Eleven games left.
What would I like to see in those 11 games?
Movement inside the box !!!
I’d love to see more movement inside the box.
When Arsenal attack their movement is fantastic in 80% of the pitch.
But when they get into the penalty area they stop.
They stand still. They look frozen, paralysed. They don’t anticipate as they should. They don’t run across the front of defenders.
They obviously don’t train that way because you can be 100% sure that everything they’re good at is what they do on the training pitch, and everything they’re not good at is what they don’t do on the training pitch.
What you see is what they do every morning.What you don’t see is what they ignore every morning. That has been apparent for six or seven years now.
When Arsenal attack with pace it’s exciting. When they attack slowly, laterally, you know it will not be a goal.Their attackers stand around in the box like statues, so defenders only have to worry about the ball. You could almost say the attackers are are so passive that they are not part of the attack. They look like part of the defence but wearing different shirts. Because what they do PREVENTS a goal from being scored in 999 out of 1000 instances.
Marks for movement outside the box : 9/10
Marks for movement inside the box : 2/10.
VERDICT : Arsenal play the way they train.
And that’s always been one of my biggest complaints with Arsene. He’s a truly original choreographer but he rehearses the same ballet every day.
His stated intention is to put on a training session his players enjoy, every day.
So they don’t do the boring stuff, like defending set-pieces, or trying to score from set-pieces.
Before PSV, he said they were working on set-pieces. And they scored from a Denilson corner. But it wasn’t an Arsenal player who scored, so that doesn’t count. When Arsenal take a corner and an Arsenal player scores, I’ll believe they’re taking set-pieces seriously.
Every week other teams score goals that Arsenal cannot score. Cristiano Rolnaldo sprints to the left corner flag and crosses with his left foot in the last few minutes of the game and Henrik Larsson accelerates into the box, checks his run to give himself three metres of space and heads the cross in. Ashley Cole crosses, Drogba heads square, Shevchenko can’t head it at goal so he nods it back to Ballack, who scores. Even more awesome, one of the greatest cushion-header knockdowns I’ve ever seen, Drogba heads to Kalou in a way that stuns the ball and it sails in slow-motion to Kalou at knee height, allowing him to smash it in.
Can Baptista do that ? Will Adebayor ever be able to use his height to head the ball as efficiently as Drogba?
ASTON VILLA v ARSENAL TONIGHT ?
Well, there’s one thing that won’t happen.
He won’t bring an unfit Thierry on.
He won’t make that mistake again this season.
For this relief much thanks !
Can Arsenal handle John Carew, the six foot seven centre forward who trains with sprinters in the close season?
Agbonlahor ? Powerful boy. Fast, young, hungry, strong, fast, pretty skilful, fast, good in the air – did I mention that he has pace ? Just the kind of forward Arsenal need.
Agbonlahor is a centre forward playing on the wing and I’ve always liked that. You don’t see it very much but when you do, it’s interesting.
Tonight’s game isn’t on TV so I’ll watch Manchester City v Chelsea.
Man City have made a late bid for relegation but it’s just too late. They will stay up. During the Keegan years I hoped Pearce would get the job. The story I heard was this : Pearce told his mate Ian Woan : I keep my head down, I put the cones out, I keep my trap shut, and in six months I’ll be manager of Manchester City.
And he was. And I liked him and thought he’d do well.
Unfortunately, the way I hear it, Pearce and his coach Steve Wigley are clueless.
Last season they played Wigan and Bolton in consecutive games. Against Wigan, who had the fastest pair of strikers in the Premiership (Jason Roberts and Henry Camara), City defended the halfway line and got ripped to shreds. In the next game, after scratching their heads, Pearce and Wigley had them defending the box against a team who had no pace but want you to sit back so they can fire in diagonal balls and win knockdowns, corners, free-kicks and throw-ins.
City should have been defending the box against Wigan and defending the halfway line against Bolton !
Even worse than that is Pearce’s transfer policy, which is alarmingly similar to Keegan’s. Keegan liked players with a CV : Fowler, McManaman, Anelka. He couldn’t sign players who were good so he signed players who used to be good.
Pearce, ditto : Ball, Mpenza, Dickov. He should wake up and look at Steve Coppell, who knows what he is doing. Coppell does not sign has-beens. He signs guys with aspiration and hunger, guys from Cork City who love grafting to get promotion to the Premiership and appreciate being interviewed on Sky Sports.
I’m told : When City play 3-5-2 the wingbacks hardly go over the halfway line, so the crosses come in from the wrong angles.
He buys Samaras, a gifted centre forward who won’t close down defenders. Samaras has a left foot, a right foot, and he’s great in the air, so he’s the most talented forward at the club. But he doesn’t play Samaras because he won’t close down defenders. He should know that before he pays £6 million for him !