Transfer Money Banked. Table Topped. Arsene Knows Alright!
Sep 20th, 2008 by 'holic
A month ago there were those who were calling for heads to roll after the defeat at Fulham. Deadline day came and went without the arrival of the reinforcements that we all agreed were needed. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse were apparently knocking on the doors of the Grove.
The last twenty-four hours must have felt very sweet indeed to the one man who did not panic as hysteria threatened to run riot. The impressive numbers generated by the football side of the business and announced yesterday had surely been achieved at the expense of the team? Well, no, not really.
Arsene Wenger had not been able to get the players he wanted and the cash generated by his vision remains banked for future use if he deems it necessary. Tonight the bedtime glass of Morgon will taste all the better as he surveys the rest of the Premiership once again from the summit.
He will be the first to admit that the big challenges remain in the future. Unlike Manchester United, who follow a defeat at Anfield with a trip to Stamford Bridge, Arsenal have yet to oppose their top four rivals this term. Yet you can only beat what is put in front of you, and the fact is that the diabolical performance at Craven Cottage has been followed by three straight wins, two of which were in the north west, and ten goals have been scored in the process.
It may have been so different. At Bolton, Arsenal once again went to sleep from a set piece, and Kevin Davies (please don’t spit like that in front of the kids) headed the hosts in front. When that happened a month ago we rolled over and let an average side tickle our collective tummies. It was so different at the Reebok.
There followed a half hour spell of football, the like of which is the reason we will draw admiration and envy in equal measure. The instigators were not the usual suspects. Denilson, Song, and Eboue prompted, probed, and ran their opposite numbers into the ground. Bendtner showed an appetite, and aptitude, that was a joy to behold.
We could have scored a hatful in that spell. Adebayor and Song both struck a post before the ‘Ivorian Maradonna’ scored his first Premiership goal to equalise. Emmanuel is rapidly staking a claim for cult status, and for once the travelling Gooners could be sure that the home fans really had ‘only come to see Eboue’.
Another flowing move ended with Denilson setting up Bendtner for a thoroughly deserved finish. At 2-1 we were threatening to run up a cricket score, but this would not be Bolton without what followed. Kevin Davies ‘challenge’ on Gael Clichy was reckless. He was not in a position to pull out of the lunge that resulted in the young French left-back being taken to hospital for x-rays.
The second-half provided a complete contrast. I must confess I would have switched Gallas to left-back and played Djourou in the middle to minimise the disruption caused by the withdrawal of Clichy. Instead the Swiss came on at right-back and the excellent Sagna was switched to the left. Neither seemed entirely confident as Bolton once again threatened to snatch something.
That is they might have done, had Wenger not introduced Theo Walcott to run at tiring defenders. Four minutes remained when Walcott just galloped through the entire Bolton midfield and fed Adebayor, whose cross was stroked home by man-of-the-match Denilson.
I was less than impressed by the questions fired at Cesc Fabregas before he had time to mop the sweat from his brow. I cannot agree with his assertion that the Davies challenge was worse than that which earned Abou Diaby a red card on the same ground last season, but it was certainly of a similar nature. A reckless challenge bound to injure an opponent. Wenger, sensibly and somewhat amusingly claimed to have missed it.
So here I am, a month after the whole world seemed to be caving in, sipping at a twelve year old special reserve malt, listening to Al Green on the iPod singing ‘What More Do You Want From Me?’
Good question, Reverend.
33 Responses to “Transfer Money Banked. Table Topped. Arsene Knows Alright!”
That’s how to stick it to dirty scumbag hackers
Oh and I’ll have a Whisky please ‘Holic – you’re choice
to sayarsene knows to me right now is an understatement. “arsene is a genious” is a more respectable slogan for our manger. record profits announced, transfere money saved, top of the table with 10 goals from 3matches and just one conceded.
those facts just prove the genious wenger is.
well pleased with that result and I think we have more left in the tank. who would have thought Song and Eboue would become key players?!!!
yo yo yo.
great result.
one would like a pint of ale, tomato juice, worcester sauce and butter please.
i thank you
Lovely 3 points. 2 wins in the hideous Norf West too.
Top. Of. The. League!
to think we played without van persie, eduardo, rosicky nasri, vela and for the most part walcott. silvestre and diaby are out and whoever else i’m forgetting.
our squad is fantastic. as for those who think we need a new dm, i personally prefer song there to denilson, but the fact that these two are both really making a shout for it is very encouraging.
top of the table and how it feels good (not that it was that surprising).
i can’t count how many times the words strength in depth, investment and big money signings have been mentioned and i can’t count how many times it has proven to be mostly nothing but hot air from excitable media morons. we proved that you don’t have to spend big last year and losing out to utd by what 4 points when they spent £50+ mil on a league winning squad says enough. it’s all meaningless.
if we could be guarateed success by such a small margin by spending £50 mil on an already great squad or make a profit, have some morals and finish 4 points behind i#d take 4 points behind please. as it happens there’s no good reason why our ‘weak’ squad which is ‘in crisis’ won’t go on to win the league regardless.
I wasn’t particularly impressed with Song. He’s better defensively than Denilson but his passing under pressure and control often let him down.
Very will written piece. Especially the line about the 4 riders.
Sorry – had too much wine – very well written piece.
wenger is an absolute genius! i really think this is the year that we will suprise everyone… who needs average players like barry, inler etc? up the arse!!
Two great games in a row for Alex Song. He’s meriting an extended run in the defensive mid-field role. As a real bonus, he’s a great asset at corners and isn’t afraid to hoot when he gets a sight of goal.
I think Denilson was superb today and I really liked Ramsey’s contribution when he came on.
Off for a barbie and a glass of red as the sun sinks slowly over the Virginia horizon. Life here is a bit difficult at the moment with the USA leading in the Ryder cup.
A nil-nil result from tomorrows game would suit nicely.
Never had a doubt that Wenger knew what he was doing…Where’s Ben???
Except for the Fulham game Denilson has been playing consistently well, man of the match today I only wished I’d made him my Fantasy team Captain.
Ade has been taking extra lessons, flagged offsides twice and that was after the game was won.
Brilliant reult today. Defence was a joke again and in that way we were lucky to get away with the inability to deal with high balls into the box. But today is really about how good we can be. Denilson, Eboue, Bendtner and Song all played very well today. Some of Songs passing went astray but he could well become a major player for us, i thought his covering for the defence across the whole pitch was excellent he needs a run in the team. Denilson had dodgy moments too but he also had so many great moments his part in the Bendtner goal (crazy drag back / back heel thing, then run and cross) was world class. This squad has more options in it than i thought. Disagree that Cesc had a good game i thought he was 50% of his high standard. We will be even netter when he hits form. A lot of the team looked tired in the second half otherwise i think it would have been a lot worse for Bolton. And think about that last Denilson goal, he has played all our games, a huge step up, he must be as tired as any of the players but he is the one making a lung bursting run into the box in the 87th minute to get the goal that kills the game, sheer class, what a player he could become for us. Happy days!
Berghamp’s the Man, I thought Song’s “hooting” was excellent too – off putting for the opponents and boosting the morale of our players !!
Fantastic and well deserved win for Arsenal.
I thought it was an outstanding display, particularly from Cesc (getting back to his old self), Denilson, Bendtner (control, movemnet, passing, vision all improving game by game), Eboue and Walcott. Ade seems to be adding more to his game too.
Nevertheless we cannot sit on our laurels. We still need to sort our defensive frailties because, if we dont’t, we’ll get punished by the big boys. No one challenged Davies when he scored and we are exposing too many gaps and getting caught as if flat footed in defence – although I must congratulate Toure for some brilliant well timed tackling in the box on Gardner.
All round a super display. I’ll enjoy my day out with the kids even more later today.
Damned….I missed an acknowledgement for ‘Sideshow’ Song too. He is strong, pretty quick, a good positional player, breaks up and frustrates play very well and, as someone has already said, is not fearful of shooting.
I personally didn’t agree with a lot of posters regarding his (supposedly great) performance against Kiev but was well impressed with his contribution today.
Respect to the big fella 🙂
A very good solid performance after three long trips in the past 7 days. I thought we looked a bit tired at the end but loved the fight and spirit. Very soft goal to give away. Something we need to sort out sooner rather than later. The football that followed that was sublime. A bit of luck with the posts and it could have been a cricket score.
Loved the idea of Theo on the bench. The way he has developed recently has been awesome. Come on with 20 to go against a team we have run ragged???? Fantastic. Bolton players changing their shorts at every available moment.
Want to give some praise to Almunia. I am sure I am not the only one who had my doubts. But as each game goes on he just seems to get better and better. His handling was superb. He also appears to instil confidence into those in front of him.
Finally, doesn’t the table look great? The Arsenal sitting proudly at the top. Spuds firmly routed at the foot. There has got to be potential for a T Shirt there, as I raise my Wells Bombardier in a toast to a man that quite obviously does know…….
Great start to the season and I hate to piss on the proverbial parade but there are a lot of games left to play.
Although things look promising at the moment let’s not get carried away until Christmas at least.
Come on you Goons!!!
Great result today. But one thing i feel that everyone has not talked about is how reliable almunia has become. When lehmann left arsenal several fans questioned how his replacement would fill in the gap left between the posts. So far, Almunia may look casual at times when running out, but hes certainly become more reliable as the days go by.
the full stretch save from the davies’ dipping shot was pretty sweet.
Yep, Almunia truly does deserve our respect as well as a big mention. He rarely gives interviews (I often wonder if any of the big journos want to interview the fella!?) and just quietly and humbly gets on with his job. I personally think one of the hallmarks of a truly great goalkeeper is when they can deliver a world class save, as if from nowhere, when the flow of play is in their teams favour. Almunia has done that already a few times this season. He seems more dependable than ever.
I still think he needs to command his area a bit more solidly. His positioning can often lead him into trouble but he seems to recognize this and is improving.
My opinion is that we are some way from challenging for the league title this campaign and obviously have lessons to learn from our experiences last year. But the signs are definitely there and Arsene clearly knows.
I can’t help but notice how it seems a lot of the usual doubting Thomas’ have suddenly gone quiet. I’ll raise a pint of cool San Miguel to that!!
rayman, you said: Defence was a joke again and in that way we were lucky to get away with the inability to deal with high balls into the box.
Agreed the defence was a joke for their goal (how many more times?), but apart from that, Bolton played dozens of high balls into the box and we dealt with them all. Surely some credit due.
Don, I don’t get it. You say we are some way from challenging and then have a go at the doubting Thomas’. We may or may not win it this year, but we’ll certainly be up there challenging.
Good morning Gerry.
Perhaps I have not explained my cautious optimism well enough. Off course, there can be no doubting we will be ‘up there’ come the seasons end. The ‘long way’ comment was simply referring to there being a long way to go till the end of the season.
We have not yet met Chelsea, Man United or Liverpool and it would be great to see the same sort of performances repeated against that lot – we showed last year we were capable (I’m already looking forward to November!)!!
So I ultimately agree with you. I’m perhaps being a little more cautious mainly because it is a very long season ahead.
OK Don, I get it now! Yes, we are in agreement. I’m delighted with our recent performances but as you say, we won’t know until we play a decent team, so I’m not getting carried away.
Goodplaya made a good point in his match report about the midfield becoming ‘de-hlebbed’. We seem to have no end of quick, versatile players who can run at defences and have the skills and vision to find space for shots on goal. The endless sideways movement has been replaced with a much greater urgency.
I’m delighted with Walcott and Denilson, and especially Song and Eboue, who are suddenly showing why Arsene had such faith in them (I certainly didn’t). We’ve got so many options now, and more to come when our injured players return.
We’re still probably shite at screening the defence, but hey……
Nice work guys, and a great point about Almunia, Don. I have to confess to fearing he would never be an Arsenal ‘keeper after Paris, but he has clearly worked very hard at the positioning side of his game and I really do believe he is now as good as anybody in the Premiership. He deserves all the credit in the world for that.
Coffee please, ‘holic. I trust you have a coffee machine here…
Nice post ‘holic. You always seem to calm my rage somehow 🙂
Hi Marv,
It’s nice to see that positivity has returned to the comments sections of the blogs!
Just need to get some of that positivity back in the boozer too – watched the game in the Gunners yesterday, didn’t seem to be anyone up for singing, and was very taken aback by several people’s mutterings about Bendtner not being up to the job, when yet again he scores a goal to take us into the lead.
Another good result in the north west and surely we have now put to bed the silly “they don`t like it up `em” or “we know how to handle Arsenal” quotes emanating from Bolton in particular. Tomorrows Premier League table is of course a cut out and keep special with Chelsea failing to beat the mancs and the spuds once again booed off the pitch following the dire 0-0 at home to Wigan. I can`t wait for the Hull game to enjoy a nice pre-match pint (or few) and a hopefully stress-free game.
Dear Monsieur Goonerholic,
you are a star.
However, bear with me, I think I’ll read your blogs when I have time to come back to sanity, so that’ll be some catching up.
In the meantime, any nice drink will do the trick.
Thank you.
the ‘Ivorian Maradonna’
Haha, there’s the next song, right there.
“The four horsemen of the Apocalypse were apparently knocking on the doors of the Grove.”
Unfortunately they were looking for White hart lane and had stopped for directions