http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php Arsenal Football Club Gooners Highbury en http://backend.userland.com/rss092 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:06:52 +0000 lg@goonerville.com lg@goonerville.com
Strangely though it is the level of football that we have become used to at the Club that has become a rod for Wenger's back. If we were perennially hoping to get no lower than fourth from bottom, we wouldn't worry whether we had enough cash to buy the latest football agent promotion, we'd just be happy to still be in the Prem. But we're not because we have to win something and four points and a dodgy refereeing decision don't go in the record books, just third place and a quarter final.

So what's it going to take to win something this coming season? Well in true George Graham mode we have to defend better, if we could protect a lead we would be Champions now. OK, so the fat lady hasn't even begun to warm up yet on closing the transfer window, but I have concerns about the back four and even a little about the goalie. I think Almunia is competent, but having seen replays of Old Safe Hands in action (don't mention the long punts he let in), he really is somewhat removed from that level as yet. Don't know if it's instinctive or can be taught, but we need someone the back four can trust and I'm not sure Almunia is it. Similarly it looked like our back four was inclined to panic a tad last season and not play with discipline as a unit. That has to change.

With ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=223 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:04:13 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=223#cmt
This is seriously extracting the urine. Can't imagine why someone on an obscene amount of money can't be honest and come out and say thank you but goodbye I am a avaricious, grasping scumbag who covets money more than loyalty. See, easy enough isn't it. If you get a headache from all that nasty, nasty noise in London, then take an Aspirin or move house, but don't expect us to believe either Milan or Madrid are a bucolic oasis of tranquillity. We may be loyal, but we're not stupid. So for the sake of the club, make up what mind you have Hleb and put in a transfer request or prove that your agent is not speaking for you by sacking him. It's really that simple.

Funny thing is, look at any transfer issue you have, including current Arsenal will they won't they sagas and what is at the centre? Not the player, not the club, not even the game of football, but some agent trying to extract the last penny from any club they can. Nice work if you can get it, as long as you don't have a conscience that is.

Speaking of playing on words, how's this for a euphemism. Milan/Unreal/insert club of choice are 'targeting' Adebayor/Cesc/insert player of choice. Targeting? That's the same as tapping up right? Isn't about time Platini spoke out about ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=222 Fri, 23 May 2008 11:38:07 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=222#cmt
There's endless discussion about what and who we need, but I have the sneaking feeling that Le Prof may once again be thinking of what he can do with what he has rather than buying in. For instance, is it just my impression or has Denilson bulked out somewhat? He used to look tiny compared with just about everyone except Theo, but he doesn't now. Actually a lot of the 'boys' seem to have done the same, so I'm guessing we could expect more combativeness from them in the future, which is why I wonder just how many players will come in.

We still need someone to sort out the defence though, either on or off the pitch, but preferably both. The number of free headers we allow is just frightening for a club whose recent history is built on a they shall not pass mentality. Come back Big Tony soon as.

Everyone expects the Flamster to go, and everyone thinks he will be a big miss. Well maybe, but that's what they said about Thierry. What we have seen is that if a big player leaves, it allows other players to thrive. So yes Flamini has been a big player for us and has undoubtedly helped Cesc be the player he has been this season. But let's not forget what his situation was at the end of last season, who's to say that there isn't another player in the sa ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=221 Mon, 05 May 2008 11:24:08 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=221#cmt
Will this be corrected next year? That's really the question now. Cesc and Ade are talking a good season already and it's good to get players saying they realised they came up short but will do better next. Let's be clear on this, if we improve points-wise by the same margin next season as we did this, we will walk it. And whilst I don't subscribe to the attack is always the best form of defence school, if we had been more clinical we wouldn't have had to worry so much about a very un-Arsenal like defensive record. Yes we scored a shed load this season, but think about pretty much any game and the gilt-edged chances that were missed. How many could we have scored?

As I work myself up into a frenzy thinking about how we could have blown pretty much everyone away, a cold shower of reality brings me back down to earth. Our defence is suspect and on the evidence of this season it isn't just a matter of who we have getting better. Sure we probably have the best two wing backs in the Prem, no problem there until one gets crocked, but the centre-back situation is distinctly worrisome. Smiling Billy has looked like he is trying to do it all himself at times and has been caught out of position way too many times. At least that's all I can think has been happening because he is supposed to be a ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=220 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:59:13 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=220#cmt
Yes it's that time in the season when we have very little except a possible second place to play for, and a lot of Gooners are trying to ignore that there is a footy match today which will have an enormous bearing on the Prem and is nothing to do with us. So we talk about almost everything else. Like whether Le Prof speaks good enough English. Hey ho. It's looking like the Barca move wasn't entirely Thierry's idea from some of what has been said recently, but I really can't see what good it would do either side for him to return as a player. And based on his showing the previous season I wouldn't hold out much hope for a future career as a motivational coach either.

Now if he could find some way of instilling his passion for the club and utter dislike for losing into some of the team, that would be worth something. Speaking of distilling belief (yes I am aware of a bad joke here, but leave it) Big Tony thinks he can do a job as a coach at Arsenal. If the phrase 'worth a punt' were ever truer, I cannot imagine how. He has the character and the kudos to do it, the only doubt is whether he has the communication skills, but frankly it's a back four he would be talking to, how articulate do you need to be? Sign the man. It'll be lot cheaper than most other options if we are still financially under the cosh.

Still no result on Flamini and now ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=219 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:04:37 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=219#cmt
I don't know if Villa is the answer, but to rule him out at this early stage and say we have sufficient quality seems to me like madness. If our current crop are good enough right now, then why aren't we celebrating winning the Prem right now and looking at a semi in the CL. We are not good enough right now, even making allowances for bad luck. Scoring more goals would have negated the bad luck because the bad decisions wouldn't have been so important.

So yes we do need to sort out the defence, but if we are to win the Prem next year we need to be damn sure our current strikers are going to be 'way more clinical in front of goal than they have been this year. I'm not ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=218 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:04:22 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=218#cmt
Once that happened and the game became even more open, it was inevitable that another would follow, though even then it was not clear which team would score it. The game was still pretty much up for grabs and even when we went behind I still thought we might come back to draw it. You could argue we should have done as we had the chances, but again we were profligate.

Now I don't want to moan about the players, they played pretty well and tried hard this match, but looking back over the season there are two main issues for me. Obviously luck has played a part. I'm not saying our luck was better or worse than anyone else's because I don't care about other teams, but it was atrocious for us. For Gooners I don't need to catalogue what went against us, and any reasonable minded person couldn't argue. For the record I don't think there has been an orchestrated campaign against Arsenal, and I honestly don't think that was what Arsene seemed to be inferring. Maybe what he was suggesting is that there is a certain view of Arsenal highlighting our supposed 'faults' which has been promoted in certain sections of the media which means we are more likely to get decisions go against us. Referees read the sports pages and watch TV, they can't help but have their opinions shaped somewhat if they hear something enough times.

But leaving aside that aspect, we have managed to ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=217 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:55:35 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=217#cmt
Last night I felt as bad as I have after a match since losing to Barca in the CL final, which is weird really because I had serious doubts that we could get a result. If we scored, I knew that with the way we have defended recently, we would concede. I had my doubts as to whether the fabled twelfth man would have much influence on our team, think of places we have gone to and got a result in Europe, and I was right except in one important regard. The pressure on the ref to award a penalty in front of such a vociferous crowd must have been intense, especially since his attitude seemed to have been the exact opposite of the ref in the first leg. It was clear from the start that he was not going to allow Prem-style tackling, but even so it was possibly the harshest penalty I have seen given against us. So the ref was culpable.

I have seen Hyppia's goal described as "the easiest of headers", were they watching the same match? Yes, Big Phil was done by his movement, since there is some difference in age I'm guessing Hyppia may have made the best of that time and learnt a few moves, but if the header had gone anywhere other than where it did, it would have been saved. Yes it was a good header, but no-one is that accurate in that situation, a bit of luck is needed. Unfortunately for us, he got it. If you're going to blame Senderos entirely for that, then why not blame Cesc for not growing another six inches so he could get to the header. So Big Phil made an error, but on many another days it wouldn't have cost a goal.

I hate to say it, but Torres is class. Those with memories longer than a goldfish may recall Thierry doing that sort of thing for us. We chortled merrily into our beer about ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=216 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:59:34 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=216#cmt
With the mancs doing an Arsenal yesterday, the impossible looks only slightly more possible, but the worst possible of two very bad results would be for the chavs to win the Prem. You have to think that there are still some twists and turns to come, but us winning is the least likely result at the moment.

So why is that? Well the quickest answer is momentum, or in our case a complete lack of it. To suddenly get back to the sort of style we played to take us five points clear will I feel be impossible because we are looking like a very tired team now. Now much has been discussed about our depth of squad, and some of it has been well wide of the mark. I don't think we are lacking in talent, but I do think we are lacking in experience. Yes I know I bang on about it a lot, but maybe that's because it's true.

Take Theo and Bendtner as examples. They are like chalk and cheese temperamentally speaking, but they both make bad choices after doing something very skilful. How many times has Theo beat a defender hands down only to do something real dumb afterwards. With Bendtner his positional sense and runs tends to be the biggest problem. Now you can point out the times they have got it right and I would agree they have both produced at vital times for the team, but think how muc ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=215 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:06:06 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=215#cmt Inside Arsenal for it's insight. If you haven't already, you have to visit Rocky7 the tribute site and see if you can't spend some dosh in a very good cause. What I will say about this anniversary is that it shows the type of club we support and the type of supporter the average Gooner is. We can be very proud to be part of it.

So there was a bit of a game on Saturday. I have to be honest, by the end of the first half I had the same sinking feeling I got against the mancs in the cup. It seemed like we had absolutely nothing more to give although we had played rather better than against the mancs. Diaby had to go, any Gooner who says otherwise has already forgotten Eduardo. Neither conditions nor intent are an excuse. Le Prof brings out his magic hat and we get payback for some of the dodgy decisions that have gone against us. Only some though. It's kinda hard to put in words without being misunderstood, but we seemed like a real football team with a real manager and real guts. Don't get me wrong I love the manger and the team, but it was like the old Arsenal spirit which many have felt has been sadly lacking at times finally surfaced. The result was barely credible, but entirely earned and although Arsene's tactics can be questionable at times, he was spot on. One can only imagine how far out of his comfort zone taking such a big risk was, but he was game enough to give it a shot and boy did it work.

I don't know that we are necessarily any more in the title race than we were Frida ..]]> http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=214 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:53:59 +0000 General http://blogs.goonerville.com/blog/LGS_blog.php?id=214#cmt