Arsenal vs Wolverhampton

Aaaaand another frustrating result. At a time where both Liverpool and Chelsea dropped points and we could break into the top four with a win, we decided we don't like to make things easy for ourselves and got a shitty result. I don't think the performance was bad (except defensively), but i prefer a shitty performance with a good result - like last week at Villa. Until we can consistently deliver wins regardless if we are playing good or not, the title that we have been waiting for, for a while now, looks pretty far away. I am not saying we have a shot at the title this year (that would be more than naive on my part - top 4 would be a great achievement) i am speaking about winning the title in general.

I thought overall we played a decent game. We scored a very nice goal early: the pass from Benayoun was great and the finish from Gervinho was very good as well. We dominated possession and everything looked pretty good except when we had to defend. The defense looked shaky the whole first half. Every time they attacked i had the feeling we can get scored on. And it wasn't our usual "not pressing the ball" stupidity, we just looked vulnerable and unorganized. Djourou was fucking horrible. He did make a good stop on a one vs one situation with Jarvis but that was in the 36th min. Before that he looked like a clown at least 3 times and we got lucky we didn't get scored on. The goal we gave away was also fucking terrible. Didn't clear the ball properly and then no one closed down Hunt fast enough. I know we had a dose of bad luck but we didn't look solid in the back the whole first half.

The problem with the goal is that it changed the whole complexion of the game. Instead of Wolves having to push forward and open up spaces for us, they just defended the whole second half and we kept missing chances. Hennessey had a great game, i will give him that. But if we can't beat a 10 man Wolves team at home, we don't deserve to be higher up the table. The only comforting thing for me is that we at least created some good chances. We have had games when teams defend deep and we can't create a goal scoring chance for like 20 mins. Today that was not the case.

Vermaelen and Koscielny were both very good (i am getting used to writing this and it feels great). Thomas got a stupid yellow card but the ref was being a bitch. Mertesacker also had a good game, had a great block in the 5 min, almost scored in the second half and overall he is starting to find his game in the last few matches. Djourou was fucking horrible as i mentioned earlier. He is just clumsy, and seems to have good athletic skills with no football IQ. Got abused by Jarvis a few times in a row in the first half. On one of them he didn't even stretch his leg to try to block his pass, he just stood there watching. The only times he looks good is when he tries to charge forward but even then his passing is pretty bad. I am sorry i am bashing on the guy but i just never feel comfortable when he is playing. The real question is, if 3 of the 4 defenders played pretty good, why is our defense still shaky? Because we had other situations when Djourou was not involved and we still didn't look solid. For me, it comes down to better communication and better defending as a unit. We need to get better defensively, and i don't care if people think i am being too harsh.

Song for once had a bad game. Missed a lot of passes - 2 of them back heels; could have easily seen red instead of yellow ( i thought Wenger subbing him out of the game was a good move); overall did not have a good game at all. I can give him a pass though because he is one of our best performers week in and week out and he is allowed to have one or two bad games. Benayoun was pretty good. Gave a great pass for the first goal, was active most of the time that he played. He didn't do much more to remember besides that pass but i will have him play over Arshavin any day. Rosicky was good. Not great but good. He was very active the whole 90 minutes; put the ball on Mertesacker's head for the chance that Hennessey saved. He also missed some passes but he was always a threat throughout the game. Arteta was decent, didn't do too much but he wasn't being a liability either. Just kind of a quiet game for him. Ramsey and Arshavin didn't do much off the bench, except that shot that Arshavin kicked close to the left goal post.

Gervinho scored a great goal. He was always active on the flank. Sometimes he overuses his move towards the corner line and that makes him a bit one dimensional but he had a good game and always a threat with his pace. Robin did not have a good day. Had a good chance in the 15th min on the counter attack but he rushed his shot. I am guessing the goal scoring record is on his mind a little bit. Had other chances throughout the game but Hennessey also did very well to block a few. Chamakh didn't contribute much except clashing heads with RVP.

So to sum it up, another frustrating result. Decent offensive performance; not so hot defensively; and a bit of bad luck and good goalkeeping on Wolves part. Bottom line: we need to get better and get results against QPR and Fulham, otherwise Europa League next year is a very realistic scenario.    

Manchester City vs Arsenal

I am tired. I am tired of repeating the same shit over and over. I am tired of watching the same mistakes being repeated over and over. I don't even know how many times i have written in this blog about our inability to press the opposite team properly when they have the ball. And from the look of things i am going to be writing about it many more times in the future. Because it never changes! We have some games where we do a decent job pressing on the ball but eventually we always come back to fucking it up whenever we need it the most. If it wasn't for Man City's inability to take their chances, we could have lost 5-0, or 5-1 today. And the worst part about it is that because we lost "only" 1-0, we get the fake impression that we had a good game. I can listen to Wenger's after match interviews a million times and nothing changes there either: "We showed great spirit, good maturity, but we were a bit unlucky, we have a lot players injured etc...". But the truth is, that no matter who is on the field, pressing the balls is not rocket fucking science: you pressure the person with the ball while your teammates try to cover the other players around you. You DO NOT stand a few feet away from the person with the ball and just wait for them to make a pass, because when you do that, they are under no pressure and eventually they find the open man. Well guess what? I guess it is rocket science for Wenger and Co because we have had this problem for years!!!

Now, was the ref a fucking douche bag? Yes. Did he give some absolutely retarded yellow cards against us? Yes. Should we have gotten a penalty for handball from Richards? Yes. But that still doesn't change the fact that we weren't good enough and we should have lost this game by a big margin.  

I am also really tired of seeing the same pointless substitutions over and over. What has Arshavin done in the last 2 months to suggest that he will eventually play well? He is terrible at giving defensive effort; offensively he hasn't been even close to what he was when we first bought him; and most of all what impact did he have on the game after he came on? NO impact! And as soon as i saw him come in, i knew this was basically a pointless move. Did Walcott have a great game? Not even close. But is Arshavin the guy who is going to change the game for us? No fucking chance. But with Wenger, his stubbornness has brought him so much success in the past that he is just NOT willing to change and adapt. Why not put in the game players who are hungry and have desire to win? Players who even if they are not playing well, they will put maximum effort until the last whistle. I would much rather see Frimpong, Benayoun or Rosicky come in the game than watch Arshavin's first 3 passes who were 50 feet off target. Chamakh is the same story. He is not as lazy as Arshavin but he is just not good enough in the system that we play. Until we learn how to press the ball and until Wenger starts playing the players that want it the most no matter their age or stature, we, the fans will keep getting disappointed over and over and over...

 As far as the game, i already spoke about inability to press and contain City. I thought offensively we had some chances. We also had spells in the game where we controlled the ball pretty well but we weren't sharp enough in the final third. Szczesny had a great game. Saved us more than once. Koscielny and Vermaelen were both very good. With a little bit more luck, Vermaelen could have brought us a point that we didn't deserve. Mertesacker was ok, but he keeps making mistakes when players are physical with him. Considering how big he is, you expect HIM to be the physically intimidating person. But a lot of times, like today when Balotelli almost scored, Mertesacker was way too soft in our own penalty area. Djourou was his usual clumsy self, i never feel confident when he is on the pitch. Gave so many bad passes today.

I thought Arteta was very good. Showed great effort and desire. Didn't create much offensively but was all over the field trying to control the game. Ramsey was average. The one good chance he had when RVP shot the ball in the first half and it came to his foot, Ramsey decided to take a touch instead of just shooting straight away. At times he also over used his dribbling, spinning around like a drunk person instead of passing the ball faster. Walcott was not good either but the service to him was poor all game long. He had one good shot in the second half but other than that not a great day for him. Even defensively he has had better games. Song had a decent game. Worked really hard, but also made some mistakes - gave away the ball to Aguero in our penalty area and it was a miracle Aguero didn't score. Song was also booked because Silva dived like a pussy. There was contact but not that serious.

Van Persie was also average. Had a few good chances where you would expect him to do better. He never stopped trying though but he had opportunities to pass the ball in the first half and we could have had a real chance to score, instead he was keen on shooting himself. You can't blame him for that with the form that he has been in, but today the better option was to pass. I thought Gervinho was our most dangerous guy. Had some great runs, gave some good passes and never stopped moving the whole game. I wish our offense was more on the same page because we created some chances but never looked like we have that final pass.

So to sum it up: even though it wasn't all doom and gloom, i can't say that i feel good about our performance today. Just not good enough. And with AC Milan as an opponent in the Champions League this season can quickly turn trophy-less again, if we don't start playing better.

Arsenal vs Everton

I guess it was only fitting that it took a superb goal from Robin to bring a much needed win for us, on a special day like today: 125 years of Arsenal Football Club!!! I can't say that i was enjoying the score being so close but i am starting to like the fact that on a day like today after missing so many chances we are still able to pull out a 1-0 victory, when in years passed we would find a way to fuck up that scoreline.

I thought we started the game pretty well. Had numerous chances in the first 30 minutes and we should have been at least 2 or 3-0 up. In the second minute Gervinho made a great run on the left and if Ramsey was able to give him a softer pass, we could have been 1-0 up already. In the 14th min we should have gone ahead for sure: Walcott got released on the right with a great ball and instead of taking a shot himself he decided to pass the ball. I thought he should have shot himself but even if he was going to pass, he should have tried to pass the ball to Ramsey who was in front of the Everton defender not to Gervinho who was behind both of them! Then we blew two more great opportunities in the 28-29th minute when both Ramsey and Gervinho should have scored. I felt our passing was pretty sharp and we were creating good opportunities. Everton had their spells of possession but didn't create too many clear chances for themselves.

The frustrating part is that when we are not able to score on teams early (especially after creating good scoring opportunities), we allow them to settle down and a lot of times they get lucky scoring a goal and the game goes down the shitter. That's why the deeper the game went in the second half with the score being 0-0, i felt it would get harder and harder for us to score. Everton had a good spell of possession around the 60th -65th min and they looked comfortable in the game. But then Song made a great pass and Robin scored a fucking stunner! That guy is just unstoppable because he wasn't doing much for most of the game and then all of sudden produces this finish! We needed that goal badly and i am sure Wenger was relieved he didn't have to put Arshavin in the game. I was relieved too because i am tired of watching the Russian walk around and do nothing. We closed the game out even though there were some nervy moments at the end. The two Everton subs McAleny and Gueye both had good chances to score, especially McAleny.

I thought defensively we were decent. Can't say we were great, but good enough for the most part. Djourou on the right had an ok game. Mertesacker was solid except that one weak header at the end of the game which allowed McAleny to almost score with a great shot. Koscielny and Vermaelen were both very good. Vermaelen had a great clearance in the second half under pressure from Cahill.  I hope Thomas is alright after that elbow he took from Fellaini. Miquel subbed in and played with confidence, i think he should be playing more often and i have said that many times.

Arteta was very good. Not very flashy but got a lot of work done, he has been playing deeper together with Song and i like that he is willing to work defensively. Song had a quiet first half but in the second half he was one of our best players. Gave unreal pass to Van Persie; and then he was pretty much everywhere for the rest of the game.Ramsey had a solid game overall. He had a great chance to score and he has been really close to scoring for most of the season. I have a feeling that once he scores, the floodgates will open and he will score much more. As good as he is in passing the ball, today he had numerous times when he could have done better. The ball to Gervinho in the 2nd min, if passed properly is almost a sure goal. Then he had a few passes where guys were obviously offside. He has to either pass it earlier, or hold the ball. Other than that i have no complaints, he is one of my favorite guys to watch. Walcott was great today! I do think he should have scored or passed better on some ocassions. But he was a constant threat; made so many good runs; had a great shot blocked by Howard in the second half; and did a tremendous job of getting back and helping defensively when needed.

Gervinho continued his good play from recent weeks. He always looks dangerous on the wing. He wasn't as noticable in the second half but had another solid game. And for Robin, what can you say? As i mentioned earlier he didn't look great for most of the game but then he scored a goal like that...Pure class! I think we have really benefited of him and Walcott being injury free (knock on wood) for a long period of time. I don't remember the last time they had so many games in a row with both of them being on the pitch at the same time. Obviously Wenger is doing a better job managing their workload-especially Robin's.

Good way for us to celebrate the 125th anniversary with a win! Let's hope we can keep it going in a very tough game at City next week! Go Gunners!!! 

Arsenal vs Fulham

First, i want to apologize for not posting after the Norwich game. I was celebrating my birthday so there was a lot of heavy drinking involved and i just didn't find time to write. I am a little pissed that i missed a chance to post after a win and now i have to do it, after a disappointing draw for us.

I think Wenger made a big mistake by not making more than the 2 changes he made to the team after the Champions League game on Wednesday. It was obvious that we were tired and we lacked sharpness. There should have been at least 4 or 5 fresh bodies to start the game and it's not like we don't have the quality on the bench. Guys like Benayoun, Frimpong, Oxlade-Chamberlain (even though he wasn't even on the bench), Rosicky. We should have given starts to those guys and if things were not working out, then make the 3 changes and put the guys from Wednesday for 30 min.

The first half i thought Fulham pressed us way better than we pressed them (what's new there) and we still had some great chances. Ramsey, who had a bad game (mainly because he missed so many passes and chances, not because a lack of effort), had a decent chance in the 7th minute and almost scored. Then in the 24th min, Wallcot had a great run down the right put the ball right at Ramsey's feet and he hit it in the fucking sky. I thought that was one of our best chances for the half. The rest of the half we didn't create much and Fulham actually had a great chance towards the end but Szczesny bailed us out. At the end of the first half the possession of the ball was 54% to 46% in favor of Fulham. Just another proof that they controlled the game.

Second half was a bit better. Van Persie started to wake up and had some chances. He was unlucky not to score when a Fulham defender cleared it off the line. We still did not look great though, we were lacking the urgency to create something and score. So when Fulham scored on us i thought there was no way we can score 2 goals back. I guess their goal woke us up because, we found some energy in our passing and went forward. Vermaelen is the man! That guy was very unlucky to score the own goal but didn't let it affect him and scored a great goal to equalize for us. I thought right around the time we scored and the 5,6 min after, we could have won the game. Fulham for some stupid reason panicked, and stopped pressing us whatsoever. We couldn't take advantage and score again, but considering the way we played throughout the game i think a draw is a fair result. I definitely wish we would have won because we need all the points we can get for the race for 4th place, but we didn't play well enough to do it.

I thought our defense was ok. More than once we allowed Fulham to pass the ball around instead of pressing them hard, but they didn't have too many chances to score. Mertesacker didn't make any mistakes today which is good for his confidence. Vermaelen was great as usual. The own goal was very unlucky situation, other than that he was tough and never allowed guys to receive the ball without putting them under a lot of pressure. Scored a great goal too. Santos did ok as well, he likes to go forward so much that i don't know if i should rate his runs on the wing or his defensive performance. Djourou did well. I am always nervous when people take him one vs one because he can be very clumsy at times, but today he did very well. Had a great block in the 5th min. Almost scored from a corner kick (I still can't believe Schwarzer saved that).

Arshavin was fucking awefull!!! Considering he hasn't been playing often lately, he should have taken this chance and try to prove himself, instead he showed very little effort throughout the game. Just jogging around; not chasing the ball after he loses it; didn't do much offensively either. The lack of effort is what drives me nuts the most. Ramsey had a shitty game but never stopped running, fighting and trying to create something. Arshavin was just hoping something good will happen with very little effort on his part. Arteta was too busy asking for fouls for half of the game. He didn't play bad but he didn't play great either. Song had a decent game but you could tell he wasn't fresh. Wallcott was on and off throughout the game but he was probably one of our best players. Set up Ramsey nicely in the first half. Crossed the ball very well for Vermaelen's goal. So even though he wasn't amazing he played a  very solid game. Van Persie was a bit off in the first half, and then missed some chances you expect him to do better with but he definitely played better in the second half and could have scored if it wasn't for Baird who blocked his shot of the goal line. Gervinho defintely gave us a spark of the bench. He created some chances and had one himself but didn't shoot well enough. Diaby didn't impress me much but he hasn't played for a while. Chamakh didn't play long enough, for me to have an opinion about his performance. 

So tough result for us today but let's hope we get some fresh legs ready the Carling Cup and get a good result vs City. C'mon you Gunners!

Arsenal vs West Bromwich

Today we finally got a complete performance from our boys! I think since the start of the season this was our best performance in all three phases of the game: defense, midfield and attack. Yes, yes, I do know that we played West Brom and it was at home but that hasn’t stopped us from turning in shitty performances in the past (remember last year?).

The defense overall was very solid today. Kosicelny and Vermaelen played very well together, and the good thing about them is that both have good speed. This way they cover and help each other nicely. They also make up in a way for the lack of speed of Santos, who also had a good game today.  The trade off with having those two being the central defending pair is that we lack height in the back but until Mertesacker catches up with the speed in the Premier League this is the better pairing. I still think Mertesacker will be good, he will just need some time, the same way it took Koscielny more than a season to start playing well. Another sign that the defense had a good game is that West Brom didn’t create  anything in the first 20 min. Their first real chance was in the 35^th min when Song tripped and fell and Jerome Thomas tried to get a penalty with minimal contact from Koscielny. We had a few shaky moments in the second half as well: Vermaelen had a great stop on Tchoyi when luckily for us he took too long to shoot and Thomas blocked his shot; and we also had one bad header defensively by Santos which could have cost us, but West Brom didn’t take advantage of it. So, defensively we got a clean sheet and a good performance. This is very exciting that we finally had a solid game in the back.

Vermaelen was great, scored a good goal and had another big chance when he missed with his header in the second half. Koscielny continued his solid play from the last 3,4 games. Santos was good as well, we didn’t see his lack of pace today, maybe because West Brom didn’t have a lot of quickness upfront until Tchoyi came in. Jenkinson was great as well and this is worth mentioning: he had at least 7 or 8 GREAT crosses today. His crossing is very, very good, I wish we had taken better advantage of it. 

The midfield played a good game today. Not as many chances as we sometimes create but good ball possession and we managed to score three goals. Song was a bit disappointing for his standards (which he has set very high), lost more balls than usual; missed a great chance to score as well; but even though he wasn’t great he was good and covered a lot of ground as he normally does. Ramsey had a very good game. Gave a phenomenal pass for the first goal, we had not really created anything that great before that pass. He completely opened the defense up and Walcott’s pace took care of the rest, Walcott should have scored but luckily RVP was there to tap it in. Ramsey almost scored himself as well, after a good pass by Gervinho. Gervinho was good too, I like that he has learned to pass the ball when someone else is in better position. Robin Van Persie didn’t have the type of game he had against Chelsea but he still scored, had an assist, and did what was required of him. Arteta was good, scored a very nice goal. He still lacks some pace when he tries to chase people down defensively but the good thing is that he is actually helping out in the back, which he didn’t always do in previous games. Walcott had an assist and some good runs but other than that I am disappointed with him. He always tries the same move on defenders and some of them know that he always tries to run to his right and cross the ball so they are prepared and don’t allow him to do it. He should definitely try to switch things up and start cutting in more, even if his left foot is not his favorite, otherwise he will keep making the same move over and over and not creating anything. Arshavin, Rosicky and Benayoun came in, when the game was pretty much over so I can’t really grade them.

So, a great day for the Gunners; finally a complete performance and things are starting to look really good for our boys! GO GUNNERS!!!

Chelsea vs Arsenal

BIG win for us today!

Having said that: I have never seen top teams defend like Chelsea and Arsenal did today. Today's defending especially in the first half was a great example of how to defend badly and give free opportunities for the opposite team to score. I am sorry if i am not starting this blog entry by being super excited and going nuts because we won. The reason for not giving superlatives to our team is because if Chelsea had taken the chances they created/we presented to them, in the first 10-15min we could have been easily down by 2-3 goals. You may counter this statement by saying that we had 2 great chances as well which was true, but that's the point: Chelsea played horrible defense as well. If Chelsea had scored the 3-4 opportunities they had and we were down 2-0 in the first 10-15min, i doubt we would have gotten back in the game so easily. Our back line was so high up the pitch, trying to play Chelsea offside, but we had people not pushing up far enough and kept getting caught by through balls. Not to mention guys like Mertesacker and Santos are slow, they couldn't catch up once there was no offside flag given. Today i had the chance to tape the game and take a few pictures, so i can illustrate what i am talking about:

Exhibit #1 : 2nd min of the game Djourou gets burned for the first time and luckily Torres wasn't able to convert Cole's pass.

Exhibit #2 : 4th min of the game - another through ball, Djourou gets burned for a second time in the first 5 min, this time he is not 2 but 10 meters behind Cole, and again we get lucky and no one scores.

This is the same situation from the picture above but it just shows you how far behind our back line is:

Exhibit 3: 5th min of the game: You can easily see in both pictures below, how badly our back line is beaten. Only the stupidity of Sturidge not to play the ball early enough across for Torres saved us from a goal.

 

So let's make a quick recap on all of the pictures above (Exhibits 1,2,3): 5 minutes into the game if Chelsea had played those situations a bit better we could be down 3-0. Let's say they miss 1 of them, that's still 2-0...in 5 min..




Exhibit #4: We are already down 1-0, we get caught again in the back and thank god Sturidge had a horrible fucking game and he misses this sitter as well.

Mertesacker who is as fast as a turtle but who i like a lot, was at fault for both of Chelsea's first 2 goals. He should have been able to at least touch Mata's cross for Lampard's goal. And for the second goal you would expect a big guy like him to be more physical and not allow Terry to beat him to the ball and score that shitty goal.

Santos as i have mentioned in my previous posts is very good in one vs one and steals a lot of balls, but by doing that he gambles a bit and if he guesses wrong when he tries to steal the ball, the attacking guy can pass him and he can't recover. There was also a moment in the first half when Sturidge made a run on the left side and Santos who had a meter advantage when they started running was a meter behind by the end of the run. Not quite the speed you would like your left back to have... proof below:

 Exnibit #5: Santos a good 1 meter in front of Sturidge...

...now he is tied with him...

...aaand now he is 1 meter behind...:)

Bottom line: our defense in the first half was PATHETIC. I didn't say anything about Koscielny because he was the only one who played good in both the 1st and 2nd half. He was our best player defensively-hands down.

One last thing and i promise i won't say another negative word about us in this post. We CAN'T PRESS THE  OPPOSING PLAYERS PROPERLY WHEN THEY HAVE THE BALL! This problem of ours has been around for years. I am pretty sure i write about this issue every single blog entry and it's so frustrating that i go nuts. Sometimes i am pretty sure we are one of the worst pressing teams in the Premier League. I wrote about this after the Sunderland game.They pressed us so much better than we pressed them, that it was embarrassing - and that was at home! To me this issue always comes back; i don't think i have ever watched a game that we have played and said to myself "Wow we didn't allow these guys to pass the ball in our half at all". Don't get me wrong: i know you can't press 90min non stop. But i would like to see us press the ball better, at least when teams are in our own half. You can't convince me that without pressing the opposite players when they have the ball, we will be able to play good defense. Last two pictures of the post show what i am talking about:

Exibit #6: Us "pressing" on the players with the ball

This one is not as emberassing as the pic above, but still: nobody is trying to close Mata down...

OK, enough of my bitching about our defense. I have to admit that we played better in the back in the second half. We didn't give Chelsea nearly as many chances as we did in the first half. Mata's goal was fucking luck because first there should have been a foul called on Lukaku and also when he struck it, it touched Song's leg as well.

Now on to the good stuff. WHAT AN EXCITING FUCKING RESULT for us today!!! Regardless of how we played in the back, and how many chances they missed and how we maybe got a bit lucky, we got a HUGE result today!!! This will do wonders for the confidence of this team and hopefully with Vermaelen fit, the defense will start to look better. Offensively we were super explosive today. I am sure part of it was Chelsea playing shitty defense like we did, but we created more chances today than in the last few games combined. Walcott finally had a good game. Gave 2 excellent crosses in the first 15 min and i still don't know how the fuck Gervihno missed the first one and didn't score. The second cross was also great and RVP scores that one 4 out of 6 times. Theo also scored a great goal, got a bit lucky but never the less the finish was great! Overall he had a very good game. Gervihno wasn't as good as he was against Stoke. Missed the great chance i talked about earlier and besides the pass to RVP for his 1st goal didn't create that much. But he was still lively upfront and was moving well trying to create something. Ramsey was probably one of the best players on the pitch. He set up the first goal, even though Gervihno gave the final pass. He was very active and made some great passes. Song was very good as usual. All over the pitch making defensive stops and also had some good runs forward. Today was the first time i saw Arteta work hard defensively, so I give him credit for that.

So, there you have it: Chelsea 3 - Arsenal 5 !!! Remember this result because i don't think we will get another scoreline like this at the Bridge any time soon...:))). If we can keep improving the next 5 Premier League are all winnable games and we can set up a great showdown match vs Man City on Dec 18th. Let's Go Gunners!!!

Arsenal vs Stoke

Let me start by saying that this was a VERY important win for us! Today's match made it 3 wins in a row counting the Champions league game and the team has finally put a few wins together. Confidence wise this is crucial for us, especially that we are winning without playing great football. Stoke has always been a tough team for us to play against. We again (as we usually do against them) defended horribly at their equalizer and it looked like it was going to be one of those frustrating games where we throw it away with bad defending and clueless attacking. But credit to the guys, we found a way to win. Van Persie was again the crucial piece of the puzzle even though we have to give credit to Gervinho for playing his best game of the season.

First half was not that great. We look better than Stoke for the most part of it but we didn't create that many clear chances. The goal that we scored was brilliant though. Great pass by Ramsey and very good finish by Gervinho. After the goal we looked in control until we made a mess in the back and got them back in the game. Stoke obviously has practiced the situation where they scored their goal so they deserve some credit for the it, but that was so typical and naive defending by us that it makes me sick. These are the type of goals we can't afford to concede if we want to be a top team. After that goal we looked confused and shaky in the back but luckily we didn't concede again. 

Second half also looked like it will be a grind but after RVP came in and we scored, it changed the whole complexion of the game. Stoke had to press and create something and we caught them on the counter for 3-1. Still we weren't super exciting or anything like that but i will take a 3-1 win vs Stoke ANY day!Gervinho was the man of the match for me. Even though RVP scored the two goals and was obviously the spark we needed up front, Gervinho scored a great goal and had 2 assists - by far his best game of the season. I like the fact that he is trying to create more for others than trying to score everything himself. That's why we bought him: to create for others first and score second. Chamakh was bad, didn't do anything deserving a mention. He needs to do better when he is given an opportunity if he wants to play in this team. Walcott was not good either, he has to start using his qualities in a smarter way so he can be more effective. Right now he is not doing much, and he needs to get better. Ramsey had a good game. Gave phenomenal pass for Gervinho's goal, didn't do anything else that was from the same quality but had a solid game. Arteta was sub par again. He didn't have a bad game but he didn't have a great game either. I personally believe that if he will be playing 90 minutes every game, he needs to do better and have a bigger impact on games. Song was solid as usual, not one of his best games but a solid performance.

Except the shitty goal we gave away, the defense played pretty well. Koscielny had another good game and all my criticizing of him earlier in the season maybe has helped him to start playing better! Djourou was also very good as a right back, i hope he keeps it up because last year i had very good impressions from him until the end of the season when he started playing shitty and continued playing shitty the beginning of this season. Hopefully he is turning it around the same way as Koscielny and starting to play reliable football again. Mertesacker was at fault for allowing Crouch to get so easily to that ball and score but other than that he did alright. Santos was ok, didn't look as slow as usual. The big test for this defense will be next week vs Chelsea when we will find out if the defense is really starting to get better or it was just a few games of decent play in the back. If i have to be honest, i still don't think we are playing good enough in the back but i am hoping that we won't fuck up big time and we can get a result vs Chelsea. 

Wenger still refuses to shuffle the starting line up. With the exception of resting RVP, the line up was pretty much the same. As i said last week, i would like him to start Benayoun a few times and some of the other youngsters. I thought Rosicky has been playing good and he should have played as well. Anyway, great result today, the team is slowly getting better. Vermaelen is apparently 10 days away from coming back, so things are starting to look a bit brighter after all. I still think it will be important for us  to get a decent result at Chelsea so we can keep the momentum going. Let's Go Gunners!!!

p.s. I am quite happy that Man U took 6 pieces at home :))

Arsenal vs Sunderland

On days like today i can't stop asking myself: How naive are we as a team? It's just mind blowing to me how we can take the lead at the end of a game and then all of a sudden start making bad mistakes and hope that we get lucky and don't get punish for them. Today we didn't, but your luck can go only so far. Instead of pressing the other team at the end of the game and make it hard for them to create chances, we panic and get 10 players in our own penalty area, in hope that we can somehow clear the ball. When you add to that a misplaced back pass, you have all the ingredients for a disastrous end to a game which we should be able to close out without having to hold on for dear life. We did keep possession for 5 or 6 min at the end but right after the RVP goal and the last few minutes of the game it was the same old story of "everyone stay back and let's hope for the best".

I am sorry if i sound so pessimistic after a win but i can't close my eyes for things that keep happening all the time. You just can't get away with stuff like that against good teams. If we are honest, we have to admit that Sunderland pressed the ball 100 times better than us. They made it hard for us to pass the ball throughout the whole game. I only wish they do that so well against other teams (which usually doesn't happen). The bottom line though, is that when we don't have the ball we should press high up the pitch the same way they pressed us. Instead we let them (and other teams) just pass the ball around and do whatever the fuck they want.

Even though we had most of the possession throughout the game i never felt that we are sharp enough up front. The first goal was great: Gervihno is finally starting to realize that he has to pass the ball when other players are in better position then him and Van Persie scored a great goal. We had a few other good chances, most notably when RVP made an unreal turn and hit the post. But overall i never felt we are dangerous: a lot of times there is too much hesitation about the final pass. Sometimes guys are not on the same page about what they are trying to do. The crosses we were sending in the penalty area for half of the game were awful. And this is a good time to mention Arteta. As good as he played against Bolton and some of the other games we had, today he was fucking horrible! He took at least 2 or 3 corners and free kicks and could not kick a normal cross to save his life. Didn't do anything meaningful the whole game. He also appeared to refuse to let Walcott try to take a free kick and i was glad the second time around Theo just took the ball and the free kick himself. I was shocked when Wenger took Rosicky out, Rosicky played a much better game than Arteta and probably ran twice as much. I don't have anything against Arteta but i feel that he thinks just because he was one of the best players at Everton, his place is guaranteed at Arsenal and it shouldn't be like that. He should earn it, so if he is having a shitty game he should be the one subbed, not Rosicky.

With the exception of the pass for the Van Persie goal and one or two more good runs on the left, Gervihno didn't do much. Especially in the second half he disappeared completely. Walcott wasn't very productive either, but he also didn't have too many chances. Which brings me to my next point. I think that Wenger should change the system we have upfront. He should put Walcott on top of the attack, pull RVP to play behind him and put Arshavin/ Benayoun or Oxlade - Chamberlain  on the right side. You know RVP can score but he is also a great passer so he would be able to do both playing behind Walcott. Theo is also a much better finisher when he is in the center than when he plays on the side. RVP would create more chances for him and i think we would be much more dangerous and mobile if we change the system we have. 

Rosicky had a great game. He started slow and made some bad passes the first 20 min, but after that and especially in the second half he was great. Made some great runs through the middle; he was all over the pitch (one of the few guys pressing the ball); and didn't deserve to be substituted unless his groin was bothering him. Song was also great today, he covered so much ground. Got a bit lucky not get a second yellow at the end of the game but he contributed significantly both offensively and defensively. Jenkinson made a big mistake that could have cost us dearly if it wasn't for Szczechny but other than that i thought he was very good. He ran non stop the whole game. His crosses were way better than Arteta's and Sagna's for that matter. Even though he is not at the same level as Sagna yet, his crosses are definitely better than Sagna's. And besides that early mistake, he was solid defensively. Special note to Koscielny: this is the first time in a long time when i can't say anything negative about his play today. He was mistake free the whole game; looked confident and decisive; basically this was the first time i saw him play good enough football to start for Arsenal. When credit is due i give it. I hope he can keep it up. Mertesacker was also solid. There is no question he is slow but he gives us that size that we need, and he didn't make mistakes today either. I hope Gibbs is not injured again, because he was having a good game. Santos looks like he is very overweight. I pray that i am wrong and he is just tick but he didn't look like a fast guy out there. To his credit, he played solid and won a lot of balls one vs one, i am just worried about his speed because we can't afford more than 1 player (Mertesacker) to be slow in the back.

Arshavin and Benayoun both had an impact. They brought some life and mobility to the offense. I really feel Benayoun should be a starter. Every time that guy touches the ball, he looks dangerous with it. Arshavin also had some good touches, almost scored what would have been a phenomenal goal. I really think Wenger should shuffle the starting line up more than he does. I understand that he does that for Champions League games and Cup games but he should be doing more of it for the Premier League matches as well. Guys like Benayoun, Frimpong, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Miyachi, Park should be getting starts. I am not saying they should all be starting at the same time but our starting 11 always looks the same unless someone is injured. One of the things that Alex Ferguson (who i hate) does so well, is team rotation. Example: yesterday's game vs Liverpool which is a big game: Rooney, Nani, Hernandez, Anderson, Valencia which all started against Norwich, they were all on the bench against Liverpool. That's 5 players! When was the last time Wenger changed more than 2 or 3 of the starting players unless there was an injury crisis or too many games in a week? Not recently. I love Wenger and i think he is the right guy for us but it drives me nuts when he doesn't adopt things that can make him better as a manager! We all need to improve constantly regardless of the field of work that you are in. He should keep doing the things that brought him success but also keep looking to improve as a manager.

I almost forgot to mention Van Persie. He is the only reason why we got a win today. We didn't create enough chances; made mistakes defensively; didn't press the ball well; we were running out of ideas. So if it wasn't for RVP we don't win this game today and go into a deeper hole. Every team needs shitty wins like today but we need to improve our game if we want to keep winning. Because RVP can't carry the team every single game and he shouldn't. Bottom line: good result; important win for us; we still need to improve BIG TIME! Go Gunners!

Tottenham vs Arsenal

Ok, first i have to be honest and admit to you that because i got absolutely hammered last night i missed the first half today. I did watch the second though and we had some good moments and some bad ones. Unfortunately for us the bad ones proved decisive. I don't want to blame Szczesny for the goal even though it was his fault and he should have saved that shot, but he has saved us on so many occasions this season that i won't put any blame on him. Even in this game he made a great save when he was left one on one against Adebayor,so instead of blaming him we have to keep improving our shaky defense. Not to mention Almunia made mistakes like this one for 3 years non stop and still started every game.

Sagna breaking a bone in his foot is a very bad news for us. They are saying he will be out for around 3 months and that's the last thing we needed right now. He was one of the few consistent performers in the back and now besides Jenkinson we have no one else to cover at right back. The first 10 min of the second half we started great, pushed Tottenham in their own half and barely let them see the ball. Once we scored that goal we should have just kept putting pressure on them. Instead, we let them back in and made some bad mistakes in the back. I have never seen Ramsey so sloppy with the ball. He missed at least 5 or 6 passes and they were missed by a lot too. If we don't count the goal, very disappointing performance by him and he is one of my favorite players. Gervihno sucked ass from what i saw, and he also missed a great chance in the first half which i saw in the highlights. I would prefer if Wenger lets Benayoun start a few games and leaves Gervinho on the bench so he gets his shit together.

As i mentioned the defending was not good, we gave them too many chances and some of them came from nothing. We basically created the chance for them by making mistakes in the back. Arshavin didn't do much after he came on. Walcott wasn't very good either. Benayoun as well didn't make any impact. I would have liked to see Frimpong starting this game instead of Coquelin even though Coquelin didn't play bad or anything. I just feel Frimpong has that toughness about him that you need in those type of derby's.  

So to sum it up: it was another disappointing result for us. We didn't play that bad, created some chances but didn't take them. The bottom line is: we have to start fucking winning. Simple as that. We need to have a run of 4,5 games where we win them in a row, so this team can gain confidence and become consistent. The way we are playing right now is not good enough not just to win the title but not good enough to be in the top 4.

Arsenal vs Bolton

So we finally got a good win. Don't get me wrong, it's obvious Bolton going down to 10 man helped a lot but overall as a performance both offensively and defensively this was our first good match of the season. The defense looked shaky the first 10 min and if it wasn't for Szczesny's great save we would have been 1-0 down. If "good old" Almunia was our goalie, that ball goes in. After the first 10 min, we took control of the game and Arteta had a "Fabregas" like through ball and this is the 2nd week in a row when Gervinho should have passed the ball and we would have scored. He is either fucking unaware that Van Persie was next to him or he just doesn't care which pisses me off. Not to mention even if he doesn't want to pass the ball he should score, not kick it in Jaskeelainen's hands.

Arteta was very sharp again, his passing is really intelligent. And this game he didn't disappear in the second half like he did against Blackburn. Ramsey had a really good game as well, gave a good pass to Van Persie for the first goal, and was solid throughout the whole game. Song was his solid self and scored a great goal. I thought Walcott had a really good game even though he should have scored at least twice. The red card was a bit questionable because the contact was minimal but we have seen those given a lot of times so i don't really care if it was a red or not. That situation just shows you how much more dangerous Walcott is when he is on top of the attack. There are no central defenders in this league that can keep up with his pace. The sooner Wenger realizes that and starts playing him on top of the attack the better Walcott will play and produce for us. Gervinho did not have a great game and as i mention cost us a goal for a second week in a row.

Sagna was solid as usual. Mertesacker looked good even though you can see he doesn't have the speed. Koscielny was alright but i never feel relaxed when this guy is in our line up. Today he actually looked a bit more decisive and made some good tackles but if you read this blog you know i don't think the guy is good enough. Until he proves me wrong with CONSISTENT performance against good teams i am not a believer. I thought Gibbs had a good game as well. Made a very important close down on Eagles when Bolton had their best chance of the second half, if that was someone else with less speed Eagles would have been one on one with Szczesny. So overall with the exception of the first 10 min, the defense looked ok. But let's not kid ourselves: we played against 10 men for 35 mins and this was against Bolton who are not a powerhouse upfront anyway. 

                                                       
I left Robin Van Persie for last because the guy deserves to have his own paragraph after his 100th goal for the club today. He scored 2 great goals and was close on 2 more occasions. He finally got some good deliveries and took advantage of them. We all know he is a phenomenal player who just needs to stay healthy. Congrats to him and i hope he stays in Arsenal until he retires. If he does and is healthy, he will break some records before he is done.

Good win today, but right now we need consistency more than ever. Let's hope we can show a good performance next week and spank a Totennham team that is playing well. Go Gunners!!!

Blackburn vs Arsenal

Laurent Koscielny is not good enough to play for Arsenal. I am sorry if this sounds a bit harsh but i have been watching the guy for over an year now and i am convinced he just can't get the job done. This by no means excuses the rest of our defense but Koscielny slipped and gave away 3 balls in the first half that could have been costly mistakes and we just got lucky that Blackburn didn't capitalize. How the fuck do you slip 3 times and give away the ball? Once, i can understand but 3 times?? When i watch him play, it seems to me the game is too fast for him. He can't make a decision fast enough and be decisive, instead half of the time you see him hesitate and look unsure of what to do. I am going to say it again: If Wenger has any balls he should start playing Miquel instead of him.
                                                 
Now, the rest of the defense was also comical for a Premiership team. Mertesacker didn't have a good game but he works hard and still plays with confidence and calmness. He just needs to get used to the speed of the English game. Santos didn't look great. Was way behind the line for the Yakubu equalizer. But he also hasn't played much lately and even more, he hasn't play for Arsenal at all. So i am going to give him at least half an year before i create an opinion about him. He looks skilled and probably will turn out to be a good option on the left. Sagna was the only one who had a clue what was going on in the back but got injured. Djourou has been playing shitty as a central back, imagine as a right back! He got abused a few times by Hoillet but he tried hard and i give him credit for that. The problem is that he is also not good enough, unless he improves tremendously.

Wow, i finally have something positive to say about our attacking game! Saturday was the first time this season, where we looked really dangerous going forward. (Everybody relax, i am talking first half only). Maybe the fact that Blackburn's defense is not the greatest helped us a bit, but both goals that we scored in the first half were after some great passing moves. We also missed at least 3 or 4 good chances to score more. Especially the chance at the end of the half where Gervihno should have passed the ball to Van Persie and we would have been up 3-1 for sure. Instead he opted to shoot and fucked it up.

Now i have to mention two people that i regularly bash on here: 1) Sagna made two good crosses in the first half!!! One high and one low which Gervihno blew. But i give Sagna props when they are due, it's not every day when he can actually execute some dangerous crosses. 2)Arshavin's first half performance finally reminded me of how he can play, today was his best performance in quite a while.


Arteta looked great in the first half, was very active and made some terrific passes. And then in the second half he just disappeared. I don't know if he got tired but i expected much more from him in the second half than what he showed. Gervihno had a really good game and a really bad game at the same time. Really good, because he scored a great goal; he was very active on the wing and overall played a good game. Really bad because if he had made a few good passes instead of shooting the ball we could have been up 4-1 by half time and then no matter how shitty our defense is i think the game would have ended with a different scoreline.  I would have liked to see Benayoun in the game at some point because i think he can give us some sharpness up front. Chamakh scored a good goal, he needs to do that more often :).

The crazy part about this whole game is, that even with our horrific defending we could have easily equalized at the end if Mertesacker or Walcott had taken their chances. I really hope that we are going to get it together defensively and start playing decent football. Imagine how little faith i have in our defensive abilities if i picked Vorn instead of Szczechny for my fantasy team. And unfortunately i was right. My brother in law said it best while giving me shit about our game the other night: right now our team talk about defense should be: "Guys, this is our goal and over there is their goal. We have to score in their goal, not ours. Got it?" Sadly this sounds like a pretty good advice.

Arsenal vs Swansea

Well, we got a win. It was ugly but a much needed win. However our performance was far from good. We looked extremely nervous defensively at the end of the game. Thank god Sagna made some crucial tackles and saved us from conceding. Koscielny had a decent game for his standards but in critical situations he panics and lacks that calm and confidence needed to be a solid center back. I remember a situation towards the end of the game when Gibbs went in front of him to try to stop a player, and Koscielny was just standing there instead of immediately switching positions and covering on the left. He looked afraid to make a decision and adapt to the situation. I like Ignasi Miquel much more than him and I wish Wenger had the balls to play Miquel with Mertesacker and let Koscielny and Djourou play for the Carling Cup or some other shitty tournament. Gibbs had a solid game but his problem has always been his durability not his skills. I think Mertesacker looked really good and solid. Nothing flashy, but you can see he has confidence and EXPERIENCE. He might not be the fastest guy out there but if we had him and Vermaelen the last few seasons, we could have actually won something. Szczechny made a great save in the beginning of the game and looked solid throughout until the last 10 min when I guess the whole defense decided to be shaky at the same time. We got really lucky when Szczechny tried to punch the ball and missed it and then Graham couldn’t put in the back of the net. So defensively we need to improve a lot but I like Mertesacker’s first game.

                                        

In midfield and attack it was the same old story. “1001 nights” passing (those of you who read this blog know what that means: shit load of passes with no end product), with very few good chances and not a lot of creativity. Walcott looks lost on the right, he just runs out of ideas there. It’s almost like watching Bendtner when Wenger used to play him on the right but with more pace. Walcott will be much more effective on top of the attack and Van Persie on the left or behind him. Arshavin had a bit better game than his usual shitty form, but the goal was pure luck, I still give him props for not missing it. Especially since it was the only goal we managed to score. Arteta was pretty good, definitely lacks pace but he controls the ball very well and was moving it around. With a few more games under his belt he will hopefully create more chances for us. Frimpong was not as impressive as he was in the Liverpool game but he had some important tackles and I love his desire and passion. Ramsey tried hard all game but also didn’t produce much. I think he should be playing in a bit more attacking midfield position, this game he played more like a defensive midfielder. Van Persie had a decent game and did hit the bar, but we got used to much more from him last season. Even though he didn’t play much, I like Benayoun, he has good movement and always looks a threat. To be honest, I prefer that he plays instead of Arshavin and we use the Russian as a sub.

                                      

To sum it up, this team needs games to improve. The fact is that we don’t look that impressive defensively or offensively. The problem is that we need to keep winning and improve at the same time. That might be tough to do but Wenger brought it on himself by not doing his business early in the summer. The thing that I like is that we again have some depth. When Gervihno, Diaby, Vermaelen and Wilshere are available the squad is starting to look pretty solid and we are going to need it to compete on all fronts.

Manchester United vs Arsenal

I am going to be very brief today for two reasons:

1) I am too busy drinking and relaxing on my vacation

2) There is nothing to say about the match today: we were straight up PATHETIC defensivelly. Traore is a joke and i have been saying this for a while. Koscielny and Djourou are just not good enough. We need to buy players. 

           

Arsenal vs Liverpool

Well, when it rains it pours, right? I actually think today we played a really good game until the sending off of Frimpong. We were wayyyyyy better defensively than we were against Udinese. And just for the record, i am tired of hearing people talk about the Udinese game and how we kept a clean sheet so the defense must have played well. We got lucky not to get scored on in the Udinese game! We were very poor defensively, had huge gaps in the back and they missed tons of chances. So that clean sheet was more lucky than deserved. Today on the other hand i thought we looked really solid in the back regardless of the fact that we lost the game.

Now, just for the record: Frimpong is a stud!!! He was a little too pumped up (which is normal at 19) for the game and that's why he got two unnecessary yellow cards, but the kid can play. Showed so much desire; made some great runs through the middle; was all over the midfield for most of the game and he is not scared to take a shot. He also has good control over the ball and doesn't panic.

Miguel also had a good game. He was really unlucky for the own goal of Ramsey, other than that i think he looked great. Same goes for Jenkinson: he covers a lot of ground; definitely has a better cross than Sagna (who doesn't); and overall didn't make many mistakes. Gotta give props to Sagna for playing left back as well. He ran his usual mileage but did a great job considering the left side is not his favorite spot to be.

                                                          
Vermaelen was his usual great self! I can't say enough about him. He won almost every ball against Carroll and he is half his size. Made some great interceptions, went forward a few times and had a good shot a bit wide from the goal. I don't want to even think what our defense will look like without him. He is also one of the best leaders on the team.

The first 20 minutes we didn't look that good, Liverpool were all over the pitch, pressing and making us miss a lot of passes. After that i think we settled down, had a few good attacks, Nasri and Frimpong had good runs that finished with shots at goal. I thought between the 20th until the sending off of Frimpong we played better than Liverpool. The one thing that still bothers me and i have mentioned this millions of times, we still can't press properly. So many times today, either we are not pressing as a team and certain players are just pressing by themselves; or we will press but when we get to a few feet from the opposing players we will stop and wait for them to pass instead of closing them down and really put pressure on them.

Offensively we are still missing that final pass. Van Persie had only one good chance and that was after a foul by Arshavin that wasn't called. The rest of the game he didn't see the ball much. At least today players were shooting the ball more than usual and i like that. Much better than playing "1001 nights" (a.k.a passing the ball forever until we fuck it up). The two guys i was really disappointed with were Walcott and Arshavin. I am already used to Arshavin playing shit almost every game. He probably made around 88 mistakes today. Gave away the ball; missed his final pass; had one good cross for the whole game and that was it. Ran a lot at times (surprising for him) but ran with no purpose and usually after he lost another ball. Walcott on the other hand is usually playing well but today he was nowhere to be seen. Didn't have his usual  breakout runs on the right; almost had no chances and his crosses were not on target. Very poor performance by him. Ramsey didn't have a great game either. Was very unlucky on the own goal but overall didn't create much. The one thing he always has is effort though and i give him credit for that.

So, what's the verdict on Arsene? I think the one thing that we saw today was that the young guys have the quality that he is talking about. But that doesn't change the fact that they are all YOUNG! Great example is the red card of Frimpong today. If that was a more experienced player, he probably doesn't get sent off today. So even though i agree with Wenger that he has quality in his young guys, he HAS to realize that he needs to buy some players that can help those young guys and guide them instead of counting on 18,19,20 years old players to win important matches for him. To be a great team you have to have the mix between experience and youth. Jose Enrique is a guy we could have bought from Newcastle and he would have been a good fit for us. Instead, Liverpool bought him and not only he had a great game against us today, Wenger had to use Sagna as a left back. You still think we don't need to buy anyone Arsene? So, i am really hoping we somehow squeeze past Udinese on Wednesday and after that we buy some players!!!

GO GUNNERS!