So we won back to back games for the first time this season and sine god knows when. A 3-0 win over a poor Bolton side was a great result and well deserved.
We struggled to get going in the first half. As Wenger pointed out our midfield was too deep to cause them any problems and RVP became too isolated as the half went on.
Pointing this out to his team at half-time seemed to do the trick, as straight from the kick-off Ramsey and Arteta started playing further forward and we got the break through we needed. Their 'keeper will be disappointed to concede at his near post but Robin won't be too bothered.
The sending off was weak, Theo went down far too easy, but that's par for the course now. It's the accepted thing to do, go down upon minimal contact. In a way I'm annoyed Theo did that, he should have wanted to score and put the game to bed, not get their player sent off, but that's just me. I'm also aware that going down so easily in situation like that may lead to us not getting a decision our way in the future, we don't want him getting a reputation for it.
Overall Theo had a mixed game, he was the game changer on Saturday, what with the sending off and the assist for Robin's second, but he also fluffed his lines with his 1 on 1. He took it far too early and that should have been his 4th goal of the season. If he wants to be playing further forward and through the middle he needs to start slotting them in regularly. I think he should pipe down with his media comments and start walking the walk. That's the only way he'll convince Arsene to play him through the middle.
Song was again our best midfielder, there were flashes of Songinho again with his fantastically taken goal, but overall (bar the odd exception - i.e.the Bolton break away that led to the Eagles shot) he did his job of sitting in front of the defence and breaking up play extremely well. He does need to communicate better with his fellow midfielders when he does turn into Songinho though, he simply can't push that far forward without someone taking his place, we'll be caught time and time again and a better player than Eagles may well have punished us on Saturday.
That said he was fantastic and in my opinion our best player. I know RVP is getting all the plaudits but I like the way Song goes about his work, he seems to have got rid of the 'stupid' fouls on the half-way line and has got a better idea of how to play his position now. Chipping in with the odd goal always helps too.
So to Wednesday now and Olympiacos. I expect a few changes, with Arshavin for Theo and maybe Rosicky for Ramsey, and Santos for Gibbs but not a lot other than that. We need to keep the momentum going so playing the same side consistently should bring greater familiarity within the squad, in turn providing greater fluidity in both attack and defence and ultimately results. Hopefully......
Right that's it.
Up The Arsenal
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Monday 26 September 2011
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Better...but more to come
So despite a rather nervous defensive performance we managed to turn-over the 4th division Shrewsbury Town team and ended up with a 3-1 win.
Much of the media focus today is on the Wenger press conference, I couldn't be less interested in that if I'm honest. Gazidis said some guff at a media meeting yesterday and Wenger effectively told the press to "jog on" when questioned about it. I can't remember the last time Arsene gave a straight answer to a question or actually said 'something' amongst all of the words he babbles out during his pressers. Always. The. Same. Shit.
So onto the game and a team of mixed experience performed ok bar for 20 mins in the middle of the first half, where Djourou was reminiscing about his school-boy football days and completely forgot that as a central defender you need to jump to win headers.
There was a lot of 'chatter' on Twitter having a go at Johan, but overall bar this mistake, when I think Ignasi Miquel had gone walkabout and left Djourou with 2 men to mark, I thought he dealt with the physical nature of their attack quite well. Bearing in mind this was a team from the 4th division I need to keep my praise in-check some what, but overall I as happy enough, and not being a miserable bastard, but someone who is naturally more optimistic, I prefer to focus on the good stuff from last night.
I think Coquelin was outstanding last night. His composure on the ball, his temperament & tenacity in the tackle and his general enthusiasm was fantastic, and something that seemed to rub off on a few others at times yesterday. At this moment in time I would happily play Coquelin ahead of Frimpong, mainly because Frimmers clearly sees the 'red mist' when wound up and at the moment we can't afford to have any more players sent off (if he hadn't have gone against Liverpool would we have lost? doubt it). I think the turning point within the game came when Coquelin had actually lost the ball in the middle of the park leading to a counter attack. The manner in which he sprinted back into position to rectify his mistake is the kind of attitude I love from Arsenal players, and vast difference to the attitude seem from certain 'amblers' over the last few years.
Chamberlain was a good performer (in the 2nd half more so) along with Benayoun who was a constant threat throughout and was always looking for a opportunity to take the team forward, ending up with a goal having got himself into the 6-yard box. I like that. He is clearly better as a wide player than centrally, and I think he'll offer more defensively when we do look to contain the opposition compared to Arshavin, Gervinho or Walcott currently do.
I saw a few reports saying that Park was poor, I personally couldn't disagree more. I accept he didn't have the most flamboyant of matches, but he kept everything simple and showed flashes of what he can do, with a few lovely through balls to Yossi and one shot flashed just wide after some good footwork on the left to work some space for himself.
I'd liked to have seen more from Chamakh but overall his play overall is getting better, his 'hold up and distribute' style was much better than the rubbish we were treated to in the 2nd half of last season. Hopefully coupled with his goal against Blackburn he's returning to the form from his purple patch at the beginning of last season. One thing I would add to that is he always looked super-pissed when he does miss a chance of the keeper makes a save, clearly he's trying his nuts off so it's another reason I'm confident he'll turn it around.
So a 3-1 win and overall I would say a 6.5/10 performance. Things always look better after a victory, and with far tougher assignments ahead it remains to be seen if this excruciatingly slow moving tanker has turned the corner.
Up The Arsenal
Much of the media focus today is on the Wenger press conference, I couldn't be less interested in that if I'm honest. Gazidis said some guff at a media meeting yesterday and Wenger effectively told the press to "jog on" when questioned about it. I can't remember the last time Arsene gave a straight answer to a question or actually said 'something' amongst all of the words he babbles out during his pressers. Always. The. Same. Shit.
So onto the game and a team of mixed experience performed ok bar for 20 mins in the middle of the first half, where Djourou was reminiscing about his school-boy football days and completely forgot that as a central defender you need to jump to win headers.
There was a lot of 'chatter' on Twitter having a go at Johan, but overall bar this mistake, when I think Ignasi Miquel had gone walkabout and left Djourou with 2 men to mark, I thought he dealt with the physical nature of their attack quite well. Bearing in mind this was a team from the 4th division I need to keep my praise in-check some what, but overall I as happy enough, and not being a miserable bastard, but someone who is naturally more optimistic, I prefer to focus on the good stuff from last night.
I think Coquelin was outstanding last night. His composure on the ball, his temperament & tenacity in the tackle and his general enthusiasm was fantastic, and something that seemed to rub off on a few others at times yesterday. At this moment in time I would happily play Coquelin ahead of Frimpong, mainly because Frimmers clearly sees the 'red mist' when wound up and at the moment we can't afford to have any more players sent off (if he hadn't have gone against Liverpool would we have lost? doubt it). I think the turning point within the game came when Coquelin had actually lost the ball in the middle of the park leading to a counter attack. The manner in which he sprinted back into position to rectify his mistake is the kind of attitude I love from Arsenal players, and vast difference to the attitude seem from certain 'amblers' over the last few years.
Chamberlain was a good performer (in the 2nd half more so) along with Benayoun who was a constant threat throughout and was always looking for a opportunity to take the team forward, ending up with a goal having got himself into the 6-yard box. I like that. He is clearly better as a wide player than centrally, and I think he'll offer more defensively when we do look to contain the opposition compared to Arshavin, Gervinho or Walcott currently do.
I saw a few reports saying that Park was poor, I personally couldn't disagree more. I accept he didn't have the most flamboyant of matches, but he kept everything simple and showed flashes of what he can do, with a few lovely through balls to Yossi and one shot flashed just wide after some good footwork on the left to work some space for himself.
I'd liked to have seen more from Chamakh but overall his play overall is getting better, his 'hold up and distribute' style was much better than the rubbish we were treated to in the 2nd half of last season. Hopefully coupled with his goal against Blackburn he's returning to the form from his purple patch at the beginning of last season. One thing I would add to that is he always looked super-pissed when he does miss a chance of the keeper makes a save, clearly he's trying his nuts off so it's another reason I'm confident he'll turn it around.
So a 3-1 win and overall I would say a 6.5/10 performance. Things always look better after a victory, and with far tougher assignments ahead it remains to be seen if this excruciatingly slow moving tanker has turned the corner.
Up The Arsenal
Tuesday 20 September 2011
So we start again
So the season hasn't really got off on the best foot has it?
Thus far I would say we've dropped 5 'bad' points, the 2 from the 0-0 Newcastle game and the obvious 3 from Blackburn at the weekend. Personally, I expected to get beat by Liverpool & Man Utd due to the various injuries and bans we had accumulated so early in the season.
That's not to say the performances weren't below par in those games (bar Frimpong in the Liverpool game, where, despite his dismissal, he was MOM).
The draw with Newcastle was all too obvious once Gervinho had got himself sent-off, but overall that was a game we dominated and should have got 3 points from, but to come away with a point from St. James' isn't the worse result in the world.
Blackburn was, well, a mess. Right up there with Wigan away 2 years ago. Should have been 3-1 up at half-time (but wasn't due to Gervinho being greedy), to being 3-2 down 10 mins after the restart. It was all rather absurd.
There are 2 ways to look at it, and I think you need to do both to really see how the game unfolded:
1) We battered them in the first half, but showed our usual generosity when it came to our finishing, and the lack of concentration that has blighted us for the last 5 years to allow them to score from nothing. The goal itself I wasn't that bothered about as it was a classic "this defence has never played together before" goal, neither Santos or Koscielny got their bearing right and Yakubu scored a very good goal. We responded to that by scoring ourselves, showing some of the "character" that Wenger refers to so often. Overall a happy 1st period.
The 2nd half was a tail REALLY bad luck. Firstly a foul was given for a perfectly legal tackle by Arshavin, from which a poorly taken freekick somehow missed the first man and hit a surprised Song who couldn't get out of the way leaving Szczesny stranded. The 3rd goal was offside, how the linesman missed that is beyond belief, but it's one of those errors similar to the Arshavin 'offside' goal against Sunderland last year. The 4th was another own-goal, and Koscielny did everything right except kick the ball away from goal.
2) We were dreadful in the 2nd half. After a encouraging first half that contained the stereotypical opposition goal from their first attempt on target, in a game they were being dominated in, we completely fell apart. Confidence drained from the team after their 2nd goal, you could see their heads drop. The experienced players we had just brought to the club, didn't show any of their experience to help battle through and get the 3 points. Our passing was atrocious though out, and the manner in which we made 'tackles' was appalling. Why did Djourou go to ground 40 yards from goal? How, once he had decided to go to ground, did he contrive to not only miss the man, but the fucking ball too? His decline since the Carling Cup final has be dramatic and is still clearly in full flow.
It really did seem that once Sagna went off you knew that we'd end up losing, without Mr. Consistency back there we fall to pieces. Hoilett is a good player with lots or pace and tricks, but even with a dead leg, Sagna gave him nothing; when Djourou came on he had been given a yellow card within 2 mins for fouling Hoilett.
I don't solely blame Djourou, but fucking hell he's playing shit right now.
So that's how I view the match, all-in-all a complete fuck up after he dominated the opposition and laughable that after scoring our 3rd we created 3 more golden opportunities to win the game.It leaves us in a mess that needs to be rectified sharpish.
Yes the players have to take a HUGE amount of criticism for the collapse on Saturday but I think the manager has to take his share to. I blame Wenger for picking the wrong team and making the wrong subs. When you're stuck in a rut (which we are) you always play your strongest team, regardless. Why did he elect to give a debut to Santos? Why not play Gibbs who knows what Blackburn are all about and give the defence that little bit extra familiarity it needs away from home? Also, why play Arshavin away from home? Absolutely pointless. We saw how dangerous Walcott was when he came on, and he's our top scorer this year, a truly bizarre decision.
The other decision I don't understand was bringing on Djourou for Sagna. Does it not make more sense to bring on another full-back (even though Gibbs would have be playing on the wrong side), as they are more positionally aware in their role, than a centre-back?
Fucking bizarre.
So that brings me back to the 'feel good factor' of the club, and that's the Carling Cup a chance to see the kids and the players on the fringes. Playing Shrewsbury 'should' allow the players to play with a bit more freedom, and see us win comfortably. That said this is Arsenal and we never do things easy.....
Hopefully we see Ryo and "The-Ox" tonight and we'll get our first glimpse at Park Chu-Young. There's also hope that our now bang-in-form striker Marouane Chamakh will continue his hot-streak of 1 premier league in 2011.
Hopefully the kids bring in a breath of fresh air and sweep away (most of) the negative stuff surrounding the club at present. We desperately need it.
More soon(ish)
Up The Arsenal
Thus far I would say we've dropped 5 'bad' points, the 2 from the 0-0 Newcastle game and the obvious 3 from Blackburn at the weekend. Personally, I expected to get beat by Liverpool & Man Utd due to the various injuries and bans we had accumulated so early in the season.
That's not to say the performances weren't below par in those games (bar Frimpong in the Liverpool game, where, despite his dismissal, he was MOM).
The draw with Newcastle was all too obvious once Gervinho had got himself sent-off, but overall that was a game we dominated and should have got 3 points from, but to come away with a point from St. James' isn't the worse result in the world.
Blackburn was, well, a mess. Right up there with Wigan away 2 years ago. Should have been 3-1 up at half-time (but wasn't due to Gervinho being greedy), to being 3-2 down 10 mins after the restart. It was all rather absurd.
There are 2 ways to look at it, and I think you need to do both to really see how the game unfolded:
1) We battered them in the first half, but showed our usual generosity when it came to our finishing, and the lack of concentration that has blighted us for the last 5 years to allow them to score from nothing. The goal itself I wasn't that bothered about as it was a classic "this defence has never played together before" goal, neither Santos or Koscielny got their bearing right and Yakubu scored a very good goal. We responded to that by scoring ourselves, showing some of the "character" that Wenger refers to so often. Overall a happy 1st period.
The 2nd half was a tail REALLY bad luck. Firstly a foul was given for a perfectly legal tackle by Arshavin, from which a poorly taken freekick somehow missed the first man and hit a surprised Song who couldn't get out of the way leaving Szczesny stranded. The 3rd goal was offside, how the linesman missed that is beyond belief, but it's one of those errors similar to the Arshavin 'offside' goal against Sunderland last year. The 4th was another own-goal, and Koscielny did everything right except kick the ball away from goal.
2) We were dreadful in the 2nd half. After a encouraging first half that contained the stereotypical opposition goal from their first attempt on target, in a game they were being dominated in, we completely fell apart. Confidence drained from the team after their 2nd goal, you could see their heads drop. The experienced players we had just brought to the club, didn't show any of their experience to help battle through and get the 3 points. Our passing was atrocious though out, and the manner in which we made 'tackles' was appalling. Why did Djourou go to ground 40 yards from goal? How, once he had decided to go to ground, did he contrive to not only miss the man, but the fucking ball too? His decline since the Carling Cup final has be dramatic and is still clearly in full flow.
It really did seem that once Sagna went off you knew that we'd end up losing, without Mr. Consistency back there we fall to pieces. Hoilett is a good player with lots or pace and tricks, but even with a dead leg, Sagna gave him nothing; when Djourou came on he had been given a yellow card within 2 mins for fouling Hoilett.
I don't solely blame Djourou, but fucking hell he's playing shit right now.
So that's how I view the match, all-in-all a complete fuck up after he dominated the opposition and laughable that after scoring our 3rd we created 3 more golden opportunities to win the game.It leaves us in a mess that needs to be rectified sharpish.
Yes the players have to take a HUGE amount of criticism for the collapse on Saturday but I think the manager has to take his share to. I blame Wenger for picking the wrong team and making the wrong subs. When you're stuck in a rut (which we are) you always play your strongest team, regardless. Why did he elect to give a debut to Santos? Why not play Gibbs who knows what Blackburn are all about and give the defence that little bit extra familiarity it needs away from home? Also, why play Arshavin away from home? Absolutely pointless. We saw how dangerous Walcott was when he came on, and he's our top scorer this year, a truly bizarre decision.
The other decision I don't understand was bringing on Djourou for Sagna. Does it not make more sense to bring on another full-back (even though Gibbs would have be playing on the wrong side), as they are more positionally aware in their role, than a centre-back?
Fucking bizarre.
So that brings me back to the 'feel good factor' of the club, and that's the Carling Cup a chance to see the kids and the players on the fringes. Playing Shrewsbury 'should' allow the players to play with a bit more freedom, and see us win comfortably. That said this is Arsenal and we never do things easy.....
Hopefully we see Ryo and "The-Ox" tonight and we'll get our first glimpse at Park Chu-Young. There's also hope that our now bang-in-form striker Marouane Chamakh will continue his hot-streak of 1 premier league in 2011.
Hopefully the kids bring in a breath of fresh air and sweep away (most of) the negative stuff surrounding the club at present. We desperately need it.
More soon(ish)
Up The Arsenal
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