Total Arsenal’s stats post

It is still very early, but how does Arsenal compare to our nearest competitors in the PL for next season?

In the first TotalArsenal post for ‘ArsenalArsenal’, I focussed on the position of our manager and came to the conclusion we should let him complete his mission to turn us once again into the top team we all crave for. In the second TotalArsenal post, I focussed on the positives within our, young and quickly developing squad and why there is plenty to be upbeat about for next season. In this post, I will focus on the positions we and our competitors are in, by focussing on the key areas of: squad, manager, transfer potential, and previous success/confidence levels. The comparisons below are of course not the pinnacle of scientific analysis, but should help to start a good debate about where we are compared to our competitors at this ‘early stage of next season’.

I have translated the above comparisons into a points table (1-5: 1 = low and 5 = high):

To me the table shows we are in a decent-to-good position compared to our competitors at this stage of the season. If we can get a few quality additions to the team, and Wenger and his staff can rebuild our brittle confidence levels again over the summer, we will be competing again for next year’s PL title.

TotalArsenal, 30 May 2011

We are moving to Arsenal Arsenal

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to create a new blogging site for Gooners everywhere.  Arsenal Arsenal has the familiar passionate opinions and heated debate but mixed in with friendly banter and a bit of football insight.  We welcome all opinions and guest fans from any team, so if you are more into chatting than ranting, come and join us at Arsenal Arsenal.  Click on the link below…

Let’s Forget What Arsene Didn’t Do And Concentrate On What He Can Do

Okay, so we didn’t sign anyone.

Some people wanted a new keeper, others wanted a defensive midfielder while a hell of a lot wanted a striker.

Actually I got that first line wrong, we did sign somebody, Sol came back!

Yep, it mightn’t exactly be as exiting as AA23 last January but Sol looks as tough as ever. Not too bad a guy to have on the bench if you ask me.

Just for a day lets forget about the lack of activity in the transfer window and have a look at what changes Wenger can make to the squad and starting XI.

Most would agree that Almunia has had a shocking season.

He doesn’t know whether to come off his line, if he does he flaps at it. He’s not commanding and couldn’t organise a nun-shoot in a nunnery never mind his defence.

I’m still at a loss as to how Mannone went from having a more than decent spell in goals to not even been on the bench anymore.

Wenger knows more than any of us about their state of mind and how they train but I saw nothing so bad from Mannone that warranted him going from playing every week to not been on the bench.

Fabianski has become Flappy No2 to Almunia’s Flappy No1. Whatever happened to Arsene giving players a chance and if they do well keeping them in the side?

At the back I think we are okay – despite the silly goals.

Vermaelen and Gallas have been awesome all season. Sagna has been decent at the back but average going forward.

Left-back seems to be a problem but I feel it comes more from midfield than anything else.

On the right, Sagna gets cover from Rosicky, Eboue or Bendtner when they are in front of him. Clichy doesn’t get the same from Arshavin, Diaby or lately Nasri – this has to be looked at.

Another problem is Denilson.

I actually quite like him as a squad player. He is often quietly effective but lately he has just been quiet. It has gotten to the point where we are often playing with ten men on the pitch because he is so….well, useless.

I’ve made my suggestion well known that I think Super Tom could play that role. In fact I’d suggest Wenger should try a different midfield against the Chavs, one which mixes defending with attack.

Song would take up his usual role in front of the back four and be under orders to stay there. Ventures up field would be kept to a minimum.

Denilson would be dropped to the bench and Rosicky would become the link player.

The Czech is aggressive in the tackle, disciplined and has one hell of an eye for the pass – so why not?

Cesc would be there doing his thing while on the right of the front three I’d go with the African Pele.

Eboue has come on a lot from last season. Tries his heart out and can defend and attack, so why not put him out on the right wing?

Give Cashley some defending to do while also making it difficult for him going forward as he’ll be playing against two full backs.

Lets face it, Eboue is a better option at the moment than Walcott.

If Bendtner is fit, he should start as CF.

Chelsea suffer from the same flapperitis as our goalkeepers. Cech is really not the same keeper as a few seasons back. The way to get at the Chavs is to get in crosses – at least Bendtner is tall and can head a ball.

Trying to play through Chelsea is difficult cos they will crowd the midfield but spread it wide, cross it in and make Nikki put Flappy Chav under pressure and see what happens.

Its also time to move Arshavin back to the wing.

He’s not a main striker and I wonder whether his greed against Manchester United came about from him being under pressure to score as opposed to him being a gloryseeker?

In short my team for Chelsea would be:

Almunia

Sagna

Vermaelen

Gallas

Clichy

Song

Rosicky

Fabregas

Eboue

Bendtner

Arshavin

I’d rather see Mannone or a scarecrow with extra big gloves in goals but he’ll stick with Almunia.

I’ll stop rambling now!

Just to fill you in: Eduardo is out of the Chelsea game. So too is Vela but its not like he’d play. Diaby is a “maybe” and Wenger has decided not to sign Stefan Savic after all.

Your thoughts….

Arshavin cost 80p

I am surprised, I don’t know why but I am surprised that there are still so many inaccurate myths doing the rounds about Arsenal’s transfer policy and no matter how hard I try to ignore them they still ruffle my feathers.

Top of the Pops at Arsenal are: we could have bought Alonso if only we had offered the asking price; next comes, the club refused to offer Flamini a new contract so he left to AC Milan and number one of my bug-bears is the idea that we almost lost Arshavin by holding out until the last minute for the best possible deal.

I can only assume that these rumours were started by people desperate to find something to write about on a slow news day, a kind of slow news day like today that I am using in an attempt to correct one inaccuracy in particular.

The Arshavin deal, in my opinion, is fundamental to understanding what the whole of the, post Abramovich, Arsenal transfer system has been forced to evolve into.

The central tenet of my argument is that it was Zenit, and not Arsenal, that kept the negotiations going until the last possible minute; the reason being that by doing so they hoped to attract other clubs for the purpose of creating an auction. It’s not rocket science, it really is quite easy, what possible reason could Arsenal have had to drag it out to the last minute?

To try and pay less than the asking price I hear you say……….Wrong.

There was never a fixed asking price for Arshavin, Arsenal being well aware of this offered what they thought he was worth, if Zenit had been successful in enticing Man City (a euphemism for any team with more money to spend that us) into the fray then we would have had no choice but to back out; so, with this possibility looming, why offer an unnecessarily high price from the outset.

I suggested a couple of days ago that some people (not on this site) seem to be under the delusion that buying players was as easy as buying apples and clubs like Arsenal, who have money in their pockets from the sale of other players, can simply waltz into any supermarket, chose a player within their budget, go to the check out and pay for him.

Continuing the theme: if the Arshavin deal was an apple in Tesco and it had a price tag of £1, it would be wrong to assume, as many do, that you could just pick it up, walk up to the check out and pay for it; you may be able to take it as far as the check out but you will not be able to buy it before Tesco have found out if Man City  are interested in buying it as well  and if they are then we all know that no matter how much Arsenal offer they will offer more. So, rather than suffer the embarrassment of losing an auction it surely makes more sense to give up any hope, there and then, and put the apple back.

Some may suggest that it might have been better to offer £1.25p for it at the beginning but even so, Tesco would still not have sold it to us before they were certain that Man City were not prepared to pay more.

The clever solution that Arsenal came up with was to pick the apple up and shout at the top of their voices, making everyone aware in the shop, that there was something wrong with it, in our case this took the form of Wenger commenting that he thought that “Arshavin lacked stamina” which was broadcast all over the media, with this doubt ringing in any other potential buyers minds Arsenal went ahead and offered 80p for the apple, accepting, that if Man city came in, then, so be it, but if they didn’t then Arsenal would know that we were the only club interested in buying this rosy cheeked Russian and Zenit would have no choice but to sell him to us at the price we were offering, which is exactly what happened…..we paid 80p for Arshavin, a clever bit of business if you ask me.

STAMFORD BRIDGE MUST FALL

The footballing gods decided to shine on us last night – actually not just us Man U aswell – and showed us that the chavs are not unbeatable as they dropped 2 points at Hull of all places.  I was too nervous to keep track of what was happening in that game so if anyone knows anything about it they can put us all in the picture. Who’d have thought the mood could be lifted so quickly? – already, if we win on Sunday we’re right back in the chase. Our boys must be prepared for battle – I hope Arsene has ordered in lots of red meat. But more of that later in the week.

Just for a change the Spanish press have taken advantage of us losing last Sunday to report that Cesc will be leaving this summer – I don’t think he will – I think when its good its so good that Cesc will want to stay and win something with Arsenal. He looked pretty unhappy in the 2nd half I must admit but he loves our club so lets hope its only temporary.

Some very serious over-reaction around yesterday on the blogs and whilst on here we were all very upset, we did manage to enjoy a bit of fun courtesy of Irish and Rasp exchanging one-liners in the middle of the day.  If you weren’t around then, have a look, it was very funny.

Other news, Sanchez Watt has gone on loan to Southend, Nikki describes the  hell of being injured and is looking forward to coming back stronger, Arsene has identified a young defender from Montenegro -  Stefan Savic who has been on loan for 10 days and has obviously impressed because Arsene wants to buy him but is now balking at the price – a new saga will unfold and he’ll probably end up going to the spuds

Have a nice day all

SO WHAT’S NEW?……….

We didn’t sign a striker even though Arsene told us that he was shopping for one. I wouldn’t want to be married to him “Just off out to buy your Valentines present darling, the diamond bracelet we discussed” how disappointing would that be on the day? – a big nothing.  We’re going to have to make do with what we’ve got, the ‘surprise purchase’ was Sol Campbell – and even that was a disappointment, on Sunday as he was knowhere to be seen.

Still, I’ve put Sunday behind me. Arsene has the whole of this week to work on some tactics to make sure those schoolboy errors don’t happen again next week at Stamford Bridge. Kidnapping Almunia and Denilson is definitely a good start I reckon.

On to the new blog. We are thinking of referring to the founder members – that’s all of us – as ‘The Board” in keeping with the Arsenal theme. The Board will all have access to  the admin and shared responsibilities over keeping an eye on the blog and looking out for each other. New bloggers can be invited onto ‘The Board’ if we think they are of the right calibre. I may carry on being the bossy one just cos I’m very good at it and to make sure we know who’s writing a post when.

We hope to find a way to leave each other messages or discuss matters out of the public eye rather than on the blog – a virtul Board Room,  possibly on one of the other sites that are in your dashboard.

We’ve set the test site up as ‘Arsenal Arsenal’ but will take a vote on the name in a couple of days.  You are all in admin now – you need to be logged in through wordpress and if you have a look at the top of the blog there should be a grey line that has several headings. If you hover your cursor over My Dashboards you will have access to Peaches Pad, Arsenal Shorts and Arsenal Arsenal. Go onto either of the new ones and click on ‘visit site’ – you can go backwards and forwards between all the different sites in this way. If you want to leave any comments put them on Arsenal Shorts for now.

Rasp and I will be around to help out and London and rico know their way around the Dashboard too.

Any good Arsenal news would be more than welcome………………………………

Too Little, Too Late.

Out fought, out classed, out paced and given a lesson in desire and determination. Losing three one to manu at home is bad enough but what makes it worse is the fact that they aren’t even that good; somehow, collectively, we managed to play so poorly that we made them look better than the average team that they really are.

I didn’t have a problem with the team selection; in fact, I was quite excited about it. The opportunity to watch Fabrégas, Rosicky, Arshavin and Nasri in the same team was something that I have had high hopes for since the pre-season, I know this is not the first time that they have played together and I also remember that their last outing did not live up to expectation but I figured that with this amount of individual talent in the same team it surely only had to be a question of time before it clicked into gear and became an unstoppable unit – the problem was that, sadly, today was not that day.

It is as if you take the finest Russian caviar, the freshest French oysters, the most mouth watering Spanish ham……you knew that I was going to get stuck when I came to the Czech Republic’s cuisine, didn’t you? Let’s give our Eastern European neighbours the benefit of the doubt and say that they have fabulous fillet steak. Individually all this foods are delicious but put them on the same plate and for some reason they just don’t work.

It all started well, Arshavin was making Evans and Brown look like two carthorses standing on their hind legs. The Russian was up for this game and was clearly giving everything he had but it was more head down and drive forward rather than create space and find a team mate better placed. Nevertheless, we looked like the team most likely to score first — this lasted for all of ten minutes until the tables turned and in next to no time we had used up eight of our nine cats lives before United inevitably got the break through…..Clichy was made to look a monkey by Nani before he lobbed a cross in that Almunia was only able to palm into his own net.

Naturally, we tried to respond but ten minutes later United broke from one of our corners and raced forward at Henry–Pires speed, sixty thousand Arsenal fans screamed in unison: watch Rooney, watch Rooney, watch Rooney but Denilson failed to hear; in fact, Denilson failed to do anything of any use — and surprise, surprise Shrek scored. Two down at half time and being without hard liquor or class A drugs the break was tough going, most people were walking around in silence with a shell shocked stare.

The second half got underway and one of my friends, returning late, said, as he sat down, it can’t get any worse; tellingly, no one turned around in agreement. I suppose we tried to rally, there seemed to be a bit more urgency about us but, whereas, our interplay was flicks and tricks their passing was crisp and purposeful. Before long, and by this time, unsurprisingly, they scored a third, I can’t even remember who it was, just a blur of black pouring forward at speed past helpless red and white shirts, this was game over and we hadn’t even had a shot on the United goal that had forced Van de Sar to make a save.

Yes, we scored and for five minutes we deluded ourselves that there might be a miracle on the cards but that bubble was burst when Almunia made one of the most pathetic clearances I have ever seen a keeper make in all the time I have been watching Arsenal, it was humiliating as was our afternoon.

I am not bothering with player ratings; it would just get too depressing, I would, however, just like to say that out of the tiny minority of players that had the right to hold their head up as they left the field, Alex Song was one of them.

United we win, United they fall

My favourite memory of Highbury was seeing George Graham score a scissor kick against Man Utd in front of the Clock End in a 2-2 draw. George Best having scored an equally brilliant goal in front of the North Bank. It was 1969.

That reason that that goal remains imprinted upon my memory is due to the opponents. Manchester United were and are the glamour team of English football. Liverpool may have an equally spectacular history, Arsenal have collected a mass of silverware over the years, but MU are the team football fans know throughout the world.

Before I started my football love affair MU were already in my head. My parents used to take the family on driving tours around Europe in the early 60′s; whenever I met a friendly child and  said I was English, the first thing they said was “Bobby Charlton”, not Bobby Moore, not Geoff Hurst and certainly not Iain Ure!. Throughout my childhood Sir Bobby was the most famous player in the World. Had he played for Everton, he would have been a fine player but not a World superstar.

And then along came George Best. By this time I was a staunch Gooner, season ticket holder and North Banker, but George was the man. We had Stroller and Raddy, Geordie Armstrong and Storey, but in the schoolyard, everyone wanted to be Bestie. He summed up Man United; Glamour, swagger, style and brio.

There have been so many great MU memories; McLair missing a penalty in front of the North Bank, Ruud doing the same (prompting Keown’s wonderful response), Cantona getting sent off for kicking Nuttie, PV & Keane’s tunnel incident, TH goal of the season at the Clock End, Wiltord’s EPL winner at OT, and countless more. All are legendary because of the opponents. Beating MU is the best because MU are the true Arsenal rivals – let’s be honest, THFC are local rivals but hardly true rivals in a footballing sense, after all they last won the League in Black & White!

Which brings me to Sunday’s game. Sir Alex has perpetuated the United mystique, he is without question the best manager of all time (even surpassing Busby and Shankly), but and it is a large but, the current Man Utd team is a pale shadow of the former teams. Where is the panache, the swagger and the style? This United is a reflection of the worst sides of SAF’s personality. It is aggressive, streetwise, functional, dare I say common. It is full of snarling, vicious thugs. What must Giggs think when he takes to the field alongside Vidic, Anderson and Fletcher.? Whilst one could never say that United have been a team that doesn’t use hard men, (from Stiles, to Robson, to Keane,) all the previous enforcers had skill, could find a pass and create space for themselves. Fletcher, Anderson, Carrick and the very ageing Scholes are the worst midfield United have fielded in 15 years. What possessed SAF to bring a touch player like Berbatov into this team? It is a team built upon the strengths of Rooney – power, athleticism, simmering violence, and arrogance – though to be fair to Rooney, he is also a wonderful footballer.

There is an ethos to Arsene Wenger’s teams. He insists that all his players are well versed in the “beautiful game”. Opposition fans could point at PV4 and say that he was aggressive, well he was, but he was also one hell of a player, possessing pace, awareness and huge skill. There would never be a time when AW accepted the way this current MU team play. Where is MU’s Cesc, Arshavin or Rosicky? Who is their playmaker? They don’t have one because they rely so heavily on one player’s creative ability. Compare our goalscorers; So far MU have 4 players who have scored over 3 goals in the PL. We have 10 players who have scored 3 or more in the PL. To me this is a shameful reflection upon the state of MU. And a testament to Mr Wenger.

The key battles on Sunday will be Fletcher/Fabregas and Rooney/Gallas. If we get a fair ref (hardly likely versus MU), Cesc will run rings around Fletcher, but if as I expect there is a systematic rotational attack upon Fab and we get the usual weak ref, then we will have problems. Can WG control Rooney? We shall see, what is certain is that WG is having his best season in the shirt, so I am hopeful.

We have big game players in Arshavin, Fabregas and Gallas. Should Song be fit to play, we have the strength to outpower Utd. I feel confident that Clichy and Sagna are capable of nullifying the threat of Nani and Valencia. A raring to go Bendtner, and Nasri. The boundless energy of Rosicky, and the ageless Sol. What chance have United got?

“TV – NORMAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED”

 

From despair to doom to encouragement to relief. Thats how the saga of  Thomas Vermaelens injury affected us in the last 36 hours. From the moment he hobbled off the pitch at Villa Park on Wednesday night to Arsene Wengers statement on Thursday afternoon that he was unlikely to play on Sunday but that his leg was not broken was pretty torturous.  Having our Sol back felt good but knowing that TV would not be sidelined was just as important.

There was some lively debate on here yesterday about our medical team yet again and I’m still wondering how a possible broken leg becomes a sore leg but hey it must be a man thing. Many words have been written about how well he’s fitted into the team and what a find he was for us. London – I think –  made a great point a few weeks ago that the best news would be that he had a couple of brothers or that Arsene had perfected his cloning machine and TV was to be the first in.

Other centre back news that caused a chuckle was that Rio Ferdinand having appealed his ban for violent conduct had an extra match ban added to the 3 already given - he won’t be appearing on Sunday either.

Site naming reached a new level last night and anyone who hasn’t read through yesterday evenings comments should have a look, we now have a very very long list – ARSEBUNNY appeared as a new favourite – I’m not too sure about that one although I reckon it would get lots of hits. A very complex voting system is being compiled which we’ll bring to you soon.

I can’t imagine why I’m feeling so jovial we play the Mancs on Sunday.

I have to say thankyou to Rasputin for his amazing headline……see you in the comments.