Norwich

1st May 2016: Welbeck winner secures narrow win over Norwich

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome to a brand new month on TremendArse. Just a very brief post for you this evening and where else to start other than our narrow 1-0 win over Norwich earlier, secured thanks to a second-half strike by substitute Danny Welbeck.

After a pretty dismal first-half performance by Arsenal in which the visitors looked the more threatening team, Arsene Wenger replaced Alex Iwobi with Welbeck ten minutes into the second period with large sections of the home support voicing their displeasure at the change.

Yet within five minutes the manager had been proven right in hooking Iwobi and leaving the struggling Oliver Giroud on because it was the latter whose clever knockdown was half-volleyed home by Welbeck in a crowded penalty area. Remarkably, that pretty much sums up the football because it really was forgettable fare.

So onto the protests – if you can call them that. It was more a tiny minority of fans holding up A4 signs urging the club to change it’s ways, being outnumbered and drowned out by cries of “come on Arsenal” and what is now an all-too-rare chorus of  “there’s only one Arsene Wenger”.

If the manager was dreading the 12th minute, by the 15th he was processing his surprise at the level of support he still commands. I know I was. It just goes to show that Twitter and the online Arsenal world really is a poor gauge of widespread fan sentiment at times.

Afterwards, the boss gave his take on the game, saying:

It was much wanted and much needed. It was difficult. We played against a team who were very well organised. We didn’t find a good pace in our game but we were serious and organised, and in the end we got the win. In the first half we needed to be patient, and we needed Petr once or twice. In the second half, it was a deserved win against a team that fights not to go down. It was a typical game that you get. We played Sunderland and Norwich and got two similar games.

He also discussed the atmosphere in the ground, labeling it ‘strange’:

It was a bit of a strange atmosphere. We have to live with that. Some fans were protesting, yes, but a big majority didn’t and the big majority was behind the team. They showed that they appreciate what I’ve done until now, so it’s alright. It was a difficult atmosphere yes, but we have just to live with that, give more, focus on our performance and try to make 100 per cent of our fans happy. That’s our target. The game was difficult in itself and the atmosphere was alright. I think the fans were behind the team and I believe as well we had not the stylish performance that could raise people off their seats. We had a serious and studious performance, a bit subdued at stages. We wanted absolutely to win the game and we did it.

My over-riding view right now is quite straight forward; one down two to go. Then we can put this season behind us, enjoy the summer when hopefully the manager will prepare for what may well be his last season in charge by going mad with his cheque-book like never before, and we build a team and squad that can finally land us a Premier League crown.

See you next week.

3oth April 2016: Protests prepared as we welcome Norwich

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. We host Norwich later of course and although I usually wake on a match day with a feeling of excited anticipation, today I’m a little indifferent. The planned fan protests, together with the lowly opposition and the lack of title significance, has morphed the fixture into one I wouldn’t mind missing. I’m just not up for it like I usually am.

We’re nearing the end of the season and although we still need points to secure a Champions League place and could yet catch Tottenham in the league, the fact we can’t win it now has drained my interest. I must be a fair-weather fan.  Hopefully the players aren’t feeling the same way later though, because despite battling relegation, Norwich will be far from easy opponents, as Arsene suggested at his pre-match press conference yesterday. He said:

Norwich are a team who plays more so we have to stop them from combining well. For us, it is important for us to score early if possible to put them under pressure and play at a high pace. No, I don’t know (if Norwich are underdogs in the relegation fight). It is very difficult to predict at the bottom of the league what will happen because you have Newcastle, Sunderland, Norwich and it is very difficult to predict because as well it is a nerve problem.

In terms of team selection I’d bring back Francis Coquelin and Danny Welbeck and drop Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud if I was picking the team but wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the latter pair keep their starting places from last week’s draw at Sunderland. Santi Cazorla should be on the bench and Jack Wilshere’s a potential starter I suppose but elsewhere the team pretty much picks itself.

The protests planned for the 12th and 78th minutes in reference to our 12-year wait for the Premier League crown will be a side-show today of course, unless they’re so dramatic that they drown out the action.

As I suggested earlier this week, I think the protests are justified and will ideally be drivers for more ambitious transfer dealings this summer by the club but I just hope they don’t a) adversely affect the players’ performance and b) aren’t abusive towards anyone. Calling for change is fine and indeed welcome as far as I’m concerned, calling someone a c*nt is not. Unless it’s Jose Mourinho. Then it’s fine and you might want to throw in ‘massive’ as a prefix.

Right. That’s all I can muster for today.

Back tomorrow.

26th April 2016: Fans’ protest planned for Norwich

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. A quick round-up for you tonight and I’ll start with the back page of today’s Evening Standard which says: ‘Asenal fans to target Kroenke as supporters groups plot protest for Norwich game‘.

According to the report, fan-groups including The Black Scarf Movement, REDaction and the Arsenal Supporters Trust are encouraging supporters to hold up banners which read “Time for Change. Arsenal is stale — fresh approach needed” in the 12th and 78th minutes, in reference to our 12-year wait for the Premier League title.

If Twitter and the wider online Arsenal world is any kind of gauge of fan sentiment, a planned protest such as this has been a long time coming. What surprises me is that there haven’t been more. That said, I’m not sure how much of an immediate difference it will make in the thinking of those running the club but obviously the louder the fan-base’s discontent grows, at some stage, you’d hope it’ll be heard.

I also like the wording if I’m honest, because a ‘fresh approach’ is exactly what so many followers are crying out for and rightly so in my opinion. Although, given Arsene Wenger has categorically confirmed he’ll remain in charge next season and Stan Kroenke is unlikely to sell his controlling stake in Arsenal any time soon, that fresh approach has to take the form of new players and perhaps quite a few of them.

Call it blind loyalty or whatever you like, but I still want Arsene to remain Arsenal manager – providing he overhauls his squad in a major way this summer and brings in the best available players he possibly can. A protest like this weekend’s then, may just make that more likely. Let’s hope so.

After all, we’re a football club and our primary focus and aim should be on building the best team and squad we can to win football matches. What we need is obvious – more players of the quality of Alexis Sanchez for instance, and speaking of our Chilean forward, Per Mertesacker has been explaining why he thinks the south American is so special. He said:

When he was out, the statistics were not that bad for us – I think we played 10 games without him and won eight or something like that. We had quite a good record but over the whole season normally we need him healthy. If he is on the pitch, he always creates space for other players because he draws so much attention and that is key to any team. He is a key member of our side and, if he is fully fit, he makes the difference and that is always the case. He is that type of player who gives everything to the team. Those team members are well appreciated.

Another well-appreciated team member is Petr Cech of course, and the experienced goalkeeper has been telling Arsenal Player how he puts off his opponents. He said:

There are many ways you can intimidate people during a game. With your aggression is one way, but nobody likes to have no time. You press them all the time and put them under pressure. Any player that has time and feels comfortable to control the ball and play, obviously can play much better. If you don’t give them the time and put them under pressure, then it becomes much more difficult. I try to find ways not to give people the chance to feel comfortable in a situation when they face me, then it means they might not get a goal. You have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that what you are doing is the right way when you go to the game and you are ready.

Right. That’ll do for tonight.

Back tomorrow.

28th November 2015: Premier League Preview – Can we get back to winning ways at Norwich?

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. Much to the consternation of environmentalists everywhere, we’ll make the 14 minute flight to Norwich tomorrow, as we try to secure our first win in three Premier League games.

We’ll also be looking to make it four wins in a row against the Canaries, since, if memory serves, a Per Mertesacker slip let in Grant Holt to grab the hosts a 1-0 win back in October 2012.

And after Manchester United and Leicester City both dropped two points earlier today having played out a 1-1 draw, we can climb back above both of them in the standings with a win tomorrow.

In terms of how we’ll line-up, I’d expect Aaron Ramsey will come in on the right-hand side of midfield for Joel Campbell, which would admittedly be particularly harsh on the Costa Rican, given his fine performance against Dinamo Zagreb in midweek, but for me Ramsey remains the better option in that position.

Elsewhere I think we’ll be unchanged and should have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench to give us one more attacking option should we need it as the game progresses.

There had been talk in some quarters of Ramsey playing alongside Santi Cazorla in the middle with both Francis Coquelin and Mikel Arteta currently out injured, but Arsene Wenger feels asking the Welshman to play deeper in a more disciplined, defensive role would take too much away from the player’s natural game, saying:

Ramsey is more an offensive player. I will use him sometimes there [centrally] when the game demands, but is he naturally with Cazorla a balanced pair? Defensively, certainly, it’s a very adventurous one! I used Ramsey on the right because he gives us a balance, because we have Ozil who is an offensive player, we have Sanchez, we have Giroud or Walcott and Cazorla so to balance a bit defensively, I use Ramsey on the right. That’s where I will certainly continue to use him. He is not afraid to tackle but he likes to go in the box and he has a good timing of runs and he wants the ball and he wants to go forward. If you take that out of him, and you say ‘look, you have to sit now, and sit there and wait,’ you kill his strengths. He [Ramsey] can do [the deeper role]. It is not that he cannot do it, but he can do it [more effectively] with Coquelin. Cazorla can [play alongside] Coquelin. Cazorla and Ramsey is a bit [attack-minded] and you know in my mind I have seen that the turn of our results last season was when I went for a bit of stability and put Coquelin in there. Now I am a bit cautious on that front and I do not want to unbalance the team. Arteta is not a Coquelin-type but he is a tactical player who loves to sit now because he is less [focused on] going forward. In my mind I always had Arteta and Flamini and Coquelin. But Arteta was injured so I played always Coquelin. Now with Arteta and Coquelin both injured we are of course a bit short. That’s why I play Chambers for 10 or 12 minutes to see how he positions and we are happy because he can do it.

I have to say I completely agree with that assessment by the boss. The only way I could see Cazorla and Ramsey working effectively is if Ramsey changed his game and mimicked Coquelin’s role as closely as possible, but as the boss says, that would be a waste of Ramsey’s natural strengths as a midfielder; the lung-bursting runs and goal-getting ability etc.

Elsewhere I think the team picks itself and the only position we might see a change, injuries aside, is in central defence where Arsene has occasionally rested Mertesacker for Gabriel so far this season.

Back post-match on Sunday.

COYG!