Day: September 16, 2008

The Arsenal Curse – back in action? – David Bentley, Flamini, Hleb..

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries, Transfers3 Comments
Bentley needs to eat something
Bentley needs to eat something

Arsenal Insider runs a nice piece here, basically saying – lets all laugh at David Bentley.

The guy has become a hated figure at Arsenal with all his bitter comments about the club and Wenger since he left. After signing for Spurs this summer for about £15 million he is now part of Spurs worst ever start to a season.

They are bottom of the league – of course we have only played 3 games, but it’s still funny!

It is even sweeter because Bentley has made a lot of comments about how we don’t bring through English talent, that’s why he moved. But Theo just scored a hattrick for England, maybe Bentley’s failure at Arsenal is more because of his lack of talent than Arsenal’s policies!

The Spolier also lists some more unfortunate Arsenal leavers – Hleb was injured on his home debut for Barca – out for 4 weeks, they drew 1-1 against Santander.

Flamini isn’t doing great at AC Milan either – 100% loss rate in their games so far, and no Champions League this week, just a UEFA Cup tie on Thrusday!!

Click here to read the latest Arsenal news on ArseSpeak!

Wenger looks ahead to the Kiev match, is one point enough?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League

Arsene Wenger has commented on how tough the tie will be in Kiev. We’ve played in the Ukraine three times, and lost everytime. I mentioned our poor record in Eastern Europe earlier today, and Wenger knows it won’t be easy.

He’s played it down, saying a point will be a good start for him:

“It is a tough place for us to go,”“It is maybe a little bit better for us to play earlier but I am convinced it will still be a massive challenge. We’ll go there and try to win the game but even if we take a point then for me it will be a good start.

“Dynamo Kyiv knocked out Spartak Moscow 4-1, 4-1 [in each leg of their qualifying game]. When you know Spartak Moscow and how strong the Russian League is at the moment that means it is a tough draw. I saw the first game at Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv were really impressive.

“Our group has four teams who are all used to playing in the Champions League – Fenerbache, Porto, Dynamo and us. Anyone can take points off anyone that’s why for me it’s very important we start well in this game.”

We do have a particuarly tough group, the away games will be crucial, because ties in the Ukraine and Turkey are notoriously difficult – last year Chelsea lost 2-1 to Fenerbahce in the Quarter-Finals there. Porto are also a quality side, all of these teams have Champions League quality.

In the Sun he said:

“For me, Dynamo Kiev is a bit of an unknown quantity,”

“They look like they always have the best players around their region, so it really depends on the quality of the generation they have at the moment.

“But they can be a very dangerous side. We know that because we played them when they had Shevchenko, Rebrov and Luzhny and they were a very, very difficult side.”

This is true. I don’t think Dynamo’s current crop will be as good as that team, but they are still the best Ukrainian team, and they will make life very hard for us out there.

Of course we will go for the win, but Arsene is talking it down in order not to raise expectations.

Do you think he’s right, is one point a good start?

Wenger thinks the title will be ‘tight’ this year

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Transfers

Arsene Wenger believes that this year will be one of the toughest in the history of the Premiership. I would agree with him, Chelsea look much stronger and teams like Man City and Spurs have spent a lot this summer.Last year was hard, but this year may be even harder.

“This season you will need a high number of points and you will have to be consistent, I don’t know how many we’ll need, ask me again in January then we will have a better idea.

“Last season, I feel we did not get enough credit for what we did. We were very close. We made 83 points in the League and I have won the title with 78 before. But the competition was very high last season and looks like it will be the same this season.”

“But you might have a surprising team coming in to challenge like Man City, Tottenham and maybe Portsmouth. It will certainly be very tight and very interesting.

“Manchester City have an advantage because they do pay a lot of money.

Man City especially have an unimaginable amount of cash behind them, and it will be used – they managed to get Robinho, I think they could sign almost anyone!

Wenger commented on the January transfer window:

“This year, for the first time, the January transfer window opens when we will have only played 19 games.

“I have played seasons here when there were 24 games before then – the second part of the season is longer now.

“Teams can get that little bit more balance by buying players in the transfer window.”

Wenger seems happy that the window is opening after fewer games, it gives us the chance to bring in much needed support for the long haul. It is a bit worrying how much money Man City have, the new owners seem to be determined to create some sort of ‘super-team’ like the way Real Madrid are ‘Galacticos’.

Whatever happens, expect Wenger to be on the look-out in the next window, and a lot of action from the likes of Man City!

Dynamo Kiev’s game plan for Wednesday

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League5 Comments

Yesterday at the Valery Lobanovsky Stadium Dynamo Kiev manager Yury Semin spoke about our upcoming Champions League fixture in Kiev, and revealed some of his thoughts on Arsenal and his tactics.

He has been watching the team closely in the run up to the fixture and had this to say about us:

“Arsene Wenger’s side play an easy natural game, and enjoy their football,”

“They have many young and talented footballers, all very technically gifted.”

He was impressed by the 4-0 win at Blackburn,

“The game was totally in Arsenal’s control,”

“Despite the four goals scored they had many other chances. Arsenal’s victory was absolutely the fair result.”

He also mentioned Adebayor, and it sounds like Dynamo will give Ade a rough time:

“We knew very well prior to this, the capabilities of the Arsenal forward,”

“But we will not be putting a man-marker on him. Adebayor plays all over the pitch, and in every zone there will be one of our players to meet him.”

It looks like Dynamo have been watching us closely and know that the only way to stop us is to press us all over the pitch.

Semin will have seen how we exploited the open spaces against Blackburn, and he will be working with the players to stifle our tactics.

Expect Dynamo to be defensive, it’s not going to be easy, we’re playing away and that is always very difficult especially in the Ukraine and Russia. Many European teams fail out East and we have before – Spartak Moscow a few years ago for example.

Wenger will have been studying Dynamo with his staff, and I hope that they can work out a way to get us into the game, otherwise we may be in for 90 minutes of frustration.