Honestly if you ask me, Walcott is too one dimensional. I've said it before and to many other friends, he's over rated and besides his speed, he offers literally nothing. And really, when he's pitched next to equally fast fullbacks like Evra, he's nullified very easily. I think we've been too patient with him, Wenger keep saying he needs time but im afraid he doesn't have hell lots of time to develop, especially the standard of rising stars in EPL are getting younger and younger at 18 and above. Theo's already 21 i think.

With Eboue, i think he's prolly one of those supersub type of players. Put him in extended games, he wont shine as much as being a super sub and coming in as a player that could bring an extra something to the team. One thing i must comment about Arsenal is their tendency to overplay in the final third of the pitch. You look at the game against Man Utd and Chelsea and how we failed miserably in the final third where Cesc, Rosicky, Nasri and Arshavin seems not interested to hit and try abit too much intricate play. There's excessive passing in the attacking section while exposing themselves dearly in counter attack. That was exactly how we got hit by Man Utd and the Chelsea's 2nd goal.

And yeah, got to agree with you guys, NB52 may not be the most clinical striker but what he does quite effectively is to drag the defender away and put other players into play. Thats exactly what Eboue does and there will be matches where we need to play Eboue and NB52 to drag defenders out of position. There will be matches where we need a more one touch approach. Finding the balance is important.

Anyways, the Liverpool win was a massive result, much like how we overturn the Chelsea 3-0 bashing we took and then turning it around with a 2-1 win at Liverpool. Good news is that we dont have to face the big 3 again towards the end of the season altho smaller teams still do pose a threat.

Thats true Nazwan.

If AW were to learn anything from JM, it would be how to built a defensive fortress. For all the goals that we score, i think we scored just as much as Man Utd this season but we've conceded a shocking 10 more than them. Similarly, when Chelsea won their first title under JM, their defense was literally a brick wall in front of the GK.

This season, i thought Arsenal was ok defensively with the capture of TV which really added alot of steel. I always thought Toure was one of the best in the job and in the EPL but the additional of TV clearly showed we lacked a hardman in TV with his no nonsense tackle, astute reading of the game and his speed and one that surprised me, his goal scoring ability. However, that proved not to be enough as we still conceded shit loads of goals thru set pieces which has been haunting us for the past 3-4 season. And, we made far too many defensive mistakes. Case in point, Almunia and his once every 15 games bad performance, Fabianski and his once every 3 games erratic performance and the once in a while positioning mixup. This has to be cut away.

And another thing AW could learn from JM, its the winning mentality. Ever notice how we bullied teams that were afraid of playing us and we literally hit 4-5 goals when teams give us too much respect. But with Chelsea and Man Utd, we were made to look ordinary and i'd put that down to the mentality. I doubt our squad is weaker than Man Utd when we lost in that 3-1 encounter if we look at player by player, but wat made the difference is that Man Utd had step up their game when it matters most and the winning mentality put them 1 gear ahead of the young Arsenal players. With JM in Chelsea, they were hardly any champions in Chelsea in the sense almost none of them had tasted glory, with the exception of the Porto players that came together with JM to Chelsea. But he instilled a winning mentality in them and not to fear anyone and evidently, they won in the very first year JM was there and they never looked back ever since.

Zan81,
You sure you can fit that size L(36-40)?

I just checked current Nike size S is 37", M is 40" while L is 43".

I really wont want you to do a Ben, during our Monday futsal.

This post has been edited by giotto: Feb 25 2010, 05:30 PM

A fresher Arsenal would be able to see thru Stoke i believe. I think the lost in the FA Cup was largely because we played a weakened side.

We just need to watch out for their superlong throw ins and freekicks and corners. Stoke is very much a physical side with good height. With Sol, we should be able to handle their physical play. Plus, we're fresher than them so we'd be able to play around more and let them chase after us.

Yes, not many fans see Arsenal as a business unit, altho of coz the existence of Arsenal is still very much as a football club. Fact is, the new stadium made us a couple of hundred million poorer, but its important to have a new stadium if we want to compete with the best in the next 10 years or so.

Regarding the news that we managed to reduced the debts from 300 Million to 200 Million shows how strong our finances are and within the next 5 years, it would be even stronger and once we reduce our debts to a small figure, we'd be able to spend more on players and on development of younger players. Not many sees Arsenal from this point and most just look at news from websites that says Arsenal have money and therefore they should buy players.

Yes, there's money to be spent but AW looks at Arsenal as a business unit and not entirely as football club and this ensures our survival in the near future. If AW is just any other manager, he would have kept buying when we need players since there's money available. Afterall, he's only answerable to the football performance and nothing else. But no, thank God AW looks to the future and to ensure our survival, he invest carefully on players and looks to our youth. Can you guys imagine if we kept buying players and if for whatever reason we failed to qualify for UCL, we would have ended up like Leeds and now Portsmouth. End up selling their best players, sacking various managers and having to pay them compensation and getting lawsuits and etc. I cant help but feel for Pompey, FA Cup winners 2 years ago and they were looking pretty strong few years back. Now they're doomed to 2nd division and looking like they're gonna sell much more players and facing a meltdown like Leeds.

So guys, be thankful. We may not be winning but at least we're not facing a meltdown with the new stadium and so on.

It will be really hard for us to reach the level of Barca and especially Real. These teams are like the Rolls Royce of football and unlike Ajax, PSV and etc, Real Madrid in particular were always the top team since those days and they've attracted the big names in football since those days. What im trying to say here is, they have something what you call history and heritage that we'd never be able to achieve and the difference between Real and Ajax, Real never really had a downtime; like a period of time they won nothing for 15-20 years. Liverpool looked invincible in the 80's where they won so much but right now, they're going thru a bad patch. Man Utd was nothing in the 70's and 80's, so was Arsenal, Chelsea and etc. Real Madrid had consistently won trophies for years.

As for the issue of Real selling their training ground when heavily in debts. What happen i think was that they sold their training ground which was in prime land, in which they sold to the state. In return, Real developed that piece of land and made a handsome amount of money which translated to profit. I think there's some misconception that Real was bailed out by selling that land but the truth is, they sold is and developed it into some business district and made tonnes of money out of it. Much like what Arsenal did to Highbury now and we hope we'll see the benefits soon. Fact of the matter is, Perez and gang turned Real Madrid into a money making business entity and they use the brand or the identity of Real Madrid to maximise their marketability. You must give it up to Perez or the former directors for turning them into such a rich club much like how we should give our hats up to the marketing guys at Man Utd for turning them into a brand. Of coz when the club is winning trophies, its easier to market it.

I can't believe it this is like the second leg break in 2 years. Very traumatising indeed and i hope this sets the message across that you can't just go around kicking us to beat us. This has to stop and i feel for Ramsey. The boy's only 20 and he will be scarred for life. Eduardo's never the same player as before and i really hope Ramsey will recover and play for us again.

I didn't really notice how it happened but next thing i know, his leg is sideways. But thankfully we still had a good 20 mins to play after the injury and i think it took a good 10 mins for us to recover our tempo as the players looked shaken.

We had like 2-3 genuine claims for penalty but all turned down and we needed a clear handball to get one and the 3rd goal was the icing on a cake, on a sad sad day for Arsenal.

Wish Ramsey the speediest recovery.

Shawcross definitely didnt have the intention to break Ramsey's leg and his face tells it all. I wouldn't blame Shawcross as much as i did with Taylor but what we want is for teams not to kick us around. Cesc put it bluntly that he's seen 3 of such horrific incident within a short period of time playing for us, it tells you how hard these guys are playing against us.

I guarantee you the next league game that we're playing, the next team will throw in even stronger challenges as they know we've been scarred by that incident and would hesitate in 50-50 challenges.

I think Eboue has improved tremendously and its no surprise that he's in our starting line up now, ahead of Rosicky and even Walcott. I think he's our next most versatile player after Kolo Toure. I think Eboue's directness in the game is what we're lacking, someone who would take a run at defenders and draw them out while our strikers find space. Only thing lacking is Eboue's decision making and his finishing. I think he's also a great supersub for us, when we need a fresh leg or someone to take a run at tired legs.

Been reading the statement by Tony Pulis and Ryan Shawcross, all of which expresses regret and wishes Ramsey a quick recovery but they have stop short of making an apology. I think clubs are very careful with their statement and had they made an apology, it leaves them with an open door of being sued.

Precisely what i think so too. AW has never discussed a transfer target, unlike Real and Barcelona. If he says he's interested in Melo, likely he's going after someone else. He's indirectly trying to bargain a price with the 'unknown player's club' by openly saying he could for after Melo if the unknow club asking price is too high.

Yes, i won't disagree with you here as we're bad crossers as a team. The only best crosser in our team is Cesc. Lost count the number of time he whipped in almost perfect cross for the other players to head in or at least have an attempt at goal. Our fullbacks, Clichy and Sagna aren't exactly famous for their crosses and as for Walcott, he's a dissapointment and i question his decision making. Its either too hard or its too soft.

Like it or not, the accusation against Theo has an element of truth altho i wont go as far as saying he's a finished player. Theo's decision making is a big question mark even when he plays for us. Perhaps he's a late bloomer and with more games under the belt, he'll be better.

But yes i do agree there's too much spotlight over him and that might have contributed to his lack of progress or rather a hindrance to his progress.