Bury The Hatchet

There’s been a buzz surrounding this Saturday’s match against Stoke and as per usual it’s for all the wrong reasons.

Since the day Tony Pulis arrived at the Stoke training ground wearing nothing but a basbeall cap and smile on his face, things took a turn for the worse in the North...

Despite enjoying a successful start under Sam Allardyce v2.0 the club began gaining a reputation as a side whose primary tactic consisted of out-muscling the opposition and crowding the penalty area on set plays.

This inevitably endeared them to other football sides....

But there was one with whom their ‘style’ of play was particularly frictitous, that of Arsenal whose own way of playing the ball along the ground in passing triangles coudn’t have provided a greater antithesis.

Similarly Wenger’s preference for technically gifted midgets provided just as much of a physical representation of this difference as did the stats.

Thankfully we have since shaken off the label of ‘weak’ side owing largely to the signing of Mertesacker, Flamini and Giroud who are quite happy to stick the boot in when required.Others have grown into this more resilient side, we all know Wilshere likes to get a bit lairy at times, while Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sanogo take some effort to dispossess.

However there was a time when players like Almunia, Djourou, Fabregas, Nasri and Ramsey occupied the Arsenal spine and for all their wonderful ability (not you Almunia or Djourou) were often targeted  as a side who would crumble in a scrappy game.

Of course we weren’t helped in an era in which referees thought a return to the good ol’ days of Chopper Harris and Vinnie Jones would be a good idea and often allowed a succession of bookable offences to go unpunished.

This inevitably lowered the tone of those matches considerably and often saw the Arsenal players reduce themselves to the level of the opposition, seeking retribution in the face of an apathetic referee.

In some equally frustrating yet more unfortunate instances the referee's unwillingness to stamp out (pun intended) the foul play sometimes lead to particularly nasty fouls going in, think Eduardo or Diaby.

On the 27th Feb 2010 the match between two opposing football ideologies came to a head, the Stoke players no doubt fired up Pulis, their own fans and a subconscious desire to prove themselves physically saw Ryan Shawcross make a rash challenge on a young Aaron Ramsey.

Many of you will know what happened, and will have seen footage of the break which to this day makes me feel a bit queasy even thinking about it.

Ramsey, whose career at the time was progressing at a faster rate of knots than Wilshere was hospitalised and ruled out of action for 9 months.

 

It took the Welshman a couple of seasons to fully recover and find his best form which we were all enjoying immensely until his injury against West Ham has since ruled him out .

Every year we play Stoke home and away and every time the pre-match furore surrounds the war of words between Arsenal and Stoke fans. The Stoke fans shoudn’t have a leg to stand on in this, considering it was their player who almost ended the career of another, yet they somehow draw on Ramsey’s refusal to accept an apology immediately after the incident as some kind of scandal.

Let them have it, if that’s all the straw they have to clutch then TLR pities them, I mean it can’t be fun supporting Stoke or even living in Stoke so if posting things about Ramsey and Arsenal helps them sleep at night then we should leave them to it. Consider it a gift people of Stoke, but one you can’t take to the pawnbrokers and exchange for a pack of fags or a tin of special brew.

Ramsey won’t be playing, Arsenal are a completely different team to last season and Stoke have a manager in Mark Hughes who is actually trying to change their style of play for the better.

We say let’s bury the hatchet (right into Shawcrosses fa..) no we really mean it. This feud can’t go on for ever. Our travelling fans will no doubt receive a fair amount of abuse but our message to them is support the team, ignore Shawcross and the Stoke fans and enjoy the football.

Who knows it could even be a match in which we simultaeneously outmuscle and outplay them as we now possess a potent combination of resilience and brilliance that is shown by our huge number of clean sheets this season.

Shawcross, Ramsey and everything that period of our club’s history stood for is in the past. We have come back stronger, more determined and hungrier than ever. Let the players show that through their football and the fans urge them on. Stoke and Pulis have gone backwards...significantly, for them those torrid days were a golden era of course they will try and rekindle those emotions as it means they’re still relevant.

This match is billed as an unwitting derby of sorts, a fact the media inevitably exacerbates to create a hype out of something that shoudn’t still exist.

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Hot Topic

After a season of relative anonymity Arsenal’s strikers have suddenly gone from media hermits to the talk of the town with varying degrees of notoriety.

Between them Olivier Giroud, Yaya Sanogo and Joel Campbell have racked up some serious press coverage, which is impressive considering the Costa Rican was a complete unkonwn quantity just a week ago.

Indeed Sanogo had featured little in Arsenal's season before the FA cup match against Liverpool, a performance which endeared him to fans after his demolition of experienced centreback pairing Skrtel and Agger.

Despite not scoring Sanogo managed to rack up his first assist with a superb piece of control, his subsequent shot ricocheting off Mignolet's glove to fall at the feet of Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Both players showed through their performances in the Champions league that they are capable of playing at the highest level. Sanogo looked assured on the ball, TLR can remember a particular piece of skill in which the Frenchman turned two players with a single change of direction before showing the maturity to play a lofted ball through to an onrushing Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Campbell has been similarly impressive for Greek side Olympiakos with whom he is on a loan spell. It will take some time to forget his brilliant solo effort against Manchester United, who despite struggling in the league were yet to lose a game in the Champions league this season.

Whilst Sanogo looks to be a player in the mould of Giroud and Bendtner, tall, robust and with a decent degree of skill and awareness, Campbell could be the answer to Arsenal's lack of diversity in the striker's role.

As Santi Cazorla told TLR earlier this week he believes that Arsene must bring in a lythe, tricky forward to offer an alternative style to the back-to-goal tactic employed by Giroud and Sanogo.

What we would say is that although it is seriously early to be casting judgements on either player, Sanogo appears to have the capability to grow into a player who can combine the solidity that Giroud offers with the forward movement of a more nimble striker. Think City's Negredo. 

Either way the thought of either player flourishing next season is an exciting one, and it could be the case that after having been very weak in terms of attacking options, Wenger could be faced with the dilemma of who to start up front.

This raises some interesting questions for Giroud, whom after a bizarre incident last week in which the striker admitted to some 'domestic' issues, has been given some time to clear his head by the manager. This seems to have worked considering the Frenchman netted twice against Sunderland over the weekend, yet the long-term effect that his personal indiscretions may have on his ability to perform in the big matches remains to be seen.
 

Meeting Santi Cazorla

The saying goes that you should never meet your heroes.

Well yesterday @thelovelyreds had the chance to meet Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla at Puma’s Carnaby Street store and of course we weren’t going to pass up the opportunity to meet the club’s player of the season for last year.

Kept in London’s rush hour traffic Cazorla was late to arrive, however this gave TLR the chance to meet with some of the Puma staff, who had begun to enquire as to what the fuss was about. Despite their outward politness I’m sure by the time Santi arrived they were glad to have a break from my countless renditions and reenactments of some of the Arsenal player’s finer moments.

‘He has the ability unlike any other player to turn on a sixpence and is probably one of the most natural two-footed players in the league’ as I made a show of doing my finest Cruyff turn.

Once Santi did arrive, accompanied by his agent and young son, who Santi assured me always has a football at his feet, it was immediately obvious that he is a man unburdened by the ego so many footballer’s of his level possess.

With that charactersitic smile etched from ear to ear Santi approached those who were to meet him with a warm handshake and pat on the back, like he was greeting an old friend.

Humble to the point of shyness, Santi has the air of a man whose talent has taken him to places he can’t quite believe himself, and what a talent. Last year Santi was voted by fans around the world as Arsenal’s player of the season having scored 12 goals and making 14 assists in 38 league appearances.

His style is effortless, with Santi’s favoiurite move being the shape-to-shoot before the Spaniard makes a quick Cruyff turn, accelerating away in the opposite direction.

He is a player, like Wilshere and Rosicky who always looks to move the ball forwards, and despite his stature is capable of breaking through the first line of defence to put the opposing team on the back foot. In the final game of last season, Santi assisted all four goals against Wigan, utilisng his exceptional vision and passing accuracy.

Once the initial fuss had died down, Santi and TLR had the chance to talk about this season, some of our highlights and of course our recent loss in the Champions League. The disapointment at last Wednesday’s result was etched across Santi’s face, ‘It was tough, we were unlucky’ he said ‘When the goalie was sent off the game changed’ a sentiment shared by many. However there was also a resolve in his tone that suggests we could see a similar level of energy and pressing that gave us such a fantastic start to the fixture and characterised our storming victory at the Allianz last year.

We spoke about Özil and the tough treatment he has received in the media despite his statistics. ‘Özil is the most important for Arsenal’ Santi said, the smile fading from his face if only for a second, ‘he has so much technic and we need him playing well in the side’. TLR got the impression that there is a great deal of solidity in this crop of Arsenal players,  a team who are sticking together in the face of a great weight of adversity from broadcasters and journalists alike.

Interestingly Santi was quick to say that he believes Arsenal must sign a marquee striker in the Summer, ‘We must sign a player that is different to Giroud, someone who is smaller and faster’ however the Spaniard was just as quick to validate his statement adding ‘not to replace Giroud but to give something different’. TLR coudn’t agree more and we speculated with Santi as to who would fit the bill.

It seems as though yesterday’s Champions League fixture between Olympiakos and Manchetser United provided something of an answer in Joel Campbell. The Costa Rican international scored one of the goals of the round with a superb solo run on the edge of the United penalty area before firing in a precise curling shot beyond an outstretched De Gea.

Between Sanogo and Campbell it is clear that we have a pair of talented players who could no doubt lead the line in seasons to come yet for the moment TLR agrees with Santi, a proven international striker must be brought in to reinstall the fear factor that players like Henry and Robin V. Persie used to bring.

Having spoken with Santi for well over an hour we were interrupted by Santi’s young son who had brought over some kit to show his father. The young Cazorla who is the focus of Santi’s affection had the Puma staff fawning over him, and he’d better get used to the attention, if he’s anything like his father on the pitch he could end up being the same unsuspecting superstar.

The saying goes that you should never meet your heroes, but if your hero happens to be Santi Cazorla then if anything meeting him has only made me a bigger fan of our little Spanish maestro.

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Michel Platini's Triple Jeopardy

Despite an inherent scepticism of the slick, politically-savvy Frenchman (make that an inherent scepticism towards any major figure associated with FIFA or UEFA) we here at The Lovely Reds are inclined to agree with his attitude towards the ‘last man’ rule.

http://dailym.ai/1eeudDP

The issue has been raised following two incidents in last week’s Champions league between Manchester City vs Barcelona and Arsenal vs Bayern Munich.

In both games the home sides had a player sent off after they were deemed to be ‘the last man’ preventing a 'clear goalscoring opportunity’. The ambiguity of this terminology has caused many to speculate as to what exactly constitutes a ‘clear goalscoring opportunity’ and whether the punishment befits the crime.

In the Arsenal match Szczesny made contact with Robben and by the letter of the law a penalty was correctly awarded. Given that there was contact on the player inside the penalty area this is the only option available to the referee to compensate the attacking team for a foul. However given that Robben’s touch was heavy and leading him well wide of the goal his ‘goalscoring oportunity’ was a miniscule one, if he could even catch up with the ball at all.

In fact you could make a case that Boateng's foul on Ozil prevented  a better goalscoring opportunity. Ozil still had control of the ball, was facing the goal and was less than 8 yards away. By contrast Robben had lost control of the ball with a heavy touch, if he had caught up with the ball he would have been at a seriously acute angle, whilst the Arsenal defence who were just behind the Bayern winger would have had time to line the goalmouth. 

Therefore the spot kick presents a far better chance at goal than the one created by the player himself. The logic therefore suggests that winning the penalty in a position where a player’s control of the ball is not absolute is a better tactical decision for the attacking player.

Similarly, not only is the attacking player rewarded by having a far better opportunity at goal than the one they themselves had created, but the ‘last man’ (in this case Szczesny) is also sent off, reducing his team to 10 men for the remainder of the match. What is more, as Platini points out, that same player who is sent off also faces a ban of two or three matches.

This triple jeopardy seems disproportionately strict considering other offences such as a two-footed lunge, an elbow, or physically remonstrating with a referee (Rahim Sterling) can often go unpunished.

As Platini suggests, and we are inclined to agree, an innocuous foul such as the one committed by Szczesny whereby the offending player makes a genuine attempt to win the ball without malice should result in a penalty and a yellow card. Therefore the attacking team has an equally, if not more so, advantageous attempt at goal whilst the other team is not punished for the rest of the match.

As was evident in both of last week’s ties the sendings off proved to be a pivotal moment in the match. Arsenal were arguably the beter side in the thirty or so minutes leading up to the incident.

This is not the first time this season Arsenal have fallen foul of the 'last man' clause. Who can forget Arteta's premature dismissal from the field following a dubious foul on our former Moroccon starlet. That was even less of a 'clear goalscoring opportunity' than the Robben incident.

Like Demichelis' sending off against Barcelona the interpretation of whether a chance was a 'clear goalscoring opportunity' or not can result in a serious disadvantage considering the attacking player still has a lot to do.

Given that FIFA are notoriously slow at affecting change to their dust laden rulebook, we are not expecting changes anytime soon, however with enough pressure from the footballing community perhaps we could see a greater leniency from referees. The current response to award a penalty and send a player off clearly killed both matches when a penalty and a booking would have lead to a more open tie in both instances.

For your daily fix of Arsenal and football news look out for tomorrow's blog which will be up on thelovelyreds.blogspot.co.uk from 8am

Unbelievable Belief

Despite the defeat to Bayern Munich last week there were some, if not many, positives to be drawn from  the match at the Emirates.

For the first thirty minutes Arsenal shone against last season’s winners and arguably had the better chances, most obviously the penalty won but then missed by Özil. Sanogo and Wilshere both had chances at goal in the Bayern penalty area, however we lacked the finishing touch.

Our midfield play for those thirty minutes was expansive and direct, pulling the Bayern defense towards the penalty area before sending it wide mainly to Oxlade-Chamberlain who was having an outstanding game.

What happened aroud the 36th minute mark may prove to be the defining moment of our encounter with the German champions. After Szczesny was sent off for fouling Robben we were forced to invite pressure into our half and a team of Bayern’s experience and ability was always going to have chances.

Admirably, however Bayern were only able to break the deadlock after a world-class strike from outside the penalty area. You could make a case for having closed Kroos down sooner, however the striker hit the ball first time, had he taken a touch you would have expected an onrushing Flamini to block the shot at goal.

Between our defensive resilience (ignoring Koscielny’s brain spasm) and our toe-to-toe display for most of the first half we have to take the positives and emulate that style in the league. There is no reason why we can’t have the sort of match we saw for the first thirty minutes in our champions league encounter against the premier leagues top sides. We are yet to play Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea and Everton, teams who we have to take points from if we are to realise our first serious title aspirations for a decade.

Last season our 2-0 victory over Bayern at the Allianz spurred us onto a ten game unbeaten streak to secure fourth place. This season a similarly resolute performance in Germany, regardless of result can help to prepare the players mentally to believe that they possess the quality to take the premier league trophy.

Our resounding victory over Sunderland on Saturday certainly goes some way to suggest that our post Bayern hangover has in fact helped the players put their ability into perspective. Trophy winning players under Wenger talk of the ‘unbelievable belief’ the manager instilled within them. It seems that competing against Europe’s elite does the manager’s job for him.

For a lot of our players, self-affirmation seems to be something of an issue. Players such as Gibbs, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Gnabry have been billed their entire lives as the future stars of their clubs and for their countries. However considering their obvious talent and willingness to work at their profession, success and trophies have eluded them.

Important victories against the established hierarchy of European football may act in a similar way on the psychology of these players, if only for a short while.

The obvious remedy is to win a trophy, regardless which one. Should our only haul this season be the FA Cup (it may, of course, be nothing once again) the players will suddenly be champions of an internationally recognised tournament which goes eons in bringing a further depth to the mindset of our currrent crop.