Ole Gunner Says

The criticism of Arsene Wenger has gone too far. It’s about time this nonsense stopped. Take this snippet from Kevin McCarra in the Guardian implying that Wenger is obstinate to the point of deafness or even stupidity:

“An inquiry about the shortage of firepower is met with the response that Nicklas Bendtner, 20, will be better next season. Avram Grant, Rafael Benítez and even Sir Alex Ferguson would hesitate to speak in such fashion.”

But what lack of firepower is McCarra talking about? The fact still remains that Arsenals strikers; Adebayor, Van Persie, Bendtner, Eduardo and Walcott have scored more goals than any strike force in the league except Tottenham’s. 56 goals from the Arsenal frontmen. United’s Tevez, Rooney and Saha have 39, Chelsea’s Drogba, Sheva, Pizarro, Kalou, and Anelka have 35. Even though Van Persie and Eduardo have missed significant portions of the season to injury. Arsenal have scored more goals than every team in the league except a Ronaldo-propelled Manchester United. What Firepower is this moron talking about? McMoron went ahead to write:

As Wenger will know, the true argument is that Arsenal need to be able to practise squad rotation so that key figures do not tire so noticeably.

Oh Jeeze, not the silly squad rotation argument again!! So noticeably tired are Arsenal that they are dominating games, outrunning their opposition in midfield and scoring late goals. The Guardian and Muck-Curry have been at the forefront of anti-Benitez, anti-rotation stuff all season. http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2259381,00.html Now rotation is the best thing since the holy grail! But do these fools ever even consider the facts? Every member of the Arsenal squad has missed at least 2 games to injury this season. If Wenger didn’t rotate, how did Arsenal get to be the team in Europe that has played the most games this season? Can somebody explain this to me?

Here are statistics about the number of players that have featured for top clubs this season- Arsenal-29 Manchester United-29 Chelsea-27 Liverpool-27 Inter-28 Barcelona-24 Lyon-27 Bayern Munich-22 Real Madrid-23

Manchester United that is trumpeted by the media as that great paragon of rotation have players with the following number of appearances this season: Ferdinand-43 Vidic-41 Carrick-42 Evra-41 Brown-44 Ronaldo-41

Arsenal’s most featured players are: Clichy-44 Fabregas-42 Adebayor-44 Flamini-40 Hleb-40 SOURCE: soccerbase.com

Despite the fact that Arsenal have played 3 games (at least) more than United this season (Carling Cup games)!

Talking of which; how come nobody mentions that Arsenal teams consisting of second-stringers have won results against, Spurs (1-1 at home), Blackburn, Slavia Prague, Staeua Bucharest, Newcastle in the Champions League and domestic cups? It’s also patently false that Arsenal have a smaller squad than is needed to win the title. Some stats that negate that oft-repeated bit of crap:

Squad size of Teams leading across Europe: United: 28-but 2 players were added 3 weeks ago who haven’t featured. Lyon-26 Bayern Munich-24 Inter-27 Real Madrid-25 Porto-27 PSV-26 Arsenal-28 Source: Club Websites

Squad size of Premiership winning teams since 2004: 2007-United-29 2006-Chesea-27 2005-Chelsea-30 2004-Arsenal-22 Source: ESPN

There are more idiots with pens though. I normally wouldn’t take up issue with anyone who writes for the Daily Mail. But this guy here has slagged my players. I won’t link to his column but his name’s Neil Ashton. He said Bendtner, Eboue and Senderos are not good enough to get into the Manchester United team. Oh really? The same Manchester United team that has on its books such illustrious players as O’Shea, Fletcher, Simpson, Eagles, Dong, none of which would make the Arsenal squad.

Jose Mourinho now runs the British media. They’re taking talking points from him. The Daily Mail guy actually quoted Moaninho’s jealous jibe about Arsene not facing pressure at Arsenal, a bid for Arsene’s job by the way. The Daily Mail guy I am sorry to say goes to cocktail parties and introduces himself as a journalist. Isn’t impersonation a crime?

This is why Newspapers are dying.

We are not good enough to win the title because, with 8 matches to go this season, we are only second on the league table tied on points with the leaders.

We are dismal because everybody told us we will be this season. Wenger has refused to splash out at least £100 million on players and so we end up leading the league all season and being one of two teams in Europe that have lost just once this season.

We are very bad. We needed 2 legs to eliminate AC Milan, the champions League holders from the tournament, after becoming the first British team to win at their San Siro shrine. Our squad lacks depth. This season, not player in our squad has escaped missing at least two games to injury. Our squad is so bad that when injuries and the Africa Cup of Nations decimated our squad, we extended our lead in the league buy 5 points and not 15 as you would expect from a great squad.

Most of our players are not good enough for the Premiership. Adebayor's 19 goals may include 2 or 3 goals of the season contenders but he's just a fluke and arrogant pretender whose work rate on the pitch is as high as his complete usefulness for anything other than stacking high shelves. Why on earth would a strong team like Aston Villa want Justin Hoyte? He clearly would never make it in the Premiership. Who cares how well he played in the Carling Cup?

Walcott is the worst. It does not matter that he has had such an impact on our season in both league and Champions League. At 18 he should be a World Player of the Year contender. What about Diaby. He simply lacks class and will never make it as a footballer.

So fellow gooners, let's just throw away our season tickets, fire the manager, disband the team and go support the Chavs.

With the Chavs you can be sure of the following:

1. The manager will spend at least £100 million a year. Who cares what he spends it on. Who cares if that's sustainable? They won the FA Cup last year.

2. There will be no over-intricate wussy passing football. They'll grind out 1-0 victories till Jesus comes to take us all home.

3. Who cares if they might not win anything this year? The point is that the press will always respect them because you see it's all about spending that money. Get it?

4. You can be sure of easy draws and home advantage in every cup draw. So there you have it. We are dismal. So dismal we still have a chance to win the league. I want to congratulate Arsene Wenger and the entire club staff for their dismal record over all these years.

Today's newspapers are reporting a new raft of comments made by Jose Mourinho attacking Arsene Wenger. He reportedly made the following comments:

Arsenal is a unique team, their coach hasn’t won anything for years and is still an idol. There is no pressure at Arsenal. But do not say he is growing young players into talents. What he does is take young players who are jewels and polishes them. It’s different. He has time to work in a serene atmosphere and get result".

It's hard to imagine how Mourinho's little mind works but this really sounds like he's frustrated. He would like to be back in the Premiership but he knows he has no chance of getting Wenger's or Ferguson's jobs. He can't go to Liverpool because they hate him there. Arsenal would have been the obvious target since Wenger has not won a trophy since 2005 but nobody even challenges his job.

Well Mr. Mourinho, just in case you're looking at Wenger's job I can send you a certificate of failure. Arsenal would never hire you. In the unimaginable scenario that Arsene's job was under pressure, other managers would be considered and not you.

Here's why, Mr. Mourinho:

1. Arsenal would not give you £600 million to spend on players.

2. Arsenal like to do things the right way. That means that the footballing operations have to be financially viable. Your record in this regard is not so great Mr. Mourinho.

3. Tapping-up players and buying opposition targets for any amount of money will never happen at Arsenal.

4. Arsenal is a family not an egomaniac's fiefdom. Victory through harmony is very much the goal at our club. Harmony is one trait that can not be associated with Chelsea under you.

5. Good attacking football is very much a fundamental part of the Arsenal brand. None of the teams you have ever coached has demonstrated anything remotely like this. In fact Chelsea fired you because despite those £600 million, your teams only ever seemed to win 1-0. By the way, that's why Barcelona will not hire you either.

6. Arsene Wenger has been perhaps the biggest contributor in making Arsenal one of the world's 5 richest clubs. Sound financial and football management skills is what it took. Now that he has done it, there is not a doubt that Arsenal will dominate for a while under Arsene.

7. Arsene Wenger is an idol and would remain an idol because we know that no manager in the world could have done a better job for Arsenal than he has. If you had been in the position, you might very well not have achieved anything at all. 

8. Arsene Wenger demonstrates more class in 8 minutes than you have in your circa 8-year managerial career. 

9. You're too stupid to know that the reason Wenger is not under pressure is that he has created more value for Arsenal shareholders than you could ever dream of. Which organisation in the world would fire a coach who makes so much money for them?

10. That's not all you don't realise Moaninho. You don't know that we fans worship Arsene because he has proven, over 100s of decisions, to be a sound mind who'll do the right thing for the club, the players, the fans and the shareholders. He's one of the few managers in the world who realises that a football club is really in the business of entertaining its fans. There are as many as 50,000 of us Arsenal fans in the waiting list for Arsenal season tickets because watching Arsenal is value for money.

11. You don't have as good a track-record of success as Wenger has. 

12. Arsene Wenger is given time to work at Arsenal because he has earned it. He has consistently overachieved and has never blamed the resources available for failure. You, of course famously claimed to have lost the league last season because you weren't allowed to buy players in mid-season.

13. You always burn your bridges and many of your ex-clubs will not have anything to do with you. 

14. You've actually destroyed several great players. Under your tutelage, Mikel went from being one of the most exciting young talents at the level of Messi into being a mechanical churner of identical uncreative passes. Ashley Cole went from the world's best to one of West London's worst. Joe Cole does not look like the player it seemed certain he'd be at West Ham after you knocked the creativity out of him. I could go on. We Arsenal fans shudder to think of what you'd make of Cesc Fabregas or Alex Hleb.

15. You're simply not a fit for us and the fact that you probably don't see that is the best proof of it. 

The saying goes that you can never win anything with kids. It is one of those poor ideas that football has had the misfortune of adopting from Alan Hansen. Two of the most impressive sides of the last 15 years were teams of very good kids who dominated at home and in Europe.

I am talking about the young Ajax team of 1993-1995, and the young Manchester United team of 1999. Of interest to us today is the Ajax team.

As the young Arsenal team today face AC Milan in the Champions League second round, it is clear they have their work cut out for them. But so did that famous Ajax team which defeated AC Milan, also then defending champions, three times in one Champions League season.

Ajax were in the same kind of domestic form that Arsenal have been in this season. The average age of the squad was young and the first team consisted of several teenagers including Kluivert, Seedorf and Kanu. Players like Edgar Davids, the De Boer twins, Reizeger, Marc Overmars, and Ed Van der Sar were all under the age of 23. Even older players like Finidi George and Jari Litmanen were under 25. But the backbone of the team consisted of two old men: Danny Blind and Frank Rijkaard who were two very experienced veterans who had won everything in football. Just like with Arsenal isn't it?

There were more similarities. Like this present Arsenal team, that great Ajax team scored goals by the bucketful, with goals coming from all over the squad. They loved to attack, could pass and did pass the ball to death at pace. They were devastating on the counter attack and had big strong centre-forwards in Kluivert and Kanu. Their wing backs, De Boer and Reiziger, had great pace and were very good on the tackle. Edgar Davids played the Flamini role with his boundless energy and running in midfield playing a more

The only dissimilarities perhaps was that Ajax had three players that Arsenal have no equivalent of; Finidi "Finito" George, Jari Litmanen and Marc Overmars. Litmanen was a Denni Bergkamp, a player who finished brilliantly but also could also give the brilliant penultimate pass with vision and precision, though one can argue that crocky Van Persie has a bit of that in him. In George and Overmars, Ajax had blistering pace and crossing precision on the wings. George, in fact was never recognised for being in 1994-95, the world's best crosser of the ball.

In any case, the similarities are uncanny. Michael Reiziger and Gael Clichy even look alike physically and have the same gait on the ball. Watching that Ajax team was sometimes dizzying as they sometimes made a 30-pass move leading to a corner kick. They could also vary it as Arsenal has learnt to do this season. They could knock the ball long to Kluivert who was devastating in the air like Adebayor.

As Arsenal face Milan at the San Siro tonight they have to look to do what worked for Ajax in 1993 at the San Siro. They have to scare AC Milan. The way Ajax did it was to keep it tight in midfield and close down spaces and then to be devastatingly precise and quick on the counter-attack.

The way to scare the old AC Milan defence is to aim to get one or two very quick and very precise counter-attacks in the first 15 minutes. Even if Arsenal don't score, there'll be some level of confusion in the experienced Milan defence. The way it works is that Milan would look to do what they have always looked to do for years; keep it tight in midfield and then knick a goal. A quick counter-attack would put individual defenders under pressure, knowing they can't match the younger players for pace and precision. They would take fewer risks and that would make their midfield play less effective.

Here is a link to Ajax's 0-2 victory at the San Siro in Autumn 1994. Watch the second goal. Ajax win the ball in midfield through Seedorf, who knocks it upfield one-time to Kluivert who lays it off for Litmanen who is running up from deep, who lays the ball 40 yards along the ground at pace to George behind Maldini. Cue panic in the AC Milan defence as George gets to the ball first, resists the attentions of Maldini and has his cross diverted into his own net by the great and immensely experienced Paolo Maldini.

Ajax went on to defeat Milan in the final to win the cup. That year they won every trophy in sight, winning the Eredivisie title, the Dutch FA Cup, the Champions League, The European Super Cup, and the Club World Cup. In the 1995 season they went through the season unbeaten before losing to Juventus on penalties in the Champions League Final to signal the end of an era as they sold their best players.

The Arsenal game would not boil down to the first 15 minutes. Even if Arsenal score first in that first 6th of the game, there is no doubt that Milan can score two goals. The key would be for Arsenal to keep up the tempo and pressure, and keep the fear in the Milan defence for a crucial period. If they don't score, they have to do what Wenger always says; they have to keep playing their game, but do something they sometimes fail to do. They have to defend heroically one-on-one, meaning that each player has to win his own individual battle. In any case they have something they can rely on that they have in common with the other great team of kids mentioned at the beginning of the article. They can always nick late goals and should fancy themselves to do it against an old and tired Milan defence. The reason they do it is superior fitness and they have to make that count.

Arsenal can upstage Milan. In any case it would make a fascinating contest. Now I have to leave for Milan. Come on Arsenal!

One of the most ubiquitous chants among pundits in the ongoing Premier League campaign is the one that says Manchester United have more strength in depth than Arsenal. After having written Arsenal off at the beginning of the season and then being proven wrong, they can not say the team that has lost 4 times this season is the stronger one. Instead they talk about "strength in depth". So let's examine the two squads.

 

Manchester United have 28 players in their squad. The players are:

Goalkeepers:

1. Edwin Van Der Sar
12. Ben Foster
29. Tomasz Kusaczak
Tom Heaton

Defenders:

2. Gary Neville (captain)
3. Patrice Evra
5. Rio Ferdinand
6. Wes Brown
15. Nemanja Vidic
19. Gerard Pique
22. John O'Shea
23. Johnny Evans
25. Danny Simpson
27. Mikael Silvestre

Midfielders:

4. Owen Hargreaves
7. Cristiano Ronaldo
8. Anderson
11. Ryan Giggs (vice-captain)
13. Park Ji-Sung
16. Michael Carrick
17. Nani
18. Paul Scholes
24. Darren Fletcher
33. Chris Eagles

Forwards:

9. Louis Saha
10. Wayne Rooney
21. Dong Fangzhuo
32. Carlos Tevez

 

Arsenal's squad consists of the following players:

1. Jens Lehmann

2. Abou Diaby

 

 Almunia

He was athletic and alert the whole game making crucial saves at important parts of the game. Proving that he can help Arsenal win points whatever Lehmann might say. His kicking and distribution remains excellent and it offers the team options in defence.

Rating: 8 

Sagna 

He was solid at the back, and the packed midfield meant he had to pay more attention to his defensive duties so he did not get forward so often. His heading was good and his tackling was clean.

Rating: 7 

Toure

Kolo had an extraordinary game with excellent tackling. He lost a couple of aerial battles against Crouch but who wouldn't? He went forward a few times and added strength to the attack when he did.

Rating: 7.5

Gallas

He and Kolo are developing into an awesome defensive unit, each displaying great awareness of the other's position and organising the team's defence around them. His last-ditch block on a late Gerrard shot might well have preserved the results. If he stays injury free, he seems set to provide well-needed defensive solidity to the team.

Rating: 7.5 

Clichy 

Gael was solid in tackling as usual, and galloped forward with the ball with great speed to attack. His weakness remains his imprecision in the last third which is forgivable given his commitment, work rate, and how much distance he covers to get into attack and recover quickly into defence. Was substituted in the second half.

Rating: 7 

Rosicky

For the third game in a row Rosicky has looked less potent than he usually is. This might be due to his recent return from injury. He gave the ball away many times in the final third and his link-up play with the forward line was less precise than it usually is. Showed great pace to get behind the Liverpool defence in a move which saw Reina rush out of goal, failing which he'd have been through on goal with a clear chance to score.

Rating: 5.5 

Fabregas 

Started out badly by his usual celestial standards but was always central to Arsenal's game helping torment Liverpool with his precise and quick passing. His defensive game was a bit off but that's a function of how the team plays with him playing in such an advanced position. Missed a sitter. He was a bit lucky on the goal but it was his quickness which confused Reina and forced the mistake. His late shot nearly secured the 3 points .

Rating: 8 

Flamini

Matthieu had another good game in the heart of midfield, marking his arse out, and running endlessly for the team. His excellent passing game contributed a lot to Arsenal's retention of possession and contributed a lot going forward as well, making long runs to get into attacking positions in the box. His performance when he dropped to left back late on weakens his overall score since he was much less effective there and failed to track Gerrard a couple of key times, the second almost leading to a last minute goal.

Rating: 7 

Eboue 

He always brought power and great dribbling to the team, but his link-up play and his choices were quite ineffective. His major weakness right now is his lack of commitment in defence, and determination in attack.

Rating: 5.5

Hleb

He was for me, the man of the match running Liverpool to bits with his quick feet, pace and intelligent movement. His decision-making was sublime, and his commitment to defending from the front was brilliant. Playing just behind Adebayor in an advanced midfield position, he troubled Liverpool all evening even if he had little presence in the Liverpool box. His vision in picking out Fabregas for the equaliser from a standing position while surrounded by three hard Liverpool men is the play of the season so far.

Rating: 9 

Adebayor

The Togolese seems to be caught in a crisis of confidence. His decision making was terrible and he struggled to make an impact on the game.

Rating: 5 

Arsenal largely had themselves to blame for not leaving Anfield with all 3 points tonight with first Fabregas and then Bendtner failing to find the open net when it was harder to miss.

The referee also helped though. As early as the 3rd minute, a clear Carragher foul against Adebayor in front of the 18-yard box was not given. A few minutes later, a clear foul against Rosicky on the left was was ignored only for a Fabregas foul on the same play to be given. The resulting free kick gave Liverpool their lifeline. A lifeline which proved to be all they would have in a keenly-contested game.

Two elbows were in foul service, used by Liverpool players; Carragher and Hyppia. The first instance was on 30 minutes when Carragher crashed an elbow into Emmanuel Eboué in an off-the-ball incidence. The referee not only failed to see it, nor did he consult with the linesmen or fourth official who might have seen it. On 37 Minutes, Hyppia belted Adebayor's midriff as they both jumped to contest the ball. It was an obvious foul. Each incidence would have warranted a red card from a good referee.

In the second, half, Jamie Carragher pulled down Fabregas only for the referee to wave play on. This was the second Premier League game in a row in which Carragher's pulls should have won the opposing team penalties only for the referee to ignore it.

Macaulay Christanus was goleador at this year's Under-17 World Cup. He was reportedly being tracked by Arsenal and had himself expressed strong interest in playing for Arsenal.

Reports now suggest that he has been signed by Manchester City. His manager George Uwechue is quoted as saying “the player is due in England this weekend and by next week, he will undergo medicals, which I believe he will pass to kick start his professional career.”

Christanus, who is named like an old Roman emperor, is one of the most exciting young talents on the world scene, which he demonstrated by scoring seven goals as his Nigerian side romped to the title. 

His team mate from the Nigeria Golden Eaglets team, Matthew Edile, has also been signed by Manchester City.

 

Myles Palmer has this take on United and Arsenal in the Premiership title race. What I like about Mr. Palmer is how bold he usually is with his predictions. What I am amazed at however is how often he is wrong.

I think the title is Arsenal's to lose and not United's to lose. That takes nothing away from United as the defending champions. We have a better squad and contrary to what Palmer, Roy Keane and Tevez think are stronger. I don't say it as a fan.

Wenger says this is the best squad he's had as Manager. i trust his judgement over most people's and think if this team don't win the league this season they will never win it. They know that. Wenger knows that. The club knows that.

They will fight all the way.

On the other hand the Champion's League is United's priority. They will drop many points in the League as they did last year. I don't see Giggs and Scholes having big seasons. Their midfield is not creating enough.

The lesson I have learnt from Ferguson's teams over the years is that the hungriest and fittest always win. Their treble year was won with kids killing teams of in the last quarter of the game. They were hungry as hell.

Now the hungriest and fittest team in the league is Arsenal. I am backing Arsenal all the way. The signs are there too.

What some don't realise is that last year was the season in which we were close but not good enough. Injuries to Henry and Van Persie meant we lost at least 20-30 goals they would have scored and created. That was worth at least 15 points and would have had an impact on the final standings.

This is the season in which we have to win or it all breaks down for Arsenal. The stakes are clear, and by all indications, the boys know it and are going for it.

The kooks at BBC and ESPN and all the usual pun