Fixtures For New Season / Away Days
Good morning. Shortly after I publish this article, all of the fixtures for next season will be released and we will all be planning our lives around who our team is playing. Football supporters sacrifice so much to follow their team around the country, skipping social events with friends and Read more
The Joe Kinnear Show / Arsenal To Land Higuain
Good morning. Joe Kinnear was a theatrical, comedic goldmine yesterday on Talksport, saying that he's "more intelligent" than Newcastle United supporters and showing a crushing inability to pronounce the names of Newcastle's top players. Kinnear called Yohan Cabaye, "Yohan Kebab" and have you ever heard of Hatem Ben Affri? Kinnear Read more
Joe Kinnear Back at Newcastle / Confederations Cup
Good morning. Joe Kinnear has re-joined Newcastle United under the guise of "Director of Football." Due to the absurdity of the appointment, I could finish the blog here and leave you to chew on that information for the entirety of your Monday. It is a very bizarre development at Newcastle, as Read moreBetting tips for the Premier League: who will be favourites next season to win?
The new Premier League season is set to be an exciting one, thanks to a raft of changes that have occurred at the top clubs since the end of the last one, which leave things feeling less predictable than they have for a while. The fact that Chelsea have Read more
Chelsea Agree Schuerrle Deal / Ronaldo Doesn't Sign A New Contract.
Good morning. As I trawled through the various football websites this morning, all I saw was this... Tumbleweed. Lots and lots of tumbleweed. The transfer window hasn't opened and won't do so until the July 1st, so we should all calm down in that regard. At the moment it feels as Read more
Good morning.
Chelsea managed to overcome Arsenal in what was a game of two halves. Okay, I shamelessly indulged in a football cliche there. Sorry. The meaning of the phrase is completely correct in this instance however, for Chelsea dominated the first half and should have scored more than two goals, whereas Arsenal heaped pressure on Chelsea in the second half, creating plenty of chances. Read more
Good morning.
Swansea City poked their big toe in the Capital One Cup Final yesterday, with a surprise 2-0 victory over Chelsea. Despite dominating the match for extended periods of the match, Chelsea just could not find their way through a team which sat back, kept their shape and jumped on two Branislav Ivanovic goals to take a two goal advantage back to the Libery Stadium. Read more
Good morning.
Thankfully, I’m in more of a chirpy mood than I was yesterday. Having been disgusted by the behaviour of the minority of football fans in recent weeks, it was nice to see Lazio play in shirts emblazoned with “No Racism” on the front, in English, which I thought to be a great gesture. I see the English writing on an Italian shirt as being symoblic of a handshake and although it’s a few Lazio fans who needed to be told that message, it was like a handshake between Italian and English football; an apology. Tip of the hat to you, Lazio, and to Claudio Lotito, who visited Tottenham fan Ashley Mills at the San Camillo Hospital, where Mills is being treated having been stabbed in a brawl propagated by Lazio Ultras.
Having been so downcast by recent events, and another has emerged with a Sunderland fan seen making monkey gestures toward Romelu Lukaku, the West Brom striker on Saturday, it’s struck me that if you let the morons of the planet get to you, then you will spend 99% of your time unhappy. It’s easier – and more progressive – to recognise what’s happened, deal with it and emerge stronger for it. Racism and semitism isn’t something that dominates our society, it’s certainly not how it was in the 80s for example and there have been incredible improvements. There will always be the fool who can’t see sense, but if we continuously strong-arm those responsible for such behaviour, then hopefully it can be eradicated from the stadiums where we all love to spend our Saturday afternoons.
Focusing on Arsenal now, and particularly, Jack Wilshere’s proposed new contract, which Arsene Wenger admitted was in the pipeline during Tuesday morning’s pre-match press conference ahead of the Gunners playing Everton this evening. At the moment, Arsenal are working to secure deals for a number of their top English talents, with Carl Jenkinson having just signed a new 5 year deal with the club, despite only having been with Arsenal for one full season, and Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott are all in the process of negotiating new long-term contracts with Arsenal. Along with Jack Wilshere, that makes five English players who will be featuring in the same line-up for years to come, although there are still complications with Walcott’s negotations.
At the moment, Walcott is leaving everything to his agent and although the winger wants to stay at the Emirates, his agent is playing hard to get with Arsenal and it’s beginning to prove a frustration. Arsenal have until the end of December to sort out a contract renewal for Theo and I find it incredibly important that they do. Walcott’s a great winger and has demonstrated positive movement and decision making in dangerous areas for three seasons now (including this). It’s also vital that Arsenal give out a statement by signing Walcott to a long-term contract in the sense that they will no longer give away their best players to other clubs. Arsenal are negotiating fresh sponsorship deals right now, so they don’t need player sales to boost profits, they’ll be able to do that via sponsorship soon.
Arsenal must keep Theo Walcott.
That’s me done for today on this blog! There will be plenty to talk about tomorrow with all the matches being played tonight, but as I type this up; Sunderland, QPR, Aston Villa and Reading are all embroiled in stunning 0-0 draws. I just know there will be a flurry of goals now…
See you tomorrow!
Alternatively, catch me on Twitter this evening where I’ll be running through the matches. You can follow us by clicking the button below!
Morning!
One of the latest – and brightest – talents to emerge this season, is Liverpool’s rocket-heeled winger, Raheem Sterling. Fully competent on the left or right wing, Sterling, Liverpool’s leading light just behind Luis Suarez this season, at just 17, is playing football to a level above his years. Most players that age who find themselves blessed with pace, will throw their head down and just run without a thought. With Sterling, it’s different; yes he can sprint and knock the ball past players with consummate ease, but the most impressive attribute that he’s showed, is the ability to maintain a 360 degree vision throughout a match. He has the confidence to pick his head up and spot things, which at 17 in the Premier League, is very hard to do. Read more
Good morning.
Despite taking a two goal lead against Schalke 04, Arsenal could only claim a point in Gelsenkirchen as goals from Klaas Jan-Huntelaar and Jefferson Farfan saw the Germans cancel out goals from Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud.
At the beginning of the evening, I’d have settled for a point against a strong Schalke side. Away from home, amidst some poor form, a point away in the Champions League is a top result, but is it so much when you’re pegged back from being two goals up? No, of course not. Letting a two goal lead slip is bad no matter where you’re playing, what competition it’s in or who it’s against, you should not be letting a two goal advantage slide. On reflection, Arsenal’s result is two points dropped, not one point gained.
Arsenal took the lead against the run of play via Theo Walcott in the 18th minute. A defensive error from Roman Neudstadter (I think) sent Giroud through on goal with only Lars Unnerstall to beat. A recovering defender denied Giroud the opportunity to shoot, who was undecided over what to do with the ball and as leather sphere bounced about, Theo Walcott nipped in to take the ball, round the keeper and tap into the empty net. Calamity defending from Schalke and a precious goal for Arsenal, who looked distinctly second best for the 17 minutes that came before it.
Not even ten minutes later, Giroud gave Arsenal their second goal. Playing the ball to Lukas Podolski on the left-wing, the Frenchman moved into the box to await a Podolski cross, which was met by the diving head of Giroud. A brilliant goal for Giroud and at 2-0 with the clock running down for the second half, Arsenal were looking good for three points, as long as they could see out the first half with a clean sheet.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be, as a beautiful pass by Lewis Holtby – a rumoured Arsenal target – set Huntelaar up who finished low past Vito Mannone into the opposite bottom hand corner. That goal made it 2-1 just before half-time, the supposed worst time to concede a goal, as it has more importance than any other minute of the match. Apparently.
In the second half, Schalke dominated play and it’s a surprise it took longer than twenty minutes to actually get an equaliser. Lewis Holtby was once again involved, flicking on a header to the back post from a cross, where the unmarked Farfan was on hand to strike past Mannone. It was on target and going in, but Vermaelen made sure by giving it a nudge into the back of the net anyway, being the sweetheart he is.
Theo Walcott then had a late chance for, but tight angles, little time and an on-rushing goalkeeper meant there was little Walcott could do about scoring. A winning goal for Arsenal would have been incredibly harsh given the way Schalke dominated the majority of the match and when the dust has settled, a point will look good on the face of it, but having been 2-0 up, this is a poor result for me. Arsenal need to finish top of this group to avoid facing a Borussia Dortmund or a Barcelona and letting two goal leads slip is not the way to go about it.
Conclusion
My match report is a little uninspired to say the least, but can you be anything else when the team performance fails to resemble what Arsenal fans were treated to just two seasons ago. That team was technically outstanding and beat Barcelona 2-1 by going toe-to-toe with them, such was the ability of that team.
On his return to action with the Arsenal first team, Jack Wilshere commented that it was a completely different midfield to the one he’d last played in. Previously, Wilshere had been playing with Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Cesc Fabregas. Now, it’s Santi Cazorla and Mikel Arteta and although there may be a period of adaptation to go through, is the Arsenal side now necessarily better than it was? For me, no. Arsenal are no longer capable of dominating a game, creating fifteen chances and winning. Now, Arsenal struggle for chances and concentrate on not losing first, which isn’t what top teams do.
Arsene Wenger said in his post-match interview that in this next month, if his team continue to develop, we’ll see a different Arsenal. I hope so, because for now, I see a pale imitation of what Arsenal are supposed to be.
That’s all from me today, sorry I’ve had to rush it. Guess who woke up late again?
You got it in one. See you tomorrow.
Morning.
Twelve goals, 120 minutes of football, bizarre football and unfortunate defending lead to the most incredible match of football I have ever seen. Regular readers of this blog will know full well I’m an Arsenal fan by now and last night my emotions were torn apart, stamped on and buried. This morning I’m a shivering wreck of a man. Us football fans must have the highest threshold for stress in the world, surely?
Arsenal travelled to Reading on the back of some fairly dodgy form, losing three of the previous six matches, two of the last three and were set to field a team of fringe players and youth. That same concoction of youthful exuberance and wilting quality, littered with first-team talent in Laurent Koscielny, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud, had drummed six past Coventry City in the last round. Reading on the other hand, had scored their fair share of Capital One Cup goals, but also conceded two to Peterborough United in the second round and another two in the third round to QPR. Statistically, this promised goals and within 37 minutes, that promise had already been fulfilled, with Reading netting a remarkable four goals. Read more
Darren Fletcher completed a successful 90 minutes for Manchester United last night as he returns from injury.
Morning!
Right, I’m going to fly through this post as I’m running late and operating on coffee, a banana and a pear. Also, you may want to whisper it, but the sun is currently shining where I am!
Manchester United 2-1 Newcastle United
Wayne Rooney returned for Manchester United last night as he helped Sir Alex Ferguson’s side to a 2-1 win over an’abject-for-large-parts’ Newcastle United. Admittedly, I barely saw anything of this game as I was doing some work, but Rooney looked good on his return from a four week lay-off after he split his leg open, and Darren Fletcher managed to complete ninety minutes of football, which must be a huge boost for everybody connected with the club, after it seemed so unlikely that his condition would let him play again.
Anderson opened the scoring in the first half, cutting in from the right to strike on his left, in off the post and into the opposite corner. Arguably, Newcastle’s defenders could have done a little more to stop Anderson, but the quality of the strike was so high that Rob Elliot had no chance of keeping the strike at bay.
Tom Cleverley extended their lead in the 58th minute, scoring his first goal for Manchester United courtesy of a well-placed curling effort. Patient build-up from United allowed Cleverley to find space on the edge of the area and when you place a shot as well as he did, you barely need any power. Again, it was a shot that Elliot could do nothing about, but I still think Newcastle were too passive on both occasions.
Papiss Cisse replaced the ineffective Harris Vuckic in the 61st minute and scored in the 62nd, directing a header past David de Gea from a Shane Ferguson cross, who was also on as a substitute.
Arsenal 6-1 Coventry City
Arsene Wenger made eleven changes to the team that started against Manchester City at the weekend, confident enough that his reserves could sweep Coventry aside, and his confidence was not misplaced.
Despite Coventry offering stern resistance for 39 minutes, Olivier Giroud managed to open the scoring after Franis Coquelin slipped him through with a toe-prodded pass, chipping the on-rushing Joe Murphy. After half-time, Giroud had the chance to doube Arsenal’s lead with a penalty, but Murphy saved well and it wasn’t too long before Arsenal got their second anyway, as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain rifled a shot into the top corner from 25 yards after he’d collected a pass from Andrei Arshavin.
Not long after Chamberlain opened his account for the evening, Arshavin netted himself, bringing down a pass expertly in the area before scoring his first of the season. Of all my goals last evening, that was my favourite; Arshavin needed the goal so badly and although it was great to see Giroud get off of the mark, he’ll get plenty more chances to score goals this season, while for Arshavin it was a chance he desperately needed to take. The Russian was a threat all match, scoring one and assisting two, doing his chances of featuring in future squads no harm at all.
Theo Walcott scored a brace to cast an impression on Arsene Wenger’s mind as to what he could do as a striker. Both of Walcott’s goals were very well taken, emphatic I’d say, and suggest he could play a role as main striker. As I’ve said before though, he needs to sharpen up on everything else first and I don’t think he’s too far off.
In between Theo’s goals, Ignasi Miguel netted a header from an Arshavin cross and Callum Ball scored a consolation for Coventry to make the final score 6-1.
Right, as I said, I’m running late so I could only really pay homage to perhaps the two biggest games last night. There’s no preference you must remember on this blog, as it is a general football blog and I do regret not being able to cover all of the matches. Anyway, below are the scores from last night’s other Carling Cup matches:
Carlise 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur
Norwich City 1-0 Doncaster Rovers
QPR 2-3 Reading
West Brom 1-2 Liverpool
That’s me done, see you tomorrow!
Good morning and welcome to Wednesday.
Theo Walcott has emerged in the press and stated he loves Arsenal Football Club, wants to stay there for life, emulate Thierry Henry and that money has nothing to do with his contract talks, but where he plays at Arsenal, and he wants to play as a striker, as it’s, ‘about time’.
For those of you with sharp memories, you’ll also remember Theo saying that James Milner is, ‘good at everything’ over the summer.
Hmm.
I’m not saying Theo is a complete, fat liar, but after experiencing a supposed ‘mixed’ reception when coming on as a subsitute to face Southampton the other week, it would make sense for the winger to say, ‘hey, I’m not motivated by money, I just want to be like Thierry Henry’. As far as sentiment goes, that’s lovely to hear for most fans, but I think those words have been seen through by many Arsenal fans. Of course money is a factor, Theo will want to be paid the money he thinks he deserves as he plays through his ‘peak years’ and I understand that to a degree. However, to say that negotiations aren’t down to money at all, then why hasn’t he signed? Arsenal have tabled significant contract improvements but those terms haven’t been accepted. Read more
Morning!
There’s not long to go now until that transfer window deadline slams shut in the faces of desperate managers and hopeful supporters. On the whole, it’s been a fairly quiet summer of activity so far. Yes, ample amounts of money have been spent, but in general it’s been quieter than years gone by, with clubs perhaps more mindful of their surroundings due to the economic climate and the introduction of FFP.
Nottingham Forest were a club predicted to be busy in the transfer window due to the takeover from Kuwaiti businessmen and they have added another player to their ranks, with Arsenal midfielder, Henri Lansbury joining for £1 million on a four year contract. For an England under-21 midfielder who has enjoyed successful loan spells at West Ham, Watford and Scunthorpe, and was rewarded a new long-term Arsenal contract as recent as last September. If Arsenal had have wanted, they could have found a higher bidder, but I believe circumstance has pushed Lansbury out of the door at Arsenal. If you’re close to your 22nd birthday Arsenal and a ‘homegrown talent’, you have to be included in the squad of 25 submitted to the Premier League. For example, Jack Wilshere is 20 years old and thus doesn’t have to be included in the squad of 25 as he’s a homegrown talent under the age of 21. Put simply, if you’re approaching your 22nd birthday and aren’t a regular first team player at Arsenal, you’re filling up places in the squad and you’ll be pushed out. Read more
On your marks, get set…which way to Liverpool?
Evening.
It’s barely news now when you read, ‘top Arsenal player, (insert name here) has refused to sign a contract / has Barca DNA and wishes to leave the North London club’. Rather than absorb the information as news, said line could just be a line from one of many high profile transfers away from the Emirates Stadium, with Theo Walcott apparently the latest on the conveyor belt leading out of the Emirates, according to The Telegraph.
As the report goes, Walcott’s representatives rejected a ‘lucrative’ contract extension over the weekend, with fresh talks beginning earlier today at some stage. The Telegraph have it down as Liverpool being interested, along with Manchester City who had a bid rejected for Swansea City winger, Scott Sinclair earlier today. Liverpool being interested makes sense as they have no right winger other than the masquerading Glen Johnson, and Manchester City as they need genuine pace in their team. Plus, it’s Manchester City, and they love an Arsenal player or six. Read more
