Archive for January, 2010
January 26th, 2010
Sky Sports News, that most understanding of sports news channels, understands that Manchester United’s bid for Fulham defender Chris Smalling has been accepted. Arsenal have a long-term interest in the player, and are now faced with a decision as to whether they match United’s bid and go head-to-head for one of the Britain’s brightest talents.
The last time they did so, Arsenal came out on top, with Aaron Ramsey resisting the advances of Gary Neville (who wouldn’t?) to sign on at the Emirates. Whether or not Smalling would make the same decision will now be put to the test – assuming, that is, that we’re prepared to equal United’s offer.
The need for a young centre-back is paramount. Although Johan Djourou has potential, he has suffered a string of worrying injuries early in his career. Add in the departure of Senderos and the fact that Gallas, Campbell and Silvestre could all walk away in July and it’s clear reinforcements are urgently required. Signing Smalling now would enable him to learn from Gallas and, crucially, Sol Campbell: two veterans who possess varying but undeniable qualities.
Smalling’s rise has been quite remarkable. In 2007, he was playing for Maidstone in the Ryman Youth Leage.
A year later, he rejected overtures from Middlesbrough to sign for Roy Hodgson’s Fulham. After breaking in to the England U-20 set-up, he rose to prominence this year with a magnificent display at Stamford Bridge, marred by a cruel own-goal to gift Chelsea a winner. The display drew comparisons with a young Rio Ferdinand, and caught the attention of Arsene Wenger, and, it would seem, Sralex Ferguson.
There are only a few days now until the window closes. With a striker seemingly off the radar, the Smalling signing is the only one we’re bigging up (geddit?).
In other news that might irk United, Emmanuel Eboue and (more importantly) Alex Song are coming home, having both crashed out of the African Nations Cup at the quarter-final stage. They should be available for Sunday’s game against the Champions.
January 25th, 2010
Stoke City 3 – 1 Arsenal (Fuller 2, 78, Denilson 41, Whitehead 86)
Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
Arsenal are out of the FA Cup. For some reason, it doesn’t hurt as much as you might expect. Perhaps it’s because we still have a fighting chance in the league and in Europe. Perhaps it’s because from the moment this draw was made it looked a difficult tie. Perhaps it’s because we picked a line-up which, Fabregas apart, was a collection of players either too old or too young to cope with an athletic Stoke side. Or perhaps it’s because we simply didn’t play very well. There was no injustice: no refereeing mistake or unforeseeable injury. We didn’t play well, and we got beat. Football is wonderfully simple sometimes.
The line-up was an attempt at rotation, but our squad is so struck by injuries that when it rotates all that you see on other side is a gaping hole. Lukasz Fabianski played in goal in front of a makeshift back-four of Traore, Silvestre, Campbell and Francis Coquelin – by trade a holding midfielder. The midfield trio looked stronger, with Fabregas and Denilson supported by Craig Eastmond, who has emerged from nowhere to become a fairly regular member of the first-team squad. Upfront our lack of options was clear – with Rosicky, Eduardo and Arshavin all on the bench, Walcott and Vela were joined by debutant Jay Emmanuel-Thomas – like Coquelin, a midfielder playing out of position.
Our start to the game was almost comic in its predictability. Rory Delap’s first opportunity to hurl the ball in to the area came after just sixty seconds. When he did so, Fabianski was static and Ricardo Fuller nipped in ahead of him to nod the ball in to the net. One minute in, and we were one down. Stoke’s confidence was sky-high, and ours was rattled. That set the pattern for the rest of the game.
We never really got in to our stride. Even our equaliser, five minutes before the break, was not the result of a clear-cut opportunity but a deflection, with Denilson’s strike wrong-footing former Arsenal target Thomas Sorenson. In the second half Arsene gambled by throwing Ramsey, Eduardo and Arshavin in to the fray, but just as we seemed to be taking control of the game Stoke scored what would prove to be their crucial second goal. Mamady Sidibe got past a tired-looking Denilson on the right to loft in a perfect cross towards Fuller, who calmly nodded home his second. Arsenal conspired to concede a calamitous third, with Armand Traore leaving Dean Whitehead completely free to tap-in. It could have been worse: we were only spared a humiliating fourth by an offside flag.
As stated above, it was a poor performance. Lukasz Fabianski’s inability to deal with crosses was so reminiscent of Manuel Almunia that I found myself wondering about the quality of goalkeeping coaching at the club – didn’t Gerry Peyton go on some sort of leave, hence the arrival of Mart Poom? The signing on a long-term deal of Vito Mannone hasn’t made me feel any more secure about this area of our squad.
The defence was all over the place at times, but what can you expect from four players just thrown together for a one-off game? What’s most worrying is that the mistakes we make seem to be the same whoever plays – they’re not due to personnel, but lack of organisation. One bonus was Sol Campbell, who came through his first 90 minutes in nine months rather well. He was powerful in the air and solid on the ground, and looks like a viable (perhaps even preferable) alternative to Silvestre or the departing Philippe Senderos.
Midfield did OK, with Cesc doing his best to win the game single-handedly and Denilson netting his third goal in five games, but we really struggled upfront. Emmanuel-Thomas showed strength and awareness but is no striker, whilst Walcott and Vela continued their poor form. It was a point made by the commentators yesterday, but the former really does look miles away from the World Cup.
I like the FA Cup an awful lot. It’s a great competition. But the fact that three of the ‘Big Four’ are already out says more about the priorities of those clubs than it does about the “magic of the cup”. If we can get through the next four games in the league and still be strongly in contention, yesterday’s defeat will be forgotten.
January 24th, 2010
TEAMS Stoke v Arsenal
Stoke: Sorensen, Huth, Shawcross, Higginbotham, Collins, Delap, Whitehead, Whelan, Etherington, Sidibe, Fuller. Subs: Simonsen, Lawrence, Beattie, Pugh, Diao, Sanli, Wilkinson.
Arsenal: Fabianski, Coquelin, Campbell, Silvestre, Traore, Eastmond, Denilson, Fabregas, Walcott, Emmanuel-Thomas, Vela. Subs: Mannone, Rosicky, Eduardo, Ramsey, Arshavin, Bartley, Frimpong.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)
On the weekend Philippe Senderos moved ever closer to switching to Everton, Sol Campbell starts for Arsenal. I never thought I’d see it.
For more updates, join me on twitter.
January 22nd, 2010
Often-times my blog comes a little later than you might like because I’m otherwise engaged. I might be sleeping, working, or locked in a bid for consecutive promotions on FIFA 10. Sometimes, however, there’s just not very much to say. As the sun came up this morning and my newsfeed clicked in to life, it was deathly quiet. No made up stories about Bosnian strikers, barely a bleating Bolton player, and even my email inbox was left undisturbed by the club’s merchandising department.
And then, just when I’m thinking about writing the day’s news off and just rambling on about, say, the economy or global warming, up pops Owen Coyle to retract his claim that William Gallas had committed an “assault” on Bolton midfielder Mark Davies. Apart from any possible legal ramifications, I can only assume his statement is an attempt to reingratiate himself with Arsene Wenger ahead of a renewed attempt to sign Jack Wilshere.
I’m still not sure I see the point in sending Wilshere on loan, especially to a club as culturally different as Bolton. For one thing, the experience of battling for points at the bottom of the table is not easily transposed to a game-to-game expectation of victory at the highest level. It’s a different psychology, let alone style of football. I might be more inclined to see him go to a top Championship side or abroad.
Early team news for Stoke tells us that Diaby will miss out (as he will for the midweek clash with Villa) and that Bacary Sagna will be rested, so perhaps we’ll see Craig Eastmond in his original role as right-back. Sol Campbell could be in contention for his first appearance since returning to Arsenal, as I’m almost certain Arsene will field a considerably weakened side. I’d be quite surprised to see the likes of Gallas and Arshavin start.
Finally today: England expects every man to do his duty. Go and vote here.
January 21st, 2010
Arsenal 4 – 2 Bolton (Cahill 7, Taylor (pen) 28, Rosicky 43, Fabregas 52, Vermaelen 65, Arshavin 85)
Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
If Sunday’s win at the Reebok was fairly routine, last night’s return fixture was anything but. Perhaps it was a full moon or something, but couple last night’s game with Aston Villa beating Blackburn 6-4 and it’s clear that something very odd was going on in the football world last night. Even Liverpool won.
Half an hour in and it felt like the moment of silence for Haiti that opened the fixture had extended right in to the game. Arsenal were 2-0 down and the fans were shellshocked. Some truly calamitous defending had put us in that position: Gael Clichy celebrated his return to the side by attempting to hit a passing plane with a clearance that dropped for Gary Cahill to swivel and volley home. Shortly after that, a typically panicked attempt to deal with a set-piece saw Denilson lunge in and a penalty awarded. Matt Taylor tucked it just beyond Almunia before celebrating in front of the Arsenal fans. I imagine he felt very pleased with himself. At that point, an Arsenal comeback was hard to envisage.
We needed something to change the game. It was provided by Tomas Rosicky. Collecting the ball outside the area from his right-wing position, he looked up and saw the supporting runs of Fabregas and Eduardo. In that moment, Rosicky faced a choice: slip the ball inside and embark on another round of tippy-tappy pingball against Bolton’s giant centre-halfs, or go for goal. His decision was emphatic, with Juicy Jaaskelainen left flat-footed by an absolute rocket in to the near post.
That goal changed the mood entirely, and we started the second half full of optimism. It’s no surprise the crucial equaliser came from our captain, Cesc Fabregas. A move that included a reportedly dreadful tackle from William Gallas ended with Cesc bustling his way in to the area and finishing between the keeper’s legs. Bolton, however, were furious that play wasn’t stopped. Now, I’m yet to see Gallas’ challenge on screen. It may well be terrible and if it is I won’t hide from it. However, Gallas hardly has a track record of thuggish activity. And furthermore, it is the referee’s responsibility to stop the game – no-one else’s. That is the rule that was introduced and Arsene is so obsessed with the flow of play that he is insistent that his team follow it to the letter – to the point that he had no complaints last week when Everton attempted to capitalise on a Denilson injury by putting James Vaughan through on goal. With all that said, I can understand where Coyle is coming from: if the team I managed chucked away a two goal lead, I’d be doing all I could to detract attention from that fact too.
After drawing level a winner suddenly seemed inevitable. And so it was when Thomas Vermaelen ended his ‘goal drought’ with a thumping volley in to the top corner after Diaby knocked down a set-piece. Bolton then started hurling the ball in to the box at every opportunity, but Vermaelen was as dominating at the back as he had been in front of goal. Andrey Arshavin, irked in to action by a foul from the world’s least inspiring substitute, Gavin McCann, added a fourth after battling past a couple of challenges in the penalty area. The game was safe, and we had the two goal lead we needed: we were top of the league.
Full-time brought a mixture of elation and relief. Although everyone is fully aware Chelsea have a game in hand, being top so soon after being ruled out of the race by so many is a symbolic victory. The fight we showed to come back from 2-0 down (not for the first time against Bolton, I might add) exemplifies what makes Arsene so firm in his belief that we will contest this trophy until the last possible second.
The victory came at a cost – Abou Diaby picked up a calf strain which I’d guess could put him out of contention for a couple of weeks. That was followed up with the news today that Kieran Gibbs will miss the rest of the season after an operation on his foot – fortunately left-back is one area where we’re very much covered.
In transfer news, Sky linked us yesterday with a £7m move for Fulham centre-back Chris Smalling. It wouldn’t surprise me to see us accumulating a few defenders over the next six months. By the time next season rolls around, Gallas, Silvestre, Senderos and Campbell could all well have left the club.
There’s a few mad rumours around today about Edin Dzeko, but as far as I can see there is absolutely nothing in them. If anything, last night’s comeback may have strengthened Arsene’s conviction that this team can thrive as they are.
Today is a good day. If you’re feeling a bit blue, just go and take a look at the league table. Till tomorrow.
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