in a cup final for a kid who has barely played all season. City looked a shambles yesterday, as you might expect given the rumours surrounding a new manager, conveniently leaked on the morning of the cup final.

And you know what? It’s fantastic to see it. This idea that money is the only way to build a football club is put to the sword by the gigantic clusterfuck their season has been. Appointing a new manager will only hand over that mess to a new man. Maybe he’ll cope better than Mancini but it seems like there’s a lot wrong under the surface as well as in the playing squad.

If I were Arsene Wenger, I’d be all ‘Hey, you know the way you like buying players from us and it always works out really well and that … *cough* … well, how about we swap our Belgian centre-half for your Belgian centre-half? Ok, you can pay us £12m too, go on then!’ In a football world packed from top to bottom with absolute shit-stains, Kompany seems like one of the good guys, and he’s clearly at the wrong club. Kom to us, Vincent!

As for Wigan, I said all along I wanted them to win it, and I’m delighted they did. Now though, I want us to smash them. It is possible that we can beat them and, if results go their way today, they can still survive on the final day (although that could mean needing us to beat Newcastle). I don’t think them winning the cup will have them any more or less motivated to get something from our game, they know how important Premier League survival is, and hopefully we can take advantage of the effort they put in yesterday.

They worked extremely hard and by the time Tuesday comes around we’ll have been off for 10 days. I know they’re all professional athletes but that could be telling in the final half an hour. Hopefully it’s a case we’ve got the game sewn up by then but going by our recent form it’s not likely be that easy. Anyway, we shall see how it goes.

As for today, there’s little happening from an Arsenal point of view but obviously we’ll be keeping a keen eye on what goes on when the Orcs entertain Sp*rs. Emmanuel Adebayor, on a high after his first goal in 16 months, says he wants to ‘kill’ Arsenal. Good for him and his desire to play to the crowd. He’s like a bloke on a cart who is pulled around for 26 miles of a marathon then jumps off and sprints for the line, gormlessly waving at the crowd as he leaves his exhausted pullers behind.

That said, there is simply no chance that the Orcs will get anything from today’s game. Sp*rs will win today, convincingly. Probably by three or four goals. It is inconceivable that they could draw or even lose. That will not happen, it cannot happen, and it will not happen. Stoke will lose. They will win. No other result is possible. I don’t know why anyone would even consider it. It is impossible that Sp*rs drop any points today.

After Chelsea’s win yesterday made third a probability for them, it means it’s down to us and them for 4th. It’s in our hands, let’s not forget. If we win both our games it doesn’t matter what Sp*rs do or how much they win by today in the game they’ll definitely win. Which is some comfort.

Right, have yourselves a good Sunday. Till tomorrow.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
8:22 am May 11, 2013 posted by arseblog - 652 arses

On the morning of the cup final

On the morning of the cup final

In the absence of any real Arsenal news, and given that it’s FA Cup final day, I’m going to post something I wrote for the Arsenal Collective a little while ago.

It’s about the first Arsenal game, I remember, the FA Cup final in 1979 and what that game, and other cup finals, taught me as a young Arsenal fan.

Have a good Saturday folks.

—

ONE ROOM, LOTS OF LESSONS

The first game I really remember is the FA Cup final of 1979. I watched it with my Dad that Saturday afternoon in our sitting room. He wasn’t an Arsenal fan. He has a vague allegiance to Fulham having spent time working in that part of London when he left Dublin in the 1950s. In fact, my first ever football memories are of watching my Dad play for his local side on muddy pitches when we lived in Yorkshire.

That day though, May 12th 1979, I spent in front of the telly wearing the Arsenal away kit. I remember it being given to me as a present, laid out in full on my parents’ bed. Shirt (made from strange, vaguely towely material), shorts (ultra nylon) and socks (socks). I think seeing it that day, the gorgeous yellow – blue – yellow, coloured, no pun intended, my view of Arsenal away kits since. The blue shirts just don’t come anywhere near the simple beauty of that combo.

So, the game. Arsenal 2-0 up and cruising towards the trophy. Then United scored twice in two minutes to make it 2-2. I looked to my father for some kind of reassurance. This couldn’t actually be happening, could it? I mean, how could these Arsenal players – to a man heroes to an 8-year-old boy (it’s only when you get older your critical faculties develop, you know) – manage to concede two goals to this Man United team – to a man monstrous, ugly brutes to an 8-year-old boy? I have a recurring nightmare about losing my front teeth and I am convinced that it was the sight of Joe Jordan in that game that did that to me.

I remember standing up, looking around for something, somebody, anybody, anything, to console me, to make it better, to make it stop, because whatever this was, I didn’t like it. I liked being 2-0 up. I liked the idea that being 2-0 up with less than five minutes to go was pretty much an assurance that you were going to win the game. Clearly I didn’t know football very well at all.

I didn’t know how it could transport you from elation to misery in less time than it takes to boil a kettle. I didn’t know that you could be happy and carefree then sick to your stomach seconds later. I didn’t know that something I was watching on television from hundreds of miles away could reduce me to panic. What if they scored again? What if it went to extra time? Although I don’t recall, I’m sure the commentators said something about how it would be United with the wind at their backs, boosted by the late comeback. And how could they not be? And how could Arsenal not be anything other than deflated?

I also didn’t know how quickly football can move you from happy to miserable and back to happy again. Before I even had the chance to get into a full blown tizzy about what I’d just seen an exhausted Liam Brady, socks around his ankles, took the ball from kick off, played it with the outside of his boot to Graham Rix who crossed it for Alan Sunderland who made it 3-2 and this time there was no way they could come back. I didn’t know much about football, but I knew that.

In that very same room, almost to the day one year later, I sat listening to the radio as Arsenal played the Cup Winners Cup Final against Valencia in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. We had one of those stereo units that looked like a piece of furniture, lift up the lid on one side and you had the record player and the radio, on the other the tape deck. I was glued to it, fiddling with cassette copies of my mother’s Neil Diamond albums.

It was 0-0 at full time. 0-0 after extra time. Then there were penalties. Liam Brady, my hero of all heroes, missed the first. At 4-5 Graham Rix had to score to keep Arsenal in it. He missed. I cried. It came just four days after Arsenal had lost the FA Cup Final to 2nd division West Ham. Trevor Brooking made me hate the phrase ‘stooping header’ for years.

Losing two cup finals in four days is tough going for any team and any fan. The year previously I had absolute faith that Arsenal would prevail because, well, it was the Arsenal. I supported them, clearly they were the best team and all others were second rate.  The following year I came to realise that despite my belief in them, football didn’t work quite like that. What I wanted or what I thought or believed was irrelevant. I realised that football has the power to lift you up and then drop you right back down, and then give you a sneaky kick in the bollocks for good measure.

But that room, that TV and that ‘stereogram’ are as indelible in my memory as Brady’s socks, as Sunderland wheeling away in triumph, and the crackling medium wave commentary I listened to as we lost that European final to Valencia. I still don’t claim to understand everything about football, but that’s where I learned that winning and losing, ups and downs, happiness and heartbreak, are intrinsically linked and you just can’t have one without the other.

Especially as an Arsenal fan.

—

This post first appeared on The Arsenal Collective

Arsecast
8:13 am May 10, 2013 posted by arseblog - 278 arses

A whole heap of nothing + Arsecast 278

A whole heap of nothing + Arsecast 278

Good morning.

Normally Friday is a busy day as we prepare for the weekend’s game. Arsene Wenger holds his press conference, we get the latest team news and so on, but due to the fact we’re supposed playing Wigan our game isn’t until Tuesday because of their participation in the FA Cup final.

It leaves us with a football free weekend, but I’m right behind Roberto Martinez’s team for the game against Manchester City. Underdog stuff, of course, the same way I wanted Man City to win when they were in the final against Sp*rs all those years ago. That might not have been underdoggy and much as Spurshatey, but you know what I mean.

It’d be fantastic if Wigan won the cup … and then we relegated Wigan. Ideally, tomorrow’s game would go to extra time, and possibly penalties (although I’d happily take a winner in Linighan time), and they’d arrive at our place absolutely knackered on Tuesday. Whatever happens I don’t think they’ll be any more or less motivated for the game. Premier League survival, like it or not, is more important for the football club as a whole than a trophy win, but obviously they’ll be trying to marry the two.

So, it leaves things pretty quiet again from an Arsenal point of view. The best we’ve got is a story linking us with Dortmund right back Lukasz Piszczek. He’d tick some of the boxes for sure but it’s difficult to get involved in speculation with the season still running. I do think right back, despite my love for Sagna, is an area which we can improve in as injuries and loss of form have taken their toll this season.

The question is: does Arsene Wenger have enough faith in Carl Jenkinson to make him the number 1 with a younger player like Bellerin understudying, or will he create a Monreal/Gibbs situation on that side of the pitch? While there’s certainly plenty of merit to a competitive environment it also has to be balanced with the need for a measure of stability in the back four. Chopping and changing isn’t always ideal, but if he’s got two players who get the system and can be slotted in and out without causing too much disruption then that’s surely the way to go.

That’s easier said than done, however, and keeping both players happy over the course of a season is one of the challenges the manager will face. As for Sagna, I think he’ll move on this summer. He’s been linked with PSG and Monaco, and while he hasn’t ruled out staying with us for the final year of his contract, I don’t know that I’d bet a lot of money on him being at the club next season.

Elsewhere, David Moyes is the new manager of Manchester United. As I said yesterday on Twitter, I think this is a good appointment for the competitiveness of the Premier League. I can see why he was given the job, you lose one miserable dour Scotsman, you look for something similar. He seems to have been fully endorsed by Alex Ferguson and he is a good manager who has done a good job at Everton.

But with Ferguson moving upstairs, casting a red-nosed shadow over everything he does, and the pressure and expectation far and above anything he’s ever experienced at Everton, it’s hard not to think there’ll be some instability at United next season. Even if he brings in Baines and Fellaini, I think he’s going to find his natural conservatism hard to shake and the bigger point is just how important Ferguson was to what United achieved. He was a once in a lifetime manager; for all his qualities, Moyes isn’t anywhere close to that and that can only be good for the other teams who hope to compete for the title.

Finally, BT won some of the TV rights to Premier League football and announced their plans yesterday. Rio Ferdinand as an ‘an interviewer, programme maker and football expert’, Michael Owen as a co-commentator and a return for the risible Tim Lovejoy. I know there are many media directories, listing ‘talent’ available, but this is ridiculous. Whatever about Ferdinand, who clearly wants to be the next Bruce Forsyth, Owen has all the personality of a shoe … with its tongue cut out, and Lovejoy … well, this says more than anyone ever could.

All they’ve done is ensure more success for the sites who stream because nobody in their right mind would want to pay actual money to be ‘entertained’ by that pack of cretins.

Right then, onto this week’s Arsecast and joining me to discuss the Puma kit deal, the race for the Champions League and Arsene Wenger’s potential spending is John Cross. We’ve also got some newsflashes, a sad Arshavin and all the usual waffle.

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 25mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

You’ll notice that we’re now going to be serving the Arsecast through Soundcloud which means it should work via browsers on mobile devices and tablets, as well as their apps. If you’re a Soundcloud user you can follow me and all that stuff, and you can make time-specific comments etc on each podcast, so that’s all new and shiny and stuff. I’ve got most of the archives there too, but if you see any issues just let me know.

Right, that’s that, till tomorrow.