Old Foes Return
Jan 7th, 2011 by 'holic
Hello ‘holics, first up I must apologise for not being around much this week. Had some stuff to do down in Devon. Hopefully, after next week we will be back to full Arsenal goodness.
I have still only seen the Match of the Day highlights of the Citeh game, and everything has pretty much been covered in the drinks about that I think. One can’t help but have been impressed with the way we went about the job again, but a combination of Joe Hart and woodwork denied us two points. I know the debate rages about them ‘parking the bus’. For what it’s worth the ultimate judges of their tactical approach will be their own supporters. If they are unhappy that half a billion pounds worth of talent just buys you a nine man defensive shield then they will vote with their wallets.
Next up then is Leeds, against whom I have experienced some real highs and lows down the years. There was a time when a match against the Yorkshiremen would invariably involve excessive violence and skulduggery, both on and off the pitch. Wembley defeats in 1968 and 1972, plus a Highbury defeat in the League in the spring of 1969 which doused our faint title hopes, established them as a figure of hate for older Arsenal supporters. Things swung round in the seventies when I recall witnessing a 7-0 Arsenal triumph in one Highbury meeting, and through the eighties and nineties as George Graham’s side established a dominance that meant so much to older Gooners.
The Leeds of today are battling to recover from the overspending around the turn of the century, and won promotion from the third tier of English football on the final day of last season. They also defeated Manchester United at Old Trafford, and drew with the little lot at the other end of Seven Sisters Road in last season’s competition. Impressive as that sounds, their cup run last season should mean Arsenal will not under-estimate the task that awaits them at the Grove.
It’s harder to hate Leeds these days. They have a thoroughly decent manager in Simon Grayson, and could include on-loan Gunner Sanchez Watt, if he recovers from a head injury, somewhat graciously released to play by his employers. Having said that I’m sure those next to the 8500 visiting fans will soon be reminded of just why we had our ups and downs in the past!
Rotation is already a given, but where that might once have created a little tension, the unleashing of the likes of Tomas Rosicky, Marouane Chamakh, Nicklas Bendtner, and Andrey Arshavin, all with something to prove, is a mouthwatering prospect. There is another. It looks as though Aaron Ramsey will have a place in the squad, on the bench I would imagine, but what a superb lift to have him back. If we could get ourselves in control of the contest in the opening hour it would be great to see him back in action for the Gunners, however briefly.
In the days before Wenger I was present at a number of games against sides a division or two below us that went horribly, awfully pear-shaped. It would be wrong to dismiss Leeds chances completely, but the ‘holic pound has to be aimed at what may be a hard-earned win. Leeds will work hard to nullify the midfield area, and with Song, Nasri, Wilshere and Fabregas all likely to be missing they may frustrate for a while. I’m looking at the tens offered against a 3-1 win as my main punt, although I have added a little back-up on 4-1 at 16/1.
Apologies
I’m sorry if you were caught up in the problem last Sunday morning that saw some regulars blocked by the server firewall. Everybody who dropped me a line should now have full access again. The timing of this little glitch was quite wonderful! Anyway, thanks for your patience and understanding.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
50 Responses to “Old Foes Return”
Evening squire
A drink of your choice Holic…. hope you enjoyed the victory this morning.
Barman, would like to join you and Dr C in that drink and a propose big toast to the return of our Rambo.
May he have a long and now uninterrupted career at the home of football.
Cheers all!
Storey, in relation to your question in the last drinking session:
I’ll have a Boddingtons… followed by a John Smiths!
PS, great write-up. I clearly remember the hatred and associated aggro at Leeds. I stood in their Northbank in the 70s when we drew 1-1. There was plenty of brown adrenalin flowing in my veins on that occasion 😉
Hi holics,
I ll join in with a toast of my own TS!
It will be good to see him back on the football pitch! come on Aaron!
Cheers
Lars, Boddies it is. Skol!
Chhers Harsha, what a great way to start the weekend with news like that? You can imagine the ovation he is likely to get when he takes to the pitch.
TS (from last post) … no medication here this month – detox and all that!
arsene wenger is the best coach of the decade. FACT!!
and the stats are there to prove it
http://www.iffhs.de/?d443d0b45fdcc02fccad5e99a15505fdcdc3bfcdc0aec70aeedb883d05
shot of whiskey for everyone barman. COME ON YOU REDS!!!
Mmmmm… Boddingtons! A bit hard to come by out here.
Dr C,
Ah forgot, apologies. Water and fruit juices only for you then? Meh.
Be strong Dr C, think of the benefits of detox. Your body is a temple 😉
unfortunately just the one worshipper ….
Well I’ve just had a drink with TS on the previous pub crawl, but I’ll have one here too.
Cheers!
Drink. Mmmm. Good idea 🙂
Hey Holic good to see you back.
You evoked many memories of Leeds matches in your fine article above, including the ’72 Cup Final. It remains the only game that has made me cry but I was only 7 at the time 🙂
PS: I wanted to cry after our only CL final too but didn’t.
A very English toast to stiff upper lips anyone?
Ollie,
I guess that you picked a bad week to try and remain sober. It appears that only Dr C has the resolve to stand by his new year’s detox. 😉
’72. Dad played cricket, we had three tickets, so Mum and sis went and sat down, I stood. Still see Charlie hitting the bar as clear as day…
Great memories ‘Holic, thanks for sharing…
Hope all is well sir.
There are a surprising number of Leeds supporters on my road. I’ve invited a few in tomorrow for humiliation.
As I’m detoxxing at the moment, could I please order some soda water with a chunk of fresh lime? Thank you.
Great write up sir. Can’t wait for tomorrow!
Any cricket fans in tonight?
Pure photographic gold 🙂
http://tinyurl.com/37cof4u
Goonerholic and Catalan – the gloating that is going on here, aimed at our (my?) poor convict cousins, is unbecoming of you fine upstanding gentlemen. I can only assume that this is the result of 23 years of ritual thrashings or whatever it is and this has been a long time coming!
Seriously though, well done to the England cricket team. Whilst you can only beat what is put in front of you, I do think that the media (as ever) have gone completely over the top – , the current Aussie cricketing crop are lamentable. With selectors as clueless as those too look in your picture ‘Holic.
As for Dirty Leeds, here’s hoping you’re right Holic that some of those named above are out with something to prove!
Great post as ever, and welcome back!!
those “two” even
Hush now Zico…..!
Besides, we have bigger fish to fry than the Aussies…. number one spot beckons! Won’t be as sweet as this though.
The last time we managed this I was dong my “A” levels. I’m going to gloat loooong and hard!
God save their Queen.
I think Holic you owe a lot of your celebrations to the Pakistani cricket team. If they hadnt completely rolled over england might not have gone to the ashes full of confidence.
Btw the icc is as corrupt as the fifa.
Cheers! hoping for a arsenal win tonight.
@49 Unbeaten: thanks for the tipple, sir. Puts the cold to bed.
@TS: Don’t call me Shirley.
Pint of plain please barkeep, here’s to a tough but fair thrashing of those Northerners, and to our Aaron, especially if he gets a run out.
come on you rip roaring!
Morning all,
Just awaiting team news.
Szczesny, Eboue, Squillaci, Djourou, Gibbs, Denilson, Song, Rosicky, Arshavin, Chamakh, Bendtner
Like that.
subs: Fabianski, Clichy, Miquel, Fabregas, Vela, Walcott, Ramsey
Me too, ‘Holic…
The depth of our squad is truly amazing..
not totally impressed by NB AA or TR – must do better 2nd half
please u reds – my son is there amongst the blues and I couldn’t cope with an earful from him
Need to be VERY careful here. On this first half performance, if Leeds score we’ll struggle to come back. Nor do we need a 0-0 and a replay at Elland Road.
At the moment Arsenal doing a very good impersonation of a Championship team. Eboue, Denilson, Arshavin, Rosicky, Bendy not cutting it.
Predictable.
🙁
If only we’d taken one of those many many chances…or played more seriously in the first half. The needs to be addressed as it’s been happening almost all season along
VERY lucky to be in this competition still.
Our squad depth looks very good on paper. In reality, we have a superb starting eleven, some outstanding young prospects, but too many who flatter to deceive when they asked to perform in the absence of Fabregas, Nasri, Sagna, Song and Van Persie.
Eboue, Denilson, Rosicky, Squillaci, Arshavin, Bendtner and Chamakh are not players who have the skill level, nouse and determination to elevate Arsenal above the VERY ordinary, absent of F,N,S,S and RvP.
All are fine as one for one substitutions. Collectively, they are not the material that champions are made of.
To finish on a positive, Fabregas is a winner. Walcott and Djourou’s games are improving by the week. Sczezny is a STAR rising steadily towards the heights.
We got out of jail there.
At least we avoided the ignominy of going out at home to them, like Man U did.
Guinness calls.
Sorry in many ways – apart from my son – who is strangely hors contact after the match…
Did not understand substitutions at all – it was NB and TR who were playing badly so taking MC and AS off was mind blowing
NB went on as earlier hitting passes too hard or off direction, not knowing where the goal was and on and on..
we should have had 2 penalties in quick succession and I did wonder if uncle Phil was actually going to give the 2nd
so that leaves us at Elland road in the middle of the carlings – ho hum – where’s the bar gone to now
BTM @ 38. 100% agree.
hi Cognac, Holics.
BTM, I was having very similar thoughts- though some young guns seem to be rising, other gunners seem to be fading… I don’t expect TR or AA to return to top form again for us. I’ve also kind of always felt that NB lacked the finesse of touch to be top top class, but we’ll see. Chamack has done wonders for us this season, especially considering the boots he needed to fill with RVP out, and my hat off to him. As good of a team as we are, and I’m not complaining in the slightest, I think we’ll be better next season.
I really felt that knee-jerk reaction building up inside of me during the game, but after getting that equaliser and with a little time to think I got on here to write a post, just to see that BtM already wrote it.
Quite a lot of players good enough to slot into the squad but not a team that will win a lot of matches.
We lacked creativity until Fabregas got on to the field. We have a game plan based on creativity and it’s not enough to have just one or two flair players on the field for it to work. Arshavin was one of the few we had on today, and he is very hit and miss, both in style (as in, actually playing a very risk-taking game) and in actual performance at the moment. Just not enough.
I could have been on here saying quite a lot of other stuff, had we not gotten the equalizer, I know myself well enough to see that, but now I’ll leave with this –
A lot of the players on the pitch today will do a lot of good things between now and the end of the season, but I do hope that we won’t see them all together again, but rather have a somewhat more restrictive rotational policy and try to rest a key player or two at a time, and not all at once.
If we play it like that, our squad depth is good enough, but we can’t take to the field without both Nasri and Fabregas at the moment, but you know that is just fair enough.
a quick shot of any Glen you’ve got please ‘Holic- all to keep the winter chill at bay you understand…
Bendy, Arshavin, Denilson, Rosicky none of them exactly covered themselves in glory. It was telling that Arshavin ran over BOTH times there was a substitution. Conventional wisdom seems to say that Denilson is ‘one of those DMs who you never notice but is always there’… I don’t deny that that type of player is useful, but perhaps we could find one who can do so reliably..? I’ll wait to see highlights and I’d be so happy to be proved wrong but I fear he’s not fulfilling his purpose.
The American next to me at the Grove proudly declared: ‘this is Wenger showing he doesn’t give a shit about the cups.’ It wasn’t. This was a team of ‘full internationals’ as Senor Martinez reminded us after the Wigan game. If that team was enough for Wigan (and it almost was) then this was enough for Leeds fucking United. And you can’t fault the boss for bringing on Fab and Theo, even if you might question who he took off.
It was a cup game and we played ok for the most part. I would like to think, however, that we could prune this squad a bit on the strength of today’s display. Well at least we get a trip up to Leeds. Oh…
I realise my post is pretty repetitive, given that I could only post after my tube train had resurfaced. Apologies. Not the end of the world, I think we all agree.
It was a cup game and fair play to Leeds they defended with their lives.
Every single show was either blocked or not on traget. Their desire to chase anything that came along proved they were more determined to prove themselves. I wish some of our players could show this desire in every game.
Let’s not forget though that our first 11 plays a completely different game, Rosicky sad to say had some glipses but never really pushed the ball forward. Arshavin on the other hand couldn’t control at least five passes if not more, I know he’s a great player but he needs stop giving the ball away so easily.
I’m a tad disappointed but I’m glad we got that equaliser, Leeds defended and pushed high up the pitch it wouldn’t be any different with Nasri, Cesc or Van Persie from the start in my opinion.
Heads up fellow Holics they made few stops on the line as well…
Szczesny did well again he kept us in the game with that reflex save
phew.
Echo the thoughts of BTM, Zico et al above.
*shot not show he he
My word what a pile of shit that was. Eboue is a rather limited player, but if everybody had played with the same urgency and dedication as he did we would have had this game in the bag after 30 minutes. Just look at how we attacked them just before and after the penalty, I guarantee you that if the game had been just three minutes longer we would have scored again – so why wait so long to start doing the hard work?
Szczesny and Djourou had very good games, and Cesc and Walcott did well as subs. The others were way below par.
I also have to say I am seriously losing faith in Denilson. What’s the point of having a defensive midfielder who can’t actually defend even if his life depended on it? That “tackle” that gave away the penalty was just so, so poor. He is experienced enough to know that you never ever stick your leg out like that unless you are 100% sure you’ll get the ball.
If I had been in Wenger’s shoes I would have gone straight into the dressing room after the game and told the players that the same eleven, barring injuries, will start the replay and in no uncertain terms told them I expect them to clean up their own mess. We didn’t draw because the players we had out there aren’t good enough, we drew because too many of them thought they just had to turn up to win it.
Pint of John Smiths, please.
‘Evening ‘Holic & ‘Holics
Good write-up ‘Holic. A frustrating performance from our second team. We had enough possession and opportunties to win comfortably but sadly that’s just not our style for enough of the time.
A few thoughts/observations….
Leeds have a reasonable chance of promotion this year and Wigan a fair chance of waving to them from the train travelling in the opposite direction. Their defensive performance was not that disimilar to the one from Man C.
Credit to them, they played well and their travelling support was exceptional. Our “B team” definitiely lacked ze sharpness in the final third – it/they shouldn’t.
Djourou and Theo are becoming seriously good performers. Captain Fabtastic is a genuine inspiration to all he plays with.
@ BTM #38 – That’s about as negative a posting that I’ve seen you write although I happen to agree with every word of it. You must have been mightily frustrated to write about Denilson in that way. His foul for the penalty was definitely”of the Championship”. However, his late effort on goal was superb and I’d love to see more of that kind of play from him.
@ Mog #44 – Since the Chelsea performance it’s become very clear to all who are the “nailed-ons” and who play second fiddle. We need a good balance of both (when playing a weakened squad) to grind out results. I think that’s what we’ll do back at Elland Road.
@ Lars #49 – Chin up and enjoy the John Smiths. I doubt we’ll make the same mistakes in the replay but we could have done without the extra fixture.
@ Zico #39 – That’s cos we’re better than United 😉 Hopefully, we’ll prove it when we play them at The Ems.
Barman? A round for all in the bar please and a large one for yourself.