Hello. Some of you may have noticed yesterday that the blog was completely bolloxed. Well, thanks to a couple of people who know who they are (at least I hope they do – otherwise they’re almost certainly suffering from some kind of memory loss or psizophrenia, which’d be unfortunate), the site lives once again – and it’s actually healthier than ever.
I have to say, what intrigued me most about this weekend’s tie with Chelsea was the prospect of seeing what Andrey Arshavin could do against the side he was bizzarrely denied the chance to face in the FA Cup semi-final. After his stunning display in his only previous outing against a fellow member of the top four (the quadruple up at Anfield), I’m sure Chelsea would have been worried about facing the fleet-footed Russian.
Sadly, it seems that flu may have ruled him out. He was unable to train on Friday, and whilst there may have been a big improvement over the past day or two it seems somewhat unlikely. In better news for Arshavin, he has been named the Premier League’s Player of the Month – and rightly so.
One man who will play today is Kieran Gibbs, with Arsene keen for the youngster to get over his slip against United by being thrust straight back into action:
“The best thing to do in that situation sometimes is to give them straight away the chance again to play. He has suffered a lot because you feel, your job, when you defend, is not to make mistakes. I tried to talk to him to get him up again, but it takes time to recover from a blow like that, unfortunately, when you are a young player and you make a mistake like that.”
I’d be surprised if Nicklas Bendtner were handed an opportunity to start after his midweek misdemeanour. Whilst Arsene admits to being “angry”, he also posits a conspiracy theory to rival with UEFA kicking Chelsea out of the Champions League:
“He has been set up. People make the story that he was drunk. He was not drunk. He did not put his trousers down, somebody did it for him and somebody was posted there with a camera. “
I’m sure someone put his trousers down for him, but whether it was a member of the paparazzi or not is another matter entirely. Perhaps this is the natural evolution of the ‘upskirt’ photo – the ‘trouser-down’ snap?
Alisher Usmanov says Arsenal require more spending, without being in any sort of position to improve the likelihood of that happening. That makes Usmanov just like any other pundit, say Jamie Redknapp. I rest my case.
Theo Walcott’s new contract was announced on Friday, though by all accounts it was tied up a good few weeks ago. It’s great to have it set and stone, and whilst we’re all a little tired of hearing it, keeping our current players has to be the priority. We all saw how damaging it was when just two, Hleb and Flamini, departed in the Summer. However much indifference there may be among the fans about certain individuals in our squad, the majority must be retained and improved upon.
Arsene is determined to not put too many new-signing-shaped obstacles in front of his young squad, saying:
“We are always in a trap. You work with these young players and when they come out and emerge after a few years you get someone in front of them.
For example bring another player in for who, for Walcott? That’s crazy he’s in the England team. Fabregas is in the Spanish national team he’s 22, Diaby is in the French national team he’s 22, Nasri is in the French national team he’s 22, Bendtner is in the Danish national team at 21, Walcott is 20. Kick a player out who is already in his national team?”
If it is indeed a “trap”, it’s one that is largely of Arsene’s own making. As for his list of talented youngsters, it’s hard to argue with, though I would contest that “Diaby is in the French national team”. He has a couple of caps to his name, but is behind plenty of players in the pecking order – including both Flamini and Lassana Diarra: two men Arsene let go, preferring to persist with Diaby instead. Note aswell that Denilson is some way off International recognition with Brazil, and the area of our squad with the greatest weakness becomes apparent.
There is some promise of future movement when Arsene says:
“We will try of course to bring in one or two players to strengthen the squad … And if we buy, it certainly won’t be players who lack experience. We have enough of those.”
However, he says something very similar every transfer window, most famously in January 2006 when he then bought a sixteen-year old Walcott, nineteen-year old Diaby, and twenty-one year old Adebayor.
All three of those could start today, and all three have undoubtedly progressed, though potentially not as far as we or Arsene may have hoped. A win would put pressure on third place, as well as preserving our unbeaten run in the league, and maintaining the fact that Chelsea have not yet won at the Emirates. Those are reasons enough to coax a performance from the side, but more than that: after Tuesday’s debacle, they owe the fans.
Hello there. Apologies for my absence yesterday. I felt as unwell as… well, as unwell as I assume Nicklas Bendtner felt after his big night out in the wake of our defeat at Manchester United. Whilst the Dane has rightly offered a sincere apology for his conduct, I won’t be too quick to condemn him. Perhaps it’s because he’s been in rather good form of late, but for a twenty-one year-old who has a day off the following day, blowing off a little steam in such a manner isn’t the greatest sin I can conceive of. It’s not like he shagged any grannies.
Hopes are high for what Bendtner might achieve next season, and some even see him replacing a departing Emmanuel Adebayor. Adebayor, however, doesn’t see himself going anywhere:
“Arsenal put me where I am today. They made me one of the biggest strikers in the world. I have to pay them back.
How am I going to pay them back? Make them win trophies. That’s what I am here for and I have to fight for that. Next season, 100 per cent, I am an Arsenal footballer.”
I suppose that as with Patrick Vieira and others before him, if Arsene Wenger decides he wants to move Adebayor on the player won’t be able to do that much about it. The question of whether or not the man from Togo is indeed about To-go will certainly be one of the Summer’s major stories, and considering the potential it has to drag on into the realm of utter tedium, I think I’ll leave it till then.
Gael Clichy has no need to put anything off until the Summer, as his season is over. It’s a shame but I’d rather he rested up than put any strain on what is a fairly serious back injury. In the meantime, Kieran Gibbs will gain some more invaluable experience, which will undoubtedly help him get over the trauma he suffered on Tuesday night.
Damn. Almost got through the whole blog without mentioning it. Still, after the remarkable events at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, at least we’ll have two former Gunners to cheer on in the final against United in Sylvinho and Thierry Henry. Thierry undoubtedly deserves a medal, and with rumours he could be moved on by Barca in the Summer, this could be his last chance to get one. Allez Titi.
On Sunday we face Chelsea, with both sides looking to get over their respective Champions League exits. Andrey Arshavin is a slight doubt with flu – but don’t worry, he didn’t get it off one of Carlos Vela’s mates. After the debacle that was Arshavin’s benching in the FA Cup semi-final, I’m hoping he’s fit enough to make him point at the Emirates on Sunday.
Arsenal 1 – 3 Man Utd (Park 8, Ronaldo 11, 61, Van Persie 75) (Agg: 1-4) Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
For eight minutes, the Emirates had the kind of atmosphere I had never witnessed there before.  After rushing to get to the game on time, I ended up emerging from the stairwell just as the teams entered the pitch, to be greeted by an intimidating roar. Everywhere you looked, red flags waved and even the quieter sections of the ground were rocking to the voices of the Arsenal faithful. The noise carried through beyond kick-off into the early sections of the game, where every United touch was greeted with a boo, and every Arsenal touch met with cries of encouragement.
Until eight minutes in.
A long ball was knocked down to Anderson, tearing through the midfield untracked by Cesc Fabregas.
Booooooooooo.
Anderson slipped the ball out wide to Ronaldo, who shimmied and looked to cross in on his left foot.
Booooooooooo.
Ronaldo’s cross went to the far post where Kieran Gibbs was waiting, but the youngster lost his footing and Park Ji Sung capitalised to clip past Almunia and give United a 2-0 aggregate lead.
Silence.
It wasn’t just the goal itself. It was the nature of it. If we were to get through last night, it needed to be an immaculate performance, with a little bit of luck on our side. For one of the real triers in the team to suffer the ill fortune of slipping in his own penalty area felt hugely symbolic. It was going to be almost impossible to come back from this.
For three minutes, we reeled. No-one seemed to be rallying the troops and refocusing the team’s efforts – only Johan Djourou, starting ahead of Mikael Silvestre, was visibly cajoling his team-mates.
For three minutes, we struggled to come to terms with the task that lay ahead of us. And then our straining became even more futile, and despair enveloped us. Ronaldo was generously awarded a free kick some forty yards or so out. Almunia anticipated a cross, and the Portugese attacker instead lashed in a stunning strike that the ‘keeper would still be disappointed to concede at his near post. 2-0. 3-0 on aggregate. The game was up.
Any remaining hopes were extinguished just fifteen minutes into the second half, when United scored a goal of particular poignancy – a stunning counter-attack with Rooney and Ronaldo at its heart, the latter finishing the move off in considerable style. It was the sort of goal that was the trademark of The Invincibles – the sort of goal we’re now more liable to be seen conceding than scoring ourselves.
There was some late consolation with the sending off and suspension of Darren Fletcher and the resulting penalty which Robin van Persie blasted into the top corner. But a consolation was all it proved to be, and fans began to traipse out of the Emirates in their droves. I must confess I myself left ten minutes before the end – it had been a traumatic evening, and watching any more would only have exacerbated the pain.
It’s another trophyless season – our fourth in a row – and another indicator of the improvements that the team still requires. Our unbeaten run in the league has papered over some rather substantial cracks, and as a very frank Arsene Wenger puts it:
“We are on a consistent run of 21 games unbeaten but recently in the games that have mattered, like Chelsea and tonight, we couldn’t win. That of course needs thinking.”
The most disappointing aspect of our exit from the Champions semi-finals is that it feels like we were never really in it. At no point did we pose a serious threat to Man United – they were fairly comfortable throughout. None of our big players pulled out the performances required, and the better side undoubtedly progressed.
We oughtn’t be too surprised. It’s not too long ago now that we were losing to the likes of Hull and Stoke. If you’d offered me fourth place and two semi-finals at Christmas I’d have bitten your hand clean off. The simple fact is that this side in its current form don’t quite belong at the top table of European football. Us reaching the final would have been akin to Porto and Monaco ending up there back in 2004.
I don’t think the manager needs to gut the squad and rebuild it from the bottom up. He needs to do what he started doing in January: adding established players of genuine class. But the simple fact is, those don’t come cheaply. Andrey Arshavin came at a discount because of his desperation to leave Zenit, and even then he cost in the region of £15m. I think we’re going to need to spend that sort of amount again to get the calibre of players we require, most pressingly at centre-back and centre-midfield.
The sad truth is that we don’t deserve to win anything this season, and a trophy would only have encouraged Arsene to proceed with a policy that is inherently flawed. But it would never have happened. There are several key ingredients missing from this Arsenal side that will prevent them from triumphing at the highest level.
I’ve run out of steam with this. I’m all typed out. Chelsea on Sunday. A chance to cheer up the legions of Arsenal fans who were perhaps wrong to expect better, but still deserve better.
—
If, like me, you’re something of a comfort eater, you ought to know about the Domino’s Pizza Football Special – buy one get one free on any medium or large pizza. Don’t blame me if you end up all Paddy Kenny.
Twenty years ago, Arsenal travelled to Anfield on the final day of their season, knowing that a 2-0 victory would make them Champions of England. There then unfurled a night that turned one match into myth, and eleven players into legends.
Tonight is similarly make-or-break. Whilst there isn’t a trophy at stake, the prize of a Champions League Final is of enormous value, and a 2-0 win over Manchester United will see us taking to the field on the 27th May in Rome. Were we to go on and prosper in Italy, we would script a tale that would make Anfield ’89 feel like a gentle plot from Last of The Summer Wine.
This group of players are somewhat unlikely heroes. Indeed, as Arsene puts it:
“If I had said in November, we will be in the semi-finals of the Champions League and the FA Cup, and go 21 [Premier League] games unbeaten, you would have called an ambulance.”
And I can’t help but feel that being “super-outsiders”, aa Arsene has called us, is somehow beneficial. Having had such a calamitous first half to the season, and indeed such a horrendous performance in the first leg of this tie, we find ourselves still in with a shot at glory. We’re neither the tortoise nor the hare – we’re a little rodenty thing that awoke from hibernation and found it itself a couple of steps from the finishing line in a race it didn’t even know it was taking part in.
We have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. And whilst failing to gain everything could hurt, the point remains that we ought to go out and play without fear. The defence passed around a handgun and played Russian Roulette at Old Trafford, and they all (just about) survived. We’ve been gifted that rarest of things: a second chance, and I have absolute faith that our players will do their utmost to capitalise upon that this evening.
The team almost picks itself. Manuel Almunia will play in goal with Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna in the full-back positions. Mikael Silvestre is in the squad but with doubts over his fitness I suspect Johan Djourou is the more likely partner for Kolo Toure. Cesc Fabregas will be partnered by Alex Song, with Samir Nasri and Theo Walcott the most likely wingers – though never rule out Abou Diaby: the man who gets picked inappropriately more often than a scab. Upfront, Robin van Persie’s return could be crucial, and he will partner Emmanuel Adebayor.
Everybody needs to have a big game tonight – that ought to go without saying. It’s going to have to be a mighty performance to overturn United’s one goal advantage, but it is certainly possible. Peversely, on a night when we need to score to stay in the competition, the most important thing is keeping a clean sheet early on. If we were to lose the first goal it’d give us a hell of a mountain to climb.
We can score twice. We managed it in this very fixture back in November.
I have heard the Emirates Stadium called soulless. That is because the great moments that define stadiums have yet to occur at our beautiful new ground. Tonight is the biggest game the stadium has ever witnessed, and a little piece of Arsenal-related history could be made. If you’re going to be at the game this evening, scream your heart out for The Arsenal, so your mindless abuse of Wayne Rooney might reverberate throughout history long after you have gone.
Tonight everyone associated with Arsenal Football Club has the chance to be part of something fantastic, and share in a joyous and momentous celebration of our club’s values. But sod that all that: we have the chance to make Cristiano Ronaldo cry.
Like Arsene Wenger, I am peculiarly optimistic. Whether we go through or not, I’m confident we’ll go out with all guns blazing. And if enough guns blaze in the direction of Edwin Van Der Sar’s goal, then you never know. You just never know.
Ring the alarum bell. It’s here. And it’s time for some of these Arsenal boys to become men.
Portsmouth 0 – 3 Arsenal (Bendtner 13, 40, Vela 56) Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
It seems a little peverse to be talking about the Portsmouth game when we are now actually closer to the United match than our last league fixture, but peverse is the shape of the hole I dug myself when failing to produce a comprehensive report yesterday.
The win at Pompey was an open game, and particularly entertaining for our travelling fans as we ran out 3-0 winners. The side was much changed from the one that lined up at Old Trafford, with only three players retaining their places in the side. Lukasz Fabianski came in between the posts, whilst the back four (from right to left) read Sagna, Song, Djourou, and Eboue. Denilson and Ramsey patrolled central midfield, flanked by Theo Walcott and captain for the day Andrey Arshavin. Upfront, Carlos Vela played just off Nicklas Bendtner.
Even by our standards, it was a young side, but from the kick-off they displayed bundles of attacking invention. Whilst Nadir Belhadj and Peter Crouch spurned early chances for the some side, we made no such mistake, with Nicklas Bendtner heading us into an early lead. Andrey Arshavin’s corner was headed straight back to him, and his lofted volley to the far post was met by the towering Dane. David James ought to have kept it out, but failed, prompting ironic chants of “England’s Number 1” from the away end.
Before half-time it was two. Arshavin danced into the penalty area, before being felled from behind by Sean Davis. Replays suggested Davis had touched the ball, but a penalty was given – as much to Arshavin’s surprise as anyone else. Whilst the decision did seem somewhat harsh, it’s worth noting that we were denied a stonewall penalty for a foul on Carlos Vela, and Arshavin also thought he ought to have had one earlier in the game.
Bendtner tucked the pen away for his fourteenth goal of the season. It’s an impressive tally considering his age and limited opportunities, and worth noting that he now has only one Premier League goal fewer than Robin van Persie.
At half-time, Pompey introduced former favourite Kanu and John Utaka, with the latter’s pace causing us plenty of problems. However, as with much of Utaka’s career in English football, he couldn’t apply the finishing touch to convert that threat into goals, and seconds after a glaring miss having gone through on-on-one with Fabianski, we had sealed the game with a third. Andrey Arshavin’s cross-shot deflected out to Carlos Vela, who took two touches before firing into the corner for his first Premier League goal.
From that point on the game was a dead rubber, and we were even able to give run outs to Amaury Bischoff, Fran Merida, and Mark Randall. Things went from bad to worse for Pompey, who had Noe Pamarot dismissed for hauling down Arshavin after a beautifully curled pass by the excellent Ramsey.
All in all, a good win which guarantees fourth place and keeps up the pressure on Chelsea ahead of our clash at the weekend. And, indeed, improves morale ahead of tomorrow’s gigantic tie with Man U. The good news on that front is that no injuries were picked up on the South Coast, and that Robin van Persie took part in training today and will almost certainly be available for selection.
I know you can’t wait for the United game. But really, it only seems at a distance because of our inherently flawed linnear perception of time. The moment of kick-off is actually as real as this moment right now, or the one ten minutes ago. it exists already in another dimension. I hope that’s some consolation to you.
<ducks to avoid the many objects being thrown at him>
