Zelalem back in full training

Teenage sensation Gideon Zelalem is going to start full training tomorrow after a lengthy injury lay-off. The teenager, who is only 17, rose to prominence during the Gunners Asian tour. He played well beyond his years and outshined fellow German teenager Gnabry.

Zelalem plays in the no.10 position and is going to benefit a lot from training alongside Mesut Ozil (the Godfather of assists). Zelalem exhibited his outstanding vision during the Asia tour by assisting a few goals and creating chances out of nowhere. Many touted him to be better than Fabregas was at the same age. His only problem and reason why he does not compete for a starting place in the first team has been noted as because of his physical fitness. He is still a frail young man and needs to bulk up before he competes with the big men in the league, otherwise Gideon is the real deal!

Welcome back Gideon and hopefully, we will see him play against Chelsea in the Capital One Cup. If you hadn’t heard of Gideon (you must have been hiding under a rock or something), here’s a video of his escapades in Asia.

“We will help our friends Arsenal”

Long time no post, sorry! I will try my best to be more consistent with my Posts because I am fully aware that a lot of people like reading this blog. So after we beat Montpellier HSC at the Emirates by 2-0, their manager and good friend of Arsene Wenger has promised to do Arsenal a big favour by beating Schalke in matchday six.

One would expect Montpellier to be upset at Arsenal for stealing their prized asset and title winner, Olivier Giroud but it seems all is well between the clubs. In a post match interview, the Montpellier manager Rene Girard said,

“This game [Arsenal] was perhaps beyond our possibilities due to the injuries and the absence of important players.” 
 “But I’m very proud of my players. We play Schalke next and if we can help our friends of Arsenal, we will.”

However, Arsenal will find it hard to win in Greece as the Greek supporters are very hostile unlike what we see in the Premier League. Arsenal have also failed to win at Olympiakos for quite a while now and the jittery performance of Wednesday will not be sufficient to beat them in their own back yard. The question is, “will Arsenal send a full squad being fully aware that they have already qualified?”. Last season we lost key players in that last game of the groups and I fear Wenger will send a second string to Greece instead. Whichever way, I hope we do a great job in Greece and with key players like Rosicky coming back, we will have strength in depth. Thank you Mr Girard! erm.. maybe not yet….

Walcott reveals why he hasn’t signed the Contract

“Make me a striker.. or else..”

 

Theo Walcott today gave a big hint as to why he has not yet signed a new contract. He refused that his motivations have never been money over football and that he loves the club and wants to stay. When he was quizzed further as to why he hasn’t signed if he wants to stay and his issues are not monetary, he replied, “ask the Boss!”, throwing the issue back to Wenger.

“You have to ask the manager [why I haven’t signed a new contract],” Walcott said. “It’s his decision.

“In the summer I had opportunities to leave but I didn’t want to go and I have never said I wanted to go.

“I’ve always wanted to be an Arsenal player and hopefully something can be sorted.

“It is going to take time, my last contract took over six months to happen and it is one of those things where you just have to be patient. It is going to take time.

“It has never been a money situation, I am not that sort of player. I have always made decisions about football. If it had been about money I would have gone in the summer.”

He then concluded by giving probably the biggest hint that he hopes that the issue is resolved quickly so that he can get back in the team and play UP FRONT!

“I love Arsenal and I love playing with my teammates and hopefully something can be sorted and I can get back in that team and get a chance to play up front.”

Theo has ALWAYS insisted that he wants to play as a striker all along and has often refused to be described as a Winger. He has said several times that he hopes that he can emulate his hero Thierry Henry, turning from a Winger to a Centre Forward. Could Theo be trying to force the matter by wanting it in black and white? He obviously has become impatient in his 6 years at Arsenal without getting a single sniff at the Striking position.

We all know Wenger HATES to be told how to use his players even if it’s from the players themselves. He probably doesn’t want to be forced into agreeing something that he is not yet comfortable with, therefore bringing the deadlock. Even Arshavin admitted last year that Wenger doesn’t take kindly to tactical advice from players, good luck Theo.

I personally think it wouldn’t hurt to let Theo play as a Striker, his finishing is miles better than our current strike force options. Is Wenger just being stubborn? Again? Looks like..

Song to be sold by the end of the weekend

On his way out…

Arsene Wenger confirmed on his interview with Arsenal.com that there is a big possibility of Alex Song ‘s transfer to be completed by the end of this weekend. Alex Song has been one of Barcelona’s main targets this summer and Arsenal have decided to cash in on the Cameroonian midfielder.

Wenger asked about selling Song on Arsenal player:

“If he goes we will definitely buy someone in the defensive side of the team, that decision will be done this weekend”

I am personally disappointed by Arsenal’s willingness to sell a player who provided 11 assists from a Defensive Midfield position. There have been rumours of the players attitude being pompous and disinterested but if that was all, why not put him in his place  by not playing him or something. Alex Song was voted by us, the Arsenal fans as one of the Top 5 performers of last season, why sell him now? He currently has a contract that runs until 2015, so it is not like he is in the same bracket as Robin was. Some Song critics say that he forgot his duties as a Defensive Midfielder and left us open at the back, but does that mean we have to sell him? to me it would rather suggest him to play more of a central midfielder to make most of his obvious, potent attacking prowess.

I hope Alex Songs sale is not meant as a buffer to the money that has been spent by the club during this transfer window. We all know what they are like when it comes to spending, we have had season after season of this before. For the first time this summer Arsenal seemed to have spent a lot of money on big signings like Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla. Now, everything is turning pear-shaped again, we are on the brink of selling both of our top 5 players last season, Van Persie was sold for £24m and Song for a reported £17m. it is big money recouped and you cant help but have Deja vu of last season, get all the money and don’t invest it back properly.

Wenger on reinvestment after van Persie sale:

“First of all we have spent money, we have bought some players, we were not given for free, if we have to invest some more we will”

Let us hope we get some more world-class players coming..

Park’s double blow

Arsenal’s Ju-Young Park had a nightmare season where he managed to play just ONE Premier League game all season without the setback of injury. The one Premier League game he played was as a substitute in a season to forget. Now things have gone from bad to worse as he has been omitted from the South Korea squad to play World Cup qualifiers during this summer.

Nightmare season…

Park who is his country’s captain and Top-Goalscorer with 6 goals in the qualifiers now has to have a worse summer without football. Most pundits in South Korea are already livid that he used a legal loophole to avoid National Service for 10 years, by registering as a Monaco resident. They feel he needs to go back to Korea and do what is expected of every male in that country which is to join the National; Service at the age of 18.

It looks like the fact that he has not played many games has influenced the bold South Korea coach to kick his best player out of the squad. Unlike the Polish manager who resorts to picking Fabianski to go to the EURO’s when he has hardly had a run of games for his team. Park seems more likely to use his summer holidays looking for a new club, with Lille still interested in his services.

Arshavin caught up in racism storm

Arsenal winger Andrey Arshavin has been accused of calling an opposition player a “monkey” THREE times during a match in Russia. Apparently the incident happened when Arshavin was still playing with Zenit St Petersburg and the black player, Laryea Kingston, was playing in the Russian league with Locomotiv Moscow.

The player, who is a Ghanian International said racism was rife in the Russian league and sometimes black players had to “fight back” with supporters on some instances. Laryea Kingston was apparently saying this to Metro TV in Ghana and was quoted by www.ghanaweb.com saying:

“You know Arsenal’s Arshavin…he called me a monkey when I was at Locomotiv Moscow and he (Arshavin) plays for Zenith St. Petersburg,”

I am fully aware that eastern Europe is rife with racism especially in football, England football players have often been abused in countries like Romania and I have witnessed this from watching some of the Eastern European football games. However, I hope that the accusation that Arshavin is a racist is unfounded because since he has been in the Premier League we have not seen him behave that way. If he did say such things back then, I hope he has changed his ways because as we speak, racism is a big problem in our general society and football that needs to be kicked out. As an Ambassador of Russia’s World Cup 2018 bid, this is the last thing he wants to be renowned for.

However, Laryea Kingston has a history of wrongly accusing people of racism. He once accused a referee of being racist in 2007, after getting two yellow cards in a game for Hearts when he was in the SPL. He later came out and apologised for what he said after the accusations gathered steam, he said:

 “I am extremely sorry for the events on Saturday afternoon. While I am still disappointed at the decision for the second yellow card, I must express sincere regret at the comment I made of the referee.

“It was completely out of character and is in no way part of my make-up. I will, at the earliest opportunity, apologise to Mr Conroy as I feel I over-reacted and I would hope my record since coming to Scotland and my future conduct will demonstrate I am only interested in playing topclass but fair football.

Judging by his previous comments and actions, its hard to take Kingston seriously, its easy to just shove this off as a way to get himself some attention. Could this guy just be causing a stir for nothing again?

Rosicky joins injury list

hope he is not out for long

Andrey Arshavin revealed today on his official website that the reason he ended up playing yesterday in the Carling Cup was because Tomas Rosicky got injured in training on Monday. Rosicky has been in fine form the last two games he played for Arsenal. He played really well against Sunderland and Marseille in the Premier League and Champions League respectively.

“To be honest, yesterday (Monday) Tomas Rosicky was preparing for this position. He was supposed to play today. Unfortunately, yesterday he got injured. I had to replace him.” – Arshavin

Luckily for the Gunners, it happened to be a good omen as Arshavin scored and assisted both goals yesterday and was voted Man-of-the-match. The little Russian played exceptionally well and was a threat to the Bolton defence almost every time he attacked. You hope that Rosicky’s injury is not big and he will recover in time for the clash against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, we need all our in-form players available.

The positives from yesterdays Carling Cup match were:

• We qualified to the Quarter finals.
• Vermaelen was not injured and seemed to be in great form already
• Ju Young Park proved that besides Robin Van Persie, we do have a decent striker in our team
• Morale is at an all time high

So all in all, it was a great day yesterday for us and all we can say is, bring on Chelsea! We will be hoping to do well as our usual nightmare, Drogba, is suspended due to a red card against QPR over the weekend.

Marseille players in shock after Arsenal game

Arsenal scored a last minute goal to win the Top-of-the-table clash in group F. There was lack of clear-cut opportunities for both teams throughout the game as both teams defended extremely well. Most of the play was in the midfield and none of the two teams seemed to be able to conjure up a decent attack on the others goal. Aaron Ramsey came in towards the end of the game and after completing 8/8 succesful passes, he also made 1 goal out of 1 attempt on the 91st minute, to hand the gunners a win in France.

shocked...

After the game, Marseille players talked to the media to explain their “shock” at losing a game they had hoped would end as a draw..

“It’s not a happy situation. There is disappointment, anger too,”

“We should have been able to hang on to this result and take a point because we had done what was necessary for 91 minutes to gain a good result.

“Unfortunately we didn’t hold on and for the second time this season we have let in a goal at the end which has been bad for us.

“For the goal there was a lack of concentration, communication and success. But we mustn’t lament our fate.

“We are second with six points. Arsenal are ahead of us but behind us the teams are lagging.” said Steve Mandanda

Mathieu Valbuena was equally shocked at what had happened to the hosts saying….

“The worst has happened. It’s very hard to digest a defeat like that. We’re all stunned, upset.

“Frankly we played a good match, there was a good spirit in the team. We didn’t deserve the defeat, unlike in other games.”

Arsenal made another near-perfect performance for a team playing away, they had most of the ball and did not look threatened at all. Besides the few odd episodes of handball that occurred earlier in the game, which we were lucky to escape without punishment, Arsenal were well comfortable. Either the Marseille team are of little threat in the reverse fixture or they were purely trying to drag that game to a draw.

Players that were impressing were once again, Rosicky, who seems to have turned a corner, I want to eat whatever that man is eating these days… Koscielny was a monster again in defence and you get the feeling him and Per are becoming an interesting duo. Basically, the whole midfield played well, stopping Marseille from playing, the same thing I was talking about when I mentioned the “6 second rule”, in my earlier post. Arsenal defended like a team and did not leave the job to the back four, long may it be like that!

 “We did the job together and defended well as a team. To defend well, it’s not only down to the four defenders, it’s the whole team. 

“We did it well on Wednesday night so I cannot see why we could not do it at every game. We have to convince ourselves that we can repeat this kind of defensive performance. We proved in Marseille that we can do it and our keeper didn’t really have any big saves to make. 

“We knew that if we created spaces behind their defence we would have some good chances and we kept our belief until the end. We are top of the group now but there are still a few more games to be played for. But we are on a good run, we have built some momentum and we need to continue.” – Koscielny

If the team keeps up with this philosophy, they will soon be in the “Top Four” and who knows, we could be challenging again for the Premier League title…

Arshavin: I am now more relaxed

Ready to deliver?

After making one of his best performances for Arsenal since he arrived, Andrey Arshavin has admitted that he is now ready to show that magic week-in, week-out. The Russian claimed that the reason he was not able to perform so well for his club was the burden he carried trying to get Russia to qualify for the Euro’s next summer. Now that qualification is guaranteed, he says he feels “more relaxed”. Speaking to his official website arshavin.eu, he said…

 “I’m really in high spirits right now. You know, after the game against Slovakia I feel like a load has been taken off my mind. I was pressured by the responsibility for the outcome. And now after we qualified, I’m totally relaxed and calm.”

 “One should do his best for the team in every game. And when a player feels good, it’s always much easier to play”

The Russian had started the season the same way he had ended it last year, flashes of brilliance and the occasional loss of the ball during the match. On Sunday, he reminded fans about the Arshavin that played against Liverpool at Anfield a couple of seasons ago. He came on as a substitute and made an appearance that should give Arsene Wenger a head-ache on wo to play in France on Wednesday. Theo did not perform and rarely threatened a Sunderland team that was there for the taking, you get the feeling Arshavin might replace him in Marsielle.

Honourable mention also goes to Tomas Rosicky who pulled off another impressive and unexpected performance for the Gunners, long may it continue!

Scholes: I once refused to play against Arsenal

Manchester United Legend Paul Scholes today confessed he once did a “Carlos Tevez” and refused to play in a game against Arsenal. Even though Scholes refusal was not exactly in the emphatic manner of Carlos, he confesses that it almost got him kicked out of Manchester United.

refused to play...

Scholes was in a similar position to Tevez in that he had a dip in form and was not started in a few consecutive games and then was asked to go and play against Arsenal at Highbury in a League Cup match. He blatantly told Fergie he was not going and refused to hop on to the bus to London because he considered it to be just for reserves, Manchester United then went to Arsenal and were thumped 4-0 by the Gunners. Scholes said he understood the frame of mind that Carlos was in and said it was not the best way of handling the situation. Speaking to radio programme TalkSport he said….

“I did a similar thing quite a few years ago when I refused to play at Arsenal, which I deeply regret. The week after I wondered what I was doing.”

“I think Carlos, if it’s true what happened, he will regret that as well. But I can understand his state of mind as well. He has not been in the team of late. He was by far and away City’s best player last year.

“He’s had his problems through the summer, saying he wants to leave and he wants to go back to Argentina. But he’s the type of player that needs to be playing. He wants to play every week and he wants to be playing football.

“I see his frame of mind. He thinks he’s being messed about by Mancini. And Mancini probably is messing him around a bit but he’s well within his rights to do so if he’s not been happy with comments he’s made or something he’s done though the summer. But I know the type of things going through Carlos’ head.”

Unlike Tevez, Scholes did his rebellion behind the scenes and not in front of millions of viewers. For his troubles, Scholes was fined by Manchester United and the issue was not publicised. Tevez on the other hand, blatantly refused to play in front of the world, for whatever reason and has just made himself a doomed man. As much as I hate Citeh, what Tevez did was deplorable and should never be acceptable in football. It just goes on to show how Arsenal”s policy of “grow-your-own-star” is probably best. Too many “stars” in a team can bring such problems when a player feels insulted by being on the bench. I doubt Scholes would have done the same as Tevez and refused to play whilst sitting on the bench. This would be due to his respect of the club and fans that are suffering in defeat. Can you see Jack Wilshere doing that? I can’t….

Whatever happens to Tevez, I hope we don’t get him or his type at the Emirates. I guess players like Clichy and Nasri have now realised what kind of circus they have jumped into.