Norwich v Arsenal Match Preview

Morning!

Just to let you know, we have changed how we do match preview’s for a weekend. Rather than trall through every single one, talking about matches we don’t care about, we’re just concentrating on what we think will be the best. Don’t worry, every team will get treated the same, there’s no favourtism here!

The match I’m most anticipating this weekend is Norwich v Arsenal. Based on recent form, this match should be a real entertaining one, I don’t expect Arsenal to breeze through with no problems, but then again I don’t expect them to struggle, I just can’t call an Arsenal match at the moment because I’m yet to see them really up against it now that all the new signings have settled down.

One thing which has emerged apparent, is Arsenal now seem far more united as a team, rather than as individuals as was the case last season, where most Arsenal matches were highlighted with individual brilliance. Don’t get me wrong, there were some fantastic ‘team’ moments, most notably against Barcelona, as well as matches against Birmingham at ST Andrews where Arsenal looked simply phenomenal. There are a few other matches, but for the majority, you always felt as if Arsenal had to score five before they were safe in a match, something which isn’t the case this year, Arsenal look far more solid, more united as a team and with that, I do expect them to get three points against Norwich.

However, taking three points from Carrow Road is easier said than done. Of the three promoted sides, Norwich have been by far my favourite. Like Arsenal, they seem more united than their fellow promoted teams. Like I’ve said before, Norwich have a big squad where the players are all of an equal (ish) quality. Obviously there are a few better than others, but that’s not by much and as a result Norwich are more of a team for it. For example, I went to see Scunthorpe v Millwall one day last year when I had nothing to do and Scunthorpe had Ramon Nunez on loan from Leeds United at the time. Nunez was brilliant that day, he dictated everything Scunthorpe did. Unfortunately, Nunez is far more talented than anybody at Glanford Park and thus no Scunthorpe players could read what he wanted them to do. Many attacks fell flat in the final third as Millwall picked off Nunez when he found he had nowhere to go after his strikers had deserted him.

As Norwich have signed players like Steve Morison, a player on par with Grant Holt, they haven’t got that problem of trying to accommodate their play to suit just one person. Alan Knill had to alter the way Scunthorpe played with Nunez in the side and as a result, Scunthorpe were relegated, not by any means was that Nunez’s fault, but he wasn’t the player Scunthorpe needed at that point in time. For example, if Norwich were to sign Jack Wilshere on loan whilst he recovers from his injury, the young Arsenal midfielder would find himself largely frustrated upon learning the Norwich players aren’t able to do what he wants and thus, Norwich, like Scunthorpe, would struggle. Obviously, having better players helps, but you have to create that by mixing young talent with experience and easing them into the side, rather than just throwing a quality player into a side, it disrupts the karma in a team and is always a negative in my experience.

Along with being a pretty tight team, Norwich also bare the typical trait of being a gritty newly-promoted side whose attitude are always amazing upon reaching the Premiership as they believe they have to fight till the death to earn so much as a point. Norwich carried that exact same attitude to Old Trafford and were unfortunate to not to come away with at least a point, so Arsene Wenger will know full well what’s in store for his side.

Arsene Wenger spoke of having to start rotating his squad in the up and coming weeks to ease the burden of a Christmas schedule. I can’t agree more with rotating throughout November and December, despite it being where Arsenal fell short last season. For example, a 3-1 over Chelsea at Emirates Stadium was followed by a 2-2 draw away to Wigan just two days later when Nicklas Bendtner and Abou Diaby took over from Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas. It was matches like this which cost Arsenal, though I don’t see that being a problem this season. Arsenal’s back-up bares much more of an appetite than last season, with the likes of Arshavin, Frimpong, Park, Koscielny/Mertesacker, Coquelin, Rosicky etc all wanting to scrap for a place in the starting XI. Just think that when Jack Wilshere and Abou Diaby return to the Arsenal squad, there will be those two, as well as Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey fighting for spots in central midfield, an absolute dream of a headache for Arsene Wenger. For this reason, I’m not worried about Arsene Wenger rotating for once, providing the attitude of the second-string is absolutely spot on. If Manchester United’s rub-a-dubs can do it, then why not Arsenal’s?

It’s going to be a fantastic match and I predict a 3-1 Arsenal win, I just feel they’ll overcome a Norwich defence which has conceded six in two games, which is worrying stuff for Paul Lambert!

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Posted on November 19, 2011 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Boring Boring Arsenal!

As an Arsenal fan, the title does not reflect my mood in relation to this game, more the jubiliation in being able to sing that famous old song for once this season! A 1-0 win over Marseille at Stade Velodrome is a great win no matter what team we’re talking about here. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Inter Milan would all see a win picked up in Marseille a good night’s work, so an under-fire Arsenal can take so much from this game.

Marseille may be struggling in Ligue 1, but they had beaten both Olympiacos and gone to Dortmund and smashed them 3-0, which is a very impressive result, bare in mind Arsenal could only draw 1-1 at Dortmund’s Signul Iduna Park. Marseille also possess fantastic individual players in Lucho Gonzalez, Loic Remy, Mathieu Valbuena and Andrew Ayew, with those latter three all full of pace. Taking into account how Arsenal play, combined with Marseille’s home advantage, you would have been forgiven for putting a cheeky £5 on Marseille to beat a defensively ‘suspect’ Arsenal.

However, despite what we’ve seen so far this season, Arsenal have looked tight at the back, though only in spells during games, not for a full ninety minutes. Against Liverpool for example at Emirates Stadium, it took Liverpool around 80 minutes to find a goal and at that Arsenal only had ten men after Emmanuel Frimpong had been sent off. Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and the rest found it hard to get a sniff against Arsenal that day for 80 minutes and frustrated Borussia Dortmund into oblivion for 91 minutes in the first Champions League group matches. Yes, there have been some horror shows, most notably at Old Trafford and Ewood Park, but the fact remains that Arsenal have actually kept the same amount of Premiership clean sheets as Manchester United (3) and lie only one clean sheet behind Manchester City. (4) Arsenal’s midfield seem to be making more of a concentrated effort to not concede, though in turn, this causes other problems.

In the opening fifteen minutes of Arsenal’s tie with Marseille, it was plainly evident for all to see that Arsenal were struggling to play keep-ball, something they did so well last season with Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri in the side and that alck of quality was all too plain to see. Tomas Rosicky is no Samir Nasri and though I really like Arteta, he just simply is miles behind Fabregas in terms of star quality, so it’s difficult for Arsenal to get the ball down and hurt teams as quick as they could last season. Remember Arshavin’s goal against Barcelona last season? Fabregas needed one pass to split Barcelona into bits from his own half, do Arsenal have that quality? At the minute, it’s not there, as Mikel Arteta is not used to playing as far forward as Fabregas did for Arsenal, which must have been a factor playing on Arsene Wenger’s mind, as he dropped him back into defensive midfield alongside Alex Song last night, pushing Tomas Rosicky further up behind Van Persie. As such, Arsenal struggled to create in the first half.

A flash of brilliance from Loic Remy aside, nut-megging Per Mertesacker, only to have his shot deflected by a last-ditch Carl Jenkinson effort, who Remy looked to have had the beating of, so full credit to Jenkinson for making a quick recovery to Remy’s side-step.

Going in at 0-0, I saw that as being a respectable point. Marseille looked dangerous in small flashes, the atmosphere was electric and Didier Deschamp’s side still had to visit London by this stage, so a point was very welcome.

Carrying on in the same vein as before, Arsenal knitted two passes together before Song mis-sold a pass to Jenkinson and Marseille won a throw. A sign of things to come? Well, no, even if it was, Marseille either had one eye on the weekend, or believed they had given their all, now unable to do anything else to hurt Arsenal. There was no thrust to anything Marseille did and Laurent Koscielny began eating up everything Remy, Ayew and Valbuena could throw at hime, with Mertesacker acting as a sort of cloth to wipe up anything that Koscielny left un-attended.

With Marseille retreating into their shells at alarming pace, Arsenal were allowed more time on the ball and began to string passes together, though as has been this season’s trait, it was all backwards and sideways, never really hurting Marseille. It seemed as if Arsenal’s midfield were waiting for Arshavin and Walcott to find a few yards of space to run into, as if that was the only way Arsenal could create, there was nothing going down the middle and I must admit, though I predicted Walcott would make way for Gervinho in the 60th minute, I felt that taking Rosicky off and moving Arshavin more centrally would have benefited Arsenal more, that would have given Arsenal more penetration down the middle with a more direct, bold approach the key to Arshavin’s success throughout his career.

This brings me nicely onto that little Russian. Now I agree he does frustrate even me, one of the most placid guys you could ever wish to meet, but there is a genuine feeling amongst Arsenal fans that when he wants to be, Arshavin is one of the few world class players still left at Arsenal. The key phrase there is, ‘when he wants to be’ and that’s the problem with Arshavin. Andrey does try, but he does severaly lack stamina, a reason why Arsene Wenger hesitated over his signature. For example, mid-way through the second half, Arsenal were on the break and Andre Santos broke from left-back, leaving Arshavin in his wake. Rather than race to give support, Arshavin stopped at left-back and watched the attack die out as Santos ran out of options and eventually had to sell a pass short to Robin Van Persie. If in the mood, Arshavin can spin a game on it’s head, as he did against Barcelona last year and to be honest, I wish he weren’t substituted so often in matches because if left on, Arshavin is capable of producing a piece of genius no matter how what kind of game he’s had. It’s a strange circumstance to have with a player who weighs in with plenty of goals and assists!

One Theo Walcott chance aside, in which he could only direct his shot at Steven Mandanda, (overrated goalkeeper?) Arsenal found themselves blocked out by a Marseille side happy to take a point from Arsenal as the game wore on. However in the last fifteen minutes, gaps started to appear as Marseille tired and if not for some last ditch blocks, Arsenal could have had Gervinho and RVP through on goal several times though it wasn’t to be.

In the second minute of three minute’s added time however, Johan Djourou whirled in a cross which evaded Van Persie and the entire Marseille defence and Aaron Ramsey, on as a substitute for Andrey Arshavin, smashed home a low shot past a helpless Steven Mandande to send Arsenal’s travelling support crazy.

The smiles on the face of Arsenal’s team painted a thousand words, everybody involved clearly delighted to have claimed three points from such a tricky match. It’s a win not many Arsenal fans though they would witness any time soon, but win they did and up next is Stoke City on Sunday, who will provide a far different proposition for Arsenal.

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Posted on October 20, 2011 by Craig in England, Europe, France, Premiership Leave a comment

Cleverley Signs New Deal / Capello Warns Rooney

Morning!

No Premiership football often results in the news being as dead as a Buzz Killington tea party, hence this morning I’m really struggling as for what to talk about! Fortunately, football debate often finds me, even in a Chip Shop yesterday where I engaged in debate with the owner of said shop and a fellow customer. It’s fair to say I didn’t enjoy the debate, as the old stereotypes were rolled out in force over Arsenal and the new Rooney situation.

Ahain, I was told that Arsenal are killing English football, which in fact, is a load of rubbish if you are to look at the current high number of English players in Arsenal’s academy. The sole reason Arsenal have not had many English first XI players over the past decade, is because the quality has not been there, bar freak players like Wayne Rooney. If you look at Arsenal’s first team squad, you will notice the likes of Carl Jenkinson, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Emmanuel Frimpong. Apologies if I’ve missed any, but six players of real talent is surely what England need, so that would tell me that Arsenal are in fact doing the world of good to the England national team. Not to mention Arsenal very kindly let England train at their London Colney training ground on international duty!

So, with that my first annoyance off of my chest, I should probably tell you that again, I heard a person state Rooney should be sold, purely on the back of his ‘habit’ for picking up red cards. Fortunately, this topic fitted in nicely with yesterday’s article on here and as such, I shot the Chip Shop man down in flames before sauntering out with my chips and battered sausage, head held high, as both men stood there dumbfounded at being shot down in debate.

How anybody can think of selling Rooney on the back of a few red cards is beyond me. As well as that, I can’t see why there’s such a trend for wanting to drop Rooney from our national side! As I said yesterday, Rooney is indispensable from this England side, so when I read that Capello may consider dropping Rooney from the side, starting from now till Euro 2012, I nearly fell over in shock. Why drop Rooney, what’s the point?! We need our first XI to gel and be 100% ready for Euro 2012 and that will be aided by playing Rooney in friendly matches. To not play Rooney in the build-up for Euro 2012 would be wildly childish, all for picking up a red card!

In good news, Tom Cleverley, the latest creative midfielder to wear the number ’23′ shirt for his club has signed a new five year deal at Manchester United. For me, this is quality news, not like Cleverley would have left United anyway, as what comes with English players, is a reluctance to move abroad, so playerslike Cleverley, Wilshere and the rest are highly unlikely to move away from their current clubs in the near future. Either way, it signals that Sir Alex Ferguson has tremendous faith in Cleverley to offer him a five year deal and as such, I hope he enjoys a great time at Old Trafford!

Sadly, that’s all for today in what is frankly, a lacklustre post. I can’t wait for normal service to resume in the Premiership!

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Posted on October 11, 2011 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Capello Gives Rooney A Black Eye!

Morning!

Capello didn’t really give Wayne a black eye… he probably just beat him black and blue from the neck down! To be fair, I doubt any beatings given will have been all too severe, especially since England have qualified and with that, I imagine Rooney to only have two cracked ribs on the journey home from Montenegro.

Having spoke about Fabio Capello fake beating up Wayne Rooney, I should probably mention what happened! Having been isolated on his own for much of the second half, Rooney took not one, but two frustrating whacks at a Montenegro defender, it was a deserved sending off and Rooney knew he’d done bad. If you’d have seen his total lack of fight when defenders started to surround Wayne, then you can see he wasn’t in the mood for a fight, with knowledge of a poor decision from the England star fresh on a guilty mind. A straight red I believe, will see Rooney miss two of England’s group games in 2012 if I’m lead to be correct? If we’re drawn into a group of death, that could well be very costly, however if not, we should be more than covered with the emergence of Wilshere and Cleverley both being able to fill a number ten role.

England started the match full of intent, which you’d expect when you see a quad of; Walcott, Rooney, Young and Bent all start up-front. In the first ten minutes, despite domination of midfield, England had two chances. First, Theo Walcott saw the ball drop invitingly for him following a panic-striken clearance from a worried Montenegran clearance. Theo was involved in England’s second chance, one which saw him cross a delicious ball for Ashley Young, who will never, ever get such an easy header as long as he plays. In a situation where he would have struggled to hit anything but the target, Young made it 1-0.

On the half hour mark, Ashley Young was involved again to make the scoreline a very healthy 2-0, while in the process giving Ashley Young himself a nailed-on spot in future England teams.

About to go in for half-time, we looked set and my pre-match Twitter prediction of a 2-0 England win was looking healthy as I fully expected us to drop off of the pace for the second half and nullify Montenegro, which until the 44th minte looked very achievable. That was until Wayne Rooney lost the ball in Montenegro’s half and seeing a massive gap in our midfield, Montenegro (they will be called the ‘M’s’ from now on) raced forward, laying the ball out wide and with a cross put in waist-height to Elas Zverotic, the ‘M’ midfielder shot and only a deflection from John Terry gave those pesky ‘M’s’ gave ‘M’ salvation they could get something from this game.

With the game now completely changed, I fully expected Montenegro to come at us and that they did, but it wasn’t threatening, more comparable with a small child hitting a bigger person and running away to avoid a response. It was all cat and mouse so even despite ‘M’ having their tails up, I just couldn’t see them as a threat, even though our strike-force was becoming more and more isolated.

Which brings us nicely on to that incident I was on about earlier. With around fifteen-twenty minutes to go, Rooney was sent-off, the perfect tonic for a Montenegro who had started to look flat. You could see the equaliser coming, if Jovetic had decided not to nose-dive into the turf then he could have prodded an equaliser pastHart. Unfortunately for the curly-haired Fiorentina forward, he chose to dive and ended up with a face-full of John Terry, before being thrown to the floor by the Chelsea captain.

Rather predictably, Montenegro equalised in the 90th minute. It was written in the stars really, wasn’t it? Every team who need a point to make the play-offs always score in the 90th minute and this was no different. It was a good cross and like Ashley Young’s header, Andrija Delibasic (a quality name may I add) scored to make him the most sought after man in Montenegro.

As for England, well, the score is pretty irrelevant since we qualified for our sole target, which was to qualify for Euro 2012. Most teams would have taken a point from a trip to Montenegro and we got that, yes a point after being 2-0 is disappointing, but so what? Manchester United have nights like these, not playing well in games they should have lost and gained a point, well England did just that and for once, I don’t have a bad word to say.

As for how well we’ll actually do at Euro 2012, now that’s for another post…

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Posted on October 8, 2011 by Craig in England, Europe Leave a comment

Arsenal’s Demise To Spurs Is All Too Predictable

Read some of these following scores from the North London Derby over the years: Spurs 5-1 Arsenal, Arsenal 3-3 Spurs, Spurs 0-0 Arsenal Spurs 2-1 Arsenal, Arsenal 2-3 Spurs, Spurs 3-3 Arsenal and now, Spurs 2-1 Arsenal.

If you haven’t clicked on to what I’m getting at, then it’s this; Spurs have been rapidly catching up with a stationary Arsenal. Over the past few years, me as an Arsenal cannot recall too many Arsenal victories over Tottenham Hotspurs! Sure, there is that fantastic derby match which belonged to Cesc Fabregas and last year’s Carling Cup victory, but that apart, Spurs have matched Arsenal kick for kick, tackle for tackle. That in itself is both a criticism of Arsene Wenger stagnating and the brilliance of Spurs’ business deals down the years.

Spurs are not a bigger club than Arsenal, that much is fact, any straight-minded Spurs fan would agree, but the level of quality of which Daniel Levy is operating at in taking Spurs forward is nothing short of remarkable. Arsenal moved to the Emirates to compete with the Real Madrids and Barcelonas of football, whilst Spurs are reaching the same level Arsenal are currently at with a 36,000 seater stadium.

Of course, that would be me pointing the finger of blame directly at Arsenal’s board and honestly, Arsenal’s board is not the problem, is it? Count all the times you’ve heard of money being in the Arsenal bank, yet there has always been a refusal to spend. It has always been Arsene Wenger’s reluctance to spend, not a case of the board refusing the lanky Frenchman his funds, don’t believe any different! Infact, if it were upto Arsene Wenger; Mertesacker, Arteta, Santos and the others would not have been signed, those players were a reaction from the Manchester United fixture, not forward planning.

In stark contrast to his rival manager, Harry Redknapp has shown a lot of ambition since taking over as Spurs boss, notably this summer. Instead of bending over backwards to allow Modric a transfer away from White Hart Lane, Redknapp played hard-ball and kept Modric at White Hart Lane, stopped any of his major players leaving and built on top of a success of a successful debut season in the Champions League by signing Scott Parker and Emmanuel Adebayor and had already fixed his goalkeeper situation by signing Friedel. It’s taken since David Seaman leaving to actually get a great goalkeeper in Wojciech Szczesny at Arsenal!

Simply put, Tottenham Hotspurs have been making great strides over the years in doing everything they can to overtake their North London rivals and now it seems, they have.

This season, bar the Blackburn match, I’ve correctly predicted every single Arsenal fixture and the Spurs game, I noted that this fixture had come far too early for Arsenal after such a torrid start to this season. Arsenal were in need of more Swansea’s and Bolton’s, this match wasn’t a tonic for Arsenal, but a poison.

So, on with the match…

Spurs created the best chances, with Scott Parker being brilliantly denied by the magnificent Wojciech Szczesny and Arsenal looked very vulnerable in the first ten minutes. After that however, Arsenal settled and looked strong on the back, allowing for a period of domination, though with little creativity going forward, a lot of attacks simmered out on the edge of Brad Friedel’s penalty area. Theo Walcott had cut inside and had a go on his left foot, but the best chance was yet to come. When Robin Van Persie comfortably beat his marker down the left, he flew into the penalty area and provided a cut-back for Gervinho. Personally, I was out of my seat and ready to celebrate, I certainly wasn’t anticipating Gervinho missing what was an open goal! Like the Blackburn match, Gervinho’s failings in front of goal were to prove costly and soon after, Rafael Van Der Vaart opened the scoring for Spurs. Adebayor lofted a ball over an Arsenal defence who had not collectively pushed up for offside and Van Der Vaart slotted past Szczesny and into the far corner.

Van Der Vaart did handle to control the ball, which is a second bookable offence and that would have changed the outcome for sure. VDV then ran to the crowd and was celebrating with them, which I don’t have a problem with. Like Arsene Wenger said, you have to expect a spontaneous reaction to scoring a goal so it is a stupid rule. That said, rules are rules and the referee didn’t adhere to them.

Come the second half, Arsenal looked very good and taking dominance of the pitch, Spurs struggled to break out of their own half for about ten minutes, a period in which Arsenal got a deserved equaliser. Spurs let Alex Song run into their box from the left and measure a low cross for Aaron Ramsey to hammer home from close range. It was a fairly simple goal and one that had been coming.

Frustratingly for Arsenal fans, there was no cut and thrust down the middle for Arsenal, with full-bakcs being relied on to cross the ball to a striker who doesn’t go for headers. As such, Arsenal struggled to create for the rest of the game as chances started to fall few and far between for both sides as a point apiece looked increasingly likely.

Late on, around 15 minutes from the end, Spurs scored. Another wonder-goal in a North London Derby, courtesy of Kyle Walker settled it. A cross was never cleared and when Walker shaped up to shoot from all of 35 yards, you never expected him to find Szczesny’s bottom corner, but that he did and as a result, Arsenal, all too predictably, went down to a side they’ve long considered themselves superior to.

Has that now changed? Are Spurs the dominant force, has the power shifted in North London?

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Posted on October 3, 2011 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Kalou Gifts Valencia A Draw / Andre Santos Scores Winner For Arsenal

Morning!

Without a snazzy introduction today, I’m just going to pile straight into things and begin our post in Valencia, where Chelsea had travelled for their second Champions League match this season.

At best, Valencia have had an average start to the new La Liga season lying 7th in La Lige, having won three, drew one and lost another, scoring eight and conceding six, so honestly, I expected Chelsea to smash Valencia into bits, despite the Mestalla being a very tricky place to go, there pitch is narrow and the stands seem to hang above the pitch, so it makes itself an intimidating place to go. Despite this I believed Chelsea had more than enough in their locker to grab a 3-0 win, easy stuff I thought!

Well on the face of it, Valencia had the better of this match, managing a total of fourteen shots compared to Chelsea’s tally of ten, also dominating possession. There’s been a clear emphasis for Chelsea to try and be more creative, make the ball work for them a little more and generally not huff and puff so much in boring, boring, straight lines. Sadly, three players culpable of ‘bore football’ started in midfield last night, in; Lampard, Mikel and Ramires. Lampard is a world class player don’t get me wrong, but not the desired player AVB needs when looking to make his Chelsea side tick like former club, FC Porto. Lampard likes to hold onto the ball and score himself, rather than go the long way round of letting other score and create. As such, coupled along with a ‘crab’ pairing of Mikel and Ramires, I found Chelsea looked back to their normal ways of looking horribly boring.

Despite a boring first half, the second kicked off in much greater fashion, with Chelsea starting on top and come the 56th minute, Frank Lampard had scored to open his account following a Florent Malouda cut-back. After this however, Valencia had the better chances, constantly probing to find a way through and eventually, come the 87th minute, an equaliser came.

Having come on as a substitute, Salomon Kalou wasted no time in surrendering possession to Jonas, whose curling effort was tipped away by Petr Cech for a corner. From said corner, Kalou then hand-balled the damn ball to give away a penalty! Roberto Soldado stepped up to take Valencia’s penalty and predictably, he scored.

I’ve never really liked nor rated Kalou, I find him far too sluggish/poor to play at this level, he’s just not good enough. Like I suggested for Carlos Tevez last night, maybe Kalou could find a nice club in the SPL? I hear Motherwell is a nice place…

On a positive note, Valencia away is by far the most difficult fixture for Chelsea in Group E, with trips to Bayer Leverkusen and Racing Genk still to follow. Chelsea can be pleased with a point, but not with how or when it came, three points would have near enough gifted the Blues qualification when you look at Group E’s other contenders.

In London meanwhile, Arsenal had a genuine case of being presented with a Trojan Horse in Greek opponents Olympiacos. Quick note here – why is ‘Olympiacos’ occasionally spelt with a ‘k’ rather than a ‘c’, is that just people wanting to be more continental and spell things wrong? Whatever the case, they were a real Trojan Horse for Arsenal.

Arsenal started the match with Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, Marouane Chamakh, Andre Santos and Emmanuel Frimpong, with Alex Song deputising for the rested Laurent Koscielny and an injured trio of Thomas Vermaelen, Johan Djourou and Ignasi Miquel. I would include Sebastien Squillaci into that list of defenders, but that hardly seems fair calling him a ‘defender’, Squillaci is awful and if he were to get any worse, I’d imagine Arsene Wenger to haul Squillaci to the Trading Standards HQ. Failing that, just tear up his contract. Basically, Arsenal were playing most of their substitute bench in an effort to minimalise the risk of injury to key players for Sunday’s match against Spurs. As such, it is expected for Arsenal to have lacked fluency at times.

Inside the first twenty minutes, Arsenal found themselves 2-0 ahead, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain claiming his first Champions League goal for Arsenal. Collecting the ball on the edge of the box, Chamberlain shifted about 5 yards to his left where he found a gap, where upon he released a great strike into the bottom left corner of Costanzo’s net. 1-0 on nine minutes gave Arsenal a strong belief and come the 20th minute, Andre Santos scored his first Arsenal goal in the Champions League having collected a loose ball, cut inside on to his right foot and rolled the ball inside Costanzo’s near post to make it 2-0.

At this stage, Olympiacos looked like easy-pickings and Marouane Chamakh should have made it 3-0 following a brilliant lobbed pass from Andrey Arshavin. Though one-on-one with Costanzo, Chamakh could only succeed in missing his target altogether. However, as if the fashion with Arsenal, piss-poor defending from an Olympiacos corner in the 27th minute resulted in a free header for David Fuster. It was a very good header from Fuster, but never should he have been allowed all that space and time inside Arsenal’s penalty area to score. It’s taken a month for teams to figure out Arsenal’s new way of defending corners, how embarrassing!

With a pretty dull second half in which Arsenal looked much more assured defensively, the Gunners ended up walking away from Emirates Stadium 2-1 winners. By no means was it classic Arsenal, but there were signs of a swagger beginning to re-appear at times and if that should appear at White Hart Lane on Sunday, Arsenal could turn a corner. For this game however, Arsenal got what they needed; a win. Confidence is still fragile at Emirates Stadium and with three wins in a row under their belts, Arsenal’s players might just believe enough to make that figure reach four come Sunday afternoon.

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Posted on September 29, 2011 by Craig in England, Europe, Premiership, Spain Leave a comment

Torres’ Tackle Sets An Unhealthy Precedent / Wilshere Out For 5 Months

Morning! Okay, so that other post didn’t come yesterday, again on a Monday other things happened, so for that, I apologise, we will get Bundesliga Night going soon!

So, in news away from German football, I’m going to start on Torres’ tackle at the weekend on Mark Gower, just see what you make of this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0ms6OaJN8k&feature=related

So again, Nando refuses to help himself in spite of all the good work he’s been doing of late. Yes, it can be argued he missed an open net at Old Trafford, but four seconds in a game does not define your form for the other 89 minutes 56 seconds of the match, Torres had been very lively at Old Trafford and scored a great goal. Likewise against Swansea, Torres looked sharp, running into various gaps in the Swansea defence and eventually when he received a curled pass from fellow Matador, Juan Mata, Torres collected the ball, spun and buried it past Michael Vorm in the Swansea net. It was a good goal and a signature of Torres’ time in England.

Then unfortunately, came ‘that’ tackle. For me, Torres never catches him, which is clear to see on the video and Mark Gower, despite holding his head for some bizarre reason, gets back up just moments later. So there is no injury, no ball has been won and Gower is on his feet moments after the tackle. So, how does Torres’ tackle merit a red card? Torres was nowhere near Gower, so what does that suggest in the future? It could mean everytime a player dives in two-footed - despite being five yards away from any player – gets a red card. Where on earth is the sense in that?! Okay, Torres’ right foot is showing studs as we can all see, but that’s a yellow because Torres, for the last time of saying this, does not make any contact at all!

In more annoying news, Jack Wilshere, after having surgery he shouldn’t have been having in the first place, is out for 5 months. When I say Wilshere shouldn’t have required surgery at all, is purely because he’s a 19 year old football player who rather than having the hopes of one of the world’s biggest clubs pinned to him, he should be a player used in the same vein as Aaron Ramsey, i.e used sparingly, not relied upon. The amount of games Wilshere played last season for Arsenal was ridiculous, it all came as a result of Arsene Wenger not buying sufficiently in midfield and when injuries started to take their toll, Wilshere found himself more and more relied up on to glue Arsenal together. Wilshere had been playing ’in the red’ for months and still Arsene Wenger refused to rest him, purely because he couldn’t afford to rest Wilshere. It’s a case of mis-management and don’t be surprised if you don’t see Jack Wilshere back again for Arsenal this season.

If you can’t tell, the news on Wilshere frankly riled me to the point of no return, so aplogies if much of that last paragraph sounded like the rantings of a drunken man (I’m sober, honest) but it’s sheer common sense to rest a player who was only 18 at the start of last season.

Before I finish, just how long has Steve Bruce got left at Sunderland? Bruce has spent a lot of money bringing in the likes of Seb Larsson, (wages) Nicklas Bendtner, (big wages!) Connor Wickham, Wes Brown, John O’Shea and any other player available for purchase. Sunderland had a sloppy finish to last season and with an equally sloppy start this season, I see the managerial axe being wielded pretty soon! For the highlights of Sunderland’s visit to Carrow Road last night, just click here.

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Posted on September 26, 2011 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Premiership Preview

Arsenal v Bolton Wanderers

Despite an indifferent start to the season, I was obviously impressed with Bolton in their 4-0 triumph on the opening day of the season and I was equally impressed with their performance against Manchester City, despite Owen Coyle’s side losing 3-2. You have to write off that match against Manchester United (Bolton lost 5-0) as nobody has been able to match SAF’s side so far this season, what is not acceptable however, was last weeks defeat to Norwich City at the Reebok. A victory against Aston Villa in midweek does nothing for me, especially as it was a Carling Cup match and thus both sides were weakened. Bolton will travel to Emirates Stadium desperately short on confidence and form. Bolton will miss Ivan Klasnic for this one due to the red card he picked up last weekend, whilst Stuart Holden is available following a six month lay-off through injury, though he is expected to start from the bench having only made his come-back on Wednesday.

Saying that, Arsenal, as we know, are not in the best form either following a crushing 4-3 defeat by Blackburn Rovers and don’t look anywhere near finding the form of their usual selves. Arsenal do welcome back Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky and Bacary Sagna to the match-day squad, three players that will surely steady a sinking Arsenal ship.

What won’t happen: Bacary Sagna to have rid his head of those lovely golden locks. Nor would I want him to.
What will happen: Arsenal and Bolton to play out a 2-2 draw, with bad defending featuring heavily on both sides.

Chelsea v Swansea

Swansea, like I said they would, have started to score goals, netting three last week against West Brom. Against a Chelsea back four who have looked far from certain in their opening games, I expect Swansea to create chances aplenty. Who knows, maybe Danny Graham might stick away an opportunity against Chelsea, anything could happen! In defence of Graham, he gets into the spaces, so his goals will come and as far as I’m concerned, he’s a class act, so no worries there! To strengthen their case of a win, Swansea have no fresh injury concerns, which will be music to Brendan Rogers’ ears.

It won’t be plain sailing for Swansea, don’t get me wrong! Chelsea created a hatful against Manchester United and despite what people have been saying, I thought Fernando Torres had a brilliant game, okay he missed an open net, but so did Ryan Giggs against Arsenal once upon a time in the FA Cup…

… So no, Torres isn’t a bad player, he just had a bad moment and I expect him to score against Swansea, I can’t see AVB not starting Torres in a league match after what happened. Chelsea will be without Daniel Sturridge for this one, so there is a possibility Chelsea fans will have to suffer Salomon Kalou for an afternoon.

What won’t happen: Fernando Torres to miss an open net… or will he?!
What will happen: Fernando Torres to grab a goal. It won’t be enough though, as I think Swansea will pull off a shock at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.

Liverpool v Wolves

I do like Wolves, I don’t know why, but I do, maybe because my Mum has a crush on Mick McCarthy, who knows?! Either way, I expected a lot of from them last season and they failed to deliver, this season however, with the additions of Jamie O’Hara and more imporantly I feel, Roger Johnson, I think Wolves will have a good season.

As for Liverpool, well they got turned over by Spurs last week and were defeated the week before that to Stoke City, backing up my claims of them being a side in transition. Dalglish’s side have endured a crap fortnight, though made better with the return of Steven Gerrard in midweek against Brighton, as well as a brilliant performance from Craig Bellamy.

What won’t happen: Andy Carroll to come on and score. Has Liverpool come too soon?
What will happen: Roger Johnson to head an equaliser for Wolves in a 1-1 draw.

Manchester City v Everton

I had no idea of Everton’s good record over Manchester City in recent years! Everton have done the double over City two seasons in a row, won 7 out of 8 against Manchester City and are the last team to have beaten Mancini’s side at Eastlands are remain the last team to have beaten them in an away match. (when City played at Goodison Park last season) Despite such a statistical pile-up in favour of Everton, Manchester City are 5-2 favourites to win this match and rightly so!

Never have Manchester City had such a strong squad and for that reason alone, I expect them to hammer a very light Everton side and that’s without any injury worry concerns unless you count Victor Anichebe. Following three years out injured, Owen Hargreaves will not feature for Manchester City, though Kolo Touré will hope to keep his place following his return from a six month ban.

What won’t happen: David Moyes to wear a scarf. He’d look ridiculous.
What will happen: Manchester City to storm out 4-0 winners.

Newcastle United v Blackburn Rovers

Despite a good start to the season, I think it’s time Newcastle lost a game and no better team to lose to than a Blackburn side who have now won two games on the bounce, following victories against Arsenal and Leyton Orient. Don’t get me wrong, I think Newcastle will have even better season than the last, but Newcastle played 120 minutes in midweek, unlike Blackburn who won their Carling Cup tie inside regulation time. For this reason alone, I expect Blackburn to beat Newcastle, purely because Rovers have the fresher legs.

Blackburn welcome back David Goodwillie, Morten Gamst Pedersen and Michel Salgado, whilst Alan Pardew has the pleasure of being able to welcome Hatem Ben Arfa back to his match-day squad following a year out through injury.

What won’t happen: Anything with the number ‘four’ in it. I don’t expect a high-scoring affair.
What will happen: Blackburn to win 1-0 thanks to Mauro Formica.

Stoke City v Manchester United

Having never dropped a point to Stoke City, I don’t fancy Manchester United to drop any points to Stoke this time either, even if Stoke have looked impressive so far this season. SAF’s side have looked immense in every department and for that, my mind can’t see past an emphatic Manchester United victory.

Stoke have Kenwyne Jones absent through a hamstring injury picked up in midweek but apart from that, Tony Pulis has a full squad to pick from. SAF should be able to welcome back Rio Ferdinand, as well as being able to name Javier Hernandez in the side to play Stoke after that horrific tackle from Ashley Cole last Sunday.

What won’t happen: Wayne Rooney not to score. Last year he was in Dubai getting a tan when United play away to Stoke…
What will happen: Wayne Rooney to score as Manchester United win 4-0.

West Brom v Fulham

Here’s something I didn’t know; Martin Jol used to be a West Brom player! It doesn’t mean much, but I found it fun to know, either way I’m sure he’ll get a good reception from the West Brom faithful. I also expect Fulham’s travelling fans to give Roy Hodgson a warm reception, in what will be a very friendly atmosphere tomorrow. I’ve been impressed with West Brom so far, especially Shane Long and I expect the Baggies to erase last week’s defeat to Swansea with a win at the Hawthorns against Fulham.

Fulham could welcome back both Andrew Johnson and Aaron Hughes to the side following their return from injuries. Roy Hodgson will be expecting Shane Long to feature despite a flu bug, however Gabriel Tamas is still suspended so Craig Dawson will continue to deputise.

What won’t happen: Me to get excited over this match.
What will happen: West Brom to beat Fulham 2-1.

Wigan Athletic v Tottenham Hotspurs

Hugo Rodallega was the man Wigan can think for collecting an unlikely three points at White Hart Lane last season as Wigan ran out 1-0 victors. Roberto Martinez’s side didn’t concede home or away last season to Spurs and although Spurs looked great last week against Liverpool, I expect a draw from these two.

Wigan will miss Rodallega, Antolin Alcaraz, Emmerson Boyce and Steven Gohouri, while Spurs will miss; Niko Kranjcar, William Gallas, Aaron Lennon, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

What won’t happen: Spurs to win 9-1!
What will happen: Wigan to earn a respectable point against Spurs in a 0-0 draw.

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

What The Papers Say!

Thursday morning’s newspaper gossip…

Daily Mirror

Tottenham Hotspurs are linked with a January loan move for LA Galaxy midfielder, David Beckham. Personally, I don’t see what he can bring to Spurs now apart from novelty, I’ve been one whose sat on the Beckham train for a while, but there comes a time when you have to concede he’s simply not got the legs for it any more. Beckham would sell thousands of Spurs shirts with his name on the back and if he had indeed joined Leicester last season, I would have purchased a Leicester shirt with his name on, purely because it’s an abnormal name to have on the back of a Leicester shirt.

Former Sunderland midfielder, Steed Malbranque is eyeing a return to the Premiership in capacity of a free agent, after terminating his contract with St Etienne. Originally, it was stated that Malbranque had cancelled his contract because of a will to look after his cancer-stricken son, though Malbranque came out and denied this, stating he had no son and his family were fit and healthy. Malbranque’s crazy…

The Sun

Fabio Capello is planning a dramatic shake-up of his England squad in anticipation of Euro 2012 by dropping the likes of James Milner, Gareth Barry and Rio Ferdinand from his squad altogether and replacing them with the likes of Jack Wilshere, Tom Cleverley and other young prospects who remain untainted by previous, failed World Cup and Euro bids with the England national team. I’ve long called out for the introduction of fresh blood into what is a stale England side and for that, I applaud Fabio Capello, I just wish he hadn’t left this decision so late.

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Posted on September 8, 2011 by Craig in What The Papers Say! Leave a comment

What The Papers Say

Various bits from Sunday’s newspapers…

Sunday Mirror

Arsenal midfielder, Jack Wilshere, is feared to be out with injury for three months. Wilshere will start on a light training programme in mid-October with Arsenal’s medical staff hoping the rest will have cured Wilshere’s problem but if he breaks down again, he could be out as late as December! Wilshere would need a screw in his ankle joint if the injury were to persist, a massive blow for Wilshere, Arsenal and England. This problem lies with the fact he played in the red for Arsenal (red – bad physical state, not the colour of his shirt) for two months. I saw Wilshere play twice near to the end of the season and against Bolton Wanderers he looked very tired, he had a decent game but eventually found himself replaced for Arshavin after his legs just seemed to stop running around the 60 minute mark. It’s this ill-use of players that has blighted Arsenal for five years now, even before that infact; can you remember a certain Robert Pires ripping it up one season, making himself a real contender for player of the year? Pires messed his achilles up in one game, was out for six months and Arsenal’s season started to falter. That’s piss-poor management, not ‘bad luck’.

Inter Milan’s Wesley Sneijder had apparently told friends his failed move to Manchester United could still happen in the January transfer window. No, Wesley, it simply won’t, you’ll be cup-tied for the Champions League and if Sir Alex Ferguson had any sense (which he has) he wouldn’t sign a cup-tied player half-way through a season for £30 million. He might as well sack himself if he were to do that. If it’s going to happen, it’ll be in the summer, when Sneijder has time to adapt to his new team-mates and can actually play in the Champions League for Manchester United.

Metro

Luka Modric could move to either Chelsea or Manchester United in January, or so Tottenham Hotspurs fear. Again, like Wesley Sneijder in the last paragraph, Modric would be cup-tied and in this case, for three tournaments! If Modric were to join Chelsea or Manchester United, he’d miss FA Cup, Carling Cup and Champions League matches. Who in their right mind would do that kind of business half-way through a season? Dear me, it feels like I do all the thinking for people at times…

Former Arsenal player, Cesc Fabregas had induced jealousy and bitterness amongst Arsenal fans by posting a picture via his Twitter enjoying a typical Spanish lunch, along with Andres Iniesta, Victor Valdes, Pedro and Sergio Busquets. I can’t really understand why people are bitter, he was only having dinner with friends. Besides, Cesc’s hair has looked greasy lately, my tattoo’s are better than his, he has a stupid perma-tan, has grown an un-tamely beard and despite moving to Barcelona to win trophies, has only won two, the exact amount he won at Arsenal. What’s that you say, he’s only played four games for Barcelona so far? I guess I’ll be quiet…

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Posted on September 4, 2011 by Craig in What The Papers Say! Leave a comment

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