EPL Talk » Arsenal

Observations About Premier League Saturday Matchday 13

The Gaffer — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:21:26 +0000

Thank god the Premier League is back. Nothing against international football, but there’s something very comforting with getting back into the ritual of watching Premier League football and being familiar with the surroundings, the pace of the game and the excitement it creates.

So the Liverpool against Manchester City game on early Saturday was the perfect re-introduction to the Premier League. I found the first half not as boring as ESPN’s Tommy Smyth claimed it was. Sure, there were few chances, but the flowing football was easy on the eye which was punctuated by two unfortunate injuries for Daniel Agger and Ryan Babel.

The second half of the match erupted. The last ten minutes of the match were pulsating with both teams throwing everything forward to try to get the winner, but alas the game ended 2-2 — which I thought was a fair result for both teams.

For me, the player who had the biggest impact on the match was Carlos Tevez who came off the bench and transformed City from a team who looked soulless in midfield to a team that was suddenly dangerous on the attack and had more possession. The thing I love about Tevez the most is that he turns nothing into something. He constantly fights for the ball and a perfect example of this was how he won the ball down the left wing and ran with the ball, passing it to Shaun Wright-Phillips who planted a beautiful pass to Stephen Ireland to score a valuable goal for City.

In the other games I watched, the football wasn’t as exciting as the match at Anfield.

Sunderland’s 1-0 victory against Arsenal was a game that wasn’t for the soccer purist. Both teams played well but Sunderland suffocated most of Arsenal’s attempts on goal and the Mackems had few chances of their own. That’s not to take anything away from Sunderland’s performance. The team battled hard and deserved to get something out of this game, and had a bit of good fortune in the ball falling to Darren Bent to win the match. While Tevez was my man of the match in the Liverpool versus City game, my man of the match at the Stadium of Light was Andy Reid who delivered a performance equal of Tevez by constantly fighting for the ball and pouring his enthusiasm into everything he did for Sunderland.

Just as Liverpool and Manchester City didn’t look like Premier League champion material today, neither did Arsenal. It wasn’t that they were bad. Instead the Gunners were shut down well by Sunderland similar to how Steve Bruce’s side did the same against Manchester United at Old Trafford recently. I’m sure a lot of the excuses for Arsenal’s defeat today will be aimed at the unavailability of Robin van Persie due to injury, but I feel that’s unfair. Arsenal had a few golden chances near the end of the game to equalize but it just wasn’t their day.

With Arsenal’s loss in the northeast, Chelsea moved eight points clear of the Gunners with an emphatic 4-0 home win against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Seriously, Chelsea have become incredibly boring to watch this season. Don’t get me wrong. They’re playing wonderful football, but the matches they play are so one-sided that I find myself losing interest because they constantly cruise to victory with simplicity (except of course in a few games this season such as against Manchester United and Wigan Athletic, where the opposition was tougher to break down).

Last but not least, the match between Manchester United and Everton was exceedingly enjoyable to watch. Everton were very much in the game and fighting for every ball until the 35th minute when Darren Fletcher rocketed the ball with his right foot into the top corner of the net. Despite Everton’s constant persistence, they created very few chances against a Manchester United side that seemed to be buzzing after their recent drop in form during the past few matches.

The second half of this match was very wide-open with both teams trying to get the decisive goal. But it was another piece of class in this game that saw Manchester United scoring a goal. This time it was a perfect pass from Ryan Giggs to Michael Carrick who knocked in a shot with precision into the far corner of the net to make it 2-0 to United. Antonio Valencia’s shot near the end of the match which was deflected in to make it 3-0 made it a very convincing win for Manchester United although you have to think that the scoreline wasn’t a fair representation of how well Everton played at times during this match.

I’ll try to spend some time later tonight watching the other Premier League games played today. But in the meantime, feel free to post your observations about the games today and what was interesting for you.

Photo credit: Soefrie.

Is This The Arsenal Side to Redeem Wenger?

Brian Louie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:05:06 +0000

Gooners should be forgiven for indulging in optimism. With 36 goals in 11 matches, talk of Arsene Wenger’s gun slinging side has done much to impress, and you can sense the Frenchman is a few wins away from making some sort of bold prediction, ala the Invincibles. To be five points from leaders Chelsea with a game in hand, and especially with such a heavily-populated injury list, the Professor must believe his seemingly eternally-young side has the best shot at a domestic title since the Gunners’ monumental collapse two years ago.

Two years ago, Eduardo’s injury, William Gallas’ tantrum and a successive streak of draws dismantled the North London side, and Arsenal fans were left with an empty, sick feeling in their stomachs, a bit like the minute Jens Lehmann got sent off against Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League Final. Only, this time, there was the horrific nature of the Croatian’s injury and the realization that Arsenal were a young and callow team that crumbled to pieces. Now, and the Gunners are playing some of their best football. Robin van Persie has become more of the striker he was when he first became a first-teamer for Arsene Wenger, Cesc Fabregas is a seasoned 22, and Andrei Arshavin can only be labeled a success, especially considering Wenger sold Kolo Toure for for about 2 million less to Man City.

36 goals in 11 games is impressive, reminding us of the old Arsenal, just after “1-0 to the Arsenal” became ironic after Wenger’s arrival. But the Gunners still seem a bit thin on the bench, especially in that back line. Thomas Vermaelen has been more than excellent, as Gallas seems to maintain his level of play despite all the distractions of having a crap personality and age. Once one of those two pick up an injury though, and Wenger is left to pick from Phillipe Senderos and Mikael Silvestere. Perhaps Senderos picked up incredible knowledge and quickness while he warmed the bench at Milan, and perhaps Silvestere will defy age and the two will be able to pick up the slack at times for the rest of a long season. Either way, the Gunners will have to keep scoring at will to catch Chelsea, who seem to be much tighter defensively, or at least don’t seem to fall asleep on set pieces as much.

It would be nice to see Arsenal regain a little bit of it’s luster, at least to break up the monotony of Manchester United and Chelsea. With Liverpool their own worst enemy, and struggling with a thin bench, they’re seemingly out of the picture. There’s very little staking-of-claims on the title going on between the Blues and the Red Devils, and the clash between them last weekend was akin to a pair of battering rams knocking each other senseless in the middle of the park, with a few little handbags thrown in. A push into the top four by Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur has seemed to have fizzled out, as the former spend their time performing in front of ownership in Qatar, and the latter deal with well, being Spurs.

The Gunners have yet to hold their own against a tough side. The season’s only a third of the way through, and who knows how durable Fabregas and Arshavin will be all season long. Perhaps we’ll know a bit more at the end of November, when Chelsea come to North London for a visit. With Jose Bosingwa, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole out, now’s the Gunners’ best chance to make up a bit of difference and become a threat for the title.

Arsene Wenger likes to talk about being patient, letting his young team develop, all the while holding that belief is the central tenet to winning. Gooners, do you have belief that your team can win the title this year? Have they matured enough, and does Wenger have the right pieces to bring some silver back to North London?

The Cold War For Arsenal Continues

Paul Bestall — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:54:24 +0000

Stan Kroenke has purchased even more shares in Arsenal today taking his holding to 29.9% of the club. With only another 0.09% required to reach the threshold to make an offer for the rest of the clubs shares, Kroenke has purchased 627 shares this week for the princely sum of £5.3 million. The oddest part of the share purchasing is that 100 of the shares were purchased from Arsenal chairman, Peter Hill-Wood.

Hill-Wood seems to have had a change of opinion about Kroenke, after originally stating that the club didn’t need his money or his sort back in 2007 when he purchased his first shareholding in the club. Now the club seem to be relying on him to protect themselves from a takeover from Red and White Holdings, the share vehicle of Alisher Usmanov and ran by former Arsenal vice chairman David Dein.

Now for me, there is no doubt that Stan Kroenke is man who knows his sport. He owns 40% of the St. Louis Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Rapids and Colorado Avalanche. Perhaps annoyed that he doesn’t own a MLB franchise, Kroenke set his sights on Arsenal and has quietly and effectively gone about his business with a minimum of fuss over the last 30 months. Now I know why they call him “Silent Stan”, as his refusal to answer questions about his intentions at the recent Arsenal AGM saw.

British football still has a somewhat rose tinted view of foreign ownership and with the comedy roadshow at Portsmouth shows, with such investment comes a high degree of risk. Yet, British football is littered with teams destroyed by English and Scottish owners who had no idea how to run a football club. Xenophobia is still alive and well in the Premiership, but it is something we English based fans have to get used to and since Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea, most fans would welcome any Billionaire to splash the cash at their club.

When you see the damage people like Geoffrey Richmond, Robert Maxwell, Ken Richardson, Darren Brown and Anton Johnson did to clubs, the chance to bring in proven sporting expertise from outside of the UK becomes an obvious option for me. I’m sure the fans of those clubs almost destroyed by such mismanagement would gladly pay for people to fly over and buy their beloved clubs.

Arsene Wenger must be getting a bit fed up about the constant questions about the share dealings going on, two press conferences this week seem to have missed the fact that his side have climbed nicely in to 3rd, tucked in nicely behind Manchester United and Chelsea and qualified to the next round of the Champions League. All questions focused on the money changing hands in the financial markets and quiet correctly, Wenger calmly and politely avoided answering the questions with a stock answer.

“I do not know what Kroenke will do,all I know is the rules, that if he gets to 30%, he has to make a bid for the club. At the moment, he flirts with the 30, but is not there. I do not know what his intentions are, I have not spoken to him about it.”

With his side bucking all the preseason predictions of falling out of the top four, playing some lovely football and with a Billionaire shoring up his stake in the Gunners, Arsenal could be on the cusp of a wonderful new era. In to the next round of the League Cup and European football once again assured after Christmas, Wenger has continued to keep his head when everyone outside of Arsenal thinks the dream is over. Shame I’m a Spurs fan but that’s life.

Cesc Fabregas Claims the Armband

Richard Zervakos — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:11:30 +0000

Every summer sees rampant speculation that Barcelona will finally pull Cesc Fabregas away from Arsenal. In the lead up to Saturday’s North London Derby, even former Gunner Emmanuel Adebayor once again fueled rumors by saying that if Arsenal fail to qualify for the Champions League, then Fabregas will be on his way to Catalunya come summer.

Ade’s comments speak to his confidence that his own Manchester City have what it takes to break in to the oligarchy at the top. Robbie Keane’s midweek comments, in which he claimed that Tottenham’s bench was stronger than Arsenal’s, show that he believes Spurs can challenge as well. But as Aston Villa can attest from last season, and Tottenham can attest from 2006: breaking into the top four is no mean feat, and it requires practically perfect concentration for a season that spans 10 months. In the day’s early kickoff, Arsenal hosted their most bitter foes in a match where the visitors were looking to prove their credentials for Europe’s top club competition.

Instead, what was on display yet again was Cesc Fabregas’s commitment to the Arsenal cause. Earlier in the season, he celebrated a goal by kissing his badge and pointing to the stands, as if to say once more that he is indeed an Arsenal player for the long term. Today, Fabregas collected a loose ball at the halfway line, beat two players, nutmegged Ledley King, and then coolly drilled the ball into the low near corner–in a manner that was reminiscent of Thierry Henry’s famous Bernabeu solo effort (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuCL2wvjOtU) –before jubilantly sprinting toward the stands in celebration. While Robin van Persie’s breakthrough goal gave Arsenal a slightly fortunate lead, the captain’s strike was both a literal goal that put the game beyond Spurs, and a figurative statement to fans and foes alike: that this team will go as far as Cesc Fabregas will take them.

Earlier in the season, Pat Dolan of Setanta Sports criticized Fabregas for not celebrating enthusiastically enough when he scored a late goal. While Dolan’s commentary is often prescient, in that case it seemed to be a bit of a reach. Fabregas is in the unfortunate position of having to constantly deny that he has designs on returning to Spain. He has said whenever asked that he would like to go back someday, but not in the near future. This is the sort of game that clearly demonstrates that his heart is with the Gunners–and he showed his fans exactly that with a spectacular effort against their fiercest rivals.

On top of the performance of Fabregas, it should be noted that Arsenal finally managed to keep a clean sheet and by all rights should have had more goals. Eduardo, a first half substitute for the injured Nicklas Bendtner (whose groin pull will be one of the few low points of the match), spurned three legitimate chances to score. Two of those chances were efforts that he ordinarily would make short work of, and the third was a header that he could easily have put to either side of Heurelho Gomes. Abou Diaby made a great run late on a corner, only to have the ball hit his shoulder instead of his head, and Ramsey and Fabregas had a fantastic opportunity right at the death to pile more misery on Spurs, but one would suspect that the injury to Sebastien Bassong and the three goal lead led to their weak concession of the ball.

All of this came on the heels of the late collapses at West Ham and AZ Alkmaar (excepting Liverpool in the Carling Cup because of the vastly different sides). What Arsene Wenger must do is use this victory, and all its positives, to push Arsenal onward and upward. If they can learn to keep a clean sheet and keep scoring three goals even when spurning five other clear chances, then the title race will surely have to include a North London team–and no, Robbie Keane, not Tottenham.

Half-Forgotten Gems – Arsenal’s Other Title Triumph

Michael Scallon — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:13:03 +0000

February 2nd 2002 was a pretty non-descript day in the History of Football, or indeed the history of anything – Prince Willem -Alexander of Orange, heir to the Dutch throne got married, Euro-Monarchy Fans will tell you (and, er… wikipedia) – but that aside, Manchester United stayed atop of the Premier League with a 4-1 win against Sunderland, with Newcastle just behind after beating Bolton, and Arsenal dropped seemingly crucial points at home against Southampton, 1-1. Despite breaking the record for scoring in consecutive Premier League games, they were now sat on 48 points, 3 behind United and 1 behind Newcastle, with the title now in the Geordies’ hands.

The press were gnawing at the absence of a “real leader” at the back: three of The Back Four (Lee Dixon, Steve Bould and Nigel Winterburn) had left and the other (Tony Adams) was out injured, leaving Sol Campbell to hold together a backline that – Oleg Luzhny, Matthew Upson and Ashley Cole – looks better than decent now, but was raw and uncertain back then. Whilst all the big prizes were still ‘on’, they seemed to be slipping away. Jo Tessem’s 79th minute equaliser had summed up the situation - Arsenal’s away form had been sensational, but they had picked up just over half of the available points on offer at home (19/36), and had lost to title rivals (Newcastle, Leeds), as well as a Jason Euell inspired Charlton.

Despite the atrocious performances of late autumn 2001, a Manchester United side looking for 4 successive titles had stormed to pole position, and with Sir Bobby Robson’s Newcastle also flying high, Arsenal were in danger of falling away. Or so, it seemed, before one of the Greatest Title Charges in history.

Thirteen games, thirteen wins. It started slowly, with a fortunate Sylvain Wiltord (back then Arsenal’s record signing at £13m) goal looping past Steve Simonsen at Goodison Park, before sparkling into life. A comfortable win over Fulham led to a crunch game at St James’s Park – Newcastle went into the game 2 points behind Arsenal with a game in hand, in the knowledge that victory in this and that game in hand would take them top of the table, Arsenal needed a win to keep pace with the Champions – enter Dennis Bergkamp and Sol Campbell. The latter was superb at the back, snuffing out the threat of Shearer, Laurent Robert and co before crowning an exceptionally mature display with a powerful header; whereas the dutchman silenced The Gallowgate with a moment of either intricate, delicate genius, or remarkable fortune. After taking a pass from Vieira, he slung it out wide to Pires with a lazy precision so typical of his style, before sprinting feverishly forward, seeing the chance for a counter. Pires, carrying the ball forward under little pressure from his marker, cut inside and passed it towards Bergkamp, now back to goal, given a half yard of space to work in, nothing more. With his back to the covering centre half, Nikos Dabizas, he glanced it beautifully, left footed around the right hand side of the greek with his first touch, before swivelling around the left side of Dabizas, holding him off and sliding the ball past Shay Given with a serene insouciance. Did he mean such a magnificent first touch? If he didn’t, who cares?

Following that 2-0 win Arsenal strode mercilessly on, squeaking past Derby County to go briefly top, and after wins at Villa Park, at home against Sunderland and away at Charlton, went top once and for all. On April 1st they went top, and on top they stayed. Monstrous efforts from United and a resurgent Liverpool side under Gerard Houllier (Liverpool won 13 of their last 15 games, United 17 out of 20 going into the final week), couldn’t stop Arsenal sweeping all before them, and even though United had a run of five very tough away games out of six (West Ham, Leeds, Chelsea as well as Leicester and Ipswich, scrapping for their lives), and won them all – 5-3 at Upton Park and 4-3 at Elland Road were both hum-dingers – it was not enough to even guarantee a place in the top 2, such was the amazing form of the other two. Whilst Arsenal kept on flying through their fixtures (Robert Pires, soon to be named FWA Footballer of the Year, was in astonishing form, along with Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljungberg), with wins against Spurs, Ipswich, West Ham (late Ljungberg and Kanu strikes put the title two wins away) and Bolton (Ljungberg again, and Wiltord), three major results went in their favour:

The day after Campbell and Bergkamp thwarted Newcastle’s challenge, United dropped two crucial points at Derby to put Arsenal into The Driving Seat. United could only move one point clear, and they were lucky to get that after a Malcolm Christie goal was curiously ruled out in the last minute. The second was the Champions losing at home to Middlesbrough, an Alen Boksic sidefoot was created expertly by Juan Sebastian Veron… who was playing for United, and losing concentration on the edge of his own box. United couldn’t break Boro down, and Arsenal were given the perfect pick-me up after their Champions League exit. United were now one point ahead of Arsenal, but the gunners had two games in hand, and, as we know in hindsight, won them. With United all but out of it - a do-or-die game against Arsenal at Old Trafford was awaiting, but we’ll get to that later – Liverpool were left chasing down the to-be Champions. That was before Tottenham all but sealed the deal for Arsenal. Gus Poyet’s goal left a dent in the hopes of a Liverpool side hitherto flying under Gerard Houllier – the previous season’s treble (not The Treble, a treble) had raised hopes and a talented side including Michael Owen (before he got injured), a raw but exciting Steven Gerrard and Danny “Three Winners at Old Trafford” Murphy were pushing Arsenal hard. After this game, those hopes completely faded. Arsenal needed a point to be Champions, and they could do it at Old Trafford.

They did, and in style. Neutering the Champions’ threat completely, they kept up their record of scoring in every single game, ten minutes into the second half, with another goal from that man Wiltord. After holding on comfortably, Arsenal’s joyous players celebrated with the travelling support, as this win secured Wenger’s second league title, and both had included 1-0 wins at Old Trafford, right at the end of the season. With thirteen straight wins after a last win over Everton, Arsenal celebrated the double, with having gone the whole season without losing a game away from home.

The Aftermath – Why is it half-forgotten?

As usual in football, subsequent events can tarnish, to a certain extent, glories of the past. The very next season, Arsenal went on to lose the title dramatically to United – another magnificent run (15 wins from 18 games) – and a rather strange collapse (they lost at home to Leeds in the penultimate game, who avoided relegation. Just.) has rather taken the glow off this particular title charge, as the season is often remembered as “United’s Veron Season” rather than “Arsenal’s Charge Season”, because United won the title the next year, and the three previous, making 2001-02 seem like simply a blip. A Veron/Laurent Blanc induced blip. Furthermore, as Arsenal then went on to go a season unbeaten, this charge – until last season the most consecutive wins by any Premier League team, ever – is almost a precede to that triumph, rather one in its own right. “The Curse Of The One In The Middle”, as anyone with older and younger siblings might argue, also comes into effect. The first title (1997-8, for Wenger’s Arsenal) is the sweetest, the most recent is the most memorable… and, oh yeah, there’s the other one.