Category Archives: Rant

pshhh to FFP, plus nerves from players to give them the edge?

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Please forgive your humble narrator, but I’m in a bit of a rant mode right now…

Last night there was a cup competition that was won by a certain London team that was not Arsenal. It was won in the harshest of fashions against Benfica in the last twenty seconds. We all know who that team was that won it. But what I want to know is:

Where are all of the footballing gods? What ever happened to karma?

Somebody needs to explain to me how a team that makes a mockery of financial fair play, has a captain that if he wasn’t a professional footballer would be doing time, a left-back mercenary that will swerve off the road at the thought of a £55,000-a-week deal, as well as fans that boo their own (interim) manager, win yet another European trophy. How is this possible? What sort of monkeys paw do they possess that every other team does not?

Last season we had them being outplayed in no-less than three Champions League competitions and still emerge with the trophy on penalties. And now this? Why? When Roberto Di Matteo sold his soul for the luck of a thousand leprechauns last year, was there enough left over for this season as well?

I genuinely despair sometimes. All victories last night tell me are that if you throw enough money at a situation you’re going to win football competitions. And that saddens me. I am not naive. I know that football is now just as much a business as it is a recreation for some of us (although I can’t say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it very much – too many nerves, especially of late!), but I wake up this morning and feel sad that the only way to compete in this football world of ours is to have your very own billionaire bankrolling the club.

I love the way Arsenal are trying to achieve success. It’s the last bastion of hope I have that we can. It’s the final thing that we can hold over Chelski fans i.e. one man bought you success, the collective entity that is The Arsenal (fans, players, board, etc) achieved ours. But on mornings like today all I feel is bitterness. Bitterness and a worry that FFP will be as useful as a fork with soup. I don’t want us to go the same route as Chelski and have Usmanov use us as his plaything. No, what I want is to see football succeed more over financial doping, a la Wigan triumphing in the FA Cup over Moneychester City.

I think it’s probably also made worse by the fact that I live and work in London and I’m surrounded by ‘johnny-come-lately’ Chelski fans. Yep, you guessed it, the type that wave the flags placed on their seats by their club to create an atmosphere.

Anyway, I’ve calmed down now and am happy to just focus on Arsenal because, let’s face it we’ve got a very big game on Sunday afternoon. A season defining game. Because the game is away, I’m not sure if Arsene will do his presser today or tomorrow, but I’m sure we’ll know soon enough.

The most pressing concern will be whether or not Mikel Arteta is fit to play. Last season I wrote a blog stating how I’d completely underestimated how important the Spaniard is to our team, and if he is out for this weekend, it will most definitely be a hole in the midfield that we will find difficult to replace. Yes, we have very talented players that can come in like Wilshire, but he is not a like-for-like replacement for Arteta, and there are also question-marks over his fitness. Mikel is a player that keeps us ticking over. Always available for the back four to release to the ball to, his accuracy of passing this season has be phenomenal, he really is ‘Mr Dependable’. He supports the build up play for us expertly and his energy and drive is something that has been vital to our success this season. If he is injured for the game, I suspect Le Boss will opt for Jack, but the midfield will have to shuffle around a bit more. We’ll probably see Ramsey anchored as the deepest lying midfielder and Jack will probably need to curb his natural enthusiasm for getting forward, because Rosicky will no doubt occupy that position and Jack will no doubt suffer for his ability to be a bit more versatile than the Czech. Jack and Tomas are very similar in what they bring to the team, so one of the two might need to be a slightly squarish peg for the midfield round hole we’ll need filling. We shall wait and see I guess.

Since the Wigan victory we’ve also seen Arsene speak about the nerves of the players before games. Not exactly what you want to hear as a fan before the season finale, but he does temper that response by saying that there has been that in place for a while now and we have still managed to win games. The only worry from this here writers perspective is that it doesn’t become so nervous on that pitch that it inhibits the players natural abilities and desire for success. Whilst we’d obviously much rather be in the position that we are in rather than the Spuds, the fact that they know it’s out of their hands will probably allow them to play with more freedom than our players. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that Tottenham have won by three or four goals come 6pm on Sunday. As for us, well, you and I both know that it won’t be that easy. There is no way in a million years that we’ll see the same Newcastle side that gave Liverpool the freedom of St.James’ Park to roam a few weeks ago. Nope, we’ll have to do it the hard way.

The nerves and that adrenaline Arsene speaks of has to be used as an advantage. It has to be used as the steam that powers the engine forward and on to victory. If you’re a professional footballer that plays for one of the bigger clubs, the only way you can succeed is through a combination of skill, hard-work, determination and the ability to handle pressure. I’ll put my faith in whoever goes out there on Sunday and hope they have all of the above.

Anyway, not a lot else going on that I can see at the moment, so I’ll leave you to the rest of your day.

Adieu.

The fat lady hasn’t even limbered up yet, so Woj’s comments don’t help

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Good morning happy campers. Hopefully you roasted yourself up a treat in the bank holiday sunshine – I know I did. ‘Twas much needed, I can assure you, after a weekend away in Budapest full of staggy drinkiness, so to be able to sit in the sunshine with a couple of ice cold Coors Light and sup at the amber nectar within hit the mark perfectly I must say.

Of course, my predisposition for alcohol and depravity of sleep this weekend completely destroyed my ability to correctly operate my brain or fingers enough to blog, so I find myself somewhat behind the times today. Much of which is on my mind will have probably already been penned and drafted in triplicate and then some, but to me it is not a problem, because this blog is just a walk around my head anyway, and I’m still thinking about things like permutations, other results and whether or not our ability to qualify for the Champions League will be taken from us on Wednesday night. Let’s face it, the Spuds hadn’t beaten United at Old Trafford since the early eighties until earlier on this year, so the idea that they couldn’t break from their tradition of annual capitulation away from home to Chelski is not as preposterous as it once may have seemed.

I’m nervous for Wednesday. It will be the grimmest of feelings actively supporting a Chelski victory. Like being told you have to chop off your own hand with the only choice in the matter being to pick the hand that you like the most to keep. But at this nerve-jangling stage of the season I guess there is nothing else for it.

At least the Arsenal players are doing their bit. Victory against QPR may have been one of those ‘grind it out lads’ style three point displays, but it was a three point display nonetheless. If we’re all completely honest with ourselves, after defeat at Shite Hart Lane there weren’t many of us that thought we’d get anywhere near a top four slot, so even if we fail to get into a Champions League qualification slot, we can take a small mercy in the fact that our league form towards the end of the season – with many of the new players now fully bedded in – has been right up there at the top of the league.

I think what we’ve also seen is how the tension and hyperbole is manifesting itself in the social media world of Arsenal as well. I was waiting for a plane home on Sunday when I decided to see what the fan reaction was to the Chelski victory. It was nothing short of depressing. People took to their computers and smartphones to lambast the team, the manager and anything they could possibly hang a ‘told you so, we’re doomed’ hat on. I was quite astonished if I’m honest. The thought that the result of an opposing team could cause such uproar directed towards our own baffled me, and seemed rather reactionary for my liking. If we’re at the stage where we’re using results like that to bad mouth the team, then we really are desperate.

For me, the time to review what went wrong and what went right will be after that final whistle has gone at Newcastle. If we have picked up a previous victory at Wigan and a win at St James’ Park and not qualified for the Champions League, then by all means there should be many a question asked about our form earlier in the season, lack of firepower in reserve, etc, etc. But to launch into a tirade into the Arsenal team before the fat lady has even warmed up her vocals seems the very definition of premature in my mind.

To that matter, so does the comments made by dear old Wojciech Szczesny, who decided to stoke the rivalry of North London by saying that the Spuds don’t have enough quality to qualify for the Champions League. Now personally, I love that cocky side of Woj sometimes, certainly when it comes to winding up the Spuds. But much like Robbie Keane’s ill-timed comments about the lack of ability in the current Arsenal squad at the time led to a rousing performance in a North London Derby against them by that Arsenal side, my hope is that these comments from our Number one don’t give the Spuds the extra kick in the knickers they need to acquire three points at Stamford Bridge. Had Szczesny made those comments on the eve of our Wigan game and we’d have seen exactly what we wanted – two defeats for the Spuds to leave us with a win to secure a top four slot – then perhaps I could have chortled at the ‘salt in the wound’ nature of the comments. But as it is I’m too nervous about the negative consequence of any action like this on our season right now.

Let’s just hope there is some fluffing of lines over the next week from our rivals before we play again in a weeks time.

Baffling Usmanov tells on school chums

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Believe it or not, the thing that I love blogging about is Arsenal and football, but of course mainly about Arsenal. I enjoy talking about the highs of victory, the controversies and the implications for us fans of activity that is on the pitch.

So I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you lovely people to learn that what I don’t love talking about is politics and finances in football. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not naive enough to think that the world of football as it stands can survive without politics or finances – it’s just part of the world we live in – I just don’t really care for talking about it. It’s not the reason we all started playing, supporting or watching the beautiful game, so in my mind it is merely a sideshow. I know there are people who’s job it is to make sure the books balance, and I know that’s important because I don’t want to see my club on its knees because somebody decided to spunk a load of cash they didn’t have, but I am a simple man and I simply have eyes for what happens on the pitch.

Which is why it irks me when all I have to talk about on a Wednesday morning train journey into the office is the politics of the boardroom struggle that has been going on at Arsenal over the last few years. Alisher Usmanov is the culprit, determined to stoke the fires and dig in at the existing board whenever he can.

Quotes appeared yesterday from the shady oil oligarch about the way the club is run and in particular, Stan Kroenke and his vision (or lack of) for The Arsenal. Usmanov spoke of the fact that Kroenke is not interested in building a winning team, only a team that is profitable, and that finishing third or fourth would be more than enough for the American tycoon. He also made some bizarre veiled threat/comment about the end of the season and weighing up his options before deciding what to do. The reason it was bizarre was because in the same interview he gave he also said he would not sell his shares.

Now, to me, I assumed that his options were pretty clear. A) buy more shares (probably off Kroenke – which wouldn’t happen – not at the moment anyway), or B) sell his existing shares. So surely by admitting he won’t sell he’s already making a decision himself about what his options are, isn’t he?

What is the purpose of veiled threats like that? Does he expect Arsenal fans to raise up arms against the club and demand that the board accept his generous billions and spunk a load of money on 11 Messi’s? Does he want a seat on the board? If so he’s not going to get it by effectively calling them all useless – even if they probably are. And by constantly poking at the beehive of Kroenke, he’s hardly going to get him to give up his honey (shares) is he? The more I read about this person the less I seem to understand about what his true motives are.

I must confess I don’t know all there is to know about Usmanov. I’ve read a few unsavoury articles about his dealings but nothing that goes into too much detail. But what I do know is that I want to support a team that isn’t left to the whim of one man. Sure, we can look enviously at Chelski’s and Moneychester City’s millions when they lift a trophy, but talk to any genuine ‘been going all my life’ individuals of those two sets of fans about their thoughts long term about the club and they will tell you they fear what happens when the rich kid gets bored with his toys. We really don’t want to be in that position, do we? Plus, we’d have the shadiest of all of the billionaires, who isn’t shy of a TV or newspaper article. If we think Chelski’s affairs are put out like last weeks dirty laundry in public, imagine what would befall the club if Alisher sat on the throne.

The AST says that we should at least listen to what Red & White Holdings have to say and, for the most part, I agree. But I suspect that Usmanov’s plan is to rule with the kind of dictatorial approach that would see a board effectively removed and him making all the decisions. We’ve already seen what happens in football when non-football people do that. It doesn’t end well.

I agree that our current way of working on the board isn’t, well, working. We have an old boys club of men who don’t seem to have a decisive bone in their creaking bodies. We also have an owner who prefers ice cool home-made lemonade on his ranch in Colorado than visit the club more than once a year to make sure the bricks and mortar are still standing at his UK based assets. I suspect we’ll see Stan skipping off merrily into the sunset once the club takes full control of all of the sponsorship agreements in a year or twos time and he can sell an asset from his portfolio for much more than he bought it. However, I fail to see how it helps Arsenal football club for Usmanov to continuously try to widen the divide between the fans and the current senior management and owners. It’s like the annoying kid that goes and tells the teacher that as well as breaking the window by kicking the football against some glass, the school fish tank smashed and now all the fish are dead. It doesn’t help to try and stoke more fires and destabilise the club.

I’m pretty sure that none of this will affect the players. As long as they all continue to focus on the aim of getting a top four spot and keep getting paid it doesn’t affect them at all, but it doesn’t really help the club at a time when the collective goal should be talking about the football at a crucial time in the season.

Whatever anyone’s view, if you’re an Arsenal fan or have any kind of affiliation with the club, surely the only thing you should be concerned about is its continued success?

That’s enough from this ranty blogger for one day. Hopefully Arsene will say some things tomorrow and we can all be reminded that we have got a game this weekend.

United: overriding disappointment, but it could be a valuable point

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At the beginning of this season if you’d have run your finger down the fixture list and tapped lightly on the weekend of 27/28 April, I probably would have said to you I’d settle for a draw that week. Manchester United coming to town is always a tough fixture, especially for The Arsenal and our really poor recent run against them, but it’s one of those that you’d hope we could get something from the game.

Indeed, as the fixture approached and it looked like they might win the league on our home turf, the possibility of a draw didn’t seem so unappealing. When coupled with the draw that the Spuds got away to Wigan at the weekend, a draw on the face of it seems an ok result, as we still have a two point cushion over that lot and the hope that three wins out of three should see us into the Champions League spots.

So why is it that I feel a bit dejected this morning? Why do I feel like yesterday we saw two points dropped?

Probably because we did.

Before the game all the talk was about THAT person returning and a guard of honour. I couldn’t really give a monkeys about either and so my hope was that all of the distraction in the build up would allow us to catch our newly crowned opponents off guard. And I think it’s fair to say we did. The first 40 minutes was all Arsenal and within the first five we were one up. Theo got in behind Evra to slot the ball beyond De Gea and send my section of the crowd into delirium. It was exactly what we needed. In the media hyperbole that had been whipped up before the game most pundits and journos alike seemed to have forgotten there was a game to play. The team reminded them of that instantly.

The first half was Arsenal’s. Cazorla forced a good save, Gibbs had a shot over the bar and we were rarely troubled in defence, save for Szczesny’s face taking a knock from a header from that guy. We controlled and bossed the game for the most of that first half.

But Bacary, oh Bacary, what hath become of thee? As Arsenal fans we never underestimate the ability of this team to press the self destruct button. But on this occasion it wasn’t the collective switching off that cost us – just one – Sagna. I have no idea what his pass to that person was about, nor do I have any idea why he felt it necessary to lunge at the player whilst inside the box, but he did and it cost us. I think it’s fair to say that Sagna is no longer that consistent player he made his name on in seasons past. Yesterday he stunk the place out so bad it made my eyes water. And unfortunately it’s not the first time this season that he’s gifted goals to opponents through some comedy defending. At the beginning of the season he made comments about players leaving and that he wasn’t sure about a new deal. Well son, you’ve done a bang tidy job of increasing apathy levels amongst Arsenal fans this season with some of your performances, so don’t expect an uproar if you don’t get your new deal and are moved on. We often said that Arsene knows when a player has hit their peek and has historically been good at moving them on at the right time, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the failure to offer a new deal is of no coincidence at all. With Jenkinson waiting in the wings for his chance, Bacary’s number might just be up at the club, perhaps even having to settle for a squad position if he’s not moved on in the summer. I know this sounds very reactionist after a poor game, but his stock has declined after a series of poor games – just like Vermaelen – whilst Jenkinson’s has increased, so to me this doesn’t sound too extreme an opinion to share.

The second half was a little bit cagier from Arsenal and we failed to assert the same dominance as the first. We looked like we could get caught on the counter on a couple of occasions but you have to say that – right back apart – the defence by and large coped very well. THAT player didn’t really have much of a sniff and Rooney was also kept marshalled for most of the match.

Up the other end Rosicky went close and Santi forced a smart save from De Gea, but we were unable to breach the United defence. Without the benefit of any replays I can only give you my real-time view that Gibbs should had had a penalty, but when you’ve got big-fat-Phil-Dowd officiating, don’t expect any favours. Supposedly he personally went to Rio Ferdinand to apologise about the Walcott goal when it was shown that he was slightly offside. I wonder if the same personal touch was afforded to Arsene Wenger two seasons ago when he gave a second penalty up at St James’ Park for an invisible foul on Mike Williamson? I suspect not.

Many will see this as a point gained, and hopefully in hindsight I will too come the end of the season, but right now I can only see it as two points dropped. From what I saw yesterday, this wasn’t a United team at 100%, but probably at more like 70%. You could see that they were playing within themselves and were there for the taking, yet we could not muster enough composure – both offensively and defensively – to get those vital three points that could have provided a massive platform to complete the job before the last game of the season. That’s why I’m frustrated. That’s why I’m a little dejected. Because it shows me how far we’ve fallen that getting a draw against a half-trying United team is seen as a good result.

But we must carry on. We play a relegated QPR on Saturday and we simply must pick up three points. Our rivals for Champions League places probably won’t drop many more, so nothing except three wins from our next three games can be considered acceptable.

Come on Arsenal, one final push to get us over the line.

Defensive understanding and using my Jacuzzi

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Do you know what? It’s almost as if Moneychester City are determined to find new ways for us to dislike them. Such was their pathetic capitulation against the Spuds, I honestly can’t say I found the oil whores from the North West any more irksome yesterday. The victory for ‘them lot’ means that the permutations for the end of season are becoming too complex for me to contemplate on a Monday morning after a late evening and a wedding yesterday. So I might leave some further thoughts until tomorrow when my brain at least partially works.

One part of his anatomy that DOES know how to work is Luis Suarez’s chompers. He decided that ‘Chelski footballer’ might taste lovely – perhaps with some fava beans and a nice Chianti – and decided to tuck in at Anfield yesterday. To be fair to him, he probably didn’t mean too, but his massive horse gums just stick out so far he thought he was standing alongside Ivanovic instead of nestled into his elbow crease. Cue the T-shirts from his fellow team mates protesting his innocence no doubt. I wonder if they’ll be sponsored by Colgate. never underestimate marketers to catch on to a PR gimmick, let me assure you of that. But despite his general shame and inability to avoid controversy, Suarez still managed to give gooners a collective sigh of relief with a last second goal to salvage somewhat of a sad ‘Super Sunday’ it had been up until that point. Again, permutations are too complex for this morn my fellow gooner friends, so apologies and all that jazz.

Instead, let us focus on our own, which is what Laurent Koscienly has been doing by singing the praises of a man whose head must not just be physically up in the clouds, but after his goal at the weekend, will be mentally up there too. There is most certainly the basis of a very solid partnership that is being developed in the heart of our defence and, one blip against Norwich aside and a penalty against West Brom, is finding a delicious knack of keeping clean sheets and shutting out opposition attacks. Yes, perhaps it has come at the expense of some of our more cavalier style football, but build a solid foundation and you find that new house will start off on the right footing. And from there you can build a games room. Then a jacuzzi. Then a disco room. And you’ll have a house all the other kids will want to play in. There’s an Arsenal metaphor in there somewhere, but I think I’ve gotten lost thinking about coming home to find a big friendly German in my Jacuzzi, which as much as I love the guy, a mans jacuzzi is his own. Or something.

Anyway, I digress away from the crux of my rambling which of course is our new-found defensive stability. We’ll need that over the next few weeks more than we’ll need to keep people’s egos in check, which is why I think we’ll probably not see Thomas Vermaelen returning to the side until next season. Or at least I hope we won’t, because it will have meant somebodies cocked up or even worse, has got themselves injured/suspended for the last few games. Arsene has alluded to the current pairings position as number one choice in an interview with the official site, saying about how they have performed well and he has always said since the start of the season that he would rotate which to be fair to him, he has always maintained. And let’s not forget that Koscienly spent a good couple of months on the bench halfway through the season. I think this time away from the first eleven will do Vermaelen good. I think he’s a fighter that will look at this as a challenge and use it as his fuel to get his captaincy and first team place back. And that can only be good for The Arsenal.

What is not good for The Arsenal is the continuing rumours of injuries that happen to Jack Wilshire. I was listening to the radio yesterday in the car and heard them talking about the possibility of Jack going through yet more surgery on his troublesome ankle in the summer. I have to be honest and admit that stories like this immediately get me to thinking of a certain Abou Diaby, whose career has been destroyed by his injury-prone and brittle body. Unfortunately it looks as if Jack might be heading down a similar path to the Frenchmen if this story is to be true. If it is, my only hope is that Arsenal act decisively to mitigate any long term risks to Wilshire. He’s shown again this season how influential he can be and having him fit for a series of games is exactly what we need. Thankfully Arsene has admitted that he’s being ultra cautious and didn’t want to give Jack three games in just over a week, but still, the hammering his body always seems to take every time he plays – a natural consequence of his style and ‘all-action’ mentality – means that a series of injuries could change the type of player he is. If it was me, I know it would change my style, and I’d never go in as hard after a big injury as I would before one. Just think back to what happened to Pires when we played Newcastle. He did a serious injury and I don’t think was ever the same player again after that. He was still a force to be reckoned with, but he seemed to have lost that 0.5% in his game that made him the player that we all worshipped. He still did great things, but there was always something missing I felt, which was a real shame.

Anyway, let’s hope the same fate doesn’t befall our home grown lad, with a week off until United he can rest his body and prep it for a tough encounter against the probable champions come this time tomorrow. Eurgh. The thought of Robin can Persie lifting the title for them. We all knew it would happen, but the reality of which will be more sickening than dinner at John Terry’s mums house with Tesco food wrappers littered all over the floor.

Until tomorrow.

Everton: Ramsey steals the show, Giroud couldn’t buy a goal

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In the immediate aftermath of a home game, it’s hard to look at any result other than victory and three points for The Arsenal as abject failure, such are the fine margins of football and it’s fickle followers. Oh sure, it may look like I’m giving you my synopsis of last nights game after a night to sleep on the result, but I write this whilst hurtling home on the central line with nought but a tinge of disappointment and a smidgen of resentment.

I resent the teams that have a prolific striker. I resent that they have what we do not. I’m going to try not to give Olivier Giroud too much stick on today’s blog, but after a series of misses and good opportunities yesterday, it’s hard not to do the blogging equivalent of put my hands on my hips, lower my face slightly and give Giroud a shake of the barnet that says “Oh Olivier, you just aren’t that good, are you?”.

The cold light of day should hopefully have me waking up and feeling that this 0-0 draw against Everton wasn’t the worst result in the world, but I’ll let to know at what point of the blog I get to that point, because right now I’m only thinking of the missed chances.

Perhaps I should give some credit to Everton. After all, they are a very difficult team to break down and with players like Distin and Jagielka, they throw their bodies on the line for their team. It’s a shame we couldn’t get the Englishman a couple of seasons ago; such is the impact he has on that team. So whilst I am rueing our own profligacy, I must give ‘props’ to the Everton defence for standing strong.

I cannot however give ‘props’ to a referee that, quite frankly, was useless. If you read my random Arsenal musings regularly you’ll know that I try to avoid bemoaning the referee at all costs because more often than not, you need to look at you’re own team, which I’ll duly get to shortly. But Neil Swarbrick was terrible, in my opinion. On five occasions I saw Marouene Fellaini commit a foul, yet only three were even picked up and no yellow was distributed. But worst of all, the failure of Swarbrick to pick up the obvious second yellow foul by Gibson was the most irksome of all. Irksome because he even recognised it as a foul. If he thought Walcott had dived then he should have played on, but instead he recognised that Gibson had impeded our player, most probably looked at his watch and completely bottled it because we were within the first half an hour of the game. That, my friends, is totally unacceptable and I’m afraid is what we have come to expect from rapidly deteriorating refereeing standards in this country.

Ok, ref rant over, so what about The Arsenal? Well, defensively we came up against a physical presence of Anichebe, a fluffy aerial threat of Fellaini and the tricks and guile of Pienaar and Mirallas and largely kept them quiet for the whole game. We dealt with everything that was put our way and Szczseny was hardly troubled for the duration of the Evening.

In midfield I thought Arteta did well, whilst Jack had another ‘ok’ game, but we have to save the best for last: Aaron Ramsey. He was like the Duracell bunny. Attacking, defending, in the mix, winning the ball, distributing it, driving us forward. In my mind he should be one of the first on the team sheet right now. His game is all about action and yesterday he really was all-action. Superb stuff from a much maligned player who many questioned could make it, yet few will now argue about the potential and start talking about the reality. Once again, Arsene’s faith appears to be paying off.

Unfortunately, as much as I can praise the midfield and defence, the same cannot be said about the attack, particularly given the big fat ’0′ next to our team name. On the left we saw Cazorla who actually played really well, keeping the ball and always finding the man, but I see him as more of the ‘midfield’ success rather than the attacking disappointment. Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott were, unfortunately, average at best. Giroud missed a golden opportunity in the first half plus a miss within the last few minutes of normal time. But what really made me sigh yesterday, what made me turn to my fellow gooners and look around in despair, was what he didn’t do. I’m talking of the moment in the second half whereby Gibbs got in between the defence, looked for the cut back and open goal for the Frenchman, then played the ball off an Everton player and out for a corner. People around me bemoaned Gibbs, but I’m sorry, I’m just not having that. When I watched the replay I saw Giroud standing completely static on the penalty spot. There was no movement, there was no dart to the front or back post, there was just expectancy of the perfect ball laid at his feet. The reason I was sad? I know that a £25million clinical striker would have made that goal his own and given us the three points. Instead, we have a very capable £12million striker that, at times exactly like yesterday when you need a little something special, he’ll be found wanting. He will get goals in this Arsenal team, but I’m not sure he’s got the ability to take us on to the next level we’re after.

I’d love to make comments on Theo’s game, but actually I can’t really, as I didn’t really see anything of note. A couple of runs, but he was largely quiet, which isn’t really a major surprise. But that’s Theo. That’s what you get sometimes. When The Ox came on he looked a little more lively, but the problem we had was that he kept venturing inside and it made the play far too compact, which suited an Everton team that were happy to hold on in the last ten minutes.

So as I round up today’s blog, I’m still no nearer as to working out whether to accept a point or be disappointed. Everton are one of the top six teams in the league. They make it difficult for any team and tonight was never going to be easy. A point may prove to be vital when we hit the end of May, but when you’re looking over your shoulder at your nearest rivals for a top four space, you want the margins to be as stacked in your favour as possible and, after last nights draw, it’s no longer technically back in our hands if the Spuds with their game in hand.

All to much hypothesising for one day, I know, but you tend to do this a lot when you’re an Arsenal fan. They never make it easy for us.

Until tomorrow.

Breaking the mental barrier for Arsenal – with carrots

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I really wish the London press could be as ridiculous and chocked full of the hyperbole as the Catalan press are, because if that was the case, we’d all be chortling about how playing Messi in a game is tantamount to cheating. But never mind, our interest in that competition disappeared in what feels like a lifetime ago.

There’s a couple of days until the next Arsenal game and I’m sure we’ll get some initial injury updates for the game ahead. I suspect we’ll only really get updates on Jack and Theo, because everyone else is fit (Diaby doesn’t count), so the real topic for debate over the next few days will be how Le Boss will manage his rotation with two crucial games coming up that could see us slip ahead of the Spuds and Chelski.

It’s a bit of pressure for the team to deal with, but Laurent Koscienly says that’s ok. He talked to the official site about how a little pressure helps to drive you on, whilst too much stops you from doing your stuff. I found this quite an interesting point actually, and perhaps it goes some way to explaining some of the mental deficiencies in the squad when it comes to just getting over the line to win cup competitions, but why we seem to have the menticular fortitude to secure Champions League qualification season after season (although I still think it will be a stretch for this year and by no means am I counting my Kentucky Fried’s).

I hear so much from ex-players and pundits (and fans actually) about the mental conditioning that has seen Manchester United consistently at the top of the league under Sir Fergal. We get it rammed down our tonsils that the players just feel an aura about them that they simply cannot not challenge for trophies. Built up upon years of success and the reign of one Scotsman, that appears to be their level of ‘a little pressure’ that they can handle that drives them to succeed. Yet with us, that all-illusive trophy is the holy grail right now. It has become the ‘lot of pressure’ that ‘stops you playing’ that the players have built up over the last years. Yet for us, achieving a Champions League spot has been the achievement year-in, year-out, so the players don’t view it in the same way as when we get to the latter stages of a cup competition, where we invariably fall short. sometimes with no real understanding of how and why. See Arsenal Vs Birmingham as case in point one. Perhaps that same ruling can be used to explain why the Spuds slowly fell away from that level and allowed us to scootch in ahead of them last season, because their level of ‘too much’ is the next level down from us, I.e. Champions League qualification, but the ‘just right’ is Europa League level. Just a theory of mine. I call it the Goldilocks Paradox. This has no scientific evidence of statistical analysis on the why’s and wherefore’s, it’s just me trying to diarise some sort of explanation as to why we have, on many occasions, got so close but never made that final step to success. How do actually obtain that level of mental capability for trophy success? Your guess is as good as mine. We could try Chinese water torture on some of the players, but I suspect Arsene is more of a ‘carrot’ than ‘stick’ man. Perhaps we should offer the players a years supply of carrots? After all, who doesn’t always need carrots? They’re the staple of many dishes across the world, so having a supply regularly delivered to your home on a weekly basis so they remain fresh and you don’t have to go to Sainsbury’s on a Tuesday night to pick some up for dinner is surely an awesome thing to have. But then again, once you have won your first trophy and you know you have carrots in the bag, what next to keep you motivated. Maybe potatoes I guess? Anyway, I digress.

There’s also been some stuff about Martin Angha joining Nurnberg at the end of the season so good luck to him there. We’ll get a nominal fee which I read somewhere is around £300k, which I guess is a bit more cash for Stan to bank…I mean…the club to ensure they can maintain their self sustaining policy. I have to confess that from what I saw of the young lad he looked tidy enough, but with competition at Arsenal as strong as it is, we were probably never going to see him step up into the first team – especially with players like Jenkinson, Miquel and Bellerin ahead of him in the pecking order.

That’s yer lot for today. More tomorrow.

Hoping that Andrei isn’t the ‘modern day money’ footballer

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Happy Wednesday Goonerinos! Hope it works for you. Or in my case, it’s just ‘work’ for me. But never mind, that can wait a bit as I speed into the centre of London cloaked in the working man’s noose (tie) and suit, for my next half an hour can be dedicated to The Arsenal. As it should be all the time, but hey, until I get paid to do this shizzle (unlikely given my completely flawed editorial style) or someone wants to reward me financially for just waking up, I’ll have to continue this schlep for probably another 30 years. Man, that’s depressing…

Anyway, there’s only one thing on everyone’s lips right now in the Arsenal world and its not how Julio Baptista managed to get into a Champions League quarter-final reaching side, but the future of our diminutive Russian Andrei Arshavin.

Yesterday it emerged from a few sources that the man himself was considering retirement at the end of his existing deal with Arsenal this summer. Apparently he’s become a bit disillusioned with football and the lack of any real offers that have come in for him over the last two transfer windows. I’m sure he was hoping to spark a bit of interest after a couple of good displays in the Euros last summer, but the reality was that nobody would be willing to stump up the cash plus wages that the little Russian was banking each month.

So Andrei finds himself kicking his heels in the reserves and barely even on the subs bench for match days. It really is a sad state of affairs for a player that seemed to be a real talisman for us when he arrived. In fact, it was his arrival that kicked the team into life and into achieving what felt at the time as an unlikely Champions League place.

I’m reluctant to go into any more detail about his past, as I’ll probably save his Arsenal obituary for when he is finally released from the club in the summer, but I do want to talk about the Arshavin of right now. I don’t really like to chastise players whilst their still at the club, but my own personal opinions of him are that his situation is symptomatic of modern day footballers. I hear all the time from some footballers that all they want to do is play football. In fact, for many, that is why they are happy to drop down to so-called smaller teams in the same division or even in a lower league. I wish every player had that mindset. When you hear and speak to old pros that have long-since retired, most of them will tell you they miss the playing side massively, and would do anything to rewind time and relive the thrill of top flight professional football. Yet for some players – those particularly in the Arsenal team sitting and watching every week – there doesn’t seem to be that desire. I know it’s easy for me to sit here having never played professional football and talk about a hypothetical world where I am good enough to, but if I was in either Andrei’s or Squillaci’s position, there is no way I’d want to spend two or three of my twilight footballing years playing reserves football and seeing out my contract. I don’t even care if it’s Arsenal. I would have loved to have played for Arsenal, but if I was at the club as a player and I was told I wouldn’t be playing any more, I’d seek pastures new. Because when I was 40, I’d want to look back on my career and know that I made the most of every opportunity to play.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case for a certain breed of footballers. Some footballers would rather maintain their wage packet than their playing time, which is the saddest thing in the world to me. Arshavin is a talented footballer. He is 32. He probably has another two or three years in the game. I understand that he loves London and does not want to move, but if these stories prove true and he does want to retire, it will have unfortunately confirmed my suspicions about him. He’s already a millionaire, he doesn’t need to secure another £95,000 per week contract, so why hold out for one? I’m sure if he approached a London based team and said he’d be happy to drop his wages considerably, there would be plenty that would be interested. But the real question would be: is Andrei really interested? That is what every Premier League manager would be asking. And perhaps that is why he hasn’t found anybody willing to take a punt on him.

I hope he still is interested. I hope that when he is released in the summer he goes out and finds himself a team that he can play football and find his form again (as long as it’s not Spurs, and he always plays badly against us!). Not because I have any great affection for the man, but more that it will fill me with pleasure to see that there is one less player in the game that is purely in it for the money.

Until tomorrow.

The illusive winning mentality

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Thursday is a funny old day when you’re a gooner. Too long from the previous match, not quite short enough time span until the next match, it just sort of sits there watching and not really doing anything. Like your appendix. It doesn’t really serve any purpose or major value, but if it bursts you’re well and truly Donald Ducked. Except Thursday’s can’t really ‘burst’. You could have a rubbish Thursday at work or school or something I guess, but I wouldn’t quite think you could metaphorically link it to a burst appendix.

Anyway, I digress a little, when the real reason you’re here is to read about The Arsenal. I hope thats the case anyway. I do occasionally check my site stats to see where the top referrals have come from on Google searches and sometimes there’s the odd curve ball, like this week where I’ve seen ‘fat Tony Adams’ and ‘what to do about despair’ – great stuff!

Well, what have we had in the world of Arsenal then? The answer unfortunately is ‘not a lot’ I’m afraid. Theo is continuing his campaign of stating the bleedingly obvious by talking about how the team must not just react from disappointment and bad results, but must be prepared to cut the root of bad form off at the source and not wait until defeat before reacting. Again, I know it’s the stuff you’d expect any player to say and it’s great that the players recognise that at times this season they have been poor, but you do wonder why all of them talk about it but collectively we haven’t seen the positive trophy-winning action that we’re all craving. Is there a mentality at the club where failure is rewarded? Do players not really have the incentive or kick up the knickers that drives other teams on? I hate to make this comparison, but when you look at the Chelski team and compare it to ours, it’s difficult for me to see which is a better side. So why is it that they have managed to slowly decline whilst still picking up trophies? We all know that it helps when you get a bye all the way to the Quarter finals minimum with the FA Cup (something that even Fergie highlighted last weekend), but still, there must be some sort of deeper issue that is preventing Arsenal from taking that final step into glory.

It’s probably one of the most frustrating things about being an Arsenal fan at the moment. We’ve come so close to success over the last eight years on a number of occasions, yet not been able to take that final step that you just know would have pushed us over the edge and possibly built a whole new Arsenal team based on that initial winning success. There might be one or two people that are thinking I’ve gone a bit mad when they read me saying we’ve come so close on many occasions, but just stop to think about the last eight years:
- Champions League final
- Leading the Premier League until March 08 (Gallas tantrum time at Birmingham)
- FA Cup semi final against Chelski
- Carling Cup final

That’s us ‘getting close’ once every two years, yet each time we’ve not been able to ‘kick on’. I don’t know if I have any real major point in summing up my thoughts around this other than to tell you that it frustrates me as much as it frustrates you. We have the talent to win competitions. Sometimes we haven’t had the luck, but we’ve managed to get there, at least.

Does Wenger need to buy ‘winners’? I don’t really know. He bought Gallas and Silvestre and they both won competitions with their former clubs, so this idea of a ‘winning mentality’ coming from experience is a load of old tosh in my opinion. A winning mentality, the drive that the most successful teams have, comes from the individuals ability to motivate themselves, not from the number of games they’ve played of trophies they’ve won. What our current crop of players need to do is to have that belief that they know they will win. Have that confidence. I don’t know how you can get that, whether its even capable with some of the players, but we need to see more players showing the drive and downright arrogance that belief can bring. Jack has it. But who else? I’m not sure.

Anyway, I’m sure there is plenty of other things I could be talking about that are Arsenal or football related, like the Epic Failing of Eboue at right back last night against Real Madrid. Or the Jovetic rumours that keep surfacing in different sources, but I canny be bothered with it. Arsene might give us an injury update today, then we can start to assess our chances against the Baggies this weekend.

Catch ya on the flip side, bro’s and ho’s.

C

Congrats, transfer ‘blah’dom and England or my doors?

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Morning gooners, hope you are sufficiently chilled to the core this morning? Mother Nature is harsh. Harsh like having to be related to Robbie Savage harsh. She is slapping me around the chops this morning, I can tell thee.

My blog yesterday sparked somewhat of a mini debate around the purpose of the youth development, stemming from the NextGen quarter final yesterday but whilst I’ve had my say on what I think youth development is for, I’ll reserve today only for praise for the young players who have seen our beloved Arsenal march on to the last four of the competition. It shows that we most certainly have a talented bunch of players. Whether they become Arsenal full timers or another few ’000s’ on the balance sheet when moved on will remain to be seen.

By the sounds of it, Serge Gnabry and Nico Yennaris did quite well, with the former bagging himself his only goal of the game. He’s an interesting prospect. I’m sure we’ve all heard of his talent and how he has impressed the coaching staff and the hope is clearly that the next couple of years – probably his most important as a professional footballer – see him develop into the skilful player that we hope he can be. I try not to listen to the drivel spouted by TalkShite, but about a year ago I heard Ray Parlour describing the laziest player in training – Patrick Vieira – with the one of the hardest working and most skilful players in training – Alberto Mendez. That tells you all you need to know about potential and realising it on the pitch for the first team, doesn’t it?

The signs are certainly there for Gnabry and I think also Eisfeld, but I have to admit to not seeing too much of many of the others. Yennaris has looked tidy at times in the Champions League but then again, I saw Craig Eastmond look assured in one game a few seasons ago, so I don’t think it’s as accurate a barometer as one might think. So the next few years as they hone their abilities and try to make the step up will define whether they become Wilshire and Cole-like successes, or Larsson and Sidwell types that embrace a career at mid-level Premier League teams, or even David Bentley themselves into another division. I hope it’s a future with Arsenal they succeed in.

Whatever the future lies for these players, we should not do anything other than praise the effort of those players yesterday evening who showed that we have some potential waiting in the wings for their chance.

I suppose I could talk a little bit about transfer rumours, but do I really have to? They’re so irrelevant at times that it makes my brain clank – and not in any type of good way – not that there probably is a good way for brain clankage. Anyway, blah blah blah Jovetic, blah blah blah Podolski to Juve after one season at Arsenal (???? Your guess is as good as mine), blah. We haven’t even finished this season and people are already looking at next. Football is all about the ‘now’ so why the bloody hell are some media outlets and fans talking about the ‘then’? Are we Liverpool or something?

Anyway, I’m probably just grumpy because I’m not going to get to go to the game this weekend because of Easter family commitments meaning I’ll be at the other end of the country. Which effectively means that I’ve been away from The Emirates for over a month. I mean seriously, I’m getting withdrawal symptoms here. I know this could quite possibly be the most illogical argument ever, but have we had the number of home games reduced this season or something? It feels like I’ve been to The Emirates about three times this season. I hope that we are rewarded next year with a glitch in the Premier League fixture computer that spouts out permanent home fixtures for the entire season at Arsenal. That’d be fun. Expensive on the wallet, but fun. And hey, the money men at the club would probably all be quaffing congratulatory Tia Maria’s too. Who needs the Champions League, eh?

I could talk about the England game tonight. But then again I could talk about the fact that the doors need a new coat of gloss on the inside of my house. I know what you’re thinking, “why on earth would I want to know about England?”, so on that note, we’ll have to part ways for another 24 hours.

Arrivederci Roma.