By Ian Grant
____________________________________________________________
Damian
Arsenal 2 v Sunderland 3
I’m bemused by the report Ian Grant has posted on the ANR site about the game with Sunderland, not because I don’t think ‘rob’ is entitled to his view, but because ANR doesn’t usually lump such dull and uninformed opinion-pieces onto the site.
I sent a couple of non-attending friends some views on last night’s performances (below), but I wouldn’t expect this sort of thing to find its way onto a high-quality site like ANR, let alone rob’s rather slapdash report….Damian
[Ed’s [IG] reply: to echo a famous Motown hit: It’s my site and I’ll do what I want to. Besides it was fresh and immediate.]
No way, no way, no way we should have lost this game – it was as jammy and daft a Cup defeat as Milwall at home or Wrexham away:
We completely waltzed the first half, could have had 4 or 5 by the time they started scoring, should have had two free kicks instead of their first and second goals, and – finally – had a frustrating last 10 mins when we couldn’t get the ball or do anything with it when we did. But anyway, enough of the game and onto the players, all of whom I think I’m right in saying have represented their countries (and 7 of whom I think are full internationals):
TAYLOR: One of the best performances I’ve seen from him. All the usual negative traits (big, slow and shite distribution), but he was excellent in the air – despite three goals from crosses – and he got down well to a few shots, including an excellent effort from Igors. Also seemed to be a lot more vocal with this defence than he ever was playing with the first-team. Certainly did enough to keep Shabba on his toes.
LUZHNY: Terrific – really seemed to enjoy galloping up and down the right and made good use of the ball when he had it, but I suppose he was at fault for the third goal. How many different captains has Arsene used, and how many different foreigners (Garde, Vieira, Vivas, any others?)
TOURE: Wasted at left-back and exposed a bit on the third goal, but still charged around like mad, and made a series of amazing runs through the inside-left. One fantastic moment when he ran forward, misplaced a chip to Pires and put it straight to their centre back, didn’t break speed, just charged twenty yards towards the hapless defender and arrived five seconds after the ball to send the bloke flying and set up a chance which Pires fooked. He’s definitely better running inside than outside – couldn’t beat a man on the wing all night. Also a bit hurried with his chances, which meant he wasted some good ones.
STAVROS: OK first half, quiet second half, doesn’t seem to have the pace or the control to make it – gave away a lot of fouls and got caught out with balls over the top a few times – he carries himself a bit like very late-stage TA: kind of heavy-legged and awkward. Not really at fault for the goals but not exactly a commanding aerial presence either. Distribution was nothing to write home about either.
STEPANOVS: The master was back to his best, although – if this is possible – he seems to get even slower with each passing year. His tackling, distribution and heading were all immaculate – he made the usual 7 or 8 complete howlers but nothing irretrievable, and he’s a ditto with Stavros on responsibility for the goals. A joy to watch.
PENNANT: More in the game than I’ve ever seen him and did lots of good stuff when he got some space inside or behind his man, with some fantastic crossing into the box and cross-field passes to Pires. But…..he just can’t beat his man, which is pretty worrying with his speed and trickery, and he didn’t seem to have the nous to make the right sort of Ljungberg/Overmars runs into scoring positions. Best game I’ve seen him have but still not great. I’d rather have seen Jerome Thomas get a run.
BRONCO: Superb comeback – you’d never have known he’d been out for so long, not just cos of the strength of his tackling and passing, but cos he got up and down the pitch so much and never stopped looking for the ball. Very unlucky with a couple of efforts on goal, and not to get a penalty at the end. Looks a bit chunkier than he was.
SVARD: A revelation!! Since when has our Seba been a ball-stroking, hard-tackling, box-to-box central midfield dynamo? This was his best game for us by an absolute mile, and he just seemed to be under instructions to play in a completely different way than he ever has done before (like….er, better). Some of the passing was a delight – I don’t think I’ve seen such immaculate, skilful distribution from centre-mid since – I dunno – Paulinho at Stevenage, apart from when Igors stepped up a bit of course.
PIRES: Brilliant. Man of the match by a mile and really, really back to how he used to look – just in the confidence of his carrying and passing and dribbling, and in the amount of speed and control he showed doing it. Fantastic goal, and he took a couple of very hard tackles without shirking or looking hurt. Hugged the touchline in the first half, but wandered into the middle and all over the place when we were chasing the game – seemed to take it very personally.
KANU: This was one of his better performances of the season, although strangely he never looked like scoring all night – despite the two crosses which flashed past him in the 6-yard box. But he was carrying and holding the ball well, spraying it about nicely (including the maginificent set-up for Jeffers’ goal) and – something I’ve never seen before – he seemed genuinely wound up by the unfairness of their equaliser (which started with him getting clattered), running around Toure-like for 5 mins afterwards and even doing a terrible revenge tackle on someone completely different. Kept trying til the end, which is more than we can usually say.
JEFFERS: Mmmmm….nah. One good finish. One bad one. Three or four good runs that deserved better passes, but there’s something missing. I don’t know whether it’s confidence – I just don’t think he wants it all enough. Pretty disappointing.
SUBS:
VOLZ: 10 minutes. 10 touches. All rubbish. What’s happened to him? Crowd really got on his back as well given that things were pretty desperate at that stage.
GARRY: 10 minutes. 1 touch – a fantastic inswinging cross from the left wing, which Bronco headed over. That must be his strength, as he doesn’t look to have any pace. Seemed a strange choice to come on at left wing when Thomas was sitting on the bench.
Anyway, that’s the fun over for another year.
Paul Burland
Arsenal vs Sunderland
I too was at the game on Wednesday night. I thought Arsenal were unlucky to loose but it was a valuable exercise. Svard look such an improved player, playing in Gilberto’s midfield position and playing much the same way. He showed some lovely touches.
Taylor – Looked pretty good considering some of the wild backpasses he received.
Pennant – Tried too hard to look good and played very poorly.
Tavlaridis – Read the game well but wasn’t helped by sleepy Stepanovs.
Masud Khan
Suggestions
I think it would be beneficial to put dates next to each article on the webpage, it makes it easier to see what is new and what is not.
Ed reply: just put the cursor on the link and the date is at the end of the file address – to the second it was posted on the site.
BTW I think you could improve the design of this excellent website.
Ed reply: I’d like to, but given our resources – I set up and run a company which takes huge amounts of time and energy – we do what we can. Maybe we’ll redesign soon when we can squeeze some extra-time.
Rgds
M. Khan
william Hui
The Safe Hands ?!
Dear Mr. Palmer,
I live in Hong Kong, so please excuse my English if you find it difficult to understand what I will try to express below.
Up to now I’m still a big fan for Seamo and I feel terribly sorry for the battering and slashes he has suffered lately. It seems to me that though the team still appears to treat him like a hero, he becomes the mockery of the press, the target of the opponents, and most damaging of all, a setting sun in the eyes of most, if not all, football viewers.
I played amateur football in Hong Kong and I am a goalkeeper. I may be playing at an earth-to-heaven level but please believe me, it hurts just as bad when you are in a losing streak and everybody is putting the blame on the goalie.
However, after saying all this, I still think the recent setback suffered by Arsenal has something to do with Seamo, which is attributed to his PRESENCE, not his PERFORMANCE.
The Safe Hands was still the Safe Hands, but it could be seen by anyone who watched the games with brain that the opponents were far more aggressive in their attacks than before. They might not be creating a lot of chances in the game, but they would not shun from shooting and they all showed tremendous confidence. Your confidence may come from your trust on your own ability, or your belief in the fragility of the other side’s defence, and as I see, the confidence of those recent victors came more from the latter, pityingly.
Would Stuart Taylor or Rami Shaaban have made a big difference ? Well, it’s a 64 million dollar question. However, one thing I’m pretty sure is, if Seamo is still standing between the sticks in the coming games, his mere presence will be an encouragement and temptation for the opponent strikers to push their luck as far as they can. More lobbings will come. It will create a lot of pressure for the already slightly-shaken defence and David Seaman will obviously have to perform even better than his heyday to salvage the team as well as himself.
I would still say Seamo is good. But is he good enough now ?
yours sincerely,
William Hui
Soteris Charalambous
Arsenal can achieve closure…
Dear Myles,
When I first found your site I was so pleased, an Arsenal site with balls. But ever since you published The Professor the quality has diluted. Perhaps like the players you are tired, or you’ve got a little too cocky and need pulling down a peg- a Rooney rocket to get back some focus.
You lay into Sol, unfairly but fail to mention Cygan’s drop in form and how Sol is trying to cover for him every time he gets caught out of position. Sol is a rock, Cygan needs to find his feet again, and soon. Keown was beginning to look suspect before Cygan stepped in. Perhaps he will come back refreshed, but Sol was covering for him too. We should be looking for another stopper, and if it turns out that the rumours around Stam are correct so be it. Hell hath no fury like a player (unfairly) spurned.
Fulham was a lucky win? 5 world class saves from van der Saar, man of the match performance and it was a lucky win?? It was a lucky goal not a lucky win.
You’re right about J Jenas, but you don’t ask the most obvious question– Why weren’t we in for him? Perhaps our famed scouting network doesn’t bother with the lower divisions? But he will be a full England international and, injuries permitting, will be there for a long time.
As for needing two wins. Two? No we need to win against Newcastle and we need the reserve team that Arsene will put out against PSV to perform better defensively than it did against Sunderland to restore faith in the quality of the squad.
But my biggest complaint, and what prompted me to write in in the first place is your pandering to Liverpool fans just because you’ve heard that they have started reading this site.
You reckon that Liverpool are 95% certain of beating Basle. I reckon it will be a lot tougher than that. Basle only need a draw to progress, Liverpool need to win. Liverpool are set up to counter-attack and often rely on long balls. Christian Gross, didn’t impress anyone in his time at Spurs but he has a side that was good enough to beat Celtic, and good enough to defend 0-0 against this Liverpool side.
Remember Spurs/Liverpool last year? Liverpool needed a win to stay in the title race. Spurs played them at their own game, rode their luck a couple of times and eventually won the game quite comfortably. The game in Switzerland has a very similar look to it.
I’ll be surprised if you post this on your site, especially if I turn out to be right about Basle.
Get back to analysing what Arsene says, and does, it’s what you do best, and forget about the Scousers. It’s better to have lost five games now than five after Christmas, and Liverpool will lose games after Christmas.
John Tresadern
Robert Palmer !?
What’s all this tosh about Robert Palmer and Elkie Brooks, Myles?
Look at the top of the website – “Arsenal News Review”.
I can’t see the relevance of your self-indulgent, name-dropping rants about MOR rock acts and trips to watch Plays by playright friends.
Stick to the football or call the website “Myles Palmers’ Diary” so that we can avoid it.
John
Dominic
Nicknames
Why does everyone give us the sobriquet “Lucky”?
Claude
the Gunners
The comments by Alistair Dunsmuir – 100% right.
Roy Kent
Henry
Myles, I could write for an hour but instead I will keep it simple!
1) Your website is the best
2) The Professor is brilliant
3) Arsene Wenger is the best Manager in the world – by far!
4) How good is Sol Campbell?? No one has said how brilliant he is, doing the defensive work of 4! Cygan – techniclly brilliant but too slow(Sol has to cover) Lauren – great player but not a full back(yet)(Sol has to cover) Cole – defensively still a lot to learn but great going forward (Sol has to cover) Safe hands-must have caused some fluttering in the back line??? -Good point??
5)Thierry Henry is probably one of the top 6 or so strikers in the World(on his day!)The other points are probably what 90% of Gooners think: – If he maintained his angry attitude for every game, he would probably score at least 2 a game. If he ‘power ran’ with the ball more consistently instead of once or twice a game, nobody could catch him! His free kicks are useless 98% of the time, as are his corners.
I posed him the question on his interview on Arsenal World Plus ‘Why if you can probably climb higher than any other player for headers, why don’t you run in from the edge of the box for corners, rather than taking them? He said, the manager and he feel he is the best corner taker and he cannot ‘power head’ like Shearer etc. What a load of crap – he probably doesn’t like heading!!
He is still the one player in the squad who if doesn’t play or is off form, affects the whole team more than any other!! We need a top form Henry. May be, give him Vice Captaincy!!!
6) Last but not least. Are the club going to do something about ‘the library’??? Piping sound or something?? If they don’t sonmeone should form a supporters committee to deal with it. Miles, are you up for it?
Elliott
Henry / Cygan
It’s true what they say – a good striker does’nt become bad overnight. The level at which Henry plays his game cannot be maintained constantly.
Every player goes through a bad spell. This is his. He WILL regain his form and then maybe a few of the people who have contributed comments to this site will remember that he is vital to what is a truly excellent Arsenal side.
I would also like to comment on a certain contributer’s claim that Cygan looked ‘shakey’, during the last couple of games.
ARE YOU ACTUALLY WATCHING THESE GAMES?! If you had been, you would have noticed that against Auxerre for example, he was one of the few players to get tackles in that Tony Adams’ would have been proud of. Not only that, he would push up at every oppotunity in an attempt to deliver quality passes and generally try to get the team going.
It seems that a lot of people are being very quick to single out individuals.
abiodun thomas
arsenal in general
I am really perplexed at what is happening to the gunners!!!!!!!!!!!!! where did it all go wrong???? maybe against fulham on sunday, we’ll return to our winning ways!!!!!!
kunal sabharwal
Thierry Henry verdict
Hi Myles
I am a big fan of your website and visit it every day to read your latest views on the Arsenal.
As a gooner, i too am worried by the their run of 4 defeats in a row.
However, i noticed somethin odd about your criticism of Thierry Henry. U said that his free kick in Dortmund, just like his strick against Juventus last December, wasn’t great, but it went in. Yet, when i went back and read your review of the Juventus match, you called Hnery’s free kick in that match the ‘bets arsenal free-kick’ for 15 years, and you praised it no end.
Now, i understand that Henry can be very frustrating to watch, but you should at least be consistent in your criticisms, and give him credit where it is due. He probably spotted Lehman’s poor positioning and hence swung it over the other side of the wall.
keep up the good work on the website
kunal
Farouk Seedat
The Professor
Great Site – I like your style of writing.
I would like to buy a copy of “The Professor” in South Africa. What’s the difference between the Paperback and Hardback besides the obvious ?. Is the Paperback an updated version ?.
I would appreciate your reply.
Thank you for a great site.
Farouk
Tony C
My Anger at Tel Jibes
1 word : Pathetic.
The man was the Golden Boot winner last season and our top scorer since we signed him and to have people say:
“He is like a sulky teenager”
Lloyd Grey
is really quite pathetic.
Do fans not remember Anelka??? If you want a sulky teenager then look no further.
Tel doesn’t deserve some of the abuse he’s getting. He’s world class. He’s won the Double with France and Arsenal and yet people still moan about him and say rubbish about like the above
person.
The funniest thing of all is that it was only a few weeks ago that EVERYONE was calling him the BEST STRIKER IN EUROPE!
We had this same argument about him last season ie Henry is rubbish, he doesn’t score enough goals, Arsenal don’t win when he doesn’t score blah blah blah!
And we won the double LOL
Like the man said last season, “It’s a team thing!”
People can’t really expect Tel to score all the time. No striker is like that. Not Van Nistelroy, not Raul, not Ronaldo and not even Inzaghi.
Like last season it was players like Wiltord, Freddy, Pires and Dennis who scored the goals for us and these are the people who fans should be also looking to for goals this season.
Its a team thing.
HENRY IS WORLD CLASS and DESERVES MORE SUPPORT.
Mel
Myles
Totally agree with you on Henry. So he may have been top scorer in the Premiership last year, but I reckon if he was more clinical and not such a prima donna, he could score 40-50 goals a season.
Before the last few games of last season, I used to comment that a lot of our moves broke down because of Sylvain Wiltord. His first touch used to be very poor, and he often dribbled into dead ends or shot poorly. But a lot of our moves also break down through Thierry Henry.
He can never play a simple pass, always choosing an extravagant back-heel that never comes off or a weak chipped pass that has so much spin on it that it is rarely controlled.
He’s been virtually anonymous in recent weeks, but he could help himself by chasing more lost causes (something Anelka actually used to do) and looking to make things happen. Some of the anti-Henry feeling is actually perhaps anti-Wenger feeling for not subbing him. If there’s one area in which Wenger has not convinced me it’s in making in-game changes, and that
includes his substitutions.
Finally, Henry has gone missing in / failed to produce, in the big games for Arsenal football club. 2-1 up against Valencia at home, he missed a one-on-one with the goalie. Same season, 1-0 up away to Man Utd (their first game back from the World Club Championship in Brazil) , he missed another one-on-one with the goalie. I would put FA Cup Finals and certain other Champions League matches in the list too.
Maybe he needs to do a little bit more maturing, as I think we all forget that he is still quite young.
Keep up the good work with ANR.
Mel
Sean
Jeffers/ Seaman/ Confidence Level
Hi Myles,
Glad to learn that Jeffers will be sold in January. I do not dislike him, and hope he does well elsewhere.
Finally, we have stopped loosing and Seaman kept a clean sheet. Am I glad? Yes on the result and a big “No” on the overall preformance. If Shaaban is being rotated with Taylor to back up Seaman, it is as good as saying we still have do not a dependable keeper. I think if we do not win the title this year, it will be narrowed down to a couple of reasons, and one of them will be the “Keeper” factor. Again Seaman is good, but no longer good enough for this level of play, the Champion’s level.
My observation is that the team is still playing well but lacks the “X” factor that really make them invincible, and I think that boils down to confidence – the other factor.
It was quite noticeable that the “telepathic” communication between some players had diappeared, timing of runs were often off, and the passion & determination was not really there. The lack of confidence can be a result of a few things. Well Seaman (sorry lad) was one reason, Vieira’s leadership is still not influential enough, the long run of victories made them forget how to turn things around, and of course injuries.
What can we do to win games again, and consistently? Best Regards.
Chris Firth
henry/jeffers/wenger…
It has to be said by everyone, including me, that this is a great site for the gooner. inside info, gossipping and postulating and reporting about what seems sometimes to be our greatest life interest.
obviously miles’ henry “article” stirred issues.
it refers back to something i posted a few months back (6-9 months), and that was that blasphemous as it sounds, we were playing better with henry out, and bergkamp and pires using each other. it mattered not whether kanu or wiltord were the other forward, pires and bergkamp were magic for each other, and for freddie. they are true artists for the team. (btw – when freddie first started he seemed like the proverbial chicken sans head. i’d stood in the north bank with my brother for every game i was back in the country, and we moaned about him. “plenty of effort, never be an arsenal player”. man, were we wrong.).
i hate the term “assist”, but so often it is the pires’, bergkamp’s, of this world that make the team, that should be the stars more than the goalscorers (i say this as a brady’esque midfield player who needs to be appreciated even at 37!).
the celebrations arsenal have had in the last 12 months, where they gather together and go to the provider is distinctive, and strikes of days gone by when the scorer ALWAYS shook the hand of the genius, or crosser, that set him up for glory.
but i have seen henry start to take the leading starring role in all of this, and it makes me wonder, especially when the team ethic has been so phenomenal to this point.
it’s been said too much that henry takes too many dead balls. but he does. wiltord hits a great free kick, it was mentioned today that bronkhurst does too, but i don’t know of a full time role gio will play with the gunners yet. so it makes it difficult to nominate him for it.
i just finished the seaman book “safe hands” (i know…..way behind the times) on a one day trip to and back from rochester, new york. it made a point that any star (the stories of glenn helder were revealing…) that believes too much in himself gets ridiculed by the team and brought back down to earth. henry still produces the goods for the most part, but could this happen to him?
finally, jeffers. shot himself in the foot when he came on late against a side we were thumping early in the season (wba, birmingham?).
immediately he worked himself into two great positions with the keeper to beat and missed them both, when it may have been easier to score.
the boy needs a run. i would give him more confidence, more time, even at the expense, (shock/horror) of henry. it may do us good, like it did half way through last season, to have henry injured or suspended to give jeffers a run.
i don’t think kanu has got better, i think he’s been in the right place at the right time for tap ins, and i still think he misses sitters and doesn’t do enough off the ball.
it says something that we go crazy when kanu plays hard for a half and we think he’s changed, but that doesn’t happen often enough. he played brill at anfield that day gio was sent off, but after that? dunno…
anyway, i could talk all day, as you can tell, but really i think jeffers, pennant deserve a chance, a real one.
up the gunners…
and again…Chris Firth
couple of points…
i don’t know whether michelle from texas is from england originally, but she writes that way, and picks up on some good points.
1. passion – it’s gone a bit sometimes, w/out the dixons, keowns, and so on. the real arsenal feeling has left a bit and we need to find it again with the present team. even if it is a different version of it.
2. upson – when i have seen upson play he looked very capable in deed, just needed to fill out into his tall body, he’s only a young un. a nightmare to be coming into the side with tony and martin injured a season or two back, and did his knee against leicester city. but i rate him. and i don’t understand the possible deal to sunderland or middlesboro. i think he should step back into the fold, but that’s wenger i guess.
3. edu – nice guy and trier that he seems to be, i can’t get into edu either. it just seems like he’s a notch below. like his brain can see the creative pass, but he can’t quite weight it right, and angle it properly into someone’s stride…
4. seaman – unlucky, unlucky b*stard, really. some of the “goals” recently have been unreal. i am still managing to convince myself that virtually no-one could have saved the brazil or the macedonia efforts (and btw, why did scholes duck under the ball for the macedonia goal, no-one seems to mention that, weird…)
anyway, michelle in texas, my email is crfirth@ingr.com , if you want a chat after each event shown over here, which usually is about half the arsenal matches.
the newcastle match is on fox sports world this weekend.
chris