Arsenal – Page 19 – Bergkampesque

Ospina in goal, Alexis back, FlamShere to protect? Match Preview

October 1, 2014TotalArsenal

Very little time to write a preview, and what is there to say anyway?

Cannot wait to see mini-hulk in action again!

It is a must-win game, and what happened on Saturday and what will happen on Sunday is totally irrelevant. We had a bad start in Dortmund and were outclassed. But they still have to come to the home of football in the penultimate game of the group. Before that happens, we will play Galatasaray at home and Anderlecht home and away. We can get nine points out of those three games which should get us in a strong position to qualify for the next group; and maybe even win it.

I don’t know much about the current Galatasaray club or their players. UEFA.com have the following likely line- up for Galatasaray: Muslera; Semih, Melo, Chedjou; Tarık, Selçuk, Sneijder, Dzemaili, Alex Telles; Burak, Olcan. I know Melo a bit, and Schneider quite well. The latter is a fading force, but in a free role he is always capable to do something special. He is actually quite a lazy and limited player, but the few strengths he has are of the highest calibre. He is brilliant at set-pieces, corners as well as free-kicks and we should be wary not to give too many of the latter away. He also has an eye for a quick pass and has a great shot. Other than that he is rubbish! 🙂

Maybe other bloggers who are a bit more familiar with Turkish football can fill us in….

I think we will play a similar team to the one we finished with on Saturday. Furthermore, I reckon Arsene will want these players to come through well and uninjured, so they can take on the Chavs as well. As others have mentioned, we need some consistency now and the team more or less picks itself.

My predicted Line-Up sees Alexis start on the left and Ospina getting a chance in goal. The latter is a gut-feeling, as I believe Wenger will slowly ease Ospina into direct competition with Bond’s favourite villain. Alexis is needed for his goals AND fitness/willingness to work his chilli-peppered nuts off. At the moment, and judging on last season’s goal per game ratio, we do not have many regular goal scorers in the team with Ramsey, Theo and OG out, so Alexis has to be a must. No doubt we will also see Pod play a part in this game, especially if we have not scored (enough) after seventy minutes or so.

Jack appears to be fit, so I reckon he will play as per the importance of this game. He is likely to sit back a bit more in 4-2-1-3 line-up, although we will surely ‘officially’ start again with 4-1-4-1. Ozil in the hole, Alexis and Ox (or very possibly Santi) on the wings and Danny-boy to lead the line.

Predicted Line-Up:

COYG – Let The Canon Roar!

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Van Gaal is doing Welbeck a disservice

September 12, 2014September 12, 2014TotalArsenal

Van Gaal today (from BBC website): “He [Welbeck] played three seasons for the first team, but he doesn’t have the record of Robin van Persie or Wayne Rooney. And that is the standard,” and “That is why we let him go, because of Falcao, but also to allow the youngsters to fit in. That is the policy. That is why I am here.”

Well, what is the gracious Dutchman comparing Welbeck against? Rooney is now 28 and Van Persie is 31. So surely, he should compare DW23’s current goal scoring record against the records of the mega-earners when they were 23.

	Welbeck	Van Persie	Rooney
Club PL games and goals scored when 23 (goals per game)	92-20 (0.22)	111-25 (0.23)	224-80 (0.36)
International goals scored after 28 games (goals per game)	28-10 (0.36)	28-9 (0.32)	28-11 (0.39)

So, compared to Rooney, Welbeck is well behind in terms of PL goals per game by the age of 23 (0.36 v 0.22), but not so far off in terms of goals per games in international matches (0.39 v 0.36); and I predict Welbeck to catch up with Rooney soon if he keeps getting starts for England. We all know that Rooney had an incredible successful start of his club career and that Welbeck has not been given the same first team exposure at a similar age. Nevertheless, it is fair to say Rooney performed better by the age of 23 than Welbeck does currently/ at the same age.

However, compared to Van Persie, Welbeck has nothing to be ashamed about. His PL tally is slightly worse, and his international record after 28 games is slightly better. They are even at the age of 23 and we know how the traitor developed subsequently: and this should offer encouragement for Welbeck.

All Welbeck needs is the confidence of the manager, patience and a good run of games – hence his sheer enthusiasm for coming to the home of football. Van Gaal needs instant success and is under a lot of pressure. Falcao is a proven goal scorer and I understand why he got him. But don’t put the boot into Welbeck with unfair statistics. It was a classless thing to do, and oh boy will Danny be motivated to proof him wrong, time and time again!

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Poor Left Wing, Sanogo ignored, Lack of Pressure from Midfield, Ramsey’s Revenge: Arsenal – Palace Afterthoughts.

August 17, 2014August 17, 2014TotalArsenal

When I was a kid I once got a football for my birthday. It must have been my ninth or tenth birthday: there was no present for me in the morning but my mum took me on a long bike ride, from one end of my home town to the other end, to buy me a football in a sports shop. At that time, I knew nothing about Arsenal, or even English football. My home town team were Roda JC in the Netherlands, and they play in yellow and black. The ball I chose was white and red: more white than red pentagons, and I loved it for a long time: in fact, I can still smell and picture it today, almost forty years on.

Red and white are great colours, and of course those of our beloved Arsenal. And yesterday, the North of London was red and white all right. From the moment I arrived at Cockfosters’ tube station, I was surrounded by it. The sky was blue, most people were wearing The Shirt, and the sun warmed whilst spreading a golden glow over us. It was a truly beautiful sight. And the closer I got to the Highbury and Islington tube station the more intense it became.

There was a strong sense of anticipation in the air yesterday: a positive buzz of good things lying ahead; and the reason for this is of course the high hopes felt by many Gooners after some astute signings by the club this summer. And the one that epitomises this positivity is of course Alexis, as everywhere I looked on the way to the home of football I could see his first or second name reflected on the backs of many, many fellow Gooners. Sanchez has become the embodiment of our hopes for further progress and the shiniest silverware, and with good reason.

The stadium looked extra glorious yesterday. The early evening, August sunlight lit up the East Bank warmly and there was a sea of red and white everywhere – more than I have ever seen before, somehow.

First Half

No diaby, not even on the bench, but both Ramsey and Arteta in the double DM pivot. Jack in the hole, as hoped and predicted, and Santi and Sanchez on the wings, with not OG but Sanogo as our ‘holding striker’: not a formation I would have chosen, but definitely one capable of taking three points from the well supported Crystal Palace team.

The start was good and it looked a matter of time before we would score a goal. Jack was conducting play and there was plenty of movement in the team to find good passes and create opportunities. But we lacked cutting edge as our combinations just did not produce clear cut chances: was it rustiness or nerves, or was the ghost of Pulis still hanging around our ground like a bad smell?

Pulis’ ex-team were definitely playing like one of his infamous Stoke teams: well set-up, physical, cynical serial fouling, time wasting; and they made it really hard for us, especially after we lost some of our initial zip and thrust in the second part of the first half. Gradually we lost control of the midfield: nobody was using Sanogo anymore to hold up play, and the only one moving IN their designated area, other than Yaya, was Sanchez. We still managed to set up some attacks from the right, with both Alexis and Debuchy, although still getting used to each other, combining well to penetrate the CP defence. Unfortunately, when they did so, Sanogo was often isolated as neither Jack, Ramsey nor Santi were supporting him in the box enough.

On the left we were very weak. Santi did not hold his position and Gibbs was, understandably, holding back a lot. This did not help us in stretching the CP defence and midfield, and it became really easy for our opponents to stem our attacking intent. Jack searched and probed for opportunities but there was very little for him to set up (I could see this really well from the Upper Tier in the North Bank). We also played quite deep, and both Ramsey and Arteta did not push up enough to populate the midfield in front of CP’s ‘D’. Add to that the continuous fouling and the referee’s unwillingness to punish this, and you can see why we were not able to dominate the game more in the latter part of the first half: lack of width, lack of pressure on their midfield, lack of movement, too low a tempo and not enough pressing.

The supporters became restless, and then on top of all that, they score – so typically – from a corner. It is fair to say we did not defend the corner well, but it was also a pretty good ball into the box. Without three of our four best set-piece ‘defenders’ from last season – BFG, Giroud and Sagna – we looked vulnerable during CP’s corners…. and we paid for it.

Luckily, the man who only scores important goals for us, it seems, came to the rescue once again – and from a set-piece of our own. Violently happy, Koz we love you! – Bjork’s tune – went through my head, and we could all breath again. 1-1, just before the break, was just what the doctor ordered. And the stadium regained its positive vibes again.

Second Half

However, things did not improve much initially. Nacho brought more drive and aggression than the substituted and apparently injured, Gibbs. But Santi remained all-over the place, which is fine as long as he adds value to our attacking play, which he did not do enough imo. Jack lost a bit of his composure and precision in passing the longer the game went on, and Sanogo never really got into the game (for which he was little to blame IMO). Luckily, Wenger did not wait long to bring on the much more trusted Giroud for Sanogo, and, a bit later, Ox for Jack. Where Giroud added a lot from the moment he started; Ox’s input was less effective. However, Wenger moved Sanchez to the left which added a bit more thrust to our attacking play, and Arteta and Ramsey pushed the Palace midfield a lot harder in the second half.

I thought all our midfielders and attackers, except for the simply fantastic, albeit not fully perfect, Alexis, had under-par performances in this game, but the introduction of Giroud helped them all to improve their game gradually. It did not seem enough, however, to score the much needed winner. The team kept pushing but CP held strong, albeit with some unsporting behaviour, in terms of time-wasting and continuous fouling, which the frustrating, pie-gobbling referee Moss was far too lenient about. Puncheon’s dismissal was well deserved but seemed too little too late…

But luck was on our side, and it was the sweetest of ways to send Stoke-South-of-the-Thames home empty-handed: by scoring a Pulisesque late winner from a set piece by nobody other than Aaron Ramsey. It was ugly, but it was hard fought for, and we all did not care one iota. A giant, collective sense of relief swept through the stadium and we all sang the Ramsey song with real gusto.

We got away with this one; and with three points in the bag, we can afford the lessons learnt from this performance. If and when another park the bus team comes to the home of football, we need to push up more and conquer the midfield, we need to spread our opponents by using the wings on both sides wisely and run more intelligently, and, most importantly, we need to trust our CF to hold on to the ball and allow the rest of the team to feed of him.

On the way back I listened to Talk ‘Sport’ for a while (was desperately trying to find out the scores of the afternoon games). We know that most of the pundits there are opinionated simpletons, who like to stick to simple mantras in order to rile their mostly gullible audience. Stan Collybore just kept saying Arsenal needed to buy a SQ CF if we wanted to push on. He had actually been at the match and this was the main thing he kept repeating. A striker can only score if he gets the service, whether it is Sanogo, Giroud, Falcao or Cavani. Sanogo worked hard but did not get the ball anywhere often enough to set up attacks, produce assists or hit the net himself. Maybe one day, Collimore will realise that Arsenal have actually moved on and do not play with a classic CF anymore….. or maybe not.

We spread our goals throughout the team and with a goal by Giroud, two by Ramsey, one by Cazorla and one by Koscielny in the last two games, we are doing just fine. And we ain’t seen nothing yet: once this team starts clicking together properly, and we add a SQ DM/B2B (and a CB of course) to the team before the TW shuts, the Canon will roar and roar.

Sanchez was a joy to watch and I feel privileged to have seen his first game at the home of football.

My last word is for Chambers, whose reading of the game and interception skills were very impressive again yesterday. What a signing by Wenger – chapeau! 🙂

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Enough Gunners at World Cup to make a team, but who’ll make the finals?

June 9, 2014TotalArsenal

Four years ago we had two Gunners competing in the World Cup finals. Both have left Arsenal a few years ago, but only one of them will hold the fondest of memories. Van Persie was not able to make a difference for the Dutch, but Fabregas immortalised himself with an extra-time assist for Iniesta that proofed to be enough to win the World Cup. In hindsight, it happened for the right guy, although at the time I felt quite differently about it.

Thinking back about that final, I started to wonder whether we will see any Gunners in this year’s final in about five weeks from now. The big favourites are the South-American giants of Brazil and Argentina. It appears hard for European countries to win in South-America, although the Dutch came very close in 1978 when Rob Rensenbrink hit the post in the very last minute of the game…. Pure agony for any Dutchman…

I go along with the favourites tag for those two countries, but I have a feeling that it will also suit the likes of Germany, Spain, France, Holland, and even England, a lot to be regarded as underdogs. We have Gunners in the German (Pod, Ozil, Mertesacker), Spanish (Cazorla) and French (Koscielny, Sagna[theoretically] and Giroud) teams, and of course Jack and Ox in the English team. There is also Tommy V in the Belgium squad and Joel Campbell at Costa Rica. I hope I have not forgotten anybody.

We have actually enough Gunners out there to make a team:

Unfortunately, we do not have a goalie out there, but the Pod will do. 🙂

Now, of all these fine Gunners – and what a nice team it is! – who will get furthest, and who might make it to the final? Could it be Germany v France with six Gunners on display? Could it be Jack v Ozil, or Tommy V v Giroud?

Let’s do some predictions, just for a bit of fun:

Which countries will make it to the semi-finals?
Which teams will make it to the final?
Who will win it?
Who will be top scorer (all players)?
Which Gunner(s) will make it furthest in the tournament?
Which Gunner will score the most goals?
Who will be picked in the tournament’s top eleven team?
How will England do?
Who will score most goals for England?
And finally, not a prediction: Who would you like to win the World Cup and why?

Written by: TotalArsenal.

The Pictures That Say It All – 17 May 2014: a Glorious Day

May 18, 2014May 19, 2014TotalArsenal

FA Cup Final Match Review: We Are The Champions!

** Please note: not Szczesny but Fabianski in goal

Arsenal vs Hull City at Wembley. The FA Cup final. It was for me, personally, the first final I have witnessed since becoming a Gooner, and I missed it! I was forced to go to a college graduation over an hour away from my house, taking place at the same time as the final! So naturally I went dark from the internet and my phone to avoid spoilers and waited until I got home. After getting home, my Arsenal loving mother and I watched the game on recording, with no knowledge of the result, the score, or anything.

The atmosphere looked incredible. There seemed to be far more Arsenal fans than Hull fans and I really thought we were going to win comfortably. However, it was just the 3^rd minute when Hull scored the opener. A corner was swung into the box, volleyed towards goal by Huddlestone, and deflected in by Chester. Fabianski was wrong-footed and could only watch as the ball rolled agonizingly by his fingers and into the side netting. A shock-lead for the underdogs, early on.

After that goal, Arsenal looked a little shell-shocked, but the comeback still looked possible. However, just a few minutes later another cross was swung in. It was headed towards goal, Fabianski palmed it wide, but Davies was on hand to drive it home. Replays show that Davies looked offside, but the referee (who had a bit of a howler on the day) allowed the goal and, eight minutes into the FA Cup final, Arsenal were two goals down.

My mother and I sat there with tears in our eyes. But it was a unique experience as we were all alone. No internet to calm us down, no one on Bergkampesque to talk to. And I must admit, even though I am usually the most optimistic of Gooners, I turned to my mom and said that we were going to lose. I just had a terrible feeling, but after that we improved. And in the 17^th minute, our miracle arrived. The Spanish magician Santi Cazorla stepped over a free kick and rifled it into the far corner, perfectly over McGregor’s head. It was an incredible free kick perfect for the occasion.

After that, we never looked like losing. Countless chances went begging and we had four penalty calls ignored. Two were debatable and I could’ve accepted they weren’t called if not for the referee’s horrible game, but two were clear and should have been called and it was embarrassing that they weren’t.

Surprisingly, in the 61^st minute, Wenger did exactly what I wanted him to do, switch to a two striker system with Yaya Sanogo coming in. And he did it early! After that, the whole game changed. Sanogo’s physical presence and his pace brought new life into the game. He drove forward, made trouble for the Hull defenders, and swung the momentum strongly in our favour. He was definitely one of the best players on the field. From then on we fought and fought and finally the breakthrough came. The first three goals all came from set pieces and this one would be no different. A corner was swung in by Santi and deflected between a few players on both teams before falling to Koscielny, who hit the ball through McGregor’s legs and was then felled by the Hull goalie. The injury looked bad, but he was able to continue, and more importantly, we were level in the 72^nd minute!

After that we looked like we might win it in the 90 minutes. We had many chances with the partnership of Yaya and Ollie getting many shots off. Finally with just a few minutes to go Sanogo picked out a free Gibbs at the far post seven yards from goal, but he blazed it over the bar! I worried for Gibbs after that, as I know from my own playing experience that a miss like that can really shake a player badly, but he seemed to pick himself up really well. We got on with the game and I thought we’d won it when Giroud volleyed the ball at goal, but McGregor pushed it wide and it went into extra time. It was very painful to watch, especially alone.

In extra time we were the only side that looked like scoring. We pushed forward the whole first period, missing just wide multiple times, with Rambo firing everywhere except the back of the net. After the first period of extra time Rosicky and Wilshere were introduced to put some pace back into our game, and it worked. In the 109^th minute a wonderful interchange between Sanogo and Giroud left Giroud running away from goal with the ball, Ramsey ran into the space Giroud had opened up, Giroud flicked the ball behind him with his heel, and Ramsey coolly finished the ball into the near post with the outside of his foot before the Hull keeper could even react.

After that Hull had nothing to lose. They pushed far forward and we probably should have had one more on the break. At one point, we looked in trouble, as Per slipped and Fabianski made a horrid mistake by coming miles off his line to chase down the ball, and he slid right by Aluko who shot the ball towards goal from a tight angle; Gibbs was on the line ready to clear it, but the ball rolled just wide anyway. After that we held on and when the whistle finally blew it was magical.

The players collapsed exhausted and unbelieving. It was wonderful to watch us win this major come back, and the first trophy I have ever seen. This team fully deserved to win and it was fantastic to watch my team run around the field in celebration. Ramsey was deservedly the hero after his amazing season. Finally, after an eternity, all our players had their medals and the trophy was ready to be lifted. It was great to watch as captain Verm and Wenger lifted the trophy.

The parade was also lovely to watch Sunday morning, and after winning a trophy and having this wonderful atmosphere around them, it will be interesting to see what happens with Fabianski and Sagna and their expiring contracts. Sagna gave an interview after the final saying that he will see if he can “find a solution” to this contract issue. I would love to see him stay. But on another note, it was an incredible feeling for us to win this trophy and this will be a spring board to future success. We now have a team full of trophy winners and the Emirates trophy curse is broken. Players will be even more attracted to us this summer and I can’t wait to see what next season brings.

Overall, the team played well after the Cazorla free kick and there were stand out performances from Koscielny, Sanogo, and of course Rambo.

So for the final review of the seasons, some questions:

Who was your man of the match?
What is your opinion of Sanogo?
How does it feel to win a cup at last?
Will this be a spring board for future trophies?

Thanks for reading and happy celebrations to you all! 😀

Written By: Dylan.

Napoli preview: back to Cesc-like 4-5-1 with Jack, Aaron & Ozil playing Wengerball?

September 30, 2013TotalArsenal

Evening guys. I have been busy all day, so this is going to be a quick and dirty pre-match. Those who are blessed with a bit more time will hopefully add some more depth and insight to our encounter with Napoli tomorrow.

These are the sort of games that make European football so desirable, but I am glad we are playing at home rather than having to travel again to Southern Europe. From the little I have seen of Napoli, they are a good team and lot of their strength comes from the centre of midfield. Luckily this is also out strongest area at the moment, and I expect a great battle tomorrow.

CL football at home often gets the very best out of our players and I am hoping for an entertaining and yet disciplined performance. In terms of line-up, I don’t expect much change other than the ineligible Gnabry being replaced by either Ryo or Ramsey (allowing Arteta to play next to Flamini in the double DM).

I am going for 4-5-1 tomorrow with 5 multi-disciplined and talented midfielders and Giroud as a better version of Chamakh as our holding striker. I like 4-5-1, but I just as much like proper wing-football, and I reckon we’ll miss Theo’s thrust and goal-threat quite a bit tomorrow. A lack of speed in midfield could mean we need to get a lot from our FBs, and maybe Corporal Jenkinson will start tomorrow. However, I am still sticking with Sagna.

On the left side, the continuously improving, supersonic Gibbs could play an important role tomorrow. He is quietly growing into a fine footballer, and I have a feeling he will score the first goal or produce the assist for it.

Anyway, here is my predicted (and desired) starting eleven tomorrow:

A big game for our captain Vermaelen, who I reckon will play tomorrow, and a good opportunity for Ozil to show the world what it means to arrive at the home of football. 🙂

OGAAT

UTA

COYG

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Ramsey in the hole, FlamTeta double DM, Sagna for BFG? Pre-match report

September 28, 2013September 28, 2013TotalArsenal

I don’t know about you but I like Swansea. They are easy on the eye, love to play smooth passing football, and as a club, they are run with a good vision and effective succession planning. I thought they would suffer after losing Rodgers to Pool, but targeting and successfully recruiting Laudrup was a mini-master-stroke by the club’s board, and you can bet on it that Laudrup’s eventual replacement will be another excellent manager. Getting this right is probably the most important aspect of club management, and you only have to look at the likes of QPR, Sunderland and Aston Villa to know what I mean.

Today’s game is another fine challenge for the boys. We played the Jacks eight times in the PL and it never ended in a draw, so it probably will do this time hahaha 🙂

Swansea's Liberty Stadium — Swansea’s Liberty Stadium

Swansea are likely to miss their captain, and Arsenal summer pursuit, Ashley Williams and the excellent Hernandez is also out, but as they also rested many first teamers in Birmingham – where as holders they went out of the league cup without much fight (1-3) – the Jacks will relish Arsenal coming to town.

Arsenal will have to give their all, remain defensively solid, which means winning the battle in midfield and play very disciplined in front of the defence, and as always, take our chances when they arrive. We did this better than our opponents in recent games and that’s why we won time and again.

Arsenal have quickly become an efficient team: even when not playing our so acquainted fluid football, we still manage to win games by remaining relatively solid defensively – although one clean sheet in the PL indicates need for further improvements at the back – and deadly upfront, with both Giroud and Ramsey in the early-season PL top-scorers list:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/top-scorers

Every season we seem to have an area where for a long period of time we have multiple injuries: centre backs, full backs; and this season it looks like our mid-wing positions are suffering with injury after injury. We will miss Theo’s speed and thrust: he offers an extra dimension which makes it harder to defend against us with total control. Both Ryo and Gnabry had long games and look not yet ready to perform on the big stage from the start. I expect them to be on the bench though, and at least one of them will come on as a sub.

Luckily, there is good noise coming from Arsenal regarding Podolski, Santi and Rosicky returning in the next few weeks, and let’s hope Theo comes back within a month as well. As a result of our lack of ‘wingers’, I reckon Arsene will play all his established midfielders from the start today. It makes us nicely compact and effectively allows us to play 4-5-1, one of my favourite line-ups for Arsenal. We will need to be compact in midfield because that is Swansea’s strongest area: control the midfield and we’ll control the game.

I have no doubt the Swans will approach this game as a ‘let’s go out there and enjoy ourselves’ one, and we need to be focussed from the start. This is the sort of game in which we need to set the tone from the start and be on top of them for large parts of the game. Many of our first teamers had a well-deserved rest and so we should be able to win this game, but only with hard work and focus will we do so. Luckily we have Flamini and Arteta to make sure we’ll do just that.

Predicted Line-Up:

I am expecting Arsene to give the BFG a rest, after playing so heroically against West Brom for us. It looks like our French maestro is not so keen anymore on the Koz – TV partnership, although it is still early days. Therefore, I am going for Sagna replacing the German in this one. I admit, it is a bit of a gamble but it looks to me Arsene believes Sagna is better than Vermaelen and Koz at replacing the BFG’s ability to organise our defence.

In midfield I expect a lot of rotation during the match, but I reckon we’ll see Arteta and Flamini playing in the double DM positions. In the ‘3’ in front of the DMs, I am expecting Jack, Ramsey and Ozil to start: all can play in the hole and on the ‘wing’ in our formation, but I reckon Ramsey will get a chance in the hole today – just a gut-feeling though.

I don’t like doing predictions, as I am a bit superstitious about jinxing it that way, but please feel free to give us yours, as well as what you believe the starting line-up will be. I am asking for the boys to give their all and then somehow our quality should make the difference.

OGAAT fellow Gooners: one game at a time! Focus, hunger and decisiveness at the crucial moments: Bring on the Jacks!

UP THE ARSE!

Written by: TotalArsenal.

One Year of Bergkampesque: An Anniversary Tribute

September 12, 2013September 12, 2013TotalArsenal

I have been a friend of Total Arsenal, the Major Domo of Bergkampesque, for approximately three years, since we first chatted and spectacularly fell out in a misunderstanding over nothing at all, while chatting on another respected blogsite we then both frequented.

After this uncertain start, we soon formed a strong and lasting bond and discussed football, and Arsenal in particular from dawn till dusk, and quickly realized that we had similar, if slightly nuanced views, on the best club in the world.
That, however, did not stop me from being entirely provocative, on occasion, like other fiery, forthright bloggers nowadays. I sometimes, for example, claimed to give credence to certain controversial matters just so that I could argue with TA, because his agile mind and brilliant grasp of English fascinated me, and enabled me to cross verbal swords with him without fear of it offending either of us.

TA’s grasp of Arsenal’s strategic and tactical team innovations together with his superb football knowledge is, as you know, second to none, and quite confounded me on many occasions, though he would always deny this in his usual unassuming way.

He was the author of many excellent Posts for the other blog site, on these and other matters, as well as writing first class match reports, and when he did there was no more avid fan than me in wanting to read his latest musings, and this desire to read the views expressed in his Posts has continued on to BK, and I know you all feel the same way.

Somewhat uniquely, he also engaged with me in discussing non-footie related matters too, primarily in the lulls when international matches were played, and the resultant discourses on poetry, science, mathematics, philosophy and humour were wonderful interludes, stretching the mind and enlivening the interests of many of the other good guys when the ‘dreads’ (boring disaffected, miserable gits) were belching out their unwanted, misanthropic views on everything and anyone associated with Arsenal.

It is now the first anniversary of Bergkampesque, this fantastic website, and from a quiet start it has quickly found its own unique place in Arsenal blogdom, with a brilliant bunch of bloggers from all over the world, who ‘own’ the site, and not only engage in some wonderfully insightful comments, but also help TA by writing some of the very best Posts that can be read anywhere.

Indeed, the repartee, the cut and thrust of the comments, the amazing footie knowledge of so many of you, leavened with the wit of some of the most amusing scallywags that were ever born or hatched, has produced an amazing forum for people with respectfully differing viewpoints based on the platform of each participant’s deep love of the club.

So, what has transpired in footie over the turbulent time line since the birth of BK?

Well, last September, after what had been a stunning summer Olympic Games in London, surprise, surprise, after a shaky start to the Premier League fixtures for us following the summer departure of RvP to Manure, a halt was called to the fun and games so that the bloody footie Internationals could mess up our real football enjoyment, and new boss Woy Hodgson was being exalted by the Media to show ex-boss Capello just how England should play. Hmmm.

Sadly, some dirty washing was also being done in public when John Terry was called to account for alleged racist comments made to the younger Ferdinand, with comparisons being drawn with the odious Suarez and Evra race row! Urggh.

In October, Moyes was being bummed up as a great manager amid forecasts that Everton could finish in fourth place and bounce Arsenal out of the top four, while the Balotelli bandwagon ground on with even more naughtiness from a gifted but flawed footballer.
Oh, and Serbia were accused of racism for their disgusting antics against black England U21 footballers. Oh dear, when will people learn that this behaviour is totally unacceptable?

In November, Mark Hughes was under the cosh at Fulham, and Di Mateo was shown the red card by Abramovich with Benitez apparently lined up as the ‘Interim’ manager. While back at the ranch, West Ham, Leyton Orient and the execrable Spurs were squabbling about the now unneeded, white elephant Olympic Stadium.
Meanwhile, in the background, the ramifications and discussions regarding the implementation of the FFP rules were quietly bubbling away. Ho hum!

December saw the announcement of a new sponsorship deal for the Emirates naming rights, followed by the first mention of a £70m transfer war chest for the upcoming transfer windows, and which was then widely dismissed as bollox by many, on the grounds that RvP would not have left Arsenal if he knew they were going to splash serious dosh in the coming summer, and implying that Gazidis and Wenger were lying.
How wrong they were!

January, February and March were uncompromisingly dreary months starting with ‘Arry Redknapp blowing transfer money willy-nilly on every Tom, Dick and Harry in the wheeler dealer frenzy he is infamous for, followed by Rio Ferdinand getting shirty with John Terry and being given the boot from the England team – or was he?
Oh, and Red Nose Fergie put out the first feelers for Bale to Manure – RvP, Rooney and Bale.
Ho, Ho – Manure were lucky to hang on to Rooney in the final analysis.

April saw England wetting themselves as their chances of getting through to the World Cup finals started to totter, and Suarez became vampire-like in his taste for Ivanovich’s blood.
But hold on – the FA showed some balls, to the amazement of some of us, and dished out a 10 match ban to Suarez for cannibalism – yet according to Brendan Rogers it was just a love bite between mates. Where was the FA’s sense of romance?

May dawned and – well bugger that, I am not going to tell you who won the EPL, The CL or the Europa Cup – you already know, and I don’t give a stuff.

The summer saw a drawn out and very angst driven, frustrating game of ‘will he, won’t he’ over player transfers, and you know what transpired at the last knockings – we bought the best bloody No. 10 in the whole world – Mesut Ozil!! Just go and ask the self named ‘Special’ One, if you don’t believe me. Maureen now claims that having signed Ozil we are serious competitors for the EPL — as if we needed his say so!

Now in September, a year later, we are back into the month of the flipping football Internationals, again, and the only games worth watching involved the Germans and our man Ozil.

Quite a year, one way and another, and all you guys were part of it with your great Posts, your incisive comments and your burning passion.

In that respect, what makes the BK bloggers different, which in turn makes the essence of BK different from other sites?

From my perspective: as Gooners, it does not mean that we think everything is prefect with our team or our management, what it does mean is that we have decided to look beyond their imperfections, and we still love the Arsenal!

So let’s look forward to many more, happy blogging years on BK, this special site set up by TA and with its great bunch of bloggers!

Here’s to TOTAL ARSENAL, to BERGKAMPESQUE, and to all YOU LOT!!

Written by: Red Arse.

Suarez, Theo & Cazorla behind Giroud in a 4-2-3-1 formation?

July 10, 2013July 10, 2013TotalArsenal

I cannot believe Arsenal continue to be linked with Luis Suarez. Liverpool’s Uruguayan striker is a great footballer and would fit into Arsenal really well. He could play alone up-front, behind a big striker as our shadow striker or in a fluid-three in attack. Suarez has got drive and stamina, great first touch and he is a good passer of the ball, he has an eye for an assist and is very, very attack-minded. His goal scoring record is simply fantastic: he scored 81 goals in 110 Eredivisie games for Ajax and 38 in 77 PL games for Liverpool, with 23 in just 33 games during last season.

We could play him in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-1-3 formation, and no doubt it would make us stronger up-front. Arsenal could continue with Giroud as our ‘holding striker’ – the pivot – upfront and the likes of Santi, Theo and Cazorla could form an awesome, fluid and multi-facetted attacking force around him. With Gervinho, Pod and Ox, Arsenal have three more attackers with whom Suarez could form very effective attacking partnerships in the above mentioned formations.

Arsenal could look like this:

But we all know that Suarez, the person, can be described as somewhere between a complex and unstable character. His repeated racist abuse of Evra, for which he was rightly severely punished, and bites into footballers’ body parts tell us he struggles with controlling himself on the pitch.

It is not extremely likely Suarez will make racist remarks on or off the pitch again, as he will have learned his lesson now, even though I don’t think he has much, if any, regrets about what he did. The latter will unlikely fit well with the club’s strong focus on inclusion and equality, on and off the pitch and in the community.

Suarez’s bite into Ivanovic’s arm this season was not without precedent, as he did the same to Otman Bakkal of PSV Eindhoven (shoulder) at the end of 2010. Clearly, Suarez is a player who sometimes suffers from red mist in front of him, leading to almost inexplicable behaviour which gets him, and the club he plays for, into enormous trouble.

I am a big believer that people, and that includes relatively life-inexperienced footballers, can better themselves and move upwards and onwards. But do we want a player who has shown little or no regret for his racist remarks against Evra and who continuous to perform vile, unacceptable conducts against opposition players at our club?

Under the guidance of Wenger and Bould (and maybe Dennis at some point 😛 ), there is a chance that Suarez would settle down a bit and only let his footie do the talking. But it is a big risk to take. The Uruguayan would cost Arsenal at least £35m and that excludes the big wages we would have to pay.

There remains a decent chance that Suarez will behave very badly again, and one more incident could be the final straw for his football career in England, and possibly the rest of Europe. He could bite an opposing player again, or one of our own players or a supporter. He could intentionally break another player’s leg, or head-butt a player or fan. And what if he gets involved in racial abuse, on or off the pitch, again?

Our club’s image would be tarnished and we could be stuck with an untenable situation and an unsalable player, which would come at a huge cost – in more than one sense.

I really cannot see Wenger being seriously interested in Suarez. It took him a long time to get rid of troublesome, disruptive players like Adebayor, Bendtner (still not gone), Nasri etc, and he has clearly been recruiting a different type of player (professional, well-behaved, highly driven and focussed) in the last couple of years.

Let’s hope Arsenal’s recent bid(s) for the Uruguayan are part of a wider strategy aimed at getting another key transfer target.

I say this, though, with some regret, as we can all see he would add great quality to our attack. But sometimes, we need to ignore the belly and listen to our hearts and brains. Suarez does not fit our values and he would be a big liability for the club. Some might say it is worth the gamble, but I beg to differ.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

If Arsenal sign Higuain and Fellaini, Cesc will have to make the decision of his life!

June 28, 2013June 28, 2013TotalArsenal

Watching Spain’s game against Italy yesterday, I just could not understand why del Bosque did not start with Cesc, let alone bring him on as a substitute. Spain lacked their usual dominance in midfield and, especially in the first half, Italy produced a number of quick counterattacks which easily could have led to the Italians taking the lead. Had Balotelli played yesterday, the Italians would have been one, two or even three nil up at half time.

Spain did not maintain their usual high tempo, in terms of chasing the ball and passing it round, and no doubt Cesc would have led by example in order to turns things round for them. A year ago, Spain embarrassed the Italians in the final of the European Championship by utterly dominating them, but this time round they were never superior and could only beat them by just about being better at converting spot kicks.

Fabregas, would you believe it, is 26 now, and it looks like he is still playing third fiddle to Iniesta and Xavi. He is now entering the very best years of his career, and as he is everything but a mercenary, he will need to make a big decision about what to do next. Our former El Capitan is a romantic who not only wants to win silverware but also enter the realms of football immortality. If things continue as they have been going over the last few years, Cesc is not going to make it past the threshold.

Whoever is managing Barcelona next season, they are unlikely to give Cesc a dominant role in their team. Despite Xavi turning 34 in January next year, it is unlikely that he will be benched on a regular basis any time soon. With other talent coming through and new signings arriving – where, for example, will Naymar play next season? – Cesc could face another spell on the fringes of the team. And immortality is, unfortunately for him, not one of the fringe benefits.

I have always said Cesc went too early. I understand why he went two years ago, but it was nevertheless the wrong thing to do. He became a chairman’s gift to the fans, who maybe wanted him, but did not seem to love, or even need, him.

Now, I know we are all not sleeping comfortably at the moment, as we seem to be waiting for an eternity to see the Higuain signing confirmed. But Terry Mancini Hair Transplant’s mate has said it is a done deal, so he’ll be a Gunner anytime soon! 😀

These things take time, and it was obvious that the appointment of Ancelotti would be used to further increase the pressure on Arsenal to improve our final offer for the Argentine. However, I expect him to be announced as one of us by Monday or Tuesday.

I am also convinced we will get a high quality DM, who can play footie as well, this summer. The links with Fellaini remain reasonably strong, but who knows who we’ll get this summer.

But, surely if it is Fellaini – or another high calibre defensive midfielder – Cesc would have to make the biggest decision in his footballing life. With a midfield/attack line up of Fellaini and Jack as our combined DMs/DM-B2B, Cazorla and Theo on the wings and Higuain up-front, the Home of Football would not be complete without Cesc playing in the hole for us next season.

This would be the team that would suit his talents to the max; it would finally provide him with the platform on which he can shine and cook with Fabregas.

This summer’s Terror Window will not be for the faint-hearted, as there will be many twists and turns, but there is real potential now to strengthen the team properly, and although the above scenario is a big dream, it could well happen.

Two quality signings and who knows, Cesc might decide to return to where he is wanted, needed AND loved by (almost) all.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

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