December 16th, 2008 12:53am
GilbertoSilver
And Darren Bent is still quite cack;
Eduardo da Silva, Arsenal’s number 9.
Almost ten months after Martin Taylor’s horrific challenge left the Croatia striker with a compound fracture to his left fibula and open dislocation of the ankle, Eduardo will take to the field today for Arsenal Reserves against Porstmouth’s second string.
It’ll be incredibly heart-warming to see him play again, and I hope the fans and the management show the neccessary patience to make sure Eduardo is in the best possible shape when the time finally arrives for what will undoubtedly be the feel-good moment of the season: his return to the first-team.
If you can’t get down to Underhill, the game is on ArsenalTV. Let’s hope everything goes according to plan.
Welcome back, Eddy. You’ve been missed.
December 15th, 2008 06:40pm
GilbertoSilver
After West Ham held them to a draw at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea joined Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal in failing to pick up a victory this weekend. Just a few weeks back it was the first time such a phenomenon had occurred in the history of the Premier League. Now it’s happened again. This, it seems, is the league no-one wants to win.
The results mean it’s essentially as you were at the top of the table, though Aston Villa have leap-frogged us into fourth place. I have to say, it just makes the points we have dropped this season all the more frustrating. It’s a gigantic ‘if’, but a couple of victories here and there would’ve seen us right in the mix.
Speaking of ominously huge ‘ifs’, if we can beat Liverpool next week we’ll be just five points off the current leaders. Emmanuel Adebayor is under no illusions as to the importance of the game:
“If we think because we have beaten Man United at home, Chelsea away so we are going to win easily against Liverpool then we have got everything wrong. Every weekend comes a massive game, massive game, massive game for us. [Each is] the game of the season. We all know how important this is for the Club so we will just try to keep our dreams alive.”
It certainly is a big game. So big that I’m probably going to miss my grandparents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary to be there.
Some things are bigger than family.
December 14th, 2008 05:35pm
GilbertoSilver
Middlesbrough 1 – 1 Arsenal (Adebayor 17, Aliadiere 29)
Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
In isolation, this isn’t a ‘bad’ result. In fact, it’s an improvement on the Halcyon days of last season, where we actually contrived to lose at The Riverside. And when one considers that Liverpool and Manchester United also dropped points yesterday, this 1-1 draw begins to look even more positive.
And yet, the aftermath of yesterday’s match saw fans on internet forums and blogs alike almost as depressed as they were after the 3-0 loss to Man City. And I don’t really blame them.
Why? Because taking satisfaction from this result is an admission of mediocrity. In his post-match interview, Arsene said:
“I believe we are on the way up, comparing how we were at the beginning of the season; then we would have lost a game like this.”
First of all, that statement seemingly confirms that Arsene went into the season with a side he expected to lose at places like Middlesbrough, which is remarkably neglectful if true. But more than that, it seems to be imploring fans to be pleased with results like this on the back of previously poorer efforts.
So because we had to sit through the dire defeats at places like Fulham, we should be chuffed at arriving at this point of mediocrity, expressed perfectly in this drab draw? I’m sorry, Arsene: I don’t buy it.
We were painfully average. Not until the last five minutes of the game were Boro under any notable pressure. We had a decent spell either side of our goal – a header from a corner by Emmanuel Adebayor – but the midfield (the same who played and lost at Stoke) simply did not have enough about them to dominate the game.
In the second half, Cesc really tried to make things tick, and I felt desperately sorry for him. Song, Denilson, and Diaby are nowhere near ready to be starting games regularly for a top four side – perhaps they never will be. Song’s passing was truly atrocious yesterday, and the way he let Tuncay drift goal-side of him for the Aliadiere’s equaliser, even turning his back on the play, was disgracefully lazy. Would he get into another Premier League side? I have my doubts. Denilson is a trier, but no wide-man; it is often said of slow players that they are ‘one-paced’ – Denilson is ‘none-paced’. Diaby, meanwhile, is perhaps the most infuriating of the trio. Blessed with all the desirable physical and technical attributes to make a career as a footballer, he seems to suffer chronically from on-field apathy. His mistakes are more careless than craftless, and that makes him so much harder to forgive. Come January, these players need to be bumped significantly down the pecking order.
No strike partnership has scored more goals than Adebayor and Van Persie. Only Man City and Chelsea have scored more goals overall. But we’ve conceded 20 goals already in the league: double the tally of United and Liverpool; more than three times as many as Chelsea; as many as Spurs. As many as Spurs. It’s not good enough. We can speculate about David Villa till the cows come home, but we’re wasting breath.  This team needs a centre-back and a defensive midfielder. Those two players would transform our fragile side.
We’ve less than a month to wait. If they don’t arrive, fingers will be pointed, rightly, at the manager.
December 13th, 2008 12:42am
GilbertoSilver
So says Arsene, justifying his decision to field a weakened team at Porto by arguing we still have a chance of mounting a Premier League title challenge. I’m not sure I share Arsene’s faith, but I would suggest that avoiding defeat today is vital. Another defeat to a mid-table side could potentially shatter the restored belief that Fabregas’ captaincy and two consecutive league wins have brought.
Five of the players who missed the defeat in Portgual ought to return at the Riverside, but Kolo Toure and Samir Nasri join long-term absentees Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo on the sidelines. There is, however, good news on the Croatian, who could be back to his best in just six weeks.
The return of Eduardo will make it increasingly vital for Nicklas Bendtner to take the opportunities that come his way with more gusto than he has in the past couple of months. Arsene says that Bendtner works incredibly hard in training, which seems at odds with his lazy-looking first-team appearances. The absence of Eduardo and Arsene’s failure to reinforce the squad have afforded the likes of Bendtner, Denilson and Song a unique opportunity. It’s almost like they’ve been out on loan somewhere – given first-team opportunities that under normal circumstances they simply wouldn’t be afforded. In my opinion, they haven’t really grasped that chance, and whatever Arsene says I’m sure he’ll be looking to bring in new blood in January.
Whenever Manuel Almunia speaks to the press he always comes across very well. Dignified throughout various tirades by Jens Lehmann, astutely critical in the wake of the Porto game, and now little short of inspiring ahead of the resumption of all thinks Premier League:
“We have a big, big responsibility. This is Arsenal.
The Club has thousands of fans and we have to realise that to wear an Arsenal shirt is a big value and you have to be worthy of [it]. We have to remember that we are lucky people.
We are so upset [at the moment]. We are not happy with this season. We’ve had some brilliant moments, against Chelsea and Manchester United, but it’s not enough. We are far from the top of the League. Last season we lost three games and we’ve already had too many defeats.
But I have confidence in us and the way we play [also I feel] we are mature enough to take the responsibility.”
I hope he’s right, and I hope the team take the neccessary responsibility today to see of Middlesbrough. They’re almost as inconsistent as us, which makes any predictions utterly pointless. That said, ending the day pointless would make resting players in Porto pointless, and make my existence feel a bit pointless to boot.
Come on Arsenal.
December 11th, 2008 01:27pm
GilbertoSilver
Porto 2 – 0 Arsenal (Bruno Alves 39, Lopez 54)
Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
After last night’s defeat saw us finish the group stage in second place, the list of possible teams we could face in the next round is as above, and to be honest it’s pretty daunting.
That said, when you look at the list of teams we might’ve faced had we finished top (Inter, Sporting Lisbon, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Villarreal, Lyon), it’s clear there isn’t much of a gap in quality. In so far as reaching the next round goes, Gilberto Silva’s Panathanaikos would be a good draw, but a two-legged affair with Thierry Henry’s in-form Barcelona would be a fantastic showpiece occasion. The draw takes place on Friday 19th December at lunchtime, and should be fairly fascinating.
The game itself bore some resemblance to the 2-0 defeat at Burnely. A weakened side went behind and were then vulnerable on the counter-attack. The differences are potentially causes for concern: first of all that this side included many more experienced players, none of whom distinguished themselves; and secondly that in spite of the availability of those players, we created no chances at all.
The goals we conceded came not from overall inferiority, but individual sloppiness. First of all Abou Diaby lost his man at a corner (you could almost see him thinking to himself, “Now where was the last place I saw him…”), and then Mikael Silvestre seemingly forgot he was playing left-back to allow Lisandro Lopez to hammer in a second.
There was the odd bright-spark – Aaron Ramsey again looked very tidy in midfield, whilst Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wilshere both showed glimpses of their talent after coming off the bench.
Perhaps because the likes of Wilshere, Merida and Hoyte were all away with the senior side, it seems to have gone unnoticed that the U-18s won a tricky looking FA Youth Cup tie at Villa Park 3-2, with skipper Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (who has often impressed me) scoring the winner. Perhaps our Carling Cup exploits have detracted from the significance of the Youth Cup, but it’s still a valuable competition and one I’m pleased to see us win in.
So I’ve somehow managed to end on a positive.  Not bad, eh?
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