REPORT: Arsenal 1-0 Udinese

ARSENAL 1 – 0 UDINESE

Match Report

UEFA Champions League

Emirates Stadium

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Kick-off: 19:45

Arsenal:

Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Walcott, Gervinho, Chamakh

Subs: Fabianski, Djourou, Jenkinson, Frimpong, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Frimpong, Bendtner, Arshavin

Udinese:

Handanovic, Isla, Danilo, Agyemang-Badu, Di Natale, Neuton, Benatia, Asamoah, Ekstrand, Armero, Pinzi

Subs: Belardo, Denis, Vydra, Abdi, Pasquale, Doubai, Fabbrini

The first leg of a Champions Qualifier held at Emirates Stadium usually sees a large amount of goals to the home team. This time around Arsenal could only manage 1 goal instead of the usual 4,5,6 goal drubbings.

It was a good start for Arsenal with Theo Walcott volleying with his left foot past Handanovic early on in the 4th minute from a Ramsey cross.

From then on Arsenal didn’t create much, and the dangerous goal machine Di Natale for Udinese came close with a free kick striking the bar, leaving Szczesny scrambling over to his right.

The score line doesn’t reflect how bad we were, although we weren’t great, with Gervinho providing most of our spark, if any. But Udinese looked a strong, well organised team, even with their best player Sanchez departing them for Barcelona this summer, just like our best player has left for Barcelona this summer.

I haven’t mentioned Fabregas at all yet, but you can tell we’re going to struggle without him. But we also missed Wilshere tonight who will become a massive player for us, if not already. Not forgetting van Persie was suspended tonight too, along with Arshavin not even getting any playing time tonight on the bench. Nasri I feel will leave eventually anyway, so no point in mentioning him either.

A good win against tough opposition, but we have to be very good in Italy, otherwise we may be on Channel 5 before you know it.

PREVIEW: Newcastle United v Arsenal

Match Preview

Newcastle United v Arsenal

Barclays Premier League,

St. James's Park,

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Kick-off: 17:30

So it begins! (No not the line from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (King Theoden). The new season has finally come around and I am glad it has. Not the fact it's Arsenal playing competitively again, just good to see something to look forward to on the weekend.

Our squad numbers were released the other day and new signings Gervinho, Miyachi, Jenkinson and Oxlade-Chamberlain have been given numbers 27, 31, 25 and 15 respectively. As you can see Chamberlain has taken Denilson’s number and Gervinho has got his number he wore at Lille taking Eboue’s number who isn’t even in the squad,which means he must be about to move. Szczesny has been promoted to number 13 after wearing number 53 last season. Emmanuel Frimpong takes the number 26.

On to today’s game and it’s a tricky one. Newcastle came back from being 4-0 down last season at St. James’s Park to come back in a half to 4-4. You get one off games, so I can’t see it happening this time. If anything I can see Arsenal starting off quickly after a relatively poor pre-season. Maybe because the players have been pushed harder this year in pre-season training, they haven’t had much energy to play in those games, albeit aginst tougher competition to play against too.

Newcastle have had ups and downs with owner Mike Ashley in charge, more downs than ups. The likes of Joey Barton and Jose Enrique, now at Liverpool, haven’t helped the situation up on Tyneside. With no relative form from either team it’s a clean slate to start fresh with optimism for the new season and both teams will be eager to get their first win and 3 points on to the league table.

For Arsenal we have had unrest at our club too. Fabregas looks likely to be off any second now to sunny Spain. Nasri too will follow suit but to a much more cold and wetter environment up North in Manchester (Sky Blues not the Red Devils). If fact the move for Nasri could be a blessing in disguise, as rumoured a straight swap including Nasri for Carlos Tevez could emerge, I don’t believe that story one bit, but I would take that move any day!

Walcott is back in the squad after his injury in pre-season looked like he’d miss the opening game. Our squad looks a little thin in the middle, with Nasri, Fabregas, Wilshere and Diaby all out. This leaves Song, Frimpong, Ramsey and Rosicky as natural midfielders. However the first eleven should be strong enough against a Newcastle side who I think will probably get relegated this season.

The key man today will be van Persie as he has a tremendous goal scoring record away from home at the moment; in fact he can’t stop scoring anywhere. We’ll have to see how this one plans out as opening games of any season, results can be very surprising.

Probable line-up:

Szczesny, Sagna, Djourou, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Gervinho, van Persie, Arshavin

Prediction: Newcastle United 1-2 Arsenal

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A Divorce Between the Fans and the Club

It seems ever since our move from Highbury to the Emirates, us loyal fans have had a slow divide between the board and manager. It seems the move to the Emirates just came before the economic crisis, which effectively made it more difficult for the fans to afford renewing their season tickets or memberships. The club however never decided to reduce the prices of their tickets for the economic downturn, only until VAT tax went down to 15% that they followed suit.


So the club kept on raking in large amounts of profit whilst loyal fans may not have afforded the price of a day out at their beloved team. In the 2008/09 season, people who had paid to see the likes of Denilson, Song (different player back then), Diaby, Bendtner, Eboue week in week out due to injuries and lack of investment, struggling for a win in every game in the winter period, fans started to raise their voices ever so slightly.


The cracks opened, and with cracks they'll always be more likely to get bigger and more noticeable. Back then we were in our 3rd season at the Emirates and we were expected to be settled by then after the year before we came close to winning the title before collapsing at the end (see a pattern?). The team needed investment for the new season and only Arshavin was brought in as a fix it, and that has been the only marquee signing in a while and he managed to help us secure a champions league spot.


The season after promised more yet again but we failed and the same last season. Every year passing by the team has been known to falter at the last hurdle and the opportunity of buying players with experience has arisen many times, yet Wenger is always after super quality.


What is super quality? The likes of Messi and Ronaldo are super quality. What Arsenal need is a just quality experienced players who know how to play their position and get stuck in. In other words a team player who will give their all. The fans know this and can see where we are going wrong with the players we have and ones we need.


This is why the fans moan and groan along with the ever increasing booing and demonstration/protests. It's not because they hate the club, it's because they care and the fans have become distanced with the disillusioned board and manager who aren't acting quick enough on transfers to secure the players we need. Peter Hill Wood isn't exactly helping matters between the relationship of the fans with the board by saying:




"As Arsene said, we are looking to buy some players but we are not going to do our business in public. They are going to have to be bloody patient – as we are."

“It is frustrating for both the fans and Arsene and the board."




Bloody patient? Manchester United have pretty much bought big signings this summer and they won the league last year with a not so great team and now they'll win it with the likes of De Gea and Ashley Young added.


The booing on Sunday just shows nothing has changed since last season apart from Gervinho giving us something to look forward to until he disappears to the African Cup of Nations. The chanting at Fulham away at the final game of last season, "Spend some f****** money!", shows what we haven't done this summer. All with below bar performances in all our pre-season matches this year, it shows no confidence for the season ahead.


Fans will start and most likely have started (like me) to wisely use their money for more useful purposes rather than on a club interested in making money and bringing in through kids. That project youth is now over and proven unsuccessful apart from Wilshere coming through and we should just go out and buy what we need.


Arsenal is just a frustrating club to support at the moment, and I believe we won't even make top 4 this season if we remain like this. Especially if Fabregas is sold, the last of our world class players would have left. The new Stadium has fed into greed from the board and left us fans separated, with us losing our club we used to love so dearly. Now I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a club we love to hate.

REPORT: Hangzhou Greentown - Gervinho - More Signings to Come

HANGZHOU GREENTOWN 1 - 1 ARSENAL

Team Line-ups

Arsenal:

Mannone, Sagna, Djourou, Squillaci, Traore, Rosicky, Frimpong, Nasri, Arshavin, Vela, van Persie

Hangzhou Greentown:

Jiang Bo, Wu Shaokun, Li Yan, Pazzaolano, Longyuan, Xuan, Jiashu, Vazquez, Liu Bin, Wang Song, Randy

Match Report

Pre-season Friendly

Meihu Stadium, Yiwu

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Kick-off: 12:30

Just a quick summary of Saturday’s last match in the Asia tour for Arsenal. THe opponents were Hangzhou Greentown, a proper club team compared to the Malaysia XI that was chosen to face Gunners. The match was going to be a test as Greenhouse are used to the conditions and are a fitter side at the moment.

The team had a relatively mix of starting eleven players and fringe players. You could tell with the line-up we had we weren't fluent in our passing and were quite sloppy. Also pressuring the opposition when needed wasn't at its best. However this is the bets time to get rid of those rusty performances.

The brightest players on the pitch in the first half for us were mainly Arshavin, Nasri and Vela. But it came as no surprise with Greenhouse taking the lead due to, that's right you've guessed it, another poor show at the back from a set piece. Green house were quite dangerous and hit the post prior to taking the lead. It was Squillaci and Mannone with school boy errors that saw Arsenal take an unexpected lead. Thankfully these two don't start for Arsenal on a regular basis.

Arsenal soon enough got back in the game  and drew level in the first half with Vela finishing it off with, sorry not a chip over the goalkeeper but the simplest of tap ins from a well worked one-two from van Persie and Arshavin. van Persie's shot was saved after Arshavin's lobbed pass, which fortunately landed into Vela's path (fox in the box anyone?).

The second half was a much better performance from Arsenal as it saw a complete change of the eleven that started the first. The fact that the core of the usual starting eleven began the second half, with the likes of Szczesny, Koscienly, Vermaelen, Song, Wilshere. Also a big factor was natural pace speedsters in Miyachi and Walcott to stretch Greentown.

To sum up the second half, we had many chances that we should've finished with ease. But with time and more match practice that hopefully shouldn't be the case.


Match Highlights:

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So the new man in town has now arrived, but you already knew that a few weeks ago didn't you? That's right Gervinho has finally been unveiled in both Arsenal shirts, clearly it's a marketing scheme in order to try and sell more shirts.

Marketing ploy with both home and away shirts

Gervinho himself states that he will play in his best position, which is on the right of a front three, but he can also play on the opposite side as well as down the middle. I personally want to see him down the right hand side. For the past few seasons now with Walcott, we haven't seen that natural ability to get past a player with skill, it's all about speed with Theo. Gervinho has skill as well as pace. He contribues with a lot of assists, which I think Walcott needs a lot of work on still. But then again Walcott should be down the middle anyway as he thrives on instinct.

Anyway back to our new striking sensation (if you can call him that). I relish to see what this player is going to be like for us, he seems an exciting and electric player and although I've heard of him before, I've never really watched him apart form the odd substitute appearances for Ivory Coast, otherwise he's an unknown quantity to me really.

However I'm glad we've signed someone finally, I hope this spending spree continues.

Welcome to Arsenal Gervinho!

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So more signings looks like it's on our way with rumours going about again that we're still in for Cahill from Bolton, Samba from Blackburn and Mata from Valencia. Now these rumours persistently never stop, just as the never ending saga of Fabregas and Barcelona, when will they shut up and just pay the asking price or just go away and leave our club alone?

I wouldn't be surprised if we signed any of the aforementioned three. However it seems whenever it's English sources the transfer never comes off. Most of the reliable sources come form France (is that because we're run by a French manage, who knows?)

But the outs seem like they've started as well. Denilson will be heading back to Sao Paulo, that's pretty much confirmed as it was on Arsenal's official website. Bendtner is in talks with a few clubs. Eboue looks like he's on his way to Galatasaray and it's gone all quiet on behalf of our No.1 goalkeeper (his shirt number, not literally) Almunia. So I'm sure something's happening there.

REPORT: Malaysia XI 0-4 Arsenal

MALAYSIA XI 0 - 4 ARSENAL

Team Line-ups

Arsenal:

Szczesny, Jenkinson, Koscielny, Vermaelen (c), Gibbs, Song, Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott, Miyachi, Chamakh

Malaysia XI:

Nourdin, Jasuli, Purta, Zafuan, Rahim, Shas, Subramaniam, Talaha, Rohidan, Saarani, Zainal

Match Report

Pre-season Friendly

Bukit Jalil Stadium

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Kick-off: 13:45

I didn’t manage to catch the match; only through Twitter could I manage to get updates as I am involved in the working world. From what I heard or saw Arsenal looked in good shape in Malaysia showing that last season is almost out of their minds with a game they were always in control of. News boys Jenkinson and Miyachi both started, the rest had a familiar look to the team.

Arsenal came out of the traps quicker than their opponenets and got an early goal as Ramsey (5) dispatched a penalty after Wilshere’s movement was too quick for the Malaysian defence and was brought down in the area.

The pressure continued, but it took till eight minutes before half time for Walcott (37) doubled Arsenal’s tally. It was the best goal of the game as Ramsey assisted from the middle of the pitch, in what you would call Cesc like. The vision and execution was sublime. (If Fabregas were to leave, I think Aaron can step up). The ball split the Malaysian defence and Walcott lobbed the keeper into an empty net. The finish did somewhat look like Theo shinned or hit it with his calf, still a neat finish.

Arsenal went into half-time with a lead at 2-0. I had predicted a score line of 4-1 to Arsenal; the match did finish 4-0 so I was close enough. Maybe if Almunia was on tour we would’ve conceded that one goal. Vela (58) got Arsenal’s third goal to put the game beyond doubt. It was Déjà vu all over again, with Carlos deciding to chip the keeper who was still standing. It was a great finish but when will Vela learn that sometimes scoring the simple goal is much more effective. One day we’ll play a big side or a match the has a lot riding on it and he’ll turn up in a position to give us the win and he’d decide to chip and miss ,when the direct shot would’ve been far more the better option. This is a make or break year for Vela I feel, with Bendtner looking on his way out, he needs to impress, but down the middle.


Another positive was to see Nasri coming on to play for the side off the bench, I hope this tour is a good bonding session to keep players together, especially for Samir. A low point was Denilson coming off after twenty minutes on the pitch after coming on as a substitute himself. The Brazilian stormed down the tunnel, clearly unhappy. The substitute was covered up by saying he was injured. But news is that he's actually close to a loan deal to Sao Paulo.

Finally our fourth goal came late on with Arshavin coming on to dart past his man to the by-line to cross with a deflection for Rosicky (90) (seems like he never scores) to nod home from close range.

All in all a good first win with a good run out in hot weather, where they would’ve sweated loads and improved their fitness, which is all that matters at this stage. Next up in Arsenal’s Asia tour is Chinese outfit Hangzhou Greentown.

Match Highlights:

Arsenal Return to Training

The beginning of the season starts now, a long way off the first Premier League match. This is because the majority of first teamers returned today at Arsenal training ground at London Colney this morning.

Pictures taken from this morning, which can be seen here, involved new faces. A laughing Ryo Miyachi, courtesy of none other than comedian and Eddy Murphy 'wanna be' Emmanuel Eboué and 19 year-old Carl Jenkinson, signed form Charlton Athletic.

There was no sign of Nasri, Fabregas and even van Persie, however his may be down to International duty. It would have a more pleasing outlook if there were actually new signings in that first training session.

Manchester City Close to Signing Not One.. But Two!

If rumours are led to believe, Manchester City are honing in on Clichy for around £7m and Nasri for £20m. With the already increasingly look of Fabregas departing for Barcelona, losing another two first teamers is quite extreme. However Clichy hasn't been at his best since the Birmingham City game where Eduardo had his ankle and leg mauled.


Nasri on the other hand has played at a top level for half a season out of his three years at Arsenal. Albeit he could continue this form into the rest of his career, he hasn't contributed a great deal to the club.


Personally I don't think either two would be a big loss. Okay, it's to rivals who will only strengthen them but we made the players they are today, so to sell them on for a large profit and bring in other quality players in their position (which we must do!), then I'd say they can leave for pastures new.