Up For Grabs Now

A team it’s difficult to feel much animosity for. Bonkers Thierry-cheering fans (apart from that bell-ringing waistcoat bloke), a charming shed which they insist is actually a stand, and – crucially – usually good for 6 points every year.

Today should be no different if we can maintain our encouraging early levels of swashbuckle and sex-appeal. I expect to see the strikers chipping in today, though if that happens you just know the press will start wondering where Arsenal’s midfield goals are going to come from.

The move to 4-3-3 looks to have reinvented one man in particular: Nicklas Bendtner.

Of course it’s very early on, but from what we’ve seen Arsene is going to keep him on the right of the front three. And rightly so.

There’s clearly a reason why it’s Arsh-RvP-NB52 rather than Arsh-NB52-RvP, which is how pretty much any fan would arrange them.

So far Bendtner has actually performed the role of spearhead – winning high balls and knocking them down for van Persie and others – but (rather revolutionary this) he has done so from the right, as part of his role as a wing-forward. I think this could prove very effective, in part because it’s such an unusual approach, and in part because with Arsene you know the team is never going to play in a way which needs a conventional (ie central) spearhead, through whom play is channelled (aerially) for much of the game – Davies, Drogba, Shearer.

Where was the spearhead in the TH14/DB10 combo? It was ludicrously effective despite the fact that Dennis was always dropping off deep and Thierry drifted wide to get the ball at his feet.

We use the high ball approach only occasionally, and it can be really effective as a change of tack.

Ade used to try and play from a wide position, but was absolutely dreadful at this and always ended up running up a blind alley, or crossing limply to nobody. We’ll miss him in some ways, I’m not denying, but if Bendtner can turn himself into a threat as unconventional as that he offered at Goodison, then we’ll have a real weapon on our hands.

Back to bread and butter issues: Gabon, the team that could prove vital to Arsenal’s season.

The thinnest part of our squad is clearly defensive midfield. Denilson and Song have grown impressively into first-picks, but behind them it all gets a bit ropey. Diaby and Ramsey could probably deputise for Denilson, but there isn’t anyone who could really cover for Song. And everyone knows he’ll be at the African Cup of Nations in January.

Song: Indomitable

And here’s the thing. He might not. Song’s Cameroon team (bullishly nicknamed The Indomitable Lions), sit bottom of their tough-looking qualifying group, which includes Andepaymore’s Togo, Chamakh’s Morocco and, er, Daniel Cousin’s Gabon. Third-place or better qualifies you for the CAN.

Lion: Midfielder

 

 Cameroon have a double-header with Gabon up next, who have taken maximum points from their 2 games. If Cameroon lose those two, they’ll be big favourites to finish last, and miss out on African Nations Cup qualifications.

Of course, they could still qualify. Let’s just hope they don’t. And let’s also hope Arsene signs a burly defensive midfielder all the same.

COME ON YOU REDS TODAY

Well that was a bit boring wasn’t it?

1-0, but we’ll take those points very gratefully, thank you. It wasn’t pretty to watch. We seemed to celebrate TA6’s return to the Emirates by agreeing not to threaten the Portsmouth goal at all, and occasionally gifting them the odd half chance.

The first half, particularly, was stultefyingly dull – aside from Crouch hitting the post and Adebayor managing not to score after rounding James there was nothing to talk about, except how useless Ade and Bendtner were together. We had lots of the ball, and seemed more comfortable at the back than recently, but seemed equally unable to do anything about it after that.

In the second half we were a bit brighter, after Nasri moved inside and pushed the Great Dane out wide, first on the left and then on the right after Carl came on, and Adebayor ought to have scored again when given about twenty minutes on the edge of the six yard box.

Still, they defended neatly (Campbell in particular looking like a player who’d get a game at the Emirates), and we were rarely threatened at our end, and there can’t be too many unhappy with the scoreline, none more so than LeGal, who came up with another of his timely headers to provide the only goal (from a very useful Denilson cross – perhaps he should do more set pieces…). Good for him, and good for the team too to have a reconfident LeGal.

When I got home Phil Thompson was wittering away about us buying a striker in January after Wenger seemed to thaw slightly on the transfer issue. It’s clearly not in his interests to announce he’s definitely looking to buy, but at the same time he admitted we look ‘a bit thin’. Watch this space, I say. But a striker? Hmm. I don’t think so. There was forlorn chanting for Robin van Persie during the second half, but I think that was more out of frustration with Bendtner than anything else (who was rubbish, and who can’t play with Ade at all). With a fit Eduardo (and Theo and Carl as backup options) I don’t see any need for any more strikers.

 No, like the proverbial 24 year old virgin, what we need is a bit of penetration. Not from strikers, but from people unafraid (and competent enough) to get past the man. Against lesser teams it’s less obvious, but Portsmouth were well-organised enough to show us up when we were passing around each other. Nasri was prepared to have a go, and Diaby too in his defence, and so was Carl when he came on. Cesc can do it with passing and movement, and Theo can do it with runs, but it’s where Denilson, Song and Eboue, not to mention Bentdner and Ade, look a bit vulnerable.

 More tomorrow, but I’m happy with the result. We haven’t lost for a while now, and that can only be good…

By gum, it hasn’t been so long since our last game has it? And here we are again, all hopes and fears as Tony Adam’s Pompey roll into the Emirates.

Having only a day in between matches could work in our favour. After results as frustrating as Friday’s, players and managers always want to have another chance to get it right as quickly as possible. You could argue the same about Pompey, I suppose, but after being obliterated 4-1 at home by struggling West Ham you’d rather think they’d need time to pick themselves up and regain belief. Instead of which they’ve had a day off and must now play Arsenal. 

Tony Adams (TA6) will rightly receive an enormous ovation, as such a pillar of the club deserves. Likewise Campbell, Ralph and Kanu, Invincibles all, should be made to feel right at home. Realistically, not Diarra.

That said, I don’t think Adams will be long for the Pompey job. Once an unproven young manager strings a run of poor results together (albeit his squad is crumbling around him), recent history shows that they always get the boot in favour of someone older and wiser (or sometimes just newer, as in Sbragia’s case), not because they aren’t necessarily good managers, but because most clubs’ budgets cannot countenance the blow of relegation and so extreme short-termism is the only option.

If he does lose his job, I’d love to see Arsene bring him in as a defensive coach. I’ve long thought that Arsene might benefit from basically not bothering to coach defending himself (in the same way that there are specialised goalkeeping coaches), and instead allow a specialist defensive coach to decide defensive strategy, especially things like defending set-pieces.

I know we defend as a team, blah, blah, blah. The thing is that there’s something painfully uncomfortable about our current back four which suggests they really don’t know quite what they’re meant to be doing. People bark on about new signings, but a new signing in the same defensive system can’t change all that much in my opinion unless they’re a massive ego in their own right who will insist on doing things their way, which sounds good in theory but a bit like Gallas in practice.

Arsene could still insist on having his full-backs galloping forward and maintain a certain style of distribution to the midfield. What I think someone like Adams could improve is the muddy bread-and-butter business of defending, which has always seemed to rather bore Arsene.

Back to today’s match. Adebayor returns after his ridiculous suspension. Djourou and Clichy may also come back, though I wouldn’t put the family cat on it, while Song misses out, apparently still injured – so I hope all those who suggested he got hooked by Wenger at Villa because he was playing terribly feel terribly guilty this morning.

Song’s loss is a bit of a puzzler for Wenger midfieldwise. I reckon he’ll put Nasri on the left, Eboue on the right, Denilson with Diaby in the middle. Diaby’s preference for aimless ambling in ineffectual areas of the midfield over things like pressing and tackling would put a lot of pressure on Denilson if this is the midfield today. An alternative would be to drop Eboue (Hooray!), put Diaby on a wing and Ramsey in the middle. The lad looked raw against Villa but it’s always tough to come into a game at the stage he did – the intensity’s high and nobody’s tired enough yet to give you any fitness advantage. Played from the start he might be able to get his teeth into the game a bit more.

Always interested to know your thoughts on today’s game and who you’d pick, so stick them underneath as always.

TRANSFER RUMOURS: No less a bastion of journalistic probity than the News of the World newspaper has today unleashed a three-headed Arsenal transfer-rumour monster which is clearly completely baseless and apparently intended only to worry frantic Geordies. They claim we’ll sign Shay Given, Steven Taylor and Charles N’Zogbia as part of Wenger’s big change of mind (which is itself a lie).

We’ve always been linked with N’Zogbia though I’ve never really understood why. He’s out of contract at the end of the season so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him signed in a sort of vague, Bischoffian manner. Taylor could be good I suppose, if given the right defensive coaching (see nods and nudges above), while Given would be a curious signing seeing as Arsene quite clearly rates Almunia highly. As do I for that matter. He’s another that seems to suffer simply because he wasn’t signed expensively as an established talent.

Allez les rouges!