Taking the Chelsea Pension

I was intrigued to see Thierry Henry on the pitch before the Blackburn game. Particularly given his appearance as a spectator followed his comments in the press during last week that he hoped to return to Arsenal, and was even willing to take a job as a water boy.

The warm applause and chants that Thierry received were befitting for an ex-player of his status, but it was unusual nonetheless to see him publicly paraded before the kick off. Dennis Bergkamp, in whose box I believe Thierry was sitting (maybe DB doesn't have it this year?), never received such treatment. Or perhaps did not ask for it.

Similarly, reports yesterday suggested that Patrick Vieira was at Stamford Bridge on Sunday to watch the dreary rubbish that passed for a top-of-the-table clash between Chelsea and Liverpool. Those reports were based on published comments from Didier Drogba, whose theatrics during the Liverpool game beggared belief at points, who was urging Chelsea to sign Vieira in January as cover once the African Cup of Nations dragged Essien (and Drogba) away from the Premier League.

Now, whilst we could all have a little go at being fantasy football managers over whether Henry or Vieira would be good re-signings, and we probably will at some point over the interlull, I find it extremely hard to imagine that Messrs Henry and Vieira were just over in London for a nice weekend and fancied seeing some football in an executive box. No, this little episode smacks of commercialism and self-interest.

Vieira was very publicly looking for a move from Inter over the Summer, and although he turned down Spurs, I suspect he will not refuse Chelsea.

I don't know what Henry's current contractual situation is with Barcelona, but it was reported at the time of his transfer to Barca in 2007 that he had signed a four year deal with them. Now, at 31 years old, Mr Henry has around 18 months left on his contract and is possibly sniffing around for one last big contract to top up his pension. Call me a cynic, and I know that Thierry has been very vocal about his love for all things Arsenal, but I have a sneaky suspicion that Chelsea will be looking very closely at Henry as well.

I am not a big fan of Carlo Ancelotti, but one thing that he was very good at Milan was extended the playing careers of his aging Milanese stars and getting some decent performances from them as well. Henry and Vieira are spring chickens compared to Paolo Maldini, will not cost Chelsea big transfer fees because of their age, and would arrive with bags of experience and pedigree to help push Chelsea to their first title since Jose Mourinho left.

Now maybe it won't happen, but maybe it will. I certainly think its far more likely that Vieira and /or Henry will appear at Chelsea than back at the Emirates.

We go to play Chelsea at the Bridge on 6 February 2010. The question I pose today is this - how many Arsenal double-winners will line up in Blue to face the new young Arsenal side? It could easily be three, and four is not out of the question.

Blackburn dismantled, the walrus whines and Chelsea grind on

The attacking play was outstanding, I lost count of the excellent chances that came and went, somehow Blackburn stayed in a game for a lot longer than they deserved, but in the end our extra quality told. The midfield three of Cesc/Song/Diaby with the attacking trio of Rosicky/RVP/Arshavin, then the predictable back four plus Mannone in goal made up the starting eleven. Cesc sparkled, Rosicky and Arshavin tormented, RVP connected it all up, even Diaby didn't dwell on the ball today.

Blackburn took a very surprise lead thanks to some rather poor defending, a speculative Robinson hoof was flicked over the ponderous Mannone from around ten yards out. Watching replays I do think that the keeper was largely to blame for this, the ball was in the air for a hell of a long time and he really had to make it his when it was so close to his goal. We equalised thanks to a Vermaelen smashed, then Blackburn got lucky thanks to a deflected Dunn effort. Again the response was quick, RVP made it 2-2 and then a neat Arshavin finish put us ahead 3-2.

The moment that fat Sam wanted to dwell on was when the fat and irritating Dunn fell under a rather negligible Vermaelen challenge, Blackburn didn't appeal for the penalty kick and it would have been a very soft call, this wasn't the turning point, it was just something for the fat corrupt walrus to vent his spleen upon. The game continued to run away from Blackburn, the goals flowed, Cesc volleyed one neatly with his left peg, Walcott finished excellently when teed up by Cesc flicking on a great Arshavin centre, then Bendtner providing the icing with a thunderous twenty yarder that rocketed in off the post.

This season will not be dull, the football will continue to be brilliant to watch, we have a wealth of attacking talent, just think that several excellent players didn't even make it onto the pitch today. However we will not win the title if we do not sort out our defending. Blackburn had very little pressure or possession, but they did look dangerous when they crossed the ball in and when the played directly at our back four. Our defensive unit look static when the ball was crossed in from out wide, we just looked a tad ponderous when trying to defend the loose balls in the box. Obviously Mannone is not our first choice keeper and he does not command the box as well as Manuel Almunia, but I sense our defensive problems are a bit deeper than that.

Anyways I do not wish to whinge after a 6-2 victory, this will be another roller coaster of a season, we have by far the best attacking players of any club in England and possibly the world and they are a pleasure to watch. Watching Chelsea versus Liverpool did make me realise just what we lack at the back though, it was a dull game but both sides did defend pretty solidly on the whole, their back fours are big strong units, especially physically speaking.

Liverpool certainly have big problems in terms of midfield and attack, as they have very few options in reserve and are far too reliant on just a handful of players. Chelsea are dull, workmanlike and unspectacular, they don't move the ball particularly well and they are not particularly creative either; one thing they can do is defend and for that reason they will be a tough side to knock off the top of the league table this year. I'd love it if we could it though, fingers crossed.

Pathetic weak FA

If Emmanuel had done what he did on a rugby field he would have got far more than a three match ban. The deliberate stamp on RVP's face was beneath contempt, he should have got at least a six game ban for this act of clear malice. He knew what he was doing, it is obvious from the footage that he saw exactly where he was raking his filthy studs. The FA have given him a very lenient sentence. In my opinion there is no discrimination by the FA between the careless and the evil. Their disciplinary system is a farce, an inconsistent joke. Of note Adebayor has not apologised to RVP for almost taking his eye out, what a classy man he is.

They have now fined Adebayor 25 grand and given him a suspended two match ban for his pathetic celebrations. The FA stated:

"In reaching its decision the Commission took into account his admission of the charge, public apology and the extremely provocative nature of the abuse he received."

This doesn't cut it for me, it is weak in the extreme, it effectively condones players reacting to supporters which is a very dangerous precedent to set. Here is Adebayor's 'apology', if one can call it that, in fact he doesn't really make an apology at all, he just gets forced into admitting what he did was wrong and says he 'feels sorry' for what he has done.

Whatever one thinks of events it is clear we are better off without this immense penis of a human being in our squad. A lot of our morale problems appear to be rather Adebayor linked, it seems more than a coincidence that so many of our players have now fallen out with Adebayor. I am disappointed at the FA's weak words, they should appreciate what this cowardly money grabbing weasel has done to our fans. The man lied to us, he never apologised for his shambolic behaviour, he then behaved as if nothing had happened and put very little effort into several very big football games, and he now does this. The man is beneath contempt, money cannot buy you class Emmanuel, you are beneath contempt.

Wenger's Lucky Thirteenth?

There is always an element of subjectivity in any analysis or judgement, particularly so, perhaps, in matters of the heart. And football.

Along with the Corrs dilemma, the other seminal philososphical debate of the modern era is if you had a straight choice between Arsenal winning the Champions League and the Premier League - which would you choose?

Now, before you choke on your cornflakes, take a moment to reflect a little further on it.
It would be the dream Champs League final against the team of your choosing (Manure? Barca?), the dream scoreline (that in itself is tricky - a 6-0 thrashing or a brilliant last winute winner?), at the venue of your choice (got to be in Spain), and you get the memory of being there for the rest of your life. I guess the dream format for winning the league would be a repeat of the Invincibles season in 2004.

13 years ago, the above scenarios were both so unrealistic for Arsenal fans that they actually did pose questions that would trouble drink-addled brains late into the night, but times have changed. In 2004 the Invincibles won the perfect league title. In 2006 the dream Champions League final almost happened. All but the damned scoreline in Paris that is.
But since that moment, there has been a bit of a lull in the Arsene Wenger invasion of world football.

But I think we are at a turning point. Its not the dark before the dawn - the sun is already peaking over the rooftops and its going to be a glorious day.

There is a confidence in Arsenal's play that we have not seen for a while. Olympiacos, the Greek champions, were utterly thrashed on Tuesday night at the Emirates. The inclusion of Cesc, Rosicky and Arshavin in the line up had the explosive result that we have only been able to dream about since January when Arshavin signed. But seeing those three together on the pitch was simply incredible.

People may point to Olympiacos being a bad side, that we only scored late, or that Arshavin's goal was offside, but I have not seen Arsenal play that well for years.

Eboue is back to his very best this season. He still likes the theatrics and may not be the best defender in the world, but his confidence has improved dramatically. The mistakes have been eradicated and he now poses a genuine selection headache with Sagna. Clichy on the left likewise seems to have stopped diving in to tackles and playing more of a perecntage game as a defender.
The front six players now has options that I do not think an Arsenal side has ever had before. It sounds a bold claim, but its probably right. Tuesday night was the first time we had Arshavin, Rosicky and Cesc start a match together, but Bendtner and Walcott were both missing., as was Denilson. I cannot wait to see what this team can do with a full strength side - on paper it could be incredible.

That said, as per 1979's post on Monday, big doubts remain over our defensive abilities, particulalry the balance in midfield where Song is currently our only tough player out there. Denilson would add to the balance defensively, but he is not exactly nails hard himself and (shock horror) is not as good going forwards as Diaby, who is currently playing. Somewhat bizarrely, apart from Song, 99% of the good tackles that have been made in midfield have come from Tomas Rosicky. so I would expect Tommy to play in midfield more than as part of the front 3.

The permutations up top are bewildering between RVP / Bendtner / Arshavin / Eduardo / Walcott / Vela and I won't even try to give a comparison between them, other than to say that Arshavin and RVP are practically dead certs to play if fit, so the rest are really competing for one slot.

If we can put Blackburn to the sword on Sunday and get to 15 points from 7 games, then we will have made a more than decent start to the season. Its a hell of a long way to go, but I am surprised to realise that the first quarter of the season is almost gone.

Wenger needs to keep the team motivated and focused and if we can get through our traditional sticky patch in November unscathed, then who knows what Wenger's lucky 13th year is going to bring. 'Cos I want that Champions League trophy in our cabinet real bad...

Luck, profits and balance needed

I can't be arsed to write a match report for the Fulham game. I though it would be wise to concentrate on analysing the interesting bits, rather than reproducing yet another description of a match that has been described many times elsewhere. So a 1-0 win, exactly the kind of juice we need, the slight problem I had with it was it was not a convincing grinding championship winning 1-0 win, it was more of a flukey riding one's luck 1-0.

Mannone had a stormer, there's no doubt about that, I have not been convinced by him in the past but against Fulham he showed real ability. The defense played pretty well, with Gallas and Vermaelen having good games. I think our main problem is that our defense does not get enough help from the rest of the team and this is something that was a big problem last year, as well as the year before that.

Fulham were always going to press and harry us, they were always going to keep the tempo high and try to rush into errors. By and large it worked, and frankly that is a bit of a concern because better teams than Fulham will do the same later in the season. Song is the one guy who helps out the back four, but one man is not enough. Cesc is a ball player, he's physically small and will never be a defensive rock, I would never expect to do that much but he could still do a bit more than he did against Fulham.

Diaby is an enigma, the boy blows hot and cold, more frequently cold. The frustrating thing with him is that he has so much ability, he can do the most amazing things, he can beat men at ease, he can score blinding goals, he can defend well when he chooses too. The problem is that he appears to have no natural instinct for where he should be and he sometimes lacks a direction, how much of this is down to the player and how much down to what he is told I do not know. What I do know is that he doesn't make as much of his ability as he should. His pace, strength, technique and skill are as good as Vieira in his prime, it's just what's between the ears that is lacking.

So when you combine a light three man midfield with only really Song getting stuck in with a three man forward line then you have a bit of a recipe for being overwhelmed in midfield. The combination and balance just didn't seem right to me, I would be interested to know what everyone else thought. It fits with our collapse at City, I just don't think we have the players to defend a lead, we can only try to score more, we cannot close up shop and hold onto a one goal lead if we wan't to. For this reason I cannot see us winning the league this year.

We have quite a few options in this area, it's a great shame that Denilson is out for two months as he provides an understated efficiency that contrasts with Diaby's erratic showmanship. Rosicky might me a good option as a wide man in the front three, Ramsey might deserve a few more starts in the midfield. Another problem with the 4-3-3 is that it does not get the best out of Bendtner, he is at home in the middle and is wasted out in wider areas. I just don't think we quite have the right balance of players in the squad, Arsene has tried to get around this by changing the formation, but this hasn't got rid of the original problem. We just don't have enough hard all round combative midfielders in the squad.

Meanwhile the club's holding company has reported record profits. The full report can be seen here at Arsenal.com. The return to fitness of the housing market which has resulted in more Highbury Square sales, however a large reason for the record profit and turnover has been the team's success. Runs in the CL and the FA cup combined with the increased gate receipts from a bigger more corporate stadium have seen the money flow in. If Arsene feels he needs some new players in January then these impressive financial results mean that money will not be a problem.

Pondering preview

Well, it's been a pretty hectic few weeks, the fixtures have been coming pretty thick and fast, whole there certainly hasn't been a lack of controversy. I have been away on holiday in France so have been catching up with things since my return, luckily or maybe not so luckily i did see our defeat to Man City while abroad and the utterly pathetic behaviour of Emmanuel Adebayor, what an arrogant fool this man is, everything that has gone on since has shown what a fantastic move it was to get rid of this greedy waste of space.

Man City were strong at home last year and with their reinforcements not many sides are going to go there are get results, in this context our performance wasn't awful by any means, probably whoever got that key second goal at 1-1 was going to go on to enjoy a lot of chances on the break, we just got stung when the game was reaching breaking point. Adebayor's stamp was vindictive and cowardly, arguably he deserves a far longer ban than the three matches for this, in rugby he may well have got months for being so malicious.

The celebration run to our section of supporters was beneath contempt. The reaction since from various players including RVP shows quite clearly that Adebayor was a malignant presence in our dressing room, the guy is a chump, a self obsessed greedy half wit who was dragging our morale to rock bottom, a man who believed he deserved love whatever lack of respect he showed to the fans, a man who put minimal effort into a lot of big games just because he was more obsessed with his own ego. The man is a fool and his behaviour has reinforced what I have suspected about him for a long time, he will always be trouble, things may look rosy for him at City now but it is only a matter of time before his true colours show, leopards cannot change their spots.

Onto more positive things, I saw Gael Clichy give a very composed interview to the beeb's Martin Keown on footy focus today, his maturity and composure is impressive and is such a contrast to the bloated primadonna like self indulgence of others. The team may not be quite right yet in terms of balance, experience and defensive strength, but I don't think many people would argue that we look more together as a unit both in terms of performance and spirit thus far. The squad is stronger, we have more options, while despite losing two games, the manner of these defeats has not concerned me as much as the manner of some of our defeats early last season.

Fulham will be a big test, as many of us have noticed the three points against the small teams is just as important as three points against the big boys, after all Manure have won the league on this basis alone in recent years despite a poor record against the top clubs in several championship seasons. Fulham will press and harry us high up the pitch, this will make it vital that we defend solidly and do not concede the first goal, we will need to maintain our composure and wear them down with patient football. It will be a decent test of our defense, we will have to defend set pieces well and if we can take a win at the cottage then four wins from six is not a bad start at all. I would be tempted to start the solid Szczesny in goal, I have never been convinced by Mannone, while the midfield pick will be tricky, given the importance of retaining possession i would be keen to see the cunning of both Rosicky and Arshavin from the start. Come on you Gunners.

West Brom pushed aside

The youngsters lined up as follows: Szczesny, Gilbert, Senderos, Silvestre, Gibbs, Coquelin, Ramsey, Wilshere, Traore, Sunu, Watt. Of note the absence of Fran Merida appeared strange, injury must have been the cause of this after his fine pre season form. The opposition were West Brom who have been on fine form of late, beating Boro 5-0 at the weekend and their starting eleven contained a lot of experienced talent. It was more of a 4-4-2 formation, with Coquelin holding, Ramsey alongside him, with Wilshere and Traore on the flanks.

In truth we we lucky not to be behind after the first quarter, Szczesny forced into a couple of fine saves, a solid keeper who seems to exude self belief. We did have some good chances at the other end as well, Watt finding a post with a poked effort from a Wilshere cross. Coquelin looked handy, putting in a few very decent tackles as he tried to halt the West Brom flow. Wilshere threatened with his pace and tricks, showing his ability to open up defences on his own with one great dribble and shot that flew just wide. We were handed a big advantage when Thomas was given a straight red for an elbow he threw at Wilshere. The game bustled towards half time, a penalty claim came and went, while Mikel Silvestre showed just why he is not on view on a more regular basis at the Emirates.

The second half began in a rather bitty manner, with Arsenal struggling to make the extra man count. Sunu was replaced by Vela and Coqeulin by Randall, the former added a bit of pace to our attacks. The atmosphere built slowly, a half chance here and there while the Baggies still carried a threat on the break, Mulumbu showed some talent having replaced Cox midway through the half. In the end the break came when Sanchez Watt's predatory instinct was rewarded after a great Kiely save from an excellent low Vela shot. Vela then capitalised on Randall's excellent chip which bounced back off the bar to leave a relatively simple finish. At the other end another excellent chance for West Brom went begging as Wood shot tamely wide.

Overall the game was turned by that moment of stupidity from Thomas. West Brom's poor finishing combined with Szczesny's excellence kept the sheet clean for our defence, while the game gradually swung in our favour as that extra man counted. Vela added a bit of spice to the attack, while Wilshere was a constant menace. It is amazing just how many talented youngsters we have at our disposal thanks to Arsene's attention to the youth policy, although few of them will make it as first team regulars, nights like this are great for a lot of supporters who cannot get tickets for other matches, while the experience gained by a few of them could prove invaluable in the long term. Well done Arsene and the lads, let's keep our fingers crossed for another home tie in the next round.