Long Time No See

We’re back in business, having replaced my broken computer with a new and improved model and successfully made the switch to Sky Broadband. Anyone that did pop in from time to time probably doesn’t any longer, so in that respect it’s a bit like starting from scratch but ah well, the site hadn’t been going all that long prior to my technical mishaps anyway. Naturally, not having updated since July, there’s plenty of ground to cover so forgive me for summarising.

England might actually win something with Fabio Capello in charge, who would appear to be just what was needed, the highlight of course being a 4-1 drubbing of Croatia in Zagreb, a national outfit I rate very highly nowadays. Even better was that Theo Walcott, who has since become an integral part to the England set up, scored a hat trick. Well played Theo whose improvement has been one of the bright spots in an otherwise disappointing start to the new season. He now of course finds himself injured after dislocating his shoulder on international duty and will be out for roughly three months. Bummer!

More on the dissapointing start then. We are out of it, it being the Premier League, already. Not officially, no but ten points is a big gap and five defeats at this stage is unacceptable. We haven’t shown we have what it takes to challenge Man Utd, Chelsea and maybe even Liverpool. I’m far more concerned with the threat posed to our Champion’s League status by Aston Villa. Annoyingly, I thought we would put our problems to bed following a morale boosting victory over United but defeats to City and Villa followed. Tomorrow we play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge but I’m not worried so much about that because we do turn up for the big games. If anything it’s a chance to get the confidence roaring again. If we win and go on a run before reinforcing in January we might have the slightest of chances but I don’t see it myself. We have though qualified for the Champion’s League and our run in that might be interesting. Despite our Premier League troubles we do seem to turn it up on big occasions and have done well in the Champion’s League of late. I think we could surprise people and win it but Barcelona (enjoying an excellent run under the new management of Pep Guardiola,) Chelsea and Manchester United might have something to say about that.

We need to reinforce come January, of that there can be no doubt. Eduardo and Rosicky will recover but that wont resolve our defensive issues. A midfielder is essenstial as Flamini was never replaced and I believe that’s what we are missing. Maybe a center back could be drafted in also but I don’t know. The main problem is the lack of a defensive midfielder, a role Denilson and Alex Song just aren’t capable of filling on a permanent basis. I believe are issues aren’t that serious. I genuinely believe that all we are missing is a Flamini. Frustratingly we had the answer in Lassana Diarra, a player I rate very highly since his stint at Pompey and let him go. He wanted to go, I realize that but I wish he’d waited until the end of the season at least. Ah well, no point crying over spilt milk and all that.

If there’s been one highlight to the season it’s been the Carling Cup, where we have fielded an outrageously youthful line up against both Sheffield United and then Wigan. The results? 6-0, then 3-0. In the case of the Wigan game I was there in person, having paid a bargain basement £10 for a behind the goal ticket. It was excellent stuff doing so well against a Premier League side fielding their strongest line up. Jack Wilshere, Ramsey and Vela were terrific in particular and all will enjoy successful careers at Arsenal I strongly believe.

What else? We have a new captain in Cesc Fabregas, replacing William Gallas after the latter’s outburst. Good stuff that although I believe the captain’s job is an overrated one.

Eduardo’s on the mend. He was supposed to play in a behind closed doors friendly mid week but I don’t think he did in the end. The road to recovery will still be a long one, as he’s eased back into the squad. January’s a good guess for when he will be back good and proper. Rosicky too.

Fixtures/Euro 2008 Update

The fixtures are out and what a start they’ve given us, again. Last season the easier start allowed us to gain momentum and that was momentum we maintained until the combined absences of Fabregas and Hleb hit us hard culminating in defeat to Middlesbrough. You need a bit of luck to win the title and that’s the first bit of luck. Hopefully we will take advantage and be in stoming form come November when we face Manchester United and Chelsea (the former at home, the latter away.)

To compensate for the forgiving start we have been handed a tough run in. Visits to Anfield and Old Trafford in April and May will be tough. On the other hand we could win the title at Old Trafford or maybe, if we want to wrap it up earlier, at the Emirates against Chelsea.

The season’s a long way away yet but I’m excited, excited and confident. Invincibles? Pah! Let’s do one better and win every game.

Euro 2008’s been interesting. Holland have a very capable squad and are always going to be in it with players of the quality of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben but a suspect defense meant few had them pegged as favorites. 3-0 over World Cup holders Italy, 4-1 over World Cup finalist France and 2-0 against Romania when resting the majority of their big names has changed everyone’s mind however. They have become the favorite of the neutral, which here in England is many of us given England’s absence and I want them to win because it will be a victory for exciting and attacking football. Their victory would show that you can play with style and be effective. Just being the best team isn’t enough to guarantee victory however and the teams still in the competition are all capable of putting a spanner in the works.

France are on their way home, having picked up one point from the tournament, in the ‘group of death.’ France are an old team that’s had it. Domenech, who has been subject of intense criticism (partly because of his admittance that astrology influences who he picks in his squad) will surely be sacked and deservedly so. Last night Abidal gave away a penalty and recieved his marching orders. Their best player, Ribery, came off injured early on and was replaced by Nasri, who then had to go off after the red card. France were never going to pull back two goals with 10 men and lacking the creativity of Ribery or Nasri. After a long wait Italy stuck the nail in the coffin and made it 2-0.

What France now need is to concentrate on the young talent they have coming through. The current squad is far too experienced. Come World Cup 2010 Henry, Vieira (would’ve played if not for injury,) and co will be well over the hill if they are not already. Senior squad members Claude Makelele and Lilian Thuram have retired, which is a start but at their age they never had a chance of being in the France squad in two year’s time anyway. I would be surprised if they are still playing at club level. Others should follow suit.

There’s a wealth of talent coming through the French ranks and France should use it and build a new squad with the likes of Clichy, Sagna, Diarra, Ribery, Nasri, Ben Arfa and Benzema. Didier Deschamps and Laurent Blanc are two well known young player turned managers that could boss a France side who save from a 2006 World Cup final appearance have underachieved since the successes of 98 and 2000.

The quarter finals are:

Portugal v Germany on Thursday on ITV1.
Croatia v Turkey on Friday on BBC1.
Holland v Russia or Sweden on Saturday.
Spain v Italy on Sunday.

I’m looking forward to Portugal V Germany. Germany were pre tournament favorites but were bettered and beaten by Croatia. Portugal have a good manager in the Chelsea bound Scolari and a number of quality players (Carvalho, Ronaldo, Quaresma) but maybe not enough to win the tournament. Croatia should beat Turkey. Croatia looked very good against Germany but the absence of Eduardo is a huge blow for them. I would be surprised if they failed to beat England in the World Cup qualifiers. Holland should have no trouble beating Russia or Sweden but Russia have been lacking some of their best players, Arshavin for one and could be a better Russia when they face Holland. I expect Spain to triumph over Italy but not easily. You would hope so because that could mean a Holland V Spain semi final, which would be great to watch.

Portugal V Holland in the final?

Edit: By the way, a well played is in order to Arsenal favorite Ashley Cole who was named the 25th greatest player to have graced the Arsenal shirt over the years. He just beat other Arsenal favorites Nicholas Anelka and that terrificly gifted Sylvain Wiltord. I hear Pascal Cygan is favorite for the crown.

Edit 2: BBC understands that Nasri has agreed a contract with Arsenal and it will all be announced fairly sharpish.

Is it all going pear shaped?

Sorry for not having posted in a while. My bad. The following is a response to a question posed by a member of an Arsenal forum which I visit, Arsenal Land.

So far we have lost Flamini, Lehman and appear to be on the verge of losing Hleb. Now there are rumours that Milan are willing to break the bank for Adebayor. Didn’t we hear AW say a new signing will be unveiled in 2 weeks about 3 weeks ago? Didnt he say he wanted his transfer business wrapped up before the Euros kicked off? What has happened so far, fuck all!

We are potentially 4 of our best possible starting 11 from last season down, and not a sniff of any replacements coming in. This is before we look at adding the players we were short of last season! Is it not fair to say we should all be feeling a wee bit concerned? I’m sorry but I dont buy this “Arsene Knows” crap, I know I’m a pessimist but why is it we seem to lose players hand over fist, and they are either replaced by kids or not at all. Would it be too much to ask that any new signings could be brought on board, just for once, before pre season starts so they have a bit of time to bed in.

Maybe I’m being overly concerned but I feel there is definately some cause for it, particularly when you hear Hill Wood spouting off. What sort of message does that send to potential signings? Its all very well saying we dont want players who dont want to play for us for the honour of it or whatever, but get real people, players are motivated by money, and if you want the best, the sad reality is that you have to pay it. If we dont wake up and smell the coffee we are in grave danger of being left behind. Face it we overachieved last season, stripped of possibly 4 quality players, without like for like replacements and the strengthening we badly needed last term, it is unrealistic to expect a similar level of overachievement.

No, it is not going pear shaped, not yet anyway. It is June, early June in fact and as far as I am aware the transfer window closes 31st August. Hell, I was under the impression it didn’t open until July 1st. It’s way too premature to be coming out with things like this.

“I know what I want and I am very confident,” he said. “I hope to turn that around in the next two or three weeks. But the fans should be re-assured by what they see.”

He hoped to sign someone in the next few weeks (that quote followed the Sunderland game) and hasn’t done so though if some sources are to be believed the Nasri deal is pretty much done and dusted and will just take until after Euro 2008 to be completed officially. Even if it that does not turn out to be the case it shows Arsene hasn’t been resting on his laurels.

It is not the end of the world. Transfers will happen.

Losing Flamini hurts but mostly because it was on a free. He enjoyed an impressive season and was what we needed but I do not imagine it will be difficult to find a similarly energetic midfielder at a reasonable price. Hleb improved tremendously this season. In prior seasons I had been his biggest critic, infuriated by his inconsistency and the failure to add a goal scoring threat to the table and while he has yet to rectify the latter side of his game, he has been very impressive and an important part in the building of attacks. I’m not so worried about finding a player of similar or even superior ability but I do worry about a player’s bedding in period. Hleb has taken two years to adapt to football at Arsenal and now that he is finally beginning to deliver it would be an almighty shame if he wanted to jump ship, which looks the case. I would be pretty pissed off to be honest given the patience Wenger has afforded him.

I am not worried about losing Lehmann too much because he played a small part in last season’s campaign, shoved behind Almunia in the pecking order and deservedly so. Losing Lehmann is only relevant because he kept Almunia on his toes but I feel Fabianski can do the same job. As for Adebayor, so what if Milan are interested? If reports are to be believed they are in the hunt for numerous strikers. It doesn’t mean he is anywhere close to leaving and I am not worried. “I don’t know why people want to put words in my mouth. As I said on Friday, I love Arsenal and I will be here next season.” I know that is no guarantee but it will do for me until I hear otherwise.

Fact of the matter is, we are one player from last season’s starting XI down so far. That’s all. There has been plenty of speculation and rumors but there always is.

I agree, the earlier the better but at the same time if we need patience to sign players of a certain caliber then so be it. The sooner we get them in the better but it’s not essential and preseason has yet to begin anyway so who is to say Wenger will not have signed a few players by that time.

We did not overachieve, depending I suppose on how you define overachievement. We did after all exceed expectation but then expectation was, ridiculously, that Tottenham would overtake us last season. We made huge progress and I for one do not believe that progress will cease to continue.

There were similar worries last season from many and look how it all turned out. Again, I will stress, fact is we have lost one player from last season’s starting XI and we are still in early June.

Me worried it’s all going pear shaped? No.

Season Review 2007/08

Do you remember what was said at the beginning of the season? I do. There was talk that Tottenham would take our place in the top four. There was talk, mostly inspired by the departure of Thierry Henry, that we would suffer a miserable season. Certain doomsters would have you believe that Arsenal were in a crisis. Now anyone with any sense could see that that was a ridiculous misconception to make. I was confident that Henry’s leaving would not have too big an impact on the club, we had as good as done without him last season, a period in which we appeared to cope well enough and when he did play you could tell he wasn’t the same Henry of years gone by. Only sixteen million people cried while I thought it to be a good bit of business considering his age and the season he had just endured.

Saying that, our performance this season and remarkable improvement has far exceeded my expectations. I might not have shared the view that we would fail dramatically but at the same time I did not see us closing the gap that Manchester United and Chelsea had over ourselves and Liverpool.

To kick off on the right foot was what was necessary, get off to a strong start and then just keep the momentum going. We did just that, although a Jens error saw Fulham come close to spoiling such hopes in the opening fixture of the season. Our early season form was scintillating, the improvement remarkable and the introduction of Sagna and an unexpected first team place for Mathieu Flamini made for some excellent additions to our starting eleven. Then there was the evident progress of players such as Hleb and Gallas to take into consideration. Hleb found more consistency and Gallas proved his worth after a disappointing debut season. Fabregas and Adebayor were another two. In Cesc’s case, even at his young age you don’t expect him to get much better but he showed that there was more to come from him, adding a goal scoring touch to his Arsenal and improving the defensive side of his game. Adebayor, a good player who also had trouble finding the net recovered dramatically on that front and shouldered the goal scoring duties spectacularly while Robin Van Persie found himself, yet again, in the physio room.

We clocked up 83 points, four behind champions Man Utd and two behind Chelsea. I would say the gap between us that existed last season has been closed and that’s good enough for me. I went into this season with no expectation that we would win the title, my greatest hope was that we would close the gap and we did just that. So it annoys me when people go on about our lack of silverware in recent seasons as if we have just had a really bad season. I mean, I could understand it if we had endured a similar campaign to that of last season but we made much improvement. No one expected us to challenge for the Premier League and what else is there? The Champion’s League we were ousted from only following a couple of very controversial decisions and there is always that element of luck in knock out competitions anyway. The FA Cup was clearly not a priority and the Carling Cup is something for the likes of Tottenham to get excited about. That we haven’t won anything should not be enough to disguise the fact that we have had a very impressive season. We are back to title challenging form, that is what is important.

Of course, considering just how close we came, the disappointment is still there. We started great and few had us down as maintaining our form over the course of the season but we did, we did a very good job of it in fact, until the final stage that is. For numerous reasons and they are many, we suffered our worst vein of form in a crucial period that saw us fall in the title race late on. If there is a positive to take from that then it is that it is an experience our players should learn from.

It all bodes very well for next season, in my opinion. Providing we strengthen in the transfer window, the players continue to improve, we learn from our mistakes and certain players manage to stay for the most part injury free, we have a very realistic chance to win the Premier League next season and maybe even the Champion’s League too while we’re at it. A treble would of course be nice so that whenever a United fan gloats about 1999, I can say we did that too, but maybe now I’m getting a little greedy.

Player wise, I have highlighted my favorite performers in another post but I may well look to do a review of the entire playing staff who have contributed this season tomorrow.