In the early years of Arsene Wenger's reign at Arsenal, the press liked to make fun of the things on the pitch he "didn't see". Although it became something of a standing joke, I doubt many Arsenal fans really minded that much.
Over the years, however, I suspect those following the Gunners may have become more than a little concerned about Arsene's real blind spot.
In celebration of the PFA'S 40 year old birthday, they are asking fans to vote for their favourite player out of the list of former winners. As I casted my vote for Thierry Henry the current results showed it is a straight fight between him and Steven Gerrard to win the pool of winners from 2003-2012.
Many Arsenal fans wanted Lukasz Fabianski to be sold last summer after his many moans about being left on the bench behind Wojciech Szczesny, but since being given the first team jersey the Gunners have registered five wins in a row and he has rarely put a foot wrong.
Wenger put Szczesny back into the reserves for last weeks 3-2 defeat by Liverpool and it is possible that the Frenchman meant it when he said that Szczesny just needed a rest, but what possible reason could he give if he dropped Fabianski after this fantastic run?
The celebrated ex-Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman is not very impressed with Arsenal's ongoing battle to end up in the Top Four and secure a place in next year's Champions League, and thinks that the club should actually be challenging to win a trophy or two instead of aiming for Fourth.
There are lots of interesting quotes about Arsenal flying around this morning and one of them is from the Gunners legendary goalkeeper David Seaman, who thinks that Arsenal are in a great run of form, but worries that they may not be able to perform consistently enough with this batch of players that are changed every year.
The ex-Arsenal keeper David Seaman has been giving his opinion on Arsene Wenger's recent history of selling his best players and making a profit in the transfer market, and he is well aware that this is not a recipe for success on the pitch, and doesn't believe it would have happened when he was winning trophies with Arsenal.
Robert Pires spent six seasons at Arsenal, from 2000-2006 and, like a lot of former Gunners, keeps the club close to his heart and follows what is happening. When he was at the club, we were enjoying a great period of success, winning two Premier League titles and three FA cups, as well as making it to the final of the Champions League, which was his last game for the Gunners before moving to Villareal.
Arsenalinsider got a chance to sit down with Dave Seaman. Here's the scoop:
Question: What do you think about Arsenal's current goalies?
Seaman: Arsenal's goalkeeping situation is good. They have got some young goalkeepers. That's
the only problem that they're young. But Szczesny is doing a fantastic job.
Unless you're a particularly unscrupulous Italian player, predicting a result is haphazard at the
best of times, but it certainly helps if you've had experience playing at the very top level. Step
forward David 'Safe Hands' Seaman. The lovable lump, and 75-time capped England international, gave
us his best guess at what will transpire when [.
While OTP is quite convinced Danny Welbeck fully intended his back-heeled winner against Sweden,
the exquisitely taken goal remains a touch marred by the accusation by some observers that it was a
very fortunate outcome of a miss control. The 'Did he mean it?' debate is a rather juicy one in
football and always seems to [.
Right, thought experiment. What can you tell about teams from league tables?
These things are rarely as simple as they first look, but I want to get the better of the game's
history. I want to be able to identify the best players from past seasons, to understand teams
more.
So I want to be able to decode league tables better.
One of the saddest effects of our poor form during 2011 has been seeing how lesser teams no
longer fear us.
The psychological advantage of having most opponents assume they would get nothing out of
playing us has been whittled away by a series of unfortunate events.
Throwing away a four goal lead at Newcastle; losing to relegation-bound Birmingham in the
Carling Cup Final; league defeats to the likes of West Brom, Stoke and Bolton:
All these and more have turned our shiny armour of invincibility into a tattered and battered
old coat of rusty chain mail, pock-marked with holes.
The period from 1996/7 to 2010/11 has been magical for us Arsenal supporters. We've been
fortunate enough to have seen an English club play Wengerball.
Never in our 125 year history have Arsenal supporters been able to watch such exquisite football
played by such a World class assembly of players.
The period from 1996/7 to 2010/11 has been magical for us Arsenal supporters. We've been
fortunate enough to have seen an English club play Wengerball.
Never in our 125 year history have Arsenal supporters been able to watch such exquisite football
played by such a World class assembly of players.
Some time ago I wrote a post about my best ever Arsenal Eleven, I think it was during another
interlull, or maybe the phoney window. I promised a post for Peaches and without anything new to
write about I have decided to kind of rehash that premise. Someone mentioned recently that a better
use for cloning Dolly the Sheep would have been to clone Tony Adams.
As most of you know I like nothing better than looking for positives in an Arsenal performance,
I also like to give our players credit where it is due, unfortunately following the display
yesterday it is very difficult to do either. That is not to say that we had a strong side out, it
was probably the weakest eleven we have fielded at Old Trafford, maybe ever under Arsene
Wenger.
Every year I write a preview of the season and this year will no different. Given the
circumstances and the timing, however, I feel I should stress this is based entirely on where we
are now. Not where we might be, or indeed hope to be, in a few weeks time.
So, without further ado, let's start where we always do, with:
GOALKEEPERS
Last year's verdict: Arsenal need a new
goalkeeper.
Let me take you back to 14th April 1991 and the first ever FA Cup semi-final played at the old
Wembley Stadium. I had just turned 14 and was very nervous sitting in the crowd of 77,893 waiting,
in my shirt, scarf and hat, for my beloved team to take the field against an Arsenal team that were
on course to win the league (which they indeed did) and it was up to us to try and stop them
winning the possible double.
Let me take you back to 14th April 1991 and the first ever FA Cup semi-final played at the old
Wembley Stadium. I had just turned 14 and was very nervous sitting in the crowd of 77,893 waiting,
in my shirt, scarf and hat, for my beloved team to take the field against an Arsenal team that were
on course to win the league (which they indeed did) and it was up to us to try and stop them
winning the possible double.
When Arsene Wenger arrived at Arsenal in 1996, critics raised many an eyebrow. But as the
trophies rolled in and he transformed Arsenal into one of the most skilful teams in the world, the
same people began to laud him as a genius. Now, after a sixth consecutive season without a trophy,
it seems that the eyebrow-raising has justifiably returned.
Spurs and Arsenal have thrown up some memorable encounters over the years and the two most
recent league fixtures have added in their share of drama, stunning goals and more importantly,
three points for Spurs.
When you ask many Tottenham fans about their favourite game against Arsenal, they point to the
4-4 at The Emirates in 2008.
With Fabianksi out for the rest of the season, we're only one injury away from Manuel Almunia
resuming his position as Arsenal's starting goalkeeper.
Let's say Szczesney picks up a knock in training or gets Shawcrossed on Wednesday night it would
mean Big Al coming in for a string of important games that could include Barcelona away and the
Carling Cup Final.
Unbelievably, I think I have unearthed a quite brilliant observation. Now bear with me, and if
someone is reading this to you, I don't mean "let's get naked".
Anyone else noticed improvements in the performances of JD and Alex Song this season.
LONDON, England Arsenal kept the pressure on Premier League leaders Manchester United as they came
from behind to beat Everton 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium. Everton took the lead via Louis Saha's
contentious 24th minute strike but substitute Andrey Arshavin equalised 20 minutes from time before
Laurent Koscielny headed home the winner five minutes [.
Given the choice of players in the Premier League there are few that I would swap for our boys
when they are on form, and that is the point of this post .... when they are on form.
What is the difference between Arsenal and Man IOU? It is not the talent of the players, nor is
it application, no, it is Consistency.
I think what Almunia has shown with his patchy form over the last two years is that he
is good enough to be a back-up keeper but he has been promoted above his station. Whether he would
want to go back to bench-warming is something I can only speculate about.
Ok then, after a relatively quiet week it all kicks off again today against Stoke.
Their season is more or less complete, they're in no danger of relegation but you can be quite
sure they'll be up for this one today. Their fans don't like us very much after we hurt their
feelings by being upset that one of their players smashed Aaron Ramsey's leg in two.
This morning I was looking back through the archives to see if I could do an 'On this day', kind
of feature. I think I picked a bad day.
My choices were: the day after Thierry Henry left (2007), us being linked very heavily with
Alexander Hleb (2005), Jens Lehmann talking about how we should sign Miroslav Klose (2006),
Barcelona talking about wanting to sign Thierry (2003), vaguely hoping Igors Stepanovs might
cripple Ruud van Nistelrooy in the Euros (2004) and a quote from Chris Waddle talking on 5Live
about the Swedish back four at the 2002 World Cup:
The Swedish back four is amongst the tallest in the world cup.
Direct free kicks aren't the same as corners. A simple point, but important. For one thing,
there is much less point being complicated when it comes to just taking a shot over a man wall on
goal -Â better to just concentrate on getting the ball on target then to dally and lose the
oppurtunity over getting a nicer position.
Euro 2000 was very special, in my opinion we saw the best team in the history of France, and best
ever performance for Zizou. England, despite a big upset and going out of first round, it had such
special players at their peaks like Beckham, Owen, Shearar, Seaman and Mcmanaman. Yes, as a team,
they had some flaws.
It was a bit of a surprise seeing Rob Green in net for England against the USA, but Mr
Capello has clearly been building up to this. How badly he let him down...
As all of you know (or should know) the match finished 1-1 with the USA's goal coming as a
result of Green's howler.
Since being born I have lived through five World Cups. (1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006).
But only three of which I have the capacity to remember and enjoy. Out of these my favourite has
to be my first: World Cup 1998.
Admittedly, I was a late bloomer to the football bug but France 98 confirmed any doubts I had
about the sport.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Nathan J. Lang/Released)
Speaking of the U.S. Women's Youth Teams, the U.S. Under-20s are also training in San Diego (a big
Navy city) and got the opportunity to tour the Amphibious Assault Ship USS Bonhomme Richard. As the
players and the sailors are both representing their country, this seemed like a natural fit.
-
- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates,
comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and
off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general....Also Follow:
QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
__________________________________________________________________________________
- Decade Flashback: "The Fall and Fall of QPR"
- Three Ex-QPR Birthdays today: Seaman, Channing and Evatt
- Six Year Flashback: QPR Had NINE Players Booked in a Game
- Manchester City's almost 200 Million Pound Loss in one year
There have been many times when I have blasted ex-Arsenal players, that have become TV and
newspaper pundits, who continue to knock Arsenal when we are down.
These 'experts' claim to love the club yet jump on a bandwagon that has gained more pace than Frank
Lampard chasing an ice-cream van down a hill.
