Tag: Arsenal

Cazorla/Le Coq better than FlamBo? Enter CoqRam as DM-pivot!

TotalArsenal

The combination of Flamini and Rambo – FlamBo –Ramini – FlamRam – has been criticised by more than just a few over the last few weeks. This has been accompanied by a somewhat romantic longing for the pairing of le Coq and Cazorla – the Wall of Coca. There is a view that we played better and more compact when CoCa was owning the midfield, with stronger defensive coverage of our Back-4, a better passing game in midfield and better linkage with our attack.

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Flam is regarded as not athletic and mobile enough and Rambo not disciplined enough to really make the double DM pivot work. I reckon there is scope for improvement for the FlamRam combo but in general they performed very well. We are lucky to have Flam as back up for Le Coq: he is experienced and passionate and can still be a pretty good DM on the day. However, he can no longer do this on a constant basis and we have asked too much of him recently. I am hoping that Elneny can also play as our DM and then we should have enough coverage for this pivotal role.

Rambo has been playing in the most difficult position in the team for the last few weeks. The B2B midfield position requires a great set of skills and athleticism as well as a gigantic football brain. I think we can all see the potential of Aaron in this role, and he is not far off from claiming it as his, but he is still performing under par at the moment. His runs into the box are great, his industry next to Flam and in front of the back four is exemplary, and his thrust forward is inspiring: he makes things happen. However, his decision making and passing are still a bit off and his eagerness to go forward is not always balanced by his anticipation of the apparent risks of doing so – leaving big gaps behind that got exploited on more than one occasion.

There is a consensus that Le Coq is the clear numero uno DM over Le Flam. So when the younger Frenchman is fit, he should play, and luckily he is back in training and getting close to a return in the first team.

But what if Santi and Rambo are both fully fit: who should play next to Le Monstre de Coq?

Santi is better at protecting and passing the ball and picking a pass from deep; Rambo is better defensively and can take the ball with him from defence into midfield and attack – he also can make those box to box runs a lot better. Both Santi and Rambo need a good left midfielder and left full back to play at their very best. It is fair to say that the Welshman had to play with a far less effective passing player in Theo, rather than Alexis, on the left in recent games. The return of sexy Alexis is good news for all, but especially for Rambo and Ozil, and I reckon we will see a big difference in the performances of both players from now on (compared to most recent games).

I am looking forward to Santi’s return, but, in the meantime, let’s see how the Coq-Ram combination works out once the Frenchman is ready to play. I have a feeling that we will see a step improvement in our midfield AND attacking play, especially now that Alexis is also back in the team.

It would look like this:

————————- Le Coq —– Rambo—————————-

Campbell———————-Mesut—————————-Alexis

——————————-Giroud/Theo——————————

And once Santi is fit, we can use him as a super-sub for a number of midfield positions, or put him in the B2B role and move Rambo into Campbell’s position. All would work for me and makes me feel confident that we can field a winning team in the remaining big matches in PL and CL this season.

On top of this, we can look forward to seeing Elneny in action and make some early judgments what his best position might be. The next FA cup game against Burnley comes at the right time in this respect and let’s hope we will see him and a few other fresh faces on the pitch.

By TotalArsenal.

Who Needs New Midfielders: Wenger’s Strongest Midfield in 2016

TotalArsenal

I know  you are all scanning the Newsnow Arsenal news aggregator and other media to find out whether we have finally signed Elneny now or any other new players. I must admit to also look regularly even though I don’t expect Arsene to buy anybody this month (other than Elneny).

The key issue for our manager is not lack of quality in the squad but availability of his players. The loss to injury of Le Coq and Santi made us all worried about our strength in depth in midfield, especially with Rosicky, Arteta (till recently) and Jack also out. However, we coped really well and even managed to move ahead of our opponents during the busy festive season. Flamini has been good, Chambers offers a glimpse of hope as a potential DM and Rambo is getting better by every game.

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Thanking BBC for picture.

If all players are fit there is so much quality available for our midfield that Wenger could give himself more problems than he would wish for by buying more midfielders. Let’s assume that Rosicky, Arteta and Flamini will all leave this summer as their contracts will end then, and that Elneny will finally be signed and introduced to the squad this month. This still leaves us with: Rambo, Jack, Ozil, Santi, Le Coq, Elneny, Chambers, Campbell and the Ox as well as a few youngsters who are showing promise either on loan or in the Reserve Team.

I reckon we have four midfield spots available, assuming that Wenger will regularly play a midfielder on one of the ‘mid-wings’ rather than two more typical wingers i.e. Theo and Alexis. This gives us more balance and defensive robustness, especially against the tougher opponents. Four spots for nine pretty brilliant, either established or promising, talents, and that is excluding the promising youths who are knocking on the first team door louder and louder.

If all are fit, it will be hard for Wenger to leave one of Rambo, Jack, Ozil, Santi and Le Coq out; yet, he cannot play them all, unless we revert back to 4-5-1-like possession football. It looks like Wenger has changed the style of play to 4-2-1-3 or 4-1-4-1, depending on how you look at it; therefore a return to 4-5-1 is less likely.

It all comes down to what we do with the box to box midfielder position – the one next to the ‘classical DM’. With Santi next to Le Coq (or Flamini) we have a lower team centre of gravity, as Santi is less mobile but very able to connect midfield with attack through making space for himself and playing a great attacking ball in a flash. With Rambo next to the Le Coq or Flamini we have a typical, Gerrard-like and Lampard-like, box to box midfielder who motors up and down to find space and fill gaps, and connect with his fellow midfielders and attackers continuously all over the pitch.

Ozil surely is our first choice man in the hole in 2016. The only one who would be capable of dethroning the bionic German is Jack, but for that he will need to stay fit and get in the form of his life, which we all know is a big ask currently. Let’s face it, a fit Ozil is a given.

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To get the best out of Ozil we need a perfect balance between mobility and anchor points – even though these anchor points need to be mobile as well, albeit it less vertical and more horizontal.

The two anchor points above the defence are the holding DM – think Le Coq – and the holding CF – think Ollie. We could opt to play with a fluid/mobile CF or no holding DM but two all-round central midfielders, and Wenger has definitely been experimenting with both scenarios over the last couple of years. It would not surprise me if we end up without a holding DM or a holding CF as our plan-A eventually, or maybe even without both, but I don’t think we will see this happen in the first half of 2016 at least. What is interesting is that Elneny is described as a holding midfielder who can play football as well, which could be an indication that we are moving towards two footballing midfielders in the double DM-pivot rather sooner than later.

The big question for now is: does Ozil function better with Santi or Rambo next to the holding DM. Both have their merits and Rambo is the most complete midfielder we have in the squad, other than Jack perhaps. With Santi and Jack out injured, Wenger does not have to worry about this question a lot, but when they are all back it will be a challenge for him. We are, however, lucky to have such a quality dilemma to be resolved, although adding more midfielders could really complicate things. Competition is good but too much of it could become counterproductive.

I hear the likes of FL08 say that rotation is the answer to using the available quality as best as possible… and they have a point. If all are fit, it is still tempting to have an established first eleven in which some play almost constantly and others provide an opportunity for resting them. Most managers will opt for this as the benefits of a cohesive and telepathically connecting first eleven are huge. But, given the large number of injuries in midfield and the quality of players available, we really need to rotate more; and then do it in such a way that we don’t lose much, if any, of the cohesion and telepathy an unambiguous first choice eleven would bring.

For the DM role we have: Le Coq, Elneny, Chambers(?), Bielik etc

For the B2B role we have: Rambo, Santi, Jack and the Ox

For the man in the hole we have: Ozil, Jack, Santi, Ox/Iwobi/Zelalem???

If all are fit for say the Barcelona game (which I know is very unlikely), or our likely PL championship decider against Citeh at the end of the season, I would be tempted to play:

—————Le Coq—Santi—————-

Rambo————-Ozil—————-Alexis

—————Theo/Giroud——————

But I would also get excited playing:

————–Le Coq—Rambo—————-

Jack—————Ozil—————-Alexis

—————Theo/Giroud——————

Or what about:

————–Rambo—Jack—————–

Campbell————-Ozil—————Alexis

————–Theo/Giroud——————–

Elneny, (Campbell), Chambers and the Ox, by working their socks off and starting to make a real difference are all capable of playing themselves into our first choice midfield as well, even though I have my doubt about the Ox doing this without going on loan for a while. On top of that, till at least the end of this season we will be able to play Flamini, Rosicky and Arteta too…. if they are fit of course.

Fine fellow Gooners, we are blessed with the available quality and quantity of midfield players and it will be hard for Wenger to choose his first team midfielders when most or all are fully fit to play.

What would be your first choice midfield?

By TotalArsenal.

 

 

 

Joel Campbell’s Progress Evidence that Loan Deals Work… The Ox Next!

TotalArsenal

Joel Campbell comes from a tiny nation, Costa Rica, with just 4.5m inhabitants. He is only 23 yet he already played at Lorient in France (25 League games), Real Betis (28) and Villarreal (14) in Spain, and in the city of the Gods, Athens (32). This fabulous prospect has moved to the other side of the world to proof himself with only his talents to fall back on. I don’t know what you did between 18 and 23, but Joel beats me hands down in terms of going out in the world and make it happen.

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The Ox, at 22 years of age, is also a great talent who was bought at a young age and with a lot of money from Southampton. He has stayed with Arsenal ever since and is just five games away from a PL century. He had a privileged and protected football-upbringing at Arsenal, which is in quite a big contrast to our Costa Rican Gunner.

Regulars on Bergkampesque probably know where I am going with this. I read recently that grit and resilience are easily as important as talent and work rate when it comes to becoming successful. Of course this is nothing new, but it rung a bell when thinking of the current form and progress of Joel and Alex.

As far as I can judge, both players  share the attributes of talent and desire: they are great guys who love football and want to get to the very top. But it is Joel who is making the rapid progress at the moment and who appears to be able to overcome small setbacks better. He is also a lot more effective this season, as in producing goals and assists, than the Ox.

Some will say the Ox is still young, but 95 PL games is a good tally and it is about time we let him go on loan and give him the opportunity to make real progress. But enough said about AOC; let’s talk about JC.

For me, next to Hector Vector’s development, seeing Joel really take to the stage in the last few months has been one of the nicest Arsenal surprises this season. I love this guy: he works his socks off, is not afraid of physical contact (any more), has a great motor, good first touch, fine spacial awareness, is a team player, can assist and score in equal measures. Joel is the sort of player I enjoy just focusing on in a game; you will notice there are more dimensions to his game once you do so.

There is class about him.

I can watch his goal against Sunderland yesterday, time and again. Firstly, there is the awareness of where the space is and him moving into it; Secondly, there is the fine anticipation of the bounce of the ball and him opting to pass it into the corner of the goal rather than blasting it. That for me was class; and then he decided to celebrate in front of the Sunderland away supporters… 🙂

Of course it is still early days, but I reckon we are now starting to reap Arsenal’s AND Joel’s investment in his career. He has made big sacrifices to be where he is today and things will hopefully continue to improve for him. I reckon we will get a lot of joy out of Joel for years to come…

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And let me whisper this one more time: the sooner the Ox goes on loan the better for him and Arsenal. Hit the Road Ox and come back when you are a footballer in full.

By TotalArsenal

 

 

Arsenal’s Strategic Vision and Arsene’s Loyalty is What Sets Us Apart

TotalArsenal

Managers, in general, are treated like dirt.

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Failure is in the eye of the beholder! 😉

Liverpool and Chelsea already changed their manager this season not even half way through it. Rodgers made Liverpool play some sublime football – in my view among the best football on show anywhere in Europe over the last few years – that was not that far away from being successful too, but the fans and owners did not stand by him and you have to be a hell of a manager to fight such collective doubt about you and come out as the winner. Klopp seems a good match for Pool but they still will have to be patient with him which is in very short supply.

The Chavs let Mourinho go a few weeks ago and this after winning the title with him just a few months ago. The self-adoring one had vowed he was going to stay at Chelsea for a long time and leave a legacy, but the so called ‘third year syndrome’ affected him once again. Mourinho’s niche is coming in at a top club, with top players already available, and then have an immediate impact, often helped by spending a lot of money. He puts his personality and energy into it as well, and that has led to a lot of successful albeit mostly boring football. But, after a while, he loses interest and the bad sides of his character become more and more to the surface, and this has been very entertaining for us Gooners over the last few months. 🙂

Mourinho has no staying power; so much has become clear now. If you end up near the relegation zone with a squad that just won the league and the team look clueless and without desire, then you literally don’t know what you are doing. The often branded tactical genius, even by fellow Gooners, turned out to be absolutely tactically clueless, seemingly unable to make changes to the team to get them back to winning ways. Jamie Carragher was spot on in his assessment: Mourinho has never been in this position before and just did not know how to get out of it. A specialist in turning failure round he will probably never be. Yet it was ridiculous that the Chavs’ BoD let him go so soon and not give him the opportunity to turn things round (unless of course he did not want to be at the club any more…).

Wenger had once again the last laugh but he did well to keep quiet over the departure of his nemesis who tried to ridicule him on many occasions.

We all know that flat-faced Dutchie, LvG, is a dead man walking at MU as the fans cannot stand the football their team plays nowadays, and they also believe they have a God-given right to beautiful winning football. This is of course good news for us. The lack of patience by the fans, and now their shirt sponsor as well, will lead to the sacking of LvG and the whole cycle of building success will start again; and there are no guarantees they will get it right any time soon, even if the hottest team manager ticket in town, Guardiola, decides to have a few years at the red side of eternally rain-wet Manchester. And what a blow it will be to them if restless Pep decides to replace – the equally to LvG job-vulnerable – Pelligrini in the summer!

Yesterday, Benitez was sacked by Real Madrid – Perez’s 10 managerial sacking during his Los Blancos reign ffs! – after just seven months in charge. Perez had sacked Ancelotti in the summer because he felt like it, and then appointed the highly unpopular Benitez instead…. because he felt like it. The most arrogant club management in the world by a country mile (yes even more than Chavs’) does just as it pleases and treats managers like entertainment-fodder – as if they are Roman Emperors flippantly entertaining a blood thirsty mob.

The lack of long-term vision and decision making and ability to stick with strategic decisions by so many clubs, is just ridiculous.

Van Gaal and Rodgers are managers who build towards long-term success based on a football philosophy, but, just as with any other businesses, success seldom or never establishes itself along a 45-degree upwards moving line.

There will be ups and downs, and the dips in performance and success can be severe; and yet, sticking to the strategic direction and plan remains key. If you get a guy like Van Gaal to manage your club, you have to give it 3-5 years to fully embed his philosophy and then start enjoying the fruit of all the hard work that has gone into recalibrating the club; his managerial record, with personal successes as well as good evidence of legacies left behind at clubs like Barcelona and Bayern – two powerhouses in the modern game – speaks for itself. Rodgers and Klopp are also ‘football-philosophy-implementation managers’; and the same goes, of course, for Wenger.

I am very, very glad that we have had visionary, business-like BoD members at Arsenal for the last few decades, and that Arsene Wenger is a loyal type by nature, which is of equal importance. By building the new stadium and achieving a sixteen year presence in the Champions League, Arsenal have established themselves at the very top of European clubs in terms of turnover and respect – all of this achieved through sensible business strategy and planning, whilst playing football the Arsenal Way. Everything is in place to translate this newly achieved status gradually into the shiniest silverware available, and then remain a national and European powerhouse for a long time to come.

I must admit I am not entirely sure whether Wenger is the man to get us to that next level of success, but given our recent successes and Arsene’s keenness to stay put and complete the journey – and of course a supporter’s duty to repay the loyalty given by him to Arsenal over so many years – I happily await and see whether he can do it.

And if not, everything will be in place for the then hottest manager ticket in the world to take over from him at THOF.

By TotalArsenal.

Four Attackers to Make 2016 a Happy New Year

TotalArsenal

THE GUNNER’S SONG AT CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR

Well done gunners, 2015 belongs to us. This might not give us an emotional high, but we still have to stand up and raise our hats to our TEAM. We overcame all odds. The pundits placed their curse on us. Non gave us a chance. Injuries showed up at every turn strengthening the chant, including that of those of us of little faith, that we are doomed being the only club in the top flight European leagues that never bought an outfield player. Only the bravest of us stood firm against the deluge.

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Meanwhile on Ozil’s face a smile played, belying the fire burning in his belly. Santi chuckled, knowing very well what he has got in his bag. Little Bellerin kept lacing his boots, mindful of the work at hand. Coquelin had plugged his ears, a fixed gaze in his eyes, his heart beating a determination that the recent course of history must change. Giroud lay by the beachside, seemingly lost to the world, muscles un-tensed, the breeze lapping up his sinewy frame. Arms akimbo, Wenger looked approvingly at his flock, as a sculpture at his work newly finished and quietly muttered to himself, “THE TIME IS COME”. He then swiveled walking briskly away, back to his study, to light the midnight candle. The time has come and he cannot let it go. The moon shone brightly.

Halfway through the 2015/2016 season, we are sitting on top of the pile. On 2nd January we start the 2nd half campaign at the Emirate in a match against Newcastle, but first a look at the 2015 calendar year table of the top five teams.

Pos——-Tm———Pl——-Gd——- Pts
1———-Ars———38——39——–81
2———-M.C——–38——41——–72
3———-Spur.——-38——23——–68
4———-Leic——–38——17——–67
5———-M.U——–38——17——–64

Arsenal atop the table, 9 pts above 2nd placed Man C, 17 pts above Man U, Chelsea erased from the map, nowhere to be seen. How ’em times have changed. Top of the table after 38 matches shows a consistency that gives plenty of hope for the 2015/16 crown. It gives hope, but demands tons of sweat from all, the fans inclusive. Wenger has giving us the cue. We only need to focus on ourselves, meaning that if we work diligently, not counting the cost, we will reap all the fruits in season’s due.

Check our squad list. In spite of our long injury list at every juncture of the campaign, we have remained well stocked. At least that is what our performance says. Injuries wise we seem to have hit a dynamic balance. As the injured trickled back, those holding the fort trickled out. It happens that I am a believer in the statistical law of the regression to the mean. High time therefore that the tricking back supersedes the trickling out so we can regress to the epl mean. Please I am focusing on ourselves, am not invoking this law on those on our tail who have been very lucky with injuries. A law though, is a law.

Yes, the law of the regression to the mean is poised to favour us, but we must remember what we were told in our childhood that the gods help only those who help themselves. That is exactly why, for the next two months plus, the schedules of Ramsey and Ozil have to be managed most intelligently. The two represent our creative spine which is where injuries have hit us hardest; the brain box Santi Carzola out, same the little ‘Mozart’ Thomas Rosicky, the nearly forgotten budding maestro Jack the Wildfire, and not forgetting our captain, the impeccable Mikel Arteta. How I love his hair.

Wenger’s game is built on his team playing out from the back. That is why he loved Vieira, loves Arteta. That is also why Santi remains incomparable, weaving out of those tight spaces, laying passes with his left foot, equally with his right. I call Santi the first note in our offensive melody. For the same reason of playing out from the back, Ramsey is deployed as the replacement of injured Santi. Though not a Santi incarnate he compensates adequately with his Rolls-Royce engine. By the way, we gunners seem to see Mertersacker only as the slow-train-approaching. We do not see that he is our best creative passer from the rear. A quality Mr Wenger values so much.

If Santi is the brain of the team, and Ramsey our V8, Ozil is that pure intelligence that only a point of stillness can awaken, the point of the eye of the storm, the nothingness of the Big Bang, that gave birth to you and I and the beautiful game. Nine chances created in the match against Bournemouth. That is ridiculous. Courtesy of 7amkickoff, more assists by him alone than eleven teams in the epl so far this term. Ridiculous.

Ozil please tell us ……..who are ya!? Mars or Neptune or Mercury? Obviously not Pluto which is a dwarf world.

Permit me to digress a little bit. A few years ago, Wenger said that Walcott’s off the ball runs were better than Messi’s. He must be kidding, I remembered thinking. I have since grown to know better. Walcott’s off the ball runs are without equal. Four times he was one on one with the Bournemouth keeper. Well, he did not create those opportunities, neither did Ozil. Those prime chances were created by the union of the two. That union is a match made in heaven.

The ball comes to Ozil, instantly Walcott spots a space and is in motion, but even before Walcott’s drama had begun, Ozil’s incredible field of vision in time and space had witnessed it. He executes in stillness and the ball well weighted in speed rendezvous with Walcott, one on one with the keeper, all Bergkampesque. If only the Ox (he’s got speed) will learn movement at the feet of Walcott, with his high technical ability and Ozil around, he would rule the world. Young, Ox has got time, but the likes of Ozil prime at 27 appear once in a long, long time, our Ox must recognize and hasten.

Giroud represents power, Sanchez speed, Walcott movement, Ozil intelligence. What a front four. The time is come for a cup of cinnamon tea and a full-throated song, for I am finally home and dry. Happy New Year gunners.

By: Pony Eye

2015 Arsenal Highlights: FA Cup Super-Champions, Ox’s bullet against Chelsea, Ozil Assists King, Cech’s a Gunner

TotalArsenal

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2015 was a very good year for Arsenal. The hard stats say it all: we played 38 PL games in the calendar year and won 25 of them: three more than MC, seven more than MU and eight more than Chavs. In total we gained nine more PL points than Citeh, 17 more than MU and 20 more than last season’s champions. Arsenal conceded least goals of all the PL teams: 31, compared to MC 41, MU 34 and Chavs 47.We are the second highest PL scorers in 2015 with 70 goals – MC had nine more goals but we still managed a better goal difference. And we are currently joined TOTL with Leicester.

Here are my ten highlights of the past calendar year.

  1. The absolute highlight was of course winning the FA Cup for a record 12th time – no other club has more FA cups than Arsenal now. We blitzed sorry Villa in the final and played some superb football with especially sexy Alexis in top form on the day. Beating MU away on our way to the final was possibly the biggest FA highlight; especially Monreal’s cool finish will not easily be forgotten.
  2. Finishing third to automatically qualify for the CL, followed by qualification for the last sixteen for an amazing 16th time in December were also highlights. I will never tire to appreciate our boys playing at the highest level of club football year in year out. We had a bad start against Zagreb and Olympiakos, but then we started to turn it round with a superb home win against Die Lederhosen, followed by a good home win against Zagreb and a wonderful, mature performance against the Greeks in their cauldron to get through once again.
  3. But just as important for me was our gradual growth during the year, becoming a stronger and more settled team. For a long time we were not able to beat our direct silverware competitors, but in 2015 we beat MU and MC, home and away, and Chavs at Wembley. Add to that our win against Bayern and the belief in the qualities of this team will only grow. We also have a first team that will grow further with many individuals yet to reach their peak years or being smack-bang in the middle of them. This team will only get better in the next 2-3 years.
  4. Ox’s thunderbolt against the Chavs in the Charity Shield match was another fine highlight: Wenger finally beating ME!rinho when the world was watching was just what we needed to kick-start the season.
  5. Cech signing for Arsenal. Ospina had done very well for us in the second half of the previous season and with Szczesny we have a talented young goalie that can mature into a very fine one, but a top team needs a solid, experienced keeper who oozes calm and class. Petr offers all of this and his PL record of clean sheets will further enhance his reputation and experience, both on the pitch and in the dressing room. I saw him live a few times but his first half performance against Liverpool at home will never be forgotten. He made some super-human saves to keep Pool somehow from scoring as the rest of our team had no answer to their superior attacking football in the first half. What a signing!
  6. Ozil king of assists and goal scoring opportunities. Enough has been written about the genius and importance of Mesmerizing Mesut (just check out our recent posts about him by TA and 17HT).
  7. Flying Spanish full backs: Nacho and Bellerin: both have come to the fore so strongly in the last 12 months. They are a menace for every opponent, especially in terms of the support they give to our attack, adding width and speed to our front players and giving us an extra dimension in the process. Hector Vector still needs to improve his defending a bit but that surely will come. They are both great, likeable professionals with an intrinsic motivation to do well for Arsenal. You gotta love them!
  8. The wall of CoCa: who would have thought at the end of last year that Coquelin and Cazorla would make such a fine double DM pivot for us. They found the right balance between defending and supporting the attack with Le Coq a great protector of our defence, and Cazorla a great feeder of our attackers, giving our attack that extra dimension together with Ozil.
  9. Sexy Alexis: he carried the team for a while with his energy and drive and crucial goals, peaking at the FA cup final with a superb display of all he has to offer. I never tire looking at him and the thought of playing him with Giroud and Theo up-front and Mesut and Rambo/Santi feeding them all makes me do one of those Jurgen Klopp mad smiles… Cech, Ozil, Alexis: three signing in three years that have helped tremendously in moving Arsenal to a higher echelon.
  10. Meeting up with the 17HT family in Sheffield in October. It was a dire game but to meet up with the Tiger of Tahoe, his lovely wife and son and talk proper football face to face was definitely one of my Arsenal highlights of the year. An added bonus was meeting the Sheaf family at the hotel I stayed and talking about their son’s development at the club.

These were my highlights but what are yours?

By TotalArsenal.

Wishing you a Happy, Healthy and a Gooner-Glory-Full 2016!

17HT and TA.

Soccer - FA Cup - Arsenal Winners Parade
How nice would it be for Arsene to win the league in 2016?!

Seeing patterns in chaos: Arsene finally has his new Bergkamp

TotalArsenal

Arsenal 2 – 0 Bournemouth Afterthoughts

Like many of us, I was not able to go to the game or watch it live on TV. I relied on the BBC website and customary precise in-game comments from 17HT to follow the match. Of course I would rather see the boys in action, but it is also quite fun to picture how the game is going merely from text snippets. Later on I saw the extended highlights on Sky and these confirmed to me to a large extent what I had already imagined.

Arsenal, after a tentative start, played with the gas paddle firmly pushed down: full of energy and desire to go TOTL. We created the perfect storm to shatter the Cherries and it could have been a lot worse for our opponents if the likes of Theo, Giroud and Ox had been wearing their shooting boots.

Having lots of energy and desire can get you far, but on its own it’s not enough. It needs to be supported by a solid, controlling spine and defence, and quality attackers who deliver the key outputs: goals and assists. We all know that when Arsenal combine desire and energy with the considerable qualities within our squad, we can more or less beat anybody on the day.

But we also need somebody who sees patterns in chaos, and who operates in the eye of the storm rather than on the periphery of it.  

And for me the key memory of this game will be Mesut Ozil being in his own ‘zen-zone’ while the rest were running wild. Of course this is not the first time that Mesut has been majestic and key to our victory, but I cannot recall many games in which he was so obviously the one superior player.

 

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With thanks to Voetbal International for picture.

Mesut has an ability to rise above the game whilst being fully involved at the same time, and this, combined with his superior technical skills and deep desire to play beautiful yet effective football, truly sets him apart from almost every current Arsenal player. Nine scoring opportunities created in one game (one every ten minutes), leading to only one assist, whilst also scoring a goal himself, tell us a lot.

In fact, he was so good that, unintentionally, he made the rest look inadequate on the day, with especially Theo wasting some of the finest balls served by the master. Giroud also should have done better but he at least returned the service to Mesut, who then showed the Frenchman and the rest of the team how to finish a quality opportunity. I have a picture in my mind of Alexis watching the game and being sick of not being on the pitch to devour Mesut’s attacking balls; and I don’t think he will have been the only attacker in the country, and indeed the rest of the world, who would have loved to have been on the pitch with the German producing one exquisite through-ball after the other.

mesut-ozil
Mesut Ozil – the perfect blend of ‘stillness and speed’

So for me, this game, in a nutshell, was won because we had superior quality on the pitch compared to Bournemouth and we had the desire and energy to make it count, but without our conductor and master creator of scoring opportunities it could have been different.

A successful Wenger team always needs a Bergkampesque player to embody his vision on the pitch, and Mesut is very close to filling the Dutchman’s enormous boots. So let’s bless ourselves that Mesut is a Gunner and he is well on his way to becoming this decade’s Bergkamp for us… and this is something I don’t say easily! 🙂

To keep him at Arsenal long term, the rest of our attackers better step it up and learn to feast properly of Mesut’s service… we don’t want him to think he is wasted at the Home of Football, do we?!

Finally, a special mention should go to Chambers who performed well in an unfamiliar role. Is he a decent option for our DM position? Too early to say but he did not disappoint and played a key role in controlling the midfield for us.

By TotalArsenal.

8 Positives from Arsenal v Man City: Our Victory Is No Fluke

TotalArsenal

Eight positives from Arsenal v Man City – and why it is no fluke that we beat them!

 

Laurent Koscielny celebrates his goal against Crystal Palace but he is an injury doubt for Tuesday's
Koz was my man of the match – for players ratings see previous post!

In a way, this game can be summarised in a few lines: there were thirty minutes of probing by each team and showing too much respect to each other; then Man City had a very decent chance to take the lead but they didn’t; this miss woke Arsenal up and within no time we were one up; as so often, Arsenal kept pushing for a second and before half time we got it; in the second half, Man City pressed forward more, making it easy for us to play on the counter; we had very good chances to score a third and put the game to bed… but we didn’t; City scored a late goal and it all got a bit hairy..but we held on.

However, there was of course more to this game and why we won it, and I will summarise these in eight positives:

  1. Ramsey beat Yaya Toure, with a bit of help by Wenger. They are similar players and Yaya is one of those players who could fit in any team, whereas Aaron is on his way to become a great player. But on the night he was more disciplined defensively, whereas Yaya lacked this throughout the game, and this made all the difference. Ozil had tonnes of space and was able to control the ball in front of the opponent’s ‘D area’, mainly because Yaya did not give enough protection to their defence and leaving his partner to cover too much ground. Mesut always finds space but he did not have to look hard for it yesterday. Ramsey, on the other hand, held back and formed a strong defensive midfield line with Flamini, therefore not allowing the creative midfielders of City to get near our ‘D’. He did this most effectively in the first half, and in the second half he was able to get more forward as well, which left us more exposed but also gave us great opportunities to score a decisive third goal.
  2. Theo and Ollie each took their first proper chance, whereas De Bruyne missed his. In top games, scoring the first goal is very important and for that we need confident, quality players who rise to the occasion. Theo took his chance brilliantly and it was a big sucker punch to City: after that we never looked back, except for the last ten minutes or so.
  3. Ozil is in the form of his life, whereas Da Silva only just returned from injury. Furthermore, as per ‘Positive’ one, Ozil was given freedom to roam whereas Da Silva was tightly marked by Flamini. Ozil’s second assist was a great example of how quickly he sees a scoring opportunity and is able to execute it. Giroud deserves credit as well for his anticipation of Mesut’s ball: it was all done in a flash and the game was more or less decided after that.
  4. Giroud is a more complete striker than Aguero. The Argentinian is the more lethal finisher, but Giroud offers more in terms of hold up play, defensive duties, aerial threat and getting other players involved in the attack. I have written many posts about Giroud’s importance for this Arsene/Arsenal team and last night you could see once more why our manager values him so much.
  5. Cech is better than Hart. Petr puts doubt in attackers’ minds; Joe gets bullets fired at him. Enough said.
  6. Koz and BFG is a settled pair of CBs whereas Otamendi and Mangala are not (yet) gelling, and enough has been said about the importance of Kompany in City’s team. The BFG might have a few weaknesses but his strengths are very important to Arsenal; and Bellerin, Koz and Monreal compensate these very well. Together they are a unit with the Koz-BFG core offering a great combination of defensive disciplines and skills. Of course it also helps Per when we play deep and compact, as we did yesterday for a large part of the game.
  7. Monreal and Bellerin outperformed Sagna and Kolarov all night. In our system, the full backs, or wing backs, are very, very important. They provide the extra width and penetration from the sides but also need to be fast and robust enough to recover quickly when out of position. Most importantly, they need to read the game well and make sound decisions on whether to support the attack or not, time and again. Our Spanish full backs where once again awesome.
  8. Togetherness, hunger to win, collective joy… call it what you want, but we wanted it more yesterday. Just watch the way we kicked off the first half and then how City kicked off the second. Our players had a spring in their step from the moment the ball was allowed to roll. They sensed the occasion, the opportunity to make a statement, and this was not just represented in one or two players, but the entire team. I thought City did well in the last twenty minutes and there is definitely enough team spirit to rival us on this front, but we still ‘out-togethered’ them yesterday, which is arguably the biggest ‘positive’ of them all.

So plenty of positives in our team, and many of these are of a structural nature. And let’s build on these when we play the Saints on Boxing Day. UTA, COYRRG, OGAAT and all that..!

Merry Christmas fine fellow Bergkampesquers! 🙂

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By TotalArsenal.  

Player Ratings: BFG and Koz Rule, Ozil Leads, Theo and Ollie Deliver

TotalArsenal

Evening fine, fellow Gooners. Great win at THOF and we’ll do a review tomorrow. But for now the player ratings.

Cech: 8: unflappable and a big calming factor on the excellent CBs in front of him. Did his presence put De Bruyne off when approaching the goal at a decent angle at 0-0?

Bellerin: 8: great defensively, with very good positioning and recovery. Citeh showed Hector Vector great respect with putting Delph at left midfield to stop his runs forward, but, as the game went on, he still managed to aid the attack as well.

BFG: 9: playing deep suits him so well. His reading of the game and positioning were exceptional, and so were his interceptions.

Koz: 9.5: exceptional performance for 90 minutes. Next to the calm organiser that is Mertesacker, Koz revels in cleaning up and bullying forwards. One of the best games I ever saw him play: phenomenal blocks, masterful in the air and a Hoover on the ground.

Nacho: 8.5: once again solid and great in supporting the attack. Monreal is naturally aggressive without being nasty, and his fitness levels are incredible.

Rambo: 8.5: superb in first half, forming a Great Wall with the Flame. We were rock solid for almost the entire game. He made some great runs forward in the second half, but lacked a cool head to finish off the game. Some his defensive interceptions were excellent, even though he was a bit at fault for Yaya’s simply perfect goal.

Flamini: 8: a solid defensive performance focused on eliminating Silva’s creative threat. Kept it simple and did all the dirty work with not a moment’s lack of concentration.

Campbell: 8: fabulous defensive support and great energy, always carrying an attacking threat. Like Rambo, he lacked a cool head to finish a couple of decent chances, but great team work.

Theo: 8.5: worked very hard all over the pitch, even though defending is not his strength. He produced a great Alexisesque goal to get us in front, and the big games often require such quality to come out of it victoriously. Theo delivered it!

Ozil: 9: great leadership of the team, two assists and always found space to get the ball and do something good with it. Defended all over the pitch as well.

Giroud: 9: at times our third DM defending from the front backwards and putting in some strong tackles. Scored the second goal, never stopped being a nuisance to the Citeh defence, fab holding play and some near assists.

A great performance by the whole team, but Koz’s nudges it for MOTM.

By TotalArsenal

Player Ratings: Ramsey b2b beast, Ozil directs, Giroud delivers,Theo bullies

TotalArsenal

An easy win for the boys due to a professional performance, an early goal from a penalty and a beautiful box box goal by Rolls Ramsey. We threatened to let them back in to the game in the second half but with confidence at a low at Villa Park, we were allowed to stroll through it till the end.

Player ratings

Cech: 7.5: did everything ok and kept it simple. Oozes calm and control. I pinch myself every game to reconfirm that Petr is actually a Gunner. What a signing and well done for equaling David James’ clean sheet record.

Belerin: 7: motored well and some good link up play with Campbell. Looks a bit tired when making attacking decisions but solid performance overall.

Koz and BFG: 7.5: good balance between control and aggression. Easy game for them.

Nacho: 7.5: motored well all game and solid defensively. Easy game.

Flamini: 7.5: solid without being spectacular, just the way we like it. Played a big part in Ramsey’s shining performance.

Ramsey: 8.5: motored all game with a great all round performance. His goal epitomised what he is all about: fine defensive tackle, bursting run and arriving in the box at the right time to slot home. He also made some Santiesque passes and offered defensive support constantly.

Ozil: 8: directed the game with ease and style. Great, unselfish assist for Ramsey’s all important second goal.

Campbell: 7.5: good all round performance and much better in defensive one to ones. Really involved in the game and kept it simple and effective.

Theo: 7.5: involved in both goals. He got us the penalty with showing good body strength and persistence, bullying Hutton to a very costly foul; and he also had the pre assist for Ramsey’s goal, a lovely, measured ball any midfielder would be proud of. Dropped off quite a bit in second half.

Giroud: 8: put himself about and never slackened. Took penalty well. Solid and mature.

By TotalArsenal