Archive for March, 2008

See Bendtner’s Tidy Finish for Denmark; Kuzmanovic link rubbished

1 comment March 27th, 2008

Last night saw a heavy Arsenal involvement in a round of International friendly matches. Fortunately, it seems that we’ve come through it without any injury problems ahead of the weekend’s game at Bolton Wanderers. Bacary Sagna is set to miss out, with Tomas Rosicky also unlikely to available, but on the plus side Robin van Persie played his first ninety minutes since returning from injury for Holland – valuable playing time after such a long absence.

Nicklas Bendtner scored against the Cezch Republic for Denmark – a neat finish which can be glimpsed at the start of this video, courtesy of 101greatgoals. Hleb also scored for Belarus, but it wasn’t our Alex, but his lesser-known and harder-to-spell brother Vyacheslav.

You may have read about how I began to control Arsenal’s transfer policy from my desktop with my copy of Football Manager 2008. Well, that dream was short-lived. Never mind.

Finally, a hearty ‘hear hear’ to arseblogger’s piece on the criticism of Emmanuel Adebayor. My money’s on the big man to bounce back with a goal at the Reebok on Saturday. Till tomorrow.

Arsenal Gunning For Kuzmanovic: A weird coincidence…

45 comments March 26th, 2008

I freely admit that until yesterday I had no idea who Zdravko Kuzmanovic was.  The same is probably true of most Arsenal fans, who in all likelihood were in ignorance of the Serbian midfielder’s existence before The Sun plucked him from obscurity to link him with a move to our beloved Gunners.

I, however, had become aware of Kuzmanovic several hours before, when playing that most excellent of games, Football Manager.  Managing Portsmouth in the Summer of 2008, I required a midfielder that combined the graft of Sulley Muntari and the craft of Niko Kranjcar.  After sending my scouts into Europe in the hope of unearthing a rough diamond, my attention was drawn to a young midfielder with absurdly good attributes and impressive looking stats at Fiorentina.  His name?  Zdravko Kuzmanovic.

Within hours, the boy was linked to Arsenal.  It’s a pretty freaky coincidence.  Is it possible that my Football Manager game somehow can control Arsenal’s real life transfer policy?  It seems unlikely, but then so did Chris Evans and Billie Piper getting married.

What also seems unlikely is the possibility of Alex Song scoring a beautifully placed thirty yarder.  However, in the Reserves’ 1-1 draw with Chelsea last night, he did just that.  Song has slipped off the radar a bit since getting injured at the African Cup of Nations, but I get the feeling he could be one to watch next season.  He was arguably our outstanding performer in the Carling Cup campaign, and was the breakthrough star of the tournament in Ghana.  If he can transfer his performances at International level to the domestic game, he could be a very useful holding midfielder.

Right.  Now I’m off to try and buy Messi for Portsmouth.  Expect him to be on the verge of sealing a move to Arsenal tomorrow…

Can Toure and Gallas play together?

Add comment March 25th, 2008

Setanta Sports columnist Gareth Maher today published an article suggesting that Arsenal’s form will not improve until Arsene Wenger bites the bullet and drops Kolo Toure.  It’s certainly not the first time such an idea has been mooted.  When William Gallas was signed from Chelsea, mouth’s watered at the possibility of combining two of the Premier League’s best centre-backs in what would surely be a fantastic partnership.  However, for a multitude of reasons, it’s never quite happened.  Last season Gallas’ injuries played a big part, but this term the pair have been afforded plenty of opportunities to make their presence felt.  It’s a very telling fact that they’ve probably made more memorable contributions in the attacking penalty area than in front of their own goal.

The main problem is that Toure and Gallas are very similar.  Centre-back partnerships tends to function very simply: one defender tends to be aggressive in the challenge, going up for high balls and using aerial prowess to try and win possession.  The second centre-back is usually faster and has quick reactions and high acceleration to clear up the second ball.  In the most successful spells of their respective careers, both Toure and Gallas fell into the latter category, playing alongside power-houses Sol Campbell and John Terry.  When they play together, neither Toure or Gallas seems willing to assume responsibility for the initial challenge, resulting in strikers having all the time in the world to bring the ball down around the 18-yard box.

There is, of course, a viable alternative.  When Gallas was signed, the unluckiest man in North London was Philippe Senderos.  The Swiss defender had just been handed the fabled number 6 shirt after some outstanding performances in our run to the Champions League final, and his partnership with Toure was coming along a treat.  When Gallas was signed, Senderos disappeared to the bench and his confidence arguably didn’t recover until the early part of this year, when Toure’s absence at the African Cup of Nations enabled him to form an effective partnership with Gallas.

After the draw at Wigan, Toure was brought back into the starting line-up, but things have probably worse for the defence since then.  I don’t blame Kolo in any way – in fact, I thought he was excellent for much of the game against Chelsea, with William Gallas arguably more culpable on both goals.  But with Gallas (rightly or wrongly) holding the captain’s armband, it looks like Toure’s place is the more vulnerable.  Perhaps within that is a certain irony: as captain, Gallas should take the role of organising the back four.  But he doesn’t.  In fact, of the three centre-backs we’ve talked about, that aspect of the game only comes naturally to one: Senderos.

When I think about this season, I can’t really recall any outstanding defensive displays from the side.  We haven’t got this far on the back of a mean defence, but on our inspirational attacking play.  But to win trophies, you need your Nemanja Vidic’s as much as your Cristiano Ronaldos.  Someone made the point the other day that Arsenal haven’t won the league since Martin Keown retired.  Perhaps that’s no coincidence.

Both Toure and Gallas are outstanding individual players.  But in order for our defence to have the balance and organisation it so clearly requires, perhaps Senderos has to be considered as a starter.  If Bacary Sagna is out for a few weeks, perhaps we’ll see Toure at right-back with Gallas and Senderos in the centre.  It might just be that an injury brings us an epiphanic discovery.

Chelsea 2 – 1 Arsenal: Burden too heavy for squad heavy on quality but light on quantity

Add comment March 24th, 2008

Arsenal have not won in their last six domestic games.  Painful though it might be to admit it, that is not the kind of form potential Champions can afford.  After our last league win, a 2-0 victory over Blackburn, we moved five points clear at the top of the table.  Remarkably, we are now six points behind United, and even a point behind Chelsea.  In the league at least, it has all gone wrong.

It’s not beyond retrieval.  United still have to face us and Chelsea, and with the distraction of the Champions League to boot, I would be amazed if the sides above us did not drop points.  But when you consider the lead we had, you have to say it does feel like we’ve had our chance, and have sadly let it slip.

In that respect, yesterday’s defeat is no disaster.  Losing to a side who haven’t been beaten at that venue in four years is no shame.  If indeed the league is lost, it was lost in the draws against the likes of Birmingham, Villa, Wigan and Boro.  It was not lost at Stamford Bridge.

I don’t have a vast amount to say about yesterday’s game.  For large portions of the match we were in control, but after taking the lead through Bacary Sagna’s header, but we simply couldn’t handle it when Chelsea introduced the fresh blood of Nicolas Anelka, who twice beat William Gallas to the ball to set up Didier Drogba for the goals that defeated us.

We do not have those kinds of options.  Our first eleven are exhausted, simply because we do not possess the quality in reserve to rotate them.  Consider the fact that Manchester United have been able to rest their star pair of Rooney and Ronaldo and bring in the likes of Scholes and Tevez to replace them.  Consider also that when we last won the league, we had the firepower of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robin van Persie, Jose Antonio Reyes, and Sylvain Wiltord to call upon – and Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires could play there too.  Yesterday the paucity of options available to Arsene was evident, and the strain on Emmanuel Adebayor over the course of the season is taking its toll.

Adebayor was majorly responsible for forcing us into the five-point lead that’s since evaporated.  Our real Championship form came in the first half of the season, but throughout the early part of 2008 a dip in our performances was partially masked by the goals of the Togolese striker.  Now the chances and goals have ceased to come to the big man, and our defensive frailties are being exposed.

Cesc and Hleb have tired legs and tired minds.  If they’d been allowed the occasional breather, like Rooney and Ronaldo, they might be able to find with more regularity the devastating form their United counterparts have managed.

I do not mean to blame individuals.  The team is simply not functioning as it was.  Strangely, in the games against Milan we seemed to find that extra gear, but it has escaped us domestically.  We are not getting enough midfielders into the box to support Adebayor, and we are not getting enough crosses in to find those forward runners.  Instead, we are returning to the eye-of-a-needle intricacies that are beautiful on the eye but seem to produce inferior results.

We need to get back to basics, and (as Arsene says), we need to start winning games.  There’s still so much to play for, in this country and on the continent.  The players are more than capable, it’s just about turning that corner and producing what we know they’re capable of.  Let’s save the remonstrations for the Summer.

Chelsea Preview: Adebayor & Cesc hoping to outshoot Drogba & Lampard

Add comment March 23rd, 2008

When Avram Grant became Chelsea manager, he promised to make them a more entertaining outfit to watch.  He has managed to do so, but perhaps not in the way he envisaged – rather than improving their attacking play, he appears to have relaxed their formerly water-tight defence, leading to high-scoring games such as the 4-4 draw at Tottenham in midweek.

We at Arsenal haven’t really been able to boast of a secure back-line in recent weeks either.  The soft goals conceded to the likes of Birmingham and Boro in recent weeks have provided yet further evidence that William Gallas and Kolo Toure have never quite fulfilled their potential as a partnership.

So perhaps today is one of those rare occasions when a clash between two top four sides has the potential for goals.  The reverse fixture was a tight match decided by a late William Gallas header.  This time, however, the winner ought to be the side whose attacking play is best able to take advantage of defences lacking in confidence.

When it comes to goalscoring, both sides will be looking to their own dynamic duo, each comprising a talismanic midfielder and powerhouse striker.  The comparisons between Emmanuel Adebayor and Didier Drogba, two players who clearly both fall into the latter category, have been made all season.  Injuries and the African Cup of Nations have put Drogba firmly out of the limelight during this campaign, and in his absence Adebayor has emerged as the league’s most physically fearsome forward.  John Terry has listed the Togolese striker as one of three most difficult opponents he’s ever faced – whether he copes better with Ade than Kolo Toure does with fellow Ivorian Drogba could decide the game.

Frank Lampard and Cesc Fabregas play football with different attitudes but similarly spectacular results.  Lampard is a pragmatist, Fabregas an artist.  The Englishman is obsessed by goals, whilst the Spaniard plays as if he is searching for the perfect pass.  Rarely do Arsenal win a game in which Fabregas under-performs.  Whether or not he can summon another superhuman effort to defeat Lampard & Co will determine the course of the game – and the assistance of partner in crime Mathieu Flamini could be decisive.

Finally, congratulations to Theo Walcott, who survived the seven man cull to make the England squad for Wednesday’s game with France.  Gael Clichy, William Gallas, Bacary Sagna, and Mathieu Flamini are all in the French squad.

If Liverpool do us a favour today and we win at Chelsea, we’ll not only spoil their four-year long unbeaten record, but be joint top of the table.  It’s a hell of a prize to play for.  Let’s go for it.

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