Tag Archives: Southampton

Arsenal’s Spring Break, Klopp’s Liverpool Form & Transfer’s

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Arsenal’s Spring Break

Last nights victory for Southampton against Liverpool results in the Premier League tie away to Southampton at St Mary’s on 25th February will be rearranged. This is great news for Arsenal.

As winter turns to spring, Arsenal will have around 14 days between the FA Cup 5th Round (if Arsenal beat Southampton this weekend) and an away trip to Liverpool. With 12 games to go in the Premier League season from that point, it will give the side a welcomed break before the title run in.

The break could be further extended to 17 days if Arsenal lose to Southampton this weekend. I am fine with just the 14 days off thanks!

Anyone who has taken a week holiday from work will know how much fresher you come back. Arsenal players will be able to down tools after the FA Cup match for at least 5 or 6 days, before having to return to full training. It also gives the side further time to prepare for Liverpool away.

The downside is the Southampton fixture now needs to be fitted in somewhere.

If Arsenal go on an FA Cup run to the Semi Final, a further 2 Premier League ties will have to be rearranged to mid week. Matters could be further muddied if we have to face any FA Cup replays.

The Premier League should apply to UEFA to host Southampton v Arsenal on the 14/15 March. With UEFA rules stating that no domestic top level game is played at the same time as their beloved Champions League, this date will be in doubt.

21/22 March is also free, although this is slated in for FA Cup 6th round replays.

The last possible date is the 28th February / 1st March. Just 3 days after the original fixture. Whilst this date would be advantageous for Arsenal, as we would have the weekend off and Southampton will be suffering from the fall out of whatever the League Cup result is, it would reduce that Spring Break and give us less time to prepare for the Liverpool away fixture. Suddenly Southampton’s victory is not such great news.

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Klopp’s Liverpool Form

In 2017, Liverpool have won just a single game, an FA Cup 3rd round replay victory over Plymouth Argyle of League two. Their form reads:

LLWDLDD

1 win in 7 since the New Year.

Even more interesting is Jurgen Klopp’s near identical record to that of Louis van Gaal. One has been considered as a great success since coming to the Premier League, the other was labelled as a massive flop. It just shows how media reporting can change your perception.

Now this is not an anti-Klopp, pro-Wenger rant. You are an idiot if you do not think Klopp is not a very good manager, and would have been an ideal candidate to replace Arsene at Arsenal. But what Klopp’s struggles show, like with Pep Guardiola’s highlighted last week, is just how hard the Premier League is.

If Liverpool end up 5th, or even 6th below Jose Mourinho’s much derided Manchester United team, will Klopp continue to get such an easy ride from the British press?

Media Perception

On the thought on media perception – and this is something I might write an expanded blog on this subject another time – something has caught my eye / brain / 6th sense recently.

The media made a big fuss over Arsenal going 9 years without a trophy. I knid of remember the press picking up on trophy-less run after the 5th year. Certainly before the Birmingham League Cup Final defeat the press were making a lot of noise about it. Arsenal had not yet gone 6 years without a trophy by that point.

Liverpool are now up to 5 years without a trophy. Their last being the League Cup in 2012. But there is no noise from the press. Maybe they are worried to upset the mentally fragile, reactionary Scousers? They have not won a major honour (FA Cup, League, European Trophy) since they beat West Ham in the 2006 FA Cup Final. That was near on 11 years ago. 1 trophy in 11 years. 0 trophies in 5 years. Interesting how the press pick and choose who to create a narrative about.

Then you have Tottenham. I always laugh when the media talk about a ‘big 6’. There is no big 6. How can a club which has not won a league title since 1961, not finished 2nd since 1963 and made the top 3 just once in 30 years be considered in any sort of elite class is a joke.

Since they last won the FA Cup in 1991, Spurs have been knocked out of the FA Cup as many times in the 3rd round as they have in the semi finals. Six times each.

Spurs last trophy was in 2008. Like Liverpool, it was the League Cup. 8 years without a trophy. But like Liverpool, there is not the media interest that there was when Arsenal were at 8 years. Maybe it shows that Spurs are just a small club of little to no interest?

We all know by now, it is 25 years since Spurs last won the FA Cup. 55 years since they last won the league. The media pretends their is a big 6, and people believe them. But the reality is they are not in any sort of elite.

Transfer’s

Has there ever been a transfer window where Arsenal have been so quiet. And not just the club’s own activity, but the fans.

Usually at this point of a January transfer window we are all going mental. 5 days until it closes, we still have not signed anyone of note, and yet social media is not awash with people demanding Arsene Wenger “Spend some f**king money”.

Why is this?

Are we content with the squad, realising there really isn’t much else better out there? That we will have to make do with what we have? It is interesting that no one in the Top 6 of the Premier League has made a move for anyone. The biggest signing this summer as been 19-year-old Ademola Lookman to Everton.

Maybe we are now seeing the death of the January transfer window. It is a market for the desperate, those so concerned about being relegated that they end up spending £15million on some bloke called Wilfred Ndidi.

Or are Arsenal fans just bored of it all. Have we accepted that the club will simply not do much business in January. Are we all suffering from Stockholm Syndrome? Just counting down the days until Arsene Wenger leaves. Why get angry about something not in your control. It will not change anything, just increase your blood pressure, leaving you purple face in anger as you scream and shout at your friends.

I would be very surprised if Arsenal signed anyone in January.

Keenos

Positives and Negatives to last nights defeat

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So we are out of the League Cup. A great start to the game with a sensational free kick by Alexis Sanchez was followed up by with a penalty to Southampton after a poor challenge by Tomas Rosicky and a stunner by Nathaniel Clyne (who deserves an England call up).

A disappointing result, but there are plenty of positives, as well as some negatives, to take from the night.

Positive – Going out

The League Cup is very much the ugly duckling of the 4 honours we begin the season chasing. It always brings up the conundrum of how we should approach it. Play youngsters to see how they do against top opposition, or play a strong side to try and win it. Both have their merits.

Getting knocked out is by no means a disaster.

For a Champions League side, the beginning of a season is always congested. Play on the weekend, play mid week, see your stars fly to the four corners of the world for internationals. Repeat.

Whilst not all the top players might play in the League Cup, they train as a team so will have to prepare together, even if they are not playing. Last night Ospina, Bellerin, Chambers, Wilshere, Rosicky, Podoslki and Sanchez from the 1st 11 and Chamberlain and Cazorla coming on will be involved in the match day squad against Spurs.

By being knocked out, we have now freed up two mid weeks between now and the end of the year. Two mid week rests might not seem much, but lets put that into context of the first 5five months of the season.

Had we made the quarter final of the League Cup, we would have only had two mid weeks off between now and the FA Cup 3rd round tie in the New Year.Not much time to get a little refresh. By being knocked out so early, we now double that time off. It should leave us that little bit fresher for upcoming games.

We now have the week between Sunderland and Burnely free, and perhaps more importantly, the week between Newcastle and Liverpool. It might not seem like much of a silver lining at the moment, but were we to win all four of those games, you could argue that not playing a League Cup tie between them contributed to the victories.

And these thoughts don’t even take into account the fixture congestion making the semi-final or final creates.

Negative – Going out

I want to win every trophy. Whether it is the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup or League Cup. I want us to win it. We are in football to win things. There is nothing better than a day out at Wembley.

Also, the League Cup has always given us an opportunity to blood younger players against decent sides. You have to wonder when Hayden, Bellerin or Akpom are now going to get a chance again, or will they return to he youths before a January long move to some dump like Carlisle? The League cup is brilliant for their progress, an it’s over before it’s really begun.

Also, the League Cup provides a brilliant opportunity for youngsters to watch the games. For Dad’s to take their son’s. With Premier League and Champions League games becoming more and more expensive. One adult and 2 kids can go to the League Cup for less than £50. The League Cup is a good breeding ground for our future fans. For many kids last night, it would have been their first game.

With Arsenal now out, in the same way you wonder when the kids will get their next chance to play, you also have to wonder when the kids will get their next chance to watch live.

Positive – Arsenal 2nd 11 v Southampton’s 1st 11

Only Alexis Sanchez would be guaranteed a starting place in Arsenal’s strongest 11. Meanwhile, Southampton had arguably their strongest possible 11 out, bar a debutant left back. They are 2nd in the league and last night was their 5th win in a row.

It was certainly not a defeat on the scale of Bradford or MK Dons beating Manchester United. It is no disaster or embarrassment to lose to a very good Premier League outfit.

A lot can be taken from many of the performances, and we should now be confident that many of the players on show last night can be rotated in against mid-table and lower sides and we should still perform. The performance of the youngsters impressed the most (more later).

We played well against a strong Premier League outfit

Negative – The Seniors

Lukasz Podolski and Tomas Rosicky were disastrous.

Firstly, the German. I barely realised he was playing. He showed why we have attempted to offload him the last two summers. He is still only with the clubs due to circumstances conspiring in his favour (injures). He put in the tepid lazy performance that has plagued his Arsenal career. This season will be his last at Arsenal.

Tomas Rosicky has not played much, so maybe I am about to be too harsh, as he probably isn’t match sharp, but he looked old last night.

Slow decision making, 2nd to react to every loose ball, he looked every year of his 33 on this planet and more. A lot might have been down to lack of match sharpeness, but for me, he took the place in the starting 11 that I would have liked to have seen go to someone younger, to see what they can do.

I have long been an advocate of keeping around senior players, but the time has come for him to step aside and give youngsters sub as Oxlade Chamberlain or Gedion Zalelem a chance.

I would not be upset if both players left us next summer. Last night they let their younger team mates down.

Positive – The Youngsters

We played three 19 year olds in defence last night, and none of them looked out of place.

Unfortunately, injuries mean that Bellerin and Hayden won’t get a loan move to another Premier League club. Then again, training against Sanchez, Ozil and Walcott every week, alongside Mertesacker and Kosicelny, might be better for their development anyway.

All 3 did not look fazed at all, and all look to have a bright future at Arsenal, even if it is as a squad player.

Negative – Joel Campbell

A youngster who I feel does not have a bright future at the club is Joel Campbell.

A lot of hype has been around Campbell since he joined us in 2011. He became the forgotten man last summer, only to burst back into our conscious with a wonder goal against Manchester United.

A good World Cup later, and his stock was high. Hindsight shows we should have cashed in at this point.

Yesterday he showed exactly why he is not good enough for Arsenal, and why he has struggled on loan at 3 different clubs in 3 different counties.

Maybe now our fans will stop hyping up players based on YouTube videos and the odd good performance. He is senior to both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Serge Gnabry but junior to them in talent and ability.

Another to be sold next summer, unfortunately at a lower price than we could have got this.

Positive – Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Whilst he only played 15 minutes (or so) he looked a class apart in comparison to Joel Campbell. Barely 21, his brief cameo should get him a start against Spurs, seeing Arsene Wenger returning to 4231 with Sanchez Ozil & Chamberlain behind Danny Welbeck.

With Theo Walcott now out until middle of October at the earliest, Oxlade-Chamberlain should be given a run in the team on the right wing. He deserves it.

Negative – Where are the Local Lads?

A longer blog for another day perhaps. The talk throughout the game between myself and others was “What has happened to the local boys?”. We played without a single player from London (let along North London or just Islington) again.

Yes, it is part of the wider picture of problems in English football, but the lack of local boys at Arsenal is worrying. The two players that we often claim as our own – Carl Jenkinson and Jack Wilshere – are from Harlow and Stevenage respectively.

In our first team squad we have six Englishmen (seven if you include Jenkinson), but only one can really be said to be an Arsenal Academy graduate (Jack Wilshere). Just two are from London (Kieran Gibbs from South of the River – Lambeth, & Theo Walcott from Stanmore). I honestly can not remember our last Islington born player.

I know GC has some very strong views on what he believes is a problem in our youth set up, and something that needs to be addressed. Hopefully he will write something fuller on it soon.

Positive – Moving On

Well, me mum always said end every day with a positive, and it is the same with this blog. I don’t want leave it on a sour note.

We lost to a very good Southampton side to a penalty and a screamer. Disappointing but not a disaster.

But what is the biggest positive of the night? Between the match last night and you reading the blog this morning, there is one less sleep till Spurs. Now that is something to be joyful about.

Keenos

 

Tottenham Hotspur, We are laughing at you

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So yesterday, Tottenham Hotspur announced their 3rd manager in under a year. And how they celebrated. It was as if they had won the Champions League (you have not, Gareth Bale plays for Real Madrid now, he does not care about you). Mauricio Pochettino will be the 11th different permanent Spurs manager that Arsene Wenger has faced. And I see no reason why he will not see his latest challenger off, despite the reported 5 year contract.

You see, Mauricio Pochettino is not a great manager, despite the hype. You only have to look at his history, firstly at Espanyol, then at Southampton.

Firstly at Espanyol, he did not exactly work miracles. With a win percentage of just 32.92%, he left them bottom of Li Liga with 9 points from 13 games. At Southampton, whilst an 8th place finish does look miraculous, a win percentage of 38.33% is not so. It perhaps indicates how poor the lower half of the Premier League was last season.

Add in the fact that he came into Southampton with a very good set up, and a lot of very good players in place, mid table was their par finish. With 2 mid table finishes at both Espanyol and Southampton, it is clear he is a mid table manager. Looks like Spurs are finally realising their level – although the fans need to catch up, they are claiming they will launch a title challenge next season.

Of course, with a new manager comes the theory that he will bring across a whole host of players who performed well at his previous club. This is rarely true. And anyway, whilst Southampton have some good players, they were only players good enough to get them to 8th. There main talent, Luke Shaw, will surely aim higher than Spurs. Adam Lallana is overpriced at £25m. Jay Rodriguez is out until Christmas. Rickie Lambert is 32. I would be very surprised Spurs can attract any of these.

Remember, Tottenham need to sell to buy. They are currently hamstrung financially by the planning of their new stadium. You only have to look at the last 5 years to see the precarious situation they are in financially:

2009/10 – £1,000,000 profit
20010/11 – £17,500,000 loss
2011/12 – £27,000,000 profit
2012/13 – £1,300,000 profit
2013/14 – £9,800,000 profit

So the deluded Spurs fans, who are sitting their expecting Pochettino to come waltzing in and have £50m to spend on new talent are misguided. He will have to sell before he can buy. And Spurs do not really have much in the cupboard to sell. Last year was the big roll of the dice, bringing in £113,500,000 in sales, it allowed them to spend over £100,000,000, but they bought duffs. They would recoup less than half of that if they were to sell all the players they bought last year.

So Spurs, you are behaving like the court jester once more. Talk of a title challenge, talk of new players, next season, you will be where you always are, mid table.

Keenos