Author Archive
Arsenal Chip At Title Summit As Anti-Humble Pie Insurance Is Sold In Plenty
Posted by: | CommentsThree points were a must and we got them; so far so good.
While Fabregas’s injury is a worry, we aren’t exactly impoverished for creative players who can run the show from midfield, so it’s not worth losing sleep over his injury just yet.
Tomorrow’s game against Porto is crucial, and Fabregas has been a captain by appointment and performance. It isn’t to undermine either fact when I think that between Rosicky, Nasri and, in a pinch, Arshavin, the creative core is in competent hands.
Samir Nasri, evidently the man of the match on Saturday seems to be regaining his vim and that bodes well for the games ahead. What a lovely tango that was between Fabregas and he to open our scoring. Marvellous stuff.
Further up the field we continue to indulge in that familiar vice; profligacy in front of goal. I have previously observed that we need Bendtner, Eduardo, Vela and Walcott to find their feet to better negotiate the games ahead and so far only Walcott has shown signs of dusting away the cobwebs.
Whilst it wasn’t a sterling performance I’m delighted at the goal Theo got and the effort he put in as both his physique and confidence would benefit. Nicklas Bendtner, on the other hand, blows hot and cold. Just one of those days? I hope he doesn’t have many more such through the remainder of the season.
Arsenal: Finances, Prospects And Burnley
Posted by: | CommentsArsenal’s half-year results, released last week, make for comforting reading for the simple reason that despite a recessionary environment the club has largely managed to stick to plan as regards property sales and debt management.
The plan was that The debt incurred to build the new stadium would steadily be paid down with proceeds from the sale of property developed at Highbury. Wenger has also had to keep transfer expenses under check and, over most of the duration at least, ensuring Champions’ League revenues to build a healthy cash flow. Increased revenue from the new stadium, would also contribute to maintaining these healthy cash levels.
That Arsenal managed to pull the lot off in the midst of a global recession is praise worthy, especially considering Pompey’s travails, the fan revolt underway at Manchester United, and the debt to equity conversions by the Abramovich’s of the world.
Given that we still are in the title race, this could be the season where the whole project comes to fruition.
Ryan Shawcross, responsible for two broken legs so early in his career, bravely says “I won’t change my style despite Aaron Ramsey’s injury”.
He certainly won’t unless harsh penalties are exacted for mindlessness. Knowing that you’ll miss a lengthy stretch of games, for starters, and that your manager will kick your head in for inviting such a fate on yourself, your certainly going to change your style Mr. Shawcross.
And is “style” the apt word at all for Shawcross’s exploits? Whatever you wish to call it “style” doesn’t ring true
Arsenal: Style, Substance, Reality And Expectations
Posted by: | CommentsWhat is good football? What makes a great team? Where in all this does Arsenal currently stand?
The increasing discontent surrounding Arsenal’s “trophy drought” has me pondering this question quite a bit lately.
It has proved a vexingly difficult question, and my personal view is that it boils down to why one was attracted to the game in the first place.
In this column, I share the reasons behind my affection for and beliefs regarding the game by documenting my own introduction to and involvement in football.
Are titles and trophies the sole measure of good football?
No. While honours are something we should aspire toward and strive for, football is far too rich to be evaluated on that basis alone. My own introduction to and interest in football (and it was love at first sight) doesn’t have to do with my local, or family favourite club or country winning honours.
It has to do with a set of foreigners provoking an irrepressible grin in an 8 year old, from a cricket obsessed country, watching football virtually for the first time. And no, they didn’t win that edition of the competition, though my affection for them remains an integral part of my love for the game.
Here are the culprits:
Guest Post: Coaches, Players And Teams – Weak And Strong
Posted by: | CommentsWatching Stoke eliminate Manchester City in the FA Cup last night was a reminder that every league game here on in is an elimination game. While Arsenal on paper enjoy a more comfortable run of games relative to others in the top four, one poor game could irreparably torpedo our tilt at the title.
The margin for error is perilously thin this season in particular, as illustrated by the humbling the top teams have been subjected to at various times this season. Naturally, we don’t want to be on the wrong side of that line.
Coming to personnel, I wonder if Eboue-Vermaelen-Gallas-Sagna as back-four starters would circumvent Clichy’s rustiness and serve our cause better. With the race still open, it’s too late in the season to risk allowing Clichy to find his form, especially when he’s going to be remorselessly targeted.
Watching Wayne Rooney against West Ham left me ruing the lack of an Arsenal player who can single handedly drag the team along on the strength of his success. The exceptional performances of Ronaldo and now Rooney, have enabled Manchester United – over the last few seasons at least – to escape paying the price of their flaws and injuries.
The Gunners haven’t been as lucky, and therein, to a considerable extent, lies the difference between the brides and the bridesmaids.
Of Champions League Play-offs and Arsenal’s Goal Keeping
Posted by: | CommentsAs I settle down to write this piece, Lukas Fabianski’s nightmare at Porto, and talk of a play-off for the fourth Champions’ League place dominate the headlines.
The play-offs scheme is, in my view, both intrusive and unjust. A team that has, over the course of 38 games – long enough to equalise luck, form, injury woes (except perhaps if you’re Arsenal?) -, earned the right to fourth spot shouldn’t then be subject to the much greater risk inherent in a four team play off.
That it is in vogue in the Championship, by the way, doesn’t legitimise it. It is a naked attempt by 16 of the teams to dip their hands in the money pot not by dint of better management and effort, but by brazenly violating the principle of merit.
The talk of Champions’ League money enabling the top four to barricade themselves off permanently from the poorer chasing pack is nonsense:
(“Uefa has studied the economics and points out that Champions League money forms only a small part of our top four’s incomes, 8-13% according to 2007-08 figures.”).
Yes, the top four will by definition earn more money, both via TV rights, ticket sales and merchandising; but are those revenues so vast as to enable permanent dominance? Given that we and Man United are paying off substantial debts (accumulated for different reasons of course), and that Liverpool haven’t exactly been setting the transfer markets on fire, I’d regard the possibility as remote. Chelsea of course inhabit their own wonderland.
I’d argue therefore that – at least some of- the top four owe their status to better management both on and off the pitch. It is worthwhile to remember, too, that quite a few teams in the chasing pack have billionaire backers of their own, rendering pleas of poverty moot.
How just would it be, hypothetically, if fourth placed Arsenal, a viable business, are upstaged in the playoff by the seventh placed billionaire’s plaything – subject to no financial restrictions that apply to business – that is Manchester City?
If the Premier League, and the FA, are truly interested in levelling the playing field, may I suggest barring clubs from running persistent and sizeable losses on the back of benefactors’ indulgence?
But I’m not holding my breath. Neither of those worthies are famous for their decency or common sense. The only thing you can count on them to do is seek the path of least resistance to more money.
Martin Samuel, in The Mail, raises a whole host of other questions pertinent to this nonsense: Why not play off for relegation?; why not play offs for the top spot?
To that I might add the idea of play offs only between the sugar daddy beneficiaries in the top four against those not so blessed from the chasing pack. Surely, that’s levelling the playing field?
Coming to the Porto game itself, I hope we make amends in the return leg and progress to the next round.
I do wonder though, whether we can just blame Fabianski for the debacle and move on?
For some time now, and in quite a few high profile games to boot, he has committed hara kiri, repeatedly violating fundamental precepts of goal keeping. One would imagine, given he’s our #2, that the coaches would have taken special pains to drill the fundamentals into him in the aftermath of these accidents.
Is the problem therefore just Fabianski’s inability to deal with the big time? or are there deficiencies in the coaching of our defence generally? Given that we have never enjoyed a comfortable goal keeping situation at the club – barring patches with Lehman – since Seaman’s retirement, I’m unable to entirely persuade myself that this is solely a personnel problem.
Time will tell if, apart from being poorly staffed, we are also inadequately coached in that department.
Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund