Arsenal F C (Pride Of London)

[jonmoody61]

Was it a league game last night? Oh, no wait, it was a Carling Cup semi final. Obviously nobody told the players we were playing in a cup semi-final last night. Wigan ran out 1-0 winners and I can't begrudge them their victory one bit. They lost two of their most important players in the first half hour as well.

Our back 4 and keeper apart (and possibly Flamini because at least he looked like he gave a little bit of a ****) we were atrocious last night. I have seen some bad performances from Arsenal in the past but this has to be one of the worst ever displays under Arsene Wenger. Maybe it had something to do with the formation because I couldn't keep track of who was playing where. Quincy, Ljungberg and Reyes all took turns up front before switching wide again. Why couldn't we just have played a 4-4-2 which the players know and are comfortable with?

That aside the players you put out have to try. Quincy showed again that he is a long way from being good enough for the first team and one good game against Everton over a year ago isn't enough to make a reputation on, Freddie had a good chance early on but scooped it over and his most notable contribution afterwards was jumping out of the wall to allow Kavanagh's free kick to be on target, José looked like he would rather have been anywhere but Wigan and he's normally somebody you can rely on for effort at least. Then we come to Hleb and Gilberto. I realise players need time to get used to the English game but Hleb looked like he might be useful when he first joined. He seems to have gotten worse though. He was absolutely useless. He couldn't pass water at the moment. I suggest we have him kidnapped.

Gilberto though was something else. He looked like it was his first ever game of football. It was embarrassing watching him in the second half he was that bad. He gave the ball away all the time, missed tackles, missed headers, fell over his own feet. Truly horrible to watch and the sort of insipid, lackadaisical performance he's put in on more than a few occassions this season. And he was captain as well? If he can't be arsed to play the way he played against United because it's Wigan in the semi of the lowly Carling Cup well he can f**k off. His performance tonight was to football what Phil Collins is to music. If it had been a dog there would have been a queue of people round the corner ready to put it out of its misery.

More of the report to come...

[jonmoody61]

What made it all the worse was when they scored we really picked up the pace, started passing and moving - with not much end product, granted - but at least we looked like we were trying. Why couldn't we have done that before they scored? I hope some of them get a real roasting tonight because they f*****g deserve it, the slack c***s. Tonight was another indication that this squad needs strengthening and quickly. Actually, not so much an indication as a gigantic naked woman with four tits and three minges with snakes for her hair holding up a flashing neon sign saying:

"SIGN SOME NEW PLAYERS NOW!!"

Normally when a player plays badly you can drop him and bring in somebody else who is dying to prove their worth to the team and who is motivated to play well when given a chance. We don't have anybody like to take Gilberto's place and after the worst performance I have ever seen from him you can be guaranteed he'll still be in the team on Saturday and that, as far as I'm concerned, is not good enough. That was a performance born out of comfort and no team can afford to carry players like that.

Not too many positives then. I thought the back four were solid enough, Senderos did well, Djourou looks like games will do good things for him and Almunia looked good again. Not much to take back to Highbury for the second leg but if we go into that game with the same attitude as this one we'll be nowhere near the final and Wigan will deserve their day in the sun, so to speak. And the powercut was the most exciting thing to happen all night long.

Even Arsene Wenger was unhappy afterwards and he's normally Johnny Positive no matter what. He said "The most disappointing aspect is we didn't score and we didn't create a lot of chances."

So there you have it. A horrible game to watch on the comfort of my sofa and my thoughts often turned to the travelling Arsenal fans who deserved better than that. I hope the pies were decent, at least. Some arse kicking in training this week is definitely in order. Still, at least Joe Cole got the beat up recently - so its not all bad!!

[Magpie]

...what is it with Wigan and the Carling Cup this year??!!

I can fully sympathise Jon. At least you lost to a team mostly made up of First-Teamers; we got dumped out by their bl00dy RESERVES!!!

Oh, and by the way, THIS is a piece of comedy genius:

[SE13]

[jonmoody61]

There is a chance but at the moment, I must say, a very vague chance because we are not close to concluding any deal." - Arsene Wenger yesterday on signing new players.

I hope Tuesday's game against Wigan has made him take stock and he's now actively looking to bring in players because without them the rest of this season is going to be a struggle. We were linked with another attacking player yesterday, Georgios Samaras from Herenveen. This is the guy whose agent was talking him up in the summer. Add him to Zigic and Rosicky over the last few days. However, I am not sure a striker is what we need.

As far as I can see 95% of our problems are in midfield. Essentially we have lost 4 quality players since last season. Vieira and Edu moved on. However, the normally considerable contribution from Ljungberg and Pires (in terms of goals at least) has pretty much dried up altogether. Freddie has yet to score in the league this season. Bob has a couple or three (with at least one penalty in there) and he obviously got two against Cardiff in the cup. However, you take those four players out of any team and they are going to struggle. Now, the manager wasn't to know that Pires and Ljungberg would fall so spectacularly out of form, although the warning signs have been there. Letting Vieira and Edu leave without signing any kind of replacement - and I do not consider Alex Song any kind of replacement - is now coming back to bite us in the arse which is what we all feared in the summer.

Gilberto is playing in the comfort zone, complacent because he knows he's getting his game every week. He's playing so badly that Cesc is having to do the wrong kind of job in midfield. Our young Spaniard is a creative player with an eye for a through pass and one who likes to get forward. Gilberto is so inept this season though that Cesc's game is being completely stifled. I know Flamini isn't everyone's favourite but at the moment I'd play him ahead of Gilberto firstly for his effort but secondly because he will do the job he's told to do. If that means sit back, break up the play and give it to Cesc I think he's more than capable of doing that.

[jonmoody61]

Ideally though I would like to see us bring in a decent central midfield player. Obviously an established player would be best but if we have to bring in that Diaby lad and if he can add strength, running and not falling over like a **** new born foal then that'd suit me fine. It is also my belief that we need to bring in a wide player too. Let us assume that José is going to play on the left wing from now on so we start with him there and we leave him there to get a run of games under his belt. Pires and Ljungberg are on the right. Neither of them are playing well, Bob might pick up his game because he wants a new contract but that's not enough. Freddie is off lying underneath supermodels advertising underpants. We need pace, we need someone who can shoot, we need someone to add some spark back into the midfield. I'm not even considering Hleb at the moment as he looks nothing like the player we'd expected.

Let's look at Liverpool for a moment. They went something like 321 games this season without conceding a goal yet in the transfer window they've gone out and bought two new defenders. They are strengthening an area they are already very strong in. Stevie Wonder can see that we were weak in midfield and at the moment it doesn't look like anybody is interested in addressing that problem. I believe that a couple of signings to make the midfield strong again will turn us around. A strong midfield will provide more protection to the defence which in turn will give us a more solid platform to play the attacking football we should be playing.

With Cole almost back, when Eboue and Toure come back from ACN duty, Sol Campbell trying his hardest to make England's world cup team and Senderos getting through that difficult second season better than a lot of young defenders I've seen then I think we're ok at the back. But while our rivals are making themselves stronger in areas they're already strong we badly need to make ourselves strong in an area we're kittenesque in our weakness.

I can see how we could fit a striker in during the window as well but that would only be welcome once we've sorted out the midfield. What's worrying me most though is the way Arsene seems to be trying to find a formation to suit the players we have rather than going out and bringing in the players who would allow us to play the fluid 4-4-2 we are/were so good at. As my chum on Gunnerblog pointed out yesterday we played 4-6-0 at Wigan with no focal point for the attack - yet on the bench we had a pair of strikers who have been tearing up reserve defences all season. Nicklas Bendtner and Arturo Lupoli are an awesome pairing, they understand each other well and they **** well know where the goal is. None of this pussying around passing sideways for them. They're both hungry and they both want to score. Why couldn't we have played a 4-4-2 with those two up front and a midfield of Reyes (left) - Flamini - Gilberto (I know, I know) - Ljungberg/Quincy (right)?

It surely couldn't have been any worse than having no strikers at all. It wasn't long ago that Arsene Wenger was scathing about this 4-5-1 formation we've been adopting lately and I loved it when he said that because I hate it too. I hate the negativity of it and this Arsenal has never been about that. Now we're seeing it all too often and it's depressing. He wants to give youth a chance but won't play these two lads who can't do any more to prove to him they deserve a go in the team - especially in the Carling Cup. How many goals do they need to score? Bendtner has 16 goals in 18 reserve and youth games, Lupoli has 14 goals in 11 reserve games. And remember he's often playing against senior players in these games, players bigger and stronger but he can still score.

[jonmoody61]

I want us to go back to playing 4-4-2 and I badly want the manager to sign the players we need to do enable us to do that. We won't win a thing playing 4-5-1. We won't qualify for the Champions League next season playing that formation. I am all for the manager being loyal to players and showing faith in them but, and this is not the first time I've said this, he is being let down - BADLY - by a number of his senior pros and now he has to show he's ruthless enough to deal with the situation. Gilberto, in my opinion, doesn't deserve to play the next game. If we had the personnel I'd make him watch from the stands on Saturday. I certainly wouldn't allow him to spout all over the official website how the home game would be different. Well, earth to Gilberto, it would **** want to be.

Every fan loves when their club signs new players. There's an excitement about the speculation, about the thoughts of how he's going to fit into the team, whose place he'll take. At the moment I'm not excited about signing new players. I'm desperate for us to sing new players. The idea that we might not sign anyone at all makes me get a little bit sick into my mouth each time and frankly I could do without that. Yes, we need to find the right players but we hear all the time about our famed scouting network and the manager's knowledge of every player that ever existed and even some that haven't been born yet. It's time to start putting things right before it's really too late. Thierry Henry is a wonderful player and I am so happy that he has decided to stay but will he stay without Champions League football and would anyone blame him if he decided he had to leave to further his ambition?

So what if players are cup-tied for the Champions League this season? The most important thing now is getting into next year's competition. If we go further this year, great, I'll be chuffed, but a glorious semi-final exit this year isn't worth a **** if we're not in the draw next September. We have money to spend, there must be dozens of players good enough to make a difference and it's all very depressing when you don't see us active in the market. A good win on Saturday will raise spirits until the next time the lazy, overpaid, feckless senior pros decide not to turn up and leave the youngsters to do all the work for them. Then it'll get miserable again. What would put this right is fairly plain to see.

Signings = new players + new skills + fresher squad = competition for places = motivated players = good performances and results.

No signings = me being sick in my mouth, and probably down my front, a lot between now and May.

Come on Arsene, I hate the vom. Sign someone. Please.

[jonmoody61]

Well, whaddya know. You write a big long piece about how we need signings and all of a sudden it seems like we've made our first move in the transfer window. I think I might write a big long piece about how much I need to win the lottery. Twice.

Vassiriki Abou Diaby who, according to reports which started to emerge last night, has agreed a 4 year deal with us. He's 19 years old, 6'2" and a central midfielder. The inevitable comparisons we not long in coming.

I don't know much about him other than he doesn't have a great deal of experience, only 10 league games according to the Auxerre site, but he was a stand-out during the Under 19s world championships. Beyond that I know nothing other than he looks strong and we need strong.

Rumours have also been flying around about Southampton wonderkid Theo Walcott . Some are saying he spent yesterday at London Colney and that he and another signing could be unveiled today. Again Walcott is an outstanding young talent but he's not even 17 yet, still, I'd play him ahead of Freddie at the moment. The Sun goes so far as to say we've agreed a £10m deal while other papers remain more cautious.

What does seem to be the case is that Walcott has chosen Arsenal over all the others and at this point Southampton seem likely to do a deal because he hasn't yet signed a professional contract with them and could leave with his fee set by a tribunal. The Sun goes so far as to say we've agreed a £10m deal with £5m up front and the rest based on performances. Walcott's family are apparently keen for Southampton to be rewarded for nurturing his career thus far.

[jonmoody61]

The other player linked yesterday was Monaco striker Emmanuel Adebayor who is currently in the dog house with Monaco for his behaviour around his appearance for Togo in the African Nations Cup. While Walcott and Diaby are exciting signings I hope we stay far away from Adebayor. I think what these signings indicate - if they do come off - is that this is definitively a new team we're building. The boss has his eye on the future still but hopefully these are players that can make an impact in the short term as well. If nothing else they will serve to motivate those older players in the comfort zone knowing that there's a talented youngster ready to take their place.

Real Madrid have been using Marca over the last few days to announce their intention to sign Ashley Cole in the summer. They went so far as to say that contact had been made between the club and Cole's representatives. Earlier yesterday though Ashley distanced himself from any move, saying "I've got three years left (on my contract) and I'm looking forward to playing in the new stadium. It has been in every paper since the start of the season and there is nothing I can do. I have just got to get back fit and that's my main aspiration at the moment, as well as trying to win things with Arsenal."

Last night Real Madrid real Madrid issued a statement, saying "Following press reports regarding an interest by Real Madrid for Arsenal's Ashley Cole, the club wishes to clarify that at no time has Real Madrid confirmed via any official spokesman that the club has made a move for Ashley Cole or any other player", which should cover them nicely in case people start asking too many questions. As for Cole he should be back in the next couple of weeks and maybe we needed him to be out of the team for a period to realise how much we miss him as a player despite his behaviour last year (which I still find hard to forgive but as someone who wants this Arsenal team to pick up the pace again I'll be happy to see him back in the team).

So, it's all a bit more promising than it was this time yesterday. Did I mention I need to win the lottery, twice? That Euro millions is over £50m tonight. I reckon that could do it.

Isn't it amazing how a couple of signings can make everything seem so much brighter? And the rumours that maybe even up to 3 players could be unveiled at Arsene's press conference today (which is held every Friday). The place must be buzzing today! Can't wait to watch it!

I can imagine Arsene coming out with the biggest smirk ever! Its brilliant!

[SE13]

I am awaiting news from the press conference, but nothing appears to be happening as yet.

Abou Diaby is being touted as the next Patrick Vieira. This can only be a good thing, and the void left by Patricks departure was never filled. As it turns out, since his departure, Arsenal have gone from being "The Untouchables" to almost mid table mediocracy. It is high time Arsene Wenger brought in someone to fill that particular role.

As for the Theo Walcott rumour, I was rather hoping to have heard something from todays press conference, but all I have seen so far are reports from Southampton dismissing all the claims, and their chairman has gone on to say that this is the first he has heard of it. Although he was spotted with Clive Woodward at Arsenals training ground yesterday, he has rubbished any word of talks about Theo, stating he went there to see the facilities Arsenal have to offer.

Not too sure about the possibility of a third player, as I have heard no other rumours myself, and indeed there is nothing on the official club website at present.
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[Magpie]

I'm surprised that no-one yet has mentioned Arsenal's 7-goal demolition of Middlesbrough at the weekend. I couldn't believe my ears when someone told me the result but I've been away this weekend so didn't see any goals. That Terry Henry just can't stop scoring at Highbury!!
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[SE13]

I wanted to post about it, but though it might be too much blatent "nose rubbing" to the Middlesborough supporters frequenting this forum.

It was a majestic display of Arsenal in full power. I have said many times, that one day someone will be on the other end of a hiding, and on Saturday past at Highbury, this came to fruition. For once the team gelled, passes found their target, and the ball wound up in the back of the onion-bag.

With the aquisition of two new players, as indicated above, and the distict possibility of youngster, Theo Walcott from Southampton, the future is looking bright.

For me, the league has gone, so automatic qualification for next years Champions League is THE priority, aside from finishing above Tattenham Hotspuds!!

Next up is Everton at Goodison Park, Liverpool on Saturday, who themselves are not in great form. This is also the team demolished by Arsenal's last seven goal blast... And a chance for the new signings to show their steel.

Keep The Faith.
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[Magpie]

[SE13]

[SE13]

Well, just to update. Theo Walcott has indeed signed for Arsenal, and has been granted two weeks leave by manager, Arsene Wenger. As he is cup-tied, he will not feature in the second leg of the Carling Cup semi-final against Wigan Athletic on Tuesday night, but may well feature in future league games this season, as we try to overhaul Tattenham for the fourth place in the league, guaranteeing Champions League football next season. I did wonder as to whether he will play against Real Madrid in the Champions League later this term, or whether he will be reserved purely for League fixtures.

Either way, this will be a fine aquisition, and will bolster the squad.

Meanwhile, a note about yesterdays 1-0 defeat at the hands of Everton.... It seems on the back of a 7-0 win, that Arsenal simply can't find their feet away from Highbury. This statistic needs to improve and fast, otherwise the only hope of Champions League Football next season will be to actually win the trophy this season!!!
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