Up Yours, fat sam! I always take great pleasure in watching Arsenal put one past the walrus. Brings a big, silly grin to my face every time. The joy of watching him furiously chomp on that lump of gum in his mouth while watching his team take one up theirs from a bunch of kids is satisfying to say the least. He's a smug bastard I love to hate.
The game was a bit of a nervy affair with fat sam's thugs taking route one on each of their attacks. With the fragility of the Arsenal defence, I was on edge throughout. I missed the first 20-odd minutes of the game and was treated to a pleasant surprise when I switched on the tv and saw a 0-1 scoreline to the Arse.
Theo Walcott had just put Arsenal ahead with a well taken goal - I'm saying it again, he's better off coming in through the middle rather than the wing which gives him too much work to do. Theo is a direct player - if someone else can weave the magic around the box and just pass it to him to put a finishing touch, there's a good chance he'll plant that sucker in. I like...no need to over-complicate matters.
Then things didn't go to plan when b'burn equalised moments later. It was bad defending yet again with Koscielny getting caught out. I thought we were in for another one of those days.
Then at the start of the second half, Arshavin managed to somehow blast one in past a bunch of b'burn defenders ahead of him. The move started with a cross coming in from the right which Cesc managed to only hit against Theo. At that point, like many times before when Arsenal were just not clinical enough in front of goal, I gave a sigh of despair. To my surprise, Arshavin was on hand to finish with aplomb ala-Pires. I like. I miss those days.
The rest of the game was pretty much in Arsenal's control. They stroked the ball around well and kept it out of b'burn's hands. Only one or two unnecessary thru-eye-of-needle passes got cut out with Kosciely being the main culprit. Luckily though, we managed to handle all other long balls that came as a result of those interceptions and survived.
b'burn tried their aerial bombardments with long throws too throughout the game but to no avail. The Arse defence stood firm, miraculously.
Nobody really stood out, for me. Theo scored a terrific goal as did Arshavin but both didn't play huge roles during the game. Cesc was off his best and Robin got subbed in the 1st half. The defence held on but diaby was still shit in the middle with his negative passes and lack of conviction going forward. Chamakh came on for Robin and put in a good, hard-working shift. I like.
Internationals next so I hope the boys come back unscathed.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
A 666 weekend: Arsenal 6 - 0 Blackpool
What a thumping victory. Enjoy it, certainly, but we still have a long road ahead.
From the match I think this scoreline goes down mainly because of how poor Blackpool's goalie was. A number of the shots that went in were close enough to him to stop (i.e. Chamakh's goal).
Walcott scored a hat-trick and I'm very happy for him. He's had it tough in his time at Arsenal. All his goals came from a more central position, which I think is his best position. As long as he doesn't have to hold up the ball, he'll do well to make runs in off a ball winner up front. Perhaps he'll forge a good partnership with Chamakh with Robin moving out wide.
Walcott can't dribble that well and his passing still leaves much to be desired....but the one thing he can do is play a more direct game and shoot when give the chance in the box.
I like Chamakh. He works hard and you could see he was trying really hard to get his first goal for the club. Perhaps it was this anxiety that caused him to miss several chances including a gilt-edged chance when Arshavin crossed perfectly to him in the middle and it would probably have been more difficult to miss like he did. But persistence pays and he eventually got off the mark with a good header in the latter stages of the game....which like I said earlier, was probably more save-able than not but the Blackpool keeper fluffed his lines.
diaby was poor again. Don't let the goal he netted fool you. Yes, it was taken well but most of his link up play was very negative - turning back towards the Arsenal goal most of the time. The goal simply papers over the crack. I'm glad to see that AW is actually subbing him out these days. Can't we just sub him out of the club permanently?!
Other than that the rest of the team played pretty well....but that could also be down to the opposition being fairly weak. Apart from a 15 minute spell at the start, they hardly even threatened and it became worse after the sending off which I think was the correct call from the ref.
Anyway, no point in reading too much into this result. Let's just hope there's plenty more of these ahead.
Two other teams recorded 6-0 victories over the weekend - chelsea (their 2nd in a row, the bastards) vs a very miserable wigan side and then newcastle stuffed villa which was a surprising result to say the least. Interesting...
From the match I think this scoreline goes down mainly because of how poor Blackpool's goalie was. A number of the shots that went in were close enough to him to stop (i.e. Chamakh's goal).
Walcott scored a hat-trick and I'm very happy for him. He's had it tough in his time at Arsenal. All his goals came from a more central position, which I think is his best position. As long as he doesn't have to hold up the ball, he'll do well to make runs in off a ball winner up front. Perhaps he'll forge a good partnership with Chamakh with Robin moving out wide.
Walcott can't dribble that well and his passing still leaves much to be desired....but the one thing he can do is play a more direct game and shoot when give the chance in the box.
I like Chamakh. He works hard and you could see he was trying really hard to get his first goal for the club. Perhaps it was this anxiety that caused him to miss several chances including a gilt-edged chance when Arshavin crossed perfectly to him in the middle and it would probably have been more difficult to miss like he did. But persistence pays and he eventually got off the mark with a good header in the latter stages of the game....which like I said earlier, was probably more save-able than not but the Blackpool keeper fluffed his lines.
diaby was poor again. Don't let the goal he netted fool you. Yes, it was taken well but most of his link up play was very negative - turning back towards the Arsenal goal most of the time. The goal simply papers over the crack. I'm glad to see that AW is actually subbing him out these days. Can't we just sub him out of the club permanently?!
Other than that the rest of the team played pretty well....but that could also be down to the opposition being fairly weak. Apart from a 15 minute spell at the start, they hardly even threatened and it became worse after the sending off which I think was the correct call from the ref.
Anyway, no point in reading too much into this result. Let's just hope there's plenty more of these ahead.
Two other teams recorded 6-0 victories over the weekend - chelsea (their 2nd in a row, the bastards) vs a very miserable wigan side and then newcastle stuffed villa which was a surprising result to say the least. Interesting...
Monday, August 16, 2010
Mark Schwarzer IS NOT the answer: Liverpool 1 - 1 Arsenal
Start of a new season and it seems that le' Arse haven't quite improved over the last. Giving away goals like they did at the start of the second half is criminal. They tried to be too clever in defense and got punished for it. What made it worse was that almunia was beaten at his near post. Shows his rotten positioning. It didn't help that he was flapping at crosses throughout the game so I don't think he's gonna have an ounce of confidence in him for a while. He's gonna drop a clanger in the next game and it's gonna be down hill even faster from then on.
Arsenal need a competent keeper. I'm not asking for a world beater - just someone who can actually play the part reasonably well. And what makes anyone think that schwarzer is the person to replace him? I don't rate the aussie at all.....and he's old. Sounds like Arsenal fans are getting so desperate that anything would do for now. Mark my words (pun intended), schwarzer is NOT the answer. If we're going nuts on this, I'd rather have that crazy German back any day.arsene, we need an UPGRADE.....schwarzer does not constitute an upgrade whatsoever.
I've been bitching countless times before, diaby is a liability. He weakens any side he's in. Last night he was lazy, slow, gave the ball away, didn't distribute it effectively when he had it, never got stuck in a tackle.....did I mention lazy? Scary part is, this is nothing new. He's been shit for the longest time and why wenger continues to start the little twit is beyond me. diaby is shit and should be shot.....and then shot twice more for good measure.....then have a lorry back up on that little shite.
Hell, even if you don't replace almunia, you absolutely MUST replace diaby.
arshavin wasn't having a great game either. If you ask me, I think it's time to ship him out and recoup what we spent on him. If he's gonna put in that kind of shift, we're better off putting in one of the kids from the reserves. Off with him...
Koscielny did as well as a debutant is expected to do. He's skin-and-bones though. He got a second yellow just before the end for a nothing hand-ball call from the ref. He'll be back.
Another debutant, Chamakh started too and I felt he looked like a pretty decent acquisition. He's still eager to impress though so we'll only know at least mid-way through the season if he's a keeper. It was his industry that got Arsenal the equaliser near the death.
The ever impressive Vermaelen tried very hard to rally the troops and win the game but unfortunately when you have diaby in the side, it's always going to be difficult. Everyone else did well without being outstanding.
Ultimately, Arsenal were lucky to walk away with a draw. l'fool were shite but as usual, this Arsenal squad has a talent for making shite look good.
Arsenal needs to revert back to 4-4-2.
Arsenal need a competent keeper. I'm not asking for a world beater - just someone who can actually play the part reasonably well. And what makes anyone think that schwarzer is the person to replace him? I don't rate the aussie at all.....and he's old. Sounds like Arsenal fans are getting so desperate that anything would do for now. Mark my words (pun intended), schwarzer is NOT the answer. If we're going nuts on this, I'd rather have that crazy German back any day.arsene, we need an UPGRADE.....schwarzer does not constitute an upgrade whatsoever.
I've been bitching countless times before, diaby is a liability. He weakens any side he's in. Last night he was lazy, slow, gave the ball away, didn't distribute it effectively when he had it, never got stuck in a tackle.....did I mention lazy? Scary part is, this is nothing new. He's been shit for the longest time and why wenger continues to start the little twit is beyond me. diaby is shit and should be shot.....and then shot twice more for good measure.....then have a lorry back up on that little shite.
Hell, even if you don't replace almunia, you absolutely MUST replace diaby.
arshavin wasn't having a great game either. If you ask me, I think it's time to ship him out and recoup what we spent on him. If he's gonna put in that kind of shift, we're better off putting in one of the kids from the reserves. Off with him...
Koscielny did as well as a debutant is expected to do. He's skin-and-bones though. He got a second yellow just before the end for a nothing hand-ball call from the ref. He'll be back.
Another debutant, Chamakh started too and I felt he looked like a pretty decent acquisition. He's still eager to impress though so we'll only know at least mid-way through the season if he's a keeper. It was his industry that got Arsenal the equaliser near the death.
The ever impressive Vermaelen tried very hard to rally the troops and win the game but unfortunately when you have diaby in the side, it's always going to be difficult. Everyone else did well without being outstanding.
Ultimately, Arsenal were lucky to walk away with a draw. l'fool were shite but as usual, this Arsenal squad has a talent for making shite look good.
Arsenal needs to revert back to 4-4-2.
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