Author: TremendArse

13th August 2015: Phone calls and alarm bells

Posted on by TremendArse

In a couple of hours time, it will be 19 years to the day since Arsenal signed arguably the greatest all-round midfielder these shores have ever seen – the one-man midfield that was Patrick Vieira.

The Frenchman’s reported desire to leave the club on a couple of occasions at the start of the new millennium obviously plays a role in this, but I think on the whole, Paddy’s influence on our success in his time with the club perhaps isn’t quite afforded the acclaim it deserves. Maybe I’m wrong but that’s the impression I often get and certainly in comparison to the likes of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.

Anyway, as we approach the anniversary of his arrival, Arsene Wenger has been speaking about the vital role he played in Vieira’s capture, despite not being manager of the club at the time. Speaking to Arsenal Player, he said:

I knew him very well because he played his first game with Cannes against Monaco in a post-season friendly. He played against one of my players who was quite tough and he dominated him physically. He was 17 years old at the time and I said after the game that this player would make a big career. I wasn’t wrong there. I had a big hand in [signing him], yes. I did it from Nagoya. I think he trusted me because when I called him on the phone, he was in Amsterdam to sign for Ajax. He was in Holland, he was there to sign but I knew his agents. I spoke to Patrick and said, ‘Please, stop. Come to Arsenal.’ They were waiting at a hotel to go to the headquarters of the club to sign and I could just stop it. The next morning, he flew from Amsterdam to London. My whole history could have changed [without convincing him to join Arsenal]. That’s the coincidence and the luck in life. I just had the right luck to intervene at the right moment.

Of all the successful signings Arsene’s made in his tenure at the club, Vieira for me, remains the pick. Not only was he a complete midfielder of the highest calibre, he was a leader’s leader whose qualities we haven’t come close to adequately replacing since his departure.

But one man who is certainly making a good fist of replicating Vieira’s authority in the middle of the park at the moment is his compatriot Francis Coquelin. Of course Coquelin doesn’t have the height or rangy ball carrying capabilities of Paddy in his prime, yet he does share a certain tenacity and ball-winning prowess.

Unfortunately last Sunday, Coquelin, like may of his colleagues in fairness, seemed to forget their lines and contrived to let West Ham win at Emirates Stadium with relative ease. But the midfielder says the squad have heard the alarm bells loud and clear and are determined to use the loss as a spring board for future success, starting at Selhurst Park on Sunday:

It’s been a wake-up call for everyone. Considering the recent results we had before that, going really well in pre-season, it’s disappointing and it was not an Arsenal performance. However, in bad things, good things can come out too. It’s good that it happened in the first game so that now we can pull ourselves together with 37 games left. We’ve got time to put things right and that needs to start on Sunday. Everybody realises that we need to put more in. When you look at different teams I think a lot of them are ready. You look at Manchester City when they played against West Brom, I think they played really good football. We need to pull ourselves together and it’s going to be a real test on Sunday because Crystal Palace have a really good squad. We know the quality we have and we need to respond straight away. We’ve been working really hard in training and we need to put all of the training effort into the game.

And speaking of our next game, the manager has revealed the latest team news, which sees Alexis Sanchez and Hector Bellerin declared fit and ready to play, with Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky and Danny Welbeck all still on the treatment table.

Back Friday.

12th August 2015: Ozil adapts + deep-fried shake

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome all. The briefest of posts today, mainly because there is nothing to talk about and I’m feeling about as creative as James Milner.

In fact, I’ll start with a few bits of actual, real, hot off the press, ‘news’ to kick things off:

  • A month’s worth of rain is to fall on the UK over the next two days, according to reports

From a life perspective, that’s pretty sh*t. But on the bright side, those clubs and managers who purposely instruct groundsmen not to water their pitches when Arsenal are in town will be gutted and slick passing shall prevail. Unlucky Alan.

  • A chip shop in Lancashire has started serving a deep-fried battered milkshake

I don’t even know what that means. But Wayne Rooney and Luke Shaw will be drooling and delighted in equal measure.

  • The launch of London’s night tube service will be delayed, it has been announced

Not really an inconvenience for me I must say, given how infrequently I use the network but I’m sure the news will come as a huge disappointment for millions. Get a car or go to sleep would be my advice.

  • A man trying to impress women on a nightclub dance floor in Cardiff poos himself

That’s rather unfortunate and also pretty gross. It does however provide a lot of reputable outlets with a truly newsworthy story to share with the masses. And no, I didn’t link to it, your eyes will thank me.

Moving swiftly on and Mesut Ozil says Germany are a shining example to wider society of how people from different cultures can integrate and co-exist in a positive manner. Speaking to Arsenal Player, he said:

Integration is a difficult topic. The best example is the German national team because lots of people from other cultures come together and play with respect. That’s how it should be in general life. You should be open with one another, you should treat each other with respect. If that happened, things would look different, also in general.

And the 26 year old master passer also discussed his own ability to easily adapt to new countries and cultures, saying:

I’m the sort of person who can integrate quickly. I’m a normal person and people who know me know that I’m quite quiet and just like doing my thing. That was the case here, with the German national team and in my youth. For example, when I experienced things changing, like if I changed class at school, it wasn’t the case that I would worry about how I would cope not knowing anyone, it was the opposite. I was and still am very open when I meet people. It was like that at Arsenal too. When I joined the club, I knew some players from playing alongside them in the national team or at Werder Bremen. But in general, I enjoy being able to meet new people and experience new cultures. I lived in Spain and got to know the wonderful culture and people there. Now I’m in England, where I’m learning the language and the culture. I love what I do and I’m thankful that football helps me develop myself by learning new languages and different cultures. I’m proud of that.

Mesut’s words again bring to my mind at least, the issue of our domestically born players and, in 99.99 percent of cases, their unwillingness to experience foreign leagues and foreign living.

It’s a real shame because one solution to the supposed problem of a lack of opportunity for young British players because of the influx of overseas players to the Premier League, is staring them in the face, if only the’d be brave enough to get on a flight, perhaps forego some money in the short-term and enhance their game through international experience.

Til Thursday.

11th August 2015: Arsenal undefeated for over 20 years

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening people. Hopefully everyone’s starting to get over Sunday’s defeat because given our pre-season form leading up to the game, it was undoubtedly a seismic shock to the system. A bolt from the claret and blue. As shocking as Jose Mourinho’s treatment of his medical staff.

But with the club in no mood to talk, our fanbase evidently distraught and transfer news starting and ending with the Twitter-powered Karim Benzema saga, I thought I’d take this opportunity to look back on the club’s history against our next opponents.

Forget 49 games, Arsenal are undefeated in over 20 years to Crystal Palace in all competitions, having won the last five, all in the Premier League. Since their promotion back to the top flight for the 2013-2014 campaign, we’ve scored two goals in all four fixtures, winning the first 2-0 at Selhurst Park in October 2013 with goals from Mikel Arteta (pen) and Olivier Giroud.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain then settled the return fixture by grabbing both goals from a central midfield assignment in another 2-0 win in February 2014.

Last season, we opened our Premier League campaign by hosting the Eagles of course, and responded to Brede Hangeland’s opener for the visitors by scoring through Laurent Koscielny, before Aaron Ramsey grabbed a last-minute winner.

And our last trip to Selhurst Park in February earlier this year was settled by goals from Santi Cazorla (pen) and Giroud, with Glenn Murray tapping in a late consolation for the hosts, to induce heart palpitations in us all for a couple of minutes.

But before this recent quartet of clashes, we have to go all the way back to Valentine’s Day 2005 for the last meeting between the two sides, when a brace from Thierry Henry (one from a well-worked corner routine if memory serves) and a goal apiece from Dennis Bergkamp, Jose Antonio Reyes and Patrick Vieira secured us a handsome 5-1 win at Highbury. Andy Johnson got their solitary strike.

The first fixture that season was the last time Palace managed to stop us winning, with the Finn, Aki Riihilahti, quickly cancelling out Henry’s opener in the second half of the game at Selhurst Park in November 2004.

Arsene Wenger has faced the south London club on a further four occasions as Arsenal manager. His first two games both ended in 0-0 draws; a league game at Selhurst Park in October 1997, before an FA Cup clash in February 1998 at Highbury.

In fact, we played the Eagles three times in just ten days that month, with a 1-0 league win, secured courtesy of Gilles Grimandi’s solitary strike at Highbury, being sandwiched by our FA Cup replay, won thanks to an early goal by Nicolas Anelka and another later that half from Bergkamp, before Bruce Dyer pulled one back for the hosts.

Our overall record against Palace, stretching back to the first meeting in January 1934 – a 7-0 Arsenal win, including a brace by Cliff Bastin, third on our list of all-time top-scorers with 178 – reads played 37, won 24, drawn 10 and lost 3 in all comps.

What does all of the above indicate in terms of our next meeting? If you’re a sucker for sequences, I guess it depends on how far back you go. But I wouldn’t look further than 2013 because before that, the squads of both sides contained completely different personnel.

In which case we should score twice and win, Giroud will net the second and a Spaniard will score our first from the spot with Palace maybe getting on the score-sheet themselves. But I prefer to adhere to the mantra an old boss at work offered me in reference to the technical analysis of financial markets: ‘what the f*ck has the past got to do with the future?’.

Still, taking a little trip down memory lane provided me at least, with a welcome distraction from our humbling by the Hammers.

Actual news-wise, our third-choice goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has joined Wolves on a season’s loan. Hopefully there’s a recall option in the event of an injury/suspension to Petr Cech or David Ospina because otherwise, we’re looking at one of the academy keepers to step up. Anyway, best of luck to the big Argentine and he joins former Arsenal youth and goal-scoring machine Benik Afobe at the Midlands club.

Back tomorrow.

10th August 2015: Wenger on West Ham + Benzema latest

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening. So the dust has settled on the defeat to West Ham and to be honest, having watched all our pre-season games leading up to yesterday’s game, I still can’t quite believe what happened.

Now there are plenty who will say that they’ve seen this before and it’s ‘same old Arsenal’ under ‘same old Arsene Wenger’, soft underbelly, flattering to deceive, promising marmalade mañana etc etc but I genuinely agree with the manager’s description of our loss yesterday as an ‘accident’:

We will respond to that accident. The players were maybe too nervous and put too much pressure on themselves. Today we have been hurt mentally and it is a good opportunity to respond. We were not convincing offensively or defensively. I knew it could be a tricky game. If you can’t win the game, make sure you don’t lose it.

Whether that accident was caused by driver error, faulty car components or a combination of both is, I think, not worth analysing in too much detail at this stage of the season. If we look at this loss in the context of our competitive results so far this calendar year, then we can certainly regard it as anomalous. And I’d far rather an opening day league defeat than for such a sequential outlier to have occurred one competitive game earlier, in the FA Cup Final for instance.

Of course such a forgiving mood won’t last if the doomsayers are vindicated and we continue to drop points over the next few weeks. At that point, I’d be as irate and disappointed as so many seem to be right now. Until then though, why not see how things go for a while? We have a new, albeit apparently jittery, world class ‘keeper and with one big omission in Jack Wilshere, a settled squad which should be at peak fitness very soon.

Anyway, here are some choice snippets of Arsene’s take on the game:

  • I think our performance was not convincing, on the two aspects of our game, going forward and defending.
  • I feel we gave two very cheap goals away.
  • Our passing was too slow and in the end we were punished.
  • West Ham looked a bit sharper than us, more advanced in preparation than us – they’ve played many competitive games in the Europa League. I knew before game it would be tricky game on that front.
  • I felt we were a bit nervous and we rushed our game a bit.
  • The concentration and the organisation was not perfect.

The point that sticks out for me is the last one because any team with ambitions of winning the league should have concentration and organisation as a given. Still, I’m choosing to consign the whole sorry affair to history and instead look forward to the next task at hand which is at Crystal Palace on Sunday. And Arsene unsurprisingly, was quick to point out an immediate response from his side was imperative:

A successful season is how you respond to disappointments and it’s never a clear motorway. We have to respond quickly. We have a tricky start. Crystal Palace are a very good team, Liverpool are a very good team, and you could see again today that we are not completely there physically.

___________

Right, that’s a line drawn under that from my perspective.

And moving straight onto the the saga of the summer from an Arsenal point of view, and the first thing to say is I’m glad the starring role isn’t being played by one of our own being linked away from the club. Instead it’s Real Madrid’s number nine, Karim Benzema.

The general consensus all summer has been that if there are any big-money incomings at the club they would arrive closer to the end of the transfer window than the start and with the deadline three weeks today, we’re likely to see the market as a whole start to come to life.

Despite Arsenal’s chances of signing Benzema being categorically dismissed by a number of reputable sources earlier this summer, others are calling this transfer very much on, with some going so far as to say over the weekend that the deal was agreed and Madrid had secured Marco Reus to replace the Frenchman at the Bernabeu.

Benzema’s agent was also reportedly at Emirates Stadium on Sunday and the negotiator between the two sides has today been named as Gustavo Mascardi. However, Manchester City have entered the race and have also been joined by Bayern Munich according to some, although one source is still adamant Arsenal have the transfer tied up despite any late interest from elsewhere. All rather conflicted to say the least, and also possibly completely fabricated by Twitter. We’ll see.

Til Tuesday.

9th August 2015: Cech aura Petrs out in loss to West Ham

Posted on by TremendArse

So after all the pre-match talk highlighting the importance of a strong start to the season for our title dreams, we’ve managed to lose our opening game of the Premier League campaign two nil at home to West Ham, with Petr Cech at fault for at least one of the goals.

Arsene Wenger made two changes to the team that started last Sunday’s Community Shield win, with ‘a slight muscular injury’ ruling out Hector Bellerin, who was replaced at right-back by Mathieu Debuchy, and Olivier Giroud coming in up front at the expense of a benched Theo Walcott.

And right from the off I thought we looked slow in our thinking, rushed in our passing and over-elaborate in a lot of our play, even by our standards. Too many players were ignoring the simple pass in favour of trying to steal the show.

I hate to single out individuals but Aaron Ramsey seemed to me, to be occupying too many of the spaces and too much of the possession Mesut Ozil should have had. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was probably the pick of our performers in the first half with some typically buccaneering bursts but as a team, very little came off for us going forward.

West Ham by contrast, clearly had a contain and counter game-plan instilled in them by new manager Slaven Bilic and were executing it pretty well in the first half. New-boy Dimitri Payet in particular, looked lively and threatening on the break for the Hammers and Cheikhou Kouyaté was full of running.

Even the fact they were fielding a 16 year old, albeit the tallest 16 year old anyone’s ever seen, in midfield, didn’t diminish their display as I was certain it would when the teams were announced. I mean, when was the last time a team played against us with a toddler in their engine room, let alone go on to win comfortably?

But then just before the interval, they won a freekick, it was drifted in, Petr Cech came out to punch it away very unconvincingly, Kouyaté beat him to the ball and glanced home to put them one up. Undoubtedly bad ‘keeping from the Czech but I’m putting it down to first-game jitters and a lack of understanding with the new defence he finds himself behind.

However I’d love to know if there was a shout from either Cech or our defenders as the ball was floated in. Because if the ‘keeper did yell something like “mine!” or “keeper’s!”, then it was an even worse piece of play by the former Chelsea man as it means he misjudged the situation horribly. If not, then communication is something that needs working on back there urgently.

At half-time, I still expected Arsenal to come back out and do the necessary to turn the game around quite easily if I’m honest. I wasn’t being complacent or arrogant in my thinking, I just felt we would improve our game and the goals would arrive. I wasn’t particularly concerned by West Ham’s attacking capabilities despite their goal.

Yet we found ourselves two down on 57 minutes, when about half our team converged on a loose ball in our area before Oxlade-Chamberlain eventually took charge of the situation momentarily, before gifting the ball straight to Mauro Zarate, who fired home at the near post with Cech this time wrong-footed. Perhaps Zarate gave him the eyes because otherwise it was poor ‘keeping again.

After that, we chased the game, Arsene threw on Walcott and a clearly unfit Alexis Sanchez for Coquelin and Debuchy which meant Cazorla ended the game as our deepest central midfielder and our best attacker on the day – the Ox – as auxiliary right-back. I don’t think we came close to scoring if I’m honest and if anything West Ham probably came closer to a third near the end when Mark Noble crossed from the right.

Overall a shocking result to start the new league season and although the players must take a lot of the blame for their performances, I think Arsene will know he got a few things wrong today too.

For instance, the Cazorla-Coquelin combo was crucial to our success in the second half of last season as it enabled efficient ball circulation from the centre, as well as providing a defensive shield, yet was abandoned today. That said, we played with the same set-up as today against Chelsea last weekend and won, which may have swayed the manager.

One way of reverting to it with the same personnel would be Ramsey swapping roles with the Spaniard, or playing from the right, with the Ox switching to the left, even if the Welshman’s made it clear he prefers the central role. If not, then Ramsey needs to improve both his play and his understanding with Coquelin next to him based on today.

It is of course silly to draw any definitive conclusions from the game but even at this very early stage of the season, today’s result feels like a massive opportunity spurned to both make a statement and after yesterday’s results, gain some points on the current champions.

Back tomorrow with post-match reaction. Til then.

8th August 2015: This year’s Owls, pressure and West Ham selection

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. Just one more sleep until The Arsenal are back in Premier League action and it’ll be a slightly sounder one tonight, thanks to Chelsea dropping points after twice losing the lead to draw 2-2 with Swansea.

Tottenham lost at Man United, but then they get beat most weeks so no melatonin boost there sadly. I only saw parts of each game and despite beating Arsenal’s shadow dwellers, United looked like a team who weren’t yet a team, if you now what I mean. All parts and no packaging.

The other realistic title contenders, Man City and Liverpool, like us, haven’t played yet but almost every year, there is also a team that shoots out of the blocks like Frank Lampard chasing an ice cream van and breaks into the top four for a while before inevitably falling away.

I still remember Sheffield Wednesday doing exactly that one year in the mid nineties, inspired by the left foot of the man a presumably pissed Johan Cruyff once described as ‘the next Marco van Basten’ – Ritchie Humphreys. Anyway, Arsene Wenger was asked at his press conference on Friday who he thought might be the early-season pretenders this year, and also who he felt were favourites to win the league. Here’s what he said:

Every year, especially in the first part of the race, during the first part of the season, one team always gets in. Who will it be this season? I don’t know. For a long period last year it was West Ham. When we played at Christmas at West Ham they were fourth in the league so it could be another surprise this season. Chelsea won it by a margin last year so they are the favourites. After that let’s see how it goes. After 15 games you will know more about who will win the Premier.

Arsene was then asked whether his club could cope with the pressures of expectation and how confident he was Arsenal would win the league this year, and responded in a typically honest and realistic manner, saying:

I believe we are able to handle it and we want to handle it. We can talk and talk about it but in football you have to accept that you can win, draw or lose. What you expect is that you give your best in every single game and we are determined to do that. The other thing we don’t know is how good our opponents will be. I don’t know how good Man United will be, how good Man City will be, but if you look at their squads they can have the same ambition that we have. The pressure is the same at Liverpool, Man City, Man United and Arsenal. That is normal. The only place where you don’t have that situation now is in France because everyone knows that PSG will win the league. Here what is interesting is that the pressure is on everybody, at least on six or seven clubs. That makes the Premier League so interesting.

The boss then expressed his belief that qualifying for the top four in seasons past presented a far more stressful proposition, given our annual loss of star players due to financial constraints which left us with far weaker squads to the one we currently boast. He said:

We had much more pressure before when I knew I had at least to be in the top four and we did not necessarily have the potential to do it. The pressure is really on you when you know you are just on the border of achieving what is absolutely requested. When you know you cannot miss an inch or you are out. That is much more difficult.

Right, team news. Arsene confirmed Tomas Rosicky and Danny Welbeck would be unavailable for West Ham when he spoke with the official site on Thursday, and on Friday said he didn’t think Alexis Sanchez would be involved as it’s a little early for him, so I full expect the Chilean to start on the left of the attack tomorrow afternoon and score a hat trick.

“Boss! What do you mean I can’t play?”

Jack Wilshere is obviously out for the forseeable so given all of the above I think we’ll be unchanged from last week in all honesty, lining up as follows:

Cech, Bellerin, Mertersacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Cazorla, Walcott.

Unless there are late knocks from today’s training session, the only alternatives to that eleven I can envisage are Giroud coming in for Ramsey, with Cazorla moving central and Walcott dropping to the left, or Giroud coming in for Oxlade-Chamberlain or Walcott. But I doubt it, given our win over Chelsea last week and Arsene’s preference for keeping a winning formula fermenting until he’s forced to adjust the ingredients. We’ll find out soon enough I guess.

And I suppose all that’s left to be said tonight is COME ON ARSENAL!

See you Sunday.

7th August 2015: Fighting talk from Wenger on Premier League eve

Posted on by TremendArse

Here we are then. On the starting grid again and the lights are amber. Engines are revving, clutches are biting and one racer, our racer, says he’s ready for the battles that beckon on what will inevitably be a treacherous track to the Premier League title.

The season begins in earnest tomorrow and although we’ll have to wait until Sunday to see Arsenal in action when we entertain West Ham United, we did get some words from a bullish Arsene Wenger to help keep us occupied following his pre match press conference today:

I’m ready for a fight and of course motivated to start well. One of our targets is to start strong. We had a good preparation and that should give us the needed confidence. The Premier League is a fight in every single game so we have to prepare ourselves mentally for that and come out of the blocks straight away against West Ham.

From an Arsenal perspective, it’s the season of great expectations. The squad appears, on paper at least, our best equipped to become domestic champions in a number of years, and also talented and deep enough to provide a realistic challenge to the continent’s best, for what would be the club’s first-ever Champions League crown.

But rather than being intimidated by such a a huge wave of optimistic anticipation, Arsene says he much prefers the current challenge of being declared genuine contenders, to being dismissed as potential champions before a ball has even been kicked, as his side so often were in pre-seasons past:

Yes of course [there is expectation], but we enjoy that. Before we suffered sometimes from the fact that at the start of the season, nobody considered us at all because we lost our best players. That period is over now so we are happy to be under this kind of pressure.

Having ended last season in third place in the table and as FA Cup winners, to many, progress and success would no doubt be winning one of the big two trophies. Yet we won’t be the only club with those lofty ambitions and the reality is a maximum of two teams can win them. So what does the manager think would constitute a ‘successful’ campaign in his opinion?

For me, success is to get the maximum out of the potential of the team. That is the real success. We also want to do better than last season because we always want to move forward. That means that the target is quite high. We won the FA Cup last year and we finished third in the Premier League so our target is very high. Our ambition is to win the Premier League but we have to sustain that by performance and fighting spirit in every single game.

Besides getting his players to perform at the peak of their powers, we’ll also require a little more luck on the injury front and avoid the kind of long-term absences we suffered to the likes of Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud in the first half of last season.

Which is a point the manager made himself today, highlighting the fact that we were actually the league’s best performing side, points-wise, over the last 26 league fixtures of the previous campaign.

The boss then reiterated the need for a flying start and expressed his belief that his current set of players are good enough to win the league without further signings, saying:

Let’s start strong this season… I believe we have the needed ingredients. But we have a tricky start as well because we have two derbies and Liverpool in the first three games, so we have a difficult schedule from the start. We need to maintain our game. hat’s important as well – that we develop what we do well and do not stand still. That means we develop our cohesion, our passing game. If we are capable to keep the cohesion and the solidarity we have at the moment through the 38 games, we have a good chance.

Yet in typical Arsene fashion, he didn’t rule out new arrivals if the right opportunities arise:

But we do not rule it out if something exceptional comes up to do it. I’m very happy with the squad I have but we always look to strengthen and if that turns up, we will still strengthen.

He also kind of dismissed the Karim Benzema stories by labeling them ‘just media talk’, but I wouldn’t expect anything else from the boss really. All that tells us is no deal has been reached but doesn’t rule out the possibility of negotiations behind the scenes. That’s what I’m clinging to anyway.

There was also more from the boss on various other, stuff from rule changes to Alexis Sanchez and team news too but I’ll look at some of that tomorrow and also pick what I think will be our starting eleven on Sunday.

But finally for today, the club have confirmed Serge Gnabry has signed a season-long loan deal at West Brom, so best of luck to the young German at The Hawthorns. Hopefully he can earn a regular starting spot and help the Baggies take points from all our title rivals this term.

And by my estimation, with several loan deals now tied up for an array of our young stars, only Joel Campbell and Wellington Silva remain as peripheral players in the first-team squad.

Whilst the former has been strongly linked with Palermo in recent days and is still on extended holidays after playing for Costa Rica over the summer, the Brazilian is reportedly on a specially designed fitness regime at London Colney and I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see him stay with the club having spent the last 14 seasons on loan in Spain securing a passport. Another loan would just be cruel Arsene…

Til Saturday.

6th August 2015: Wilshere woe as he cracks left fibula

Posted on by TremendArse

Poor Jack. Just as he thought he’d completed pre season free from injury and nearing peak condition – BANG – he’s ruled out for another sustained period, with what the club today confirmed as being a hairline crack to his left fibula.

It’s clearly a massive set-back for the club, but the player himself must be even more devastated given how he’s suffered so many injuries in his relatively short career so far.

Arsene Wenger, who had said over the weekend that the injury would only side-line Wilshere for a ‘matter of days’, revealed his shock at it’s now confirmed severity, saying:

I had a bad surprise because it is a hairline crack in his fibula that makes him a few weeks out. There is minimal damage apart from the bone damage – there is no damage at all apart from that. It was a collision in training and it was all completely accidental.

A fibula bone (shown in red)

Now obviously I didn’t see the collision but a general point on Jack is that as much as I’m sure we all love his determination in challenges and accept that it’s a representation of his steely character, I can’t help but feel he could learn a little about injury avoidance from somebody like his former England colleague Frank Lampard.

Although I think there’s nothing he could pick up footballistically from studying the former Chelsea man – apart from maybe how to score so many deflected goals or put away penalties – he could look at how Lampard managed to break that consecutive appearances record by being a bit more intelligent and selective in his tackles/collisions etc.

Anyway, we can take some heart I suppose, from the fact Arsene says there is ‘minimal damage’ besides to the bone itself which, having had a quick look online, suggests no tissue damage which should mean a more rapid recovery.

In terms of the impact on the squad, we have one less option in central midfield and the three attacking roles behind the striker, yet we still look comfortably stocked to cover for his absence.

That said, for me anyway, it’s a stark reminder of how fragile a footballer can be, and although Jack’s qualities can be replicated by others in the squad, the same cannot be said of Francis Coquelin, so a purchase in his position may now become a priority if it wasn’t already.

Elsewhere, Arsene had injury updates on other members of the squad today, revealing Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky were on ‘progressive recoveries’. A bit ambiguous there from the boss, but I suppose he has to be cautious with putting time-frames on returns to full fitness, particularly given Wilshere’s amended prognosis.

Plus for all the advances in medicine, it’s worth considering that even the best doctors in the world still, relatively speaking of course, know very little about the human body, and hence recovery.

If only we could bottle Alexis Sanchez’s powers of physical endurance because despite only returning to training with the team this week, the Chilean wasn’t completely ruled out from playing in the Premier League opener against West Ham on Sunday by Arsene:

Alexis is back in training but I don’t think he will be involved on Sunday, it is a bit early maybe. We have to decide that at the end of the week, but I don’t think he will be involved.

Speaking to the official site, the boss also explained how he was far from surprised at seeing pictures emerge over recent weeks of Sanchez training whilst still technically on his summer break:

Alex without running around is not Alex, you know. You can’t imagine him lying on the beach somewhere and not moving! He came back in good fitness shape so that is quite positive, but I am not surprised by that because I can’t imagine him lying around for four weeks and doing nothing. That wouldn’t be him.

Nope. That’d be more like me. In fact, I’m due a little rest up, with maybe a small, savoury snack or two.

Laters.

5th August 2015: Ozil’s in awe, Cech’s hungry and some guy on Twitter says something

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all.

I’m steaming straight into today’s post like Ramires does challenges on opponents – with reckless abandon and the minimum of fuss.

First up it’s our peerless, midfield visionary Mesut Ozil, who says he sees a lot of things – which is obviously no surprise given he could spot a throughball to a team-mate from the dressing room – to admire about compatriot and Arsenal team-mate Per Mertesacker. Speaking to Arsenal Player, he said:

I always see Per as a role model. He always gives everything for the team, you can see that he’s determined and wants to be successful. You can sense that on the pitch. He’s very focused, very professional. He does his job 100 per cent – he’s not the sort of person who does things by half measures. He’s rather the sort of person who, if he has something in his head, wants to see it through. He looks after himself and his diet, and before matches he does his exercises to make sure that he stays fit and doesn’t pick up any injuries. You can see on the pitch that he’s fresh and is always there for everyone. We’re just really pleased to have him and you can sense on the pitch that he gives everything for the team.

And I’m really pleased to have him in our side too. Along with Francis Coquelin and Olivier Giroud, I think he anchors this Arsenal team, allowing Ozil et al to play their liquid football around them.

Per Mertesacker

So what if he can’t run very fast, because he reads the game like the best of them, his passing’s always clean and crisp, aerially, in open-play at least, he’s dominant, and he also isn’t afraid to dish out the odd rollicking or two to team-mates, which is always healthy for any team. And Ozil can certainly vouch for that last one, with memories of the end of the league game away to Man City the season before last, still relatively fresh.

Someone else who’s determined, professional and wants to be successful is our new signing Petr Cech, who when speaking at a Q&A on Members’ Day earlier this week, revealed his appetite for silverware is as insatiable as ever, despite his trophy-laden spell at Chelsea. He said:

A lot of times, people say that if you win a major trophy you get satisfied and stop working. I think it’s the other way around. Once you win a big trophy, it’s such an amazing feeling of achievement and accomplishment that you want to live it again. This group now knows how to win trophies and they enjoy it very much. You can see the celebration every time we win trophies, and everybody speaks about it. I’m sure that everybody wants to at least repeat that this year.

Well the do say that success breeds success and that was certainly true of our season last time around, as we secured a second, successive FA Cup with consummate ease against Aston Villa in May, having stuttered over the line 12 months earlier against Hull City.

Although we also had a certain Alexis Sanchez to produce a goal from nowhere and better players of course always help, the experience of that first taste of success undeniably played a big part in our overall confidence as a club in successfully defending the competition.

The next step is obviously the Premier League title or a first Champions League win in the club’s history, so we’ll only really know if the domestic cups were indeed a stepping stone if and when we reach those promised lands. Make it happen lads!

Elsewhere, an Italian journalist who has written for several well-known publications caused turmoil on Twitter this afternoon after tweeting that not only would Karim Benzema be joining Arsenal in the near future, but that he would on a four year deal for £120,000 a week.

I suppose if I wanted to make up a story, I’d include fictitious, finer details because it might stop people from instantly dismissing the claim as bullshit – ‘why would he know the salary if he was lying’ etc – but then this guy has previous with his reports of new Arsenal signings being wide of the mark, as was quickly pointed out by irate fans on Twitter today.

That said, something just feels wrong about the denials from both sides saying it won’t happen. I mean, and this is obviously pure conjecture, but if we look at the story so far, we’ve had a series of conflicting reports rumbling on for far too long now for there not to be something more to it than an off chance of a deal providing Real Madrid can find a suitable replacement.

On the one hand, we’ve had one of our own directors reveal a striker was on our shopping list and that the player wanted to come, reports of telephone conversations between Arsene Wenger and the player himself, Benzema left out of recent Real Madrid friendlies through alleged injury, Gareth Bale talking up his preference for a central role at Madrid and more stuff to suggest a deal could be on.

Then to counter-balance, we’ve had Real deny it, Arsene deny it, his agent say his client would stay one benzillion percent and Sky’s Spanish expert Guillem Balague rule it out completely, yet some of the language has been ambiguous here, like Rafa Benitez saying ‘he thinks’ the player wants to stay in Spain.

Maybe I’m reading far too much into all this and just need to close my Newsnow tab for a while, but I’m not completely buying that the deal is impossible as some have suggested. Which I suppose puts me in the same boat as a lot of other people.

It’s late and I fear I’m making as much sense as David James talking about football. I better turn in.

Back tomorrow.

4th August 2015: Ramsey bigs up Walcott as Akpom heads to Hull

Posted on by TremendArse

Alright Gooners? Good.

With any new ‘world class’ striker highly unlikely to join until 5.59pm on Tuesday, September 1st (the window shuts at 6pm this year), if at all, the goalscoring potential of our current contenders for the role is obviously well worth reconsidering.

And Aaron Ramsey has been doing just that today, praising Theo Walcott’s finishing and self-belief as a goal-getter. The Welshman told Arsenal Player:

He did very well at the end of last year. He’s had a good pre-season. He looks sharp, he looks strong and he can be dangerous. He is a goalscorer – he has a load of goals for Arsenal and I think he can carry that on and maybe get into the 100 Club this year. He’s a very strong character. He believes in his abilities and he definitely has a lot of qualities to offer. He can finish – one of the hardest things to do in football is to put the ball in the back of the net and he’s done it on numerous occasions for Arsenal. Hopefully he can continue doing that.

Hard to argue with any of that but the main thing for many people when it comes to Theo playing upfront on a consistent basis, is his failure so far to produce against defences as physically uncompromising as Chelsea’s, for instance, was on Sunday, when the England international, despite picking up an assist, had a pretty quiet game overall.

Although, that said, Theo’s outings as a sole striker for the club have probably yet to reach double figures and so to expect him to immediately adapt from playing as a wide forward to the central role is fanciful, as it would be for anyone really.

Theo Walcott

I’ve no doubt he’d improve considerably given time to get to grips with the role but unfortunately for him, with the position we find ourselves in now as genuine title contenders, carrying huge expectation from the fans, it’s the worst time possible for him to expect patience from management, team-mates or the terraces.

And when you consider the immediate impact Olivier Giroud made in terms of offering a ‘presence’ at the tip of our attack when he replaced Theo at Wembley on Sunday, the Frenchman, to many, will seem our best bet to lead the line from our current set of players.

Danny Welbeck is obviously the other main contender but will need time to gain form and fitness after missing our entire pre-season programme through injury. Once he has however, I’d be far from surprised if he eventually proves to be the best of the three as our central striker because I think he has all the raw materials to do it.

As much as I’d love a Robert Lewandowski, Karim Benzema or Gonzalo Higuain – and in that order of preference for me – I actually think we have enough of a variation of attributes, and goals, within our squad as it is, to mount sustained challenges for the two big trophies. I’d far rather we secured another defensive midfielder given a choice of one or the other. But who knows, maybe we’ll get both before the end of the transfer window. We’ll see.

Moving on and as expected for a while, the club today confirmed Chuba Akpom’s season-long loan move to Hull, which sees the teenage striker link up with Arsenal team-mate Isaac Haydon, who made same switch last week.

It should be a great opportunity for the 19 year old to showcase his talents at a club expected to chase promotion and in a league which will undoubtedly aid his physical development. I’ll certainly be more inclined to watch Steve Bruce’s men on a more regular basis now that two young Gunners are on loan at the KC Stadium and hopefully will offer thoughts on their progress here as and when possible.

Elsewhere, there’s still talk of Palermo interest in Joel Campbell, Wellington Silva’s done a disappearing act from the club presumably, because there’s no mention of him whatsoever, anywhere, and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain’s responded to Roy Keane’s observation that Arsenal players are quite keen on personal grooming and social media by basically telling the Irishman to get with the times a little.

Yep, it’s that quiet. Give me Mourinho being Mourinho to talk about any day, over Keane being Keane.

A bit brief but that’s all for today folks, see you tomorrow.