Transfer Speculation

Well, from what we witnessed last season and the manager's words, we guessed that we'd have a busy and speculation-filled transfer window.

We've got that, but the not the kind of speculation we wanted.

Denilson and Bendtner went out to the press, all guns blazing and announced that they wanted to leave the club for sure. I can't say that I wasn't relieved. The only problem is that not many clubs want Denilson and not many clubs like Bendtner's wage demands. I mean, look at him.

Cesc's been strongly tipped for a move to Barcelona but they say they won't pay more than £35m. What the hell, Cesc's worth a lot to Arsenal and he's managed to be creative and efficient throughout his Arsenal career, despite last season's injuries. In the end, the club's valuation stands and if other clubs want to buy a player, they'll have to meet the selling demands. Sandro Rossell says he won't be 'held ransom' for Cesc. Prick. We've valued Cesc at above £40m and you have to say that it isn't complete crap. Last season he scored 9 goals and has 17 assists to his name in spite of starting a mere 35 games compared to Wilshere's 49. A recent study showed that Cesc has made 60 assists in the last 5 years and that's the most among any player in the top 5 leagues in Europe. He came to Arsenal with quality and he's still quality. He hasn't played a season after a good summer's rest in a while and this is the first free summer he's had in a bit. After this season, he's going to be busy each summer with the Euro 2012, the Confederations Cup 2013 and the World Cup 2014. It would be near impossible to keep him for 4 more years but what I'm saying is that this is probably going to be his most productive season for a while. It makes sense to tell the Catalans to stick it and then send Cesc on a homecoming for a good profit next year. Cesc is an absolute professional and I can see him giving his all even if he stays this season. I hope that Barca sign Alexis Sanchez quickly. That would make Cesc way too expensive for them, even at £35m.

On the other hand, we've got a creative influence trying to leave. A certain French upstart thinks that after churning out consistent performances for six months you become a club's best player. It's quite disgusting, really. He wants pay parity with Cesc but masks his reason for turning down the club's contract offers with the platitudinous '(Insert player name) would like to sign only after transfer market assurances are made.). Chelsea, Man City and United are looking to splash £20m on him. I dunno what Wenger has in mind but I'm sure that he would see it prudent to make a £7m profit on a disaffected player who very well could leave free on a Bosman after next season. One thing is for sure, we can't afford to lose both Cesc and Nasri.

Clichy' been heavily linked with Liverpool, Roma, Man City and newly-rich PSG. Liverpool and Roma were looking to pay around the £5-£7m region and PSG were ready to throw away £13m but he's set to join Man City for £7m. I loathe to lose another defender to Man City even though Clichy's been prone to concentration lapses. His worst lapses came against the 0-0 draw at home to Sunderland when, apart from Mignolet having the only good game of his life, Sessegnon passed Clichy as if he was Ryan Shawcross/fat primate.

Sticking to the topic of Frenchmen, an unnamed Turkish club had a £10m bid turned down by Arsenal. WHY? I suspect that Wenger would like to see how his squad pans out over the next month before foolishly selling players. Smart, in my opinion.

As for incoming transfers, the blogosphere's been rife with speculation, though not always great.

We've been heavily linked with Gervinho, who seems decent but the deal should have been completed weeks ago. It's taking forever but I assume that he's looking for a store near the Emirates that would supply enough polish for him to keep the shine on that oversized forhead of his.

We've been linked with Benzema and Eden Hazard, but with each of them valued at more than £20m, I don't see either happening. Plus, Mourinho hates Wenger and that makes a Benzema move even stupider.

We've been linked with John O'Shea. All I can say is that either Wenger has a massive brain tumor or people are really bad at making up semi-credible rumors.

We've been linked with a 23 South American who hasn't played much for his club and is prone to long-term injury. Do I want Ricky Alvarez? No.

A promising signing would be Ajax's Jan Vertonghen. He's played with Vermaelen before and would be great at left back.

British newspapers have us in with a large bid for Juan Mata which I could see Wenger agreeing to, but it now seems that the young Spaniard's happy at Valencia and won't want to move.

We're in for Gary 'Overvalued' Cahill and Chris 'Slow, Big Brute' Samba at £17m and £12m each. I'm not saying Cahill's bad, but he isn't worth that much of money. Also, the both of them know what it is to rise above the occasion in a relegation scrap and somehow squeeze through with all their vitals but it's not like that attitude will make up for our lack of mental strength. How will they know what it's like to enter the final third of the season with teams neck to neck and with slip-ups costing clubs dear? They won't. On that note, Vertonghen's young and knows what it's like to be at the top and win; that's invaluable.

We've signed a 19 year old defender from Charlton called Carl Jenkinson.

As you can see, nothing much has been decided in this transfer window, so far.

Pshhh.

Why This Season has Objectively Sucked More than the Last Five

In the season of 05/06, we just about finished fourth but lost the Champions 'League final to Barcelona, albeit contentiously.

The season of 2006/2007 was our first season at the Emirates or 'The Grove' and it wasn't great at all. We finished a lackluster season in 4th place and we lost the Carling Cup final to Chelsea.

Our next season started off amazingly. We led the Premier League table for around 7 months in 07/08 but suffered an end of season capitulation much like this season and we ended up 3rd.

In 08/09, we were semi-finalists in the FA Cup as well as the Champions' League but we were inconsistent domestically and finished 4th.

09/10 was equally disconcerting as the Gunners' highest progression in any tournament was merely to the Quarterfinals. To their credit, they finished 3rd, with automatic Champions' League qualification, but still.

Now for this season. It was a season full of promise and endeavor. This season saw a rise in the performances and desires of the lesser teams and the exploited inconsistency of the big teams. In the most difficult season in Premier Leage history, we doggedly kept up the title challenge, in pursuit of United and there was quite a lot of talk of the 'Quadruple'. However ridiculous it seemed to win all 4 trophies in a season, it was good to be the only team in with a shot at them all. But what was so glaringly obvious in 2008 and also now was hidden by our relative success until February. This Arsenal side was touted as free-scoring, offensively-creative, mentally solid and by looking only at our goals conceded, defensively shored up. Fail.

The reason that they bottled the title race in 2007 is the same reason they did it now. In the face of pressure, when mental strength is required, the current Gunners' crop failed to muster the requisite performances. Another issue is the lack of motivation in some players. As you've read, Arsenal has the best away record in the Premier League and has the best record against the clubs that finished in the top four at the end of last season. While the team could successfully motivate themselves for matches against teams like Chelsea, Man City, Barca and United, they looked absolutely complacent and inefficient against the smaller teams, regardless of the importance of the game. There are many players that Wenger has defended time and time again and they've consistently let him down for the past 3 seasons. Sure, they've displayed talent and ability but I'm not sure of their drive to improve. Players like Denilson and Vela earn wages that are disproportionate to the number of games played and their performances on the pitch. Players like Denilson, Clichy, Bendtner, etc haven't shown the motivation and skill that's expected of them. At one point, Denilson was the prime choice for the holding midfield and Song was unknown. Talk about a role-reversal. Clichy makes the same mistakes due to concentration lapses and it costs us goals. Despite the fact that he's been pretty solid on most occasions, we cannot afford the same mistakes and a player that doesn't learn from any of them. It just seems that Clichy and the club have gone as far as they possibly could and now it's time for someone else to force Gibbs to be a benchwarmer.

Unlike other seasons, Wenger has finally decided that the time is right to feel let down by those he's been unconditionally defending. As this season was ending, no one expected a mass clear out but by the way that Wenger's been saying things, a busy summer in the transfer market is definitely on the cards. Denilson has said that he wants out and I'm glad. Bendtner and Clichy are set to leave for right offers. Thankfully, Almunia and Eboue have fallen out of favor and we can look for some decent players. One or two experienced leaders who know how it is to win things will do no harm. If indeed many players go, the replacements must be proven, skillful and determined. It's all up to the manager and we've got quite a bit of money to spend and yet stay considerably stable, so we'll just wait and see.

I hope these summer firings and signings will save me from going mental, come next May.

I also hope that Chelsea's trophy-less season extends into a long streak that sends them back to a mere 8-9 years ago, when they were just another money-less, midtable club.

Too Little, Too Late

After so much disappointment, finally, a reason to write. Over the last two months we threw away our part in the title race with the most half-assed of performances. A dull Arsenal performance, a defensive Sunderland one and a blind refereeing team allowed us to help ourselves to a dour goalless draw at the Emirates. The Arsenal legend, Almunia, once again threw away points against West Brom on account of his horrendous decision-making. An uninspired Gunners side played out a goalless draw at home to Blackburn, who were the bottom club at the time. We had some respite, winning at Bloomfield road but only to be brought crashing down by the moronic Eboue. The ball only had to bounce for the ref to blow his whistle, but he got close and created a situation that Lucas could make the most of and Liverpool got one back. I still blame Andre Marriner but Eboue was just stupid. Our fragility cost us a two goal lead against Spurs and sent us back home from the Bolton game without a point, and that was that. In March and April, we won 8 points out of a possible 21. The title race was all but over.

Then United come home and we control the game and put in the most dedicated performance since the Barcelona game in September. Szczesny and Koscielny were really good and Ramsey took on his midfield role with aplomb. It's amazing to see him score after Shawcross was so kind as to snap his leg in two. After we scored, we knew we couldn't afford to choke like on previous occasions and had to defend for our lives. It's unusual to see Arshavin fly into so many tackles and that just showed the Gunners' commitment. It's probably too late for the title, but regardless of what happens to United and Chelsea, 9 points out of a possible 9 are required.

Elsewhere, I read that we're going to kick Arshavin back to Russia and we're looking at Barca's Bojan Krkic and Shakhtar's Willian as replacements. We know what Arshavin can do, but he's also shown us his workhorse side of his game this season, albeit quite rarely. Actually, only twice. It would suck to see him go, but it also makes sense if Arsene's fed up with him because he's been quite profligate and lazy this season. He does have eleven or twelve assists to his name, but he's proven that he capable of better while attacking as well as defending. I was hoping for experience to be brought in for next season and I have my reservations about both Bojan and Willian. Bojan's pretty much as old as Ramsey and I really don't think that he can bring a Plan B that Arsenal so desperately seem to need. I haven't seen enough of Willian to know anything concrete, but Denilson openly said that he recommends Willian so I have my doubts. Only because Denilson's a moron.

We'll just see what the summer has in store for us and hope for a successful next season.

I'm tired of promising seasons.

The Largely Useless International Break

Each time the Premier League takes a break to allow the club players to play for their countries, players get injured in crowds. People care less about competitive internationals than they do about club games and people don't really give a crap about international friendlies. The stupid practice of calling up players like Wilshere who are important to their clubs and playing them in inane friendlies only puts them on the road to burnout. What I don't understand is why Capello chose to let go of Terry, Cole, Lampard and Rooney. Aren't other players important to their clubs too? What about players of clubs that are fighting for Europe or against relegation? What about Wilshere? I'm sure if Walcott had been fit enough to make the international squad, Capello would've played him for 90 minutes in both games, causing Walcott's shoulders to fall off and Wenger to become apoplectic.

This time, we have a huge worry in the form of Robin van Persie's fitness. Again. After playing for Holland. Again. And Bert van Marwijk says he'll make Arsenal's next game "With luck". Again. I hope he isn't wrong about this for the billionth time. The last time he said that, Robin was out for a matter of months instead of days.

The Arsenal site hasn't released news yet, but I hope that Cesc, Walcott and Song will be fit to face Blackburn at home. We've missed them incredibly and our team doesn't seem confident at this point, so a triple injury boost would sound good, very good. If we don't manage to win Saturday's game, I can tell you that we definitely will NOT win the title and stand a chance to lose the 2nd place to Chelsea, which absolutely disgusts me. We've got to step up our game and blast an Allardyce-less Blackburn out of London or at least win a scrappy 1-0, but we've got to win. Obviously.

It's been fairly quiet 2 weeks so I can't think of much more to say and I'll just take another jibe at Capello.

I read this on SkySports, where he speaks about Andy Carroll.

"The movement when he receives the ball is good. With the ball. He's strong. He's a good player. He's a good forward. Look, he's young. Really young. His behaviour now is really, really important. Really important. I spoke with him privately. I think not only Andy likes to drink beer. Not only Andy. He needs to improve, to drink less."

He repeats stuff in an odd way. Seriously, who speaks like that?

From 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 in 14 Days.

This, by far, has been the most disappointing 2 weeks of any season since 04/05.

Why?

Since that FA Cup win in 2005, we've been knocked out of tournaments in a staggered manner each season. This season, we've just blown it all at once. Who knows what psychological effect winning the League Cup would've had? A newfound 'Winning Mentality' that our players lack? Maybe.

I see a lot of fans whining about Wenger and saying that he should leave, but I don't think so. Yes, 5 years without silverware is bad enough and this may be the 6th successive season, but he's the right man for the job. Many times this season, his players have let him down. Whether it's a lack of winning mentality or that they're chokers, it needs to be set straight. What I do agree with is that we'll need some new players and incentives for some of our current ones. We don't really need defenders as Koscielny and Djourou have been exceptional on occasion and otherwise just plain good. Plus, we've got Vermaelen, anyone remember him?

What we need is to get rid of inefficient and misplaced passing (Deni?) and laziness. Wenger needs a team that collectively defend better than they do now. Nasri impressed me with his tracking back against Barcelona and we need more players who are willing to do that. We also need some good old steel! I wish we had a Vieira and Song could do that, if only he got a little bit more vicious. Nasri has the ability to annoy players and just magically appears when they commit a foul against us and he's also been one of the more confident players in the past two weeks, along with Wilshere. He's got something about him too, he's a spiky character who loves to get stuck in with the big players and I'm sure he'll get all big and scary with time.

But we need efficiency NOW and I want to see more of this-

That's Evra, by the way, so you can see that I want things to happen to him as well.

Anyway, for the current season, we need a few players to just step it up, 'cause the team confidence is pretty low at the moment. Cue a First-half-of-the-season Nasri? I hope so.

On the other hand, the players need to analyze each other and themselves and want to prove that they can step it up to win the first trophy in six years. SIX years. That would also be the first trophy brought home to the Emirates. Disappointing, I know.

We don't really need wholesale changes or a clear out next season, but MAN do we need to get rid of some deadweights! Let's look through some of the first team that I think should be under scrutiny. The ones that aren't mentioned should definitely stay, according to me. Obviously.

Manuel Almunia: Normally, I'd want him outta here in no time, but he's put in two good performances in 2 games. But a new keeper required, just in case. Anyway, Wojciech is looking pretty good.

Sebastien Squillaci: Go! Just GO! He hasn't single handedly lost us games like Almunia has, but Squillaci's lack of pace is a real worry, and really, if he was on the bench at Sevilla why bring him here for experience? A new center back is a must. Then we'll have Vermaelen, Djourou, Koscielny and a new boy, which sounds good to me. Ignasi Miquel played well against Leyton Orient, so we look to be all set in the defensive department.

Abou Diaby: I think he can be good at times because of his great physical strength, aerial presence and talent. But he just hasn't shown enough... in a long time? Ever. Not really one I'd want chucked out cause he has the ability, but a definite possibility.

Andrei Arshavin: You're wondering why I want him to vanish? I don't. But he's just so inconsistent that I want to yell. He's very lazy and doesn't track back at times. Even when he does, he isn't a committed defender but he's a player who's capable of crazy things. Remember these: His goal against Liverpool at Anfield last season? At Old Trafford last season? FOUR goals at Anfield 2 seasons ago? His whole game against Villa at Villa Park in November? They just show how special he can be and he's one of those players that need incentives.

Tomas Rosicky: A fan favorite and a personal favorite. But as i read on Arseblog, "UEFA and humility go together like Rosicky and scoring". Scoring isn't everything, but he just hasn't played the same after his weird knee injury. If he's replaced by an established midfielder, we'll get Arshavin fighting for his place and upping his game, as well as a good, new mid-fielder. That's killing 2 birds with one stone!

Denilson: Ah, another one that needs the boot. As Martin Tyler pointed out on Saturday, he "never plays a pass more than 15 yards away and plays sideways all the time". He's utilized as a holding midfielder when Song's out but guess what? Denilson can't defend! He can't pick out a good pass or control the game either and I really think he should be out as fast as possible, like Squillaci and a replacement should be a spiky defensive player with a Wilshere-like attitude.

Nicklas Bendtner: He's a really confident player and he's been scoring a bit this year and those are good things. While that may all be true, he's still below par for an Arsenal striker. If you compare him to others who aren't legends, like Eduardo or Chamakh in the first half of the season, you can see the gap. It's almost like an abyss. Plus he doesn't have it in him to score when it matters the most. We had a chance that would put us through against Barca, and what did Bendtner do? I realy don't know. If we buy a striker who can play alongside Chamakh (because he just can't play with Robin) we've got a system to fall back on when Robin's out.

Now I know that Wenger's probably not going to do these things, but I really hope he gets rid of some of these players. We'll just have to wait and watch.

If Arsene Wenger were to adopt the words of Gay Perry from 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang', he should probably this to a few of these players:

"Vanish. Go. Sleep badly. Any questions, hesitate to call."

Six Nations Rugby, Ankles and Stoke City

Stoke City should be a Rugby team. I don't think Italy are very good, so Stoke can replace them in the Six Nations Cup. I'm not being sour, we won last night, but Stoke just came up with some horrendously mistimed challenges. Either their players are consistently blind and stupid or it's a tactic and this tactic may well have cost us an important player.

Walcott sprained his leg quite badly when Whitehead fouled him and then proceeded to squash it. He's out of contention for the Carling Cup final but I hope he'll be back in time for Sunderland at home next Saturday. Every time Arshavin, Wilshere or Chamakh got the ball, the Stoke defenders rammed into them a few seconds after they passed it on. I also have a feeling that the loud boos were messing with Ryan Shawcross' head. Late on in the game, as Sagna and Shawcross were looking to control an airborne ball, Shawcross grabbed Sagna tightly around his midriff, pushed him to the ground and literally sat on him and appealed for a penalty. It's just a pathetic way to play.

On the other hand, we started our run of five games in two weeks with a win, and this put us a point behind United. They have a game in hand, but that's against an improving Chelsea side. I didn't watch the Copenhagen match, but apparently, Torres had his first good performance. I hope that United lose, quite obviously. Arsenal need to keep winning games, as being the only team in all four competitions gives an immense confidence boost, as one would think.

But first things first: Wembley, Sunday night.

Winning the first trophy in five years and bringing the first trophy to the Emirates will do wonders for the squad. Wenger knows that and he's going to go with a strong squad and use the final as a boost for other competitions as well. Cesc has a chance to return after last night's injury he's a necessity as he provides the balls for Nasri's inside out runs that increase his efficiency. Koscielny and van Persie were out against Stoke and let's hope they're fit to destroy Birmingham at the Wembley.

Which has a terrible pitch. Just saying.

The Spirited Fightback: A Historical Night

Before Wednesday night, Wenger's teams had never beat Barcelona in 5 attempts, but that changed on account of a worthy team performance.

Arsenal has been criticized on many counts, mainly not defending, being lazy while off the ball and not creating enough chances against the big teams.

Well, teams don't get bigger than Barca, arguably the best team in the world.

Wenger's men started the game quite brightly, sweeping Guardiola's team away with blistering pace. Unfortunately, Barca found their niche after fifteen minutes and proceeded to dominate most of the first half. They deservedly took the lead courtesy for David Villa and I was on edge, praying for the halftime whistle. Everyone thought that we were finished, that Barca would know crush us and that they would be helped by our seemingly stuttering resolve when it mattered most.

They were wrong.

We played the second half much better and we pressed and pressured Messi, Xavi and Iniesta when they had the ball. As the half progressed, the crowd become more and more boisterous. Our work rate was phenomenal and we looked confident. As we probed for an equalizer, the excellent Koscielny and Szczesny kept the visitors at bay. Van Persie scored from an acute angle and then Arshavin finished off a lightning counter attack involving Wilshere, Cesc and Nasri to put us a goal to the good. By now, the crowd was just raucous and I could hear their perfectly enunciated chants from my living room TV. That's the loudest I've ever heard the Emirates faithful and it sure helped the Gunners.

Everyone knows that Barca are the best at keeping the ball and that it's quite difficult to get it off them and attack. That's why Mourinho opted to sit back and stifle them. Wenger stubbornly refused to adopt that tactic, but to be fair to him, you can't ask a team that plays high tempo attacking football week-in, week-out, to suddenly curb that; it'll be an epic fail. He stuck to his guns and in the end his philosophy prevailed and our counter attacks were productive. We worked very hard off the ball and if the lazy Arshavin could track back and pressure Barcelona, then you can see how committed the team was. Wilshere was quite impressive on the night. He was unfazed by the fact that he was placed in a midfield containing the world's best players and he went about his job in scintillating fashion. Sure, his critics will say that Xavi bettered Wilshere's stats by a mile, but Xavi is Xavi. He's an accomplished 31 year old player, while Jack is 19. He exuded confidence and he played an integral part in the victory. It's a pity he couldn't score, because some of his play was just exquisite, for example, the one two he played with Cesc in Barca's penalty area was destined for a goal if only Abidal hadn't made a last ditch challenge. Szczesny was also brilliant, with a flawless performance. He read the runs of Pedro and Messi and collected every dangerous ball that came his way. This season is the first season since Lehmann left that we look to have a solid and confident keeper between the posts and this only bodes well for the Gunners.

But just because we overturned the great Barcelona in the first leg doesn't mean much, we still have to play at the Camp Nou. It's a crazy atmosphere and we'll have to see if we can cope with that. They have an away goal, which is worrisome and Arsenal need to stifle Barcelona once again and at least score on goal. A draw is an ideal result, but we'll see how it all pans out. For now, we need to concentrate on getting past Leyton Orient in the FA Cup and winning the Carling Cup Final. The Barca win will provide ample confidence and so will the fact that Cesc seemed so fired up and awed by the Arsenal performance and crowd that less people are putting their money on Cesc leaving for the Catalonia and that has got to raise the dressing room a bit higher.

The no longer young Gunners have proved their mettle time and again this season and I hope they can rise to the occasion once more.

In Arsene We Trust.

I just hope he doesn't make the defence play that super high line at the Camp Nou. It gave me mini heart attacks.

Mid Season Review: 2010/2011

Chelsea pulverized every team they played in the beginning of the season and United looked pathetically average. Arsenal went about their business well except for losing at home to the Baggies, Magpies and Spurs. All of a sudden, United looked stronger, Chelsea choked, sputtered and faltered and Arsenal found a new vein of consistency that has kept them hot on United's heels. Nasri's definitely been our player of this enthralling season and let's see what else has stood out so far, between August 2010 and February 2011.

Best Individual Performance:

Samir Nasri against Fulham at the Emirates, December-

Nasri single-handedly propelled us to the top spot after his crazy double in this game. First, he left two defenders staring as he beat them and then thumped the ball into the roof of the net. For his second, he beat a defender, beat the keeper and looked to be going wide, but he smartly pirouetted around the ball and slammed the ball home. The Emirates faithful erupted and sang, "We're top now!"

Goal of the Season, so far:

Samir Nasri's second goal against Fulham was just pure class. I was on the edge of my seat as he beat the defender and then the keeper, but then he went too far out from the goal and I thought that he would disappoint. It was one of those times when you're happy to be wrong and the Frenchman produced a slick move to seal the three points.

Game of the Season:

Arsenal against Chelsea the Emirates, December-

This game was in no way an even contest, but it had great meaning for Arsene Wenger and the boys. Arsenal had a horrid record against United and Chelsea and looked to rectify that. Didier Drogba looked to be Arsenal's bogeyman had scored 10 goals in 7 matches against us and we needed to put an end to that. Our performance was collectively one of the best that I've seen in recent times. It was not only the attack that fired, but our defense was finally up to scratch. Djourou and Koscielny were forging a great center back partnership and were composed, physical and commanding. Song put us ahead right before halftime just as Fabregas was bundled over by Ivanovic, so we would've been awarded a penalty anyway. A defensive error by Essien allowed Walcott to provide Fabregas and 3 minutes later, Fabregas turned provider and Walcott fired the ball past Petr Cech. Arsenal looked quite comfortable, with 3 goals to the good until a monstrous Drogba free kick was headed home by Ivanovic. Chelsea pressed relentlessly but Arsenal saw it through and red and white prevailed in North London that night.

All in all, it's been a topsy-turvy and frenetic season but the Gunners are still the only English club in contention for all 4 trophies. With the Carling Cup trophy just a win away, let's use that as a catalyst (as Jack Wilshere so rightly puts it) for more and end the trophy drought. Here's to another trophy!

Come on you Gunners.