Tag Archives: Wilshere

Gervinho

Pour a drink, let’s talk about the Arsenal

Sit back, pour yourself a drink, and be prepared for a long post.

Sometimes I think of these post-match blogs like having a drink with me at the bar after the game. Living where I do, I have precious few friends to talk football with, so I write these posts in order to have the type of conversations that normal football fans get after every match. If I lived in London, I might not have ever taken up blogging and instead would have decompressed with my friends: pondering the complexity of a good bourbon we would talk about the players, the game, the referees, the fans, the manager, the stadium, Ethel the tea lady, and what the result means for the club as a whole.

But I don’t live in London, I live here, and this is the result.

I have been wondering about us as fans the last few weeks. There’s something odd about us Gooners but I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s almost like an angry sense of entitlement mixed with tired resignation which are two things that shouldn’t go together, but they do. And in any 90 minutes of any game you can see people swing wildly from one to the other.

Yesterday, against Norwich, was another example of both emotions surfacing at various times in the game. In the first half, Arsenal huffed and puffed but Norwich simply sat back, kept their shape, and  frustrated Arsenal. Gervinho was the man with the target on his forehead both from his teammates and the fans as he jinked and danced around the pitch like a marionette manipulated by a drunken puppeteer.

We keep hearing that Gervinho is a confidence player and I honestly think what we saw yesterday was a confident Gervinho — he does have 2 goals and 3 assists in his last 4 games. He wasn’t pulling moves off but he was trying audacious things; attacking Norwich’s two banks of four with his trademark jinking little dribbles, arms and legs akimbo. His dribbling and passing is completely unpredictable and defenders and even his teammates don’t know how to deal with it.

At one point, Gervinho was alone on the wing, there were no Arsenal players in the box and I thought to myself, “what’s he going to do here? Surely not cross because he’s only even tried 16 crosses all season and besides there’s no one in the box.” And then the drunken puppeteer controlling him thinks it would be funny if he hits what can only be described as one of the best crosses I’ve seen from an Arsenal player all season, to no one.

So, I think he was confident but even a confident Gervinho can’t force himself to have good touch. His very first touch of the game was a turnover, Sagna plays a good cross to him, he shields the defender well, and gets a foot on the ball, only to turn the ball over. It was a sign of things to come, as he would later make an incredible run, get the perfect ball from Cazorla, and as Bunn comes out, Gerv takes a heavy touch around the keeper and by the time he catches up to the ball he has no angle on the shot, so he does a shot/pass thing across the goal.

Should he have taken a better touch? Should he have passed it back to Giroud? Should Giroud have made a stronger following run? The answer really depends on your outlook.

Me? I’m resigned to Gervinho being Gervinho. He’s an interesting character who makes some incredibly astute runs, who has an unusual dribbling style, and who will sometimes open up teams like Norwich. He’s also one of the worst forwards I have ever seen play for Arsenal and he makes me long for Carlos Vela. He is both, he contains multitudes.

This is the point where someone always says that “people should remember the criticism of Ramsey, Diaby, etc etc.” and how “Ramsey has come good” or something of that nature. It’s true, Ramsey is playing very well. His work rate yesterday was top notch, his tackling was impeccable, and he didn’t complain even as he was even ignominiously shoved over to right back to make room for Ox in midfield. As Tim Stillman said, he’s a lot like Ray Parlour. Which makes me wonder how fans would receive Ray Parlour these days? Probably not very well.

But there is a crucial difference between Ramsey and Gervinho and that is that Gervinho is basically the finished article. He’s not going to suddenly become Drogba no matter how many songs we sing about him. Ramsey, on the other hand, has a few more years to come good and I’ve resigned to giving him the time to come good.

And in a way, my complaints about Gervinho are just my sense of entitlement. Borne from 7 years of the greatest football I’ve ever seen played and from the fact that Arsenal have a long history as winners, I feel like Arsenal deserve a forward like Falcao. But, knowing that we will never pay for a  Falcao, I’m resigned to Gervinho and accept him for all of his inconsistencies. Wenger said once, “If you eat caviar every day it’s difficult to return to sausages”. Ain’t that the truth?

Similarly, the Arsenal defense. Everyone in the world knew that Norwich’s only offensive tactic was to get the ball into the Arsenal half, take a dive, and try to win a free kick so they could score off a header. When they did exactly that, I felt nothing. After all, we’ve seen it before. We play with all 11 men on all set plays, having no outlet to clear to, and we force our forwards to defend headers. We’ve been doing that for years now and the results have been exactly the same: some lump wins a header in the box and occasionally scores.

But then Arsenal decide that it’s time to play some football and Wenger hauls off Wilshere and Gervinho who were both struggling and puts on Theo and Podolski. Their injection of pace at the end of the game made Arsene Wenger’s starting XI selection make perfect sense. There were a lot of players returning from injury so why not give them 60 minutes to try to win the game and if they can’t do it, bring on the guy with bags of pace to run straight at Norwich’s tired legs and the guy with the finishing boots to put the game away.

Which is exactly what happened. Theo should have won a penalty with what was nearly his very first touch but referee Mike Jones, nor the linesman, called a foul. A few minutes later, however, the linesman had a clear view of Kamara hauling Giroud down by the shirt and waved for the penalty. We saw the exact same decision go against Arsenal when Koscielny was judged to have hauled down Dzeko by referee Mike Dean so it felt fair to me. Mike Jones, whose view was obstructed by the backs of the players finally made the right call and gave the penalty which Arteta smashed home. Norwich was in disbelief, Norwich manager Chris Hughton later called the decision “criminal” and I’m sure the FA will be pulling him up on charges any minute now.

Any. Minute. Now.

Now.

Wenger then changed the game again, this time bringing on Oxlade-Chamberlain, another pacy player who ran straight at the Norwich defense. For the second goal, Ox picked up the ball outside the box, dribbled, played a one-two with Poldi, and then fired back across the box for Giroud to tap in (he’s claiming the goal anyway!).

Norwich was now forced to play a bit and they did have a good shot at goal which was saved by Fabianski. But with almost the next action Arsenal put the game away from a play that would make any fan from Norwich or Stoke proud: Fabianski lumped to Giroud, who flicked to Theo, who crossed to Podolski, who fired in. A wonderful goal which some people are claiming was offside. I didn’t see it. I still don’t.

Which brings me nicely to the final weird thing about us Arsenal fans, we do love a moan. You’re probably licking your lips in anticipation of writing your brilliant insight into how I’ve already moaned about Gervinho (which I didn’t, really) but you should save your breath. It’s not at all ironic that I’m moaning about how we like to moan while moaning. See, after the match we moaned about Arsenal’s first half play, we moaned about Tony Gale moaning about Arsenal, and some of us moaned about other Arsenal supporters moaning about the moaning. We are a moany lot and me having a moan about it is only par for the course.

But in the end we won. We’re in third place! Six points off second place! And yeah the other two teams have a game in hand (Man City and Chelsea) but let’s not forget the first 15 games this season, where Arsenal managed just 5 wins. FIVE. The worst run of form ever for an Arsene Wenger Arsenal team. If you had told me that on December 2nd, the day after Arsenal lost 2-0 at home to Swansea, I would have bitten your arm off and clubbed you with it.

So, pour another bourbon and let’s toast to the Arsenal. It’s been a hell of a ride this season and I’m sure it’s not over but getting there seems like it is sure going to be interesting.

Qq

BABY

Sagna and Wilshere overcome Sunderland and Taylor

I had a professor once tell me that his secret to grad school was to read the first and last paragraph of every chapter and if it was a chapter he thought was particularly important, he would read the first and last sentence of each paragraph in the chapter. It was the only way that he could handle the rigors of all the required readings while also maintaining a high alcohol to blood ratio. So if you’re in grad school, go ahead and skip to the last paragraph.

Now that those bores are gone off to let their hair down in their ivory towers, the rest of us can talk about a few things. First, let’s talk for a second about Bacary Sagna and Wojciech Szczesny.

There was a moment in the 85th minute where I thought, “by moving Sagna to center half, the good news is that Arsenal have the Sagna of old back, the bad news is that now Arsenal have a right back crisis.”

We’ve known it now for several years, Arsenal’s fullbacks have incredible demands put on them. They have to be one of the best passers on Arsenal, a team which already demands a high level and rate of passing, because they provide the only width on a team in which three center mids make vertical runs all day. And precisely because of that attacking system which turns players like Sagna and Gibbs into a fifth midfielder the Arsenal fullbacks are often pushed well up the field and subsequently exposed to runs behind and all other manner of problems.

A lot of folks were wringing their hands about “Sagna’s form” this season and tweeting about how they “wouldn’t shed a tear” if Sagna were to leave this Summer. That level of unwarranted vitriol kicked into overdrive when he gave an interview to the French press this week talking about Arsenal’s lack of positional discipline with his detractors calling it ironic that he would talk about positioning when he was the one caught out so often. Some folks went so far as to say that it looked like he didn’t care.

The reality is that the performance you saw from Sagna yesterday is the same type of warrior-like, full-blooded, steely game that he has been giving pretty much his entire Arsenal career. Moreover, he is hands down Arsenal’s best defender and has been for a number of years. He’s better in the air (at a mere 5’8″) than the 6’4″ Per Mertesacker and is one of the few players at Arsenal who actually knows how (and when!) to make a tackle.

Arsenal have made a number of defensive errors this season and Sagna has been one of the players who contributed to that ignominious record. I was one of the people who tipped Carl Jenkinson to take over for Sagna I have to admit that I was wrong on that account. I like Jenkinson, but almost as soon as Sagna returned you could see that Jenkinson still had much to learn. And on yesterday’s performances, with Sagna winning many plaudits and Carl seeing red, the gulf between them is stretched to a chasm. Sagna going to PSG would be a huge loss for Arsenal this summer.

Meanwhile, Szczesny is getting a lot of credit for making a couple of decent saves in the game but apart from a few good moments I felt like he was, overall, very shaky. One of the things that everyone praised Szcz for over the last two years was his “command of the area” but over the last few matches, Szczesny has looked anything but commanding.

Stoke’s “Hail Mary” offense is scary for the best of keepers and for one as young as Szczesny, who is exposed by a center back pairing that can’t win headers, Stoke is a daunting opponent indeed. Still, his attempted claims against Stoke made him look weak and ineffectual.

Against Sunderland he continued this recent form of flapping at high claims and I felt put undue pressure on his defense. Pressure that the defense didn’t need because Sunderland aren’t that much of a threat from the air. I don’t hate the kid or want to see him fired but it makes me wonder if there isn’t something physically wrong with Szczesny.

It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Szczesny is playing with a knock, I think Wenger is taking more and more chances with his players as the squad looks increasingly thinner. What, exactly, is happening with Arsenal’s squad is the mystery of the season. Djourou is loaned out at just the worst time of the season and now Santos has been send to Gremio for a year leaving Arsenal with a rather threadbare defensive unit.

I called for Wilshere to be rested before kickoff and judging by the fact that he was removed for an “injury” I don’t think that was a bad shout. Wenger admitted before the game that he is worried about Wilshere playing too much. He said something similar before Wilshere was injured two years ago.

Despite the injury scare, Wilshere was pivotal to Arsenal beating Sunderland yesterday. Not only did he record the “pre-assist” but he was a focal point for the Sunderland defense who were forced to close down on Jack all day. That opened space for his teammates. Cazorla, in fact, needs Jack next to him, the two make an excellent midfield pairing. I wonder if Cazorla wouldn’t have had his man-of-the-match performance if he had been the target of the Sunderland studs rather than Jack.

whew

The difference between Jack’s pulsing forward play and the ball dawdling of Diaby is night and day. The second that Wilshere was off the pitch Arsenal stopped controlling possession and struggled going forward. So, I “get it’ that Wenger needs to use him so much. But yesterday’s match against Sunderland should be seen as a huge warning to the club; Jack can’t do it alone. He needs Arsenal to spend some of the money sitting in the bank to put players around Jack that can take some of the load off. I’m not worried as much about burnout this season, I’m worried about a Cesc-like burnout from the club and the club’s parsimonious policies.

Which brings me to my last point for the day: the League has a real problem with the referees. I have never seen a player as tough as Jack Wilshere. He is the kind of guy who likes to keep the ball, like all creative players he loves the ball. Those kinds of players are normally targeted by the players who hate creativity, the Lee Cattermoles of the world. The destroyers. But the kicking that Wilshere takes rises to a level I’m not sure I’ve seen before.

Wilshere is not just constantly targeted, he’s constantly targeted with obscene tackles like the one that Titus Bramble put in which caused Jack to jump 10′ in the air. Lee Cattermole kicked Wilshere and Ramsey multiple times and got away with it and the rest of the Sunderland midfield took turns getting away with kicks left and right.

Leaving aside the fouls that don’t make contact, it would be a start if referees in the Premier League could punish the fouls that do make contact. Fouls like this one:

Lee Cattermole is EXACTLY that kind of player

This foul by Cattermole on Ramsey earned Cattermole a yellow and it was part of a starting 10 minutes by Sunderland in which they fouled the Arsenal players all over the pitch and got away with it time and again. Cattermole should have seen red probably twice in this game but again there were scenes of the referee and him shucking and jiving rather than the referee just sending him to an early bath. Meanwhile, if the Arsenal players got anywhere near the Sunderland boys the whistle went immediately and the cards were quick.

But in the end Arsenal did just enough to ensure the three points. Giroud and Cazorla both squandered golden chances on the counter attack as Sunderland decided to play football in the final 15 minutes and extended themselves to get an equalizer. Defensively, Ramsey was outstanding filling in for Carl Jenkinson at right back and as many of us have said here time and again, you have to love Ramsey’s willingness to do anything the boss asks. People often complain about players who don’t respect the badge, if you’re looking for one, look no further than Aaron Ramsey. And of course, Szczesny and Sagna combined to keep the clean sheet: Sagna heading away every Sunderland threat and Szczesny finally claiming some high balls, ending the game with a perfect claim with three Sunderland players surrounding him. It was a good result for Arsenal and fingers crossed that everyone comes through with no knocks and gets healthy for the FA Cup and Champions League games upcoming.

There was a lot of stuff you just missed in there my grad school friend. We proved definitively that Bacary Sagna should start at center back, that Wenger was foolish to play Wilshere, that Lee Cattermole is exactly that kind of player, and that Anthony Taylor made the kinds of decisions that cast a pall on the fundamental fairness of the Premier League. Or maybe we just talked about the game. Maybe you should read the whole article and find out?

Qq

It’s no mystery: Arsenal ticket prices function of supply and demand

Let’s start off with some great news, Jack Wilshere and Bacary Sagna both played 90 minutes in a highly competitive “behind closed doors” match against Chelsea. According to Arseblog, Jack is feeling so good that he wants to play this weekend against Norwich.

Ahh the impetuousness of youth. Hopefully, the Arsenal medical staff and the management keep that in check and bring him back slowly. No need to rush the boy back, Arsenal’s midfield is well stocked.

Which raises a question about both Sagna and Wilshere, why would either get a starting berth? Sagna is at least more experienced than Jenkinson so I can cotton to that argument even though I disagree with it because I think Jenkinson has done enough to keep his starting spot. But what has Wilshere done to earn a spot over Ramsey? Conversely what has Ramsey done to deserve to be dropped?

With Diaby injured, Ramsey has started in Arsenal’s midfield and is at a career high passing percentage (90%) and a career low in having the ball taken from him (1.6 disp.). I fully understand that Ramsey is a divisive player. I also understand that absence makes the heart grow fonder and Wilshere is the emotional choice to start at the moment. I also understand that people are weird about Wilshere because  he’s English and they want to “see Ox, Wilshere, and Walcott form an English core at Arsenal.”

But set aside emotion for a second, Wilshere has been out for 16 months. There is no way he’s ready to start over Aaron Ramsey. Let’s get him at least a couple of substitute appearances before we unleash him on the Shawcross.

The other great news* is that Olivier Giroud rescued his French nationalism team with a last minute bullet header from a Ribery cross. Did I ever tell you that “Ribery” would be a great name for a brand of condoms? It would.

Anyway, Ribery’s cross was delivered at a bit of a difficult height and Giroud did very well to get a head on it and place the ball perfectly into the corner of the net. Giroud has a reputation for not scoring off headers despite his size and clear aerial ability so I wonder if Arsenal aren’t working with the player to build his confidence in that area. If not, it’s still a hell of a confidence boosting goal for the Arsenal forward and exactly the kind of momentum that Arsenal will be happy to exploit this weekend against Norwich.

France were delighted with the point and Spain should be feeling a bit dismayed. Cazorla seems to have come in for some stick because he was dispossessed off a Spainish corner kick in the 93rd minute. Still, Juanfran proved that a goal scored by the opposition is almost never one person’s fault as he cut out the first French long ball to Ribery (?) and then tried to dribble past two French defenders and was himself dispossessed. The French then just marched through the Spanish defenses like Napoleon taking Barcelona and scored the equalizer.

Anyway, thank the Gods that the international breaks are over for a few months and we can get back to real football. Starting this weekend! Saturday! Arsenal play Norwich! More on that tomorrow.

As for the BBC report that Arsenal ticket prices are the highest in the land: yes, the elite games are, by some measures, the highest in the land. But the reality is, for all the moaning, Arsenal can charge the prices they do because the demand is there.

I would suggest  that rather than look at the prices the clubs charge for tickets, look at the prices that touts get for tickets. The black market is a truer measure of the value of a ticket and the black market for Arsenal tickets is very strong. Sorry if that offends the Greater London Police or if that offends working class supporters but it is simple supply and demand. And for Arsenal tickets the demand far outstrips the supply.

Wigan may have the cheapest prices in England, but Wigan can’t sell out. Arsenal have the most expensive box office tickets but they routinely sell out and touts charge more for their seats. That means that according to market prices (drum roll, please…) Wigan’s tickets are actually overpriced, while Arsenal’s tickets are underpriced.

Look, Arsenal are an attractive night out for tourists and that’s something that everyone has to come to grips with. The club have a great history and a reputation for playing attractive football in a safe stadium. The stadium is conveniently located in London, on the Piccadilly Line, and boasts one of the greatest match day facilities in England. And the club have a world-wide fanbase.

People fly in to London, from all over the world, to see Arsenal play at the Grove. That is a fact that the club’s management are well aware of. That is the reason why people are still on the Arsenal season ticket waiting list. That is the reason why there are 60,000 seats sold for nearly every match. And that is the reason why if the club were to reduce their ticket prices, they would only increase the profit margins for touts. I also firmly believe that when Arsenal’s management do increase their income from corporate sponsorship they will not lower ticket prices, and if they do, it will be a token gesture.

Again, sorry if that offends people but don’t blame me, don’t blame Ivan Gazidis and his “greedy salary”, or blame Arsenal’s salary structure, or whatever other red herrings you want to drum up, blame human actors in a capitalist system who are purchasing tickets to see Arsenal at prices set by market demand.

One word of warning to Arsenal, however. Fan complaints around prices should not be swept under the rug because complaints are the first way that consumers voice their displeasure at the perceived value of an object or experience they are purchasing. The perceived value among a large and vocal minority of Arsenal fans is lower than the current ticket prices. They are still paying, but should the club not heed the warnings, the next step is that fans will stop buying the tickets. And when that happens, it’s usually a quick dive over a high precipice.

Right, that’s your lot for today. Feel free to try to tell me that market forces don’t matter because football is different in the comments below.

Qq

*I’m ignoring the 4-4 result between Germany and Sweden.