See that ugly, hideous, deformed creature over there? No, not Tevez. Beyond that. Moving away into the distance? Yeah. That one. That’s the final Interlull of 2011. It’s not too late to pick up some stones and throw them at it, calling it names as it departs to its filthy lair, some hibernation on the cards before it resurfaces next year.
Update: due to the stoopid Euro play-offs there is one more Interlull. Gah.
So far as I can tell we’ve come through it unscathed. There are no reports this morning of any of our players limping off, being carried off or given the last rites on the pitch. Of course we’ll have to wait until they all return and we hear from the manager in his pre-game bumph to be really sure but fingers crossed there’s nothing serious.
We now get to look forward to Sunderland on Sunday, a fixture which has been a touch on the annoying side over the last few seasons. I remember a tedious 0-0 (was it Arshavin’s debut where he looked absolutely knackered after 5 minutes? Nothing much has changed there then), a late defeat at their place, and last season we ought to have won, even with 10 men, but a missed penalty and another late goal scuppered those three points.
Last season an Arshavin goal was wrongly disallowed for offside meaning another 0-0 so I think we’re rather due some goals in this fixture. And by that I mean goals for us and not for them. And let’s be honest, as much as defending is an issue for us, I think our lack of potency up front has, over the last little while, been as much of an issue. If van Persie doesn’t score we’re struggling and we are, essentially, a team with only one striker at this moment in time.
Even then someone like Dennis Bergkamp doesn’t believe we’re getting the best out of Robin. Hard to credit, considering his goal record in this calendar year, but he says:
When I look at Robin van Persie, he is the front player, but he is better in my old role. They are missing an out-and-out goalscorer. Now they play with an extra midfielder instead.
The midfielders are all the same sort of players. You need one who wants to get in behind Van Persie.
Dennis knows. And that’s why I found the purchase of Park so odd. When Bendtner left we needed a striker. Arsenal had plenty of money but bought a guy who has to leave the club in two years from a club which had been relegated to the French second division. So far Park has played a grand total of 0 minutes in the Premier League and by all accounts didn’t impress in the Carling Cup. He seems to score on international duty but with all due respect to those goals, they seem to have come against lowly middle-eastern opposition (and I know he got two against Poland).
I know there’s a period of adaptation needed but we had the funds, and the time, to buy a striker who wouldn’t have needed it. And I’m not writing Park off by any means, I’ve yet to see the man play, but the manager’s reluctance to use him in the Premier League since he signed him is telling at this stage. Still, he scored again during this Interlull, as did Marouane Chamakh and, until January at least, we have to hope they can replicate some of their international form on a domestic level.
Speaking of adaptation, former Gunner Edu (now general manager of Corinthians), says that Andre Santos will need some time to get used to English football too.
He is a very good player and a very good guy. With the ball he is technically fantastic, a typical Brazilian player. But every Brazilian needs time to adapt to the league because the English league is so different. I am 100 per cent sure that the fans will love him because he is very good with the ball.
I think at the moment Gibbs is ahead of him in the manager’s thinking, certainly in the Premier League, but I hope that there’s something of a battle between the two for that place. I’ve heard people suggest one or the other might be deployed at right back in the absence of Sagna but they’re both so left-footed (Winterburnly so) I just can’t see it. It does seem easier for a regular right back to play at left back than the other way around but hopefully the competition between Gibbs and Santos will be a good thing.
As for the solution to the right back problem, I just don’t know. I suspect it’s a question Arsene will be asked in his pre-game press conference because it’s definitely an issue. There are genuine concerns about whether or not Jenkinson is ready but what is the alternative? One of the centre-halves playing there or, perhaps, Francis Coquelin who looks a more adaptable kind of player than any other we’ve got in the squad at the moment.
Whatever decision is made, it’s worth remembering that whoever is chosen doesn’t pick himself and if there’s a young player there then he needs support and help. Not just from his teammates but from the fans too. Being inexperienced doesn’t mean a player won’t ever make it and should therefore be written off before his career has even begun.
Finally for today, an interesting piece in The Guardian regarding TV rights and Liverpool’s desire to breakaway from the collective deal enjoyed by all Premier League clubs. They want a bigger slice of the overseas rights because they feel they’re a bigger draw to overseas fans. Which, on the face of it, seems fair enough.
The problem is that many Premier League clubs are essentially insolvent as it stands, reliant on TV money to keep them afloat. Removing that source of income will probably do things. 1 – see a number of clubs go bankrupt and 2 – make the Premier League less competitive. Comparisons are rightly made with Spain where Barcelona and Real Madrid can negotiate their own TV deals, thus raking in the majority of the cash because the other clubs, in comparison, aren’t as attractive to viewers.
So what you get is a league which is a two-horse race every season with the other clubs falling further behind and less able to compete. Sure, they are two very fine horses but a Grand National with two thoroughbreds and a pack of mules behind them wouldn’t be to anyone’s taste. I understand football is a business but clubs have to look at the bigger picture. Their short term gain would be to the long term detriment of the league, bar those clubs who get a bigger slice of the TV pie. The overall ‘product’ becomes less interesting, less exciting and will ultimately produce a league which fewer people are interested in.
And all the while the clubs and the Premier League miss a trick, like record companies before them, refusing to countenance the idea of providing live, on-demand coverage of every game via a virtual season ticket of some kind.
Right, that’ll have to do. If you missed it yesterday – you might want to check out the announcement.
Till tomorrow.
