Author Archives: Michael Roberts

That Was Absolutely Fabregas! (w/ Player Ratings)

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Arsenal (3) – (0) Aston Villa
Fabregas (65′, 81′), Diaby (92′)
The Emirates Stadium, London

Cesc Fabregas is fucking genius.

In a game Arsenal needed to win, he played a 21 minute cameo and what happened?

He completely changed the game, scoring two goals. The first was an exquisite freekick, and the second was a fantastic finish after busting a gut over a good 60 yards before latching onto a nice Theo Walcott pass.

This boy is special, and on a completely different level to anyone else at Arsenal. You just can’t describe how good he was today, and the difference he made.

With the results Chelsea and Manchester United have been having recently, it was vital that Arsenal took all 3 points today to send out a message and keep in the Premier League title race. Chelsea and United are having a slight wobble at the moment, so you need to take advantage of these situations when they happen.

And before the game, all I was hoping for was 3 points. I didn’t care how they came, the fact was a victory would be massive for our season.

In a strange series of events, ever since Chelsea beat Arsenal at The Emirates in November we have beaten Stoke, Liverpool, Hull and Aston Villa, and drawn against Burnley. But Chelsea on the other hand, have lost against Manchester City and drawn against Everton, West Ham and Birmingham. Maybe we just played them at the wrong time.

But back to today and before the game Aston Villa had a formidable record against the Top Four. They had already beaten Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea this season so Arsenal would have a real test on their hands.

As it turned out, we started brightly and Eduardo had a guilt-edged chance after only 3 minutes to put Arsenal ahead but rolled his shot straight at Friedel. After that, Arsenal struggled to break down Villa and they looked dangerous in the first 20 minutes and our defending was a bit shaky. Fortunately though, they didn’t really test Almunia and we managed to deny Villa of any real clear chances.

We had a lot of possession on the first half but no real purpose. Too many times moves would break down in the final third, with Arshavin and Eduardo particularly guilty of losing the ball. Arshavin just wasn’t in the game today, and Eduardo was just poor. I don’t know whether it’s confidence or match fitness, but Eduardo just isn’t on top form right now and nothing he tries is coming off. He had a few half chances but never looked like scoring, and 1 goal in 11 suggests he’s just lacking in confidence.

The second half was a little better, but Arsenal still looked lethargic and were missing that leadership to push them on and give them the motivation to go on and win the game.

So on 56 minutes, Arsene Wenger brought on Fabregas.

Almost instantly, the whole complexion of the game changed. Suddenly Arsenal had the impetus to drive forward and make things happen. The effect the introduction of Fabregas had was simply amazing, and excited the crowd and the players. We were making chances and putting Aston Villa under pressure time and time again.

And after 10 minutes of being on, he weaved his way passed a couple of Villa players but was hacked down by Richard Dunne. From the resulting freekick, he stepped up, and coolly curled the freekick into the top corner.

What a little genius!

At this point whatever superlatives you had for our captain were just not good enough, his impact on the game was outstanding. Arsenal looked like a completely different team.

And once Arsenal had that first goal, it was only a matter of time before they got their second and Fabregas bagged another goal after a sweeping Arsenal break. Armand Traore won the ball deep in the Arsenal half, and released Theo Walcott with a diagonal ball. Theo played in Fabregas and the little magician smashed the ball into the back of the net.

Game, set and match.

Unfortunately though, it appeared that Cesc picked up a little niggle in scoring the second goal and he was soon replaced by Aaron Ramsey on 83 minutes.

But the damage had been done, and mercurial Fabregas had stamped his authority on the game, and on the title race.

Arsenal were then in cruise control in the final 10 minutes, and Abou Diaby scored a well-taken third for Arsenal which on his performance was richly deserved.

3 goals, 3 points and 4 points behind the league leaders with a game in hand. And that’s against Bolton on the 6th January.

Player Ratings

Manuel Almunia: 8/10
Pretty solid today, and won most of the corners and crosses with ease. Seemed a lot more confident than in recent weeks, and make a couple of smart saves from the in-from Agbonlahor.

Bacary Sagna: 8/10
Made some excellent tackles and as usual, always right up the pitch supporting the right side. Full of running, and kept Ashley Young very quiet.

William Gallas: 8/10
Did well alongside Vermaelen and minimised the impact of Emile Heskey.

Thomas Vermaelen: 8/10
Like Gallas, defended well and kept the threat of Villa relatively quiet. Almunia didn’t really have a big save to make throughout the entire game, which is credit to the two centre backs.

Armand Traore: 8/10
Excellent today. Coped well with Agbonlahor and also did well to support the attack. Great vision to pick out Walcott to setup the second goal.

Alex Song: 8/10
Impressive today, and will be a big miss once he leaves for the ACN. Really does add some steel to the defence and it will be hard to see how Arsene will replace him on January.

Denilson: 7/10
Kept the game flowing but struggled to make things happen in the final third.

Abou Diaby: 8/10
Always willing to take on players and involved in some good attacking play throughout the match. Much improved recently and deserved his goal in injury time.

Samir Nasri: 7/10
Not his best game and couldn’t really create much.

Andrei Arshavin: 6/10
Probably as poor as I’ve seen the little Russian play in an Arsenal shirt. Maybe we expect too much from him, but his touch today was extremely bad. We’re talking Adebayor bad.

Eduardo: 6/10
Didn’t click with the rest of the team and missed a sitter in the opening minutes. Had a few other half chances but couldn’t get his game going and was replaced on the hour.

Cesc Fabregas: 10/10 (Replaced Denilson 56′)
Despite only playing less than a quarter of the game, he was the Man of the Match for me. Totally changed a lethargic Arsenal side by simply being on the pitch. Scored a wonderful freekick to break the deadlock and showed immense desire and determination to score the second. His influence today on so many levels was absolutely huge.

Theo Walcott: 6/10 (Replaced Eduardo 64′)
Showed a poor touch when he came on but did play in Fabregas for his goal.

Aaron Ramsey: 6/10 (Replaced Cesc Fabregas 84′)
Not enough time to really make an impact.

Doesn’t Anyone Want To Win The Premier League?

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What a strange, strange season.

For a long time, it seems as if all of the Top Four teams are weaker than ever before. Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are losing a ridiculously high number of games this year, and as a result teams like Aston Villa, Spurs, Manchester City and even Birmingham aren’t a million miles away.

Last season, the Champions lost 4 games and runners up lost 2. The year before, the title-winners lost 5 games and second place lost 3, and it was exactly the same the season before that.

But this year, Chelsea have lost 3 (and should have lost today at West Ham), United have lost 5 and Arsenal have lost 4 games. And Liverpool, have amassed an amazing 7 defeats.

And we haven’t even reached the halfway point of the season yet.

The fact is that for whatever reason, the Premier League is there for the taking this season and no-one is taking advantage. Chelsea’s excellent start has stuttered slightly, and the ageing squad seems to be feeling the effects of the campaign, United have struggled with the absence of Ronaldo and have significant injuries, and Arsenal haven’t played well since Van Persie got injured. And the size of Liverpool’s problems are surprising even to me.

The infuriating thing is that Arsenal are just about still in the hunt and you feel that if Arsene addressed our problems then we’d be top of the table and be taking advantage of the rest of the leagues collective problems. I firmly believe that if Van Persie was still fit then we’d be a good 6 points better off this season.

But that’s just one of the problems this season. Despite his match defining penalty save yesterday, Almunia is simply not good enough. Lehmann had his critics but the bottom line was that he was a damn fine goalkeeper, and his performances in the 49 game unbeaten run were magnificent. You can’t argue with that. The problem with Almunia is that he just doesn’t have that consistency that our previous goalkeepers had.

Alex Ferguson has gone on record saying that once Peter Schmeichel moved away from Manchester United they struggled to find a proper replacement until Edwin Van Der Sar joined in 2005. Arsenal seem to have a similar problem.

I hate to bring up Van Persie again, but his injury for the rest of the season is just massive. Firstly, his goalscoring and assist contribution is priceless – the goal and assist ratio he had before he was injured was sensational. Another, and equally important asset he had was his desire as well as the impact his presence had on the team. He is such a motivated player and you can see how much winning means to the guy – every time he scored a goal he’d celebrate by going crazy. And you can tell his passion rubbed off the on others – since he’s been out we’ve been lethargic and sloppy and there just isn’t that desire to win. Against Sunderland, Chelsea, Liverpool and Burnley the effort was woeful. There just isn’t that urgency anymore.

At Anfield, it took a stupid own goal and a piece of magic from the Russian to take home all 3 points. We can’t rely on Arshavin again and again to save the day.

And yesterday against Hull, it was another slow and sluggish performance, and not enough players were up for it.

But amazingly despite our failings, we currently sit in 3rd spot in the league, 6 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand. In any other season, we’d be trailing by a much larger margin and would be completely out of the race.

So Arsene needs to sort it out, because the league is there for the taking.

When you think back to the 2007-2008 season when we had Flamini, Hleb, Fabregas, Rosicky, Adebayor (and later Eduardo) in top gear, it’s obvious that team would have cruised to the title this year.

We’ve thrown points away against Burnley and Sunderland in the last month, so we need to get our act together and play as if we want to win the league.

If that means bollockings by Wenger every week then so be it.

Because Chelsea and Manchester United aren’t going to be slipping up every week until May.

A Warning To Arsenal Fans Travelling To Greece

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Before you all jump on your high horse, this is simply a warning to all Arsenal fans travelling to Athens to see Olympiacos in Greece.

A friend of mine who is an Evertonian went to Athens only this week, to see AEK Athens play Everton in the Europa League. Unfortunately for him and his travelling friends his experience went from fantastic to shocking in only a matter of hours.

After enjoying the local attractions, soaking in some culture and even playing football in the streets, they made their way to the Olympic Stadium in Athens. That’s when things took a turn for the worse, and while on the train wallets got stolen, with money, cards and tickets inside. So after cancelling their cards and sorting out new tickets, they finally walked to the ground.

The out of nowhere, they were attacked by 10 people and mugged.

Here’s a transcript from my friend when I asked what happened:

“What didnt happen more like. Stu’s dad had has wallet robbed on the train with the tickets in. One of the other lads also got done and lost about 200 quid. Once we’d sorted out new tickets for them and cancelled all of the cards we walked upto the ground.

“The next minute some [people] just come flying at me from nowhere. Half punched me in the face – the next minute everyone just got battered and split up and there’s about 10 of them coming at everyone. Stu had his phone robbed and Alty got battered. Saw 10 minutes of the game on a TV in the medical room in the stadium before I went with Alty in an ambulance. Everyone’s ok though. I got lucky – out of 11 of us, me and another lad were the only ones who didnt lose anything or get battered. Fuckin sick.”

And a further transcript here:

“Just never slag the hospitals or police off in this country again.

“I ran to all the police thinking they would help but they were fuckin shit.

“They steal to survive and they don’t care at all about anyone else. We later found out they all had knives etc so it could have been much worse.

“All it would have taken is someone to have a real go back and knock one of them out and we would have probably had stabbings and worse.”

Now the people he was referring to weren’t the locals, but obviously I’m not going to mention the particular race of the attackers as I would be accused of being racist so I’m just warning you that if you are going over, be extremely careful and look after yourself.

I can tell you for a fact that my friend is extremely shaken up by the whole thing and has never encountered such a frightening experience when travelling abroad to watch his team, and he asked me to warn Arsenal fans who would be making exactly the same trip next week.

He told me:

Aren’t your lads out there next week? Do you still have that Arsenal blog? If so you couldn’t put something on there to warn people? Id hate more of your lads to get done like we did. I’ve never got in to any trouble in going out anywhere or watching us in Europe but in the space of 45 minutes my 2 mates got pick pocketed and we got attacked. Id really appreciate it.

And that is the whole point of this post.

If you know anyone who is travelling to see the Champions League game next week, just forward this warning to them. It might just help.

Chelsea Don’t Just End Our Title Challenge, But Show Us We’re Miles Away

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Arsenal (0) – (3) Chelsea
The Emirates Stadium, London

At the start of the season, people were saying that this is the most open title race in years. Everyone of the Top Four could possibly win it, and teams like Tottenham and Manchester City could also threaten at the top.

But after today, it’s clear it’s a two horse race.

Chelsea had too much power, too much class and more importantly the ruthlessness to win football matches that we don’t have.

Credit to Chelsea, they gave us a footballing master-class and showed us exactly where we need to be if we want to even consider winning the title.

And while I was optimistic what a win would do for our title hopes, the performance from Chelsea clearly showed a gaping chasm in the level both teams are at. Chelsea are on another level, while Arsenal are simply miles behind.

The gap is now 11 points, and while Chelsea and Manchester United are going from strength to strength and their performances are getting better and better, Arsenal have hit a slump at a vital time of the season. That’s two defeats, no goals and some terrible defending.

We’re virtually in Liverpool territory now in regards to our title hopes.

Before the game, the biggest worry was that Chelsea would pick us apart. This game played into their hands – Arsenal will always be open and attacking at home, so all they had to do was sit back and catch us on the break. And their superiority in class showed at the end of the day.

Arsenal, as usual, had a lot of attacking possession but Cech literally had nothing to do. The frustrating thing was that instead of pulling the trigger, Arsenal wanted to play that one extra pass that would inevitably be intercepted by Chelsea or wasted by Arsenal. I can’t believe now many times Arsenal had half a yard of pace and could have taken the shot on, and Eduardo was particularly guilty of wasting the ball in key areas.

I realise that Denilson has been out injured, but he was extremely poor today. He lost the ball so many times, and took too many touches instead of releasing the ball early. I couldn’t believe it when Song was replaced instead of him at half time.

Chelsea’s goals were just typical Chelsea – classy, incisive and yet simple in execution. All the worry was the left side of our defence with our third-choice fullback Armand Traore replacing Clichy and Gibbs but it was from the other side where we were punished. Both of Chelsea’s goals in the first half came from simple crosses from Ashley Cole. The first was turned in expertly by Drogba (which always seems to happen against Arsenal) and the second was inadvertently scored in similar fashion by Vermaelen.

After that the game was pretty much over, barring an early goal from Arsenal. As time ticked away, Arsenal once again looked for that perfect goal instead of just putting their foot through the ball, and with Chelsea’s defensive power it was straight forward for the league leaders.

Arsenal had a couple of half chances but nothing clear cut, and Drogba hit the final nail in the coffin as he smashed a freekick late on.

Cesc Fabregas looked lost in the middle and as the second half went on his body language summed up how Arsenal supporters felt. In one instance, he lost the ball and then just gave up. Can you blame him? Fabregas has been extremely loyal to Arsenal but you wonder how much disappointment he can take. This was a crushing defeat and we never looked like winning this game.

Arsene told us that our young side has matured and were ready to beat Chelsea, but unfortunately I didn’t see a difference between today and last season’s defeat to Chelsea were we lost 4-1.

There was a massive gulf in class and quality then and it was the same today.

Losing Is Not An Option For Arsenal Against Chelsea

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Chelsea (The Emirates Stadium, London)
Premier League Fixture
Sunday 29th November 2009
Kick Off: 4pm – Live on Sky Sports 1

The Maths

As it stands, Arsenal are 8 points behind runaway league-leaders Chelsea, having played a game less.

A defeat would leave us 11 points behind, which would be a massive gap even with that game in hand – which incidentally is against Bolton Wanderers at home.

But if we can end the match with a win, it’s amazing the difference it would make. Instead of trailing by 11 points we would be only 5 points behind, which would mean if we did manage to win our game in hand then the deficit would only be 2 points.

Talk about a real 6-pointer.

Despite our topsy-turvy away form (which will need to be addressed if we are to be considered worthy challengers), wins against Portsmouth, Wigan, Blackburn, Birmingham and Tottenham mean that our home form has literally been perfect in the Premier League, giving us five wins out of five.

It’s also interesting to note that in four home European ties (Celtic, Olympiacos, AZ Alkmaar and Standard Liege) and two Carling Cup games (W.B.A. and Liverpool) we’ve won all six. So in all competitions, Arsenal have won every home game.

And as if you weren’t sick enough of all the maths, in those 11 games Arsenal have scored 35 goals and conceded only 7.

Impressive statistics.

A lot of you will rightly mention the opposition we’ve faced in those home fixtures, but I’m not completely decided either way whether that is important in terms of the game against Chelsea. Yes, our home form is hugely impressive but in a game of this level, for me, none of that really matters. You could even argue that recent form isn’t even that relevant – look how Liverpool beat Manchester United at home, despite having the worst run in 1,205 years. In their last 10 matches (excluding the win over Debrecen midweek) Liverpool’s only win in that time was against United – and they drew 3 and lost the other 6.

So if the scousers have taught us anything (except it takes more than two decent players to win football matches) it’s that Arsenal versus Chelsea is anyone’s game.

I firmly believe that as is the case with many games between the Top Four, what makes the difference in the end is the performance on the day and which team takes their chances.

And at The Emirates with the home crowd behind them, Arsenal are capable of beating anyone.

The Injuries

The bad news is that the man who has proved to be the difference against Arsenal on more than one occasion, Didier Drogba, is back in the Chelsea squad after playing against Porto on Wednesday. And it looks like Frank Lampard is set to return early from his injury scare. So Chelsea look pretty much full strength.

Arsenal on the other hand aren’t exactly down to the bare bones, but missing big players.

Arsenal’s biggest goal threat this season Robin Van Persie is obviously out, as well as Gael Clichy and Kieran Gibbs meaning third-choice left back Armand Traore will deputise in their absence. That position will be something I’m sure Chelsea will try to exploit, and the alternative (which could actually be used) of Silvestre playing there really would put the shivers down my spine. And even worse news is that Silvestre might even play at centre back after Williams Gallas was only declared “50-50” after he still couldn’t get his contact lens into his eye yesterday. If that happens then Eboue will have to switch sides and play at left back.

A defensive back line including both Eboue and Silvestre would re-define the phrase “patched up” and unfortunately all I could see from that scenario would be a hell of a lot of leaks. And bad ones at that.

Van Persie Update: Just read the latest news that according to the Arsenal medical staff “Van Persie will now be out for between four to five months” and will require surgery on his ankle.

You can read more on this devastating news on the official Arsenal website.

Andrei Arshavin

I’m very interested, and excited, to see what Arshavin can do against a top quality side like Chelsea.

We’ve seen what he can do against Liverpool, and we’ve seen what he could do against Manchester United. He is a special talent and as both of those sides found out, give him even half a second and a bit of space he can hurt you to devastating effect. So I hope he has a lot of the ball and a big game on Sunday.

I’m sure a lot of you will still be confused to as why the Russian didn’t play against Chelsea last season when we played them in the semi-final of the FA Cup but that’s over now and we have to look forward. The only concern is that I’m not sure Arshavin is at his happiest playing in our new 4-3-3 formation. He’s managed to score 5 goals in this campaign but I haven’t really seen that same spark he had last season.

Hopefully tomorrow will be he’ll be able to mark his arrival to the new season.

Tactics & Style of Play

We all know Arsenal will come out and play their own brand of attacking football, but how about Chelsea?

I’ve only seen them a couple of times this season, against Liverpool and Manchester United, although both of those games were at Stamford Bridge.

If I remember correctly, those games were cagey and hardly entertaining. In the most recent, despite having a decent amount of play and playing a very compact formation with 5 in midfield and one up top Manchester United could feel unlucky not to get anything from that game. And when Liverpool travelled to London they were compact and defensive as well, but unlike United were never really in that game.

So if Chelsea are cautious at home against the Top Four, then you can bet they will be tomorrow against an attacking side like Arsenal.

But because they know how Arsenal play it almost makes the job easy for Chelsea. The basic game-plan is to sit deep, withstand some pressure in the final third and then hit Arsenal on the counter attack – and when you do get chances to get forward you need to make them count. And that is almost perfect for a solid, powerful and quick team like Chelsea – who have Anelka and Drogba in top form. Added to that, they have a deadly threat in the air, which is something that has cost us dear in the past.

It’s a cliché, but the team that wins here will be the one that takes their chances.

And unfortunately when it comes to a straight fight between Almunia and Cech to keep a clean sheet, the smart money wouldn’t be on the Spaniard.

Perversely, away from home Arsenal have really impressed against the Top Four. There was that 4-4 win at Anfield (which we should have won) and then the 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge. But at home Arsenal will be more open and Chelsea will have their chances to punish us.

The Title Race

Ordinarily, a game this early against one of the Top Four wouldn’t be so important, but make no mistake about it, this game is massive.

Even though there’s 6 months of the season left, losing tomorrow and going 11 points behind would really put us in Liverpool territory. We’ve racked up 3 defeats already and last seasons Champions only lost 4, while the Champions for the 4 seasons previous to that all lost only 5 games – so another defeat at this stage doesn’t leave us with much wiggle room for the rest of the campaign.

But a win against Chelsea, who are seemingly cruising at the top of the league, would give them their 3rd defeat of the season, and show the rest of the Premier League that they can be beaten. With their lead at the top of the table there’s almost an aura that this Chelsea team are impossible to beat. Manchester United used to have that when they had Ronaldo but the team to beat this season is undoubtedly Chelsea.

And all 3 points should give us the impetus to push on strong over the winter period. With that disappointing defeat at Sunderland and the injury to Van Persie we need something to kick start our season.