Midfielders who can defend - are we short?

1997/8 - Vieira, Petit and Parlour

2001/2 - Vieira, Parlour, Van Bronckhorst, Edu, Grimandi

2003/4 - Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Edu, Parlour

These are the midfielders who could defend that we had in the squad when we won our league titles under Arsene. You will notice that there is a bit of a contrast with our current squad in terms of defensive midfield options.

We have Alex Song who has been outstanding for a year now, but without him we really struggle to fill the holding role. Diaby is the only other midfielder in the squad who I believe is capable of the role, but bizarrely we saw Denilson fielded there against Everton, maybe Arsene just doesn't want to lose Diaby's forward drive by playing him too deep. I don't think he has much of a choice given Denilson's lack of defensive ability.

It's something we've discussed a lot here in the past but we are just too clean a side at the moment. You need someone to be slightly cynical, to take down that man with a little clip of the ankles just as he is breaking through the midfield area, to take the yellow cards for the team on occasion. Many of the greatest sides have these kinds of players, the Mascheranos of this world are not popular with neutrals of the game but they are damn effective. I just wonder if we've become too soft and too nice a team. Am I rambling or do I have a point?

Everton - known problems highlighted....again

I reviewed the Everton game in full in the cold light of day to try and see just where things are going wrong at the moment, sometimes it's easier to see things more clearly when the emotional dust has settled. It is irrelevant whether we 'deserved' the draw or not, what does this mean anyway, I've never really understood. On the balance of play overall a draw was a fair result. What I think it is important to look at is why did Everton look so imposing against us and why did they create so many decent chances.

General tactical variation/Pace/Width/Everton. I thought that Everton would play the game very much a la Aston Villa, defending solidly with numbers behind the ball and playing on the counter. This was indeed the case and our game plan played into their hands, we had a lot of possession in front of them but didn't open them up often enough. Everton played very well and Moyes got the tactics spot on. The sad thing is that we don't really have the players to adapt our tactics, we don't have the electrifying pace in the side that we once had and consequently we are not as good on the counter as we once were. Look at our front six players and tell me how many of them have raw pace, exactly. Other than our full backs we often have no width and width is often the key in breaking down sides who defend with a lot of men behind the ball.

Basic defending. The first goal saw Osman have a completely free run at his header from a corner, this just shouldn't happen. A lot of criticism has come the way of Manuel Almunia and he is definitely having a shaky period, but a lot of the criticism coming his way is undeserved. He made a great save to keep us in the game at 2-1, and the abuse he's had from some quarters for the Pienaar goal is ridiculous. The fact that we have very few players who are tall and dominant in the air is a bit of a problem, Manuel should not be made the scapegoat for our systemic aerial failings.

Defending as a team. Everton gave our players far less time on the ball than we afforded to them. They pressed and harried us all over the pitch, they didn't give us time to settle on the ball, this was a stark contrast to the amount of time and space some Everton players found themselves in at times. Traore was caught out positionally a few times, no wonder he's a young inexperienced left back, but he had no help at all from our midfield. The Pienaar goal was poor, Traore was left on his own at the back for a corner, the other defenders were all far too slow to come back and no one covered their absence other than a very tired Samir Nasri, there was so little defensive armour for Everton to cut through, this was bad organisation and cavalier.

Lightweight in midfield. Denilson was knocked off the ball far too easily, as was Ramsey but to a lesser extent, Diaby was our only midfielder with a physical presence. Denilson just isn't a holding player, he cannot defend, he is very easy to drift past one on one, he doesn't anticipate danger, he doesn't track back and mark people tightly, it's just not a role he will ever do well. Nasri and Eduardo tracked back well, Arshavin didn't do much defensively that I noticed. The balance in our squad is all wrong, we have so many attacking ball players, but so few workers with a physical presence. Without Song this lack of balance is ever more blatant.

Players out of position. Eduardo should play centrally, he is always a threat in and around the box, he is quite handy when receiving the ball with his back to goal too. Conversely Arshavin is not a central striker, he needs to be in the inside forward channels, he is much better running with the ball at defenders than receiving the ball with his back to goal. As already stated Denilson cannot defend well enough to fill Song's boots in the holding role. Diaby is our only current player that can play the Song role, the problem is that you would lose him as an attacking threat.

One should always keep things in perspective, it was not a dreadful performance by any means, I am deliberately being negative in my analysis to point out where we need to improve. Everton were excellent and are a much better side than their position of 12th suggests. The thing is if we are seriously claiming we have a chance of the title this year than we need to do better than we did on Saturday. The striker shortage is a bit of a red herring for me, having RVP or Bendtner yesterday wouldn't have made a great deal of a difference, they wouldn't have had the service.

I see our main problems as our tactical naivety, our lack of ability to soak up pressure by defending solidly as a team and then kill teams with the pacey counter attack, our ability to only play one way. Our lack of defensive solidity is as a result of a complex set of factors, our midfield being too lightweight is a big part of it though. It will be very hard to remedy these problems in January, the frustrating thing is that these problems were obvious in the summer.

Lucky Arsenal escape with a point

A chill wind blew threw the Emirates this afternoon and of the 50,000 odd thousand there (the official attendance is ticket sales not turnstiles), only the foolhardy will disagree that Arsenal were lucky to escape with a 2-2 draw.

The line-up was generally as expected, with Denilson, Diaby and Ramsey in the middle trio, leaving Nasri, Eduardo and Arshavin the so-called strike force. I don't know if minds were elsewhere, and I was told after the game that Diaby and Sagna used to play in France with one of the Togolese players who was shot (get well soon), but Arsenal were in disarray for most of the first 45 minutes.

Everton, to their credit, also played very well. Fellaini was immense in midfield, Cahill equally impressive in a more forward role in attack and then neatly tucking back into midfield defensive duties when required. I was also impressed that more than half of the Everton team wore short sleeves in the freezing temperatures - Fellaini about their only player with a pair of gloves - these Scousers were up for it and Diaby, Denilson and Ramsey were simply eaten for breakfast.

Denilson, in particular, could scarcely have had a worse match, his deflected goal after 27 mins one of the few things he got away with. He was miles off the pace, constantly caught in possession, inaccurate with his passing, and useless defensively.

Nasri perhaps did slightly better than average first half out on the right week, but Eduardo cuts a forlorn figure out on the left. AW has a history of playing strikes on the left wing, particularly if they are left footed, and memories of RVP's miserable six months last year out on the wing came flooding back. Arshavin barely touched the ball, the tiny Russian is wasted up front on his own, and without someone like Cesc to link with, he was lost in the ice. Its obvious to everyone apart from AW that Eduardo has to play in the middle. It seems to be one of AW's tics to make players play where the don't want to.

Anyway, the second half showed glimmers of improvement. Arsenal seem to have a mentality of saving themselves for second half performances at the moment. AW brought Nasri's work rate back into the midfield trio, pushing Ramsey into the forward right slot. Diaby seemed to warm slightly to his task, Tommy V thumped one chance into Lucas Neil, and there were a couple of good crosses from Sagna and Traore that Eduardo (now more central) almost got on the end of.

But Arsenal were over-committing forwards all over the pitch, and without anyone in midfield with Song's nose for danger, or his ability to track runners, there were several awkward moments in the game when Everton had several players free and would be in on goal if the right ball was played. That chance fell easily for Pienaar after 81 mins, when with Denilson in the early death throws of an injury, Everton broke from a corner and put Pienaar through by himself from the half way line, with Nasri desperately closing down the 10 yard headstart, before the South African chipped a glorious finish over Almunia (who was generally at his flappy worst).

Frankly, Everton were good for their 2-1 lead, but as soon as we restarted, Denilson decided to continue his odd performance by collapsing to the ground, leaving the Evertonians to charge through on goal again, only for an excellent block by Senor Flappy to deny them.

Now, Denilson was clearly injured and it was unfortunate for him, but he really had it coming. He took a heavy blow from Neville (who else?) on about 75 mins and lay motionless in their box for a couple of minutes, before rising to his feat, trotting to the side lines with the physio, and then coming straight back on. However, with his back injury clearly still an issue, he was now the walking wounded.

It was Denilson who had patrol of the middle of the pitch from our corner on 80 mins, and when Pienaar brushed passed him, the young Brazilian looked a geriatric and didn't bother to even try and chase him. Denilson had not even made the half way line when Pienaar scored.

But still Denilson didn't say to the bench "I'm fucked. I need a hot bath and a massage". No way siree. He had other ideas. Like collapsing motionless again and seeing if Everton could score a third.

Now I am sorry if this all sounds a bit anti-Denilson, because I like the kid and there were a least three others out there who had stinkers (namely Arshavin, Diaby, Eduardo if you're still interested), but it was so damn frustrating. Everton, in truth, had not fashioned a great deal second half in terms of good chances, and to give Denilson his due, I think he was tried to shrug of the Neville challenge and play through the pain. But that was a bad error of judgment in hindsight.

But lets hope this was a Denilson blip, because we are going to chuffing well need him to turn up against Stoke, Bolton and Manure in the next few weeks.

Thankfully, however, this little horror story has a decent enough ending, as Rosicky's 20 minute cameo was probably enough to make him my man of the match, just ahead of Nasri. And Lucky Arsenal picked a few passes in the 92 second minute and Rosicky's deflected goal earned us a point we barely deserved. For all the wrong reasons for Arsenal, it was a great game of football.

Everton, other news and a letter

The snow hasn't scuppered today's fixture against Everton, touch wood, there's no doubt that today's game will be a tough test despite the ease with which we dispatched David Moyes' side on the opening day of the season. I'd expect Eduardo to lead the line, Rosicky may start, Andrei Arshavin and Denilson will return to the eleven, so I'd see the starting eleven as something like: Almunia; Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Traore; Denilson, Diaby, Ramsey; Arshavin, Eduardo, Rosicky. Everton will be dangerous, as always they will have their threats from midfield in Cahill, Fellaini and Pienaar, it will be very important that these runs are tracked from midfield, the pacey Landon Donovan may get his debut due to Everton's striker shortage.

The good news on the injury front is that Nicklas Bendtner suffered no setbacks on his return to training on friday and hopefully he can make it back to competitive action in a couple of weeks or so. Sadly Rhys Murphy has suffered a serious ankle injury that will take him several months to get over, obviously we wish him all the best as he contemplates a long spell in the treatment room. Interestingly Arsene was more than a little coy when talking of Sol Campbell's situation.

The article I wrote yesterday on Barcelona's unethical courting of Cesc Fabregas has stirred up a bit of controversy, I know it was a bit over the top in its language but for me that got across just how frustrated a lot of Arsenal fans are with the behaviour of these arrogant clubs. Arsene has today revealed that he wrote a letter to Real and Barca about their behaviour:

"What they speak about in Madrid or Barcelona, how can we influence that? We wrote them a letter. We do not say that Messi and Kaka will sign next week here. If one day we want to sell a player and they are interested they can call us. They don't need to go through a newspaper. [I wrote the letter] a long time ago to say we are not ready to sell any of our players. I don't remember when but they did not write back."

One thing I find amusing about all this is how Real and Barca detest each other so much but they are so remarkable similar. Arsene explains how the election system of Spanish clubs leads to the increased amount of baseless speculation in the media about players, this may partly explain why the big Spanish clubs are so bad but it doesn't justify it to any degree. The fact that Madrid and Barca never responded demonstrates the rank lack of class of these two arrogant clubs. The arguments used by their fans that try to justify the behaviour of their clubs are nothing but weak and tired. Arseblogger has found a copy of the letter (NSFW).

Frankly I don't care if they are not used to hearing criticism of their precious clubs because their domestic media is so full of propaganda that keeps the fans of the big fans reading the propaganda that they want to read. The calls of 'hypocrisy' are incredibly weak and not one single example has been cited which demonstrates Arsenal to have acted in the unethical ways as Barca and Real have done repeatedly. The facts are clear and Laporta has repeatedly acted in a way which is not right and proper, his words have been a disgrace and if Barca fans are not embarrassed then that says a lot about them. Barca are a great club in many ways, I just find it rather disappointing that they see it as acceptable to behave in this way and then point the finger of blame everywhere but at themselves when the facts are pointed out to them.

Finally the story about gunmen attacking the Togo team bus in Angola puts a lot of this into perspective. The driver was killed and nine others were injured. It must have been a truly terrifying experience for anyone involved. If I were a Togo player or any other African player there would be no way in the world that I would hang around in Angola and risk my life for a football tournament, it calls into question whether the whole thing should be cancelled now. After all if anything else happens after this incident, it will now be seen as something that was very preventable indeed. In my opinion the tournament should be cancelled, I even agree with Phil Brown for once, blood will be on FIFA's hands if anything further occurs.

Barcelona FC: an embarrassment to humanity and football

There is no point in having rules if they are not enforced, this is a chunk of FIFA's 2009 edition of the rules and regulations concerning the transfer of players:

"A club intending to conclude a contract with a professional must inform the
player’s current club in writing before entering into negotiations with him. A
professional shall only be free to conclude a contract with another club if his
contract with his present club has expired or is due to expire within six months.
Any breach of this provision shall be subject to appropriate sanctions."

It is strange that FIFA are so keen to punish Chelsea by enforcing the rules concerning the protection of minors that is set out in the very same set of FIFA rules and regulations. The behaviour of Barca and other Spanish clubs in attempting to unsettle our captain Cesc Fabregas has been quite appalling and arguably outside the rules set out by FIFA. Here are the Barca President Joan Laporta's, a girl's name incidentally, latest words:

"Cesc Fabregas is desired by us for many reasons. Barcelona have decided to fight for the kid for next season. The money? This will be decided at the end of March to prepare the way for a deal.
Cesc is such a big player. Our intention is to convince the Londoners about the sale. It won't be easy but we have good relations with the Gunners."

Good relations with the Gunners, I wonder where Joan gets this from, judging by Peter Hill-Wood's latest comments I think Joan he is losing touch with reality:

"I am really p****d off with Barcelona and all that nonsense.....It is not the first time they have done this and it is a most disrespectful and tiresome thing to do. You would think there would be some action you could take against them, but I suppose you cannot stop the man shooting his mouth off."

Laparta has been caught punching below the belt time and time again. Arseblogger had it nailed on with his exclusive on Laporta's personality and family history. The baseless speculation continues in the Spanish media and I am sure most of us can put up with a bit of rumour or gossip. However what we should not have to put up with is a football club's President repeatedly openly stating a desire to sign one of our players who is tied to a long term contract.

The FIFA rules and regulations are inadequate in my eyes. If a club cannot speak to a player of another club who is under a long term contract with that club before it has been mutually agreed between the two clubs; then it clearly should not be within the rules to openly state one's desire to sign the players of another club. Obviously this would lead to grey areas, fine everything does, for example if a manager simply talked of his admiration for a particular player then this would be perfectly acceptable. What I find completely unacceptable is the behaviour of Barcelona and Joan Laporta, they should be punished for their complete lack of manners and flagrant disrespect for the rights of other clubs and players.

FIFA are a pathetic bunch of corrupt crooks in my opinion. Real Madrid spent years illegally tapping up Ronaldo and FIFA did precisely nothing about it. The Premier League had the balls to nail Chelsea for illegally tapping up Ashley Cole, but even though the Premier League has much more bite than FIFA, they have their problems as the tapping up must be reported by the club that was sinned against, meaning that the sinners can escape punishment by paying the sinned against off, as in the Frank Arnesen tapping up scandal when he was poached by Chelsea. The Hleb tapping up affair was another case of the clubs being able to escape without punishment due to the weak rules that are never enforced. There have been numerous other recent cases in which no punishment was dished out for blatant offences, Berbatov to Manu, RVN to Manu and on and on.

Unless the governing bodies FIFA and UEFA get their acts together then the big unethical bullies like Barca and Real will continue to ride roughshod over what is good and proper. If the rules don't allow for punishing clubs for the blatant tapping up of under contract players, then the rules need changing. It's already a world for the big boys with the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer, if this carries on then it is only football that will suffer in the long run as the competition dries up. One thing I will never forget is Barca's behaviour throughout this whole Cesc affair, for the rest of my life I will ensure that no money of mine ever makes it anyway near that damn football club.

The return of a legend - PV4

As legends go PV4 is one of the biggest that I've had the pleasure to watch play for the Arsenal, I remember his debut at home to Sheffield Wednesday vividly to this day, he came on and changed the game, his raw athleticism and silky skills combined to devastating effect, back then this kind of player just wasn't known to the English game. He was one of Arsene's very first signings and one of the best. From that moment PV4 proceeded to cement himself as one of the greatest central midfielders in world football with several outstanding years of trophy winning at Arsenal. He had everything, he was strong, quick, an excellent dribbler, a brilliant defender, he never gave up and always gave his all, not a bad shot on him either. He left at the age of 30 and many of us were gutted at the time, but in retrospect it looks a very wise piece of business.

Paddy has won three Serie A titles whilst with Inter Milan, that is not the whole story though, he has barely managed fifty appearances for Inter in the last three and a half years, he has been dogged by injury and is clearly not the player he once was. He is now on the verge of joining Manchester City on an 18 month deal. I feel rather apathetic at the move if I'm honest. It is sad to see PV4 return to these shores because I don't really want to see him play here for someone else, I also don't want to see such a legend struggling on the pitch because he is not the midfield titan than he once was. In Italy he was out of sight out of mind as it were, as his performances faded it was so far away that it didn't affect my memory of the man. I wish Paddy well, and I will try to forget what he does in a Man City shirt as rapidly as possible.

Elsewhere the transfer rumour mill is producing some absolutely hilarious rubbish. Another good reason for getting rid of this stupid transfer window nonsense is that it would mean that we'd only have a summer silly season, not a bloody winter one too. It seems to be the time of year for Club chairmen and agents to start spouting drivel in order to make a quick buck. 40 million Euros for Zarate, you're having a laugh guv'! Gonzalo Higuain from Madrid, you are a bloody hallucinating nutter in the need of some serious medication. Tomas Rosicky is back for Everton, as are Denilson and Andrei Arshavin. Everton at home, I can't wait.

Bolton fans have not been given another reason to hate us as the Pope hates the devil, we have refunded anyone stupid enough to travel down to London to watch Bolton play Arsenal (that's a joke to any Bolton fans reading). The rumour is that the game was actually cancelled because Kevin Davies forgot his cushioned elbow pads which he is obliged to wear by law, this stems back to a hospital visit when Kevin took a young child's head off 'by accident', since then the protective gear is mandatory for any non footballing activity where the public may be at risk.

Team of the Decade - Andy Gray eat your soulless heart out

With the game being cancelled last night and only transfer rumours in the news, I am resorting to the completely pointless task of creating teams of the decade. Andy Gray has inspired me to come up with a Premiership team of the decade, not because I think Andy Gray's opinion deserves one iota of respect; no, this is a man who changes the rules for different teams, he is the little dog that sits on Rupert Murdoch's lap telling him exactly what he wants to hear and doing some rather explicit things too I hear. Take his team of the decade for example, the fact that he has the immensely average Gary Neville in it tells it all, quite frankly enough said. Looking at it there have been plenty of other teams of the decade, Henry Winter's, Phil McNulty's, Tony Cascarino's, the Wail's, and many more I'm sure.

In fact virtually all of the above 'teams of the noughties' included Gary Neville and Steven Gerrard. Call be a biased Gooner, but Gary Neville has never been anything but a solid player, he's never looked good against top wingers, he's never looked outstanding at an international level, he's a hard working pro who's made the most of limited ability, he is just in there by default, there haven't been that many outstanding right backs this decade. Now to Steven Gerrard, if ever there was an over-hyped Englishman whose bark is louder than his bite then it is this man, he can be outstanding on his day, but his day comes far too erratically and infrequently, fluking an undeserved European Cup is about the sum total of this lad's achievements, he's been consistently woeful for England, has gone missing in numerous games for Liverpool and is a utter scumbag.

In order to get around the problems that other people have had in naming their teams, I am going to have a big fat hole at right back to signify that there has not been one outstanding player in that position who has performed for long enough over the decade to deserve the slot, I will therefore have an extra slot in the midfield.

Goalkeeper - Brad Friedel is my pick. A fantastically consistent performer and I just can't think of anyone better. Cech is error prone and only had a couple of great years, Given is a very good keeper but has never maintained the consistency of Friedel, I'd love to give it to Jens but that wouldn't be fair.

Right Back - Not Gary Neville. Bacary Sagna is the best right back around but has simply not plied his trade here for long enough.

Centre Backs - Sol Campbell and Rio Ferdinand. Vidic came close while Terry is an unpleasant one-paced bully and would never get into any team of mine. Sol Campbell in his prime was simply a brick wall, Rio Ferdinand until his injury woes was an exceptional all round player.

Left Back - Ashley Cole. To select this man given his complete lack of class shows how good a footballer he is, enough said.

Central midfield - Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane. These two titans would make a fantastic pair, assuming they didn't try to eat each other. Gerrard is too erratic and has never done enough at a Premiership level, Lampard has never stood out as a great footballer to me despite his great goalscoring abilities, Scholes can't be far off selection in anyone's book.

Attacking midfielders - Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs and Robert Pires. Ronaldo was brilliant despite all the cheating. Giggs is a rather unique player, so silky and such a natural understanding of the game. Bobby was one of our best players ever, such a seamless worker, so much ability and so consistently a match winner, such a shame we didn't keep him longer.

Strikers - Thierry Henry and Didier Drogba. Henry's record speaks for itself, a player who could take apart the very best defenders without even looking like he was trying, also an incredible creator of goals. Drogba, like Ronaldo, is an idiot on the pitch but at the same time he routinely wins games on his own, simply an unstoppable juggernaut when on form. It is hard not to put Dennis Bergkamp in there but he peaked in the late nineties, he was outstanding in the early noughties but I just can't quite sneak him in there.

Friedel

(Empty slot dedicated to the Gary Neville moustache) Ferdinand Campbell Cole

Ronaldo Vieira Keane Giggs Pires

Drogba Henry

So that's my team of the decade. What a pointless exercise it is compiling these imaginary teams, still it does pass the time. It's got me thinking about my Arsenal team of the decade. I'd probably go for: Lehmann; Sagna, Keown, Campbell, Cole; Ljungberg, Vieira, Cesc, Pires; Bergkamp, Henry. Let the debate begin.