Tag Archives: She Wore

Mesut Ozil and Theo Walcott – Partnership made in heaven

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Theo Walcott is set to make his Arsenal return against Southampton for Arsenal this Saturday after being out for 2 months with a stomach injury. Since he picked up his injury, Arsenal have missed his pace and direction. His return from injury will change the way Arsenal perform, and he will add another dimension to our attacking formation. Adding the pace and width to change a game.

Mesut Ozil and Theo Walcott have played twice together since the German joined the club. In the 1st game, away to Sunderland, Ozil put Walcott through a couple of times, with the German’s vision and Englishman’s pace combining well. Only some good goal keeping stopped Theo getting a couple of goals. In their second game together, against Marseille, Walcott got his only goal this season.

It was that first game against Sunderland where we really saw what the partnership of Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil could do. With opponent’s being naturally drawn to Mesut Ozil, it gives Walcott bundles of space on the right hand side. With Ozil’s vision and passing ability, he will be able to pick out Walcott for fun. He was put in by Ozil 3 times against Sunderland. He might not have scored, but after 21 goals last season, we know he can finish. It will only be a matter of time until the back of the net starts rippling.

To say the partnership could be similar to the Thierry Henry / Dennis Bergkamp partnership of the early 00s would be ludicrous. It is more similar to that of Nicolas Anelka / Dennis Bergkamp. Bergkamp once said that Anelka was a dream to play with, as his runs were simple and he made it easy for Bergkamp to find. On the other hand, Bergkamp allowed Anelka to play simply. Make the run and the ball will arrive, used to be the mentality.

The Ozil / Walcott partnership will be similar. All Theo has to do is make the run, and the ball will find him. People claim Walcott does not have a football brain. I find this insulting to a professional football. But if it were true, he does not need one with Ozil in the side. All he has to do is run in a straight line, Ozil will do the rest.

Ozil and Walcott have only played twice together. Ozil, Cazorla and Walcott have yet to play together. This becomes even more mouth watering. As now you do not just have Ozil or Cazorla having the ability to find Walcott, you now have Ozil and Cazorla. Arsenal’s play will be very simple. Play around in the middle and on the left, drag the defenders over, then a quick through ball between full back and centre back and Walcott will be away. The 3 behind Giroud gives me exciting thoughts!

How Arsenal line up behind these 3 will be interesting. With Arteta & Flamini battling for 1 spot, and Wilshere and Ramsey the other, it does give us options. And we can play a combination of any 2 of the 4 and we will be strong. To think, with players returning from injury, our bench against Southampton could read: Fabianski, Monreal, Vermalean, Flamini, Wilshere, Rosicky & Bendtner. Who said we had no strength in depth?

It is crazy to think that Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil have only paid twice together this season. It is perhaps testament to how well Arsenal have started that they are still top, despite last seasons second best player (Santi Cazorla being 1st) being out for 2 months. There have been games where Walcott’s pace and width have been missed – WBA away springs to mind – and his return will only make Arsenal stronger.

Whether he starts or is on the bench for the game against Southampton, one thing is for certain, his return makes the Arsenal side better, and the Ozil/Walcott partnership will go from strength to strength.

Keenos

Premier League the most competitive in Europe

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On Whatsapp I have a group chat which includes me, my step dad and my brother. We talk a lot of Arsenal before and after games and general football. Different European subjects that come up and also domestic issues in the press at that time. We all have different opinions and I enjoy it.

The other day my step dad posted a BBC link about the new gigantic BT European football deal and the basis of it was saying that the richest clubs in the game are only going to get richer. Obviously this is true but the article reads like the English Premier League is over for the foreseeable future, the top 5 or 6 will be separated from the rest and we will never again see a team challenge for the top 4, a team like Everton or Villa for example. I’m not sure I agree with this sentiment and my reasoning for thinking this way is the results we have in the Premier League every single week.

So far this season off the top of my head we have seen City beaten by Sunderland and Cardiff and Villa, United have been beaten by West Brom, Everton beat Chelsea, Southampton beat Liverpool at Anfield and of course one of the funniest results so far, West Ham beating Spurs 3-0 at Shite Hart Lane. We were even beaten by Villa on the first day of the season but we all know the ref was to blame……that’s my story and im sticking to it.

Our league is so incredibly competitive that I cannot believe someone would write off a team challenging to fight their way into the top. Football is so much more than money, I know it is a big part of the game and in most cases you could decide the final league table on their total wage bills and probably end up being not fair off correct, but its wrong just to write off all competition because the top clubs are going to be earning more money from this deal. Football is about coaching, tactics, surprise subs made by good managers and fans roaring on their teams in home stadiums. There are some teams in our league who have fantastic managers who put great teams together on shoe string budgets. They play wonderful football and create problems for all the big sides. I cant see our league suffering as a result of this money, and in fact it could even filter through our league to make the so called smaller clubs more financially better off.

It shows BT are big players and will challenge Sky for the Premier League rights, this could mean a bigger deal and more cash for the clubs the next time renewal date comes around. Our league does things correct when it comes to domestic TV deals as we spread the money throughout the league in as fair way as we possible can. The below graphic shows that every clubs has an equal share of domestic TV income and also an equal amount from overseas TV income, this is what clubs in the league earned last season.

This graphic proves that our league is the fairest in Europe when it comes to the earnings each club receives, the ratio from the top teams United earnings and the bottom teams QPR is 1.53/1. In La Liga the ratio is 14/1 and Serie A it is 10/1, Germanys Bundesliga is our closest rival at 2/1.
The clubs at the bottom are still getting parachute payments from the Premier League.
Credit to SportingIntelligence.com for the graphic and info.

The worst team in the league this season will bank £60m in TV money, with the best claiming £95m. That is just the domestic deal. The Premier League will earn £2.5bn from foreign broadcasters over the next three years, and that is without really breaking China and India. Our league will only get stronger and be more competitive, You have teams like Cardiff spending £27 million and Norwich spending £30 million.

I know a lot of fans from England have become obsessed with the German league because of how they do things, they treat the fan with respect, they stand in stadiums and have cheap tickets, but they lack competition. Bayern Munich won the league last year by 25 points and lead the way this. They are the only side in Germany who have money, and are simply buying up the best players in Germany.

You cannot find the level of commitment and competition anywhere else in Europe that we find on our pitches every week. I wouldn’t swap our league for any other in the world because of the excitement and shocks we see. Im not saying we have a lot to learn from around the other European leagues, we clearly do, but we are the powerhouse and at the moment our football is second to none.

Norby

Arsenal could charge as little as £21.25 to ALL fans

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In a follow up to the last couple of articles about ticket prices, I got to thinking (I know, it’s dangerous).

One of the interesting parts of my article yesterday was that if Arsenal offered all fans – both home and away- tickets for £20, they would have a deficit of arround £60,000,000 in gate receipts over the season. A big number. A number enough for the club to be greedy and boycott the Newcastle offer. What got me thinking though was ‘what would Arsenal have to charge to break even in terms of turnover, taking into account the new TV deal hitting the clubs this year.’

The magic number we are looking for is £100m, which was approximately Arsenal’s most recent published match day income. To try and achieve this, we need to break down (using approximations from when the stadium was 1st built as the club does not release full breakdown’s) the stadium, to ensure we do not include those club level/box seats.

Club Level generates around £18.5m per season
Box Seats generates £13.8m per season
Diamond Level generates £1m

So ‘non ordinary’ seats generates £33.3m a season (I am going to round it down to £33m). That leaves £67,000,000 in revenue to find from both the new TV deal, and the 53,000 ‘ordinary’ seats.

This year the Premier League Champions will likely get £40,000,000 more in TV money then Manchester United got last year. The increased difference between 1st and 20th is around £1.5m per place. Therefore, if Arsenal finish 4th, they will receive around £35.5m more then they did last season. Remember, we are attempting to find £67m. We have already found £35.5m in increased gate receipts. That leaves us with just £31.5m for Arsenal to match their most recent turnover with the TV deal taken into account.

So using similar maths that I used yesterday, that Arsenal will play 28 home games, how much would a ticket cost for Arsenal to match the previous turnover? Well the equation is simple.

£31,500,00 is what we are trying to find. Divide this by the total seats available – 53,000 – we get £595. Based on the 28 expected home games, Arsenal would need to charge every man, woman and child £21.25 per game to match the total turnover. Nearly Twenty’s Plenty hey!

To ensure I have got it right, lets work backwards. £21.25 times the 28 games is £595. Over the 53,000 ordinary seats we get £31.5m (and change).

Ordinary gate receipts + increase in TV money + executive seats = ?
£31.5m + £35.5m + £33.5m = £100.5m

In summary, the new TV deal should be making things cheaper for football fans. With all things taken into account, Arsenal could reduce match day tickets to a standard £21.25 per game throughout the ordinary seats, and still turnover the same amount as they did in 2012.  Sadly, when the new cash from the TV comes in, the leaches will come out and the money will go into the pockets of players, agents, and hangers on.

Writing this has made me feel a little sick. Tickets could be nearly halved and revenue remain the same. But greed will take over. My only hope is my maths is wrong, but I feel it is not. If it is wrong, I will apologise.

The Twenty’s Plenty is something I back. Not just for away fans, but for all fans. And my basic workings out shows that Arsenal’s revenue would remain the same, even with a reduction to £21.25. I imagine across the Premier League, all clubs could charge a similar amount, and revenues remain high.

Greed is killing our game. More fans get priced out every year. We can all dream. My dream is that next summer, with the money from the new TV deal coming in, Arsenal will announce season ticket prices of £550 and single match day tickets across the board of £21.25. A man has to have a dream.

Keenos