Archive for November, 2006
November 15th, 2006
…this time, it’s by getting called up to the Brazil squad. Not bad for an 18 year-old whose yet to play a Premiership game. He’s taken Gilberto’s place in the squad, and one can’t help but wonder if in a few years time he’ll be pushing Gilberto for his spot in the Arsenal first team too.
Justin Hoyte grabbed the winner for England U-21s in their game against Holland, but unfortunately it wasn’t all good news for Arsenal: Theo Walcott’s hand was stamped on and that might cause him to miss a game or two.
With international’s a-plenty tonight, and the fact that I broke a mirror yesterday, injuries are surely just around the corner. For the next seven years.
November 14th, 2006
This headline, you see, is for dramatic/comic effect. Because of course, I know we have Justin Hoyte. And this kid. And truth be told, I’ve been aware of young Matthew Connolly for some time now too: at 19, he’s already the full-time captain of Arsenal’s Reserves.
However, I bet even he was surprised to find himself training with the England squad after a spate of injuries meant they needed a defender to stand-in at Colney. The team were preparing for a game with Holland which Robin van Persie will miss due to the birth of his first child.
Another young Englishman, Fabrice Muamba, has been earning rave reviews for his performances on loan in Birmingham. Defender Martin Taylor says:
“You’ve seen what Fabrice is like. He is like Inspector Gadget, he stops everything coming through.”
Right. Thanks to icBirmingham for my favourite pic ever in a local newspaper.
Unhappy with Thierry as captain? Well you’d better get used to it.
Mathieu Flamini was excellent in Sunday’s win over Liverpool (probably in response to my suggestion he could be forced out), and he wants more opportunities with the first-team – the 4-1-4-1 formation will help him out there.
Finally, congratulations to Freddie Ljungberg: Sweden’s Player of the Year. He’s done very little for us…
I’d better GO GO MUAMBA LEGS.
November 13th, 2006
An excellent 3-0 win for Arsenal arrived yesterday courtesy of goals from vastly unexpected sources. First Mathieu Flamini scored only his second ever Premiership goal, before Kolo Toure and William Gallas showed that even the centre-backs can get in on the act in this Arsenal side.
It’d be silly to say the win put’s us “right back in the title race”, but it certainly showed that we’re determined to cement our place in the top three alongside Chelsea and Man U. The team news saw Manuel Almunia and Flamini start, after Jens Lehmann’s flu added to Tomas Rosicky’s injury. Put it was Flamini who put Arsenal in the lead after Alex Hleb and Cesc Fabregas conjured a zig-zagging move that allowed Fabregas to square for a tap-in. Flamini, quite simply, couldn’t miss.
The second goal came when a flowing move saw Robin van Persie slide in Kolo Toure, who calmly nutmegged Jose Reina. Shortly afterwards his centre-back counterpart William Gallas headed home his second Arsenal goal from a van Persie corner. On both occasions, it was almost too easy. That’s not to say Liverpool didn’t cause us problems: they did, but critical defensive slips and clinical finishing (at last) proved the difference.
A mention for a few of our players: Kolo Toure, for starters, should’ve been awarded the man of the match award. He was outstanding, and everywhere. In he and Gallas, we have a potentially brilliant central defensive combination, and it was clear from their camaradery that they believe so too. If there’s any justice, Toure will captain Arsenal one day.
Alongside him, the returning Emmanuel Eboue was superb, and showed just what we’ve been missing in terms of penetration on the right. I am a big fan of Lauren, but Eboue’s partnership with the next man I’m going to talk about will be hard to break up…
Aleksandr Hleb just keeps on improving. He now seems confident using his left-foot to pass and shoot, giving his slaloming runs from the right from end product. It’s hard to believe how much stick he still gets.
All in all, a good win for everyone at the club, especially Arsene, who did sound ever so slightly embarrassed in his interview with Sky after the game. Still, it’s nice to hear from you again, Mr. Wenger.
November 10th, 2006
After Arsene called off his Friday press conference for the first time in ten years, it has become pretty clear that he is very very pissed off. He must be unhappy with the media reaction to his scuffle with Alan Pardew, otherwise it’s a very strange one. It’s incredibly out of character for Arsene, and to be honest, I’m not convinced it’s the right thing.
He could easily go into a press conference and refuse to answer questions on the subject. If I were a young player who’d helped get the difficult win away to Everton, I would be slightly disappointed that Wenger had not come out in the press to praise my performance.
Also, the “unhappy with press reaction” argument falls down when you consider the fact that he wouldn’t be interviewed immediately after the West Ham game: there had been no press reaction at that point.
Whatever he’s up to, I hope he knows what he’s doing. By refusing to co-operate with the media he’s just making it harder for himself when he does finally come out of the shadows. What is he going to do, never speak to them again?
Maybe he’s ashamed of his reaction. Just a thought. Whatever it is, the only good thing that might come out of it is furthering the “us against the world reaction” I talked about after Upton Park.
Seeing as he won’t give you the team news, I will: Baptista and Ljungberg are still out, Almunia is back.
November 9th, 2006
At the start of this season, Emmanuel Adebayor receieved a lot of undue criticism. However, last night he got his second late winner of the season to put an inexperienced Arsenal side through against ten-man Everton.
James McFadden had been dismissed for talking back to Graham “I am the Law” Poll, and from then on you always fancied an athletic young Arsenal side to outmanoeuvre a depleted Everton side. However, it took until the 85th minute for us to score, and before then Manuel Almunia and then substitute debutant Mart Poom had to several impressive saves to keep us in the game.
When we did finally score, it came, believe it or not, from a corner. Mathieu Flamini’s deep cross was nodded down and in by an unmarked Adebayor for this third goal this season. Flamini was reportedly Arsenal’s most impressive player in an inexperienced midfield.
It’s a great win for the side after Saturday’s loss, and although they owed plenty to the referee, to be in the Quarter-Finals will give a lot of these young boys a real lift. Arsene again declined to talk to the press after the game, though I can’t really understand why. It’s fair enough though: it just makes this blog entry a bit harder to write.
All attention now turns to Sunday and Liverpool: if we’re really serious about the league, we must win.
Update: Mart Poom – first person to captain the club on his debut?
Next Posts
Previous Posts
