Toure stays positive as Arsenal look to get back to winning ways

On November 7, 2008January 12, 2011 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

This is a guest post by sports writer Thomas Rooney

To say that tomorrow’s game against Manchester United is crucial would probably rank as the biggest understatement of the season. After three games in all competitions without a win, it is vital that Arsenal at least avoid defeat against the Premier League champions.

If this fails to be achieved, then the confidence will be at an all-time low and the chance of Arsene Wenger’s side launching a title challenge would seem all the more unlikely. A nine point gap, even at this stage of the season, would probably be too much.

Speaking ahead of the game, Arsenal defender Kolo Toure has revealed that he and his team-mates are viewing the Manchester United game as a potential turning point for their season. The 27-year-old has said that a win would be ‘really fantastic’ and would prove to the critics that Arsenal ‘would be there for the title’.

Sometimes these type of comments have to be taken with a pinch of salt – what else is Toure going to say other than a win is important? However, this time around, the Arsenal man is bang on the money. A victory tomorrow would do wonders for the belief in the dressing room could be the start of a long unbeaten run for the team.

As Toure rightly points out, the season is ‘not in the second half yet’ and therefore it is important not to panic. However, I think he knows as much as anyone that defeat at the Emirates tomorrow really could have a detrimental effect. Arsenal will continue to ‘fight for the title’ regardless of the result, but this fight would be made a hell of a lot easier should they pick up the three points.

In terms of the team news for tomorrow’s clash, Arsenal have been hit with a number of injury problems. Theo Walcott, Bacary Sagna and William Gallas are doubtful, while Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Eboue are definitely out of the game.

These injuries mean that Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela are going to be charged with the responsibility of breaking down Manchester United’s defence and getting the goals that win Arsenal the game. Neither of these youngsters will hold any fear going into this match, so perhaps their raw talent can prosper.

Overall, it is going to be a game where Arsenal fans arrive in hope rather than expectation. However, should the team pull together and produce a winning performance; it really could be the start of the turnaround.

Arsenal 0 – 0 Fenerbahce highlights, dull draw..

On November 6, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League

Its not often that Arsenal don’t score in a game, especially at home, and tonight was one of those days. Missing Theo, Ade and others through injury, we seemed to lack incisiveness.

Fenerbahce came to play defensive football. After the humiliation in Istanbul they wanted a point at least, and to regain their pride. I think they did that. The game was almost all Arsenal pressure, but it didn’t really come to anything.

Ramsey looked alright, Djourou and Silvestre had a great game together in my opinion. Bendtner’s passing wasn’t great though, and we just lacked speed and cutting edge in front of goal. Nasri wasn’t on great form either.

Highlights here.

Lee Dixon defeats Delap’s long throw? Arsenal’s defence and Keown

On November 4, 2008December 14, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Video1 Comment

I’ve been reading about how Lee Dixon proposes to beat Stoke’s long throw tactic which was our downfall on Saturday. We all saw how effective Delap was at putting in low, fast throws right into the box (Stoke highlights here). However, Lee has come up with a tactic based on what the team under George Graham might hve done, in the old days when Arsenal had the tightest defence.

He proposes putting 4 men on the goal line, and telling them to attack the ball, that way they won’t be jumping from a standing position. They also will be able to watch the trajectory of the ball rather than the man they are marking.

This seems very clever and it would work, but we have already played Stoke and already lost. I was shocked that Wenger hadn’t put some more work into defence before this game, because against Stoke’s muscle and long throws we didn’t look too strong.

I don’t think Wenger would ever go for such a radical tactic though, he is pretty conservative about tactics, and generally goes for the idea that if we can out pass the opposition we will win. This is great but in deadball situations this doesn’t work.

I think Wenger should rethink our defensive tactics because at the moment we are struggling to keep a clean sheet, and we have conceded a lot of goals during the past 3 seasons.

Hopefully rumours that we are bringing in Keown as a coach are true, because he might be able to bring back some old style Arsenal defending.

Wenger defends Arsenal style as Gallas is upset

On November 3, 2008January 12, 2011 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, Transfers

Wenger has been defending our style of football in the papers after critcism of the draw against Spurs and loss at Stoke. He feels that our attacking, fluid game is the best way to win trophies.

“We have to be strong enough to keep on with the way we play and we can win the Premier League and the Champions League.

I would agree with him, we have won plenty of silverware in the past under Wenger, playing his brand of football. I think Wenger has the style right, what we are not doing is finishing games properly. This may be due to a lack of experience in the squad, and Gallas has also been saying that he doesn’t fell we always have the right focus.

Gallas is one of the players who I would pick out as sometimes losing his concentration, but others are guilty too.

The fact is, we are going through a bad patch of form, but things can be righted. Wenger pointed out that we went to Fenerbahce with a midfield of under-21s and won, and they’ve never been beaten at home in Europe. (Click here for the Fenerbahce highlights).

This is true, but our goal glut that night covered up the weak defence which Fenerbahce easily penetrated. If Almunia hadn’t played so well it could have been 5-5, not 5-2. Tottenham were lucky that they managed to score all their chances. (Click here for the Tottenham highlights).

Again, against Stoke we saw the defence struggling to cope with the long throws and strength of the oppostion. (Click here for the Stoke game highlights).

I’m not calling for Wenger’s head, I think we just need some hard work put in on the defence, and some refocusing. A new defensive player in January wouldn’t hurt either.

Stoke City 2 – 1 Arsenal highlights, Delap, defence and attack

On November 1, 2008January 12, 2011 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

I don’t want to be too negative but today Arsenal played pretty poorly. Two long throws from Rory Delap allowed Stoke two relatively easy goals(Fuller ’11, Olofinjana ’73). Those throws are not easy to defend against, especially if you are Arsenal, weak in defence and hate balls into the box.

When playing against a team who have scored over half their goals from Delap’s long throws you would think that Arsenal might have been more prepared than they seemed for these. Maybe they are undefendable?

Stoke worked incredibly hard all match to give us no space and we really had very limited chances, our goal came in extra time – Clichy’s shot took two deflections and went in, his first goal for Arsenal, it started a small revival, but the 93rd minute is way, way, way too late.

We couldn’t get anywhere, and the exclusion of Nasri, RVP and Walcott, in exchange for height and power with Diaby, Song and Bendtner didn’t really pay off.

The game was worsened by the sending off of Van Persie for barging Sorenson after he teased RVP with the ball, and injuries to Adebayor – who looked in a lot of pain, Walcott – who has probably dislocated his shoulder again, and Sagna.

This means we may be without our main strikers for the games aganst Fenerbahce and Man Utd at home.

Our title bid may be over, Wenger even seemed depressed, when asked if it was the end of our title bid after the game he said “lets win the next one, and see after..”

Adebayor has his say on Tottenham game as Arsenal prepare to face Stoke City

On October 31, 2008April 8, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

This a guest post by sports writer Thomas Rooney

Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor has revealed that the game against Tottenham on Wednesday night was one of the ‘most difficult games’ of his entire life. As we all know, Arsenal led 3-1 and then 4-2 in the game, but proceeded to concede two late goals for Tottenham to force a 4-4 draw.

Adebayor is under no illusions about the significance of this result, saying that if Arsenal have aspirations to be Premier League champions, they can’t let leads like this slip. He says that Arsenal will ‘never be a champion’ if they continue to behave in this way and that he ‘doesn’t know how’ the game ended up being a draw.

Something Adebayor touches upon is the notion that he and his team-mates believed the game was won at 4-2. He says that in the players’ heads the ‘game was over’. In all fairness, as far as everyone else was concerned – this was also the case. Having brought the game back to 3-2, there were some that could see Spurs getting an equaliser. However, when Robin van Persie made it 4-2, everyone believed that was that. How wrong can you be?!

The Arsenal celebrations after this goal perhaps told their own story. Every player dived on top of each other, Adebayor and van Persie performed some sort of prepared celebration and it looked as if they were celebrating victory. As much as I wouldn’t want to take celebrating out of the equation, perhaps on this occasion – a crucial game against your biggest rivals – the Arsenal players should have simply gone back to their positions and focused on shutting out Spurs for the remaining few minutes.

As Adebayor says, everyone is very ‘disappointed’ with the way the team dropped two points. However, it must now be put to bed. It’s gone. All things considered, a point was still gained and Arsene Wenger’s team must move onwards and upwards.

Speaking of Wenger, there is no doubt that he will be demanding a positive response in the game against Stoke City. Arsenal travel to the Britannia Stadium to face the newly promoted side and it is essential that three points are picked up. If Arsenal drop points yet again, then 1st place would start to look a long way away. They can’t afford to be playing too much catch-up.

The game at Stoke won’t be easy – that’s for sure. They are a well organised outfit and in Rory Delap they have someone who can cause more threat than a corner with his long throws. Arsenal will have to watch out for this. Up front, Stoke have power, power and more power. Fuller and Sidibe won’t give Arsenal’s shaky defence an easy afternoon. Of that I can be certain.

As far as the team Arsenal will put out is concerned, William Gallas and Emmanuel Eboue are very doubtful. Other than that, it should be the same team that played against Spurs. Let’s just hope Arsenal can produce the same threat going forward, but this time manages to hold onto a lead.

By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about football betting

Arsenal shirt competition! Only 1 week left to sign up!

On October 30, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

UPDATE: COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

We’re giving a free Arsenal shirt away in our competition, but there’s only 1 week left to sign up! All we are asking is that you subscribe to our e-mail service, and you’ll get the latest Arsenal news sent to you via email.

The competition closes on Thursday October 6th 2008, and the winner’s e-mail address will be drawn at random from our subscriber list, so make sure there aren’t any typos!

This is worth £40 (about $70) so it’s a pretty good deal if you get it free.

Anyway just putting it out there, to sign up just click here!

Arsenal 4 – 4 Tottenham Highlights. How did we draw?

On October 30, 2008February 15, 2011 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Video1 Comment

Click here to comment on the game..

I returned from watching the North London derby feeling a little deflated, although I have to say it was one of the most exciting Arsenal games I have seen.

There was an electric atmosphere at the Grove, Bentley was abused as you might expect, and there were plenty of goals.

Tottenham scored first, Bentley (who else?) lobbed Almunia from about 40 yards. We couldn’t get the ball down in midfield and we were all over the shop.

The goal provided the usual wake up call, and we pressed back, getting a few good opportunites, with lovely passing moves, Theo and RVP linked up well. Then came our reply on ’37 – Silvestre got a goal from a corner – Gomes got nowhere near the ball, he looked very weak at corners.

We were hoping for a quick start after half time and we got it, RVP was felled and the freekick was swung into the box for Gallas to head in, 2-1 on ’46.

Things were looking up, and we went into cruise control as Ade put Nasri’s stunning chip over the line and made it 3-1.

THIS IS WHERE WE SHOULD HAVE CLOSED THE GAME.

Spurs then went on to get a lucky goal within 3 minutes, Almunia spilled a strong shot from Huddlestone, and Bent picked it up, 3-2 on ’67.

We went back up the other end and scored straight away, Hutton gifted Ade the ball, and he set up RVP for a beautiful goal, everyone went wild, 4-2..

Eboue, Diaby and Song all came on as Theo, RVP and Nasri got a rest. We seemed to relax a little – in the 89th minute Clichy (who was fantastic all night) slipped on the ball, presenting Jenas with an open run on goal, his shot went past Almunia – 4-3.

Now panic set in, and Arsenal looked in disarray, the feeling in the crowd was that we couldn’t hold on, and it was only to true, in stoppage time Modric shot took a deflection off Silvestre, which put it onto the post, it bounced back out perfectly for the onrushing Lennon who easily put it away. The few remaining Spurs fans went mental.

Tonight was very disappointing, there were positives, Denilson had a fantastic second half, and RVP played amazingly, but our defensive mistakes cost us yet again. We were unluck, but all of their goals could have been prevented by more astute defensive work.

Interestingly, two of our goals came from centre backs today – maybe representing how much more of an attacking team we are!

In all, it was an amazing Arsenal performance, but the last 4 minutes where we lost focus cost us 3 points which we thoroughly deserved.

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Win the new Arsenal home kit in our competition!

On October 27, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal7 Comments

UPDATE: COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

Hello all,

Today we’ve got something rather special for you all. The guys over at SoccerPro.com have provided us with a new Arsenal jersey and we are giving it away FREE!

To enter the competition all you have to do is subscribe to our e-mail service and you’ll recieve the latest Arsenal news in your inbox everyday! By subscribing you’ll be automatically entered into the draw.

Click here to sign up.

The top up for grabs is the Nike Arsenal FC Home jersey, pictured above. It’s a great looking kit, and I think we’re offering a great chance for all you Gooners to get it for free.

The winner will be drawn at random from the new subscribers and will be contacted via the e-mail provided!

If you go to SoccerPro.com you can find outher Arsenal shirts and any other soccer jerseys.

Cheers,

Jamesgillesp

West Ham 0 – 2 Arsenal, highlights and analysis!

On October 26, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal2 Comments

Enter our competition to win the new Arsenal kit, Click here!

Arsenal won 2 – 0 today after a fantastic London derby against West Ham. The game was brilliant – fast-paced, and attack minded. I give credit to West Ham for attacking and playing good football. It was end to end stuff.

Click here to view the highlights. Faubert’s own goal, Adebayor’s goal.

We had some great passing moves. Walcott looked dangerous and Van Persie deserved a goal – hitting the post with a great freekick – Rob Green played really well and it took an own goal from Faubert to put us ahead in the 75 minute as Adebayor came off the bench and made an instant impact.

Everyone played fantastically, and the second goal was the icing on the cake!