There’s No Doubting Tomas, MotM
Jan 25th, 2015 by 'holic
89 seconds. That is how long it took for Arsenal to calm any nerves that yesterday’s upsets might have caused. Calum Chambers spectacular foray down the right flank set up Theo Walcott for a first goal in over a year. A much changed Gunners had side grabbed the initiative from the start.
Missing David Ospina, Hector Bellerin, Per Mertesacker, Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Alexis Sanchez from the starting line-up at Eastlands last weekend, the Gunners nonetheless dominated the opening half.
At the heart of an impressive start was Mesut Ozil. He created opportunities for Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud as Arsenal looked to capitalise on their good form. Ahead of him Walcott was playing closer to Giroud than we might have thought beforehand. Twice he broke at pace but failed to find the final ball and the chances were lost.
Midway through the half the advantage was doubled. The also-excellent Tomas Rosicky freed Ozil in the box and a classy left foot finish gave us breathing space. We would be grateful for that later. Rosicky was starting to catch the eye with a typical energetic display. He set up Giroud but the shot was blocked.
Finally some forward progress from Brighton but not one of a flurry of efforts from them was on target. The recalled Wojciech Szczesny wasn’t called on to make a save as Arsenal completed a very dominant first-half performance.
What happened after the break is hard to understand. Some will say it was ‘the magic of the cup’. Whatever was said at half-time Arsenal came out a different team, and four minutes into the second-half Brighton halved the deficit. There was something of a combined defensive calamity, too many to name and shame, and O’Grady was allowed a free shot into the bottom corner.
That seemed to spread uncertainty through the team. Brighton had their tails up and the home crowd started to feature for the first time in the match. We needed that two goal cushion again and it was no surprise that little Mozart was the man who provided it, winning the ball back on the edge of the box and trading passes with Giroud before unleashing a spectacular right foot strike.
Half an hour to go, two goals to the good, and it seemed as though the handbrake was being slowly applied. That is understandable to a degree. Ozil and Walcott are still coming back to match fitness and both faded, but will be better for the experience today. Theo was the first to be substituted, along with Olivier Giroud. Chuba Akpom and Alexis came on. The latter as energetic as ever went close with a trio of free-kicks around the edge of the box.
A nervous ending was assured when Holla put Baldock in through the heart of the defence and the Brighton striker lifted the ball over Szczesny’s outstretched arm. It was a good finish but a very disappointing goal to concede again. 3-2
Five minutes later Ozil too was hooked, and Coquelin came on to help Flamini. That gave us a more solid platform from which to play out the closing minutes. Indeed we may have had a fourth when man-of-the-match Rosicky picked out Ramsey at the far post but the Welshman’s volley bounced to safety.
Arsene Wenger will feel that he got his selection spot on, and with players returning from injury there is a little more depth to the squad. The impending arrival of Gabriel Paulista should help, and the boss was unusually open about the likely signing. As for the match itself he avoided the problems of the second-half, as you might expect.
“Overall what you want first is the quality of the performance and to go through. They had two shots on target. When you play away from home and the other team had two shots on target, overall I think we produced the performance I expected.”
Still, after a weekend of upsets we have reached the last sixteen in our quest to retain the FA Cup. With four of the current top six in the Premiership already out of the competition we have been installed as favourites, but we need four more wins to hand Arsene a record sixth FA Cup as a manager in modern times. It’s a bit early to be dreaming of that just yet, as this weekend clearly demonstrated.
190 Responses to “There’s No Doubting Tomas, MotM”
First!
On the train back from Brighton……Hello ‘holic!!
Hey Dubs. Must have been a gripping watch there, It most certainly was here.
Seems to confirm what Lurky said in the previous drinks about Gabriel Paulista’s work permit either being done or not likely to be a problem. Hopefully, anyways. 🙂
http://news.arseblog.com/2015/01/wenger-gabriel-signing-will-be-done-tomorrow/
TR7 with an MotM performance, and just the right leader for an away cup tie. I foresee AW having him on the bench vs. Villa next week, and definitely starting him at Shite Fart Lane.
Guvnor, Thanks for the report on a game that was not available on my TV and not on any stream I could find, a real rarity over the last two seasons over here. Unfortunately, I missed a great game from yours and all accounts. Now to try to find the goals on arsenalist.com or wherever they may be on the internet.
Wojciech Szczesny is what happened he pushed the panic button rushed off his line.After that the back four played with a reduced confidence.
Brighton were outclassed and the score does some what flatter them .
Whisper it 8ball, but it looks like I might work at the Home Office indeed 🙂 Have an office desk in my home that’s for sure.
Well written report ‘Holic, thanks, just the way I saw the game.
Thanks H.
Didn’t see any of it and have not even seen highlights yet. But this is a cup competition and we went through- so whatever MOTD shows me I know I’ll remain a happy gooner.
Next match, please.
Nice report Guv’nor. I agree that after last week our defensive tightness disappeared. We considered two goals from those two shots! God job they didn’t have four.
We now have a very strong squad but Paulista will add strength because Nacho away from hone can be exposed in the centre. Koscielny looked slightly slower today. The biggest difference from last week is Flamini coming in for Coquelin. Whereas Le Coq is very disciplined and uses the ball well, Flamini is slow, limited and bang average. He was excellent on his return last season but he is in rapid decline. Rosicky shows no sign of decline. He was intelligent and fluid and technically superb. His outside of the foot passes are brilliant . His injury absences may mean his legs perversely may go on longer than might have been the case. He missed about 60 games around 2007/8.
Liked Ozil’s movement and thought Theo did well but Ozil has fierce competition from Santi, Tomas and young Crowley in a couple of years. Encouraging times . Wenger aht!
Sorry considered should be conceded!
Cheers H! Great day, including Patrick being given a signed shirt (the BFG) out of the blue at the end.
Nice one Esso!
Gotta love it when things all go better than planned.
TR7 was a triumph.
I know that joke’s been done many times, but I care less than I care about Spurs. 🙂
I was surprised to see Kos starting, I thought he was being ‘protected’ due to ongoing niggles? Otherwise AW wisely read my #15 post in the previous round and agreed with me by starting all the subs on the bench for the $iteh game, plus Rambo, Nacho and OG, but not Per.
Shame about the 0-4 prediction, which was well on track until our strikers suffered fits of rustiness and several relatively easy chances went by the board. Added to which the defence, having had an easy first half, decided to relax and rely on others to share their duties – including the otherwise estimable TR7 whose wild hack from the edge of the area (when under no threat) led to Brighton’s first goal. I was tempted to deny him motm status for that, but his later goal tipped that particular scale back in his direction.
No idea why he brought on Alexis, unless he thought we’d need more goals. More defensive players were the call at that point in the game surely?
But at least we’re through, unlike practically all our major opponents in this comp. A couple of rounds at home against lesser lights would be ideal now, allowing our returnees more game time to sharpen up. Especially you, Theo. That opening goal was a peach, but I was expecting a hat trick.
Öskar
The relevant passage of the FA’s documentation on the panels that assess “highest calibre” appeals, which is the only way we can get Paulista a work permit as he doesn’t meet any of the other qualifying requirements, is:
Panels will be arranged at the request of a Club, however a minimum of 7 days notice is required in order for a panel to be convened. Where an appeal may reasonably be expected at short notice, for instance towards the end of a transfer window, provisions will be put in place in advance in order that a panel may be held at short notice. In this case, panel members will be put on stand-by and convened in the event that an appeal is lodged.
Once the panel has endorsed the player, assuming that it does, likely but not automatic by any means, then the Home Office still has to make a final determination on whether to issue a work permit. However, except in exceptional circumstances, its requirement for any non-EU sportsperson seeking to work in the U.K. is an endorsement from the sport’s domestic governing body, which the appeals process provides.
All of which would seem to add up to a good few days at least if not necessarily weeks before Paulista knows if he has got a work permit.
Phil Neviile just said on MOTD, about Tommy, “if someone was that skillful in training and made a no look pass like that, I’d two foot him”. Says it all really. Deserves to be sacked on the spot. Bang average player, not even that as a pundit.
Great write up.
Days like today you just have to enjoy it. Topped off an excellent weekend.
When I grow up, I want to be Tommy Rosicky. Magician.
COYG
The game against Stoke was amazing to watch if for no other reason than because we had Rosicky and Cazorla in the same midfield. 2 relatively small guys just running the game through immense skill and determination. To have 2 players who can collect the ball and beat 2 or 3 players in congested areas at will, and then play intelligent and difficult passes, was a dream to watch. Was a bit disappointed that Rosicky lost his place against City but Cazorla just stepped up and somehow managed to play even better. That combination is a real winner though – hope we’ll see it more often for the remainder of the season.
@16 cheers NBN. I have no ITK knowledge about this transfer (or any other) but that all sounds right to me. I have seen no-one claiming this part of the deal as being confirmed already who is prepared to name a source. Might as well be the Metro for all I know. I imagine it is a good bet it will come through at some point though (when has Arsene ever made any sort of transfer pronouncement and left his face open to egg?) and at that point we will be greeted by a flurry of “I told you so’s”.
I’ve also seen plenty of people digging Woj out for conceding 2 whilst making no saves. Nice stat for them that knows how to use it. I would lay the blame for neither goal at his door- not much more he could do in either instance. Given the consensus seems to be that we were much less defensively solid than we have been recently to simultaneously acknowledge this whilst blaming us conceding on the keeper is a good idea if it suits your agenda but doesn’t necessarily make best use of the evidence.
Countryman@17. Spot on.
I would still want Ospina in goal for the next league match. I didn’t see anything in the highlights from Woj to say he was excellent, or even good, today. I just think claiming he was bad is unfair based on his not making a couple of saves you would expect most keepers not to make most of the time.
Gunnersaurus Stunt Double – there’s little doubt we were a bit less solid because Flamini isn’t as good as Coquelin and the defence was a bit more thrown together, with Monreal playing in his newly found secondary position (in which he’s done well at times and less so at others). Koscielny often seems to struggle a bit under these circumstances as well. The only thing that Szczesny did that looked a bit shaky, that I remember anyway, was when he came for a corner he really shouldn’t have. He does look a bit like something might be playing on his mind, but he’s proven already he’s a good keeper. Don’t know why people want to get on his back so quickly – he’s still young for a gk and Ospina seems pretty reliable, so let Szczes take a bit of time to get his head sorted. No big deal there imo.
@22 Agree completely Davi. Well summed up.
Ah, for the good old days (pre-13 December 2013) when you just plonked down £1 million for a bunch of British government bonds or other U.K. securities and you got your work permit as a Tier 1 (investor) migrant — easily covered by your signing-on bonus. The killjoys in Parliament then specifically excluded professional sportspeople from getting a work permit that way because the system was being abused.
Meanwhile, the Home Office has a visa processing times calculator, I find. An application for the sort of visa a non-EU footballer would get, applied for in Spain should be granted in 15 working days at the outside, with two-thirds of applicants getting them within 10 days, half with five days and one-third with three days.
And the Independent ran this piece today saying the FA, which has long had concerns that foreign imports are holding back English players, wants to scrap the “highest calibre” route to a work permit altogether:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/fa-intends-to-close-work-permit-loophole-to-protect-english-talent-9976354.html
GSD – I agree about Ospina. I don’t know if it made the highlights, as I didn’t watch them, but Woj had a trademark flap in the second half where he got nothing on the ball and caused havoc in his own defence.
Days possibly numbered.
I don’t think you can say Woj had a bad game today as he didn’t have much to do good or bad. Brighton only managed two shots on target and one corner. The first goal was down to rank bad defending and there wasn’t much if anything Woj could do to prevent the goal. The second goal was an excellent finish in a one-on-one after the defence had let in a through ball that would have required an even better save. That all said, I didn’t see anything today to suggest Oooooooooospina shouldn’t remain first choice.
Cynic, Woj does so many good things as a keeper. But the phrase ‘trademark flap’ is unfortunately spot on. He just loves coming for stuff he has no chance of getting.
Ospina the man for the moment i feel. But Woj is young and has time on his side. Keepers obviously mature later and i think writing him off at this stage would be like writing Ox off. They both have over ten years at the top in front of them if they put the work in.
My fingers are still crossed.
Yeah right.
Protect English talent by getting them to train with the likes of Phil Neville, who would “two foot” them at any display of a bit of skill in training.
His words, not mune.
Phil Neville, Joey Barton and Robbie Savage, all earning a salary out of our BBC licence payers money.
That IS something the government should put a stop to.
That was to Ned’s link @24, btw.
Great stuff, Esso, sounds like a great end to a good day.
Cheers Holic, appreciated the write up.
Two different venues let me down re BT Sport today, and I will not pay for it. It is shit.
Limited today to MoTD pathetically brief highlights and even worse punditry as supplied by Neville. See above.
Great write up Holic.
TR7 was magnificent and must surely earn a place in the starting line up given his recent form.
Wonder if there will be any transfer surprises this week outside of Paulista?
howdy
don’t worry
fuckin off Tuesday
no choice
🙂
.
a fuckin great day
very nearly
a shite day
but
alls well 😉
.
bbc4 keeping me amused
no talent no marks
worshipping in sun studio
.
wouldnt know
one o them cunts
if they came up and bit me on the eyeball
.
twats
.
beatles show now
hope this is better
.
mind you
mostly hate cover versions
.
fuckin chris evans involved
jeez
a disgusting ginger puddle of arrogance
.
anyhoo
.
Must watch it
apologies ‘holic
for
the gingerism
some my family are redheads
we don’t speak to them
obviously
d’uh
well if rattle the bars
with long feeding sticks
is speaking
then
bla
call me whatever
Full credit to the Brighton supporters —
“He smokes when he wants…” I laughed out loud, but couldn’t fully explain to BLG why I was laughing.
Well done. Well done.
BMBD
Rosicky’s goals: worth the wait. Fuckin hero.
I believe Alphaville said it best:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t1TcDHrkQYg
Trev@28: Not a word to disagree with there.
Great first half we completely dominated.
average second half where we just switched off for twos minutes and allowed soft goals that were undeserved.
Tomas best on field by far.
As I mentioned on here before the match, flamini showed why he is no longer suitable or capable of handling the required level. Brighton were poor and he was still out muscled and he was regularly just too far forward and out of position which puts the whole team at risk.
He does a lot of arm waving at others for one who cannot handle his own position. Will be a liability against anyone stronger than Brighton.
Woj also showed why he is such an very average goalkeeper. I notice that only those holics on here who didn’t actually see the match still try to defend his ability.
Woj doesn’t have the head or maturity for a top flight goalkeeper and the commentators even noted he hasn’t kept a clean sheet since november. He was beaten on his near side for the first, flapped at the few crosses as usual and causes larger uncertainty for the defence.
Aaron also had a poor match and again tried to be too clever when not needed. OG had a stinker Besides his chip assist at the end which salvaged possibly his worst performance of the season.
A decent result for an arsenal side including two massive liabilities in flamini and szcezney.
Well done Arsene in getting this makeshift team through where many others have failed this weekend.
The headline should have been Brighton Given The Heave Hove!
That one’s for free Holic.
We’ve had a bit of a situation the past few years where we’ve had some doubt over the goalkeeping situation. We’ve had some issues with only having one forward to play through the middle. We’ve had a lack of both quality and cover in DM, and we’ve had, overall, far too few players to span a defensive line of four two games a week, with injuries and suspensions.
How does it look right now?
So, we’ve actually got a goalkeeping situation with two experienced goal keepers, both internationals, one of which won the Golden Glove last season. With one promising back up third, who has played well when called upon this season.
‘Keeper situation solved.
We’ve got two left backs, that for once Arsenal fans are dived on who is the best, but still seem quite happy with, which means they are both of pretty good quality.
Left back – check.
We’ve got the guy that keeps Sagna out of the french national side as our main man at right back. Behind him there is this young guy from La Masia who grows better game after game and is the quickest player at the club. We’ve got Chambers, quite a tall guy, with years ahead of him, and also a proper Arsenal fan who is doing great out on loan, playing week after week and also netting a penalty the other week for West Ham.
Right back – more than alright.
We’ve got Arteta in Defensive Mid, a man said to make our team click, Flamini for when a hard working body more than subtlety is needed, and we’ve got our Coq, impressing against the league holders and in other games as well. We’ve also bought a new young DM who will go straight into first team training, if not matchday squad, in Bielik.
That seems to make DM position, if not completely optimised yet, at least in a position where we now can give it some time and see how it works out, instead of screaming for a new player, any player.
And when it comes to centre halves, we finally, today, will sign a proper >10m central defender who at 24 years of age isn’t totally green, but still has a lot of interesting development in front of him. He is going to play behind one of my favourite Arsenal centre back pairings of the last ten years.
So, finally getting that situation closer to covered then.
When it comes to the offensive side of the team, there is really no need to talk about it, is there? The only thing worth mentioning is that we finally got more than one player able to play more than the odd game as a centre forward, which makes us less reliant on Giroud, which was a worry a season back or so. The rest of the attacking midfield, wingers and attackers would take up to much digital ink to write out, but I could just mention that we’ve got Alexis and Özil in a team next to players like Ramsey and Rosicky. Nuff said.
—-
Point being that it really seems like we’ve plugged those last gaps now, with the summer capture of two forwards who can play through the middle and now the somewhat muted capture of BOTH a DM and a CB, and with the recall of a born again Coq.
We’re also through in the FA cup as one of only 9 possible PL-teams, and beat Man C away the other day.
This is really starting to become interesting again.
Last but not at all least, I love Rosicky.
So Toby…
I take it things are looking more positive?
😀
Up The Arse!
Toby@40, interesting team wrap up and we do have more coverage then in previous years, but we are not done just quite yet if we wish to be more consistent, which has been out biggest concern.
The reason we haven’t been consistent is the gaping hole in quality between our first 11 and the rest.
Our no 1 goalkeeping situation is better with ospina and Martinez looks good, but szcezney is completely unreliable at the level required.
He will be moved on by arsene asap.
Our no1 DM is better now with le coq, but Arteta and flamini are both not good enough for the critical nature of that role in modern football.
le coq helps the team click, flamini is simply a liability and artetta is now injury prone and too slow and it would be a bit of a stretch to say artetta makes the team click.
Beilik is 17 years old so he could be years away if he makes it at all.
As for right back, bellerin and debuchy are both awesome. Chambers has a lot of maturity and improvement still to come and the boss didn’t send Carl jenkinson out because he is ready. He isn’t ready hence why he has been sent out.
We are Closer but not there yet
Aussie. While I agree that we are not done (when are you ever with a team? As soon as you are, people get older, lose form, break a leg, move to a different club, loses focus etc) I’d say that we do not really have any super urgent needs right now, which is what we’ve had the last few seasons.
I have been thinking really annoyed thoughts about Szcz the past few weeks, but I also know I have been grateful to him several times the past few years, and again, he conceded the fewest goals of all ‘keepers last season. I will not, personally, call him completely unreliable and he still has years to better himself. If that is with us or with another club remains to be seen, but as long as we’ve got at least another good goalkeeper I do not mind him at the club at all, in fact, I’d like having him here. To play only on merit, of course, which is why it is so important to have Ospina here to play when Szcz hits a bad spell or needs a wake up call. So for me, goalkeeping is, if not 100% perfect, at least a good enough situation to let time pass and see what happens.
Which is, again, the exact same situation I see for DM. There are teams with better DMs than the ones we’ve got, but the crop we’ve got now is diverse and big enough for us to let the situation mature a bit and see what comes out of it. Coq might just be the one for a year or two, with Arteta to help out whilst Beilik develops and Flamini is moved on. And if we ever need a fourth choice, we’ve got an academy and we’ve got players like Wilshere and Ramsey who can do a job there a few games a year. So point being, yes, we don’t have world class in that position, yet, but we are kind of in a position where panic buys need to happen. We can wait and which players make it, and which players need to move on.
And in regards to right back, we’ve got three interesting to good players already at the club, which can’t be said to be too few to handle a season, with Jenks to come back next season, much more ready than he was before. Out of those four, I guess we will have to decide who will be the two-three to fight it out, with the fourth to be reshaped into a different position (Chambers perhaps moving out as another DM-option, or our fourth CB?).
Point again being that we can always improve the team, and I wouldn’t mind doing that. But we’ve finally got the squad to make us feel that it is time for the manager to do the short term work mostly on the training pitch and not in the transfer market.
Long term, transfers will always be very important, both the signing of new 14-year olds and the right player to inject something new when a good opportunity arises.
So all I am saying is that we’ve got a team to work with now and, for once, not feel that we just HAVE to get a player for this and this position. We’ve got a team, now it is up to them and the manager to make something of it. Those who can’t will surely be replaced in time.
Just so happy to feel that we finally got the numbers, as well as an Özil there and and Alexis there.
Oh, and I didn’t for a second take your answer as anything untoward. And I am not trying to convince you. I understand we probably value some players differently, and that is alright. Just really tried to explain that my view isn’t that we’ve finally got a team of world class players in every position and on the bench, but rather that we’ve got enough players and a good enough mixture of young and old to just sit back (ie us supporters, the manager should always look for additions of course) and see what develops.
I still dont understand how Woj went from last seasons joint best keeper in the league to “total liability” in span of two games. Yes, he fucked up big time at Southampton, but just one game prior to it he was pretty much superior in every aspect in West Ham game.
He is still young and even more experienced keepers make an error from time to time, I agree that he needs to iron out some things he does (ie trying to claim the ball he clearly can not), but that comes with experience.
Arsene is right to bench him right now, since he needs to feel that there is actual competition for the goalkeeper spot, which, frankly, was never the case with Fabs even though he was used fairly regular and also kept in goal in FA cup final.
Yes, right now its Ospinas place to lose, but I would not write Sczes off, he is still, at least for me, our no.1 GK in the long run (and for the record, just watch compilation of saves from last season, he bailed us out on many occassions quite superbly so I dont buy argument that he is not quality keeper)
Toby@43, all great points and a fair assessment and you are right in saying we really do have something to work with now considering our unbelievable injury record this season, which seems to be easing except for poor Debuchy.
We do seem to have steadied the ship nicely and arsene can take much of the credit for that along with the team actually putting in some great disciplined shifts of late.
As for szcezney, I get the feeling that arsene has given the lad many chances to sort out his attitude and I think for woj, he seems to be his own worst enemy.
His latest smoking stunt may be the last bit of patience for arsene with him. It is not so much about the smoking, but more his lack of respect For arsene and the team for a lad arsene has been very loyal towards.
Anyway, I am with you and Long may we continue to keep taking two steps forward and hardly any back.
Eandy, Woj,s shot stopping record is also matched by his record of clangers, bloopers and catastrophic mistakes based mostly on his poor positioning and a lack of internal confidence so necessary for a top flight keeper.
You also watch many of the goals against us this season and note how often he is off his line in no mans land and unable to stop simple shots.
It is only when you watch ospina play and see his superior command of his goal line, the box area and and the superior confidence he provides for the back four, you realise how easily Woj has been to replace.
Woj has also consistently shown a very immature and unprofessional attitude for one who has been given so may opportunities without competition to cement his role with the club.
Maybe that has been his biggest problem, no competition from alfumnly and flapianski for way too long.
Good on arsene for making him go back and train with the youth team. That must have truly hurt his ego.
*but we are kind of in a position where panic buys DON’T need to happen. @43
And cheers Aussie.
Lonestar @35, that was actually us serenading WS and having a bit of fun with him behind his goal. Smokes when he wants and “He only smokes in the shower!” Was the other one. When the ball came into our section right behind the goal and he came up to retrieve it, he called for it and acknowledged the chant by gesturing as if he was using a lighter!
My first away game, which was a fantastic and thrilling experience! Nothing to compare to it as an American in our sports really except traveling to college basketball games, I think!
Great report, ‘holic, thank you. I’m a regular over at ACLF but do enjoy your wonderful blogposts and your community of commenters!
Toby’s right, it looks much better. One reason is simple balance, the squad wasn’t balanced, now it is (much more). We’ve shipped out 3 offensive players in a matter of days and got 2 (including one prospect) exactly where we need them. The cup will overfloweth if we get another, I assume we won’t. The -3 and +2 I describe shows how badly we were set up but credit where it’s due, they’re sorting it. We’re coming along here now in a serious way. It’s taken two years and make no mistake this is a RICH club, with no legacy FFP issues due to the stadium development period. Note how we didn’t even need to sell any of the 3 strikers. But what’s really exciting for me is that we’re buying powerful athletes now at last. These 2 lads, Welbz, Alexis, Chambers, Deboosh….really powerful looking men. No more twiddly little midfielders and wide men. I could get really excited but I’m still mightily pis*ed off about the last 2 years. With the other big 3 all having their issues, we could have easily nabbed a title either this year or last. I’m not sure I can forgive Wenger for all the fannying about. Greedy, yea u bet. We are the finest club. COYG.
Thanks for the clarification, Limestone. I am not fortunate enough to get to games, so am forced to watch live on TV or (lately) on DVR. Those type of details don’t come through on the one-eyed monster.
BMBD
Lonestar, I don’t usually either but am enjoying the opportunity while in England. Brighton fans were quiet except around their two goals and the last 10 mins or so. But they were remarkably good humoured on the train and in the streets of Brighton both before and after the match. I guess if you live in such a lovely seaside city you can’t let a football match make you too unhappy!
The best part of the match for us is that Ozil and Theo came in hungry, TR continued his excellent form, and so there is intense competition for places in a side finding team form. Even if our defending with a very cobbled together back line and second choice DM (Flamini) had some kinks to work out, our normal partnership of Kos on left and Merts on right with Coquelin shielding will be much stronger. Plus, fingers crossed, Gabriel Paulista to reinforce. Things are looking up for the Gunners!
Limestone, welcome. Yogi writes a great blog and has a decent bunch of commenters too. I’m happy you can find time for us both.
Trev @ 28 is spot on as he normally is. Can our state- subsidised broadcaster not find more appropriate and better analysts than the three Trev named? Should one assume that Ronaldo never did any step- overs while training with him at United or do we assume the lumpen, limited Neville who would never have played for England had he not played for United couldn’t catch him? Don’t think I’ve ever heard a crasest, more stupid comment by a studio analyst than that.
I watched the game on BT Sport who used Robbie Savage beside the very competent Ian Darke. While Savage made several positive comments almost anyone watching a game on the sidelines at muddy venues all over the UK yesterday could have done the same. He brought no extra enlightenment beyond the fact that Brighton needed to get stuck into Arsenal( the Phil Neville School of tactical analysis) . Actually he did suggest they swapped the strikers over because they were ineffective –and both scored without anything being done !
Two other points. Firstly zi thought Michael Oliver had a good game. He was up with play and didn’t let the home crowd influence him on penalties. He got every big decision right. The most contentious was the Bruno handball in the first half. Credit where it is due.
GSD makes a good point re Woj. He was not at fault for either goal but I still think a top goalie- one good enough to play for us- needs to make a difference in games in the way that Cech, Courtois, De Gea( who won the game against us for them last year) and Seaman do or did. His goals to shots ratio is worrying. It suggests he rarely makes match- winning saves. I have been a big supporter of the las but he needs to step up a gear or two.
Gabriel Paulista has been granted a UK work permit, clearing the path for him to complete an £11.2million switch to Arsenal.
——————
Not there yet but major hurdle is crossed!
😀
Things are looking good indeed… 🙂
Speaking of mud here’s a song this guy played down the road last night at the coffee house. Sorry about the baseball references. 🙂
That’s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7kVKswOFR4
Well… when we get all our defenders back…
We can move Paulista up a bit to complement Coquelin, they may be our longer term replacements of Arteta and Flamini.
Shall be keeping my fingers crossed on Paulista… hope he fits in quickly and adapts as well as Alexis.
He’s already got the look for it : http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article5042991.ece/alternates/s510b/Gabriel-Paulista-main.jpg
😀
Quite frankly, I’ve seen and heard a fuckload of utter tosh about Szczesny in the past few weeks. Too many have very short memories. The very same keeper who kept the most clean sheets in the league last season has all of a sudden become a liability that has “always made defenders insecure” and whatnot. Ospina has been praised to the rafters, often by the same people, who conveniently ignores that he is really poor at crosses or at least has been so far. He had almost nothing to do in the Hull, Stoke and City games and yet he almost fumbled one into his own net v Stoke and completely dropped a high ball v City which would have given City a goal had the ball dropped closer to a City player. And I haven’t even mentioned the very soft goal he conceded v Southampton in the COCup and how he flapped wildly at several crosses when he came on v Galatasaray in the CL.
Woj has suffered from a drop in form this season and been a bit inconsistent, yes, but Ospina has a long way to go before he is the long-term number one for me. Woj was probably the best keeper in the league last season and yes, he can improve on crosses but his kicking is nowhere near as bad as many would have it.
And Southampton apart, I still want to see that “long list of matches where Szczesny has cost us points with his mistakes”. Well, include that game if you like but a list of one game won’t be very long.
ttg: just to be clear, I don’t include you in the group spouting fuckloads of utter tosh, but shots to goals ratio is a useless stat in my opinion. It doesn’t say anything about the type of shot, angles they came from or whatever. Look at the two shots last night, not a keeper in the world would have save that first one and the finish for the second was excellent and very few would have saved it and if they had it would have been more luck than anything else. It is also known that we actually concede relatively few chances, but when we do they are huge chances (brilliant example: the ManU game you mention – they had three chances all game, two of which were one on ones and the third was a deflected shot that once again no keeper could have saved). Shots to goals is, I presume, a stat “imported” from ice hockey, which is a game where a keeper faces well over a 1000 shots per season which more or less eliminates any outliers and makes the “type of chance” variable negligible.
I don’t have a strong preference for Woj or ospina, but I do find some of the weird “told you so” smirking that I’m seeing out there about Woj’s fall from grace a bit weird.
We’ve had a really good couple of weeks, there doesn’t always have to be a hate figure, and it’s a perverse man indeed who takes satisfaction from an Arsenal player validating their opinion by performing badly.
Amazed this stuff still goes on, post-Ramsey’s elevation.
Thanks ‘holic, the bar has a gracious host and bartender.
Re: keepers, I’m glad we have two, perhaps even three, quality keepers who will push each other to perform better, even if each has some weaker and stronger aspects to their game. I keep Ospina just because we’ve been keeping clean sheets recently, for whatever reasons, and there’s no reason to change until there is a reason to change. I’m sure if WS works hard, his chance will come again.
Lars & N7: Thank you for your words about Szczesny. Last season he saved us valuable points match after match especially given how narrow our margins of victories were, all 2-1, 1-0 stuff. The dips in form, the confidence issues, the inconsistencies are not entirely unexpected in a keeper who is yet to be 25 (Buffon is an exception). Let us see how he responds to the challenge from Ospina. Wouldn’t it be great if he becomes the excellent first choice keeper he was predicted to be for many many years to come, a homegrown talent, making us well stocked (for Emi Martinez looks to be a very promising one as well) in that department?
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/google-trolls-tottenham-with-dictionary-definition-of-lackadaisical-10003130.html
😀 😀 😀
Lurky @8.
The home office can use a few more like you, I’m sure. 🙂
https://danieljmitchell.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/ee8c8-bureaucracycartoon.gif
Lars @ 59. Nailed it! Spot on.
Shouldn’t be making jokes about the Home Office at his particular moment now they have done something good for Arsenal. Come on the Home Office!!
Chelsea.
😀
😀
😀
😀
😀
An Indian. Living in America. Thanking British Home Office (!!) . For allowing a Brazilian to ply his trade in London. For his French boss.
I am sure even the craziest internationalist (in the non-partisan sense) couldn’t have predicted that fifty years back. Or even thirty years back.
Call me a misty-eyed optimist. But there is something to the ideal of Sports transcending petty nationalism.
8 ball@67: Any new development? Or is that about Saturday’s result?
Faustus, Saturday’s result still hasn’t worn off over here. 🙂
I was listening to the Arseblog and looking at the goals of Chelsea 2 – Bradford 4 for the first time. What a larff. 🙂
8 ball @ 70: I am now being told by a Chelsea fan that apparently Moaninho lost the match “intentionally” after learning City is also “throwing the match away”. Apparently, they have their sights on “bigger fish”. And, FA Cup is for “small clubs” like “Arsenal or Man U”. 🙂 🙂
He is relatively young. He will get over it. Poor guy.
juan roman riquelme has retired.
but watching this will never get old.
https://myspace.com/theprideoflondon/video/arsenal-.vs-villareal-jens-lehman-penalty-save/753981
i was at home, in part because we were having our central heat installed. five minutes after this happened, the guy came out from under the house and asked if i was ok, he’d heard yelling and stamping and the house shaking 🙂 i told him i was fine, just celebrating something incredibly important.
Lars. Good point about stats in different sports being of different value.
And people who duck the debate, ignore the points of others and write/speak every one of their opinions as though they are facts do muddy the waters somewhat. I tend to pay more attention to the more considered points that acknowledge shades of grey- rather than assuming all players are either excellent or rubbish. No point arguing with someone who has already made up their mind.
I like Woj but in the same way that he lost his spot due to performance or discipline (Wenger says it was not disciplinary but who knows?) I am happy to see Ospina continue until he does something for AW to hang his hat on and say ‘look, this is why I have dropped him.’ I agree with TTG’s last line.
Also, I imagine he will improve from crosses- PL takes a bit of getting used to.
Good problem to have mind- Martinez looks to be the strongest number 3 keeper in the league by a country mile. I do believe that last point to be true but in the interests of full disclosure I will point out I probably can’t name another one.
Lars, absolutely nailed it with regards to Szcz.
I am going to connect that praise with praise for GSDs last sentence @73 which was refreshingly honest not only in regards to discussing football but it also touched on what it means to be a football fan instead of a football expert or pundit. I WANT my football to be tinted. I want to love my team, regardless (or close to!), and a big reason for me to be a supporter is that it is a chance to let go of facts and reason.
I’m never the most angry when we lose, and actually, even if it is a bit hard to say, I probably am not the most happy Arsenal supporter when we win. Because, overall, I am a rational person. Not trying to make myself special, and this does not mean I am a better person than anyone in anyway, it is just who I am. It has positives and negatives. I have long since resigned to the fact that football, even though the better team wins more often than others, is a game of few goals, a game that more than most sports included draws as a possible result, and therefore is a game of small margins and is therefore a game in which you can lose when playing well, and win when playing poorly.
This is what sets it apart from high scoring sports in which goals usually come to quite closely represent each teams level of skill after full time since, well, that is just how the law of averages work.
This is the reason I love football, and I always tend to end up between my reasoned side who I am in my day to day life, the person that understands that a 2-0 defeat in football can happen to any team within say 80 league positions from you, and the guy that says “I have thought quite a few annoyed thoughts about Szcz the last few weeks.”
Because I have.
But I was also very careful to phrase it in such a way that it is clear that the thoughts are mine instead of the fault being his. God, I’ve blamed keepers for goals that were unsavable! As long as I know that it is my feelings talking, and not facts, I have no problem with that. I can get fucking annoyed with most of our players, just as I can be two seconds away from marrying some of them at times.
Point being this:
So yes, Lars, very well put about Szcz. Absolutely spot on. But I still have a little bit of that thing GSD describes. Being able to feel a feeling about someone in my team, knowing full well it isn’t fact, but accepting that feeling anyway can be quite a nice, relaxing thing to do, and sports really do provide us with an environment in which we can do that without fear of ruining something really important (like our money savings).
So yeah, well done Szcz for the golden glove last season, you are still my number one, but by god I scream at the telly when you make mistakes, and sometimes even when you don’t, and I am glad Ospina is there so the club is well protected from form dips and to make you both better.
Scruz @ 72. Top man.
BMBD
Rooting for us to draw Stoke at the Emirates. A roasting opportunity not to pass up. 😉
now we know why van balls’ ass hurt:
http://www.espnfc.us/english-fa-cup/story/2265835/cambridge-to-splash-out-on-toilets-after-man-united-fa-cup-windfall
btw, very late birthday wishes to you, ttg. i hope it was fun, and that your next trip around the sun full of joy.
Middlesboro at home in the Cup.
Winnable but no push over.
But Liverpool, the Mancs and West Ham avoided.
It’s Boro!
BBC also saying Paulista has his work permit. That was quick, if so.
Bah!
Yanited still with an absurdly easy draw for the next round.
BMBD
So, are we looking at
the Mancs
Derby Co
the Orcs
Sunderland
West Ham
Villa
Liverpool
and us
in the quarter-finals?
Middlesbrough at home. Knock on wood but I don’t think they can duplicate their feat of knocking out Man City at the Etihad. And there will be three more Premier League clubs knocked out in the next round at least because they were paired together. Good draw.
Interesting to see that we now don’t have a game outside of London until March 17th (unless we get to the FA Cup QFs and get drawn away at a non-London side, but even that is not until early March).
Don’t think Pool will like Palace (Go Sanogo and Chamakh!) IF they get past Bolton.. ManU on the other hand have it easy (on paper anyway..)!
We beat city.. they beat city… now we’ve got to beat boro!
😀
“Yanited still with an absurdly easy draw for the next round.”
Spoken like a lawyer. 😉
Whoever assigns referees for EPL matches must have a sick sense of humor:
Sunday 1 February 2015
13:30 Arsenal v Aston Villa ANTHONY TAYLOR G Beswick D Bryan R Madley
Away draw against lower league opposition for Man United. Let’s see if they can conjure up another replay and a dash of fixture congestion for the Champions League contenders.
Good comments by Lars and GSD in the Woj debate and I very much respect the argument put forward by Lars. I remember a great save by Woj at QPR two years ago from Remy which definitely earned us two extra points. He stepped up that season after Wenger dropped him for Fabianski and was excellent in the end of season run we put together.
I think Wenger likes Woj and sees him as a potentially very good keeper long- term but last week he said that he has dips in form and needs shaking up. I think you can see complacency occasionally creeping into Woj’s game but he is still a relatively young keeper.
Where I might still have doubts is on this whole area of taking crosses. The inimitable Bob Wilson told me a few years ago that modern goalkeepers won’t come for crosses like he and Jennings used to because the balls move far too much in the air and it is very difficult to judge them. I saw a much more effective Woj at West Ham where he did really well at taking crosses but I also thought Ospina has looked a good calming presence. Against Gala at home he made a lot of good saves after Woj was red carded . He deserves a chance to show what he can do. Hopefully if Woj is our Cup goalie he will have plenty of time to shine.
Boro draw could be worse although I would have liked to see United play somebody from roughly the same division.
As for the work permit I think it was sorted beforehand because Wenger was very confident about the signing.
Heh, 8ball.
Was it Bolo Zenden who fucked us in Carling?
Was it Bolo Zenden who fucked us in Carling?
The dirty bastard.
Scruz @ 77 – I’ve splashed out on toilets in Cambridge many times…
Debating Sir Ches v AsprinO is all good, but am I alone in thinking Emily may eventually prove better than either? Not just the best #3 in the prem, GSD. 😉
Öskar
No doubt their new toilets will remind Cambridge FC of their piss-poor opponents for decades to come.
Öskar
I have been critical of AW and the board for failing to sign a CB and a DM… I felt we would struggle without those additions, particularly after a World Cup and with Koscielnys ongoing Achilles problem…
But now, thanks to the addition of Gabriel (and potentially Bielik) and the promotion and rApid development of Bellerin and Coquelin, we are well covered in every area, even despite an horrendous injury list.
All that, plus the excellent recent form, a decent fifth round draw and the hilarious defeats suffered by the chavs, until recently, lauded by an easily impressed, knee jerky media who were oh so eager to label them the new invincibles, the ever reliable spuds and the oil Mancs, made for a brilliant few days.
..
You want club’s name on the record book? You got club’s name on the record book. Orchestrated by none other than the peerless Pires. 🙂
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150126/arsenal-set-record-for-longest-match
Great cause.
Incisive Rosickylike ball into the box.
chicka-boom…
I am not sure what you can make of goalkeeping stats, but Sqwaka has Ospina as the 12th best keeper in the Premiership this season (out of 36) with Woj at 15th and Martinez at 17th . No 1 is Fabianski.
http://www.squawka.com/football-player-rankings#performance-score#goalkeeper-stats#english-barclays-premier-league|season-2014/2015#all-teams#goalkeeper#16#44#0#0#90#16/08/2014#26/01/2015#season#1#all-matches#rank#desc#total
cynic @94, in the bathroom remodel business, eh?
Well in, scg.
ned@101, isn’t *that* a pip? too bad the boss doesn’t know goalkeepers.
cheers, ned. it was all going down the toilet, then…
Dr F@98: Another glorious victory for the North Bank, I note.
You must be flush with success, scg.
I’ll get my coat…
Just realized, Dr F, that that scoreline in Indonesia means a goal every 5-6 mins. I imagine the defences were getting tired by the end. It must be tough hanging on for the last seven and a half hours waiting for the final whistle. But apparently the world record for the longest game is 72 hours. That is more than a season’s worth at one go.
NBN — Yes, and a very convincing scoreline at that. 🙂 There were 770 participants altogether, so I guess on average each played less than two minutes. Assuming the tropical climate and the general conditioning of Arsenal newbies that still should be too little to tire defenses.
I am assuming more like there were really were no defenses. After all, Pires was on the pitch with them. 🙂
lol, ned…
Dexter @97, it has been a terrific last several days for us–hope there will be many more this season. Ooh to be a Gooner!
Why don’t we have more games this January? Is it only because we went out of the League Cup?
Ned@101: Costel Pantilimon is ahead of Courtois on that list.
I rest my case 🙂
Re: My own question at 112.
Not really an answer though:
In January 2013 we played 8 games and this year we played only 5, having already played the last game of the month at this point. No League Cup games were played either month so that has nothing to do with it. Not sure how we could fit in three more games two years ago unless something weird came into the equation.
8 ball @ 114: We played five PL games in January 2013, a rather poor run ending with 2-2 home draw with Pool, and played three FA Cup matches across two rounds, including the reply at home against Swans before beating Brighton away.
…@115: “replay” at home .
Speaking of Arsenal in January, this one has been one of the pleasantest in the recent memory: very good PL run after the loss at New Year’s day, progress in FA cup, no new injuries, squad depth looking healthy and most importantly no transfer angst.
I guess the schedulers tend to leave open mid-week dates in January for replays and we played the one replay in January 2013, and the league games were spaced in just the right way that January so we played more often then. I hope the players have enjoyed the rest this month, but I have been missing the mid-week games. 🙁
Faustus, you are right it has been a very good month. I can always find something to grumble about though. 🙂
8 ball @ 118 — Based on your grumbling about lack of mid-week games I am guessing that you are one of those fortunate few who have too much time of their hands. 🙂
Use it well. And before you know it CL and FA and mid-week PL schedules will start to pile up and you will hope for Alexis to get a rest. 🙂
Bayonne J @88,
Quite unbelievable that Anthony Taylor could be assigned to our game with Aston Villa. Ever again.
With plenty of absolute peaches to choose from, his performance against Villa – was it really TWO seasons ago – was possibly the most ridiculous I have ever seen.
He will, of course, have to go out of his way to prove he is not going to be trying to “even up” the previous effort, not that I imagine he would even want to.
Gawd help us !
Lars @59
I tend not to take part in debates in the bar lately, but I think I will make an exception this time.
Mainly because I feel as one of the members of the group that is spouting fuckloads of utter tosh, as you explained so politely and with all the required respect.
The members of the group as I understand, seems to have one thing in common, and that of course is to not to agree with your opinion that Woj is our best keeper at the moment.
As I understand, you ask for someone, I guess it refers to Aussie, to provide a list of matches where Szczesny has cost us points with his mistakes. I will not provide the list, because and that is where I agree with you, although Woj did cost us some points he didn’t cost us that many points this season. But I will also ask you to name me another keeper (or even another player in general) in the PL who cost his team more then Woj cost us. Good luck. And I will help you with that, not even Mannone or Mignolet (famous for their antics) are on the list. Here is the link that may help you.
http://goo.gl/XwmER7
In case you want to read the whole story, I will be pleased to help you on that one too.
http://goo.gl/xr7Vqg
As for the list, it is a short one, I agree with you, so that is why I will post some videos, if that is not a problem.
But first things first. You claim that Ospina had nothing to do in Hull, Stoke and City games. Not true.
http://goo.gl/SrwrLK
http://goo.gl/5erT2k
http://goo.gl/ycx6ym
http://goo.gl/Y80rcv
You can save only what is there to save, no more no less. He did the basics right, his positioning is good, his decision making is good.
You claim that Ospina is bad at crosses. Not true. Even though small at size, he has an excellent leap, and his decision making when to stay on the line and when to come to collect the cross is usually spot on. Would be happy if you can show me any proof or a list of videos where he misjudges a cross or is poorly positioned while playing for Arsenal.
You may include the Galatasaray match you mentioned before, you know the one Woj wasn’t able to play because he was suspended following his annual Champions League RED CARD and three match suspension. Good luck on that one too.
Of course here is how Woj handles crosses
http://goo.gl/3x5OxJ
http://goo.gl/wLoJeb
http://goo.gl/XcCU99
http://goo.gl/t05NQU
These are all goals that Arsenal conceded from Woj poor positioning and slow and sluggish reaction. Most of them didn’t cost us points directly of course and are not counted as a GK mistakes in the end. But if you look carefully good GK has to do better on any of those occasions. And believe me, there are many more of the same trough this or the past seasons. Sadly, it is a pattern.
But then again, mistakes of course are a part of a goalkeepers life and absolutely every goalkeeper makes them. And I am perfectly fine with that and can understand most of the Szczesny mistakes so far. What I can’t understand is this:
http://goo.gl/KW1wD4
http://goo.gl/yXK18a
http://goo.gl/zY0UjS
http://goo.gl/YpFx1N
http://goo.gl/H53rlv
In fact Lars, you are right. Neither of these stupidities cost Arsenal points this season, so I will not include them in the list. But it is worth to remember that Woj keeps on having one or two very annoying and childish moments per game, more often than not getting away with them so they are not always remembered so much. His kicking continues to unnecessarily create drama when an opposing attacker is closing down on him.
http://goo.gl/sjCsAQ
It is worth to be said that in most of these matches especially vs Sunderland or Burnley he also didn’t have loads to do, but every little thing annoyed many fans a bit. His distribution is really poor, he is always at a risk of being sent off, lacks concentration at times, take loads of unnecessary risks, and that destabilizes our defense in general.
http://goo.gl/5rrPsd
http://goo.gl/vRZA9z
http://goo.gl/0eBHJp
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate him and I want him to succeed as an Arsenal player. The most painful thing is that the club has invested a lot in him, I myself was his admirer for a long time and I am sure that Arsene himself is still a big fan of him, but it pains me to say it that I really feel that he has stagnated this year especially this couple of months after the Ospina injury. Bear in mind that so far I still haven’t mentioned his smoking incident, poor behavior towards Arsene and his ignorant father comments that didn’t help him at all so far in his career.
As for Ospina I am not saying that he is the best GK in the PL, there are much better out there, however for me he is the best GK at the moment for Arsenal. The thing that matters is that I trust him more then I trust Woj, and I think that the Arsenal players trust him more too.
Faustus. Time plays tricks sometimes, especially in my hands, but watching Alexis always seems to be time well used. 🙂
Trev and Bajonne J, Anthony Taylor will surely try to even up his atrocious refereeing of our last game against Aston Villa, if he has even a grain of subconscious guilt. In other words, we can expect only one unwarranted penalty to be called against us.
8 ball: Enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsITax1K4i8 . But mute the “music” … 🙂
Great video, Dr. F. What a player.
Lurky, you explain your argument well, using relevant data and point out that you would like to see Woj succeed. I take this to mean that if he does improve performances you will give him the credit for doing so. As you have changed opinions before when you felt the situation to have changed. I hope I am right about this (and that we get a chance to find out!) Not everyone is as open-minded.
I have no issue with anyone not thinking x player is better than z player. There are ways to express opinion and engage in debate. And there is closed-minded, dogmatic rubbish (which often takes huge liberties with logic).
Some of the things I have seen used as ‘evidence’ or described as ‘facts’ beggar belief. Not liking Woj is not rubbish. But the way that opinion has been expressed at times I certainly consider to be worthless in terms of actually discussing the issues or furthering the debate.
Your last post is the most comprehensive and thought out explanation of your thoughts/that viewpoint that I have seen. Thanks.
Stands and applauds Lurky@121 for providing so much evidence of utter tosh on Woj from start to finish.
More patience than I could be bothered …for those who choose to only see the arsenal out of form players with a past tense basis where 12 month old form is the preferred method for the team selections for today…
Thank goodness that arsene doesn’t agree with the philosophy.
GSD- have you actually see the game as yet as you originally mentioned you hadn’t seen the match when you shared your views with us all on how good Woj had obviously played….based on others opinions.
Talk about posts that beggar belief…..
It is exceptionally annoying when ones views, clearly written in black and white and available for all to see, are willfully misrepresented to further an agenda. Or simply lied about.
If one has made up one’s mind to put everyone into a ‘for’ or ‘against’ category I imagine that this influences one’s reading of posts and leads one to consistently miss the points (and their subtleties) of other’s posts.
If any of us cannot be bothered to show the debate and the people engaging in it the intellectual respect they deserve then I am not interested in their views. Almost all of us manage it, including many people who I, personally, disagree with. Some do not even try. Possibly they do not even realise how little linear sense their arguments make.
Either way, I love getting into it with most of you. More of that, please!
Borough home is a decent draw and i am certain we shall prevail. The game on the whole was fairly routine and we just did not step up thinking its a done deal. Brighton played their part but overall we never truly looked threatened.
I do not want to get into the Woj debate, my stand has been clear always. I do not rate him high, i always believe a title winning team needs to have a great gk and not a good one. So it depends on what we want to achieve. I want us to win the league and to do so for me, woj is not the answer.
Paulista looks an excellent buy. Villarreal have had an excellent defensive season and he has played a major part in it. A lot compare him to Kos so expect a bit of a time to settle down. Plus he is Brazilian, so do not be surprised to see a cracking goal and a lunging tackle in the same game.
Time for a winning run now, we need to go on and win most of our premier league games and hopefully reach the last stages of the FA cup. Champions league i will be delighted if we reach the semis but realistically i am happy if we get past Monaco.
Nicely put, GSD. Thank you.
No probs H.
I feel the respect you request has many more facets than simply not using bad language. And i am thrilled this seems to be the view of most of us. All goes to why we value this bar so much.
Lars @ 121 has a good lot of points to make, but there’s no need to frame it all so personally and make it about the opinion of another poster.
The twat 😉
Lurky, you have totally failed to understand the point of my post. And seeing as you are so desperate to find errors by Woj that you included a goal conceded by Emiliano Martinez I see little reason to engage in further debate.
@135 Funny, Lars!
http://player.arsenal.com/player/5650-the-breakdown-the-season-so-far
This review of the season so gar by Adrian Clark is worth a watch. I think his breakdown pieces on Arsenalplayer are pretty good. I hope the players watch them too 🙂
BtM: agree with you on Clark’s breakdown videos. Well worth spending a few minutes on.
I would love to welcome Gabriel Paulista to the club.
…and oh, if you love football, you should love Thomas Rosicky!!
😆
Snowed inside here in Boston. Travel bans and public transport closed. The three year old wants to go outside and throw snowballs, but the storm is still too strong for that.
Thinking about our squad in between teleconferences — put your mind back to even 2013 or 2012, and this has been a remarkable evolution in our squad depth, done with careful planning, patience, right amount of opportunism and yes maybe a bit of luck (Coquelin).
I had posted a couple of years back that looking back at this time 5-10 years from now Arsene would be considered probably the best manager of this generation with respect to building a team for the long haul. If the natural growth of this squad continues, and I see no reason why it should not, we will see how visionary the club and the Arsene have been.
Lurky, in that context, I think your extremely well-demonstrated arguments about Szczesny’s current shortcomings should also include optimism for his long term future at the club and the need for patience. Whatever Arsene’s flaws are he has proved himself to be an excellent judge of not only a player’s talent but the future trajectory of his career. I think Szczesny is a superb talent — his last season form was excellent, despite the odd mishap — and has all the potential to become a great IF he keeps his focus, works hard, and accepts all the challenges in the right spirit. Some of his criticisms are unfair — for instance, his distribution is not as half bad as he is accused of: last season he topped the success rate for GK’s distribution in PL, being at around 70% I believe. He doesn’t always convey a sense of composure the way say Ospina does, but some of that can be also our perception from outside and not actually a reflection of what is happening on the playing field. A month or so back there was a great piece on Arseblog about the gap between the reality of Szczesny’s distribution and its perception by us fans.
I agree that he is not a PL winning team GK. Yet. But I don’t agree that he is that far away. And our disagreements are subjective. However I think now with Ospina in front, and something for him to motivate and better himself, in a short few years he will become a much better player, a PL winning GK.
One of these two opinions would be proven wrong. But I think the Arsenal way is to give him the chance to make that final step. The way we persisted with Rambo or Theo and are persisting with Jack. Or for that matter even Coquelin though I guess there is some circumstantial help with his sudden blossoming in the starting eleven.
My 2-cents on Woj is that he has the potential to be a very good/great goalkeeper. He is still learning his trade, and perhaps doing so by trial and error. For example, he has games where he goes for most every cross and games in which he does not. The games in which he does are self-evidently those in which he is prone to high-profile errors. He has, to my eye, worked on his kicking and distribution. It is still not great, but much better than it was two to three seasons back. Similarly he has cut out throwing himself at the feet of onrushing forwards in a way that got him red cards. He now tends to use that ‘butterfly’ stance favoured by ice hockey goalkeepers (see Brighton’s second goal on Sunday for an example). The unknown, at least from the outside, is how well his decision making will develop. For goalkeepers that comes from experience. Relatively speaking, a keeper gets to take fewer decisions in a game than outfield players, so it takes longer to get that experience, and in the meantime the cost of getting them wrong is often higher.
My 2-cents on Woj is that he will always be the Polish Grobbelaar. Possibly brilliant on his day but more likely to throw one in than be inspired.
Things like being able to judge the trajectory of a ball are basics that he hasn’t got the hang of (do you see what I did there?) when he should have had that mastered long ago.
Fumbalaya.
Lars@135 I was waiting for your response to that. Well played.
Cynic. Heh at both your last posts.
FUMBALAYA!
And where is Paulista?
Sir Chez is still not even 25, no age for a keeper at all. And sorry Cynic, he’s a fucking sight better than Grobbelaar now. By the time he reaches 28 (and for me no goal keeper reaches their prime before that sort of age, although people now will yell Courtois, etc I don’t agree) he will either be one of the top 3 keepers in Europe or binned.
For me he does n’t deserve to be binned yet on the strength of 1 poor performance. And Primrose, who knows a fair bit about keeping, reckons the modern football, which swerves around all over the fucking place like the old orange ‘Wembley’ balls you used to buy from the corner shop, means the days of keepers coming for every high ball and dominating areas are long behind us.
Have n’t seen Ospina move off his line once yet, not that’s he’s needed to, but that may well change. I’ve not made my mind up at all on who’s the better of the 2, but I have no problem in Wenger’s treatment of Sir Chez. He’s not a nailed on selection for now and needs to be reminded of that.
I still believe he may well be in years to come.
I just think that we should be lucky having two great goalies.
Who cares which one is better as long as the better one is playing.
I feel it would be silly to invest 10 years in the development of a GK and then throw it all away just because he behaves like a schoolboy having a fag in the bicycle shed.
While I don’t condone his behaviour in this regard (in fact I’m delighted to see that he has been reprimanded) Lars is right – its all too easy to forget how consistent he has been and where he has come from.
He’s a top talent for such a young age, and most tellingly, Wenger continues to refer to him as “the No 1” keeper at the club which would suggest that his spell on the bench will be a temporary one.
I agree wholeheartedly with Esso and would even say that a GK, like a CH, really don’t come into their prime until they reach their 30’s. By the time he gets to that age I think Woj will be world class.
Whatever you may say about him, when we score or win important games, the sheer displays of elation & fist punching show just how much this club means to him. And you can’t buy that!
lurky, while i’m not sure chez is our future, he’s not in our past, either. he and ospina are competing for the number one, and it’s going to make both of them better. i am grateful for that.
in your third video you give as evidence for chez’s cross handling ability, bojan gets a free run of 35 yards right into open space at the 6-yard box to get the cross from the right and score. if per was in position there (you can see flamini waving and yelling at him to track back), bojan wouldn’t have gotten the cross, and chez could have stayed home. it’s per’s absence that forces chez to come to the runner, a decision that any quality goalkeeper could have made imho. nothing to do with “claiming the cross”, more “covering for the defense”.
i wonder that the defense that has been in front of ospina during his little clean-sheet run has been massively bolstered by le coq, who was absent until late for chez in the brighton game. i will be curious to see if ospina’s run continues (long may it continue) if coq is not playing in front of the defense.
SZCZ will come good. Already has come good in many ways. He can improve on his focus and consistency but I am not one to say he will not do exactly that. Ospina has not been tested in an Arsenal shirt so all of a sudden proclaiming him a more suitable number one is a bit hasty in my opinion. I like what I’ve seen of Ospina for the most part. Except for at least two or three high balls that he has fumbled right to his feet and been lucky to grab on the second attempt.
scruz, I would agree that Wojciech Szczesny wasn’t anywhere near saving that goal. If you have a closer look at the clip I think you can figure out why.
Esso, spot on about no keepers coming for all crosses these days.
Joe, well said – particularly the last paragraph.
Joe/Esso: There are some exceptions to the general rule of GK greatness arriving in the late 20s or early 30s. Most notably Gigi Buffon who was just 24 I believe when he already was being nominated for Ballon d’Or with Parma before being sold for some insane money to Juve. He entered Juve as Italy’s #1 — and probably Europe’s #1 — Goalkeeper.
Szczesny is no Buffon, that much has been established. Van der Sar, Cech they all became consistently great much later in their career.
lars, 😀 my point still stands, mistake in identity notwithstanding 🙂
There are exceptions to every rule Doc! But that rather proves the point does n’t it.
scruz: no arguments at all with your point 🙂
Yes, Esso, absolutely. My point was that there were some hope in some quarters — including yours truly — that Szczesny may be able to make that leap very quickly and if not quite as extraordinary as Buffon would be a more consistent keeper by now. Last season was hugely promising.
On that note, I think in recent years deprived of true excellence — which is of course changing rapidly — in the squad we had started to project our desire for that on the youth products. Gibbo and Jack for instance have neither failed to progress, but to us that progress doesn’t just seem adequate enough and we expect a bit more given how early they were brought in the first team squad and I guess with spoilt by our experience with Cesc (before he moved on, that is).
Both Gibbo and Jack have been taking two steps forward, one step back their whole careers on account of injuries, Dr F. Same with Theo, Ox, Rambo etc etc. If any of them ever got a long-enough injury free spell I have no doubt we’d see what AW sees in his mind about them. As when Rambo had his hour in the sun last season.
Question is whether any of them should be persisted with at all, lest they end up Diabys and counter productive to team development.
Öskar
I just feel sad when we slag off our own players…
bmbd
Fair dos, Esso. Hopefully if he does get back in, he’ll not find himself in this position again. I like him (on the whole) but he drives me up the wall.
Sorry I missed this evening. Some great points. Thanks Esso, Joe, cynic, Lars. Thanks everyone.
My own take on Woj is, as always, more simplified. He is young, responded well to competition last year, but has had his nose put out of joint by the arrival of Ospina.
His judgement has been affected by his desire to prove himself the best. He’ll work it out, knuckle down, and come back better even than last season, I would like to believe. Right now though only he can sort his feelings and his attitude out.
I hope he does, because at his best he is a great goalkeeper, and there aren’t too many of them around.
And abb, need you to charm everyone in here again. 😉
‘Holic @159: That sums up Woj perfectly.
Morning folks.
All I see is a win on Saturday and a run coming up thereafter!!
COYG’s
Errrr, Paulista?
Where??!
😀
Where indeed ? As I said, I hoped Arsene’s optimism was not misplaced.
Another gripe, BT Sport have our Cup Tie on a Sunday again. Better than a Monday night I suppose but we do seem to have an awful lot of Sunday games which are at the mercy of rail engineering works and the joy of buses along the route!
Looking forward to some Wengerball on Sunday, could be a master class from Santi & Co.
COYRs
I work Sundays most weeks. I can often arrange in advance to be off for certain ones if I know we have a game but not always. This stream of Sunday matches (Hull 4th, Stoke 11th, Oilers 18th, Brighton 25th, Villa 1st- that is to say, the entire month of January barring the NYD game) has been killing me. I went to one, saw two on tv, missed one and will miss the next. And in the process used up the Sundays I can reasonably take off work for a while. So no Borough for me. Only getting to actually watch about half of our games really sucks.
I am glad this run is coming to end even though they have chucked in another Sunday cup tie. I think matchday fans should be the first consideration (not that schedulers give a monkey’s) but personally I would prefer Monday night as I’d actually get to watch it!
And I have no access to BT sport (I am in total agreement with Trev on that front- I simply refuse to pay money for poo) so cannot record any of these cup ties either.
So, a bit frustrated lately- like all fans I just want to watch us play!
Unsurprising but still annoying to see Gary Lineker defending Phil Neville’s idiotic comment on Rosicky on the grounds that he was joking. Jokes actually have to be funny Gary.
Where is Paulista?? I was keen to see him play sunday honestly, wait atleast the spurs game and it would be ideal to see him do a great job against them. I do not understand this thing of him going to France, i mean is it because Wenger will only allow you to come if you are french??? Oh come on he is beyond that now.
Sunday against Villa should give us an indication as to who Wenger sees as his first 11. How will he fit in Santi and Ozil will be intriguing.
Lastly, yesterday’s capitol one semis was a disgrace to refereeing. How on earth was Costa still on the pitch is beyond understanding. But for such shocking refereeing and Courtious, chelshit may actually have not won the tie.
On Woj, I’m surprised there has been little or no mention of his traumatic ordeal in the opening Euro 12 Finals game against Greece in Warsaw. Or maybe I missed such a posting. God I felt for the man. I don’t think you ever fully recover from something like that, the shame and humiliation in front of such an expectant host nation crowd (Bayern not easy to forget either for sure). He is a confident lad though and he put it behind him remarkably well. But to me, it’s a kind of golfing Yips when it comes to leaving his area. Manuel Neuer he is not. Can’t help on crosses too if your angles, space relations, distances, etc aren’t quite up to it for the very highest level. Having said that he is a wonderful shot-stopper with amazing reflexes. The rest of your game can be in great shape, but if you have the Yips with something ?? Can never be the full package in my view though, as people have said. It will repeat and recur. Ospina for me, any day, what a display in the World Cup. But can we keep him fit ?
There we go. Gabriel is a gooner, almost worried for a second there!
PAULISTA!!!
I bet he’s not happy about that mugshot on .com.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150128/arsenal-complete-the-signing-of-gabriel
Welcome to Arsenal, Gabriel Paulista!!
It looks like he has solid bones which are also capable of movement, which can be nothing but a bonus. 🙂
Just wondering though, after watching a couple of youtube videos of Gabriel at work, one for Villarreal and one for Vitoria, his Brazilian club. In both videos he never primarily at Left Back. What gives on that score?
That is, he played primarily at Left Back in those videos.
Arsenal have been granted a work permit for Gabriel and the transfer is subject to the completion of further registration and regulatory processes.
——————–
Huh?! What further registration and regulatory processes?!?!
Non-announcement announcement!
All that remains are formalities… (I hope!)
😀
Welcome to the Arsenal, Gabriel!
8 ball — I rarely watch La Liga nowadays, but through our new signing is known to be versatile enough to play across all positions in the back-line he is primarily a CB who is equally at ease on the left or the right side.
He has played for LB as well as CB in the few Villareal matches I saw parts of on the TV this season. He played LB against Real I think but CB in a couple of others. He is right footed though.
He has that Vermaelen-esque mean stare … hopefully will have a better career with us. TV5 started off so well, rather sad how injuries stopped him on his tracks.
This is a good collection of Gabriel’s skills (mute the music, of course): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxjfP1CA5O8
The FA has announced that Chelsea striker Diego Costa has been charged by for violent conduct following an on-field incident which was not seen by the match officials but caught on video.
—————-
Ah.. justice finally! 😀
BB. Actual justice requires conviction and sentencing, not just bringing charges. Rehabilitation is however out of the question, even for a player who has only been with Chelsea a few months. 😉
Paulista.. strong on the ball, quick and good in the air!
Very nice indeed.
🙂
Faustus. Thanks for the GP link.
@bt8
Am sure you’re right in that respect. 🙂
Or as Costa would say… I stand accused of the things I DID!
😀
bt8 @ 182: You are welcome.
If all our defenders are fit then even our defensive squad depth becomes rather satisfactory.
Wishing young Hayden rapid recovery and some good pre-season so that he can also really push Per and Kos next season. It would be interesting to see what Arsene decides to do with Jenks.
Morale is definitely higher on here than it has been for dome time. The signing of Gabriel suggests that soon we will have a full first team of players known by their Christian names.
Added to a couple of signings ( Krys was definitely more long- term than Gsbriel and Alexis) we have seen the emergence of Francis who almost seems like a new signing because he has spent the last three seasons largely playing for other teams. Who knows if Joel will also return as a hero after his sojourn in Spain?
Nobody likes the January window unless they do something positive in it. Our action set alongside the obvious improvement in the team which has a huge amount to do with a combination of players returning from injury and fewer fixtures has meant that we look in decent shape going into February. However in a knee- jerk world where three defeats constitutes disaster and three wins puts you in line for Manager of the Season fell good factors don’t always last long. Remember it’s Anthony Taylor and Villa up on Sunday! Glad I was so complimentary about Michael Oliver on Sunday. He is being given dogs abuse around the football world today.
Come on you Blades!
ttg: Taylor really worries me, to be honest. I can not for the life of me understand how he is a Premier League referee.
What Lars said.
Excited to see Gabriel in action. Looks like a real player, though of course he’ll take some time to settle in. As with any new defender, however previously accomplished (think Per) there will inevitably be some mistakes along the way. Language, too, could be an obstacle, since communication is so important at the back.
Unlike some I can’t see the boss doing anything else in this window, unless maybe a late Kallstrom-style loan. But even that’s a stretch. The squad looks solid front to back. We’ll miss Arteta and Debuchy, but with Coquelin and Bellerin playing well, hopefully not too much. Wilshere is on target for a return in about a month. It’s as healthy – and balanced – an Arsenal squad as we’ve seen for some years really.
Gabriel’s got to be the new #5 right? Would seem like an insult to give him a higher number.
Bad news for GSD. ‘Boro – Sunday 15th Feb 1600 live on BT Sport.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>