Injury News – Denilson and Walcott back, Merida out

18 01 2010

Some injury news from Arsenal. In fact I have just created a tag for this “Arsenal Injury News”  it is such a frequent blog topic….

Denilson and Theo Walcott will be back in the squad for Wednesday’s game against Bolton. Some extra bodies in midfield can be no bad thing! However Fran Merida will miss the game having been kicked on his ankle shortly after coming on in Sunday’s game.

Samir Nasri and Aaron Ramsey are out for 21 days, hamstring and thigh injuries respectively. Nicklas Bendtner will be back in training next week, but is unlikely to be ready for the Stoke game but should be ready for Villa on the 27th Jan. Little time to find out if we do need a striker, I think that door is closed.

Robin van Persie is said to “be doing as well as can be expected”.


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Olympiacos 1 – 0 Arsenal, some good performances, ITV commentary is far worse than Skysports

10 12 2009

Last night our (mainly) young guns put in a pretty good performance against Olympiacos but in the end suffered a 1-0 defeat. Not that it matters we are top of our group, that had been decided before last night, and it also gave Arsène the chance to rest some first team players. The game was pretty fast paced and there was a genuine parallel between how our first team plays and they way the youngsters equipped themselves last night. Slick passing and movement around the pitch were apparent throughout most of the game until some legs began to tire, but given some are yet to leave their teens this lack of full fitness is not a surprise.

The impressive performances of the night goto three players; Lukasz Fabianski played well in goal, he has a great command of his area and seems more confident and more effective coming for crosses compared to Almunia, yes he possibly could have done better for the goal but overall his positioning and shot stopping was good – I suspect he will push for number 1 next season if a keeper is not purchased in the mean time. Aaron Ramsey was again outstanding, his passing is akin to Cesc at times, some fantastic through balls that many players would be unable to even imagine playing let alone have the balls to try them. He is a massive massive prospect for us, however can the team accommodate both him and Fabregas in our current formation? Fran Merida also played well, he had good movement and seemed to pop up all over the pitch. Another hot prospect for Arsenal but he needs more work than Ramsey.

However all was not well with some of the performances last night, I hate to single out players but something has to be said about Carlos Vela’s performance. For a player who has represented his country at international level and has been a starter for us in the absence of van Persie he really needs to do better than he did last night. He had three chances that a quality striker should be putting away, or at least getting the ball on target. If he was one of the younger players who was making his first appearances for the team I could give him some leeway, but he is not. He should be far better than he showed last night. I was disappointed in his performance.

One final thing I will say is how shit the ITV commentary is. We have not been on ITV this season, and I take back a lot, but not all, of the things I have said/shouted about Sky and their commentary. In the early stages of the game they mentioned Steven Gerrard, Liverpool weren’t even playing for fucks sake. Then as the game progressed it was “have a pop at Arsène” time, some of the comments they came out with:

“Can you remember the last time Arsène started 5 English players and 1 Welshman in his first team?”

The ITV stats department went away to find out and came back with the reply from the commentators. But there was no mention of look here are 5 great English players that the Arsenal Youth Academy has helped develop, no it was just the usual xenophobic crap about foreign players and a foreign manager.

The list of substitutes was read out at some point in the second half, each one said in a completely different tone compared to the normal commentary voice that was used, as if to exaggerate the odd sounding surnames these johnny foreigners had. Then when we were about to make a substitute these two comments were made:

“A very weak bench for Arsenal tonight”

Yes, we are playing mainly our reserves you twunt.

“Gilles Sunu, heard of him? No I haven’t either”

Err, yes the Arsenal fans watching your shite channel have.

I may write and complain to ITV. Seriously!

It was also the first time I have watched ITV HD, can’t say I was that impressed either there was a lot of pixelation around moving players. Sky have the edge here as well. Anyway we are through to the knock-out stages, I will post later who we might be drawn against – I think the draw takes place on the 18th December.


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Categories : Arsenal, Champions League

Arsenal v Stoke preview, Sagna back, Walcott (probably) out

4 12 2009

Tomorrow sees Arsenal return to Premier League action as we face Stoke in the 100th competitive Arsenal game at The Emirates Stadium. Hoping to get back to goalscoring, and winning, ways we will face a Stoke team who currently lie 9th in the league. Stoke have impressed since promotion the season before last, whilst their goalscoring does rely on the Delap throw-in to some extent, they are a hard working team who do rely on defensive play whilst hoping for that goal.

Arsenal will need to be on top of their attacking game tomorrow, home advantage should help and a repeat of the 4-1 victory at the end of last season would do the players and fans some good. But I doubt it will be as easy as it was back in May. There is no doubt some confidence lacking in the team and Stoke will aim to capitalise on that, also if the fans sense the team under performing I wonder if there will be an adverse reaction from some sections of the home crowd, it is a year since Eboue-gate.

In team news Bacary Sagna will return to the squad having recovered from the knock he picked up against Chelsea. Theo is a doubt, the club reports he has a(nother) hamstring strain but some press reports say that the player himself expects to be fit for Saturday. Either way I am not sure that his current form warrants a starting place. Alex Song is suspended following his 5th yellow card of the season picked up in the midweek game, his absence will be telling against Stoke but it may point Arsène in the direction of looking for a defensive midfielder to cover Song’s absence when the ACN comes around.

There was also an update on Kieran Gibbs, who is “doing well” and Robin van Persie, his surgery went “very very well”. However they will both probably not feature until right at the tail end of the season, if at all.

I don’t feel as dejected as I did earlier in the week, but time will tell how my mood is and this of course will be determined by the Arsenal performance and result on Saturday.


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Categories : Arsenal, Premier League Home games 09/10

Man City 3 – 0 Arsenal, this is starting to hurt the fans Arsène

2 12 2009

I usually wait until the morning after before I write a match report, but tonight I’m not. The starting line-ups would suggest that victory for Man City was inevitable, and it happened. Two good goals saw to that, but the poor defending, lack of tracking back by senior players and poor passing were the main culprits for our loss.

In the last 3 domestic games we have conceded 7 goals, scored 0. Are we missing van Persie that much? Alan Smith, who usually as a pundit seems to try and be as neutral as he can, tonight was on the side of the Arsenal fans. I think he shares our frustration. How long will things continue like this, the fans whilst seeing great football are not getting the feeling of winning a trophy.

After the game Arsène didn’t shake Mark Hughes’ hand, to be fair I wouldn’t want to either, but despite how much of a bad loser you are at least be courteous. Is this hurting Arsène as much as it is the fans? I am begining to question him, is his love for the club or his project?

This last week or so has been difficult as a fan, as annoying as Sunderland was a defeat like that was going to happen. But Chelsea hurt much much more, then tonight the team that was put out had no hope of winning. I’m sorry I want to see Arsenal win, not see some exciting prospects who might make it playing for us in a few years. I want a trophy, I want bragging rights at work.

I, as a fan of Arsenal, want to see us at the top of the league. Being one of the best teams in Europe. Not a team that can be said play beautiful football but never win anything. I would prefer a bit of efficient football at times, a bit of boring 1-0 victories, if they result in a trophy.

If I am truthful I didn’t expect us to win tonight, but that doesn’t make the disapointment of losing any less.


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Arsenal 0 – 3 Chelsea, this Arsenal side will not win a league title

30 11 2009

Arsène might feel that the 3-0 scoreline was an unfair reflection of the game, but I would have to disagree. He has a point, but Chelsea are a better side than us. Any Arsenal fan who tries to argue different is missing the point on how the league is won. Chelsea play efficient football, they do what they have to do to win, we on the other hand play very attractive football but that does not necessarily win a trophy.

The match started brightly for us, we have a few chances in the opening 30 minutes of the game but they were again not converted. We kept Chelsea mostly in their own half and things were looking good. But again domination of a Chelsea team did not reap rewards and we found ourselves 2-0 down at half time.

The second half again showed a bright start by Arsenal, we had a goal ruled out, of which more later, but again the ruthless edge Chelsea had came to the fore and we could not convert any of our chances. A late free kick saw Chelsea run out 3-0 winners. 57000 Arsenal fans left the stadium pretty dejected.

The referee, as was the case with a lot of Premier League games this weekend, had a huge influence on proceedings. Chelsea should have been awarded a penalty in the first half by all accounts due to the Sagna challenge in the box, Mikel was booked on his fifth challenge but Traore on his first – why?, our goal “had nothing wrong with it” according to someone watching at home who isn’t an Arsenal fan, and the challenge on Vela was a foul in our outside of the box I don’t know. Mistakes do get made, to err is human, but at least be consistent with the decisions you do have the opportunity to make. Do not book one player for his first challenge when you have just let a player away with his third foul. Had our goal been allowed the game would have taken a different turn, I am not saying we would have come back for a draw but things would have played out differently for the second half.

Eduardo had a poor game, he didn’t even have an attempt at a few of the chances he was presented with. Nasri was pretty invisible, when his number was held up for the substitution I actually thought to myself “is he still on the park?” given the absence in play. I am not sure why Song came off, we can assume injury, but Walcott was ok in patches but again had no end product (I have a blog about him, which is a positive one, for some point in the next week or so).

My title of this post says this Arsenal side will not win a league title, and I stand by that. We are definitely the second or third best team in the country, there is no question on that. But we are behind Chelsea, no question. We do not have a ruthless streak to kill teams off, we can only play one way and if that stops working the players look lost. There aren’t really any poor players who can be singled out as it being their fault, and nor is it entirely Arsène’s doing, but he has a large part to play, but this team lacks something. There are key elements missing to this side which will prevent us from winning a league title.

I felt we would miss van Persie, but not massively. I think I am now wrong in that, in the two league games he has been absent we have not scored a goal, take into account how free scoring we were when he was fit and that makes stark reading. Yes he was not playing every game, yes he did not score or assist every goal but he gave something massive to the team that we now clearly miss. Bendtner may prove to be a great replacement and he cannot be back soon enough, but if that does not work then we need to buy in January.

I also saw a massive lack of pressing from the midfield yesterday, we just stood off Chelsea. Song is good but still learning, Cesc does not play a pressing role and Denilson is off his form at this time. We need someone with the grit and determination of Vermaelen in midfield. That will help us nullify the threat of teams like Chelsea.

11 points is a big gap, but win our game in hand and it’s 8 which is not uncatchable but it is still a massive task. We are not out of the title race by any means and could still have a massive part to play in it, but our current squad and the current way we play is not entirely suited to the Premier League. Against European opposition is a different story, avoid the English teams and we can go far in the Champions League but meet Chelsea and things will not look so rosy.

All is not lost in the world of Arsenal, but defeat yesterday showed that this team, as good as it is has some short comings that need addressing if we are to go on to greater things.


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Categories : Arsenal, Premier League Home games 09/10

OFFICIAL CLUB STATEMENT: van Perise out for 4 – 5 months

28 11 2009

Having just finished my Chelsea preview on this blog I got a few tweets about an official club statement on van Persie. I opened Arsenal.com and saw this;

On Saturday morning, Arsenal Football Club issued the following statement in regard to Robin Van Persie.

“Robin Van Persie returned to Arsenal on November 22nd following an ankle injury sustained whilst on international duty with Holland.  The injury was expected to keep him out of action for between four and six weeks.

“Upon his return, the Arsenal medical team conducted a thorough review of his scans, his early injury management and the treatment he had received. Having scrutinised these in detail and assessed the response of his ankle, the Club’s medical team concluded that further investigation and opinion was required.

“Advice was sought from the leading ankle specialist Mr Niek van Dijk, who confirmed that more extensive damage had been suffered than was first diagnosed.  In order to repair his ankle, Robin will undergo surgery next week in Amsterdam to reconstruct the ligaments.  The Club’s medical team anticipate that a full recovery will take between four and five months.”

Bollocks, bastards, etc etc.

I suspect this might mean a dip into the transfer market in January. Questions will also be asked about van Persie ever having an injury free campaign.


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Arsenal v Chelsea preview, beagooner-beagiver, Walcott, Gibbs news

28 11 2009

Tomorrow sees us face Chelsea, who the media would have us believe have already run away with the league and everyone else is just scrapping for second place. Now I think I recall Chelsea racing into an early lead last year and not being crowned champions?

 

Picture from arsenal.com

Arsène gave his press conference yesterday and the first thing to be touched on was the team news. Compared to the previous game we are, of course, definitely without Kieran Gibbs; he had surgery on his broken first metatarsal, which went well according to the surgeon but the young English player will be out “for at least 3 months”. Arsène was questioned on who would fill in at left back, he responded with

“we have three very good left backs, however we only have one remaining”

I think this points to us seeing Armand Traore starting, which will worry some including me. However he needs game time and whilst a game of this magnitude might not be the best place to get that we need someone who is firstly a natural left sided player to fill this gap and we shouldn’t shuffle our pack elsewhere which might leave us more vulnerable.

William Gallas is rated as 50/50. I expect him to start tomorrow, this is his sort of game, and it is against his former club. Without him I worry we might be a bit more vulnerable to the Drogba/Anelka threat, something which Arsène will not focus on or change his game plan specifically, we will stick to our game first rather than playing to what Chelsea can do. With a team of our, purported, strengths that’s what we need to be doing.

Sunday’s game is also our Charity of the season game. This year the charity of the season is the Great Ormand Street Hospital and all Arsenal players and Directors will be donating a day’s wages to help raise funds for the world-renowned children’s hospital and are encouraging supporters to give what they can through the ‘Be a Gooner. Be a Giver.’ campaign. The picture above comes from a recent video shot for the charity campaign and can be viewed in full at beagoonerbeagiver.org where you can also donate online. The club has a target of £500,000 to raise for GOSH this season.

 

Picture from arsenal.com

Arsène also talked about Cesc in his press conference, a journalist asked what he brought to the team. The manager responded with the fact that he is a winner, he has become a complete midfielder (in no doubt down to Arsène’s tutelage) who can now defend as well as attack. He also noted how he is physically different to how he was 2 years ago. He is one of the cornerstones of this team, and I think the new formation benefits him greatly and we are witnessing his best football so far in his career.

When asked about last season’s 4-1 defeat at home to Chelsea, Arsène said that is hurt very much, that week was pretty crap as a fan having gone out of the Champions League to Utd a few days before then seeing Chelsea beat us comprehensively at home. Comparing this season’s Chelsea to that of last year Arsène said they are pretty tight at the back, having only conceded 8 goals in the league, and this game will be one of our biggest tests so far but as a team you want to play in these games. He feels that the team can no longer be considered too young, which is true they have been together a number of years and hopefully can go on to win something this season.

Picture from arsenal.com

There was a question regarding how clinical the team can be in the absence of van Persie (given we have only missed him in two games I hardly think it can be considered but that’s the press for you). Theo Walcott was mentioned as this giving him a chance, Arsène feels that he can play through the centre. However he does not want to rush him back from injury as he has done that on a number of occasions previously and it has cost him. But with some more experience of the central role he can learn in this position. I expect to see Theo come on as a sub in this game, perhaps for Eduardo as our front man, or even in addition to him with Eduardo moving out to the left.

As for our starting team tomorrow I find it too hard to call, there will be a few moves due to injury but it’s the forwards who are up in the air. I suspect we will opt for pace and skill but which of the pool of players Arsène picks from will be interesting. There is no doubt to the importance of this game, all is not over if we do not win, but we need a strong committed performance from the players. We need them out of the blocks firing, just like the home league game against Utd about this time last year. A fast pacy start, shock Chelsea, strike when they are off their guard and get an early lead. Our defence does worry us, Anelka and Drogba are a massive threat and we will need to be ready, especially at set pieces. I think Vermaelen will be massively up for this game, hopefully he will show Drogba that we are no soft touch.

Here’s to an Arsenal win tomorrow. Come on you gunners!

 

 

 


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Categories : Arsenal, Premier League Home games 09/10

Arsenal v Standard Liege preview, Arsene’s press conference, Gibbs returns

23 11 2009

Arsène held his usual pre-game press conference today ahead of our Champions League tie against Standard Liege on Tuesday night. The initial news from the press conference was on the player availability, it will be the same group of players who faced Sunderland with the addition of Kieran Gibbs who has surprised Arsène with the speed of his return. I think it is also good that Gallas did not pick up an injury despite limping for some of the game on Saturday. Arsène also talked about some longer term injuries; Bendtner and van Persie are both “some time away”, Gael Clichy is 2-3 weeks, he then said “have I forgotten somebody” only to be reminded of Abou Diaby who has 3 weeks out due to another calf injury.

I would expect some rotation to take place, Gibbs is likely to get the nod ahead of Traore and perhaps Senderos will join Vermaelen and Eboue in a back four. I suspect Theo might get the nod to start, perhaps through the middle. Attacking wise though it is very hard to predict who might start given the wealth of options in the team.

The mood in the squad is one of disappointment following the defeat at Sunderland, however a win would not only turn this round but also help us finish top of the group. Which should be what the players are focussed on at this juncture, Sunday can be thought about from Wednesday. We need to be focussed against Liege, they scored 2 quick goals in the away tie and a repeat of which is something which I don’t want to even comprehend.

Arsène said a top of the group finish would feel like a job well done, and despite only needing a point from the next two games to qualify there is no temptation to be defensive. I suspect this might be linked to the fact the team don’t understand such a concept, as enjoying as flowing attacking football is to watch it does not help calm this supporter’s nerves in tight games (or even those when we are a few goals up).

A win tomorrow would be a nice response from the players, not only to their disappointment but that of the fans as well. Defeats hurt, we as fans want to be back to winning ways and hopefully that will resume tomorrow night and carry on into the weekend.

Late news tomorrow either here or on twitter if any arrives.


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Categories : Arsenal, Champions League

Sunderland 1 – 0 Arsenal – I don’t buy the post international hangover

22 11 2009

We looked a bit flat, not sure that the international break caused that but the team did not look as together as it has previously. Having just viewed the highlights on MOTD we cannot argue we didn’t have the chances, early in the game there were a couple there. What cannot be said is Sunderland are a poor team, they are well organised by Steve Bruce and can fully expect to be pushing for a Europa League spot come the end of the season.

There are claims of fatigue affecting players, but in all honesty a league and european campaign could have seen the whole squad play Saturday and Wednesday so I don’t fully buy that. Perhaps the travel has an impact, but we need to see players committed and full of energy from the off until the final whistle.

Arsène dismissed claims we missed van Persie, I have to agree from what I saw, there is quality in our attack to cover for him. Vela, Walcott, Eduardo are all there to take that front place. Perhaps being together over the next few days in training will see the team gel again.

So our third defeat of the season sees Chelsea edge 8 points clear of us. Next Saturday remains as important as it did before yesterday’s games, there cannot be an increase in require or desire to win that game based on what happened at The Stadium of Light. If people are to argue the reverse you have to question their outlook on our team and our league challenge, we have to want to win every game. Had we been 8 points ahead of Chelsea it would still be a must win next weekend. If anyone thinks Chelsea are going into next Sunday thinking it’s ok we have a decent cushion on Arsenal they have clearly been on what Phil Brown is on!

Midweek sees us face Standard Liege at home, our chance to put qualifying for the group stage to bed and get back to winning ways. More on that in the next few days.

 


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Categories : Arsenal, Premier League Away games 09/10

Sunderland v Arsenal preview, injury news (less people injured!!!!)

21 11 2009

So football is back, well football for me anyway. I’m from Scotland so our national team’s exploits are never anything to watch with much interest, and I struggle to watch England (although I will admit to supporting them in Italy 90 as a 10 year old, my Dad must have hated that). So The Arsenal are back, proper football I would say. The club v country thing is a bigger debate these days given the sums of money involved but if you ask any fan of a decent team, watching their club surely must come first.

In previous seasons we have struggled to regain our impetus after an international break, this season has been slightly better but we did take a while to get into gear against Birmingham. I expect Sunderland to pose a much tougher threat, especially given they are at home and their form has been good. Some people point towards the result against some shit club from north London as evidence for today’s result……errr they aren’t anywhere near us, we beat them 3-0 remember. However Sunderland have no international players to disrupt their training, so they will probably seem fitter than our players later in the game. So we need to have the result PROPERLY in the bag going into the last 15-20 minutes.

On the injury front there has been a lot of good news, no really we have more players returning from injury than we have lost to injury. I couldn’t believe it either. Denilson will travel to Sunderland, that is great news as it provides us cover for Song in the DM role. Carlos Vela, Armand Traore and Lukasz Fabinaski are also off the injury list. Late yesterday Arsène confirmed that Theo and Jack Wilshere are available for selection this weekend again. All these options, whilst some only being possible for part of the game, are great for us and allow some rotation given the exploits of some players. Andrey Arshavin is one of these, he played two competitive games for Russia, who failed to qualify for WC 2010. Two others who may be rested are Gallas and Sagna who went to ET in a match for France, but I haven’t heard much about that game – does anyone know the result? My only concern with no Gallas and Sagna is that three of the back four will be relatively new players, so Vermaelen might be our only regular in defence. With the threat of Darren Bent this is something to consider.

With van Persie definitely out there has been debate as to who will play in his central role, I would expect it to be Eduardo but we will see later on. I will try and give game updates on twitter but I am out in London this afternoon so they might not be timely or regular.

Anyway here’s to another 3 points!


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Categories : Arsenal, Premier League Away games 09/10

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