Reasons for optimism at The Arsenal. 

16/5/13

Well "Gooners" and indeed "Gooneretes", welcome. As we now approach the conclusion of another instalment of a Barclays Premier League season, as the curtain is getting ready to fall, you all know what is just down the road now! No I don't mean those muppets at Spurs, I mean of course the onslaught of rumour, gossip and endless transfer chat that awaits us at the end of every season, as the Summer Transfer Window commences.

Now I know we have heard lots of talk already, throughout the season, about what is needed at Arsenal, who needs to come in, what needs to change, who needs to be removed and so on. However expect that to be turned up a notch or two (or three) upon the final whistle at St James Park on Sunday afternoon. Once again (we hope) Arsenal will have qualified for the Champions League, which means (in theory) we should be able to attract top players to the club. This we must do, but as I will say in this piece, not as much needs to be changed as what people will have you think, a few tweaks, personell wise, tactically and indeed philosophically need to be made, but not major changes are required at The Home Of Football.

Let me start with a look back, before I attempt to look forward to this Summer's "window" and beyond. Let's not beat about the proverbial bush, when this season ends Arsenal are looking at an eight successive seasons without silverware, this is of course nothing short of unacceptable for a club like ours. Naturally therefore we HAVE fallen short once again, too often we have been found wanting in big games in the league, and on too many occasions we have been found out by relatively "weak" teams too. In the cups we have been knocked out by the B's (Blackburn, Bradford and Bayern) and as it stands we are going to just scrape into the Top 4 and Continental Qualification yet again. Therefore on the face of it not a very good season at all for the boys at Ashburton Grove.  BUT.....

Despite this I feel very optimistic that what has happened this season, will stand us in very good stead for next season, and indeed beyond. You may think I am mad, and to be fair, you would not be the first or indeed the last no doubt, however I firmly maintain that Arsenal will win the league within 3 years. Why? Well, think "FCD": Financially, Contractually and Development(ly). These three words are reasons as to why I believe we can push on next season and beyond.

Let me start with F, Financially. Since we have moved to the fantastic Emirates Stadium, the home of football, the club has been under obligations to pay off debt, taken out to fund the stadium in the first instance. On top of this the commercial revenues that the club collects, have been relatively weak. This is all about to change. The stadium debt is almost relinquished, the commercial revenues are being cleverly and majorly vamped up (thanks to great work from Mr Ivan Gazidis), following a 35 million pound a year deal with Fly Emirates for the shirt sponsorship and a supposedly soon to be announced deal with Puma for a similar figure a year for the kit deal (to start in 2014). Considering that Arsenal is currently the 4th richest club in the world, with significantly lower commercial revenues than those mentioned above, our club is going to be even more magnificent shape financially. This will finally allow the manager the chance to spend money on the 3/4/5 quality players that we need to GENUINELY challenge for the titles, both domestically and on the continent. People say why has Arsene Wenger not spent money before? Well, the answer to that is twofold, 1) he hasn't really been able to and b) the overall package has not been affordable for Arsenal. By this I mean he has offered big money for players such as Juan Mata (around 20 million), Eden Hazard (around 30 million) who both went to Chelsea, and also Mario Gotze who Arsene offered around 30 million also for in 2011. However in at least two of these cases the club could not compete on wage demands with Chelsea in particular. In short, we have not been able to offer the entire "package" to the lad. Now, I believe this can now change. We should now look to these next two summer transfer window's especially as real chance to push on, and set a statement as to how we want to go forward, a statement to relinquish the tag of not spending money, a lack of "ambition" and of course banish the 8 years without a trophy to the history books. Now, I am not saying we ARE going to spend, but I feel confident that there is a large chance that we will do, as the financial setting of the club is now much much much stronger than it was before.

Secondly, let me discuss the "C" in my equation: "Contractually". For the first time in a number of seasons, ALL of our big and most influential players are secured, tied down to long-term contracts. Hurrah! Unlike the last two summers we have not got players like Nasri or RVP (Purse-Strings) in contractual positions where they can effectively "force" the club's hand. Our best players are all tied to long term contracts and, touch wood, these players should not be on the move. This means that finally we can build on the squad that we have, rather than trying to re-build from mercenaries that have moved on. This is positive, no doubt. We have got an extremely capable "basis" from which to build upon. Players like Santi Cazorla, Mertesacker, Koscielney, Arteta, Podolski are all quality players who should be and, on recent evidence in most cases, are in the prime of their respective careers. These players can be successful with Arsenal, and with the chance to add players from other clubs, resulting from the financial elements mentioned above, we can really have a go at challenging the Manchester clubs.

Finally let me answer the "D" part of my statement. Development(ly). You may be wondering why when listing players of particular stature above e.g. Cazorla, Mertesacker, Arteta e.t.c. I didn't mention the likes of Wilshere, Walcott, Gibbs, Ramsey e.t.c. Well, that is because they form the key for this part of my argument. These players, along with the likes of Jenko, The OX e.t.c., should form part of Arsenal teams for years to come. This season they have all made an profound impact on the first team. Theo has surpassed 20 goals for the first time, and is the highest scoring Englishmen across all competitions, Jack has come back from a long lay-off and impressed, the likes of Gibbs have progressed majorly in my opinion, and Ramsey especially in the last month or so has really started to show what he can do, and thankfully has finally started to reward the patience and believe that I gave to him on twitter e.t.c. especially earlier in the season. These lads will form a key part in our team over the next few seasons, they are all (as made clear in the previous part) on long term contracts now, and most importantly they will ONLY get better and better, and will ONLY contribute more and more both on the pitch in terms of quality and off it in terms of leadership and so on. This is crucial and indeed very exciting.

So, my message to you is: don't believe the doom and gloomists' around, Arsenal are very much on the edge of success. I believe that WHOLEHEARTEDLY. If we can combine these three factors FCD (that I have outlined), that is sign 3/4/5 quality players with the increased financial superiority we have now, and continue to put faith in our quality young players, I fully believe we can win the league within 3 years, as I have maintained all season!! BUT, BUT, BUT, this is all meaningless if we don't win on Sunday. We HAVE to get into the Champions League, in order to attract players, no matter how much money we could or could not throw at them. SO, Arsenal players, I put it to you, CONCENTRATE on the game fully, WIN the game, and THEN we can look forward to a EXTREMELY exciting and prosperous time ahead.........

UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!!

The real reasons as to why Arsenal fans are so angry about Van Persie's departure, ahead of his "return" to the Home of Football this weekend.

I'm back! I am sure you are all absolutely delighted about that. No? Rude! Joking aside, I haven't posted anything since February I believe, a long time indeed. I have just been so busy with University preparing coursework, studying, and more recently revising, attending games and keeping up to date with all things Arsenal of course. I don't expect to write as frequently as I did before again, because I simply don't have the time, however I aim to write articles every now and again, about particular issues that I feel are of interest involving our beloved club.

Hope you enjoy my blog.

Best wishes and UP THE ARSENAL!!

Ollie.

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Throughout the whole of last season two things were going on simultaneously. Our captain and talismanic hero figure, Robin Van Persie, was putting in a string of world class performances week after week, getting us all of our seats, at The Home of Football and all over the world where Arsenal fans were tuning in game after game, to see what our captain and idol would pull off next! Alongisde this, constant speculation was running through all media outlets, surronding his future, the "will he won't he" debates surronding his contract discussions were in full swing, and of course all our fans were hoping and praying for the day when they could turn on their TVs, check twitter and Arsenal.com to see the news that RVP had signed a new deal! Alas, this never happened!! In truth we all know what happened, and it is not an exageration either to say, that we still in some way feel the pain and "betrayl" of what happened.

It is clear now that whilst in public Robin was saying till the end of last season, and all the way to his speech upon winning the PFA Player of the year award, that his future would be decided in the following weeks, in private he had already made up his mind, and had already been is discussions for a matter of months with the two Manchester clubs in particular. He did not renew his contract, he realeased that RIDICULOUS statement where he questioned the clubs ambition, questioned the manager, the board, and quite frankly made an absolute mug of the club, his team mates and perhaps most importantly, considering we paid his wages, the fans!

Now, I want to clear up a few myths about this. I have heard many people looking "in" as it were, from outside the "Arsenal community" saying "oh, you are just bitter because he left" e.t.c. Now for me this is not true, I personally have no problem with him leaving the club per se, because quite frankly it is a fact of life, at some stage in all walks of life, including football, people (players, staff, managers, coaches e.t.c.) all move on to pastures green, in the pursuit of a new lifestyle, a new culture new challenges e.t.c. This is life. Most peopole in normal walks of life however, move on in a respetful and dignified manner, and do not alienate their friends, colleagues and employers at their current office e.t.c. To illustrate this, I still hold the likes of Cesc and Song in high regard, because they left (especially in the case of Cesc) in a dignified manner, and still show respect towards Arsenal. And perhaps MOST importantly, they went abroad where they could not affect Arsenal in a domestic sense. However this was the not the case with Mr Van Persie.

Had he been up front with the fans throughout the season and said something along the lines of "look, I really feel that at the end of the season I need a new challenge, I think it will be good for my family and for myself if we head of for pastures new" blah blah blah, whatever, and then moved somewhere abroad. That would have been absolutely fine, everyone would be reasonably okay with that. As I said, everybody moves on in life at some point. However instead, he continously lied, continously decieved the fans and the club by expressing his love for Arsenal, and telling tales which illustrated the "Class" that he felt Arsenal posses e.t.c whilst hiding the fact that privately he had already practically sealed a move away from the club. Not only was this tapping up on the part of the Manchester clubs, which I still to this day cannot understand how they managed to get away with it, but it was just pure lies and darn right deceitfulness. This is what REALLY bugs with me.

It seems that it was not only the fans he was decieving but also the manager, and his biggest supporter over the years, Arsene Wenger. The boss set out at the beginining of the summer transfer window last year, to really strenghten and to expand the quality of the club's squad, firstly in order to challenge more at the top end of the table, but also in the hope of persuading RVP to stay with the club beyond the end of the exisiting contract he had, clearly beleiving that this was possible! However after the likes of Podolski, Giroud and the quite frankly GOD like Santi Cazorla had been bought in, Van Persie acted to completely tear Arsene's plans apart and force through a move to Arsenal's bitter rivals United (a club who for me are level with Spurs in terms of dislike and rivalry), a move that as I said was pracitcally already sealed, apart from the transfer fee with Arsenal.

In short following these decietful and disrepectful actions, towards a club that quite frankly RVP would be absolutely no where without, the club itself had absolutely no option but to sell. As John Cross said in the mirror this week, his position at the club, not alone as captain, was untenable! However he should have been sold abroad, this is something that all Arsenal fans have been discussing all season. If he had been sold to the likes of Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Milan e.t.c I honestly don't think the fans would have any real contempt towards him, but to lie to them throughout the season, to decieve them by pretending to love the club e.t.c. and then on top of all of that to force the club into selling to a bitter domestic rival, who he had clearly been talking to throughout all of this, really was the ULTIMATE act of betrayl. That is why, to the non-Arsenal fans that don't understand this contempt, I feel so bitter towards him. After all we (as a club) did for him, after all the support and love that us fans gave him through period of such frustrating injury troubles and so on, to behave like that and to force a move to a domestic rival, who I still believe we would be competing with had we held on to RVP, given the signings we made last summer to complement him, really was as I said the ultimate betrayl!

Therefore this weekend, when I travel to the Home of football once again for what should be a fascinating game, I will be fully expecting an extremely hostile, and angry reception for the man that drove himself from a hero to a villain in a very short space of time and because of the blatant lack of respect and because of the blatant lies that he told. Quite frankly that is what he deserves.

However I must stress that I will not be joining in any chants about his previous rape trial and so on, as I do feel that oversteps the mark! Let's boo, jeer, hiss, whistle e.t.c. whenever he gets the ball, but lets maintain that "class" that he so readily spoke about before, or was that just lies too????

UP THE ARSENAL!!!

@Mr_arsenal_blog

From "boo boys" to "sign da ting". The fast transformation of Theo Walcott. 

04/02/2013

It was 26th February 2012, the day of arguably the biggest fixture in the Arsenal calendar in any given season, at the Home Of Football Vs Tottenham Hotspur, The North London derby. Around 30 minutes in to the game, Arsenal were 0-2 down, at home to their bitter local rivals, meaning the time the team were sitting 12 points behind their rivals in the hunt for "Champions League" qualification. It was in a quite frankly the "disaster scenario" for Arsenal and our fans. However one player that it seemed was taking the brunt of the stick was Mr Theo James Walcott, Arsenal's number 14. He seemed to be completely out of sorts, short of ideas and completely shot of any kind of confidence or believe. The fans were really getting on his back, frustration was well and truly "in the air", and he was feeling the full force of it! It was very sad to see.

However from 1/2 time in that game to now, I do not think that Theo has looked back. This was something that I was thinking about the other day, and was just mentioned on the Fans Forum on Arsenal Player. Since that moment he has gone from the brunt of criticism, with many fans loosing patience with him and calling for him to be sold, to people begging for him to sign da ting and rejoicing when he did. This is a quite remarkable transformation really. He has been absolutely sensational this season, is currently on 18 goals and 11 assits for the season, formulating an involvement in 29 of Arsenal's 76 goals this season. A great contribution.

He has looked every inch the quality player that he is, and has oozed confidence throughout this season which has really shone through in his play. He has also started to really use his pace more effectively and more frequently. I remember in previous seasons, sat at the game just shouting for Theo to take the defender on, because he just has such pace, but this was never really forthcoming. However, in this campaign he has looked just so much more dangerous. I believe this is partly down the fact that he has played almost as a "false winger" if you like, in the sense that he plays on the wing, however comes inside much much more frequently than he has done in the past. This has meant that he has made many more runs across the defence, meaning that he has got "in behind" the opposition, with his pace, a lot lot more than he had prior to this campaign. This has meant that he is a lot more of a threat to the opposition, therefore has scored more goals, simple hey! He really has used his pace much more frequently.

It is not just his goals that have made him a key player, and a crowd favorite, at The Arsenal. But it's also down to the fact that he has also made massive improvements in terms of his delivery, his crossing, from wide areas. In the past he was one of those very frustrating players, almost like Gervinho now, who would do great, get towards the byline and then just completely fluff the cross, or elect to pass when he should have shot, or shot when he should have passed e.t.c. This was extremely frustrating for us fans to see. This led to many so called pundits to claim that Theo did not have a "football brain". However, this season all has changed. The fact that he has 11 assists shows this. His delivery or "final product" as I like to call it, has improved beyond all recognition really. The one that really sticks out for me is the cross that he made during (ironically) the game against Spurs at home this season, where he whipped in a delicious cross with his back to goal for Mertesacker to score that fantastic header to put us level. It really was a great example of how he has really improved in this area. It really is great to see this from Theo.

So when you remember the reception that Theo was getting during the game against Spurs at home last season, to lets say, the reception he got during the Newcastle demolition at The Emirates this season. Where cries of "sign him up sign him up sign him up" were ringing round for most of the second half. So in less than a year he really has gone almost from zero in some parts of our fan-base to hero almost throughout. This was clear during the "sign da ting" process until recently. He really is a key player for us, that is for sure. And to go from the performance and frustration in the first half vs Spurs last season to where he is now, he really has shown tremendous mental strength, perseverance  and belief in his own ability and quality.

Lets hope that Theo continues to develop, continues to improve for many many years to come at Arsenal. As I said on my article discussing Walcott and Bale, he still has a number of years before he reaches his "peak years" so this really is exciting!!

UP THE ARSENAL!!!

@Mr_arsenal_blog - do tweet me your thoughts!!!


THEO THEO THEO THEO!! .................

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT. 

Why Theo Walcott is massively UNDER-rated and UNDER-valued by most people, especially the media. 

3/2/13

Today when watching the Tottenham Vs West Bromwich Albion match on Sky, Jamie Redknapp said that Gareth Bale was "definitely up there with Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo". Now before any Bale fans abuse me I would like to make it clear, that I am not an Arsenal fan who will deny the strengths of a rival team or their players as on the whole, I am a football fan and acknowledge "good football" and footballers. He is a fantastic player, and the Premier League as an entity is very very lucky to have players with his ability in our league. However, the amount of praise and adulation that he gets is, in my opinion, absolutely mind boggling. Would you have him above the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Falcoa, Van Persie, Ozil, Schweinsteiger, Mata even? I would say no. Would he genuinely get into, lets say the Real Madrid team (as he has been linked there)? I would say no. Would he get in the Barcelona team, no. Would he get in the Manchester United team? Well yes! But he is so overrated by so many now, that in my opinion it over shadows other GREAT players.

One such player in my opinion is Theo Walcott. Now I am not saying that Bale is worse than Theo, nor am I saying that Theo is superior, however the difference in praise that the two players receive is in proportionate in my opinion to the level of performance of the two players. As I always say "stats don't lie". And the stats say that Gareth Bale has played 28 games this season, has scored 11 goals and contributed 6 assits for his teammates. Whereas Theo has scored 18 goals, contributed 11 assists in 29 appearances for Arsenal this season and has scored 2 hat-tricks, plus has more pace than Bale. Furthermore Theo has scored 60 goals for Arsenal and Bale has scored 47 goals for Spurs, whilst both playing, on the whole, in the same position (on the flank), and finally are a similar age. Therefore my point is, what can Theo do to receive the adulation and the praise, especially from "outside" the Arsenal circles, that his performances, especially this season, deserve?

Theo Walcott has been fantastic this season, I personally have always believed that Theo will become a 20/25 goal a season player, because he has fantastic finishing ability, coupled with great pace and fantastic intelligence. However for much of his career he has been labelled "inconsistent" and it has been claimed that he has "no football brain". However in my opinion this season and in the 2nd half of last season as well he has really really stepped us his performances, and is becoming a very very good player. His pace is phenomenal, as it always has been, but what has certainly improved specifically is his "final product". By this I mean his crossing, which was highly criticized in the past, and of course also his goal "return" which as I said before stands at 18 for the season. He has also in my opinion become better at using his pace more effectively. I have been critical of this in the past, in the sense in the past he would try and run almost through a player rather than to try and show him the outside and beat him for pace, or knock it past the defender, and run on to it. Both these things he has began to do much better over the last 2 seasons. Against Liverpool on Wednesday I thought he was excellent in this area, he frequently looked to get past the defenders, and on the whole was very successful at this indeed.

Therefore I put it to you, why is it that Bale is rated SO highly by so many, to the extent that he is labelled effectively the 3rd best player in the world, when his contribution and his stats are actually lower than Theo's? But that is not really the whole point, my point really is more specific to Theo. That is that I do not believe that Theo receives the praise for his performances and his importance for Arsenal. What frustrates me is that whilst the contract negotiations were going on with Arsenal recently the media were very very quick to say "is this another important player to leave Arsenal" and oh "they can't afford to loose him", but when it comes actually to his performances they do not seem to praise him like he should be. For me he is probably one of the first names on Arsene Wenger's team sheet, whereas at the start of the year he was on the bench. Furthermore in my opinion he is an absolute shoe in for England. But this is not portrayed through the media.

Maybe this is because Theo is not as extravagant or as flash as Bale, he does not crap the headlines for diving e.t.c. like Bale does. Therefore maybe the reason for his lack of coverage and praise in the media is because he does not cause any kind of controversy and therefore is not really "talked about" outside of "Arsenal circles". Maybe this is the case, however what is obvious to me is that he is underrated across the country. The exciting thing for us Arsenal fans is that he is still on 23, and therefore is still at least 4 years away from his "prime period", if we assume that a players prime is around the age of 27/28. Therefore there is still lots to come from him, as is the case from Bale.

However one thing is clear to me, and that is that Theo will continue to create more goals, will also create more assits, but maybe they are just different kind of players. Perhaps we have to accept that. But the point here is, given the stats which I have outlined, why is the praise and media coverage between the two players so different? It seems that there is almost public worshipping of one (Bale), and a kind of luke-warm, mild, reception for the other (Theo).

Perhaps I am being to eager to compare the two, do tell me if I am, but it just seems very very odd to me that one player (with a worse return) is being almost worshipped by many so called pundits, and one is just sort of getting on with his job, doing very well scoring more goals than the other, creating more for his team-mates, and not getting the same treatment. For me this is very strange. Would I have Gareth Bale in the Arsenal team? Well yes of course because he is a great player, would I have him instead of Walcott, no not a chance. Because Theo has contributed more to our team, and is a great player and servant for Arsenal Football Club.

Do let me know your thoughts, but for now all I have to say is that I cannot wait to see Theo continue to develop over the coming years, and am so pleased that he has signed a new contract (he has signed da ting), and will continue to grace the Emirates grass at such pace, for many years to come (we hope)!!  He really is a very exciting player!!!

UP THE ARSENAL!!

Do tweet me your thoughts! @Mr_arsenal_blog

A rumoured Arsenal defensive target who could actually be really great for us! 

27/1/13

Hello all, sorry for lack of activity on here recently but I have been very busy with University work e.t.c. and therefore have simply not really had time to actually write any blogs, which is a shame. BUT good news, I'M BACK!! No, just kidding, but hope you enjoy my latest post.

So let's get straight into the action as they say. Last week I read an article which basically said, that we (Arsenal) are going to rival Liverpool for the signing of Ashely Williams the defender and skipper of Swansea City. Now to be honest this will be just another of those unfounded media stories, and I don't really believe it quite frankly. However when I read this at first I thought, why would we want this player? But when I sat to think about it, I actually thought that this really could be a great idea for Arsenal. And i'll tell you why!

Firstly he suits our play. He is a very dynamic and intelligent player who is extremely comfortable on the ball, and a great passer/distributor. We all know that Arsene Wenger requires his defenders to bring the ball out of defence, and pass from back to front. That is why all of our defenders (with the exception of Squillaci of course), are very very good on the ball. This is something that Williams could offer us for sure. When you watch him playing for Swansea, who have a very similar passing based strategy to us, he is very good on the ball, so this could actually mean that  he would fit in well with our style of football.

Secondly he is physical. He is a strong player who can certainly mix it up with most CFs in the league physically which of course is a great attribute. This is something which I think we require. We need an imposing, traditional British style defender, who can really just control and impose himself on opposition attackers, to give us a more consistent defensive level. I am not saying our defenders are not good, because I believe that in Vermalean, Mertesacker and Koscielney we have great defenders, and in Miquel we have someone who I believe will actually develop into a very very capable premier league CB in years to come, who is also very good on the ball, in the Arsenal mould. But I just think that we could do with someone that whilst fitting in with out style of play, offers more physicality and strength to our back-line for sure. I have often spoke on twitter of the need to strengthen the "spine" of our team, and by this I mean central defence, central midfield and centre forward. All successful teams have very strong players in each position. And at the moment I feel we are a few short, so this could certainly help us in terms of competition.

Thirdly he has Premier League experience and is a good leader (he is the Swansea and Wales skipper). I have always said that we need more leaders in the squad, and therefore he could offer this, and I have also said that we need to start buying from within the Premier League more, because of the need for players who are a) proven and b) can just slot in quickly to the way that we do things in this country and in this league.

With only 3 quality CBs at our disposal currently we are only 2 injuries away from being rather stuck! So we certainly need strengthening there. Unfortunately I see it almost inconceivable that we will sign a defender this window, but in the summer perhaps we will. However I see Ashley Williams being a potentially GREAT signing for our club, because as I said he is experienced, he is strong and he is a good on the ball. And perhaps more importantly, he is a great leader and also he will offer great competition and potential for rotation in our team which is extremely important.

What do you think to this story? Do you think he could be a good option for us? Tweet me your thoughts @Mr_arsenal_blog.

UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!

Mr Arsenal Blog's Tactics Weekly. 

20/01/13 - Reviewing the Chelsea show.

Well yet again, it was a massively frustrating day yesterday for us Arsenal fans. The first half was really poor, but once again we were robbed by the referee who made two big SHOCKING decisions. I think we really need to find out why we keep starting games slowly, as we did again yesterday, and start playing for the 90 minutes like we have in the last two 45 minutes Vs Swansea and Vs Chelsea. It is so frustrating to see us start the game so slowly, and then dominate the next half when we are already behind, and have a mountain to climb. So what went wrong in the first half. Let's break this down here, and I aim to discuss this with this article.

This really was the definition of the cliche of a "game of two halves". In the first half we were second to every ball, played very deep, played with no penetration and once again did not press the ball. We allowed them far to much space to work, because we sat too deep and effectively just watched them play football. We have to start coming out of the blocks fast, pressing high up the pitch as a team and stop allowing teams to just play out, and get around us so easily. That is exactly what happened. Arsenal needed to play higher up, by doing so they would have pushed Chelsea back towards their own goal, and would have made it a lot lot harder for them to just play the ball around us with such ease, as they did in the first half. This has been a real problem this season, we do not push high up the pitch and work hard enough of the ball, especially in the first half of games. You look back across the season so far and you will see that in most games we have played quite well in the 2nd half but in the 1st half we are just so slow and are not fighting enough off the ball, with the tenacity to get it back, and hold on to it.

Linked to this problem of holding on to the ball is the result of real sloppiness in my opinion. Yesterday we did not take care of the ball at all in the first half, we seemed happy to just stroke the ball around without any real conviction. This meant that we gave it away too cheaply, and this cost us directly for the 2nd goal. Other than the fact that the 2nd goal (the penalty) should have been a goal, because Ramires CLEARLY dived, however Diaby faffed around on the ball and was robbed of it, which led to a Chelsea break, and ultimately the goal. The whole team was guilty on this front, there is no conviction in our passing. This has to change. However in the second half this changed, we started trying to get higher up the pitch, we passed the ball forward quickly and efficiently and funnily enough we looked far more dangerous, and Chelsea could hardly get out of their own half. It was exactly the same against Swansea in the FA Cup on Wednesday. If we actually start doing this in the first half, I can absolutely GUARANTEE you that we will win most games, because we have great quality, but in the first half for most games this season we have not imposed ourselves enough on the opposition and been just too sloppy and lethargic, it was the same yesterday!


Furthermore I think our players have been guilty in the last two premier league goals, of being "sucked in" far too easily. You look at the first goal yesterday, you had Mertescaker too close to Vermalean, leaving space behind for Mata (who of course then scored), and you had Sagna who was FAR to high up the field, and did not track back quick enough at all. The players have to be more disciplined in their shape, and not allow space to open up. It is simple thing that I am sure all of you that play football will have been told many times, do not get sucked into the ball. You have to keep your shape. And that is something that they didn't do effectively in the 1st half, and that cost us. YES both goals should not have been given because the referee made a disgraceful decision not to give the foul on Coquelin, and was clearly guessing for the penalty because it was a clear dive. However having said this, the players have to help themselves more by keeping their shape, and tracking back much quicker than Sagna did for example yesterday.

In terms of the criticism that this Arsenal team has been getting in recent days I would like to outline what I think about this. My basic opinion is that this team has a lot of quality and a lot of talent. You look right through it, we have the likes of Podolski, Cazorla, Walcott, Arteta, Wilshere, Gibbs, Vermalean, Mertesacker to name a few, these are ALL international players. And in the case of Wilshere and Gibbs especially have massive talent to fulfil. So I will not accept that they are not a good team, there is a lot of quality there that needs to be fulfilled. And as I have outlined in this piece, I think it is an application issue that is holding them back. We do not press the ball enough, do not work hard enough of the ball, and do not look to impose ourselves on the opposition from the start enough. I almost think that the players do not realise how good they actually are, and maybe you could point the finger at the boss for that, in the sense that maybe he needs to give them more confidence to go out and play to their potential, I don't know. But all I do know is that this quality is not being shown enough for a whole 90 minutes.

We do need add players to this squad, and I am confident that we will. What I have noticed in recent weeks is that Arsene has been a lot more open in his frustration during interviews, than we've ever seen before really. So I do think that he acknowledges that we need a few faces, and he has said this in the media, that he wants 1/2 quality introductions. But as always we are going to just have to wait and see what materialises.

For now we do have quality in the team, and we need to start showing it from the off. There is NO point showing after half time, because often the game will have passed them by at that point, so we have to start IMPOSING our own quality on the opposition from the start. That for me is the key point from this, the word imposing. We need to impose ourselves, both offensively and defensively from the off. Press the team hard and high up the pitch and look to attack with more urgency, more tempo and drive as we have been doing in the 2nd half in the last week, but for the FULL 90 minutes of the match.

UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!

@Mr_arsenal_blog

Why Theo signing a new deal is BIG news. And why I believe the board deserve a lot of credit for once. 

19/01/13

Yesterday we saw the image on arsenal.com, that we had been hoping to see for the best part of half a year, Theo with a pen in his hand signing da ting!! The saga that had been going on for so long that I think many had convinced themselves that he was going to be leaving either in the transfer window, or on a bosman (free) transfer in the summer. As Arsene said the other day, when negotiations take this long, it is never really a good sign, and more often than not you would expect either party to withdraw from the negotiating table completely. Fortunately, that was not the case, and we have a deal. Theo has signed a new contract, believed to be for 3 and 1/2 years, and will therefore be staying at the club. This is of course great news for us, and completes the job in terms of extending the contracts of all, our so called "British Core". 6 British players have all now signed new "long term contracts" with the club over the last month.

However undoubtably this one was the most complex of those mentioned to sort out. I think this is down to the fact that Theo is that bit older and a lot more experienced and therefore this was arguably a bigger contract for him in his career, furthermore of course there was the issue over his playing position, which seemed to take forever to be sorted. Theo always maintained that he wished to remain at Arsenal, but saw himself as a striker rather than a winger, even though we have seen big improvements in his wing play in recent seasons. In recent weeks he has been given a chance to play at CF and I think that this has given him more confidence that he will be given at least some games at striker, and therefore contract talks I think have become easier.

But now it is done we can move on, but we have to say it is such great news that this deal has been sealed. First things first Theo is a quality player, he has 30 caps for his country and is our top goalscorer this season so far with 14 goals (more than he has scored in any other season). He has been a bit inconsistent from game to game over the years, but one thing is for sure, he is unplayable when he is "on it", and what is also very pleasing for Arsenal is that he is a great finisher and is pace is effectively second to none. So for us to hold on to him is massive in my opinion. It has been well documented over the last few years how many top players we have lost in recent seasons, so it was so important to make sure that this did not happen again. And it hasn't, so that is absolutely fantastic. Theo has showed great loyalty, he has stuck to his word and has been honest and has signed the contract. This is brilliant news for Arsenal, and I cannot wait to see him continue to score goals and terrorise defenders for many more years to come, I think he still has lot more potential to fulfill which is exciting, especially as he learns to play as a CF.

I also think that whilst Theo deserves lots of credit for sticking to his pledge that he wanted to stay at Arsenal, I think the board also deserves credit for this deal. I know that the board have taken quite a lot of stick this season, which I don't think is always fair as they are not the ones on the pitch each week, but the fact is they have taken a lot of stick. I agree in part that they do need to spend more money and they do need to give Arsene more support, but I do think they have become a scapegoat whenever we don't win a game, which is not right. But regardless of this, they could easily have given up on this contract extension as it really really dragged out. But they haven't they kept trying to get people round the table, they kept making offers to Theo's representatives, stuck at it, and they have their reward, the club has re-signed him! So I do think that they deserve credit for this, because as I said they could have easily thrown the towel in and just let him go. But they realised he was a very important player, and have pulled it off.

Where they do deserve stick however, lays in the fact that they let this contract get into the situation that it did. To allow a player of Theo's quality get to the final 5 months of his contract almost, is poor management. I know that Theo was un-happy at the fact it took them so long to invite him in for negotiation  and he felt undervalued by the club because of this. So you could argue that they have got away with this one, because the player was keen to stay! However this must not be allowed to happen again. With Theo signing on for only 3 1/2 years the board's motives now should be to show to Theo ambition, get quality players in and when he gets to within 18 months of the end of this contract, get him and tie him down!! That is the key, if they do not do those things, we will be in exactly the same panic again, and could loose him, therefore might not get away with it again!

It is great news that he has signed a new deal, and I hope that he will celebrate his new deal with a fantastic performance tomorrow, whether that be up front or on the flank, and score a few goals!!

UP THE ARSENAL


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpccf8qgSt4

@Mr_arsenal_blog