As the dust begins to settle on the events over the weekend at the Eastlands, its fitting to remind ourselves just how fickle the game of football is.
Yesterday's arch villain, Eduardo, is a forgiven man and I have not seen an ounce in this mornings papers to suggest that UEFA was not correct to over turn the two match ban. Yet, if that is right, then 99% of the press was wrong to criticise Eduardo in the first place. But lets not let consistency get in the way of a good story.
And this week's story is all about Adebayor. Still, I guess he deserves it. And that seems to be the fuel that is feeding this one. Man Citeh have managed in impressive speed to lose their status as the well liked counsins to ManUre, who struggling to live in the shadows of the United machine. Everyone liken to say that real Mancs support Citeh. Yet, £250m quid later, they have become public enemy number one, hated by Arsenal fans, Aston Villa, Everton, not to mention United. And that gives a lot of disgruntled fans and a lot of journalists all the ammunition they need.
I would rather Arsenal finished 6th this year than become like Citeh.
And that leads me to the point of this little wandering amble. And that is we need to see how things pan out a bit more before making any judgments on this team, transfers etc.
Arsenal have lost 2 of their first 4 games and having played some nice football, there are some cracks showing. 6 points from 4 games is not that good, but its not terrible considering we have played 3 away games. What we need to do is try to only lose 2 or 3 more times before Christmas, which is very do-able.
Plus, we haven't drawn any games yet, which seems slightly odd, but then few Premiership games seem to be draws at the moment, which is perhaps an indication of the gung-ho attitude of the early season.
The temptation to settle for draws can be very strong, but ManUre have shown time and time again that losing doesn't matter in the long run, so long as you win more games than your rivals. Its an attitude to draw games that kills you. The teams that win twenty to twenty-five games a season will get the points to challenge at the top of the table. Whereas if you manage 15 draws in a season, unless you are unbeaten then mid-table is where you'll be.
And that is why we should remain positive. Yes, we lost like idiots at Old Trafford and at Eastlands, but we went down fighting and looking to take 3 points on each occasion. This Arsenal team remains in transition, and we still have not seen what it will look like with a fit Rosicky, Walcott and Arshavin. But it smells of goals, goals, goals......
6 comments:
goals at both ends !!
Some interesting news regarding the squad to face Liege. Almunia is sick so either Mannone or Szczesny will fill in. This is obviously a temporary concern. But many of us have commented on the worry of our back up keeper options.
Personally, I didn't think Almunia was up to scratch when he was Lehmann's back up. But I admit that his performance for us last year convinced me that he was good enough. So far, this season he has looked less than stellar. I had high hopes for Fabianski, but his performances have me worried and I don't think it is a safe call to have him as our number 2 keeper.
Mannone and Szczesny are too young to be first choice or second choice. So, while I didn't consider it a priority as much as other required signings, I wouldn't have minded seeing us bring in another quality keeper to challenge Almunia.
Anyroad, here's the squad:
Vito Mannone
Wojciech Szczesny
Bacary Sagna
Gael Clichy
William Gallas
Thomas Vermaelen
Mikael Silvestre
Kieran Gibbs
Emmanuel Eboue
Alex Song
Cesc Fabregas
Abou Diaby
Aaron Ramsey
Tomas Rosicky
Jack Wilshere
Nicklas Bendtner
Eduardo
Sanchez Watt
No RVP or Denilson. They have niggly injuries. Interesting to note that Watt makes the squad. He's certainly one for the future, but I am disappointed that he is getting a shot that Simpson should be getting. Yes, I know he is on loan now. But I sense that Mr. Wenger favours certain players and others don't receive a fair crack. I don't think Mr. Wenger rates Simpson and therefore, will never make it Arsenal. That's a shame, as I've been impressed with Jay Simpson and his style of play and I would love to see him get a chance in the first team.
I hope we don't take Liege lightly. We need to go there and get a professional result.
I don't think almunia is sick. Wenger always does this, especially with Almunia. If you look last year, on a few occassions when Almunia had a bad game, he would end up being "sick" with the flu, or some weird injury.
Having only seen him in one game, I am hoping Szczesny starts. I do believe Arsenal can win it all with Almunia, but he has been pretty off lately, and needs some competition between the sticks.
It is good to see that we are going for the win. I looked at the fixtures list, and there is no reason why Arsenal can't win all its game up to Chelsea. We certainly shouldn't lose any of those games.
-rahul-
Good blog ted but I am worried about our defence still and, above all, the never ending injuries.
Not travelling to Belgium - Almunia, Fabianski, Djourou, Denilson, Vela, Arshavin, Walcott, RvP and Nasri. Those are key players. We just don;t seem to be able to keep pur squad fit. Why? It can;t always just be bad luck. And if we can;t answer tha question...why haven;t we broughtin some more players to balance the problem.
Interesting news on the "home grown" limit on squads for next season and financial restrictions coming into force in 3/4 years time. Shouldn't affect us too much but it will have an impact on the Premiership for sure.
The interesting thing on the home-grown players is how it tallies with UEFA's other views on "child-trafficking". To my mind it will worsen the problem as clubs will need to sign players younger to get them eligible.
Added to this are the FAs rules on clubs reruiting from within 90 miles of their ground. This will increasingly hinder the provincial sides.
The rule will also over-inflate the value of British players further, thereby placing greater financial strain on clubs and forcing them into foreign ownership or sugar daddies.
So the new rules pose a few problems in my mind.
Good points. Another pile of shite set of new rules. What a surprise.
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