Squillaci finally signs & a Californian Blackburn preview 27 August, 2010

Good morning from Hermosa Beach California, while you might be tucking into your dinner or getting ready for a Friday night out on the town it’s 9:30am here. Sorry I haven’t kept the blog updates but I am on ‘vacation’ and not a lot has happened. Every morning I’ve woken up here expecting Squillaci’s signing to be announced and every day I’ve been just as confused as the rest of you as to what’s going on. Yesterday news broke that Wenger had confirmed the signing and today I see it’s all official and up on Arsenal.com. He will wear the famous no.18 shirt, made dear to all Arsenal fans by the likes of Silvestre and Cygan.

Wenger says:

“We needed a centre-back of quality and experience if possible, and at the right price – he was all of that,” said Wenger.

“He is a real defender and is good in the one against one, good in the air, and can score goals on set-pieces as well. I believe he will be suited to the English game.”

We’ve captured him for €4 which is a bit of a steal as I expect him to come in and compete directly for a first team spot. Koscielny was a decent signing but he has nowhere near the experience and strength of Squillaci and I feel a bit more confident with him in the side. He trained with us this morning but won’t be involved tomorrow, instead he has another couple of weeks with us to settle in, as there’s an international break next week and should be fighting for a place against Bolton.

Also yesterday was the Champions League draw and I’m pretty happy with our tie of Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga and Partizan Belgrade. Aside from the distance we must travel for the away legs they we can’t really complain about that draw – we should be winning these games. It’s also nice that Eduardo will be coming home so soon, he’ll get a great reception at the Grove.

Right moving on, lets look at tomorrow’s game away at Blackburn. The team news is as follows: Denilson and Koscielny are back in the squad returning from injury and suspension respectively but I’m not expecting the Brazilian to start. He will be joined on the bench by Djourou but Cesc and Robin should be OK to start now. So with that, we could shape up something like this:

Almunia
Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Clichy
Song
Fabregas (c) – Rosicky
Chamakh – van Persie – Arshavin

Picking that team made me realize we’ve got more options that I thought. We’ve also got Diaby, Wilshere, Eboue and Walcott who could easily start but I have a better feeling with the XI I’ve selected there. Theo had a great game last week but this is Blackburn, they will stop those run by taking his legs out and he might be a better option coming on late off the bench. Wilshere will be looking to keep his starting place but with Cesc’s return and Rosicky’s fine form I think he might find himself back on the bench.

Whatever happens though, we’ll field a pretty decent team and one that should be beating Blackburn. Ewood Park is a tough place to go though and we’ve struggled there a number of times in the past. However as this Arsenal team matures you hear a lot about us not allowing teams to bully us anymore. Tomorrow is the first test of this season to prove that and I’m eagerly anticipating our reaction to it.

Not only will Blackburn be rough but also they will close us down, get men behind the ball and fill the gaps. They will attempt to stop our free-flowing football, which is why we need the likes of Fabregas and Rosicky to be on top form to be able to do their stuff in the narrowest of gaps. Arshavin has also been saying this week he wants to be remembered as a magician so how about a bit of magic tomorrow then?

The game is live on Sky Sports 2 for you guys back home and on ESPN2 over here at 4:45am. Unfortunately they only have ESPN in my hotel room so at the moment it looks like I’m going to have to try watch this one over the internet.

Just before the game is the draw for the Kiddies Cup so look out for that and enjoy the game. Thanks for reading, COME ON YOU GUNNERS.

Arsenal 6-0 Blackpool – 21/08/10 – (Premier League) 22 August, 2010

I’m writing today’s match report on the Gatwick Express train still beaming from yesterday’s great performance and emphatic victory. Our 6-0 was not quite so special when Chelsea went and completed the same score against Wigan but that Wigan side lost 4-0 to Blackpool the week before so think how shite they must be. Blackpool were truly outclassed, I’m not bias saying that – they just were. Even manager, Ian Holloway admitted it after the game and spoke of it as a lesson in football:

“It was an absolute education. Everything about the place is class – and this was a master class. The grass is better than my living room carpet. It was an honour to come here and I’m just relieved it wasn’t 10 or 12.”

That’s no exaggeration, yesterday was our biggest league win at the new ground but it could’ve been double what it was. We were creating chance after chance, the Blackpool ‘keeper made a couple great saves and we missed a few sitters so they’re really lucky it was only 6. It was too easy for us really, on Match of The Day last night they were saying they haven’t seen such a one-sided game in the Premiership for as long as they can remember, I can’t either; the visitors started well but when Evatt was sent off early on conceding a penalty leading to our second goal there was no way back.

The complimentary Sunday Telegraph on this train praises Theo Walcott for his performance yesterday but I think everyone is in agreement on that. OK I take Alan Hansen’s point last night about it not being against the best defence but it was still a fantastic display from the 21-year-old.  A well deserves hat trick (which could’ve been more) and a handful of great assists probably make it the best I’ve ever seen Theo play live.

They were three well-taken goals too, his finishing has been a criticism of his and apart from one or two miss-shots yesterday he was perfect every time. The first a simple low-driven shot into the opposite corner after a great pass and move build up, the second he picked the ball up in the box with his back to goal, turned and shot and the third was a great move coming in from the right weaving through the box curving it low into the bottom corner. Great stuff from Theo, now lets see if he can reproduce it at a higher level.

As I said the second came from the penalty spot, Arshavin the scoring putting it perfectly in the corner, the other two came from Diaby and Chamakh, who will still be rueing missing a tap-in but will be glad to get on the score sheet on his full home debut. It was the sort of goal we signed him for, a perfect van Persie cross and Chamakh rose way above the crowd to head it in.

The corner came off the back of a nice piece of Vela skill, chipping the ball over three players heads before seeing his shot get deflected for a corner. He came on for the last 25 minutes. A couple of minutes before that Fabregas and van Persie we introduced, this point at 5-0 down Blackpool must’ve been shitting themselves. Cesc came on to a massive reception, “WE’VE GOT CESC FABREGAS” rang round the ground before he’d even stepped on the pitch and when he did come on there was a massive cheer. However I never once saw him that bothered by it; he was probably just focussed on the game and he did make a few good passes and tackles in his half an hour run-out but I didn’t see him acknowledge the crowd once the whole time, even when he went over to take corners to a standing ovation. Maybe he did and I just missed it but he seemed to play the whole match with his head down, either sulking, tired or focussed on the game. Lets not focus on this too much though, he’s our for now so lets just enjoy him – just a shame not to see him his usual self exchanging applause with the fans and such.

Before the game was the official unveiling of the new stand names, The North Bank, The Clock End, The East Stand and The West Stand. Also the new Clock End clock was up and running plus new banners, into music and montages. The pre-game atmosphere was great and looked fantastic so a tip of my hat to your Sir, Ivan Gazidis. I don’t think the club got their ‘We’re the North Bank…etc. etc.” that they expected but that might come with time, I think people are happy just to finally see ‘The Emirates’ feeling more like home.

So in all, a great day yesterday. Every so often you watch Arsenal and they put in a display that you know they’re capable of. The passing was exceptional, some good goals were scored, there were great performances all round and it wasn’t even our best team. The only complaint you can have is that we didn’t finish off a few more of our chances but that’s just petty. Yes, Blackpool weren’t of the same standard as us and they did have 10 men but we should be playing football like that if those are the circumstances.

There’s no WIFI on this train so I’m hoping there is at the airport so I can post this before I can get on my flight. I’m off to Las Vegas and Los Angeles for a few days so I don’t know how regular posting on here will be.

Thanks for reading and speak to you soon. Come on you Gunners!

Frimpong could be out for the season and Squillaci could be on his way 19 August, 2010

Bad news is breaking this afternoon that Emmanuel Frimpong has done his cruciate ligaments and will be out for 9 months (the whole season). The story is spreading on twitter and Young Guns are reporting it too. He’s with the reserves in Ireland for a mini-tournament out there with United’s reserves and Shamrock Rovers but obviously wont play any part after this bad injury in training.

Frimpong played a large part in pre-season this year and was looking to break into the first team as cover for Alex Song but it looks like that’s not going to happen until the 2011/12 season now. It’s such a shame to get an injury like this and I hope he can fulfil the potential he has shown in the future. There’s no official word on this yet from Arsenal.com but I’m expecting something soon, the initial diagnoses says he’ll be out until May so I’m not counting on seeing anything from him again this season.

Edit: It’s official. Six to nine months they say.

So that leaves us a bit short in defensive midfield, our back up to Song is… no one. Wenger will play Denilson there no doubt but I still can’t agree that he can play there. However I don’t think that means Arsene will buy anyone other than a defender or a goalkeeper this transfer window. Denilson will get game time there, whether we like it or not and there’s Craig Eastmond who broke into the side last year but looked like being overtaken by Frimpong this season; this might be Eastmond’s chance to establish himself now.

In transfer news we’ve had a bid turned down for Sevilla’s Sebastien Squillaci. He was left out of the side’s Champions League qualifier against Braga to avoid being cup-tied and Sevilla have confirmed that it was due to an approach from Arsenal. They have described the current offer as ‘insufficient’ but their decision to allow Squillaci to sit out last night’s game leads to me believe they will listen to further offers for him. He’s 30, which would be an unusual signing for Wenger, but we have lost a lot of experience in defence with Campbell, Gallas and Silvestre all moving on. Squillaci has won a lot of trophies in his career so maybe Arsene has seen that as a quality he thinks we need to add to our squad.

He wont be coming in as first choice, but instead a direct competitor for Djourou and Koscielny to be Vermaelen’s partner. That will be really healthy for the squad to have those three fighting to make the first team. Other clubs would just splash out £20m or £30m if they needed a first choice central defender but we can’t really justify spending that much on one player, as much as I’d like to see us make a bold move in the transfer market like that I just don’t see us doing it at the moment. This could be a good addition if it does go through and it would mean we have 4 decent centre backs in the squad. Squillaci plus one more would be perfect but we’ll see how this story develops.

Finally today, it looks like Lansbury could be joining Watt on loan at Leeds and Jay Simpson is close to securing a transfer to Hull.

Tomorrow will be Arsene’s pre-Blackpool press conference so expect to hear a load of news on Nasri, Frimpong, Schwazer and Squillaci. This is the second day in the row I’ve had to report an injury so hopefully no more tomorrow Arsene.

Thanks for reading.

Nasri’s bloody injured, Djourou’s not & news round up 18 August, 2010

News broke earlier today that Samir Nasri will undergo minor knee surgery that will see him out for at least a month. It was a shock and a massive disappointment hearing the news, not only because he was out stand-out player in pre-season but that it has only been announced now that he picked up an injury on Sunday – I was totally unaware he had a problem and looked fine all 90 minutes. Well it was confirmed today that he picked up a meniscal injury, which with a quick Google tells me that he’s torn the cartilage in his knee.

This was supposed to be Samir’s season; he’s fully settled in England now and talk from the training camp is that he’s twice the player compared with when he arrived. He had a fantastic pre-season winning man of the match almost every game, that was coming off the back of missing out on the World Cup and is obviously out to prove a point. I have always been a fan of Nasri and I was surprised to see that he wasn’t selected for France, we benefited from that though having him back from the summer all fresh and very hungry. But now this, I hope he can return from the lay-off and come straight into the side with the impressive form he’s shown already this season. Get well soon Samir.

I guess this injury is good news for Jack Wilshere though who will almost certainly continue in to side for at least a few more games. Chances like this are what turns a reserve/youth player into a proper first team member so hopefully he benefits from it. Also coming in is Cesc Fabregas who missed the opener through a lack of match fitness but should be back by now. He has all this week to get ready for Blackpool on Saturday and I expect to see our captain starting. I’m really looking forward to our opening home game, it was nice to be back for the Emirates Cup but this is for real now and I can’t wait. I’m sure all you with tickets are getting excited too and the club are urging us to get in extra early on Saturday for the official renaming of the stands including the new Clock End clock and unveiling of some new banners. So make sure you’re at your seat at 2.45pm the latest, I know I will be.

Back to injury news and it appears Johan Djourou is fit which is handy with Koscielny’s one match suspension coming up. Johan has had terrible luck with injuries his whole career and I’m surprised to hear that he’s fit actually because I thought I heard he had another couple of weeks out but we’ll hear confirmation from Arsene on Friday. If that Telegraph article is correct then I’m looking forward to seeing Djourou play and hoping he can maintain a bit of fitness for a while, we’re dangerously low on centre backs at the moment so we can’t have everyone getting injured and sent off.

Hopefully Arsene has a signing up his sleeve though; he’s said a few times that he intends to add at least one more centre back but I’m not hearing anything as yet. The only news today is that we could be in fact losing one more defender in Armand Traore. Well, you can argue if the term ‘defender’ is an accurate description of his job title. I don’t think anyone will have any complaints about letting him go though, he’s the third choice left back so he’s probably not going to get any game time here. If there are unlikely quite possible injuries to both Clichy and Gibbs I’m sure we’ll manage with some Flamini-style replacement anyway like we did in 2006.

David Seaman thinks we should buy Schwazer and Fabianski would like us to sing his name. Maybe one day we will.

That’s about it really for today, as I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere the Arsenal Fanshare scheme was launched today. I think it’s a great idea but I haven’t decided yet whether I’m going to get involved buying a 1/100th of a share for £100 but it’d be nice to own a tiny piece of Arsenal and get to go to the AGM meetings and things. Maybe I will. If you want to read more on this go here.

Build up to the Blackpool game to come this week. Until then.

A look at the ‘keepers: Almunia, Given or Schwarzer? 17 August, 2010

I came across this yesterday from ex-captain Stewart Robson saying that he thinks Manuel Almunia is a better option than both Mark Schwarzer and Shay Given and it got me thinking. It made me look back to not last season, but the one before when Manuel established himself in the Premier League and actually looked like a decent ‘keeper. We were very happy with him as a successor to Lehmann and we were even singing for him to take the no.1 shirt for England. However it all went wrong for him last season, a massive drop in confidence affected the whole defence and since then we’ve been linked with a move for a new goalkeeper. This is what Robson said on Sky Sports News yesterday:

“I don’t see that Schwarzer, the player that everybody’s talking about, is a better goalkeeper than Almunia – I think Almunia’s a better goalkeeper than Schwarzer.

Shay Given is a very good shot-stopper, but most of the criticism of Arsenal’s goalkeepers is that they don’t come for crosses or haven’t been dominant in the air. Shay Given’s not that goalkeeper. He’s a very good goalkeeper, we all know that, but he’s more of a shot-stopper than someone who’s going to dominate his penalty area.

It’s true that our problem is the organization of the defence and dealing with balls in the air, Almunia isn’t a bad shot stopper on his day, not as good as Given but not bad. He went on to say that he thinks we can win the league with Almunia in goal but we have our defensive strategy to sort out, he defends the ‘keeper saying our defenders need to up their game too and Almunia really isn’t as bad as Arsenal fans make out.

Maybe he’s not, but we’ve seen him make too many mistakes now and I’m afraid being a goalkeeper you get judged by your mistakes. He’s made some great saves in his time at Arsenal you cant deny that but the fans have forgotten about that now due to all the dropped balls, missed crosses, bad decision making and poor ball-handling. You could see clearly how badly that affected the defence in front of him, they no longer trusted the ‘keeper behind them, they didn’t know what he was going to do and it made them nervous and jittery too. I’m afraid it might be too late for Manuel now, he may still have the talent to make it but the damage has been done already.

This is illustrated perfectly by this image of Almunia missing a cross against Liverpool on Sunday leaving Sagna and Clichy bewildered on the line. Pretty funny actually! The image is from an interview with the current no.1 saying he may look to leave if we bring a new goalie in. You can’t blame him for saying that but in an ideal world I’d want him to stay, he’s a great no.2 goalkeeper – I don’t think he’s quite good enough to be the permanent choice but can fill in well when needed. However with a taste of first team football now I wouldn’t be surprised if he left.

As for the options for his replacements well we all know about Mark Shwarzer and Shay Given. The Manchester City goalie looks to have lost his place as no.1 thanks to the emerging Joe Hart who put in a great performance against Spurs. Given made it quite clear that he’s not happy to sit on the bench and will look for first team football elsewhere if not selected. Obviously he’s going to be linked with Arsenal straight away but I don’t think it’s going to happen if I’m honest with you. Why would City allow a rival to strengthen their squad? There’s a chance they might let us have him but I doubt it as it looks like they are ruling out a move to Tottenham for Craig Bellamy. It’s not like they need the money, they can do whatever they please. I imagine a move to Celtic or a team outside of the Premiership’s top six will be more likely for the Ireland no.1.

Given’s former team mate at Newcastle, Warren Barton has been misquoted about his future. Typical Sport.co.uk have used the headline ‘Barton: Given is going to Arsenal’ when all he has said is that he could see him at the club. Many Arsenal fans have seen this and taken it as a given that he’s on the way (no pun intended). He could be, but I think this is just a case of Sport.co.uk twisting quotes again.

I think the most likely options is Schwarzer. He’s actually handed in a transfer request, Fulham didn’t play him at the weekend, he says he wants to come to Arsenal and we are actually interested in him – all signs point towards a move. At the weekend Fulham played second choice David Stockdale against Bolton claiming Schwarzer was ‘injured’ and the 24-year-old put in a great performance. It has left Fulham fans a bit more relieved about the whole situation. I think the main thing stopping a potential move to Arsenal would be if they couldn’t find a replacement for him but they may already have one in Stockdale; maybe Given will even join up with former boss Mark Hughes at Fulham, who knows?

So a move for Schwarzer looks like it could be on the cards. I take into account Almunia’s past good performances for Arsenal but as I said I think the damage has been done now. A new, reliable ‘keeper would do the defence’s confidence a world of good and hopefully bring a bit of defensive stability to the squad. All it takes now is for us to make an acceptable offer and we have ourselves an established, respected Premier League goalkeeper.

This doesn’t get away from the fact that we still need one or two more centre backs but one baby step at a time guys…

Thanks for reading.

Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal – 15/08/10 – (Premier League) 16 August, 2010

So we’re back underway with a new Premier League season and I guess at the end of the day I’m happy with a point. Anfield is always a tricky place to go, it’s one of the hardest opening fixtures I can remember us having and going into the match I probably would’ve taken the draw if it was offered to me.

A lot of the pre-match talk was on who we were actually going to play, with so many injuries already, a couple of players not quite match-fit yet and a goalkeeping dilemma that just wont go away it was anyones guess. Before the match Arsene said whoever he picked in goal would be his no.1 for the season, whether that meant we weren’t signing anyone or not I don’t know but I think a lot of us were worried he would stick Fabianski in nets for the season. In the end he did the right thing starting with Almunia but it was obvious we still need a signing there. With Mark Schwarzer‎ handing in a transfer request and Shay Given set to do the same with Joe Hart being picked this weekend I think we will be close to signing one of the two before the transfer window closes.

The two new additions we have already made had eventful games yesterday. Koscielny and Chamakh can be reasonably happy with their debuts I think, the latter was named Arsenal.com man of the match which I guess was for his part in our goal or for the fact you couldn’t really pick a stand out player yesterday. Koscielny can be happy to for the simple fact he hasn’t got a broken leg. Joe Cole was rightfully sent off just before half time for a wild lunge on our new centre back. I accept that Cole was probably just trying to get a block on the ball but it was ridiculous challenge, especially in that area of the pitch and he was lucky not to have broken Laurent’s leg.

I felt that we made a good start to the season with those first 45 minutes; we had lots of the ball and looked threatening but just lacked that little bit extra in the final third.  With Liverpool down to 10 men and some tasty options to come off the bench I fancied us for the second half. However that was all scrapped when Wilshere miscontrolled on the edge of our own box allowing Liverpool in and David N’Gog to make it 1-0 just seconds into the second half.

It galvanized the home side and for a long period we found it hard to break down the 10 men. Wenger finally made some changes bringing on Rosicky and Walcott for Eboue and Wilshere. Eboue looked upset to be taken off but we needed Theo on to threaten Liverpool and Arsene went for a straight swap on the right, as for Jack well his first league start for Arsenal wasn’t his greatest performance, he looked a bit out of his depth but it’s early days for him I’m sure he’ll do much better if selected next week.

I was praying for van Persie to come on and eventually he did with 10 minutes to go. Once all three of our subs had been made we really did look like scoring. Rosicky missed a great chance late on when his quick feet on the edge of the box made room for a shot that looked like it might’ve just been dipping under the bar but Reina made a great fingertip save. It was looking like we were heading for an undeserved opening day loss when in the 90th minute Chamakh rose for header beating Reina to it, the shot hit the post but rebounded back into the Spanish keeper and he embarrassingly fumbled it over the line. There was a few moments of uncertainty whether the referee might give a foul on Chamakh but he saw nothing wrong and the goal stood. What a relief! I know everyone’s said this already but it’s just perfect karma for his part in the Barcelona shirt ‘prank’ on Cesc Fabregas.

In the 5 minutes of injury time we pushed for a winner but I think the draw was a fair result in the end. Debut-boy Koscielny was sent off for a completely undeserved second yellow with a few minutes to go; the ball was kicked up into his arms and there was nothing he could do about it. I don’t know if we can appeal it but I certainly think we should, it was the definition of ball-to-hand. It leaves us very short at the back with a one-match suspension for Laurant, however I guess we can look on the bright side that he’s not out for months with a broken leg. Our only first team centre back is Vermaelen and unless Wenger makes that signing in the next few days we’re going to have to play Song or Nordveit there. Alex Song was on the bench yesterday so maybe he will be alright to start this Saturday, I would be confident with him at the back next week but it doesn’t get away from the fact that we’re desperate for at least one more defender, ideally two.

The match proved that Wenger still has lots of work to do in the transfer market and needs to get it done quickly. I believe Schwarzer‎ could arrive imminently and I’m hoping a top class defender too. We’ve only played one match and we’re already in a crisis with the squad down to the bare bones! Same old Arsenal, we’ve missed you.

Thanks for reading.

Off to Ireland 4 August, 2010

Just a quick update to let you know I won’t be around much for the next week. I’m heading to Heathrow in a bit to fly to a remote part of Ireland that still isn’t quite sure what this internet business is yet. If somehow I find a computer with access I might update but don’t hold your breath.

Hope you all enjoyed the Emirates Cup last weekend, Frimpong and Wilshere continued to impress and look like they could play an important role in the first team squad this season. New signings Chamakh and Koscielny didn’t do badly either but we’re still on the look out for at least one more defender. I’m hearing we’re still interested in Per Mertesacker but this new guy Emir Spahic looks the most likely new addition at the moment. He’s highly rated in Ligue 1 and I hear he’s a bit of a nutter which is always welcome at Arsenal. Maybe they’ll be some developments on that over the next week so check out some of the other excellent blogs on the links bar.

Alright I best be off to the airport then. See you soon.