As usual when wrestling with the match write up I was looking for the “word” that captures the victory at Hull. The keystone of text on which the rambling edifice depends, the one single expression that you, dear reader, will retain as you reflect on the five minutes you invested this morning on the PA site.
What exactly is the ‘word’ for that performance at the KC yesterday ?
I played with a few; Polished – professional – competent – refined – strong – organised – sophisticated – cultured – cultivated – developed – powerful – authoritative – razor-sharp – distinguished – well oiled – commanding – superior – unassailable – talented – clever but none quite fitted the combination of speed, skill and intelligence that characterised our performance and our victory against the Tigers yesterday.
And then I saw it – PROFICIENT
The combination of art and science I had the pleasure of watching yesterday was proficient, a performance in which all the elements came together and meshed perfectly.
It started at the back and the opportunities that the home side had Szcz dealt with, he commanded the box, punched or caught the high balls and saved what occasional goal bound shots. The back four deal gave very little away, no stumbles or errors and a welcome clean sheet after a few games I which we have not been at our defensive sharpest.
Ah the midfield – Ramsey, Ramsey, Ramsey …………………………. I can say no more – my superlatives have failed. Santi vigorous, Ozil cleverer than a fox, and Mikel in charge across, the middle, dental problems notwithstanding.
And our strikers , yes yes I know we play one man up but yesterday it seemed to me that Olivier and Poldi buzzed about in front of and behind each other, pulling the defenders out of shape, both strikers irrespective of their official; job title. Finest finisher in the club award ? Give it to the smiling German.
And a fine cameo from the Ox, my goodness you can expect some severe competition for Cup final places.
Proficient – yes that is the word.
Not sure what to make of Hull, damage limitation when it went to 0-2. I anticipate a brighter effort on the greenfields of Wembley.
Enjoy your Easter Monday wherever you are. I am off to Stratford for Henry IV Part 2 with Number One daughter.
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
This morning we have Andrew @anicoll5 to thank for our little sunshine bus trip
Positively Arsenal 
Pedantic George
One was beginning to wonder. I came under less fire in North Africa with the 7th.
I think I’m starting to see how it works, however. I’m assuming there are many articles written online and this is where it’s all dissected and the critics are criticized.
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proudkev
April 22, 2014 at 2:39 pm
because proudkev the clever ones dont have to state the obvious …it is the losers of life who seek attention by attackign the club and the media in football feed of the uneducated and their psychological dependance on their football teams…
even if you try to explain the obvious they will turn and mock you ..at that point you either fight or walk away…..my team is panathinaikos, arsenal is my dream. i will defend of course but i wont go fighting the locals in islington just cause they are idiots and dont get it… plus im foreign i will look silly….it is the neglish local arsenal fans who need to set the record straight
are we really going to fight about football? lol…thank god we have owners who although make mistakes and leave manager and player unprotected at least they aint stupid to follow the knee jerk reactions of press and fans…
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PROUDKEV @239
spot ” the hell ” on.
The answer?. money wheel. The ARSENAL WAY is financially conservative and anti- climactic as far as the media are concerned and therefore a none story . A summer spent wheeling and dealing to get every tom/dick & harry on the media buzzline? Now that’s a story they can sink their teeth into.
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Having spent several hours behind the wheel today listening to Talkspite – I know I know but I was bored – I was surprised to find out that no pundit, presenter, journo, phone in fan or man with dog believed that David Moyes was the man for the United job when he was appointed. Not one.
And every single man Jack of them entirely sincere.
If there was a patron saint of deluded hindsight then this would be his day, or her day.
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i blame the (sub) culture on the game and the delusions of grandeur of arsenal’s status pre wenger….. but they call me a wenger fan so….. hehe what else can you do…
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Any adverse criticism of Olivier Giroud is likely to be followed by the miscreant spread eagled under the Khartoum sun at noon and smeared with honey.
It is the way of the desert
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David, I think you have it now.
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Afternoon David, very good points you make.
I agree with Apropos. And Girouds numbers aren’t as bad as people make out, remember his role is not to be a prolific, selfish type of striker.. I think he gets the rough end of the stick, bloody difficult role to play on your own against two big centre halves and chasing hopeful balls.
Without runners Giroud has suffered, as he is largely isolated. With third man runners, like Ramsey and Theo he will excel and unlucky injuries have not helped. Some fans have chosen Giroud as a scapegoat for our failings which is very unfair. Podolski may be the better finisher but he has proved incapable of leading the line as required with the way we play. I am a big Podolski fan but at times he has disappointed. But if you can get Podolski in and around the penalty box, he will hit the target, as you rightly say. Out of the two, i would prefer that last minute winner to fall to Podolski. But Giroud is more important to the team and the way we play.
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Podolskis conversion rate is 30%
Yes Goonerkam. I’m a huge fan of a front three, containing LP OG and TW, Finishing, strength and pace. I would however advocate the two wide players cutting inside and playing off the target man. I would assume it means they track back less, therefore the wing backs would have to revert more to fullbacks and the midfielders would need to be more energetic and get from one end of the pitch to the other, We do have that already in young Aaron and it is why his presence has me so sorely missed. His goals have been a remarkable bonus, but his energy and commitment have always there to be admired, even when he was having a bad patch on the wing. His engine is fantastic he is a truly wonderful player to watch. You cant fault players for trying, even when things aren’t necessarily going their way. Aaron’s contribution to the defense has been missed by many due to the contribution to the attack, but even if you take those goals away, he is an important player.
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if I may say Proud Kev,
We don’t necessarily need Podolski to lead the line like Olivier Giroud. In any view, to dismiss a striker of Podolsk’s quality at club level and at international level, for a player who’s yet to score a goal at club level, is rather foolhardy – for use of a better word? Surely we should be adopting a different way to lead to line resulting in the striker who scores playing as the focal point of the final third whether he is central or not?
Strikers who can score are surely better then strikers who cant, it’s always been the key to winning football matches.
We can naturally say OG has suffered as a result of no runners. TW and AR have been missed, but LP been available. He is very much a direct player. A runner in the box and he’s been overlooked in favor of other players. Has OG been handicapped more than he should?
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As far as moyes bringing in his own circle of coaches and assistants to help him manage maniou, a mistake?? Maybe. A miscalculation?? Possibly.. But show me one newly appointed head coach that does not take those steps in the very start. Its almost standard modes opperandi. The majority do it and for very good reasons too I may add. Loyalty for one thing, Phil Neville not withstanding.
Trying to implement you system and methods of training another.
Like HUNTER says, these players are supposed to be professionals and adapting to new managment and his methods are part of the game. There are massive parallels with this story and what unfolded at chelski under AVB. no one is bigger than the club??? Not in these two cases. Certainly some of the old timers at chelski and the same at maniou truly pulled the carpet from underneath their respective coaches.
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proudkev at 2:39 pm
More, more, more, please…we need to restate the facts time and again to stand up to the numbskulls….
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i want cesc and reus in the summer and sagna
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i will simulate jack cesc aaron in midfield and ozil theo reus in front … i will beat faria.
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proud kev I will be using some of your comments to make a main article.GREAT STUFF
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David & George
I can tell you thhat it doesn’t help when a long, considered and hopefully interesting reply disappears into the ether just like that becasue some batteries were not happy. ****.
How do I rewrite it all as quickly as I can whilst attempting to make sense and with no typos, so I can pretend to get on with some work? Here goes nothing:
Younger players are not necessarily more talented but they usually are more mobile – Schurrle is the one who really took Plodders’ spot in the German team and he only cost under £20M for Gazprom not that inflated figure you gave above which so far only applies to our very own Ozil and Goetze, both very different players, not strikers.
Plodders cost Arsenal a lot less then that fee for Schurrle but if you add in the 3 odd million cunningly shaved off the transfer fee figure from the two friendlies with Koln then there was not a huge difference in price there. Arsenal did quite well with those friendlies, saving a massive percentage off the fee. Bunga Bunga Barcelona could only watch and weep as they attempted a similar negotiation with the mafia behind the Neymar deal.
Where there is a difference is in the coaching and training for this younger generation or the generation after Plodders’ graduation. There are plenty of comments from many coaches including our own (specifically talking about Chambo) on how things have evolved. Even here we can see young whippersnappers like Martinez copying the big boys (who could they be?) and playing Bartley in a deeper role (although he was just resting other players, it was still interesting to see), just as we have seen with players at Arsenal in recent times. Chamberlain is the obvious example though there are a fair few others. When a few select Experts were howling with rage for Chambo to replace the “Goal Machine” Walcott, Chamberlain was being coached to have a better all round game in order for him to play in CM. It is the way the game has been going.
In my mind Podloski’s only problem is that perhaps he wasn’t lucky enough to get such good coaching at the same stage of his career? I think his generation was just ahead of the massive investment in grass roots football in Germany that gave us Ozil and Gnabry and maybe more? What I’m trying to say is that I was a big fan of Wiltord, even though he was not a regular starter and although Podolski is not a regular starter at Arsenal I like him too. He played a free role at Koln but at Arsenal, as AW said only just last week, Ozil, Carzola and even Rosicky will play there ahead of Plodders, though he can play there. He’s behind Santi on the left because if Walcott is available he starts on the right. Podolski in short competes with (the younger) Walcott for a start. If Walcott is out then Carzola can shift to the right and Plodders can get the nod. Then there will be games like against Fener where both Podolski and Walcott start, Carzola was in the middle and Chambo was out. With Walcott as the more direct forward, this allows Plodders the opportunity to sneak inside and assist as he did for Ramsey against Fener. It’s the same when Chamberlain plays on the right, Plodders has Carzola’s (before him Nasri and Arshavin’s) licence to roam off the left, this led to the vunder-volley against Monbtpellier last season. Great goal! Chamberlain was looking so ridiculously good in pre-season that he won himself the start on the left against Villa for the first game, and was the best player on the park for that first 45 before he got injured. All these subtle variations for a manager who apparently never makes any such variations. Most of the time they are made to rest or protect players’ fitness, and to reward the good form of players as seen with Chamberlain getting that role at the start of the season. Although at twenty, Chamberlain has been protected (not played as a teenager when groaners were groaning), and why it is important to have a quality player like Podolski in the squad alongside him, becasue I don’t think Chmabo was ever meant to play long long runs of games this season.
For me the squad cake is baked. The icing is on and it looks and tastes good. Just need to add cherry or two, assuming we keep Tommy V which is something I believe will happen, and find a decent replacement for Fabianski, though Josh Vickers is getting rave reviews…
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Poor cesc and robin. They both left for clubs , in hopes to catch-up on trophies and titles, just in time these clubs were entering their down cycle. In cesc case even at less pay. two more examples of players that left THE ARSENAL only to regret it in a big way a couple of years later. As the stock traders say ,” you must time the market perfectly if your not playing the long term strategy of buy and hold”. These two are short term day traders and they mistimed it . Horribly in robins case.
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Should add that this massive tear to Podolski’s thigh (thighs blessed by the power of Thor), the need to nurse him through his recovery couldn’t have come at a worse time considering the loss of Walcott and both Chambo. You lose all your full backs one year. And all your wide strikers the next. Meh.
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did he really need to sprint 60 meters right in begging of second half against gala ( thast when he got injured i was there and laughed when i saw him do that… so irresponsible…aha ) …
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we had beaten them 3-1 i think in turkey and thegame here was a formality and podolski lol…legend..just sprint for no reason right at kick off of 2nd half …then he grabbed his thigh and sat down…legend..legend ..one of a kind.
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Terrible luck. Trying to show everyone thay he isn’t just a lazy git who switches on when he has a chance of scoring or crossing he sprints back when the game is a dead rubber only to almost shred one of his thunder thighs. Could have been worse, I don’t think he needed surgery, all the more reason to mollycuddle him upon his return. Even a know nothing non-expert like me knows that it is wisest to slowly rebuild the strength if you have been lucky enough to avoid surgery with such an injury.
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New post is up !
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ProudKev:
“I watched a football finance show a couple of years back where Cristain Purslow of liverpool and David Gold of West ham were talking about Wenger and the stadium. Purslow described the stadium move and regular champions league qualification as a miracle. Gold agreed. These are guys who know what they are talking about, not some marketing bloke that writes a blog or Adrian Durham. These are professionals that know how business finance and football works.They understood the problems we faced, the Granada issue, the delays, the fact we not only had to finance the Emirates but also the redevelopment of Highbury. The sponsorship deals that were negotiated on the basis that we were beggars at the time. And the arrival of the oil men. The fact we had a manager that bought into the plan and did not leave because of an over inflated ego that dictated he needed success on the field, like a Maureeno. Wenger and Arsenal were a match made in heaven and we got lucky. The history books will show that.”
You forgot to mention how these problems were being sorted out right smack in the middle of an economic collapse. For an Arsenal supporter to drool over cheque book managers like Ancelotti and Mourinho is truly embarrassing.
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saw this comment on the BBC life commentary… Thought it was funny…
Matt Williams: Watching Chelsea is like watching paint dry. I’m now listening to Chelsea on the radio. It is like hearing paint dry.
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