New additions and the season ahead

I haven't had the time to post in a while and i will keep this one short too.

First, we qualified for the Champions League which was very important. We walked a thin line against Besiktas, but we managed to get through. Our play is anything than convincing though. I think our biggest issues are defensively. We sold Vermaelen which was a huge mistake. Chambers has played very well considering his age and experience, but he can be a liability at times. We did not buy a top class defensive midfielder which i feel is one of our biggest issues. The game against Leicester was a great example of us struggling at the back, we got lucky to escape with a draw.

Regardless of how many great attacking options we have, we are still not organized enough when defending and we DON'T press on the ball! I watched the Tottenham vs Liverpool game and it was two teams pressing non stop throughout the whole game. Both of their coaches demand full effort and organization; and even though Spurs got whooped, i am not going to lie: i feel they way Pochetino is having them play looks much better than anything we have done this season. Maybe i am overreacting, but i really feel that:

1) We have NO shot at winning the league unless we improve defensively
2) Even top 4 might be a challenge if we don't raise our level drastically.

I hope i am wrong and we come out and destroy City today, but i just don't see it happening. We have some tough games coming up, which will show if we really can shoot for the top or we are not good enough which i think is the case.

I think buying Welbeck was a good move. I still have some doubts about him being the world class striker that we need, but he has speed which Giroud lacked and if his finishing is solid, he will have plenty of chances to score a lot of goals and prove himself. He is definitely better than the hopeless/clumsy Sanogo! Campbell is better than Sanogo too, i rather see him play than the tall useless Frenchman.

Ozil is also becoming such a disappointment i can't stand to watch him play. His lack of effort is driving me nuts and i could probably close my eyes on that if he was producing assists and goals. He has not done that and his tracking back and defending is non existent. Everybody in England has been bitching about Wilshere not being good enough, but right now i would take him over Ozil any day. At least he shows effort and desire and tries to attack, not just walk around the pitch.

Anyway, sorry about all of my negativity, but i feel like in the past 6-7 years it's the same thing over and over: we are good going forward, shaky in the back and only good enough for top 4. I am tired of that and of us not being a complete team because we are missing a defensive identity and a solid defensive midfielder.

So, let's hope i am wrong about all of this and we put some good games together starting with Man City today!C'mon You Gunners!!!

Summer Transfers 2014 and Pre Season matches

So, it's almost that time of the year: the Premier League is around the corner!!! Everyone is excited and can't wait to watch their favorite team in action. It was another busy summer in the transfer market and for the first time in many years, Arsenal actually did some business nice and early, instead of waiting until the end of August to make last minute buys.

We had a quite a few players leave the club during the summer, some of them were welcome to leave and were released like good old Bendtner (it was about time!), Chu-Young Park (we never gave that guy the chance to play and we basically wasted 2 years of his career - makes you wonder why we even bought him); some were sold - Djourou, Eisfeld ; some were loaned out - Jenkinson; and some left on a free transfer - Sagna and Fabianski.

Obviously Sagna is the biggest name that left the team. Unlike guys like Adebayor, Van Persie or Nasri, i will never have bad feelings towards Sagna for leaving. The guy always gave his all for the team and left his heart on the pitch every time he played!! I was really happy for him finally winning a trophy last season and wish him all the best for his future.

TEAM NEEDS:

Given our results and performances last year, i felt that this summer we really needed to buy a Right back (to replace Sagna); TOP class Defensive midfielder (Arteta and Flamini are not good enough if we want to challenge the big teams); and a TOP class Striker (Giroud is a decent player but NOT a top class striker).

PLAYERS BOUGHT: 

Calum Chambers - Southampton - Very promising young player, could play as a right or left back but Wenger seems to want to play him as a central defender. I saw him play against Benfica and Monaco today and he showed good strength and athleticism. Definitely a guy who should progress and give us options anywhere in the back four.

Mathieu Debuchy - Newcastle - Sagna's replacement Debuchy is France's starting right back. He started all of their World Cup games except the one against Ecuador - where Sagna was the starter. He had a solid season with Newcastle last year and seems like an adequate replacement for Sagna. His challenge will be to keep the high standards Sagna set on the right back side for us and maybe even add an extra dimension going forward.

David Ospina - Nice - The Colombian goalkeeper also played for his National team at the World Cup and comes in to provide competition for Szczesny. After Fabianski left, Martinez was the only other goalkeeper who could back Szczesny up, so the purchase of Ospina was a good move for us. The issue will be his playing time especially if Szczesny remains the starter. Regardless, we DO need someone to push Wojciech who can get a bit cocky and careless at times. 

Alexis Sanchez - Barcelona - Our biggest buy of the summer. Sanchez starred for Chile at the World Cup and has had impressive moments while at Barcelona. Very fast player who has good technical skills and is a good finisher. The purchase of Sanchez definitely shows that the club wants to compete for the Premier League title. The biggest challenge Wenger faces now is finding the right position for the Chilean.

CHALLENGES:

Even though with the players brought in, we are starting to look like a side who should be able to compete for the Premier League title, i see quite a few challenges ahead.

Defense: If Vermaelen is allowed to leave (which i strongly disagree with), we will be left with only Mertasacker and Koscielny as our main central defenders. From what i have seen so far, Ignasi Miquel still seems not good enough for a starting spot, Chambers is showing a lot of promise, but i am not sure he is 100% ready to be starting every week for Arsenal. That leaves us one injury away from having to play someone who is not ready to fill in the shoes of these two guys. I have been saying this for the whole of last season: Vermaelen has to be rotated with Koscielny and Mertesacker and be given enough game time to want to stay with us!!! Wenger has to put this in his stubborn head: ROTATION is a very important part of modern football. If you want to have strong competition for all the places on your team, you have to rotate players enough, so you have options!!! Letting Vermaelen go, would be a huge mistake and i feel this is something we don't need to do. If Wenger rotates the central defenders a bit (not every game but from time to time), this won't be an issue!
So overall, i feel our defense is not as impressive and solid as i want it to be. Left back is probably the only position where we have two guys who are close as far as their level, even though Gibbs is definitely better than Monreal. Bellerin impressed as a right back at the Emirates Cup, especially going forward, but Benfica never put us under too much pressure to see his defensive skills.

Midfield: We still don't have a TOP defensive midfielder. If we can buy Khedira from Madrid this would solve that problem immediately, but until i see it on paper, this position is an issue for me. Arteta and Flamini can do a job, but they are not the imposing, physical presence that you need in that position. Diaby might be an option, but he hasn't lasted more than a few weeks in the past 4 years, so we can't count on him staying healthy. I heard rumors that Wilshere might be put in that position, which is not a bad option, but his tackling easily gets out of control and i don't know if he has the required discipline to do the job there. That leaves us with a problem that needs to be solved if we want to tighten up our defense.

Another big issue for our midfield will be finding the right starting line up and you guessed it - the ROTATIONS - that need to be done! As of right now we have the following players listed as midfielders (without including Arteta, Flamini and Diaby): Ramsey, Ozil, Cazorla, Wilshere, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Sanchez; Walcott, Gnarby, Zelalem and Miyaichi! I am assuming the three players that would almost always start will be Sanchez, Ozil and Ramsey. The first two are way too expensive to sit on the bench and Ramsey was outstanding last season, so i think those three will start most games for us. When Walcott comes back he will probably be a sure starter as well. That leaves Wenger with the headache to find the right positions for everyone without losing the defensive balance that we need as well. Ozil and Cazorla have never impressed with their defensive work and that can be a big problem against the very organized teams. Finding the right balance on the pitch will be Wenger's biggest challenge.

On the brighter side, the fact that we have so many talented and proven players in our midfield will be a huge help when we are competing for the Champions League, FA Cup; Premier League and Capital One Cups. I just hope Wenger finds the right balance and does enough rotations to keep this team healthy and motivated!

Attack: Another area where there are question marks is our attack. Giroud has never been and will never be a striker of the quality of Suarez or Van Persie. He is a solid player, but that's it. We still don't have that top quality striker needed to make the difference in close matches. Even though both Walcott and Sanchez could probably play upfront, they don't have the size needed and if the delivery of passes to them is poor, they will struggle up front.

Which leads us to the next three guys that we have as an option: Yaya Sanogo was always a bit of the mark last season, he played a few games and showed a lot of desire and fight, but didn't provide the quality finishing expected up front. Yesterday against Benfica, he all of a sudden scored 4 goals and made us think that he might be an option if given the chance.

Joel Campbell had a good year on loan and then played very well for Costa Rica at the World Cup. He has said that he is ready to fight for his place and wants to play in the Premier League. He definitely has good qualities, but is he the finished product?

Then you have Lukas Podolski who is a great player and a good finisher, but at times his work rate is not what it needs to be. He gets lost on the wing sometimes and then kind of shuts off and doesn't do enough to get involved. He needs to step up his game if he wants to see game time this season.

So far this summer has been better than other because we did some business early and we can integrate the new faces more easily than in years past. There are still positions with big question marks around them and until i see a balanced team in all areas i won't say that we will be favorites to win the Premier League. If we don't fix the problem areas mentioned above, a more realistic target is another top 4 finish which we are all sick of by now, but the Premier League is getting stronger every year and we can't take anything for granted these days.

Let's hope we start the season with Community Shield trophy and many more after! C'mon You Gunners!!!

FA Cup: Arsenal vs Hull City 3-2 and what's next?

What a day yesterday was! Waiting for 9 years had taken it's toll on every Arsenal fan and i think the win yesterday was so emotional, because losing the final was not really an option. If this team was to ever start winning, it had to start with this FA Cup win. A lot of these players had not been able to cross the finish line for so long, another defeat might have scarred them for good. But they were able to fight through and scrap out a win that is of monumental importance for this club!!

The game itself was an emotional roller coaster. I expected a tough game because no team gets to a Cup final and just lays down without a fight. I also knew, that no matter what, we had to show resolve and win this game. That's the only way to become a winner: fight through adversity and believe that you can WIN! Those guys were finally able to do it. The start was as bad as it gets: 2 goals in 10 minutes both from scrambles in our penalty area. I am sure every Arsenal fan in the stadium was thinking "here we go again"! But Cazorla's goal was the turning point. At 1-2 down, we could still be patient going forward and needed only one more goal to stay in the game. If the score was 0-2 at half time, we would have been in deep trouble.

The second half we started putting Hull under a lot of pressure and it seemed a matter of time before we equalized. There were at least 2 or 3 situation where we should have gotten a penalty and had we lost this game, i am sure there would have been a major outcry against the ref. Luckily, Koscielny equalized and after that, there was only one team on the pitch. Gibbs could have done us all a favor, had he taken his chance in front of goal with 10 minutes or so to go. But i guess our first trophy in 9 years had to be earned the hard way! In extra time we missed a lot of chances with Giroud hitting the bar being the best one, until Ramsey finished the game with a great strike!! It was only fitting he would be the one, winning it for us, considering when healthy he has been our best player all season long! There was one more nervous moment left for everyone in red, when Fabianski decided to come out and try to clear a long through ball, allowing Hull the chance to maybe get to penalties, but the chance was missed and the FA CUP was ours!!!

So what's next for this team?

That is the million dollar question, isn't it? I feel that this win has shown two main things: these players proved that they can win trophies and from here on, the sky is the limit for this team! At the same time, there are holes that have to be plugged in and addressed if we want to get to the next level (winning the Premier League title and the Champions League)!

In my last post i mentioned that i believe Wenger has to go and i wanted him to win the FA Cup as his farewell present! The reality is that the only way we would have let him go is if we did NOT win the FA Cup. Now, it's certain that Arsene will sign a new contract and keep going. I have nothing against him and i have always said that he has done more for this club than anyone else! But if he does not make the right changes this summer, i fear we won't be able to progress much from this year. What do i mean by this:

#1. We NEED a top class Defensive midfielder! I can not stress this enough! Arteta and Flamini are both good players, but they are not good enough to be our main starters. In many games this season, it was clearly visible that Arteta has a tough time keeping up with fast, physical players. He can be our rotation guy, but we need a strong defensive midfielder as a starter, who can keep the balance between attack and defense. The losses to Man City and Liverpool were great examples of us not having that balance and being punished for it.  I have been hearing that Javi Martinez from Bayern is not getting along with Guardiola, he might be a perfect fit for us!

#2. Wenger has to have a plan B! One of his biggest weaknesses in my opinion is his refusal to adjust his tactics based on the opponent he is playing. We can not just blindly attack regardless of who we are playing, i love our identity and our style, but there are games where you have to be a bit smarter and set your team in a certain way. The two losses mentioned above come into mind again.

#3. Squad rotation is a must! If we want to challenge for titles on all fronts we need two teams of similar level. That's why keeping Thomas Vermaelen is a must!! The only way he will stay, is if he knows that he will play more than once in a blue moon. Wenger needs to rotate him with Koscielny and Mertesacker, otherwise he will go somewhere where he can play regularly. Against teams with very quick strikers and wingers you can easily pair Koscielny with Vermaelen who are a bit more mobile than Mertesacker.

#4. We need a good replacement for Sagna! With Sagna's departure all but certain, we need to buy another good right back. Jenkinson is a decent player but right now, he is nowhere near the level of Sagna. Bacary has been incredibly consistent in the last few seasons and has been constantly improving his game - i used to make fun of his crossing which used to be awful, but in the past two years even that part of his game had improved. If Micah Richards is healthy and available (and doesn't ask for astronomical salary), he can be a good option for us.

#5. We need a top class striker!  Giroud finished the season strong but we need an alternative- someone quicker and shiftier, which will be a different challenge for defenders. Sanogo is similar size to Giroud and is nowhere near ready to be a starter for us. In the games i have seen him play so far, he shows a lot of desire and fight, but is very clumsy with the ball. He had numerous chances against Hull to take some shots at goal, instead he was trying to twist and turn with the ball and kept losing it. He will probably get better with time but we need a top class striker now.

If Wenger can adapt his style a bit and work on the 5 things i mentioned above, he might be still the right man for the job for us. Otherwise the memory of this FA Cup win will quickly fade with the fans, because they want progress. Winning this first trophy in so long, will only increase their appetite and hunger for more. We have a squad that with the right additions, should be able to achieve much more! So now Wenger has to prove that he is able to build on this win and move the club forward!

I am looking forward to this summer and hopefully our management buying the final pieces of our puzzle, so next year we are ready to win more trophies in this very competitive Premier League! C'mon You Gunners!!!

FA CUP Winners!

More on the game and what's next for this team, tomorrow...For now, enjoy!!!!

Everton vs Arsenal 3-0

Wow, i did not see this one coming. I thought there is a chance that we might lose the game today, but i didn't think we would be COMPLETELY outplayed. The bottom line is that today Everton just played us out of the park. They pressed us better; they were better moving forward and creating chances; they limited us to only one real goal scoring chance; from start to finish they were the better team.

We obviously have a few positions that we have to improve and i have spoken about those in almost every post for the past few weeks, but today i felt we also didn't really have a clear idea how to break Everton down. When we tried crossing from the wings, we had no players in the penalty area who could convert those crosses. When we tried to go trough the middle, we could not find the right pass to create space and we also did not have a forward who could create something for himself (cough, Giroud is pretty useless up front, cough). It's hard to beat a well organized team when you don't really commit to a certain strategy and you just pass the ball around hoping something good will come out of it.

 A few other things are also clear: Monreal is a decent player, but he is way below Gibbs's level. He struggled all game long with the likes of Lukaku and Coleman. Giroud is pretty much in the same boat: decent player but that's about it. He can't create anything for himself. He can hold the ball well with his back to the goal and win a lot of headers, but he lacks speed and creativity. He is not someone who you are scared to cover, not to mention he is pretty quick to go down to ground when under pressure. And then cry about it.

Flamini had a great game against Man City and he is a born leader: very vocal and has a ton of heart. But i have always said that his pressing on the ball is awful. I don't think he even realizes that he NEVER closes people down. He stays a few feet away from them and then just barks orders to the players behind him. The problem with that as you can see from the two pictures below, is that the opposing players with the ball have all the time in the world to pick a pass and execute it. The pass Baines gave to Lukaku for the first Everton goal could have easily been prevented if Flamini had closed the ball down. Instead, he assumes his favorite defensive position: legs wide apart, giving the player with the ball plenty of space and the result is a cross from Baines, with no one being able to block it.

I thought Cazorla also had a very poor game, he kept missing passes and couldn't really get his game going. Podolski had some good shots in the first 10 minutes of the game and then he disappeared completely. Rosicky was probably one of the few players that was pushing the envelope and trying to create something by taking on players and attacking the goal. Ramsey had his first game in over 3 months and i was happy to see him on the pitch. Hopefully he can stay healthy because he was unstoppable in the first part of the season. 

I still don't understand why Kallstrom does not get any game time. If you bought him because he is good, you should let him play and see if he is good enough to play for this team. Especially since Arteta has been struggling in the past few games. Or maybe i am the only one who thinks Arteta is not good enough in the middle of the pitch.

I still think that we should be able to win our next five games and finish in the top 4. Some of the teams we play are fighting to avoid relegation, so they won't roll over for us, but if we want to play Champions League football next year, we have to show we deserve it. Everton still have to play Southampton and Man City so i can see them dropping points, but we need to take care of our part and win the rest of our games.

Lastly, i really think it's time for Wenger to go. I love the guy and i hope he can win the FA Cup this year and retire as a winner. But i do think his time has come. We need a fresh face, someone who can still keep our identity and the way we play football, but who is better at organizing us defensively and is able to rotate players and adapt to the modern game. Someone like Michael Laudrup, Jurgen Klopp or even Roberto Martinez. I wouldn't mind if Wenger helps with finding who should succeed him. He could also stay at Arsenal as a technical director or help develop the young players at the club. Regardless, he is a legend at Arsenal, but the time has come for the club to move on!

Arsenal vs Manchester City 1-1

So, i haven't had time or desire to post since the last two games with Chelsea and Swansea. Needless to say there wasn't much to post about anyway. Against Chelsea it looked like Wenger did not learn anything from the Liverpool beat down we suffered in February. A common theme in all these bad losses that we had this year against the top teams, was how we conceded goals: one of our midfield players makes a bad pass or losses possession of the ball = quick counter = goal for the opposition. The first three goals we conceded against Chelsea were all started by giveaways in midfield. Sometimes it's Arteta (who i feel is the biggest liability in our midfield), sometimes it's Cazorla, sometimes Oxlade and today was Podolski. It doesn't really matter who the player that gives the ball away is, what is important is that we are not prepared for it and teams punish us over and over.

Today's game compared to our last few showings was OK. I felt that we had chances to win the game (especially Podolski's shot being blocked by Hart's leg was very unlucky). We still looked vulnerable, but at least we played a bit smarter than other times. When Gibbs saw how much pace and quickness Navas has in the first 10 minutes, he stopped going forward as much and dropped back a bit, so he can control the Spaniard. The rest of the game i though Kieran did an awesome job defending Navas's runs. But he made and ADJUSTMENT! Something we haven't done very well all season long. In the big losses that we suffered this year against Chelsea, Liverpool and City, the cause was the same: we never adjusted our playing style! There was no plan B. So when you don't make an adjustment you get punished. That's where i feel Arsene has struggled for years, he is not tactically flexible. We have to suffer big defeats over and over, before something changes.

Anyway, today we got a decent result. It would have been much better if we had won the game, but we needed a response and we did play some good spells of football. I though Cazorla was very good and always threatening going forward. Rosicky was also dangerous even though he had some reckless challenges. As i mentioned, Gibbs adjusted well after the first 10 minutes, Sagna delivered some great crosses from the right side, there was one that should have been converted for sure. Vermaelen and Mertesacker were solid for the most part, i think the Belgium is someone who we should NOT let leave if we want to be a team challenging for a title in the upcoming seasons. He should be given more game time and rotated with Koscielny, instead being a bench warmer. Flamini had a good game and was everywhere on the pitch. If anything, he looked more like an attacking midfielder then a defensive one. He also scored a nice goal. Podolski had a decent game, but missed a great chance to win it for us. Giroud was his usual self - working hard and winning a lot of high balls, but not a lot of end product from him. He also loveeees laying on the ground and making faces every time he gets tackled. I felt Oxlade should have come in a bit earlier if we really wanted to push and try to win this game.

I left good old Arteta for last because i finally decided to record a typical giveaway that he does at least ONCE EVERY single game! I am not blaming him for lack of pace or the strength needed to fight off challenges - i blame Wenger for putting him as a defensive midfielder when he lacks the attributes needed to be one!     

Since he brought Kallstrom as a defensive midfielder, i hope we will see him play instead of Arteta for a few games and decide if he is a better alternative. Until then, expect more clips like the one above.

With the FA Cup being our only realistic chance of silverware i do hope we can at least keep fourth place, the game against Everton next week will be huge in deciding that. Let's hope we show up ready to play! C'mon You Gunners!

Tottenham vs Arsenal 0-1

Huge win today! Doing the double over Spurs in one season is extremely enjoyable! (Triple if you count the FA Cup:)!! I am not going to lie, for the first 65 minutes of the game today i was screaming at the TV and pulling my hair: #1) we should have scored two more goals on the counter and put the game away #2) Tottenham could have scored at least 3 themselves!

I know it was a strange game simply because Rosicky decided to score the prettiest goal of his Arsenal career in the 2nd minute of the contest! Obviously, scoring that early changed our mindset and we sat back a lot more than we probably would have otherwise. But for large periods of the first 65 minutes, i didn't think we belonged in a title fight: we weren't pressing enough and we allowed too much space for the Spurs players to operate in. On top of that Oxlade wasn't able to score (or at least pass to Podolski) during a lightning counter attack. I felt that this is a Spurs team really shaky at the back and we couldn't take advantage of that, or at least put them under more pressure! 

But to their credit, everyone settled down around the 70th minute and we kind of closed shop at the back. The last 20 minutes of the game i felt that we were defending very calmly with the exception of the constant booting of the ball up field, instead of stringing a few passes together. Wenger actually made good substitutions considering how thin our bench is and we were able to close the game out!

I have been mentioning this a lot lately, but i still feel that Arteta continues to struggle big time in the middle of the pitch. For playing such an important holding role his speed is a huge concern, i would play him a bit higher up the pitch because when he loses the ball deep in our half, he just can't recover. I wonder if Kallstrom will be a better alternative if he is fit enough? Oxlade continued his excellent play even though he was asked to play a bit further back today. His speed allowed him to burst forward whenever he had the opportunity and he had chances to double our advantage on more than one occasion. Hopefully his finishing will be sharper next time. Rosicky was outstanding and his goal was unreal! The guy is capable of shots like that, it was great that today his aim was spot on! Cazorla was lively throughout the whole game and even though he had some uncharacteristic giveaways, he had a solid performance.   

The back four were outstanding today! Mertesacker won pretty much every high ball in our penalty area and almost scored on the other end! One of his best performances in an Arsenal shirt. Sagna was also outstanding. He had to deal with the speedy Rose the whole game and to be honest, i feel that he wore him out, because towards the end of the game Rose was not flying forward as much. Gibbs and Koscielny were also very solid and Koscielny blocked what looked like a sure goal after Szczesny had a sloppy attempt on the ball. Other than the mentioned casual mistake that Szczesny made, he also had a good game.

Podolski worked hard all game and had Oxlade rolled the ball to him in the first half, he would have had a tap in goal. Surprisingly though, he was out of gas in the 70th minute and Wenger did well to sub him. I don't know if he is not a 100% because he was a sub for a long period of the season but he has to bring his fitness level up, so he can last 90 minutes! Giroud was almost invincible for long periods of the game, but to his credit in the last 15 minutes when we were booting everything up field, he won a ton of high balls and won us a lot of extra seconds.

All in all, a tremendously important result for us because it leaves us in the title race!!! We definitely need a better performance against Chelsea next week, but hopefully the team gets a lot of confidence from this win and steps it up. If we play with more purpose going forward and do a better job of taking our chances we can pull off a result at Stamford Bridge! But if we allow them too much space and time on the ball like we gave Tottenham today, we will have a tough time getting a result there. C'mon You Gunners!!!