Add comment May 3rd, 2009
Hey there,
Can’t get to a proper computer today, so sending this in from the iphone. Will be back with a more ‘formal’ effort tomorrow.
In brief: Ramsey was excellent, Eboue attacked well from left-back but wasn’t tested defensively, and Nicklas Bendtner’s total of 14 league goals is very handy indeed. Such a relief to have fourth place tied up.
Have a nice Sunday.
Eternally yours (well, not ‘eternally’. and not really ‘yours’ either),
GS
Add comment May 2nd, 2009
Business before pleasure: Stan Kroenke has increased his shareholding in Arsenal to 28.3%, leaving him just a percent and a bit short of the amount that would trigger an automatic offer for the rest of the shares.
The shares were acquired from the Carr family – including director Richard Carr. This is significant as he was part of the Lockdown Agreement which, it transpires, expired last month.
It leaves Kroenke in a powerful position, and I can’t help but feel we’re a matter of months away from him assuming full ownership of the club (I’ll leave the debate about whether that’s a good or a bad thing for another time). The next major pillar of the old ownership to fall will surely be Nina Bracewell-Smith’s stake, and competition for that between Kroenke and Usmanov would be rife were it not for the fact that the Uzbeki is believed to have lost 74% of his fortune in Ye Olde Crunche. It could be an interesting Summer we have ahead of us. The AST have had this to say:
“The AST were the first shareholders at Arsenal to welcome Kroenke’s initial investment. We have since established a good dialogue with him and this will continue. Our position is that stability and plurality in ownership is to the benefit of Arsenal. New Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis has made a good impression and says he values our role and the importance of custodianship. We hope he will build relationships with all shareholders so that the club has stability off the pitch which is a vital ingredient for success on it.”
Turning our attention to first-team matters, the most notable piece of news is that Eduardo will miss the rest of the season with a freak groin injury. It’s disappointing for him and for us but I think his contribution between now and May would have been extremely limited anyway. He needs to rest up, have a full pre-season, and properly announce his return in August. Arsene Wenger called Eduardo the unluckiest footballer he has known, saying:
“Eduardo is like the guy who stands on the motorway and gets run down by the lorry coming up the wrong side. He is really distraught.”
I’m not sure about that analogy. In that situation I’d say that a portion of blame could be laid at the feet of the idiot who deemed it appropriate to stand on the motorway. In this instance, Eduardo was simply fallen on by an ailing Rio Ferdinand.
Nevertheless, we must do without him for now. With Adebayor certain to be rested today, Nicklas Bendtner will probably start alone, with the likes of Andrey Arshavin and perhaps Carlos Vela playing off him. In midfield, I’d expect Denilson to come back in, and Abou Diaby may start in anticipation of being dropped on Tuesday. At the back we’re very short of options – I’d anticipate Emmanuel Eboue coming in for Bacary Sagna, but other than that your guess is good as mine.
A win today would be valuable, and I hope those players that are selected realise that. Who knows? A good performance today could put them in serious contention for a start on Tuesday night.
(Except Arshavin, annoyingly.)
1 comment May 1st, 2009
This morning, the Arsenal.com homepage features a pop up advertisement for next season’s away kit. Whilst most of the image is in a concealing shadow, the small patch that is visible is unequivocably and somewhat upsettingly blue.
Looking at the image a little closer, it seems the shirt may also have pinstripes. Whether or not it comes with a collar and tie remains to be seen.
I think a lot of fans will have mixed feelings (at best) about wearing what resembles a Chelsea shirt in many of our away games next season. Whilst I wasn’t over-enthused about the green shirt that is flying off ebay’s transcendental shelves (I’d recently decided the green shirt was camoflague for Emmanuel Adebayor against the eagle-eyed gaze of the nation’s linesmen), a blue shirt is not what I had in mind.
One suspects that the designers of the shirt saw the popularity of this season’s away kit, and seized upon one of its key elements. Unfortunately, they’ve picked the wrong one, focusing on the blueness rather than the glorious yellowness.
Officialy confirmation will arrive on May 21st, but in the meantime I’m going to see if I can do some digging.
To be fair to Nike, they did this week permit readers of Arseblog to pose questions directly to Theo Walcott, in what makes for a very entertaining little piece. Apart from the last fifteen seconds or so, which just feel somewhat uncomfortable. Check it out.
Tomorrow we face Portsmouth, with the knowledge that a win will secure fourth place. Whilst I know it seems unlikely, it’s important we keep up the pressure on Chelsea in an effort to nick third place off them at the last minute. With all that said, I’d still expect there to be plenty of changes tomorrow.
At least one of those will be enforced, with the news that Mikael Silvestre and Eduardo both picked up groin strains on Wednesday night. For varying reasons, those two do seem to be particularly vulnerable to niggling injuries.
Full preview tomorrow, post Arsene’s afternoon press conference.
Add comment April 30th, 2009
Manchester United 1 – 0 Arsenal (O’Shea 18)
Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
By the end of the game, I was somewhat hysterical. As each United chance came and went without adding to their one goal lead, I found myself not cowering behind the sofa, but sat back, relaxed – laughing even, in sheer disbelief. How was it only 1-0? I felt briefly invcincible, like a man stood atop a skyscraper in a storm, daring the lightening to strike him:
“Go on, Ronaldo, have a shot. It won’t go in. It can’t. See? It hit the bar. What did I tell you?”
On Tuesday night, Chelsea protected their goal with a performance full of tactical nous and committed defending. Last night, we protected our goal with a combination of chance, voodoo, and the incarnation of a goalkeeping god in the form of Manuel Almunia.
Magic, of course, is a flawed science, and that’s my principle explanation for how United managed to score at all. That and an abominal defensive mix-up which saw Adebayor, Toure, Silvestre and Song all charge away from three un-marked men at the far post, allowing John O’Shea (oh the O’Shame of it) to volley home. At that point, I can’t have been alone in fearing the worst. United had started like a house on fire – a house that was really good at playing football. We, on the other hand, looked like we had expected United to go about playing us in a far more polite fashion. “Why all the high tempo nonse? It’s only the first half.” etc
In that first forty-five minutes, Almunia fade three fantastic saves to deny Rooney, Tevez, and Ronadlo, whilst our solitary effort on goal was a Cesc Fabregas drive that was too close to Van Der Sar. When the whistle finally blew for half-time, we looked like a boxer on the ropes who’d been saved by the bell.
No personnel was changed at half-time, but we did manage to get more of a foothold. We kept the ball significantly better, but still didn’t manage to create any chances of note. United, meanwhile, became a threat on the break – rather than the red tide that had swarmed over Arsenal in the first half, it was just the occasional counter-attacking tsunami.
And yet the scoreline remained 1-0. It could have got even funnier, had Nicklas Bendtner applied a more gentle touch with a header in the dying minutes.
Plenty went wrong – the deployment of Cesc Fabregas in an advanced role meant he just didn’t get into the game, Samir Nasri failed to thrive in a holding position, Theo Walcott had no service, Diaby appeared clueless on the left, and Emmanuel Adebayor was the undesirable combination of isolated and lazy.
At the back, meanwhile, we were disorganised (as typified by the United goal) and too often left exposed. Whilst Almunia, Gibbs, Silvestre and Song put in decent individual shifts, as a unit we were too ofted vulnerable to United’s attacking power.
After the game, Arsene Wenger had the look of a man who had got away with murder. Multiple, mass, horrible murder. He said:
“Manchester United started stronger than us and if you look at the clear cut chances they were on top, of course, tonight. The positive is that we are only 1-0 down and we are still to play at home. I am convinced you will see a different Arsenal at The Emirates.
I believe we still have a chance to reverse the result. Football can be like this. We could play tomorrow and you would see a different game. That is why I still believe at home we can do it. The tie is still very open. United could have regrets because they could have scored a second goal, and it is up to us to make them regret that.”
From relief to belief in the time it took him to get from the dugout to the press conference room. We ought to be out of it by now. Hell, I’m not sure we even ‘ought’ to be in the semi-finals given the disastrous season we’ve had. And yet we’re still breathing, and that in itself is a blessing.
Of course we need to see a different Arsenal next week – one with determination and imagination in equal measure. But we also need to hope we see a different Manchester United – they were excellent last night, and must be wondering if they can muster that kind of performance again to put the tie beyond us in the second leg.
It ought to be over, but it’s not. We’re still stood atop that skyscraper, bawling at the Gods, and who knows – the storm may be about to pass.
May 5th, 2009. It’s going to be huge.
Add comment April 29th, 2009
As massive as tonight’s game is, it will pale in comparison to the return leg at the Emirates. A first leg is like the first-half of a ninety-minute game: indicative, but never decisive. Just look at United’s game with Spurs at the weekend.
That said, there are some results that would strike a real psychological blow. 2-0 to Manchester United would leave us with a very difficult task next week, and I suppose three, four, and five nil would do likewise.
Seeing as it’s extremely unlikely we’ll hold United to a 0-0 in the manner of Chelsea’s performance at the Nou Camp, we are probably going to need to score. A 1-0 defeat would not be insurmountable, but a 2-1 defeat would be infinitely preferable.
So now we’ve established what would and would not constitute failure, it’s time to decipher what exactly we would term success. The answer, I suppose, is to approach the game like a one-off encounter, and play to win.
Whatever happens (well, almost), the return leg will be the biggest in the history of our new stadium. Although we may have slipped from regular contention for the league title, the rivalry with Man Utd is still the one that will define this period in the club’s history. The press have tried to build up Ferguson versus Mourinho and Benitez, but it has never come close to matching the intensity of competetive spirit that existed between the Scot and our own Arsene Wenger.
However shaky United have looked of late, this is a season in which they were crowned World Champions. If we’re to get a result tonight, everybody needs to perform. We need the experience of Almunia, Toure and Sagna to help out the juvenile but talented Djourou and Gibbs. We need Alex Song to continue his excellent form and be vigilant in his patrol of the central midfield. Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, and Theo Walcott need to be at their thrilling best, and Emmanuel Adebayor needs to justify his lazy twenty minutes against Boro with an explosive performance in the lone striker role – after all, Beyonce might just be watching.
The Champions League is a competition that has caused us plenty of heart-ache in the past few seasons. But as Arsene says:
“It is part of a career as well to swallow your disappointment and be a winner and come back afterwards. That is what we will try to do.”
The tie with United is an opportunity for these players to ammend for their sins in the first half of the season, and re-write history. Alex Ferguson says this has the potential to be the “perfect” semi-final.
I’ll be the judge of that. But not until May 5th.
“This is the moment we have waited for”. COME ON ARSENAL.
The man in form.
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