arsereview - Most popular for 2009
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As promised, here is the first installment of my player ratings for the season.
I think it's easiest to work through the team from the back, although no doubt I'll forget somebody
and have to include them later.
The way I rate players comes from my childhood: growing up playing Championship Manager: you have
to be dreadful to get below a 5, a 7 is a good game, an 8 is an excellent game, and to get a 9 one
has to do all but everything perfectly - maybe one misplaced pass; a 10 represents pure perfection.
For various reasons, I don't really have time to write the player ratings which I've promised.
However, next week I'll go through an area of the team each day, culminating in who my player of
the season is on Friday.
But I do have a quick word to say about the Champions League final:
1)Undoubtedly the English press have been harsher than they might to United - but thats because
their absurd faith in United wasn't vindicated even slightly.
I get messages from time to time from my blogger account. Usually it's from people who want to pay
me a paltry sum of money in order to cover my blog with ads. Or its spam offering cheap
viagra...
...Which made the offer from soccerpro.com even more extraordinary. After making initial contact,
they said I could have any product I liked from their store and they would send it to me.
If I have to hear one more time about how Arsenal's forward line is experiencing a goal drought, I
may just shoot the person who professes this view.
It's unimportant because firstly, Eduardo scored against Everton; and secondly, and perhaps more
pertinently, the 4-3-3 is not the ultra-attacking formation its made out to be: Arshavin and
Bendtner have consistently tracked back, rather than playing as fully-fledged strikers who just
play in attack.
It was a dive. It was a dive. It was a dive.
Despite every Arsenal fan accepting that, we still have had it repeated ad nauseam. All day long.
So I thought it should be said a few more times.
Goodplaya's description of events is perfect:
Last night Eduardo did what a million strikers do – nudge the ball past the keeper
and trust his momentum will provide enough contact to yield a penalty.
I was sat on the tube into work this morning and some moron opposite me was reading The Daily Mail.
Anyway, to cut a long story short there appeared the headline 'The New Fritzl' which apparently
referred to Phillip Garrido and his suspected attacks on Jaycee Lee Dugard.
But it struck me, considering the media furore it could be Eduardo.
Okay, lets try and be rational here. I'll tell you a little story.
Fifteen months ago, Arsenal also went to play at Old Trafford in a League game. Except this game
was even more important. Arsenal lost 2-1 that day and United were champions. The table at the end
of the season read United 86, Chelsea 84, Arsenal 82.
Wenger got the team wrong last night. But first, it's important to recognise a couple of
things.
Firstly, a draw away in Europe is never a bad result. We had six points on the board, now we have
seven. So despite Alkmaar's last minute equaliser we're sure to go through. Which is more than can
be said for Liverpool.
I had a theory. The theory was that since there was such a dearth of Arsenal news, I would leave a
reasonable gap between each post - that way I would still have something to write throughout the
summer.
Well actually I didn't blog for three main reasons:
1) I had exams and had to pretend that I was revising.
Its worth remembering that any advantage (or disadvantage) the fixture list gives is minimal.
Ultimately, every team has to play every other team twice - I know that's no great insight but it's
easily brushed over by Ol' Rednose so he can make a complaint.
Anyhow:
1) Every team is going to experience greater fixture congestion than usual.
Speaking to many of my friends, there was the suggestion that Birmingham were no real enemy and
Saturday's match was just a routine three points. Not for me.
Birmingham are the masters of PR management. It is easy to forget that it wasn't just Eduardo's
injury that went against Arsenal on that fateful day at St.
Whilst Arsene Wenger's managerial ability is regularly praised, his wit does not always seem to be
appreciated. After all, English is the man's third language and yet his cunning with the language
is something I can only aspire to.
Indeed, the only manager who been at the helm of his club for the same amount of time is Fergie.
If any confirmation were needed that the media dislike Arsenal, it came in the paucity of articles
praising Chelsea and the plethora of articles criticising Arsenal.
Sure, Arsenal weren't brilliant but give credit where credit's due. Though I hate to say it, both
ex-Arsenal boys were excellent - Anelka was immense - Drogba truly is a great striker and the
Chelsea centre-backs didn't miss a ball all day long.
This, was typical Arsenal.
Turning up for the wrong game.
The Setanta man said that Arsenal looked like they were there for a training game when he saw them
in the tunnel.
How untrue that was: for 90 minutes we made United chase the game and be limited to long-range
Ronaldo free-kicks.
Listen!
I wrote this a few days ago and forgot to post it - apologies...Fulham match report to follow.
Considering how some other websites *cough* Myles Palmer *cough* insist on finding the negatives
even in victory, I think it's best to look at the last three games as a success.
I came in from the match last night, coughing up phlegm and regretting my attendance, to my
traditional 'just returned from the football' conversation with my mother, where she feigns
interest in my evening out.
She tends to know the score and little else. Occasionally she reads a match report.
The phrase which was needed earlier to explain the result was 'in the greater scheme of
things'.
Now it will be used. (Ironically, I'm not taking the piss).
The point is (geddit?), that whilst it was two points dropped rather than one gained, in the
greater scheme of things its completely irrelevant.
With Lukasz Fabianski's injury, it is pretty unlikely that a single one of the players involved in
Wednesday's Carling Cup match will start the North London Derby tomorrow. As such, it is very
difficult to draw any great conclusions from the Liverpool match.
In terms of momentum, it will mean nothing - maybe it will inspire the players for the next round
but no more than that.
Count the years off one by one. Every single year in this decade we have played Spurs home and away
in the League. And out of twenty matches we haven't lost a single one. Not a single one.
Even if we had lost one, we could still reflect on the annual difference between the teams shown by
the League table.
A couple of weeks ago, it was hard to know whether to be optimistic or pessimistic. Many commented
that the general criticism of Arsenal post-West Ham was over-the-top.
But the problem was, that on the 29th of October 2008, at about 9.30, the season so far had
provided enough to be pretty optimistic.
Coming in late last night, a little tipsy, I noticed a friend had emailed me a link to a Youtube
clip of Van Persie going off injured after a tackle by Giorgio Chiellini.
If you watch the video, Chiellini does little wrong. Robin bursts into the box and he comes across
to cut it out - whilst my original reaction (below) was to blame him, I don't think this is fair.
If there was any consolation, this was the first time this season we had really deserved to lose:
both the defeats to United and City were particularly galling because we were the better team.
Credit Sunderland. While their performance wasn't out of this world, they did what they had to do.
When I wrote a quick post about the fixture list in mid-June it was never my intention for that to
be my last blog post for a couple of months. However, whilst I wrote a couple of half pieces I
never finished them off. July saw a month of particularly hard work and to say I've had limited
internet access so far this month is a massive understatement.
The pessimism and negativity had been overwhelming. The doomsayers had ruled the roost to continue
the chicken analogy.
And then the season actually started. Horror of horrors, Arsenal can actually play football. Of
course, one swallow doesn't make a summer and on isolated occasions we were brilliant last year but
results that were achieved at Goodison and Parkhead can only be good for momentum.
You may remember that back in May I reviewed a football for this blog. You probably don't, but such
is life.
If you do, you would remember that Soccerpro asked me to give an "honest, unbiased opinion" on the
blog and in return, I could keep the product they sent me. To me, it seemed a fair offer, so that
was exactly what I did: I wrote an honest review - that it was a good football, and in return I had
a lovely football to play with until I kicked it on the neighbour's roof, never to be seen again.
While I haven't blogged, we've beaten Liverpool 2-1, drawn 1-1 with Burnley and then beat Hull 3-0
yesterday afternoon.
Lets be honest: Liverpool away is always a difficult game. Pre-match, the papers were full of how
Liverpool had only lost 1 out of 37 home games in the League; post-match, having beaten them, the
media were full of how Liverpool were on a downward slope.
Listen!
Make I take this opportunity to wish all readers a Happy Christmas!
Keep the faith,
Adam
