Lost

Ok, so the title isn’t too imaginative, but let’s be totally honest, we did lose, we looked lost on the pitch and we appear more and more lost as a club.

I am sure that you all saw the “game”, but a quick recap should get us all on the same page. I think that we can literally do this by the numbers:

8-2 – That was the final score today at The Theatre of Dreams.

Ok, I know how much fun it is to call it “The Theatre of Debts”, but I am actually going to pay a far superior, far more willing, far more cunning, far more organised and far more talented Manchester United side the minimum respect of actually using their correct and full names. Maybe it will be just for today, but they have earned my respect with their performance. Anyway, whilst we enjoy nothing more than having a good laugh at them roaming around winning trophies and titles, the following two sets of numbers may actually tell a rather important tale:

18.3, 16.5, 16 – This is how much United have spent on players this transfer window, depending on which sources you believe.

1.1, 4, 7, 34, 25 – This is how much Arsenal has reportedly recouped in the transfer window.

This means that United have spent 50.8m on players whilst we have sold 68.1m. If they are a “spending club” that surely, beyond any reasonable shadow of a doubt, must render us a “selling club”.

28, 22, 42, 64, 67, 70, 82, 90 – Those were the times of the goals for Manchester United. The exact moments where we contrived to allow them the courtesy of recording the heaviest league defeat of our fine club since the “bad old days” of 1896 and the very same moments when they gladly, ruthlessly, joyfully accepted our kindness.

45, 74 – Those were the times when we showed that, once we could actually get the ball to either the wasted on the wings Walcott or RVP, we could actually appear slightly dangerous.

27 – That was when our frankly nervous looking captain scuffed the ball from the penalty spot – gifting the fairly ordinary looking De Gea a penalty save to add to his scrapbook of footballing memories – choosing to take a run up that started closer to the touchline than the goal and never looking like he wanted the ball in the first place.

77 – That was when Carl Jenkinson got the obligatory “red card for the new boy” that all Arsenal players strive so hard to get in their first game or three. Surely this means that he is simply a Gooner legend in the making? After his performance today, an appeal has been lodged and the jury is back out. Udinese and Manchester United proved to be two totally different prospects after all.

More numbers? Ok, let’s try these for size…

253 & 260 – Notice anything odd about these numbers? No? Well you should because those are the total ages of the two teams that started the match. Yes, that’s rights folks, even without the injured “experienced veterans” Song, Gervinho, Vermaelan and Sagna, (23, 24, 25 and 28) our frighteningly young team got thrashed 8-2, and damned well thrashed they were, by a YOUNGER TEAM.

So, excuse Number 1 in the Arsene handbook of excuses goes right out of the window never to return, one assumes.

I for one am glad. Honestly, I am sick and tired of hearing about experience or lack of it, it confuses the issue and, when push came to shove, we got shoved.

So what actually went wrong? Well, the following is my opinion and mine alone. I do not ask for your confirmation and equally I do not ask for your condemnation. This is a game of opinions after all!

Traore is not ever going to be a great left back, defend, track back, mark or get organised appear to be a little out of reach for him. The trouble starts when you realise that he cannot actually beat his man, either with the ball or just for pace alone, and he cannot cross it either. Whilst not being able to cross a ball has been a basic requirement of Arsenal full backs for some years now, it isn’t enough to convince me that he should be anywhere near our squad, let alone the ONLY back up to the injury prone Gibbs who, let’s be fair, isn’t exactly showering himself in glory when he DOES get out of the treatment room.

Coquelin played today and, quite honestly, showed why he does not appear to be in the short term plans of Arsene. I am aware that there are others who claim that he is better than Frimpong, almost as good as Song, ready for a taste of first team action, but today was not that day and certainly proved as such. In his defence (about the only effective defence Arsenal had all day) he should not have even been needed to play after the warning signs of about 4 seasons ago showed us the desperate need for a couple of top class centre backs. Had we had one of those at least, we could have thought about playing Djourou in the DM position saving Coquelin from walking into his debut shirt and out onto the killing field.

Arshavin is going backwards. His pace left him and he looked simply dreadful for it. Now he appears a little leaner, a little fitter and a little faster again and, guess what, we have the old Arshavin back again. No, not the Arshavin clone that turned up against Liverpool, the Arshavin that runs into blind alleys, refuses to pass the ball, can’t shoot and can’t track back. Quite frankly he was lucky to even be on the pitch after his assault on Young came quite so soon after his high and late effort on Phil Jones had already earned him a well deserved yellow.

Ramsey is looking like a player not yet ready to take on this level of responsibility. When Vieira left we wondered how we would cope, but a little Spaniard showed that boys can be men and stepped up to the plate. Ramsey clearly is not of the same mentality as Cesc and I genuinely believe that we are risking his confidence in the longer term by continuing to play him in such an important role.

Rosicky, oh dear, Rosicky. I love Tomas Rosicky, let’s make that clear. A fabulous player on his day but that day may well have gone down sluices of the treatment room. I feared that playing the full 45 minutes against Udinese and then asking him to play at Old Trafford so soon afterwards may be a step too far. I did question whether or not this may be the case in my previous article, although I am bitterly disappointed to have been proven correct.

Now, there are those that will point to the injuries and suspensions list – Gibbs, Sagna, Vermaelan, Song, Gervinho, Frimpong, Diaby, even Bendtner if you like, but in reality the majority of them would not get in the Manchester United side. Seriously, Vermaelan and Sagna would almost certainly get some games as squad players, but I do not see their Manchester United counterparts getting dislodged by either of them…And they are the BEST of what we had missing.

I am not calling for the heads of any of our players as such; I am simply saying that looking at whether or not we have sufficient cover for them is NOT going to solve the problems. We need players that are going to COMPETE with them. For example, Traore cannot push Gibbs to perform better under threat of losing his place. This is true all over the team.

Similarly, I am not going to call for the head of Wenger, the buying out of Stan or even the return of David Dein. These are not the solutions that we need- What we need is better quality, more experienced winners to push the youngsters along and help get us some dearly needed stability and points in the meantime.

What I and many other Arsenal fans like me ARE calling for is some common sense and less BS. The quality players ARE out there, the need IS there, the squad is NOT so young and inexperienced that we should expect less of them and the experience being gained by those young players right now is NOT invaluable.

And that my friends, is exactly what I have been working my way towards throughout this missive. These youngsters have been getting their souls and their hearts broken year in, year out, tournament in, tournament out, and, aside from an average Italian side that it appears we may well have helped to look better than they really were, right now week in, week out. Does ANYBODY think that is good for the development of a young player? Seriously, can it be helping any of their careers to be on the end of an 8-2 trouncing, the worst defeat in more than a century of league football? They are in the Arsenal history books now, and for all the wrong reasons.

Yes, we have Jack to come back, but why is he out? Apparently and unsurprisingly, he was overplayed last season. So, even when he comes back, are we going to ask him play 50-60 games this season? It would not make a lot of sense to do so, so where is the backup? I don’t mean playing Song AND Frimpong either, I mean REAL backup. I am talking about a first class central midfielder with the ability to pass the ball and tackle hard. All the top class leagues in Europe alone and we seriously, with over 100m to spend, cannot find ONE?!

That Juan Mata chap looked ok yesterday it has to be said. Weren’t we linked with him?! Oh yes, that’s right, we were waiting until we lost our best player and captain and a little French muppet BEFORE buying in a replacement.

Wesley Sneijder would have been a perfect fit in my opinion but the wages cap seems to have put paid to that. That would be the very same wages cap that seems entirely responsible for the loss of Clichy, Na$ri and to a certain degree, Fabregas. I have it from a reliable source that Wenger wanted to offer him 120k a week and the board turned down his request.

And that, in essence, is what I believe is wrong with our fine club right now. We are reactive and not proactive. We are looking for the replacements after we lose the player, not before. We have a wages cap that literally stops us from being able to compete. I know, I know, it is a business and we don’t have a sugar daddy, but we do have a painfully large amount of money in the bank and have taken a large chunk off of the wages bill. Surely there is room for a little movement from the board, or are we in the middle of an asset stripping session by Stan? Could it actually be that all the years of laughing at Manchester United and the Glaziers was just us ordering up our very own serving of just desserts? The Glaziers do not appear to be affecting Sir Alex Ferguson and his ability to buy great and fairly expensive players and they certainly do not appear to be sliding down the league table faster than Arshavin can waste good possession either!

There are already those fans out there claiming that this result will just give the “doomers” more ammunition. Guys, we got stuffed 8-2 today by a younger team and clearly much better team…

DAMN RIGHT IT GIVES THEM THE AMMUNITION.

Frankly, it holds the gun for them too.

Time to let them have their moment. Don’t worry, they will all have their broad grins and their singing voices when we win the Premier League and Champions League double this season…

…or maybe, just maybe, they have a point.

Anyway, to finish up, this was what Arsene said after the game:

“No (I will not quit). Of course it hurts. It’s humiliating. But you could see we had not recovered physically from Wednesday. They had class and they punished us. I know that in England when you lose a game signings are always the solution. We had eight players out today. You feel always humiliated when you concede eight goals. It was a terrible day for us. Man United had class but every single shot in the first half went in.”

To which I would offer these responses:

4 of the players that started on Wednesday were not available today so that is 4 fully fresh players you had in the side. Is it our fault that the replacements that we have aren’t good enough (yet?) to play n the Premier League?

Not recovered from Wednesday is a result of not buying the players that we so obviously needed last year and thus inviting the inevitable end of season collapse that required us to play on Wednesday in the first place.

Of the 8 players we had out today, how many would actually be first team choices? Sagna, Vermaelan, Song, Gervinho and Wilshere. Two of those are out suspended and we have had three red cards in three league games so maybe it would be a good idea to try and instill a little discipline in the side?!

Manchester United did see a lot of their shots on target today, but surely that is the inevitable result of giving away a free kick on the edge of the penalty area just about every single time they attacked! Again, some discipline is clearly required. Maybe having somebody experienced enough in defence to know that you simply cannot go flying into every single tackle, especially in and around the box might help!

As for feeling humiliated, I do not even want to get started on that one. And I won’t. Because this has gone on for far too long already!

So, until the next time when we will have filled at least three key positions on the pitch and everything will look rosy again.

Ooh to be a Gooner!

 

Tough test awaits, Udinese no walk in the park

Just few hours from now could really define our season in a nutshell. It hasn’t been a great week for us has it now? It hasn’t been a great summer full stop. Loosing at the weekend has not helped one bit to be honest with you. We saw the last of Nasri then, today he is checking house prices somewhere up north but more on that later.

Tonight we take on Udinese in MASSIVE second leg of our Champions League qualifier to the group stages. We hold a lead which is a slender lead but still gives us that little bit of advantage. In ideal world I would like to go there with a three goal lead and a squad full of world class players, however we all know  that both of these options are somewhat a bit of a fairy tale. In fact our team sheet just got weaker, we finally got rid of Nasri who for me was the only player who could do anything against Liverpool on Saturday and young Jack is now facing a setback on his ankle problem. The only good news for tonight is that Djourou, Traore, Gervinho, Rosicky, Song and Frimpong are back in the squad following injuries and suspensions. Despite our team being paper thin both on paper and on the pitch to me that’s a great boost from Saturday. Frimpong gave us a glance of what a player he could be for us and as much as his inexperience let him down, we definitely have a player with Arsenal DNA in him.

We will need to keep it really tight especially in the middle as this area is mostly weakened we all know what Udinese are capable of, we all saw what they can do at The Grove a week ago. There were moments of scare in the first leg and I’m convinced they will give us even a sterner test at their home turf. They are a decent side who can break on the counter attack in an instant so positioning discipline is a must, Song  please don’t go charging forward like a headless chicken and expose rather inexperienced Frimpong.

We need to be on top of our game in all areas in order for us to progress to the group stages, best way is to score an away goal and I really trust us to do just that. The away goal will mean a great deal to us and hopefully will be enough to see us through this tough fixture. Not sure who Arsene will send out tonight but I would go with this selection to start with:

You could possibly argue this line up because it would also be interesting to play Arshavin instead of Walcott and let’s be honest he has tons more experience in European Cup games, on top of that Arshavin will never last 90 minutes so Theo could be used here as a super substitute. Theo comes on quick counter attack, scores a second goal and we are through. Sounds so simple and I know for a fact it won’t be that easy, either way let’s get behind the lads wherever you are.

So Nasri is officially gone, it’s a real shame I liked him as player and I thought he had loads of talent that would blossom under Wenger, however yet again the modern footballer goes for money rather than pride and history, there isn’t a great deal to add what Arsene said:

“We did not want to lose Fabregas, but we were forced into a situation we didn’t want. Nasri is a situation where the player didn’t want to extend his contract with the proposals he had somewhere else. What kind of commitment can you have when the player is not there long-term? That is the question you have to answer.”

Fair play I haven’t got any complaints about him leaving he was after more money after all, neither do I have complaints about Cesc leaving too (being homesick and all that). I do however question how the club has approached this summer transfer window knowing that we will require high quality replacements for the players we have sold. We are a week away before transfer window will shut firmly in our faces and at this very moment it doesn’t look like there is going to be enough time to sign anyone decent. I believe a great deal will depend on the result tonight, we all know quality players want to play in Champions League, so this game could certainly define our season.

I don’t even want to think what will happen if we fail to qualify (rather scary thought), not only we will loose on £25 million from the competition, we may also miss out on any potential new signings. I sincerely hope that once we get through to group stages Arsene and The Board will work overtime to sign suitable players to strengthen areas in our squad that have been depleted by those players who have now left the club. The only way to strengthen, is to buy top quality players and I’m hoping we will not be let down by the club with so little time left on the clock.

I will leave it on that note, I have been very annoyed with the way the transfer window has been dealt with, it has been simply unacceptable for a club like Arsenal. On the positive side let’s look forward to the game tonight and get behind what we have for now.

Come on ARSENAL!

Bracelona preview – Do we sacrifice or plan ahead

It has been an odd couple of weeks for Arsenal. In the space of 14 days Arsene Wenger’s men have lurched from quadruple hopefuls to staring down the barrel of another 6 years without a trophy; from favourites to overturn Manchester United in the title race to no hopers and back again. But there has always been one constant lurking on the horizon, and now it is upon them.

The Champions League 2nd leg tie against Barcelona has permeated every thought of Wenger since that dramatic night 23 days ago, make no mistakes about that. Ask any Arsenal fan if they would prefer to have beaten Birmingham or Barcelona and the answers will no doubt have put the Gunners through to the next round of the Champions League despite that trophy-less run hanging heavy on their minds.

The Catalan club are of a similar mind-set as well. Because this is more than a match to decide the better team on the night, it is a battle to decide the finest purveyors of a type of football most others can only admire from afar – and Wenger more than Guardiola is eager to have his own approach to the game justified, if not with trophies, then with the scalp of the finest club in the world.

With this in mind, both managers have had their thoughts twisted as they attempt to outwit one another off the pitch.

Wenger has included the injured Robin Van Persie in his squad for the trip to the Nou Camp, having previously being advised by the club’s medical staff that he will be unavailable for the match.

The Frenchman pleads his innocence, suggesting he is “very bad” at mind games, but has had his fingers burnt in the past, most notably with Cesc Fabregas, and would only consider such an action for a game of this magnitude. His presence in Barcelona has more than a whiff of psychological warfare to it, especially given the absence of Barcelona’s two first-choice centre backs and the blank drawn against Sunderland last weekend.

“This morning he was unlikely to travel, but he wanted to go, so he had a test and it was quite positive.” He insisted.

“We will not take a gamble in a game of such importance. It will be fit or not fit. Personally I would like him to play if possible, but I will only play him if he is 100% fit.”

If Wenger was busy trying to out-think Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, then the same was happening in Northern Spain – and Guardiola had his sights set on Jack Wilshere.

“We have many types of players like him (Wilshere) in the second team” Said Guardiola.

He is not the type of manager to criticise opponents, let alone single out a member of the opposition, so his comments raised a few eyebrows. Wilshere was excellent at the Emirates against his side and this will not have passed him by. It may have been a fairly innocuous comment about his age, but pressure does funny things to people, and this game is as big as it gets.

Elsewhere for Arsenal Theo Walcott and Alex Song have both already been ruled out, and the loss of the former will be felt most. Lionel Messi described Walcott as “the most dangerous” player Arsenal have prior to the first leg, and while his performance in that game was lacking, he hurt Barcelona last year and would have been hopeful of doing that same again this time around.

Wilshere has managed to shake off a knock he picked up against Sunderland while Fabregas has a “90% chance” of playing against his former side. Place a free bet in the hope that the defensive errors that marred the Carling Cup final will have to be ironed out, and Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny will be at the heart of an Arsenal defence charged with keeping the likes of Pedro, David Villa and Lionel Messi at bay.

With Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol already ruled out, Sergio Busquets and Eric Abidal will likely step into the side who have no other injury worries, aside from their manager who has had treatment on a back complaint but insists he will be in the dugout tonight.

Last season’s 4-1 defeat at the hands of Barcelona will be at the forefront of Arsenal’s mind as they emerge from the tunnel tonight, and they will have to learn the lessons of the first half display of their opponents from the first leg. Don’t forget those Free bets and be ready for this one, it should be a cracker if the previous three encounters between the two are anything to go by.

They will have to be patient and understand there will be large portions of the game where they will not have the ball, while maintaining a direct attacking edge when they do. If they can, then Wenger can finally put one of his personal demons to bed.

Mason made a meal but We had dessert in the end

By the end of first half last night I was livid, worse if I could I would be screaming at the top of my lungs calling Mason all sort of names which I did in my head anyway. It had to be quiet my little Gooner was already asleep upstairs. Not only his fellow colleague linesman made the wrong call when Saha was miles offside and gave the goal he also failed to notice how Everton stopped us from playing at every opportunity.

Now there are some mixed conclusions that Saha’s goal was either Onside and Offside. Let me point this out because this is the most important rule of them all and Saha at the time of the pass was clearly Offside. If this rule meant anything the linesman he should have flagged him Offside simple as that. It doesn’t mean shit if Koscielny touched the ball in any way as it certainly wasn’t a back pass to the keeper. This is obviously my opinion on the matter yours may differ in many ways.

What made me cringe even more was the fact that his ignorance to fouls committed by Everton was beyond belief. Jack got yellow for something that would never stand a chance of getting a yellow, Cesc was held by Rodwell a foul given no card, this was a tactical foul and surely deserved a yellow. Walcott elbowed by Arteta not even a foul given, Rosicky fouls straight yellow, Heitinga holding onto RVP foul given but no card and finally Fellaini stamping on Walcott off the ball was just an icing on top. Not only he ignored these he also never gave any advantage of play, I sensed he had definitely something against us and it felt as if corruption had something to do with this as well. It’s not for the first time Mason’s decisions were truly incompetent for a Premier League referee, clearly there is massive problem with referees these days and something needs to be done about it sooner rather than later. We can talk about this all day if we want to, we all know nothing will change anytime soon, as usual it will be brushed under the carpet.

Enough about those twisted individuals, we didn’t really had a good first half did we now? Passing was a bit sloppy and our penetration was no way near good enough for our standards, it took us sometime to find our stride and before you know, we were one nil down. Even our Captain admitted it was not good enough:

“It was a very testing game because we started losing, we didn’t start the game well at all, I think we were very very sloppy, we were not up for it since first minute”

“At that stage we can pay for it but fortunately the team stepped up in the second half, we realised that if we kept playing like that we were going nowhere, I think we did very well”

There’s not a great deal you can add to what Cesc said, I agree with his honest view of the game especially first half we looked as we had too much respect for Everton and allowed to play in our back yard. It backfired but we came on top in the second half. Our attitude, desire and hard work paid off as we produced the goods required to stay in the title race.

It was very good to see Arshavin getting goal, even though he did not celebrate putting us on level terms he did make up for it when Koscielny completely unmarked put us in front with a very decent header, great cross by Van Persie by the way. Credit to the lads they did us proud in every way, they worked hard for this victory and deserve their praise for an outstanding comeback. Looks like our little Meerkat is back, we all know he’s capable of great things and there is no better time for him to come back to his best in the absence of Nasri for the next three weeks.

I’m hoping Alex Song is not too badly injured, Arsene in his Press Conference said he couldn’t walk and that is rather worrying, hopefully he will recover in time for another tough fixture up north. Walcott also joins the medical treatment room, he has a ankle problem and wonder why, we all saw what happened at the end of the game last night.

I’m not too sure what Fabregas said to the fourth official at half time but it’s about time Cesc got to their faces, everyone else does it every week, at least he doesn’t go stamping on the ground like a 5 year old Rooney! He’s our Captain and he has the right to complain and question incorrect decisions. Moyes can say all he likes, he obviously had nothing else to say to defend his players, he just made himself look like a right twat!

I was going to finish on the high however I have just come across some bad news, it looks like Fabby will be out for the rest of the season. He just got back from Germany where underwent medical consultation to his injured shoulder. These proved to be not good and it looks like he will definitely need to undergo surgery. With Wojtek our current number one it’s probably a good thing that Almunia stayed at the club.

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