In the aftermath of the harrowing nightmarish early kickoff on Saturday, there were a couple of memes doing the rounds which made me shake my head and laugh out loud in a weird self deprecating frustrated “why-us” kind of a way. The memes fit completely with my lame sense of humor, yet they made fun of Arsenal, so I was at a loss to react. Add to this the fact that the defeat was still too fresh, and I didn’t know which way to turn.
One of the memes had three pictures, the first one had Arsene Wenger shouting “Don’t let Suarez score”, the second photo had Kos and BFG pumping their fists and saying “mission accomplished” and the third photo had Arsene with his head in his hands.
The second meme also had three photos, first one had Mourinho with the caption “The Special One”, the second had Pellegrini with the caption “The Tactical One” and third had Arsene with the caption “Five One”.
I leave you now to shake your head at the sheer apt genius humor behind these two memes and the sheer pain both of them caused me (and all of you)!
But on a more serious note, the Liverpool defeat leaves us rather scarred and demoralized, but it’s important at this juncture for both club and fans to not lose sight of the bigger picture and support our team in getting to gettable goals.
1 – We as a club, supporters and team alike, need to move on from this “we are going to lose” mindset. It’s a game, and Liverpool were masterful even though we were dismal. It seems as if they were playing Playstation football and we were playing Nintendo football. However, this defeat does not take away from the fact that we are second in the league (by one point), still in the FA Cup and still in the UCL. Last season at this point in time we were crying about qualifying for the UCL.
2 – Arsene will do what Arsene does. As someone who works in Marketing and has to make decisions everyday which people don’t agree with, I can empathize with Arsene. At the end of the day we have to have faith in his ability to sort the team out. After all, barring our games against the big teams, we have done rather well. Oh and we beat Dortmund too. So one dire horrendous (add your adjective) game does not make us into a bad squad or Arsene into a loser manager. He is not. He is a smart man who makes smart calls. The smart calls have a certain degree of success, I’d say in the high 90s and it’s a good percentage to operate from. Let’s have faith in him and in the team. If he did not buy in the January window he had reasons. We have to have faith in that. We should not lose sight of the fact that he is the decision maker, not us. And we must also remember that hindsight is forever 20-20.
3 – If we go back to the start of the season, I think all of us believed that a cup was a realistic hope of breaking the jinx, and yet we have been led down the garden path with dreams of an EPL Championship! Well let’s put it all into perspective. For me, the way forward is about making sure we beat United and Liverpool to make sure we stay in the hunt in both the EPL and the FA CUP. It will also give us much needed confidence to take into future games. In fact I’d say the FA CUP is a more realistic silverware hope than the EPL. Having said that, if we lose in one we may lose in the other. Form is connected, so we need to fight on in both fronts. United must be defeated, if for nothing else than for the fact that I want to see the Dutch Skunk (who once upon a time I had a lot of respect for) be on the losing side. Then Liverpool at home. We can win both. We just need to get our head straight.
Sadly, I’d say the UCL has to go. I’m not sure we have the squad to focus on three fronts. And UCL is not winnable (I hope to God I’m proven wrong). Bayern is beatable yes, but not worth diverting resources from the FA CUP and the EPL.
4 – Perspective. The Liverpool game was utterly abject (add your own adjective here), but listen, we have all seen how momentum can carry a team. The first goal was offside, the second one was bad defending and then Liverpool went from strength to strength and we collapsed. My only problem is that we let our heads drop. Heck, we could have been 5-0 in 20 minutes. I want to see a reaction, and all the noises I’ve heard from the team and the manager suggest that they want it as well. This is the only time I can remember in recent history when Arsene has indirectly even blamed himself.
So, let’s not vilify but let’s hope! Let’s back this team and let’s keep believing! It’s got us this far, why can’t it carry us a little further?!
I was so high after the Liverpool result, I was able to take this picture! 🙂
Just a quick one, as I have no time at the moment.
Tonight Arsenal have the sort of opportunity we love football for: a top football encounter with the current nr.2 of Germany playing the nr.1 of England. It does not get much better than that, but if you are not looking forward to tonight’s game, you most definitely are a Spud! 🙂
Formation wise, there is not much to say. The team is likely to be unchanged with a small chance that Gnabry will start instead Rosicky and Monreal for Gibbs.
Tactics wise, there is not much to say either: play the Liverpool game again. Play compact and make the middle watertight; play a high tempo and don’t let them settle where they can hurt us; combine well and penetrate them where it hurts them; switch over quickly from defence to attack, and from attack to defence; be lethal when presented with opportunities.
Outcome wise, I feel good about this game. A draw would not be a bad result, but a win is on the cards. Less pressure now we are away from home and our almost strongest team will start tonight: the defence is in tact, Zorro is back, Cazorla is finally warmed up, Ozil is ready to lift himself to the next level, Giroud and Ramsey are on fire, Rosicky is back in his spiritual birth place, and Wenger deserves a belated birthday party.
Time for the boys to announce themselves properly in Europe. Let the battle commence.
COME ON YOU RIP ROARING F*CKING BRILLIANT GUNNERS MAKE US PROUD!
So what have we learned from our narrow defeat against last year’s CL runners up? Almost nothing, other than this team is still a work in progress, but has made progress nevertheless.
Arsenal played with a bit more tension and less fluidity than Dortmund, and that in my view made the marginal difference. Klopp is a top-top manager: second best in the world after Louis van Gaal. He knows how to make his players play in a system of football with clear tasks and expectations per position. If a top player leaves, he will find a quality replacement in no time and gets them to fit into the system incredibly fast, and that is what makes him such a good manager in my opinion. Arsene is more laissez-faire in his approach to ‘system-football’ as he allows his players more freedom to ‘express themselves’.
Dortmund was a well-oiled machine and if and when they won the ball back, they passed it better round than we did. We struggled with fluidity in the first half as too many passes went astray and we suffered from continuous miscommunication between the players. The fact that they were a tat nervous did not help either. But the boys fought back slowly but steadily and deserved their equaliser.
We had a great shape in the first half and gave away little. However, in the attacking third we struggled to combine effectively as the continuous and ferocious pressure of the Germans allowed us less time on the ball; and then, you need certain automatism to kick in (as our opponents demonstrated so effectively to us last night) which are not fully there yet. This will come, though, and I am sure the team will learn quickly. It is these sorts of games that will speed the gelling and finding each other automatically up for us.
Now, we can say that it is the little things that make the difference in games like these, but this is the case in most games. We can also say we would not have lost this game with Flamini in the team, or even won the game with Theo and Podolski available. Maybe this is so, but we just don’t know. We can also say, we should have played for a draw and remain more compact at the back; and although there is merit in this too, we could also have lost the game with exactly that approach after which we would have said we should have played for the win – attack is the best defence and all that sort of stuff. Hindsight smindsight.
What is most important: compared to the Munich home game, Arsenal have made tremendous progress and with a bit more luck we would not have lost, possibly even have won, this game. The team has made a lot of progress in a short period of time.
But Dortmund did not reach the CL final last year by luck and once a team has humiliated a team like Madrid, collective confidence levels go sky-high, and this will last for a while. At times we played better football than them, but unlike us, they were always in control and played with a better established and ‘oiled’ system, and that’s why they scraped past us, I reckon. Nothing to be ashamed of, though.
So let’s not go on and on about certain individual players who apparently underperformed on the night, or whether certain players are far more effective in another position than they played in yesterday. Let’s also not use this game as a ‘yardstick’ how good our team really is and see failure to win as evidence that our good run until now is down to just playing the lesser lights of the footballing world (as if there are anymore lesser lights).
Let’s just see this as a great game of football, at the highest possible level, that we were not far away from winning. Let’s see it as confirmation that the team has made great progress in the last twelve months and more is likely to come. Let’s see it as a great learning opportunity for the boys without too much immediate damage done. Just wait and see how the team will progress in the next few weeks as a result of this game: Liverpool will feel the full brunt in two weeks time.
And with regards to our CL group, we are at least the second strongest team and that will tell in the end.
Arsenal vs Dortmund Preview: Time to Show Europe Who We Are
Intro:
We find ourselves now one half a week away from our breathtaking display against Norwich. The team is full of confidence and our goal should obviously be a win. A win against Dortmund will show we are ready to be big winners not just in England, but on a European stage as well. As a bonus, beating Dortmund twice will severely limit their chances of moving on to the next round of the Champions League. Stopping Dortmund from progressing could impress the Dortmund players greatly and perhaps make people like Reus and Lewandowski want moves to Arsenal, possibly even moving it up to January if they are already out of the Champions League.
This fixture last time:
The last time Arsenal faced Dortmund at the Emirates was a game we won to move us on to the knockout stages of the Champions League. All three scorers on the day no longer play for their respective clubs. Van Judas scored a brace for us and Kagawa scored for Dortmund. Hopefully we can repeat that winning performance.
Here is my expected line up for tomorrow:
I expect Ramsey to fill Flamini’s spot as he did during the Norwich game at the weekend. Other than that, we should be keeping a similar line up to keep the strongest team possible.
Key Battles:
Giroud vs Centre Backs: The centre back pairing of Hummels and Subotic is quite the solid wall at the heart of Dortmund’s defense. However, from what I hear this pairing has been having issues lately. Giroud will have to be prepared to take advantage of that and use his strength to hold off the two and do some link up plays on the edge of the box, or he must be willing to get above the two in the air for headers. Giroud is quite slow, but Dortmund’s centre backs aren’t fast either, especially Hummels. Hopefully this will leave Giroud with some space to receive the ball in open space and find another player before he is closed down. I think this is a battle that Giroud can win, if he’s prepared to keep up his usual work ethic.
Centre Backs vs Lewandowski: As important as the battle of striker vs their defenders is, the reverse is just as important. Lewandowski is a very quick and tricky striker to deal with. He will be trying to take advantage of Mertesacker’s lack of pace and his partner Koscielny will have to help out a lot, if Lewandowski is prepared to do a lot of running at our defense. However, the height of our defenders should mostly eliminate the aerial threat of Dortmund. I think this is a battle that will depend on the service Lewandowski gets rather than the quality of the people directly involved.
Arteta vs Mkhitaryan: Directly following the statement about who Lewandowski will get service from, I’ll now mention the depending factor in who will be the winner of the previously mentioned battle. Arteta will have to keep Dortmund’s new playmaker shut down. With Flamini out, Arteta will be our only defensive midfielder and he will have to step up and break up the play like Flamini does. He will have to be willing to put in a lot of tough tackles and not let Mkhitaryan get the ball off his feet. I think Arteta will struggle in this battle, but with some help from Ramsey he will be able to do it.
Casualties of War:
Arsenal: Podolski, Diaby, and Ox will all miss out on this game due to their long term injuries. Walcott is also out after a slight setback following surgery. The only other injury is Flamini, who has a slight concussion and will sit out the game because of a five day rule more than any real concerns.
Dortmund: Kehl, Gundogan, and Pizczeck will all miss the game with long term injuries, with a large group of Dortmund players just recently returning from injury.
Predictions:
I’m predicting another close 2-1 win for the Arsenal. I predict Reus scoring against us first and then an Arsenal comeback that will be talked about in years to come, with Giroud and Özil scoring incredible goals in the second half to turn the game around. I also expect Jack to have a man of the match performance. Hopefully there will be no further injuries to our side and we will win and show all of Europe that we mean business.
Questions:
1. What are your predictions for the game?
2. What is your preferred line up?
3. Will a win here announce our arrival on the European stage?
COYG! Let’s show the rest of Europe why they should fear us!
So tonight we really get to see whether this imperious form we’ve been in was down to a lucky fixture list or do we really have the stuff of champions. Arsenal play their toughest game so far this season against last years champions league runners up. There’s a lot to be said about this fixture so I’ll get down to it.
Arsenal go into the game on the back of an incredible unbeaten run, confidence sky high and with the squad looking healthy and raring to go. Flamini has been ruled out of the tie and I think he’s going to be a big miss. However, I think Ramsey should be a no brainer to start alongside Arteta in the centre of the park with Ozil in front of them. On the left flank, I expect Cazorla to get the nod and on the right i’d stick with Jack. I expect Rosicky to get some game time and probably Gnabry and Bendtner too. The latter’s involvement dependent on how the game goes. The only change I’d make would be to give Gibbs a rest and play Monreal tonight.
Dortmund on the other hand have had a shaky start to their Bundesliga campaign but I can assure you that it will count for nothing if we do not play our A game. In fact Jurgen Klopp has gone as far as branding BVB the underdogs of the tie which I don’t believe is true, but then again what do I know? They have their fair share of injuries but still have an incredible team. They miss Ilkay Gundogan but have Marco Reus back. Dortmund have 4 players whom I think must be marshalled. Lewandowski is obviously a no brainer but the more dangerous ones (for me) will be Reus, Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan, especially for counter attacks. Ramsey must continue his form and will be called upon to help out Arteta, especially once we lose the ball. Wilshere too must be ready to defend when needed.
I expect this to be an open game so the tactic should be to try to strike early and decisively. By this I mean, if we can take a 2 goal lead into the half we will force BVB to come out and go for it which will swing things in our favour. BVB, despite having two very good defenders in Hummels and Subotic, aren’t known for their collective defensive capability so I’m hoping we can take full advantage of that.
Sagna and Gibbs/Monreal will have to be at their best because choking out Aubameyang and especially Reus will be a necessity if we are to keep BVB at bay. Reus is an incredibly talented, incredibly mobile player so there will have to be clear communication and coordination between our defenders if we are to stop him. The two are Lewandowski’s main supply lines, and so this is a priority.
Finally, if we can impose our game on them and dictate proceedings (and not just for a period of the game but for the full 90 mins) I feel we can get the points. Wenger must know that if the team takes the foot off the pedal for even a few minutes, BVB can and probably will punish us. I will not predict the scores or outcome of the game but all I will say is that I feel good about it. This is a game the neutrals will enjoy as it features two of the best attacking sides in Europe.
Frustratingly, I had to travel back from London last night and was not able to watch the game. The only thing I had was my blackberry on which I could read comments on my own site but not respond (for some reason), as well as regular updates on the BBC website.
I could gather from the comments how well we were playing and that made it even harder to only have written words of the good guys’ performances, whilst others were getting the Full Monty at the ground or on TV.
I was able to watch ‘the highlights’ on ITV later on, and although they did not give our game much time, I could gather what a special night it has been at the Home of Football.
I know the footie statisticians focus a lot on goals and assists, but it is about time we start to measure ‘penultimate assists’ as well. The big question for me is: where does a goal originate from: is it the assist maker and/or the one who starts the attack? Ultimately, a goal is a combination of actions on and off the ball and most goals are scored as a result of efforts by a number of players.
Last night, Ozil was praised to heaven for a very, very fine performance in the first half. His goal was simply Bergkampesque and so was his assist for the second one. It is impossible to over-estimate what this German footballing Genius is adding to our team right now, and that at half the money of Bale muhahahaha! 😀
Ramsey’s assist was also Bergkampesque in terms of vision and accuracy, and this guy – the ultimate professional footballer – deserves all the credit he is getting currently.
But last night was also a great demonstration of the importance of our Big Fecking Frenchman: Ollie Giroud. He produced both penultimate assists and without him and his actions both goals would not have happened: it is as simple as that. I have been stressing for quite a while that Ollie is not just a classical nr.9; he is far more important than that to the team. His hold-up play and ability to play with his back to the goal, combined with his energy and his permanent goal threat, is absolutely pivotal to our system of football.
If Giroud had not scored yesterday, he might not have had much recognition for his contributions. Luckily, he did score which is good for him and us, but what matters even more is that he was at the very basis of both our goals last night.
His control and body strength, combined with good touches and pass, allowed Ramsey to penetrate the Napoli defence and have space and time to both spot Ozil and deliver an accurate pass to our nr.11. This was absolute sublime ‘holding forward’ football and without it Ramsey would not have had the time and space to produce his classy assist, and Ozil would not have been put in a good scoring position.
The second goal was another example of Giroud’s wider importance to the team. He was helping out with our pressing game and not just hanging around the box for ‘an opportunity coming his way’. The pressing let to him receiving the ball; he controlled it well, passed it to king of assists and then burst into the box himself. Ozil found him with sublime precision and our big Frenchman was rewarded for all his efforts with a relatively simple ‘blast-in’. Another fine team goal and another fine penultimate assist by OG.
Although his goals and direct assists are very important, his other contributions are just as important to the team. I reckon OG is the sort of striker we will see a lot more of in the future, although they might be hard to find. I reckon Chelsea and to a lesser extent Man City, who have Negredo and Dzeko, are crying out for a holding striker of Giroud’s pedigree, and the same goes for many other teams in the PL and Europe who want to play 4-2-1-3 or 4-5-1.
It might also explain why Dortmund did not allow Lewandowski to leave them this summer, as he is probably the finest holding forward around. The Pole is as pivotal to Dortmund as Giroud is to us, and I predict that not only the former but also the latter will become big transfer targets this summer. Not that we will let him go, no way Jose! 🙂
All ingredients for another feast of Wengerball football this season are here. Ozil and Ramsey, but also Flamini and Mertesacker, and many others deserve all the praise they are getting, and so does our mobile rock up-front, our beacon, our lighthouse, our linchpin, our giant of a holding forward.
Written by: TotalArsenal.
Gerry produced a fine morning comment that should be read by a wider audience, so I have added it to today’s post:
So, the first 15 minutes. None of that cagey stuff I talked about pre-game. Instead, some of the finest, crispest, passing for such a long time I think we were beginning to think that that side of our game had gone? The grab an early goal and defend in numbers was fantastically left behind in this half.
Sagna – the times he slipped the pass along the line where there was barely room was amazing. He was on very good form, and didn’t he enjoy it?
Ramsey – whether playing tight one-twos or playing down the wing, switching play, tackling .. It was all the same. Probably one of his best displays without scoring. Brilliant!
Flamini – how did we ever manage to do so well without him? Right man in the right job, and invariably in the right place. Of all the missing pieces in our team, he has to be one of the best? Drove the play forward at pace when he wasn’t ‘Johnny on the spot’ defending.
Ozil – what can you add that has not been already said? Truth be told, he himself added a whole lot more with this display? His goal alone should be on Walcott’s I-pad on a continuous loop – the timing of his run was immaculate. When Ramsey reached the byline Ozil had only just left his marker about 10 yards inside their half, but running into space. Ramsey is so hot-wired at the moment that he saw the space … the SPACE(note Theo!) and not the fully marked Giro in the box. He then played the perfect ball accordingly. Ozil reached the point where their trajectories would meet and played the simplest of first time shots with his instep into the bottom left hand corner.
That was just the finish it deserved. Others added to it along the way.
Rosicky – I am so disappointed that he has hardly got a mention in a report I read elsewhere, other than to say he ‘tired in the 2nd half’. I am not sure that this display would have been possible without him in the side. True, he did not lay on the perfect assist, or score a sumptuous goal. But what he did, and always does, is drive the play forwards. He passed the ball quickly, whether on the left or right, up front or on the edge of our box. This on his first game back from injury, and the first alongside Ozil. He may get overlooked a star of this game, but don’t think for one minute he did not play his part.
Giroud – I predicted his intelligence would help him connect well with Ozil, and it did in this game. It was Ozil this time that got to the goal line and somehow got the ball through a narrow gap between defenders and keeper for a simple tap in. However, when players are moving around him, his nod downs and quick flicks really do show off his skills to the full. I said early this season that he is like a lighthouse, a beacon from where the team know where they are .. and here it with this illuminating display?
I sought of skipped past Arteta’s contribution as I concentrated on the moves going forwards. He was his usual solid self. I did not see him going forward much in the first half, but Flamini was allowed to because he was there.
Again, not a lot to say about Szcz, Per, or Kos, as they had little to do, but what they did was solid enough.
Gibbs was not used so much in attack, as the right flank was getting most joy. It did not stop him making himself available though, which meant when he was having his one-two’s down the line it opened space for the others in the middle. However, his defending was questioned more than once. There was one occasion in the first half where he was not close enough to Insigne and allowed him a shot on goal, but shot wide. This was something happened, according to the audio, in the 2nd half too. And on each occasion it was down to Gibbs making the ‘right’(imo) decision to not allow the right back a free run in behind, but it is a fine line when trying to cover two players at the same time. If he tracks their wide player coming in, somebody should either take over so he can mark the overlap, or somebody else go wide? Gibbs is quick, but even he cannot be in two places at once? For the most part of the first half Flamini was there, with Rosicky tracking back. In the 2nd half when Wilshere came on for Rosicky it seemed to make the problem worse? Either the two are not communicating well enough, or Wilshere is a tad slow in reading the options?
And that folks is the nearest I can come to the report on performance. The match was decided by AW’s tactics to go all out from the off, so he gets top credit. But the players did all that was asked and then some.
This is why we are more likely to attract top players, whether next January or in the summer, as the video of this game gets spread around. Not only are we a top club, we have the players to match.
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. 🙂
Droit au But: Olympique Marseille vs. Arsenal pre-match
So we’re back for the 16th time in a row. We fought hard for it at the end of last season, successfully went through the prequalifying round yet again, and we are finally on the eve of starting our campaign to qualify, in arguably the strongest group, against Olympique de Marseille (OM).
A weak opponent?
And indeed we are up against some tough competition – Borussia Dortmund are top of the Bundesliga with 5 wins out of 5 and Napoli are, similarly, Serie A leaders, with 3 wins out of 3.
OM on the other hand, are currently ranked 4th in the French national championship table after 5 games; and one could easily argue that the French Ligue 1 is a step down from German, Italian, Spanish leagues, and certainly the EPL. In fact, it was mostly a one-team show last season, with PSG easily cruising through, finishing 12 points ahead of Marseille, and with Lyon trailing a further 4 points behind and being a shadow of their former self.
In addition, their current 4th place may not say that much about their level. They have had 3 wins against bottom of the table teams – Guinguamp are 15th, Valenciennes are 18th, Evian are 11th (who were in the bottom 5 before their latest win against the 17th); and OM lost home to Monaco. Finally, OM were dominated in their last game by 19th ranked Toulouse, and they struggled to secure a draw against the tide at the 87th minute. Valbuena had this comment after the game: “Arsenal? With what we’ve seen tonight, we are far from there…”.
In fact, post-game articles in French newspapers and sites (unfortunately, I have only seen Marseille in short game summaries – hopefully this will give Gerry the opportunity to provide more insight) have not been very positive about the way Marseille has been playing – even on their wins – apart from a good first half against Monaco. Incidentally, another thing that transpires from game reports is that they have consistently struggled physically in the second half; they conceded all their goals after half time.
So we’re good?
“Droit au But” – Straight to the Goal – is Marseille’s maxim. It also means Straight to the Point, and OM lives by it. They play to attack, and love a good fight and high intensity cup or other challenging games – I am not surprised that their best performance was against Monaco – and their good CL qualifying round last year (finished second of their group with only Dortmund qualified) also testifies of this.
The public in Stade Vélodrome is one of the best in France and they will push hard tomorrow.
They had a good, aggressive transfer market window: they bought Dimitri Payet from Lille, probably the best attacking midfielders in France last season; and Florian Thauvin, a very talented and promising 20 year-old and £13m AM (although he just joined and might start on the bench).
Add to that the always dangerous international AM Valbuena, the fast paced wingman André Ayew, and the finally-coming-back-to-form ex-ex-international CF André-Pierre Gignac, and you realize that they are very capable on the attacking front.
If their defensive stability has been questioned lately, they still have strong athletic material there (N’Koulou, Lucas Mendes, Diawara, Rod Fanni, Imbula…) some of whom will add to the threat on set pieces. They are supported by an excellent goal keeper (Mandanda), only edged in the French national team by Lloris; and then again some value Mandanda more.
Finally, and this is the feeling with some OM supporting friends, I believe that they are seeing this game as a must win as Arsenal is potentially viewed as the weakest team (compared to Napoli and Dortmund): if you think the French press and web are different fro, the UK’s, you’re mistaken… every bloody year is the year Arsene’s team is on the brink of oblivion. Although to be honest, the mood has changed since Prince Igör joined. But I digress.
The point is that they will want those three points and they will give it all they’ve got. It’s not in the club’s genes to go for a draw anyway.
So we’re not good?
OM have the potential, they are a better team on paper than 2 years ago when they qualified just one point behind us in front of Olympiacos and… Dortmund. But, if I ignore my anxious nature for a second…
…Things have been clicking well for us lately while they are struggling physically and technically as a team. Position for position, we systematically have better quality (I will give them a point for the goalkeeper though): we are a better team. We just have to be aware of their attacking capabilities, and be ready to deal with the intensity they will create, but we should aim for those 3 points ourselves.
Any points left behind tomorrow may very well result in a last chance fixture in Napoli, which my cardio and I would like to avoid; and a win would keep the nice momentum we have going, and give us some assurances before the probably more difficult games we have ahead.
Will Ramsey score again?
Team Composition
Interestingly, OM typically play in a 4-2-3-1, with a double pivot, Ayew doing runs on the right, Payet as a fake left wing combining/swapping with Valbuena the organizer, Gignac at CF, … kind of rings a bell?
Thanks to our injury record (!) I have a chance of getting our lineup right…
So in a few areas, we’re obviously one injury away from some tough choices…
What if OG cannot start, or is injured during the game? Walcott up front, Ryo on the wing? Akpom?
If TR7 is not fit, who would replace any of Rambo, Jack, Özil?
Who would you like to see on the bench (and no, Santi,Ox, Poldi, Arteta and Diaby are not valid answers… for now)?
A few days before last year’s CL final was to be played, Arsene was interviewed by Eurosport about his thoughts on the two finalists: Bayern and Dortmund. When he was asked who he believed would win he said it would be Bayern, and the reason he gave was the larger number of 28/29 year olds in the Bavarian team. This is what he had to say:
“If we analyse rationally, Bayern Munich are Champions League favourites.
First of all, experience weighs in their favour because they have reached three of the last four Champions League finals.
Secondly, they have the edge because they have reached a point of maturity both technically and tactically.
You need players who are 28 or 29 for that. Bastian Schweinsteiger (28) is their natural leader, while Franck Ribery (30), Arjen Robben (29) and Philipp Lahm (29) also play significant roles in the team.”
At the time, I thought that was quite a remarkable thing to say by Arsene; after all, he has been investing heavily in bringing through young/inexperienced players since the move to Ashburton Grove, and the average ages of his teams have repeatedly been low in recent times.
Of course, it makes sense that having a team full of established, quality players at the perfect crossroads between physical health and experience, which I agree with Wenger is around 28/29, is a very good basis for winning a final against a far younger and inexperienced team. And although Dortmund played the better football, it was Bayern’s experience that saw them finish the final as winners.
The interview made me also reflect on our team, and what I find quite remarkable is how the age and experience profile of our first/best possible team has changed significantly over the last few years.
Although still buying and bringing through young/inexperienced players, Arsene has also invested heavily in quality/experienced/’older’ players. It looks like his attempts at evolution have been boosted by systematic purchases of experienced, yet fully to bloom (in most cases) quality players.
I reckon, this would approximately be Arsene’s strongest team if we were to face a top PL or European team and all are fit this season:
If we stretch the ‘ideal age group’ a bit, say from 27 till 30, Arsene would be fielding six players with the perfect balance of health and experience: Sagna, Koz, Mertesacker, Flamini, Cazorla and Giroud. He would also have a number of experienced, yet top-fit, players on the bench: Nacho, Vermaelen, Viviano & Pod, and to some extent Rosicky, who, although a lot older, is still relatively very fit (if not injured 😉 ).
The table below shows how much experience we now have in our squad:
Player
Age
League Games
Internationals
FIFA WC ranking *
Szczesny
23
81
14
Below 30th
Viviano
27
263
6
6th
Sagna
30
268
36
23rd
Koscielny
27
233
12
23rd
BFG
28
278
92
2nd
Gibbs
23
71
2
14th
Nacho
27
220
13
1st
Vermaelen
27
208
43
10th
Flamini
29
213
3
23rd
Arteta
31
376
–
–
Ozil
24 almost 25
206
48
2nd
Rosicky
32 almost 33
298
92
26th
Cazorla
28
295
58
1st
Podolski
28
278
111
2nd
Giroud
26 almost 27
227
21
23rd
Theo
24
204
35
14th
* of the country playing for
As you can see, our best line-up would have a strong core of experienced quality players with good players on the bench to add further to it.
We do of course have a number of players who are still well below the ideal age, but are yet more than good enough to make the first team on a regular basis: Walcott, Ozil, Szczesny, Gibbs, Wilshere, Ramsey; and Ox and Jenkinson – and possibly Bendtner – are not too far away from it either.
This gives us a squad of 20 to 21 players who can all make a decent to very large contribution to this season’s quest for silverware. Some will argue we need more quality squad players, and they might have a point, especially up-front.
But I still believe Wenger has slowly but steadily put a squad together with the right balance between players at the perfect age on the one hand, and younger, yet established quality players on the other hand.
And the good thing is, he has done this gradually, through incremental changes and just a few additions this summer: there is no need for another transitional season. Ozil is so good that he will fit in like a glove and Flamini fitted in from the moment he walked on to the pitch again against the Spuds (although there are some tactical issues he and Wenger will need to address, but that is for another post).
It goes without saying that we need to be a bit lucky with injuries this season, and the first signs have not been promising. But despite the injuries, the team has started the season well, and there appears to be a robustness in the wider squad now which allows us to cope with these a lot better than in previous seasons.
Hopefully, a quality striker will be added in January (why oh why did Arsene not get one this summer….), so we have good strength in depth in all areas; and if Giroud can stay fit and on fire till then, Arsenal have a real chance this year of winning some silverware.
The balance between experienced quality players and up and coming quality players is very good, and with other PL clubs going through transitional phases, this could well be our year. It looks like Wenger has been following his own advice and has been working hard to put together a squad that can compete this year, if not next year, for serious silverware.
Bergkampesque 