By 1970’s Gooner
Forget the disappointment of the first three games of the season. They will prove to be aberrations, exceptions to the rule, a thing of the past. Performances that will be remembered by the end of the season only as an example of how a team can improve so much.
Remember that everything was at a virtual standstill during the preseason.
Firstly Wenger made the mistake of allowing the Fabregas and Nasri transfers to drag on until almost the final day of the window. This affected the players moral and the uncertainty of ‘will they stay will they go’ did not help either.
Secondly he failed to buy adequate replacements early in the transfer window and had to scramble in the signings very late on.
Thirdly, pre season was not the normal one as the new signings could not be assimilated enough in the Wenger way of playing nor get to know the other players. Also, breaking with tradition, the team gallivanted to the Far East which, in a way, delayed their pre season proper.
Add to this lot injuries (Gibbs, Wilshere, Vermaelen) and suspensions (Song, Frimpong, Gervinho) and it was all predictable in a way….
Now with the new signings beginning to settle in and the shock of losing Cesc and Nasri fading, the team can fully focus on the task ahead of them.
And the new signings look like they will add that maturity, leadership and experience that we have been lacking.
Mertersacker reminded me of Adams, strong, determined and tall enough to deal with the Premier League.
Arteta has the skill to take over the creative role in midfield the way that we have come accustomed.
And Gerninho looks a real handful to me. I saw him at the Emirates Cup (from the Arsenal boxes- some of us bloggers were invited as guests) and I was impressed.
But what really impressed me are two youngsters who took to the first team as ducks to water.
Firstly Szeczney is a fantastic goalkeeper. He produces a world class save in nearly every game he plays.
The penalty save against Udinese gave us the qualification to the group stages (and kept Wenger in his job).
Again yesterday the save from Graham averted further embarrassment.
If you have a chance look at his save for Poland against Germany in their 2-2 draw last week.
Now if it were Almunia in the Arsenal goal I fear we would be talking about saving relegation.
The other revelation is Emmanuel Frimpong.
What power, determination and confidence. He is better than Song. Put these two together in central midfield and we will be impregnable. I will soon expand on this possibility about slightly changing the formation to accommodate these two.
So with the injured and the suspended players to come back plus time to assimilate and bed in the new players I believe we will be coming back strongly very soon.
Cheer up. The only way is up!
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7 comments:
about frimpong being better than Song, i will say we should allow him gain experience steady with no pressures (i doubt) but one thing i saw yesterday i like was when he rescued a situation while Ashavin was have a sunbath and he shouted at him.
that tells me he carries The Arsenal on his head and takes the game as a battle field. well something like that. But for sure Song laziness might soon varnish and that's a good thing.
better than song?not in a million yrs!
You got it totally wrong guy! Frimpong can be a fighter on the pitch but he doesn't cover for the defence or help the attack. He lacks focus and his decision making is poor! He doesn't even know what to do with the ball anytime he wins it. SONG IS FAR FAR BETTER!
...wise saying..but Song is more beta in pass, confidence and agility than Frimpong
At the moment, song is better than frimpong. Song has better pass ability & is more defensive.
There’s a lot of negativity surrounding us at the moment, and in most of the comments I read through this blog, through twitter, through facebook et al, everyone has a bad word to say about the board, the manager, the team or the youth. In a year when we’ve lost two of our best players to injuries (Wilshere & Verm) and lost two to ongoing transfer sagas (Nasri & Cesc) and brought in 8 new players – 5 first teamers – surely, we have to give the team some time to settle, to gel, to get to know each other and get some games under their belt before we pass judgement.
As we saw last night, Premier League high flyers, City and ManU both drew to their European opposition 1-1. The same scoreline as we did. Europe is a different kettle of fish and everyone who you play at this level is of a certain quality. Dortmund, Napoli and Benefica are all quality opposition. “Draw your away games and win your home ones” is the motto of the Champions League group stage and the scorelines around Europe yesterday, including a home defeat for Inter Milan against Trabzonspor, show the quality of the competition.
What I’ve found funny about the negativity is the bad publicity for Per Mertersacker. He’s played two games and he’s played very well in them. He is an experienced player, was captain of his previous club, has 70+ International caps and has been pretty damn good since he’s joined. There is so much bad fan press about him, you’d think we’d re-signed Pascal Cygan!
The main thing for us at the moment is to put a run of games together. We need to climb the table – something that will happen slowly but surely if we just get our heads down
It will not truly have success, I feel like this.
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