West Brom 2-3 Arsenal: What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been

Posted on May 13, 2012 by

“Sometimes the lights are all shinin’ on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.”
-Grateful Dead, “Truckin’” (1970)

It was an absolutely thrilling day at Champs Bar, with many Gooners from our Facebook group in attendance.  People with ADHD had a field day, as multiple screens showed the events unfolding throughout the Premier League.  As the final whistle blew to end our match, Sergio Agüero scored the game-winner in the 94th minute to win the Title for Man City.  I’m not sure if the loudest cheer was for Arsenal securing third place, or for Man Utd losing first place.  But it was delightful nonetheless.

For the second straight match, Yossi Benayoun’s energy created the first goal for the good guys.  Man-of-the-match Marton Fulop completely fluffed the ball, giving Benayoun a wide open net, at the 4th minute.  West Brom quickly responded with two goals: the first went to Shane long, who was clearly offside; the second was a quality strike from Graham Dorrans.

Arséne Wenger must have been as anxious as Roberto Mancini, who was not having an easy time against QPR either.  André Santos rescued a dismal first half by scoring in the 30th minute to bring the score to 2-2.  Fulop did make contact with the ball, but it was not enough.

When the half-time whistle blew, I knew at that point we would win the match.  I imagine that Wenger (and perhaps Pat Rice) would put the fear of God into the players, and that all we needed was a quality 45-minute second half to steal the game.  I was expecting a lob pass from Song to RVP, but instead, we got another blunder from Fulop, who gifted the ball to Laurent Koscielny.

It was an agonizing 40 minutes, as we hoped we would not see a replay of last week’s match against Norwich.  Meanwhile, over at WHL, the Sp**s had a 2-0 lead against Fulham, so it was unlikely they would drop points.  Carl Jenkinson was looking a bit shaky on defense, and got away with some shirt-tugging.  Kieran Gibbs was brought on as a substitute for Gervinho at the 66th minute, and that seemed to help.  Give credit to the Gunners, they were able to preserve the 3-2 lead.

All the media attention will focus on Man City’s dramatic finish, but for Arsenal to finish third is really quite an accomplishment, given that we lost Fabregas and Nasri at the last minute, and did not have Wilshere for most of the season.  I think a few more fans moved over to the “Arsène Must Go” camp, initiated by the disastrous game against Man Utd last year.

I don’t know about my colleague, but I think Wenger performed a miracle, bringing in a variety of new players who did contribute to our rebound: Carl Jenkinson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, André Santos, Per Mertesacker, Yossi Benayoun and Mikel Arteta.  If we can keep RVP, and if Jack Wilshere can actually play again, we will have a very strong starting XI, for example: Podolski-RVP-Walcott, Wilshere-Arteta-Song, Gibbs-Kos-Vermaelen-Sagna, and Szczesny.  Bench: Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Rosicky, Coquelin, Santos, Mertesacker, Fabianski.

If we are not able to keep RVP, we’ll make a bundle of cash from his sale and hopefully AW will find another forward or two.  I find it hard to believe that he would keep him for one more year without a new contract and let him go on a Bosman transfer.

What’s next for the Gunners?  The Euros!  Since Canada didn’t qualify for the tournament, I can choose from any number of teams:

Holland: Robin van Persie
Germany: Per Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski
Poland: Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski
France: Laurent Koscielny
Russia: Andrey Arshavin
Spain: what can I say, I still have a soft spot for Cesc Fàbregas

After the Euros, it’s time once again for the A$ia tour (Malaysia, China, Hong Kong) and Nigeria (Aug 5).  It’s really close to the start of next season, so I’m sure Arsène’s not too happy about it.  But it’s great that the club is reaching out to their international fans.

Stay tuned for our end-of-season review!

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Arsenal 3-3 Norwich: Canary in a Coal Mine

Posted on May 6, 2012 by

You have to give credit to Norwich City; unlike most mid- to low-table teams that visit the Emirates, they did not set out to play defense for 90 minutes and hope for a draw.  Instead, they kept coming after us, poking holes in our already porous defense. Safely out of the relegation zone, the Canaries had nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

Birthday boy Yossi Benayoun scored in the second minute of the game, but Szczesny allowed a soft goal ten minutes later.  Our goalkeeper was not to blame for the second Norwich goal, as Holt’s shot deflected off Kieran Gibbs’ boot and looped over his head.  At the end of the first half, you could hear the boos as the Gunners walked off the pitch.

PFA Player of the Year Robin van Persie came to our rescue with two goals in the second half.  RVP connected with a lob pass from Song to tie the score at 2-2.  He scored again in the 80th minute, giving us a 3-2 lead.  Unable to close out the last ten minutes, Arsenal allowed Morison to score at the 85th minute after yet another defensive blunder.

I’m not sure how many water bottles were thrown by Wenger during the match, but he was plenty mad when the final whistle blew.  This was not how he wanted to celebrate his 900th game as manager.

As I write this, both Tottenh*m and Newcastle missed a golden opportunity to leapfrog over Arsenal in the standings.  Unbelievably, Arsenal remains in third place with one game remaining.  So we need to defeat West Brom next week in order to secure third place and a guaranteed Champions League spot.  Newcastle may have a tough time at Everton, but I expect the Sp**s to get 3 points against Fulham.

Regardless of how we end this season, the canary perished in our coal mine a long time ago.  This was not the first time this season that the Gunners let 3 points slip away.  The fact that we can beat the top-level teams and then lose to the bottom feeders is a sign of immaturity.  We can’t even use our youth as an excuse, as several players have been in the squad for awhile.

Wenger’s £11 million signing of Lukas Podolski indicates that management is not going to wait much longer for the current squad to find their groove.  We need real depth, not just promising youngsters, because we can’t expect our starting XI to stay healthy all season.  I can’t say we missed Per Mertesacker, but since Mikel Arteta went down with an ankle injury we haven’t won a game.  As we reduce our stadium debt, and negotiate a new shirt sponsorship deal in 2014, we can expect to see even more Podolski-type signings in the near future.

Next match: Sun 13 May (10:00 Eastern) Arsenal at West Brom

Come on you Gunners!

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Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal: Recurring themes

Posted on March 3, 2012 by

If you follow the Arsenal regularly, you will find some recurring themes.  These were evident in today’s match against Liverpool:

Poor defending: So far this season, the Gunners have allowed 38 goals (twice the number allowed by Man City).  Even 15th place Aston Villa have allowed fewer goals (35) than us.  But thanks to the combined efforts of Man-of-the-Match Wojciech Szczesny and the Inanimate-objects-of-the-Match goal posts, we escaped the first half with a 1-1 score.  I was hoping that our opponents would be suffering from a Carling Cup hangover, but that was not the case.  Liverpool could have easily scored 3 or 4 goals, as Luis Suárez had his way with our defenders.

Countless injuries: We currently lead the league in injuries (12), the most recent being Gibbs, Benayoun, Diaby, and Arteta from today’s game.  They will join the following players at our state-of-the-art Medical Centre: Djourou, Ramsey, Squillaci, Coquelin, Mertesacker, Frimpong, Santos, and Wilshere.  By the way, Manchester City have 0.

Goal to van Persie, assisted by Alex Song: For a holding midfielder, Song has made some pretty nice forward passes to set up our lone Gunman.  Today’s assist will end up on many highlight reels.  Here are some video clips from the current season:

RVP vs Borussia Dortmund

RVP vs Everton

RVP vs Liverpool

King Henry vs Leeds, just because

“Arsène Knows Best” versus “In Arsène We Rust”: There have always been a contingent of fans who would like to replace Arsène Wenger with [insert a famous manager's name here].  Since we lost the Carling Cup final last year, the anti-Wenger camp has gained momentum.  It seems that every tactical decision is scrutinized, and each time we lose a game, the knee-jerk response is to fire Wenger.  I’ve been in the AKB camp since I started following the club in 2002, so perhaps I’m a bit biased.  But we’ve qualified for the Champions League every year since 1998-99, and if Sp**s lose tomorrow, we’ll be a mere 4 points from third place.  We’ve gotten this far without Fabregas, Nasri, and Wilshere.  Who else (besides Ferguson) has demonstrated such consistency in recent memory?

Team spirit: Even when we’re down a couple of goals, the team never quits. Szczesny made a brilliant save on Dirk Kuyt’s penalty, and turned away the rebound.   Time and time again, the Gunners have come from behind to steal a result. The only problem is, time and time again we find ourselves in this position.

But here’s something new: we won a game that we didn’t deserve to win.  As WS13 and AW confessed to the BBC, we were lucky to win:    We were heading for a 1-1 draw into extra time, but we had a full 8 minutes to pull one more rabbit out of the hat.  Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also could have scored in the 97th minute, assist from RVP, but his shot just curled wide.

Does this mean we can beat AC Milan 5-0 on Tuesday?  I don’t know, but it should be an entertaining match, regardless of the result.  COYG

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Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham: It’s back on!

Posted on February 26, 2012 by

I was prepared to write a completely different article today.

Let’s rewind back to February 11, 2012. Sunderland was fighting valiantly at the Stadium of Light, drawing first blood at the 70th minute, only to have Aaron Ramsey respond with a goal of his own.  The Black Cats were heading to a well-deserved draw, only to be cruelly smacked down by King Thierry, who connected with Andrey Arshavin’s brilliant cross.  With the victory, Arsenal squeaked past Chelsea into fourth place in the Premier League.

Fast-forward to February 25.  Both architects of the game-winning goal at Sunderland are now gone: Henry to New York, and Arshavin to St. Petersburg.  Arsenal lost to AC Milan in convincing fashion (4-0), then to Sunderland in the FA Cup (2-0), effectively ending our hopes for silverware this season.  It’s arguably the lowest point in Arsène Wenger’s career as Arsenal manager, and the Wenger haters are louder than ever.  I was fearful of the North London derby, and was expecting to write a post-mortem today with a sermon about moneyball and financial fair play.  Fortunately, I can save that article for another day.

February 26: I had to hit the snooze button a couple of times, before I could stagger out of bed.  The walk to Champs Bar was a bit chilly, but the sun was bright.  Good omen, perhaps?  Once again, we were outnumbered by Man Utd fans, but we had plenty of occasions to make some noise.

The match didn’t start well; a horrendous defensive effort allowed Louis Saha to score at the fourth minute.  Then, Adebayor scored on a penalty, thanks to a great dive by Gareth Bale. (I don’t fault the referee, as from his angle it must’ve looked like Szczesny tripped him up.)  Down 0-2, it seemed that my worst fears would be realized.  Stan Kroenke was probably thinking of “silently” leaving at half time.

Once again, Arsenal really showed their fighting spirit.  We Canadians would call that penalty the “TSN Turning Point.”  The Gunners channeled their anger constructively, and started to take back control of the game.  Bacary Sagna started the comeback with a strong header of a cross from Arteta; then RVP took advantage of a bad Sp**s clearance to smash a left-footed curl past the diving goalkeeper.  It was 2-2 at the half, and the sentiment at Champs was that we had a good chance of winning.

Moment of the match, and man of the match: in the second half, the Gunners kept the pressure on the Sp**s.  Rosicky, who was fantastic all game, played a one-two with Sagna and deftly tapped in the third goal.  The look of pure joy on his face as he did his celebratory sprint was priceless.  I was really happy for him, and I expect we’ll see that photo a lot.

As Morgan mentioned in a previous episode of Premier Punditry, the inconsistent Theo Walcott had a lot to prove, and the Sp**s back four was a weakness.  Morgan also predicted 7 goals in the game – nice one!  Theo stepped up today, and for his first goal of the match he had to sprint all the way from the defensive zone, outrunning two opponents to receive a pass from RVP and chip the ball over the sprawling keeper.  His second goal was a nice low strike at the far corner (assist from Alex Song).  He received a nice standing ovation when he was replaced by The Ox at the 81st minute.

In the first match of the post-Arshavin era, Arsène put his faith in Yossi Benayoun and Tomas Rosicky.  Both midfielders were effective, even if they didn’t register any assists on the stat sheet.  Rosicky played the full game, and Benayoun wasn’t replaced until the 88th minute.  With Arteta and Song in a supporting role, our midfield was strong.  We had what I consider to be the ideal back four: Gibbs, Vermaelen, Koscielny and Sagna.  With RVP and Walcott up front, and Szczesny anchoring the back, we actually had a strong starting XI.  Could we be poised for another unbeaten run?  Can we actually score 5 against AC Milan in the return leg?

St Totteringham’s Day update: we needed the three-goal difference to stay on top of Chelsea, who had beaten Bolton 3-0.  We’re now 7 points from Tottenham, but we have three tough fixtures ahead of us: Liverpool at Anfield, the Champions League match, then Newcastle at the Emirates.  Tottenham will face Man Utd at White Hart Lane, an FA Cup match, then Everton at Goodison Park.  It’s back on!

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Arsenal 7-1 Blackburn: Chicken Soup for the Gooner’s Soul

Posted on February 5, 2012 by

A home match versus Blackburn is like chicken soup – it’s good for what ails you.

After blasting the club during the Premier Punditry podcast this past week, I had to happily eat my words as Arsenal dismantled the Rovers and added 6 to their goal difference.  As I write this post, Chelsea has a 3-0 lead over Man Utd and Newcastle defeated Aston Villa this morning, so Arsenal might not gain any ground in the race to fourth place.  But there were a lot of positives to draw from our match.

I’m usually very upbeat about the Gunners, even in down times.  But the mid-week 0-0 draw versus 17th place Bolton was the straw that broke the back of the camel I was riding.  We had a strong starting XI, missing only a proper left back.  We had Arshavin and Henry on the bench, who could provide some offensive spark if needed.  But we didn’t take advantage of our scoring chances.  Not to take anything away from Bolton, but Arsenal had to win this one.

Fast-forward to Saturday.  Not a cold day by Canadian standards, but definitely chilly when you’re running around in soccer shorts.  Arsène Wenger made two important changes to the lineup: Tomas Rosicky and Francis Coquelin in, Ramsey and Sagna out.  I felt Coquelin was a brilliant choice for replacing Sagna.  I’m no tactician, but it seemed that Walcott really benefitted from Coquelin’s passing.  In turn, Walcott made some great crosses, instead of the usual turnovers.  Walcott assisted on 2 of RVP’s goals and 1 of AOC’s goals.  Coquelin assisted on RVP’s third goal.

Another positive was the play of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.  He’s almost as quick as Theo Walcott, has great footwork, and makes good decisions with the ball.  He’s only 18 years old (he turns 19 in August), and you can see why Wenger spent big bucks to get him.  He’s gunning for a spot on the Euro 2012 squad, so he’s doing everything he can to remain in our starting XI.

The third positive was our “balanced scoring.”  In quotation marks, of course, because we all know that Robin Van Persie carried the whole club this season on his soon-to-be-a-bronze-statue shoulders.  3 goals from RVP, 2 goals from AOC (the first-ever Premier League goals), 1 from Mikel Arteta, and even 1 from Thierry Henry (unselfish pass from Robin).  It looks like Gervinho will join Chamakh on the bench, competing against TH12 for playing time.

The final stat for possession was 58% – 42% in favour of Arsenal, but in the first half it was more like 80-20.  With the crowd’s encouragement, Arsenal returned to their tiki-taka style of play.  When Blackburn went down to ten men (Gaël Givet raised both feet against RVP), they had to park the bus, but to no avail.  The wide margin of victory erased the damage done by the 8-2 loss of Aug 28, and I think the team was also making a statement against the growing naysayers.

The Gunners have one week of rest, before they meet Sunderland on Feb 11, and AC Milan Feb 15 (at San Siro), then a FA Cup match on Feb 18.  Hopefully the chicken soup has provided some long-term benefits as well.

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Arsenal 1-2 Manchester United: Expected result

Posted on January 22, 2012 by

24 hours before the match, if you had asked Arsenal fans what the result would be, I’m guessing most (if not all) of them would have predicted a victory for Man Utd.  And who could argue with that prediction?  Without Arteta, Henry, or a proper full back, Arsenal would have difficulty beating even the mid-table teams, let alone the number two.  Personally, I just wanted to avoid enduring another 8-2 massacre.  So in that sense, the mission was accomplished.

Our starting XI received a boost with Vermaelen’s return, and the speedy Oxlade-Chamberlain received his first Premier League start.  The bench was particularly worrisome, though: Almunia, Squillaci, Arshavin, Benayoun, Park, and two young guns (Miquel and Yennaris).  So we really needed to do our damage early in the game before the inevitable substitutions took place.

As the first half progressed, Man U pressed hard and were eventually rewarded when the ageless Giggs set up Valencia at the end of the half.  Down only 1-0 at half time?  I was satisfied with that (such is our season).  I knew that the team would make adjustments after the break, and play better.  And they did.

MVP10 equalized at the 71st minute, set up by AOC15.  If we didn’t have to rely on that woeful bench, we might have stolen a point (or three) from the match.  Instead, Valencia outpaced Arshavin and set up Danny Welbeck for the winning goal.

A lot of pixels will be shed over Arsène Wenger’s decision to put in Arshavin in place of Oxlade-Chamberlain.  It’s a natural reaction to want to keep AOC in the game, but if you look objectively at the situation, it was the first EPL start for an 18-year-old, and Wenger saw that he was getting fatigued.  I leave it up to the statistics wizards at 7am kickoff, but I’m guessing that very few players play the full 90 minutes in their first start.  Arshavin was the best choice on the bench, I’m afraid.  So if AOC or Walcott had to come off, Arshavin was the logical choice.  If you put in Benayoun for AOC, then you’re only hoping to escape with a 1-1 draw.  That’s not Wenger’s mentality.  We were at home, and there was a slight possibility that Arshavin might have sparked a second goal.  Then we’d be talking about what a genius Wenger is. That’s football.

Instead, Arshavin was directly involved in Man U’s second goal, and the Wenger haters will have a field day. But the bottom line is, I was expecting to lose this game, and the team did not give up in the second half.  There are some positives to come out of the match: Oxlade-Chamberlain’s impressive debut, and Van Persie’s goal (through the legs of a defender, off the fingertips of the keeper, and off the post). They squandered some good goal scoring chances (typical Arsenal), and they did get away with some bookable offenses.  But as soon as we get Arteta back, we’ll return to our winning ways.  We can still claim fourth spot in the table.

Next week, we’re at home versus Aston Villa for the 4th round of the FA Cup, on Sunday.  Then, a mid-week game against Bolton.  Three days after that, we’re back home to meet Blackburn.  Come on you Gunners!

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Arsenal 1-1 Wolverhampton: Chances with Wolves

Posted on December 28, 2011 by

Although Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City were in a giving mood on Boxing Day (each club dropping two points in their respective matches), the Wolves were a proper Grinch at the Emirates, denying us the three points that would have given us fourth place.  Wolves’ goalkeeper Hennessey was particularly mean-spirited, turning away shot after shot as Arsenal dominated possession and created chances right until the final whistle.

It’s hard to fault the Gunners, as they never gave up after the fluke goal by Steven Fletcher.  Perhaps I might be a little negative about Alex Song, who had a sub-par game, and Gervinho, who made poor decisions with the ball on multiple occasions.  Even though Gervinho scored the lone goal for us, he could have passed to a wide-open RVP on the right side.  We also missed Walcott, whose speed would have caused problems for the Wolves’ defense, and who enjoys a seemingly telepathic communication with RVP.

On the other hand, Arteta, Benayoun and often-maligned Rosicky were solid in mid-field, finding their way through the Wolves’ defensive formation.  I love Mertesacker’s positional play, and Koscielny’s aggressive but clean tackling.  Even Arshavin had a chance to be the hero, but his shot hit the post.

Looking ahead to the next match (December 31 vs QPR), it’s hard to imagine that RVP could score 2 or 3 goals in one game in order to match/overtake Alan Shearer’s record.  Rather than risk injury (thus killing our season), I’d rather sit RVP on the bench so that he would be ready for Fulham on January 2.  We’ve already lost Santos by over-playing him, and I’m sure that’s at the back of Arsene’s mind as he plans for a busy January schedule.  Furthermore, Chamakh could use more than five minutes of playing time.

On a local footnote, we’ve been getting good crowds at Champs Bar to watch the Arsenal matches.  If you live in the Montreal area (or even if you don’t), feel free to join our Facebook group: Arsenal Montreal Members Organization (A.M.M.O) .  Come on you Gooners!

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