First blog for a while. Things have become very busy down UFGN towers, as we are in negotiations with Manchester City, who have offered us half a million euros to blog for them for a week. We said no, because we want to be blogging about a team in the Champions League and not some moron-managed relegation hopefuls.
Then first things first. Hands up if you love Robin van Persie?
I certainly do. I’ve been banging on to anyone who will listen (and quite a few who won’t) about our need for penetrative players, and RvP (crude rape-allegation jokes aside) has stepped up and started to provide it. One of the things people often forget about Thierry was how many goals he made, as well as scored, and that kind of consistent final-ball provider is exactly the kind of thing we’ve been lacking, maybe since he left…
In response to Grabs’ comments about Eboue, I can only reiterate my belief that he knows What Arsene Did Last Summer, and in the face of this fact all of the various comments people have been making about his ‘use as a utility player’ and his ‘ability to play everywhere’ seem a little ridiculous. They also seem ridiculous because I have never seen Eboue play at centre-back or in goal, and also never in the centre of midfield for more than ten seconds or up front. So when people say ‘he can play in any position’, they really mean ‘he can play anywhere in the peripheral positions where his calamitous defensive howlers are slightly less likely to lead immediately to the concession of a goal, and his attacking ineptitude is likely to be glossed over because he might not be the person who finally loses the ball.’
Anyway. Rant over. For the time being.
This Arshavin saga goes on and on as well. I have no idea why we’re even talking about buying him. It’ll create all sorts of headaches. For instance what will our dream formation be? At the moment, with everyone fit, I think we look a bit like this:
Almunia
Sagna Toure Djourou Clichy
Walcott Fabregas Rosicky Nasri
Van Persie Adebayor
Subs: Fabianski/Denilson/Diaby/Bendtner/Vela/Wilshere/Ramsay
This is my preference, but I’m naturally attacking-minded from my childhood in the Marines, and don’t see why Rosicky and Fabregas can’t play together. Some of you no doubt will think that it looks a bit flimsy in the middle, but Nasri and Cesc can both tackle, and no doubt Rosicky and Walcott could be encouraged to as well. And swap one of Nasri or Rosicky for Denilson and you’re sorted.
But that, on paper, is a midfield which can do a lot of penetrating. Where does Arshavin play? Whilst it’s always nice to have players, I just don’t see why we need to spend £18m on a player who might not add anything, particularly when it looks as if we’ve got quality coming through for the foreseeable future…
There’ll be more on this in the next couple of days, one would imagine. Then we get to start worrying about football again. Which will be nice.
Tags: Andrei Arshavin, Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Emmanuel Eboue
January 20th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Will someone explain to Man City the difference between the Championship and the Champions League!
January 20th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Well, key to your argument is “with everyone fit” which hasn’t been the case for about two years
January 20th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Hey firstly you are defending Eboue, yes good but almost everyone thinks he is not good enough to be in the starting 11..I think the same too.
And then we really need Arshavin because Rosicky is always injured and now we lost Cesc for a couple of months. He is a fantastic player and will bring a lot to our current squad.
With Cesc injured and Rosicky nowhere near to playing again, Arshavin is a MUST for the team. There is no way the full squad will be always fit and injury-free throughout the season.
15 million for Arshavin and his talent is nothing to be honest. Get him Wenger!
January 20th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Im afraid mate, Rosicky aint coming back. He might get the odd games, but i dont think he will be a starter this season or next. A comment Wenger made previously about ‘we didnt expect Rosicky to be out for so long’ made me realise that Arshavin is a replacement for Rosicky…talented ball player with age and experience. I also think we may see a few changes at the end of the season, my ultimate attacking line up would be
Eduardo – RvP
Arshavin
Clichy- Nasri – Cesc – Walcott
Gallas – Toure – Sagna
January 20th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
as there is no guarantee that even the few that we remain with wont be injured, lets bring arshavin
January 20th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
The midfield is light! We need a strong holding midfielder in there or an engine room/box-to-box midfielder (like Flamini). Period!
January 20th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Wenger is going after Arshavin because he knows what we all know, our current squad is not good / deep enough to challenge for multiple honours.
In the past 2 seasons injuries have basically cost us the title. Van Persie, Rosicky and Eduardo have been out for long periods and we have suffered.
Now we have lost Cesc and Wenger knows the fans patience is wearing thin. He knows he can’t afford to go another year with no silverwear.
Arshavin will give us another creative outlet when RvP or Nasri need to be rested.
He would work brilliantly with either Ade or Bentdner as the target man. He would be the link between midfield and attack just as Bergkamp was.
Wenger has learnt from the past 2 seasons and is building a squad which is actually capable of winning 2 or 3 trophies.
He is probaby using the Arshavin deal as a smokescreen for another buy too. Hopefully a defensive midfielder who can also play centre back!
January 20th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
see your making the fatal error that i have seen wenger (and this is my only criticism of one of the worlds best managers) you count the squad as fully fit, which in any team it almost never is. nasri is currently the only one of you ‘ideal’ midfield 4 that is actually fit and we still do not know if rosicky (i hope he can) will ever return to his best.
so having said all that this is my current FIT ideal line up that asharvin DOES fit into (yes im only counting the players who are currently available to play)
Almunia
sagna gallas toure clichy
asharvin diaby denilson nasri
RVP adebayor
bench: everyone else who is fit plus a couple of the under 12’s team to pad it out a bit because these days they want us to have 7 players on the bench and i doubt we have enough fit seniors to filll it out
January 20th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Arshavin looks a great player Eboue is just not good enough
We do need 2 more player to make a great squad and team
Centre Back (Upson)
Goalkeeper (Given)
And play Kolo Holding midfield
So team to win would be
Given
Sagna Upson Gallas Clichy
Arshavin Kolo Nasari Vela
RVP ABE
When player back we would have Cesc in Vela on bench
Subs Walcott Djouru Rosicky Bentner Ramsey Almunia ED de Silva
January 20th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I would have to agree with Frichie on this, Rosicknote’s best days definately seem to be behind him, Arshavin is an exciting prospect and hopefully he can deliver, but he does seem to be a man capable of perfoming on the big occasion. I also dont think Arsene would be prepared to blow that knd of cash if he didnt have the utmost faith in him.
January 20th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
how many people had heard of arshavin before this summer? Another John Jenson on the way???
January 20th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
We’re after Arse Shaving, I would have thought precisely because Eboue plays so many games. On paper he’s our 4th choice ‘winger’ but he’s played virtually every week for the past year, because of the injury problems of Walcott and Rosicky.
Its worth remembering that Eboue was also a regular on the right in the all-conquering side of early last season, although that was with Hleb, Fabregas and Rosicky firing on all cylinders.
January 20th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Great first 11, however we’ve always had a great first 11, however your missing back-up (if we are talking about today’s date).
There is some great talent on the bench, but we need a bit more talent/experience to protect the first 11 and to have Arshavin allows us to rotate a little bit and keep everyone fresh, plus create competition for places which is always always needed.
I’ve felt recently our play and starting formation is getting a little bit predictable and to have Arshavin also would allow us to change a little bit when needed.
By the time the current squad get a little bit older, our bench players you mentioned will be more than ready to take their hold on the first team.
January 20th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
We’re also neglecting the idea of having quality back-up for Fabregas, Nasri, Walcott etc that can help sustain a challenge on several fronts. Must we have only one good player in every position?
January 20th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
our best striking partnership, when evrybody is that you have to blend Van persie with dudu (eduardo). he is a natural striker who has pace and knows how to cut in space for the ball. he is our best striker. never leave him out again.
January 20th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
RVP continues the Iceman Bergkamp’s dutch legacy of being a very penetrative player. While Henry did provide many assists, he scored more goals due to the likes of Bergy, Pires and Ljundberg. If you start to do a side by side comparison, Henry aside, you can see very real similarities between The Invincibles and our current squad – at least in the attack. I hope Eduardo can be as prolific as Henry because if he can even be a 15-18 goal a season striker Wenger can almost fulfill his prophecy that we can dominate football again. If we sort our defense I don’t see why not. I’ve noticed though that compared to the former generation we have more diversity in attack. The Invincibles relied alot on the Arsenal passing game to score and Henry’s 20+ goals a season, but we had the talent to support that. However, now we have very different strikers all putting in 7-10 a season instead of one person being the main focal point. We’re becoming a more rounded team which can be good and bad.
January 20th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
eduardo is our best striker. please don’t leave him out.
January 20th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
you think our formation would be:
Almunia
Sagna Toure Djourou Clichy
Walcott Fabregas Rosicky Nasri
Van Persie Adebayor
What???
I cant take u seriously
January 20th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
For me Dudu is the one to hang success on – but only if he is very very brave about tackling, and his head recovers from that horrendous injury. His attitude since that injury has been superb so I’m extremely optimistic. But, he’ll need a bit of time – like the rest of this season – to get back to his best. We need Arshavin now to lift the team’s spirit as well as ours. Let’s face it – we have been so unlucky with injuries and we must now prepare knowing that someone vital will be out for a few games. So, get Arsh, use him well (as a DB) til May and then get a goalie, a defender and even look very closely at who will partner Cesc. Examine our tactics so that we can score against teams with 10 shin-smashers lined up in front of our goal. Do that, and we’ll have an Invincibles side once again.
January 20th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Arshavin will be good, but we need some one like Flamini or diarra (high workrate players) unfortunately we let both of them go. Last year when we were playing good we had flams doing the dirty work and letting cesc’ and hleb doing the playmaking.
Also if could buy a heart we should, as that would be good for the team, we need some passion, we need some keowns, adams, and vieras and one den brgkmp would do aswell
its only ray parlour!
peace
January 20th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Eduardo was very ordinary in a lot of games last year. scored a few goals later in his campaign and the rosy tinted spectacles are on most supporters.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
i think Arshavin ought to be in the team. he’ll be perfect replacement for rosicky or cesc(out for 2 months)
almunia
sagna toure gallas clichy
walcott cesc rosicky nasri
Rvp ade
January 20th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
But Eboue has played centre back!
January 20th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
All I can say is what so many others are saying: We need a good goalie (Almunia is no way near good enough for Arsenal), a good centre-back and a good strong-man in midfield (why, oh why did we let Famini go??????)
January 20th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Okay you are crazy for thinking it’s a good idea to have two of our undersized, fragile midfielders (Cesc, Nasri) making tackles on other teams huge midfielders.
I am completely on board with another commenter who has put Toure at Defensive Midfield. Personally I would put Djourou at CDM because he has shown he can handle the ball better than Toure. Seriously, getting one of our defenders in the midfield is all we need to do. Play Nasri and Arshavin on the wings until Walcott Rosicky are healthy, and we ‘re good to go.
Almunia
Sagna Toure Gallas Clichy
Arshavin Fabregas Djourou Nasri
Van Persie Adebayor
January 20th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Wow I completely didn’t address Fabregas’s injury. I’ve been impressed with Diaby’s improvement tackling, so having 2 big guys in the midfield, Diaby and Toure/Djourou, will give us a huge advantage in the air and turn into more possession won.
So until Fabregas is better:
Almunia
Sagna Toure/Djourou Gallas Clichy
Arshavin Diaby Toure/Djourou Nasri
RvP Adebayor
January 20th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
George, i completely agree with ur team
djourou could solve a lot of problems in midfield IMO, its his natural position, hes said so
the only thing is hes really need at CB at the moment cos toure and gallas look weak together these days
January 21st, 2009 at 3:35 am
almunia
sagna djourou gallas clichy
song
cesc
walcott nasri rosicky
rvp
best possible starting line up
January 21st, 2009 at 4:31 am
What an idiot who headlined this article..
We have enough talent coming through!! yeah when mate?? in the next 2- 3 years maybe??? Get in the real world man!!!!!
Every team will struggle with injuries throughout a year on and off some teams have the better luck than others when it comes to long term injuries though.. But the reason they win titles is becuase when push comes to shove they have the DEPTH to cover for when things get bad.
We dont have depth and we need it now.. Rosicky is basically now just a gamble and if u had to put your money on him u wouldnt get very good odds if your realistic.. fabregas may not be around in the next year or 2 anyway if you really think about it..
Arsenal truelly needs men with experience playing..and i mean MEN not just young kids with talent having a go.!!!
January 21st, 2009 at 6:34 am
To be the winners, we need a great squad and Arshavin fits in perfectly to that definition. I had the honor of meeting and talking to him about his expected transfer yesterday in dubai. he sounded hopeful.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:00 am
why no signings?