Picasso comes to Arsenal/ Wenger and Fergusson

Arsene Wenger rightly described the outgoing month of January as the busiest his team has ever witnessed since he arrived at the helm in 1996. By the time we file out against Huddersfield in the 5th Round of the FA Cup on Sunday, it would be the ninth game we have played this month.


In this month, we have been the busiest team in all three professional leagues in England. Those nine games coming in three different competitions – the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Carling Cup.


In all those games, 3-0 has been the commonest scoreline. We won by that margin on January 1, New Years’ Day against Birmingham at St. Andrews and were to repeat it three more times against West Ham, Wigan and most recently Ipswich Town. Leeds also shipped three against us but their midfielder, Johnson’s 40-yard cracker ensured a respectable scoreline of 3-1. In all, of the eight games played so far, we have won five, drawn two and lost one. In the process, we scored a whopping 16 goals and conceded a very commendable three. In the plus-minus analysis of today’s football, that is a chest-thumping +13 goals difference.

Djourou in action against Leeds in the FA Cup...the big man got a
big break in January

What do all these mean? It simply tells Wenger that the players in whom he has placed his abiding faith have repaid it to the height of his expectations. Which is why he has foot-dragged, dilly-dallied and slouched his way through the transfer month of January and finally came up without any addition to his squad. Despite injuries to Thomas Vermaelen and Seb Squillaci in the centre of defence, Wenger - as intransigent as ever – stuck to his guns and braved it with Johann Djourou and Koscielny. He stuck his nose at everyone else and rode the storm with a threadbare defence.


He kept on telling us that he hadn’t found anyone out there better than what he already has. Typical Wengerspeak, he was saying that it was safer to wait for his injured ‘faithfuls’ to heal rather than dipping into his treasure chest and buying a new pair of legs. In other words if you aren’t familiar with Wengerspeak, he was saying that his bunch of players are the best in town.


So, Wenger played 720 hours of football with just two central defenders. If calling a bluff is an art, Wenger proved he is the Picasso of brinkmanship. Thankfully and luckily for the master of double speak, he was proved right. Not only did Djourou and Koscielny mature impressively as a defensive pair, the goalkeeping department also underwent a makeover as the highly-touted Wojciech Szszesny rose form the bench to jump ahead of the queue. Talk of a defensive reshuffle and this was it in huge doses.


All three – Djourou, Koscielny and Wojciech - could not have been considered in Arsenal’s starting eleven at the beginning of the season. In their places, cue TV, Squillaci and Almunia. The latter has since fallen on hard times and out of favour, while indifferent form has afflicted Squillaci. Injuries may have limited TV’s appearances but if fit, he is Wenger’s Number one central defender. All these circumstances have contrived to push Djourou, ‘Kos’ and Wojciech to the fore and they have grabbed their chances with both hands. The outstanding results of January have also helped their individual cases and as we stand on the brink of Carling Cup glory next month, Wenger has come out to declare Wojciech as his No 1 goalkeeper.


Those three names, along with form of the rest of the calvary have combined to justify Wenger’s undeclared but silent determination not to make any purchase. Rather than bring in the likes of Christopher Samba and Gary Cahill, Wenger has instead shipped out players to get playing time. Accordingly, Emmanuel Jay-Thomas, Aaron Ramsey and Henri Lansbury have all been farmed out to continue their education elsewhere. Just last night, the forgotten Carlos Vela joined the exodus by signing for West Brom till the end of the season.

Contrasting fortunes....Ramsey had to go down to the lower league
to get some action

 By not buying, Wenger has cast a vote of confidence on his current. While everyone else around us have been flipping open the cheque book, he has done the opposite. Man City brought in Edin Dzeko. Aston Villa poached Darren Bent. Liverpool nicked the extremely-good Luis Suarez. All such business suggest dissatisfaction and unhappiness in those teams. Not so for Arsenal and Wenger as far as the transfer window and the month of January are concerned.


He is not alone though. His old foe and perennial battle-hardened clogger, Sir Alex Ferguson has also not seen the need to plunge into the market for reinforcements. Instead, like Wenger, he has sent out the likes of Frederico Macheda to get playing time elsewhere.


Is there a message in these inactivities? Are both old foxes knowledgeable about things we the fans don’t? Of course, yes. Tried and trusted squads are built on years and years of collective grooming and careful planning. Which is what both men – the oldest surviving coaches in all of Europe – are noted for.


As both Arsenal and Manchester United bed-in for the title run-in; neck to neck in first and second spots, their two managers must know that the players who brought them this far so far in the season, can surely take them all the way without any addition.


Therein lies a lesson to the chasing pack.

Ipswich can’t stop the march to Wembley

We are going to Wembley...the players go bonkers as the realisation hits them

And so we make our way into an actual cup final since 2007. It is in the same competition where we did it then – the Carling Cup – last time out. We contained Ipswich for exactly an hour and broke down their resistance with good goals all round from the much-maligned Nicklas Bendtner; confirmed defender now masquerading as occasional goalscorer Koscielny who also happens to be namesakes with a certain African dictator clinging on stubbornly to power despite an election that voted him out of office; and yes, the ‘non-leader’ Cesc Fabregas.

So we are going to Wembley to face one of relegation battlers, West Ham or Birmingham City, who have both shipped in three goals from our world famous(!) strikers in the recent past. Life couldn’t be better as a Gooner, ay? Not really. At not what you would have thought after the first half of last night’s game when the score stood at nil-nil and the Tractor Boys were still ahead of us on account of that lone goal they scored in the first leg.

Just as we all shook our heads in resigned wonder at the halftime of last Saturday’s game against Wigan when the score was a miserable 1-0 despite the mother-of-all-bombardments on their defence. So did we all wonder if we would have to endure a night of more frustration yesternight. Well, cue Jack Wilshire, who in my most humble was the stand out player on the pitch. His well measured, 35-40 yarder of a pass to Bendtner turned out to be the secret code to unlock Ipswich’s hardworking but tiring defence.

The ‘Bendtnerman’, also now a new father, still had to figure a way of getting past Carlos Edwards who was marking him. And therein lay one of the moments of the season for me. The thing with Bendtner is that he is so predictable and clumsy that even fans in the stand can read his next move miles and miles before it happens. So for defenders faces with our ego-drunk Dane, he must be one of the easiest attackers in the world to mark. Devoid of speed, he actually makes defenders jobs even easier.

Emotion overflow as Cesc is overwhelmed by it all

But on collecting Wilshire’s glorious pass, the Bendtnerman executed  a swift leg-over-cum-dribble that would have made Christano Ronaldo really proud. Leaving Edwards for dead, he drove into the Ipswich box and with defenders approaching from all angles, he composed himself enough to aim for the far, right hand corner of the goal and lo and behold, it went in for a delightful gamebreaker!

The relief around the Emirates was as palpable as the beauty of the goal itself. Only a frustratingly-enigmatic character like Bendtnerman could have pulled that off. Whatever else he has done wrong this season so far, forgiveness was swift and total last night. Probably he really needs a regular run in the team to repeat his heroics and his chestnut-out-the-fire form for us late last season when Van Persie was missing with injury and we were suffering in front of goal.

However, whatever we all think of him, Bendtnerman redeemed himself and his fledging place in our collective hearts last night with that collector’s item.

Koscielny doubled his season tally with a thumping header just three minutes later off a good, good Andrei Arshavin corner kick. His ‘pregnant-woman’ might suggest that a lass somehow behind the scenes is probably due to deliver him a bouncing little tot. Who knows? He delivered for us most crucially himself last night and the passion and energy with which his goal was celebrated by all and sundry in the red shirts showed the players are as desperate as we all for some silverware. Even the Carling version.

The ‘non leader’ wrapped things up beautifully in the 77th minute by appyling the finishing touch to a 70-yard move involving him and another maligned Gunner, Arshavin. It was a coup de grace that Ipswich never recovered from and rubber-stamped our passage to Wembley and within sight of what I will term a well-deserved trophy at last. For a club the size of Arsenal, it is a welcome development too far-between and too infrequent. 

Stand out performances on the night came from the smallest player on the pitch and the smallest in most games involving us this season – Mr Wilshire. Alongside him, Fabregas, Bendtner and Djourou all shone.

Ratings: Szcznesny 6, Djourou 8, Koscielny 8, Clichy 6, Sagna 5, Denilson 6, Wilshire 8, Fabregas 7, Arshavin 7, Van Persie 6, Bendtner 7, (Subs: Eboue 6, Nasri 4, Walcott 4)

New Dimension/fine night at Elland Road/A Capable Pole

Hello Everyone, we will depart from our usual practice of rating every player after every Arsenal game. Loads of readers’ comments have tended towards something different which is what we’ll start with last night’s game against Leeds at Elland Road.

Popular opinion suggests that readers will love a compact, general match report with outstanding performances highlighted and my own impressions featuring somewhere along the line. We will include headlines as well as more action pics from the featured game, while trying as much as possible to publish post-match reactions from players, Arsene Wenger and fans alike. It all still a work in progress and I don’t pretend to have the best ideas, so let’s give it a try and feel free to chip in your suggestions on how best to express our collective views on our wonderful club.

It’s a new dimension to how we cover our beloved club on the blog and we expect readers and followers to let us know how they receive this new way of doing things.

So, while still basking in the euphoria of last night’s smooth progress into Round Four of the FA Cup, here we go with our latest experiment.

There's no stopping him

Samir Nasri was rightly hailed as “the man” last night as he led from the front not only as captain but as orchestra conductor for the side. The lithe Frenchman marked his first ever Barclays Player of the Month award with a virtuoso display that showcased his maturity and growing influence not only in the side but in the English game.

His goal in only the 5^th minute; his 14^th of the season was Mr Cool personified as he moonwalked through the Leeds defence at the end of an Arshavin-cum-Chamakh pass

He was instrumental and influential allover the pitch as he played the Fabregas role to perfection with his silky movement and intelligent use of the ball. After Bendtner did his usual impression of Josima - the highly-touted Brazilian striker at Spain 82 World Cup finals who flopped spectacularly - by missing a sitter after a fine Sagna cross, the no-nonsense Bacary rifled in a blinder that Schmeichel could only touch but couldn’t keep out for our second goal.

Leeds responded almost immediately with an even better goal of their own after the incredibly and increasingly-poor Arshavin managed to lose the ball and opponent at the edge of our box, allowing the home team to pass offload the ball to midfielder Johnson, who unleashed a 35 yarder pile driver that flew beyond a diving Szczesny into the net.

Of course, cue delirium and wild celebrations around Elland Raod as the hyped-up crowd of 38,000 bayed for more blood.

A goal for us....Sagna congratulated by fellow defender, Gibbs

It wasn’t to be however as we contained them with ease and passed the ball around with our usual confidence. Song almost made it three immediately after the restart when he ran onto a through ball from the middle. His shot was well blocked by Schmeichel who was having a blinder in goal despite the two goals he had conceded. He had already stopped a nailed-on Chamakh header in the 13^th minute that had power and direction on it.

In the 71^st minute, Wenger threw on Fabregas and Van Persie to close up the game and seal our progress and they did exactly that. Especially the Dutchman, who rose majestically to nod in a fine, right wing cross from the misfiring Bendtner into the net for the clincher. For record purposes, the cross was Bendtner’s only meaningful contribution in the entire 90 minutes.

Leeds then became frustrated and picked up three yellow cards in quick succession for unwarranted and nasty tackles. There was to be no headline-making upset as we saw out the game and navigated our way out of a very tricky encounter in front of a typical FA Cup boisterous crowd.

All in all, Van Persie, Sagna, Szczesny and as mentioned earlier, Nasri stood out for us.

Van Persie sems to be finding his sharpness pretty quickly and his goal was Number six for the season after a rather lengthy injury lay-off. Long as he stays injury free, expect big things from him this season. About time too.

Heads I win...Van Persie nods home the third goal
Sagna announced his return from suspension with a characteristic barnstorming performance where he destroyed the Leeds’ left full back with his pace, strength and daredevil running. His goal was well-taken and reminisced of the blockbuster he scored against Everton at Goodison in November. Is there a better right fullback in the England now? I think not.

Nasri we all know about, but what about Wojniech? Well, I’m just quietly impressed. He reads the game very well and is quite calm for someone his age. With Almunia now very much out of the equation, the young Pole’s path to the much-coveted Number One shirt looks assured. Yes, he is supposedly understudy to Fabianski but over the past two months now that we’ve been witnesses to his abilities, he’s won admirers.

It is not a cakewalk for a 20year-old to put on the jersies of a club as huge and well-known the size of Arsenal and still keep their nerve to do well. Almunia and even Fabianski suffered from nervous jitters for so long that mistakes became a by-word for them. Not so Wojniech. He’s been thrown in at the deep end and he’s responded well. Yes, he’s conceded goals like all keepers do, but his confidence and all round positioning, reflexes and all the package that goes with being a top keeper are very apparent.

He always said his destination was Number One at the club - even when he hadn’t played a senior game for us. Now we can see where all the big talk was coming from.

For the first time in a long time, methink we’ve got a good competition going between the sticks.

Next up is Wigan at home on Saturday and another chance to see the Polish wonder between the sticks.

The claws are out – bigtime

As it was in the beginning............

 Consider this from one Arsenal player to another Arsenal player.

"Fabregas is the captain but he is not a leader”.

Whao! What a bombshell. In the perfect, sterilised world that Arsene Wenger has created at London Colney for his pampered ensemble, that statement has the same effect the hydrogen bomb, ”Little Baby” had on Hiroshima and Nagasaki . It was seismic. A huge, huge force of nature that goes against everything Arsene Wenger and his Colney crèche stands for.

It’s the sort of thing you hear all the time coming from inside Roberto Mancini’s dysfunctional Manchester City where no fortnight goes by without one disgruntled player aiming barbs at either Mancini, his teammates or assumed injustice in the whole world.

Back to Arsenal and all things bombastic.

"It's a personality thing and a leader can be young. It's something they are born with. We are lacking leadership and we need leadership to go forward. There isn't a leader. I don't see one player as a leader.  At Arsenal it's more of a collective team at the moment, everyone is talking - but a leader is always important for a team."

What the hell is going on?

..............so it is hugely different at present

The statement, in case you haven’t heard was from Denilson, the ex-captain of Brazil’s U-17national side who has been a Gunner since Wenger bought him from Sao Paolo in the summer of 2006. He has been slowly integrated into the side after the hugely respected Gilberto Silva took him and the misfiring  Julio Baptista under his wing and helped them settle down at the club.

Denilson has impressed and frustrated us all in equal measure since he stepped into the shoes of Mathieu Flamini from season 2009. He’s supposed to be a defensive midfielder but he clearly lacks the ruggedness for such demanding task and often falls short of expectations.

I hate to hammer on people’s weaknesses like this, but when you’ve been given chance after chance to make amends and step up to the plate, I can’t help but vent some criticism.

For Denilson, Flamini’s departure was a golden chance to show what he could do and sadly he hasn’t lived up to expectations. This season has seen him pushed to the bench by the mercurial (and more painfully), younger Jack Wilshire. Jack, as we all know has been simply untouchable, making it more and more difficult for Denilson, whose other names are Perreira Neves, to get a look-in.

However the background to all these bare-knuckled attack on Fabregas began two weeks back during the FA Cup game against Leeds at Emirates. Denilson fouled Leeds’ Max Gradel inside the 18 yard box and conceded a penalty. Leeds went onto score it and we faced a rather uncomfortable afternoon as we huffed and puffed without any effect.

It wasn’t until the 89^th minute, with serious aggravation and anxiety spreading through the crowd, that we managed to equalize through another penalty – scored by none other than  Fabregas, the  perceived “non-leader”.

In his post match comments, Fabregas later callously attacked Denilson by saying:

“They (Leeds) scored from a penalty that, at this stage when you are a professional footballer you cannot give away this type of penalty so easily".

As a professional indeed, Denilson ought not to have given away such a cheap, senseless, stupid penalty. But Fabregas as well, as a professional and a skipper of professionals ought not to have knocked down his colleague in full view like that. It was an et tu Brute moment. A betrayal of sorts which must have caught Denilson by surprise and when the implication of what Fabregas said has settled-in, stirred up anger.

That anger was what led to the “non-leader” statement.

To douse the smouldering embers, Fabregas was quoted to have dismissed Denilson’s attack as “just a misunderstanding”. But we all know it is not. It has shaken the publicly-touted and well-groomed image of the club as an oasis of glacial calm. Wonder what Wenger would be thinking now.

He ought to know better though. Denilson, who grew up in Brazil’s infamous, drug, gangster-infested favelas and lost his mother at the tender age of 10, once described the volatile but hugely-talented Romario as his footballing idol. Despite the legendary animosity between Brazil and Argentina, Romario is Brazil’s answer to the Argentine enfant terrible.

At 23, Fabregas is just three months older than Denilson who turns 23 as well on February 16.So sticking the knife in, the way Fabregas did after the Leeds game would have riled the Brazilian even more, coming from your own captain who isn’t talking from a standpoint of years and years of superior experience.

It however gives us fans a better picture of what goes on behind the scenes. Unlike the carefully managed (and sometimes doctored) reflections we are constantly fed with by Wenger. Since the loose cannon Adebayor headbutted Nicklas Bendtner at White Hart Lane in a Carling Cup semifinal in January 2009, we’ve not had a good, old civil scrap to chew on at Arsenal.

It may sound like an ego thing on Denilson’s part but methinks he’s just giving as good as he got from his supposed leader.

We can’t for now hazard a guess where this will all lead to, but with both players constantly linked with moves away from the club, this might just make Wenger reconsider offers for both, or one of them again – at least in the interest of peace at the crèche.

West Ham 0 Arsenal 3

 Theo Walcott and Robin Van Persie combined to secure a sweet win at Upton Park over beleaguered West Ham and further push the embattled Avram Grant towards the exit door. Both players added the finishing gloss to all our good work and slick play by scoring the goals that ensured victory in Saturday’s late kick-off.

After the debacle at Portman Road over the midweek, there would be no room for complacency this time and it showed as we took the game to the West Londoners right from the kickoff. We scored in the 13^th minute after newly-acquired Wayne Bridge allowed the marauding Walcott lots of space to cross from the right and find Van Persie who hit a first time shot with his supposedly-weaker right foot past the diving body of Rob Green in the West Ham goal. It was a fine, opportunistic strike and if nothing else, it signalled the return of our injury-plagued Dutch star to his sharpest best.

Van Persie almost doubled his tally with another snap shot in the 35^th minute after a good interchange between the mercurial Jack Wilshire and Fabregas found him. His left-footed rocket left Green for dead but hit the base of the post and rebounded agonisingly back into play. He however returned the favour done him in the 13^th minute by finding Walcott with a cut back ball from the byline, which the English winger buried into the roof of the net in the 41^st minute.

Second half saw us ease off a bit as the defence earned their spurs, curtailing a fightback from West Ham. Djourou and ‘The Kos’ did brilliantly though, dealing professionally with the Hammers attack until the 78^th minute when Walcott’s speed invited a desperate tackle from Bridge inside the 18 yard area. Van Persie stepped up to sidefoot the ball past Green for his brace.

All in all, it was a job well done for the team as we hung onto the coattails of Manchester City who earlier in the day had surged to the top of the table with their goal-drenched 4-3 win over Wolves.

Below are the ratings on a night when everyone put their foot right.

*Szczesny (7/10) – Starting his third straight game after Fabianski failed a fitness test, the gangling Pole took his chance with both hands by denying a certain West Ham goal in the 20^th minute after Carlton Cole pounced on Djourou’s weak back pass. Szczesny came out to make a very crucial block and save us from all round embarassment. He is clearly growing in confidence after making the step up into the first team this season. He executed a couple of saves as well in the second half when West Ham poured forward in search of something and must share in the accolades for our third straight clean sheet in the league.

* Clichy (7/10) – One of his better games for us this season. Full of tackling and running all night long. Gave no quarter to Savon Hines and later Luis Boa Morte who attempted to initiate attacks for the hosts from the wings. Did well and never allowed his concentration to drop. Also linked well with Samir Nasri in front of him.

* Koscielny (7/10) – ‘The Kos’ was his usual tough-tackling, no-nonsense self. Seems to be at his best when paired alongside Johann Djourou and last night was no exception. He frustrated the dangerous Carlton Cole and kept him quiet and ineffective.

* Djourou (7/10) – He continued his development as a defender of repute here and passed once more with flying colours – almost. The one blemish in his game was in the 24^th minute when he launched a weak backpass to Szczesny under pressure, but the goalkeeper saved his blushes by blocking the eventual shot from Cole. That apart, the Swiss youngster did well and used his huge frame well. I just pray so fervently that he doesn’t pick up one of those injuries that sidelines him for months and months. He’s become integral to us now and without mincing words, we simply cannot afford to do without him.

* Eboue (7/10) – Played his best game so far in the three-game spell that Bacary Sagna is suspended. He seemed determined to prove that he deserves a place even when Sagna returns. Everything that came his way on the wings, he handled with confidence. Stayed on his feet for the 90 minutes and cut out all the annoying diving and play-acting that often blights his game. Methinks though that he will always play second fiddle to the hard-tackling Sagna.

* Song (8/10) – One particular moment in the second half encapsulated his entire performance last night. He was surrounded by three maroon-shirts and after collecting a pass from someone who I think was Wilshire, he feinted, body-checked and barged his way out from amongst the West Ham trio and though he found himself on the floor, he still stuck out a leg to offload the ball to Fabregas. He is determination personified. He gives us a crucial balance in the middle and is full of stamina and positive energy. A vital cog in our wheel as we chase glory.

* Wilshire (7/10) – Mercurial is the only word I can find appropriate enough to describe his performance on the night. He was almost everywhere on the pitch. Despite his lack of inches, he makes up for it in fighting spirit and hunger for the ball. Starved the West Ham midfield of the ball with his ever-changing positioning and eye for the pass. Almost scored late in the game with a fine shot from the edge of the box, which Green had to scramble across the post to push away for a corner. Jack is your quintessential box-to-box midfielder.

* Fabregas (7/10) – When he is on song as like last night, we always, always dominate and win. El Capitan was happy doing what he does best – pulling the strings in the middle like a trapeze artist. It emerged after the game that he alone made more passes than the entire West Ham midfield of Mark Noble, Jonathan Spector and Freddie Sears. Was influential in the middle for us and seems to be finding the understanding he once enjoyed with Van Persie. Was scythed down by Julien Faubert in the first half, which almost earned the fullback a redcard but Fabregas rose to dominate proceedings and put the Hammers to the sword.

* Nasri (6/10) – His first game after picking up the Barclays Player of the Month award for December, though he didn’t hit the lofty heights we know he can. Could be because he was marooned out on the left wing, where it is difficult to make your presence felt. Still worked well with the frontmen and almost scored after waltzing through West Ham’s defence late in the game just before he was substituted.  

* Walcott (7/10) – Despite his deficiencies and often-trumpetted poor decision-making, you still have to give him top marks for endeavour. His work rate never drops and he was a handful for Wayne Bridge, who was skinned repeatedly by the speedy Walcott. He laid on the pass for Van Persie to score the opener in the 13^th minute and scored himself in the 41^st to record his tenth goal of the scored and his highest ever in an Arsenal shirt in one season. He is certainly growing into a player of repute and hasn’t even peaked yet from what we see week-in, week-out. With his frightening pace, expect much more from him sooner than later as he fulfils the full limits of his potential.

* Van Persie (7/10) – The sharpest I’ve seen him since he returned from injury in November. He completed his third 90 minutes of action last night and it was obvious that he is picking up his World Cup form. His goals brought his season tally to five and if he stays fit and avoids injury, his presence will be vital in the run-in. In the absence of Marouane Chamakh, Van Persie is a good outlet for goals and between the both of them, we always carry a potent goal threat. Better to look up to them for goals, rather than the erratic and unreliable duo of Bendtner and Vela.

Substitutes

*  Denilson (4/10) – Did nothing after coming on in the 80^th minute for Fabregas. With the points in the bag, he was plunged into the shut up shop and so was it.

* Arshavin (4/10) – Also came on to shut up shop as we had already sealed the points. He replaced Walcott on the right wing and was promptly not seen or heard for the rest of the ten minutes left in the game.

* Gibbs (4/10) – He came on in the 87^th minute for Nasri and occupied the left wing in front of Clichy. Nothing required of him. Nothing delivered.

Hazardous times ahead for Rosicky

In our eternal attempt to read between the lines and decode what goes on inside the cavernous brain cells of Mr Wenger, its guessing time again.

Moments after we were held to a frustrating draw by Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City last week, Wenger came out to uncharacteristically announce that the club was keen on making a move for Lille’s midfield starlet, Eden Hazard. He used words very similar to the ones paraphrased below:

“"Let us try to make his dream come true". We are following him. Personally I think he has real talent and the level needed to play at Arsenal. But in the offensive department we have many players. At the end of the season we'll have a look at the situation."

Interestingly, Wenger was speaking just 24 hours after the Belgian player turned 20. As strange as such an admission is, especially coming from Wenger who never speaks about potential transfer targets and is more secretive than Swiss banks when it comes to the movement of players in and out of the club, it was a major concession. The man described as an “old fox” by Barcelona’s president, Sandro Rosell during the peak of the CescFabregas will-he-go-or-will-he-stay saga over the summer, must surely know a lot that we bemused fans don’t know. Or something seismic is about to happen within the playing ranks come the next summer.

The boy who will be king.....Eden Hazard leaves Liverpool players in his wake

So as we all await the arrival of the much-hyped Hazard in the summer, methinks it is safe to conclude that his coming must signal the end of someone else at the club. A player or two will head for the exit door because as Wenger himself admitted, the offensive department is one area where the club is overloaded. In that department, we have El Capitan Fabregas leading the pack. He is then supported by the cast of Samir Nasri, Jack Wilshire, Abou Diaby, Tomas Rosicky, the returning Aaron Ramsey and sometimes if need be, Denilson. That’s a total of seven players vying for a maximum of two spots in a game.

This season so far, we have seen Fabregas and Jack Wilshire enjoy the lion share of playing over and above the rest of the offensive players. The rest have had to settle for cameo roles as they have drifted in and out of the team for varying reasons and at different stages.

What this means therefore, as mentioned earlier is that the coming of Hazard can only further increase the population of attacking midfielders in an already-overpopulated part of the team. So, who would have to make way for the little Belgian?

My pick of the bunch for the exit door will have to be Tomas Rosicky. At 30, he is at the sunset of his career and this is no Indian summer kind of sunset. Since missing almost the whole of season 2008-2009 to ligament injuries, he hasn’t found his rhythm. He still possesses a keen eye for the pass and can still pick out teammates from a distance but those instances are very far in between and increasingly infrequent. Talk of Golden Oldies but sadly, Tomas doesn’t belong in that category.

His long and persistent battles with injuries have taken something away from his game and he avoids contact as much as a bag of sand avoids contact with water. He has lost the stomach for an old-fashioned scrap and as far as I am concerned, I count us one player short anytime he starts.

For an offensive player however, it is going forward that Wenger really rates them. The wily coach that he is, he has always, always loved to used attacking midfielders as some sort of surrogate striker. His spell at Arsenal is littered with attacking midfielders whom he has adapted to the role of strikers, thus making them difficult to pigeon-hole. Since the dawn of time (literally that is), Wenger has loved to unleash midfielders who pop up allover the pitch and ghost their way into the opponents’18 yard box to score and yet they are not strikers. Mention the likes of Ray Parlour, Emmanuel Petit, Fredrik Ljunjberg, Robert Pires, Fabregas and even the unfortunate Ramsey. They all drifted behind strikers but apart from the pass, they are onto the ball in a flash with the sole intention of hitting the net. Ljunjberg in particular was a master of such tactic.

When Rosicky,otherwise known as ‘Little Mozart’ after his musical maestro countryman was bought from Borussia Dortmund in 2006, that must have been the role he was acquired to play. Injuries however have seen to all that. His extended spells on the doctor’s table led to the eventual acquisition of Alexander Hleb to play that role, while Fabregas was being given time to mature. Hleb’s ill-advised defection to Barcelona in 2008 finally pushed Fabregas to the fore while Rosicky continued his endless battles with injuries.

Wenger humours him these days by giving him the captain’s armband anytime he starts and Fabregas is not in the side, but the truth remains that Rosicky’s days are numbered. He’s got no legs anymore and gives up the ball at the least pressure. Looking at his stats since coming back from injury at the start of 2009 season, he has played a total of 57games both as a starter and sub. In all those games, he has managed just three goals! For an attacking midfielder, whom Wenger relies on for goals to backup the strikers, those are damning figures. Considering also that this period under review coincided with the times when a key striker, Robin Van Persie was out for a total of nine months with extended injury spells, the role of an attacking midfielder like Rosicky would have been crucial. But sadly, he never took his chances, thus leaving the likes of Fabregas to carry the can and shoulder the burden of supplying goals from the midfield. No wonder Arsenal have remained trophyless till date.

This season so far, Rosicky has made a total of 24 appearances both as a starter and substitute and scored exactly zero goals. Of the 14 starts he made this season, he has been substituted in ten of them. The emergence of Wilshire and the return of Ramsey have made his absences less and less impactful.

So, with the coming of Eden in the summer, it must herald an hazard of sorts for Rosicky. He may not necessarily be judged on the altar of his goalscoring inabilities, but there can be no room anymore for someone with his handicap who due to no fault of his, has inadvertently found himself bringing little or nothing to the table.

Always willing to err on the side of youth, Wenger is one manager who would rather give a young player a chance over and above a fading star. It was why he chose Wilshire above the better-known England international Joe Cole, despite the latter being available on a free from Chelsea. Both players’ season so far has vindicated him100%.

Hazard’s coach at Lille, Rudi Garcia was quoted last year as saying about Hazard that though young at 19, he can still “make progress in all areas”. For the world’s most famous developmental coach, it must be music to Wenger’s ears if he didn’t already know that about Hazard. The ten year age difference between Hazard and Rosicky further makes the case for the Belgian water-tight.

Until the summer transfer window opens in June then, let’s keep our fingers crossed for the fate that lies in wait at Arsenal for the blossoming Belgian and the fading Czech.

Ipswich 1 Arsenal 0

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall…you know the rest of the rhyme. Only a Dumpty with a hump could have crashed so dumbly as we folded and capitulated to Championship strugglers Ipswich Town in the first leg of the Carling Cup semifinal at Portman Road. We lost to a side that had no coach – after firing the highly-decorated but luckless Roy Keane. 

Of course trust Arsene Wenger to rollout the excuses and this time, he didn’t disappoint. This time, the excuse was, fatigue. Fatigue indeed! I’m having a laugh. As if his pampered wimps play everyday of every week. As if those games were played in far-flung places like Vladivostok or Arondizogu in my native Nigeria.

We simply stunk the place out as the likes of Nicklas Bendtner and Andrei ‘the Giant(!)’ Arshavin outdid each other in incompetence. Our players’ collective attempt to sleepwalk their way to a win backfired spectacularly as we were rightly put in our place by Ipswich’s battling men who had nothing to lose. You just have to hand it to Wenger though. He at least conceeded that we lacked “spark”. Cute choice of words. It may be just the first leg of the Carling Cup with the second scheduled for the home comforts of Emirates where we are always expected to annihilate the opposition – not mentioning that the likes of West Brom and Newcastle (who until recently were both campaigning in the same division with Ipswich) beat us a few months back.

Our performance doesn’t bear mention because we did nothing of note all of the 90 minutes, except to extend our lack of a goal from open play to 270 minutes. So, to save everyone unnecessary aggro, let’s just go to the ratings which are in themselves more cause for the sort of aggro Humpty Dumpty must have felt after his great fall.

No sweetness here....Arshavin ruing a poor outing

*Szczesny (7/10) – He may be just 20 and short on experience, But what he lacks in real playing time, he makes up for in ability and determination. He covered his lines well and dealt with everything that Ipswich could conjur in form of an attack. Until the 79^th minute that is. He still prevented an even more embarrassing situation by saving from Carlos Edward’s point blank shot after the speedy winger had evaded our ramshackle offside trap in the 83^rd minute. It was his second straight game in the starting eleven and if he continues this form, he won’t be overlooked for too long.

·        * Eboue (6/10) – Did well as far as his standards. Didn’t disappoint but didn’t turn the world upside down as well. Enjoyed some freedom and space to overlap in the first half especially and combined well with Walcott in front of him. Enjoying an extended spell in the side due to the suspension of Bacary Sagna and should enjoy it while it lasts before the ‘Sagman’ returns in next week’s FA Cup replay against Leeds.

·         *Koscielny (7/10) – Did well to be fair to him. I’m still mystified why people enjoy slating him. I reckon and keep insisting that he is a fine defender. To tell it as it is, I think he’s been let down a lot by his defensive partners. He is still a top man marker and makes up a lot of ground when it comes to a sprint. Wasn’t at fault for the goal.

·         *Djourou (7/10) – Everytime he files out for us, I always say a silent prayer that he doesn’t pick up an injury. He is world class, if you can describe a 22 year-old bloke who hasn’t played 50 top flight games for Arsenal in his entire career as that. He is still top class and the more games he plays, the more I admire him. If he continues his progress, he’ll soon become our answer to Barcelona’s Gerard Pique. He was directly responsible for the goal though as he was outrun by the determined Tamas Priskin. Will learn though from last night but I still rate him. Highly actually.

·         *Gibbs (6/10) – Did well and with his worrying injury history, we ought to err on the side of caution with him. I still consider him lightweight but he acquitted himself well and dealt with everything that came his way. Bombed forward at every opportunity and helped to neutralise the threat of the tricky Connor Wickham, who is Ipswich’s Golden Boy. Though he still has a considerable way to go before threatening the more-experienced Clichy,  Kieran is still a bundle of talent.

·        * Denilson (6/10) –Went a long way to repairing the damage he caused in the FA Cup with that penalty clanger against Leeds. Stood strong on his feet and held the middle fort well. Tackled back and front a lot; and snapped into tackles with much more gusto. He clearly was a man on a mission and methinks he accomplished it by a mile. Had a good game all round and repaired his reputation to great length.

·         *Wilshire (6/10) – Was his usual busybee self and played some nice balls.The weakness with his game though despite his precociousness, remains that he isn’t direct and penetrating enough. He can be forgiven though because at 19, he’s still learning the ropes. Did well all in all on the night and complimented Denilson well. At least he offers something refreshingly different to the tired Thomas Rosicky.

·        *Fabregas (7/10) – Did his best to lift the team and dictate the play as always but things just didn’t work out for him on the night. Almost gifted Ipswich a soft goal in the early minutes of the second half after he lost ball on the halfway line with the entire defence off their line. He never gave up though and tried to win the game almost singlehandedly, which unless your name is Diego Amando or Christiano Ronaldo, you won’t succeed. Still worked his socks off nonetheless.

·        * Arshavin (5/10) – Is it pure bad luck or bad karma? Whichever or whatever it is, I give up trying to unravel what is eating the little Russian. From the best player of the European Championships in 2008 and onto becoming one of the most-feared players in the world, the little Russian has been reduced to a walking shadow who needs three touches to control a ball and can’t beat defenders from a lower division. His confidence is at rock bottom at the moment and one wonders how much lower you can sink despite his lack of inches. His loss of form continued last night and it is now a crisis.  

·         *Bendtner (5/10) – Can’t bother to waste time and words on this one. He’s just a muppet who looks more and more clumsy everytime he wanders on a pitch. I can tell you right now, he’ll never make it at Arsenal. Not now. Not ever.

·         *Walcott (7/10) – Never short on endeavour. Ran his guts out and got on to the end of some tasty passes. Won a couple of freekicks in good positions, which if we had a reliable deadball specialist, could have yielded goals. Unfortunately, he looked like a lone ranger most of the night.

Substitutes

·         *Chamakh (5/10) – He came on in the 63^rd minute for the bumbling Bendtner but lacked any real service and ended up being swallowed by the Ipswich defence. Looks to be struggling for form after a blistering start to his season.

·         *Song (5/10) – Replaced Wilshire in a double swoop with Chamakh but found it tough to stamp his usual authority.

·        *Vela (4/10) – As long as you don’t have any expectations from this bloke, you’ll not be disappointed. He came on for Arshavin and promptly vanished amidst the 21 other players on the pitch. Typical.