Arsenal Escape Norwich Fiasco | Bould To Be Wenger’s No 2 | New Kit Launched

Morning to you all from wherever you are, first off I’d like to apologize for not providing any post match reports or player ratings for the Norwich game for the obvious reasons. Reasons such as how inept we are as a team and how we lack ambition and how the team never ends the season well despite this being our easiest run in in years. Please don’t say we were denied penalties, we were awful, the midfield non-existent and Vermaelen, Gibbs & Szczesny were all piss poor. BUT

For whatever reason, Lady Luck smiled on us the following day as our rivals for the 3rd spot both dropped points meaning our destiny is back in our own hands and we must play the game of our lives on the final day of the season and get the 3 points. As someone said, he’ll get Ian Wright & Tony Adams to deliver team talk before the game & at half time.

We’ll come back to how our team is a very poor one and how no one else but Arsene Wenger is at fault for this. One example, United need to win a game and they throw on strikers like Welbeck/Hernandez/Berbatov, City throw on Balotelli/Dzeko, Chelsea, Drogba/Torres, even Spurs have Defoe/Saha. Who do we the Arsenal have? Chamakh & Park and even those two are never introduced. Says a lot. Arteta got injured(and we’ve picked 2 points out of 9) also, we can see how Song is poor defensively. A couple of assists don’t make you a great DM.

NEW NUMBER TWO……..
Pat Rice will step down end of season and despite the options available to the club, they decided to pick from within and Steve Bould the reserve team coach will be Wenger’s no 2.

Will he be like Pat Rice and just let Wenger do his thing or will he be exactly what we need in the backroom, someone that can challenge Wenger and point out his flaws. He was a former defender, will he help improve our defense? I hope so. But then again, Pat Rice too was a defender.

NEW HOME KIT…….
I’d like to start of by saying I don’t like this kit, they tried to do too much and involved all the colors on the badge. The blue and white hoops by the sleeve don’t work for me. Let’s hope the away kit is better. Have a look below.

And Finally……..

A lot has to happen behind the scenes at Arsenal come summer and buying two-three players will not be enough. We have way too many useless and detrimental players at the club. Ship them out and spend some f*cking money. City are about to win the league by doing that and yet they can’t beat us on a normal day, imagine if we had a better squad.

The jury has to be out on Wenger, he’s a failure and he has failed once again, don’t tell me how he’s done great because he put us in this mess and at the end of the day, he’ll pocket a fat cheque, we’ll sell our best players and replace them with kids/useless ones.

There’s a lot that needs to happen and I pray it happens first, but most importantly a win at West Brom would allow us know what direction we’re going in. Enjoy.

Arsenal Escape Norwich Fiasco | Bould To Be Wenger’s No 2 | New Kit Launched

Morning to you all from wherever you are, first off I’d like to apologize for not providing any post match reports or player ratings for the Norwich game for the obvious reasons. Reasons such as how inept we are as a team and how we lack ambition and how the team never ends the season well despite this being our easiest run in in years. Please don’t say we we denied penalties, we were awful, the midfield non existent and Vermaelen, Gibbs & Szczesny were all piss poor. BUT

For whatever reason, Lady Luck smiled on us the following day as our rivals for the 3rd spot both dropped points meaning our destiny is back in our own hands and we must play the game of our lives on the final day of the season and get the 3 points. As someone said, he’ll get Ian Wright & Tony Adams to deliver team talk before the game & at half time.

We’ll come back to how our team is a very poor one and how no one else but Arsene Wenger is at fault for this. One example, United need to win a game and they throw on strikers like Welbeck/Hernandez/Berbatov, City throw on Balotelli/Dzeko, Chelsea, Drogba/Torres, even Spurs have Defoe/Saha. Who do we the Arsenal have? Chamakh & Park and even those two are never introduced. Says a lot. Arteta got injured(and we’ve picked 2 points out of 9) also, we can see how Song is poor defensively. A couple of assists don’t make you a great DM.

NEW NUMBER TWO……..
Pat Rice will step down end of season and despite the options available to the club, they decided to pick from within and Steve Bould the reserve team coach will be Wenger’s no 2.

Will he be like Pat Rice and just let Wenger do his thing or will he be exactly what we need in the backroom, someone that can challenge Wenger and point out his flaws. He was a former defender, will he help improve our defense? I hope so. But then again, Pat Rice too was a defender.

NEW HOME KIT…….
I’d like to start of by saying I don’t like this kit, they tried to do too much and involved all the colors on the badge. The blue and white hoops by the sleeve don’t work for me. Let’s hope the away kit is better. Have a look below.

And Finally……..

A lot has to happen behind the scenes at Arsenal come summer and buying two-three players will not be enough. We have way too many useless and detrimental players at the club. Ship them out and spend some f*cking money. City are about to win the league by doing that and yet they can’t beat us on a normal day, imagine if we had a better squad.

The jury has to be out on Wenger, he’s a failure and he has failed once again, don’t tell me how he’s done great because he put us in this mess and at the end of the day, he’ll pocket a fat cheque, we’ll sell our best players and replace them with kids/useless ones.

There’s a lot that needs to happen and I pray it happens first, but most importantly a win at West Brom would allow us know what direction we’re going in. Enjoy.

Walcott Stars As Arsenal Destroy Spurs : The Player Ratings.

I’m way way too excited to give a brief preview. Wenger spun a surprise by starting Rosicky & Benayoun together and dropping Gervinho & Oxlade Chamberlain. Little did we know Wenger had dreamt this game up the night before. 5 goals after falling 2 goals behind. Below are the player ratings.

Szczesny- 5
Something needs to be done about Szczesny. A personal coach maybe, nothing he could have done about the first goal, but the 2nd goal, despite it being a foul, he should have come out for that ball.

Koscielny 6
Was in 6′s and 7′s with Vermaelen in the opening half but grew in confidence as the game wore on.

Vermaelen 6
His partnership with Kozzer is dwindling, we keep conceding goals, but he did ok and was rarely troubled in the second 45.

Sagna – 6
Should get a lower rating for going missing for all of Spurs attacks in the first half but he started the comeback with a brilliant header.

Gibbs – 6.5
I will get slack for this but I thought he was our best defender, for someone just coming back he did well, yes he lost the ball that led to the first goal but he was always the last defender at the back. Nothing he could have done against Bale for the penalty.

Arteta – 8
Arteta, Rosicky & Benayoun were all brilliant & excellent today. Not the most talented of players but their industry & hardworking play saw us through this game.

Song – 8
Very sloppy in the first half, and did little defending but his mazy run started the second goal & his lovely over the top assist for Theo was glorious.

Benayoun – 8
Wasn’t directly responsible for any of the goals, but my God was he brilliant today, together with Rosicky & Arteta. His defending was top notch. Best display for us so far.

Walcott – 10
Yes. Yes. I’ll give him 10. Perfect rating. He’s gotten a lot of stick of recent which is well deserved but I had a feeling this would be his day. A lot of twitter folk insulted him & made jokes & wanted him off for Oxlade but I said he must stay on & Wenger must have seen my tweet(yes he’s on twitter & following me too). Two goals was the outcome. Lovely goals I might add. Given a rousing ovation as he went off.

Rosicky – 9
Tomas Rosicky you darling beauty. How I love you. Another much maligned player but of late has been consistent & doing well. Marvelous performance from him & his first goal in two years was a welcome relief.

Van Persie – 8
Its often rare for RVP to be on the scoresheet & then bag an assist and not be the man of the match. His goal was topdraw and his hold up play was nice.

SUBSTITUTES

Jenkinson – N/A

Oxlade – N/A

Gervinho – N/A

Wenger – 10
Great selection for the second PL game running.

Man Of The Match – Arteta, Benayoun & Rosicky are my men of the match, they played well today & each contributed in ways that led to goals.

For the 2nd premier league game running, Wenger’s selection paid off, picking passing & team work over pace by dropping Oxlade & Gervinho. Result? 5 goals, the second time we’ve scored 5 this season against a London team. Let’s hear what you have to say in the comments.

Escobar

Seventh Year

It has been quite a summer for Arsenal with the Gunners without doubt being the champions of transfer speculations all through. Can Arsène Wenger and his charges end a run of seasons without a competitive trophy at the seventh attempt?

An answer to that largely depends on the club’s mental approach going into matches and this is in two aspects. Firstly, we must kill games when leading and in the inability to do so, be able to hold onto such advantage till after the final whistle as evident from both legs of last season’s north London derby and home matches against Liverpool, Aston Villa, Newcastle United and West Bromwich-Albion as well as the infamous implosion at Newcastle where we ironically open this season’s campaign.

The other aspect of our mental approach to games is how we fare in the months of February and March, months that have proved the Achilles Heel in the leap towards a trophy in the last four seasons.

Last season’s episode proved the most painful, we suffered defeat to Birmingham City (now of the Championship) in the League Cup final on the last day of February, before enduring a mediocre run of form in March that pretty much ended all other title ambitions on other fronts.

And there’s the additional mental jabs dealt the team now no thanks to speculations surrounding the future of Samir Nasri & Fabregas who has reportedly agreed to a deal to return to his boyhood club. Which means a new era is about to start, one without the club’s best player. But no one man or player is greater than the club.

Meanwhile the latter is once more reportedly close to completing a £22m move to oil rich Manchester City, some reports even suggesting he may do so before the protracted tug for Fàbregas finally ends.

Arsenal’s hopes of ending the trophy drought will now rest on 20 year old Jack Wilshere(albeit not solely) as it was the English international who flourished – when Fàbregas was mostly half fit or out injured last season – with consistent and assured performances. While possessing admirable mental and physical strength, the rest of the team will determine just how much impact Wilshere will have this season.

With Laurent Koscielny apparently being the notable addition to the team last season, the Gunners actually did well until those dreaded months. This term, Ivorian forward Gervinho has joined and impressed so far with his quick feet and good composure.

Other than him, Wenger has (annoyingly) kept to his policy with a roll call of highly rated youngsters such as Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain and Ryo Miyaichi. The transfer window however is still over a fortnight from closing so some much needed experienced players may yet arrive at the Emirates.

While awaiting those, Gooners will be banking on Robin van Persie to pick up from the fiery form of the second half of last season that saw the Dutchman finally show us his potential with a high return on goals per game. Having him fit for a whole season on such form leaves the heights attainable by the team optimistically imagined.

In the event of him being out injured as he is sadly prone to, Theo Walcott gets my nod to spearhead the front ahead of the overly disappointing Marouane Chamakh and the England international has publicly stated his desire to play upfront rather than on the wings.

Last season, he posed a real threat to defences with his raw speed that was, unlike previous seasons, complemented with much technique. This sort of form gives promise of this season being perhaps a breakthrough season for the 21 year old.

Those other than the above players that could contribute to a successful league campaign, and perhaps success in any of the other competitions, are Thomas Vermaelen, Andrei Arshavin, Koscielny and goalkeepers Lukasz Fabianski and Woijcech Sczeszny just as I’m personally looking forward to how Aaron Ramsey fares with Abou Diaby’s injury presenting the Welsh midfielder a chance to impress.

Vermaelen on his part was out virtually all of last season injured and Squillaci failed woefully as partner to Koscielny. Consequently, the efficiency of our physios this season actually comes in just behind the team’s mental maturity as deciding factors on how this season will pan out.

Arsenal’s campaign begins at St. James’ Park in Saturday’s evening kick-off having survived getting postponed due to the violent scenes that besieged streets in London and Birmingham.

That match is then followed in quick sequence by games against title rivals Liverpool and Manchester United, with the Champions League qualifier against Italian side Udinese buttered between those red encounters.

In all honesty, Arsenal are strong contenders for the title and hopefully we avoid burning out at those times aforementioned!

That said, enjoy the season ahead, it’s great to finally be getting underway!

C’mon You Smokin’ Gunners!!!

A game of two universes. So what next?

After the first 45 minutes of the game against Spurs, I was already thinking of what the title of my post match thoughts would be. I was immersed in how I would praise Arsene as the best manager this club has ever known (that hasn’t changed mind you), how I would shower accolades on Cesc for a vintage midfield performance, commend Nasri for fighting spirit, Cham29 fir striking instincts as so on. My facebook status at half time suggested that we were almost there and all I needed was a repeat or near repeat of the previous 45 minutes. But what did I get?

The second 45 minutes was what pundits and cynics will term “typical Arsenal“. I looked up this word(s) in the dictionary of football and this is what I got:

“Inability to kill off games after taking the lead, allowing the opposition back into the game. E.g Arsenal-Spurs (20th November, 2010).
See also: Arsenal-Spurs (31st October 2008), Birmingham-Arsenal (27th March 2010), West Ham-Arsenal (25th October, 2009)“.

Spot on eh?

The disaster began when we lost the ball after taking a free kick, and Spurs launched a counter and the ball fell to Bale who finished nicely. Then Cesc had a moment of pure madness when he was penalised for a raised arm in the box, VDV struck the resulting penalty with aplomb. Then from a free kick, Kaboul headed past Fabianksi in between Cesc and Squillaci. Game won, Spurs had completed a magical comeback and won at our home for the first time in 17 years.

While I am not one to put blame on people, I think Wenger got a few things wrong. I still do not understand why He took off Nasri for an ineffective Rosicky. Nasri had everything to play for, a feud with Gallas was extra incentive, I doubt any other player in the squad will have the determination to score the goal did. It was evident form his celebration that he wanted to win badly and did everything to get the ball in the back of the net. He also brought on an unfit RVP for Cham29, and Walcott for Arshavin. Overall, his subs were ineffective and below par.

The defenders had a nightmare of a game, and Koscly in particular was found wanting many atimes. The Squilacci-Djourou combo showed great promise and I still don’t understand why they were not paired again. Cesc had a game to forget, Clichy and Sagna did little going forward and Song was awful in his positioning, thus giving VDV ample space to cause damage.

I did not realize the effect of this defeat until I tried surfing the web I discovered that I could not visit my usual football sites without being greeted with comments and views on the game. I was in deep pain and the only respite for me was Chelsea’s loss to Birmingham. In statistics though, you’ll learn that both events are independent and mutually exclusive!

My worry now is how we respond to this defeat, our 3rd at home in November. If this home run continues, we should expect 3 more defeats (Chelsea, United and L’pool). 6 home defeats and we DEFINITELY won’t win the league title. Are there any positives? Yes. Chelsea lost their 3rd league game in a row and we are still only 2 points adrift the top of the table.

The players have been in the press talking of how important it is to respond in the game against Braga. We need to do that in style, and even if we do beat them 10 zip, it still won’t remove the fact that we have no record to hold over the Spuds any longer. How sad?

Roll on Tuesday, I can’t wait for us to get a huge win so the ghosts of Saturday’s game can be partly exorcised. One thing is for sure though, the scar of that game will be on the mind of every gooner…except of course we in the league come May.

It’s a cold day in Accra today, very weird that is. I’m off to get some breakfast and prepare myself for a barrage from my Arsenal-hating pals. Not my best of times you bet.

From wherever you are reading, look for positives.
I’ll be doing the same all day.