Basic misunderstanding of tackling

Luckily Rob Styles' incompetence didn't end up having an impact on the result yesterday, however I'd still like to have a whinge at what I see as the consistently poor refereeing in the Premiership these days. In not wanting to be overly negative, I should quickly praise Mike Dean for correctly sending off Amdy Faye for a shocking tackle in the Stoke-Boro game.

Barton's tackle on Nasri yesterday is a perfect little case study. Kevin Keegan thought it was a good tackle and claimed Barton had done nothing wrong:

"Joey came on, got a good tackle in on Nasri...The fact is that Joey has done nothing wrong."

Even Arseblogger described the tackle as 'quite fair', while this Newcastle blog reckons it was a 'tough' tackle'. I disagree with both these stances and will argue that this tackle was certainly not 'fair', it was also more than just 'tough'.

Firstly Barton's studs were up, secondly he was out of control and had thrown himself into the tackle, and thirdly his leg was pretty much straight. These details make it completely irrelevant as to whether he won the ball or not, it was a dangerous and reckless tackle either way. For example Amdy Faye's tackle may have won the ball, however this doesn't change the fact that it was both dangerous and reckless.

It doesn't particularly matter whether tackles are two footed or not, what matters is the studs being up, the player being launched into the tackle out of control and the leg being straight; all these factors contribute to mean that there will be no give in the tackling player's leg, the give will either come from the tackled player's leg moving, or their bones and ligaments breaking. Hence when the tackled player's leg is fixed by the studs in the turf, this kind of tackle will end careers.

Nasri knew this and was consequently incensed by the malice in Barton's tackle, he did petulantly clip Barton's ankles, an act that was a yellow at worse and was never going to result in any serious damage to the ex-con. In the past Keegan has tried to defend nasty tackles, thus making his out of perspective rants on Nasri seem more than a little absurd. Barton's record speaks for itself, Keving Keegan has a long record of opening his mouth before engaging his brain, and he'd do well to remember that Barton has been given chance after chance after chance, it's not as simple as forgive and forget.

It amazes me that so many people, including so many so called expert TV pundits, seem to think that tackles like this are not fouls. I've seen several this season that referees have not even awarded as fouls which have been potentially career ending challenges, Wayne Rooney versus Newcastle is just one example. Luckily most of the victims of these tackles escape by jumping out of the way or with just a nasty bruise, however a few are not so lucky, Mr Eduardo a case in point. The most frustrating thing is that referees do not seem to be able to pick out the dangerous from the genuinely clumsy, meaning that these tackles are not being stamped out.

This leads to a ridiculous situation where the victim is more frequently punished for dissent or retaliation than their aggressor. It's not that long ago since Bolton unfairly dealt our title hopes a crucial blow at the Reebok, they crocked several of our players with dangerous tackles, none of which resulted in red cards. Anyway I digress, the point is that these kind of tackles are in no way fair, they are definite fouls, and it's about time some people realised this, including the referees. Until this happens, teams that tackle overly aggressively and dangerously will benefit from this poor interpretation of the rules, and that can't be good for football.

Black and white convicts dispatched

What a contrast to last Saturday's efforts or lack of them, a performance full of drive and motivation saw us overcome Newcastle comfortably 3-0. It could have been eight or nine, had our finishing been slightly more clinical; the most comforting thing was the increase in tempo and the way in which everyone worked hard off the ball, pressing and harrying the opposition at every opportunity. I'll try not to mention Rob Styles, he's just a brainless cretin.

Our first came from the spot, a clever piece of trickery from Ade saw him create space for a cross which N'Zogbia raised an arm towards, RVP dispatched the penalty. For the handball it was more a penalty than not, however in the context of Coloccini's clear foul from behind on RVP in the third minute that Styles missed, it definitely seemed fair enough. Eboue was looking lively and was strangely cunning in possession, while Denilson looked so much more comfortable with Cesc back in the mix. Nasri adds so much more than Hleb ever did, his directness and ability to go both ways, make him a great addition to the team. RVP and Ade's work rates were up on a week ago, you need everyone at the races week in week out.

The second came after some fantastic dribbling and then a great one two led by Emmanuel Eboue, we then teed up RVP with a perfectly weighted backheel, RVP couldn't miss and didn't. To be fair to the northerners, they had two decent chances, one scuffed by Owen and the other cleared by the crossbar. However to pretend Newcastle deserved anything out of this game would be foolish and something only done by rather inebriated geordies. Several cracking chances went begging in the second half, but a third was added by the deserving Denilson after some sterling unselfish setup play from Ade.

Despite constantly fouling us in a rather cynical fashion, Newcastle couldn't stop us, however that didn't stop them bringing on the half brained halfwit Joey Barton on for the final few minutes. He was greeted by a chorus of boos and did plenty to justify this vociferous reception. His appalling studs up lunge on Nasri was a disgrace and could easily have been a red card, had Styles not been a brainless cretin, deciding it was not even a foul.

The cheeky Nasri then innocuously clipped Barton's heel, and after much appealing from the horrendously ugly Nicky Butt (a man whose face even his mother cannot bear to look at apparently), Styles produced a yellow for Nasri, that's justice in the Premiership for you. Keegan's pathetic over reaction did him no favours after the final whistle, he should have a very hard look at the scum that his club employ before seeking to criticise the most minor of indiscretions in such a manner.

Today we saw a team performance and that was the deciding factor, there was more precision and less delaying in the final third as well, while Newcastle were not allowed to relax in possession for a second. This was not far off the same Newcastle side that fought for a deserved draw at Old Trafford a couple of weeks back. The defence and the lack of strength in depth in midfield are still areas of concern for me if we are to challenge on all fronts, however I never doubted the massive amount of talent in the players that we already had at the club. I think Emmanuel Eboue could become a rather popular figure if he continues to put in performances like he did today on a regular basis, well done Mr Eboue.

Recovery must continue tomorrow

It's been an eventful week, the performance against FC Twente was certainly an improvement, however given the weakness of the opposition it's hard to get carried away. I was quite amused by some banter from Mark Lawrenson on the box, he was ripping the piss out of Steve McLaren's new dutch accent and what he may have said to his depressed players at half time, whatever he said it certainly seemed doom to failure.

Our squad appears to have gathered a bit of strength since last weekend, with Cesc returning to contention, plus Alex Song should be fully recovered from his jet lag. I am sure we all have a different eleven in mind, there's an interesting choice to be made at the back as Djorou has made a reasonable case for inclusion, while the centre of midfield looks like to be another area of contention again.

I'd stick Alex Song in the holding role, with Cesc playing in his more offensive role, with Walcott and Nasri on the flanks. There is simply no one else who can do the defensive rock job, Denilson and Cesc would be far too lightweight, while we all know that Eboue is no centre mid. I'd also be strangely tempted to stick Bendtner and Adebayor up front together, RVP has been firing blanks and I think the two big lads might just keep the Toon defenders a bit more occupied.

I've lost hope of Arsene flashing the cash in the last few minutes of the transfer window, so that probably means he'll be bringing in someone we've never heard of. Newcastle will certainly be a much sterner test that Mclaren's minnows were, and personally I think some knives will be out if Arsene does not deliver three points onto the table, that's football for you these days. The old saying that you make a bit of your own luck is a very true one, as the thread bare nature of our squad in the centre of midfield makes clear.

Stop Press - Champions League Draw

Arsenal face Porto, Fenerbahce and Dynamo Kiev in the first round group stage.

I'm not sure which order the games are played in, but Match day one is 16/17 September.

For those who, like me, were mumbling through "We're on our way..." last night, the final is in Rome this year. Should make a nice trip.....

FC Twente - Done

Arsenal's 6-0 aggregate win looks great in the papers this morning, but lets not be fooled by it. They never posed a threat and in true Gordon Ramsay style, they were "blitzed" "griddled" and "done".

At 2-0 down from the first leg, and then conceding a goal to Nasri on 26 minutes, FC Twente basically were going out and had nothing to lose. So did Schteve Mschclaren let them off the leash? No they sat back in some form of damage limitation exercise and did absolutely nothing. What an idiot Schteve is.

So, what about Arsenal? Well, the goals were all quite good and there are some positives to take from the performance. First and foremost, we are twice the team with Cesc back. He is so involved in the game, so many nice touches that just keep things ticking over. Djourou also played well, but that was not hard given that he had nothing to do. I'm not sure if Kolo was injured, rested or dropped, but with Big Phil currently boarding his Ryanair flight to Milan, it looks like AW has backed Djourou to play a lot more this season.

Couple of talking points. First, Block 6 were on good form last night. The new chants for "You've only come to see Eboue", "Theo Walcott - The Englishman at Arsenal" and the "Eduardo" sea-shanty were top. However, its a shame that the other 50,000 thousand odd who turned up can't be bothered to sing. At all. Its an even bigger shame that so many people did not turn up in the first place. You are not customers, you are supporters. So support your team. The FC Twente fans put you to shame.

Secondly, and back to the action, Nikky Bendtner was not at his best. He scored a goal after a great back-heel by Denilson, but otherwise he was poor. The ball was not doing what he wanted last night but I'm not too worried about it. He is really our 4th choice striker behind RVP, Ade and Eduardo, assuming everyone is fit and available, and as a 4th choice striker he looks like someone with a lot of potential. He is clearly miles better that Aliadiere ever was.

Thirdly, I really quite liked the shape of the midfield in the second half. Theo switched to the left, Eboue came on the right, Alex Song and Denilson played the last 30 minutes in the middle. Now, bearing in mind that FC Twente were cack I'm not going to get carried away, but Theo has been poor down the right recently whereas playing down the left lets him cut in and shoot (and score a rather good goal). The much-maligned Eboue was actually quite effective. In fact, once you cut out all the play acting and diving, he is an extremely good footballer. Problem is, he is a play acting diver. But that's no excuse for booing him. To those that did - read point one above.

Fourthly, and that leaves Alex Song. He's big, strong and according to Theo, the thickest man at Arsenal. His 30 minutes did no harm whatsoever for his chances of being the enforcer to play behind Cesc.

Despite all the recent doom and gloom, a midfield of Nasri-Cesc-Song-Rosicky might just do something (especially when you consider that leaves Theo, Eboue, Denilson and Diaby as cover). Only problem is the only time you are likely to see it will be on your Playstations.

Lets hope we can carry some of last night's improved performance through to Saturday against the Toon.

Cracks in Arsene's foundations?

Life is certainly not black and white, and as I am becoming increasingly confused and bemused about goings on at Arsenal I am finding it impossible to see things with much clarity at the moment. Le Boss has been defending his captain:

"We did not play well as a team, everybody knows that and William is no more guilty than anybody else"

William is the club captain, I'd argue that he should be more responsible than any other player for the motivation of his troops. Le Boss has also been talking more about the defeat:

"When you have an away game, it can happen that you are caught for 20 or 30 minutes. But I know my squad is good, my team is good, our spirit is good. We are intelligent enough to know we did not play well , but we know as well we have the needed quality to respond."

“Your desire is to play well and win. No matter how much experience you have, if you don’t play well you have more chances to lose than to win.”

Arsene is a great manager, however some of these comments betray a slightly twisted perspective on events in my eyes. We were not caught for 20 or 30 minutes, we were poor for virtually the whole ninety. Experience can sometimes be very useful, obviously having a team of geriatrics is not a good idea, but having too many inexperienced kids without the old heads can sometimes reduce one's chances of getting the win.

I would have rubbished articles like this a few months ago, however having seen several experienced players leave without being replaced, I am starting to agree with certain strands of the logic used. I genuinely expected some experience to be brought in this summer and now it sadly looks as if it won't be happening.

In my opinion our squad is most definitely not 'strong' in certain areas, bringing in Silvestre and getting rid of the dedicated big Phil seems to be something that is rather incomprehensible to many others as well as I. Arsene is no God, he's proven himself to be a rather handy manager over the years, so much so that his mistakes have been remarkably rare. However I can't help but notice that he's given us a few good reasons to begin to doubt him of late, the Gallas captaincy, our inability to defend simple aerial balls, our obvious weakness in the centre of midfield, Eboue as a first choice right midfielder, to name but a few.

I hope Arsene proves me wrong. It has also been pointed out to me that maybe our finances are not quite as solid as the club would have us believe, there is precious little evidence behind this rumour though. No matter how hard I try to ignore these doubts about Arsene, they simply will not go away. I have enormous respect for the principles that he adheres to, the beautiful football and fair play. However practically I just think we look too small and too weak to win the Premiership this time around, we can still out football anyone on our day, but do we really have the ability to keep clean sheets and grind out one nils on those bitterly cold November nights up North?

Reading into the reaction

I'm not quite as angry as I was on Saturday, the rage has now become more a feeling of let down and disappointment, interestingly the Fulham goal has since been shown to have been offside. Some interesting words have been spoken since the Fulham game which do throw some light on what exactly went on. Emmanuel Adebayor had this to say:

"We saw that as soon as we don't play together, as soon as we don't put our spirit together, we can lose....We have to put more heart in, keep focused and play our football."

The question is why did we not play 'together', why was the spirit not there and why was there no heart in the performance? It was our second game of the season, there should not have been this obvious lack of motivation and desire. Losing is one thing, losing in that manner was not acceptable for many of us Arsenal fans. Even Arsene had to own up to the lacklustre nature of the team's performance, while he claimed that buying is not always the solution:

"I believe they wanted it a bit more than us in the first half, when you want to play at the top you must start the game with the right attitude and personality. Fulham started stronger and were sharper. The corner showed that we were not sharp enough. The mistake we made on the corner is not excusable."

“When you lose a game the solution is not always to buy”

As Goodplaya points out, we have a rather gaping chasm in the centre of our midfield, Flamini, Diarra and Gilberto have simply not been replaced. Buying is not always the solution, however in this situation it appears to be a very good solution.

This is most definitely the case if Song is to be deployed as a centre back, and not in centre midfield; personally I will be disappointed if this is the case, Song has the strength, drive and passing ability to be able to dominate games from the centre of midfield. I'm with Goodplaya who thinks that we need a more dominant and commanding centre back, someone who will take no prisoners, Gallas seems to be struggling at the moment.

Hopefully this defeat will be the kick up the arse that some of our players so badly needed, I hope we do not have to endure such a lacklustre performance again this season. It's easy to make the likes of Emmanuel Eboue the scapegoats, however in doing this we are simply living in denial, many of our bigger names were not at the races on Saturday, for example a certain Robin Van Persie. The summer has seen endless speculation about greedy footballers angling for pay rises, it's about bloody time that these men started to earn their salaries. I can take defeat, but I cannot take defeat without blood, sweat and tears.

PS it appears that big Phil Senderos is off to Milan for a year's loan, I can't help but feel sorry for big Phil who has been unfairly scapegoated at times; he's been a very consistent performer in my opinion, I certainly feel that many Gallas and Toure errors have been brushed under the carpet while big Phil has been relatively harshly treated. Is it really wise to be letting such a valuable squad player go with a gruelling season ahead, let's hope Silvestre can stay fit!