Sky Sports have just reported that Robin van Persie will be out of action for ‘several weeks’, with the ankle injury he picked up against Blackburn on Saturday.
This is bad news for Arsenal, but if Chamakh can stay fit in the absence of the Dutchman, then it won’t affect us as badly as first suspected.
In other news, Arsene Wenger has admitted that Arsenal may not be finished in the transfer market.
“It is dead at the moment”
“But maybe not finished”
“At the moment I would say, as it is today, it is finished.”
I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t got a clue what Wenger means. Is it dead or not? Your guess is as good as mine.
I’ll be surprised if Wenger isn’t talking about Schwarzer coming in. If we don’t sign him, then I’ll be shocked. It seems like an absolute cert.
Either way, I’ll be glued to channel 405 (Sky Sports News on Sky) tomorrow night until the window closes at 12am. Actually, I’ll be on later than that, as I recall the Gallas signing finally got announced at about 3am, and the Arshavin deal was announced about 24 hours later.
Let’s hope Wenger can put us out of our misery, sign Schwarzer in the afternoon and announce that we definitely aren’t signing anyone else. It’ll save a good few hours of my life.
After defeating Blackburn 2-1 at Ewood Park, in a nail-biting encounter, Arsenal are sitting pretty three games into the season, after two difficult away games.
Will this be enough to shut up the anti-Wenger fans? Of course not! They’ll find something else to moan about.
The game was played exactly as expected. Blackburn banging long balls into the Arsenal box, and causing problems on corners and long throw-ins. But you know what, we dealt with it better than I’ve seen us deal with this sort of play in a long time. Ironically, the goal they scored was a typical Arsenal-like goal, and Blackburn proved that if they attempted to play football, they probably wouldn’t be a bad team.
It’s always nice getting one over a team managed by Big Sam Allardyce. He’s up there amongst the top wankers as my most hated person in football. If anyone wants a laugh, check out this ‘Big Sam’ twitter thing. It’s hilarious.
Onto the players.
Manuel Almunia has a good game. Regardless of what some fans think of him, he made a couple of decent saves today, and overall looked strong.
The defence was tight. Koscielny and Clichy were at fault for the goal, but aside from that both players were solid.
I like Koscielny a lot. He’s very young, and he’s going to get better and better. One thing I like about him, but at the same time don’t like, is his calmness. He is very assured on the ball, and looks like very cool, and doesn’t look like he has a worry in the world.
Alex Song, sporting a lovely new syrup, along with Cesc Fabregas, looked off the pace in the first half. Both improved a lot in the second half though. Both players were giving away a lot of sloppy balls, which was very out of character. Let’s blame match fitness on that one.
Diaby is an absolute enigma. I’m not his biggest fan, but I thought he looked decent yesterday. If he finds consistency, then he will be a legend. But we’ve been looking for consistency for almost five years or now. I hope it comes, I really do.
Theo Walcott is beginning to shut up a lot of people. We’re only three games into the season, but already he’s shown more consistency then we’ve ever seen from the lad. The World Cup exclusion was definitely a blessing in disguise for Walcott, and more importantly Arsenal. He actually looks like a footballer now. He was quality yesterday.
Arshavin is one of the most frustrating players we’ve ever had at Arsenal. Not frustrating in the same way as Diaby, whereas he doesn’t release the ball when we want him to, but more due to the fact that we all know he’s a top, top footballer, and we’re waiting for him to prove it. He had moments of class yesterday, and was instrumental in both goals. Had a good game.
Glass Ankles Van Persie went off injured again. He looked good in the opening half-hour, and his assist for our opening goal was magical.
Chamakh replaced Van Persie, and I thought he looked quality. Was suited to playing against a team like Blackburn. Picked up Christopher Samba on corners and long throw-ins and did extremely well keeping preventing him from winning headers.
Tomas Rosicky replaced Fabregas during the second-half, and the Czech playmaker once again looked quality. He’s looking good so far this season.
Jack Wilhsere came on late in the game, and looked ok, but he didn’t really have time to shine.
Did anyone else notice the embarrassing diving from the Blackburn players late in the game? Every time a ball was hoofed into our box, they were throwing themselves all over the place. It was sickeningly embarrassing. How dare Big Sam ever accuse Arsenal of not liking the rough stuff again.
Andy Gray annoyed me yesterday. When Chamakh was all over Samba during a long throw by Blackburn, he made a comment along the lines of that sort of play not being allowed and being a clear penalty. I don’t know if anyone remembers last season’s game at Ewood Park. But every time Blackburn had a corner, Jason Roberts was all over Fabianski, blocking him and holding him back. At the time, Andy Gray seemed to think this was a tactical masterstroke by Big Sam and Blackburn.
What is with Scottish football pundits being so anti-Arsenal? What have we ever done to upset the Scots?
Anyway, overall a great result from Arsenal and a quality performance. We mixed the rough stuff with the pretty stuff, something which we’ve struggled to do in the past. Let’s hope Wenger has finally found that balance we need.
Slightly relieved after watching the Live UEFA Champions League draw is an under-statement.
In my opinion, Arsenal have been given the simplest draw for the group stages of the Champions League.
We face Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine, and a return for Arsenal hero Eduardo. We’ve also been drawn against SC Braga of Portugal, and FK Partizan of Serbia.
Arsenal
Shakhtar Donetsk
SC Braga
FK Partizan
All in all, a great draw for Arsenal, and one we should all be very optimistic about.
JD Sports have kindly supplied Arsenal Opinion with a pair of Adidas Predator football boots to sample. As part of the deal, we have tried the boots and reviewed them.
I’ve got to admit, I’ve not worn a pair of Adidas football boots for some time now, as I’ve always found the Predator’s a little ‘heavy’. But 3-4 years on, the Predator boots have improved a lot, and they seem lot more flexible and light. This, I like! J
I’m not going to wear them once, review them, and leave them to gather dust in the shed. These are my boots for the new season.
Harry Redknapp has today claimed that Tottenham have got one over Arsenal by signing William Gallas.
“He knows he is going to get some flak from the Arsenal fans but his signing is one-up for us. Tottenham fans should be thinking, ‘Hang on, we have got one over on them here’.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa there twitchy! What? What? What?????!?!
Firstly, let me just clear up one thing for Tottenham fans, and more importantly Mr Redknapp, we never wanted to keep hold of Gallas.
Don’t get me wrong, he was a quality player, and I’m not going to slag him off after joining Tottenham. But the fact is, Arsene Wenger wasn’t convinced he had it in him, and pretty much every mediocre club in Europe turned him down before he opted for Spurs.
The difference between William Gallas and Sol Campbell is that Campbell was an absolute Tottenham legend at the time, and they did all they could to keep him. Also, at the time, he was possibly the best centre-back in England. Tottenham haven’t signed this sort of player.
I actually wish Gallas well, because I’ve always had a soft spot the player, regardless what many Arsenal fans think of him. He was a great player for Chelsea, and a scapegoat at Arsenal. And, he had a decent final season for us. But sadly to say, we’ve seen the best of William Gallas. The time has come to put his feet up and take it easy for a season or two. I’m surprised he didn’t sign for New York Red Bulls to be fair.
Harry Redknapp also went onto say that Patrick Vieira was keen to play for Tottenham last season. Again, he is a player who was no longer wanted by Arsene Wenger, and last season’s performances for Man City proved Wenger right once again.
Arsenal fans have been screaming for ‘experienced’ signings, and the 30-year-old has over 300 games under his belt, including 20 caps for France. If we do sign Mark Schwarzer of Fulham too, then these two could be pivotal signings for us this season.
I’ll be honest, I’ve not seen much of Squallici, so I’m in no position to judge what sort of player he is. The fact that he’s experienced and a full international is enough to excite me though.
I actually work with a French lad, who’s a Lyon and Arsenal fan, and he’s absolutely ecstatic with the possibility of Arsenal signing the Frenchman.
I still think Arsenal will sign Mark Schwarzer AND another centre-back on top of Squillaci. Will this be enough to shut up the anti-Wenger fans who complain about our manager never making the signings we need? I doubt it, as they’ll just find something else to moan about.
I’m amazed that people are already slagging off Arsene Wenger for not signing a keeper and a centre-back, yet we’ve still got over a week left until the transfer window closes. Let the man get on with his business, as he’s clearly on the lookout for players, but these things take time.
Seeing as I backed Walcott to get the first goal at 6/1 against Blackpool, I’m going to go ahead with another fancy prediction for the Man City v Liverpool game tonight. Paddy Power have Fernando Torres at 11/2 for the first goal tonight. I fancy 1-1.
Once again Arsenal shut up the haters by beating newly promoted Blackpool 6-0 at the Emirates.
Amazingly, Chelsea and Man United beat newly promoted teams 6-0 and 3-0 respectively, and Arsenal get a draw at Anfield, yet everyone can’t wait to put the boot into the Gunners.
Last week a draw at Anfield is a ‘terrible performance’, and this week’s thrashing of Blackpool is leaving everyone with a very bitter ‘well, it’s only Blackpool, and they had 10 men’. Too many haters around, who love to hate Arsenal before a ball is even kicked. And I’m talking about a minority of our own fans!!
Anyway, it was a cracking performance by Arsenal, and here are my player ratings.
Almunia – 7 – What rating do you give a goalkeeper who has nothing to do, but keeps a clean sheet?
Sagna / Song / Vermaelen / Clichy – 7.5 – I’m going to give the defence a collective score. They were steady.
Diaby – 6 – Scored a good goal, but he looks back to his old ways again. Very sloppy at times and just needs to release that ball sooner.
Wilshere – 8 – A decent performance from the youngster. Looks like he could be playing a lot more games than expected this season.
Rosicky – 9 – If it wasn’t for Walcott getting a hat-trick, Rosicky would have got my Man of the Match. Pulled the strings for Arsenal today.
*Walcott – 9.5 – Man of the Match. Not only because he scored a hat-trick, but he had an absolutely cracking game regardless of the goals. Proved a lot of people wrong today, and let’s hope he takes this confidence into the rest of the season. Exclusion from the England World Cup squad could be a blessing in disguise for Arsenal.
Chamakh – 7.5 – You know exactly what you’re getting from Chamakh. He’s the sort of player Arsenal have been screaming out for, and he looks like he could be another great Wenger signing. If I had to describe him in one word, it would be ‘industrious’.
Arshavin –7 –We’ve still not seen the Arshavin of a couple of seasons ago, but today was definitely better.
Subs:
Fabregas / Vela / Van Persie – 6.5 – All looked pretty lively when they came on.
All in all, a very good performance from Arsenal and things are looking up this season. Let’s hope we sign another centre back and goalkeeper in the next ten days or so, and we’ll be sorted.
