₦airaland Forum

Things could hardly be better than the present at the emirates(recent hiccups apart) as a good start to the season has largely silenced the pre-season negativity that shrouded the Gunners.
The football world at large will be eagerly awaiting yet another look at Arsenal's new exciting youngsters but they might end up getting only a second look at players such as Jack Wilshere(17) who has already appeared
for the gunners in the Champions league and is being tipped to be in the South Africa bound England team as the much vaunted Arsenal youth policy finally begins to bear fruit.

There should be room however for the likes of Watt(18)and Coquelin(18) to follow in his footsteps by building on their achievement of winning the double at youth level earlier in the year. Arsene will also likely include older heads such as Nasri who is on the comeback trail from injury and Senderos to bring some steel into the backline.   
There is no better test to ascertain if Arsene has finally gotten the perfect blend of youth and experience in his Carling Cup squad than facing a Liverpool squad with their backs to the wall(As AC Milan discovered to their loss in the 2005 champions league final) but it would be unwise to bet against this young squad putting their more experienced opponents to the sword as they did Wigan last year or even going one better and finally landing Arsene that elusive Carling Cup. 



The skies finally seem to be clearing over Anfield as the stuttering liverpool train rolls into the emirates looking to continue the turn around in their fortunes this season (after a morale boosting win against the incumbent Carling cup holders in the league) with a win against what is sure to be a very young Arsenal side with only a smattering of experience.
With recent indifferent performances in the Champions League and the premiership, one would expect Rafa to name a near full strength side with possible appearances by estalished names such as Torres and new boy Aquilani returning from injury.

He will also likely find room either on the pitch or the bench for up and coming players like Spearing(20) in midfield and Ayala(19) in defence. The reds from Anfield have little room left to manouvre this season as their chances of silverware on other fronts drastically reduce and will be going all out for a win, however
liverpool's recent experience against Arsenal in the carling cup hasn't been pleasant with memories of that 6-3 loss at anfield against a similar young Arsenal team in 2007 still quite fresh.

Will the Reds continue their recent revival in fortunes and finally start walking tall this term or will the young guns claim another famous scalp? your thoughts.

slimshay:
Dudu i was going to talk to you, was kinda dissappointed in you, cos you were called out on the matter and you didnt defend the boy. He did nothing wrong. He dug yesterday and put in some good performance. And people want to strat balming him for Hines deceiving the refree?!! Granted he did commit one in front of the box, but hell, he had a decent game yeesterday and folks are quick to point to the current whipping boy. Thats kinda annoying.
Anyways just me 2 cents, always still free,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Slim, my grouse with Diaby was not in conceding the goal, I did defend him on that if you look at my earlier posts, it was his response after WH drew level that I criticised but maybe I was too hard on him TBH. I just feel Diaby has that X-factor but doesn't use it enough and he is a bit slow and dithers over decision atimes. I feel this is a golden opportunity for him and he should be playing like a man possessed by a thousand demons. The guys we have in reserve will be pushing for spaces soon and Diaby might just become surplus to requirements soon if he doesn't lay his marker down.
We were undone by some dodgy decisions yesterday, but we know as the Arsenal that when we set out to win the Premiership, we've got to leave not a shadow of doubt in our victories cos we can't rely on calls going our way like manure.

@Dr Kitaun

People just jump on the lets blame it all on Diaby bandwagon just like they did with Eboue last season, someone actually blamed a loss on Eboue in a forum last season even when he was not on the team list.
Not everyone looks at the game in depth, they just pick on the usual suspects and blame them. Diaby still has some way to go though but he should come good and for his own good too.

At a stage yesterday I actually thought Song was deliberately trying to be booked so that he would symbolically miss the Carling cup and then be eligible for the Tottenham game.

Rosicky brings so much to our game and I do hope this niggly injuries will just go away, he is a massive player for us since Cesc just cannot do the playmaking alone atimes, Nasri should be able to plug that gap when back to full fitness and I don't know why Arsene is not willing to trust Wilshere at such a young age the same way he trusted Cesc cos I think that lad is good enough but there must be something he sees in training that we obviously don't.

If Diaby no quick serious, na dat Jay Emmanuel Thomas chap go come replace am, have you seen that guy? his shoulder span must be like that of Arnold Schwarzeneger  and he is quite a skillful player. I wonder why he is yet to lock down that midfield role at Blackpool. Should actually take out the time to go and watch him live one of these days.

I don't know why they are turning Nordtveit into a DM at Nurnberg when they should be helping us develop him into a top class CB.

@Muki

Is that what I think it is that bird is standing on?

edoyad:
Song and Diaby were immense in that game i tell you. Diaby played his part by tackling Hines cleanly unfortunately the ref saw it differently.
Manone was supposed to play his part by preventing a goal from a free kick, we Van der Saar do it against pool and Reina too against United. Unfortunately like Dida he made a howler of it, but unlike Milan we couldn't get a third goal.

I agree with you that Song and Diaby performed creditably, after the equalizer however Diaby's head dropped and his body language was no longer positive at a time we needed to turn on the heat with about 10 minutes remaining, he needs to develop the never say die attitude that players like Rooney and Essien have.

I think the Mannone experiment is over and the Fabianski one can begin, I don't like players who don't criticize themselves and improve on their weak points. Even during the Fulham game, one of the weaknesses noticed in Mannone's game was the fact that he was parrying balls into dangerous areas, I expected him to work on that but he hasn't. He should have gone for the safe option of parrying away rather than trying to catch it. Funny thing is that he actually got his positioning right to stop that shot.

West Ham despite their poor start is however not as poor a team as people are making them out to be, this is afterall a team that was just out of european places last year and hasn't seen much change in personel. Consider the fact that Fulham went to Man City and got a draw over there.
It is going to be an interesting seasons as I foresee more shock results ahead.

abeg, WH is done and dusted lets turn our attention to the young gunner's against pool on Wednesday. My focus will be on 1 player.

Francis Coquelin, a player debosky seems to think I'm just hyping but I want you guys to really watch his game and come to your conclusions as he might just be the guy to come in for Song in the holding role when he goes off to the ANC.

To a lesser extent, I will also expect Merida to lay down the marker in trying to convince us that he is at the same level (or close to) as Nasri and Rosicky who are similar style/position players as he is.

With Wilshere and Ramsey, there is a certain level of performance I've already come to expect and I personally see no reason why Arsene shouldn't play Wilshere ahead of Eboue as an advanced right sided player in some instances it is left to little Jack to convince the gaffer of this option in yet another competitive game.

@Maedan

The bible says rejoice with them that rejoice, so I rejoice with Liverpoo even if its only becos they helped bring Manure down a peg or two.
But don't rejoice too much yet, una still get plenty problems and we will definitely burst yur bubble in the Carling cup. I trust my young guns.

I just watched the freekick again on football first, Mannone was actually tryin to catch that freekick WTF was he thinking?

I have one for Arsenal-Liverpool, when do yu want it up?

@edoyad

I am not one of those who believe that we lost the game becos of Diaby, but the bloke needs to become tougher mentally, didn't yu see the way Carlton Cole ran himself into the ground today? he has been doing that week in week out for WH. At 24 or thereabouts, Diaby should have started delivering now and the tough get goin when the going gets tough.

@Muki
shld I go on with the analysis for the Liverpool match? I have it done already.

agabaI23:
Where are the Diaby foot soldier? Dudu where are you? Diaby is bad luck. Any time we are about to make a major move, diaby will just stand on the way.

This is one the numerous tackles Duduspace?

No of tackles my foot.

I have been quiet becos the calls just didn't go our way today, even the Diaby foul should have been for us and not against us, watch it again and you will see Zavon Hines actually wrestled Diaby to the ground after Diaby deflected the ball the other way, I find it easier to accept the Song incident becos we got lucky on an earlier call which was a stone wall penaly against Gallas.

My patience is however also wearing thin with Diaby too as his head drops too soon and he just seems to think in slow motion. He doesn't thrive in adversity like the Rooneys, Ronaldos and Gerrards of this world who always rise to the occasion, I mean he wouldn't expect tiny Cesc to do that. This is his time to become that box to box midfielder like Yaya Toure and Seidou Keita that we need to make this 4-3-3 work and I wouldnt put it past Wenger to start playing Nasri ahead of him though I think the MF would become too light weight again.

We still have areas to optimize in our game and Mannone should have done better with Diamanti's freekick. Take nothing away from WH as they gave it their all with their backs to the wall just like Liverpoo.

My take on the game is that a player of Rosicky or Nasri's class could have made a world of difference on the right instead of Eboue, Arshavin had a so so game but yu knew he cld still be dangerous at any time, Bendtner at the least should have come on earlier when WH started applying pressure. I don't knw about our goalkeeping department but I would like Fabianski to have his chance as he is our best shot stopper (but he lacks greatly in commanding his area and communicating with defenders) though I think Szczesney would be our No 1 in the long term.

dayokanu:
This Evra na Jaguda. Area boy

No mind the thug, he give Benayound deferred pain, hit am for back of head the guy dey hold him face.

[quote author=~Sauron~ link=topic=341796.msg4796868#msg4796868 date=1256481812]Carragher got the BALL but just. . . . .  .[/quote]At ol' trafford, that one na confirmed penarity.

Surprise, surprise, Glen Johnson has been remarkably disciplined at right back today.

akinalabi:
What's the card for Berbatov for?

for shouting too loud.

Torres is getting the treatment from manure today.

HNIC:
Name doesn't work for him
neither the stature
he looks more like a gymnast

true, I remember a pundit on RTE1 in Ireland once saying that his shoulders weren't broad enough.

end to end stuff, what a game.

follypimpi:
Benayoun is playing very well.

Massively underrated player

HNIC:
Can't stop the Kop from singing
at 6-2 down against Arsenal, they were still singing

But that was the most mournful song I'd ever heard up till that time.

That liverpool defence don't look too bad if Agger is back to his best and Carragher gets his act together. Liverpoo might just nick this. Haba see beach balls all over the place, wetin

Stewards don already dey burst beach balls all over the place.

Cristalz:
My bad.
Apparently we moved an hour ahead of GMT sometime during the night. Just realized that some few minutes ago.
Topic updated.

Yep, its that dreaded time of the year again. Winter time starts today.

That Manure midfield isn't lookin energetic enough, one or both of Anderson and Fletcher wld have been effective today but that won't matter if Rooney plays another stormer.

manmustwac:
@mukina
delete all the spam msgs above pls. Thier derailing spurs the thread. Thanks.

Wey the spam msgs? you dey see double becos yu still dey cry?

The lads have to keep dangerman Carlton Cole quiet tomorrow, their midfield is definitely no match for ours and there are definitely goals for us in this.

I think Nasri won't be appearing till the Tuesday match against liverpoo.

I also hope this Rosicky injury clears up sharp sharp cos every time he has an injury, my heart palpitates a little bit faster becos of his injury history. That chap is so good, he brings so much to the team when he is playing.

Deep Sight:
Yep, that's the bizzare doctrine intelligent people like Noetic and Davidylan bandy about.

No surprises there, dogma makes a monkey of the most intelligent of men. Once you put "anything" above logic and reason, you basically become an idiot.

@Jagunlabi

Nice one, the logic is totally warped and sounds very petty. Definitely not coming from a loving god but one interested in affirming his own self importance.

This team is too short and will be suspect to aerial balls, the tallest player according to those heights is just 5ft 10inches and the average is about 5ft 6. What were the selectors thinking? even the keeper is a midget.

@mukina2

Arsene's quotes are just hilarious, they just come out funny even when he doesn't mean to be funny. Just imagine this statement after the Adebayor stamp. I couldnt stop laughing.
[Quote]
“Of course I back him,” said the manager. “In football, everybody is free to have an opinion. If somebody stamps on your head in that way, you wouldn’t say ‘thank you very much, can I turn the other cheek’. Only Jesus Christ did that.”[/quote]Happy birthday to a living legend.