Arsenal v. Celtic, Emirates Cup, Sun 1st Aug 16:20

[GoonerGurjit]

It's good to see Rosicky and Nasri looking so sharp and hungry. It goes without saying that a central role suits both player much more then being out wide. We desperately need both to stay fit this season.

Rosicky was superb in the 45mins. that he played. He was buzzing around and full of creativity.

 

[ricky1985]

Kompany would be a good signing. Not gonna happen though methinks.

Thinking about it I'm not sure if he could play in Song's role, not really seen all that much of him in midfield. Seems like he would be quite similar to how Djourou looked yesterday?

 

[lagos]

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/-we-will-concede-fewer-goals-this-season-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Remember this? I am willing to bet that we will concede another 35-40 goals easily this season.
.

we went on to conceede more goals that we have ever conceded in recent times



Interestingly, Goals conceeded by EPL champions since 2002

02 36
03 34
04 26
05 15
06 22
07 27
08 22
09 24
10 32

Arsenal in 2010 = 41


Who knows if last season signalled the start of a new dynamic in the premiership but with that exception which has generally been acknowledged as one of the most unusual races in recent history, no one has won the premiership since the premiership stopped being a 2 horse race between manu and Arsenal and concceeded more than 27, infact the average goals conceeded by the eventual champions in the years between the invincibles and last season ('05-'09) is 22, the highest being 27 and the lowest being 15. Over that period we have conceeded 35,31,37,31,36 and last year we conceeded 41! The only time we've conceeded less than 30 goals was the year of the invincibles when we conceeded 26.

 

[patrick42uk]

Poor Walcott. There are many more useless players on the team who will not get the sort of attention he has because he has been unfairly thrust into the spotlight. I suspect he could do better in a team lower down the division where the ball would have to go through him more, making him develop some strengths. Wilshere benefited after having to play a central role at Bolton, and Walcott might get similar utility out of being at a smaller team.

Look ma, no stars!

The problem today was that Theo saw too much of the ball. He was the "out ball" consistently, and it gave him plenty of chances to show us all that he isnt a football player. I do sympathise with him. Things like the fans singing his name when he's ****e cannot be helpful. I see clear frustration from his team-mates in his game which cannot be helpful. He had so many opportunities today to put in telling balls and he failed. That profligacy just is not good enough. Right now he isnt even good enough to be back up right wing (based on pre-season).

 

[SA Gunner]

Kompany would be a good signing. Not gonna happen though methinks.

Thinking about it I'm not sure if he could play in Song's role, not really seen all that much of him in midfield. Seems like he would be quite similar to how Djourou looked yesterday?

I think it depends on whether he is a ball player as well, Wenger loves this.

I also think that signing him would literally kill two birds with one stone, the one being we have backup in two areas in the squad, and two, we keep the likes of Nordveit and Frimpong alive.

 

[GoonerGurjit]

Without wanting to turn this in to a transfer wishlist but someone like Kompany or Mbia would be an ideal signing.

 

[arsenallegends]

yes they would Guj, especially Kompany who could be playing CB with Vermaelen for Belgium in the not so distant future.

On the subject of Walcott. He should continue to work on his game and should be encouraged by some signs this weekend. He must also acknowledge strong competition for the RWF spot. it would interesting to see Arshavin on the right and Vela at LWF in certain situations.

 

[Captain]

I think it depends on whether he is a ball player as well, Wenger loves this.

He is but there aren't even whispers about us being in for him and for a higher profile player like Kompany it would be strange to sign him out of the blue.

The way Wenger is talking, we aren't going to sign anybody and that is the worst news I've had all summer.

 

[SA Gunner]

I think it depends on whether he is a ball player as well, Wenger loves this.

He is but there aren't even whispers about us being in for him and for a higher profile player like Kompany it would be strange to sign him out of the blue.

The way Wenger is talking, we aren't going to sign anybody and that is the worst news I've had all summer.

Yeah mate, I just read the piece where he consideres Frimpong and Wilshere genuine midfield backup plans for our season ahead. With due respect to the youngsters I consider this real ****ty news.

Re a new GK, Ive given up on that already.

 

[ricky1985]

The way Wenger is talking we will almost certainly sign at least one centre back. His words were; "we need at least one".

 

[True Gooner]

Fairly disjointed performance. Rosicky was very good for 45 minutes, Walcott was positive with very little end product and the rest were in and out of the game.

Djourou was dire though - I hope it's just rust from not playing for so long but it doesn't look good thus far.

 

[gstew]

I think it depends on whether he is a ball player as well, Wenger loves this.

He is but there aren't even whispers about us being in for him and for a higher profile player like Kompany it would be strange to sign him out of the blue.

The way Wenger is talking, we aren't going to sign anybody and that is the worst news I've had all summer.

Today's People:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.people.co.uk/sport/football/news/2010/08/01/vincent-kompany-fears-for-his-manchester-city-future-102039-22455058/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.people.co.uk/sport/football/ ... -22455058/</a>

Dubious, of course, but he would make a lot of sense for us and he is competing with 11 other players at Man City for CD and DM.

I agree that Djourou has looked poor this preseason, but I am still reserving judgment. He is too talented to write off just yet.

IMHO Theo should spend at least an hour every day practicing crossing. And I believe that with all the money we have invested in the squad that we should hire a specialty crossing coach to specifically work with our wide players. This type of focus is needed if we are going to take advantage of Chamakh. Imagine how many we would have scored today if Theo was just an average crosser. I don't mean to pile on him, especially since his runs were excellent and he created so many good opportunities. But that just highlighted how poor a crosser he is.

 

[asajoseph]

You know, as frustrating as Walcott's consistency can be, when a player gets two assists I'd at least expect people to give him just a little bit of credit for the bits he does right. That's what end-product actually is, and hey, if we're going to get down on him for not getting it in the right spot every time, surely we should be happy on the other hand that he's at least good enough to get himself into enough positions to try?

Throw enough ****, after all....

 

[gstew]

You know, as frustrating as Walcott's consistency can be, when a player gets two assists I'd at least expect people to give him just a little bit of credit for the bits he does right. That's what end-product actually is, and hey, if we're going to get down on him for not getting it in the right spot every time, surely we should be happy on the other hand that he's at least good enough to get himself into enough positions to try?

Throw enough ****, after all....

I did give him credit for getting into good positions. And, to me, this is of crucial importance. You and I actually had a running dialog about Ade vs. RVP 3 years ago about the fact that I preferred Ade because he was so much better at getting into scoring positions (before he stopped giving 100%) than RVP. And just like above I recommended that we spend time every day in training just practicing finishing. At the time our finishing was below average for a Premier League club....inexcusable for a top 4 side. Most of our players getting into scoring position were poor finishers. That not only included Ade, but also Hleb and Cesc.

Today I would argue that our crossing is below average for a Premier League club. And it is an absolute waste considering how many crossing opportunities we get compared to most teams. IMHO Theo hit 1 good cross today when he had numerous opportunities. His second assist wasn't a cross. Even with two assists I would say that his end product was not nearly good enough.

 

[Klaus Daimler]

I laugh at how fabo was lambasted and laughed at in the 4irst half (Klaus and Rex ) when he saw the same weaknesses, we are usually blinded when the goings good eh .

What are you on about now? I don't even remember what fabo wrote. I just laughed at Rex's response. 'twas funny.

 

[P_Gunner]

Just watched the match. Walcott was great for the first 50 mins then abysmal for the last 40. He can still be a great footballer, just needs more consistency.

Wilshere once again showed why he should be challenging for the first team.

Frimpong was decent - showed his strength well but I still think he is positionally poor.

JET was invisible and to me seems to lack the off the ball movement to be a striker.

Vela seems to be improving. He just needs to be prepared to beat his man in the league and he could turn out great.

Gibbs looked like he forgot he was playing LB. Played way too far up the pitch giving them too much space on the left.

I wouldn't worry much about the two goals Celtic scored. Both Frimpong and Wilshere could hardly run anymore and with Gibbs going gun ho it was just a matter of time really. I highly doubt something like that would happen in a real league game.


Overall it was a good performance bar the last 20 minutes. MOTM rightly goes to Wilshere. Just hope Wenger doesn't make a habit of playing Wilshere so deep.

 

[GunnerBP]

I have no problem with Theo getting two assists, but with the amount of opportunities that his speed creates he could have had a hat trick and two assists.

His speed creates so much space that he gets numerous goal scoring or assisting chances a game, yet he wastes so many of them. He gets wide open in the box so many times, that if he just made the right decision more frequently he could be one of the most dominating players in the EPL.

It is frustrating to watch a player create the chances to finish of a team within the first 30 minutes and watch most of those chances get wasted due to a poor final ball.

It is great that his speed creates all of these chances, but he really needs to improve on his final ball so that we can convert the chances he creates. If he can get two assists in a game where he fails to consistently play a good final ball imagine how dominating he could be if his passes found his man half of the time.

 

[celestis]

Theo isn't far off from being a good player for us , just missing a few details and consistency . Give him a few months he should be better.

 

[banduan]

Methinks Theo is more effective when he runs to the edge of the area than at the byline. However, the Vela goal is a good example of why the place Theo aims for when he crosses are generally great spots. Others must know where to run once Theo starts a break.

 

[Lukazan]

Bit baffled by all the stick Walcott is getting to be honest. I thought he was great when he came on in Saturday's game and yesterday he had some very bright moments, although yes his crossing and final ball was shocking.

The way some people are talking though it's as if Theo's final ball and crossing is, and has always been, ****e. That isn't the case at all. Theo has shown plenty of times in the past that he can provide a cross/final ball. He's just a little inconsistent with it now which is hardly a biggy considering his age. Aaron Lennon's final ball was a lot worse than Theo's for a long long time yet he's improved on that area a lot in the last season or two and he's got two years on Theo. It can be worked on, it can be improved.

If he can stay fit Walcott will have a good season, I am sure of it.