http://arseblog.com/

i think this is very apt.

If ever a week neatly summarised Arsenal’s season so far it has been this one. Listless, insipid and gripped with fear in the first half against Chelsea. In the second half, the midfield four spread out a little and we saw some improvement. But the first fifteen minutes of the second half against West Ham ranked amongst the best football played by Arsenal this season. It gave us a tantalising glimpse of what this team is capable of.



The issue this season has been consistency. There have been several games in which the front four of Walcott, Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla have combined and interchanged to devastating effect. The respective goal and assist tallies of the aforementioned are testament to this, but the problem is that the figures are distributed over too thin a spread of games.



At the risk of leaving you reaching for your golf visas and adding machines, at least three of that quartet have scored in the same game on five separate occasions. (West Ham home and away, Reading in the league, Spurs and Newcastle at home). There are all sorts of graphs and pie charts that supplant those numbers, especially around Theo, Santi, Lukas and Olivier assisting one another for the goals in those games.




Nobody embodies this bafflingly erratic attitude to attacking nookie than Olivier Giroud. Prior to the demolition of West Ham, he had taken 20 shots on goal without scoring. Yet against the Irons he was able caress the ball into the net with two of his three attempts. From frigid fumbler to lithe lothario in one fell swoop. That said, his link up play is always excellent. The touch to loft the ball over the top of the defence is becoming a Giroud patent, and there was that gorgeous touch for Wilshere against Swansea.




So how to explain the wild fluctuations in the graph needle? I think the midfield has a lot to do with it. Teams have often been able to suffocate the supply by strangling our midfield, which has a knock on effect. There’s also the rather glaring fact that we lack options from the bench to come on and affect the pattern of a game. The biggest indictment of the attacking options we possess clung to the bloated frame of Andrey Arshavin at Stamford Bridge. That he was able to get near the pitch with love handles that size makes me want to weep with frustration. He looked like a weeble.




There’s a larger issue of responsibility here. We struggle to conjure anything creatively in tight games, though I think that Wilshere could go some way to fixing this as he takes over the “number 10” mantle from Santi Cazorla. Podolski took most of the plaudits against West Ham, but Wilshere’s penetrative passing was at the heart of many of Podolski’s decisive touches. Liberated from the more rigid confines of the trequartista role, Cazorla has drifted infield to good effect to create goals for Theo at Stamford Bridge and to tee up Giroud’s delicate touch for Wilshere’s volley against Swansea.




A deeper delve into the goalscoring habits of Arsenal’s strikers shows that Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott don’t have a “winning” goal between them this season. Giroud has two equalising goals, Walcott has none of those either. Podolski excels in this regard. He has either scored the winner or put us a goal ahead on six occasions this season. He has equalised twice as well. The German scores at decisive moments.

Theo is not exactly the messiah. it IS a fact that most of his goals have been cherry on the cake.

Giroud is NOT that bad.......12 goals and 9 assists. he is not the best either.But for the top 9, he is d man

Podolski IS NOT half bad at all. 11 goals and 10 assists

Carzorla has 8 goals

these three are in their first season.



the point im trying to make is that the failings of this squad are squarely due to wenger's mis-management. both in terms of dud support personnel and failure to prop the squad with decent signings.

anyhoos, i think squillacci, arshavin, chamakh are likely to be off the books in the summer. thats close to 200k wages.

wee shall saw

Slight correction for the article - Giroud has scored two winning goals - the second goal against West Ham was technically the winner, so was the third goal against Tottenham. Theo has also scored one winning goal - the second goal against West Ham at Upton Park was technically the winner as well.

That aside, I agree with your conclusions - however, even though Theo's goals are often cherry on the cake, he often provides telling assists to determine the outcome of games, which is why Wenger rightly plays Giroud upfront when he is fit and may give Theo a run through the middle against weaker opposition.

^^^^ Yeah technically true about the winning goal


and that is how Ibime said cazorla won't score 10. mcheew. all these our beer parlour pundits sef

6 DAYS TO GO...Yet no signings..hmmmm

I think the debacle that occurred during Walcotts contract extension has made most of us forget Sagna has refused to extend his contract while openly criticizing certain transfer policies of the club, especially with selling valuable players which we all concur with, at least most of us.

Is Sagna worth breaking the bank/ fighting for? his form has been questionable this season coupled with his proneness to injury, i would personally love to see more of Jenkison, Sagna wants to win trophies now, which is the dream of any player considering his age and how much time he's got left to play and you do not need a soothsayer to tell you Arsenal can't guarantee that dream.

I am guessing Wenger would preferably address Sagna's issue in the summer and with Inter, PSG hovering around, i am guessing this might be his last season with Arsenal.

debosky: Slight correction for the article - Giroud has scored two winning goals - the second goal against West Ham was technically the winner, so was the third goal against Tottenham. Theo has also scored one winning goal - the second goal against West Ham at Upton Park was technically the winner as well.

That aside, I agree with your conclusions - however, even though Theo's goals are often cherry on the cake, he often provides telling assists to determine the outcome of games, which is why Wenger rightly plays Giroud upfront when he is fit and may give Theo a run through the middle against weaker opposition.

Who scored the winning goal against Newcastle. Which of the 7 goals is the winner.

folahann:

Who scored the winning goal against Newcastle. Which of the 7 goals is the winner.

No mind am! Can you see what I'm saying??

Like play like play omolomo don score 16 goals and 10 assists. Largely as a winger

I'm sure when they where counting Messi's 91 goals a special category was added called "cherry on the cake" goals hehehe megedefegede will not finish in this life oh

@ Roland17, u still dey for this countdown?! Shio kelebe tue!!! Abeg bring better gist or rant for thread jare.

folahann:

Who scored the winning goal against Newcastle. Which of the 7 goals is the winner.

Technically, the fourth goal was the winning goal since the opposition only scored 3 goals. You can consult google if you need to know who scored it.

debosky:
Technically, the fourth goal was the winning goal since the opposition only scored 3 goals. You can consult google if you need to know who scored it.

arsenal fans - let's do a trade.....diaby for valencia!

naijababe: @ Roland17, u still dey for this countdown?! Shio kelebe tue!!! Abeg bring better gist or rant for thread jare.

lol, babe, the thing sef don tire me gan, but wetin man go do?? for sure na Katangora night market we dey go??

Roland17: 6 DAYS TO GO...Yet no signings..hmmmm

I think the debacle that occurred during Walcotts contract extension has made most of us forget Sagna has refused to extend his contract while openly criticizing certain transfer policies of the club, especially with selling valuable players which we all concur with, at least most of us.

Is Sagna worth breaking the bank/ fighting for? his form has been questionable this season coupled with his proneness to injury, i would personally love to see more of Jenkison, Sagna wants to win trophies now, which is the dream of any player considering his age and how much time he's got left to play and you do not need a soothsayer to tell you Arsenal can't guarantee that dream.

I am guessing Wenger would preferably address Sagna's issue in the summer and with Inter, PSG hovering around, i am guessing this might be his last season with Arsenal.

And since signings rarely happen on weekends you can as well remove the 2 weekend days coming.

If the player he is trying to sign is Moslem e.g Diame then remove Eid El maloud day.

Plus one day of paper work and fax machine fail

Effectively 2 days of transfer left.

Window closes next Thursday. 4 working days more

dayokanu:

And since signings rarely happen on weekends you can as well remove the 2 weekend days coming.

If the player he is trying to sign is Moslem e.g Diame then remove Eid El maloud day.

Plus one day of paper work and fax machine fail

Effectively 2 days of transfer left.

Window closes next Thursday. 4 working days more

Dayo we know why u are more than concerned about Arsenal signing a player this January.. .

Roland17: Dayo we know why u are more than concerned about Arsenal signing a player this January.. .

Why should I be concerned with a player Arsenal signs

Its not like many quality players wouldnt be cup tied already.

Many quality players would consider Arsenal as a step down for them

So you are left with duds like podudski, Arteta, Per and other leftovers

You have less than 2-3 weeks to play Bayern from Feb 1, So Why would I be scared of such addition that hasnt even integrated into the team properly

Whoever you sign Arsenal is toast in the CL.

BTW, Are you also placing a wager $200 Bayern eliminates Arsenal. Everyone on this thread has been running away from it

Can't believe some people are still expecting Wenger to buy this transfer window. You better forget the crazy fantasy before it gets into your brains.
Y'all think Wenger will change overnight? The last time I checked, he's still called Arsene Wenger. Roland17, you may cross-check

seems we might sign Diame.

So like proudlysports 'revealed' yesterday, Jack Wilshere will be captaining the team tomorrow against Brighton

Arsene Wenger: "I think signings should be completely cut out or limited to two players because it is unfair for the league that some teams have played, for example, Newcastle already and then some teams have to face Newcastle still with six or eight new players.

"They do not face exactly the same team. I believe the number of players you can buy should be limited."

Yep, it's yet to dawn on the Arsenal boss that he can sign players this month too...

proudly9ja: So like proudlysports 'revealed' yesterday, Jack Wilshere will be captaining the team tomorrow against Brighton

So you are reduced to this? Beer parlour predicting of captaincy instead of transfers?

I am preparing the application for your name to be changed to proudlyfalseprophet.

lool debo. Inside info can be anything..from transfer target to next captain....And last time I checked, we still have a few more days to close of market...
btw, Diame's move to Arsenal may be true afterall. Would be surprising (if true) considering Arsene has always maintained he's got enough midfielders

All the best to Frimpong as he starts a loan move to Fulham FC. Martin Jol was complaining about not having a DM. Hopefully, Frimpong gets regular games to prove himself

Just been informed that Tomas Rosicky may start today's game.

If he does, I hope he gets through unscathed. We need a back up for Cazorla and Wilshere and I believe Rosicky is good enough to play either role

5 DAYS TO GO...YET NO SIGNINGS..

Torchlight mood activated

proudly9ja: So like proudlysports 'revealed' yesterday, Jack Wilshere will be captaining the team tomorrow against Brighton

Proudlysport has now become rivals with City people and other false gossip magazine

Jack Wilshere didnt even start the game How about that?

. . . . and Theo scores.

17th goal for Walcott

And he came in like 10mins ago.

SO Messr Dobosky, Is this goal a winning goal or was it in a meaningless game?

Brighton denied a clear penalty Jenkinson fouled

For the second consecutive game A.Ramsey has been spectacular, he kept it very very simple and stuck to his role without being over elaborate with the ball.

Brighton reminds me of Swansea during their championship years, attack and forward minded, they have prospects in that team.

dayokanu: Brighton denied a clear penalty Jenkinson fouled

you see am , nobody shout ojoro now o

Kay-Dee:
. . . . and Theo scores.

. . . the winning goal.

2 good goals from Giroud.

Diabolic . . . hmmmmm, no comment.

Rosicky, always has a sense of urgency when it comes to attacking unlike Diabolic who by the way, made a sweet pass assist for the 2nd goal.

Podolski, another assist and a sublime free-kick that was only kept out by the cross-bar. *what a dud* , lol !!!

Fine play overall except for the shaky defence and Santos' side of the field.

Kay-Dee:

. . . the winning goal.

2 good goals from Giroud.

Diabolic . . . hmmmmm, no comment.

Podolski, another assist and a sublime free-kick that was only kept out by the cross-bar. *what a dud* , lol !!!

Fine play overall except for the shaky defence and Santos' side of the field.

You mean Podudski scores vs Sunday sunday sides

Needing a late goal vs Brighton? Una no get shame sha

Let this win not distract anyone from the fact that the team needs quality

dayokanu: 17th goal for Walcott

And he came in like 10mins ago.

SO Messr Dobosky, Is this goal a winning goal or was it in a meaningless game?

It was a winning goal - it doesn't change the fact that he's scored many cherry on the cake goals in the past.

I like it when Theo scores, long may it continue. However, Giroud shows yet again with his performance that he is the undoubted first choice for the CF position - that was the issue under dispute.