Video: On The Whistle reaction to City – “I’m still in shock!”
8 comments January 19th, 2015 05:08pm GilbertoSilver
On The Whistle reaction to Arsenal’s win over Manchester City.
8 comments January 19th, 2015 05:08pm GilbertoSilver
On The Whistle reaction to Arsenal’s win over Manchester City.
Add comment January 12th, 2015 06:22pm GilbertoSilver
Arsenal recorded their 13th consecutive home win over Stoke City, and in doing so put in one of their most cohesive performances of the season.
It was interesting to see that Arsene Wenger’s team selection was not swayed by the renewed availability of some big names. The manager chose to keep Mathieu Flamini, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Theo Walcott in reserve, giving the likes of Francis Coquelin, Tomas Rosicky and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain a chance to extend their run of impressive form.
I suspect that even if Kieran Gibbs had been fit, Nacho Monreal might still have got the nod at left-back. Gibbs was very poor at the Britannia, and Monreal has emerged as a rugged and reliable option at full-back. His last seven starts have all resulted in wins, with five clean sheets along the way.
It seems Arsene has adopted a meritocratic selection policy, rewarding those in good form and making some players accustomed to an automatic spot bide their time. That’s ostensibly a decent plan, but it’ll certainly be put to the test when Arsenal face the giants of Manchester City next week.
The one selection decision I was not entirely convinced was based on performance levels was the one that saw Wojciech Szczesny dropped for David Ospina. As much as Arsene insists that call was made purely on form, it looks to me like a clear disciplinary issue.
I’m generally more comfortable seeing Szczesny between the sticks, but that’s largely because I haven’t seen enough of Ospina to make a valuable judgement. My suspicion is that the Pole will be back in the goal before too long – read why over on Mirror Football.
The Arsenal fans’ joy at seeing off Stoke was capped by the news that their train home was cancelled. This was met by cheers from most, but a perturbed silence from the few who realised this meant that Stoke fans would be patrolling the streets of London for longer than was strictly necessary. Deeply unpleasant.
Going home never easy for Stoke fans. One does not simply walk in to Mordor.
— gunnerblog (@gunnerblog) January 11, 2015
As you’ll have noticed from the big play button at the top of this piece, there’s a new Arsecast Extra out today. It’s the 50th of its kind, and the familiar beep of the Arsecast lorry makes a return to mark the occasion. Have a listen: we chat about Debuchy’s injury, the goalkeeping situation, and whether Morgan Schneiderlin really is worth £30m.
1 comment January 11th, 2015 04:34pm GilbertoSilver
On The Whistle video reaction to another Alexis-inspired victory.
1 comment January 5th, 2015 05:35pm GilbertoSilver
The latest Arsecast Extra is here, featuring lengthy discussion on Theo Walcott, Francis Coquelin, and Joel Campbell. Andrew and I also make our prediction as to what we think we’ll spend in January. It makes for scary listening.
Arsecast Extra is brought to you by Audible.com – you can get a free audio book download and a 30 day free trial. Click the banner below to sign up or go to audibletrial.com/arsecast
If you don’t want to listen via the embedded player, you can subscribe to the Arsecast Extra 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 Extra directly – click here – 40mb MP3.
The Arsecast Extra is also available on our SoundCloud channel, where you can leave comments and such, as well as via the SoundCloud app for iPhone and Android.
You can also find it on the Stitcher podcasting app for iOS and Android. Leave nice reviews and comments and you’ll make a balding blogger smile. But that hair won’t ever grow back. Oh no.
Add comment January 4th, 2015 08:14pm GilbertoSilver
On The Whistle response to the cup win over Hull.
The man in form.