Cazorla – Page 6 – Bergkampesque

Wigan Review & Player Ratings: Ox and Szczesny main sparks in dour contest.

December 22, 2012December 23, 2012TotalArsenal

Arsenal’s consistent inability to follow up a fantastic victory continues to be a concern, but at least we were able to come out of today’s clash with a much-needed three points.

We always knew that today’s clash with Wigan Athletic would be a difficult contest, and this was the type of persevering victory that Arsenal needed to establish some semblance of consistency. The wet, heavy pitch could have been a determining factor in our poor play since we rely heavily on passing and ball control.

Wigan started off the game with high pressure defensively, taking away Arsenal’s coveted time and space. In possession, Wigan were very settled and knocked the ball around well. They pushed forward successfully down the flanks to no avail, as both Beausejour and Stam wasted many crosses in the final third. Wigan lived up to McManaman’s criticism of giving away the ball on numerous occasions, and this eventually allowed Arsenal to ease into the game.

However, it was very tough to break down Wigan in the first half as they successfully congested the middle of the pitch.

Throughout most of the contest, Arsenal found it very difficult to replicate the form of our last game, and the players seemed very tense and overly cautious in attack. As the game continued, Wigan afforded Arsenal more space and the Ox eventually gave us the spark needed to break out offensively. This eventually led to a few quality scoring chances but teammates were not able to get on the end of his crosses, and Theo missed a fantastic chance to convert one of his low crosses.

Fortunately, Arsenal were able to break through in the second half with a nice pass from Santi to Walcott in the box that subsequently led to a penalty, which Arteta finished clinically from the spot.

Defensively there were mental lapses once again, but we were able to grind out the victory and we were not punished for our mistakes. Worth noting was that Vermaelen and Mertesacker were poor defensively for a good portion of the game which allowed Kone to get in behind them in the first half, but luckily he wasted the chance wide.

Now onto the player ratings from today’s game:

Szczesny (9.0) – I thought he was our best player today and has really provided the squad with stability. Szczes kept us in the game with big saves and made some intelligent, aggressive decisions to challenge the Wigan forwards. Well-deserved clean sheet and performances like these will be needed from him, if we’re to win games when we are not at our best.

Gibbs (8.0) – Not as influential offensively as last game, but the blame should be placed more on Podolski’s lack of support opposed to a knock on Gibbs. Defensively, Gibbs was solid and made some key tackles to break up the Wigan offense throughout the game. Still, I was hoping to see more from him and the blossoming left flank partnership from last game let me down.

Vermaelen (6.5) – I was appalled at his questionable missed challenge on Kone in the first half that led to a good Wigan scoring opportunity. This was only compounded by further poor concentration in coverage that later led to Kone getting behind himself and Mertesacker for a clear chance on goal. He eventually settled down and more importantly, the defense did not concede any goals. However, a much better effort is needed from our captain and those defensive lapses need to be addressed going forward.

Mertesacker (6.5) – I thought the weakness in our defense lay with the two center backs today: together with Vermaelen, Mertesacker’s lack of pace and concentration, almost led to Kone scoring for Wigan. He played his routine safe game by just clearing the ball, but gave Wigan some unnecessary second chance opportunities from corner kicks when not even under pressure. Just as I said with Vermaelen; we didn’t concede any goals against Wigan so perhaps I’m being harsh, but some players need to answer for poor performances and Mertesacker is one of them. He did however break up a crucial play on a 2 v 1 by clearing Stam’s cross pass to Kone in the second half.

Sagna (8.0) – Both fullbacks played solid games defensively and kept Wigan’s offence in check. Much like last game, I want to see Sagna more involved offensively, but I’m glad he honored his defensive duties first. Nothing spectacular here, but I’m happy if he can consistently perform like he did today.

Arteta (8.5) – Continues to be our most consistent performer this season and always shows composure and intelligent ball distribution (aside from the Fulham game which was a disaster for him and he wasn’t great vs. the Spuds either). Won the ball back cleanly on a few occasions and has done everything one could ask for from a holding midfielder. Had a nice involvement offensively on a run forward in the first half and played a nice final ball, that almost led to an Oxlade-Chamberlain goal. Arteta scored the lone goal on a well taken, confident penalty kick.

Wilshere (7.0) – This was not one of Jack’s best performances and the team’s overall performance seemed to be directly correlated with his. He misplaced more passes than usual today, but did not commit any serious mistakes and was unfairly penalized with a yellow card on a perfectly clean tackle. Still, he was not as influential as usual, and I’d like to see him running up field with the ball more frequently. Wilshere did play well defensively, breaking up the play with sliding challenges a few times.

Cazorla (7.0) – He definitely came out flat today and Wigan was smart to take away his space and close down on him early after his performance against Reading. Santi uncharacteristically turned the ball over several times on some poor first touches, over dribbling and careless passing. His slick pass to Walcott that eventually led to Arsenal’s only goal, was the only outstanding bit of work from him. He wasn’t horrible but you definitely come to expect more from our main offensive distributor.

Podolski (5.5) – He pulled his typical Houdini act today and was pretty much absent for most of the game. Of all the players who started against Wigan, I was the most disappointed with Podolski after his inspiring run out against Reading. He created nothing offensively, was not involved defensively, did not link up with Gibbs and seemed to hardly move on the pitch. I thought he should have been the first player substituted off, and his poor performance allowed Wigan to congest the middle of the pitch.

Walcott (6.5) – He looked lost as the central striker today and Martinez and Wigan must have carefully analyzed the Reading game film from Monday. Theo wasn’t able to stretch the defense at all and wasted a good opportunity created by Ox, by shooting it right at Al Habsi in the second half. He did show some intelligent movement by getting himself into good positions to score, eventually drawing a crucial penalty, but like Podolski, he was pretty non-existent most of the time. It will be interesting to see if he can rebound vs. Newcastle next weekend.

Oxlade-Chamberlain (9.0) – Except for Szczesny, he was the most outstanding player on the pitch today. Ox displayed great pace, confidence in taking on defenders and provided some nice offensive scoring chances with in-swinging crosses into the opponent’s 18-yard box. He finally seems to be finding his form from last season and I absolutely loved this lad’s lively performance on the right flank. However, Ox was guilty of over-dribbling and taking too much on his own, which led to a few unnecessary turnovers in the final third. The best is yet to come from him and I think he’ll make the right wing position his own this season.

Ramsey, Coquelin, Koscielny (Incomplete) – None really had an opportunity to make an impact on the game, though Koscielny had a good clearance with his head late in the game, and Coquelin made a couple of nice sliding challenges to win the ball back. However, Coquelin looked unsure when in possession of the ball and this almost led to a few turnovers in our own half. Ramsey looked poor once again in his cameo appearance and why Wenger insists on playing him baffles me. He constantly gives away the ball, is poor defensively, lacks pace and looks out of his element on the right wing. Perhaps his poor performances are associated with inconsistent playing time, but it appears a loan move to another club may be the best for his development.

It is worrisome that we needed a penalty kick to find the score sheet and this poor performance is something to keep in mind for the coming games. AW’s decision to substitute Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 75^th minute was shocking and as a result, we quickly lost any momentum we had gained from Arteta’s goal.

I expect the week off to be beneficial for our squad to get some much-needed rest and to re-group before facing Newcastle on the 29^th. All in all, not one of our best performances but top teams still need to pick up three points from these kinds of games, and we did. Pulling out this type of victory is exactly what Arsenal needed and gives our players the confidence to know that we can still win games when not at our best.

Written by: The Gooner.

Has there been a compromise between Bould and Wenger?

December 19, 2012December 19, 2012TotalArsenal

Arsenal’s performance against the Royals was just what the doctor ordered, and there were signs that Arsene and Bould are starting to find the balance between solidity at the back and a deadly thrust up-front.

Of course, it is early days, and just as I am the first to point out that a bad result does not mean Arsenal are rubbish, it also needs stressing that a good performance and result against Reading does not mean Arsene and Bould have turned the corner. It also needs stressing that Arsenal needlessly conceded two goals, and that we in fact drew with the Royals in the second half.

However, looking at the game for a second time, there seemed to be a pattern to our play throughout the game which might indicate that Bould and Wenger are starting to find the formula for sustained success for the rest of the season.

One wing at a time

Without Theo playing on the right wing, where he formed such a formidable partnership with Sagna during last season especially, Arsenal channelled their wing-attacks through the left for most of the game. Sagna stayed a lot more behind than usually and Ox had to work more in isolation compared to Pod. The German has less tricks to his disposal and relies a lot on support from Cazorla and especially from his brother in arms; the fantastically versatile Gibbs.

Ox is less dependable on support in order to work some magic on the right wing, especially if and when he is giving the most sought after commodity of all for an attacker player: space in front of him. There were signs on Monday that AOC is slowly rediscovering his form and – closely related – his confidence.

Reading allowed us a lot of space on the left wing and boy did we benefit from it. When Gibbs went forward to support our attack the rest of our defence stayed mostly in position, which gave the defence a well-needed stability. Something Bould will have been pleased with.

Vermaelen and Mertesacker more conventional

In general, I thought both the BFG and TV played more conventionally on Monday. They concentrated hard on keeping discipline and there was a strong focus on pushing up and getting Reading to walk constantly in their off-site traps. This worked out very well for most of the game, but as the two goals we conceded showed; further fine-tuning is a must.

It was also clear that TV ventured forward less than usual and this might be another compromise between Bould and Wenger.

Arteta even more our orthodox holding midfielder and Wilshere handed the biggest role of all

I thought Arteta did really well again on Monday. When he is allowed to keep it simple and sit in front of the defence he can be very effective for us. He has got a great positional sense and uses his intelligence really well in sussing out danger. He plays in such a way that you almost do not spot him for large parts of the game, as he allows the team – and us as spectators – to concentrate on the attacking opportunities ahead. We rely heavily on him which of course is a concern, but that is a discussion for another day.

The biggest role on the night was given to Jack. I cannot tell you how much I love this guy right now. What a difference he makes with his drive, intelligence and ability. Yet, he looked so fragile at times on Monday, and we have to wonder whether his body will be able to take the continuous physical challenges he has to face in this pivotal role.

Jack was everywhere and covered the area between attack and defence tremendously well on Monday. Supported by Arteta, he ensured we could keep continuous pressure on the Reading defence, and he was instrumental in winning back possession in midfield as well.

Cazorla played a lot closer to our CF

It was great to see Santi play so close to our CF, Theo, against Reading. I thought Santi played in the DB10 role on Monday and he did remind me of him at times. I did not know he would be so effective in the opposition’s box, but his runs into it, and his general awareness and prowess to finish off opportunities, were a very welcome surprise (at least to me). On top of that, he was just as effective in what he is more known for: finding clever through balls and dictating our attacking play in general. It truly was a top performance by the little Spaniard on Monday.

Jack playing in the lynchpin role and working his socks off together with Arteta, allowed Santi this free role and boy did he reward us for it!

One question that needs answering in the next few weeks is whether Santi can play as close to Giroud as he did to Theo. Theo is a more mobile and faster striker and can exploit space so well: he makes intelligent runs which are very hard to track by the opposition’s defenders, and for Santi, Theo is a dream to play with – just as Henry was for Bergkamp – as he both loves to feed the ball to him in space and likes to benefit himself from the space Theo creates for others.

Of course, we would also need to see how the combination of Walcott and Cazorla in the centre of our attack would work against the disciplined ‘park the bus’ teams, but a more permanent switch towards Cazorla in the hole and three more fluid attackers up-front could well be the way forward.

Plenty of food for thought, I hope! So. let’s discuss. 🙂

Written by: Total Arsenal.

Santi dictates, Gibbs/Pod left side power, Theo gave us wings + Player Ratings

December 18, 2012December 18, 2012TotalArsenal

Arsenal took a much-needed three points from last night’s match vs. Reading and hopefully it silences the criticism that has been plaguing the club as of late. The 5-2 result was well deserved given the balance of play and it’s about time that we started performing to the high levels of expectation for a top club. We completely dominated the first 60 minutes of play, and if it were not for some critical Federici saves, the score could have easily been 7-0.

Three of the five goals were produced from the left side of the pitch, with one other goal assisted by Gibbs on the left from a fantastic Theo cross. Much of our early season success came from a dangerous left side that featured overlapping runs and fantastic link up play from Podolski and Gibbs. Gibbs’ injury vs. West Ham directly coincided with the attack down the left flank breaking down. Hopefully, the Gibbs-Podolski partnership continues to flourish consistently from here on out.

The left side was given more freedom to attack due to the speed threat of Theo down the middle; Reading’s defense was quite narrow and given our last clash with them in the Capital One Cup, they were right to be concerned. Up front, our attack was finally given shape and we were treated to a classic, beautiful Arsenal display – fluid passing, direct runs, intelligent movement and relentless pressure from both flanks. This was possible because Arsene finally switched his tactics and played a more mobile striker in Theo up front. The front three were interchanging their positions with Podolski and Ox occasionally drifting centrally and Theo chasing down balls played into open space down the left and right.

Player Ratings:

Szczesny (7.5) – The Pole’s continued to give us stability in goal and has done everything you can reasonably expect from a keeper. He did well to outstretch himself and grab what could have been an easy goal for Reading off a corner. None of the goals were his fault and were a direct result of defensive breakdowns. However, it would have been nice to see Szczesny save 1 of the 2 goals.

Gibbs (8.5) – Fantastic display down the left hand side and helped give our attack shape. Two assists, some scoring opportunities that were blocked and plenty of good crosses. Constantly pushed forward offensively and was reliable coming back for his defensive duties. The only reason I didn’t give him a higher rating was because of his errant pass to Wilshere that led to a goal that brought Reading back into the game.

Vermaelen (8.0) – Has looked much more reliable defensively this year and saved us early on in the game on a 2 v 1 by clearing Pogrebnyak’s pass across the front of the goal. Would have liked to have seen him more involved offensively, but it was more a luxury than a necessity today. Great game by our captain, took a gamble to intercept Gibbs’ errant pass before the first goal.

Mertesacker (7.0) – Broke up a few of Reading’s plays and ensures that we have adequate defensive cover. However, he was guilty of ball watching and drifted away from marking Kebe, who eventually scored the 2^nd goal.

Sagna (7.0) – His crosses have been ineffective all year and perhaps it was fortunate that he was not playing in as much of an advanced role yesterday. Reading’s few scoring chances primarily came down the left side, a testament to both our domination in possession and to his defensive reliability. Still, had a few turnovers from poor passes and I’ve come to expect more from what I believe is the best right back in the Premier League.

Arteta (8.5) – The engine that drives our team and it was evident that we missed him last week in our loss to BradfordCity. Won ball possession back and instantly pressured Reading when we lost possession of the ball. Always great with ball retention, followed his defensive responsibilities well and distributed the ball to our creative outlets as we’ve seen him do all season. Really helped to settle our team down and conserved his energy to chase down attackers.

Wilshere (8.5) – You can tell that he’s the one who wants to make things happen for the squad. He leads the team up field with his charging runs with the ball and he is always looking to add directness to our attack from the midfield. His aggressive style helps keep the opposition in check, but it did lead to a yellow card. He had an opportunity to score from a nice mid-air volley but the effort was met from an even better Federici save. It was unfortunate that he slipped on the 1^st goal, but the pass shouldn’t have been played that far away from him in the first place. Jack really should have had at least one assist today, but personal accomplishments are not important when the team wins.

Cazorla (9.5) – 3 goals and 1 assist, well deserved ‘Man of the Match’ recognition and he really showed his world-class ability. Recently, I’ve accused him of not being influential enough to take matters into his own hands to turn around games for our team, but yesterday he truly was the difference. He was creating plenty of through ball scoring chances for Theo, made intelligent passes in the final third, always put himself in good positions to score and took plenty of chances that he may not have taken in past games. The only thing keeping his rating from a perfect 10 was his defensive lapse early in the game when Pogrebnyak was on the receiving end of a nice give and go that almost led to a Reading goal when the game was 0-0. In addition, later in the 78^th minute, Santi tried to do it all by himself vs. 6 Reading players and turned the ball over in Reading’s 18-yard box. As you can see, I really had to nitpick to find any flaws in his game yesterday.

Podolski (9.0) – A goal and 2 assists and it appears like Podolski has finally come back into form and reignited his partnership with Gibbs down the left flank. He’s often accused of either disappearing or being non-existent in games, but today he put in a great performance for the full 90 minutes. A couple erroneous passes at the edge of and within Reading’s 18-yard box brought down his rating slightly.

Walcott (8.5) – His pace is a nightmare for defenders and Reading gave him plenty of space to make intelligent runs into empty space. His goal at the 80^th minute destroyed any hope of a Reading comeback and despite starting as a striker, he was willing to move out wide and distributed some nice crosses into the middle of the pitch (he spotted Gibbs with a cross that eventually led to the third goal). However, Theo missed a breakaway opportunity in the first half and he could have passed to a wide-open Podolski in the second half instead of taking a shot that was wide of the mark.

Oxlade-Chamberlain (7.5) – He really set the tempo of the game for us after his blazing run and attempt on goal that was deflected wide by Federici in the opening minutes. Reading had difficulty coping with his pace all night and his ability to cut inside added another element of directness and unpredictability to our attack. In fact, it was his decision to take the ball inside and pass it to Wilshere that eventually led to Cazorla’s hat trick, which involved classy, vintage Arsenal build-up play. He did disappear for about half the match and was rightfully substituted in the second half. He had a great opportunity to score his first PL goal this season but a spectacular sprawling Federici save met his header.

Ramsey, Giroud and Coquelin (Incomplete) – All were relatively late substitutes and did not have sufficient time to make an impact on the game. I hate to pick on Ramsey after such a great team effort but our attack down the right side became non-existent once he stepped onto the pitch and we ended up passing backwards into our own end more. Giroud missed a great opportunity to get onto the score sheet after sending a volley into Federici’s outstretched arms on a breakaway. Coquelin made a nice run forward and held the play up well that eventually led to a Podolski give away, but that’s about all I noticed from him in his cameo appearance.

Despite Arsenal playing a game full of so many positives, there were still negatives to take away. In typical Arsenal fashion, an inspiring first 60 minutes eventually led to 2 goals that gave life to a late Reading comeback. It looked like a realistic possibility before Theo iced the game with a great finish at the 80^th minute to make it 5-2.

We have lacked focus defensively for much of this season and have been punished late in games for conceding crucial goals (2^nd leg vs. Schalke, Swansea, Fulham, Olympiacos); fortunately, today we amassed a significant lead to relieve some of the pressure if such a scenario were to occur again. As noted earlier, Gibbs’ misplaced pass exposed us for the first goal and ball watching by Mertesacker led to the second goal. Finally, zonal marking on corners looks like it’ll eventually do us in, and we were fortunate to only concede 3 today.

Going forward, questions still remain unanswered. Can we replicate the same success at home? Was today’s result a testament to our improved team play or us facing a very poor, lackluster Reading side? Will this win be met with any level of consistency or will we once again be victims of an underwhelming performance next time out? Not to sound too pessimistic after today’s glorious performance, but there’s been a disturbing trend of inconsistency that casts a shadow of doubt over the coming Wigan clash on Saturday.

Four times this season, we’ve managed to follow up encouraging wins with losses or ties: beat West Ham, then lost to Norwich/beat QPR, then lost to Utd/beat Tottenham, then tied Villa and Everton before losing to Swansea/beat WBA, then lost to Bradford on pens.

All in all, a great game where we dictated the pace of the game and the result should go a long way in building confidence for our squad.

Written by: The Gooner.

Reading pre-view: Gervinho has to play, Jack to lead, Cazorla to assist better

December 17, 2012December 17, 2012TotalArsenal

Three areas for Arsenal to focus on during our game against Reading game.

It has been a long wait since that humiliating cup-exit almost a week ago, but tonight Arsenal will finally get the chance to make up for it. In order to do so, we need to see a number of improvements from our game against Bradford City, and it will go either really well or not well at all.

In a way, the game against Reading is pretty similar to the game against BC: Reading are bottom of the league and we are the favourites to win tonight, but we all know that if Arsenal are not fully focussed and give their all, we could end up with another painful away loss.

Area one: The shape of the team and system of football.

This is the main area of concern at the moment: Arsenal are desperately seeking their identity, their style of play and shape of the team. In my view, Arsenal have not played a version of Wengerball since the departure of Fabregas: last season we played a ‘plan-B’ for the entire season, and this year we continue to struggle to play the Arsenal way.

However, things are improving, despite the set-back against Bradford. With Jack getting better and better, he will be able to guard our shape and drive the team in the most central role of our 4-3-3 formation. With Arteta playing in the anchor role behind him, and Cazorla ahead of him, Wilshere holds the key in supporting our ‘back-five’, and linking up with the ‘front-four’ in order to instigate deadly attacking moves.

We also need Jack to inspire the team with his extrovert character and never-say-die attitude tonight. He might be young, and still not fully fit, but we need him to be able to put his stamp on the match: without it, it’s very unlikely we will find and keep our shape in this game.

Area two: Better service to our three attackers.

Other than the shape of the team, we are also struggling in providing our attackers with quality service. Cazorla has hardly had any assists in the last 12 PL games, and in the pivotal role that he plays in, this simply is not good enough.

I remember many fellow Gooners calling for us to shoot more and in Cazorla they now got what they asked for. The little Spaniard shoots whenever he can, but unfortunately, seldom scores; and many a chance goes to waste. I would like him to start concentrating again on setting up other players: his main aim should be to provide direct assists and indirect assists to Giroud and the wingers.

I am also hoping that our ‘wing-back’ play will become a lot more effective again. We are desperate for a steep improvement in our crossing ability to find the heads (or legs) of Giroud and Podolski. Both Sagna and Gibbs have to really concentrate and be more effective when going forward, and we need to see a far more fluid link-up play between the full-backs and the wingers tonight.

Area three: Proper wing-play to add a must needed dimension to our football.

This is another main area where we have struggled this season. In our 4-3-3 formation, we need effective wing-play to attack with speed and from the sides; to give us width and another dimension with regards to our attacking play. Yet, with Podolski and, I regret to say, Ox on the wings we have been far too predictable (also directly influenced by areas one and two, as per above).

That’s why I strongly believe we need to play Gervinho tonight – and I am assuming that Theo will not play tonight (or ever again for Arsenal?!). The Ivorian might have missed a number of seemingly easy chances recently, which has been very disappointing, but he is able to provide us with proper wing-play better than anybody else in our team at the moment.

Gervinho always makes himself available and once he has got the ball he seldom looses it. He is always keen to take on defenders and penetrate the opposition’s defensive shape, thus making things happen. In every game, he manages to get to the by-line at least a few times and set somebody up to score. I fully expected Ox to be able to do the same now, but it is somehow not happening for him; and the Pod is clearly not a proper winger and can only play on the wing if there is a proper winger on the right, and he gets the right support from his full-back. If this is not happening the Pod looks both ineffective and frustrated on the LW.

Other areas to focus on.

I have no doubt that Reading will try to press us continuously and will not let us settle. So we need to be up for it, and make sure we’ll pass the ball round a lot better than we have done recently. We also need to press them a lot better and that means the whole team has to take part in it and play as one tonight.

We we will also have to concentrate hard in defence, especially in the air during set-pieces. Let’s hope we will see good organisation and link-up between our defenders, and between the defence and the rest of the team.

Predicted Line-up:

Szczesny

Sagna – BFG – TV – Gibb

——–Arteta—Jack——–

———–Cazorla————-

Ox——–Giroud——Gerv

Preferred Line-up:

Szczesny

Sagna -– BFG –- TV -– Gibb

———-Arteta—Jack———

————Rosicky————–

Cazorla—-Giroud—–Gerv

I don’t need to tell you how desperate we are for a convincing win tonight.

Come on You Rip-Roaring Gunners!

Total Arsenal.

Three urgently needed improvements for the Schalke 04 game

October 22, 2012October 22, 2012TotalArsenal

Will Gnabry get a chance on the right wing?

More Support for Cazorla – Better on-field Leadership – Sort out the Wings.

Just because we have seen a rat swimming in the sea, it does not mean the ship is about to sink. Arsenal played so well in recent away games against Liverpool, Man City and West Ham that we have no reason to despair as yet, even though our performance in and against Norwich was woeful.

Having had time to analyse the game in a bit more detail, I believe there are three urgently needed improvements Arsenal have to make for our game against Schalke 04 on Wednesday.

More support for Cazorla in the centre of midfield. In our current system the lynchpin position is absolute key in terms of giving adequate support to Arteta – our more natural protector of the back four – and supporting Cazorla – our creative midfielder. Especially against teams who park the bus against us, we need a player who is good at defending, who can switch over to attack very quickly, can pick a good through-ball, and is confident with the ball in tight spaces. They need to be good passers and receivers of the ball and able to take on a player if possible. We have two very good players for this: Diaby and Jack, and two very decent players: Rosicky and Ramsey. All of them can also play in Cazorla’s position. If Jack is fit, we should play him against Schalke. If not, it will have to be Ramsey again. I thought he struggled against Norwich and he will have to step it up significantly if he is to make that role his own any time soon. Against Schalke he might get his last chance for a long while.
On-field leadership needs to improve significantly. Some of you might recall my recent post about the perceived lack of leadership coming from Thomas Vermaelen. I reckon TV5 is struggling with the organisational and communicative tasks of leadership within the team. He leads well by example; although he often makes rash decisions – offensively as well as defensively – which put the rest of the team on edge, and in danger. I don’t think Thomas is a natural leader and he appears to be struggling with the new weight of responsibility on his shoulders. The sooner Arsene releases him of the captaincy responsibilities the better. I reckon Mertesacker would be a brilliant captain.
Arsenal need to sort out the wings, if and when Giroud is being played in the middle. We need to stop being lop-sided towards the left, and have proper wing play on each side. It is either Giroud with proper wingers or no Giroud in our current system. Podolski is not a proper winger but a CF who can be positioned on the wing. In our ‘fluid-three’ system, Podolski does really well; especially when Gervinho is played in the middle and either one of The Ox, Theo or even Ramsey is played on the right. I prefer the fluid-three system at the moment, as it gives us far better movement up-front and it makes us a lot more unpredictable. But I would also like us to use Giroud more. However, playing Giroud with the Pod on the left and Gervinho on the right is not working at all, and I would be very surprised if Arsenal will use this combination again for a while. With the Ox probably out for Wednesday and Theo also a doubt, Arsene will be limited in his options. Podolski also appears to carry a knock and might be a doubt for Wednesday. Therefore, I would not be surprised – and also welcome it – if we were to start against Schalke with Gervinho on the left, Giroud in the middle and either Theo, The Ox, or Gnabry on the right – depending on who is fit enough to play.

I am sure the leadership thing will linger on for a while, as Arsene never seems to care that much about who is our captain. But the other two areas really need to be sorted out urgently in my opinion, if Arsenal want to return to winning ways.

Keep the faith fellow Gooners!

Total Arsenal.

Last 30 minutes for Wilshere, Giroud or fluid-three, Spuds or Chavs win?

October 19, 2012October 19, 2012TotalArsenal

Aaaaaaaaaaah proper football is back again! And what a good weekend of football we can look forward to. The best possible news we could have had, is that little Jack the Giant Killer is fit again. He has arrived in Norwich tonight and with the rest of the first team squad.

Jack or Santi?

Will he play or won’t he, and could he even start tomorrow? It is unlikely that Jack will start, but it could well happen. Santi played almost the entire game against France on Tuesday and might need some rest. Wenger has to consider Cazorla’s fitness as he will definitely need him in Wednesday’s all important CL game against Schalke 04. That is a must-win game for us, as a loss or even a draw would give the others a chance to catch up on us, where a win would get us close to qualification for the next round. Norwich is of course also a must-win game, so Arsene has a difficult decision to make tomorrow.

I reckon Arteta and Ramsey are a given in the starting eleven against Norwich, and it will be either Coquelin or Santi to start. If the former starts then Ramsey will probably play in the ‘hole’ position. I reckon there is still between 10-20% chance Wenger might surprise us all and starts with JW10. I go for Santi to start and JW10 to come on for the last 30 minutes or so.

Giroud or fluid-three?

Will Arsene start with Giroud again, as he did against West Ham? The extra height of Giroud will be very welcome during set-pieces; when we are attacking, as well as when we are defending. I am so pleased OG scored that goal against Spain: it is exactly what he needed and I expect him to play with a lovely lightness of being tomorrow. He came on as a late substitute, so is very fresh and yet full of confidence, which bodes well for Arsenal.

On the basis of this, I would say Giroud will start. However, a fluid three of The Ox, Gervinho and Podolski is also a strong possibility. The latter is a lot harder to defend against for Norwich. Especially Gervinho and Podolski function really well in this system with already nine goals between them in all competitions.

The Ox looked really good against SM, and his confidence seems very high at the moment. I am not sure how fit Gervinho is, but travelling to, and playing in Africa must take a bit out of him. Therefore, I reckon he will start on the bench, as we will also really need him against Schalke midweek.

I will go for Giro, The Ox and The Pod up-front tomorrow. All three are full of confidence and only played a few minutes as late substitutes during the week.

Defence

Although Big Per could probably do with a break tomorrow, I reckon Arsene will need to play him against Norwich. We need as much consistency as possible in defence at the moment, and especially in away games it is too dangerous to give the likes of Djourou – who also travelled a long way midweek – or Miquel a chance. The rest of the defence pick themselves at the moment.

My predicted formation for tomorrow is:

Manone

Jenkinson – Mertesacker – TV – Santos

Arteta – Ramsey

Cazorla (60 min) – JW10 (30)

The Ox – Giro – The Pod

Spuds or Chavs?

What is the best outcome for Arsenal? It is a no-brainer for me: Spuds to win. The gap with the Chavs is too big and we know our North-London neighbours are totally capable of giving away a lead again, however big that might be.

A lot of people believe the Chavs have a very strong team, but I am not convinced yet. It is definitely a good team, but they have not been properly tested as yet. Arsenal made it so easy for them by gifting two very soft goals at the start of each half, which meant it only became a proper game at the end of the second half. Fair enough, Chelsea did not allow us to dominate our midfield for most of the game and were able to punish us severely for our mistakes.

But Arsenal have a decent chance to do well in the PL this season and a win for us, whilst the Chavs get beaten, is just what we need tomorrow.

COYRRG!!

Total Arsenal.

Arsenal’s season until now – Five areas of improvement

October 14, 2012October 14, 2012TotalArsenal

Shiny happy Gunners – Mean Defence – The Conductor is back – Goals by many – Quality on the bench.

I was convinced that with the departure of brave sir Robin and Alex Song, and the arrival of our three major signings: Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla, this season would be another transitional one, and that we should not count on Arsenal winning any silverware this season. However, there are plenty of signs that this might not have to be a trophy-less season, as the new players have settled in a lot quicker than expected, and we have come reasonably well through a difficult fixture list.

All in all, there are five areas of improvement on which we can build our hopes for winning something soon.

1.) Shiny Happy Gunners

Whilst Arsenal made good progress with regards to the levels of togetherness and passion with which we played football last season, the whole team appears to have made further progress this season. Especially Podolski and Cazorla seem to smile all the time and play with great joy and passion. Add to that the likes of Arteta, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Jenkinson, and hopefully soon: Frimpong, Wilshere, Diaby and Rosicky, and many others, and we have now a team full of key players who love to play football, and are really happy to play for Arsenal. It has been a long time since we have been so deprived of mercenaries and long may it continue.

What would we give to play for our club? The answer is: absolutely everything! So, it is always important to see our players play with real passion for the club and give their all: that’s the least we should expect. I love the enthusiasm and shiny, happy faces of this season’s team and it bows well for the future.

2.) Mean Defence

How long have we been craving for a mean defence? Now, we are not there yet, and the last two PL games have been a harsh reality check for Arsenal, but there are still signs that our defence will be more solid this season. Five goals conceded in the first seven PL games is a huge improvement from last season and if we can keep this average up for the rest of the season we will end up with 27/28 goals conceded, which would be a huge improvement compared to last season’s PL tally of 49.

Mertesacker has really settled down in his second season and after his injury. Bould is working hard with especially the defence, and every single defender has come out saying how much they enjoy working with him. We have also been relatively lucky with injuries and there is plenty of quality cover in all positions; with the exception of the goalkeeper position, where we lack experience (although Mannone has not done that badly until now).

3.) The Conductor is back

Fabregas has finally been replaced and Cazorla has been a total revelation. What a great player we have in Santi Cazorla: Wenger has got himself a new conductor and that’s why he has been smiling again in the last few weeks. See also my recent post about our new Spanish maestro: https://bergkampesque.com/2012/10/10/arsenes-best-signing-since-moving-to-the-emirates-could-lead-us-to-the-top-again/

4.) Goals by many

After a difficult start, Arsenal is starting to score a good number of goals now, and they are nicely shared between all our attacking players. We should be really glad we are no longer uber-dependent on brave Sir Robin to score the majority of our goals: five goals by Gervinho, four by Podolski, four by Walcott, two each by Cazorla and Giroud, and a handful of players who scored one goal in all competitions since the start of the season. Let’s hope Giroud and Cazorla will improve further and the rest will keep up their great scoring form, and we will be fine this season. 13 goals in the last four games is a sign that Arsenal is making good progress.

5.) Quality on the bench

Despite a number of injuries to key players in defence and midfield: Szczesny, Sagna, Wilshere, Rosicky, and recently, Diaby, we have still been able to field a good first team, whilst having quality players on the bench. As long as we can bring on the likes of Koscielny, Walcott, Ramsey, Coquelin and Giroud after 60 or 70 minutes into a game, we have a good chance to hold on to a lead, or change games round. I reckon we need to invest in an experienced goalkeeper and a classic DM to further strengthen the team, but that’s it.

The above five improvements have made a real difference compared to last season, and are likely to provide a solid foundation for future, if not imminent, successes.

Keep the faith, fellow Gooners!

Total Arsenal.

Arsene’s best signing since moving to the Emirates could lead us to the top again!

October 10, 2012October 10, 2012TotalArsenal

Everybody loves Santi! The Asturian from Llanera is the two-footed, smiling assassin, the master of gravity, and the conductor of the sweetest moves; possessing the perfect ability to combine the hard grind with creating beautiful, Gaudi-esque attacks.

What a player Arsene has brought to the Home of Football this summer. It has been a while since we have seen genuine joy in Arsene’s face, but Santi Cazorla’s brilliant performances have definitely made him an ‘eye-smiler’ again. And it did not come a moment too soon.

Hasn’t he made us all a bit happier this season? The 168 centimetre ‘tall’ Spaniard is the complete attacking midfielder. He is technically and tactically almost as good as Cesc, but unlike the homesick Catalan, Santi appears to be fully at home at Arsenal from the first time he put on our mighty shirt.

He is showing absolutely no signs of settling in problems. In fact, the opposite is the case: he plays with such focus and joy for his new employer, and in his new, pivotal role that it really looks like he’s finally arrived where he has always belonged: Arsenal and Santi suit each other like rioja and chorizo lamb shanks!

I find that very remarkable: no apparent cultural or emotional adjustment issues. He just went straight in there, at a club with a certain way of playing football, and a manager who is very dominant and asks a lot of his players, in terms of tactical awareness and ability to play our style of football.

He is already our unrivalled conductor. Together with Arteta, he is responsible for guarding our style of football and the shape of our formation in midfield and attack. Arteta does this for the defensive side of midfield play, and Cazorla directs most of our attacking endeavours. But they also interlink really well and seem to be as close as brothers.

Not only does Santi have the vision and technical skills to conduct our attacking moves – something, for example, Arshavin has in abundance too – he also has the all important stamina, the physical health, and the priceless desire to make a real difference at Arsenal, without being egotistical.

No team will win anything without a large number of players in possession of such desire. In the last few years, we simply have not had enough of this sort of player. The single biggest change Arsene has made recently is in starting to buy experienced players who are not only very good technically, but who are also good team players, and come with high levels of intrinsic motivation to perform as good as possible, and with a real desire to win.

Mertesacker, Arteta, Podolski, Giroud, the Ox and, especially, Cazorla are all such players. This is a significant change in our recruitment policy, and the arrival of the more self-centred players – often characterised by a mainly extrinsic motivation to earn as much money as possible – such as Arshavin, Adebayor, Nasri and Van Persie appears to be a thing of the past. And long may it last.

With the recent injury to Diaby, Cazorla has been holding the ‘creative-attacking-fort’ more or less on his own. I have been absolutely amazed by his drive and stamina during the last few games. Soon, he will get support from the likes of Diaby, Wilshere, and Rosicky again, and Ramsey has also made a lot of progress recently.

Cazorla is the complete creative midfielder, with the exception perhaps of his shooting accuracy: two goals from 28 shots in seven PL games is not a great return at the moment. Hopefully, he will get sharper as the season progresses.

However, with 91% passing accuracy, two goals and two assists and three ‘Man of the Match’ rewards in the PL in his pocket already, we can definitely say Arsenal has got itself a very fine footballer indeed. One who plays with a seemingly eternal smile on his face, who does not mind to do the hard grind, and makes Arsene and all of us purr again with his scintillating football.

It looks like Arsene has found a true gem: a man who can finally lead us back to the glory years again. Let’s hope he will keep it up and the rest of the team will follow suit.

Total Arsenal.

West Ham – Arsenal: Five Things to admire about Arsenal

October 7, 2012October 7, 2012TotalArsenal

This Arsenal team:

Knows how to fight as a team;
Knows how to fight as a team, without jeopardising our style of football;
Knows how to deal with unexpected/unjust adversity by regaining its fighting spirit and focus;
Knows how to gradually make its superiority count by using its style of football to punish developing frailties in the opponents’ football as a result of fatigue;
Knows how to kill off its pray by taking the game by the scruff of the neck when the opportunity arises, and not letting the opponent back in again.

Wow, what a fantastic performance by Arsenal yesterday. We had to battle with West Ham all over the pitch, and boy did they give us a fight. I was so proud of the boys with regards to the way they put their bodies on the line, and harassed the Hammers for every ball at least as much as they tried to harass us.

Once we had shown West Ham we would match them physically all day long, we managed to win the psychological battle as well. This was so important yesterday, as too often in the past we were found wanting for these sort of contests (usually played out in the North, mind you!).

The important, and oh so impressive thing was, though; we never gave up on our desire to play proper, 21^st century football, in the meantime. We matched the Hammers in the grinding out department, but kept passing the ball round and creating chances through the oh-so-familiar Arsenal patterns.

The brain, the conductor, the general, the playmaker; Cazorla was a joy to behold yesterday, and what a truly great player Arsene has signed for us: not just technically and tactically, but especially mentally – in terms of motivation and joie de vivre/ joie de foot. He is the antidote to the mercenary as he puts the likes of Tevez, Nasri, Balotelli, etc to shame with his never-say-die attitude and sacrifices for the team. A top player!

Nevertheless, despite all our battling qualities and ability to create chances, it was the Hammers who scored first through a piece of individual magic: Diame’s curling, ‘boomerang’ shot was first class, although questions should be asked why he was able to have so much space in our box once he had tricked Ramsey to free himself up. Diame looks like a fine player and one to keep an eye on…

As a result of this setback, we had to face the second big ‘team-character test’: trying to find renewed resolve to keep battling away, and keep believing we can still win the game, despite conceding a goal totally against the run of play in an away fixture. In the past, Arsenal was more than once not able to deal with such adversity, but yesterday we showed no such psychological frailties. This is an absolute necessity if we are to win something this season, and we should take real comfort from it.

Our equaliser was the just reward for our resolve, as Giroud stretched his body to the limit to poach Podolski’s aggressive cross into the Hammers goal. Both the assist maker and the goal scorer gave their all to score this goal, and that’s why we were able to equalise at a very important point of the game.

In the second half we rode our luck more than a bit: both Carroll and Nolan should really have done better with their opportunities. However, once we got over that there was no looking back.

In the latter stages of the game, West Ham could clearly not maintain the high tempo and their formational discipline of the first 60 minutes, and soon Arsenal was in total control. For the second time running, our substitutions really made a difference, as we were able to take full advantage of the tired legs and the subsequent bigger and bigger spaces that opened up for us.

Our second goal was absolute beauty of a team goal. The tireless Cazorla made a quick turn deep in our own half to cleverly pass the ball forward; via the impressive Giroud the ball is passed from the midfield to Theo, who uses both his speed and predatory instincts to advance towards the WH goal: his finish was clinical/quality, and his celebration for the goal should give us all hope in terms of him signing a new contract soon.

Cazorla, who, until then, had been impressive in absolutely every aspect of midfield play except for his shots on goal efforts, finally got it right in the last 10 minutes of the game with a thunderous strike in the top corner of the WH goal from just outside the box. He deserved a goal more than anybody else on the night and it was good to see justice done.

So, Arsenal took its chances to kill of its pray with both hands and after that made sure we saw the game out professionally by introducing Koscielny as a third CB.

This was a difficult game to win, especially after WH got a goal totally against the run of play. West Ham had nothing to lose, were full of confidence after recent results, and Allardyce had no doubt instructed his players to get physical with us. They also had a good game plan to make our life difficult. But we overcame every hurdle in front of us and finished the game with stylish football.

This was just the sort of performance and result we needed badly after the Chavs’ defeat and before another seemingly endless interlul of international football. The boys did us proud!

Total Arsenal.

Will Ramsey get another chance in the ‘Diaby/Wilshere’ position?

October 3, 2012October 3, 2012TotalArsenal

So, with Diaby confirmed out for at least three weeks, Arsene faces a difficult decision with regards to who should replace him tonight and on Saturday.

In the system that Arsenal plays, the ‘Diaby/Wilshere’ role – one of the two deeper laying midfielders positioned between the defence and our attack minded players – is one of the most unconventional in football. A large variety of skills are required and the success of the team depends for a considerable part on how well that role is performed.

Arteta and Cazorla – the former the deepest laying midfielder who shields the defence, and the latter mainly responsible for conducting our attacking play – have more or less clear, straightforward roles in our team. For the other deeper laying midfielder, the tasks and requirements are less clear-cut.

For the sake of not having to refer constantly to the ‘Diaby/Wilshere’ role or the ‘second-more advanced deeper laying midfielder’ role, I am going to use the term ‘the Lynchpin’ from now on in this post.

The Lynchpin links up our (mainly) defensive players with our (mainly) attacking players. If he does his job well then defence and attack are linked up seamlessly in the middle. The Lynchpin needs to be able to help out the defence when under extreme pressure: read the game well, positioning himself cleverly, win back balls, hold on to balls, simple and effective passing of the ball, and the most difficult skills of all: being able to break through a wall of oppositional pressing, move the play forward quickly with either a simple pass, a powerful run (utilising the space in front of him), or delivering a penetrating pass to an advanced attacking player as quickly as possible.

On a good day, Diaby can play that role to perfection. He was so good against Liverpool that I almost cried of joy. It seems a long time ago, but Jack Wilshere is another player who can play this role to near perfection. He was, for example, one of the key players responsible for that memorable home ‘turn-around’ win against Barcelona two seasons ago.

Although we are blessed to have two such great players, we all know that they are both very prone to injury. I am convinced that if either of them had played for us the whole of last season, we would have done so much better. And their fitness is likely to make or break our season also this time round.

Diaby is out for three weeks and JW10 is still not ready for full-on first team football; so who should Arsene select in the Linchpin position for the next two games against Olympiakos and West Ham?

Rosicky is also still injured, so he is not an option. Coquelin is a possibility but he is still inexperienced and I am not sure whether this role is the right one for him. Coquelin could be slotted into Arteta’s deeper laying role and Arteta could move into the Lynchpin role. But we need the security and stability of Arteta as the main protector of our defence and I am also not sure he has all it takes for the Lynchpin role.

The Ox is an option but I reckon he is still too inexperienced for such a big role, and he is probably not strong enough (yet) defensively.

The most obvious candidate is Aaron Ramsey, but he struggled to get a grip of the Lynchpin role against Chelsea on Saturday. I reckon Aaron is the perfect attacking midfielder in a classic 4-4-2, but in our system he is not allowed enough time and space to control our games. I like Aaron, though, and he had a good game against Citeh in that position, especially in the latter stages of the game. So maybe he should get another chance against Olympiakos and West Ham in that pivotal position.

A good alternative to consider is moving Cazorla in the Lynchpin role, and play Podolski or Arshavin in the creative midfield position. I personally like the sound of that, although I am not sure how he would cope with the defensive side of things, especially against a very physical side like West Ham on Saturday.

And then finally, we could consider moving Vermaelen into midfield as a classic DM ‘bruiser’, and play two attack-minded midfielders in front of him; say, Arteta and Cazorla, or Cazorla and the Ox. It would be just like we did against Milan at home, with Song in that role and both the Ox and Rosicky in front of him. Although I would like that very much, I cannot see Arsene changing the system so much right now.

So, plenty alternatives, but who do you think should get the all important Lynchpin role in the next two games?

Total Arsenal.