Tag: premier league

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

TotalArsenal

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

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

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Thanking BBC for picture.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————Le Coq—Santi—————-

Rambo————-Ozil—————-Alexis

—————Theo/Giroud——————

But I would also get excited playing:

————–Le Coq—Rambo—————-

Jack—————Ozil—————-Alexis

—————Theo/Giroud——————

Or what about:

————–Rambo—Jack—————–

Campbell————-Ozil—————Alexis

————–Theo/Giroud——————–

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

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

What would be your first choice midfield?

By TotalArsenal.

 

 

 

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

TotalArsenal

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is class about him.

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

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

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

By TotalArsenal

 

 

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

TotalArsenal

Managers, in general, are treated like dirt.

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Failure is in the eye of the beholder! 😉

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By TotalArsenal.

Seeing patterns in chaos: Arsene finally has his new Bergkamp

TotalArsenal

Arsenal 2 – 0 Bournemouth Afterthoughts

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

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

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

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

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

 

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With thanks to Voetbal International for picture.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By TotalArsenal.

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

TotalArsenal

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Merry Christmas fine fellow Bergkampesquers! 🙂

images (2)

By TotalArsenal.  

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

TotalArsenal

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

Player ratings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By TotalArsenal

Ross Barkley shows us why the Ox should be loaned out

TotalArsenal

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What is not to like about the Ox: a total professional, wears his heart on his sleeve, gives his all and he fuses speed and silkiness to the highest degree. Alex is a great guy and we all would love him to come good…. But he has not been coming good for quite a while now; and I feel we have to be cruel to be kind: send him out on loan and tell him to convince us how good he really is.

The Ox joined us ages ago and has played 90 PL games, exactly as many as Ross Barkley. I reckon Barkley is a similar player to the Ox: both are attacking midfielders who can play on the wing; they have a good dribble and a fabulous shot-power, are fast and have an eye for a key pass as well; they are also both 22 and belong to England’s most promising prospects for the national team. But one is in the ascendency and the other is sliding down.

Whilst the Ox is struggling to establish himself in the first team (despite all our injuries), Ross Barkley is in the form of his life. Barkley played 1334 minutes in the PL this season already, scoring an impressive six goals and producing an equally impressive five assists; he also produces 1.9 key passes per game and his passing success rate is at 87.2% per game. The Ox has played just 429 minutes in the PL this season, with no goals or assists, 0.5 key passes per game and 84.6% passing success rate.

Is Barkley that much better than the Ox? I don’t think so. But Barkley plays at a club where he is allowed to make a few mistakes, where there is less pressure to win each and every game and where he can grow by playing week in week out. And this is now paying dividend for the Toffees. He has learned to make his head think as fast as his body can run and his legs can move the ball, and he is delivering the goods on a weekly basis.

It is the opposite of Ox’s situation right now, and having watched him this season, I reckon he is under too much self-pressure and club pressure to perform well at Arsenal. Sometimes a step down is needed to make two steps upwards. The Ox should go on loan to the likes of Swansea, Southampton, Watford or Leicester for half a season at least, with an agreement that he will play as much as possible. I reckon it will do him a world of good and we will come to see the true Ox: flying on wings and bullying the opposition with his power and sharpened horns, whilst using his head to make all his effort count. He would then improve his goal and assist per game ratio and deliver a lot more key passes per game; so that when he goes back to Arsenal, he is ready to claim a first team spot.

It is about time we start regarding sending our most promising youngsters on loan not as a punishment but a key part of their development. It did Le Coq and Wilshere a world of good, and the Ox should follow their example if he is to fulfil his enormous potential.

Who agrees and disagrees, and why?

By TotalArsenal

 

Arsenal have a B2B mid again, Majestic Mesut, Nacho the Winger: 8 Positives

TotalArsenal

Arsenal v Sunderland-Premier League

A hard fought win, three invaluable points, no further injuries and Rambo is back. There are still people out there who believe there are easy games left in the Premier League, and how wrong they are. Bournemouth beating the Chavs at the Bridge… City getting hammered by the Orcs… Manure not able to score a single goal against the Hammers at home… and that is just this week’s pick of giant killing and bodily harming.

Arsenal knew they had to fight for the goals and a win today, and our winning spirit combined with team cohesion and camaraderie, go a very long way. On top of this, the players and the manager are one, and you only have to look at MU and the Chavs to realise that this is not always a given.

There are concerns about injuries and players available going into this very busy December month, and rightly so. But the area in which we have all players fit and available, our defence, we are currently underperforming the most…. Football is a strange, unpredictable game at times. Our back-five looked all over the place at times and we got away with some bad defending today, due to Sunderland not being very familiar with finding the net these days and, of course, the Cech factor. I reckon Bellerin is missing the support from Ramsey on his flank a lot; on the other hand, I wonder whether Hector Vector should play a bit more like a conventional FB, as Nacho is currently offering the strongest wing support of the two anyway…. We definitely need to play more compact and organised at the back on Wednesday, if we want to go through to the next round in the CL.

Luckily we had our shooting boots on and managed to score three goals: that is three more than MU, the Chavs and MC today, who all could not find the net despite massive player investments over the last few years. And we got those goals, despite sexy Alexis and Danny Champion of the World being injured, and Theo only playing for twenty minutes or so.

Eight Positives From the Game:

  1. Ozil: what is there to say that has not already been said: Mesut is in top form, on top of the world and carrying the team through a difficult mini-period. His vision and speed of thinking and acting are unsurpassed and his passion for football is never in doubt, even though he does not always show it on the outside. If you are about to have a baby-boy… call him Mesut, is all I am saying. 🙂
  2. Rambo is back: did you see how many times he arrived in time in the box to finish off an attack, or help to make the most of one? That is what Aaron brings and what you would expect of a B2B midfielder. Yes, he still had rusty moments and he needs to find a better balance between defence and attack (together with his DM partner the Flame), but we needed his energy and link up play so badly today (especially with both Santi AND Alexis missing). And a goal and assist make up for a couple of iffy defensive moments, don’t you think?!
  3. Nacho: what a drive and passion this guy has! Especially in the second half he just looked like an orthodox winger at times. Is there a more complete Wing-Back in the country?
  4. Giroud delivers again: unfortunate with the OG at the end of the first half, for which I won’t blame him at all, but he made up for it with a well-timed run and a fab finish that could have easily gone past the wrong side of the post. He also had the ‘pre-assist’ for the all-important first goal, with a classical lay-off to Ozil, who then found Campbell with a superb through-ball.
  5. Theo came on and added real zest to the team: really good to see him back and he got the pre-assist for the third goal, so not a bad cameo.
  6. Cech was awesome and kept us in the game, both with his saves and his persona/aura. What a signing, Arsene, what a fecking brilliant signing! How many points has he saved us already this season…?
  7. Campbell made a very good run and finished calmly for our first goal. We all had high hopes for him initially, but it is now clear that he needs a bit of time and support from us, to play himself into the team. And his all-important first goal of the game will do him good. The one that will be worried most about Campbell’s gradual progress is the Ox, who once again did not convince and did not get on the assist or score sheet today. I have a feeling that the coming four weeks might determine his future at Arsenal… This is your ‘Le Coq’ moment, Alex..
  8. No further injuries, as it stands, so happy days.

By TotalArsenal.

What to do with Kieran Gibbs: LB backup, LM, DM, CB or Transfer?

TotalArsenal
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Time to shine for Gibbs

As Arsenal are not playing till Sunday and the match preview will not go out until at least tomorrow afternoon, let’s blog about something else. It would be good to know what fellow Gooners would like to do with Kieran Gibbs.

Gibbser is 26 and has lost his preferred left back position to the currently immaculate Nacho Monreal. He needs to play regular football now as his best years have only just started, and he is too good to simply be a backup player.

Wenger has been playing him in front of Monreal as a sub on a few occasions: is the left midfield position an option for Kieran? Great defensively, but can he produce the assists and goals…?

Or should he aim for the DM position, currently vacated by Coquelin? He reads the game well, is very good defensively and a decent passer of the ball. He also has the stamina and athleticism needed for the DM role…

Alternatively, he could be developed into a CB, but it would take time and the competition is currently fierce…

He could also wait and compete hard with Monreal to claim his place, but how likely is it he will regain the LB position anytime soon?

Maybe his best option is to ask for a transfer by the end of the season?

What do you think, FFGs?

By TotalArsenal.

Angry with Santi, Monreal for Coq, Rambo is back! Afterthoughts.

TotalArsenal

West Brom v Arsenal afterthoughts

Good afternoon Fine Fellow Gooners

Just back from a fine, long weekend in the serene Highlands of Scotland. Snow-peaked, ancient mountains, mirrored in enormous, still-as-a-mouse lakes, topped off by blue skies and decorated by autumn colours: and all that almost all to ourselves! 🙂

 Until now, I was only able to watch the highlights but I did listen to intermittent radio commentary on Saturday afternoon. The radio commentator said that we went behind against the run of play, and looking at the highlights, we seemed a tat unlucky to not take anything from the game. Well hey, that is football! And we have been lucky enough until now to avoid this sort of outcome of a game in most cases.

I have said before that away games after an international break are hard to win. The combination of the horrific Paris terrorist attacks only eight days before the kick-off, which will have left especially our French players shaken, and the lack of time for Wenger to bring his team together and prepare them mentally for the Baggies’s challenge, may have been too much. Furthermore, the lack of quality options on the bench also did not help. But ultimately, we lacked composure, and luck was not on our side. Games and results like these we need to take on the chin and not overanalyse, even though it is so attractive to point to finger to one or more individuals and make yourself feel a little bit better.

The only person I am angry with, is, of course, Santi Cazorla; and I reckon Wenger will not quickly forget his lack of responsibility at a crucial moment in the game. I remember having a discussion with Retsub (where are you these days my friend?) re Santi taking a cheeky, chipped penalty against Norwich (if I remember rightly) a few seasons ago. We were winning the game comfortably by something like 3-0 and we were rewarded a spot-kick; Santi stepped up and tricked the keeper with a cheeky chip towards the middle of the goal. The keeper had already committed to a corner and could do nothing about this audacious penalty attempt. Both Retsub and I were a bit unhappy with the lack of respect this penalty attempt showed towards the goalkeeper and how it easily could have gone wrong… but it went in, so we could not complain too much.

When the team has been fighting soooo hard to get back into the game and we finally get a penalty awarded that could get us level, it really has to go in if we are serious about winning the league this time round. We have an experienced squad now with a large number of internationals who have handled far bigger pressures: whoever takes the penalty for Arsenal needs to be pretty sure he will convert it. Santi slipped so it was just a case of bad luck, some will say. But I reckon Cazorla was about to try one of his cheeky, nonchalant penalties again and it was his own stilted movement that made him slip; and this time he made an utter fool of himself. He even touched the ball twice, so the opposition were awarded a free-kick! Next time, Santi, take a normal penalty kick, or even better, ask Sanchez or Giroud to take it. Anybody can miss a penalty, but you have to at least make the goalkeeper work ffs!

The injury to Coquelin is very unfortunate, even though he could have been a little bit more careful perhaps. But in the end, Francis is a DM and it is about winning the physical and mental battles to get the upper hand, so I have no qualms with him getting injured like he did on Saturday… it is an occupational risk he has to be willing to take.

It is funny, we worry about the international players coming back with fatigue and therefore have increased risk of getting injured, but it is the fully rested players – Coquelin and Arteta – who get injured… We will have to see what Wenger will do to fill the void, as Coquelin has been our DM rock over the last few months. Surely, this is an opportunity for the Flame or even Chambers to (re)claim this crucial position….

Or maybe, this is an opportunity to move Nacho next to Cazorla in the double DM pivot? We need to play Gibbsy more, and I just feel that Monreal would make the DM role his: he is clever, quick, reads the game well, is hard but fair and his intelligence (and knowledge of the defenders behind him) could make him the best replacement for le Coq…

But luckily, Rambo is back and he could make a big difference for us again. Campbell did not do too badly but the Rambo-Vector-Hector combination on the right should give us a new wing to fly with. Bring on Zagreb and let’s move on from the West Brom game. The show must go on and Rambo is ready to lift the team! 🙂

Come on You Rip-Roaring Gunners!

By TotalArsenal.