Posted on December 17, 2010 by admin Christmas is coming up, and more importantly the January transfer window approaches! After Arsene Wenger's pronouncement that Arsenal will not be buying anyone in January most of the rumours appear to be about players leaving the Emirates instead! Emmanuel Eboue seems to be linked with a move to Italy every year, and the Daily Mail reports today that Roma are offering £5m to take him to Serie A. Worryingly they also say that Eboue will be out of contract in the summer and could leave for free if Wenger doesn't take the cash next month. I find it very hard to believe that Arsenal will be letting another player leave for free……. Eboue doesn't seem to get many first team chances any more, and another player on the sidelines is the Brazilian midfielder Denilson, who has had just three starts for Arsenal this year. The Mail reports that Steve McClaren has designs on taking him to Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, and think he is worth £10million. Now that Jack Wilshere has cemented his place in the first team, I can't imagine Denilson will be missed very much, especially by a couple of readers of this blog………. Although the above two rumours seem to be possible, I don't really believe that Wenger will let either of them go before next summer. He won't want to weaken the squad in any way while Arsenal are challenging on all fronts. But I CAN see him letting Manuel Almunia leave, if a buyer can be found for a goalkeeper that has strange mystery illnesses every week, unless of course Wenger has been telling us porkies? Surely not! Arsenal have been linked with the young Newcastle defender Steven Taylor for the last six months, and the Metro reports today that he has been offered to Arsenal for a cut-price £2m after his contract negotiations with Toon have completely broken down. Taylor will be free to move on a Bosman in the summer if he is not sold immediately, and Wenger could probably do with another defender just now, but is he good enough to play for the Gunners? I'll leave that to you lot to decide…………
Posted on December 16, 2010 by admin There are numerous Arsenal rumours lately, but most of them seem to concern players leaving the Emirates rather than arriving! The latest, which admittedly has been doing the rounds for some time, says that Jose Mourinho wants the French defender to move to Real Madrid. This puzzles me…. No-one can say that Mourinho is not an expert in sizing up players and their qualities, so there is no doubt that if this was true he would have had Clichy scouted and investigated many many times, and I'm wodering if they have seen any of his games this season? Clichy is one of the few remaining players from Arsenal's invincibles era, having been considered as backup to Ashley Cole, but lately he has been far convincing according to many fans on this blog and pundits alike. In fact Martin Keown said just this week "Clichy is going backwards. We all have a bad time at some point maybe he needs to have some time out to look from the outside. It sometimes helps." So for the papers to suggest that Mourinho is willing to offer Karim Benzema to Arsenal in exchange for Clichy would seem like pure madness from the Portugese coach…. Am I wrong?
Posted on December 16, 2010 by admin The young Pole Wociech Szczesny performed admirably on his Premiership debut against Man Utd, and it looks like he is certain to keep his place for Stoke's visit to the Emirates on Saturday. Lukasz Fabianski still has a problem with his hip, while Almunia has suddenly twisted his ankle amid rumours that he is going to be sold in January. The Times is saying that he has played his last game for Arsenal, but then again I forecast that myself earlier today! The same with Nicklas Bendtner of course, but instead of creating an imaginary injury, Wenger is using the excuse of the pregnant Baroness as the reason for giving Bendtner the weekend off. He hardly needs an excuse really as Bendtner has only been warming the bench since his return from injury anyway….. When asked if Szczesny would be between the sticks again against Stoke, Wenger replied: "We have to test Lukasz in the next two days," "He has a hip muscle injury. But Wojciech did well. People always questioned the goalkeeping position at Arsenal Football Club. But I always said we had four good goalkeepers – look at how well Vito Mannone is doing at Hull. We have plenty of quality. "Manuel Almunia has twisted his ankle but Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie are getting better and better. Also Thomas Vermaelen could be back in January we think." "We have not lost anyone else," Wenger continued. "Nicklas Bendtner's partner is in labour and he is due to be a father today or tomorrow. So I don't know if I will involve him." "Otherwise the injury news is looking quite positive. Abou Diaby is back in full training and is not far away. But the weekend is too early for him." Have you noticed that every time Wenger mentions Vermaelen he ends the sentence with ‘perhaps', ‘we think', ‘hopefully', or words to that effect. I'm still waiting for him to say that they actually know whats wrong with him……
Posted on December 16, 2010 by admin Arsenal's abysmal record against the top teams have cost us trophies. Many of you know that we have struggled recently to deliver the winning result when it really matters against the top teams. Arsenal won their last major trophy in the season ending 2005 which is now five and half years ago. We have been close to our rivals in mounting a kind of challenge for the title, only to falter and fall away at the finishing line. I believe what has cost Arsenal is their head to head record with the best teams in the country all throughout this barren spell. The big four which has now expanded to include Man City and Spurs, forming the newly recognised ‘big six' title challengers. These six clubs are widely recognised as the best clubs in the country and are all genuine title challengers. Throughout the past five seasons plus we have played a total of seventy fixtures in all competitions against these five clubs. We have only managed twenty-four wins (win ratio 34%), drawn seventeen (draw ratio 24%) and lost an incredible twenty-nine (Loss ratio 42%) of these crucial fixtures. This really affirms that Arsenal over the past several years have not done too well against our title challenging rivals. When you look at the league table over this period it is not a surprise to see us finish third and fourth as we have not taken the vital points of the right clubs at the right time. What is certainly more frightening is the trend over the past two and half seasons where we have played thirty of the these fixtures. They have declined slightly as they have managed to win nine of these fixture (win ratio 30%), draw six (draw ration 20%) and lose fifteen (loss ratio 50%) of these big games. Arsenal in the past few seasons have lost half of all these matches against the better teams in the country. This is beyond an absolute disgrace as this is generous statistics, because if you took Man City, Spurs and Liverpool out; they look much worse. Arsenal's consistency to beat the bigger teams when it matters is incredibly poor and is filled with excuses that typify Wenger. The most notorious of the blame culture installed in Arsene's head include the pitch was poor, we had injuries, we were unlucky, we were kicked off the ball and we played better but somehow lost. Sorry Arsene you and your team are to blame! Our head to head with Manchester United is a disgrace and in the fourteen fixtures played we have won only 3 (21%), drew 3 (21%) and lost 8 (58%). The record is even worse in the last few years where we have played seven of these crunch clashes; won 1 (14%), drew 1 (14%) and lost a staggering 5 (72%). Manchester United have walked all over us for throughout the past five years and have got stronger against us season after season. Will Arsene analyse these performances and still claim they are a one off? Or were we merely unlucky and the trophy drought has nothing to do with these crunch clash fixtures? Our head to head results against Tottenham and Manchester City have been rather even over the past few seasons. We had better results against them in the earlier period of our baron spell but have been ever so slightly been undone against them recently. For a club of Arsenal's stature we should dominate these two fixtures and for years have been rather even with two smaller clubs who are the outside title challengers. There is some positive news as we have dominated the clash with Liverpool though. Since the end of the 2005 season we have played them fifteen times and managed 7 wins (47%), 5 draws (33%) and 3 losses (20%). This is a brilliant record and if we had maintained a similar record against the other contenders we would have won several trophies in that period. In the past two and half seasons we have become even stronger against them; five fixtures played where we won 3 (60%), drew 2 (40%) and lost none (0%). We get something right against Liverpool, but they are not the force they used to be and sit comfortably mid table yet again this season. We play Chelsea in several weeks and I am dreading this clash as I can only see a Chelsea win. We have played thirteen times and only managed 2 wins (15%), 1 draw (8%) and have been destroyed 10 times (77%). Chelsea have annihilated us over the past five and half seasons, and of recent years have got even stronger as we have played them six times, won only once (17%) and lost the other remaining five fixtures (83%). We have lost the last three matches without scoring a single goal and were outclassed and humiliated. There are several mid table teams with a better record against Chelsea and even United than what we have. We have averaged 0.66 goals per game against Chelsea and concede on average 2.33 goals per game. This proves we cannot attack and score against the big teams when it matters. Over the past five seasons we have been consistent in being poor against our title rivals. We have been outclassed with tactics that contain our attack, and capitalise us on the break or set piece situation. Throughout the seventy fixtures we have scored 100 goals (1.42 goals per game) and conceded 111 goals (1.59 goals per game). If it was not for our average displays against Spurs and Man City, accompanied with out supremacy against Liverpool we would not have averaged this many goals per game. Against Chelsea and Manchester United combined we average 0.74 goals scored per game and concede on average 1.95 goals per game. If Arsenal were to learn from these matches and develop better tactics to score more and defend better, they would win silverware. Until Arsene Wenger balances the squad and improves the results against the top sides they will never win a major trophy of significance. These only include the Premier League, FA Cup and The Champions League. The League Cup is not a measure of consistency of the club improving and developing back into a major force. How sad is it for Arsenal fans that we will celebrate a trophy we once ostracised as being beneath our reputation to win? From these statistics it is fairly convincing that Arsenal have a lot of work to do if they want to win proper silverware. Lets hope they get out of this slump and hammer Chelsea in a few weeks. Unlikely, but we will see! If you would like a full copy of the results and statistics please comment, and I will place them in the comments section for you to see in black and white. The truth hurts doesn't it? We may hammer Stoke but until we improve our form against the better teams, Arsenal will always remain a ‘Nearly Did It Club.' (Adam has done a lot of research on this, and if you would like him to post the ACTUAL scores from the last few years as proof, just let me know and i will add them – ADMIN)
Posted on December 17, 2010 by admin The young Belgian international Eden Hazard has been linked with a move to Arsenal ever since he was a schoolboy prodigy, and Arsene Wenger said a couple of years ago that Hazard should continue his development at Lille before moving to Arsenal in the future. Well it seems that that day is fast approaching. Hazard is now 19 and is wowing the spectators in the French League, and it appears that he now feels he is ready to take the step up to a bigger league and would much rather join Arsenal than Real Madrid. He said yesterday: If I do leave at the end of the season, I dont want to go somewhere where I will be on the bench. I am young, not 20 until next month, and it will be difficult to break through in a team like Real, where Ronaldo and Kaka will be my competitors. But there are teams like Arsenal, where youngsters can grow more easily into the first team and make their mark. I will not leave for another French club, because, with more or less 100 first division matches under my belt for Lille, I dont think I have to prove my qualities for a team in the same league. I am feeling stronger now and better equipped for the challenge of playing at a higher level. Back last summer Arsenal fans were calling for Wenger to buy Hazard, and I found this video of Hazard showing his skills. Have a look and see if you think Wenger should finally put his hand in his pocket to bring him to Arsenal
Betting Odds Borussia Monchengladbach - Hamburg Select League Select Match Eredivisie FIFA Club World Cup Premier League Primera Liga Super Ligi Serie A 1. Bundesliga Borussia Monchengladbach - Hamburg Eintracht Frankfurt - Borussia Dortmund Werder Bremen - Kaiserslautern FC Schalke - FC Koln Wolfsburg - Hoffenheim Nurnberg - Hannover St. Pauli - Mainz 05 Bayer Leverkusen - Freiburg VfB Stuttgart - Bayern Munchen
Inter striker Diego Milito says that they cannot let their guard down for an instant against TP Mazembe in the final of the Club World Cup on Saturday.
The Italian and European champions breezed into the semi-finals with a comfortable 3-0 defeat of Korean side Seongnam Ilhwa but Milito believes that the final could be a different ball game altogether.
"We can't let our guard down even for a second," the Argentinian striker told Fifa.com. "First we need to get our strength back, then we need to focus and make sure that we play the way we can, never forgetting though that a final is always a totally different type of match."
He added, "I do tend to do well in finals. But even though I'm always desperate to score, this time around I'll be happy enough with the win."
Reflecting on their semi-final performance against Asian champions Seongnam, the 31-year-old said, "Scoring early definitely gave us a real confidence boost and it meant that we could relax for the rest of the match.
"We were two up at the break and after that we managed to play within ourselves while still remaining fully focused." Dec 16, 2010 8:30:00 PM
Inter striker Diego Milito says that they cannot let their guard down for an instant against TP Mazembe in the final of the Club World Cup on Saturday.
The Italian and European champions breezed into the semi-finals with a comfortable 3-0 defeat of Korean side Seongnam Ilhwa but Milito believes that the final could be a different ball game altogether.
"We can't let our guard down even for a second," the Argentinian striker told Fifa.com. "First we need to get our strength back, then we need to focus and make sure that we play the way we can, never forgetting though that a final is always a totally different type of match."
He added, "I do tend to do well in finals. But even though I'm always desperate to score, this time around I'll be happy enough with the win."
Reflecting on their semi-final performance against Asian champions Seongnam, the 31-year-old said, "Scoring early definitely gave us a real confidence boost and it meant that we could relax for the rest of the match.
"We were two up at the break and after that we managed to play within ourselves while still remaining fully focused."
Eredivisie FIFA Club World Cup Premier League Primera Liga Super Ligi Serie A 1. Bundesliga Borussia Monchengladbach - Hamburg Eintracht Frankfurt - Borussia Dortmund Werder Bremen - Kaiserslautern FC Schalke - FC Koln Wolfsburg - Hoffenheim Nurnberg - Hannover St. Pauli - Mainz 05 Bayer Leverkusen - Freiburg VfB Stuttgart - Bayern Munchen
Inter striker Diego Milito says that they cannot let their guard down for an instant against TP Mazembe in the final of the Club World Cup on Saturday.
The Italian and European champions breezed into the semi-finals with a comfortable 3-0 defeat of Korean side Seongnam Ilhwa but Milito believes that the final could be a different ball game altogether.
"We can't let our guard down even for a second," the Argentinian striker told Fifa.com. "First we need to get our strength back, then we need to focus and make sure that we play the way we can, never forgetting though that a final is always a totally different type of match."
He added, "I do tend to do well in finals. But even though I'm always desperate to score, this time around Ill be happy enough with the win."
Reflecting on their semi-final performance against Asian champions Seongnam, the 31-year-old said, "Scoring early definitely gave us a real confidence boost and it meant that we could relax for the rest of the match.
"We were two up at the break and after that we managed to play within ourselves while still remaining fully focused."
Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has once again put rumours of a potential move to Inter on the back burner, but did thank Nerazzurri president Massimo Moratti for his praise.
The diminutive Argentina international was in Milan at an even organised by Dolce & Gabbana and spoke about the newspaper links to the current European champions.
"At the moment I'm not thinking about Inter," the 23-year-old stated to Sky Sport 24.
"Moratti? I like his compliments - he is a great president and a very good person."
Messi has once again been in sensational form this season, bagging 23 goals already between appearances in La Liga and the Champions League and sitting in first place in the Castrol Rankings.