Cesc – Flamini – Bale – Reserves – Arsecast competition

Morning all. It’s bloody freezing here today. I thought we’d escaped the worst of winter but it’s brassers out there.

Not a huge amount going on. We’ll start with Cesc who revealed a frank discussion in the dressing room following the defeat to Sheffield United has sparked Arsenal’s great start to 2007 with 5 wins in a row and 17 goals scored in those 5 games. He said:

We had a talk in the dressing room and said something had to change in our mentality and we need to be stronger in every part of the game. Since then we have been showing everyone we have changed and nobody can stop us if we carry on playing the way we do. The team believes we can do a lot of things together and last night [againt United] it was one of them.

Shades of that team meeting after a 3-1 home defeat to Blackburn in the 97-98 season which saw us go on a mighty run and end up as champions. Perhaps that’s a step too far this time, back then we had some games in hand, but the return to form and the spirit the boys have shown is welcome. Thierry Henry says the team now needs to find consistency which is what many of us have been saying all season long. We’re capable of beating anyone on our day, at the same time we have been capable of losing to anyone – and that includes Bridlington Rovers.

Mathieu Flamini revealed that the manager’s team talk at half-time gave them the confidence to keep at United. According to AW United would tire after 70 minutes and with our two late goals he may have right.

In transfer speculation we’re being linked heavily with Southampton’s Gareth Bale after an unnamed Premiership team made a bid of £10m for the Welsh left back. I can’t imagine it’s us. The manager has said countless times we won’t be buying anyone. We’ve got Clichy, we’ve got Gallas who can play there and Armand Traore is very highly thought of so the capture of Bale would see his Arsenal career finished before it began. Elsewhere we’re linked with young Czech defender Ondrej Mazuch.

Arsenal’s reserves lost 3-0 to Sp*rs reserves last night. It was a very young Arsenal team with a number of the regulars not involved due to the fact they’ll probably be involved in tomorrow night’s Carling Cup semi-final first leg which I’ll preview more tomorrow.

Don’t forget the competition to win £100 of credit for the Arsecast sponsors, classicfootballshirts.co.uk. Simply answer the very easy question in this week’s Arsecast for more.

Right, that’s your lot. Until tomorrow.

Thierry makes Robin the points fun

Three lovely last minute points at the Grove yesterday. Delicious last minute points made sweeter with the last minute loser tears of so many United fans. For a while though it did look as if our first defeat the new stadium was on the cards after Wayne Rooney had given them the lead in the second half with a header.

Somewhere though, someone was smiling on us, as first Robin van Persie equalised and then in the third minute of the four injury time minutes Thierry Henry’s fantastic header won the game for Arsenal. Given the fact we had something like 18 attempts on goal and ended up with 4 strikers on the pitch then you have to say we deserved it.

The first half ended goalless but it could have been different had the referee awarded a penalty when Gary Neville made contact with Thierry Henry in the box. I’ve seen penalties given for a lot less in my time. At the other end United had two good chances as the half was drawing to a close. Wayne Rooney’s fantastic dipping shot brought out a top class save from Jens and from the subsequent corner he made an even better one when Henrik Larsson was given a free header.

Eight minutes in the second half though they took the lead. Ronaldo played Evra down the right hand side, his cross was glanced on by Kolo Toure and Gael Clichy was drawn to the ball leaving Rooney free behind him to stoop and head it home. We continued to press and probe without ever creating anything clear cut with most of our play going through the remarkable Cesc. I thought he carried the midfield yesterday as Hleb, Flamini and Rosicky didn’t really perform anywhere near as well as they can. Robin van Persie came on for Hleb and he got the equaliser with just seven minutes of the ninety remaining. Roisicky and Fabregas won the ball back from Scholes who was holding it between his legs on the ground, Cesc pushed it on for Rosicky whose low cross may or may not have been touched on by Henry but van Persie arrived at the back post ahead of Gary Neville and made a difficult finish look simple.

After that there was only one team that was going to win it and the winner came so, so late. Fabregas picked up the ball after an Adebayor knock down, gave it to Eboue who played a one-two with Rosicky and whipped in an absolutely fantastic cross. Henry didn’t even have to move, the cross took the defenders out of the game, and the header was just fantastic. It’s the sort of header someone like Shearer scored on a regular basis. The technique, the power, all text book. After that there was no way back for United and that’s twice this season we’ve done them with late goals. Lovely!

Overall I thought we deserved it though and in general the team played pretty well. I thought we were solid at the back, the two centre-halves were hardly troubled, Clichy was a little culpable for the goal but he did well otherwise and we saw the best and worst of Emmanuel Eboue. A really brilliant cross for Henry’s goal, and it’s not the first time he’s done that this season, and tremendous energy to get that far up the pitch so late in the game, but again some dreadful antics which he simply must cut out of his game and do it soon. There was an incident with Rooney in the first half when he slapped the United player and got some half hearted fingertips back from Shrek but the way he went down clutching his head was embarrassing. Then when he and Ronaldo clashed late in the second half he had another quick hold of his head just in case the ref might have been going to book him before he realised he didn’t have to.

Then he actually made the diving gesture to Ronaldo, which would be fair enough if it were any other player, but really Eboue has no place castigating anyone for being light on their feet or for playacting. I honestly though the vortex was going open up there and then. Defensively I thought he was ok, to be fair, he made some good tackles but it is an area of his game that still needs work. However, unless he cuts out the diving and the acting, the cheating, then he’s going to end up with an unshakeable reputation and at some point it’s going to cost the team a goal or a match. The manager or the captain, who was so quick to praise him for the cross (and rightly so) needs to tell him that sort of behaviour is not acceptable. If he cuts it out he could become a very good player which is why it’s so maddening to see him up to the same shit again and again.

Midfield I’ve covered. Up front you can’t help but love Adebayor’s enthusiasm, energy and workrate. He didn’t have his best game but he never stopped working, he was a ballboy making sure they took their goal kicks quickly, he pushed their players out of the way so we could take free kicks and that sort of effort and commitment does make a difference even if he didn’t have his best ever game for us. And the captain. A quiet game and then he goes and scores a quality winner like that. That’s four in four since his comeback and you could see how much it meant to him.

The only downside was the news after the game that Robin van Persie has broken his fifth metatarsal and looks set to miss some weeks. It hasn’t been confirmed yet quite how long he’ll be out but based on other players that have had this injury it could be anywhere from 6 weeks to 3 months. Let’s hope it’s not too serious and get well soon, Robin. Reports yesterday said Boro had made a bid for Jeremie Aliadiere, you’d have to think he’ll be kept around until the summer if it turns out Robin is going to be out for a good length of time.

Afterwards Arsene Wenger praised the team for wanting to win the game right to the last minute while the captain’s interview on Sky afterwards was interesting. He was quick to praise the team and the effort everyone put in, making sure to see his Man of the Match champagne was for the lads, but he put the victory, spectacular as it was, into perspective, saying:

A win against Manchester United is always special but especially so with the way we did it today. Doing the double over them is always a pleasure but I would rather be up [in the league] with them than beat them twice.

Now, that’s not to take anything away from what was as enjoyable a victory as we’ve had in a long time. A last minute winner against the old enemy and coming back from 1-0 down. Just classic. But, like Thierry said, all of us would rather be closer to the top of the table. What this has done though is made the title race a title race again. I know we’re 12 points back and it’s probably too far for us but there are still 14 games to go and a lot can happen between now and then.

United still have to play Chelsea and Liverpool, we still have to go to Anfield and Chelsea still have to come to the Grove so the last part of the season is going to be very interesting. Our record against the other ‘top 4′ sides is excellent this season though. Two wins against United, a win at home against the Mug Smashers and a point at the bridge. If we can keep it up and not make mistakes against the supposedly ‘lesser’ teams then who knows?!

It’s a busy week this week with the first leg of the Carling Cup against Sp*rs on Wednesday. For today though let’s just sit back and bask in the warmth of yesterday’s win.  Till tomorrow.

Walking in a Furq wonderland

In the nearly five years since Arseblog began lots of stuff has happened. What began as an experiment in web design for me has grown beyond any of my expectations and a real community has grown. That community includes everyone that reads the site, reads or contributes to the Arses or the forums, downloads the arsecasts or emails me to tell me they like the site or to tell me off for something they disagree with. This community also exists offline when Arsebloggers meet up before the matches, after the matches and from time to time when there’s no match at all and just a few beers to be had.

In that time people’s lives have changed. We’ve had Arsebloggers getting married, we’ve had Arseblog children (not mine, I swear!), all manner of stuff has happened. Many of us have lost people along the way but until now we’ve never lost one of us.

On Thursday night long time Arseblogger, Furq (the old charmer), passed away after a recent battle with illness. It really does feel like a death in the family, which is what it is, I suppose. He was an absolute gentleman who made a huge effort to do good things for people he’d never even met. We used to joke about ‘Pablo the postman’ when the packages full of DVDs were late arriving in Spain. Sometimes he’d blame Pablo the Postman and then after a while he’d admit he hadn’t actually gotten around to posting them when he might have said he did!

His banter on the Arses was the stuff of legend and he was a man who loved the club but wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade and stand his corner if his opinion was not the norm. He did it all with good grace though, with great wit and with passion and we’re going to miss him.

In the finest tradition of Arseblog I hope you’ll all raise a glass today for Roger, who, if there’s any luck, will be looking down on us, raising a glass in return and singing a song for the Arsenal.

RIP FURQ.

Now, as the man himself would admit, the show must go on and the show doesn’t get much bigger than Arsenal v Manchester United. There isn’t much you don’t know or that we haven’t already covered in terms of team news but with Liverpool winning yesterday three points for us will keep us right on their tails and although the gap to the top is probably too large it will make the rest of the season very interesting.

In a quick round-up of the stories Arsene Wenger talks about how he’d never put Arsenal into debt through overspending, saying:

I have been educated in this way – when you have 10 pounds, you don’t spend 11.

He also talks in the Independent about developing young players and his behaviour on the touchline in some games this season, saying:

I just sometimes feel that unusual behaviour can wake up things, and I certainly had unusual behaviour in some games. As a manager you can only survive or live with how you feel at that moment. At that time I behaved as I was, not as I wanted to be.

While I think the myth of the unflappable, cool man on the sidelines is overplayed it was unusual to see him so active on the sidelines. No doubt it was borne out of frustration, knowing that his team were capable of more. Since then he’s made Thierry Henry take a break and recover his fitness and whatever else needed to be recovered and seen that his team can step up and perform in difficult circumstances. Hopefully they can continue that today.

Ex-Gunner Stewart Robson talks about how much Arsenal will miss Gilberto and his influence on the team.

And that’s about that. Time for a run in the park to shake off last night’s red wine, then the papers and breakfast before we wait for the main event. Fingers crossed the lads can do it today.

See you tomorrow.

United preview, Saturday round-up

Morning all, a quick Saturday round-up for you.

We’ll start with team news ahead of tomorrow’s crunch clash and Robin van Persie has an 80% chance of playing after picking up an ankle knock while we’ll definitely be without Johann Djourou who has a hamstring problem. We’re still without long termers Gallas and Ljungberg but apart from that everyone else is fit.

The only real question about tomorrow’s line-up is who partners Thierry Henry. It’s a tricky one for the manager but it’s the kind of tricky one he’d prefer to have with three excellent options rather than having nobody at all. If van Persie was fully fit I’d go with him, no question, but if he’s not quite 100% he might be best on the bench. I suspect he’ll go with Adebayor, who as Gunnerblog reports is set to be offered a new deal, but as I said I have sneaky feeling that this game could be made for Baptista. We’ll wait and see.

In other news AW explained the sale of Lauren saying that he didn’t want to lose either of Eboue or Hoyte and that Lauren was coming to the end of his contract. That’s another choice the manager has to make now that I think about. For me I’d stick with Hoyte. He’s done well, shown that he can improve and Eboue’s behaviour and temperament makes him a weak link, in my opinion. I did like the boss’s quote about Portsmouth though. It’s fast becoming an Arsenal retirement home on the South coast and the manager said:

Portsmouth are very intelligent. They just wait at our door to see who goes out and they take them.

He also talked about how a loss would end any faint title aspirations but he’s confident, saying:

It’s a good opportunity to reduce the distance on Manchester United and we want to use it. We are really determined to reduce the gap. We know we can beat United because we’ve done it away.

I think it’s going to be a tougher task than when we went to Old Trafford despite our injury problems at that time. United have really come into form and they look much more like the United of old than the watered down version from previous seasons. They’ve also added Henrik Larsson to their squad, a player Arsene Wenger admits gives him nightmares. He gives me a fucking pain in my hole but there you go.

Still, there’s no reason why we can’t beat them. We’re playing well, we’re at home, Thierry is back and looking the real deal and with Cesc, Rosicky and Hleb pulling the strings in midfield we can cause them problems. It’s going to be a good one.

Not much else happening. Congratulations to Thierry and Cesc who were included in UEFA’s team of the year. And there you go. Time for a bit of a fry-up then Liverpool v Chelsea and some PES6. Saturdays are good.

Till tomorrow.