The Chocolate Leg Does It Again

So we got the result and the 3 points from the potentially tricky fixture of Norwich away.

Overall it was a satisfying performance. We should have scored 3 times before they scored their first and we could/should have been 4 or 5 up by half time. Our profligacy in front of goal was worrying, but Norwich were playing so open at times we would always end up taking some of our chances. That said, Norwich did get lucky with having a player in position to clear off the line 3 times, especially with Walcott's first half effort.

The most pleasing aspect of the performance was that we are creating more chances; the front 3 are really gelling now, and baring injuries, we should be scoring more freely  moving forward through the season than we had up to the Chelsea game. As this team was struggling at the beginning of the season to create chances, let alone score, it's pleasing enough to see Gervinho and Theo get into positions. The goals will start to flow from these 2 and I'm now reasonably confident of our chances going into the games over the Xmas period that we're enough in our team to get the results even when Van Persie is rested.

I thought Walcott was our MoM yesterday, but I think Ramsey was outstanding as well. The guy is so tidy in midfield and has bags of energy, the thought of him and Wilshere playing centre midfield for Arsenal is well verging on orgasmic. Verging, not actually. It'll be interesting to see what Wenger does with player rotation when Jack is back and where he'll play him, but that's a while away yet, so it doesn't need worrying about now.

Obviously our mandatory defensive mistake cost our clean sheet, I've no explanation for what Mertesaker was doing, but overall I thought we looked quite solid yesterday, and Norwich only looked a threat when we played a too-high a defensive line and bar the goal I can't remember another time that we were genuinely worried by them.

As ever the criticism of our defence was over the top and media love to shit on The Arsenal, but they can't argue with the current run of form, 5 straight wins and now 3 points off third place. Quite frankly the media can go fuck themselves and go rim John Terry's racist ringpiece as we're all bored of the "Arsenal in Crisis" headlines, and today is the "Battle of the Racists". I do hope SKY are calling it that.

right to an awesome post-Arsenal win Sunday, and Dortmund midweek.

UTA

marvelous

3 points is all it's worth but oh they taste sweet.

The 'crazy' results keep coming in this years Premier league, and today's 3-5 win was quite frankly mental. How we weren't 2-0 down in the first 5 mins was anyone's guess but how Gervinho and RVP missed from point blank range inside the first 10 mins was a mystery. My mind very much went back to Chamakh's miss of last season, fearing the worse.

As it was I was right to have such fears, Lampard stealing in behind Per Mertesacker to give the Chavs the lead.

We managed to level it up, deservedly, with Aaron Ramsey playing a delightful slide-rule pass through to Gervinho who sucked in Cech before setting up RVP with a simple tap in.

You knew they would score from the corner and only Arteta know's what he was doing. Sky's 'pundits' slammed Per again, but if Arteta had stayed where he was meant to be then we'd have gone in at HT 1-1.

That said our defence (Koscielny apart) was woeful in the first half. I thought it was a bad idea to play Djourou at right-back and he was skinned time and again by Cole. Both Per and Santos looked tentative, which can be forgiven considering this was their first London derby, but these guys have 100+ international caps between them.

The team that emerged for the second half was more intense and tenacious with their tackling and hassling of the opposition. it paid dividends as Santos grew in confidence throughout the half and by the end of the game, looked almost 'comfortable' at the back. Per too grew into the game, reading the danger on the odd occasion that Chelsea threatened second half, bar Mata's long range effort and a Lampard free-kick I can't remember much else from the home team.

I think it's fair to say that we were lucky to still have 11 players on the pitch at the end as Chesney should have gone for taking out Cole, but it's nice to have some luck for once.

It goes without saying that RVP was clinical as ever (without actually doing that much) but our stand-out performers for me were Koscienly, who's growing into the defender that Wenger insists can be 'world class', Ramsey and Theo.

Ramsey is definitely back to his pre-stoke form and Theo has learnt that he can be so much more dangerous by running inside at the goal, not just down the wing. His final ball today was outstanding and his goal showed that his extra work on the training ground has paid off; the quick feet to recover from being on the floor to jink past Ivanovic and The Racist was something we've never seen before and the finish was emphatic.

For all the post match euphoria we need to keep our feet firmly nail-gunned on the floor, it's only 3 points, just like United only got 3 points from us and City 3 points from United. We do need to sure up the defence and we do need to keep RVP fit.

If we can do of that, then who know's where we'll be come May....

Much better

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

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

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

2 weeks of boredom

So today was Members Day at the home of football, which happened to be my first time at such an occasion. Overall it was nice to be at leaving the Em's without the feeling of despair following a lacklustre performance for a change, though the weather did it's best to try and ruin it for the rather small crowd that did show up.

The activities themselves were of no real importance but it was just nice to be surrounded by supporters who were there to enjoy the day rather than bicker and starts arguments. After initially coming out to salute the crowd, Theo, Jack, Samir and Eboue went back down the tunnel, whilst the rest of the squad played some practice games, drills etc.

It was an interesting enough experience to see we do actually practice crossing the ball in training, we're just not very good at it. Seeing Sagna, Traore, Miyaichi, Jenkinson, Song and Arshavin  attempt crosses was painful, most were over hit or didn't get off the ground. When it came to the playing pretty one-twos on the edge of the box though we looked world beaters, and the players looked a whole lot more interested.

One observation was how superior Bendtner was to Chamakh in all facets of their play today. Watching the Moroccan struggle to hit pea-rollers at our keepers was worrying, whilst Nicklas was banging them in from all angles. Obviously this was just training, but Chamakh looks so devoid of confidence he's like the Francis Jeffers of this team, players were teeing him up to score but his finishing was shocking. If we're letting one of them go, I'd keep Bendtner all day long, everything our African friend is so predictable, even Squillaci marked him out of the training games.

Positives from the training were Cesc looking surprisingly sharp, Ramsey and Rosicky linking up well, and  Benik Afobe looking confident amongst the first team. I now expect him to feature heavily in our Carling Cup run before heading out on loan towards the end of the season.

Not being 'lucky' enough to get into the Q&A with the current players I popped along to hear what Martin Keown and Ray Parlour had to say. Most of what Ray said was sadly dull and predictable (same TALKshite stuff), Keown on the other hand had some interesting soundbites.

When one lady pleaded with him to come back and coach the defence he said he it was "highly unlikely" he would do that. Though he would love to work under Arsene Wenger, because he had played at Arsenal he would  find it hard to be a coach for the club. Martin also said he fully expected Steve Bould to progress to that role as well as looking after the youth team, before finishing by saying that the fans shouldn't expect more than 4th place this year and maybe a cup win at best, due to the lack of clarity over the Cesc/Nasri situations. Keown said that not only should Arsene be trusted by his ultimate decision over these two players, but that the club should listen to the fans, he then put it to the crowd, asking what the club should do with Nasri, the majority of which shouted back "sell him". Hopefully the sensible thing is done then.....

So it seems it's not just the fans who are struggling to be optimistic at the moment, that said it was good to hear Keown & Parlour state that the fans who booed at the Em's cup, though understandable due to disappointments, are nothing but a hindrance to team moral. Nothing ground breaking, but nice to hear something other than the polar extremes of the media/social networking world that are currently flying about

Silent Stan was there pitch side during training and it's floating around twitter that there was a full board meeting today. The obvious things will hopefully be discussed and decisions made that can bring an end to the drawn out sagas that have bogged the club down for the last 2 months.

Not holding my breath though......

More next week after the Champions League draw tomorrow and Benfica on Saturday with some build up to the Newcastle game.

Till then, Up The Arsenal.

RC

Unnecessary Fuss

So we've finally had a football kicked in anger, on a dodgy 'injury maker' pitch out in Malaysia, and it couldn't have come a minute too soon. The in-fighting and bitching amongst The Arsenal faithful and towards certain players has been appalling and downright disrespectful since the beginning of the crumble last season, but during this transfer window it's progressed to the next level.

Obviously the lack of real action leads to people over analysing every quote/soundbite from anyone connected with the club, be it current/ex-players or staff, but to see everyone and anyone being slagged-off regardless, and shot down for any number of reasons has made me embarrassed of some of the supporters of our great club.

My biggest bug bear has been the elitist nature from some members of the season ticket circle. I don't have one, does this make me less of a fan? No. Some of my mates who are lucky enough to possess STs hardly attend and often are detached from the day-to-day business of the club. Having an ST doesn't give you the right to look down on other fans who either can't afford one or haven't been offered one yet. There's also been a lot of stuff said on Twitter about some fans preaching self-righteousness over our foreign fanbase for not residing in the UK. I've never heard such a load of bollocks. Get over yourselves.

I apply the same to people who belong to Arsenal fan groups (AST etc), just because you've chosen to be a member of such a group, doesn't make your opinion more important than mine, or detract from the level of support I show the club. That's not to say I don't enjoy engaging in debate with those who have differing opinions to mine, one of my closest mates thinks: Wenger needs to go; Arshavin is the worst player our club has ever seen; Cesc, Nasri & RVP should be sold; Gervinho is shit (already); Bendtner is our best striker (that list is genuine. bizarre as it is, it's 100% real). So I'm more than open to debate.

I have no qualm with people expressing concerns and opinions about players/coaching staff/board members, everyone is entitled to an opinion. It doesn't mean you should force yours on others though, nor should you take someone's opinion as fact. Listen, absorb, and then let go; don't be a keyboard warrior, you make yourself look a mug.

On to things more positive, the 4-0 win yesterday saw the first involvement of our new signing Carl Jenkinson and Ryo Miyachi, and the return of Carlos Vela to the 1st team fold. Jenkinson had a solid, if not spectacular display, Miyachi showed glimpses of talent and searing pace, while Vela resumed work at the chip shop with a ridiculous training ground goal. You're allowed to side foot them Carlos......

Xavi and Barca made mugs of themselves by drawing Wenger out to publicly criticise them for scandalous disrespect towards the club and Cesc, while the Nasri situation hasn't moved.There was some uproar about Wenger's comments re: Nasri yesterday, but there's still a long way to go in the transfer market, I'm not sure why there is such consternation every time Arsene says anything about Nasri/Cesc/transfers in. We should have learnt by now he lives behind smokescreens during pre-season and refuses to jeopardise any potential deals by publicly stating interest. He does this because: 1) he's not a cu*t like twitchy "SSN" 'Arry or  "DNA"Xavi 2) He's not a media whore like Twitchy "SSN" or "DNA" and 3) He can hardly call for respect from Barca over Cesc and then start openly tapping up players from other clubs can he?

All of which leads me to believe a number of things this summer: 1) Cesc & Nasri will stay 2) Bendtner will stay 3) One CB will be signed 4) A replacement for Almunia will be signed

That isn't what I want to happen, I'd like a defensive midfielder to compete with Song and cover him during the sodding African Nations Cup, a full back to replace Clichy, one physically imposing centre back (not the footballing type, rather the sort of specimen who doesn't fuck about with the ball) and a creative central midfielder. Too much to ask for I know, but, meh......

Over and out. for now. comments/thoughts/opinions.......