Blanc’s romance with Le Arsenal



The President's men...Clichy and Nasri (left) arrive for training ahead of last night's Euro 2012 qualifier against Luxembourg in Metz

 Why does Laurent Blanc, French national team manger like the Arsenal boys? Is it a coincidence that Arsenal are the only non-French clubside with the largest number of players in the French national side?
I think it is not. Blanc looks very much a protégé of Arsene Wenger and if the logic can be stretched further, he has the temperament to be a future Arsenal manager when Wenger finally conks out.
With four Arsenal players already nailed-on starters in Blanc’s team, he must have seen things about them that tickled his fancy. Clichy, Nasri, Sagna and Diaby are all integral to Blanc’s team now and have played in almost all of the four French games since the end of the World Cup.
It’s a new team now.
Very different from the squabbling rabble that Raymond Domenech brought to South Africa. Of course, the fallout from the Nicholas Anelka saga very much embarrassed everyone connected to the former World champions but credit must go to the French FA for doing the right thing and dissing Anelka and his cohorts. Unloved, unproductive and unwanted, Anelka managed to divide the team with his mood swings and older players who should have known better like William Gallas and Patrice Evra allowed him to end their international careers prematurely.
Blanc obviously needed a clean slate to start from and he seems to have a good grasp of the job already.
Forget all the talk about international managers having a bit-part job. It is definitely a full-on assignment and one with as much challenges and strain as club management. Ask Fabio Capello for one.
Previous French managers have all built teams of flair and panache that wooed all who saw France play and have established Les Bleus as a team of class for about three decades now. Michel Hidalgo who assembled the trinity of Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse and Luis Fernandez under the captainship of the mercurial Michel Platini, laid the groundwork for subsequent years and years of success. Together, all the four aforementioned players were known as the carre magique – Magic Square – and it was clear why they had that moniker.
From winning the European championship under Hidalgo in 1984, France has remained an ever-present in the pantheon of great sides and adding the 1998 World Cup title under the urbane Aime Jacquet was a well-deserved crowning achievement.
Blessed with a glut of Franco-African talents, France play with flair and possess the sort of expansive game that clumsy England can only dream of.
Before Jacquet however, the duopoly of Henri Michel and Gerrard Houllier oversaw a barren period in French national football. After Jacquet, the taciturn Roger Lemmerre, Jacques Santini and later Domenech took up the mantle with little results but despite that, there was no denying the excitement and verve that French football produces. At least for all the bad press and aggravation he generated, Domenech got to the World Cup finals in 2006, losing only on penalties to Italy.
However, even that achievement was tainted by Domenech’s desperate recall of retiring veterans Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane.More than anything else, it showed Domenech as a man lacking confidence both in himself and the players he entrusted with the job. It was a move that undermined his authority for so long and finally exploded in his face in South Africa this summer.
Blanc clearly has learnt from such mistake. Out of the window have gone the likes of Gallas, Eric Abidal and Evra who all possess the seed of rebellion within them. Blanc rightly chose to promote many fringe players like Clichy and Benzema and in that, he has sent a very clear message that this is a team very much in his own image. Affectionately known as ‘The President’ and capped 97 times by France between 1989 and 2000, he understands the demands of donning the national team colours – something which the likes of Anelka had little regard for.
Allied to his quest for control, is his love for flair and invention. Therein lies his affection for the Arsenal way. The mantra of high-speed passing and movement as preached by none other than Wenger.
That apart however is the philosophy that has governed Arsenal this past half-a-decade. The idea that young players nurtured and kept together would develop alongside each other, with complete allegiance to their mentor. This approach often leads to mistakes and stop-start performances as we saw in that defeat in Paris to Belarus last month, and may look like trial-and error.
However like Wenger, Blanc has time on his side to experiment and impose his will on this side. He enjoys the absolute trust and backing of the French FA. Florent Malouda apart who is captain, almost all the players of the current squad owe their appearances to Blanc. Players like Alou Diarra, Steven Mandanda, Karim Benzema, Loic Remy and even Clichy would never have had a look-in under the paranoid Domenech.
Now, the world is at their feet. Better still, le coq sportif is theirs for the taking.
Which goes a long way to explain why Blanc and the Arsenal boys are a very natural fit.

A Tale of Two clubs and Many Yanks

What all the brouhaha at Liverpool, resulting in this week’s court case by Tom Hicks and George Gillett to stop the sale of the club for £300m, means is a simple case of businessmen wanting value for money spent on their investment.

When Hicks and Gillett, who clearly are now seen in a very bad light everywhere on Merseyside bought Liverpool in February 2007 for £218.9m, they, like all good businessmen, believed they could build up its value and later sell it on for two-three times that amount. That was almost four years ago.
Global market crash, club under-performance and fans’ unrest later, up pops another American John W. Henry ready to put £300m on the table and take the club off Hicks and Gillett’s wrinkly hands. Exasperated and pressurised by the Bank of Scotland who lent Hicks and Gillett over £200m, the club’s board now deeply divided are quite happy to take Henry’s money and end the era of the bad Yanks.
Obviously unhappy to let go and believing they can flog the club for £500-£600m, at least to pocket some profit on their initial outlay, Hicks and Gillett headed to the courts this week to block the sale. Knowing fully well that the success of the deal will see almost all the money going to bankers, while they will be left with next to nothing. Three years of investment surely couldn’t be allowed to go so lamely down the drain.
It would have made such a fine script for a melodrama if it wasn’t happening to an institution such as Liverpool FC.
If only the men at the helm who sold off the club in 2007 had paused awhile to consider their actions before pawning it away to Hick and Gillett. If only they had bothered to look across the country at another club sharing similar history and prestige with Liverpool and learning a couple of things from them.
For the past five years or thereabout, Liverpool and Arsenal have effectively been bridesmaids to Manchester United and Chelsea in what has gloriously come to be known as the Big Four of the Premier League. Neither of them finished the last five seasons better than third as the Chavs and Mancunians have swapped the league title between themselves.
Liverpool made an exception in 2009 when they ran Man Utd close until they finally succumbed to second place. Their performance that year was actually the result of millions and millions of pounds poured into expensive and often-dodgy player purchases in a desperate attempt to win the league and erase that blot from the club’s history. For Rafa Benitez their erstwhile coach and the board of the club however, ending the season behind Man Utd was a case of so far, so impossible. Their subsequent body language clearly suggested that despite never having won the premier league title, the inability to win it in 2009 was a rubicon they would never cross. At least in the near future.
After one more season, Rafa and his tired tactics was booted out as the club realised he was actually taking them backwards with even Champions League qualification proving beyond them.
It was to be the end of the Big Four, as we had known it for almost a decade.
Liverpool’s story runs slightly parallel to Arsenal in that for five years now, the Gunners haven’t won a trophy and have remained perpetually like second-class citizens where Man Utd and Chelsea are mentioned. Where the parallel ends is the patience and understanding demonstrated by the Gunners’ board in persevering with Arsene Wenger’s youth project, as the club relocated to a new stadium; rebuilt its playing staff and dealt wisely with the albatross of bank debts before they became dragons.

While Liverpool sought success in a hurry, Arsenal adopted the softly-softly approach – preferring to endure years of trophy-barreness and avoiding a wholesale flogging of the club to some beady-eyed sugar-daddy. Today, Stan Kroenke (yet-another American) and Uzbek, Alisher Usmanov have emerged as leading investors in the club but cannot lay claim to total ownership to it. The club has truly fallen behind on the pitch but its coffers are being swelled daily with stadium revenue and a well-crafted property investment. Whoever dreamed up the property idea in the most-attractive city in the world, London, deserves a knighthood.
While Liverpool lurches between bad Yanks and the Henry-led New England Sports Venture now seen as good Yanks, the one thing that lay behind that 2007 sale to the Hicks and Gilberts – success on the pitch – is very, very far from being achieved.
I’m quite certain two-three years ago no one in their right mind would have associated Liverpool FC with words such as ‘administration’ and being ‘ducked nine points’. Such scenarios belonged to the Portsmouths and Southamptons of this world. How quickly the tables can turn.
The refusal of Arsenal to toe the line and sell its soul like almost every other club in the league has done, is now being proven as conventional wisdom. Better still, a masterstroke. By 2012 when Uefa’s book-balancing policy for all clubsides goes into force, even Man Utd and Chelsea will have to curb their spending and live within their means.
By 2012, Arsenal’s penny wise ways would even make Kroenke look like the best Yank of them all.
Therein lies the lesson that Liverpool and the rest of them all missed so glaringly.

Expect a thrashing on Matchday 8

Home Alone... Van Persie, Vermaelen, Fabregas and Vela at the O2 arena in London while their teammates are all away on international duty

The much-derided international break is upon us once again and as football fans, we’ve been forced by the powers-that-be to accept these unsolicited and annoying interregnums in our football menu.
When it all kicks-off again next weekend in the English Premiership, we play host to those cloggers from St. Andrews - Birmingham City. If you’ve been disillusioned with the recent yo-yo form of the Gunners, occasioned by that earth-moving loss to West Brom and rubbed in by the capitulation at Stamford Bridge, despair not.
The reason? There will be a roasting at Emirates on October 16 on Matchday 8 of the premier league anyou don’t want to miss it.Birmingham will be on the end of a thrashing the types Blackpool and Braga got when they came calling very recently. Notice that all three teams share the letter B? Well, that’s got nothing to do with this bold prediction.What it has a lot to do with, is the fact that there isn’t a real international break at the Emirates.
For reasons of injury, poor form and even a suspension from the national side (in the curious case of Carlos Vela), Wenger suddenly finds himself working with a near-full cache of first team players. Unlike all other international breaks where the entire first team disappears into all corners of the world, this time around they are mostly staying behind at Colney. The ‘crèche’ as Myles likes to call it.
It must be a big blessing in disguise for Wenger. Two uninterrupted, glorious weeks to work with players like Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs, Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Nicklas Bendtner, Manuel Almunia and Vela, all of whom he ordinarily would have lost to the their national teams at a time like this.If all goes to plan, all of the afore-mentioned stand a good chance of making the starting line-up against Birmingham on October 16 and therein lies my optimism and confidence that Alex McLeish’s side will be roasted.
Outcomes of football matches are never set in stone and notoriously have a way of surprising you. True indeed. But looking at our recent reverses in the premier league and the thoughts of what-may-have-been if we had an injury-free side available to choose from, it is safe to predict that things will take an upward swing after the international break. On account of all the returnees burning to take to the pitch and show the rest of the league what it has been missing.
Even long-term absentee Aaron Ramsey is pencilled-in to make his comeback next month and if this doesn’t call for optimism, nothing else will.
After Birmingham, we welcome Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League and thereafter, we go to the lions’ den of Eastlands to face a very dangerous-looking Manchester City. There surely is no better time to have everyone fit and raring to go. But first, Birmingham feels the fury on Matchday 8.
Watch this space for the glowing match report bound to follow on October 17.

Just before the return of Aaron

A football boot must be one of the most-paradoxical things ever invented by man.
Designed and perfected to accomplish the simple but now very sophisticated task of kicking a ball, it is also a very potent weapon of mass injury.
I walked into a Studio 88 outlet in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital city during the week, to glimpse the latest range of soccer boots by Adidas and Nike. The chain outlet, famous for its high-grade sportswear brands, did not disappoint me. There were everything from the Microlite, Adidas Predator and other such intimidating names, with all of them bearing studs ranging from plastic, iron and even blades! For aspiring and established sportsmen and women, there was no shortage of footwear equipment to meet all tastes and needs.
But week in, week out now we see professional sportsmen – footballers especially – employ these same exotic shoes to maim fellow professionals. The latest being the brutal, brutal assault by Manchester City’s Nigel De Jong on Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa that left the latter with a double leg fracture, last Sunday.
Using the boot of course to achieve his despicable objective. Mention must be made that Ben Arfa is already the third broken leg recorded in the premiership so far this season . And we are just seven games old into a 38-game season!
Why has it come to this?
It cannot be competition. It cannot be sport anymore. There is nothing fightingly full of spirit or fair-playing about a situation where a professional player goes out with the sole aim of causing grievous bodily harm to a fellow professional. Only the spirit of evil can be behind such action.
To add insult to injury, De Jong is being defended by his Dutch colleague, Mark Van Bommel, who described him as a “sweet guy”. Well coming from a bruiser like Van Bommel, it’s like the devil himself acknowledging the actions of Adolf Hitler.



The face of violence..De Jong chasing after Cecs Fabregas

Arsenal have consistently been on the receiving end of such barbaric behaviour and as I write this, our own dear Aaron Ramsey is emerging from a traumatic period after being put to bed by Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross. He was our third player in four years to suffer that fate after Abou Diaby’s ankle was broken in a game against Sunderland by Dan Smith in May, 2006 and Eduardo was almost killed by Birmingham’s Martin Taylor in 2008 . Now, thankfully, he will be returning to training in three weeks. The league he left behind nine months ago though seems to have descended into more bone-crunching violence.
Wenger has campaigned long and hard for something more decisive to be done to stop this sort of assaults but the lily-livered FA has done nothing. Just at the start of the season, he described Stoke City as playing rugby rather than football, prompting Tony Pulis & co to lodge a very-petty protest demanding action against Wenger. What a waste of everyone’s time.
Methinks Ian Wright’s suggestion that any player who breaks an opponent’s leg should himself be banned for the period of time the injured player is out of the game, makes all the sense in the world. It’s quite simple and logical. Once you put someone out of the game, you as well stay out yourself.
It ought to make serial-killers such as De Jong think twice. After shaming Dutch football at the World Cup finals by executing that nasty kung-fu kick on Spain’s Xabi Alonso, the thuggish De Jong is clearly not keen on mending his ways.
After that leg break in February 2008, Eduardo never recovered his sharpness in front of goal again. Physical wounds will heal, but the real healing remains psychological and without that, a sportsman is just another lump of flesh. It was sad and heartbreaking watching him struggle in vain at every attempt to rediscover his lost touch and finally, seeing him left behind on the substitute’s bench when it became clear he was not going to be player he was before the injury. His sale to Shakhtar Donetsk in July was the final admission by Wenger and Arsenal that he was permanently damaged.
Fingers crossed, young Aaron will re-emerge as the midfielder of promise we all saw early last season, who was maturing excellently before our eyes.
Fingers crossed, the FA will wake up and save our game from thugs, muggers and yobs pretending to be footballers.
The English premiership is marketed around the world as the best the game has to offer. Doing nothing about the likes of De Jong will ruin all that and reduce it to a place of fear and intimidation.
Surely, not a place for the likes of Aaron to return and flourish.

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0




Brothers at war..the painful tackle that almost ended Diaby's season last Sunday

  Funny enough, our second defeat of the season did not rile so much as the first against West Brom eight days earlier. Was it because this latest one was very expected? Quite possible.
Sitting through this game, you had that feeling of inevitable surrender hanging over you all through. As you watched us try to pry open the meanest defence in the league it didn’t look as if we could pull it off and deal Chelsea an unlikely second straight defeat. Well, London Bridge withstood our tepid barrage and struck back decisively and brutally.
Once again, this wasn’t a gut-wrenching loss. Afterall there is no shame in losing 2-0 to the champions in their own backyard. As Wenger rightly suggested, the result from Stanford was never going to determine the outlook of the league come May.
It is early days still, and lots and lots of games to go, but for all our so-called progress this year and good start, we were reminded very firmly where the powerbase of this league lies.
Yes, we pressed them and even shaded the possession. But methinks it was all part of Chelsea’s gameplan to allow us have the ball and shuffle it around the middle and in the wide areas – all the waiting to pounce and hit us on the counter. And how perfectly their strategy worked.
For us, you learn more from defeats if you are a good team and so we live to resurrect our title hopes yet another day. Like I said earlier, there is no shame in losing to Chelsea and yet-another punishing Drogba strike. Not too long ago (pre-Mourinho that is) it was us dishing out the torture to a sleuth of Chelsea coaches and their teams. Gianluca Vialli, Ruud Gullit, Claudio Ranieri and even Scolari all lost regularly to us year after year, with London bragging rights firmly belonging to us.
The tables turned under Mourinho and two wins in about 14 games later, we have failed to live with our London neighbours.
We go into an international break on the back of this defeat but more battle remain to be fought and it is positives from such games that will shape the way we approach those battles as the season unfolds and twists in ways most-revealing.


Below are the ratings.


*Fabianski (6/10) – A very steady and assured performance by our ‘new’ Number One. He commanded his area well and looked to have an air of confidence around him. No gaffes and silly cock-ups this time and it appears Almunia is finally going to be dealing with some real competition when he comes back. Not at fault for any of the goals and actually prevented a thrashing by shooing Anelka away when faced with a one-on-one. Are we finally seeing the real Fabianski? Or is the presence of a fire-spitting, fellow Pole on the bench galvanising him at last? Looks so, so far.
*Sagna(6/10) – Also had a steady game and wasn’t overawed one bit. Stood up to Drogba and his French national team collegues Malouda and Anelka. The fact that Malouda – arguably the most dangerous player in the league – was silenced all through the 90minutes was a great credit to Sagna.
*Koscielny (6/10) – It was good to measure our new boy against the might and pace of Drogba who remains the ultimate test of any defender in the league. Koscielny did well and wasn’t embarrassed on the night. Though he gave away the free kick that produced the second goal, it was still not a bad day at the office for him. Very nearly scored himself in the 3rd minute off a header from a Nasri corner.
* Squillaci(6/10) – Was sometimes troubled by the pace of Anelka, Malouda and Drogba and almost gifted Anelka a free goal in the 60minute when he fell over. But he did well and showed his experience all through.
*Clichy (6/10) – Also acquitted himself well and was never bullied. He even got ahead as is usual about his game and troubled Ivanovic in Chelsea’s right side of defence. Got chance after chance in the first half to lob in several balls into the Chelsea defence but poor finishing yielded nothing.
*Song (6/10) – Was involved in a running battle with his African brothers Essien and John Mikel in what looked like a personal contest amongst all three. Stood his ground and gave as good as he got. It is still a measure of how far he has progressed that he is counted in the same company as the prestigious Chelsea duo. All in all, he gave a worthy account of himself.
*Wilshire (7/10) – I think he was our best player on the night. Took the game to Chelsea and as we all know by now, showed no glint of fear with all the multi-medalled Chelsea stars surrounding him. That he was automatically picked for such a big game is the final seal of approval for our shining Englishman. He was at the heart of all good things we did in the middle and the way the Chelsea players stood off him sometimes, showed the respect they had for him. A gem indeed, this teenager.
*Nasri (6/10) – Also one of our brightest on the night. Kept plugging away in the hope of breaking Chelsea’s stubborn resistance and was very inventive and full of creativity. Did a lot of nice stuff throughout the 90minutes but almost ruined it all with that wayward pass to Anelka, which drew a foul from Koscielny. The rest, as they say, was that Alex thunderbolt.
*Diaby (5/10) – Recovered from the West Brom nightmare to step up his game here and along with Song, fought Chelsea to a standstill in the middle. A horrible-looking Essien stamp on his ankle late in the first half clearly hindered him as the game wore on and expectedly, he fizzled out before being replaced.
*Arshavin (6/10) – Looked to be up for this one, especially in the first half when he drew top class saves from Petr Cech. He never allowed Ivanovic a moment of peace and his trickery eventually forced Chelsea into substituting Ivanovic for Ferreira. He tired though as the game wore on and dropped out of the picture.
*Chamakh (5/10) – A very forgettable game for our new striker. Now he has seen close-up what damage the likes of Drogba can do and it is hoped that it was a valuable lesson learnt. How very different it would have been though for him, if he had buried that easy-looking 1st minute header that caught the entire Chelsea backline flatfooted. It wasn’t to be however and it seemed to affect his confidence as the game wore on.


Substitutes
*Rosicky (6/10) – Came on for the fading Diaby and took control of the midfield with good running and penetrative passes. He may not have the legs anymore but he sure still possesses the vision.
* Emmanuel Thomas (5/10) – The fact that he was preferred ahead of another striker, Carlos Vela in such a big game must be a measure of how much big things Wenger expects from him. Couldn’t deliver on this occasion but surely now with his league debut out of the way, expect to see more of him as the season progresses.

Partizan Belgrade 1 Arsenal 3

One very vital piece of intelligence struck me last night as we won in Belgrade against a very determined Partizan. That truism was that we cannot hope to win games without either of Fabregas or his protégé, Wilshire in the starting line-up.

As difficult and menacing a place Belgrade is to visiting teams, those two players hold the key to unlock any defence, wherever and whenever they confront them.
Watching Wilshire package the opening goal for Arshavin in the 15th minute, it struck me very emphatically that his presence from the kick-off against West Brom last Saturday would have influenced the outcome of that game.
The way Wilshire set up Arshavin’s goal was Platinisque, if there’s such a word. After collecting the return pass from the Russian, Jack rolled the ball away from the foot of an approaching Partizan defender and as two others attempted to close him down, he conjured a deft backheel that fell perfectly for Arshavin – who was now behind him – allowing the Russian space and time to rifle home the opener. It is not something that can be coached into a player. It is rather something that stems from a combination of confidence, awareness and presence of mind.
In that single move, it was clear that Arsenal as it is now set up, need Wilshire or their only other player who possesses such mix of qualities – Fabregas – to start games they hope to win.
So we exorcised the demons of the West Brom debacle at one of Europe’s most-hostile venues and cleansed ourselves of the ghost of Odemwingie and co. Emphatically too.
As with most won games, almost everyone that took part was a hero.
We had 12 attempts on goal against their paltry 4; four corner kicks against their two; and had possession for a whopping 64% of the game time, which is awesome for a team playing away and before a very hostile crowd.
Much mention and credit goes to much-maligned Lukasz Fabianksi and rightly too. As I’ve pointed out here once, no real Arsenal fan would not want a player to succeed here. For all the vitriol and ill-feeling directed at Fabianski, the bottomline was simply our collective passion and affection for the club. Since he arrived here two years ago, he has done nothing to justify the shirt and colours of the club. And that could not be acceptable to us, the suffering fans. It was never anything personal.
Last night seemed to be the turning point in his Arsenal career. And you could see the relief on the faces of his teammates who celebrated his penalty save with him. We all hope he continues the good form.



I'll have that...Fabianski redeems himself in Belgrade

Below are the ratings on what must be one of our most famous European nights on foreign soil.
• Fabianski (7/10) – As said earlier, he put up his best showing ever in an Arsenal shirt. To be frank, I expected yet another howler from ‘Flapianski’ given his deplorable record between the sticks. But he proved us all wrong and repaid Wenger’s overstretched faith in him finally, finally paid off. The penalty save apart, he looked a very different goalie altogether as he saved a clumsy Squillaci backheader and parried two goalbound shots late in the game that would have made life very awkward for us if they had gone in. Probably, who knows, the sight of bitter-rival Wojniech on the bench drummed some sense into the older Pole. Fingers crossed on him, but a good night all the same.
• Sagna(7/10) – The old, reliable Sagna that we all knew. Upped his game from the horror show against West Brom and dealt with all that came his side of the field. Linked well with Rosicky in front of him.
• Squillaci (7/10) – A survivor from the West Brom debacle and methink he acquitted himself well. Gets a high rating on account of his 82nd minute goal that sealed the game for us. Almost gifted Partizan’s Camerounian striker Pierre Boya, a cheap goal with his weak header to Fabianski, but all in all he did well.
• Djourou (7/10) – Also did well, considering this was his second start in about 16 months for us. Wenger clearly thinks highly of him and wants him to be a mainstay of the defence. Did well on the night and though found out by the pace of Cleo and Boya sometimes, he held his own.
• Gibbs (7/10) – Very surprised to see him in the starting line-up. After his Carling Cup injury scare from last week, he was the last person I expected to start this game. But start he did and surely now, there is real competition going on between him and Clichy for that leftback slot. Gave away a needless penalty late in the game which Fabianski turned away.
• Song (7/10) – His usual buccaneering self. Laid the pass that brought about the first goal from Arshavin. Apart from his DM duties, he quite fancies himself as some sort of attacking midfielder and is eager – sometimes too eager – to go forward.
• Denilson (6/10) – An average night for an average player. He was preferred to the absent Abou Diaby and frankly, I still regard him as a weak link. Gave away a needless penalty in the second half when he had all the time in the world to adjust his body and avoid contact with the ball.
• Wilshire (8/10) – Does he ever have a bad day at the office? So far, the answer remains a resounding No! This bloke is a pocket battleship in the mould of Diego Maradona at his prime. Rode and bossed the midfield like an accomplished veteran and surely now, we simply cannot do without him in games. For an 18 year-old that is quite a statement. He was instrumental to almost everything we did last night.
• Rosicky (8/10) – Our captain on the night. Surprised me with his energy and drive after the washout that was West Brom just three days earlier. Hs the West Brom defeat forced everyone of them to start fighting for their places? Looks like that in Belgrade. He almost scored a clinical goal off some good work by Arshavin.
• Arshavin (8/10) – This was by far his best game for us this season so far. He struck up a good understanding with Wilshire and they conjured all manner of tricks around the Partizan defence. Unlucky not to have added to his tally in the first half and his missed penalty apart, was our star man on the night. Not being stuck out on the left wing, I think, helped his game a lot. Hope the real Mr Arshavin has now finally arrived.
• Chamakh (7/10) – Our battering ram upfront and he seems to relish it. Goes about his job professionally and at last, it was a delight to see him score away. Has clearly settled down well into the team and will give Bendtner a very good fight for the second striker shirt.


Subs
• Nasri (5/10) – His low rating had more to do with the fact that he came on late in the game to take pressure off Wilshire and with the Chelsea game on Sunday in mind. Steadied the ship as best as he could.
• Vela (5/10) – Came in for Arshavin, who was tiring after a yeoman’s effort on the night. Didn’t do much as nothing much was required from him.

Nobody Wants Lukasz

In case u've not seen it yet, there's a damming poll on Arseblog, which asks readers and fans alike to vote for the one man that should be our Number one goalkeeper for the rest of the season.
It lists all the four goalies we have and as at 10am(Central African Time), 279 fans had voted. An overwhelming 187 thumbed for untested, untried rookie Wojciech Szczesny.


Man of the people? Obvious

 Current number one Manuel Almunia managed a second spot with 47 votes; the same as current number three Vito Mannone. It is no surprise that Lukasz Fabianski, current number two has the fewest fans with just 2 votes. Two votes!
The surprise for me is finding anyone at all who voted for him. Those two fans must be from his own nuclear family.
These are clearly not the best of times to be an Arsenal goalie.
For a club that produced one of England's greatest and most-accomplished in David Seaman, our goalkeeping situation is a pig's breakfast. A fine mess.
Bearing in mind last Saturday's capitulation to West Brom, most fans who would have given Almunia some benefit of doubt since the start of the season, have now given up.
Szczesny's blast at Wenger last week clearly shows that strange things are happening behind the scenes. Not a man to give too much away, Wenger would surely have been hit below the belt with that tirade.
Not a man to be cowered into anything either, it may amount to a burning-of-the-bridges for the young Pole. If nothing, Wenger is as stubborn as a Texan mountain goat and would never, ever be seen to be brow-beaten into any action. Least of all by a 20 year-old upstart who owes all his footballing pedigree to Wenger himself. Interestingly and quite unlike anything we've seen since Adebayor, Wojciech looks and sounds like a very confident bloke.
But, for a man of Wenger's experience, he must know that you cannot alienate fans in an industry like football. Whatever happens form hereon, it might mean the end of Wenger's rigid hierachy structure and time to move Wojciech up the ladder.
Because whichever way you may interpret it, the arseblog poll is the fans talking.
And very loudly indeed!