October 26th, 2011
Park celebrates bending home the winner against Bolton
Arsenal 2 – 1 Bolton
Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
Arsenal went through to the Quarter-Finals of the Carling Cup for the ninth successive season with a 2-1 victory over Bolton. It wasn’t televised anywhere in the world, so the 56,628 or so lucky enough to be in the statdium are, thus far, the sole witnesses to another encouraging victory. If you haven’t seen the game at all, you might have an interest in this audio report I put together in the match’s immediate aftermath.
The team was the expected mix of youth and experience. The headline inclusion was Thomas Vermaelen, though it passed almost without notice that his partner on the night, Sebastien Squillaci, was making his first appearance of the season. Lukasz Fabianski kept goal, with youngsters Ignasi Miquel and Nico Yennaris (a debutant) at full-back. Coquelin and Frimpong patrolled the midfield, with Benayoun, Arshavin and Chamberlain pulling the strings behind Ju-Young Park.
Arshavin had not originally been intended to play, with Tomas Rosicky pencilled for inclusion. However, a slight injury to the Czech midfielder saw the far from slight Arshavin handed his central playmaking role. It would prove to be the game’s crucial factor.
The first half was a relatively quiet affair. Yossi Benayoun flashed one effort over, and on a couple of occasions Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain seemed to try and do too much when released on the right. It wasn’t a poor performance from the young winger, but it was his certainly his least eye-catching in an Arsenal shirt. Perhaps he is feeling the pressure of expectation.
The second half started ominously, with former Gunner Fabrice Muamba side-footing in to the roof of the net to give Bolton the lead. It was at this point, however, that Arsenal’s experienced players began to seize control of the game. Arshavin was the key figure. First he picked up the ball on the right, skipped infield, and fired a fizzing shot in off the far post.
Within three minutes, he’d created the winner, scooting inside from the left before playing in Park in the space that had been created. The Korean’s finish was exquisite, opening his body and bending a first-time shot around the goalkeeper and in to the far corner. Thierry Henry would have been proud.
Afterwards, the manager spoke in glowing terms about Park’s performance:
“He had a very, very good game. His movement was exceptional and his finishing is absolutely fantastic.
He is ready to play in league games.”
Park battled well against two experienced Premier League centre-backs in Gary Cahill and Zat Knight, and considering Marouane Chamakh’s terrible form in front of goal, is bound to get his chance sooner or later.
Arshavin, however, was the undoubted man of the match. There were still errors in his game, but in the final third it’s hard to question his efficacy. However, listening to Arsene post-match, we’re unlikely to see him in his favoured position again anytime soon:
“You cannot play with two wingers and two offensive players like that, you are too short in midfield. He is normally a wide player but he wants to grow in a role behind the striker.”
Whether or not that growth takes place at Arsenal or elsewhere remains to be seen.
Thomas Vermaelen departed with a solid 85 minutes behind him and whispers of a calf strain, but the man himself has taken to Twitter to dispel those fears and confirm his availability for Saturday’s game with Chelsea. With so little match practise behind him, I don’t expect him to start, but simply having him around the squad is a positive boost at the moment.
Tonight I fly to Spain for a week of exile from, among other things, the internet. If I happen to stumble in to a WIFI-furnished cafe I will update while I am there – if not, you’ll have to cope without me for a week. Chins up.
September 25th, 2011
RVP celebrates his 100th Arsenal goal
Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
In the circumstances, this was just the result we needed. Three goals, three points, a clean sheet, and a landmark moment for the talismanic Robin van Persie.
At half-time, the result was still very much in the balance. It was 0-0, and Wojciech Szczesny had produced an outstanding early save to keep his sheet clean. Arsenal should have gone ahead when Mikel Arteta played in Gervinho, but the Ivorian’s touch was too heavy and the ball ran through to Jussi Jääskeläinen.
Bolton were marking very tight in midfield and Arteta seemed to be carrying all the creative responsibility. Aaron Ramsey was having little impact, and Walcott and Gervinho struggled for space on the flanks. Despite missing Gary Cahill through illness, Bolton looked secure at the back and a threat on the break.
Occasionally, Arsene Wenger’s critics accuse him of lacking tactical acumen. However, his post-match explanation of his half-time team-talk instantly dispels that myth:
“I felt that in the first half we were a bit impatient sometimes, that we didn’t move the ball quickly enough, that our midfielders came a bit deep because we were man-marked. That exposed us a bit to counter-attacking and we had less support up front. In the second half, maybe because they were fatigued as well, our midfielders played higher up and we became straight away more dangerous.”
Our second half display was also helped by two things that settled our obvious nerves: an early goal, and a sending off for Bolton. First, Van Persie finished superbly from a narrow angle after the referee waived play on when Gervinho was brought down in midfield. Then David Wheater was dismissed for tugging back Theo Walcott after he’d been played in by an improving Ramsey.
It was a game in which we saw the good and the bad of Walcott. He showcased his electrifying pace, racing behind the defence to leave Wheater fatally training, and reaching a Ramsey pass to cross for RVP to nudge home his second goal of the game and 100th for Arsenal. He also showed just why he frustrates, missing a couple of glaring opportunities – one when set clean through by the impressive Alex Song. On balance it was an effective display, and Arsene will hoping that the knee injury which forced him to limp off is not too serious.
It was that second goal, created by Walcott, that killed the game, and made for a fantastic landmark for Van Persie. He joins sixteen other Arsenal centurions in passing the milestone, and his pride in doing so will only be tempered by the thought of how many he might have were it not for a succession of injuries.
Alex Song gabbed a deserved late third, stepping inside his man to curl in to the top corner. The three points mean that a win at White Hart Lane next weekend would take us above them in the league – as if any more incentive for a North London Derby were needed.
I thought there were plenty of positives to take from today’s game, albeit against ten men. Mikel Arteta continues to look every inch the class act we hoped he would be, and Alex Song appears to be stepping up to the midfield mantle with some incisive passing to match his essential physical presence.
At the back we coped well with the supposed threat of Kevin Davies, on as an early sub for the injured N’Gog. Mertesacker and Koscielny were happy to let Davies win the majority of long-balls; they got tight enough to him to prevent him bringing the ball down, and were able to intercept the second ball every time. For all the headers Davies won, barely a single one reached a team-mate.
Our concentration at set-pieces was better too. It was heartening that when defending a corner in stoppage time, at 3-0 up, Wojciech Szczesny was bellowing at his team-mates to concentrate. A clean sheet will do the defence a world of good.
Next up it’s Olympiakos in the Champions League. Another home game, and a chance to maintain that momentum ahead of that crucial derby game a week today.
September 24th, 2011
In the build-up to today’s crucial match with Bolton Wanderers, Arsene Wenger has compared himself to ursus maritimus – that cuddly killer, the polar bear.
“Since I arrived in England there have been a lot of things said.
Personally I do not complain. I am supposed to take the bullets and absorb them. Like a bear, a polar bear.
In fairness, they don’t hurt me too much. You worry more about the young player who gets in the team at the moment and gets slaughtered. I remember when I was 19 that was much more difficult for me to take.”
Whilst I understand Arsene’s intention – to depict himself as a shield for his players, taking the weight of criticism upon his experienced shoulders – I would question some aspects of his chosen analogy. I’m not sure where Arsene’s got his info, but I’m not convinced polar bears are “supposed” to take bullets at all. When plucky Tommies went over the top in the Great War, they did not send a squadron of polar bears out first as cannon fodder. Shooting a polar bear is, I’m pretty sure, illegal. They’re endangered, after all.
It’s here that Arsene’s analogy begins to right itself and come bobbing up on the side of truth once more. The threat of global warming has led scientists to suggest polar bears could be eliminated within 100 years. Lose against Bolton today, and Arsene could find himself under an even more immediate threat of extinction.
The team will be very similar to the one that started at Blackburn. Tomas Rosicky has recovered and is back in the squad, but is unlikely to dislodge any of Song, Ramsey and Arteta. The only possible changes are on the flanks – Arsene Wenger will have to choose between Kieran Gibbs and Andre Santos, and is likely to reintroduce Theo Walcott, most likely at the expense of Andrey Arshavin.
Alex Chamberlain is in the squad, and Arsene insists, “ready to play”:
“With the ball, he’s ready. Off the ball he plays now like a young talented boy and he has to take responsibility in the senior team.
That will demand two or three months and after he will be there.”
If we’re in a winning position he might get off the bench today to make his home league debut.
I’m optimistic we’ll begin to turn out form around this afternoon, but the day’s undoubtedly been clouded by some bad news: Jack Wilshere will undergo surgery on his ankle and is likely to be out until Christmas at the earliest. It’s huge blow. With Cesc and Nasri gone, Jack is comfortably our most accomplished and inspirational midfield player. This team ought to be being built around him – instead, he’ll be absent for half the season. The only positive spin I can put on it is that I’d rather have him fit for the second half of the season than the first, when we reach the crunch period and the accumulation of points is all the more vital.
Whether or not we get Champions League football, there are already ominous signs for next summer. The quintet of Andrey Arshavin, Thomas Vermaelen, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott and Alex Song all have less than two years to run on their existing deals. If new contracts aren’t tied up this season, we could find ourselves over a barrel as we did with Samir Nasri. Arsene doesn’t exactly sound confident of reaching agreements with all players concerned:
“We will try to convince them. Our desire is there to do it and we are ready to sit down with them.
After that we see where we go but the gap on that front has become bigger for us so, today, I cannot say that if we go to the maximum [deal] we are sure to sign a player – even if we do that we are not sure.”
To compound your distress, Arseblog reports that Darren Dein (the machiavellian marketeer behind the exits of Henry, Clichy, Cesc & Nasri) is now representing the interests of both Song and Van Persie.
All that fun can wait for another day. For now, we need to focus on beating Bolton – who we’ve just been drawn against in the League Cup, as fate would have it. Come On You Gunners.
August 27th, 2011
Although the clash with Manchester United is tomorrow, the talk around the club is still dominated by transfer speculation. Â It’s understandable: with just five days to go, Arsene has indicated he’d like to add three players to his squad.
“It is important [to strengthen] because we will lose players in January with players going to the African Nations Cup.
We lose Gervinho and Chamakh together so, first of all, it is important to strengthen up front. It is important that we find one midfielder and one defender as well. So we are still short of three bodies.”
Arsenal, it seems, need something of everything. Â Obviously, working to such tight deadlines is not ideal, but sometimes the end of the window can prove a fertile ground in which to ensnare a bargain. Â For some clubs, this five days represent a final chance to cash in on saleable assets. Â Take, for example, the case of Gary Cahill and Bolton.
It is widely known that Arsenal have a long-standing interest in Cahill as part of their search for a centre-half with Premier League experience. Â After having had a bid for Phil Jagielka rejected earlier in the summer, Arsenal have set their sights on Cahill, holding formal discussions over a possible transfer this week.
Yesterday, Bolton manager Owen Coyle and chairman Phil Gartside chose to speak publicly about the negotiations, with Coyle labelling Arsenal’s offer (which, at this stage, remains verbal) “derisory”. Â Gartside, meanwhile, chose to retweet the following eloquent message expressed by a Bolton fan:
Image courtesy of 'Metro'
What a classless, clueless idiot.
Arsene responded with his usual dignity, and refuted the suggestion that the offer was as low a £6m:
“That number is completely wrong. If Gartside can say I am lying I am ready to confront him.
I believe every negotiation is between two parties and you only have to sell the player if you are all right with the price. In this case the information is below what has been spoken about.
You can believe Gartside or you can believe me. It’s not right. It’s not the truth.”
Bolton’s behaviour is entirely transparent. Â All summer long Coyle has talked about what a great player Cahill is, how he deserves Champions League football, and how he’s surprised no offers have been forthcoming. Â Now an offer arrives, and he’s up in arms about it.
If Bolton didn’t want to sell Cahill, they would quietly reject the offer and speak no more about it. Â Their decision to publicise the bid can only have one desired outcome: to create an auction. Â Cahill’s contract expires in twelve months, and with Champions League clubs looming, he’s unlikely to sign another. Â Bolton stand to lose their most valuable asset for nothing. Â If they can sell for a decent price in this window, they will. Â In the current circumstances, the timing of the loan signing of Dedrcyk Boyata was particularly interesting.
With Liverpool about to sign the Uruguayan Coates, and City having bought Savic, Arsenal are Cahill’s only obvious suitors. Â It remains to be seen if Gartside and Coyle have shot themselves in the foot and driven us from the negotiation table. Â I think Cahill’s a good footballer and a solid defender and would fit in well. Â If Arsene shares my conviction, then a deal could definitely be done.
As for the midfielder and the striker Arsene is looking at, your guess is as good as mine. Â There’s been a lot of talk about Rennes’ Yann M’Villa, but I think we need a more creative presence in midfield. Â The arrival of a striker is contingent on the departure of Nicklas Bendtner, of whom Arsene Wenger said “we know he will leave”.
It’s hard to envisage anything but these deals going right to the wire, which promises to be exciting/traumatic. Â As ever, you’ll be able to follow it all as it goes down on Gunnerblog.
There’s some early team news for United here. Â With Wilshere, Diaby, Song and Frimpong all unavailable, Johan Djourou could be asked to play in midfield alongside Aaron Ramsey. Â I’ll have a full preview for you tomorrow. Â Today, I’m off to Stamford Bridge to check out the competition…
