Smiles all around after a good week for Arsenal.

The mood in the Arsenal camp must be bullish after the last 2 results, and the changes made for the Carling Cup tie has allowed the players a full week rest. A week to recuperate should see the team full of energy and zest tomorrow, confidence is running high and everyone should be hungry for a win.

Villa on the other hand are visiting on the back of 2 games where, not unlike Arsenal, they were expected to win points but ended up losing 2-0 to Newcastle and 1-2 against Middlesborough. This is not the best of form for a team aspiring for a champions league spot. My worry is the team goes into the game with a similar attitude to that of Fulham, Hull, Sunderland, etc.

We need to be in top gear for the game, as I’ve posted before , the win against Manchester United will stand for nothing if we don’t get a victory against Aston villa. What this team needs more than anything else is a bit of consistency, two wins will be seen as the beginning of a good run, anything else and it’s back to square one.

On the injury front we still have Adebayor rated at 50-50, Almunia at 70-30 and Eboue along with Eduardo and Rosicky out. Although Ade and Almunia are to undergo late fitness tests I doubt that we will see either in action against the Villa.

Wenger is positive on Thomas Rosicky. I don’t share his optimism, there must be cause for concern about the health of Rosicky as reports of his imminent recovery as proved time and time again to be false. Like all gooners I am hoping for a full recovery, but I wouldn’t at all be surprised if this happens much, much later than we thought.

Eduardo is reported to be in training according to Setanta according to Croatian press, again I don’t share this optimism. At the moment there is no need to rush any of our strikers back into action, let’s be patient Eduardo will be back whether it is next week or next month he needs to be completley fit before he sees any action.

My prediction for tomorrow wil be a 3-1 win for the Gunners, I Bendtner will come good, but we will let in the odd goal. What do you think?

A well deserved victory in a magnificently breathtaking display of wengerball will have given Wenger a bit of vindication, but how much does it mean to Arsenal’s season.

After a pressurised week Wenger can afford a smile.

The fact is, in the lead up to this game the media frenzy on the back of Spurs, Stoke and Fenerbahce was in high gear, and sadly Arsenal fans bought into it. Actually the reality of Arsenal’s season lies somewhere between the pits of Stoke and the peaks of United. I would venture to say that it is somewhere around the highs of Saturday’s game.

We need to get out of this exasperating, knee-jerk mindset that is imbued into us by a ravenous media. No doubt that we should ask questions of our manager when our team seems unable to get it up for Stoke, so to we should temper our jubilation when we’ve beaten the the European champions. The extremes we allow ourselves cannot be healthy.

Before the Manchester game we were 6 points behind the leaders, today we are the same 6 points behind. We have to hope that Saturday’s victory have injected some measure of confidence in the team and we can carry this morale boost into the next game and let it snowball form there. None of us should doubt that this team can beat any team in the world, what the fans really want to see is some sort of consistency, that’s why a win against Villa next week is now the most important result of the season.

Those that have written us off in the title race couldn’t be more wrong, what is forgotten is that we had about a 6 point lead for most of the last season and ended up 4 points behind the eventual winners. Like the boss says judge us in May not now, there is too much that can happen between now and then.

The attitude that Chelsea, Liverpool and ManU can’t possibly drop more points than us is difficult for me to understand. Look how easy it was for Chelsea to let in 3 goals in their loss against a Roma team that currently sit in the relegation zone in their league. Liverpool earned the same point as we did against Stoke and Tottenham. Why is it so hard for us to go all the way?

Who would have thought a midfield of Walcott, Denilson, Cesc, Nasri, and Diaby would overrun Manchester United? Or that Bendtner alone upfront would keep Vidic and Ferdinand honest? Or Gallas would be so commanding at the back? Only Wenger did, and that is why he gets paid to be a manager not me or you (unless you are getting paid to be a football manager).

There’s no doubt that the talent within the team is immense, it is only a matter of getting the players to believe in that talent and go out with the correct attitude to win games, and in turn win titles.

So am I ok with last night’s result? Hell no.

A sorry Gallas, knows he's messed up.

For the neutral it was manna from the heavens, for fans of Tottenham it was joyous, but alas for Arsenal fans. I felt sick how is it possible for a team who so often talks about learning from mistakes keep doing that to their fans.

At 4-2 anyone who’s ever kicked a ball would know to keep things tight, don’t lose concentration. 4 minutes added time tells you the game is not over yet, keep possesion, don’t give them chances. What do we do? The exact opposite.

I’m tired, tired of taking positives from losses (yes,if you’re an Arsenal fan this was loss). Tired of being so close, yet letting it slip away. When it comes to Arsenal I’m always optimistic, but the endless array of simple mistakes and unprofessional errors is akin to Chineese water torture. Yes it’s one drop at a time but after a while it becomes unbearable.

There are a lot of fans who’ve already succumbed to the torture, I not one of them. It would be true to say that it is painful, losing point after point like this hurts, even more so that last night was against a shit spurs team, especially so when you see dross like Liverpool topping the tables.

I am sorry if this comes off like rambling, it is no exaggeration to say this is the worst I’ve felt after an Arsenal game. When we play shit, I can appreciate we deserve to get beaten. When we lost to Barca in Paris I accepted that. But to piss away three points to Spurs like we did last night, that I cannot accept, I’m sorry.

Adebayor has shown how much he brings to the team, and it was ironic given the murmurs how much the game changed upon his introduction, give the lad a break.

I know it’s been hard for some gooners to appreciate Ade, even with a 30 goal season he hasn’t been good enough in the eyes of some supporters, apparently he misses too many chances even if he was the was the 2nd most accurate striker last season. His summer high jinks was just too much for some of us, but was it?

Was what Adebayor did over the summer so heinous that even now almost 3 months into the season, we still find it hard to forgive the man? Was it any worse than Gareth Barry at Villa? Saying “you will sit down and look at things” and saying “There’s no going back, it’s time for me to move on” is much different, the latter is much, much worse. Yet somehow the Villa fans have found a way to move on, why can’t we?

Was Adebayor’s behaviour any worse than that of Ronaldo? No, yet Macs are 100% behind Ronaldo. Not a word of discontent about Christiano even with his so far undistinguished displays.

I cannot understand the resentment towards Adebayor, some fans just dislike Adebayor for no real reason. They come up with the most feeble arguments to support their resentment. He has a poor first touch, he misses to much, too tall, too lazy, too much on the wing, trying to be like Henry, not like Henry, I understand that he is not the perfect footballer but who is?

Maybe it’s a general attitude towards the team, we’ve come to expect perfection and anything short of that is an annoyance. Witness the difference in Arsenal fans response to a 3-1 win against Everton and, Man U’s 1-1 with the same team. I know we a starved for trophies but our attitude does not help things.

Ade once again showed his worth when he came on at Upton Park. His introduction made all the difference and allowed us to go home with all 3 points, 4 behind leaders Liverpool.

Adebayor is by no means free from sin, but it is about time we spend our energies getting behind our players instead of on top of them.

9 minutes into the encounter a wonderful through ball from Fabregas set up Adebayor to put paid to that notion.

Walcott caused Fenerbahce problems all night.

That first goal quietened the incessant noise in the stadium, 2 Minutes later a similar ball allowed Walcott to round the keeper for a second that truly silenced the crowd. Arsenal were in an attacking mood, and whilst it was beautiful to watch it wasn’t long before Almunia had to make his first of many brilliant saves for the night.

For Arsenal the failure to close down Fener’s attack and the high line kept by their defence was a concern. When Song committed a needless foul on Boral the ensuing free-kick exposed Arsenal’s lack of cohesiveness at the back.

Adebayor allowed Guiza a free run to the back post and the sweetly took volley ricochetted off Silvestre into the back of the net. The noise level increased again but not for long as Diaby, who has to get a mention here for being brilliant throughout, netted a superb left footed goal.
22 minutes into the game 4 goals scored.

Fenerbahce had more chances, but Almunia would come up trumps time and time again. Arsenal’s defence made it a nervous watch for their fans as you could sense that Fener would capitalise sooner or later. We made it to half time, and as good as we were going forward you could tell Wenger was not a happy chappie.

The second half began in much the same fashion, and the next goal would decide the game. At 3-1 if Fenerbahce were to score the game would take an altogether different complexion, however a goal for Arsenal would have put the game out of the Turkish side’s reach.

Fenerbahce failed to clear a free-kick and it was Alex Song who picked the ball out of the air with a exquisite volley that gave the goalkeeper absolutely no chance. That goal was the gamebreaker, Arsenal then could afford to take their foot off the gas and cruised towards the end of the game.

Daniel Guiza would pull one back for Fenerbahce when he finally took one of the many chances afforded to him by the defence. Were it not for the exemplary display by Almunia the scoreline would have been very different. In his press conference Manuel spoke about defending his team, and he was true to his word.

Defence notwithstanding the Gunners at times seemed to toy toyed with their opponents, playing the ball around, making fancy triangles, content to try to walk the ball into the net, content to coast through the rest of the fixture.

Ramsey, Vela, and Djourou was introduced Diaby was cheered off by the Fenerbahce fans, Eboue filled in for Theo on the right and proceeded to entertain with attempts at ball tricks some of which actually came off, one bit of skill gave Ramsey a slither of a chance in the last minute of added time which he promptly dispatched. The icing on the cake for a positive display from the Gunners.

Whatever the headlines tomorrow, my man of the match has to go to Almunia. All our attacking flair would have been for nought if Almunia wasn’t there to foil Fenerbahce who actually had more shots on goal than Arsenal.

A good night for Arsenal and their fans everywhere, 5 goals at Sukru Saracoglu is nothing to sniff at.

Arsenal meet Fenerbahce in a vocirferous Sukru Saracoglu

Fortunately we will have Djourou back and Nasri has shaken off his knock to be ready for tonight. The atmosphere will be amazing, what Arsenal needs to do is dull the crowd quickly, take control of the game very early, not something we have been able to do consistently.

Fenerbahce has been going through a barren period recently, although they won last weekend they sit in 10th place loosing 4 out of 7 so far this season, collecting only 1 point so far in the Champions League. Aragones has not got the team firing yet, similarly to Spain who was woeful, but turned it around once he got the team to operate the way he wanted.

Boss Wenger has not forgotten has not been allowed to forget Aragones “motivational technique” from 2004, he considers it “clumsy”saying

“It was in a training session when he wanted to motivate Jose Antonio Reyes,” said Wenger.

“It was a very clumsy sentence. But, on the information I have, he is not a racist.

“Everyone is responsible for their own behaviour and, if you are a public man, you have more responsibilities. But Samuel Eto’o had him as a coach and said he was not racist at all.”

For me that’s a non issue, what is important is that the players are ready and Wenger does not go on one of is experimental tangents. Before the Everton match, I intimated that Arsene would not even consider using Eboue as a right back, and was thus proved correct. His hand will be forced tonight, but there’s still the possibility that he will shunt Djourou our right. I know it’s wrong, you know it’s wrong, but Arsene does not see the problem.

Hopefully common sense will prevail and we will see a back four from left to right of Clichy, Silvestre, Djourou, and Eboue not saying that Wenger doesn’t have common sense, but you know how he can be. in the middle and front is anyone’s guess, barring the Rosicky and Eduardo we have a full complement of staff to pick from.

Unlike some of our domestic ties, I believe we are more capable of controlling European ties, their style suits us. I strongly believe the only thing between us and champions league glory is another English side.

It will be hard but we should leave Turkey with a victory, a draw wouldn’t be a bad point but I think it will end 3-1 again we will concede a goal as per usual. Don’t you agree?

Mad Jens last played for Arsenal against Everton

Everton need a good result tomorrow, which means they will play the usual 10 behind the ball and hope to hit Arsenal on the break, a ploy which has worked well against us this term. The toffees will certainly not going to try to outplay Arsenal knowing that a draw is a good result for them and a worse result for the gunners.

The key man for Everton is Arteta. With 2 goals to his name and top of the league with 4 assists his current form will pose a stern test for Arsenal’s teenage midfield. However stern that test is, the fact that we need to win this game so there is no room for mistakes or lapse of concentration.

Gallas and Sagna are out for the game which means Toure will be shafted out right and we will see a paring of Silvestre and Djourou in the centre. There have been calls for Gallas to be left out and one tends to wonder how much of this injury is Wenger just wanting an excuse for doing just that.

Wenger have played Djourou at right back if he chooses to do so then it would be Kolo and Silvestre in the middle, however we have seen last season that Wenger does not have a problem with Kolo at right, don’t even mention Eboue as far as I see it Wenger has forgotten that Eboue was a right back, I’ll be very surprised if Eboues moves to cover for Sagna.

Now that Diaby is fit for a while, you do know it’s only for a few games, it will be interesting to see what Arsene decides to do with the midfield. Denilson hasn’t been too bad and has been, if anything, consistent in the centre of the park. I would expect Arsene to stick with him and keep Diaby on the bench, no use risking Diaby so soon let him play a few low key reserve games.

It would come as no surprise to see Theo being rested with a champions league match coming up on Tuesday, Nasri should be in the mix with Adebayor and Van Persie up front to work on their telepathy. Ade should be up for it fresh from a 4 goal spree against Zambia, he should be in good spirits and hopefully the crowd will extend some kind of support towards him.

So a 4-4-2 with Silvestre making his first premier league appearance in Arsenal colours should be enough to overcome a stout defensive Everton. I make it Arsenal 3 - 1 Everton there is no way we will keep a clean sheet tomorrow.

So much talk, so little sense

First up our favourite football administrator UEFA chief Michel Platini. As ever Platini has  a lot to say especially when it comes to English football. I know that there’s supposed to be some Anglo-French animosity, but with Platini it seems to run a little deeper.

On foreign owners,

“I think it is not good. I think the Qataris should invest in Qatar. <>

“They should develop the football in each country. Can we do something against it? I will try to.”

There is some merit in this, you tend to wonder would he be saying the same if this was happening in France?

On club Identity,

“Do you want in Liverpool an Arab sheikh as president with one Brazilian coach and nine or 11 African players?” he asked.

“Where is Liverpool in that? We have to make some rules.

“What is football? Football is a game and this game has become popular because of the identity.

“You have to have identity, that is where football’s popularity lies.”

Again Platini seems to have it in for English football, we don’t hear much complaining foreign players in La liga, Serie A or Liga Sagres. How many African players ply their trade in the French league? I forget they gain citizenship.

Let’s not talk about the National team policy bringing on players for 5 minutes thus preventing them from ever representing their country of birth. Where’s the Identity in that? Platini should really look closer to home.

“When you buy Ronaldo or Pele or Maradona or Robinho, I have no problem. But when you buy players at 13, 14 or 15 years, I don’t like that,” he said.

“One player aged 11 is coming from Marseille to Chelsea. For the mother you think that is good?”

Again how many players move from Senegal, Zaire, cameroon etc. to France? Maybe he should ask the mother of Patrick Viera, or Patrice Evra if that’s good?

Roy Keane decided to join in the fun and have a go at Arsenal’s youth policy. Claiming that the much Heralded Arsenal Academy is not all it’s cracked up to be.

The word on the street is they have a group of kids coming through that will be absolutely outstanding.

“But you go on about the kids coming through but a lot of them have been bought from other clubs, not through the academy at Arsenal. It’s the same with Chelsea.

Keane didn’t seem to have a problem justifying his import of talent from his home country,

We have tough battles up here in terms of signing young players and are restricted in terms of our location.

“You can only bring in kids from a certain radius and a lot of our radius is in the water. Any good fish out there?

This “radius” also applies to Arsenal who has to compete with no less than 4 premier league teams from the same talent pool not to mention another Charlton, QPR, Crystal Palace, Reading and Watford. That’s 10 teams in more or less the same 90 mile radius.

Keane is just carrying on the Man U tradition of slagging of Arsenal, I’ll just leave it at that.

Another Man U player to grace us with his musings is Rio Ferdinand. No doubt Rio is a hero for many, and I fully support his views on FIFA’s token fines for racism in the terraces. He then goes on to lose my support by engaging his mouth before his brain.

On the issue of Almunia representing England.

That’s for The FA to decide but I’m sure if he was picked for Spain he would play for Spain in front of England . So if that happens I don’t think it’s really working right.

So if Spain had picked him now and he had a choice of playing for Spain or England who is he going to pick?

I’m sure he’d pick Spain so that means he is not English.

Doesn’t Ferdinand realise that there is already precedence or did he just forget that his club and country team mate Hargreaves is in fact Canadian. I wonder if Hargreaves would have chosen to play for England if he had the opportunity to represent Germany? I’m sure he would pick Germany so that means he is not English

And don’t even dare bring up his parentage, as far as I know Almunia has lived in England and payed taxes in this country for far longer than Hargreaves. Rio should have simply left this issue alone.

Have your say on this post in the comments.

There was reserve action last night, Bischoff and Silvestre got their fist run out for the club in a 3-2 victory over Stoke, hit the jump for more.

Coquelin one of the 3 summer signings on display

There seems to be an undertone amongst Gooners that we are the weakest of the “big four” a theory I don’t subscribe to, while it is folly to blame referees of bad luck we must realise that the margins between the top four is miniscule and two poor decisions against us in two games have cost 5 points.  5 points is massive, 5 points could have won us the premierships last season. It feels even worse when we see the same kind of decisions going in favour of the competition.

Of course general convention is that these things tend to even out over the season, if so then you could say we have some points to gain but in reality it doesn’t work that way. What we need to do, by we I don’t mean us but Arsenal and Wenger is to decide his best team and move forward with that 11, because as far as I can see the coach hasn’t decided on who is his first 11 or rather his best 11 in a given formation.

The personel against Sunderland was wrong, at least I couldn’t see the logic in it (if you can please enlighten me), at the very least playing two defensive midfielders gave the impression that we were scared of Sunderland. We cannot underestimate opponents but we cannot give them too much respect.

I figure with the semi retirement of Adebayor he should really use the international break to learn how to time his runs and stop lurking on the left like his hero did. Too many times there is no one attacking the goal, with Ade’s in the air ability he would get a lot more goals if he would learn to attack that 6 yard box.

Anyway enough about the past, like I’ve said elsewhere there are 31 games left in the season and there is no reason why we can’t be in a fight for the title come May 2009.

Last night marked the first taste of action for Bischoff and Silvestre, both had OK games. Bischoff looks well balanced and tidy, his passes were always well directed and weighted, but you could see his lack of fitness. Silvestre really didn’t have much to do. Another of the summer signings who played was Coquelin, and he gave another impressive display which included Arsenal’s opening goal.

David Bentley (the most foolishly arrogant footballer around) has again showed why Arsene had no hesitation to sell him, blaming Ramos for his exclusion from the England squad. This is the same player who thought he was too good to waste his summer playing for the U21, the same guy who “advised” Theo to leave Arsenal to improve his National team chances. Please Bentley just shut up, and let us laugh at you, Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Back to the point, I’m of the opinion that we can beat teams like Chelsea and Man U in fact I think that with the right strategy and players in correct positions we a stronger than most people think, but we must get our formations right and our attitude correct.

What do you think?

Heskey disrupted Arsenal play by any means necessary

Arsenal were not at their effervescent best, under blistering northern weather and with 10 men behind the ball the Gunners found the going tough.

Arsenal needed to move the ball much faster, and make more use of the possesion they had. Instead they seemed content to employ a more patient build up which mostly amounted to nothing. It was Sunderland who created the better chances with the pace of Cisse used to good effect in Sunderland’s counter attack.

Going into the break with no score Arsenal was expected to up the tempo, which they did, and 10 minutes into the second half Van Persie thought he had put Arsenal ahead. The Dutchman’s celebration was premature as the linesman ruled the ball was out of play before the goal.

Arsenal was still in control of the game but as with the loss to Hull we failed to find the back of the net. As the game approached 90 minutes it was obvious that only something dramatic would break the deadlock.

It was Sunderland who would come up with the tiebreaker when Leadbitter scored the 3rd wonder goal in as many matches against The Arsenal, when he struck a wonderful 25 yarder into the top corner the home fans were ecstatic, Arsenal was doomed to their second successive premiership loss.

Deep into injury time Cesc one of the shorter players on the pitch came up with his first Arsenal goal since January, a brilliant header in the nick of time to grab an important point for the Gunners.

It is worrying that we cannot breakdown teams like Sunderland, we’ve been coming up against this type of set up for years and we should have a plan for occasions such as this. It wasn’t like the Hull game when we clearly underestimated the opponents, we just didn’t have an answer for Sunderland’s game plan.

We shouldn’t have been in a losing position at the end of the game. In a game like this there is a big difference in being 1 up and still searching for the 1st goal, while we could have and should have played better having that goal chalked off leaves me more upset with the officials than the team.

Events like this gives credence to the argument for video technology, of which I am not a fan of. I am certain that the game would be much different if we were 1 nil up after 55 minutes. Much like it made a difference to Man United when they were gifted a penalty to break the deadlock against Bolton.

It is still early in the season, but it is slightly unnerving that we cannot get wins against bottom half teams. One can only hope for some kind of improvement. What do you think?

Arsenal.com player of the month showed us what we missed.

What exactly did Arsenal showed last night that we don’t already know?

For all the harbingers of doom and gloom, there was the same defensive frailties on display. Consistent failure to deal with set pieces, we look as nervous as usual on corners. Gallas and Toure just does not inspire confidence.

Strikers still being given time and space to shoot at goal, no one sees it necessary to close down attackers and a non-existent defensive midfield.

Our own strikers find it difficult to hit the target, I know we scored 4 and I’m not expecting us to score 4 goals in every game. The thing is, there will be games where we don’t get 24 chances, some of the goals we missed would not have been so funny if we were down 1-nil.

Conversely there’s hardly a team that can pass the ball the way we do, when we are in full pomp there is hardly a team that can hold a candle to us. Even with two supremely talented players long long-term injured there is a plethora of attacking riches available to us. Nasri is a refreshing change to Eboue’s straight line power, with his ability to hold on to the ball and get himself out of seemingly impossible situations bring an added dimension to our game.

So really there was nothing on display last night that we didn’t already have. The difference between Porto and Hull was all in the approach to the game and the state of mind of the players and the intensity of the opposition.

Porto is not a bad team, but they we not set up to challenge us, you cannot come to the Emirates and give Arsenal space or time. Porto did just that and they suffered the consequences, that they lost was not simply down to their strategy but to Arsenal’s potency.

It was obvious from the start that Arsenal was out to put the Hull defeat behind them, there was one thing on their minds and that was to put Porto to the sword, they did just that.

Porto didn’t start badly, they had a chance go off the crossbar and another that Clichy cleared off the line, it was more that, in stark contrast to Saturday, Arsenal wanted it more. It begs the question though, why can’t we play every game with something approaching that same level of intensity? Why so much inconsistency?

It is simple, if we approach any match with the same attitude as last night then we should be able to win some silverware.

However to think that any team is a walkover will get us nowhere.

Arsene unhappy with the impudence of his team

It’s early in the season and we are only 2 points behind the leaders so there is no need to panic. What we do need is a change in attitude, we have to learn to respect the enemy opposition, something which we seriously lacked yesterday. What happened yesterday was down to attitude, Arsene said

I believe we had the chances to win the game as you have seen. I feel the commitment was on Hull’s side. They fought for 90 minutes and I believe from the start onwards we were not completely switched on to the level that you need to be to win the game.

I don’t care how committed Hull was, we should have won. Although our level wasn’t top notch we could have still won the game, but we thought that we could walk the ball into the goal. Such was the arrogance of Arsenal that shooting from 6 yards out was too much to ask. Hull scored 2 we should have scored 6 and Arsene knows it.

Maybe it is because human beings are not always machines. We thought subconsciously that we will make it, that’s basically it.

Apart from not scoring we also let in another goal from a corner, which was again down our disdain for Hull. How is it that our most experience player, our captain, the one who should be setting the example, how is it that he could be looking away from his man when a corner is being struck?

Cousin scored that goal simple because Gallas was looking somewhere else instead of marking his man. Cousin was literally 2 steps ahead of William. How many times are we going to let this happen, when are we going to learn? Apparently it’s something we are working on

“You can work for hours on the training ground but if you don’t attack the ball on the day of the game it will cost you. I believe that’s more down to how much you want the ball.”

I’m sorry Arsene, if that is the case then we need to work for more hours on this. The whole world knows it is a problem, it’s about time that we solve that particular problem. And it is always down to Toure or Gallas, the two most experienced players in the squad, so much for experience.

As it turns out, this defeat comes at a time when it is still early enough to rectify the problems. The important thing is that we take lessons from this and don’t make the same mistakes again. Saying we have to keep our feet on the ground is one thing, being dumped back down to earth like that is quite another.

If we cannot learn from this then we are in trouble, the next 32 games will not be any easier. We need to be confident, but with that confidence we need to mix in a dash of humility.

The scoreline does not say it all

An emphatic scoreline will naturally be the talking point of the game, but there was much more going on than a 6 - nil thrashing. Let’s take a quick look at 6 less reported events of last night.

1.) Carlos Vela can be a goldmine.

Not only skillful, with a sweet left foot (non-existent right), but Carlos plays with an infectious smile all the time, sort of like Ronaldinho in his pomp. More than Ronaldinho though he is beautiful. I can see this guy being the poster boy for Arsenal, he will be able to move tons of merchandise and especially open up the football mad market that is Mexico/Central America for Arsenal.

2.) Sheffield United was piss poor.

I am in no way trying to diminish the performance of the kids last night as they were wonderful. What we must realise is that as much as we were good Sheffield was poor, not just poor but shit. No doubt the way we played we would be able to beat nearly any team in any league. But at times it was a joke how bad the opposition was.

3.) Fans still leave early.

Not 5 minutes or 10 minutes, but Arsenal fans began to stream out of the Emirates a full 15 minutes before the final whistle. I know it was 5 nil, but what do you possibly have to gain by leaving so early. Vela scored his last goal in the 86th minute. Not because it’s football, the player has put in years of time and effort to put on a spectacle for you. The least we could to is stay on to the end to show our appreciation.

4.) Wenger will have huge problems next year.

With our senior team being so young and the second string so talented, Wenger will have to use all his powers of persuasion to keep this crop together. You cannot fault some of the boys who would want to play more football, these are not journeymen but extremely talented footballers who will have lots of options in the future.

I would not envy he man whose job it is to decide who stays and who goes out of this crop. Some of them will need to go on loan, some will need to move on but who?

5.) A commercial coup.

How much would it cost to buy some of the young guns? Think Nani & Anderson (£30m). Rooney (£20m). Ok maybe not so much but you get the point.

Whatever Arsenal is doing in the academy it is now bearing fruit, let’s hope for continued improvement from the youth. Arsene says he will continue his faith with the youth in the Carling Cup, who’s to say he’s wrong?

Jack Wilshere may not be the youngest Arsenal player tonight

One man who thinks so is Michel Platini, more on that later. I have all the confidence in Wenger and his judgement as more often than not he is right, but there are occasions when he has got it spectacularly wrong. Tonight may be one of those occasions.

Put yourself in the position of Sheffield United, you would be making every effort to beat those children. Yes they are good, some of these Arsenal players are exceptional talents, some even good enough to feature in the first team. The fact is they are young and with this youth can come frailties, I sincerely hope that those frailties are not exposed on the pitch tonight.

I expect Sheffield United to be physical and use their strength against us, Wenger needs to prepare the team for this and not let the rough treatment get to them. I am sure the team club’s sport psychologists will include this in the team pre-match prep.

The Telegraph reports on a leaked team meeting document. The memo was handed out to the team before the Bolton match. The players obviously paid attention to the memo as the team ethic displayed was exactly what the memo called for.

Here’s the document text.

Confidential

Team meeting 19th September 2008

The Team:

A team is as strong as the relationships within it.

The driving force of a team is its member’s ability to create and maintain excellent relationships within the team that can add an extra dimension and robustness to the team dynamic.

This attitude can be used by our team to focus on the gratitude and the vitally important benefits that the team brings to our own lives. It can be used to strengthen and deepen the relationships within it and maximise the opportunities that await a strong and united team.

Our team becomes stronger by:

Displaying a positive attitude on and off the pitch

Everyone making the right decisions for the team

Have an unshakeable belief that we can achieve our target

Believe in the strength of the team

Always want more - always give more

Michel Platini has launched a scathing attack on Arsene Wenger and his policies. Youngguns reports on the interview, which is due to be published in Le Dauphiné on Thursday. The French newspaper Le Monde has excerpts from the interview.

I don’t know what exactly is Platini’s problem with Wenger, but it seems to me that far from belittling Wenger’s philosophy, he should encouraging the development and confidence that Arsene has showed he has in young players. It is sad to see that the great Michel Platini has become such a bitter old politician.

I will be at the Emirates tonight giving my full support to the young guns, I will be disappointed if we don’t win, but not surprised. What about you?

Much maligned Denilson seals the game for Arsenal

An entertaining 1st half saw Eboue score his 1st premier league goal, Arsenal revert to type in defence and in attack, and Davies doing what he does closing the half with a lunge sending Clichy to the hospital.

Arsenal started the game well, 4 corners in the 1st 10 minutes and majority of possession showed their intent, but not making full use of those set pieces allowed Bolton an opportunity. Poor communication between Sagna and Almunia gifted Bolton a corner, which they used to full advantage to open the scoring.

That Bolton goal was a result of a series of mistakes, Sagna and Almunia could have dealt better with the ball, Gallas didn’t pick up properly, and Clichy didn’t hold his position on the post.

The goal sparked Arsenal into a higher gear, Denilson was given time and space to shoot at goal but missed. A scintillating counter saw Bendtner slipping Adebayor through who struck the inside of the woodwork. Song beat the goalkeeper with a fine header but was denied by the post, before Bendtner who was having a good spell found Eboue to level the score.

Bolton was rightly aggrieved about the goal, Adebayor who the pass was intended for was onside, but the assistant referee failed to spot Eboue behind the last man. The goal was nonetheless deserved as at that time Bolton’s defence was under siege.

Another beautiful passage of play resulted in the 2nd Arsenal goal when Bendtner latched onto a low cross by Denilson. Arsenal was in full flow now, easily carving apart Bolton Eboue weaved his was through the Bolton box but the shot was blocked.

Eboue had another chance at a second goal, but he would have been well advised to lay the ball off to any 3 of Ade, Bendtner, and Denilson who were all wide open in scoring positions. Bolton then came close as Ricardo Gardner who powered through the Arsenal box was well tackled by Toure but Arsenal failed to clear and the ball fell to Nolan whose strike was palmed away by Almunia.

The half then ended on a sour note, when Davies tackled Clichy cleanly but his follow through caught Clichy awkwardly. It was nothing more than a yellow, unfortunately for Arsenal Clichy had to be taken to hospital for x-rays. Djourou replaced Gael for the 2nd half.

We started the 2nd half in similar fashion as the 1st, 2 minutes into the the half Jaaskelainen had to be at his best to save a powerful shot from Song. From then on Bolton took charge, and for the next 30 minutes Bolton looked good for the equaliser.

Bolton had majority of possession, their crowd was in marvellous voice and they had Arsenal under the sword. Fortunately for the gunners all the Bolton pressure was for nothing as they failed to find the equalising goal.

On the 74th minute Arsene sent in Walcott to relieve the pressure, and he did what was asked of him. His fresh legs and confident form immediately put Bolton on the back foot. a few minutes after he came on he hit a shot wide from a similar angle that he scored in Zagreb.

Walcott then cut in from the right and speed away from 3 chasing defenders to feed Adebayor who squared it across for Denilson to score. 1 - 3 to The Arsenal a scoreline that reflected the performance.

Overall a good display, Wenger in his pre-match press conference spoke about Denilson.

“Denilson has different qualities to Flamini but if you look at the numbers at the end of the season you will see he is a very good player. You look at the assists he has had since the start of the season, the balls he wins, the interceptions he has and the distance he covers.

“He is maybe not a flashy player but he is an efficient player.”

Is this guy the new Flamini?

Everyone overlooked Denilson as a replacement for Flamini, but except for the Fulham game he has shown that he has the qualities to do the job. Today he was excellent on every part of the field, showing tenacity in defence and verve in attack. My choice for man of the match.

Finally, Adebayor almost went through the game without being flagged offside, his 1st was in the 85th minute. My guess is that someone has had some extra lessons. What is it with Cesc’c new haircut, he has went over to the dark side joining the Spanish hairband brigade.

UPDATE

Gael Clichy suffered only bruising to his shin during the game at Bolton on Saturday. As a result, Gael was able to join up the rest of the Arsenal squad for the journey home.

Gallas scores his 3rd goal in 3 Champions League games

It was a game which Wenger entered cautiously, and paid for this caution. Sometimes I feel we give too much respect to these teams, we need to go out there and show how good we are and put the opposition on the back foot.

Which is what we did in the opening 30 minutes, were it not for the return of our profligacy in front of goal we would have been a goal or two up in that 30 minutes. We quieted the crowd, we created chances, we stifled Kiev, what we did not do was score and did we pay for that.

An extremely soft penalty gave the home side the impetus, because contrary to popular belief before the penalty Kiev had hardly created anything, a couple long range attempts and one shot that ricochetted kindly for Almunia. Once they scored, in our attempts to equalise Kiev found a lot of space to hit us on the counter.

We were eventually rewarded for our endeavour and low cross from Walcott got a touch from Adebayor towards the goal, which Gallas got to before the keeper for the equalising goal. A goal which we thoroughly deserved.

It was not a great performance, but it was enough that we should win. Arsene commented with accuracy

“The game is a mixture of frustration and relief. The game should be over at half-time because we had clear chances in the first half, but it is a relief because with three minutes to go we were 1-0 down. I felt our level dropped in the second half and we did not create as many chances as we would have liked to. We feel we have lost two points today.”

Gallas post match interview showed what I like about him. He has a burning desire to win and sometimes that gets the better of him, that desire however, has gotten us out of trouble more often than not.

Champions league, Arsenal faces a tough away trip to Kiev

Both teams have had a similar record of 1 loss in their last 8 games. Arsenal needs to be careful similar to us the Ukrainians have a good scoring record including an 8-1 aggregate score in their qualifying round.

I’d not be surprised if we were to leave Kiev with a draw.

Clichy has declared himself fit to travel, but we are still waiting a decision on Nasri. At this point I see no reason to risk the fitness of players, If there’s any worry stay home. I feel the squad is good enough to cope.

Meanwhile there is no escaping the Theo Walcott juggernaut, Croatian goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa likens Theo to Henry saying

I would compare Walcott with Henry. Walcott is also very fast and has coolness in front of goal - and, like Henry, he shoots well and has also played as a winger. Henry is one of the top players in the world and we’ll see if Walcott becomes better than him. He has the ability and has a bright future.

Arsene Wenger will make sure he develops properly and raises his game level. I’ve played against many good strikers but Walcott is great - and he’s only 19. All his goals were really terrific, especially the first two. It was very hard for me to react for the first goal and I really had no chance to save the ball for the second and third goals,” he said.

Walcott also had great positioning, which put pressure on our defence and that was also a big reason why he was hard to play.

Alleged Arsenal target M’Bia (I doubted he was ever an wanted by Arsene or Arsenal) now claims his preferred destination would be Manchester United. I thought with the transfer window closed such shenanigans would have come to an end, but anyway…

Finally, Miniero will now be “hijacked” from under the nose of Arsenal by west London outfit Chelsea according to The Times. While The Telegraph is reporting that Arsene is no longer interested after his behind closed doors trial. Who do you believe?

Ade Denilson and Gallas Celebrate a 27 pass goal

The media really has no respect for Arsene or Arsenal

One of the things that got me slightly annoyed before the game was the hype and hoopla surrounding Theo. Whilst Master Walcott has his foot firmly planted on the ground, it seems to me that the media intoxicated by the euphoria of winning in Zagreb, is already pinning all their hopes on Theo.

Of course we’ve come to expect nothing less from the Anglocentric media, not a single word of praise for Arsene and the way he’s nurtured and built Thoe’s career. No, far from it, the were accusations of Arsene stunting Theo’s footballing growth and assertions that he(Theo) should be much more developed.

The numpties at talksport whole pre-match build up was whether or not Theo would start, even going as far as saying if Theo doesn’t start it would finally confirm that Wenger has a disregard for English players. That attitude was at the very least xenophobic.

On match of the day not only we were relegated to the bottom of the programme, but our second goal got hardly a mention. I can guarantee if it was Liverpool our United, they would make sure we knew about it, and sit there counting and salivating over each pass.

Our central defence is still a worry

After alerting the world about or frailties with balls through the middle over the top, Monsieur Wenger has still done nothing about it. Okay maybe they work on it in training, I don’t know, but it does not look it on the pitch. It was far too easy for Santa Cruz, and Roberts if their finishing was anything up to scratch it would be a different game.

It’s hard to criticise a defence that has let in 1 goal so far this season, however you get the feeling that a good forward line will expose our defence.

At the risk of being blasphemous, it say the problem is Kolo.

Eboue is getting there

Let’s get the penalty incident out of the way. My first thought was a dive. The replays were inconclusive but it looked like he was touched slightly, and at the speed he was moving it would have been very difficult for him to stay on his feet.

That joke of an article Arsenal.com put up on transfer deadline day may not have been a joke after all. The numbers show that he is our most accurate passer (He is also the most fouled player). You’d think that his number are inflated by useless passes back to the defence and sideways, but that’s not the case. On Saturday 80% of his passes was attacking passes with 2 bad passes out of 45.

Eboue’s form has been good and getting better, if he continues on that upward curve then no longer can he be considered our weakest link.

We are formidable going forward

The second goal at Blackburn epitomises our attacking strength, 27 passes stringed together for that goal is nothing to be sniffed at, the similar Argentine goal was regarded as the best of WC2006. We’ve created more scoring opportunities than any team so far, same as shots on target.

When you think that we have potent players like Eduardo, Rosicky Nasri etc, rested or injured, you then realise that offensively we are extremely dangerous. Blackburn learnt that the hard way.

A holding midfielder is not a necessity.

A holding midfielder will only stifle our game. Wengerball does not call for player to be rigid, rather our style is based on fluidity, rapid transition from defence to attack and vice versa. What we need is for our midfielders to be intelligent and recognise what is needed to be done and when.

Denilson and Cesc did well on Saturday interchanging their duties seamlessly. It is infinitely more difficult to play such a system, but the results when done properly can be breathtaking. And breathtaking football is what we love about our Arsenal.

We’ve got a challenging fixture on Wednesday but we should come through with a good result. Also tickets for Next tuesday carling cup match is on general sale from £10, a good opportunity to see fringe players in action.

What were your observations on the weekend?

Theo was tapped on the shoulder by Capello, given the chance by Rooney, and was he prepared. 3 shots, 3 goals.

True to his word, Walcott showed no fear against Croatia

On a night when England would have happily accepted a draw, the punters seemed to know something the bookies didn’t. The most popular bet on hte night was England to win, one bookmaker implored punters to stay away from England saying “it will be a very good night for the bookies”, fortunately for punters he didn’t count on the making of Theo.

The young man did well, Capello took a leaf from Wenger’s book and put his confidence in youth and talent rather than the safety of experience. I honestly didn’t think Capello would have the gumption to start Theo. He did, and for England that can only bode well for the future.

No longer can players expect to be automatic on the team sheet based on reputation. If they didn’t realise that before, they must now. Big name like Gerrard, Owen, Lampard and their ilk will have to be on form to warrant a place on the squad. Fringe players like Agbonlahor, Lennon, Jennas etc. will have to put in the hard graft to make it on the squad.

Special mention must go to David Bentley, I cannot begin to explain how it feels to see him on the sidelines, only able to watch Theo doing what he wish he could. I wonder if he is feeling like Petit doos now.

And while we can all enjoy the morning after the night before let’s be aware that Walcott is not yet the finished article, he did well last night but still has a long way to go. There is no way we should expect theo to perform consistently well, yes there will be flashes of brilliance, glimpses of a special talent, surely there will be the mistakes and petulence of youth, we will need to be patient, give Theo a chance to grow up. To much expectation to soon will do nothing but hurt his career.

Congratulations Theo, thank you for lifting the spirits of English fans everywhere.

Walcott attracts the attention of Andorra

First off, no one can deny that Walcott did a sterling job in his first International start, but remember who the opposition was. He started the game full of verve and immediately had the attention of Andorra’s defence. Not being able to cope Andorra had to resort to stopping Theo with brutal physicality.

Some would say that after the treatment meted out to him, Theo faded as the game wore on. True that there was less of Walcott, but I feel this was down to the tactics employed by the England players. Far from keeping the ball on the ground and playing a passing game, England went into long ball mode, forcing Walcott to chase after 30 and 40 yard balls without much result.

Whatever Fabio Capello decides, Theo has more to offer than Beckham who is getting on a bit, Bentley who hasn’t shown anything to match his hype, Wright-Phillips and Lennon is off the radar for now. Confidence is important to all sportsmen and right now Walcott is a sportsman full of confidence. Could it be that Walcott starts on Wednesday?

The Appiah thing just won’t go away, with all and sundry claiming Arsenal is in for him. This is just a nonsensical notion perpetrated by those still unhappy about Arsenal summer transfers. Appiah is just an old, injury prone has-been that no-one wants. Why on earth would Wenger be interested in him, and his not better than what we have. So get over it.

Finally Dein stepping down as chairman of Red and White holdings is, according to the man, design to warm relations between the board and Usmanov. While this is a noble gesture, I doubt that Usmanov and the board relationship is wholly based on Dein position ad R&R but what Usmanov represents. I am not a fan of Dein but am worried that without Dein, Usmanov may now be more inclined to be more aggressive in his pursuit of ownership Arsenal Fc

Maybe it’s just me being paranoid, is it?

UPDATE

I know Myles can be wrong sometimes but after reading this article I’m even more paranoid.

William Gallas, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri, Bacary Sagna will all feature for France against Austria, with Nasri looking to cement a position in the french squad.

Cesc Fabregas might by rested against Bosnia-Herzegovina, while van Persie and Bendtner are included in their respective clubs after suffering slight knocks in training.

Djourou will be up against Israel, while Vela will be in Mexico facing Jamaica in a game that was supposed to be in Jamaica. Due to recent hurricanes the venue was changed to Mexico city.

Young guns Theo Walcott and Lukasz Fabianski will be in the starting 11 for England and Poland today.

Let’s wish our boys all the best and hope they get through their matches uninjured.

Liar, liar, pants on fire

My take on this is simple, as a fan I want the club to succeed and winning trophies is the best sign of success in our industry. The manager is put in place to bring trophies to the club and should use all means available to him in order to achieve the goals of the club.

That being said none of us would want the club to fail and spending beyond our means will surely bring failure in the long term, I want to continue going to the Emirates and enjoy top quality premier League football for as long as possible.

I am willing to continue challenging for top honours as we did last season, and hope to continue to do so for a long time, than to break the bank in order to challenge for top honours in the short term and risk fighting for survival in the long term.

Make no mistake about it, while a new signing will placate us and bring a greater possibility of winning it is not guaranteed. So in as much as I am disappointed, I will get behind the team, giving them my full support in a bid to win a trophy this season, or next.

Of course we are not entirely happy with the business conducted by Arsenal and most of us are still expecting an announcement of epic proportions before the windows are finally pulled shot when the clock strikes midnight.

Is Nasri the best bit of business this summer?

So far we are obviously short on an solid, aggressive, ball winning, pass intercepting, all round monster midfielder, which I’m sure we will sign before the end of the day. Once the window is closed then we can pass judgement on the deals.

Speaking of passing judgement, this weekend has been judged to be an excellent one for Arsenal and the fans. It’s been full of highs for us but there are some who haven’t fared so well. Here’s my summary.

Weekend winners

Arsenal Fans

They game against Newcastle was a spectacle of beautiful football, the kind which has spoilt us into expecting, free flowing, pass and move, wengerball, every time our team steps on the pitch. according to the manager there is more of this to come.

“I think there’s more to come from this team,” said Wenger afterwards.

“We have a team whose game is based on movement and passing. In the first 25 minutes I feel we could have played better in the final third. Even in the last 20 minutes, we didn’t finish off the game.

“That’s why there’s more to come. But it’s linked with the quality of how much we integrate our philosophy of the game and how much we want to push our talent.”

Robin Van Persie

After a slow start to his season, Robin put on a display that reminded us of what we’ve missed during his absence. When he went off we all thought the worst, but amazingly he is alright, that in itself makes him a weekend winner.

Emmanuel Eboue

His best game for Arsenal since switched to midfield, he got his own song, and left the pitch to a rousing ovation. Hopefully he will remember this feeling and use it as motivation in the future.

Samir Nasri

Wenger puts it this way

“I think he had a complete performance,” said Wenger. “He had a great touch on the ball, good vision and good team discipline.

“We like him to have the ball because we know, every time he does, he’ll do something with it. For me it’s a sign of a player that, when he gets the ball, you’re happy.

“You don’t have to worry about the rest.”

Carlos Vela

Vela has had to wait for 3 years before he could finally suit up for Arsenal. On his début he showed why Wenger pulled out all the stops to get him. Myles Palmer had this to say

Even allowing for the fact that the contest was over, Vela had to make decisions and he did that very well. Every run, every turn, every pass, every flick, had a purpose -Vela looked the business. He looked pure class. He looked like a Latin Bostik-boots who could became Arsenal’s biggest star. This Mexican might shift merchandise. He might sell a lot of shirts

Where you have winners there usually must be losers, the performance on the weekend was one of the rare ones where everyone on the team did well. There were still some losers connected to the club, ok not connected put still let’s put the boot in.

Justin Hoyte

His team won in the end, but an own goal on your début is never good.

Alex Hleb

I guess the bench in Barcelona is warmer that in London, if we thought that losing to Fulham was bad the spare a thought for Barca who lost Numancia a team that spent £75m less than Barca over the summer

Phillip Senderos

What is this guy on, on his first opportunity this is what he had to say about his present and past teams

I am very happy to be here and happy to be given this chance by the club, I want to repay this trust on the pitch. Arsenal are a great team, but Milan are the best team in the world.

So there you have it my winners and losers this weekend, feel free to rebut or add your choices to the list.

Gallas misses an early chance

Fortunately it wasn’t, some good work from Adebayor won us a penalty minutes after Kolo Toure had a will hit shot saved by Given. Van Persie stepped up to score the first of his season and we were off and running. I had previously written that v. Persie must find his shooting boots and he undoubtedly has. Robin,  who looked sharp and fit, scored a second from good play by Eboue who had his best game for Arsenal for a long time.

The entire team had was much improved, they seemed to have learnt lessons from the Fulham defeat. There was a determination and hunger that was clearly missing last week. Denilson who was the target of much scorn from the previous week redeemed himself yesterday. The was still the odd misplaced pass but his performance was at least a 7/10 and a goal will surely boost his confidence.

Another player who sought redemption yesterday was Eboue, like I said he can be good sometimes and yesterday was one of those times. It leads you to wonder why can’t play like that more often. Like the manager said

I believe that the improvement comes from a completely different attitude. We have shown that against FC Twente and we have shown again here. Fulham was the start of the season with tough games before it. After the players went away it was some players’ fourth game in 10 days and we were not ready mentally at Craven Cottage.

There is no doubt that the talent and technical ability is there, it’s just a question of going out there and playing like you know you can. It’s all in the head.

well played boys, well played

Nasri again proved that his transfer fee was good value by putting in another excellent display, we can safely say that we have improved on Hleb. His little clip on Barton reminded me of Sagna on Huddlestone last season, and totally blanking Keegan after the match was classic. He is rapidly becoming one of my favourite players on the team.

Adebayor didn’t score but was involved in all 3 goals, he displayed a selflessness to his game that we haven’t seen since the Henry days, maybe even a slight bit too much.

The sight of v.Persie going off injured was the only worry we had, hopefully it’s not a long-term injury. Knowing his history we can only hope.

Performances like yesterdays’ is what led to the name of this blog, what we’ve now come to expect from Arsenal FC, what can simply be described in one word. . .Wengerball. Let’s not get too carried away by a win over a poor Newcastle team, just enjoy the quality of entertainment served up by the team and look forward to more quality football.

Samir Nasri opens the scoring for Arsenal

We played well, not the rampant or sublime performance as many seem to think but much better than Saturday. There was a lot good to take away from the game, and some improvements to make, so let’s crack on.

Nasri is well worth his fee.

The accusation levelled at Nasri being lightweight is a little bit true, but he seems to be able to hold on to the ball in a similar fashion to Hleb. The difference is Nasri is willing to take a shot at goal and seems quite capable of scoring. His 2 goals so far has been important goals for the team. Scoring when we need a goal not at the end of a rout.

Van Persie needs to find his shooting boots

The amount of time v Persie spent in sick bay seemed to have robbed him of his aim. He has not been able to find the back of the net so far this season, but his 28th minute miss just shows how bad his shooting has been so. In a word Atrocious.

Denilson is not the answer

We’ve gone over this before, what I saw last night was typical of the Brazillian. In addition to him not being a defensive minded midfielder, he also has the propensity to make the wrong decision, wrong turn, or make try the harder pass instead of the simple one.

Denilson may become a great player in the future, but that will only happen when his decision making improves.

We allow teams to much time in the middle

On thing that irked me last night, and for a while now is this. Even if we don’t have a holding or defensive midfielder, the least we can do is pressure the ball. Give the opposition less time, hassle them, harry them, but no. What we do is back off the ball, almost like we don’t want to get possession of said ball.

Thinking about it made me realise that that is essentially what Flamini gave to the team, he would always be there trying to retain possession. Do we really need a defensive midfielder to do that? Why can’t it be done as a team?

Eboue playing can be a good thing. . . sometimes

It’s not impossible, he just need to sort his head out. Confidence is everything, sometimes he looks scared, other times he scares the opposition. How hard is it for him to cut the theatrics and get on with it?

Similarly to Drogba when he does this he looks the business, with his pace and power he can easily be an asset to the team. The problem is you never know which Eboue you’re going to get.

That’s my observations, what was yours?