It was great to hear the classic scoreline of 1-0 to the Arsenal at the end of the game on Saturday. 3 points, from 17th we jumped to 11th and the Season can slowly start to get back on track.
I'm not one to write match reports, there are several blogs that do this well enough, so will leave them to that, but I do have my thoughts and observations I'd like to share.
The team is slowly getting stronger and with Song and Gervinho coming back now things can only continue to rise. We saw what Gervinho can bring and I think we all know if he's fit he'll start on Tuesday.
Arteta for me had a great debut and you know as they train/play together more frequently that the midfield will get stronger and stronger.
Mertesacker did his job well, yes caught out a few times, but we didn't concede so lets look at the positives, he's gonna bring something to this team and you can see he's not just reliant on his height, he knows where to be be and what to do. Really think him and Verm could become a killer defencive duo.
Yossi only got 30 minutes so I don't feel I can comment too much but he didn't let himself down and after reading some blogs over the weekend it seems people expecting him to start Tuesday. We need all the experience in Germany we can so it would be fully justified if he was.
I am looking forward to see what Park and Santos will bring to the Arsenal but not sure when we'll see them start.
Szczesny was brilliant and whilst not many keepers who concede 8 goals in a game would deserve player of the month, he does, and I don't think he can take any blame as such for the display at United. A good goalkeeper still needs a good defence and on that day we let ourselves down, with bad positioning and silly tackles/fouls etc. He made another World Class save on Saturday and several on international break. Long live Shezzer!
Arshavin is coming back, the way the ball just appeared in front of him and his instinct took over was amazing, a cracking shot from quite a wide angle. There's many top class strikers who would miss that but not our Andre. He looked good throughout too and hopefully he's turning a corner. Maybe he is appreciative that he's no longer alone in regards to the older heads, maybe less pressure equals a better Asharvin?
1-0 at home to Swansea though is a bit different to Dortmund in Germany on Tuesday and this is the test that will show what we've got. No matter who you play you should always be wary and play to your best but this game will require playing in a different gear. The experienced heads will have to look after the younger players and they need to remember that, generally as a rule for Arsenal, attack is the best form of defence. The more the ball is in their half the better. A win would be great but a draw wouldn't be a bad result away from home to the German Champions.
Will be interesting to see Goetze as we were linked to him throughout the summer.
Here's to Arsenal and to getting back to winning ways.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Entrance music please...
The Arsenal are back. Well they will be on Saturday anyway.
I always hate the 'interlull' but like most Gooners, I would imagine, have hated this one a bit more then the others.
Who doesn't want the team to come straight back out and right the wrongs of that disastrous Sunday - and it was disastrous - but maybe we've done something better.
This Summer Arsenal have spent approximately £50,000,000 on signings and brought in (and I'm only mentioning players here that can be of use now to the first team):
Gervinho
Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain
Mikel Arteta
Yossi Benayoun
Per Mertesacker
Andre Santos
Park Chu-Young
Carl Jenkinson
That's eight players that we could use right now, that's over two thirds of a team. Arsenal have strenghened the depth of the squad. We occasionally purchase a new player but normally it's one maybe two and they go into the first team straight away.
This time we have cover for a number of players. I also feel that Frimpong is like a new signing as is Ryo but I don't mention either in the list above because they were Arsenal players some time ago.
I think we've already seen what Gervinho can bring to the team. He has genuine attacking flair and like Henry looks like he wants to float here, float there and just be everywhere. He could be a beast for us.
Alex has shown what he can do for the England under 21's in the last week. 3 assists and 1 penalty earned in one game alone. That's impressive. Will be interesting to see if he can bring that same flair to the senior Arsenal squad.
I think most of us know Mikel Arteta from his time at Everton but he's always been one of their best players and is happy to play anywhere in the midfield, though you would think his preferance would be to link with the Attack as much as he can.
Yossi was great for Liverpool but through injury has hardly featured for Chelsea and in a double whammy we signed him without a proper medical. Now who's gonna be laughing at that? Arsenal or Chelsea? Time will tell but if he finds that Liverpool form he will add lots of experience and quality to our attack.
It's a shame this week that Per Mertesacker has been singled out a bit for a dodgy display for Germany but I have been informed by several very cool tweeps that there was a lot of people missing in that game and we shouldn't make any impressions on him based on that. I'm not going to anyway, 75+ caps for Germany, played in World Cups, European Championships and more, he will add something to Arsenal it's just a shame Tommy Vermaelen has an injury and operation as Per arrives. We'll have to wait a bit for that pairing but I imagine that will be our new back two central defenders once he returns. Just a shame Tommy can't show him the ropes. Please don't let SebSquil be the one to teach him, I'd rather it was the Emirates Groundsmen.
I don't know a lot about Santos but he has 22 caps for Brazil and is heading towards his late 20's so I can only hope he brings some Brazillian flair and trickery and can be the one to slowly nurture Gibbs.
Park had a stormer for South Korea in the last week, scored 4 goals, I'm hoping to see much more of that. I've watched the goals and he can finish. This guy knows where the net is and fires with deadly accuracy. Whether he will start straight away I can't answer but with Robin van Persie and Park both scoring 8 or so goals between them in the last week internationally surely the signs are good.
Which brings me to Carl Jenkinson and I feel a bit sorry for Carl. He's going to be brilliant in the future you can see he has the work ethics on the pitch to succed but right now he's gone from conference to premier league to champions league in a matter of weeks. He's got a steep learning curve in front of him but the bonus is this... he gets to learn for Bacary and how often do you have a bad word for him?
So how will we line up against Swansea? I can only guess but I can't imagine that he's gonna change formation/tactics too much straight away. We could play a nice 4-4-2 right now with the added depth we now have. It's a shame Wilshere is out at the moment but Ramsey was very good for Wales this week and deserving of his man of the match award against England. I found myself cheering him on more then once and I'm an England supporter.
So I'd go with something like this:
Szczesny
Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Santos
Ramsey, Arteta, Rosicky
Walcott, van Persie, (either Park or Arshavin)
This line up will dramatically change when Wilshere, Gervinho, Song, Frimpong, Vermaelen et al return but a great chance to see several new signings with maybe a sub appearence from Benayoun and hopefully Ryo as I really wanna see this kid play - he is highly rated.
I always hate the 'interlull' but like most Gooners, I would imagine, have hated this one a bit more then the others.
Who doesn't want the team to come straight back out and right the wrongs of that disastrous Sunday - and it was disastrous - but maybe we've done something better.
This Summer Arsenal have spent approximately £50,000,000 on signings and brought in (and I'm only mentioning players here that can be of use now to the first team):
Gervinho
Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain
Mikel Arteta
Yossi Benayoun
Per Mertesacker
Andre Santos
Park Chu-Young
Carl Jenkinson
That's eight players that we could use right now, that's over two thirds of a team. Arsenal have strenghened the depth of the squad. We occasionally purchase a new player but normally it's one maybe two and they go into the first team straight away.
This time we have cover for a number of players. I also feel that Frimpong is like a new signing as is Ryo but I don't mention either in the list above because they were Arsenal players some time ago.
I think we've already seen what Gervinho can bring to the team. He has genuine attacking flair and like Henry looks like he wants to float here, float there and just be everywhere. He could be a beast for us.
Alex has shown what he can do for the England under 21's in the last week. 3 assists and 1 penalty earned in one game alone. That's impressive. Will be interesting to see if he can bring that same flair to the senior Arsenal squad.
I think most of us know Mikel Arteta from his time at Everton but he's always been one of their best players and is happy to play anywhere in the midfield, though you would think his preferance would be to link with the Attack as much as he can.
Yossi was great for Liverpool but through injury has hardly featured for Chelsea and in a double whammy we signed him without a proper medical. Now who's gonna be laughing at that? Arsenal or Chelsea? Time will tell but if he finds that Liverpool form he will add lots of experience and quality to our attack.
It's a shame this week that Per Mertesacker has been singled out a bit for a dodgy display for Germany but I have been informed by several very cool tweeps that there was a lot of people missing in that game and we shouldn't make any impressions on him based on that. I'm not going to anyway, 75+ caps for Germany, played in World Cups, European Championships and more, he will add something to Arsenal it's just a shame Tommy Vermaelen has an injury and operation as Per arrives. We'll have to wait a bit for that pairing but I imagine that will be our new back two central defenders once he returns. Just a shame Tommy can't show him the ropes. Please don't let SebSquil be the one to teach him, I'd rather it was the Emirates Groundsmen.
I don't know a lot about Santos but he has 22 caps for Brazil and is heading towards his late 20's so I can only hope he brings some Brazillian flair and trickery and can be the one to slowly nurture Gibbs.
Park had a stormer for South Korea in the last week, scored 4 goals, I'm hoping to see much more of that. I've watched the goals and he can finish. This guy knows where the net is and fires with deadly accuracy. Whether he will start straight away I can't answer but with Robin van Persie and Park both scoring 8 or so goals between them in the last week internationally surely the signs are good.
Which brings me to Carl Jenkinson and I feel a bit sorry for Carl. He's going to be brilliant in the future you can see he has the work ethics on the pitch to succed but right now he's gone from conference to premier league to champions league in a matter of weeks. He's got a steep learning curve in front of him but the bonus is this... he gets to learn for Bacary and how often do you have a bad word for him?
So how will we line up against Swansea? I can only guess but I can't imagine that he's gonna change formation/tactics too much straight away. We could play a nice 4-4-2 right now with the added depth we now have. It's a shame Wilshere is out at the moment but Ramsey was very good for Wales this week and deserving of his man of the match award against England. I found myself cheering him on more then once and I'm an England supporter.
So I'd go with something like this:
Szczesny
Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Santos
Ramsey, Arteta, Rosicky
Walcott, van Persie, (either Park or Arshavin)
This line up will dramatically change when Wilshere, Gervinho, Song, Frimpong, Vermaelen et al return but a great chance to see several new signings with maybe a sub appearence from Benayoun and hopefully Ryo as I really wanna see this kid play - he is highly rated.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
