Tag: Arsenal

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.

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

On 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 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

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

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Video1 Comment

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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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West Ham 0 – 2 Arsenal, highlights and analysis!

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal2 Comments

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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!

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Arsenal legend eyes coaching role as Gunners travel to Upton Park

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

This is a guest post for ArseSpeak by sportswriter Thomas Rooney

During Dennis Bergkamp’s 11 years as an Arsenal player, he played 423 games and scored 120 goals. He is one of the greatest ever players to play for the club and is without doubt an Arsenal football club legend. However, it seems that he might not yet be done with English football.

Bergkamp has revealed that he would love to return to the country in a coaching role to reignite his love affair with the Arsenal fans. The 39-year-old said that he ‘always enjoyed it’ in England and that he would ‘love to be involved’ in the coaching set up at the Emirates. Admittedly this may not happen anytime soon, but he said that he had ambitions for ‘the future’.

The former Dutch striker is currently doing his coaching badges with Ajax and seems to harbour ambitions to be a manager one day. This is in stark contrast to the comments he made upon retiring from the game, when he said that he had ‘no desire’ to take up coaching.

Presumably, after a couple of years away from the game, he has decided that he misses being involved too much and has taken it upon himself to start a coaching career. If Bergkamp’s latest comments are to be believed, this path could eventually lead to the club where he will always be remembered fondly. I personally can’t see this happening while Arsene Wenger is at the club, but when the Frenchman leaves – there could be a role to suit Mr. Bergkamp.

The Dutchman wasn’t just talking about his coaching ambitions though. Speaking about the current Arsenal team, he said they are a ‘joy to watch’ and many people in Holland believe them to be the ‘best team they have ever seen’. Like many of us, Bergkamp hopes that this attractive football will finally be rewarded with trophies this season.

As for this current Arsenal team, well they travel to West Ham tomorrow searching for their third away win of the season. After a good start under Gianfranco Zola, the Hammers have lost their last two games and have slipped to eighth in the table. However, their home form has been excellent and they will be very motivated as they prepare to host Arsenal.

In terms of Arsenal’s preparations, a performance like the one against Fenerbahce will result in three points. No doubts about that, Arsenal were excellent. More of the same please lads!

In terms of the key battles at Upton Park, Cesc Fabregas will need to make sure he gets more of the ball than the hard-working Scott Parker and Emmanuel Eboue will need to defend well to keep in-form winger Matthew Etherington quiet. Other than that, Arsenal should just focus on their own game and let their passing football do the talking. Overall, I’m expecting a 2-0 victory.

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 3 – 1 Everton watch the highlights here!

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Just a quick one:

A great result yesterday, poor at the start, but we came back welll in the second half. Song played much better at CB than at RB, also Silvestre did well. Walcott and Nasri add pace and flair on the wings. Ade looked a bit lazy, but we got the goals from Nasri, RVP and Walcott, we just need to lose the complacency!

Hibbert was an idiot – dirty tackle on Denilson, and then he tried to strangle Clichy and got a yellow – the refereeing yesterday was pretty atrocious at times.

Here’s the highlights

Cheers!

Fabregas thinks the squad is a little thin

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Hello Gooners. Fabregas has been talking to the press about our threadbare squad and our style of play compared to Spain.

He raises some quite worrying points about our potential for this season, but he is positive:

“We have a short squad and we are very young, behind me Denilson and Song play, and they are 20. Walcott is 19 and Nasri is 21. Can you imagine I’m the oldest midfielder? Winning will be tough for us because we are not experienced.

“Last season I scored a lot because I had Rosicky, and Flamini who used to run all over the pitch. Hleb as well, who is like my brother. They have gone now and I feel weird. We are more conservative and strong, but with less touches.”

It seems like Fabregas is all too aware of our problems in the squad, and I think he might feel a little more comfortable with some more experienced players challenging for places. Certainly we are lacking cover in midfield right now. He explained Wenger’s policy to the press:

“Arsene Wenger has crystal clear ideas, there aren’t two like him. He doesn’t want to spend money as he prefers to trust youngsters. His idea is that Walcott can’t develop if you sign Cristiano [Ronaldo].”

He was questioned about his differing roles for club and country – the fact that he isn’t an automatic starter for Spain was mentioned:

“To me it is not an issue because I’m aware I’m young, I play differently and must adapt. I’m not an attacker that plays with his back to goal because I haven’t got the body neither the agility to do it. I need to watch what’s happening because I’m not quick neither agile. I rely on my passes and my vision.

“Nowadays we play in 5-4-1 with Spain and at Arsenal it’s always 4-4-2. At Arsenal I can move, do what I think I must do. The gaffer doesn’t make me to do anything. I feel free. With Spain it is different, you touch the ball, make lots of controls. There (in England) it’s more about counter attacks and going as quickly as possible in front of the goal.

“I know who I am. I notice a change when I’m with Spain but it’s normal – I don’t play (in La Liga) and people don’t see me. I am 21 and have so much to learn. I feel so important in England, but you should remain humble when you play football.”

When he plays for Spain he obviously feels like a young boy with a lot to learn, and at Arsenal I think he has some responsibility resting on his shoulders. Maybe it isn’t so good for him to have to be the main player in the squad at such a young age.

On scoring the last gasp header against Sunderland:

“It’s rare because I’m used to scoring set pieces including corners, and I’m not good at headers. But I’d like to improve because a midfielder that can head the ball is more efficient.

“Most of all I must improve defensively. I always want to attack, to score, to deliver, it’s my dream.”

I think Cesc is possibly the best player at Arsenal, without him we don’t tick, but he needs to feel that the club is matching his ambitions, and losing players like Hleb and Flamini has obviously affected him.

He doesn’t know if we can win the league this year with our current squad and that worries me.