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Arsenal Blog

Two Gunners in the England Squad

May 16, 2012 – 13:46

Oxlade-Chamberlain & Theo Walcott have both been included in Roy Hodgson’s 23-man England squad.

Arsenal’s English contingent is larger right now than it has been in previous years, but Gibbs was unlikely to make the cut given the competition from Baines & Cole (as well as his injury lay-off this campaign), and Wilshere is still injured.

Both the Ox and Theo are deployed on the wings, so could be competing with each other for a spot in the first team. However, both have voiced their desires to play more centrally – Walcott as a striker & the Ox as an attacking midfielder. I doubt either of them will be playing centrally in the Euros given the fierce competition for places, but it’s always a possibility.

The rest of the England squad doesn’t throw up any major surprises apart from Downing, Carroll & potentially the keepers. Both of these Liverpool players have had terrible seasons – Downing is a winger who is yet to score or assist. Stats don’t tell you everything, but we have far superior wingers who haven’t been picked, such as Lennon or Johnson. I’d even prefer Joe Cole, who has been playing in Ligue 1 this year, so has been out of the spotlight.

Carroll has picked up his form recently, but has still had a poor season given his price tag and the club he is playing for. With Rooney injured, we could easily see Carroll starting with Defoe, which wouldn’t strike fear into many defences. We have plenty of decent strikers, and these two really shouldn’t have made the cut, in my opinion.

Some big omissions from the squad include Carrick, who has had a decent season, and Richards, who has been excellent for City.

Below is the list of those who made the England squad.

Goalkeepers - Joe Hart, Robert Green, John Ruddy

Defenders - Leighton Baines, Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole, Glen Johnson, Phil Jones, Joleon Lescott, John Terry

Midfielders - Gareth Barry, Stewart Downing, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Scott Parker, Theo Walcott, Ashley Young

Strikers - Andy Carroll, Jermain Defoe, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck

Standby - Jack Butland, Phil Jagielka, Jordan Henderson, Adam Johnson, Daniel Sturridge
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Post-Match Reviews

West Brom 2-3 Arsenal: Gunners Player Ratings

May 16, 2012 – 01:46

Szczesny – 6 I don’t feel that there was too much he could have done for either goal. The first was 1-on-1 and the second was just a good strike.  Apparently Szczesny has receiving injections over the last few weeks for a shoulder injury, which can hardly have helped.

Jenkinson – 4 Really struggled, especially in the first half. He wonders inside, leaves the flanks exposed, and doesn’t get on the right side of his man. The good news is that Sagna should have plenty of time to recover over the summer and will hopefully be fit for the start of next season.

Vermaelen – 6.5 Had a few poor moments in the first half (he was high up the pitch for West Brom’s second), but defended well after the break.

Koscielny – 7.5 Made a few good blocks and showed why he is a quality centre-back. 

Santos – 7 Good going forward (he has great attacking flair and grabbed a decent goal), but poor defensively. Maybe Santos is more suited to playing a more advanced role on the wing?

Song – 6.5 Not as dominant as he was in the first-half of the season, but still a pretty decent performance. Needs to remember his defensive duties and protect the back four. We have conceded way too many goals from teams who exploit gaps left by Song and Vermaelen.

Coquelin – 5 Gave the ball away on several occasions and didn’t really take the opportunity to prove why he deserves to start ahead of Aaron Ramsey.

Rosicky – 5.5 A relatively quiet game from the Czech international, who was subbed at half time for Walcott.

Gervinho – 5 Makes good runs (sometimes I wonder if the ball is actually glued to his feet), but his final ball always lets him down. He doesn’t need to score to be a great player, but a few assists would be helpful. 

Benayoun – 9 Fantastic performance from Yossi, who was clearly out to prove why he deserves to be at the club beyond the summer. Scored his 6th of the season, which is pretty good when you consider that he has only made 25 appearances, many as a substitute. If Wenger doesn’t snap him up from Chelsea then he is making a big mistake. Fair enough, Benayoun is slightly older and might not make 40 appearances a season, but he adds a lot of experience to the team and has a pretty good eye for goal.

Van Persie – 6 Lacked support, especially from the players in midfield. RvP was left slightly isolated and didn’t really get into the game as much as he would have liked. Not going to complain though. 30 league goals this season ain’t bad. 

Substitutes:

Walcott – 5 Didn’t make a huge impression in the 45 minutes that he was on the pitch. Helped out defensively, but not much going forward.

Gibbs – 8 I give Gibbs full credit for a £30 million tackle right at the end to deny what looked like a certain equaliser. A good overall performance as he proves to be a better defensive left-back than Santos.

Ramsey – n/a On pretty late. Not enough time to really influence the game.

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Post-Match Reviews

5 things learnt from West Brom 2-3 Arsenal

May 14, 2012 – 12:43

1) Arsenal did it the hard way, but have qualified for the Champions League for the 15th consecutive season. After our worst start in 58 years, selling Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, losing Jack Wilshere for the whole season through injury, losing to Blackburn, Wigan, QPR, Swansea and Fulham, losing 8-2 to United at old Trafford, and with no fullbacks for about 6 weeks, we still finished above Spurs. I think that Spurs had (by their standards) a pretty good season – just how bad are they???

2) Martin Fulop is clearly an Arsenal fan. Fulopgate is about to become the new lasagnagate as Spurs fans complain about how dodgy goalkeeping yesterday afternoon gifted us the Champions League. Ben Foster had featured in all of the previous 37 league games for West Brom, but was forced to sit out due to injury, so Fulop made his first league appearance of the season. The Hungary international failed to make any effort to clear the ball, allowing Benayoun to go round him and tap into an empty net, and then somehow punched from a corner towards his own goal. Make no mistake, Arsenal’s performance was pretty awful and I have absolutely no idea how we won.

3) Arsenal’s defensive problems continue as we conceded 2 or more goals for the 13th time this season. The Gunners let in 49 goals over the duration of the season, which is more than we have ever conceded in a single league campaign under Arsène Wenger. Of course, the statistics contain a certain anomalous result (apparently we got beaten badly at Old Trafford?), so it’s not as terrible as at first glance, but I don’t think that anybody can argue that our defence has been particularly solid this season. The fact that we played for long periods with full-backs cannot have helped, but Wenger should have bought (or loaned!!) some cover in January.

4) Robin van Persie won the Premier League Golden Boot but did not beat the record of 31 goals in a 38-game Premier League season. Robin’s goal-scoring dropped a bit towards the end of the season, but nobody can deny how important he has been for the club this year. Our captain is set to have contract talks with Arsene Wenger this week (before he joins the Netherlands at their Euro 2012 training camp), so lets just hope that he is still an Arsenal player in a few months time.

5) Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Jack Marshall Brain Tumor Fund were also winners. Piers Morgan donated £10,000 to GOSH after he lost a bet with Samir Nasri that Arsenal would win a major trophy before the Frenchman, while any Spurs fans following Jack Wilshere owe him £1 because of a bet made all the way back in November. Moragn clearly doesn’t understand how bets work though, because he donated to his own charity, not Nasri’s…

 

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Match Previews

Official Team Line Up: West Brom vs Arsenal

May 13, 2012 – 14:13

Arsenal are at The Hawthorns today for the final game of the season – the game that will decide our final league position, decide whether we get to celebrate St Totteringham’s day and potentially decide the transfers we make this summer (including the issue of van Persie’s contract).

Arsenal.com has announced the line up for the match:

As I had hoped for, Wenger has picked a proper RB for this game instead of opting for Coquelin. Jenkinson hasn’t played much recently due to injury and Sagna’s form, but he was impressive early in the season, and hopefully he can continue that. Coquelin replaced Ramsey in midfield, which should be a positive move. Ramsey hasn’t been on top form and is often the scapegoat for our poor results. Coquelin is creative but also tracks back. Benayoun starts with Gervinho on the wings, in what could be the Israeli’s last match for the club, but I’m sure he will still work his socks off. Oxlade-Chamberlain is on the bench but I expect to see him as a supersub (although I hope we won’t need it!). Walcott is also on the bench having been out injured, but perhaps he isn’t ready for a start.

Substitutes: Fabianski, Djourou, Gibbs, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Ramsey, Chamakh

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Match Previews

Pre-Match Stats & Facts: West Brom vs Arsenal

May 13, 2012 – 13:50

Below is a list of interesting facts and statistics about today’s match against West Brom on the final day of the 2011/12 Premier League season. The Official team line-up will be released in just over half an hour, and I expect every Arsenal fan to be glued to the television later this afternoon as The Gunners fight for their rightful place in the 2012/13 Champions League.
  • Today is Arsène Wenger’s 600th Premier League game as Arsenal manager, but Pat Rice’s last as our assistant manager. Pat’s replacement for next season is Steve Bould, who has been promoted from his position as Head Youth Team Coach (i.e in charge of the Arsenal academy). This also happen’s to be Roy Hodgson’s last game in charge of The Baggies before he takes over as England manager.
  • West Brom are in good form, having lost only 1 of their last 6 games. Arsenal have not won in the last 4…
  • In every game Arsenal have played West Brom we have scored 2 goals or more. However, this has not always been enough to win the game (remember the embarrassing 3-2 loss at the Emirates last season??)
  • Arsenal have not lost on the final day of the season since 2005 (losing 2-1 away at Birmingham).
  • Robin van Persie has scored 30 goals this season. He needs 2 more to beat Ronaldo and Alan Shearer’s record of 31 goals in a 38-game Premier League season.
  • RvP has also hit the woodwork 10 times this season, the most of any player in the Premier League.
  • Arsenal have conceded 5 own-goals this season – the most of any team in the Premier League.
  • Arsenal have fought back to recover more points from losing positions more often than any other team in the Premier League. This is both a good and bad statistic as it highlight’s one of Arsenal’s major weaknesses – we shouldn’t have been in losing positions to teams in the bottom half of the table in the first-place!!

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Match Previews

West Brom vs Arsenal: Team News & Predicted Starting XI

May 12, 2012 – 19:22

Arsenal face West Brom tomorrow afternoon (a.k.a the final day of the Premier League season) knowing that only a win will guarantee a place in next season’s Champions League.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last few days, you will be well aware that it is extremely tight in the fight for the last of the Champions League places, with Spurs and Newcastle only 1 and 2 points behind respectively.

I am not going to go on about it in too much detail because we have already done so in our match preview article, but essentially as long as we win the game then there is no need to worry about Spurs or Newcastle.

If Arsenal finish 4th in the league, however, then we rely on Chelsea losing in the final to Bayern Munich and would still have to go through the tough qualifying round. If we finish 5th (entirely possible) then we can look forward to games against the likes of Rapid Bucharest, Malmo FF and FC Maribor without Robin van Persie.

Team News:

Arsenal

  • Theo Walcott (hamstring) faces a late fitness test, while Sebastian Squillaci and Park Chu Young (both irrelevant) are major doubts.
  • Bacary Sagna underwent a leg operation earlier this week and will face several months on the sidelines.
  • The have been reports that Wojciech Szczesny is suffering from a back problem and might have to pull out. Lets just hope that he pulls through!
  • Other injuries: Diaby (whatever excuse Wenger has given this week), Arteta (ankle), Mertesacker (ankle), Wilshere (ankle), Frimpong (ACL/Knee)

West Brom

  • Chris Brunt has had his tonsils removed and will not feature in Roy Hodgsons last game in charge at the Hawthornes.
  • Peter Odemwingie could be available after a hamstring injury, but Jerome Thomas is ill.
  • Other injuries: S Reid (ankle), Z Gera (ACL/Knee)

 Predicted Starting XI

With Bacary Sagna injured, Carl Jenkinson will hopefully slip straight in at right-back. If we play Djourou on the right then we are absolutely screwed. Aaron Ramsey will partner Tomas Rosicky in central midfield in the absence of Mikel Arteta, while Yossi Benayoun has been preferred to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the last half a dozen games or so and I don’t expect that to change. Walcott is probably not going to be fit enough to start, although he may make the bench.

Predicted Score

West Brom 1-3 Arsenal Given Arsenal’s current defensive form, a clean sheet is obviously out of the question. However, I think that all of our players will recognise the importance of the game. Individual errors and silly mistakes are out of the question.

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Match Previews

West Brom game looming & Thierry has 228

May 11, 2012 – 21:49

If you were to take a look at the Arsenal fans on Twitter this week, you’d have thought something terrible was going to happen this weekend. If you didn’t know any better, it looked as though Arsenal are the team hoping for Spurs to slip up in order to get a guaranteed Champions League place, instead of the other way around. In fact, you might even think that West Brom are fighting in the higher echelons of the league, with Peter Odemwingie one of the most feared strikers in the world, & Chris Brunt the Premier League’s answer to Lionel Messi.

The fact is that, despite our desperate attempts to give Spurs and/or Newcastle the upper hand in this battle for 3rd place, Arsenal are still in pole position. A win would give us a higher points total than last year (we currently sit on 67, but finished with 68 last season) – and remember that last year we were challenging for the title up until the last few games. But the good news about a win isn’t that it would allow Arsenal to reach 70 points – it’s that it would guarantee that 3rd spot. Yes, we know it’s not a trophy (the media don’t need to keep reminding us how long it has been since Vieira scored that penalty), but 3rd place gives us a spot in the Champions League group stages. We won’t need another wondersave from Szczesny to secure those six group games.

The good news is that Theo Walcott might be back for the West Brom game, and I will be glad to see him return. He may not be everybody’s cup of tea, and he’s certainly inconsistent, but he can provide match-winning moments and hopefully we will see that from him on Sunday.

Wenger also noted that Park & Squillaci are doubts, which is a blow. Without them on the bench, the whole balance of the team could be lost. It definitely seems that van Persie’s goalscoring form coincided with Park’s arrival at the club (let’s forget his great form at the end of last season). The correlation is undeniable. So if Park isn’t on the bench on Sunday, van Persie may struggle to find goals. If Squillaci is also unavailable, we won’t be able to see a repeat of his great performance at The Hawthorns last season. If you don’t remember it, have a look here. He was class.

There are lots of stats floating around, indicating that Arsenal have a great record vs West Brom, and that the Baggies have a poor home record (only 6 wins there all season – the same number as relegated Blackburn). Stats are interesting, but relatively pointless when it comes to one off games. You can look at stats over time, and they can give indications of home teams/players are improving/weakening. But when it comes to final-day drama against a 10th place Premier League side, anything can happen.

Arsenal has shown it can perform in big games this season – Udinese (A), Spurs (H), Chelsea (A), Man City (H). These were games Arsenal ‘needed’ to win, according to fans and the media. And we did. On Sunday, we do need to win. It’s not quite a cup final – there’s no trophy at the end of it and we can still get the prize without winning (if Spurs/Newcastle don’t win). But it’s a massive game with big ramifications if we let that CL spot slip away.

Therefore, I expect Yossi to start, in what may be his final game for the club. Wenger may want to sign him up to keep that squad depth which is so important, but Benayoun may decide his future lies at a mid-table club, as he stated earlier in the season. However given his increasing involvement recently, he might be persuaded otherwise. Then again, with the signing of Podolski, Yossi may find his chances even less frequent next campaign.

I’ll write a bit more about this game tomorrow, so for now I’ll end with some other news. Firstly, Henry’s goal against Blackburn has been credited as an own goal, taking his tally down to 228 goals. The Dubious Goals Panel really is heartless. Thierry grabbed three goals on his return to the club, and they’ve taken that from him, even though the shot looked like it was on target. Even if it wasn’t, just give him the goal, at least for sentimental reasons! Scott Dann certainly doesn’t want to take credit for it.

Alan Pardew has deservedly won the Premier League Manager of the Season award, with Kompany receiving the Player of the Season award. He’s been great this season, but let’s be honest, he won it for that header against Man Utd. If City weren’t odds-on to win the title, the award surely would’ve gone to Robin, who has had the season of his life (and will probably never score as many goals in one season again).

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Arsenal Blog

Photo: Robin van Persie in Arsenal’s 2012/13 Away Kit

May 11, 2012 – 04:54

A picture of Robin van Persie wearing what is supposedly Arsenal’s new away kit for the 2012/13 season has been doing the rounds on Twitter. This comes only a week after Arsenal revealed next season’s home kit, which is now available for pre-order.

In my opinion, the kit seems to be pretty legitimate at first glance. My only doubts come from looking at our previous away shirts. Arsenal always have a predominately blue or yellow away shirt since the 1960′s; the last time the team’s away shirt wasn’t one of these colours was a weird green kit in the 1982/83 season. However, this photo does remind me of Arsenal’s 3rd kit in the 2007/08 season, so maybe whoever leaked it wasn’t clear whether this is an away shirt, but not the away shirt (i.e the regular away shirt will be yellow or blue).

The photo could, of course, be a fake. Photo editing is a relatively simple process for those of us who have spent a large amount of money on photoshop. Then again, the leaked photos of the home kit turned out to be legitimate. As we reach the end of the season I am starting to doubt the authenticity of more professional-looking images like this slightly less.

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Injuries

Arsenal Injury News: Walcott, Park, Squillaci, Santos, Sagna

May 10, 2012 – 21:37

Arsène Wenger has given the latest Arsenal team news ahead of the final game of the season against West Brom on Sunday afternoon.

Theo Walcott is set to have a late fitness test and may be back in the squad, but Park Chu Young, Sebastian Squillaci and Andre Santos are all doubtful. I don’t really understand why Wenger felt the need to tell us about either Park and Squillaci. The duo struggle to get onto the substitutes bench, let alone actually feature in any of our matches, so the fact that they may be missing on the weekend is pretty insignificant.

The big news is that Bacary Sagna is undergoing surgery for a broken fibula and will be out of action for several months. We will obviously know more after the surgery, and Wenger will no doubt keep us up to date with his injury rehabilitation over the summer.

Theo Walcott

“He will have a test [on his hamstring]. I don’t know yet if he will be included in the squad or not. It is possible.”

General Team News:

“We have little doubts about Park, Squillaci and Santos but they should all be ready.”

Bacary Sagna

“He will have surgery tonight. It is a straight broken fibula. We expect him to be out for a few months but let’s see how surgery goes tonight.”

Having Walcott back for the last game of the season could be a big boost. Despite his many critics this season, I feel that Theo (almost) always has a lot to offer and it will be good to have him in the team on Sunday. The player that we miss the most is Mikel Arteta, but there is no chance that he will feature in the last game of the season. Our midfield is lacking a bit in depth with other injuries to Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere, so we better hope that Aaron Ramsey does a good job alongside Tomas Rosicky and Alex Song. The fact that Robin van Persie has stayed fit enough to feature in every single one of our Premier League games this season is an absolute miracle.

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Transfers

Arsenal target sets his sights on Spurs

May 8, 2012 – 14:14

Rumoured Arsenal target Jan Vertonghen is reported to have confirmed his preference of playing for our rivals.

Arsene has already signed one of his targets this summer in Lukas Podolski and there are reports indicating that a deal for Yann M’Vila isn’t far off. The third player that Arsenal has been heavily linked with is the Ajax skipper, but the following comments seem to imply he is going to push for a move to Spurs.

The Metro has these quotes from Vertonghen:

“I owe much to Ajax,  I have always given my whole heart and soul for them. My appreciation for the club and the fans is great.

“It would be terrible if my departure would be a long and distorted situation as Ajax would keep asking for a great price “till the bone”. Of course I want Ajax to become financially better, but the amount Tottenham are willing to pay, maybe with a little bit extra, is very reasonable.

“In a year from now I could leave the club for free. I hope Ajax are aware of it as the situation of Maarten Stekelenburg’s transfer was very harsh. He only arrived at the end of pre-season at AS Roma. I want to flow in fluently, directly with the other Spurs players.

“Tottenham is a fantastic traditional club who play football in a way I like. Ajax was the perfect club for me, but Spurs will be very close in nearing that already. They buy young, eager and offensive-minded players.”

He is clearly trying to force a move, perhaps because he has heard that Ajax will hold out for more money. But there also no doubt that he wants to go to Redknapp’s side, and the Tottenham manager has already intimated his desire to buy Vertonghen.

People are saying that the reason behind Vertonghen’s choice is more playing time, which is probably partly true. At Arsenal, he would probably sit behind Koscielny and Vermaelen in the pecking order. In addition, Mertesacker brought a calming influence to our defence, so I (and many others) would put the German ahead of the Belgium international.

Vertonghen can also play in defensive midfield, but with the potential signing of M’Vila, the Ajax man wouldn’t get many chances at Arsenal in the centre of the pitch.

Spurs has a Gallas and Nelsen who are both nearing the end of their careers, and a regularly injured Ledley King. Signing Vertonghen would be a great move for them. We must also not forget that Spurs are now far more attractive in terms of transfers than they used to be. They have a good manager, some great players and have been pushing for Champions League football for a few years.

So there should be no hard feelings if Vertonghen does choose Spurs over us – it’s not indicative of a ‘power shift’ in London, nor that they have more money than us. It is likely that the choice is based on footballing reasons, and the fact that Wenger won’t enter a bidding war for a player that we don’t really need.

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