Its end of transfer, not end of the world

Reading through lots Arsenal fanblogs since the transfer season slammed shut on Tuesday evening, it is quite alarming how our inability to buy a new goalkeeper has been received.
Yes, Wenger tried and failed to prise Mark Schwarzer from the unyielding jaws of Fulham. So? Life, as we all Gunners know it, surely hasn’t screeched to a finite halt.
Some commentators are even dismissing our efforts in the transfer market all summer as a failure – conveniently of course disregarding the arrivals of Chamakh, Koscielny and Squillaci. All on account of the 37 year-old Australian, Schwarzer.
Reading through the blogs and websites that profess love and affection for Arsenal, it is shocking to see the amount of vitriol and bile poured on Wenger and his team - all because we couldn’t sign a new goalkeeper.
Yes, it hasn’t all gone to plan both for Wenger and Schwarzer. Granted that Fulham are just a run-of-the-mill side barely surviving in the premiership. Yes, they exceeded all expectations and went all the way to the Europa League final last season and promptly lost to Athletico Madrid. Does anyone recollect another average side, Middlesbrough blazing a similar trail two seasons ago, before succumbing 0-4 to Sevilla? Where are they now? Marooned in the championship!
What exactly is my point?
It is that all the naysayers and doom merchants seem to have missed the point about Schwarzer’s truncated dream of playing for us. It all had to do with Mark Hughes’ deep and bitter dislike for Wenger. I have very little doubt that if Roy Hodgson had remained coach at Fulham, (the gentleman that he is) he would have realised that Schwarzer had done his utmost for the club and the club in turn ought to grant him his wish of joining us and thus playing in the Champions League before drawing the curtains on his glittering career.
But sadly Hodgson had left and in came the brooding, petulant bogeyman Hughes who had endured humiliation after humiliation at the hands of Wenger and his side in his Blackburn days. His only wins against Arsenal were during his short stint with Manchester City, early last season.
For him now, it was payback time.

No sweetness here...Schwarzer (left) contemplating life on the Fulham bench

There was no way in the world, selling Schwarzer to Arsenal would have enhanced or diminished Fulham’s chances in the league this season. Simply for the fact that Arsenal and Fulham do not belong in the same league. It was never about strengthening one’s rival. Never. Rather, the bogeyman’s ego got in the way of Schwarzer’s ambition. Poor Mark. The Aussie, that is.
Which makes me wonder why all the name-calling and rage directed at Wenger.
Have all the naysayers stopped for a sec to consider that, the psychologist that he is, Wenger could as well have given Almunia a much-needed wake-up call? Everyone admits that Almunia was deserving the Number 1 shirt three seasons ago when he usurped Lehmann. He took his chance and did quite well between the sticks.
I still rate him as one of the best penalty stoppers in the league. For the records, Arsenal have never lost a penalty shootout with Almunia between the sticks. Cue against Sheffield United, FA Cup replay, January 2006; against Roma, Champions League second round, March 2009. Not counting his penalty save against Robbie Keane at the Emirates in December, 2007 with the scores at 1-1, moments before Bendtner went up the other end to nod in the winner.
Yes, his standards dropped last season for various reasons, but no player suddenly becomes bad overnight for no apparent cause.
The real problem, if you ask me is the lack of a decent back-up for him. That is the real danger in our goalkeeping situation. Fabianski is just a horror show to put it mildly. At his age, Iker Casillas was already both Real Madrid and Spain Number one. Even currently younger than him, is 19 year-old Atletico’s David de Gea who has consistently defied his youth and limited experience to remain the undisputed top goalie there.
It is the Pole actually that needs replacing, not Almunia.
So now, Fulham have a seriously-damaged goalie on their hands because I can’t see the Aussie delivering 100% anymore for them after watching them stand between him and his ambition. Point of correction; after watching Hughes stand in the way of his dream. The Welshman may have won Round One for now, but as the season unfolds, he may quietly come to that realization that perhaps, he should have granted his namesake his wish.
With or without both Marks anyway, Arsenal would still go on and finish the season above Fulham.

He Asked For It

On from last Saturday’s Blackburn game, some interesting things emerged that pricked my senses about our team.

Firstly, was that a potentially-workable partnership is developing between TV and the new boy, Koscielny. Left-footed and assured, TV would naturally love a right-footer beside him to balance the equation and swap responsibilities. Koscielny has done that very well so far and yes, it’s just August where the season is still in sleep mode. But you can assess a good player in 15minutes through little things like trapping the ball, ball control, distribution, use of body, use of space, positional play, etc.
In all those, he ticks the right boxes and will succeed at the Emirates. I can say that right now.
Last season, TV excelled and made the Premier League Bext XI (a phenomenal thing to do in your first season in England) due to his (1) his obvious talent, and (2) his understanding with another right-footed warrior, the departed William Gallas.
This season so far, he will make the Premiership Best XI again because at 24, he is approaching the peak of his powers and he’s got another good buddy beside him for understanding.
Like they both did against Liverpool on the opening day, TV and Koscielny eased away attackers from the goalie and dealt with everything in the air comfortably against Blackburn. The fact that Blackburn scored was simply due to the mistake of Sagna leaving his flank exposed. Diouf utilized that space by outrunning Koscielny who was covering for Sagna, thus being forced out of his own position. It was the space left behind by Koscielny that Diouf passed into, allowing his namesake and compatriot to drift in and score the equalizer with all the ease in the world.
Such slips happen in every team. The ability of a team to keep them to the minimum and prevent stupid goals, is what remains the difference between winning and losing. TV and Koscielny, along with the rest of the back four would have learnt from that slip.

Familiar sight? Not again Robin, even though you aksed for it

Secondly from the Blackburn game, emerged the realization that Robin Van Persie needs to learn how to protect himself. The ankle injury he picked up after just 30 minutes, was needless, reckless and irresponsible for a player of his age and experience.
You don’t go flying into tackles or leaving yourself exposed to dangerous kicks, especially for a striker whose major duty isn’t to make tackles. By throwing himself around last Saturday and jumping into needless kicking-contests in even more needless situations, he was simply asking to be injured.
For someone with his injury history, which have cost us months and months of inactivity from him, he ought to err on the side of caution.
He was at the club for three seasons with Thierry Henry who was a master of self-preservation. For all his talent, speed and breath-taking ability on the pitch, Henry never got involved in silly kicking-contests. Myles Palmer labelled him a prima-donna, but the lesson therein remains that the first law of nature is self-preservation. Henry chose his moments to do anything. He chose the moment to run; to nick the ball off opponents; to beat defenders; to pass; to receive passes; and of course to score.
Over the course of a game, he was very economical with his movements which was why he lasted so long and so successfully at the top. For him, there was no point flinging oneself around vast areas of the pitch, when a few minutes of explosive burst of speed and direct application could achieve much more.
Another player in the Henry mould is the man we all love to hate – Didier Drogba. Wenger famously described him as “doing very little” last season when he scored twice against us at the Emirates. But it is the mark of a great player to actually do very little and still poach two goals away, to one of your biggest rivals.
Drogba could be unsighted for huge swathes of a game, only to spring to life in a flash like a bushcat and do collateral damage almost before you realise he is there. He has played this way for years and even at 31, he doesn’t look like slowing down. You wonder why he has consistently remained prolific for Chelsea season after season?
Van Persie would do well to learn from these two predators. Strikers are peculiar players who maximize their abilities over a very short space and time frame. They often do not see the ball as much as their other teammates. Unlike midfielders for instance, who receive and release passes probably a couple of hundred times in the course of a game, strikers do not enjoy that luxury.
Wenger would do even better to sit him down and point out these vital facts to him. For the sake of the team and his teammates, it is essential both men have this discussion now. It is a new season. A new beginning and one that holds so much significance for all concerned with the team. After five years of trophy-drought, no more excuses will suffice if we end up empty-handed again.
Every season in the past four years, Van Persie has disappeared into the injury-room for lengthy periods, while the team suffered in his absence. His injuries are often season-defining for us especially as they ultimately deny us of the hugely-important threat he carries in front of goal.
In his absence last season, Nicklas Bendtner carried us through four months of huffing and puffing before we ran into the blitzkrieg that was Barcelona in the Champions League. Imagine how different the story would have been if there was Van Persie (or even forgotten man Eduardo) around to help the young Dane. The fact that it was a midfielder in the person of Fabregas that emerged our highest score last season, underlines how much we suffered for lack of a consistent frontman.
Four weeks we are told is how long he will be out this time. Thankfully. Enough time to assess things for him and allow Wenger show him the merits of emulating Henry and Drogba.

Blackburn Rovers 1 Arsenal 2…ratings

Blackburn Rovers 1 Arsenal 2…ratings



This was a potential banana skin. I mean going to Ewood Park against big, bad Blackburn; managed by bulldog-lookalike Sam Allardyce; and led by ugly-duckling, bouncer-to-be Chris Samba (nice rhyming there!)


Well, the records show that we hadn’t won in the league there since 2002 and it had nothing to do with lack of effort or anything of the sort. The same fixture last season left a very vile taste in every Gooners’ mouth as we all watched Fabianski being shoved all over the place on the way to us losing 2-1.


Prior to Saturday’s fixture, Wenger had pleaded with the match officials to be on the lookout for ‘rugby-style’ tactics. He carefully didn’t mention the team guilty of such, but it was clear whom his alert was directed at.


Since taking over from Mark Hughes two seasons ago, Allardyce has gradually constructed a team very much in his own image. Tactics such as long balls; overphysicality; intimidation of opposing goalies;


long throws into opponents’ areas; crowding opponents’ goalmouth at setpieces, etc are very much his stock-in-trade. Just like he successfully did during his Bolton days, the heavy-jowled Allardyce has become something of an antagonist to everything beautiful and romantic about the game.


Saturday was to be another chance to smear Wenger and stop us playing.


But all good things, as they say, come to an end.


Our so-called fear (or weakness) against physical teams like Blackburn, Stoke and the like was trumpeted loud ahead of this tie – as if the more mention made of it, the more we were supposed to shiver and quake before opponents lacking in any form of skill.


Well, two well-taken strikes from Theo (again!) and the unpredictable Russian Arshavin put paid to all that. Intimidation, allied with Allardyce’s tepid tactics all went out of the window as an early shower gave way to a midday sunshine, helping us see off Blackburn and navigate this tricky tie in flying colours.


Below are the ratings for the game:


*Almunia (7/10) Stood up very well to all the push and shove manufactured by Samba and his gang. Banged his head against the post in the first half but recovered to deal with all the aerial bombardment that followed. Couldn’t do anything about their equalizer, but did well to organize his defence and withstand intimidation thereafter. There were reports of him throwing his shirt into the crowd of supporters after the game as a sort of parting gift. Don’t know where that came from!?


*Sagna(7/10) On top of his game once more. Kept a tight rein on the roving pair of Elhadj Diouf and Pedersen with his tireless marking. Supplied the crucial cross that led to the winning goal with a gutsy, overlapping burst from deep. Good game all round for the Frenchman who has started the season in uncompromising mood.


*Koscieny (6/10) Did well also. Picked up from where he left off against Liverpool. He is a battler and scrapper all rolled-into-one and can mix with all that is offer in the Premiership. At fault or their equalizer as he allowed himself to be beaten with pace by Diouf (of all people). But he stood up to all their antics and aerial balls in the second half and kept their attack quiet in the second half. So far, so very good for the new boy.


*Vermaelen (7/10) TV was just TV. Good tackling; great awareness around him; superb organizer; fine allround defence play. Lost Mame Diouf for their equalizer but did everything else asked of him or the rest of the game. He is a gem of defender indeed.


* Clichy (6/10) Stuck to Diouf (Elhadj that is) like a glue and though the wily Senegalese escaped a few times in the first half, it was a different story in the second. Not Gael’s best game, but not his worst either.


*Song (7/10) Reverted to his tradition DM role or the first time this season and how so natural he looks in it. Harried and disrupted the Blackburn attempts at attack and ran his socks off as he continually shadowed the hulking Samba everywhere. Looked quite unrecognizable in his dyed, cornfield hairstyle but long as he maintains his form, no one is complaining.


* Diaby (6/10) Quiet but effective game or the gangling Frenchman. Also helped to keep Samba quiet and I’m sure Wenger preferred him alongside Song due to the height advantage. He almost scored the opener early in the first half when his shot ricocheted off Gael Givet and Robinson.


*Fabregas (6/10) Another one with a quiet performance. The captain started his first game of the season and it showed in the first half. To be kind to him,he was very anonymous in the first period apart from heading a goalbound shot of the line.. Things changed though in the second and he upped his level, which unsurprisingly saw him involved in the winner. It was his deflected shot that fell to Arshavin which the Russian buried for what turned out to be winner. Cesc lasted 68 minutes before making way for Rosicky.


*Van Persie (6/10) For someone who lasted only about 30 minutes, he ought not to command such a rating. But his perfect pass to Walcott produced the opener in the 19th miunte and that assist was worth its weight indeed. It was also his first start of the season and it must be an indication of how much importance Wenger attached to this game that he rolled out both his World Cup stars for this one. Robin succumbed to a twisted ankle though, cutting short his appearance.


*Walcott (8/10) Well, well, well. Looks like the real Mr Walcott is standing up now. Theo looked quite on fire as he served up another tasty, all-guns-blazing performance right in front of the watching England boss, Fabio Capello. He cracked a sumptuous opener from a difficult angle after being played in by Van Persie and could have easily got a couple more in the second half. His running, passing, positional play and allround game clearly marks him out as one to watch this season. Whatever may have happened to him over the summer break, Theo is a very different person now. Man of the match for the second week running.


*Arshavin (7/10) The unpredictable Russian went up a level in this game as he seems to prefer a step-by-step introduction into the news season. Linked up well with Cesc and took on the Blackburn defence with relish. Scored the winner by blasting through a forest of arms and legs in the 59th minute after arriving at the end of Fabregas deflected shot.


Subs


*Chamakh (5/10) Came into the game in the 30th minute as a like-for-like replacement for the injured Van Persie. Held the line well and full of running as usual. His presence kept the Blackburn defence busy, which prevented them having any ideas about roving forward.


* Rosicky (5/10) Replaced Fabregas and linked up well with the frontmen. Not up to the standards of his two previous games this season though.


* Wilshere (5/10) Came on in the 80th minute as we were seeing off the game safely. Almost nicked a goal for himself at the death if not for some inspired goalkeeping by Robinson.