Stoke City vs Arsenal 0-0

Mixed feelings about the result today. I am very pleased with the clean sheet we got at a place where we always have trouble keeping one. At the same time we needed to win today. We are playing Liverpool away next week and you know it will be hard to get points there as well.

The positives today were our defense and the limited amount of chances we gave Stoke to score. For a second week in a row, we looked solid defensively, and with one exception at the end of the game, City almost had not chances to score. Vermaelen and Mertesacker had a very good game. Won a lot of high balls, and didn't allow Crouch and co to bully them in the air. I am pleased that Mertesacker has been looking solid so far in the season. My only wish for him is to get a bit tougher during contact. For a guy his size there were more than 2 or 3 times today where he went down quite easily holding his head like someone punched him in the face. He has to get tougher! I thought Jenkinson had a better game than last week's. He made less mistakes in his passes and didn't look as nervous and rushed to get rid of the ball. I also like his toughness when taking on people. Gibbs did well as well, had a slight scare when Pennant went down asking for a penalty but there was limited contact. 

In midfield and attack similarly to last week, we weren't very effective. A lot of passing but not a lot of clear chances. I was a bit disappointed by Cazorla. He looked bright and lively in the first half and as the match progressed, he went away. His passing wasn't as creative today and he seemed confused as to what is the best way to unlock Stoke's defense. I am still expecting big things from him, today just wasn't his best day. Diaby was solid throughout. Did a lot of work defensively and helping out with the high balls; and was working hard up the pitch as well. I thought Arteta was our best player. In the first half he was playing deep and was doing a lot of hard work to cover for the front midfielders. And in the second half as Cazorla was less active, Arteta was pushing forward and trying to create something. He had a great chance in the 72min where he hesitated how exactly to shoot the ball and ended up hitting it in the stands. I would have loved to see him hit that ball hard and straight and see what happens. Regardless, he was the guy who didn't stop running for 90+ mins.

On the other hand Gervinho was absolutely awful today. His only strength is his runs on the flanks even though he never passes the ball well at the end of them, today he didn't even have that. He was pretty much invisible (not in a good way) the whole match. The one time he had a good chance in the 37th min, he did the move he ALWAYS does: run with the ball towards the goal kick line and fuck up the cross. It's the second week of the season and i can already predict where he is going with the ball EVERY single time! Not to mention he has chances to do a good pass early in his runs but he always wants to keep running with the fucking ball. He had an even better chance in the 50th min but his shot was way wide. I thought Podolski was better than the Sunderland game. At times his timing with the other guys is a bit off but he will get there. He is very feisty at times and i like that! The guy is a competitor and wants to win. And i guarantee you that when he gets on the same page with Cazorla and co, this guy will score goals and give assists. He is also quite fast and not afraid to take on people. Giroud had a good game overall. He worked hard most of it and was helpful in the air. I give props to Wenger for putting him in, i am pretty sure he wanted to start him because of his size. The one thing that annoyed me though, is that i caught him more than 4,5 times walking around and whining to the officials instead of helping his teammates to press on the ball. Hopefully in the future he will focus more on that, than complaining to the refs. He had a great effort towards the end of the game and almost scored a spectacular goal but he could have also crossed the ball to Ramsey.

The Professor was fucking late with his substitutions just like in the past. I thought he got rid of that habit last season when he was making them earlier, but today he waited until the 70th min to make any. Gervinho should have been subbed at the latest in the 60th min and Walcott should have been in. When he did came in, Theo looked lively and dangerous but didn't have much time for anything. Same with Oxlade, who looked a bit too eager to make an impact instead of keeping a cool head. Ramsey almost cost us a goal with his sloppiness again! I talk about this every blog post, that he is too casual with the ball when he comes in, and Stoke almost scored on us at the end of the game when he lost the ball in midfield and Walters (i believe) was through on goal! Aaron did have a few good runs up front and a decent shot wide and i will give him credit for those but that's about it.

To some it up, so far this season we look great defensively for a change but we are not creating enough offensively. And i don't care if RVP was still with us, we didn't create almost anything that was a 100% goal scoring chance. A lot of pressure and possession, huge amount of corners but no end product. We have to be sharper and quicker when attacking and at first glance of goal, we have to shoot the fucking ball! We need a win next week, C'mon You Gunners!      

Arsenal vs Sunderland 0-0

The new Premier League season is here and I am back! I meant to write a post a few weeks ago and give a review of our summer transfers but never found time for it. I will just kill two birds with one stone now.

Let's get the big pink elephant out of the rom first: Robin Van Persie. This will be the last time i write about him because he is no longer playing for Arsenal and i am tired of listening to the moaning of everyone! I am not gong to lie, selling him to Man U was very painful for me to experience and no matter how many great moments he has given us, i will never forgive him for going there. To me, that move just takes him out of the discussion of being an Arsenal great/legend. Everyone is blaming Arsene for selling him but in reality when someone does not want to renew their contract and wants to leave, it's silly to think you can keep them and they will be 100% commited to the club in that last year of their contract. So, i think selling him for 24 million was great business considering he is 29 and has had only one injury free season. Now what everyone needs to do is stop talking about Van Persie and focus on the players we have. p.s. Man U gave him 250K weekly salary which to me is absurd. I agree with Wenger when he says that one day this salary bubble will bust.

On the flip side: all these roumours, which might be confirmed by the end of this week, that we will sell Alex Song to Barcelona are something that i really dislike. If Wenger let's this happen it will be a big mistake on his part! Even though he keeps repeating that we have so many midfielders, we all know that Song brought toughness and some unexpected touch that none of the current crop has. The only guys i might compare to being as tough as him are Frimpong and Wilshere and they are both still injured. Song has three years left on his contract and hasn't requested a move. For us to sell him now will be just stupid and Wenger won't have the excuse that "we were forced to sell".

The last paragraph before analyzing the match today is about the players who came in this summer. We saw a glimpse of them today and i think we bought some good players. Cazorla will be an absolute stud and we already saw that today: great touch on the ball with both legs, good vision about the game and good movement. I think it's just a matter of time before he becomes one of our most important players! Podolski and Giroud will need some time before we can really judge them. I think Podolski will be solid and Giroud is a bit of a question mark. He had a really bad miss today which could have won the game for us, let's hope that won't affect his confidence and he will turn in a good season. I would have loved it if we had bought one good defender as well. Right now we only have Jenkinson at right back, unless you consider slotting Yennaris or Coquelin there. Hopefully we will be able to sell the clowns Djourou, Bendtner, Arshavin and Squillaci and bring another good defender in.

Now to the game today. Obviously a dissapointing result, no question about that but a lot of positives as well. I think first and most importantly the defense was solid, especially in the second half. The first half we got caught a few times with through balls and Sunderland had some chances but in the second half we shut them down completely. Our pressing on the ball was very good throughout the whole game and that was refreshng to see. I realy believe that if we can be solid defensivelly, we will have a good season. Let's hope today was a step in that direction.

Offensivelly, we need to play better. Many times we would run out of ideas and just pass the ball around instead being decisive and trying to play one touch football. Sunderland were defending great thoughout the game, and i gve them credit but we could have been more creative up front. Gervinho had a solid game as far as his movement and good runs on both wings but at times his decision making still sucks. Too many times he tries to just dribble past defenders when after his initial burst there are open players he can pass the ball to. In a way, he reminds me of Theo when he starts running with the ball and doesn't make great decisions with it. Talking about Theo, he didn't have a good game, was lost for big parts of it. Same for Podolski, he wasn't on the same page with the rest of the team but i think with some more time they will get better. Cazorla was our best player, even though he missed some passes, he was the brains when we moved forward and created the best chance of the day which Giroud somehow managed to miss. Diaby did ok, but it was apparent that he needs more matches under his belt. Arteta was solid as usual and was doing a lot of the defensive duties that Song used to do.

Vermaelen and Mertesacker both had a decent game, even though as i mentioned earlier they got beat by through balls a few times in the first half. I was happy to see Mertesacker have a solid game, because we will need all of our defenders playing well for the long season ahead. Gibbs was good as well, recovered decisively the few times Sunderland had breaks on his flank. Jenkinson dissapointed me a bit. His crosses weren't very good and last year i bragged so much that he crosses better than Sagna. He had trouble controlling the ball a lot of times, and spent portions of the game way up on the wing without recovering fast enough to the defensive side of the pitch. Ramsey and Arshavin were very dissapointing and mostly because of their carelessness with the ball!! Both of them lost the ball in the middle of the pitch more than once and mainly because they were too casual with it. If you are a subtitute and the coach gives you the chance to come in and impact the game, you can't be lazy and careless with the ball.

So, tough start for us but some good signs from this team. If we start clicking offensivelly and we stay strong defensivelly we will have a good year regardless of what people think. We do need a good result next week in Stoke though, and we all know it's hard for us to play there, so let's hope it will be our first positive step of the season followed by many more! C'mon you Gunners!!!