Archive for October, 2008
October 25th, 2008
“I am upset by allegations that I was smoking outside a nightclub on the 25th October. As is absolutely evident from the photographs that have been published, I was in fact chewing on a candy stick. I have been eating inordinate amounts of the sugary fag-a-likes in order to collect the free dinosaur cards that come in each packet. Whilst I was present at the nightclub with Chelsea stars Florent Malouda and John Obi Mikel, this was not a social call. In fact, John Obi had expressed a desire to swap my Stegosaurus card for his Nipponosaurus. As the Nipponosaurus is a particularly rare card, I deemed it neccessary that I meet with the Nigerian midfielder to oversee the exchange – or as we call it in France: Le Swapsee. I apologise for any distress caused by this misunderstanding.” William Gallas, Arsenal & France
Back to reality. I’m sure you’ve all heard that The Sun photographed Gallas smoking, and Arsene is absolutely right that it’s not acceptable from a professional athlete at Arsenal Football Club. However, Arsene is right when he says of the French, “We all smoke” – and it certainly never did this man any harm on the football field.
Gallas’ problem, I suppose, is that he is not even close to Zidane in terms of his on-field value. Smoking would be fine, if he were defending to any significant standard. As it is, this is just the latest in a catalogue of incidents that have undermined Gallas’ less than illustrious period as captain. As a way of defending his skipper, Arsene has said correctly that, ‘we all make mistakes’. The sooner he admits that making Gallas captain was one of his, the better.
West Ham Preview tomorrow.
October 24th, 2008
The Annual General Meeting of Arsenal Holdings took place yesterday, and hopefully later today I will speak to an attendee from the Arsenal Supporters Trust about the various goings-on in greater detail. For now, here is a round-up of the headline news from the event.
- Eduardo to return from injury – Arsene confirmed that the Crozilian striker will return to full training in three weeks. Due to some ambiguous wording, it originally seemed as if he might be back playing within that timespan, but that would have been a little optimistic by any stretch of the stretchiest imagination.
- ‘Manging Director’ to be appointed soon – At one point we were going to be getting a Director of Football, then it was a CEO, and now it seems it’s going to be an MD. Apparently an appointment will be made ‘fairly shortly’, which is frustratingly ambiguous.
- Three busts have been unveiled – disappointly, none of them belonged to Nina Bracewell-Smith.
- Tomas Rosicky is no nearer to returning from injury – this has never and will never qualify as news.
- Arsene Wenger has called for tennis-style challenges to be introduced to football – When I read this headline, I feared that after his decision to play Alex Song at right-back, Arsene’s latest brainwave was to introduce a net across the half-way line and give the players rackets. In fact, it’s something far more dull about cameras.
The Times has quite a full report here, which highlights the rallying cry Arsene delivered to the hundreds of shareholders:
“I feel that this team does not get the support it deserves. Last year we were close to winning the championship, finishing just four points behind Manchester United. Instead of showing resentment, we have to believe in our team more than ever because this team will deliver.â€
Le Boss clearly feels that if this young side is to succeed, it’s vital the fans are at their backs rather than on them. Next week’s home game against Spurs will be a perfectly-timed opportunity for the fans to follow up Arsene’s call to arms with appropriately vociferous vocal support.
Elsewhere, Dennis Bergkamp made me almost wet myself with glee by suggesting he might return to Arsenal in the not-too-distant future as a coach. If it weren’t for The Ice Man’s fear of flying, he’d be an ideal candidate to become the first Arsene-coached player to manage the club. That said, having him at the training ground in any capacity would be tremendous. Come home, Dennis: you are missed.
Finally, early team news for Sunday’s game with West Ham suggests that Kolo Toure and William Gallas will be available for selection. In some ways, it’s a pain they’re both back at once: I would have been interested to see Silvestre + one of Kolo or Gallas for a run of games.
It’s Friday. Rejoice.
October 23rd, 2008
I promised you footage of Tuesday night’s goals, and now thanks to 101greatgoals, here they are. Keep an eye out for neat finishes for Adebayor, Walcott, and Diaby, a thumping volley from Alex Song, and Aaron Ramsey’s first Arsenal goal.
Today the Arsenal hierarchy host the 2008 AGM (Annual General Moan), at which shareholders will have the chance to quiz board members and Le Boss about going’s on at the club. Tuesday’s positive result means that the interrogation won’t be as fierce as it might’ve been just after, say, the Hull game, but nevertheless I expect there to be a few questions about the manager’s decision not to strengthen the squad further this Summer.
On the business side, the star attraction will presumably be Stan Kroenke, the newest member of the Arsenal board, who is expected to attend his first AGM. There may well be one or two awkward questions about his long-term involvement, but I’m sure answers will have been carefully prepared.
Just in: The first news from today’s AGM has arrived, and in it Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Eduardo da Silva will be able to play competetive football within just three weeks. That is massive, massive news. Things don’t look so good for Tomas Rosicky, however, with his return now not scheduled until after Christmas.
Will Rosicky play for Arsenal again? The doubts are growing…
October 22nd, 2008
ARGH. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. I JUST WROTE A COUPLE OF THOUSAND WORDS ON THE GAME AND MANAGED TO SOMEHOW DELETE IT. ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Fenerbahce 2 – 5 Arsenal (Adebayor 10, Walcott 11, Silvestre (og) 19, Diaby 22, Song 49, Guiza 78, Ramsey 90) Highlights courtesy of 101greatgoals to follow
Before, I wrote a long description of the game and some lovely wordy prose amounting to an analysis. I have to say, I was quite pleased with it. I am extremely angry that my computer, seemingly of its own will, decided it would be a good idea to delete it all.
Forgive me, but I’m going to try and summarise it in bullet point form:
Abou Diaby is more like Aleksandr Hleb than Patrick Vieira. Diaby’s whole Arsenal career has been dogged by comparisons with the more illustrious Frenchman, when in fact they don’t share much other than being tall, black, and French. Vieira was a defensive collosus – Arsene used to say he could see him playing at centre-half in the future. Diaby last night played almost as a second striker, and here Arsene makes the point that he can play anywhere from the midfield forwards – not backwards, forwards. If Arsene thought Diaby had a defensive game of any note, he would trust him sufficiently to play him in the middle of a 4-4-2. As Diaby’s many shifts on the left indicate, he doesnt. Diaby and Hleb share immaculate close control, similar movement patterns, positional play, dribbling ability, and the capacity to be both remarkably frustrating and occasionally brilliant. (ps. It is quite possible that after reading this version of the article, you will think comparing Hleb and Diaby makes me a mentaloid. Believe me, in the full version, it made a whole lotta sense.)
4-5-1 makes sense. I think Arsene got the selection spot on last night (apart from perhaps at centre-half, where I would always pick Djourou over Song). Let’s not forget this is the system that brought us most of our success last season. Diaby’s return gives us someone to play in the Hleb role, allowing Cesc Fabregas to dicate proceedings from deeper, and pick the kind of passes that gifted Adebayor and Walcott goals last night. There are still flaws in the system, such as the fact that Denilson’s defensive game is not nearly as good as Flamini’s, but it liberates Walcott and Nasri aswell as allowing us to retain the ball better in the centre of the field. I would be tempted to perserve with the front six from yesterday in our forthcoming games.
Alex Song is not a centre-back. ‘Nuff said. Great goal, and I suspect he’ll become a decent midfielder, but he at the back he looks what he is: a makeshift player filling in.
Emmanuel Eboue was… brave? No, I can’t believe it either, but a couple of blocks last night showed real guts from the Ivorian. He didn’t even pretend to be injured either. I wonder if maybe his state of mind adapts according to his position: when he’s a defender, he acts all tough, and when he’s a winger, he becomes a diving show-pony. Mind you, Eboue was good going forward too, setting up a goal for…
Aaron Ramsey, who showed real promise when he came on. His confidence is obviously high after his excellent displays for the Welsh U21s, and it was fantastic to see a 17 year old score with such composure on such a daunting stage.
Finally, Manuel Almunia, who wore the armband, was outstanding. He made several critical saves and kept an occasionally shambolic backline just about secure enough for us to comfortably outscore our rivals.
What a game. What a night. The Champions League went crazy, with goals everywhere – and we were one of the main beneficiaries. I’m exhausted now, but I’ll enjoy the morning papers. I had a feeling we would pull a big performance out of the bag, and it’s raised my optimism about this season significantly. With two London derbies in the next seven days, it could be an important week.
October 21st, 2008
Sometimes you feel going into games that they might just prove to be pivotal. I’ve got a feeling tonight could be one of those nights.
In the last few games we’ve looked shaky at best. Tonight’s game in Turkey would be a test at any time, but in our current form it’s that little bit more daunting. It remains to be seen how we will cope with what Arsene call’s the most passionate atmosphere in Europe. Le Boss says:
“It is a big night for us. They have dropped many points already in the Champions League and it is important to start in the right way so we don’t give them the needed confidence.
I am not worried about the atmosphere but we have to play to dictate our game. We don’t have a team who is built to defend more than attack. We will play. We will want to attack.”
He’s right there – and even if we did have a team built to defend, the fact that we’ll be without three first-choice defenders (Sagna, Gallas and Toure) means that we’re bound to fare better going forwards than backwards. In the absence of the aforementioned trio, Manuel Almunia will wear the armband, whilst Arsene expects Mikael Silvestre’s experience to be vital.
As Arsene intimates, Fenerbahce haven’t been in the best of form this season. If we can frustrate them in the first twenty minutes, that fiercely passionate crowd might begin to get antsy.
I have a feeling there might be a few goals tonight. With a tricky month of fixtures on the horizon, a victory tonight could provide a much-needed confidence boost.
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