Author Archives: keenosafc

The Curse of The Arsenal Captain

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Over the there have been a few curses on Arsenal Football Club.

We have The Curse of The Arsenal Number 9, which stretches back into the last millennium. Under Arsene Wenger, no one who has worn the number 9 shirt at Arsenal has ever really prospered for a long period of time. Paul Merson, Nicolas Anelka, Davor Suker, Francis Jeffers, Jose Antonio Reyes, Julio Baptista, Eduardo, Park Chu-Young and Lukas Podolski. All either failed at the club under Wenger, or were shipped out within a couple of seasons. Current holder of the shirt is Lucas Perez. The Curse of The Arsenal Number 9 has not yet been broken.

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Then we have The Curse of The Invincibles. When you sell your soul to the devil for a donut, you pay a hefty price. No matter how tasty that donut is, you are forever cursed, forever owned, by the devil. A special place in hell is waiting for you where you are fed donuts for eternity.

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And that is what Arsenal pretty much did when they went invincible. They sold their soul. Since that glorious day in May 2004, we have failed to win another title. It is as if it took half a century of luck, strength and ability, rolled it all together, into just a single season. Of course, the curse has slightly been chipped away with FA Cup wins, but until we win the Premier League title, the Curse of The Invincibles will continue to grow bigger in folklore.

Will The Curse of The Invincibles end up being like Mayo GAA? They have not won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship since 1951. The story go’s that they will not win another one until every member of the 1951 side is dead. They made the Final this year. Their 5th in 12 seasons. They have lost them all…

Then we come on to The Curse of Aaron Ramsey. We all know how this one go’s. When Aaron Ramsey scores, someone important dies. From Osama bin Laden to Steve Jobs; Whitney Houston to Muammar Gaddafi, Paul Walker, Robin Williams, Richard Attenborough, David Bowie and Alan Rickman. What will it take for Piers Morgan to be added to the list? A hat trick?

It should be of no surprise therefore that over recent years, another curse has attached itself to Arsenal. The Curse of The Arsenal Captain.

 

https://twitter.com/DarrenArsenal1/status/774593620649316353

For an Arsenal captain to have played just 13 games in the last 3 seasons is a shocking statistic.

Current club captain is Per Mertesacker. He is out injured until 2017. With his contract set to expire at the end of the year, talk has already begun that he might return to Hannover 96 on a free in the summer of 2017. A return to his home town club, the city of his birth, to see out his career.

When you add his injury and contract situation, alongside the current form of Laurent Koscielny & Shkodran Mustafi, the development of Rob Holding and the presence of Gabriel, a case could easily be made that we might never see Per Mertesacker in an Arsenal shirt again.

Never playing for Arsenal again is unlikely, but I would be very surprised if, when he does eventually return, he plays another 10 times for the club. He certainly will not make another 10 starts, and will only break in if injuries hit. Even with injuries, Wenger might be tempted to push through Gabriel or Holding, who are much more suited to our current high pressing, defend the half way line, game, than Mertesacker.

So after getting the arm band in the summer, the curse looks likely to hit again.

A little investigation shows this curse has been going on longer than the last 3 seasons. Maybe it will get renamed The Curse of Tony Adams?

Adams captained the club from March 1988 to 2002. 15 seasons as captain. In the next 15 seasons, Arsenal have had 8 captains.

First up was Patrick Vieira. He was long consider heir apparent to Tony Adams. A foreign leader for the foreign legion of Arsenal players. When he became Arsenal captain in 2002, he was 26 and looked set to become an Arsenal legend. He then spent his 3 years at Arsenal engineering a move away from the club before finally being sold in 2005 to Juventus. 3 years as captain.

Next up was Thierry Henry. Given the armband as talisman of the team. The best player, but not necessarily the best captain. He lasted 2 seasons. Then, like Vieira, engineered a move away from the club to Barcelona. Cheers T.

William Gallas was the surprise next choice as Arsenal captain. He was stripped of captaincy after a little more than a year after giving an unauthorised interview where he revealed tensions within the squad which were disruptive to team morale, and suggested that Arsenal’s younger players needed to show more courage if the team were to be successful.

Following up from Gallas was Cesc Fabregas. At the time people felt he maybe got the arm band too early. Barley 2, the argument was that if captain Arsenal young was good enough for Tony Adams, then Cesc could also step up. A young leader for a young team. He last 2 and a bit seasons, going on strike in his last season, heading to the Spanish Grand Prix rather than supporting the team, and buggered off the Barcelona.

It then fell to Robin van Persie to be Arsenal captain. A similar situation to Henry, he was basically given the armband to ensure he stayed at the club when, like with Henry, others around him were leaving. He did stay, for one season, before engineering a move to Manchester United.

Thomas Vermaelen was next in line. He looked an ideal fit. Had been at the club for 3 seasons. Was 26 years old. Was a guaranteed starter. Was an international regular. Was captain of Ajax before he joined us. Was a natural leader. The Arsenal captaincy resulted in injuries and lack of form and 2 years after being given the armband, he was sold to Barcelona.

Vermaelen was replaced by Mikel Arteta. At the time it was a questionable decision. Many pointed to the fact he was already not a 1st team regular. His legs already going. Per Mertesacker was the fans choice in 2014. As captain Arteta started just 6 games. 612 minutes of Premier League football over 2 years. He retired.

Per Mertesacker finally got the armband this summer. An odd decision considering he was already out for the rest of the year injured. And with his contract expiring, likely to leave.

Arsene Wenger should bite the bullet now. Take the armband off Mertesacker and give it to Laurent Koscielny. The Frenchman has grown as a leader this season since the Euro’s. He seems to be revelling in being the senior partner.

Laurent Koscielny should be Arsenal captain, and hopefully break the curse.

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Keenos

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Some Burnley thoughts

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Win when playing poorly is the sign of Champions

That is what would have been written if it was Man City, Man U, Spurs, Liverpool or Chelsea. But this is Arsenal. And the media always have an agenda to grind. Instead of a gritty win against a northern outfit who parked the bus, showing our title credentials, the media claimed we were “lucky”, “undeserving” and that we “escaped”.

Let’s call it how it was. The goal did have some elements of luck to it, but isn’t that how you win these type of games? A scrappy goal. In the last second. We never gave up and got our just rewards.

1 nil to the Arsenal without playing well.

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Remember, Burnley beat Liverpool (who we are above in the league) with the same tactics. They are set up hard to beat. A Sam Allardyce Black or Bolton from yesteryear. They are not pretty, some might say it is clever, but it is dull. Very, very dull.

5 years ago we would have lost yesterday. And the press would have been loving it. Arsenal losing to a small Lancashire club. They would have had a field day. We would have shown once more that we have no title credentials and the same old failings.

Instead, we win, and the press show that they can not change their agenda. So they change the narrative. What perhaps sums up the differing narratives is this tweet about Man U going 1-0 up against a side who were second bottom with 2 points from 6 games…

What Mourinho was what he always does. Bring in £80m worth of talent in the hope an individual makes a difference. They did. But ultimately they drew 1-1. But well done Mourinho.

After a game, Twitter can become a minefield. Fans from both sides grinding an agenda. all shouting for their bit of space. Craving their attention. It is embarrassing. Trying to impress 14 year old boys for RT’s. But where Twitter is brilliant is when fans just tweet from the heart. Taking the piss out of the losers whilst celebrating the winners.

We knew we ground out the win, got a fairly fluky goal in the 92nd minute, but that doesn’t stop us boasting, taking the piss out of Burnley, out of the media. These are two of my favourites:

https://twitter.com/19Wildie/status/782631950653743104

Just a bit of a wandering mind now with some other thoughts:

Spurs v Man City – If you are an Arsenal fan who were happy Spurs won at the weekend as it “got us closer to City”, then you are not an Arsenal fan.

Cows – Fair play to all those fans who still managed to get to the game despite there being cows on the line. Last time we played Burnley, the mini bus broke down outside Coventry and we ended up watching the game in a pub in Coventry whilst it got fixed. Fair play to all who got there. And RIP to the cows.

Wenger’s 20 – No matter if you are a loyal servant, or you now despise the man, we should all be grateful for what he has bought to the club

Embarrassing fans – Why can’t we just all enjoy a win?

https://twitter.com/goonermck/status/782665844140732416

Title challengers – So 7 games gone. A couple of points off top. Some inconsistent performances. We are in the title race.

Shkodran Mustafi – We have a player on our hand. Just 24. He could be at Arsenal for a decade.

Madrid – I’ve just spent the weekend in Madrid. Great weather, cheap beer, cracking birds, and a good time!

 

As we go into the international break, Arsenal are sit pretty in 3rd. We are in the title race. With 3 favourable game’s coming up after the break, we could, no we should, push on. Have a good Monday (I have it off to sober up).

Keenos

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The Win, The Defence, Theo Walcott and The Arsenal

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The Win

2-0. It could have been more, it should have been more.

It was one of those situation’s where the game was so easy, rather than being ruthless, the players tried to create something special every time. A couple more goals would have been nice, but the keeper played well, and we sit top of the group after two games.

Beat Ludogorets in the next round of games and we will be on 7 points. With PSG likely to beat Basel at home, that will leave both clubs 6 points ahead of 3rd place. We than have the away games against the two weaker sides before finishing at home to PSG (I think).

It is always nice to get some early European wins under your belt, as it takes the pressure off in December when Premier League games come a bit thicker, a bit faster.

By not slipping up last night, and if we beat Ludogorets, we will practically be through.

The Defence

For a so called panic buy Shkodran Mustafi has settled in nicely next to Laurent Koscielny. He looks defensively strong, quick and good on the ball. Everything you need to be a defender at Arsenal.

And Laurent Koscielny seems to have grown into a new beast this season. It feels with the extra responsibility being France’s senior centre back this summer and being Arsenal’s leader at the back, he has grown. It leads you to the question as to why Laurent Koscielny was not made Arsenal captain?

I think we can now call an end to Per Mertesacker’s Arsenal career. His contract runs out at the end of this year, and with Mustafi and Koscielny on current form, I can not see him getting a sniff back in the team.

Rob Holding seems to be developing well, and Gabriel has always had all the physical making to be good, just not the mental. We are moving forward with a new batch of mobile, strong, quick defenders.

The line of succession is there. Koscielny and Mustafi for the next 2/3 years. Than Holding (who will still just be 23 in 3 years time) comes in for Koscielny.

Theo Walcott

Another great performance by Theo Walcott.

I have spoken about him a few times this season but he continues to go from strength to strength. He needs to keep it up, but the signs are positive.

Remember, this is a guy who scored 21 goals in 43 games in the 2012/13 season. He clearly is a good finisher, but has always been a confidence player. And always been one to respond when put under pressure by other players.

Being dropped by England and threatened to be sold to West Ham in the summer seems to have pushed him on.

Anyone out there still think Wenger was wrong letting go Joel Campbell in the summer, whilst keeping Theo?

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The Arsenal

Enjoy our performances whilst you can guys. As we are The Arsenal and we are only ever two poor games from being in a crisis. The boy boos will come back out. The banners will be displayed and people will lose their mind.

Performances like last night and Chelsea make you fall back in love with the game, back in love with the club again. We just need to keep it going.

Keenos

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