It is easy to take for granted, after all it is now almost ten seasons in a row of qualification for the knock out phase of the Champions League, what a fantastic record, it's just the cherry on top that Arsene is after now. No one really expected Alkmaar to pose much of a threat and this proved to be the case.
Clichy was out with what I suspect is a stress fracture of a pars interarticularis in his spine, it is common for this to be present on both sides of the vertebra and this is the case for Gael as his previous stress fracture was on the other side at the same level. Sagna was rested, Manuel remained in goal, while Samir Nasri started his first game following his return from injury as part of the front three.
The football was slick and cut Alkmaar to ribbons, Andrei Arshavin seemed to be at the heart of everything, the movement and pace was simply too much for the dutch champions to cope with. The first goal from Cesc saw some pretty dodgy keeping but it was still a fairly decent effort from the skipper. The second goal was Nasri at his best, recieving the ball and turning neatly in one movement, he created space for himself and buried the finish low into the bottom corner, top class stuff. The slick passing and interplay for the third and fourth was awesome, two lovely finishes as well from Cesc and Diaby. Manuel was done by an excellent bit of trickery with the eyes for the Alkmaar goal, predicting the centre Manuel was completely undone as the ball was fired past him at his near post.
Overall job done again, it would be nice to tie things up with a win against Liege in the next game. It is heartening to see the team clicking together so nicely, we are defending far better than we have for a while, Vermaelen is not only an excellent aggressive defender but he is also a great leader on the pitch. Gibbs now has a great chance to cement himself into the starting eleven. The young midfield are growing together, Song is looking a force to be reckoned with, Cesc has been finding top form again over the last month, while the unfairly maligned Diaby does appear to be improving and improving his decision making, Up front the abundance of talent is frankly incredible, last night we had Bendtner, Walcott and Vela not even involved for various reasons, but we still had so many options to choose from. If we can keep things going through the grim winter months I will seriously fancy our chances come May.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Monday, 2 November 2009
Amusement from some idiots
Terry Venables was always an extremely overrated manager, and it appears that he is about as gifted as Harry Redknapp at being an oracle of the future. I chanced upon his Sun column from the weekend, in retrospect it makes absolutely brilliant reading but not for the reason that he intended:
What a comedy opening line, I really think Arsene would have been quaking in his boots, if Harry Redknapp is his biggest threat I genuinely think that Arsene's corpse will be able to manage Arsenal adequately when Arsene dies of old age in approximately 2045. Read the rest of Venables' comedy piece for your own amusement, it really is side splitting at times. The Sun really does bring its readers some absolute chestnuts of wisdom, the greatest footballing brains such as Redknapp and Venables are never too far from a cracking column, you are more likely to find a pearl of wisdom fishing in a public toilet.
Speaking of idiots, one well know Arsenal commentator felt the need to big up Craig Eastmond to such an extent that he claimed he was already better than Song, Eboue and Denilson. I've nothing against Craig Eastmond but the lad is only 18 and we should be careful before hyping him up too much, we should also be careful about slagging off our own players who are already looking absolutely top notch such as Alex Song. There was a veiled accusation of racism against Arsene that I found unpleasant as well as out of order:
I wonder if this author would name any single ex-Arsenal player that has gone on to greater things having left the club, has a single one of these players looked like someone who would have been an asset to our first team? Exactly, there is no evidence to back up this lazy and stupid argument. I will not link up to who wrote this story as he deserves no further coverage of his shoddy work, is is enough to say that the man is a music writer by trade and understands football about as well as Jamie Redknapp. This author is scum of the lowest form, he sensationalises merely to attract readers as he knows that without it no one will read his average run of the mill dross.
Finally you've just got to love this quote from RVP after the spuds humiliation, absolutely priceless words that need to further comment:
"Watch you back Arsene! Arsene Wenger today comes face to face with the man who provides possibly the biggest threat to his glittering 13-year career as Arsenal boss... Harry Redknapp. "
What a comedy opening line, I really think Arsene would have been quaking in his boots, if Harry Redknapp is his biggest threat I genuinely think that Arsene's corpse will be able to manage Arsenal adequately when Arsene dies of old age in approximately 2045. Read the rest of Venables' comedy piece for your own amusement, it really is side splitting at times. The Sun really does bring its readers some absolute chestnuts of wisdom, the greatest footballing brains such as Redknapp and Venables are never too far from a cracking column, you are more likely to find a pearl of wisdom fishing in a public toilet.
Speaking of idiots, one well know Arsenal commentator felt the need to big up Craig Eastmond to such an extent that he claimed he was already better than Song, Eboue and Denilson. I've nothing against Craig Eastmond but the lad is only 18 and we should be careful before hyping him up too much, we should also be careful about slagging off our own players who are already looking absolutely top notch such as Alex Song. There was a veiled accusation of racism against Arsene that I found unpleasant as well as out of order:
"Will this 18-year old from Wandsworth be given the same opportunities as a Frenchman or an African? Will Wenger support Eastmond and give him a real chance to make a career at Arsenal? Or will he loan him out and flog him off to QPR or Birmingham?"
I wonder if this author would name any single ex-Arsenal player that has gone on to greater things having left the club, has a single one of these players looked like someone who would have been an asset to our first team? Exactly, there is no evidence to back up this lazy and stupid argument. I will not link up to who wrote this story as he deserves no further coverage of his shoddy work, is is enough to say that the man is a music writer by trade and understands football about as well as Jamie Redknapp. This author is scum of the lowest form, he sensationalises merely to attract readers as he knows that without it no one will read his average run of the mill dross.
Finally you've just got to love this quote from RVP after the spuds humiliation, absolutely priceless words that need to further comment:
"It always feels good to beat Spurs. It even feels good when we don't play them and they get beaten, so it's especially good when we've played them."
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Partisan media and Redknapp out of his depth
It is strange that Arsenal Champions League matches always play second fiddle to those of Chelsea/Manu/Liverpool when it comes to getting on tv, especially given how few supporters Chelsea have. It is strange how rarely an Arsenal game is featured early on in Match of the Day, invariably tedious games involving Manu/Chelsea and Liverpool feature earlier on. It is strange how Sky's advertising campaign earlier in the season involved Manu, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City, they assumed Arsenal would not be part of the top four. This is all rather strange and cannot be explained solely by chance.
The media reaction to Eduardo being toppled against Celtic was also rather strange. He was public enemy no 1, he was written off as a cheat despite an unblemished career record, the tag lives on despite him actually being a rather honest player. In recent weeks we have seen numerous blatant acts of cheating routinely ignored by the media, something strange is afoot. Arsene has hit the nail on the head with comments in the screws:
Why indeed? The silence following Parker's blatant dive was deafening, the lack of comment regarding Cole's compliance with gravity was also notable. Yesterday Didier Drogba was back to his best, he was put clean through against Bolton, Jay Lloyd Samuel pursued him, Drogba took too heavy a touch and the chance appeared to have gone, Samuel made a slight attempt at a tackle, Drogba slowed himself down and took the most minimal of contact, he then went down as if shot, writhing around in fake agony as only he knows how, the game was changed, a penalty to Chelsea and Bolton down to ten men. Drogba's cheating has again been rewarded. The media have been silent on this, so what hope is there that cheating will be stamped out when it is so routinely ignored by the media?
Harry Redknapp has again revealed himself to be the most sore of losers. Redknapp tried to put down the defeat to just suicidal defending, he failed to admit that his inferior side were comprehensively outplayed for the duration. He even tried to claim that the spuds controlled the game in the first half, it's a bit strange to control a game without creating any chances while seeing the opposition have more possession and chances. He gave no credit to RVP for his excellent finish for the first goal, Redknapp tried to put this goal down to the third person as if the ball 'had squirmed in somehow'. In fact our excellent striker was too quick for your crocked centre back and he managed to control the ball into the bottom corner, that is not 'squirmed in somehow'. Redknapp pretended the spuds were comfortable until the 42nd minute, in fact it was more of a case of the spuds riding their luck, only one team looked like scoring. The fact that at 2-0 down they never looked as if they had the ability or belief to get back into the game was also ignored by Redknapp.
To put Cesc's goal to just bad defending is bizarre as well as disgraceful, it was a majestic piece of play, not many players could do what Cesc did yesterday, the fact that we have players who can do this is what makes us a class or ten above the spuds, something Redknapp would do well to acknowledge rather than pretending it was a self inflicted defeat. It is strange that the media give this average manager such a free run to say what he chooses, it is strange that he is never labelled a sore loser when he is always so very ungracious in defeat.
This is all very strange. At least at the end of the interview Redknapp effectively admitted that he expects to lose at Arsenal, he denied the result was a 'blip', to me this is an inadvertent admission that he didn't hold out much hope of a victory at the Emirates. At least bitter 'Arry got one thing right, it was indeed 'sunday morning football' and this came from his sunday morning players that have been assembled at double the cost of Arsene's squad, well done 'Arry, what a lovely cheeky chap you are.
The media reaction to Eduardo being toppled against Celtic was also rather strange. He was public enemy no 1, he was written off as a cheat despite an unblemished career record, the tag lives on despite him actually being a rather honest player. In recent weeks we have seen numerous blatant acts of cheating routinely ignored by the media, something strange is afoot. Arsene has hit the nail on the head with comments in the screws:
"Last week, Scott Parker dived. No one spoke about it. You start to think the media make the rules. If they made a big thing of Eduardo then why did they not do that against Parker?"
Why indeed? The silence following Parker's blatant dive was deafening, the lack of comment regarding Cole's compliance with gravity was also notable. Yesterday Didier Drogba was back to his best, he was put clean through against Bolton, Jay Lloyd Samuel pursued him, Drogba took too heavy a touch and the chance appeared to have gone, Samuel made a slight attempt at a tackle, Drogba slowed himself down and took the most minimal of contact, he then went down as if shot, writhing around in fake agony as only he knows how, the game was changed, a penalty to Chelsea and Bolton down to ten men. Drogba's cheating has again been rewarded. The media have been silent on this, so what hope is there that cheating will be stamped out when it is so routinely ignored by the media?
Harry Redknapp has again revealed himself to be the most sore of losers. Redknapp tried to put down the defeat to just suicidal defending, he failed to admit that his inferior side were comprehensively outplayed for the duration. He even tried to claim that the spuds controlled the game in the first half, it's a bit strange to control a game without creating any chances while seeing the opposition have more possession and chances. He gave no credit to RVP for his excellent finish for the first goal, Redknapp tried to put this goal down to the third person as if the ball 'had squirmed in somehow'. In fact our excellent striker was too quick for your crocked centre back and he managed to control the ball into the bottom corner, that is not 'squirmed in somehow'. Redknapp pretended the spuds were comfortable until the 42nd minute, in fact it was more of a case of the spuds riding their luck, only one team looked like scoring. The fact that at 2-0 down they never looked as if they had the ability or belief to get back into the game was also ignored by Redknapp.
To put Cesc's goal to just bad defending is bizarre as well as disgraceful, it was a majestic piece of play, not many players could do what Cesc did yesterday, the fact that we have players who can do this is what makes us a class or ten above the spuds, something Redknapp would do well to acknowledge rather than pretending it was a self inflicted defeat. It is strange that the media give this average manager such a free run to say what he chooses, it is strange that he is never labelled a sore loser when he is always so very ungracious in defeat.
This is all very strange. At least at the end of the interview Redknapp effectively admitted that he expects to lose at Arsenal, he denied the result was a 'blip', to me this is an inadvertent admission that he didn't hold out much hope of a victory at the Emirates. At least bitter 'Arry got one thing right, it was indeed 'sunday morning football' and this came from his sunday morning players that have been assembled at double the cost of Arsene's squad, well done 'Arry, what a lovely cheeky chap you are.
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Spuds baked, fried, mashed and then devoured
Rarely can a football game be so very enjoyable. I think everyone was a bit twitchy before the game, there is just so much more for us to lose in these games, we are the big club there to be knocked down and if we win then everyone just says that that's what was expected. The atmosphere before the game was a bit special, I think all of us wanted to see all the spuds' pre match boasting rammed firmly up their arrogant behinds.
For once I was happy with the starting eleven. Almunia was back between the sticks, good decision and he went on to justify his position rather convincingly. Bendtner and RVP both started, a good move to have two strikers on against the spuds who often like to play on the counter and would have been much happier against one striker.
The first half was a little cagey, but overall I thought we were very disciplined and controlled the game nicely. Bentley was very fortunate to stay on the pitch after a shocking lunge early on. We were winning the midfield battle, Song was hoovering up nicely in front of the back four, Diaby was erratic but did work hard off the ball and Cesc was very much involved. I was particularly impressed with the centre backs, Crouch was beaten to a lot of ball and when he did win it we invariably swept up the second ball. The chances were all at Gomes' end. Arshavin had a few half chances, Cesc forced a great low save from Gomes and RVP also had a few decent openings.
The end of the first half saw the game turned away from the evil spuds. Of note Eduardo had come on for the injured Bendtner. First RVP clipped home brilliantly from a nice whipped Sagna centre, Gomes had no chance. Barely had everyone stopped going mental when Cesc nipped in, he beat one, two, then a third, he was through on goal, he finished in sublime fashion, 2-0, it was a sensational end to the half. It felt almost like flying in a dream combined with a massive adrenaline rush and a big thumb to one's chest, bloody hell that was a good feeling.
The second half saw us continue to dominate, the freakish Crouch was a lone figure up front and looked completely outclassed, in the end his frustration culminated in a petulant yellow card for dissent. The spuds looked beaten before the third goal but RVP's second after Gomes had made a dog's dinner of a cross made sure that justice would be done. We had several other great chances, the best was one which Eduardo missed when clean through. It really could have been five or six in the end, we had some great positions on the break but failed to grind the spuds' ugly mug into the pavement quite as violently as it could have been done.
There is a lot to say. I have to comment on the ref as always and Clattenberg was weak, he failed to book a couple of shocking tackles while his inconsistency in dealing with handballs was embarrassing. But overall the day belongs to Arsene and the lads. Collectively and individually we were better than the spuds in every single position, it made an absolute mockery of various comments in the media that were telling us just how close the gap between the two sides now was, it was as convincing a derby day win as I have seen in my lifetime. Almunia was rock solid, our defence outsanding, of note our midfield really worked really hard to help our defence in hoovering up the danger, while we always seemed to have the class and spark to be able to open up the opposition's defence when we needed. Well done Arsene and the lads.
For once I was happy with the starting eleven. Almunia was back between the sticks, good decision and he went on to justify his position rather convincingly. Bendtner and RVP both started, a good move to have two strikers on against the spuds who often like to play on the counter and would have been much happier against one striker.
The first half was a little cagey, but overall I thought we were very disciplined and controlled the game nicely. Bentley was very fortunate to stay on the pitch after a shocking lunge early on. We were winning the midfield battle, Song was hoovering up nicely in front of the back four, Diaby was erratic but did work hard off the ball and Cesc was very much involved. I was particularly impressed with the centre backs, Crouch was beaten to a lot of ball and when he did win it we invariably swept up the second ball. The chances were all at Gomes' end. Arshavin had a few half chances, Cesc forced a great low save from Gomes and RVP also had a few decent openings.
The end of the first half saw the game turned away from the evil spuds. Of note Eduardo had come on for the injured Bendtner. First RVP clipped home brilliantly from a nice whipped Sagna centre, Gomes had no chance. Barely had everyone stopped going mental when Cesc nipped in, he beat one, two, then a third, he was through on goal, he finished in sublime fashion, 2-0, it was a sensational end to the half. It felt almost like flying in a dream combined with a massive adrenaline rush and a big thumb to one's chest, bloody hell that was a good feeling.
The second half saw us continue to dominate, the freakish Crouch was a lone figure up front and looked completely outclassed, in the end his frustration culminated in a petulant yellow card for dissent. The spuds looked beaten before the third goal but RVP's second after Gomes had made a dog's dinner of a cross made sure that justice would be done. We had several other great chances, the best was one which Eduardo missed when clean through. It really could have been five or six in the end, we had some great positions on the break but failed to grind the spuds' ugly mug into the pavement quite as violently as it could have been done.
There is a lot to say. I have to comment on the ref as always and Clattenberg was weak, he failed to book a couple of shocking tackles while his inconsistency in dealing with handballs was embarrassing. But overall the day belongs to Arsene and the lads. Collectively and individually we were better than the spuds in every single position, it made an absolute mockery of various comments in the media that were telling us just how close the gap between the two sides now was, it was as convincing a derby day win as I have seen in my lifetime. Almunia was rock solid, our defence outsanding, of note our midfield really worked really hard to help our defence in hoovering up the danger, while we always seemed to have the class and spark to be able to open up the opposition's defence when we needed. Well done Arsene and the lads.
Friday, 30 October 2009
No hiding place
So Liverpool were seen off in the week, an entertaining game and overall a deserved victory. Ramsey has taken a lot of plaudits, as has Fran Merida. Fabianski has apparently picked up a muscular strain which means that Arsene cannot hide from the Almunia question. Will Manuel start against the spuds? I do not know, I just hope that he does.
The banter has been there from the spuds, Keane reckon their squad is better than ours, Redknapp thinks they are as strong as us now. Arsene would not get embroiled in this petty talk, I would argue that the person who goes on about how pretty his wife is probably doesn't have a very good looking wife. The spuds are talking a lot about how great they are now, the season is not yet ten games old.
The back four picks itself, although I can't help but think that Eboue and Gibbs are pushing Sagna and Clichy very hard. Song, Diaby and Cesc will probably be the middle three, while Arshavin and RVP will surely start up front. That leaves one place open and it will probably go to Eboue. I'd be tempted to stick Bendtner or Eduardo in from the start if I were Arsene. Whatever happens I would like to see the likes of Nasri and Ramsey given at least fifteen minutes to make an impact if needed, if substitutions are left too late then they are often wasted.
The banter has been there from the spuds, Keane reckon their squad is better than ours, Redknapp thinks they are as strong as us now. Arsene would not get embroiled in this petty talk, I would argue that the person who goes on about how pretty his wife is probably doesn't have a very good looking wife. The spuds are talking a lot about how great they are now, the season is not yet ten games old.
The back four picks itself, although I can't help but think that Eboue and Gibbs are pushing Sagna and Clichy very hard. Song, Diaby and Cesc will probably be the middle three, while Arshavin and RVP will surely start up front. That leaves one place open and it will probably go to Eboue. I'd be tempted to stick Bendtner or Eduardo in from the start if I were Arsene. Whatever happens I would like to see the likes of Nasri and Ramsey given at least fifteen minutes to make an impact if needed, if substitutions are left too late then they are often wasted.
Monday, 26 October 2009
Manuel Almunia
What is going on here? Manuel has missed over a month with a chest infection. He was fit for Birmingham but is still yet to start a game since his mysterious illness. Arsene has been cryptic in his backing or lack of it:
“I wouldn't say Manuel is no longer our automatic first choice"
I am perplexed. There must be more to this than the club is letting on. Manuel is by far our best goalkeeper and there must be some kind of reason for him not returning to the first team. I know Mannone had a cracker against Fulham, but he has made bad errors in the West Ham, Birmingham and Blackburn games. Personally I thought Manuel had a great season last year and was one of our best players, I want to see him back between our sticks against Spurs. Does anyone out there know what the hell is going on here?
Frustration and English cheats
I have deliberately taken 24 hours to calm down following the West Ham result, I thought that I would see reason and become more objective upon reflection. Strangely I am still seeing things as I did yesterday, my frustration at our ability to hold onto a comfortable lead is still somewhat raw.
The game was a strange one. West Ham knocked it around nicely in the first ten minutes but as the first half wore on only one team looked like scoring. We controlled the midfield, West Ham found it very difficult to string anything together, Song and Diaby were breaking things up nicely. The first goal came after a great cross from Sagna was flicked on by Green's despairing lunge, RVP did the rest. The second came from a strong header by William Gallas, 2-0 and we were cruising.
I disagree with the general interpretation of the match by various others, we looked very solid and comfortable in the second half, West Ham created nothing until yet another incredibly soft free kick was given by the inept Foy. This time Hines was fairly tackled by Diaby who simply stood his ground and got the ball, Hines then ran into Diaby and Foy blew up, an atrocious lack of understanding of the game shown once again. Foy had a quite awful second half, he seemed to think that if a West Ham played went down to ground in a theatrical fashion then it must have been a foul, he should have watched the challenges as often there was simply no tackle and certainly no foul. Behrami was routinely cheating the ref, he lost the ball on several occasions and each time he went down as if shot, Foy have free kicks for every single of his exaggerated falls.
The fault with the first goal lies very squarely at Mannone's door, it was an awful attempt to make a very moderate free kick look much more dangerous than it actually was, he could have caught it, but instead he punched it straight to Cole who easily headed home. An awful error gave West Ham hope when there should have been none, one should certainly not forget Foy's assist with yet another poor piece of officiating.
The second goal from the penalty spot was a complete and utter disgrace. Foy had just seen Parker attempt to cheat his way to a penalty with an utterly pathetic dive when no contact had been made, he stupidly failed to punish Parker, maybe a yellow then would have made Cole think twice before he went down like a sack of spuds. Song barely made contact with Cole as the ball was played into the box on the ground, he certainly didn't make a challenge, it was a brush of legs at most, if that. Cole is a massively strong horse of player who can knock several men down when he so chooses, so to see him go down like this was nothing but a Drogba-esque piece of cheating. RVP almost snatched it for us at the death with a powerful low header, but even if he had I am sure Foy would have had time to fist one in past the hapless Mannone to salvage a draw for those honest hammers.
The fact that two such blatant dives were performed against Arsenal by two Englishmen means that the media have barely commented on these pieces of gamesmanship. Compare and contrast this to the Eduardo incident and you can see just how very biased the media can be. The numpties on Sky even had the audacity to accuse Eboue of going to ground easily when he was tripped and then had his shirt tugged in quite blatant fashion by Parker. The penalties we have given against us you would never see Manu or Liverpool subjected to, there just seems to be no consistency in the world of the Premiership. If Cole did not dive then Gordon Brown is not a fat Scottish twat, I am frankly flabbergasted at the repeated poor decisions we have had to put up with in recent seasons.
I know we are partly to blame for this surrender of a solid two goal lead, however emphasis should remain on the word 'partly'. Foy was the chief architect of West Ham's goals, without him West Ham would not have scored and this is a point that the media have completely failed to pick up on. Other than Mannone's error we defended solidly and looked comfortable, this was very different to the Alkmaar draw in midweek. I am still fuming, these two points were important, hopefully they won't be crucial when things are added up in May, if they are then I think a certain Mr Foy should be kept behind at refereeing school to be taught that you do not judge whether a foul has taken place solely by the way in which a player goes to ground.
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