Lost property?  A towel thrown in by some fans on Saturday …

So there we have it, the moment the media, pundits and moaning fans were waiting for.

The implosion predicted for 24 games came to pass. We were exposed as the weak-spirited over-rated shower of shite that we are. All is lost.  Give it up, throw in the towel and hope to finish 4th.  Blah, blah, blah.

After the game I tweeted this,

“The irony of fans calling the team “bottlers” whilst throwing the towel in after one poor game is lost on them.”

However, there is no getting away from the fact that we were thrashed 5 – 1 by Liverpool and it could have been much much worse.

Every other loss this season I have found mitigation for, not this time though.  We were abject.

To be honest, I don’t know where to start, but I suppose I have to start somewhere.

It’s easy to say that we conceded five goals so the defenders were poor, and they were, but they were cruelly exposed by a midfield that can be best described as inept.  We didn’t have a half-decent midfielder on the pitch until the hour mark when Rosicky took to the field.

You have to credit Jack for his fighting spirit, but that aside he was dire.  Not more so than Arteta and Ozil however.  All three were either dwelling on the ball or simply giving it away whilst appearing to totally neglect their defensive duties.

Without Ramsey the balance in midfield has all but disappeared.  So you could question why Rosicky didn’t start as he seems the only one who can fix that failing.

Why Gibbs didn’t start against a team littered with pace is another question that could be legitimately asked.

Giroud was starved of anything, but when, oh when, will he realise that he never beats an opponent with trickery, all that happens is possession is lost.  Still its hard to think any striker could have done much with the service he got, or should I say “didn’t get.”

Arsene said afterwards:

” At half-time I could have taken a lot of people off.  I just think the whole team failed to turn up with the right performance.”

and:

” Maybe it’s better if I don’t talk too much, go home and respond well on Wednesday night because I include myself in that performance.  It raises the questions that we have to answer on Wednesday night.”

At least Arsene is questioning himself, as he should.

Right, rant over.

City dropped 2 points unexpectedly and that leaves us second, 1 point behind Chelsea.  Hardly the end of the world and they both have to go to Anfield yet.  There is still all to play for.

We need to show a bit of this:

Now is not the time to panic or lose faith.

Up the Arse!

A guest post from Arse or Brain (@arse_or_brain)

The answer to this question can be different not only in people’s opinion but also the context in which you ask it.  After a very quiet stadium against Crystal Palace I had a very heated discussion with a friend I have been following Arsenal with around the country and abroad over the last 30 years.  You would imagine after such time our views would align, much like women’s periods.  However, on the subject of whether the fans should inspire the team – or the team should inspire the fans – we are poles apart.

While this issue will never be black and white, each are incumbent upon each other to inspire in certain situations and to a greater or lesser extent depending on what the occasion demands, I feel the greater responsibility should always be on the supporter to do all they can to lift whatever performance they are watching.

Apart from the embarrassment of the small amount of away fans out-singing the rest of the stadium every home game, I feel players should ride on a wave of noise towards the 100% performance to which we all aspire.

It is why home games used to have such an advantage.  It is why away teams are told – regardless of tactics – silencing the home fans is first on the list.  It is why teams like to attack their loudest end in the second half and it is why many goals are scored in the final minutes when the crowd are “sucking the ball in to the net.”

Will paying players more money increase their performance?

Will guilting them into a performance by booing them work, or will staying quiet, or grumbling, lift their game?

No, actually roaring them on is the most effective way to make them fly.

I have often heard the argument the players should give the crowd something to cheer and in some circumstances I agree. However when a stadium is still from the start of the game, playing at 100% must be more difficult.  I would also ask why, with all the modern media around, someone would want to spend money and time not supporting the team?  Do you sit mute and wait for something magical to happen or do you sing your heart out to try and inspire that magic?

The problem has been acknowledged by some fan groups with both RedAction and A.I.S.A talking to the club and making suggestions to improve atmosphere.  The teen for a tenner section is normally very vocal and the singing section at least produces songs from one part of the ground.  These initiatives on their own are not nearly enough and at the moment we have a top class stadium, a top class team but the *HOME fans are bottom of a very poor league.

*The emphasis is on home because our away fans are second to none.

Doing ‘a Likely Lads’; as tough today as it’s always been …

Arsenal in recent years has been subjected to levels of abuse from sections of its own supporters way in excess of what might be expected for a club routinely competing in all of England’s – and Europe’s –  biggest competitions.  Indeed, there are clubs that have been relegated with considerably less acrimony than the routine nastiness regularly dished out by a small minority of ‘our own’.

Working out what could possibly be behind the worst of the vitriolic verbal assaults on the club is confused by the presence of a good number of what we might also describe as ‘glory-hunters’ – those casual critics who spend much of the time moaning about anything and everything, often on the flimsiest of pretexts with little supporting evidence to back up their banal, negative claims. These more casual critics of course come from all walks of life and are not unique to any age group or background.

But the hardcore club basher – the perpetrator who is often aggressive and abusive to anyone opposing him rarely permits rational debate for any real length of time before the inevitable vitriol starts up again.  These are individuals who appear to be anything but Arsenal fans, such is their disaffection from the club.  Like a prisoner removed from society and denied the vote, they couldn’t feel less ‘apart’ from the club if they tried.

Surprisingly, I actually have a certain amount of sympathy for the genuinely disenfranchised fan.

Imagine, when the cost of doing so was just about still affordable, that you had been a season-ticket holder and a home (and maybe an away) game regular all your supporting life.  And that your Dad had been, also.  As was his Dad, your brothers and your dad’s brothers.  Maybe your old mum used to go, before her leg or hip got too bad?  Imagine you were related to one of the more than 500 now deceased fans whose ashes are scattered over the much loved – indeed, the venerated – Highbury pitch.  And imagine being of modest means, gradually priced out of regular attendance as your mates were also side-lined and dispersed by a game and an institution that was undergoing a revolution right in front of your disbelieving eyes.

Imagine watching Highbury being partially demolished for flats and replaced by a new but very alien space, rapidly filling with a new generation of fans and visitors.  Imagine that the long-held dream of taking your own children to games had effectively been supplanted by that new generation of fans and visitors.

The ‘gentrification’ of the club has not come without a cost, for some.

For a time, I was once able to take my place alongside the old guard fans who used to go to Highbury, just like my Dad before me.

But for me, the Emirates project spoke of opportunity and excitement – the possibility of being able at last to properly compete with Man u, Barcelona and Real Madrid.  To finally go up a level and join the top table of clubs for whom success was a byword.  I was one of the lucky ones able to afford the move. But my Dad, after that first Emirates’ season, being retired, was unable to repeat the season-ticket owning experience and has, like so many others, simply faded away.

Highbury held 38,000 by the end of its working life.

My guess is that a proportion of those have, like Dad, been unable to join in the fun at the Emirates but, unlike Dad, refuse to go away and have in recent years found, in Twitter in particular, a vehicle through which they can attack the club at will.  Radio phone-ins, blogs, you name it, are all fair game, and all are legitimate weapons of war to the dispossessed.

Not everyone, by any means, who criticizes the club are former season-ticket holders from the Highbury era but many are carried along by those for whom no amount of success will ever compensate for the loss of their match day experience spent alongside friends and family; an experience that stretched back generations.  Dressed up as concern for an absence of trophies in recent years, this particular red herring is as relevant to their real complaint as their attacks on Ozil and Giroud for being ineffective, Wenger for not spending ‘the money’ or for not replacing RvP, and the Board for raising prices.

So whilst I don’t agree with them, their actions or their views, yes, I do have some sympathy.

Imagine in ten years’ time someone decided to move the Arsenal ‘franchise’ abroad somewhere, say Spain, France or Germany (as unlikely as that now seems).

Would I be likely to hold back in my criticism of the club?  Would I care about the impact of my words?

Would I even care if they won anything, anymore?

So what about the future – are we destined to always have this hideous split amongst our own supporters?  Will the price of joining the ‘top table’ of Europe’s footballing elite be a prolonged near-civil war fought online and elsewhere by the very fans who once found camaraderie and common purpose in supporting, unconditionally, the club we all loved?

My own view is that the areas behind the goals should be made standing and should be available at a fraction of the current price.  I believe that some of those spaces should be made available to season ticket holders but also there should be many tickets available on the day.  I think the season tickets should have the option to cover just league matches or include cup games also, to enable the price to be even more affordable for those who might otherwise struggle to pay.

My view of the pitch when I’m sitting down, in the North End, with the goal on the left just out of shot …

… and my view of the pitch standing up.

That there are presently no standing areas in the English game is hardly AFC’s fault but the potential for change could certainly work in all the clubs’ favour as much as the fans.  Whether there is stomach within our own club to provide the necessary leadership on this issue at FA and government level is not known to me and in any case, the club acting in isolation, could hardly expect too much success.

But the benefits, not just to Arsenal, are such that this kind of development should, in my view, be everyone’s number one priority.

Well, once they’ve sorted out introducing video technology and improving the ref’s, obviously …

* ‘Doing a Likely Lads’ has lived on as a phrase used in England to describe the predicament of anyone trying to avoid the results of a game before getting to watch a recording later. The show first aired in 1973.

The Emirates Stadium – the ultimate symbol of a stunning club transformation

The club bashers are an odd lot.

This is something that tends to be borne out if you engage in civil conversation and avoid the interaction descending into a steaming pile of swearyness. Their logic tends to be flawed, their arguments unsound and inconsistent.  They have backed themselves so far into the corner of discontent they genuinely have no idea how to get out of it.

Bearing in mind we are top of the league and have been for most of the season and are continuing to perform well in two major cup competitions I have, in recent days seen the club heavily and passionately criticized for the following:

* failure to replace RvP with a similar quality striker
* the 3% ticket price increase which would help fund such a replacement and other similar acquisitions
* the supposed poor quality of recent additions to the squad – specifically Giroud and Ozil
* failure to spend up our reserves, said now to stand at a whopping £100,000,000 – a sum that is small change for the Oilys but, misspent by us in a rush of blood to the corporate head – as AW has said – could set us back two or three years
* failure to deal with deadwood quickly enough in the past, continued abuse of Diaby
* signing an injured player despite the negative financial cost to the club for the short duration of the injury
* that old favourite, the medical team.
* Arsene’s new contract and salary

These are the criticisms that spring to mind from just the last few days – they are hardly consistent with a club in the position we currently find ourselves in and one is pretty much forced to conclude that the worst of the abuse is coming from those disenfranchised by the move from Highbury to the Emirates.  For them, on pitch success is of little value, it’ll never bring about a return to the old days and the old ways. They are now effectively the enemy within and their spurious and largely unwarranted attacks simply have to be rebutted as and when they appear.

I can not think of any other club that finds themselves in our position in the league, playing the way we are playing, with the financial stability and power that was built from the bottom up, with the brightest of futures before us – ever being subject to this level of criticism.

Neutrals just look on in bemused wonderment.

Sadly for the club, I don’t see them going away anytime soon but I DO see them becoming marginalised by our success and rendered irrelevant by the club’s overall situation in terms of its fiscal prowess and unique levels of managerial talent and stability.  Not to mention its truly outstanding squad.

About a year ago I was genuinely concerned that the ‘end of era’ prophecy could effectively see AW driven from the club by a tide of negativity rising on the back of the majority of fans.  Thankfully, success on field and good sense off it has prevailed and Wenger’s signature on a new about-to-be-signed contract will underline the sea-change we have just been through.

Whether any other club would attempt what AW and Arsenal pulled off in the first decade or so of the 21st Century seems extremely unlikely given the challenges that have to be confronted.  When simply attempting to continue Ferguson’s success is proving to be so much harder than anticipated, who’d fancy being in the shoes of Spurs, Everton, or Liverpool, where real change is required in order for them to truly join the top table of the European elite.

For they, as much as we, have witnessed first hand the birth of a super club.

Round and round we go …

I have to admit that this transfer window has left me drained and disappointed.

Not because of anything the club has or hasn’t done, but because once again the atmosphere has turned sour.  The mood surrounding the club in no way reflects our excellent league and multiple cup positions, or indeed our form over the last 12 months.  Anyone would imagine we were out of all the cups, fighting relegation.

Seriously, how the hell has this happened?

If you are not happy now, what will make you happy?

To me it feels like it did before the Aston Villa game, almost a disaster waiting to happen.  A huge wave of negativity that could swamp the team and drown our collective high hopes.  I just hope we score early and the pressure does not build up and overwhelm everyone.  It’s not fair.  I don’t want to feel like this.  I want to be happy and eager to see the team.  Yet if anything, I want to keep the fans as far apart from the team as possible.

Not the ideal way in which to show our support.

There seems to be little room for manoeuvre when it come to team selection.  Whatever happens we will see two of the three midfielders not fully match fit.  It’s that bad.

As you will have gathered by now I am feeling anything but positive.

I still expect an Arsenal win, but the fear of failure is weighing me down like an anchor with hundreds of negative bloggers and tweeters pulling it down. I don’t like it one little bit.

Roll on 4 pm Sunday, roll on another 3 points.

Roll on the return of the Arsenal feel good factor.

A guest post from The Beck .

Yesterday was weird, and it was filled with anti climax.

Draxler-

 “Arsene shouldn’t get the final call when it comes to the value of a player”

 If I am told I have to work with a budget, I would find it ridiculous to have someone else work/sanction purchases in my favour. Therefore leaving my hands even more tied for whoever I decided to purchase next.

 We’re not Madrid or City or PSG when it comes to valuation or fees, AW has to plan for the next purchase, or the next 3-5 purchases in relation to our budget, he probably already has them in his head. He’s always appeared to be a long term planner.

 Even if we had £200m in the *warchest* its relatively nothing compared to who we’re fighting/competing against, and how we use it right now that is absolutely vital to our future. There can be no mistakes with big purchases, none of the Torres/Shevshenko kinds.

 If financial decisions of the board, affect your personnel decisions, then it seems rational that you have the final say on who comes in and who doesn’t.

 Almost all the information about our board comes from the media or people who truly believe they have knowledge about the board. Some speak about the information like it was told to them personally and what you end up with is a lot of hearsay and assumptions.

 Many Arsenal fans are very short-termist (this better be a real word) sometimes, especially under transfer window pressure.There is never a summer where things can’t be done better, there is never a better chance to win the league (something I’ve heard for 3-4 years out of the last 8).Always pushing their own personal insecurities, worries about certain injuries onto other fans, letting media clichés and click worthy headlines sink deeply into their souls before they even realize what is actually going on.

 We might have played a solid hand of poker with Schalke last week and we probably lost, or maybe we won him/them over for another transfer window, this is something unclear to me and probably will be until the summer.

 Draxler is probably injured until late February, it would have been nice to have him in our squad, he appears very talented and versatile, especially with Theo and Ramsey out. But we couldn’t make it happen, even if Arsene/Board thought he was worth £34-37m, we cannot be too sure that Schalke didn’t want more, or had settled for a fee then pulled out and asked for even more.Perhaps they wanted to monitor his progress post injury, his stats this season are not like his last, perhaps there is a far better player who is ready and might be available in the summer for the same price, again, something we might find out later.

 There is also an image of Arsene that he has too big a responsibility at Arsenal, if this is true, the man must be a deity to keep us top all by himself for 3 months with just Ozil and Flamini being the major *changes* from last year, when we were near where United are now.

 Arsene has Neil Banfield, Bould, Peyton (not Payton), Colbert, O’Driscoll, Harland, Hunt, Akers, Johnson, Lewin, Primorac, Page, Ashworth, Collins, Svensson, literally a line of staff ready to help and assist him and I imagine they do that behind closed doors and in training.

 He also has Dick Law, Gazidis and a bunch of other corporate business men at his disposal, he is not as alone as the media paint him to be, he is not this tyrant who has 30 different roles and orders everyone to do as he says.

 The board listen to him because they trust him, they trust him because they know him.

I say this because I believe Arsenal wouldn’t continue to employ and support someone like that for nearly two decades unless the man knows what he is doing,that or he must be the best actor in the world and is due 20 Academy Awards.

 The media has had an obsession with David Dein since he left, and they’re making Arsenal fans think that Arsene needs a man telling him who to buy or to close deals, when we probably already have a person doing that. Ozil wasn’t luck, getting Ozil was pure genius and that player is so special, it takes hours of watching him play before you fully understand how great he is.

 The man knows what he is doing, better than us, better than most managers, I find this constant questioning of him really tiring. Every formation, every game, every bench,

 These people are lingering on to things just so that they can feel right/justified about how miserable they used to feel when things were bleak.

 Arsene has looked healthier and happier in the last 5 months than in the last 5 years, this squad appears to be challenging and going places, Ozil knew that when he joined, the reactions of some fans is laughable and if you can’t make them understand, I believe its better to ignore, but I speak from a very passive individualistic nihilistic view of how to approach other supporters.

Being a manager is not easy, what’s evident to us as fans, isn’t evident in the same fashion to a manager. A manager could make 20 mistakes in one game and still win, he could be faultless in his tactics and still lose, how fans and the media react afterwards paints the picture, but the manager will know what worked and what didn’t.

 Arsene hasn’t been able to get the striker he wants, yet.

 Its definitely a yet.

 He had Bendtner on standby to leave in the summer, he’s sent Park Chu Young on loan, he’s sent Akpom on loan, gave Chamakh to Palace and stuck with a handsome striker who has played remarkably well for us.

 We even sold Gervinho to Roma and he’s done well there, but it shows you the level we’re after, we don’t want to settle unless its an emergency.

 Giroud has never really been good enough for people who are now *upper class Arsenal twitter fans* and expect only the caviar all of a sudden, after saying we’d probably just get sausages and finish 5th this year.

Even if Arsene rates what they see as sausages, as caviar, which happens more often than not, it seems they do not learn, and as most homo sapiens do, stick stubbornly to their formative ideas.

 Now people are obsessed with this magic striker, especially after seeing City/Liverpool with their dynamic duos, always comparing, always using other teams to bash ours, and its constant.They don’t let go, its always “I wish Giroud was like Aguero” or “Flamini ain’t Yaya Toure”, like we’ve not been top of the league for the months, like everything we’ve done means literally nothing.

 The entitlement and sheer spoiled childish nature really takes away from the enjoyment of supporting and just generally enjoying games.

January 12th 2014. “I looked for a striker last summer that could play with Giroud and without Giroud,” said Wenger. “In my mind, it was not absolutely to replace Giroud, it was to play with or without him.”

 Its really easy to break down too, since everything else appears so *easy* to folks.

 We probably wanted a special striker, went after Higuain openly, didn’t agree with the price, (and people use countless of stats, pointing out how we should have paid more for Higuain and 35m+ was a reasonable price), yet Real didn’t give a toss about his stats (above a man who luckily escaped being charged with sex with a minor prostitute), nor any other top clubs that were in for strikers outside of us and Napoli, or so it appears.

 Higuain might not even have been plan A, plan A may have been Jovetic, or even Rooney or whoever you can think of that we pursued behind closed doors .

 We then moved on to Suarez, and after Suarez, we flirted with 19th century Ba, among a host of other loanees. Thus again, showing that sometimes you can have 5-6 targets, and still end up with none. That’s how the transfer window works sometimes, even if you’re willing to pay top dollar, but of course, fans will say its not possible and we have no plan B.

 We have failed to buy a striker that is better than what we have, and we have also failed to get a better back up than Bendtner.But it depends entirely on Arsene’s valuation of Bendtner and the valuation of the market, its really too simplistic to say “how can we not get someone better than Bendtner”.

 It appears that either Arsenal fans underrate Bendtner, or there were no one that could offer better than our Dane would for a reasonable price, a price better paid in the summer for a world class player, or it could be that both happened, or several scenarios, I’m not really great at guessing.

 And yeah I said it, we failed to buy a striker, just like Bayern did, until they got Lewa, just like Chelsea have this window, just like many clubs do all the time, they don’t always get what they want, especially when theyare not Man City/Chelsea/PSG.

 We tried to get many on loan (it appears), from Vucinic to Klose and if you’re crazy/stupid/lovely enough to believe the Kalou rumour, kudos to you.

 Its not about incompetence, or blaming or getting angry at our club/players/manager/chief exec/illustrious Dick Law. Everyone knows by now that we’ve failed to get a striker, mentioning it every game when Giroud/Bendtner/Sanogo misses, or looks tired or we simply don’t score, its just too predictable, try to be a little more exciting in your life.And even when you’ve found someone at Arsenal to blame for us not being able to get a striker that AW/his assistants/board deem great enough, what do you want? for him to lose his job? what if its Arsene? or someone that the board trust no matter what fans say, because he’s produced really great work before and is likely to do so again, do you want him to lose his job mid season, when he could possibly bring you an even better player? or do you want him to get told to shape up (which probably happens within club anyway)?

 Its really not as simple as people make it out to be, the kind of changes people want are only to hurry their fantasies, which are Twitter/Fifa/Tabloid/FM created at best.

 Asking people to blindly trust the club is not the same as asking them being patient, I believe the club has shown enough over the last year to build trust back with the fans and with our direction.

 Sometimes you try and you don’t get, even with all the money in the world.Monaco got Berbatov on loan, Berbatov, after having an injured Falcao and sending Lacina Traore on loan to Everton.  Chelsea got no one after Matic. Mourinho’s tears are still in the 19th century.

 When Giroud gets injured, we dealt with it before and we’ll deal with that bridge when we get there. People have been obsessing with Giroud and his injuries all season, the man is built like a tank. We’ll deal with it just like we’re dealing with Theo, Diaby, and how we dealt with Theo’s in Autumn, as well as Ox’s, Cazorla’s, Podolski’s and Arteta’s injury problems.

 Wenger on Giroud: “He’s a tough, tough boy.when you speak to the coaches after the game, they say ‘Oh, what a player he is’. He has qualities the rest of the squad haven’t got. He always gives us that strength. I compare him to Alan Smith in the way he holds the ball up, distribution and goalscoring.”

 With the injury to Ramsey being a big blow, I thought we had not enough cover in midfield, along comes Kim Mikael Källström to save our season. Its not as depressing as it sounds. (perhaps its just hugely underwhelming).By the way, I say *save our season* with sarcasm, we’re not in relegation, we’re not even desperately fighting for 4th. We’re right in the title race. He is needed now that Ramsey is out for a while, whilst Wilshere is having set backs and Flamini has a suspension. This is Arsene, not just hoping injuries will go away, but making sure we have a body there when we might need him.

 If anything our season saviours are already on the pitch, doing the business every day, fighting week in week out against financial doping to the extreme, only to be mocked at any failed pass/mistake/miss.But I know how short-termist (still, is this a word yet) we are as fans, City could lose on Monday, we could beat Palace, Liverpool and Utd and suddenly its an entirely different atmosphere.

 I just wish we didn’t have to drag ourselves through the dirt to get there every week.

 Trust your club cause you love it, love your club cause its Arsenal.

*Not blindly, using hindsight, foresight, minority report, time machines or anything*

Today’s guest post is by Muppet

If it’s not the price tag, what is it?

Bang average.  Taxi.  Turning circle of an oil tanker.  Clown.  Barn Door.

Certain blogs pull no punches in their assessment of players.  To be fair, it can go the other way:

Legend.  Genius.  Unplayable. 

So what distinguishes a clown from a legend?  Is it a matter of fan opinion?  Is it fact?  Can we measure it?

I tend to defer to the man, or woman, on the terraces, who has stood there for a long time, often in the cold.  They can know their footballers.  It’s hard to argue against those with an eye.  Ask them exactly what it is about that footballer, and you’ll get answers like, well – “He’s class” or “Top, top class”.

But what exactly does that mean?

I thought about this the other day, and wondered how it was that Wenger persisted with Ramsey for so long?  Wondered how Song could now be in a Barcelona shirt, when most on a certain blog thought he was destined for the championship.  Wondered how it is that a manager is able to distinguish between a talented young player who will make it to the top, and one that will not.

So there must be some criteria, right ?  I’m talking about at the top level.  And let me point out I don’t have any top level experience.  I’m a middle aged, overweight amateur – a has been.  Actually, a never was.  Tennis player that is.  My best years well and truly behind me.  My football experience was a couple of short years in the Sunday league, in goal.  Makes me well qualified to discuss all this?  No.  But I can speculate, like we all do.  I can even do a bit of research.

We all kind of know the attributes that make a good footballer.  Got to be fit, right?  Be a good athlete?  Got to be well co-ordinated, have strength.  Have good technique.  Have vision.  Have mental strength.  Well,  I’m beginning to sound like Wenger.  As this is the stuff that he trots out in his press conferences – “Mental Strength”.  We’ve heard it on a subliminal level for years.  But what does it all actually mean? Fitness?  I’m fit – me, I do circuits once or twice a week, and err, play some amateur tennis, so that includes me, right?  And, err, technique.  Well, I can kick a ball, and do kicky-uppy?  Can’t you?  And mental strength, well, I’m strong.

Ok, so let’s get serious here now.  I thought it would be interesting to try and explore what we mean by good athlete?  What do we mean by good vision?  What do we mean by good technique?  And what other attributes do top players need?  And remember, we are talking about attributes often needed in combination.

FITNESS & ATHLETICISM

Sorry to bring in stats, but I read somewhere that on average, in 1970, a footballer would run 4 kilometers a game.  In 2014 this has gone up to around 10k to 12k on average.  Top level players have extraordinary levels of fitness. Some are extraordinary athletes to start with.

In fact, certain managers prefer athletes in their side now, which is probably why the term “luxury player” has evolved over time.  Examples of this, in the 1986 World Cup, Hoddle was decreed a luxury player by Beckenbauer, one who would weaken England.  Pundits believe Mata was sold by Mourinho because of his lack of athleticism, resulting in failure to track back and cover the game as well as Oscar and Willian.

The converse of this is the phrase “water carrier.”  Of course, not all players are either water carriers or luxury players.  However, it helps if athleticism and stamina is part of your armory.  The modern day midfielder runs around 12k to 14k in a game, often capable of lung-busting runs.  Basically, we are talking middle distance runners kicking a ball.  Ramsey was the school boys champion in Wales at 800m.  I don’t know his time, but I suspect it was around 2 minutes, maybe sub 2 minutes.  Can you do the 800 in 2 minutes?  I managed about 2 minutes 30, almost throwing up over the line as I came in last, when I was 14.

Modern day full backs have to be quick, possess copious amounts of stamina for bombing up and down the touchline, supporting attacks.  The converse is true for wingers who have to do defensive duties.  They too, run between 8k to 12k in a game.

Strikers? Some measurements have been taken of the fastest players in world football.  The top 10 apparently come in between 31 kph to 35 kph.  This approximates to around 11.6 to 10.2 seconds over 100m.  Of course, you don’t need to do the 100 that fast if you have other attributes, like strength and hold up play, a la Giroud, and finishing of course.  But strikers also need a fair amount of stamina to be the 1st line of defence and press the opposition.  Difficult to do.  Modern day football demands it.  A player can quickly be dubbed “lazy” if they don’t do this, and we know one quite well.

SKILLS

It is sometimes deceptive exactly how skillful top professionals are.  I used to practice with a ball in my back garden.  That thing they do, easily, keeping the ball up on either foot, then flicking it behind their head – child’s play for them, for me – impossible.  But this is meat and drink for a top footballer.

The skill that really can differentiate a top player is how they receive the ball, i.e. their first touch.  At Sunday league level, the morning after a heavy session in the pub and Indian, players have eons of time to receive the ball, pick out a leisurely pass to their lumbering and still-over-the-limit teammates.  Premiership level, no chance.  You have a millisecond, and within then, you have to have already computed what you are doing with the ball.  Once, at the end of the season, I played in midfield, and the second or so that I dawdled on the ball was adequate time for the opposition to come and take it off of me.

Some of the greats are capable of slowing down time, breaking down what they do with the ball like in a freeze frame.  They say a fly is able to see us coming because time appears to them to be slowed down by several magnitudes.  This is how it is with Fabregas or Hoddle.  Watch how they maximise what little time and space they have, bringing the ball down or laying it off, and picking the right option.

So first touch is an innate skill.  Others too are probably more inherited than manufactured.  The ability to shoot, passing accuracy, the art of defending i.e. anticipation.  Take a look at this YouTube video. Some say it’s fake.  I’m not so sure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dny2VxJufgA

TECHNIQUE

Aligned to skills, is technique.  As this is an Arsenal blog, I have to mention that Wenger favours players with technique.  In fact, it’s a pre-requisite.  In an interview about coaching, in this link Wenger mentions technique:

http://www.soccer-training-info.com/coerver_coaching_interview_wenger.asp

Wenger states that it’s very important to teach technique to under 14 year olds.  This is because if you are over 14, and you don’t have technique, it is harder to learn it in later years.

I think it’s fair to assume that top footballers must have worked very hard to achieve good technique, with countless hours of practice.  Unless it is in their DNA.  There are freaks like Rooney who come into this category.

VISION

Aligned with skills, most players need good vision. At the very top level, the ability to pick out a pass or read the game separates greatness from a run-of-the-mill top footballer.  Mesut Özil encapsulates this exactly.  He reads the game and can find his man with uncanny accuracy, resulting in assists that go off the chart.  Some critics look at Özil and don’t see this as extraordinary, probably because he makes it look so easy.  He also makes intelligent runs, dragging players out of their positions, then creating opportunities for unmarked players.

It was said of Fabregas that he picked the right pass whatever the situation.  This is the hallmark of a great player.  It is said that if you froze a game and then got a coach to pick out the best option for the team, Fabregas would pick the same option every time.  It must be stated that this is an extremely rare ability.  To do this requires a mental map, in real time, of exactly where all the players are on the field now, and anticipating where they are going to be by the time you have executed a pass.  Some say that top level players can track the movements of 6 or 7 of their teammates and know where they are.

This attribute is not just needed in an attacking sense, but also to spot danger.  Watch how Mertesacker and Koscienly have been patrolling the defensive line like a pair of sharks this season.  Being in the right place at the right time is vital.  Tony Adams was able to read the game and so possessed this attribute in abundance.

MENTAL STRENGTH

As all Gooners know, this is one of Wenger’s favourite terms.

What does it mean exactly?  It seems to be a catch all for the competitive qualities necessary to win and succeed.  I would surmise that you could have 2 young players of equal ability, but one has gone on to be a bigger success, because of having “Mental Strength”.  This has probably happened on numerous occasions.  The one that succeeded turned out to be more ruthless, more dedicated, more focused.  They also say that what separates those at the top with talent, is those that are prepared to work harder with their talent to succeed.

There can be no doubt that this alone is a key attribute.  A recent newspaper report estimated that out of 9,000 apprenticeships in football academies in the UK, only a handful progress to make the grade:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/4938593/Football-academies-kicking-and-screaming.html

Assuming then that you do become a Premiership footballer, and you are one of those handful, if we extrapolate that further, only a handful will go on and become top top class, say an Özil or a Wilshere.  This means, obviously, that top class footballers are rare, which is why they are in demand,  paid exorbitant amounts of money and idolized to a fanatical degree.

So is the price tag correct?

It seems to me that it’s not the price tag that should be the primary measure of how good a footballer is.  The modern day Twitter armchair talent spotter gets excited by a couple of things – seeing a player in a YouTube clip, combined with a massively inflated valuation by a hopeful agent.  But it seems to me that football clubs, of which we are one, would be acting with folly if they didn’t do their research and pay due-diligence. Amazingly, some clubs have bought players on the basis of just video evidence.  And we know also, that some have paid hugely inflated transfer fees, way over the odds.  So it seems to me  that the science of evaluating a player, and estimating their worth, must be best practiced by the experts.

One of my favourites is Arsene Wenger.

You can find Muppet’s price tag on Twitter @MuppetGooner

Today’s post is by ZimPaul

Well we already knew the football was out of this world …

I like a little 22 game mid-season snapshot sometimes.

It doesn’t actually get better, not much anyway, adventures in the life and times of Arsenal. Sitting top. Knife edge battles to come against the two arch-enemies of any semblance of remaining football equity, against the two most financially stupefied until their eyeballs pop, full of strut and sweating arrogance. We are the sole representative right at the top of something approximating any sense financial fair play.

We are rotating week in and out the best, most attractive, most intelligent and sublime midfield in the league playing in front of the tightest defense. We have a great goal scoring record too, and most goals coming through the midfielder machine. We are producing exquisite football moments, and have put another sweet little run together, WWWWW, most recently a football-spirited game against a respected second tier side playing some decent stuff.

We have the mouth watering prospect of Bayern to come. We are into the 5th round of the FA Cup.  And best of all, we are a team’s team that stands by each other. No mega-star studded team of pin-up divas this. Just very, very good players enjoying playing Wenger-ball, several of whom are implausibly young like Gnabry and Gedi, Aaron and Jack, Jenks, Ox and even Chewie.  Lukas in particular is sounding and looking hungry, I like that. Just the right time too. A team that believes in itself, because it fought and won battles before this. Amongst the more mature, the reals gems, as determined as they are assured, Per, Ozil and Tomas and Santi, Mikel and Flamini.

Do we have a chance in hell?

Ask Giroud.  That epitome of the team’s team player, outrageous confidence without the swank, superb work-rate, sublime skills, the unselfish provider of so much to others.

We better start believing, really believing.

Because the players and manager do.

Today a guest post from @poonaloon

Chances are Arsene’s unfancied eleven could cause a third title-winning upset …

I haven’t done this for a while.  I am a bit out of practice, so be gentle.  I used to blog regularly, but stopped five or six years ago.  The lines of debate became so fixed that people stopped listening, you were just lumped under an acronym and your views were taken for granted.  Denilson’s forward pass statistics ended it for me.  Kudos to anyone who has stuck around being a gobshite or passionately enjoying The Arsenal and saying so online since then; it must have taken some stamina.  I don’t need trophies to enjoy Arsenal, but they would be nice.  As we enter the home straight of this season though there seems very little reason not to be excited on many levels.

In Europe we get another crack at a Pep Guardiola team, one who are again the standard for world football.  Getting to see that live will be wonderful.  Unlike the previous pops at his teams, I think we have a genuine chance this time. (We came damn close but for a dodgy red card already.)  If we do get through, then we have as good a chance as anyone left and no one will want to draw us.  Absolutely no one.  It will be interesting to see how Arsene approaches the tie and sets the team up.  Do we go for a guns-blazing home win, taking something away to defend, or try and play it close over two legs and pick our moments?  The Dortmund games, where we played far better at home and lost before winning away in a scrap, shows how variable things can be at this level.  That we even have a choice of tactics or style is something worth savouring, it hasn’t always been this way.

With the financial burden of the new stadium finally easing, we have quietly gone about building the deepest squad in years, possibly ever,in terms of numbers. We could add another defender and a quality striker, but otherwise we are loaded. (Adding Draxler would be divine and make me smile for several weeks on end.)  Depending on what you think of Jenkinson, we have two quality players at each position, money to continue adding, exciting young talent coming through, and the club appears proactive on all levels that we can challenge the depth of talent our oil-rich rivals have tried to accumulate.

This means that the exciting run of fixtures we face needn’t be seen as a burden.  As we start to focus on the run-in, a home draw in the FA Cup appears favourable and rotation would mean games for players of the calibre of Podolski, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Ramsey and Rosicky.  After that, there is only one side left we would not be short favourites to qualify against. The FA Cup may be the least glamorous option, but it is a great chance for silverware and the joys of a cup final.  It is a shame that Theo Walcott will miss out on all this.  Whilst a run of games for Serge Gnabry has been a delight – I’m a huge fan – Theo is one of the best attackers in European football.  His pace gives us a unique dimension and his end product can win games – just check his goals and assists stats.  The Premier League is so tight that any further big injuries could be the difference, for any of the title-chasing trio.

Since the cup draw this Sunday evening, there has been a lot of talk about fixtures, but things are no easier for our rivals.  In fact, there is an immediate opportunity to maybe get some relief, with City playing 5pur2 and then Chavski back-to-back.  They also have games with Barca to distract and an away Manc derby rescheduled for the business end of proceedings,and also the CoCup final.  The Chavs have the easiest run as it looks now, but serene passage past Galatasary – does it exist? – will offer up an almost guaranteed humdinger somewhere, so that can change.  The next two away games will be crucial for us.  If we can take 6 points from Southampton and Liverpool we may just give ourselves a buffer before the bigger tests to follow.  We did just this already, building leads that nullified the impact of losing twice in Manchester – both games leaving a huge sense of ‘what if’ and Arsenal still top of the league.

We might be able to keep our lead if we can continue to be ruthless against the fourteen or fifteen weaker sides in the division.  We did this last year, turning around what had been a series of disasters through February into a convincing run-in, but one that involved home draws with a hung-over Man U and Everton, the only teams of any reputation we faced domestically in that period.  (The year before we were nowhere near as good, winning only 1 of our last 5 league games, drawing 3 and getting beaten at home by Wigan.  ‘Arry really did gift that to us and so goes the history of that shit mob, again and again.)  Last year we ground out clean-sheets. This year, the depth of our midfield options may carry us.  Even without Walcott, we can name Ramsey, Flamini, Rosicky, Podolski, and Chamberlain on our bench at the moment.  Four of those players are recently returning refreshed from injury-enforced rest.  We can always put 5 in a midfield that very few sides can control.

This season may end up being a thriller win or lose, it may be a collapse, or it may be history.  My outlook is such that I am thinking back to Arsene’s first two titles.  We were not favourites either year and in we got through both times on the back of spirit as much as talent at times.  They were great teams, but Chris Wreh scored vital goals in that first double, with a 17 year old firing in others amongst Ray Parlour’s most prolific campaign.  Stephen Hughes and Gilles Grimandi also proved match winners to start our winning run to the title.  It can be a funny old game. (Imagine playing Chris Wreh now, let alone a raw teenager, there would be a riot… Where can I back Sonogo’s goals?)

The second double may have been driven more by names that are now legends, but it also hinged on moments of grit.  Liverpool away with a shocking red-card for Gio Van Bronckhorst barely 30 minutes in will forever be a treasured memory.  Kanu put in the shift of his life that game and we were able to win, finishing the season 7 points ahead of that Liverpool side in second.  It was Wiltord and Ljunberg who scored the crucial goals over the final 6 games of that season, with Lauren pea-rolling in one of history’s great penalties with 4 minutes left to beat the Scum at home.  Neither Henry or Bergkamp played the night we won the league in Manchester. Following cup final defeats to Galatasary and Liverpool in previous seasons, that title was far less obvious at the time than in hindsight.

I am quietly bullish about our chances of making 2014 a banner year.

I have no idea how we might get there and this may all be drivel within a month, although I doubt that, but it will be a ride.  I like our chances with Ramsey, Wilshere, Özil, Cazorla blending it about.  Arsene Wenger has taken the deepest pool of attacking and technical midfield players in the country and turned them into the most solid Arsenal side since Sol Campbell took the short route to Europe and had Vieira and Gilberto sitting in front of him.  This sounds good to me.  Plus all the other teams are total  detestable .

How can we not win, it is meant to be?  Right?

Even if we don’t, we have had a do. Right?

That is my take as very happy Arsenal fan that loves to watch his team play great football.

Can’t wait for Arsene to sign that new deal either.

Peace out.

#Draxler #WhereMeDraxler

Time to go home? It’s a bit late to start enjoying yourself now, isn’t it?

When can I start enjoying the season?

Arsenal are top of the Premier League, in the 5th round of the FA cup, and have two fantastic ties in the Champions League to look forward to.

Yet every time I celebrate our position someone tells me:

“We’ve won nothing yet.”

Does that mean I have to wait until a tin cup is won before I can be happy?  Am I to be unhappy if a trophy isn’t won?  That’s a bit like going out for the night and not having a good time until you are in the taxi on the way home, just in case something goes wrong before the night is over.

[Mel – look away now, Ed]

In 1977 the still amateur-status tennis player John McEnroe made the semi-finals of Wimbledon, losing to Jimmy Connors.  Was that a failure? Was he a failure?

Or was it a magnificent sporting achievement?

If winning silverware is the only measure of success and the only time we can celebrate, then how much joy will we miss out on?

It seems to me that the fear of not winning the whole competition is stopping many people enjoying the journey.

If we manage to win the league despite the overwhelming financial disadvantage we are at, then we will be able to shout the houses down, sing , dance, make merry, gloat and taunt until our hearts are content.  However if we don’t it will not mean we failed.  We will still have made some huge forward strides.  We will have fought a gallant fight.

Every game Arsenal wins should be savoured.

Every goal, assist, attempt, all of it, all enjoyed.

Each beautiful passage of play is a moment to revel in.  A chance to appreciate the team and players.  Why miss out because of the fear that we ultimately don’t outright win a competition that is massively difficult to win?

Right now we are in three competitions and this point might be as good as it gets for us.

For goodness sake, let’s at least enjoy it while we can.

Anybody wishing to hitch a ride in George’s cab can hail him on Twitter @Blackburngeorge (prepare to share the fare, aye).

*No taxis were harmed in the production of this blog