Arsenal 3 -1 Plymouth: Van Persie 47, Gray 50 og, Duguid 53, Van Persie 85. Highlights here.
Arsenal put themselves through to a 4th Round tie at Ninian Park in the FA Cup after a 3 – 1 victory over Plymouth.
The first half was all Arsenal, but to little effect. We had few shots on goal and the possesion we had didn’t have an impact. It was good to see Ramsey play, I thought he had a good game, Gunnerblog has a few points about him here.
The second half started with a bang, two Arsenal goals, RVP got the first from a corner and then a Gray own goal just minutes later.
Plymouth came back with a goal and their 8,500 fans went mental. It was quite refreshing to see some more enthusiatic support in the Emirates this season. The sombreros went flying through the air to shouts of ole! when Vela came on, and to good effect.
Our third goal was deserved, RVP attempted a lob, the keeper deflected it, and RVP went round him to put the ball in off the underside of the bar.
In other news, all is quiet on the transfer front, but Walcott’s agent claims Theo is frustrated that Arsenal have not continued contract talks started in November. He still has 18 months remaining, but it would be sad to lose another player on a free.
Yesterday we saw Arsenal beat Portsmouth 1-0 with a decent performance. Highlights here.
We played poorly at times, but that is understandable for a squad down to the bare bones, and lacking almost all confidence.
We were lucky to escape some of Pompey’s earlier efforts, but as the game stretched during the second half our quality started to show. Ramsey and Vela came on to good effect, and 10 minutes before the final whistle we saw Gallas rise to put a Denilson free-kick beyond David James.
We lacked the creativity that Fabregas provides, and it might be more telling against better opposition, but with some January investment we can survive.
It was always the result that would matter, having so spectacuarly capitulated in the previous three games. I’m happy with the win, and hopefully we can build on the result.
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.
After the euphoria of the win at Stamford Bridge, a very young Arsenal side were unlucky to lose to Burnley at Turf Moor.
Burnley played very well and gave Arsenal little space, and took their chances. Meanwhile Arsenal had several one on ones with the keeper, but failed to put away easy chances. In the end it wouldn’t have been unfair for Arsenal to win, but the more clinical Burnely went through.
It is a little disappointing that we went out of the cup so early, it was fun watching the youngsters thrash Sheffield Utd and Wigan, but they couldn’t get past Burnley.
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.
Man City 3 – 0 Arsenal: Ireland 45, Robinho 56, Sturridge (pen) 90 Highlights here..
Yesterday we saw a second defeat in a row for an Arsenal side which was very poor. Yes, we had several first teamers out, and yes, Gallas has put the club and captaincy into turmoil, but you would have expected more against a side who have struggled to win games this season.
Almunia was named as captain as Gallas didn’t travel. We conceded 3 relatively soft goals, but it could have been more really. We had one good chance after Ramsey came on and put Bendtner through, but apart from that it was a poor game.
Wenger looked resigned to defeat, and the players just couldn’t get a grip on the game, even Clichy was making uncharacteristic errors, a mix up between him and Silvestre allowing Ireland to get the first goal just before half time.
We might have been better starting Ramsey, because he was the best player in the second half after he came on, and putting Song to CB with Djourou at RB. That might have added some creativity, because for most of the game we had none.
Our squad is threadbare at the moment – Toure, Sagna, Fabregas, Rosicky, Eduardo, Walcott, Adebayor were all unavailable, and they are all first choice players for me, not to mention the fact that Gallas isn’t going to play any more. I applaud Wenger for dealing with Gallas and I think a new captain will do us good but there are some problems in the squad which have been apparent during the building of this new generation.
We don’t have the strength and depth to play at the top at the moment. Our team this season is probably the weakest that we have ever had under Wenger – conceding 18 and losing 5 before December shows you have far we have fallen.
I think the first team would be acceptable if all the injured and suspended players mentioned above were fit and playing, but we still would have very little depth in the squad. Players like Denilson and Song aren’t ready, neither was Hoyte yesterday, and at the moment Bendtner doesn’t have the quality to be a first team player either.
Wenger is a fantastic manager, but he seems to have got himself into a bit of a mess. Losing Flamini, Gilberto, Diarra and Hleb last season was disastrous, and we haven’t got a midfielder who can fit the defensive role.
Leadership is another problem, Gallas has exposed some deeper problems in the team, and I think we need to make a clean start, bring in two or three new faces in January, name a new captain (Fabregas?) and get on with trying to build a successful team.
Obviously we are lacking in confidence, but we have gone from a team which was last year only a few points away from the title, to one which now may struggle to get 4th place.
Today didn’t start well for Arsenal, we lost the coin toss, and Villa chose to switch sides, so we were attacking the north end in the 1st half, the players prefer to attack the north in the 2nd! Overall I witnessed a a very disappointing Arsenal lose to Villa, with two goals in the last 20 minutes.
It could have gone better for Arsenal, we had most of the possession, but we couldn’t break into Villa, who defended in numbers, and cut out our passes. In the first half Villa got a penalty which was badly taken and Almunia saved, but apart from the goals they didn’t have many chances. Villa’s goals came on the break, both times an Arsenal player was fouled in the build-up.
The refereeing was shocking all game, Denilson got a yellow within minutes of kickoff, while Villa went unpunished for their fouls for much of the game. One of our best chances of a goal was ruined by Riley stopping play for a VIlla player down, while Sagna went down seriously injured in the second half and play didn’t stop – leading to Villa’s first goal.
Agbonlahor and Young’s pitiful celebrations right in front of our section didn’t really do much for my impressions of them, Agbonlahor taunting Arsenal fans, and they wonder why people throw things at them?
I think all in all we can say that Arsenal aren’t consistent enought to win the title this season. We still have defensive frailities which haven’t been resolved, and when we have Adebayor and Van Persie both out we don’t look like scoring.
Bendtner is a player with potential, but he can’t play on his own up front. On that point, I don’t think we got the tactics right today. Starting with 5 in midfield and Bendtner upfront worked against Man Utd, but we could have exploited Villa’s weaknesses better if we had started with Adebayor and Vela paired, which is what the Boss did at the end of the game.
A poor result, a 10 years ago we were a very different team, and I wouldn’t expect us to drop points at home. We are now 9 points adrift. Arsenal can challenge for the title still, but right now we haven’t got any consistency at all. I’ll leave you with Wenger’s comment (BBC):
“We can play very well, but at the top level performances have to be consistent. I always say the first sign of quality is consistency, so this was frustrating after beating Manchester United.”
I watched a fantastic young Arsenal side beat Wigan tonight. The average age of our team was just 18.7 years old, and they played fantastically, and beat Wigan with 3 excellent goals and dominated the game with large amounts of possession.
Arsenal started well with plenty of great chances keeping Kirkland very busy. We could have had 5 in the first half, Vela, Wilshere, Simpson and Ramsey all sparkling.
Wilshere set up the first goal, he played a defence splitting pass through the middle to Simpson who poked it past the onrushing Kirkland.
In the second half a punch out by Fabianski to Ramsey who played an amazing long ball 2/3s of the pitch, Vela was running onto it and beat the defender, rushing into the box, and pulling it back for Simpson to smash home another.
Minutes later, a run forward from Djourou and a lovely pass forward put through Vela. His first touch was amazing, and under pressure he put a delightful lob over Kirkland to make it 3.
The whole team played fantastically and Wenger has pledged to stick with them. Why not? He says they are the most complete youth side we have ever had.
Very exciting to watch, and I think some of those names will be much more familiar to us come next season.
Arsenal play Wigan tonight in the Carling Cup, the squads have been announced, we’ve got Bischoff set to make his debut, and Vela should play up front with Ramsey and Wilshere in midfield.
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