Arsenal vs Tottenham

A solid beating of Tottenham always brings tremendous joy to any Arsenal supporter! So, today was definitely an enjoyable day for all Arsenal fans. Does this win solve all the problems that we have? NO. Does this win change the fact that at times we are absolutely clueless defensively? NO. Does this win mean that Wenger has finally realized that he needs to change his tactics and squad rotation? Most likely not.

Overall i felt that with the exception of the first 10 min of the game, we were the better team hands down. But the way we got scored on both times was absolutely pathetic. Saha's goal was a fucking joke as far as the position of our defenders. Nobody knew who they were supposed to cover and Saha had miles of space even if he got lucky with the finish. There were a few more times where our defenders were clearly out of position. Especially in the first half, our pressing of the ball was so naive and panicked: two guys would run straight up at the Tottenham player with the ball, this way freeing someone else who had loads of space to work with. I am glad we were pressing the ball but we have to do it more efficiently than what we did in that first half.

Once Tottenham scored, we woke up and took control of the game. We actually created some chances with Van Persie missing a good chance and Friedel making a great save on Rosicky's header. The penalty for their second goal was again a result of our bad defending, but we responded with a great goal from Sagna. The build up for that goal was great and his header excellent. Too bad that until that goal, Sagna had his normal crossing ratio in full effect: 1 good cross out of every 5 he tries. Robin's goal soon after was pure class, great control of the ball and great shot. I thought the best player on the pitch in the first half was Arteta. He was pretty much everywhere, very active and into the game. He was pressing hard and tackling people all over the pitch. Gave some great passes, most notably the pass to Sagna for the first goal. 

We started well in the second half as well. I thought Redknap made a mistake by leaving Adebayor on the pitch the whole game. Even though he scored, he is slow and didn't pose any threat even on high balls. I thought someone faster like Defoe or Lennon would have given us many more problems. Anyway, i thought the goal Rosicky scored was vital. It gave us even more belief that we can win this game and kind of deflated Tottenham completely. It was a great build up for the goal and Rosicky's finish was world class! I am really happy for him because he is a player who has been playing well but never got over that hump of scoring important goals for us like he used to do for Borussia Dortmund. If Arteta was the best player on the pitch in the first half, Rosicky was the best player in the second. He was all over the midfield, giving great passes and trying to create chances. His pass to Robin was vital in Walcott's first goal.

In a way i am happy for Walcott as well, because he was struggling for a long time in the past few weeks. You could see in the first half, that he was lacking confidence big time. He misplayed at least 4,5 passes, didn't look comfortable at all. Missed a great chance when he ran past the Tottenham defense and instead of cutting inside toward the center and shooting the ball, he tried to go right and passed to RVP to no avail. I thought he would be subbed at half time and i would have approved that substitution. Luckily for him and for my fantasy team, he stayed on and scored two nice goals. You can see that he is comfortable when he has space to work with and can run past people and shoot at goal. That's why i feel it's Wenger responsibility to adjust his position when we play teams who sit back and defend and do not give us any space. In those games he should play Walcott as a striker and Van Persie right behind him, this way giving him a chance to out run central defenders and be a constant threat with his pace instead of putting him on the wing where he is completely lost and runs out of ideas.

Our defense was much better in the second half, specifically Vermaelen. He was out of position more than once in the first half and had a big fault in the build up to Tottenham's first goal. Second half he won pretty much every high ball and played much, much better. I thought Gibbs was pretty good except for the dive he decided to take in the first half in hopes of winning a penalty. Koscielny was solid as well. I am also glad Jenkinson is back, that kid plays with a lot of heart and has a wayyy better cross than Sagna, that's for sure :).

I have to give props to Wenger for trying to change things by starting Benayoun together with Rosicky, Walcott, Song and Arteta. Even though Benayoun was not exceptional, he did bring us more security and control of the ball in the middle of the pitch. The question is, why didn't he try this earlier in the season? The guy has been sitting on the bench for most of the campaign.

So, this was a great win for us but it doesn't change our situation much. We are still very very vulnerable defensively; we struggle with teams who don't give us space; Wenger's rotation policy is non existent with a few exceptions here and there; and tactically Wenger still doesn't always put the players in the best positions for them to be successful. But today was a win that we should all enjoy! We played some great football and got a result. Did i mentioned we spanked Spurs in the process :))? Another big game vs Liverpool next week, let's hope for another good performance! C'mon You Gunners!!

p.s. I normally don't write about our non Premier League games, but i just have to mention that players like Djourou should NOT be in this team, let alone give them contract extensions!!! This clumsy clown makes around 50,000 pounds a week! That has to be a sick joke. And we just gave him a contract extension??? Squillaci makes around 60,000 a week??? We have other examples like Vela, Bendtner, Fabianski and Denilson all making between 40,000 and 60,000 per week. Those guys, especially Fabianski and Denilson should not be making more than 15,000 a week. So, the bottom line is that we pay average to high wages to players who are absolutely not good enough to receive even minimum wages. And then we can't reward our best players with higher wages because we pay so much to bench warmers. Look at how much  Man U's Danny Wellbeck makes - 15,000 a week! Obviously now that he plays more regularly they will probably give him a new and improved contract but the fact is that until you prove yourself at Man U  you get minimal salary. Now compare that to Djourou's salary, a guy who not only is not good enough but he doesn't even play unless someone is injured. And Wenger rewards his clumsiness with a new contract, wtf.   

Sunderland vs Arsenal

Much needed win today! It wasn't pretty and it didn't look like we will get a win but fortunately for us we got it done. The game itself was pretty boring until the last 20 minutes. Sunderland decided that they will play with 10 man in their own half and see if we can get through. To their credit, they were very organized and pressed us non stop for 90 minutes. Which doesn't change the fact that we need to get better at creating chances and scoring when teams play us like this.

Except for the first 12 minutes in the first half when we had some very sloppy mistakes in our passing which allowed them to attack, Sunderland didn't create anything and were happy to sit back and watch us suffer. I am pretty sure we didn't create even one clear chance to score in the first half. Second half was pretty much the same scenario: a lot of possession for us but no chances to score. Then around the 62nd min they had a few corners and free kicks in a row where we looked absolutely clueless how to defend and Szczesny had to bail us out. We stack the box and then when we clear the ball there is no one around to block shots that are coming from outside the penalty area. We gotta do better than that! And then they scored out of the blue and i was fucking fuming. Not so much at Mertesacker because he probably tore something, otherwise he wouldn't have fallen like that. But i was pissed that Sunderland were up 1 having created pretty much nothing for the whole game. Not to mention with the way we were playing i thought that there is no way we were going to score 2 goals. So when Ramsey scored it was justice. It was a lucky goal in the sense that it came out of nowhere but that's how Sunderland scored too, so it was only fair. I am also happy for Ramsey because he hasn't been playing well recently. 

And then would you believe it: Arshavin out of all people gave a great ball to Henry and we were up 2-1. Henry can still score goals and i was ecstatic that we won the game but he is such a cocky bitch that he pisses me off. I give him credit for being at the right place and finishing the ball nicely but the rest of the time he was on the pitch, he was just jogging and not doing anything. So after he scored, instead of digging in and pressing defensively, he is mocking Martin O"Neil and then booming the ball 50 yards down the pitch instead of keeping possession and helping us close the game out. I remember back in the day when we sold him, i was quite happy because his ego at the time was bigger than the team and today we saw a bit of that again.

I thought Rosicky was the man of the match. Great work rate and had some great passes. He was one of the few guys that were close to creating something offensively. Walcott had another bad game and he continues to be lost on the wing especially when he has no space to work with. Oxlade didn't have a great game but you can't expect him to be great in every game.

I have to give credit to Wenger for his substitutions today. All 3 guys that came in had a huge impact on the game even if there was luck involved. Now, the big challenge for Wenger is to show me that he is learning from his mistakes: he better make at least 3 or 4 changes for the Milan game on Wednesday. Rotating the team has never been his strength and has always been something that makes me fume. I remember last year he kept the exact same team that played in the Champions League on Wednesday for a Premier League game on Sunday, and after the game he said "we were tired", no shit Sherlok! So i hope i see guys like Coquelin, Benayoun, and even stupid Arshavin start against Milan. The annoying sir Alex is a great example for squad rotations: he always shuffles his team based on what he decides for the specific game. An example is Hernandez who scored an important goals vs Chelsea but that didn't mean he was starting today.

Anyway, great, great, great result for us today!!! Very important win because we have some really tough games coming up: Milan in Ch. League, Sunderland again for the FA Cup and then Tottenham and Liverpool back to back. So today's result is very important, we just need to keep it going. C'mon you Gunners!!!

Arsenal vs Blackburn

I can finally write a blog where i don't have to bitch non stop throughout the whole article! Today was probably our best performance this season and i am not saying that just because of the score line. Even before Blackburn went down to 10 man we played really well. They barely had any possession on the ball and if it wasn't for the free kick which they scored from, i don't think they had one dangerous attack. I also really like the way we responded after Blackburn scored, we scored two quick goals and both were from great attacks.    That's why i feel we played a really good game even before we were a man up. Once Givet got the red card, it was obvious we will put some goals on the board. The only thing in the second half that wasn't as good as in the first was our press on the ball, but considering the score line i will let it slip without complaining too much.

 The defense was solid throughout the game, i was really happy how we were closing down on the Blackburn players in the first half, they barely created any chances. I was really impressed with Coquelin, he is very mobile and his passing is great. He gave a great ball to Walcott to set up RVP's first goal and had other great moves on the right. I guess part of his good passing is because he normally plays as a midfielder, so you can definitely tell that the guy is good with the ball in his feet. I think he is more than capable to play both as a right back or midfield. Koscielny was very good except for the foul he gave up for Pedersen's goal. Vermaelen was solid as usual, got a unnecessary yellow card in the second half because of a few silly fouls. Mertesacker is playing better and better with each game. I think next season we will really see his true qualities.

The midfield had it's best game of the season. We created a lot of chances and took most of them. This was something that was missing the whole season up to now. Arteta was solid and scored a nice goal. Song gave some great passes for a few of our most dangerous attacks. Walcott finally had a really solid game. Had three assists and was very active on the wing. Rosicky was solid, couldn't get on the scoreboard but played a good game. Oxlade-Chamberlain was the guy who deserves a bit of special mention. I think this kid has the potential to be very, very good! He has great pace, very similar to Walcott's but his dribbling and control of the ball are much better than Theo's. He is physically stronger and also has better vision and good passing. I think Chamberlain will be like Wilshere last season: once he breaks into the first team it will be tough to get him out of there. Robin was great as he has been the whole season. He was at the right place for the first two goals, gave a great pass for Chamberlain's first goal and was pretty much lethal throughout the whole game.

I know we played against Blackburn today. I know they were down to 10 man. I know most Premier League tams have better defense than Blackburn's. But today i am just going to enjoy the way the team played and the win we got. First time all season we were defensively solid. We created a lot of chances up front and we took most of them. Basically today was the first complete game we had all season and i am very happy. We really needed a performance like this.

The last thing that i want to mention is that if the team gets healthy with all the new players settling in we can have pretty much two very strong teams. You would have Sagna, Coquelin and Jenkinson at right back. Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Miquel at center back. Gibbs, Santos at left backs. Arteta, Rosicky, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Song, Wilshere, Walcott, Gervinho, Benayoun, Frimpong, Miyachi, Diaby (if he is ever healthy) and Arshavin (i hope we sell his lazy ass) as midfielders. The only spot we need to improve is the striker position. I don't think Chamakh is good enough and i don't know about Park yet because we can't see him play. It's a good problem to have but Wenger has to do a good job rotating the squad, something he has proved he can struggle with. Anyway if we can keep improving our performances we will have a really good team next season. And hopefully we can squeeze into the top four this year, because until i see us put a few good games in a row, i will still be saying "Europe League" next year :). p.s.I do believe we can get into the top four and i bet $20 on it, so i hope my boys will help me win some cash. 

Arsenal vs Manchester United

This sums up my thoughts about the game!

I have always defended Arsene Wenger even though i have criticised him as well. Today is the first time when i am going to say it: If Wenger does not change the way he manages this team, he has to leave!!! I am tired of his inability to see his mistakes and learn from them. How many times has he made wrong decisions just to repeat them over and over again? This is fucking bulshit and i can't take it anymore. I have had enough!

I read his post game comments saying that Oxlade-Chamberlain had pulled his calf and that he was getting tired. Even if we assume that's true (which i am not sure it is) you DO NOT put Andrey Fucking Arshavin in there. I don't care if he is the captain of the Russian National team. I don't care if he is the captain of the Martian National team. He has played like shit for so long that he does not deserve to be in there. He had a chance to impress against Swansea by starting the game but he did fucking nothing. He is horrible defensively which he proved again by allowing United's 2nd goal.

The game itself was two sided. With the exception of the first 10 minutes, we got dominated in the first half. Defensively we were sucking just because we can't position properly. A good example is the chance Ryan Giggs missed on the right wing, when he got a through ball and two defenders just watched him and allowed him to go face to face with Szczesny. United had other chances as well and scored a deserved goal at the end of the first half. Ryan Giggs was again allowed to cross with no pressure on him and we got what we deserved for defending like that.

Second  half we played much better and created 3 chances that we should have scored: RVP missed a chance i never thought i would see him miss; Ramsey and Rosicky missed one each as well. Eventually RVP scored a great goal but because of Wenger's stupidity and Arshavin's "great" defensive skills we got scored on in the dumbest way possible.

Szczesny had a good game and saved us on a couple of ocassions. Djourou was fucking aweful and was getting abused, so thank god Wenger put Yennaris in. I am not saying he did great but i prefer to watch Yennaris than Djourou's clumsy ass. Mertesacker was up and down. He got exposed a few times, especially his lack of pace when Welbeck almost scored from a non threathning looking ball and Mertesacker himself had to clear the ball of the line. But he also had some good defensive stops. Koscielny was again our best defender, i love how solid he has been playing since the Man U game in the beginning of the season. Vermaelen got beat for the 1st goal but other than that he was solid as usual.

Rosicky was pretty good, showed a lot of energy but should have done better when he had his scoring chances. The same goes for Ramsey. Song didn't do much offensivelly but that's not his job anyway, he had a solid game as usual. Walcott was not great, second half he played a bit better but he has to do more. Oxlade-Chamberlain was probably our best player even though in the first half he wasn't on the same page with Rosicky and Walcott in the passing game. Regardless, he was dangerious and exciting throughout the whole game.RVP scored a great goal but also missed a chance that he should have scored.

I was actually excited at the beginning of the game because it looked like Wenger finally showed some balls in a big game by starting Oxlade-Chamberlain and then subbing Djourou. Little did i know it would all be undone with his stupidity to put Arshavin in the game. So this one is on you Arsene! As i said in the last post: Europa League here we some...

Swansea vs Arsenal

I am so pissed off and disappointed, i don't know if i should start with the positives first, just to get in a better mood. The only positives from this game were a few players who played really well unlike the rest of the team. Ignasi Miquel had a great game. I have been saying for a long time that this kid looks like a very good player and today he absolutely proved it. Considering the awful fucking defending in all of Swansea's goals, Miquel actually played very well. He was very active on the left and did not stop playing hard until the end of the game. He had some great long passes and also some very good through balls. He was one of the few bright spots for us today. Koscielny is another one that played his heart out. The third goal was a little bit his fault because he slowed down and allowed Graham to shoot, but considering that the whole defense was asleep for that goal, i can't really blame him. The rest of the game he was very solid and active, his work rate was unreal - he even got close to scoring at the end.

Now to the negatives. I have been bitching at Wenger to play Benayoun more but today he didn't show with anything that he deserves to start. He had one great pass to RVP who should have scored but other than that i was very disappointed with his performance. Arshavin doesn't even deserve me wasting my time talking about him. He had a great pass for the first goal and after that one big ZERO. You can't be a player of his quality and be so poor at giving effort. Fucking horrible. Theo Walcott who is one of my favorite players was also really bad the whole game. Scored a great goal but other than that was very poor. Every time he got the ball he would end up running around and look predictable. No creativity whatsoever. Ramsey is also one of my favorites but he had a bad game as well. Gave away the penalty and lost the ball for Swansea's second goal. Those are two very big mistakes in a game like this, when we are not playing well and never really looked threatening going forward.

 Swansea completely outplayed us when it comes down to pressing on the ball, those guys were all over our center backs in our own half of the pitch. And that was all game long. And we on the other hand, never really pressed them hard enough until the last 20 min of the game. I am so tired of talking about our inability to press properly that i am not going to talk about it today. Our midfield was so sloppy with passing today i was losing my mind. Both of Swansea's 2nd and 3rd goals came after our mistakes in midfield.

Mertesacker had a tough game. I know he was sick all week that's why i give him props for trying to tough it out but he didn't play well. Djourou was up and down. Started not very convincingly but got much better as the game progressed. Gave a great ball to Walcott for the 2nd goal and made some good defensive stops in the second half. Song was another player besides Miquel and Koscielny who played well. He had very few mistakes in his passing and was trying hard to create something offensively. Rosicky and Oxlade-Chamberlain gave us a bit of a spark but not much more. Henry didn't do much but you can't expect him to turn around the game. Everyone else needs to play good and he can just complement the rest of the team. Van Persie scored a great goal but missed a good chance a bit later and didn't do much the rest of the game.

Mertesacker had a tough game. I know he was sick all week that's why i give him props for trying to tough it out but he didn't play well. Djourou was up and down. Started not very convincingly but got much better as the game progressed. Gave a great ball to Walcott for the 2nd goal and made some good defensive stops in the second half. Song was another player besides Miquel and Koscielny who played well. He had very few mistakes in his passing and was trying hard to create something offensively. Rosicky and Oxlade-Chamberlain gave us a bit of a spark but not much more. Henry didn't do much but you can't expect him to turn around the game. Everyone else needs to play good and he can just complement the rest of the team. Van Persie scored a great goal but missed a good chance a bit later and didn't do much the rest of the game.

The bottom line is that Swansea outplayed us in every aspect of the game. We didn't look motivated, didn't look hungry. Guys who had a chance to step up and make a claim that they should be starting, played really poorly. If we keep this up, Europa League is our destination for next season and even that might be stretching it. Wenger better learn quickly how to get his team motivated for a game because Man U next week could get embarrassing.

Arsenal vs QPR and Fulham vs Arsenal

Sorry i haven't written about the last two games that we played but i didn't have a chance to watch the QPR game at all and saw just parts of the Fulham game. For the QPR game, all i am going to say is that we got a result and that Neil Warnock is a pussy: i saw his post match comments about Van Persie and he made me laugh. Instead of worrying about his team's shitty form he is bitching about Robin being too rough on defenders. I am glad he actually got fired yesterday and he will not bore me anymore with his stupidity.

The Fulham game i saw about 40 min out of the 90min. The result we got vs QPR was basically wasted after the loss against Fulham. It's true that Djourou's red card was harsh but we conceded form a set piece (what's new) and then another shitty goal at the end. I don't care if you have 10 man on the field, the bottom line is that both goals were a result of our shitty defending: we couldn't clear the ball properly, gave them a second chance at goal and got punished. Instead of gaining ground on Chelsea we are behind them again and the fight for 4th place will be long and tough.

I don't know if i will be able to see the Leeds game (i usually post only for Premier League games anyway) but i will definitely post after the Swansea game. Let's hope we put a few good performances in a row! Go Gunners!

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.