Transfer Window thoughts, Wilshere’s injury, Arsene banned for two games, Vermaelen to be sidelined for two months?

So, it’s been almost five days since the end of the transfer window and the excitement of the dead line day. My one week leave are also over with today being the first day back at work (heck! I could have used another week).

The last four days, I spent the time with family and friends away from football, the reason for no updates on the blog. And considering that the International break is underway, I don’t have missed much.

Today, it is going to be a bit of everything that has happened in the last few days.

First off, the final two days of the transfer window were the best that I remember in terms of signings for us in recent times. Five players having experience and quality were signed, a rare thing at Arsenal, which did somewhat make up for the summer of inactivity. The thrashing at United, however, still hurts and this does lead to the question why weren’t players signed earlier? Also one wonders had United not defeated us the way they did, would these signings be made then? I know these and many other questions have been discussed a lot already. However, one cannot help why were we led into such a situation by the board and management considering we had three months to sort out all our problems?

Anyways what’s done is done and cannot be reversed. Sanity was restored to the Arsenal board and management team after the humbling at old Trafford. I do wish now that this had happened earlier (on second thoughts, no I wish it had never happened, to painful and humiliating!)

The players that we have signed do bring something extra to the squad and certainly add enough quality and numbers to make us challenge for the top four. Benayoun and Arteta are both Premier League experienced and will greatly improve our midfield. Santos is also experienced and Mertesacker will add height and stability to our defense. Park, considering where he comes from will give nothing short of 100 percent. And all of these signings are winners having won trophies in different capacities (if I am not wrong!) All have a number of caps for their national teams and they certainly will bring stability to our team and the young player will learn a lot.

As for what can be achieved with the squad we have, we can challenge for the top four now and maybe end our trophy drought with the cups. If we can pull something extra, we might also be involved in the title race. However, for that, I feel, we will need to maintain a good run till January where we would at least need a couple of special signings. I am hearing that Hazard, Cahill and Yann M’Vila are still our priority. If we can manage that in January, I am certain we are in for an exciting finish to the season.

We, however, should not get ahead of ourselves.  A lot of work needs to be done still. We need to get back to winning ways and close the gap with the leaders. We certainly have made a start in the right direction with these signings and with time we can add more quality to bring the glory days back to Arsenal (we still need to replace Nasri and Fabregas by the way)

Moving on, I am glad we did get to sell or loan out the dead weights at the club. I still, though, hope we get Henri Lansbury back, because considering such loan moves, mostly the players don’t return. As for Bendtner, I am happy for him to have finally moved on, even on a loan. He was being wasted here by being used in the wrong position. What he said recently of not returning to Arsenal is justified in the sense that he wasn’t properly utilized. However, in terms of quality, we are better off without him. I feel he will be a success at Sunderland which will in return prove beneficial to both him and in return to us, as we can get a better value for him in time. If we could have only rid ourselves of Almunia, Squillaci, Diaby and to an extent Chamakh, this summer would have been close to perfect.

Life, however, isn’t that kind, always playing its joke when you least expect it. And in our case they are always the cruelest. After having a great first season, we are now going to miss our most talented player, Jack Wilshere for at least another two to three months due to injury. What started out as a rumor has been confirmed by Wilshere himself. Jack Wilshere tweeted this yesterday on twitter.

I can confirm I will be out for around 2-3 months! I am working hard in the gym to stay fit and I am gutted but I will be back stronger!

I don’t know whether to blame lady luck, the Manager or our medical staff. This is certainly the result of playing a player over his limits which is completely avoidable. And then we ask why it is that our best players suffer long term injuries? And this has happened so many times now I am starting to believe it is more than bad luck.

It was Vermaelen the season before last. Excellent first season, injury in the next, out for a year. I just hope Wilshere doesn’t suffer the same because voices raised now will surely have to be answered then.  

In other news, UEFA again showed that they are a bunch of oafs. They do this every now and then just to make sure people don’t forget. Anyways, Arsene Wenger’s appeal against the two match ban has been dismissed by UEFA. The two matches ban was given to Wenger for supposedly breaking a rule that every other manger has broken in the world of football. I guess, I don’t need to go over the rule and when it was broken. Wenger is now going to miss the Champions League group games against Borussia Dortmund, away, and Olympiacos at home. Our officials are also fined 10000 Euros for improper conduct. Below is the UEFA stamen that is available on Arsenal.com

“The UEFA Appeals Body has rejected the appeal lodged by Arsenal FC and Arsène Wenger against the two-match suspension handed to the manager in the wake of the English club’s UEFA Champions League play-off first leg against Udinese Calcio on 16 August.
 
“Wenger will now be suspended from carrying out his duties at Arsenal’s next two UEFA competition matches – the UEFA Champions League group stage games against Borussia Dortmund and Olympiacos FC on 13 and 28 September – in accordance with the decision taken by the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body on 22 August.

“The manager was awarded this suspension for not abiding by an earlier decision of the Control and Disciplinary Body during the Udinese home game – in which Wenger was serving a one-match ban imposed following Arsenal’s final UEFA Champions League game of last season.
 
“The Control and Disciplinary Body also fined Arsenal €10,000 for improper conduct by their officials during the match against the Italian team in north London.”

As for the International break, it continues in all its boredom. There have, however, been plenty of goals for our players. Van Persie bagged four, Park has had a hat-trick, Ramsey and Lansbury also ended up with goals. Chamberlain also impressed greatly. Possibly a sign of good things to come!

That is all for now. Swansea game is not far now and it will great to see how we line up against them. Good times ahead for sure!

p.s. While writing this, news about Vermaelen’s ankle surgery are circulating that can rule him out for possibly two months. It is not yet officially confirmed but twitter is abuzz at the moment with this news. More on this to follow!

 

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Player Ratings: Man Utd 1 – 0 Arsenal

Well we didn’t get to see the performance we were expecting from our team. And I am still disappointed, not in the loss but the way we showed up. We made United look so much better where in fact they were not that good.

As for us, our whole team was all over the place. None contributed in any department as we failed to get our game going. Our passing was poor and we failed to keep possession. We also didn’t create much as United easily broke us up.

The defense was decent on most occasions but on few they had no clue what was happening. Once or twice they were very easily opened up. The goal that we conceded was also down to a defensive error when no one picked up Park unmarked in the danger area.   

The midfield was also anonymous throughout the match as we failed to get a foothold. There was one brief spell in the second half where we looked dangerous but we couldn’t keep it up. I still think that had our midfield stepped up a gear, the scores would have been different.

In attack too we lacked creativeness as we had only one decent shot on goal.

Coming to player ratings:

Szczesny: He was our best player yesterday. He did start nervously which can be expected and it affected his distribution early on. As a whole he had a good game.  Caught everything and made some crucial saves that allowed us to stay in the game till the very end. Can’t be blamed for the goal as it were the men in front of him that were at fault. 7.5

Sagna: A solid game from the Frenchman in defense. Upfront didn’t contribute much but he did try to get forward often. His crosses weren’t that good but did make some crucial interceptions. 6

Squillaci: Still not convinced from his overall contribution. I have said again and again that he does his job but he is not aggressive. He should be a leader on the field with his experience. His clearances  are also weak and sometimes he is slow in reading situations. 5.5

Koscielny: He did well in keeping Rooney quiet. Made some vital interceptions and used his aerial ability. He still needs to raise the level of his game though. 5.5

Clichy: All will be pointing the finger at Clichy but I believe he did well. He was always alone on the left against Nani and none supported him. And still he was good on most occasions but a few times made some crucial mistakes that will be highlighted more. Partially at fault for the goal as he allowed Nani to come in but I feel he had no other option. 5.5

Wilshere: Tried hard but couldn’t make much impact. Lost possession plenty of times and couldn’t support the midfield. Also didn’t help Clichy against Nani. 5

Song: He started slowly and in the first half didn’t make much impact. In the second his shielding of the defenders was better but still didn’t help control the midfield. Did misplace a lot of passes upfront and never really created much. His work rate though was very good but he needs to be effective along with it. 6

Rosicky: He also tried hard but things didn’t work out for him. He was supposed to lead our midfield and failed to do so.  Was anonymous for major parts and didn’t contribute anything of worth upfront. 5

Nasri: He was never brought into the game often as he was tightly marked by United. And the irony is that the few good moments that we had came through him. Still I feel he failed to lead us when it was required. 6

Arshavin: Another poor game from him. Tried to do the hard things when he could have kept it simple. Maybe two games a week is too much for him. 5

Chamakh: Worked hard but never got the delivery. He still needs to improve his goal scoring instincts though. His contribution at the back was decent. 5.5

Subs:

Walcott (6) looked lively and gave us some pace. Delivered in a couple of good crosses. Fabregas (4) didn’t do much except gave the ball away. He shouldn’t have been brought on. Van Persie (4.5) also didn’t contribute much. He still needs games to get to his best.

Man Utd 1 – 0 Arsenal: We did it again!!

We did it again. We bottled up big time and have gifted them an easy win.

Highlights of our game were sloppy passing, poor clearances, no possession, poor final balls, bad defending as a team and no control over the midfield. We allowed Manu to take control of the match. For us no one took the responsibility to lead as every one was giving away the ball as if they will score an own goal.

The first half especially was very poor. We improved somewhat in the second half as there were some good moments. The problem was they were far too less and United never really panicked. They were tearing us part on the counter with Rooney single handedly controlling the midfield and Nani the wings for Manu.

United got the opening goal when Rooney picked up Nani on the wing. He coolly drifted into out danger area, picked a pass and Park put it into the far corner with Szczesny trying his best to stop it. Our whole team was ball watching as they realized pretty late that Park was challenging for the ball unmarked.  Apart from that Rooney missed a penalty and Szczesny made some brilliant saves from Anderson and Rooney, to keep us in the game, when our defence was  sleeping.

For us, we had only one decent shot on goal that really tested Van Der Saar. Nasri was the shot taker and on the rebound Chamakh had a difficult chance to equalize but the ball was deflected for a corner by Vidic. Other than that we never really threatened united.

I will leave the ref out of this although he was also very poor and not consistent.

For us only Szczesny was the outstanding player as his saves allowed us to stay in the game till the final minute. No one else really did much out there.

I won’t go into the analysis of the game as it was a very poor performance from us. I don’t know what was wrong but it seemed that the players did not come out with a free mind. None of our better players were brought into game often and none seemed to take the initiative to make things happen for us. Had we played better for only half an hour we could have put Man Utd on the back foot. The dissapointing thing was United didn’t play that good, it was us not playing that allowed them to dictate the game.

Final word is if we keep up showing like this when it matters, then I feel things won’t be in our hands in the end. Still, all is not lost. Although we do need some quick measures to solve the problems that we have been ignoring for quite some time now. Or else we will always be dissapointed.