End of Squad Assessment 2009-2010, Pt 2.

Defenders

3. Bacary Sagna. "There is still lots of room for improvement, his crossing has been very bad all season, if there is no one in the box, don't cross." Again, he has fallen short from improving this side of his game, his crosses are still awful and he still puts up crosses when we have midgets in the box, he must vary his crosses and learn when not to cross. This has also seen him relegated to the bench when we need to attack more with Eboué coming in for him. Defensively, solid at times, although the GA column shows everyone can improve.

Grade C.


5.Thomas Vermaelen. "hopes are that he is here to put one of the central defenders on the bench, as that shows squad improvement." Well that was never really put to the test, Kolo Toure was sold so he could not compete with him, and Senderos was obviously not an option for the coach. Has been consistent, scored goals, and initially had hunger we really neeeded in the team. However in the crunch games, he hasn't proved to be the man we really need at the back, failed to contain Drogba twice, failed to contain Rooney, confused by Messi showed that he has a long long long way to go. Also some questionable positioning and choices by him for key goals we have let in. Our GA column is still to big, and he must take some responsibility of that as well.

Grade C.

6. Philippe Senderos. " Returning from an injury ravaged season at A.C. Milan, the Swiss defender is rumoured to be looking for a transfer." 2 league cup games is all he could muster, and we only let in 1 goal. What was the point of sending him out on loan in January when we knew that injuries, suspensions could kick in? Good luck to him in the future, and possibly our best player due to only playing 2 games, which we both won and looked solid at the back in.

Grade B.

10. William Gallas. "This season which may be his last, in a World Cup year where he will hope to lead the France defence, he should be inspired." Easily our best defender this season, and once he became injured, things began to look scary at the back. Again, in the crunch games, he hasn't performed to the high levels we needed, and lets be honest, our GA column stinks, so he must also shoulder responsibility. However his quality was shown we risked him vs Barca and he is now out for the count.

Grade B-.


18. Mikael Silvestre. "Consensus is that he had a disastrous début season at Arsenal." Make that 2 disastrous seasons at Arsenal. Again, look at the games where we have let in large numbers of goals and he is there, Barcelona 4, Spurs 2, Wigan 3, Stoke 3, he is always there. Remember our 4-4 draws with Spurs and Liverpool last season, guess who was there?

Grade D.

20. Johann Djourou. "he hasn't delivered killer performances that will consign one of the other senior defenders to the bench, and thus remains just another of the squad players." Injured before the season started, he hasn't had the chance to play any games.

Grade N/A.

22. Gael Clichy. "Despite his all energy performances, there are some serious defensive cracks in his game, still loses concentration, and his crossing doesn't lead to assists." Another under par season from one of our elder players. He was injured and when he returned mid season, he was a big liability. Still the same deficiencies, still the same improvements needed.

Grade D.

28. Kieran Gibbs. "at this rarefied level, mistakes are punished, and his ultimate mistake was to slip in the Champions League semi final for Man Utd to score and take the advantage." 7 games this term, and his campaign ended by injury in December. I'm still not sold on Gibbs. He looks steady, but against the big teams, he will be exposed, and he is not good enough yet to dislodge Clichy.

Grade C.

30. Armand Traore. "His defensive and offensive work needs a lot of refinement as does his dribbling stance that makes it easy for the ball to be taken away from him." 11 games this season, and he has to say it hasn't been a success. He had a big chance to stake his claim when both Clichy and Gibbs were out injured, poor vs Chelski where Drogba sent him into orbit with a shoulder barge, poor vs Everton in the 2-2 draw, he still needs a lot of work.

Grade D.

31. Sol Campbell. Came back in January, and has helped the team, adding experience and a vocal presence. However we have also let in many goals under his watch, 2 vs Porto, 3 vs Stoke, 2 vs Spurs, 3 vs Wigan, so he cannot be lauded as a messiah. For his age though, he has been good, and it is a shame most of our young squad don't follow his example, at 35, he still fights to win despite having won a lot already.

Grade B-.


Verdict.
Individually, we have some decent defenders, but we can now see that we went into the season with too few numbers, and we also have not learned a clear defending philosophy that works. We have let in 39 goals in the league, way too much if you want to win anything these days. The defence as a collective has failed.

Arsenal 2009/2010 End Of Season Squad Assessment, Pt 1.

After my season previews, I will now do the reviews. I started with the goalkeepers as you can see here.


GoalKeepers.


1. Manuel Almunia. " unless Fabianski applies intense pressure, he may slip into a comfort mode." This has proved to be very true this season. Following his two horror displays against Man Utd (Rooney penalty) and then Man City (own goal) away both in consecutive matches, he was dropped for 7 matches when Mannone stepped in for him. He came back against Spurs at home in October, made another error vs Wolves in November, gifted Liverpool a goal away in December, was chipped by Pienaar against Everton in January. he then punched the ball into his own net vs Man Utd, and he repeated the trick two months later vs Birmingham. He made a critical error of judgement vs Barcelona for Ibrahimovic's first goal, then in the second, he was chipped twice and allowed one through his legs. Finally against Spurs, he punched when he should have caught that led to their opener.

As you can see, that is way too many errors for a team looking to win trophies. He has probably cost the team the league with his blunders, if he never made them, draws would be wins, losses would be draws, and in a season where the league is tight, these have been very expensive gaffs.

If he lines up as Arsenal Number 1 next season, Wenger will have shown lack of ambition. I think he would realistically be a better number 2, he has some experience and will learn when he is in for short stints, but we cannot rely on him for the long term.

Stats, played 36, conceded 39. Grade E.


21. Lukasz Fabianski. "He needs to really step up this term and aim to relegate Almunia to the bench and keep him there." Well he clearly failed to do that this season. He was injured at the start of the season, however he has not shown that he is ready to be the number 1 for Arsenal. He made brutal errors such as allowing Insua to score a screamer against him in the Carling Cup, got his angles all wrong in the 3-0 loss to Man City in the Carling Cup, allowed some soft goals vs Stoke in the FA Cup, before his horror show in Porto.

If he is not getting games, he needs to go on loan for a season or two as he clearly doesn't look confident or in form. He can only get worse by sitting on the bench.

Stats, played 7, conceded 14. Grade F.


24. Vitto Mannone. " The most he can hope for is Reserve team football and the Carling Cup." Due to the poor form of Almunia early in the season, he got his chance, and he had an inspired performance vs Fulham, before showing his immaturity against West Ham where he cost the team a win.

Another who needs a loan spell, especially if a new keeper is acquired as he will not improve sitting on the bench. However statistically, he has been the clubs best keeper.

Stats, played 8, conceded 8. Grade C.


Verdict

It is clear for all to see, the goal keeping issue is the biggest one that needs to be addressed at the club this season. The stats for them all as a collective has been very very bad. To let in 58 goals and to have a sizeable portion of them as blunders is not acceptable, Fabianski should leave on loan, same as Mannone, Almunia demoted to number 2 and a top experienced keeper acquired who knows how to keep goal and is mature. Serious surgery required here.

Spurs 2 - Arsenal 1. Season Over.

Season over, I will start to do my seasons round up for players and their grades. As for the game, we had no heart, and no fight, and in a big game, if players refuse to do that, then expect defeat, simple.

Ratings:

Almunia 1: Punched the ball when he should have caught, and reacted to slow to Bale, he should sniff there is trouble.

Sagna 1: Still can't cross, and played Bale onside.

Campbell 6: What a shame we need a 35 year old man who has won lots to fire us up, he has nothing to prove.

Vermaelen 3: Injured early on.

Clichy 2: Can't defend properly.

Denilson 1: Forward passing?

Diaby 1: Forward passing or charging forward?

Nasri 2: No vision, no personality, this was a big chance to show he should stay centrally, on this form, will be back on the flanks.

Rosicky 2: Crap shooting.

Eboué 1: No end product. Not a RW, should just be a RB and that is all.

Bendtner 2: Scored, but as a striker, he needs to improve, crap first touch and movement.

Silvestre 1: Contract should expire soon, great news.

Van Persie 5: In 20mins, did more than we did for 70, and probably showed more creativity in all our games since November.

Walcott 1: Assist, but still has no IQ

Wenger 1: Don't blame injuries, you are the one playing players who are on the edge. Tactics stink again, and surely we can play a 3-5-2 to exclude Silvestre? That was a wasted sub in my opinion.

Barcelona 4 - Arsenal 1: Tactics tactics tactics......

"Finally, Wenger will get what he has always wanted, a team that plays all out football, to really judge his side? I can tell all fans what to expect, we will be brushed aside by Barcelona because Wenger will not be smart, he will not change his tactics, he will not want to do all required to win."


That is what I wrote on March 28, and over two legs, this is what happened. We got outplayed over the two matches, we were never ever really in a position to win the tie. The first leg, we sustained a siege not seen since Mordor declared war on Gondor, Almunia kept the team in the game, but by that time, Barcelona had laid the foundation for what they aimed to do. From then on, the result was never in doubt from that night in London.


In the Camp Nou, Barcelona took us to the cleaners. Despite capitalizing on their high line once that Walcott squared to Bendtner to score, after that, our lack of quality, cohesion and tactics was on view for everyone to see. We should have defended with quality, instead, our lack of pressing and tactical know how saw Messi break our lines and slam home to get back in business. The second, Abidal did something our fullbacks never do, crosses on the floor especially when we have midgets up front, the ball found its way to Pedrito who laid it off to Messi who chipped past Almunia. The third, our high line was exposed by Keita who headed to Messi who chipped past Almunia, 3-1 at half time.


In the second half, Barcelona played clever, passing and inviting Arsenal to show if they had anything more, and we never, we never pressed, when we did have the ball, we never had any quality as Barcelona fought to get it back like a mother jealously guards her children. The fourth was coming, earlier on, Messi had made Vermaelen and Sagna look like amateurs, even nutmegging Sagna in the box, and for he repeated the trick, dancing past Eboué, past Vermaelen twice before putting it through Almunia's legs.


Why we never ever change tactics is weird. We never man marked, and Messi or Xavi, and if you decide to do that, you need to apply equal pressure on the team, we never did that. I also do not get why a team that is full of champions fought so hard compared to us. We have won nothing, and have everything to gain, yet Barcelona looked like they were the ones who wanted to be champions.


Some say we were missing key players, 5 of our starters, but Barca missed 4. It also shows that the squad needs more quality. I'm certain had Barcelona had 1 more of their key players out, they would have found a way to make the difference, we never found a way. Wenger has to take responsibility for not moulding champions, these guys are getting older and not yet on the level of being a champion.


I'm also angry we are always knocked out at the business end of the season, and every year we never learn. Last year, after Utd beat us, I wrote "Arsenal is now a DEVELOPMENT team and not a WINNING team, the future lies on the edge of a knife, ONCE YOU LOSE THE WINNING MENTALITY, IT'S HARD TO GET IT BACK, just when will we start WINNING again?" Even Wenger intimated that he may have to change after that game, and guess what, he never. This time he says we have to add in the summer, but I don't think he will.


Player Ratings

Almunia 3: Got chipped twice and another through the legs. Intimidate the striker, don't allow him to score, even clatter into him. Poor display.

Sagna 3: Still can't cross, never made the difference at the back.

Silvestre 1: Flopped for the first, too slow for the second, the third never prevented Messi from being distracted, subbed off by the fourth. Please Leave Now.

Vermaelen 2: Made to look foolish by Messi. Talked a good game, but when examined by the best players, he hasn't made the difference. Rooney and Drogba have all destroyed him, now Messi has done it too.

Clichy 2: Lax defending, and what a game to decide you are Roberto Carlos by starting to shoot, with woeful consequences.

Denilson 2: By passed all evening, no pace, no pressing, no personality.

Diaby 2: Released Walcott once, decided against doing it which ensured we never scored a second. Again fails to deliver in the big games, chasing shadows all night.

Nasri 2: No creativity, no pressing, no personality.

Rosicky 1: Was rated 50:50 for the game, it showed, awful.

Walcott 1: All he has is speed, whilst many thought he was our weapon, Barca had Messi who has speed and technique and intelligence, something Walcott doesn't.

Bendtner 2: Not making the difference in the big matches, needs more than hard work at this level.

Eboué 2: Allowed Messi to dance past him for the fourth.

Eduardo 1: Not for this level anymore.


Coach Rating

Wenger 1: Selection errors, Silvestre is no good, so either put Sagna there or switch to a back 3. Eboué should have started as well.As for tactics, we had none apart from try release Walcott, we need more than that at this level. Also what happened to the pressing we saw in the 6-1 win against Everton? If we did 25% of that, we would not have allowed Barca over 60% of the ball.

Arsenal 2 - Barcelona 2: Teenagers vs Men.

Talk about a football lesson. We are supposed to be the best passing team in England, if we are, then we need to improve big time. Barcelona starved us of the ball all night, we only mustered 38% possession all game, and at home, incredible. For the first 45mins, we only had 1 shot on goal, and that was wide, whereas Barcelona had 12.

I do question what was Wenger's tactic for this match? Cede possession and then try hit on the break? If so, it was totally wrong. He should have had a man marker on Xavi as well.


Barcelona took their 2 goals very well, one after an Almunia special, and the other after our defensive line was caught out, nothing new to us Arsenal fans. Our two goals came from Walcott squirming a shot and Fabregas earning a harsh penalty which he scored.


Let me put it on record, any Arsenal fan should not be proud that we drew 2-2, and that we showed heart and desire. Since when were we Aston Villa or Chelsea that rely on that? We are Arsenal, we rely on technique and intelligence, and now the lies of Wenger have been exposed to the world that our players are nowhere near the best technicians on the planet. We may outplay teams like Portsmouth, but we never do it to the big boys, Barcelona do it to everybody, it doesn't matter who it is, be it Man Utd in a final, or Inter Milan or Chelsea, they will outplay them. I am only interested in winning, not drawing matches, we should do everything to win, and clearly last night we never, so there is nothing to be happy about. Arsenal fans have begun to become cowards by not demanding success and being happy by simply challenging, since when did that become acceptable? man Utd fans were fuming when they lost to Bayern Munchen, we are over the moon with a draw? Wake Up fans!


This then raises question about our transfer strategy. 5 of the Barcelona team were bought in, the rest from their cantera. So what they have done is buy the best players on the market to supplement their players.All the players on show for us tonight were acquired by Wenger, not under duress, by choice. We do not buy the best on the market,we buy prospects, and this surely has to change now. If we are serious about challenging for prestigious titles such as the Champions League, tonight showed how far away we are from the level required. We need to start buying players that take us closer to Barcelona's level.


Barcelona had players who have won domestic and international honours, every single one of them has won something, they are champions and played like it. We need to sign some champions. Wenger also has to change his tactics, not be scared, and go for it. Why were his players not prepared well enough? Why did Alves have so much space to do damage? Why did Xavi have freedom to pick his passes? This needs to change.


Another thing, why are we playing injured players? Arshavin got injured after being injured last week, Gallas never should have played and he is now out for the season and will never wear our shirt again as he will leave the club, Fabregas should not have played as he was injured. We have a big squad, what message does that send to Campbell/Silvestre, who are 100% fit but not played? What message does that send to Denilson/Nasri/Walcott/Eboué/Rosicky who could all have played for Fabregas and Arshavin, they are all 100% and don't start. The medical team needs to be fired for these decisions.


Player Ratings:

Almunia 3: Good saves, which were routine if we are honest, then made a clanger and was scared of the second. 1 mistake can undo all your work.

Sagna 2: Same old Sagna, crap crosses.

Clichy 2: Dominated by Alves, he should also learn to come inside with the ball.

Vermaelen 2: Exposed against an elite opponent.

Gallas 2: Should not have started the game.

Song 4: Showed guts and good passing, moved to defence and was not up to marking Ibrahimovic.

Diaby 1: Went missing.

Fabregas 2: Injured, should not have played, and selfish reaction when given a yellow card. Xavi showed him what being a regista is all about tonight.

Nasri 1: Alves had a good game because Nasri gave him a bye. Also crosses the ball when there is no one in the box, what is the point of that?

Arshavin 1: The man who says we need new players never pitches up again and gets injured.

Bendtner 3: Created both goals, but he is there to score, and never looked like doing it, especially when he heads straight at the goalkeeper.

Denilson 2: Over run in midfield.

Eboué 2: Not much.

Walcott 4: Created havoc and scored, but still needs to be intelligent.


Coach Rating

Wenger 3: Wrong selections by using injured players who are now probably all out for the season, wrong tactics by not pressing the team and applying man markers on the pressure points i.e. Xavi and Messi. Gets points for ensuring the team never capitulated, however not acceptable that his team is outplayed so comprehensively again at home.

Bham Disaster: Barcelona Nightmare.

Wow, just when it looked like we had grown some balls and become smarter, we throw 2 points away, and the championship too. Make no bones about it, with only 6 games to go and the team 4 points behind and with an inferior goal difference, we had no business giving away 2 points.


The team never played the football required to win this game, Wenger had a very questionable team sheet omitting Arshavin, Eboué and Nasri, and starting Walcott instead. Diaby had a good game, although for all his tricks and moves, he never opened up Bham as much as he should have. Fabregas sucked after getting injured, and a note to Wenger, if players are injured, replace them, Nasri could do his job too. Walcott was awful again, Bendtner never looked like making the difference, Rosicky was intelligent but the others around him were not. At the back, Sol has no legs but has lots of personality, Song was steady, Clichy and Sagna gave their usual clinic in how not to cross the ball, seriously, what do they do in training?


Nasri opened the scoring with a nice drive, however he also missed two chances, one he tried to feed Arshavin when one on one, you need to be selfish in such regions. Arshavin sucked as well. This guy is lazy, he picks and chooses when he wants to play, and some say he is a potential Ballon d'Or winner? Ronaldo even when injured puts a solid shift in, Arshavin got 25mins and never did a tenth of the work Rosicky did. At this rate, we need players to replace him in the summer, seeing as he likes talking about new players all the time.


Almunia also sucked, this guy is so lucky to have a boss that thinks he is a real keeper. He can't kick or pass, one time he passed to a Bham player under no pressure. He fumbled a freekick, allowed one shot to hit the post, and saved the best till last with an early Easter present to Bham and Utd-Chelski by palming the ball into his own net, in the last 30 seconds of the game. My declarations, he should be dropped and shipped off when the team is mathematically out of the title race and told to find a new club, each performance sees his value drop. How many more mistakes should the other 10 players have to deal with? 97mins work undone by his antics.


Barcelona


Finally, Wenger will get what he has always wanted, a team that plays all out football, to really judge his side? I can tell all fans what to expect, we will be brushed aside by Barcelona because Wenger will not be smart, he will not change his tactics, he will not want to do all required to win. Already he has come out saying we will not man mark Messi. Is he nuts? Fergie never man marked him in the final, and look what he did to them, he killed them. I bet if Fergie played them again, he'd put Fletcher on Messi for 90mins, it is worth it man marking. He needs to also look at last years semi-final vs Utd, we never changed and we got dismantled. Infact, look at the big games this year, Utd and Chelski knew what we would do and they simply went around us.


Some think that Barcelona are just all out football, but even Guardiola knows 2 games are not the same, and he changes from time to time, even captain Puyol admits this saying, “Our rivals have studied us a lot and we have to look for alternatives,” so we also need to be pragmatic. Some see it as a gift that Iniesta is out for the first leg, but they have many players who can come in to replace him, Keita Seydou-Busquetsa-Toure Yaya and even deploy Messi in midfield, so it is still very very tough.


Some say their defence is weak, but they know how to defend, they have let in only 4 goals in 8 games, we have let in 7 goals. They have scored 12 goals, we have hit 18, but they had a tougher group than us. However they have their full defence to call up upon apart from Abidal, we are down to the bare bones. They have Valdes who is supposed to be the weak link, but he always seems to win them the big games, we saw that in the 2006 and 2009 Finals where he saved his team, can Almunia do that for us? He has consistently shown he does not have the capacity for it.


If we play our 4-3-3 and then our timid 4-5-1 in the Cam Nou, Wenger is to blame for our impending elimination, we all know it is coming as we have seen it many times before.

Bham 1 - Arsenal 1: Guess who messed up again?????

The picture says it all, we all know what Wenger has to do........

Exclusive: William Gallas To Leave Arsenal This Summer.

Arsenal fans are about to receive the first bad news of the close season and this indicates that the club will need to go shopping, William Gallas will leave Arsenal FC this summer on a free transfer. The club has talked about extending his contract since August, but as yet, nothing has materialised. Since the preparations started for the 2009-2010 season, players such as Lukasz Fabianski, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Robin Van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson, Eduardo, Alexandre Song, Abou Diaby, Carlos Vela, Tomas Rosicky, Vito Mannone have all signed the obligatory 'long term contracts' between July and December 2009. That is 13 contracts extended in 5 months, and we are now 8 months into negotiations with Gallas, I think we can all see where this will end.


William Gallas has a 'mulling order' on him after he was stripped of the captaincy. He was given a club record fine after his declarations on the status of the team he was leading in 2008, and since it came after a series of 'outbursts', the club decided to shackle him down. That is why you do not see him having any press conferences unless he is on national team duty, and that is strictly only with Domenech by his side. Any press he gives outside of these duties could see him get fined again.


William is keeping his options open, and will only announce he is leaving when Arsenal are out of all competitions, and the bets are on him returning to his native France to see out his career. His preferred destination is his home town club, P.S.G., however with their floundering in the league, he may look to Lyon or his former club Marseille who could provide him with European football. Money isn't a huge factor, France is about to increase taxes on sports men that has excluded them from paying up to 30% of charges on social obligations.


Just as this website was the first to announce that Arsenal would not acquire Felipe Melo when everyone else pointed out is was a done deal, and this website indicated that Juventus had already pressed shirts in Melo's name, this website has concrete information that Arsenal will have to find a new defender next season.


This is very bad operations by Arsenal, they have let an experienced player leave, the team needs more experience, Gallas has played nearly 500 games in his career, where are Arsenal going to find such experience to replace him? Gallas has played as well as he did in the 2007-2008 season where he nearly skippered the side to the domestic championship, now he is leaving. Djourou has been out for the season, Nortdveit barely completes 90mins at Nurnberg and when he does, he does so in central midfield, Campbell is not a realistic option for next season, Silvestre should leave. Arsenal are playing very dangerous games......

Hull City 1 - Arsenal 2: Too Close, But 3 Points Is All That Counts

The matches are all ticking down, 8 more to go, Arsenal have 64 points, joint level with leaders Chelsea who have played a game less, and 1 point above Man Utd who have also played 1 game less. If Arsenal are to win the championship, they cannot afford any losses or draws, they require 24 points from the next 24, why expect anything less?


This match was a hurdle that needed to be overcome, and the team just about did it. The team started very well, lots of nice passes and movement, there was a sequence where there were 3 successive blind passes from the team as they ripped Hull apart with their skill. The team took the lead, nice build up on the right, the ball found its way to Arshavin who dinked in between 2 players and fired home, really nice goal.


From then, Arsenal continued to push a little bit, Arshavin missing efforts, is he becoming close mates with Bendtner? That said, Hull constantly tested the Arsenal defensive line, their Dutch striker being flagged offside before finally 'breaking' the trap and clashing with Campbell for a penalty. Bullard smashed past Almunia who had no chance, but it was a very very dubious penalty, the player was offside and in England, tackles like that are rarely a foul.....


After that, their captain Boateng got a red card, a natural consequence after the team focus on persistent fouling, he could have caused serious damage to Sagna with his tackle. Campbell also did his share, clattering into Zayatte, he was substituted. Campbell in my opinion should have got a red, we cannot cry foul when others tackle hard, we do it as well, Zayatte was on crutches at the end.

Hull then resorted to a 4-4-0, and sat very deep. Arsenal never took any shots until the final 4 mins, first Clichy, then Denilson, his shot was spilt and Bendtner smashed home, 2-1.


My view, the team could have solved this game earlier, this business of taking games to the limit is not too clever. The team faces West Ham, who are a good team, we need all the reserves for them, if the match was 'finished' after 70mins, we could have integrated Eduardo to play and get into form and not rush him. Secondly, where were the shots on goal? You don't win if you don't shoot, and yes, we can shoot from outside the box. Third, we need Gallas back ASAP, I'm not sure that Campbell can handle so many games in a week, he looked very shaky today.


Match Ratings

Almunia 4: Not much to do.

Sagna 3: Still scatter crossing, decent in defence though.

Campbell 2: Gave away a penalty, looked sluggish at the back. Headed everything away though, but clearly doesn't want the ball to feet.

Vermaelen 4: Decent game, not much to handle with.

Clichy 3: Bad crossing, good intercepts though.

Denilson 3: He seriously needs to hit the gym this summer, ridiculous he gets knocked off the ball so easily, bulk up.

Diaby 4: Carried the ball well and made some nice tackles, but not decisive.

Nasri 2: Bump back to earth, been very good in the last few games, offered nothing today.

Eboue 3: Not much impact despite some fine running.

Arshavin 3: Nice goal, but very wasteful and lazy.

Bendtner 4: Bad control, but held his nerve when the time came to bury his shot to clinch the points.

Eduardo N/A: Not much time,then again looks slow in legs and head.

Walcott 2: Still has very fine speed in his legs, but some of his passing and crossing stinks. Why cross or pass when there is no one in the box?


Coach Rating

Wenger 5: Used his best players available, although why did Denilson stay on for so long? Also when Hull went ultra defensive, he could have reacted quicker and introduced Walcott or Eduardo wide or up front. Apart from that, 3 points is what he is paid to deliver.

Arsenal 3 - Burnley 1: Slow but Exciting.

So, Arsenal have drawn blades with the other big knights, Man Utd and Chelsea, and are now equal on points with Chelsea, and 2 points behind Man Utd. I am bittersweet about this result, it is bitter because we took so long to seal the deal and now have Fabregas out, sweet as it increases the pressure on the other teams who know they cannot afford to slip up.


The first goal, it saw Fabregas connect with Nasri, the latter it seemed looked to have dwelt too long and looked indecisive, but Fabregas made a small run and he lofted it over the defence with precision for Fabregas to slide under the keepers legs, really nice stuff.


After that, we were treated to a Bendtner masterclass in how to miss chances, it was trully ridiculous how many chances he missed, headers, tap ins, shots, the lot, he managed to mess them up. is Luciano Moggi of calciopoli his agent, because it is madness to miss so many chances?


Nugent broke the offside trap and again we were treated to an Almunia slow motion save, 1-1, with Burnleys only chance of the game. Almunia and Silvestre were awful, even Vermaelen for that, watch the man and get the line right.


Walcott was playing decently, and he scored the second, cutting in from the right and for a change, using his left foot to guide a shot beyond the keeper, 2-1. Arshavin and Eduardo came on, they never added much urgency, the former scoring the third with a low hard drive in the box.


This game shows some flaws in the team, you cannot spurn so many chances and hope to win a championship. Added the fact they play Porto for CL qualification, the team should have had an easy last 30mins to save up energy, instead they had to play the entire 95mins to secure a result, big shame. Nice to see Nasri centrally, more of the same, Bendtner needs to learn to score, Walcott needs to learn elementary control, some of the lapses of control he showed were a disgrace for a professional footballer.


Player Ratings

Almunia 4: Not much action, but failed to save the Nugent goal, wake up.

Eboue 5: Nice thrusting play from him, he should work on his left foot though.

Vermaelen 5: Decent, at fault for the equaliser though.

Silvestre 4: Attack the player, don't stand off them.

Clichy 4: Not much work, but should add much more in attack.

Denilson 5: Decent passing and squeezing space.

Nasri 6.5: Why isn't he deployed here more often? Not likened to Zidane for nothing you know Wenger!!

Fabregas 5: Injured, but scored a nice goal, big loss for Porto.

Rosicky 5.5: I love this guy, very involved and his intelligence is key to the team.

Walcott 5: Lots of speed, but his crosses need to be more measured and he needs to learn basic control.

Bendtner 2: 1 for being present, 1 for trying, but seriously, no striker for a team looking for titles can spurn so many chances, really ridiculous performance by him.


Wenger 5: Easy game to manage, but why play Silvestre and why not take Bendtner off earlier? Forget being nice, do what is right for results, take Bendtner out earlier, the game may have been over by 60mins and the team will be less fatigued for Porto.

The Gods Are With Us: Opportunity Arises.

Those of you unfamiliar with the tales in the Holy books, there is a story of Moses, a former Egyptian prince, who leads the Jews out of Egypt, and God opens up the seas to lead them to the promised land.


Well, for Arsenal, this is happening for them now, and they better take advantage of this. Their championship rivals are beginning to have the sort of injury problems we had all season, and with 6 points the gap, there are 30 points left to play for after this weekend.


Chelsea.

Their goalkeeper Cech is injured, and maybe for a month, Hilario and Turnbull are not in the same class as him. They have Ashley Cole out for the rest of the season, and with his wife leaving him, there could be a mental strain on the squad, especially since his captain John Terry also had his own issues that have seem to have left him bewildered on the pitch. Essien is also injured, maybe for two more weeks, and he is a key player.


Man Utd.

The reigning champions have had so many injuries all season, now the chickens are coming home to roost too. John O'Shea is injured, new England captain Rio Ferdinand has barely played this season and his partner Vidic has also been injured and also had his head turned by teams in Spain meaning he hasn't been selected in many games. Brazilian Anderson is out for the season with a knee injury, Hargreaves hasn't played this year, Giggs has been out and may not make the AC Milan game with a bone fracture. Nani has been suspended just as he was looking the mustard.


Arsenal.

We are now used to injuries, and even though our list is still quite long, we don't play the opposition the other two will, we only have Man City and Spurs. We do need Gallas back asap, also we need Arshavin back asap.


Lets hope the troops believe they can pull this off.

Porto 2 - Arsenal 1: Arsenal have no keepers and no guts......again.

What is wrong with our club? Just 24 hours before, I watched Man Utd come back from a battering in the San Siro, 1-0 down, they roared back to win 3-2. What did our team do? We saw our keeper gift Porto a goal, after Clichy continued his poor form by not tackling and closing down, then we saw Campbell and Fabianski, in alliance with the rest of the team not react to a quick free kick at point blank range, and the team were buried.


What is more worrying, is Arsenal have two shits in goal, Almunia has played like shit this season, Fabianski has also played like shit, Mannone started to play like shit and cost us points. Wenger needs to get real right now and secure a keeper who will arrive after the final whistle of the season. We will not win anything with such keepers, what a joke they are. Even Sczeny on loan, he is not yet good enough to start for us, maybe in 5 years, we don't have 5 years.


Another thing, Fabregas saying we made schoolboy errors, with an apparent dig at Fabianski, well he should shut up and learn how to take a corner properly. All of them sucked bar one, and even that wasn't enough. He also dropped his head, again. He never performs in the big games, he likes to slay small teams, but the big boys show him how far he has to go to be a top level player. Talent is not enough, you need sheer will as well, what prevented him running himself into the ground to tie the game for HIS side? If this is what he wants to act like, then give us the £50m and let him leave, because you are not good enough to make us champions.


Wenger needs to shut up as well. Why not tell your team that you need to be alert for 95mins? Didn't Sagna say we had learned from being switched off? We haven't learned, same as we haven't learned that our keepers stink and that Clichy is stinking and that we suck defending counter attacks. We used to be savvy enough to do crafty things like quick free kicks, now we have kids who know nothing about these tricks and we suck, what a shame.


For ratings, Fabianski gets a 0, Rosicky a 4, the rest get 2's, Walcott gets a 0, Eboue a 3, Wenger a 0.

Man Utd and Chelsea school Arsenal, but maybe not enough

What a torrid run of games and results, having played 4 'top' teams in a row, Aston Villa 0-0, Man Utd 1-3, Chelsea 2-0, Liverpool 1-0, the team only managed to get 4 points out of 12, not good enough, furthermore, 4 games, 1 goal scored, 5 against. This is when the pendulum starts to swing for a team looking for the championship, and at the moment, Arsenal are 6 points behind the leaders Chelsea, make that 7 when you include their far superior Goal Difference and Head-to-Head count.


From the Aston Villa game, it showed that it was a big mistake to not buy players, creativity was stunted and there were no strikers. Man Utd came to London, and exposed Arsenal on the counter attack, Clichy and Almunia particularly looking like they were on loan to Man Utd for the day, Clichy owned by Nani, Almunia just ridiculous. Chelsea further exposed Arsenal, weak marking on set pieces then on the counter attack. Both games, Arsenal suffered using Arshavin as a point man to lead the attack. Liverpool also exposed Arsenal on the break, but never scored.


Only two major stumbling blocks are now in the final games, Spurs away and Man City at home, what is clear, Arsenal cannot slip up at all, no draws, no losses, they need 3 points in every game. With 12 games to go and chasing a 6 point deficit, it leaves 10 games to try win the league.


What angered me most is that Arsenal never changed tactics, Arshavin up front was never going to do anything, and why do the full backs always have to come forward, in fact, why do the central defenders come out? Ever see Vidic/Terry come forward? Look at their GA column, it explains a lot. Also I don't know what we do in training, do we know what a counter attack is? We need to stop them with small fouls and real defending, tell that to Denilson-Fabregas-Song-Clichy-Vermaelen-Sagna-Gallas. Also, teams now know we are crap on defending counter attacks, Liverpool barely play for quick breaks and looked good doing it, the team needs to react to this new reality and make teams try to win another way. Spurs and City will surely look to use this tactic and exploit the team on the break.


Match Ratings for all the games: Not much time, but here are the players who suck right now, Almunia (not a keeper or a sportsman) - Clichy (can't defend, can't attack, getting slow) - Sagna (can't cross so wastes the ball) - Vermaelen and Gallas (both paid to defend, too many goals are flying in, so they suck) - Denilson (no desire ) - Fabregas (no leadership in tough times) - Walcott (just leave) - Arshavin (talks about others not being good enough, on these showings, neither is he) - Wenger (no tactics, no new players in January, does he want us to hate him?).

Lets hope that despite those bashings, the team can do something special and fight to the bitter end for the championship.

Arsenal Push Forward, but still not good enough.

League Form.

I haven't blogged since the 1-1 draw with Burnley over a month ago, and as you can remember, I was far from impressed. However since then, the team has shown resolve, taking 17 out of 21 points. Whilst coming back from behind twice to get a point from Everton, and to win after being 2-0 down to Bolton were all good, in this season, any points dropped is a missed opportunity, and another one was blown against Aston Villa last night.

It doesn't matter if people think Villa are a good team who are challenging for the Champions League, Arsenal needed 3 points yesterday. 1 point is not enough, winners look to beat everyone. This game is in the past, and what is a common consensus is that the next 3 games, Utd (H), Chelsea (A), Liverpool (H) will define the season. With a 2 point deficit to Chelsea who have a game in hand, all these games are now MUST WIN. Draws are not enough, 9 points is an obligation. Do I think we will get them? Not sure, I think Man Utd will beat us at home, we will lose to Chelsea away, and probably draw with Liverpool. Lets hope this isn't the case.


Transfer Activity.

Arsenal realistically needed backup in defence, a new body in midfield and definitely a new striker. So what has happened? Sol Campbell has come in and Senderos booted out on loan. Nothing else. This is very dangerous, and with 3 days of the window left, looks like no one else will arrive, what a shame. Vermaelen looks to have an injury that could keep him out for a month, meaning Campbell is now first choice with Gallas? Dangerous games indeed. Another defender is needed, how could the club bungle the Smalling deal? Also Eduardo looks to be out for 1 month, meaning only Bendtner is the only choice, Vela has sucked badly this year. Here is to hoping for a miracle and new players arriving by February 1.


Cup Competitions.

Just to say, I'm very angry at the way we keep throwing potential trophies away. Threw the Carling Cup away, yet Man Utd who won it last year and who have won every trophy they have entered in for in the last few years, are rejoicing by getting to another final. If it is good enough for Utd, it should be good enough for us, we need to take it seriously next season. The FA Cup was also thrown away with weird selections. Some say that he had injuries and had to jig up the line up, well if youth team players are the backup, it tells you that you need a deeper squad, buy new players. This means that the club is on a knife edge now, 2 high level tournaments left against elite ambition.