Author Archives: Michael Roberts

Vote Here! Can Theo Walcott Fire Arsenal To The Title?

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There’s no doubt that Theo Walcott is on fire for Arsenal at the moment.

He’s scored 8 games in 10 games which for a winger, is already an excellent return. Don’t forget his highest ever scoring season was in 2012-2013 when he scored 21 goals in all competitions.

The forward line for Arsenal has seemed to just fall into place this season. We all thought that Olivier Giroud would be the main man, with Alexis Sanchez on the left and then possibly Lucas Perez on the right. Alex Iwobi was just about breaking into the team towards the end of last season but it was thought that new signing Perez would be making more appearances than he has so far.

In fact, the forward line against Manchester City in our last away game of the season was Giroud, Sanchez and Welbeck.

So you wouldn’t think Theo had a look in.

But this season he has been excellent. And all Arsenal fans are thinking the same thing right now: the season has only just started and while Theo has been fantastic, he’s at the time of his career where he needs to perform at a top level for a whole season.

Alexis Sanchez as our main man has works wonders, and has brought out the best in not just Theo Walcott but Alex Iwobi and Mesut Özil. Those 4 players are taking on teams with some serious attitude (and pace), and with support from players like Cazorla and Coquelin, Arsenal are looking really good right now.

So the big question is this – can he maintain this level over the whole season?

Can Theo Walcott fire Arsenal to their first Premier League title in 12 years?

Cast your vote here and leave your opinions below!

bike trails

 

Expectation for Arsenal This Season

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The English Premier League is the top association for men’s football in England. With a lengthy 38 match season, the competition is about a fourth of the way completed. Many fans of the Premier League enjoy watching their favourite team. To make the match a bit more exciting, many fans also place bets on the results.

One of the top football clubs in the English Premier League is Arsenal.  The Arsenal has had a lot of success in the past. The 2003-2004 team has gone down in football history as one of two “invincible” teams by completing the season unbeaten.  In recent years, Arsenal won the Football Association Cup two consecutive times as well as the FA Community Shield.

Currently, the Arsenal is having a winning season, ranked second in the league just barely behind Manchester City. The only thing keeping them from overtaking the top spot is goal difference. Wenger’s team this year is much more resilient and has what is needed to take the championship in May. Some also point to the strong performance by goalkeeper, Petr Cech, as another reason the team is poised for greatness again.

Many fans will no doubt place wagers on the upcoming Arsenal football matches. In many ways, sports betting is not much different than enjoying online gambling. Therefore, fans may want to combine the two activities. For instance, some slot machine games are designed around football based themes including Soccer Safari. This five reel slot machine games comes with a total of 30 paylines. The game is a fusion of the sport along with African animals.

So the next time, Arsenal fans settle into watching a match, they should consider not only placing a sports bet but also check out sites like Casinoonline.co.nz to try football themed slot such as Soccer Safari.

 

Mesut Özil Has To Be Careful The Arsenal Fans Don’t Turn Against Him

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[ Credit: joshjdss ]

It’s been a good start to the season for Arsenal – we’re joint top of the league (only behind Manchester City on goal difference) and the team is playing well. We had a jittery game against Swansea at the weekend but generally speaking we’ve been very good.

Theo Walcott is on fire for Arsenal (I couldn’t care less if he isn’t performing for England), Mesut Özil is chipping in with the goals, Alexis Sanchez is a real team player who everything good goes through, Alex Iwobi looks like a real player and defensively (again, bar the Swansea match) we’ve looked excellent.

In midfield we still have Aaron Ramsey to come back, although Cazorla and Coquelin have looked brilliant. Xhaka is having mixed fortunes, scoring some real thunderbolts but then seeing red against at the weekend.

So at the moment, things are rosey at Arsenal.

The only real issues at the moment are the contract renewals of Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez – two of our best players.

While the Alexis Sanchez contract negotiations are being kept out of the spot light, issues are surfacing about Mesut Özil. Essentially, the two main sticking point are a wage increase and our ambition to win titles.

Now don’t get me wrong, he is a top quality player. And look, he’s a likeable guy – if you follow him on Twitter or Instagram, you see he loves playing for Arsenal and has a real connection with the fans. And I like him. But there is a real danger that this situation could get sticky at the very least.

We all know players want more money and football agents are the driving force behind this, that’s just the nature of the game as it stands at the moment. And while this is nothing new this has the potential to ruin Özil’s relationship with the Arsenal fans.

In terms of ambition, again this is another thing agents bring up to increase their players earnings. But the ambition argument for me is something which is going to cause a problem the further these talks go on.

Because while he’s been successful for Germany, in terms of club football his honours list is modest to say the least.

He’s played at the highest level for 10 seasons and won the German Cup with Werder Bremen (in 2 seasons), La Liga and the Copa del Rey in 3 seasons at Real Madrid and 2 FA Cups with Arsenal in 3 seasons.

So he’s not like Paul Scholes or even Philip Neville in terms of trophies won.

So talking about Arsenal’s ambition is a little rich considering the titles he has won over his 10 years in football.

The long the contract talks go on the more it’s going to turn against Özil. Questioning the ambition of a club which has moved forward considerably in the last few seasons and is playing some excellent football isn’t always the best bargaining tool.

We’ll see what the next few weeks hold but hopefully, things won’t turn too ugly.

 

Lucky Arsenal Stumble Past Swansea And To The Top Of The League

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Arsenal are second in the Premier League this morning after a 3-2 win over Swansea City, level on points with Manchester City who drew with Everton yesterday.

But the match at The Emirates was a strange one.

Arsenal played well at times and for portions of the game we looked in complete control – but at others we looked like we were going to buckle under the slightest pressure.

Arsenal were leading 2-0 thanks to a double from Theo Walcott.

Then Granit Xhaka’s bad afternoon started when he somehow “fell over” and let Swansea back into the game.

After that Arsenal looked edgy and at 2-1 we looked like conceding the equaliser. Mesut Özil scored an absolute cracker to restore our 2 goal lead and when you thought we might actually be on the way to 3 points Modou Barrow’s (who was hugely impressive all game) crossed to make the game 3-2 and give us a nervy second half.

Granit Xhaka, who committed a professional foul on Barrow as Swansea were about to break on us received a very harsh red card and I’d tend to agree with Arsene Wenger when he said it was a “very dark yellow” at the most.

That meant we played 20 minutes plus added time with 10 men and in that time Swansea had about 4 chances to steal an equaliser – although “steal” would be unfair as Swansea attacked with intent and looked dangerous every time they went forward.

In the end, it would have ended 3-3 or 5-2 as Theo Walcott hit the post and missed a sitter at the death, but the bottom line was we took home the 3 points and reached the summit of the Premier League after 8 games.

So what do you think? Were we lucky? Is winning games like this a sign of champions? Or are Arsenal riding their luck? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

 

Why Wayne Rooney Deserves More Respect

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Wayne Rooney has been getting a lot of stick this season for his lack of form and has been dropped from Manchester United and now England. With the fans of club and country calling for his head before this point, is it all justified?

Look, I’m an Arsenal fan and do I dislike Rooney? Of course. But I respect him as a player. His aggression, determination and motivation to succeed is something that Arsenal could have done with, especially in our barren spells pre-2014.

Yes, his form has dipped but does he deserve to be slated like he has done? He’s a player who has given his all to Manchester United and England for the best part of the decade. He’s never moaned or whined, and for me has been nothing but a team player.

He sacrificed his own glory to accommodate a certain Cristiano Ronaldo to flourish and for England he has always given 110%. Yes he’s lost a little pace but who doesn’t in their 30’s. This is a guy who has played in excess of 40 games per season and has played in major tournaments for his country.

Most of what I’ve heard from football fans and experts is that “Rooney should have been dropped a long time ago” and that “he’s well passed it”. Well for me that is disrespectful to a player who has always just gone on and given it his all on the football pitch.

Even when he was officially dropped by Gareth Southgate, did Wayne Rooney decide to sulk and miss the press conference? No he did not. He went out there and answered all the snide questions he knew he would get from the press, and faced the situation head on.

You talk about a lot of cowards in the game today, players who are over pampered and are out of touch with reality. Players who whinge and moan at the earliest opportunity, and those who demand to be in the starting eleven.

Has Wayne Rooney ever been like that? No he hasn’t and for that he deserves our respect.