Stoke Preview: What to Change?

I'm still not completely over the horrible draw with Sp*rs on Wednesday, but the season must roll on. I'm tempted to say here that this will have been a wake up call and will have taught the team some lessons. But I'm just not sure this is the case. We have had now four results this season which should have been "wake-up calls" but the team don't seemed to have learned from any of them. Arsene Wenger was talking in circles after the match about how maturity isn't linked to experience or something like that but either way I don't think even he knew what he was saying. He was angry and upset like the rest of us but unlike us he has to give constructive interviews right after the match and can't sound like he's panicking.

But hopefully he is. There is a clear lack of defensiveness and maturity in the squad right now. I don't necessarily think we need boatloads of new players with experience. I just think our defense needs some serious coaching. I love Arsene Wenger to bits but he simply does not know how to teach a team how to defend. He is an attack minded manager and thus that is how the team play. Our attacks are most often beautiful and breathtaking, but that has to be backed up with an equally strong defense.

I hate to compare us with Manchester United, but look at their squad last season. They could attack with ferocity and score 3 or 4 goals at will. But then they also had an excellent defense; one that was keeping out the goals with superb skill and then distributing the ball to the attacking players to let them rip apart opposing defenses. And what did Man U do? They won the title. If you don't like the Man U comparison how about the invincibles? The breathtaking attacking play was there for all to see but equally as important was the back line. Cambell and Toure, Lauren and Cole, and the decent backups all had a defensive steel. They would throw themselves at the ball and defend with their life. They were big and strong and able to cover for each other. The defense itself was feared in the Premiership, never mind the attack.

But Arsene Wenger's back lines have either been inherited (such as the Adams-Keown days) or trained by those same experienced players (the Invinvibles defense). Now the experienced players are gone from the dressing room and a new defense has been built, the first built exclusively by Arsene Wenger. And it has failed miserably. Whilst Arsene has built perhaps the best ever squad at passing the ball he simply does not know how to train a defense. This isn't a criticism it's a fact. And bringing in new defenders isn't necessarily going to solve the problem (see Silvestre as an example: good experienced defender, but he hasn't changed the way the whole defense plays). We need to bring in a specialist. We need a person like Matin Keown who can come in and be the defense coach. We need this coach to work with Arsene Wenger and convince the Boss to let him teach the defense how to play and then worry about integrating that with the rest of the team.

I think we could definitely use a new Centre Half, but that won't solve the problem. I think it's back to basics time for our defense. They need a new coach (not manager) and a new way of defending. If we can get that and not be too far off the lead when it happens then we can still make a push for the title. But at the moment we won't be winning anything with our defense.

How does this relate to Stoke? We are away and as weak as Stoke are we may end up conceding one or two goals and have to fight hard for the win. We can, and I believe will win, but only our attacking play will save us. Can someone please teach this team how to defend?

Fab 4

Arsenal 4-4 Tottenham: How? How Didn't We Win?

I just saw the result and highlights and I must say I'm gutted. We just as well have lost this game as we played so bad defensively I'm a bit ashamed. How in the world did we not win this game? 3-1 ahead and later 4-2 ahead and we still didn't have the defensive tenacity to keep the lead. It's a TWO-GOAL lead and we blew it again. Thankfully the draw didn't hurt us too much in the league and it was a good one for the neutral, but that isn't any consolation.

Where to begin? The first goal was unavoidable, with that hate-object Bentley firing in the strike of his life. I have to ask, why are we getting such bad luck with long shots? This is now three times this season that we have gone down to wonder goals, once against Hull, Sunderland, and Tottenham. It seems the only way to beat Arsenal to the scoreboard is to score a wonder goal. Surely our luck will change soon, it must.

After that we scored twice on either side of the half through set pieces because Tottenham are so bad at defending them. it's comforting to know there's someone else in the league worse than us at defending set pieces. After the goal Nasri was played in beautifully and chipped a lovely through ball to Adebayor who slotted home. Then we conceded again through Almunia's mistake. This guy's been solid for us over the last month or so but a slip up was bound to occur eventually. Then Van Persie showed some real world-class finishing to put us back ahead by two goals.

So it was now 4-2 and then it all went wrong. We should have kept the ball, not let Tottenham attack and kept the score at a respectable 4-2. But no, the defense had to go and screw up. First Clichy slipped through no fault of his own - the pitch is always wet at the Emirates - but that sent in Lennon who scored and then in stoppage time Spurs struck again with a long range shot that hit the post and then was finished without trouble.

We should have kept out Tottenham but we didn't. Almunia shouldn't have made a mistake but he did. It could have been entirely different, and frankly this feels like a loss. Not as bad as really losing of course, but it's dreadful that we conceded four goals against Tottenham, the worst team in the league. Looking at the table the damage wasn't too bad. We're up to 3rd thanks to Hull's loss and we're still only 3 behind Chelsea in second. But Liverpool are now six points ahead of us. This being only the end of October that's a bit worrying but then again we had the same total last season after ten games as Liverpool do now, and I feel that Liverpool aren't as good as we are. They will slip up before the end of the year and we'll be near the lead again.

So no major damage done, but this draw still feels like a loss to me. We need to shore up the defense and fast. If we concede four goals to Tottenham, how many more will we concede to Manchester United? Until next time,

Fab 4

Arsenal vs Tottenham Preview: Sing, Sing, Sing!

We are facing Tottenham in just a few hours, and on Arsenal.com today the club implore the fans to sing their hearts out tonight to be the 12th man for the club. I couldn't agree more. I'm going to miss the match today but I ask anyone who is going or able to see it at the pub to sing your heart out for Arsenal tonight as we take on the Tiny Totts at the Emirates. Too often the Emirates crowd is too quiet and we simple sit back and enjoy the game having to have our spirits lifted by the team playing well. It's time we lifted their spirits tonight because goodness knows we can use a 12th man right now in the season.

Of course if you had to pick one time during the season to face Sp*rs it would probably be right now. They have been dreadful and any Arsenal fan not living under a rock and coming out of hiding for the first time since the summer will know all about our rival's horrid start to the season. However with the shock move of Harry Rednapp moving to North London (which was a blessing in disguise as Tony Adams is now manager in Pompey) Tottenham may start to turn things around. But even if they do thank goodness Harry hasn't been there long. They may have beaten Bolton at the weekend but they still have a long way to go and it's better to face them before any sort of revival may or may not happen.

I think this is a match that we can win with ease tomorrow and we could will win by 3-0 or something similar. But shhhhhh, don't tell the players that because we all know what happens when the lads go into a match expecting to win. They play lazy, don't really try, and usually end up drawing or worse (remember Hull?). But somehow I don't think that will be the case tonight as I think the team will realise the importance of this match (if they don't before the game they'll realise it when they get out there because we'll all be singing, right?) and they will fight hard to get a result for the fans. I'm gutted I can't see this today as I have other commitments but I'll be watching MOTD afterwards and hoping for the best.

So please enjoy the game, sing your hearts out in support of our players, and hope for a demolition job tonight. Till next time,

Fab 4

West Ham 0-2 Arsenal: Talk About Leaving it Late...

It took a long long while but we finally got the goals we needed and probably deserved last night and now we're only a point behind Chelsea and Hull (what????). We dominated the game last night but we were denied again and again. As Arsene Wenger quite rightly said after the game Robert Green had the game of his life against us, as he always seems to do. He also had the post for a friend and Van Persie especially comes to mind as a player whose wonderful effort was denied by the post when his curling free kick clammed against it after beating Green.

But we finally got the breakthrough and it was an own goal created by Adebayor's desperate hit at it that was headed terribly wide until the West Ham defender knocked it into his own net. So we owe a good thanks to West Ham for that one because if we hadn't scored there I think it probably would've finished 0-0. Then, just inside stoppage time Adebayor got a long ball into his stride, took it round the keeper, and finished simply into an open net. If he had missed that I would have hated him but thankfully he's good enough to hit an empty target and we were 2-0 ahead.

I had a sick feeling that West Ham would come back to draw this one but thankfully they didn't. Our defense wasn't the best today but at least Silvestre, Clichy, and even Gallas were hoofing the ball clear a lot last night. They seemed to have taken a few lessons from Silvestre and started getting it out of the box as soon as they can. But I'm afraid that once Toure returns in place of Silvestre we'll be back to passing it in the defense. I have to say on the evidence of last night I think Toure should be dropped for Silvestre. We all know Le Boss won't drop Gallas thanks to his being captain but let's replace Toure, who has been frankly awful this season, with Silvestre, who seems to be reinvigorating the defense at least a bit.

Almunia also had an excellent night again. He's a wonderful keeper and I simply do not understand all the cries for him to be replaced with a new signing. He's outstanding. Song also had a decent game but still lacked the bite or aggressiveness of Flamini in midfield. He was good at breaking up the play but sometimes seemed to be nowhere around when West Ham attacked leaving Cesc to try and defend himself, which didn't work out to well. I like Song but I still think we need someone new in the centre of midfield to take Flamini's place. Diaby could work, but he needs to learn how to tackle if he wants to be the next Viera.

So all in all decent game. I felt we really lacked the finishing touch today and both our goals had an element of luck to them. But at least we got the points we deserved and now we can go chasing down Hull for that league title (oh yeah, Liverpool are in the mix too, huh?). We've got a North London derby in midweek but I'll talk more about that when it gets a bit closer. Until then,

Fab 4

Eduardo Back in Three Weeks!

According to Arsene Wenger at Arsenal's AGM yesterday, Eduardo is three weeks away from returning to the squad! According to Arsene Wenger this means he will be back training with the squad then as he prepares for match fitness, which means we will have a fully-fit Eduardo before the end of November. This is great news for Eduardo, and great news for the team.

With Eduardo back we will finally have some good competition for striking places again, but perhaps more importantly, we will have a lethal finisher again in the side. Goodness knows we could use for some instinctive finishes right now, someone to finish off our chances that we create, but also someone to be our plan B. Remember at Everton last season, where two of our goals were from Eduardo after receiving a long ball from Clichy? This is exactly what we need: a plan B, and I'm happy we're getting it back again.

That's all, just wanted to let everyone know this great news, and I'm sure we all look forward to seeing him back in the squad in three week's time.

Fab 4

Fenerbahce 2-5 Arsenal: A Huge Victory!

I'm overjoyed at last night's win over Fenerbahce in the Champions League. It puts us on seven points in the group, which according to Arsene Wenger after the game means we're halfway to qualification for the knockout phase. We're certainly doing better in the Champions League than in the Premier League, a bit like the 2005-06 season when we reached the final. But it's slightly different this season because we're still in the Premiership race with a shout, and hopefully we can win one of them this season.

The win last night had both it's excellent parts and it's really bad parts. First, on the excellent side, our attack was deadly on the night. Fabregas was back to his old form in the first half, playing two delightful through balls into Adebayor and Theo which both finished off quite nicely. Diaby was also excellent, playing in the hole to surprising effect. I never really though of him as an attacking midfielder, but as Le Boss later said, Diaby can play across midfield. While that's good to know, I and most other gooners would prefer him to settle into a Viera-type role. Whether this is feasible or not, I don't know, but I hope it is.

The game also had it's bad parts. Whilst our attack was amazing, our defense was less than so. Silvestre made his first big error by putting the ball into the back of Almunia's net, but I don't blame him too much, I don't think Gallas or Toure would've done much better. That though is not a compliment. Our defense as a whole is giving us all our problems right now, and surely Arsene Wenger sees this. I say if he's not going to bring anyone in in January (which I hope he does), then perhaps we can employ Tony Adams, or our old pal Keown to train up our defense. I like some of the comments made by Silvestre recently about how he knows exactly why we're no good on corners and he will look to teach the younger lads how to defend, but he alone won't do it: we need a good defense coach who can shore it up. It's been said again and again, but if we improve our defense, we will without a doubt win the title (or perhaps two or three).

So while I'm happy about the win, it really says nothing about the team other than we can attack well, and we already know that. Let's shore up the defense and be a bit more ruthless and we will be a major force. I liked the fact that our entire team was scoring last night, not just the strikers, but if we don't improve the defense, our season may once again slip away.

Till next time,
Fab 4

Fenerbache Preview: It's Not Gonna Be Easy!

Well, tomorrow night we're off to face Fanerbache in Istanbul in the Champions League. A win here is really vital to our progression to through the group stage, as it will prove that we can win away this year. Fenerbache away is one of the most daunting fixtures on the European calender, and contrary to what Arsene Wenger said today, I think the atmosphere there will affect the players, and probably not positively.

All three points tomorrow night are definitely attainable, but the team will really have to work hard for it. I've seen many a team go to Istanbul and be disheartened and fragmented by the crowd. They have lost their rhythm and their composure and allowed Fenerbache to split them apart. But with some good heard work and ignoring (or perhaps actually drawing off) the crowd, we can win it.

As for our squad, Djourou and Bendtner were declared fit for Tuesday, which will definitely relieve the team of some pressure. I'm fairly confident we'll see Djourou and Silvestre at the back, and this really excited me. I think Toure and Gallas's injuries were actually blessings in disguise. We all saw how good Djourou was playing before he was abruptly dropped because his name wasn't Toure. And Silvestre was excellent at the weekend, showing himself to be a tough, no nonsense defender. You can see experience oozing out of him in everything he does, and he makes Gallas look like a fresh-faced 20-year old defender. He and Djourou should be excellent together.

As for Bendtner, I'd like to see him slot in alongside Van Persie, but I think it's more likely that Le Boss will play the usual RVP-Ade combination up top. Hopefully though, if Bendtner doesn't start, he will come in early in the second half and make a difference. Adebayor was frankly awful against Everton, and I can't fathom why we're paying this man so much money to be so useless. I don't think he's learned what the offside rule is, and he seems to have reverted back to the days where he couldn't hit the target to save his life. Bendtner on the other hand has been scoring almost every time he plays, and he hasn't been afraid to drop back and pick up the ball in midfield when required, or to stay up in attack waiting for the cross when necessary. I'll tall you, this lad's been impressing lately, and he deserves a run-out.

Everyone else should probably start who did so at the weekend, but I can see possibly Walcott dropping to the bench. The problem then is who will replace him? Eboue must play at right-back because if he is deployed in midfield Song might have to play at right-back again, and all credit to him, but he was dreadful there. We'll see how it plays out, but I do hope that Eboue is played in his natural position tomorrow, that of right-back.

So that sums it up then. If we get a good lineup out there and the lads play with determination and remember to play the football they're best at then we will win without a problem. I don't really want to predict a result because there are so many variables involved tomorrow, but for the sake of it, I'm thinking we will win 3-1, possibly having to make another comeback from behind. But I'm not betting on a big scoreline tomorrow (actually I'm not betting at all); it'll be a tough one, but I think we can do it and leave with all three points, leaving us just three from safely progressing to the Round of 16.

Fab 4

Arsenal 3-1 Everton: It's Party Time!

I feel like celebrating tonight. We are officially back in the title race and we passed our first major test this season. Does this mean I now think we're so much better than we were, all our worries are gone, and we will sweep away our opponents and win the league title with ease? No, not in the least. But for now at least, I'm really happy to be an Arsenal supporter.

We showed good character and determination to come back to win today. My worst fears as to the difficulty of this match were confirmed when Everton scored within ten minutes because of some really sloppy defending. I like Silvestre and felt he had a good match today, but on the fist goal, his defending was pretty poor. he was totally fooled by the player and left him plenty of room to shoot. But considering the fact that he should have been marked anyway, I don't hold Silvestre at too much fault. He's better than certain other French centre-backs who shall remain nameless (cough....#10...cough).

Throughout the fist half we were dreadful. but then after the break things turned around. Whatever Le Boss said to the lads in the dressing room seemed to have sunk in and we were on the attack straightaway. And almost right away we were level through Samir Nasri's strike outside the box. I have to say, it has proved to be one of Arsene Wenger's best ever business deals to replace Hleb with Nasri. Nasri can both dribble and pass (just like Hleb), but best of all HE SHOOTS! I think we may well have found the next Robert Pires.

After the goal came the really stupid refereeing decisions. I've forgotten the name of who was refereeing, but he was extremely poor. First he denies Van Persie a stonewall penalty. The Dutchman was pushed straight to the ground as he tried to meet a cross but the referee either didn't see it or hasn't taken a class on just what constitutes a foul. But the worst came a few minutes later. Denilson won the ball fairly from Everton, then the defender Hibbert came sliding in and fouled Denilson. Clichy picked the ball up for the free kick and screamed at Hibbert for fouling Denlison. Then Hibbert lashed out, grabbed Clichy by the throat and screamed back at him. It was truly despicable, but the referee decided he would only punish the tackle and promptly dished out a yellow card. He booked Clichy as well for screaming at Hibbert, but seemed to ignore the choking. I could not believe the referee. I said to my mates that if we were going to beat Everton we'd have to beat the referee as well.

Thankfully we shortly got the lead thanks to Van Persie. The build-play was sloppy and Adebayor seemed determined not to shoot (I thought he was awful today, really awful) so he passed to Fabregas, whose shot was saved by Howard. But Van Persie arrived and scored a follow-up header. We were 2-1 up, but with the regularity that we give up leads nowadays, I wasn't thinking game over.

But it was. We controlled possession and kept Everton chasing the ball. As a result they didn't have another serious goal-scoring opportunity the rest of the game. I hope we can hold onto leads this effectively all season. I think if we can, we may well win some silverware, but if not, I'm a lot less optimistic. Anyway, we finally wrapped the game up just before time when Theo Walcott slotted a shot through Tim Howard's legs after a cut-back from Diaby. Theo really deserved that one, as it was his introduction at half-time that really changed the game in our favour. He's been in excellent form, and hopefully he continues to be this prolific for both club and country for a while. Can't say enough about him.

So that was the game. I could review every player, but sufficeth to say, Walcott, Nasri, Van Persie, and Silvestre were good; Adebayor and strangely Fabregas were not at all good, but Ade was the worst. Maybe next game we can replace him with Carlos Vela. I'm not sure how the RVP-Vela partnership would work (not well I suspect) but surely Vela would do better than Adebayor, he was dreadful.

That's it for now then. I'll be back next week with an article or two in the buildup to Fenerbache in the Champions League. Until then I'll be basking in the glory of this vital win, hoping that we can continue to show this much character for the rest of the season.

Fab 4

Arsenal vs. Everton: Injuries Have Hit Us Hard

Well, it's finally time for a return to real football. I don't mean international matches, because they're always a bore to watch, I mean back to watching The Arsenal play. Now, as expected, injuries have hit us during the internatinal break, but this time they have hit us aprticularly hard. You won't find a single blog or Arsenal blog or article on the internet that isn't talking about or at least mentioning the injury situation, but that's because it's important.

The good news is that Diaby is back. Also good news (depending on your perspective) is that Gallas is out, which gives the chance for Djourou to shine. No wait, he's been injured as well. Who do we play then? Sanga's injured also which leaves us with only one option, our new signing Silvestre. Of course who we play at right-back s a bit of a mystery because we let Justin Hoyte go over the summer. So looking at our options I'm thinking the back four will look something like this:

Toure-Song-Silvestre-Clichy

At least Clichy wasn't injured, so that will save us from reorganising the entire back four, but Toure with Toure undoubtedly being pushed out right (as he was the end of last season) that will bean that the Song-Silvestre partnership better click right away. Arsene Wenger said that Song could be great at CB one day and that Silvestre was a very intelligent purchase; it's time to prove it.

Otherwise we didn't suffer too badly. Van Persie and Fabregas should be alright to play, although Fabregas may be looking at surgery for his broken nose. Here's hoping it all turns out alright and he won't have a problem with it. But either way, his nose may be a bit purple Saturday.

So there is the possibility of the Fabregas-Diaby partnership having it's first run-out since the Real Madrid friendly in August. To be honest I couldn't tell much from one preseason game as to whether or not the partnership will work, but if Diaby goes through a significant improvement this year and stops giving the ball away every other time he gets the ball, as well as developing a good tackling ability, then we may have the next Patrick Viera. I have to admit my expectations of this being the case are quite low, but one can always hope...

Everton haven't been in the best of form this season but I still think it will be quite a challenge Sautrday. They always seem to do good against us at the Emirates and they are always capable of seriously threatening the big four. This time, unlike last December's match against them, we don't have the outstanding Eduardo to get us those simple goals, which means the team will probably be trying to pass the ball into the net tomorrow. So all in all, I don't think we'll lose, but I'm thinking that we will really struggle to win. This may well be a defining point in our season; if we prove we can beat teams like Everton without too much difficulty then we may yet have title credentials. But if we struggle for points tomorrow then it may be time to start worrying. My final prediction? 2-1 to Arsenal, but only barely. If we put all our hearts into this match, both the fans cheering and the players performing, then we can escape with three points. If not we'll be looking at a draw or worse tomorrow.

So that's all I've got. If you haven't read the tactical analysis article from last week yet I highly suggest it. It's an interesting view on how the current team plays verses how the invinvibles played. If only the invincibles were still around...we'd win tomorrow without much difficulty at all and might just be leading the league by a few points right now. But alas that's not our squad, and we've just got to support who we've got. Until next time,

Fab 4

Shut Up Hleb

I'm back. Sorry for the lack of articles this past week but it's been busy times for me and to be honest there hasn't been too much to write about. It's international week and that means our players are off injuring themselves on (whoops, I mean playing for) their national teams. Our list or injured players from this week now includes Bacary Sanga, Gallas, and Djourou, and Van Persie just barely recovered from a knock he picked up before Saturday's round of internationals, or at least so he says. I really hate internationals.

Today's post is somewhat of a news roundup, so I should mention that our favourite English youngster Theo Walcott played for England this weekend, and unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you'll know that expectations were very high for him against Kazakhstan despite both Fabio Capello and his fellow English national team players trying to lower them. In the end he didn't score another hat-trick, or even another goal. But he did put in a decent performance on the right-hand side, and has well and truly stolen the outdated David Beckham's spot on the right wing. Good for you Theo, it can only help this English side who still sit well outside the top ten in the new and improved FIFA rankings.

But now to the major news, although it broke about a week ago. Apparently, our old buddy Alexander Hleb has been trying to convince Fabregas to join him at Barcelona. Said he,

"We get on very well on and off the pitch. For me he is like a brother. We call each other a lot to talk about things,'
"He tells me he misses me at Arsenal and, without wanting to detract from anyone, I would love it if he came to Barca to be a part of all this.
"I don't stop insisting that he should return to Barca and he doesn't stop insisting that he is very happy at Arsenal and with Arsene Wenger.
"I will keep boring him until he changes his mind. If in the end he listens to me, I think it would be great for Barcelona.''

Isn't his illegal somehow? I seem to remember a certainly law involving tapping up which I believe Hleb is guilty of here. I'm fine with a simple friendly phone call but when someone is "boring into" another trying to convince him to join him at another club I believe something is wrong there. I never really disliked Hleb much until this year. First he courts Inter officials whilst "eating Ice Cream" in Milan, then he goes to Barcelona all the while making ridiculous comments about how all the other players at Arsenal are too selfish and should learn to shoot less (only you Hleb would never shoot), and now he's calling up Cesc trying to convince him to leave Arsenal. At least Cesc is resisting and saying he's happy here, but surely an entire year of convincing and it would do the trick, especially when it's Barcelona we're talking about, the club he said he's like to go back to one day. So Hleb, in the most civil way possible of saying this:
Shut your mouth and get back on that treatment table that I know you're supposed to be on right now! Go away Hleb, you had your time here and you wasted it, and getting Cesc to waste his talents at Barcelona won't change that.

That's all I've got for you today, but I'm planning on posting more this week as we suffer through yet another round of internationals this Wednesday. Here's hoping for our players' safety,

Fab 4

Arsenal: A Tactical Analysis

Well, thanks to the international break we now have two weeks full of just about no news surrounding Arsenal (until of course our players are injured during their international matches). So because of the lack of news I thought it would be a good time to once again step back and have a look at the team as a whole. Instead of any sort of squad reviews, today I'm going to look at our tactical system, specifically our style of play.

In order to most clearly see our current style's chance of success, we're going to compare the team's current style with that of the Invincibles, the way they played on their way to remaining undefeated for 49 matches. So first an analysis of the Invincible's style:

The style at the time was a quicker, if less attractive, style of play. Play could be built up slowly through the center when Bergkamp dropped into midfield to become a playmaker, but most of the time our play went wider. We had two excellent wingers, Pires & Ljungberg, and the worlds best left back at the time Ashley Cole (I hesitate to spew forth ugly names for him here out of respect for the fact that he was once decent). Balls were won back by Viera, Gilberto, Edu, or Petit, and then passed quickly out to the wings where our wide midfielders would race by opposing players by either speed, skill, or an overlap from a fullback. The wingers would then drop in and cut towards the goal. And with Henry drifting out as well to collect balls, a one-two would be performed between Henry and either Pires or Ljungberg in which the attacking winger would then be in on goal and score.

This doesn't even mention the counterattacks. As soon as we won the ball in our own half the ball would immediately be played back and forth between our wingers and speedy central players until the ball was into the opposing penalty area in a matter of seconds, where a player who had run his legs off to get down the field would duly arrive and tap it in. I can still remember it now:

"Arsenal collect the ball from the corner, Viera out to Pires. Back to Viera, out to Ljungberg. Arsenal racing forward now, Henry. Out to Pires, back to Henry, played to Ljungberg, in on goal, cut back to Henry, AND HE SCORES!!!"
It took a matter of 15 seconds. Do you remember it as well?

As the Invincibles were broken up and new young players came through the system, our style of play changed to what it is now (for reference, watch the second leg against Milan last season at the San Siro for a perfect example of our current system). Let's discuss just what it is now.

Now our build up play is slower. Instead of breaking down the wings at speed, we tend to want to work it down the middle. With our new style, we keep possession a lot better than the invincibles. A feature of our neat passing game is the neat passing triangles that are formed every few seconds in various shapes and places on the pitch. We work the ball down one side and if no openings occur then we pass back, start over the triangle passing and work it down the other side. We slowly keep possession and probe for openings, the play being dictated by the brilliant Cesc Fabregas, until we finally split the defense and race in on goal.

This style inherently scores less goals, but is much more attractive and can produce some stunning football. Don't get me wrong, we still score boatloads of goals on our best days, but the style is less quick and more technical. Often our players get so into the passing game that they are afraid to shoot from distance but instead want to score the perfect goal, or walk it into the net. This is sometimes our undoing, and was during the barren years of 05-06 and 06-07 in which we made no challenge for the title. The team is now less afraid to shoot and slightly more direct, but it still occasionally falls victim to the walk-the-ball-into-the-net syndrome.

So there we are, the two styles in contrast. One could very well argue that our current title is far inferior to the incvincibles style - a judgement based on number of trophies - but Arsene Wenger believes, quite rightly that the current style is more attractive, more Arsenal. Arsene has said that the team now plays with the style he has been trying to implement since the beginning of his career, but I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to decide if this style is better or worse than the invincibles.

Look for more opinion and analysis articles this week because of the slow news, and keep checking back for more. Until next time,

Fab 4

Sunderland 1-1 Arsenal: Where did it all go wrong?

I have to admit, I delayed writing this piece until today so as to try and figure out where it all went wrong. Just two weeks ago we were top of the table, playing great, and looked like finally winning a title. But now here we are with two defeats and a draw in our opening seven games, unable to beat teams like Fulham, Hull, and Sunderland. If we can't beat simple teams like them how do we expect to keep the consistency of beating bigger teams long enough to mount a serious challenge for the title?

I'm not usually a pessimistic person, so I'm going to present two views on our current situation. One is the optimistic view of things, and one is the pessimistic view. Let's start with the latter.

Pessimistic view: We are fourth in the table and struggling to beat teams like Hull and Sunderland. Arsene Wenger didn't invest in a Defensive Midfielder over their summer, and it's slowly killing the side's chances. We need a real fighter in midfield who will win the ball back and start our attacks swiftly and comprehensively. We need someone who will break down resistant teams by not letting them have the ball and will use his strength to break through opposing defenses and fight for balls into the box. He needs to be big and tall, and we need him soon. We are on course to finish fourth or lower this season. Our home record is gone, the other big four are recovering from any early-season blips and Man City are becoming a real force, leading Liverpool 2-0 and almost winning. We are slipping into obscurity and will continue to struggle with the small teams, going on to have a season like that of two seasons ago when we seriously competed for no honours whatsoever.

Optimistic view: The side is young, and with youth comes inconsistency. Arsene Wenger is working to establish this consistency and it is all that stands between us and the title. Despite our early-season gaffs, things can only get better, when Silvestre debuts, Eduardo, Rosicky, and Diaby return, and Bischoff proves he is just as good as we all hope he is. We may be struggling with early season form, but so did Man Utd last season, and look what they achieved. We will pull out of this, because our young players will step up and prove themselves, and Arsene will see the need for a new DM and buy the perfect player in January. We will then blow away our Premiership competitors with some amazing and unstoppable football into May when we will then be crowned champions.

Whichever side of the debate you're on, whether you have a pessimistic outlook or an optimistic one, it can be agreed that the next few weeks will be a defining time for our Premiership season. If we can stay right with the leaders until January, then we may have a real chance. However, if the major inconsistency continues, we could be looking at nothing to fight for other than Champions League places. Here's hoping we get our title challenge back on track and we emerge victorious,

Fab 4

Preview: Sunderland vs Arsenal

Well, tomorrow we go up against Roy Keane's men at the Stadium of Light trying to bounce back from the defeat to Hull last weekend. The win against Porto midweek certainly helped with confidence and so it's time to reassert ourselves in the Premiership. This can be accomplished with a comfortable three points this weekend, although getting those cherished points may not be as easy as I make it sound.

Over the summer, Sunderland brought in a number of quality players (and a number of ex-Tottenham players as well), including Cisse and Diouf. This has bolstered their strike force and was supposed to make them more of a strength this season, but in reality, other than beating Tottenham (which at the time looked impressive, but now it looks like the Spurs are a walkover) they haven't done anything significant this season. If we were at home, I would say it would be a fairly straightforward talk to beat them, but as we're at the Stadium of Light, I'm not so sure. Sunderland will fight hard and get in our faces, after all Roy Keane certainly knew what to do against us at Man Utd, but I think we can overcome them with a good bit of skill and speed.

The team for Satuday? I suspect the usual back for and probably the same front pairing as usual (Ade, RVP) but midfield will likely be as Tuesday's. Nasri will want to see some more Premiership action and Walcott has surely played his way into the team; so the lineup should look something like this:
Almunia
Sanga-Toure-Gallas-Clichy
Walcott-Fabregas-Denilson-Nasri
Ade-Van Persie
There shouldn't be too much squad rotation, but maybe Eboue will play. Either way, the lineup will probably be the same as either against Hull or Porto: I'm hoping for the Porto lineup.

If we fight hard and play our game Saturday, zipping the ball around and frustrating Sunderland, then we should have no problems getting the much-needed three points and keeping pressure on the leaders. My prediction? A 2-1 away win for us. Here's hoping we do indeed win Saturday,

Fab 4

Almunia: Underrated

Instead of doing a news roundup today I wanted to write about our no.1 goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia. Talking to the Evening Standard recently, our Spanish goalkeeper had this to say:

"Of course the No.1 jersey at Arsenal is very important. It has been famous for the great goalkeepers in the club's history that have worn it before so it's a big responsibility.
"But at the same time it's a great thing to enjoy for me and I hope that people can be happy with my performances.
"I'm very happy to wear this fantastic number for Arsenal and I'm pleased with how things are going; I'm feeling very well and we have not conceded too many goals, although we always need to improve.
"I think this season I am growing as a goalkeeper and hope I can grow more as the season progresses."

I think Almunia has improved tremendously during his years here, especially since he's been first choice. He's already played a number of big matches for us, including the League Cup final in 2007, and one that most people tend to forget about, the Champions League final in 2006 (he played about 75 minutes of it). During his early years here he struggled and was vulnerable to making many faults. He has always had excellent reflexes, but would often be found way to far off his line coming for loose balls, or would show the occasional bad positioning that lead to a goal. He also failed to be a real leader in goal and was not the best at organising the defense.

But over the years he's improved. Last season whilst our first-choice keeper he developed tremendously and one could argue that, behind Flamini and Sanga, was the biggest revelation of last season. But still he had his doubters. The old arguments were brought out again and again against him and many said that we would lose the title because we didn't have a world-class keeper.

Then, starting at the end of last season and so far in this, Almunia has been solid as a rock. Only once can I remember him foolishly coming out to clear a ball, but he wasn't punished for it, and he has since stopped doing so. He can now constantly be seen yelling to his defense and organising them on corners and set pieces, and his reflexes and positioning are world-class. He has made save after save this season and without him we could quite possibly have conceded at least 10 goals already this season.

But alas, such is the curse of a goalkeeper (trust me, I was one in my youth) that he is the least noticed player on the pitch - except when he makes a mistake. The keeper can put in solid performance after solid performance, but until he does something truly spectacular, it is rarely noticed. I would argue that Almunia has quite possibly been one of our two or three best performers this season. He's been solid as a rock, and has developed into quite the commendable goalkeeper. How he doesn't get into the national side, I'll never know, but an international or not, he, along with our two fullbacks, are quite possibly the best players in our defense.

Here's hoping Almunia's excellent form continues and he is finally noticed by one or two fans. Until next time,

Fab 4