Very many apologies for the silence from our end this weekend.
Fictional excuses: Grabber was getting a few of his choicest bonsai trees ready for an agricultural show this week, and I was engaged in a gruelling shampoo testing programme.
After some humming and hah-ing and a chronically timid piece of defending from Gael, we finally managed to crush Hull City beneath our imperious Arsenal heel. A goal of happily Piresian economy from Nasri and then a box-busting one-two between Van Persie and Bendtner gave the scoreboard the warm and fuzzy glow of dominance, an aura which was probably merited over the piece, however tardily it might have been achieved.
At this point, I’d like to reiterate that Alan Shearer is an imbecile of Daniel-Levian proportions. He ‘talked’ last night on MOTD (where we were scandalously on after Man City) about the home fixture between Hull and Arsenal, and said that Hull had been “dominant” on that occasion. He can only be describing the sort of dominance where you park not so much a mere bus as a bona fide East Coast mainline express train (with a quiet coach and a serviceable cafeteria) in front of your goal and then score a wondergoal and a header from your only two tentative sniffs at goal. Idiot.
I hope Shearer finally plucks up the balls to finally take the Newcastle job just so we can watch him oversee a disastrous implosion which gets them relegated having been hailed by hysterical Geordies everywhere as the messiah. We’ll see how far his lazily-informed, smugly expressed, know-all hindsight gets him then, won’t we?
Though I must applaud Johan Djourou for his innovative, and potentially homicidal, last minute upwards-headering technique, yesterday really belonged to the man possessed of 3 assists, the goal of the month for December and the balance of Natalia Markarova Rudolf Nureyev (who, my researcher informs me, is a ballet dancer with ’sick’ balance).
Yes, the man on form right now is Robin Van Persie. When he isn’t injuring himself or butting the unfortunate goalkeepers of lesser teams firmly on the bonce in seemingly unprovoked attacks, then he’s crashing rasping free-kicks against the bar and ripping opposition defences firmly asunder. More crashing and ripping and less injuring and butting, thanks Robin. He’s an absolute joy to watch right now, and long may it continue.
Something else which will hopefully continue is our ability to score late goals. Arsene, never one with a head for figures, helpfully pointed out post-match that:
I think we have scored 16 goals in the last 15 minutes of the last 33 games, and we did that again today.
I’d be very interested to see a proper analysis of how many of those goals were in some way related to the substitution of Emmanuel Eboue in favour of a player with a working knowledge of the sport. I’d wager a fair few.
As ever, we love to hear your thoughts, shouts, groans, cheers, yelps, farts, screams and laughs. Stick ‘em in the comments section where the sun don’t shine and we’ll have a right old chinwag.
Tags: Alan Shearer, Hull City, johan djourou, Nicklas Bendtner, Robin van Persie, Samir Nasri
January 19th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Eboue is a poor outfield attacking player. His best position was at right back but Sagna is just a better version of him. Eboue lacks finesse and polish and because of that he loses the ball the most and gives away possession cheaply. He is a great utility player, able to come on anytime and in just about any position, but he is not a starter. It’s really down to a thing squad, rife with injuries that he gets to see so much of the pitch on a weekly basis. He had one good first season but has been declining ever since. I wouldn’t want him sold just because of his versatility but I wouldn’t want him to be operating our right side week in and week out. I can only hope Theo or Rosicky gets well faster.
January 19th, 2009 at 1:32 am
good comment about shearer. i’m fed up with people like him sitting on their sofas and just slagging off all the hard work that goes into producing what is a massive, financially stable, wonderful football and playing at the top level club.
January 19th, 2009 at 1:52 am
I agree that eboue is not a starter. However, i think that this time before theo and super are back is potentially very valuable in his development as player, and indeed the development of his role within the team (i do concede that it is also potentially disastrous at such a crucial stage in our season). Does anyone else think that eboue could end up becoming a decent high impact sub? with pace and unpredictability on the ball? An attacking substitution that also firms up one side of the field defensively? along with these hopeful question marks, there are of course other negative ones that apply to his temperament, pass accuracy and composure (or lack of) in front of goal. I just feel that eboue has a real chance to iron some of these kinks while the others are gone, and although he’s hardly gonna turn himself into the first name on the sheet during this spell, he may use the high pressure scenario to make worthwhile improvements to his game. The impression that i get from eboue is of a player who is closer to being very useful to us then some of his play would suggest. That said, a few million from Jose to spend over the summer sounds pretty useful too…
January 19th, 2009 at 2:05 am
well my dear friend when u talk about MOTD apart from the 2 ex gunners ho have u got on the sofa:first an ex spuds and then 2 ex lpool players and a sherer from new castle so guess what they think of a team wish were a revelation under a french coach ho play the the best football and got only 1 english man in their starting 11 and from london?
January 19th, 2009 at 2:25 am
You guys have no concept of the term ‘Garrincha Bursts’ which Eboue is obviously very capable of. The reason why he’s finding difficulty in fine tuning his touch is because of your endless slagging and lack of faith and foresight of the full devastation he can cause on opponents while in full flow. Wenger can see just that, fortunately.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:44 am
There’s no need to get one’s underwear tangled over why Eboue keeps starting for us. Wenger obviously feels that the more attacking options he has available are inexperienced and therefore also weaken us defensively. We can live with that for the last half hour but he’s not ready to risk it for the full 90 minutes. No question that when Theo’s fit he will get the nod over Eboue.
And while I think Eboue’s a useful player, I would never put him in the same sentence as Garrincha unless it included the words “should not be compared with” – like this one does.
January 19th, 2009 at 5:02 am
Eboue, Eboue, Eboue. What should Wenger do with him? We have one of the most unique and revolutionary types of wings in football. We have a double defensive right wing. With Eboue playing infront of Sagna. That usually should stifle most attacks on the right hand side of the field and allow us to concentrate on other areas of the pitch. (The same can be said about the left side of the pitch with Clichy and Traore when we bring Traore back from his loan spell with Portsmouth) But right now Eboue is lacking in confidence, concentration and I believe match fitness. Quite frankly since we are lacking in depth I don’t think Arsene has any choice but to play the guy. However…come summer I hope Arsene sells the guy and uses the money to acquire a better fitter winger as backup for Rosicky/Nasri/Arshavin. If Morinho wants him I say let him go but trade him for Quaresma. Eboue + 6 mil. for him. Maybe I’m just rambling or having wishful thoughts, but somethin has to be done. Eboue simply looks like he’s giving up playing the Arsenal way and has no bite or fight left in him. Hopefully he proves me wrong, but I doubt it.
January 19th, 2009 at 6:18 am
I’ve stood up for eboue a lot but he was poor on saturday
The thing is i maintain he was one of our best players before his injury – not saying too much but he looked like a competent midfielder
Its clear that his confidence has been shot after that game where he was filling in having just come back from injury
U can see how the booing gets to him, even yesterday with the hasty long balls that he attempts
January 19th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Yes, Traore is killing it down at Pompey, assists-a-go-go. Useful cover for Gael (who does seem a bit off at the moment, although an ‘off’ Clichy is still worth nine C*ntley Coles)
January 19th, 2009 at 8:44 am
how long has walcott got? once he is fit is he not the man to hare up the right? in response o fourstar – is there anyway we can cancel his loan down there?
January 19th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Eboue is their to provide solidity – we’ve conceded less goals recently with Eboue in the team and do so generally. The ‘problem’ is that most of our offensive midfielders are injured so the balance isn’t quite their at the moment. Last season when at least 2 of Fabregas, Hleb and Rosiky played we played our great free flowing football, same this year when Nasri and Fab have both played together, but when only one of these players is on the pitch our game breaks down somewhat. That’s why he wants Arshavin. With a couple of ball playing midfielders playing well in the team, Eboue is there to provide solidity and protect Sagna – in a similar job to what Ray Parlour used to do when we used to have Overmars, Pires, Bergkamp etc in the team. I just don’t think Wenger thinks we are solid enough now in midfield in order to play 2 on the wing (such as Nasri and Vela) as well as Fabregas in the centre, although the way Nasri is going he may well be strong enough to provide enough protection defensively in the future to allow this to happen without losing his attacking side, as Llungberg did
January 19th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
As I’ve said Eboue ability to play anywhere is priceless. This type of player is the reason Darren Fletcher and John O’ Shea still wear a Man United jersey. Every team needs a utility player who can fill in the gaps, especially Arsenal who don’t have billionaire money to buy 3 of every single position like Chelsea has. My problem also is team selection. We have Denilson, Abou and Eboue usually all starting due to our injury list. That’s 3 somewhat defensive players all occupying the midfield – that’s just way too much work to put on the front 2 and Nasri to attack. With Walcott we had width and another diligent attacker, with Eboue we stretch the game too much because he’s also defensive minded. Though I think Arshavin is not worth the supposedly 15-18M we’re apparently forking over for him, we need a player like him who is more technical, creative and attacking. Eboue lacks attacking skills and insight which was evident with his clumsy make-shift volley against Hull. A proper attacking player would recognize they had the time and space to put the ball under control or attack the ball before the bounce to reduce the chance of scuffing the shot like Eboue did.