Category: Champions League

What does 2009 hold for Arsenal?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, FA Cup, Injuries, Transfers3 Comments

The new year is upon us finally, and we can now close the book on 2008, arguably the most painful of “The Wenger Years”.

The most painful part was seeing our hopes of silverware slide away during the early months of 2008, after building up a fantastic team, and playing fantastic football it all went wrong. Dumped out of all competitions, undeservedly, we then lost Hleb, Flamini and Gilberto in the summer, weakening the team, rather than strengthening it.

You all know the story, and aside from highlights such as beating Man Utd and Chelsea, the opening of this season has been poor, compounded by inconsistency, injuries and crisis.

The captaincy issue and Gallas’s behaviour, our woeful defending especially the loss of Toure’s magic touch, plus poor cover in midfield have left the team in tatters. Now Fabregas is injured we really have serious problems. Worse still the boardroom unrest and uncertainty; Lady Nina out, Usmanov’s interest, are contributing to a bad situation.

The focus is now on Arsene Wenger. This man completely changed English football in his time here, and he is worshipped at Arsenal. A lack of trophies has made people question Wenger and there is a huge demand for money to be spent on new players.

I really have no idea about what will happen to Arsenal in 2009, I don’t think anyone does. It doesn’t look great, a threadbare squad, and a race just for 4th place with Villa, which if lost could see the departure of our remaining established players e.g. Fabregas or Ade.

If we invest wisely now then we could reap the rewards. But long term succcess depends on the reaction of the players. So far we have seen very inconsistent displays from this squad, losing to poor teams like Man City. We need midfield players like Nasri, Denilson, Diaby to play to their full potential and stay injury free. With some clever additions we have a great squad. BUT, strengthening and confidence are both desparately needed.

2009 could see Wenger’s Arsenal rise from the ashes of last season. I’m not saying we can win the title, but build some foundations for 09/10 and stay in the Champions League. Otherwise it could be the end of the Arsenal we know. I hope Wenger has the chequebook ready!

Porto 2 – 0 Arsenal Highlights: Little meaning in lacklustre performance

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, Video

We lost for the seventh time this season last night, with a pretty abject display against Porto. Highlights here.

Not very much to cheer about, I’m pretty glad I’m not one of the fans who travelled all the way to Portugal for this one. We started alright but the passing was decidedly poor, and apart from a bit of magic form Ramsey we looked crap. Eboue started and was indifferent, but then again so was just about every other player.

The thing that worries me about last night is that we actually had a reasonable team out, but performed awfully. The defence wasn’t first choice, but Silvestre, Djourou, Gallas, Eboue is probably one of our stronger choices, and up front we had Bendtner and Vela who have both shown great potential, while in the middle Ramsey, Diaby, Denilson and Song also all have potential. But the team didn’t gel and players didn’t put the defensive effort in. Take Gallas’ sliced clearance in the second half, or Diaby’s bad defence when we conceded.

A mere point from this game could have put us first. It doesn’t make a huge amount of difference in terms of who we draw next round, they will all be hard games, but you would have thought we could have put a bit more effort in. Hopefully we will see some first teamers back and a good performance against Middlesbrough on Saturday away.

Arsenal 1 -0 Dynamo Kiev Highlights: Steady performance by Fabregas’ Arsenal

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, Video

Arsenal 1 – 0 Dynamo Kiev: Bendtner ’87 (ITV Highlights)

A steady performance by Arsenal tonight, qualification from the Group stage guaranteed, and overall a very good start for Fabregas’ captaincy. We didn’t really make a huge impression but we controlled the game and got the crucial goal – Fabregas’ quick reaction from the drop ball – putting a long ball to Bendtner who slotted away neatly to confound the pink boot bashers.

I think there were some good signs, but we shouldn’t get too excited, as Wenger said: with the press it is easy say you are in crisis one minute, champions the next – the reality lies somewhere in between.

With Arsenal we have the potential to do great things, at the moment I still think we need a defensive midfielder. Song was alright, but he not really up to the job right now, neither is Denilson who played on the wing tonight. They are good, but not good enough yet.

Gallas seemed settled at the back which is good – I know I said maybe a fresh start without him is worthwhile, but he is a good defender and if he can adjust to his new role in the team then he is worth keeping.

Ramsey and Vela played very well, I think they have a great future at the club, as does Wilshere – now our youngest Champions League player ever.

So a decent win, we now need to build on this and hopefully it can instill confidence for Sunday’s game against Chelski. I don’t know how we will fare at the Bridge, the Premiership is a different game to the CL, but if we work hard we can get a result. A clean sheet tonight was very welcome too.

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Arsenal – Dynamo Kyiv Line-up

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League

Arsenal: Almunia, Djourou, Gallas, Silvestre, Clichy, Denilson, Fabregas (c), Song Billong, Ramsey, Vela, Van Persie.
Subs: Fabianski, Wilshere, Bendtner, Gibbs, Hoyte, Merida, Simpson.

Going to be a very interesting game, especially in light of recent events. Wenger has learnt from the selection mistakes on Saturday – Vela and Ramsey start. This might give us some attacking flair.

Hope Fabregas has a good game to start his captaincy, come back to visit ArseSpeak for the highlights later!

Arsenal 0 – 0 Fenerbahce highlights, dull draw..

On 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.

Wenger defends Arsenal style as Gallas is upset

On 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.

Fenerbahce 2 – 5 Arsenal highlights – A European night to remember

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League4 Comments

Last night Arsenal beat Fenerbahce in style and with class. The game was exciting and had plenty of goals. Wenger had wanted to silence the notorious Turkish fans, and I think we did – 3-1 up after 22 minutes!

There were some notable highlights for us, Diaby came back and looked very, very impressive – he got a good goal. Nasri continued to look good, Ramsey scored after coming on very late in the game, and Adebayor got a goal. Also Song, playing at CB, scored a lovely goal in the second half. Oh, and Walcott got a great goal.

To view the highlights click here.

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Wenger told the press:

“We had a young team and I’m proud we came in and tried to dictate the game in a heated atmosphere,”

He was particuarly impressed by Ramsey – who looked so relaxed in such a big game.

Almunia led the team well and denied the Fenerbahce strikers all night – one of his best games for us I think. Only problem was the defence looked a little weak. Maybe a SIlvestre – Djourou partnership would be a little more stable.

Silvestre spoke after the game:

“It was not easy to come here with a good atmosphere against us and I think we coped not too bad with the experienced players we played against.

“It was a good game to improve and learn from. Hopefully we can get some consistency.”

Silvestre among other things against Fenerbahce

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League

So, Arsenal have travelled to Istanbul to play Fenerbahce in tonights CL game. It’s always tough in Turkey, and we have a couple of new faces in the team.

Silvestre will start alongside Djourou in the centre and we may see Song or Eboue at right back again. I’m happy with the centre back pairing – Silvestre got better as the game went on against Everton, and Djourou is decent. I would prefer to see Eboue at RB, as Song doesn’t look comfortable there.

Nasri and Walcott should take the wings, as they are our best choices, both were fantastic against Everton, and hopefully it will be Diaby and Cesc in the centre. Nasri picked up a knock on Saturday but should be back.

Ade and RVP upfront sounds good to me too.

Almunia is taking the captain’s armband – Gallas, and deputy Toure both being injured.

“I am very proud, it is a great thing to wear the armband. I am a bit surprised because I am the oldest player on the pitch.

You can say that again Manuel – of course you are the oldest tonight – this is Arsenal remember?!

So we go into a game with a few key players out, and it is a hard game – playing away in Europe is very hard – I think Wenger knows that the home results put you through, but we have quality in the team, and I hope we can put a few goals past Fenerbahce tonight!

Come back after the game for the highlights – subscribe to our news feed here to make sure you don’t miss out!

Arsenal 4 – 0 FC Porto: Highlights

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, Video1 Comment

Arsenal responded resoundingly to their critics tonight, outplaying Porto and winning 4 – 0 to put them top of Group G with 4 points.

To watch highlights of the whole game click here.

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Match Report

Arsenal started well, although there were a few close calls early on – a badly defended corner lead to Clichy clearing off the line, and a Porto shot skimmed the bar.

Van Persie looked so much sharper than on Saturday, and he got the first goal – a lovely move, leading to him sliding in Ade’s cross. Click to watch.

Ade got the second, heading down into the ground from a corner, the ball looped over Almu and in off the underside of the bar. Click to watch.

RVP scored again in the second half, this time taking it past the Porto defender and smashing it home with a left footed drive. Click to watch.

Ade finished the scoring from a penalty after Bendtner was brought down in the box. Click to watch.

Goals: Van Persie 31, Adebayor 40, Van Persie 48, Adebayor 71 pen.

Player Analysis

We could have scored more, Bendtner, Nasri, Eboue, Walcott all spurned chances. Walcott played well, as did Nasri – I thought he added an extra dimension to our play which was much needed. Clichy was also back to his best on the left!

Eboue, Bendtner and Vela came on, Eboue didn’t contribute greatly, except by making the crowd laugh at his imitation of Ronaldo step-overs – badly.. Bendtner, who I think is excellent, wasn’t sharp at all, but still looked ok. Meanwhile Vela performed fantastically and is definetly one to watch!

Overview

All in all a good, standard Arsenal performance, Porto weren’t great, but we kept possession well and closed them down, which made it hard for them. The goals were well taken and we could have had more. In the last 10 minutes we got a little complacent but we still won 4 – 0, a clean sheet is always welcome!

One point to make is that Porto never really got going, and we were lucky that Clichy cleared their best chance off the line. They like to play attacking and keep the ball on the ground, that is our game, and we can beat anyone at that on our day. The Fulhams and Hulls of the world are teams who you need to beat to win the Premier League.

4 points now in the CL – top of Group G, so lets take this result and push on against Sunderland on Saturday – another team who will be hard to beat.

Wenger – changes and ‘Champions League focus’ – pre-Porto

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, Injuries

Arsene Wenger spoke on a large range of issues in the press conference ahead of the Champions League game against Porto.

It has been widely expected that there will be changes in the line-up that lost to Hull City, but a knee-jerk reaction will not be the correct one.

The BBC has the video of Arsene Wenger’s pre-match press conference.

Wenger said there would be changes:

“There will be changes, certainly,” the Arsenal manager said. “I will see how many, but there will be changes.

“There were enough ingredients (in the Hull game) to make me physically sick.

“What we delivered was not good enough and we know that. I believe that is more down to the mental side than anything technical.”

“What is important now is to recover and prepare for the next game,”

He then calmed speculation that the changes were being made as punishment through demotion to the bench:

“Punishment? No, you know sometimes you make changes because you consider the other team, you consider the balance of your team, sometimes because one player is not at his best,”

“If a player or two do not play tomorrow it is not a punishment, it is just because of a rotation in the side. You cannot play every single game with the same 11 players.”

“I believe the goal we conceded where we are less guilty is the corner against Hull because it was a well-taken chance,” he said. “[Hull’s Daniel] Cousin is very tall and very good in the air. It was a perfect header and that can happen to anybody.

“You gain experience through the games. At the back is where we have experience because you cannot say with Clichy and Sagna and Kolo and Gallas that we lack experience. Will Kolo play in midfield? No, not at all.

“As for Vela, it’s difficult to go into any individual case. I believe Carlos Vela is a player of the squad and the whole squad will be used over the season. You cannot go from one team to the other and change 11 players because we just lost one game.

“I believe what is happening is that players have shown quality behind the first team and that is very interesting for the future of the Club.”

On the last CL game against Dynamo Kiev he defended the team:

“The side we played against Dynamo Kiev was very young. Theo Walcott is 19, Alexandre Song is 21, Denilson is 20 and even Cesc Fabregas is only 21,”

“It is not easy to win away in the Champions League with such a lack of experience.”

“This group is tougher than in previous years. It is definitely the most even group we have had because there are no easy games.

“That makes the match with Porto more important. We know in the Champions League you qualify with 10 points, so if we win our home games we are through.

“If we can do well, then the other teams will take all the points off each other and that is why I think even draws from our away games could prove good results because all the teams will drop points.

“There is no obvious weakest team, so every game will be very important and we will have to be at a high level for every game.”

He believes that we need to regain a ‘Champions League focus’ for every game:

“I believe the Champions League is a different game,”

“We have learned from the Hull match that you need a Champions League focus in every game.

“If we are guilty of something it is that we couldn’t get our focus to the right level to take our chances.

“The analysis of the game shows that we had enough opportunities to win. On the other hand, they made 100 per cent of the few chances they had. So credit to them and damage to us.

“You have not to make too much of it. We lost a game we did not want to lose but we have enough strength inside the Club and inside the team to deal with that. It can happen but it cannot be repeated.

“I don’t think we needed to be woken up but it was a big disappointment because we felt that we had enough quality to win the game.”

On injuries the main news is that Nasri is back:

“Song has still not recovered, I had him on the bench on Saturday but he did not feel comfortable and he had a little setback.

“Nasri is fit and is in the squad.”

Gallas echoed Wenger’s comments talking about how he wants to prepare:

“What we delivered against Hull was not good enough, we know that, so the important thing now is not how many games we can lose this season, but preparing well for Tuesday night.”

All in all you can tell that the team are very dissappointed about the Hull result. Losing at home is never pleasant, and especially not against teams like Hull.

It is very, very worrying that we have lost for a second time this season to ‘smaller teams’, and that we conceded from a corner yet again – we look extremely weak when defending set pieces.

All I can hope is that the team can recover and be back to their best for the Porto match, or we will be in trouble in the CL, and pressure will build from the media and fans.

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