Tag Archives: She Wore

Besiktas, Champions League Draw, Calum Chambers, New Signings

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Besiktas

So we are through. We did it The Arsenal way – the hard way. But we are through. We survived the hell that is Turkey, an awful refereeing performance and a below par Arsenal performance. But the most important thing is we are through.

Alexis Sanchez showed selfless running, challenging for every ball reminiscent of Luis Suarez. Jack Wilshere had his best game since he was a teenager. Santi Cazorla worked hard. Matheiu Flamini did not get booked. Matheiu Debuchy looked an improvement on Sagna.

Some say we should have cruised through, that Beskitas’ season has not yet started, but lets remember, they have played 4 competitive games this season (2 qualifiers v Feyernoord, 2 v Arsenal). That is the same amount of competitive games as Arsenal. They also had an entire week to prepare for us. We had a couple of days.

A battling performance which showed great mental strength.

Champions League Draw

So we are through (have I said that yet?). Now to look forward to the draw, which will be this afternoon at 16.45. Arsenal are in pot one. But who can we face?

Pot One: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal, Porto.

Pot Two: Schalke, Dortmund, Juventus, Paris St-Germain, Basle, Shakhtar Donetsk, Manchester City, Zenit.

Pot Three: Bayer Leverkusen, Olympiakos, CSKA Moscow, Ajax, Liverpool, Sporting Lisbon, Galatasaray, Athletic Bilbao

Pot Four: Anderlecht, Roma, Apoel Nicosia, Bate Borisov, Ludogorets, Maribor, Monaco, Malmo

Dream draw: Arsenal, Basle, Sporting, Maribor
Nightmare draw: Arsenal, Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen, Monaco

Calum Chambers

Omitted last night, many people criticised the decision, wondering what he had done wrong. But the fact was, it was the right decision. Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny are better individually, and better as a partnership. You play your best players, and Chambers is the 3rd best centre back at the club.

At 19, he is extremely talented, but it is important that he does not get over hyped, with too much pressure put on the lad. There is talk of him getting an England call up for next weekend’s International’s. I would rather he stayed with the under 21’s, out of the limelight. Remember, this is a guy who has played just 3 competitive games at centre back.

His talent is not in question, but his game is still error prone. His slip against Demba Ba in the away leg. Playing the world onside for Everton’s 1st goal, diving in for Everton’s 2nd. He also has a problem under the high ball, often misjudging his jump.

Let him develop in his own time and he will become World Class.

New Signings

So we are through (I said it again). We have banked around £25m. There are now no excuses. We can offer the money, we can offer the success, we can offer top level football. We now need to go out and buy, and buy big.

With Olivier Giroud out till January, we need a striker. Even if the big name’s of Cavani or Falcao are not available, we need to add to the forward line. Go out and get Loic Remy – a proven Premier League striker – who can do the job until Giroud is back. Or Mattia Destro – Maybe not World Class, but Roma’s top scorer last season.

On the other side, I hope we do not waste big money on someone like Jackson Martinez or Danny Welbeck.

We also need to add in midfield and defence. Likely to be a dual player, someone who can be 1st choice defensive midfield, 4th choice centre back, we need someone. Let’s spend big and get in the right man.

Sadly, I would not be surprised if we bought no one. And this could cost us success this season.

Enjoy the draw.

Keenos

 

Cesc v Ramsey v Sanchez v Ozil v Cazorla

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So yesterdays blog, “4 Arsenal players better then Cesc Fabregas” on got a lot of people talking. One of the main talking points was my ‘selective stats’, with only a comparison to Aaron Ramsey having detailed stats. In the interest of fairness, below are the full stats for all players (swapping Cazorla for Walcott due to the laters lack of game time):

All PlayersRead into it what you will, but Aaron Ramsey by far and away is the stand out player, followed by Cazorla. Sanchez and Ozil appear behind Cesc, but Sanchez’s 19 league goals is the outstanding stat.

Now what if we created a league for the players to create a fair comparison as to who is better? With 5 points awarded for whoever has the highest stat for that category, 1 for whoever has the lowest stat. How would the table look?

League

Unsurprisingly, Ramsey is top.

Perhaps surprisingly, Cazorla is the 2nd best midfielder out of the group, highlighting that whilst he might not always be exceptional, he has a very consistent all round game – He was top 2 in 5 of the 9 categories. Sanchez and Cesc are tied for 3rd. Sanchez sits higher in the table as its an Arsenal blog.

Mesut Ozil comes in last place. Perhaps a bit surprising. However, he is just 1 point behind Sanchez and Cesc. And when you consider he is the only one who was playing in a new league, and, by many people’s opinion (not mine) was poor last season, to finish just 1 point behind 2 World Class talents is commendable.

So there you have it, proof, it needed, that Arsenal do not need Cesc.

Argument over, no further comment on the subject from met.

Keenos

 

 

 

What can Arsenal learn from a glorified friendly?

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Good morning all. Before I get going with the positives of yesterdays Community Shield win,let me get the disclaimers out of the way:

  • The Community Shield is no more than a glorified friendly. It is not a competitive game, appearances do not go towards games played of goals scored for a club, clubs can use 7 substitutes. It is a friendly.
  • Manchester City were without 8 players, whilst Arsenal started with the side that is likely to start against Palace, bar Giroud, and only really had Walcott, Mertersacker and Ozil missing from its first XI.
  • In the last 3 seasons, the winners of the Community Shield have finished the season trophyless.
  • On August 10th 2013, Arsenal beat Manchester City 3-1 in a friendly. August 10th 2014, Arsenal beat Manchester 3-0 in a friendly.

Ok, thats that out of the way, so what positives can we take out of yesterday? Despite it being a glorified friendly, and we know to ignore friendly results, there are still many positives:

New Signings

Alexis Sanchez was a class above anyone else on the field. He looked a threat everytime he ran forward with the ball, worked hard in defence, and was unlikely not to get a goal when put clean through by Yaya Sanogo. One of the issues with the side last year was the lack of a player who could run the ball form within our half, to the oppoennts box, especially on breaks, Sanchez did it numerous times. He will be a star.

Perhaps standing out more than Sanchez, however, was Calum Chambers. When he signed, we all thought we were signing our right back for the next decade. After a couple of Emirates Cup ties and the Community Shield, it is clear that is not the case. He will not only become our first choice centre back over the next few years, but he is also a future Arsenal captain.

Brilliant in defence, his awareness and reading of the game got us out of trouble a few times. He was, in my opinion, man of the match (How did Olivier Giroud win this?). What impressed me most was his composure. Even when under pressure, he always looked to, and succeeded, in passing the ball out of defence. To think he is just 19 is amazing. He has a big future.

Mathieu Debuchy had a mixed bag. He looked brilliant going forward, putting in some quality crosses, but in defence he was often over run, doubled up on, and beaten too easily. He also put us in trouble a couple of times with errors, including playing a blind pass that put David Silva in. He committed errors that get ignored at Newcastle, but at Arsenal such errors can cost you games, can cost you titles. In his defence, he was perhaps behind others in terms of fitness level due to the World Cup, but it was a mixed start.

Wojciech Szczesny

Last year, Wojciech Szczesny put in a string of magnificent performances. The challenge of Lukasz Fabianski was certainly a factor in him pushing himself to another level. Szczesny showed yesterday signs of further improvements, pulling off some key saves, commanding his box at corners and clearing the ball with his feet in tight situations. If he continues to excel this season, with the pressure put on him by David Ospina, I see no reason why he will not finish the season as the undisputed best keeper in the Premier league.

Jack Wilshere

I have long been a critic of Jack Wilshere but he showed yesterday of signs of his ability. Always on the move, always in space, always looking to create. However, some things never change, and it is worrying. The worry is just how often he is fouled.

I do not know if he is targeted by other teams, or it is the way he plays, but he is our most fouled player. Last season he was continually hacked down, and again, this season he was. The worry is, with his injury record, you feel he is always just one foul from turning an ankle, putting him out for 3 months.

If can stay fit, he should have big season.

Clean Sheet

Despite it being just a friendly, it is good to get a clean sheet against an attacking team which had the likes of Dzeko, Jovetic, Silva, Navas and Toure in its ranks. Especially when in the second half, we had 4 full backs in defence. The performance by Gibbs once more makes you wonder why he did not go to the World Cup, and I have already mentioned Chambers.

It is clear Nacho Monreal is not a centre back. He could do the job as an emergency 5th option but we must buy, and we will. But it is imressive keeping a clean sheet with such few defensive options.

Substitutes

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Olivier Giroud, Tomas Rosicky & Joel Campbell all came off the bench. Taking into account that Theo Walcot, Mesut Ozil, Lukas Podolski & Serge Gnabry were not in the match day squad, it highlights we have a vast array of attacking options in the squad, plenty of game changes on the bench if we are done. It is exciting.

 

Overall, winning the Commuity Shield is a good thing. It keeps the winning attitude in the squad up and should make the players hungry for more. Do not read too much into it, but there is plenty to be excited about.

Keenos