Word of the Game: Stalemate // Stoke City 0 – Arsenal 0

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Our very own B.F.G…

Two games, two draws, no goals. Not ideal reading is it? There are some positives to glean from a game that will not be long remembered – we didn’t concede at the Britannia Stadium for the first time in the Premier League. Finally, it looked as though we were sound defensively, and used intelligence to nullify a threat that has been realised on each of our previous visits. We didn’t concede a single corner. We limited the number of free-kicks in our half. Set-pieces were almost a non-event, much like the game itself.

Gooner nerves weren’t always as calm – as the team sheet was announced the news came through that neither Szczesny or Fabianski were fit enough to play any part, and in came our third-choice stopper Vito Mannone. I’d imagine that the young Italian will have more difficult days betwixt the sticks. That was down to the defence, and the work of the defenders is the main (only?) positive to be drawn from the match.

Lining up with Mertesacker marking Crouch, Vermaelen detailed to Walters and Jenkinson and Gibbs at full-back, their first test came early on. Crouch drifted across to Vermaelen, won a knock-down with ease – Walters picked it up and smashed past Mannone. If you’d have kept your eyes on the players though, you’d have seen a vintage one-arm salute from the backline. Offside. Breathe. Is this the influence of Steve Bould?

It was really the only time that the defence looked too stretched, Jenkinson marshaled Kightly well down the right. The centre-backs marked Crouch and Walters out of the game – Crouch’s performance was one of the most subdued I’ve ever seen against us. Diaby and Arteta covered well too, with Diaby cutting off a lot of the supply to Crouch. Gibbs down the left was combining well with Podolski, as well as taking a less-than-100% Jermaine Pennant out of the game.

Look any further forward though, and the positives dry up. Cazorla buzzed, Giroud bustled but otherwise we looked devoid of ideas, and those we did have were poorly executed. Quite a lot of this was down to Stoke narrowing the game and forcing first Podolski and Gervinho then Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain to play centrally. This undid our likely Plan A – get balls into the box for Olivier Giroud to attack. Unfortunately, the width wasn’t available and we played far too much in front of the Stoke ranks. The best chance came from Giroud, again, who floated a wonderful-looking lob that drifted just over – our best chance from a shot outside the box, whatever next!?

Gervinho in particular was wasteful, reverting back to the player from last season who looks indecisive on the ball and taking too many touches, rather than the quick-minded direct actions he’d shown during pre-season. I think I’d have preferred Oxlade-Chamberlain from the outset – his power and control already seem in excess of the Ivorian’s and a greater role is surely crying out for the youngster this season.

The 4-3-3 again didn’t seem to work well, although Giroud performed the role of the centre forward more effectively than Podolski last week. With Podolski’s close control looking good, it almost seems worth trying a more traditional 4-4-2 with both Podolski and Giroud playing in tandem rather than trying to shoe-horn three forwards into a line-up that doesn’t really work. Whatever happens, goals have got to come – and soon.

In his post-match comments the manager chose to concentrate on the attackers;

“We lack a little bit of oil in our engine in the final third. What looks completely natural when we are at our best still is not there, and we have to work on that”

Which is more or less what I think most fans would agree with. The problem has its roots though in the midfield. Arteta, who Arsene described before the game as a ‘little general’, is being asked to perform a role that negates the best aspects of his game; Diaby is still lacking that burst of pace that makes him dangerous and Cazorla is still trying to link with the strikers. One more quality signing in the midfield is needed, and that is someone to anchor the middle; to allow Arteta or Diaby greater freedom to move forward and play higher up the pitch.

Song was never the long term answer to this – he lacked the defensive discipline. And for him to claim that he wanted to stay at the club for life, as he appears to have done this morning – what utter nonsense. We’re not done in the transfer market yet, I just hope Arsene has his eyes on the right position – and not to be swayed by the lack of goals in our first two games.

So, Liverpool next who look inconsistent, but improved against City. Hmmm. Let’s do a goal-dance…

Efficiency is Key: Stoke vs Arsenal Match Preview

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Get ready for a proper game, Arsenal.

Arsenal, my team, have only won once in the city of my birth since the day I was born. How’s about that for a stat? This is my least favourite fixture of the year, I hate it. Not because I have any latent nostalgic thoughts about the city where I spend my first formative years, but because it pits my team against the team of ALL my childhood footballing friends. I look forward to the North London derby, the matches against United, the always-great games against Chelsea. Stoke are a different type of challenge, there’s nothing to look forward to here.

Of course, the distaste for the Gunners goes well beyond the last four Premier League years and back to two consecutive FA Cup semi-finals in the 1970s. In both these, it is argued, that Stoke were undeservedly knocked out – dodgy decisions and disallowed goals were the order of the day. For me, playing school football a decade later in an Arsenal shirt, it meant rough tackles and letters home asking my parents to ensure I wore something more suitable for sports…

My first experience of professional football was at the Victoria Ground, the shambling old faithful of a stadium – a 3-0 Stoke win against Darlington. The floodlights failed. I didn’t much like it, I yearned for the Arsenal – a team up until that point I had only seen on the TV. The next match I went to was the FA Cup 3rd round replay in 1998 over at City’s rivals Port Vale – the one where we needed penalties to see off a stern Division 1 challenge.

However, since the Potteries club’s return to the top flight things have soured further. Rugby clubs, Shawcross-Ramsey, doing the ‘Arsene’, hatred. And the fact that out of four matches at the Britannia Stadium, Arsenal have won once. Bogey team? Perhaps. In the eight matches between the clubs overall in the last four years, we have won 5 and drawn 1. So it’s just away from home we struggle, which doesn’t match our overall away record.

The reasons are diverse, but largely attributed to our perceived lack of spirit and fight. Something that Stoke have in abundance. I think this year things might change. We look meaner, more resilient. It started last year, and we’ve continued in that vein. It used to feel that we turned off the M6 already resigned to defeat. Stoke beat us mentally. I think amongst the players that remain at the club, that self-belief is back. Part of it could be provided by a man with just a little local knowledge, Steve Bould. I imagine for Stoke fans seeing him as Arsene’s assistant will rankle in a similar way to seeing Vieira lord it up at Man City. If anyone can prepare the players mentally for dealing with Stoke – it’ll be Bould.

Let’s start at the back. We have Szczesny, who if fit, is perhaps one of the most confident keepers in the division. We’re likely to have centre-back partnership of Vermaelen and Mertesacker. No lack of fight and height there – although if Stoke choose to play on the deck there could be problems with pace. However, if they stick with their well-known Plan A of an aerial barrage, we’re better prepared. The full-backs will need to have strong games to counter the pace and skill of Etherington and, if fit, Pennant. It’s the key word – efficiency. Knowing when to attack, when to hold station. Stoke do it brilliantly.

In midfield we’ll need to keep the ball. If we play Arteta, Diaby and Cazorla this shouldn’t be difficult. There’ll be little time to make decisions and, again, making simple use of the ball should bear fruit. The midfield lacks pace, particularly with Whelan and Delap, but they are a constant threat when the play breaks down. If we can keep the ball and draw Stoke’s full backs, there should be room (albeit on a narrow pitch) to exploit the pace in behind with Walcott and possibly Podolski on the flanks.

Up front, to counter Stoke’s enormous defence I would have thought we’ll play Giroud. After his chance to win the game last week, he’ll be hungry to prove his talent and if we can get the ball wide, then we have plenty of crossing ability in the team to give him the ammunition.

This is how I see us lining up:

Szczesny
Jenkinson – - – Mertesacker – - – Vermaelen – - – Gibbs
Arteta – - – Diaby
Cazorla
Walcott – - – Giroud – - – Podolski

Bench: Fabianski, Santos, Djourou, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gervinho, Chamakh

I would hope that Arsene has drilled the belief that only a win is good enough here, but I think he’d settle for a draw. It’s going to be hostile, but take out the history and the Stoke team are beatable. This is not a game that should be dictated the way that the media want, pragmatic Northerners against soft Southerners. It is time to face Stoke as equals, counteract what they do well, and let our talent dictate the game. I’ll predict a 1-1 draw, but hope that we can snatch it 2-1.

Word of the Game: Frustration // Arsenal 0 – Sunderland 0

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Giroud – could have won the game for the Gunners

Arsenal 0 – Sunderland 0
ONTU Prediction: 1-0

The new season kicked off yesterday, and whilst most of the Premier League went goal-crazy the Gunners played out a third consecutive opening day stalemate.

Lining up with a familiar 4-3-3 formation, debuts were handed to Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla. It was the latter that the most immediate impact, with the former Malaga player buzzing between the midfield and attack. The game began with the two game plans becoming quickly apparent; Arsenal keeping possession and building pressure, Sunderland happy to concede possession, defend deep and launch counter attacks.

It was Sunderland who had the first chance, and Steve Bould will feel he still has work to do as McClean sprung the offside trap with ease and fired against Szczesny. Arsenal were quick to respond though, with Cazorla unleashing a fierce drive from outside the area that was slightly too central. Later in the half too, the diminutive Spaniard released Gervinho who played the ball back inside for Cazorla to fire slightly wide.

Arsenal possessed plenty of attacking threat, with the midfield of Diaby, Arteta and Cazorla combining well to keep the ball and release the attackers. As the game wore on, a draw became ever more inevitable. There were decent chances for Podolski, Diaby and Walcott in the first half, with perhaps all showing a little ring-rustiness in their finishing.

As the second-half came around, things settled into an all-too familiar pattern. Plenty of possession, some penetration and chances going begging. Off the bench came Ramsey, Olivier Giroud and the forgotten man – Andrei Arshavin. They couldn’t change the outcome though, and although Giroud had the clearest chance to grab a goal on his debut, the game remained obstinately scoreless.

As has become routine for many teams at the Emirates, Sunderland had done enough to keep the Gunners at bay by sitting back and soaking up the pressure. The problem for Arsenal is that we still don’t seem any closer to breaking this repetitive deadlock. We attempted to draw Sunderland out by keeping possession in the midfield, but the opposition didn’t bite. When faced with rigid banks of players, we need to find that creative spark to feed the front three.

There were times where this worked, Arsenal using pace and width to get around Sunderland – through Gervinho and Cazorla especially. Far too often though, the ball was too predictable through the middle. When the through-balls did come off, it found strikers out of position or demonstrating a slight lack of sharpness to unleash a shot in danger of stretching Mignolet.

That will improve with time, this was the first time this group of players had played together in a competitive fixture. Overall, signs were promising. I was particularly impressed by Santi Cazorla, and I think as the team builds in confidence and awareness his instinct for space and passing will begin to break defences down on a regular basis. Both Podolski and Giroud will sharpen up, and we’ll perhaps start to see them played together either on something closer to a 4-4-2 or in this 4-3-3 style, with Podolski wider and Giroud through the centre.

The team certainly looked to have more options than the start of last season, with the new signings having had more time to get used to their team-mates than previously. We do, however, still need some reinforcements. Arteta wasn’t convincing in the holding role, and we need a specialist in that position with Song packing his bags.

After the fixture, Wenger shared the same word as his players experienced on the pitch: frustration…

“It is always frustrating in the game when you have so much possession and so little points.”

And that, in a nutshell, has been our problem for the last few seasons. After today I’m a little more satisfied that we have the players to change the story.

Once More Into the Breach: Arsenal vs Sunderland Preview

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Neither of these two will feature for the Gunners today…

Finally, the idle talk can stop. It’s match day! Sunderland present our first opposition of the year, and Arsenal will be hoping for a better start to their Premier League campaign than the draws with Newcastle and Liverpool in the past two seasons. They’ll have to do it with a side likely to feature at least two new faces, with German striker Lukas Podolski hoping to replace the goals and skill of Robin van Persie, and Santi Cazorla bringing his attacking guile to our midfield. Olivier Giroud, our third main capture of the summer looks set to start on the bench.

Sunderland present a tough, but beatable, opposition. We’ve had mixed results over the years against the Mackems. Two league victories last season were tempered by them knocking us out of the FA Cup last season in the 5th round, days after our Milanese mauling. However, Sunderland finished last season in pretty poor form with only three wins in their last ten games. They’ve also not bought particularly well over the summer, having been so far rebuffed in their attempts to sign Steven Fletcher from relegated Wolves.

They have bought in Louis Saha, and the only way a goal from the ex-spud would be acceptable is if it results in another 5-2…

So, how will we line up? With injuries to Koscielny, Sagna, Wilshere, Rosicky and Song not playing the first XI is relatively straightforward. I’d see us lining up as:

Szczesny

Jenkinson – - – Mertesacker – - – Vermaelen – - – Gibbs

Arteta – - – Diaby – - – Cazorla

Walcott – - – Podolski – - – Gervinho

Gervinho and Diaby in particular need to produce on a regular basis this year. Gervinho’s debut season saw lots of effort for very little return, and he’ll look to get on the scoresheet more often, and to frequently provide a better final ball. For Abou Diaby, the words regular, lots and frequently just haven’t featured in his vocabulary recently, unless in association with the word injured. He needs a full season. He has the talent, now let’s hope he can deliver.

As for the rest of the team, well it is obvious that we still have the talent to challenge at the top of the league. As always, the link up play between full-backs and wingers will be vital – something I feel is missing when Jenkinson and Walcott play in tandem. The real challenge will be finding those 30 goals we got from RvP last season. Podolski and Giroud definitely have that capability, but they’ll need to hit their stride quickly. We cannot afford another slow start to the season.

A final thought on Alex Song… I like him, and I thought he was one of our finest performers last year. However, I don’t see why he feels a move to Barcelona would suit him. His passing isn’t good enough to play in the midfield, his discipline isn’t good enough to replace Mascherano. He won’t play – it’ll be Hleb all over again. The rumours floating around Twitter are that his behaviour and attitude have been unacceptable, and that he no longer wishes to be at the club. He, unlike RvP and Fabregas before him, is not irreplaceable. For all his decent moments, there has usually been a calamity. The only real problem would be if we did not replace him – find a defensive midfielder with tactical discipline and a decent range of simple passing and we’ll be fine. Just don’t bring back Denilson!

1-0 to the Arsenal today. Enjoy the game, Gooners.

Can Vermaelen Lead Us To Glory?

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Leading from the front – Vermaelen to be Arsenal’s new skipper

After days where it has seemed that common sense has deserted Arsenal, a sensible and necessary decision to appoint Thomas Vermaelen to the club captaincy was made today.

Although it was probably an inevitable promotion from the vice-captaincy, I’m sure most Gooners would share my view that this is exactly what Arsenal need. Our last few captains; Henry, Fabregas and Van Persie, have all been vanity appointments -using the armband as a weak string to tie players with eyes and minds elsewhere to the club.

This always disappointed me, especially as we had players in that time whom captaincy seemed to suit much more – Gilberto Silva being the most obvious example. Our Belgian hardman is in the same vein as Gilberto, Adams, Vieira – ready to tough it out for the good of the team.

I thought Vermaelen had a patchy season last year, his defensive solidity often compromised by the need to cover the midfield and add his considerable aerial abilities to attacks. The captain needs to lead by example, urging his teammates to higher levels of performance, confidence and belief. He did, however, show that kind of spirit in spades last year, from berating a falsely-prone Joey Barton in our first game through to his late-season goalscoring form. He’ll need to show it in perhaps a more steady way this year, through defensive and tactical discipline.

I’ve always argued that defenders make the best captains – they can see the flow of the game, adjust the depth of the defence and dictate the pace of the game effectively. With the likely imminent departure of Alex Song it seems that he may have a new problem literally in front of him, someone to hold the midfield. Whoever it is needs to strike a good relationship with Vermaelen. Maybe it’ll be our new vice-captain, Mikel Arteta – dropping deeper to allow Santi Cazorla, Abou Diaby and hopefully Jack Wilshere to play a more attacking role?

We may have lost our most potent attacking threat, but for me, we have at least gained a much more suitable captain. Lead us to glory, Thomas!

Van Persie’s Off – What Now?

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These boots were made for walking…

History repeats itself again. A misjudged recipient of our captaincy deserts the club on the eve of a new season. Have the club learned nothing? Listen to the apologists. A sound piece of business. £24 million pounds for a 29 year old whose best days may have gone. He could have left next year for nothing. Getting rid of a player that doesn’t want to be at the club. We’ve got replacements.

Nonsense. The lot of it. That is because it means that we as a club are saying that it is OK for one of our biggest rivals to sign our captain, our star striker, our talisman. It is saying that we no longer consider ourselves to be in competition with this club. That we can’t match their wages, their ambition, their credentials. It is giving in and giving up.

That wasn’t what I saw from the club last year, a club languishing in the depths of some of the worst sequences of results in my memory. I saw fight, spirit, competition; victories over champions of England and Europe. Signs that we were on the verge of a return to glories not-long past. Our early summer seemed to suggest those signs were continuing – we signed Podolski early; a statement of intent.

Van Persie seemed to lose faith in the club and the manager, claiming that we couldn’t match his ambitions. That struck a chord with many fans. We all wanted the club to move forward. Yet despite indications that our transfer policy may have been changing, our one remaining world class player has departed. It sickens me, as much as the departure of Fabregas.

Can we blame Robin van Persie? Probably not. Realistically, he recognised that our chances, and therefore his, of winning anything this season were remote. He moved on from a club that supported him through some very lean periods and maximised his potential to win. The huge shame with this, as with the departure of Fabregas and seemingly the imminent departures of Song and Walcott, is that it is the fault of the club.

You cannot imagine top sides selling their best players to bitter rivals. When was the last time Manchester United sold a top player to another rival, especially domestic? Perhaps Ronaldo and Beckham to Real Madrid? The sums involved, particularly for the former, made it happen. The last time they sold us a player it was Mickael Silvestre. Hardly Wayne Rooney was it? When have Barcelona done it? Chelsea?

The teams who have allow this to happen are perennial also-rans. Liverpool – allowed Torres, Mascherano and Xabi Alonso to go. Tottenham – Sol Campbell. Need I say any more? We are becoming a nobody.

We can only stop it in two ways. We either accept, as fans, that our club is in a period of restructure and accept that for now our team will be merely good as opposed to great, that the club is unable to attract or keep world-class players. That we are unable to compete for transfers, renewed contracts or trophies.

That – or the club fundamentally changes the way it approaches football. Realise that there the time when club loyalty and honour decided whether a player stays or goes. To aggressively involve ourselves in the transfer market – there has been, and always will be, players that don’t make the grade at Arsenal to fund our actions. To pay players top money, salaries that don’t just match our system but match what our rivals can pay – and beyond. To jettison the idea that football, and footballers, have any concept of fair play.

It is time to wise up, Arsenal.