Thursday 10 September 2009

Pre city thoughts

The last post on the Kakuta story and the general topic of the transfer of young players provoked a lot of good banter, thank you one and all. It is clearly one very complex area and it seems that most people agree that blanket bans on the transfer of young players is not a clever way to solve the problem. As always FIFA and UEFA are rushing to bring in new rules and regulations before engaging their small brains, not good for football me thinks. Arsene has had some sensible things to say:

"If you have a child who is a good musician, what is your first reaction? It is to put it into a good music school, not in an average one, so why should that not happen in football?"

Spot on, this is a point I made as well, if you stop the best youngsters getting the best coaching and all round training then you will not be improving football. It is strange that FIFA want to introduce this blanket ban when they openly allow the likes of Madrid, the Milans and Barca to tap up adults who are under contract in clear contravention of rules that already exist. FIFA need to work out which rules they actually want to bother enforcing or are they just more concerned by keeping certain people happy?

The only bad news on top of the Djourou blow is that Andrei Arshavin is out for a week or so after the damn Russians played him when not fully fit. I was just having a quick think about points in the league and winning the title, it is clear that we'll need at least two points in three to be near the action, this means that losing a game means we need to win the next two. Overall our start of six points from three games is decent, especially given the three points away to Everton and the performances so far. It's just annoying we don't have nine as we should have beaten the Mancs, if it wasn't for Mike Dean we might well have had the full compliment.

Not wanting to gaze too far into the distance, we have City away, then Wigan at home, then Fulham away. Realistically we need to pick up a minimum of six points from these three games to keep things rolling along. Gareth Barry is a very handy player, he put in yet another solid performance for England in the week without getting that much recognition, and it will be important that we don't let him dictate things on Saturday, we'll need our midfield and strikers to hassle him and give him no time or space with which to run the show. Ireland is another one to watch, his late runs from midfield can be tricky to defend against. Hopefully Diaby, Denilson and Fabregas will start in the midfield, while I would be keen to see Eduardo get a start, he is looking rather sharp. Come on you Gunners.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

the break has been too long. hopefully the Gunners will win big, with a nice little clean sheet and the media will conveniently forget about the Eduardo thing.

Also, the stretch following the Man City game is what will make or break our season. I think there is a stretch of 6 league games that Arsenal should win or get 5 wins and a draw.

-rahul-

Ted said...

Hopefully the break will have been at least as bad for Man City's players as ours. However, I see that Robinho did not play for Brazil - anyone know if is injured?

Uncle Mike said...

I won't be able to watch this one, as I got dragooned into going to a football game. The other kind, the one were round is replaced by pointiness, going to the pub is replaced by "tailgating," and "geezers" are replaced by the student section -- at least Rutgers Stadium now puts them into an 11,000-seat south stand that resembles an old-tyme "end." And after that disaster on Monday, this game, for all intents and purposes a Mickey Mouse Cup match, should be a jog in the park.

Tomorrow will be the time to show Mansour City what a Top Four team really looks like. Assuming he isn't injured again, and isn't suspended for, oh, I don't know, reminding English people of the abdication of King Edward VIII, or something even less relevant to football in 2009, I'm thinking Eduardo will let it loose and be Man of the Match.

And, of course, time to stick it to Greedybayor! Show the dope what he's missing!

Rhinogooner said...

Ted, Robinho is doubtful according to this website:

http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php

Anonymous said...

Not going to comment on man shitty or that parasite greedywhore but feeling good about this one.We win and just show there have millions but there haven't got class.As i said before there not a team but a bunch of ego-mercenaries.

Rhinogooner said...

HT and we're a goal down. I must express my vexation with the way, over the years, we can dominate play and yet concede a goal from the only half chance we give our opponent.

We're not the greatest defensively and haven't been for several years. But we have had matches where our defense is doing well and giving nothing away. And yet, somehow we conspire to concede a jammy goal.

I find it disturbing how fragile it all is. As the saying goes, goals change games. And up until Citeh scored, we had them well under control and were looking good. After their goal, we created nothing and looked shaken. And Citeh started to step up a bit.

But now, they can sit back and absorb our pressure. I'm not going to point fingers for their goal. I will reiterate that our allotment of personnel is flawed though. Van Persie is not a target man. He is useless up top on his own. He can't bring the ball down and bring others into play. He gets tossed aside by defenders and is left on his backside with his arms thrown up in the air.

And Bendtner is not a creative player, though he does possess a decent cross. Problem is, he's the only player we have that will attack a cross.

Please, Mr. Wenger, acquiesce your stubbornness and switch Bendtner and Van Persie.

I'm well up for this match. And it is chafing me considerably that we are losing right now. I really wanted us to come out and show these posers what a top 4 team looks like and give them a right stuffing. Now I'll just be happy with a win. I can't bear the thought of Citeh taking anything from us and having to listen to tripe about our place in the top 4 being threatened by them.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!

Rhinogooner said...

84' and we're 4-1 down. The match is not over over yet, yet the match is over.

First, credit to Van Persie. Stupendous goal. And we surged forward after that. But one mistake and Citeh gained their first chance of the second half. With that, they made no mistake and went 2-1 up. Our ability to turn possession and domination into goals is abysmal. Conversely, our ability to concede goals from limited chances is infuriating.

This match reminds me very much of last season. So where do we go from here?

Some will say I'm jumping the gun and that it is too early to judge. True it is too early to judge. But the signs don't look good.

As I'm typing, Rosicky has scored on his comeback to gain a consolation for us.

I hadn't taken the time to express this before. But since that transfer deadline ended, I have felt very disappointed that we didn't dip into the market for one or two more players. At the core of my being, I feel that will cost us. Again.

No excuses for this season. And none for this match. Some may argue that with a bit of luck we could have taken something from this match. There was a handball on Barry in the box and Van Persie hit the post and we went close a few times. But I'll entertain no excuses. Results are all that matter. Same as in the case of the match against Man U. We were the better side, but we lost. The points are all that matters and all that is remembered.

We're still looking brittle and in need of winners when the chips are down. A few of our players have a great deal of skill but lack savvy.

Whistle has just gone. Day ruined.....gutted.

Anonymous said...

I like Almunia, I think we can with him, but I think Wojencsky or Fabianski should start the next game or two.

thats three games in a row where there has been an error on Almunia's part. he's looking a little shaky.

-rahul-