West Ham

10th April 2016: Arsenal make work seem appealing + West Ham reaction

Posted on by TremendArse

Sunday greetings. Dropping points at Upton Park was bad enough, but seeing Leicester and Tottenham both win comfortably today means it’s been a weekend to forget.

The irony that a new working week will now provide a timely distraction from football is pretty galling, but at the moment that’s the truth of the situation. So thanks Arsene, nice one Arsenal, good job Sunderland and cheers Manchester United – I’ve never looked forward to a nine-to-five more. I hope you’re proud of yourselves …

I suppose I ought to take a little look at the reaction from the West Ham game however, even if I’d rather do anything but. First up it’s Arsene Wenger, who gave his take on the game to Arsenal Player, saying:

We were [in control]. There are always a lot of positives. Overall, you can say it is not a bad result to draw here, but in the context of the league, where we are and what we want to achieve, it is a very bad result for us. I wanted to win the game. In the end we had the opportunities to score a fourth goal, but we were not calm enough. I think we rushed our game in the box and that is disappointing. One or two times on the counter-attack the pass didn’t come quickly enough out of the feet and that is why we missed.

A decent appraisal I suppose but about as comforting as a smack in the mouth. A few of our players also had their say on the match, with Laurent Koscielny bemoaning his side’s frailty in one-on-one duels and explaining how they should have defended the threat of Andy Carroll in hindsight. He said:

We are disappointed. When you are 2-0 up and they come back, it is difficult. We have played well in the game but lost some important duels. They played on the counter-attack to cross the ball to Carroll who is good in the air. We conceded the same amount of goals [as them] today and it is difficult to come away with one point when we wanted more. He is quality when it comes to heading the ball. If you want to win the duel, you need to be stronger and arrive early on the cross. You can’t let them get a cross in easy because they have some good players on the wings. It is a job for everyone, not just the defender.s The guys on the flanks need to help their team-mates with defending. We will fight (for the title). We are professional players and we want to win. They [Leicester] have some important games. We will fight to the end. Mathematically, it is not finished so we will try.

Mohamed Elneny also insisted the team would continue to give it their all in the hope that somehow, Leicester and Tottenham collapse in the last few games of the season. He said:

We will fight until the end, until the last game in the league, to achieve what we want. Let’s see the final outcome then. Today we wanted to snatch the win even though we were playing against a strong team. Maybe the final result is not this much in our favour, however we are doing our best in each game. We conceded two goals at a very hard time. We should have ended the first half 2-1 up but the equalising goal came at a very crucial moment. At the start of the second half we started organising our team to win the game and step up our performance, however we conceded a third goal so we tried and pushed to get an equaliser. We finally did that but we couldn’t snatch the win in the end. We are fighting for the league title, this is why we had to play in an offensive mode to win the game, but thanks God for the final result. The best is yet to come.

You have to admire the optimism of our Egyptian enforcer, even if it’s very, very unlikely to see it vindicated. Danny Welbeck was more sombre in his appraisal, saying all we can do now is focus on ourselves:

I said before the game that we wanted to win the game, so it is points dropped. With the circumstances, going two up and then a goal behind, to get the equaliser was good. It was disappointing [not to win]. Stuff happens in football that is hard to explain. It is just one of those things. We tried to. It was difficult and they were threatening on the break as well. It was a difficult game for us. We just need to focus on ourselves and play the game that we want to. There is no point in us looking at other teams because we can’t affect them.

No we can’t, sadly. I guess we should start looking over our shoulders at those just behind us in the league as much as we set are sights on overhauling Tottenham into second place, because even if we can still very feasibly finish ahead of our north London rivals, we also need to be wary of the two Manchester teams in the race to secure a top four finish.

As such, the one big positive from this weekend’s results then, must be that we now have a six point lead over fifth-placed United with just six games to go.

Have yourselves a wonderful, football-free Monday everyone.

Back tomorrow.

9th April 2016: Arsenal waste comfortable lead at West Ham

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. If the title was unlikely before today’s match at West Ham, it’s now all but gone after we were pegged back from 2-0 up to eventually draw 3-3 at Upton Park.

I missed the opening portion of the game but tuned in just before Mesut Ozil latched onto Alex Iwobi’s pass to fire us into the lead after 18 minutes. When Alexis Sanchez then doubled our lead 17 minutes later, with a very similar goal and again with Iwobi the architect, in truth, the scoreline felt a bit flattering because the hosts had seen a legitimate goal by Manuel Lanzini ruled out for offside and the contest was pretty even.

Remarkably, the Hammers hauled themselves level and went ahead inside 10 minutes either side of the half-time break. Andy Carroll grabbed all three, heading home Aaron Cresswell’s cross after 44 minutes, equalizing in the second minute of first-half added time, and then powering in another header at the far post seven minutes into the second period.

A friend texted to goad: “Oh look, Arsenal have Arsenal’d”, and it was difficult to disagree. From cruise control to chaos in the blink of an eye, we continue to make unforced errors in games, providing our opponents with just the boost in confidence they need to capitalize on our shortcomings and it’s as predictable as it is infuriating. Unless we’re eight-nil up and playing against seven men, it’s impossible to feel confident Arsenal will see out a win.

I think it was Iwobi who gave the ball away under no pressure in the build-up to their first, just as I was willing us to get to half-time with our two-goal cushion intact. But given his role in our first-half goals and overall display, it would be more than harsh to be too critical. And in fairness, aside from those costly ten minutes, we played pretty well, looked fluent and although it’s a pointless hypothetical, if the game lasted another ten minutes or so, I’d have backed us strongly to grab a winner.

Unfortunately the reality is we’re now 10 points behind the league leaders with just six games to go and another top four finish is the best we can hope for for yet another campaign. After the game, Arsene Wenger had his say on Carroll’s impact, why Arsenal struggled and where it leaves our hopes of the title. He said:

First of all because he [Carroll] is good in the air. We lost a bit of urgency when we were 2-0 up after 43 minutes. We had a good game today but a bad result. We played with a weakness that is redundant in the season. If you look at the goals we have conceded since the start of the season, [most of them] are headers in our box. That happened today. It is difficult to go into any assessment of [our own] performances. I have to look at it again. I don’t think Koscielny was at fault at the goal. The first goal, when you are 2-0 up with 43 minutes played, with the experience we have and the way we mastered the ball, then at 45 minutes it is 2-2, you [put] yourself [in] a decline. This is because you give hope to the other team, that is where that little moment in the game made us pay heavily. Third in the league with 59 points. That is not where we want to be but we have made it much more difficult for ourselves now to have a chance to win the Premier League. We have to keep going no matter what and hope. You never know what can happen. As well, we have to look behind us as people are chasing us. We have to be serious and focus on finishing as high as possible. Where that is, I don’t know. This is one of the places where you could drop points but you see the game and feel guilty you have dropped points.

There’s isn’t a lot more to add really. A slim chance of the title is now flickering on the verge of invisibility. All we can do is hope Leicester choke dramatically, Tottenham do likewise, and we win our remaining games. I’m not holding my breath.

Enjoy your Saturday nights if you can folks.

See you on Sunday.

8th April 2016: Premier League Preview – West Ham away

Posted on by TremendArse

Happy Friday. I have to say I’m looking forward to this weekend more than usual, what with Arsenal playing West Ham in the early kick-off tomorrow, Anthony Joshua fighting American Charles Martin for a heavyweight world title belt after that, and then a nice, lazy, Sunday in store to eat, sleep and revel in doing absolutely nothing. Bring. It. On.

So hopefully Arsenal can get things off to a flier and set the tone for the next 48 hours or so by exacting revenge for our opening day defeat at the hands of the Hammers at Emirates stadium.

Judging by Arsene Wenger’s words yesterday, the likelihood is our starting line-up will be largely unchanged, with Petr Cech returning in goal for David Ospina the only realistic alteration. That said, David Ospina been very solid in Cech’s injury absence and made some eye-catching saves so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Columbian kept his place in the side for now.

As for our opponents, while we’re still missing the likes of Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere, they’ll be able to call upon a fully fit squad which contains some genuine quality in the likes of Manuel Lanzini and or course, the outrageously gifted Dimitri Payet. And Arsene gave his take on our opponents when he spoke to Arsenal Player earlier in the week. He said:

They are a strong side and that’s the message they gave us on the first day of the season [when West Ham beat Arsenal 2-0 at Emirates Stadium]. They surprised us with their quality, they have 50 points now and that’s not a coincidence. Overall I believe they’ve sacrificed the Europa League a little bit, surprisingly, but that has paid off for them in the Premier League. They have had a very strong season.

As for his own team, the boss explained why he’s unlikely to rotate at Upton Park, called for consistency from his team after two league wins in a row heading into tomorrow’s match and highlighted the strength in depth of his squad, saying:

What you try to find is always the right pieces of the jigsaw that work. Sometimes you are forced to make changes and sometimes players move up in training and they make steps and statements that push you to give them a chance. When it clicks, it is even more positive. There is an emergence of players that come up and come back from injury. Sometimes, the balance of the whole team clicks and all these players fighting together helps you to find the right blend. The continuity of our games against Barcelona and Everton was collectively [very good]. We respected those games and we had good possession, great movement and we wanted to score goals. Ideally, we combined offensive efficiency with defensive efficiency in that game. We looked quite solid. I think our game is convincing. What we need to show is consistency with the team, and in the last three games I feel our quality was a high level that raises the confidence. On top of that, we have players who have just come back like Mathieu Flamini, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey, so the competition is there. Petr Cech is back too. In every position, you have competition, and that is very positive.

With Leicester and Tottenham not playing until Sunday, when they face Sunderland and Manchester United respectively, we have a chance to close the gap on both the teams above us if we can beat the Hammers and exert just that bit more pressure on them ahead of their games this weekend.

With just six more games to play after tomorrow, every fixture is clearly all but a title eliminator so here’s hoping our players are fully focused, can play in a similar vein to our recent wins at Everton and over Watford and keep our faint title hopes alive.

Back post match.

COYG!

 

 

7th April 2016: Wenger on team news, reluctance to rotate and learning from Leicester

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. It seems like an age since we last heard from Arsene Wenger but the boss was back in front of the press this morning as he held his pre-West Ham press conference and discussed everything from team news to transfer speculation and lots in between.

I’ll start with the latest on our injury list ahead of our trip to Upton Park on Saturday and the big news is that Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini “could” return to action against the Hammers. Here’s what Arsene had to say:

We have a similar squad available. Ramsey could join the squad again because he had a good training session on Wednesday and would normally have a final test on Friday. There’s a possibility he could be back in the squad. Flamini is in a similar situation to Ramsey. Santi and Alex [Oxlade-Chamberlain] are the only injuries now. At the moment we [are waiting] on Alex coming back to fitness and Santi to practise. They should not be too far. Overall, the injury situation looks quite good. Tomas Rosicky and Jack Wilshere will play for the under-21s on Friday night.

To be honest, even if Ramsey is deemed ready to return, I can’t see how he gets back in the side at the moment because Mohamed Elneny and Alex Iwobi’s recent form surely makes them impossible to leave out. The former’s passing, and blossoming partnership with Francis Coquelin in the middle of the park has been, as far as I’m concerned, the catalyst for our transformation from a bit of a misfiring shambles, into a fluently functioning and winning team again. So that’s one of Ramsey’s roles unavailable.

Then there’s the right hand side where Alexis Sanchez is currently playing, in part because he’s struggled on the left but also to accommodate Alex Iwobi, who’s impact in the three starts he’s been afforded in our last three games has made him integral to our threat in the final third. It’s a little unexpected, but right now the reality is that the only member of our British core worthy of a starting place is the one who will, in all probability, start against the Hammers – Danny Welbeck.

It was unsurprising then, given the above, that Arsene explained he was unlikely to change what’s been a winning formula for him of late, whilst also maintaining the title race was still far from decided. He said:

I’m always reluctant to change what works. [It is] down to the confidence gained from our last two games. Team play has improved in those games and our game is based on mobility, speed and technique. We have found a good balance in our game. We know that we need nearly the perfect run and we know as well that we don’t look only in front of us, we look behind us as well. We are chased by a group of teams who can make it very difficult for us so we have just to focus on our performance and hope we finish [the season] in a very strong way. As long as it’s mathematically possible, there’s a strong possibility [Arsenal can catch Leicester]. You look at the difficulty of the Premier League and they have been very consistent but every game is very, very tight. That can go the other way.

And speaking of the Foxes, the boss cited their shock surge for the Premier League crown this season as vindication for his long-held and often-criticized belief that money doesn’t guarantee success. He said:

What we learn from Leicester City is what I knew for a long time, which is that it’s not just only down to the amount of money you spend. It’s down to the quality of players you bring in and sometimes the opportunities are not always necessarily linked with the amount of money. If you look well, they finished very strongly last season and on top of that they brought some players in who have given them something more, like N’Golo Kante. He had a huge impact. We have spoken about [West Ham’s] Dimitri Payet – you could say along with Payet he is one of the players who had a big impact in this league.

He’s right of course, money alone doesn’t secure silverware, but it sure as hell helps. The other thing is that more than once after we’ve lost to the likes of Chelsea in the past he’s come out post-game and witheringly said something like, “They use their money well”, suggesting his team were beaten by a cheque book rather than the wit of an opposing manager. I love Arsene but he can’t have it both ways …

That’ll do for tonight.

See you on Friday folks.