Why Pep Guardiola chose Bayern over Chelsea and Co. Could he be Arsene Wenger's eventual replacement at Arsenal? My thoughts on a potential manager merry go round.
17/01/13
Well yesterday we saw the somewhat surprising news that Mr Josep Guardiola, the mastermind of 14 trophies in 4 record breaking years as manager of FC Barcelona, would be joining Bundesliga giants, Bayern Munchen. Considering only earlier this week we were under the impression that Pep would be heading for the Barclays Premier League this summer, potentially with Chelsea his destination, this was a shock. I have always maintained that Pep could well replace Arsene Wenger at Arsenal in the event of Le Prof stepping down. It may well be that he still replaces Arsene Wenger at Arsenal in a few years time, but one thing we know for sure is that he will be Bayern Munich manager for the next few seasons at least! So why did he make this move? What can we expect from his time in the German province of Bavaria? And could he really end up at Arsenal in the future?
Given the intense media speculation and gossip over the last few weeks it was quite obvious that the world's most in demand football manager's next move would become clear. And indeed it has. He has opted to turn down the cash of Chelsea in pursuit of more stability and class of the German giants. Let's make one thing clear, Bayern Munich is a massive club, without doubt one of the biggest in Europe. It has an unbelievable new stadium, a fantastic training facility and perhaps more importantly for someone as forward-thinking and revolutionary as Guardiola, it is a club with an asteem and prosperous academy system that has produced players such as Bastian Schweinsteiger, Phillip Lahm and Thomas Muller over the last decade or so. I am sure that this will have been a great draw to Munich for him especially when you consider that when he took over at the Nou Camp he moved on established internationally acclaimed players such as Deco and world player of the year winner Ronaldinho in exchange for young, talented, youth graduates such as Pedro and Sergio Busquetes and during his time at the club as a whole ushered in players such as Tello, Cuenca and Martin Montoya, into the first team from the club's incredible La Masia academy system.
I would also maintain what I have said before regarding Pep's next move, that he wouldn't want to risk his reputation and stature within the game, by going to work under such a trigger happy chairman as Roman Abromovich is, at Chelsea. When you consider that Roberto Di Matteo won the Champions and The FA cup and was sacked, Ancelloti won the double one season and was sacked the next, a world cup winning coach, Scolari, was gone within 6 months as was the talented Villas-Boas who was in fact even guaranteed by the Russian, that he would be given plenty of time and support in ushering in a new philosophy in terms of playing style and youth development. But he too was dismissed after 6 months. So when you consider the great reputation that Guardiola has in the game, and rightly so given his success in Catalonia, why would he want to risk this by going to a club that could quite feasibly dismiss after only a few bad results, as happened with Di Matteo only this season. It is believed that Roman Abromovich took it upon himself to pull out all the proverbial stops, to encourage Guardiola to come to Stamford Bridge, and it's been speculated that he was offered as much as TWENTY million a year to take up the job. An astronomical amount of money. But to Guardiola's credit he has gone with his heart and his beliefs rather than his bank balance, and in my opinion this is very refreshing to see in the modern game.
As I said in the introduction to this article, I have held the view for a number of years that Pep Guardiola would be the perfect manager to replace Arsene Wenger. He is someone that has a very similar footballing philosophy to Mr Wenger, and also somebody that actually came to Arsenal a number of years ago, when working towards his coaching badges. Given this, I believe that one day he could be Arsenal manager, and as you may have seen in a previous article of mine, I had thought that if this season finishes with Arsenal in an unsatisfactory situation, Arsene could step down with Guardiola coming in, given that next season would have been the first season that he was available to take over a new club!
However of course this is not going to happen as he will be in Munich now, and of course I would
also prefer Arsene to stay at the club and be successful again, that would be an ideal scenario. But a few years down the line when Arsene Wenger's contract expires maybe this could be the time that Guardiola could be approached about taking over the reigns at Ashburton Grove! He has signed a 3 year contract at Bayern, and therefore this may not be possible. Regardless of this, what is clear is that he does have "Arsenal DNA" (to coin a popular phrase), and at some point down the line I am convinced he will be Arsenal manager. With Arsene's contract expiring at the end of next season (2014), it would appear that in order for this to happen, Arsene would have to sign on again for a few years in order to coincide with Pep's contract at Bayern.
Of course in all of this we mustn't forget the situation with others, such as Jurgen Klopp, who himself has done an incredible job at Borussia Dortmund, and would also be a very capable replacement for the legend that is, Arsene Wenger at the club. Furthermore, we also have to consider the future of the likes of Ferguson at Manchester United, Mancini at Manchester City and Mourinho at Madrid. These could also be on the move within the next few years, which would also open up a potential job in England, for Pep (presuming he would never take the Madrid job) to come to and manage in this country, as we assume would be of interest to him, somewhere down the line. Finally with Arsene Wenger and Ferguson in particular highly unlikely to ever manage another club, you could argue that there is currently a very small group of managers that could manage at these clubs, so it is no wonder that the likes of Mourinho, Klopp and Guardiola are in high demand!
Anyway, it is all shaped up to be a fascinating few years in the manager merry-go round!
@Mr_arsenal_blog
17 January 2013
15 January 2013
13 January 2013
Mr Arsenal Blog's Tactics Weekly.
13/01/2013 - reviewing the Manchester City game.
Well, what a shame that was. I was, as I am sure all of you were as well, so much looking forward to this game today, it was all shaping up to be a fantastic day of competitive football and really was an ACTUAL (for once) "Super Sunday". I was so excited to arrive at the ground again today, just thought it was going to be such a good game.
However, as we know, the game and the spectacle that we were hoping for, was absolutely ruined so early on by the sending off. Now at the time I was so furious at this, as was everyone else in the ground, a feeling of "shell-shockness" seemed to flow round the crowd as Laurent Koscielney made his way of the pitch and down the tunnel. I would like to make it clear that, despite my inevitable anger, it WAS in fact a penalty (link to the incident will be at the bottom of this piece), but I do not think that it was a red card because a) it was very early in the game and b) I think the ball was going to the goal keeper anyway. But regardless of this that was the situation that reared it's ugly head unfortunately. Therefore as soon as that happened, quite frankly we were never going to win the game, and a loss was inevitable! That's what the disappointing thing is for me, the fact the great spectacle we had hoped for was completely taken away. Because of the sending off I don't think you can read much into the performance of either team, because of these conditions. But regardless of this however, we did make a number of mistakes for both goals and I am now going to outline this, but also outline what I think we can take from this game, in a positive light!
Let's get the negatives over with first! As we know the fact we were down to ten men of course made it very very hard for us to defend efficiently, because naturally they would have the spare man over every time. But despite this both goals could have, and SHOULD have been avoided. The first one came as a result of Arsenal switching of, and loosing their shape at a quick free kick. When a foul is given by the officials, we need the leaders in the team, to make sure the players do not switch of and think they have a few seconds rest, because as we saw this is not the case. They took a quick one, caught as out played it wide brought into the box, and boom it's 1-0. Which of course gave us a HUGE mountain to climb. Going down 1-0 to the Champions is bad enough, but with 10 men, i'm afraid that was it, game over! But the fact is, that was poor from the team. As you will see, I do feel proud of the players for the way they fought considering we were up against the Champions, with a man down for effectively, the whole match. But, that should not happen, I remember at Under 8 sort of age, when playing football we would always be shouted at if we turned our back and switched off at a free kick, when they could take it quickly. You have to be alert, aware as to what is happening. And the players were not on this occasion, and they paid the penalty!
Moving on to the 2nd goal! This was also very avoidable, which of course is frustrating. We put too much "risk on the ball" in the wide areas, gave it away cheaply, Gibbs was then beaten to a loose ball, which City then dribbled down the side, played in, Mertesacker missed the clearance which left Silva to shoot which was blocked by Wojiech, only to be tapped home by Dzeko! This also should have been avoided. We should have cleared the ball in the wide areas, or at least distributed it quickly and efficiently out of the "danger zone" if you like, and then played it up field. We cannot afford, especially when down to 10 men against the English Champions, to be sloppy on the ball. I said at the time of sending off, "right, now we have to be super disciplined on the ball, and try and hold on to it as well as we can", however we didn't manage that, and this was exactly what we didn't do for the 2nd goal!
Final negative of the game I thought was the performance was the lack of anything really from Santi. I have seen that people were slagging of Theo for his performance, but to be fair we were playing with 10 men, and also Theo did not get ANY service throughout the match. I think he tried to move around, tried to make runs (I specifically watched him throughout for this), but was not given the through balls and passes that is required. And part of this, I believe, was as a result of lack of creative activity from Santi. Who of course has been a little magician at times this season, but I think in a few games he has been COMPLETELY invisible. And today, unfortunately, that was one of those moments for sure. He didn't probe the defence, in the sense that he didn't distribute the ball well at all, was too slow, and passed up the chance to shoot on a number of occasions, when in good areas of the field (around the box). We really needed a performance from him today, firstly because we were missing Mikel, so we needed Jack and Santi to really step up in a creative fashion, and secondly because we went down to 10 men and therefore needed him to create some chances for us to have a chance of coming back into the game, but this was not the case. Maybe he is in need of a rest, I don't know. But it sure is strange that we still havent seen Rosicky come on in the league, when it is clear that Santi is struggling at times to be fresh, so why not give Rosicky a go? I don't know.
But as I said before, there were positives we can take from this fixture. When a team goes down to 10 men after such a short time in the game, it would be VERY easy for the team to hide away, to feel sorry for themselves and to almost give up. But I think they did the opposite! They really fought for the ball, when City looked like scoring the players blocked they harried the ball around the box, and I don't think you can fault that. Of course you could say we didn't take the chances that we DID have, such as Giroud from a set piece, put a header wide, and of course Theo had a shot blocked of the line where I think he should have placed the ball better, but as I said, they fought hard for it, and they kept the scoreline reasonable if you can put it that way. Of course loosing a game at home is not satisfactory for a club like Arsenal, but in the circumstances, it could've ended up a "cricket score", but the players fought valiantly to make sure this wasn't the case, this is pleasing.
So on the whole it's been a very disappointing day. I was very optimistic going into this match that we could do well, however this didn't pan out that way. But moving forward we have an absolutely MASSIVE few weeks coming up. Those of you that know me, will know that I am a guy that is always reasonably optimistic about things, but the next few weeks could either make our season or kill it, that is the severity in my opinion of what is to come. We have Chelsea away next, and if we don't get anything there it is feasable that Liverpool could be level with us, and then of course we have that team (Liverpool) at home in the next Premier League. Therefore it is feasible we could end up around 8th, where Liverpool are now, after these games, IF we don't see a response from the lads. Throw the FA Cup replay Vs Swansea on Wednesday, into the equation as well, and I think you can start to see my point. This is an absolutely enourmous few weeks for our season. Firstly we have to find a reaction to this game, without Koscielney and Arteta for these upcoming weeks, and secondly we have to enter the market place as well for a few players. If we do these two things and some good results in the league, win the replay, and acquire 1 or 2 good players, our seasons should be okay! If we don't however, I really worry about what would happen especially when you consider the champions league knockout round 1st leg Vs Munich is also looming!
But let's stay optimistic, that is a good way to be, as the players and the staff need our support after a day like this, where everything really went against us, and lets give credit where it's due, the players did show application and fight today in difficult circumstances, but the manner of the goals we conceded was not good enough, and when you consider that had we not made 2 bad erros for the 2 goals, we could have managed to hold for a draw with 10 men! That is encouraging of course, BUT we did make these errors, so ultimately we very disappointed!
So we go now to Stamford Bridge hoping for a good win! And until then I wish you a good week!!
UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!
@Mr_arsenal_blog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdqwi4z0D40 - penalty and red card incident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09TpvqokJwU - the goals. See the errors!
13/01/2013 - reviewing the Manchester City game.
Well, what a shame that was. I was, as I am sure all of you were as well, so much looking forward to this game today, it was all shaping up to be a fantastic day of competitive football and really was an ACTUAL (for once) "Super Sunday". I was so excited to arrive at the ground again today, just thought it was going to be such a good game.
However, as we know, the game and the spectacle that we were hoping for, was absolutely ruined so early on by the sending off. Now at the time I was so furious at this, as was everyone else in the ground, a feeling of "shell-shockness" seemed to flow round the crowd as Laurent Koscielney made his way of the pitch and down the tunnel. I would like to make it clear that, despite my inevitable anger, it WAS in fact a penalty (link to the incident will be at the bottom of this piece), but I do not think that it was a red card because a) it was very early in the game and b) I think the ball was going to the goal keeper anyway. But regardless of this that was the situation that reared it's ugly head unfortunately. Therefore as soon as that happened, quite frankly we were never going to win the game, and a loss was inevitable! That's what the disappointing thing is for me, the fact the great spectacle we had hoped for was completely taken away. Because of the sending off I don't think you can read much into the performance of either team, because of these conditions. But regardless of this however, we did make a number of mistakes for both goals and I am now going to outline this, but also outline what I think we can take from this game, in a positive light!
Let's get the negatives over with first! As we know the fact we were down to ten men of course made it very very hard for us to defend efficiently, because naturally they would have the spare man over every time. But despite this both goals could have, and SHOULD have been avoided. The first one came as a result of Arsenal switching of, and loosing their shape at a quick free kick. When a foul is given by the officials, we need the leaders in the team, to make sure the players do not switch of and think they have a few seconds rest, because as we saw this is not the case. They took a quick one, caught as out played it wide brought into the box, and boom it's 1-0. Which of course gave us a HUGE mountain to climb. Going down 1-0 to the Champions is bad enough, but with 10 men, i'm afraid that was it, game over! But the fact is, that was poor from the team. As you will see, I do feel proud of the players for the way they fought considering we were up against the Champions, with a man down for effectively, the whole match. But, that should not happen, I remember at Under 8 sort of age, when playing football we would always be shouted at if we turned our back and switched off at a free kick, when they could take it quickly. You have to be alert, aware as to what is happening. And the players were not on this occasion, and they paid the penalty!
Moving on to the 2nd goal! This was also very avoidable, which of course is frustrating. We put too much "risk on the ball" in the wide areas, gave it away cheaply, Gibbs was then beaten to a loose ball, which City then dribbled down the side, played in, Mertesacker missed the clearance which left Silva to shoot which was blocked by Wojiech, only to be tapped home by Dzeko! This also should have been avoided. We should have cleared the ball in the wide areas, or at least distributed it quickly and efficiently out of the "danger zone" if you like, and then played it up field. We cannot afford, especially when down to 10 men against the English Champions, to be sloppy on the ball. I said at the time of sending off, "right, now we have to be super disciplined on the ball, and try and hold on to it as well as we can", however we didn't manage that, and this was exactly what we didn't do for the 2nd goal!
Final negative of the game I thought was the performance was the lack of anything really from Santi. I have seen that people were slagging of Theo for his performance, but to be fair we were playing with 10 men, and also Theo did not get ANY service throughout the match. I think he tried to move around, tried to make runs (I specifically watched him throughout for this), but was not given the through balls and passes that is required. And part of this, I believe, was as a result of lack of creative activity from Santi. Who of course has been a little magician at times this season, but I think in a few games he has been COMPLETELY invisible. And today, unfortunately, that was one of those moments for sure. He didn't probe the defence, in the sense that he didn't distribute the ball well at all, was too slow, and passed up the chance to shoot on a number of occasions, when in good areas of the field (around the box). We really needed a performance from him today, firstly because we were missing Mikel, so we needed Jack and Santi to really step up in a creative fashion, and secondly because we went down to 10 men and therefore needed him to create some chances for us to have a chance of coming back into the game, but this was not the case. Maybe he is in need of a rest, I don't know. But it sure is strange that we still havent seen Rosicky come on in the league, when it is clear that Santi is struggling at times to be fresh, so why not give Rosicky a go? I don't know.
But as I said before, there were positives we can take from this fixture. When a team goes down to 10 men after such a short time in the game, it would be VERY easy for the team to hide away, to feel sorry for themselves and to almost give up. But I think they did the opposite! They really fought for the ball, when City looked like scoring the players blocked they harried the ball around the box, and I don't think you can fault that. Of course you could say we didn't take the chances that we DID have, such as Giroud from a set piece, put a header wide, and of course Theo had a shot blocked of the line where I think he should have placed the ball better, but as I said, they fought hard for it, and they kept the scoreline reasonable if you can put it that way. Of course loosing a game at home is not satisfactory for a club like Arsenal, but in the circumstances, it could've ended up a "cricket score", but the players fought valiantly to make sure this wasn't the case, this is pleasing.
So on the whole it's been a very disappointing day. I was very optimistic going into this match that we could do well, however this didn't pan out that way. But moving forward we have an absolutely MASSIVE few weeks coming up. Those of you that know me, will know that I am a guy that is always reasonably optimistic about things, but the next few weeks could either make our season or kill it, that is the severity in my opinion of what is to come. We have Chelsea away next, and if we don't get anything there it is feasable that Liverpool could be level with us, and then of course we have that team (Liverpool) at home in the next Premier League. Therefore it is feasible we could end up around 8th, where Liverpool are now, after these games, IF we don't see a response from the lads. Throw the FA Cup replay Vs Swansea on Wednesday, into the equation as well, and I think you can start to see my point. This is an absolutely enourmous few weeks for our season. Firstly we have to find a reaction to this game, without Koscielney and Arteta for these upcoming weeks, and secondly we have to enter the market place as well for a few players. If we do these two things and some good results in the league, win the replay, and acquire 1 or 2 good players, our seasons should be okay! If we don't however, I really worry about what would happen especially when you consider the champions league knockout round 1st leg Vs Munich is also looming!
But let's stay optimistic, that is a good way to be, as the players and the staff need our support after a day like this, where everything really went against us, and lets give credit where it's due, the players did show application and fight today in difficult circumstances, but the manner of the goals we conceded was not good enough, and when you consider that had we not made 2 bad erros for the 2 goals, we could have managed to hold for a draw with 10 men! That is encouraging of course, BUT we did make these errors, so ultimately we very disappointed!
So we go now to Stamford Bridge hoping for a good win! And until then I wish you a good week!!
UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!
@Mr_arsenal_blog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdqwi4z0D40 - penalty and red card incident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09TpvqokJwU - the goals. See the errors!
11 January 2013
Ticketgate - my take on the whole scandal surrounding the clubs ticketing and pricing policy.
As I am sure you are all aware lots of has been made of the last 48 hours or so especially, since Manchester City reportedly handing back circa 1000 tickets to Arsenal because many fans did not want to pay the £63 price that Arsenal had set for this game. But it is something that has been discussed also by Arsenal fans for a long time. Subsequently once again the media has had a field day, as they do whenever something to do with Arsenal can be criticised and sufficiently slagged off! Since Manchester City have become a Premier League "force" Arsenal have placed them within the "Class A" ticketing band which also includes fixtures against Manchester United and The Scum, naturally therefore they are placed at the upper end of the pricing structure. Once again as I said the media have used this a chance to slag of the club, the board e.t.c. But let me try and put some perspective on something which is, as Le Boss put it "a delicate subject"!
First things first as I said this is a Class A fixture, therefore it is a game that many people will want to attend to watch the drama that I am sure and I hope will unfold (in Arsenal's favour of course). Therefore naturally the supply and demand model will apply. Furthermore as it is a "class a" game, NOT all of our away end tickets will be priced this way, as the media will try and make people think. This is a big game, therefore naturally it will have a big price!
Furthermore unlike City we do not have an oil rich backer behind us that can just pour money into the club like its going out fashion! Arsenal as a club and as a business relies on match-day revenue for its overall financial strength, hence the initiative which is now in action by the club to grow our "commercial revenue streams" e.g. new deal with Fly Emirates agreed recently. Therefore in order for us to compete going forward, or even have the chance to compete with the other clubs around us, we have to accept that we are going to need to pay a premium for the pleasure of watching our club play at the home of football. There isn't really much else the club can do.
Clearly I myself am frustrated at the price of tickets, our season tickets cost upwards of £1100 each, so I am well aware of this issue. However as I said, we have to accept that if we want to be able to compete with the likes of Manchester City going forward, our ticket prices are going to be high, and we are are going to have to grow and expand as much as is possible our commercial revenue capabilities. Which is something that we know Ivan Gazidis especially is working towards. The Fly Emirates agreement that I mention is case in point, of this.
Therefore to summarise, we have to make it clear that this is not the price of ticket that is charged for every game, nor is it the price that is charged for the home end either I believe. The club relies on this revenue to be able to fulfil its ambition going forward and therefore unless a Sheikh Mansour type figure comes along, we are going to have to just accept that us fans will have to pay a premium if we are going to be able to see our team compete at all. It's a difficult topic I know, but The Emirates sells out 90% of the time that I am there (which is most games) and we have an absolutely ENORMOUS waiting list for season tickets, and therefore clearly most fans accept this. The prices will be high!
Let's hope that ticket-gate doesn't distract from what should be a fantastic game on Sunday Vs Manchester City, and from what could be in my opinion a good win for The Arsenal, lets hope so!!
UP THE ARSENAL
@Mr_arsenal_blog
As I am sure you are all aware lots of has been made of the last 48 hours or so especially, since Manchester City reportedly handing back circa 1000 tickets to Arsenal because many fans did not want to pay the £63 price that Arsenal had set for this game. But it is something that has been discussed also by Arsenal fans for a long time. Subsequently once again the media has had a field day, as they do whenever something to do with Arsenal can be criticised and sufficiently slagged off! Since Manchester City have become a Premier League "force" Arsenal have placed them within the "Class A" ticketing band which also includes fixtures against Manchester United and The Scum, naturally therefore they are placed at the upper end of the pricing structure. Once again as I said the media have used this a chance to slag of the club, the board e.t.c. But let me try and put some perspective on something which is, as Le Boss put it "a delicate subject"!
First things first as I said this is a Class A fixture, therefore it is a game that many people will want to attend to watch the drama that I am sure and I hope will unfold (in Arsenal's favour of course). Therefore naturally the supply and demand model will apply. Furthermore as it is a "class a" game, NOT all of our away end tickets will be priced this way, as the media will try and make people think. This is a big game, therefore naturally it will have a big price!
Furthermore unlike City we do not have an oil rich backer behind us that can just pour money into the club like its going out fashion! Arsenal as a club and as a business relies on match-day revenue for its overall financial strength, hence the initiative which is now in action by the club to grow our "commercial revenue streams" e.g. new deal with Fly Emirates agreed recently. Therefore in order for us to compete going forward, or even have the chance to compete with the other clubs around us, we have to accept that we are going to need to pay a premium for the pleasure of watching our club play at the home of football. There isn't really much else the club can do.
Clearly I myself am frustrated at the price of tickets, our season tickets cost upwards of £1100 each, so I am well aware of this issue. However as I said, we have to accept that if we want to be able to compete with the likes of Manchester City going forward, our ticket prices are going to be high, and we are are going to have to grow and expand as much as is possible our commercial revenue capabilities. Which is something that we know Ivan Gazidis especially is working towards. The Fly Emirates agreement that I mention is case in point, of this.
Therefore to summarise, we have to make it clear that this is not the price of ticket that is charged for every game, nor is it the price that is charged for the home end either I believe. The club relies on this revenue to be able to fulfil its ambition going forward and therefore unless a Sheikh Mansour type figure comes along, we are going to have to just accept that us fans will have to pay a premium if we are going to be able to see our team compete at all. It's a difficult topic I know, but The Emirates sells out 90% of the time that I am there (which is most games) and we have an absolutely ENORMOUS waiting list for season tickets, and therefore clearly most fans accept this. The prices will be high!
Let's hope that ticket-gate doesn't distract from what should be a fantastic game on Sunday Vs Manchester City, and from what could be in my opinion a good win for The Arsenal, lets hope so!!
UP THE ARSENAL
@Mr_arsenal_blog
5 January 2013
Now time has come passed to take stock, and the situation is clear, what do I think about the Robin Van Persie departure to Manchester United?
Well, I am sure like most of you I could describe my thoughts on this in very few expletives! However, on this occasion I will try and stay calm, and outline what I really think about this whole debacle that unravelled really over the last few years. Let me start however by putting the situation into some kind of context, if I can. He is without a shadow of a doubt a quality player, we cannot kid ourselves on that front, and also we cannot kid ourselves that he was absolutely vital in our charge from early disaster to 3rd place in the Premier League last season. But the fact is he wanted to go, and quite frankly he made his position at the club in my opinion untenable through that quite frankly outrageous "statement" that he released in June. Therefore him staying was never really an option I would argue, that said however what followed was in my opinion absolutely disgraceful! Both on the part of the player for behaving as he did, and on the side of the club for selling to them. This hurts.
This was a man that before he had even joined Arsenal was accused of sexual assault in his home country, which Arsenal supported him through, and signed him regardless of this record. Also, for most of his career at Arsenal his talent was spoilt by an almost constant injury threat. He would get fit, play brilliantly, give us all hope, and then get injured again after 3,4,5, whatever, games. But, did we turn on him? Did we loose faith and support on him? NO. He had our full entire support throughout these injury crises, and it really was that. We were patient with him, we gave him our unconditional support all of the time, and when he got fit once again we treated him like a returning hero, before then once again being let down by injury.
However this changed in the second half of the 2010/2011 season where FINALLY he managed to stay fit, and as expected was brilliant. He then stayed fit for the entire 2011/2012 season, which was a miracle really considering his previous record by the way, and again was brilliant and scored I think 37 goal across the season and was the tip of our spear, as the leader and talisman of the team.
So haven gone through all that, and having had all the support he could possibly have had through those issues to get him to where he belonged, on the top level as one of the best strikers in the world, did he show us the support and loyalty, when we needed, like we did when he needed it? Well, I think we know the answer to that. He refused to sign a new contract which is his decision, but then released that "statement", which in my opinion, effectively stuck two fingers up at the club and the fans, and basically said, I don't care what you have done for me and how you have stood by me, I am only interested in me, and am therefore going to use you to get more money and go elsewhere, and don't care what situation this leaves the team, and perhaps more annoyingly, the fans, who completely idolised him and therefore feel betrayed and heart-broken by what he did.
So that's why I am annoyed by his actions, but as I also said above, the club also are not at all without fault on this front. And again the situation should certainly have been handled differently. Firstly his contract should NEVER have been allowed to get to the stage that it got to. The club should have made more of an effort to tie him down when he first came back from injury, and therefore was in no position to demand anything because he would have just come back, and even with that considered when the contract did get to the point it did, and when the discussions started at the end of last season the club should've acknowledged more what a world-class player he is, and how important he was for us, and given him the money that would be available to him on the market, because I simply WILL NOT accept that this move was ANYTHING other than money orientated. The fact is, United won nothing last season so what gives anyone the right to say that he has gone there for trophies? Yes, they have won more than us over the last few years obviously, but it is just so obvious that this was money orientated. Therefore, Arsenal should have stopped being so stubborn and just offered him the money that he is worth on the market. I understand that formal contract discussions never actually began, but I believe that is because Robin KNEW that Arsenal would not offer him the money that would be available elsewhere, so contract talks were redundant. That's what I think.
But then the club, once they had realised that his position in the team was practically un-tenable, had to make a brave decision. Did they try and patch things up, like City did with Tevez for example, and make him stay? OR, did they sell him on to a "suitable" club! Well, of course we know what happened, they let him muck them about and forced them to sell him to a bitter rival of the club, which they gave into. This is so poor, it hurts. We know for a fact that Juventus were in for him, and we know that City and United were also in for him. It is believed that the likes of Madrid and Barcelona did not express interest, but I am sure if offered the player they would have taken it. Therefore to sell to United was just completely ludicrous, it hurt the club in terms of selling to a rival, and it hurt the fans to see our hero (at the time of course), score goals for a club we dislike as much as them. Therefore this move by the club was so stupid. This is the way myself as a fan looks at it.
However once again I have to try and put some kind of context to this. The fact is RVP (the traitor) decided himself that he wanted to leave, and decided that he want to sign for United. And he probably made it clear to the club, that's where he wanted to go. So can the club do anything else, given if they don't sell him, he would've gone for nothing this summer coming (2013 summer window). So you could argue, as painful as it sounds, the club had no option but to sell to the club that was a) offering to buy him and b) the club the player wanted to go to. This in my opinion is the reality of football, the player holds the cards. Because the fact is if Arsenal had accepted a bid from say Juventus, RVP would probably NOT have signed for them, because he wanted to go to United. So I hope you can see the problem the club had. BUT, we cannot cover the facts up, and those facts are the club SHOULD have a) sorted out before it finally came to a conclusion and b) made more of an effort to assure him that they would offer him the money he would deserve on the open market place! They didn't do this, so in the end the club mucked it up completely, and we lost in my opinion one of the best, if not the best, number 9 in the world (with Falcoa).
So, it hurts a lot to see the man who was our hero, our leader, our talisman last season, strutting his outrageous ability for United, and let's face it if he scores against us again, at The Emirates, this feeling will ONLY get worse. However, I would stress that whilst I know it is extremely difficult, we have to try and get over it now, as there is no point, no benefit, of having a breakdown on social media, whenever that idiot scores for them. We cannot do anything now, so I am going to try and move on, and hope that we can, but I am not sure I will ever fully get over it, because of the lack of respect he showed both us (the fans), the club, and his team mates, and also because of the lack of pro-action that the club showed to hold on to him and not sold him to United.
Anyway, UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!
@Mr_arsenal_blog
Well, I am sure like most of you I could describe my thoughts on this in very few expletives! However, on this occasion I will try and stay calm, and outline what I really think about this whole debacle that unravelled really over the last few years. Let me start however by putting the situation into some kind of context, if I can. He is without a shadow of a doubt a quality player, we cannot kid ourselves on that front, and also we cannot kid ourselves that he was absolutely vital in our charge from early disaster to 3rd place in the Premier League last season. But the fact is he wanted to go, and quite frankly he made his position at the club in my opinion untenable through that quite frankly outrageous "statement" that he released in June. Therefore him staying was never really an option I would argue, that said however what followed was in my opinion absolutely disgraceful! Both on the part of the player for behaving as he did, and on the side of the club for selling to them. This hurts.
This was a man that before he had even joined Arsenal was accused of sexual assault in his home country, which Arsenal supported him through, and signed him regardless of this record. Also, for most of his career at Arsenal his talent was spoilt by an almost constant injury threat. He would get fit, play brilliantly, give us all hope, and then get injured again after 3,4,5, whatever, games. But, did we turn on him? Did we loose faith and support on him? NO. He had our full entire support throughout these injury crises, and it really was that. We were patient with him, we gave him our unconditional support all of the time, and when he got fit once again we treated him like a returning hero, before then once again being let down by injury.
However this changed in the second half of the 2010/2011 season where FINALLY he managed to stay fit, and as expected was brilliant. He then stayed fit for the entire 2011/2012 season, which was a miracle really considering his previous record by the way, and again was brilliant and scored I think 37 goal across the season and was the tip of our spear, as the leader and talisman of the team.
So haven gone through all that, and having had all the support he could possibly have had through those issues to get him to where he belonged, on the top level as one of the best strikers in the world, did he show us the support and loyalty, when we needed, like we did when he needed it? Well, I think we know the answer to that. He refused to sign a new contract which is his decision, but then released that "statement", which in my opinion, effectively stuck two fingers up at the club and the fans, and basically said, I don't care what you have done for me and how you have stood by me, I am only interested in me, and am therefore going to use you to get more money and go elsewhere, and don't care what situation this leaves the team, and perhaps more annoyingly, the fans, who completely idolised him and therefore feel betrayed and heart-broken by what he did.
So that's why I am annoyed by his actions, but as I also said above, the club also are not at all without fault on this front. And again the situation should certainly have been handled differently. Firstly his contract should NEVER have been allowed to get to the stage that it got to. The club should have made more of an effort to tie him down when he first came back from injury, and therefore was in no position to demand anything because he would have just come back, and even with that considered when the contract did get to the point it did, and when the discussions started at the end of last season the club should've acknowledged more what a world-class player he is, and how important he was for us, and given him the money that would be available to him on the market, because I simply WILL NOT accept that this move was ANYTHING other than money orientated. The fact is, United won nothing last season so what gives anyone the right to say that he has gone there for trophies? Yes, they have won more than us over the last few years obviously, but it is just so obvious that this was money orientated. Therefore, Arsenal should have stopped being so stubborn and just offered him the money that he is worth on the market. I understand that formal contract discussions never actually began, but I believe that is because Robin KNEW that Arsenal would not offer him the money that would be available elsewhere, so contract talks were redundant. That's what I think.
But then the club, once they had realised that his position in the team was practically un-tenable, had to make a brave decision. Did they try and patch things up, like City did with Tevez for example, and make him stay? OR, did they sell him on to a "suitable" club! Well, of course we know what happened, they let him muck them about and forced them to sell him to a bitter rival of the club, which they gave into. This is so poor, it hurts. We know for a fact that Juventus were in for him, and we know that City and United were also in for him. It is believed that the likes of Madrid and Barcelona did not express interest, but I am sure if offered the player they would have taken it. Therefore to sell to United was just completely ludicrous, it hurt the club in terms of selling to a rival, and it hurt the fans to see our hero (at the time of course), score goals for a club we dislike as much as them. Therefore this move by the club was so stupid. This is the way myself as a fan looks at it.
However once again I have to try and put some kind of context to this. The fact is RVP (the traitor) decided himself that he wanted to leave, and decided that he want to sign for United. And he probably made it clear to the club, that's where he wanted to go. So can the club do anything else, given if they don't sell him, he would've gone for nothing this summer coming (2013 summer window). So you could argue, as painful as it sounds, the club had no option but to sell to the club that was a) offering to buy him and b) the club the player wanted to go to. This in my opinion is the reality of football, the player holds the cards. Because the fact is if Arsenal had accepted a bid from say Juventus, RVP would probably NOT have signed for them, because he wanted to go to United. So I hope you can see the problem the club had. BUT, we cannot cover the facts up, and those facts are the club SHOULD have a) sorted out before it finally came to a conclusion and b) made more of an effort to assure him that they would offer him the money he would deserve on the open market place! They didn't do this, so in the end the club mucked it up completely, and we lost in my opinion one of the best, if not the best, number 9 in the world (with Falcoa).
So, it hurts a lot to see the man who was our hero, our leader, our talisman last season, strutting his outrageous ability for United, and let's face it if he scores against us again, at The Emirates, this feeling will ONLY get worse. However, I would stress that whilst I know it is extremely difficult, we have to try and get over it now, as there is no point, no benefit, of having a breakdown on social media, whenever that idiot scores for them. We cannot do anything now, so I am going to try and move on, and hope that we can, but I am not sure I will ever fully get over it, because of the lack of respect he showed both us (the fans), the club, and his team mates, and also because of the lack of pro-action that the club showed to hold on to him and not sold him to United.
Anyway, UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!
@Mr_arsenal_blog
2 January 2013
Johan Djourou: story of ultimately unfulfilled promise.
It seems that we are about to bid farewell to our Swiss defender Johan Djourou. It is reported in the German press this evening that a fee of around 2 million euros has been agreed between Hannover in Germany and The Arsenal, and it seems therefore that in due course, Djourou will depart North London for Germany.
Many Arsenal fans it seems are relieved that he has gone as they do not see him being able to offer anything to Arsenal, and they may have a point, however I look upon this departure with a feeling of sadness actually. This is because I believe Djourou leaves with unfulfilled promise and talent. I look back 2 seasons to the 2010-2011 season where in my opinion Djourou was absolutely magnificent at the back for us, alongside (at the time) the new signing Luarent Koscielney. They formed a great understanding and managed to play absolutely brilliantly against the likes of Lionel Messi, David Villa, Didier Drogba e.t.c. at the Emirates in wins against FC Barcelona and Chelsea, that season. In fact is form was such that, when he got injured at Old Trafford in the FA Cup in early 2011, I recall many Arsenal fans were panicking because they did not want to see him out of the team, such were the level of his performances for the team. At the start of 2011 Djourou and Koscielney actually broke a Premier League record for the amount of clean sheets in a row, and were looking really really good together, during Thomas Vermalean's (our current skipper) long injury lay-off that season.
I thought at the time, that this was going to be the start of a very successful Arsenal career in defence for Johan, however it wasn't to be. Johan was knocked out of the team through a mixture of injury and a dip in form, which in turn coincided with Arsenal dropping out of the Premier League title race, and also you could argue the return of Thomas Vermalean from the treatment room. He has never recovered from this, and therefore has never really had a run in the team since. This is why, I believe, when we have seen him play, he has been below par because he has not been able to get any real run in the team, which of course makes it difficult to come in and play only on a handful of occasions in any given season.
This is why I say farewell to Johan, a likeable fella, with a heavy heart. I think he has probably not had the best luck over the last few years, had he not picked up an injury in that season (2010-2011) he probably would have had a longer run in the team, and who knows may be staying at the club. However, as it happens, it has not worked out like that, and he will now be leaving our club to play in the German Bundesliga. I wish Johan all the best, and hope that he will show over there the ability that he showed, for us, in that season 2010-2011, and it is with regret that I say we didn't get to see that form on a continued basis!
Moving on, what now for our defence? I would not actually expect Arsene to go and buy another defender to compensate for the departure of Johan, instead I believe that Miquel will probably be promoted up the ranks if you like, as he has ability. He is someone who is very comfortable on the ball, has good pace and has impressed me when he has played for the team over the last few seasons, mainly in the League Cup, but also when called upon last season to play LB, during an injury crisis, and performed admirably at City in late 2011 out of position there. Therefore I fully expect Miquel to step up to our 4th choice CB, however I would not be at all shocked if we sign a new CB in the summer, this is probably the thing to do!
Anyway, once again I thank Johan for his contribution to the club, and as with most departures of our club he leaves with my best wishes. I think he is better than a lot of people think, but ultimately could not get a long enough run in the side! Good luck Johan!!!
UP THE ARSENAL
@Mr_arsenal_blog
p.s. Everyone please check out a great young Arsenal blogger's page, the link for which is below:
http://sameoldarsenal.wordpress.com/
It seems that we are about to bid farewell to our Swiss defender Johan Djourou. It is reported in the German press this evening that a fee of around 2 million euros has been agreed between Hannover in Germany and The Arsenal, and it seems therefore that in due course, Djourou will depart North London for Germany.
Many Arsenal fans it seems are relieved that he has gone as they do not see him being able to offer anything to Arsenal, and they may have a point, however I look upon this departure with a feeling of sadness actually. This is because I believe Djourou leaves with unfulfilled promise and talent. I look back 2 seasons to the 2010-2011 season where in my opinion Djourou was absolutely magnificent at the back for us, alongside (at the time) the new signing Luarent Koscielney. They formed a great understanding and managed to play absolutely brilliantly against the likes of Lionel Messi, David Villa, Didier Drogba e.t.c. at the Emirates in wins against FC Barcelona and Chelsea, that season. In fact is form was such that, when he got injured at Old Trafford in the FA Cup in early 2011, I recall many Arsenal fans were panicking because they did not want to see him out of the team, such were the level of his performances for the team. At the start of 2011 Djourou and Koscielney actually broke a Premier League record for the amount of clean sheets in a row, and were looking really really good together, during Thomas Vermalean's (our current skipper) long injury lay-off that season.
I thought at the time, that this was going to be the start of a very successful Arsenal career in defence for Johan, however it wasn't to be. Johan was knocked out of the team through a mixture of injury and a dip in form, which in turn coincided with Arsenal dropping out of the Premier League title race, and also you could argue the return of Thomas Vermalean from the treatment room. He has never recovered from this, and therefore has never really had a run in the team since. This is why, I believe, when we have seen him play, he has been below par because he has not been able to get any real run in the team, which of course makes it difficult to come in and play only on a handful of occasions in any given season.
This is why I say farewell to Johan, a likeable fella, with a heavy heart. I think he has probably not had the best luck over the last few years, had he not picked up an injury in that season (2010-2011) he probably would have had a longer run in the team, and who knows may be staying at the club. However, as it happens, it has not worked out like that, and he will now be leaving our club to play in the German Bundesliga. I wish Johan all the best, and hope that he will show over there the ability that he showed, for us, in that season 2010-2011, and it is with regret that I say we didn't get to see that form on a continued basis!
Moving on, what now for our defence? I would not actually expect Arsene to go and buy another defender to compensate for the departure of Johan, instead I believe that Miquel will probably be promoted up the ranks if you like, as he has ability. He is someone who is very comfortable on the ball, has good pace and has impressed me when he has played for the team over the last few seasons, mainly in the League Cup, but also when called upon last season to play LB, during an injury crisis, and performed admirably at City in late 2011 out of position there. Therefore I fully expect Miquel to step up to our 4th choice CB, however I would not be at all shocked if we sign a new CB in the summer, this is probably the thing to do!
Anyway, once again I thank Johan for his contribution to the club, and as with most departures of our club he leaves with my best wishes. I think he is better than a lot of people think, but ultimately could not get a long enough run in the side! Good luck Johan!!!
UP THE ARSENAL
@Mr_arsenal_blog
p.s. Everyone please check out a great young Arsenal blogger's page, the link for which is below:
http://sameoldarsenal.wordpress.com/
1 January 2013
Mr Arsenal Blog's tactics weekly.
Tuesday 1st January - reviewing the Southampton match.
Firstly Happy New Year to all my readers, I wish each of you all the best for the new year 2013, also thanks so much for your support with these blogs it really is appreciated. So onto the game, all in all it was a disappointing performance and result from Arsenal, we certainly did not hit the level offensively that we reached Vs Newcastle, and were sloppy defensively in parts as well. The boss summed it up well I think when he said "we were not great" after the match. I hope that this can change ahead of some very important games Vs Chelsea and Manchester City, which are looming in the next couple of weeks. What were the main points from this game however? Why were Arsenal not able to win this match?
Firstly once again the movement and the speed of thought and passing was not at the appropriate level today. It is increasingly frustrating that I seem to have to talk about this in every other article I write about The Arsenal at the moment, but it is a real issue that needs rectifying, and that was very evident again in this match. As I have said before it is all well and good having more of the ball, which in this much we did just about have more of the ball (with around 55% compared to Southampton's 46%), however you have to provide imputes for the teams attack, by combining good passing (which I would say we have on the whole), with good intelligent and creative movement off the ball. Without this it will always be hard to stretch a defence. On Saturday we scored 7 goals despite not showing great movement, maybe that was because of Newcastle being tired, which was positive. However the point is I haven't really seen the Arsenal team show intelligent movement of the ball for some time now, which to be frank is a real concern.
Against a team, with all due respect to them, that started the day in the bottom three, we should clearly have more shots on target (according to BBC Sport we had 4) than we did. I wholeheartedly believe that lots of this is down to a lack of movement off the ball. We have to move defensive units around, without this the defence of any team will be able to keep its shape and not been pulled out to areas, where they do not want to go, and therefore ultimately struggle to test the opposition goalkeeper, which to be fair was the case today as we can see from that stat. As Arsene said after the game "we were not creative enough and did not play with purpose". This is what I am getting at. There was a lack of conviction today in the teams attacking, that cutting edge was really missing from our play. We have to find this in order to make real progress.
Something which really took my by suprisse today was the performance of Bac Sagna. This is a lad who is usually "Mr Dependable" if you will, someone that is one of the most consistent performers in the league, week in week out. However today it is not harsh to say, he was absolutely inept, shocking, almost lost at times. As someone said on twitter it was as if he was "drunk" from some kind of New Years Eve celebration. I would suggest that is not the case, however I would say the point is valid, because he really did not look, for want of a better phrase, "jaded" (thanks for that Arsene). Bac was clearly at fault for the goal that we conceded, because he failed to clearly the ball into the box upon several opportunities, and also offered very very little going forward.
This leads me on to something that I noticed on Saturday at The Emirates for the Newcastle because you could see that our fall backs were not fulfilling their attacking roles frequently enough. Apart from on two occasions one for our 4th goal for Theo where Gibbo ran on into the box and cut the ball back to the penalty from which Theo scored, and another when he got into the box and shot at the goalkeeper. However apart from that they did not get forward frequently enough to create width and ultimately attacking opportunities. I think this is something that we have to improve on as our system requires the fall backs to create the overlap, and we have not been doing this frequently enough recently, with the exception of the Reading game away (won 5-2), and as I say we really need to improve on this. Sagna had a poor game today and to be honest I was not impressed with either of them on Saturday either, which is a concern, as Sagna did not block the crosses from coming in frequently enough and Gibbs let Ba and Marveux especially free at the far post, from which they both punished us for.
Hopefully we can improve on these areas ahead of our next game Vs Swansea in the FA Cup and then of course hit a good level of performance again for the City game at the Home of Football a week on Saturday. As I have said before, there is a long way to go in this season still but I do believe that this is a really key month for us, with some big games coming up, and also with the transfer window being open again providing an opportunity for us to strengthen, it is indeed a very important few weeks for the club. As I said on twitter today, and in my last article (the 1/2 term report), our stats from the season so far show that we are good in all areas apart from our shot to goal ratio, which points to a lack of ruthlessness up front. Therefore I think it is clear that we need a new striker in this window, a proven goal-scorer someone that commands the ball and has urgency to score, something which seemed to be lacking today, that's for sure.
This is a big month for Arsenal, and a big few weeks coming up. The game on Saturday Vs Swansea in the FA Cup is in my opinion SO important, we cannot afford to be knocked out of another competition, after the shambles of the Bradford Capital One Cup game, we have to go on a good run in this competition. If we are going to do this, we must re-create the good from our win over Newcastle, and let's be positive, and there were many good things! So let's hope we do!!
UP THE ARSENAL!!!
@Mr_arsenal_blog
Tuesday 1st January - reviewing the Southampton match.
Firstly Happy New Year to all my readers, I wish each of you all the best for the new year 2013, also thanks so much for your support with these blogs it really is appreciated. So onto the game, all in all it was a disappointing performance and result from Arsenal, we certainly did not hit the level offensively that we reached Vs Newcastle, and were sloppy defensively in parts as well. The boss summed it up well I think when he said "we were not great" after the match. I hope that this can change ahead of some very important games Vs Chelsea and Manchester City, which are looming in the next couple of weeks. What were the main points from this game however? Why were Arsenal not able to win this match?
Firstly once again the movement and the speed of thought and passing was not at the appropriate level today. It is increasingly frustrating that I seem to have to talk about this in every other article I write about The Arsenal at the moment, but it is a real issue that needs rectifying, and that was very evident again in this match. As I have said before it is all well and good having more of the ball, which in this much we did just about have more of the ball (with around 55% compared to Southampton's 46%), however you have to provide imputes for the teams attack, by combining good passing (which I would say we have on the whole), with good intelligent and creative movement off the ball. Without this it will always be hard to stretch a defence. On Saturday we scored 7 goals despite not showing great movement, maybe that was because of Newcastle being tired, which was positive. However the point is I haven't really seen the Arsenal team show intelligent movement of the ball for some time now, which to be frank is a real concern.
Against a team, with all due respect to them, that started the day in the bottom three, we should clearly have more shots on target (according to BBC Sport we had 4) than we did. I wholeheartedly believe that lots of this is down to a lack of movement off the ball. We have to move defensive units around, without this the defence of any team will be able to keep its shape and not been pulled out to areas, where they do not want to go, and therefore ultimately struggle to test the opposition goalkeeper, which to be fair was the case today as we can see from that stat. As Arsene said after the game "we were not creative enough and did not play with purpose". This is what I am getting at. There was a lack of conviction today in the teams attacking, that cutting edge was really missing from our play. We have to find this in order to make real progress.
Something which really took my by suprisse today was the performance of Bac Sagna. This is a lad who is usually "Mr Dependable" if you will, someone that is one of the most consistent performers in the league, week in week out. However today it is not harsh to say, he was absolutely inept, shocking, almost lost at times. As someone said on twitter it was as if he was "drunk" from some kind of New Years Eve celebration. I would suggest that is not the case, however I would say the point is valid, because he really did not look, for want of a better phrase, "jaded" (thanks for that Arsene). Bac was clearly at fault for the goal that we conceded, because he failed to clearly the ball into the box upon several opportunities, and also offered very very little going forward.
This leads me on to something that I noticed on Saturday at The Emirates for the Newcastle because you could see that our fall backs were not fulfilling their attacking roles frequently enough. Apart from on two occasions one for our 4th goal for Theo where Gibbo ran on into the box and cut the ball back to the penalty from which Theo scored, and another when he got into the box and shot at the goalkeeper. However apart from that they did not get forward frequently enough to create width and ultimately attacking opportunities. I think this is something that we have to improve on as our system requires the fall backs to create the overlap, and we have not been doing this frequently enough recently, with the exception of the Reading game away (won 5-2), and as I say we really need to improve on this. Sagna had a poor game today and to be honest I was not impressed with either of them on Saturday either, which is a concern, as Sagna did not block the crosses from coming in frequently enough and Gibbs let Ba and Marveux especially free at the far post, from which they both punished us for.
Hopefully we can improve on these areas ahead of our next game Vs Swansea in the FA Cup and then of course hit a good level of performance again for the City game at the Home of Football a week on Saturday. As I have said before, there is a long way to go in this season still but I do believe that this is a really key month for us, with some big games coming up, and also with the transfer window being open again providing an opportunity for us to strengthen, it is indeed a very important few weeks for the club. As I said on twitter today, and in my last article (the 1/2 term report), our stats from the season so far show that we are good in all areas apart from our shot to goal ratio, which points to a lack of ruthlessness up front. Therefore I think it is clear that we need a new striker in this window, a proven goal-scorer someone that commands the ball and has urgency to score, something which seemed to be lacking today, that's for sure.
This is a big month for Arsenal, and a big few weeks coming up. The game on Saturday Vs Swansea in the FA Cup is in my opinion SO important, we cannot afford to be knocked out of another competition, after the shambles of the Bradford Capital One Cup game, we have to go on a good run in this competition. If we are going to do this, we must re-create the good from our win over Newcastle, and let's be positive, and there were many good things! So let's hope we do!!
UP THE ARSENAL!!!
@Mr_arsenal_blog
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