Tag: van persie

A good weekend for Arsenal, see Blackburn 4-0 highlights here!

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

Arsenal finished a good week with a fantastic 4-0 victory over Blackburn at Ewood Park this weekend. After Theo’s midweek hattrick for England, we had a goal glut on our hands. Theo – looking so, so, so confident, set the first up – for RVP to score, and then Ade went on to get a hattrick of his own, with assists from the likes of Ramsey and Denilson.

Wenger had thought of leaving Theo out, but decided against it:

“The problem with scoring three times for the national team is that everyone expects you to score again. Football isn’t like that.

“What is most important is that he has a good team attitude, tries to work hard and the rest will come with time.”

We looked fantastic and outplayed Blackburn, I was worried we would stumble here, but the opposite was true. Theo was confident, Ade got goals, RVP got a goal and the team looked good, plus the fact that Man Utd lost 2-1 to L’pool could only make it better!

Ade talked about the team performance, he will be happy that he got his goals in, I hope it can be a confidence booster for him. Ade is the player we rely on most for goals, so it was good to see him get the first few out of the way, lets hope they keep coming:

“People kept asking me when I was going to score my first goal in the league this season.

“But I told them it is more important that the team wins. We showed good character at Blackburn and that will help our confidence.”

Click here to view the match highlights.

Jack Wilshere came on, becoming the youngest player to play for Arsenal ever, and Wenger had this to say about him:

“I bring English players slowly through,” Wenger told Arsenal TV. “He is another one who will soon play for you [England].”

Exciting stuff, and you can’t help but get excited when you see some of the great youngsters we have coming through. I just hope they can match their talent with trophies..

Robin Van Persie and Eduardo: Fitness

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal2 Comments

Hello all, welcome back to ArseSpeak, I’m back within range of a good internet connection, so be ready for news 24/7.

First up, some injury news, Eduardo is recovering from his broken leg amazingly well, and hopes to be fit soon for the new season:

“I don’t feel pain anymore, it’s like I never broke my leg. I never watched the pictures of my injury and don’t want to see it. I’m hopeful I will forget it and continue my career as soon as possible.”

He’s hoping to come back before the end of 2008, which is really good, we need his presence, his goals were a mjor factor in some of our good for last season, I hope he continues where he left off.

RVP is another player who was out injured for long periods last season. He hopes to stay fit this season.For him the problems are more long term, he has struggled with muscle injuries for several seasons, and this has hampered his performance.

“I have learned a lot in the last two years because I have been injured so much, I learned what my body can take and what it can’t, so it was an interesting period for me. 

“I hope next season will not be so unlucky with injuries.  But at the moment, I just do not want to think about that, the negative stuff. If you think positive, you get positive. “My target is to be as fit as possible after a month because the season is long. We have to build it all up slowly with gym work, cardio work and games. It is really important for me to get a good start.”

He knows that Arsenal have to keep it together to get a good start to next season:

“Last year we had a really good pre-season and won almost every game. Then after 50 seconds against Fulham on the opening day, we were behind, so it is hard to predict. But hopefully we can get some confidence out of the first few games and slowly build it up. For every team, it is really important to get that confidence.

“If you lose the first few games, you are not at your maximum. It is important to win to get the answers to the questions.”

In terms of silverware he had this to say:

“I think any of the top four can win the title, Arsenal have to win something every year, that is our aim. If it is not happening, then everyone is really disappointed. But I am certainly committed to winning it, and if you look around, so is everyone here.”

So, amitious and positive, that’s exactly what we need to hear. RVP really needs to get a good run of games and stay fit.

He was on fire at the beginning of last season, but injuries have really held him back. If he still has problems this season, Wenger should consider offloading him, and finding someone else for the role

Van Persie linked with Inter + Transfer talk: Ade + Hleb

On By jamesgillespIn Transfers1 Comment

It has been suggested that Jose Mourinho is looking to sign RVP from us for his new club, Inter Milan.

I wouldn’t be suprised if top clubs are interested, but as you know, here at ArseSpeak we’re cynical and we know that the media aren’t trustworthy. Yes, clubs may want him, but will he actually leave? It is doubtful.

The same can be said of Adebayor, our 30-goal a season striker who has been linked to the other Milan club: AC. Now the president Silvio Berlusconi has said that Ade is too expensive for them.

Silvio Berlusconi:

Berlusconi

“He costs a lot.”

Adebayor is also now in contract talks with Arsenal, so much for that one!

Another bit of news is that Aleksandr Hleb may not be leaving Arsenal after all.

Inter, the original ice cream bandits, who tapped him up in February now have a new manager, and don’t want him. Barca have spent so long bumbling about I don’t know whether it will happen and Real and Bayern were always dubious links. I reckon that there’s a 50% we might see Hleb staying, watch this space!

All in all I don’t think we will lose many more players this summer (maybe Hleb), I hope we don’t. Just be a little critical of some stories you read Gooners.

Click here to get the latest Arsespeak news via RSS feed.

Van Persie scores – Out with the old, in with the new

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Yesterday saw Holland continue their good form and thrash France 4-1 at Euro 2008, putting them through to the Quarter-Finals, and France on the brink of disaster. The game itself was a great spectacle, both sides had a lot of chances, but Holland’s counter-attacking play ruined France’s chances of a comeback.

This game mirrored in some ways the transition at Arsenal, with players like Henry playing for an aging France side, while young starlets like Van Persie (when fit!) scoring. The Dutch play a great passing game, and have really stood out for me. The way they have brushed aside the two finalist of the 2006 World Cup is impressive.

I can only hope that we can start getting more results like this next season, and one for the future – I wouldn’t mind seeing Van Basten at Arsenal when it comes to the day that Wenger retires.

Eduardo may be back in July for pre-season training!

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Eduardo is recovering fast from his horrific leg injury. Every week we seem to get little bits and bobs from his native Brazil on the progress he’s making.

We’ve heard even more recently as Croatia play without him in the Euros. Bilic, the Croatia coach, has now said that Eduardo might even be back for pre-season training at the Arse.

“He is recovering and may even join Arsenal for their preparations. Eduardo’s absence is a handicap, we feel it all the time.”

This would be great news, but the club should be wary about bringing him back too fast, I’m sure they will get it right this time, look at what happened when we tried to bring Van Persie back quickly – he got injured again.

For Eduardo to get back to his best he needs time to recover to 100% of what he had before. This will take a while and it won’t help to rush him back.

Nevertheless, I hope his speedy recovery continues and he is back playing for Arsenal as soon as he is 100% better!

Van Persie wants extra wages to keep Arsenal together

On By jamesgillespIn Transfers3 Comments

Last night Robin Van Persie came out saying that Arsenal need to break their wage strcuture if they want to keep their squad together.

Already having lost Flamini, and now facing losing Hleb, Van Persie put further pressure on the club to revaluate the contracts of players like Fabregas and Adebayor. He said:

“They should make sure that these players stay”

“Arsenal have a policy in which they will not go over a specific amount of money when agreeing the salary of a player. They won’t pay enormous amounts of money. I think that they should go to a higher level of salary.

“If you want to keep the group together, you have to keep them happy. If you are 27 or 28 I can understand that you would make the decision to go elsewhere if you can earn three or four times as much. If that sort of money was also paid at Arsenal I’m sure that person would stay.”

“It is very important that Arsenal keep these guys. This group is unique. If a number of them leave it will be different. I think of myself as an Arsenal man but Arsenal should also try to make sure that we all grow together.”



The issue of wages has been hotly debated ever since Flamini left for AC.

I think that RVP does have a point, the club can’t just be naive and hope that players will just stay at Arsenal even when they are offered fat contracts elsewhere.

This is sad, but it is how modern football works. I don’t think that we need to raise salaries greatly though. The best course fo action would be to reassess the wage structure, but the club doesn’t have to go crazy in raises.

We don’t want a system which will spiral out of control and leave us in huge debt. Because of this I do still have sympathy with the club.

It would be even better is if we could just sign some guys who won’t fuck off as soon as they see some extra cash, but instead want to work in a great team at a great club.

What do you think? Should the wage structure be thrown out the window?

Arsenal Title Hopes Over Manchester United 2 – 1 Arsenal

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

First off,

We didn’t deserve to lose yesterday.

Highlights here.

Man Utd

Ronaldo 54 (pen)
Hargreaves 72

 2-1
(0-0)		 Arsenal

Adebayor 48

Even Fergie was a little gracious:

“Arsenal had some great moments, they were brilliant at times. They bossed the first half.

We played some of the best football we have this season.

It was a great game to watch, but to be honest after I saw us concede another lead through silly mistakes I felt a bit sick.

Don Howe approved of the decision to include Song, I did too. He has some good tactical analysis here.

All the idiots who are going blame Wenger and the players etc. etc. etc. can shut up. We are an amazing team and if it wasn’t for injuries such as Eduardo, Rosicky, RVP and bad luck then we could have had success this season.

Ade had some great chances to put us in front in the first half, and we had some great passing moves.

Hleb was menacing in the hole, RVP was contributing from the wing, as was Clichy and Fabregas was pulling the strings in midfield.

Gilberto had a shot blocked by Song in the area after a corner and we looked dominant.

I thought we should have been in the lead and we were playing well, Eboue was even making some good runs and passes.

We came out in the second half and scored, RVP put in an excellent cross and Adebayor had a header which came off his arm. I thought it was a deserved goal and a decision going in our favour for once after all the hard luck we’ve had!!

But within minutes that horrible feeling was back, another penalty conceded, this time for a Gallas handball in our box, where there really was no need for it to happen. We just can’t hold on to leads at the moment, and it seems to have defined the last third of the season. Many of the goals we concede are not actually in open play, but dead ball situations.

Anyway Ronaldo put the ball away after having to retake the penalty for encroachment in the area by Park. he slotted iot away in the same position, bottom left, just out of Lehmann’s reach.

Their second goal came after Evra was tripped needlessly right in front of our box. Hargreaves went for it and Lehmann was too far over, it went in the empty right hand side of the goal. lehmann didn’t even move, he knew it was too far for him to reach.

We put on Walcott, and then nearer the end Bendtner, both did well. Bendtner had several headers saved by Van Der Sar and created chances. Walcott had a few good runs and played well generally.

We looked like we might actually get another goal, bombarding their defence, we were playing for our season and our pride.

After a superhuman effort on our part, the final whistle went and we lost.

Thats all you can say. We now want Man U to beat Chelsea because I really want second place.

Wenger said here: and here

“This team is amazing, They keep going and I am so proud of all of them.

“I feel we were very unlucky not to win the game, but we have to accept what happened.

“In the last two months we have had a blip, but we have not had much luck either and you could see that again today.

“I believe this team is good enough to win things and our biggest target now is to keep the group together.”

“we don’t feel there’s a different technical quality between us and Chelsea and Manchester United,”

“I’m not an idealist [and] I feel we must win trophies. We lacked a bit of maturity in some games but trophies will come.”

“The winner is praised beyond reason, the guy who does not is slaughtered,”

This is all so true, and I feel that although the result was painful, I feel good in a wierd way, about next season, the players we have and the style of football is amazing and we have a great future.

Wenger knows the squad needs adding to, and he knows they need to mature, but I hope we keep it together because we do have something amazing.

Manchester United Vs. Arsenal, Line Ups. It’s Make Or Break Time

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Morning all,

Looks like we’ve got:

UPDATE:

Lehmann

Toure Gallas Song Clichy

Eboue Fabregas Gilberto Hleb

Adebayor Van Persie

Lehmann has come in for Almunia and Song replaces Senderos. It is his first start for a long time, and I hope he can replicate some of those excellent performances he put in for Cameroon in January. Eboue again sarts ahead of Walcott, why not put Toure and Gallas in the centre and Eboue at right back, it seems to make more sense to me, then we would have our stringest possible lineup in my opinion. Arsene knows? Pretty standard line up, I think this is quite strong, the only problem is Flamini’s injury. Gilberto I hope can nullify the threat from United’s Midfield, especially Ronaldo when he cuts in from the wing.

Wenger knows that the whole season will now be probably defined by the result at Old Trafford today. Click here.

“It will be the greatest achievement of my career to win the Premier League now because we are swimming against the stream at the moment,” said Wenger.

“For us the game on Sunday is the game of the season. If we do not win this game we have no chance.

“We will fight until the last second of the championship.”

Fighting talk from Wenger and it’s all true. Exactly what yopu want to hear at this stage and I hope he can inspire the players today!

He comments here on the refereeing recently:

“In 11 years [at Arsenal] it’s the worst I’ve seen,” he said. “It is in every game. It is difficult to understand. It damages the confidence of the team and then you become more vulnerable, but it is like that.

It is true that the decisions that we have had go against us have hit the team hard, but we can only fight back, we can’t blame refereeing decisions for our loss of form, and I don’t think Wenger is, but they haven’t helped us.

He knew about the risk with his youth policy he tells Sky Sports.

Theo Walcott has garnered a bit of positive attention after his run against Liverpool, attention which is well deserved.

Cesc says a draw today would be as bad as a loss. That is true and I think we are going out for the win as always.

RVP agrees, saying that we aren’t going to change our style of play today.

So make or break time today. I m pretty cautious about the match, but I know we can achieve if we play right on the day.

Flamini Out For Three Weeks As Lehmann Rants

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Bad injury news today: Flamini will be out for about three weeks Wenger says here.


 This is a blow for us. Flamini has been a revelation for us this season and we will miss him. Le Boss says Gilberto will come in. I was hoping Flamini wouldn’t be out long, but it seems Gilberto is going to get his chance. Wenger said:

“It is a big blow but Gilberto has a lot of quality and experience. He will come in. He can help the team recover and focus. Robin van Persie is available. He had two good sessions yesterday and today. He looks to be OK and we’ll see how we go from here. But Bacary Sagna is out.”

So it looks like RVP will start on Sunday, pity about Sagna.

I really think Walcott has warranted a starting place too. He has been really good all season and his inspirational run in midweek really was a big boost for his chances in the first team. His team mates have been praising him here. Kolo says:

“Theo’s run was fantastic, with a great pass at the end. He is a good player and is improving every time. I think he is going to be one of the best players in England.”

Willy Gallas is pretty low after the Liverpool result. Not exactly what you want to hear from the captain before you go into a big game on Sunday. I hope he changes his attitude sooner rather than later. there were doubts about him being captain, maybe these are showing through now we are at a low point in the season. A captian needs to be a leader. Come on Willy..

Lehmann is ranting on about how he would have kept us in the Champions League. Jens is a bit temperamental and after a season fuming on the bench that was probably too much for him. Maybe he was hoping Manuel wouldn’t save the pen. I don’t think it would have made much of a difference anyway, he needs to shut up, pretty soon!

Henry Winter writes here, about how we have to learn to win ‘ugly’. We have heard this before to be honest but it still makes an interesting read.. He also thinks we should have strengthened the squad and I agree to be honest.

Fergie says Manchester United are ready for Arsenal. Ok ok Fergie, blah blah blah.

Alright thanks guys, thats it today!

Who Else Wants To Beat Liverpool? Round Two

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Today, Arsenal Vs. Liverpool 12.45pm, Ashburton Grove..

RVP won’t start due to his injury problems…

Mascherano is suspended baecause of his red card against Man U.

Gunnerslive has predicted line-ups here.

He’s hoping Walcott will start on the right ahead of Eboue and so am I because Eboue has really contributed very little this year and I think most people would agree.

Wenger Says:

“There are no problems with Adebayor.”

So that means he will start, fatigued or not, I think that’s our best option. Arsenal-mania reports here that he feels less jaded and ready to go, which is good news!

Wenger also said:

“I believe they will make changes, I am convinced of that. I am not sure whether Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will play…I believe we can still win the title. Manchester United are an excellent team but they can still lose points… Everything is still possible but the main thing for us is to win our games.”

So optimistic from Wenger, but he knows the position, it is unlikely that we can win the League, but statistically it is still possible.

Some news on Eduardo here from Arsenal Analysis: It seems he is making a better recovery than hoped, and ‘fingers-crossed’ could be back as early as September.

Arsenal Blog thinks Flamini should put pen to paper sooner than later, I have to agree! Click here to read. Insidearsenal agrees here! with a mention of the ticket touts at Ashburton Grove hype that has built up recently in the media.

Arsenal News Review gives some stats analysis here ahead of the game. Interestingly it really proves that we outpassed Liverpool the other night, I just hope we don’t come to regret not taking our chances in the second leg.

But back to today’s game, I will be there, Block 5 Gooners.

Lets get some atmosphere going and get behind the team today!