On Arsene Wenger: What's Wrong with Arsenal?

What’s Wrong with Arsenal: Wenger’s Decision Making
By the 61st minute in today’s match between Arsenal and Blackburn, Wenger had three strikers on the pitch at once. Niklas Bendtner, Robin Van Persie, and Mauroaune Chamakh. Arsenal would go on to blow about ten chances in and around Blackburn’s 18 yard box and end the game in a scoreless tie. This draw, coupled with United’s come from behind win over West Ham, almost seals Arsenal’s fate: the title will not go to the Emirates this year. What happened? My theory: Wenger’s poor decision making late in matches. Now, calling a manager with an unbeaten team a bad decision maker seems a little wonky, but Arsenal should be on the top of the table right now. Let me explain why they aren’t.

1. Wenger gives players wiggle room that don’t deserve it.

I am not an Alex Song believer. Nor am I that much of a Robin Van Persie fan. And yet, consistently, these two players make nearly every starting eleven. Take today’s game for example. Song got a yellow card, and because he’s so old and injury prone, he was limping around the pitch the entire time. What manager in their right mind wouldn’t sub that player out? Additionally, because he is a defensive midfielder, most of the attacks that didn’t end with a shot on goal were because someone passed to Song and he fooled around with it or just gave it away. This would have been the Rovers’ chance to counter and score, which they weren’t able to do (mostly because of stunningly brilliant performances by Koscielny and Squillaci), but they got close. Song should have been pulled instead of either Ashravin or Nasri, probably Ashravin because Nasri is hurt. The Gunners lost a lot of pace and ingenuity with Ashravin and Nasri gone, and with Song limping around and giving the ball away indiscriminately.

Also to this point, Wenger should not have played Fabregas. He wasn’t fit and he spoiled three chances with poor efforts, particularly the free kick which he thudded into the wall. I understand the point about him being the captain and the spiritual leader, but if Wenger wanted to make that statement, he should have started Fabregas and then replaced him if things weren’t working out. Fabregas is not a substitute. He needs to feel the game out and develop over time. More than ever today I felt like Cesc belongs at Camp Nou, even with all that he means to the Gunners.
Related to this is Wenger’s lack of understanding about the talent of some particular players. For instance, it took forever for Jack Wilshere to make the starting eleven, but people have been saying that he was good enough to do this for almost a year now.

For RVP (Robin Van Persie), I need a new number.

2. Wenger doesn’t understand RVP’s psyche, and RVP doesn’t understand anything.
RVP has the potential to be the next complete forward. Yet he cannot live up to those expectations. Why? He lacks confidence. The thing about RVP is, if he doesn’t score with his shot in the first half hour of a match, he loses all confidence in his shot, which is stupid, because he’s probably one of the premier strikers of the ball in the world, right up there with Ronaldo and Rooney.

BUT that doesn’t mean that he won’t take chances to try to redeem himself. What does that mean? He’s going to go for headers. One problem: RVP can’t head the ball. It’s just not part of his game. Do you know who can head the ball? Chamakh. Now, here’s the thing about heading the ball: only one guy can do it. So what does Wenger do late in the game when he needs a goal? Puts Chamakh in with RVP and Bendtner. Quick note about Bendtner: he’s one of the cockiest players in all of football. He’s dating one of the hottest supermodels in Europe, and also just generally thinks he’s the Eastern European reincarnation of Ronaldo. So what happens? You get Sagna, Wilshere, and Fabregas curling in these beautiful crosses, and Chamakh is getting boxed out of them by RVP who is desperate to answer his critics, and Bendtner who is convinced that he’s entitled to every ball that comes within twenty yards of him. There were three times at least I counted where I could see Chamakh expertly trying to time the header so it was well controlled, powerful, and aimed right at the bottom corner, and then Bendtner or RVP flash in front of him and spear the ball over the top like a couple of drunks. People wonder why Chamakh can’t deliver on expectations? Because he’s supposed to be a solo forward. This is, incidentally, also why everyone says Benzema sucks at Real, because he needs lots of space as a striker. Chamakh is kind of a timid player; he doesn’t really attack the ball unless he really thinks he has a shot at it. There’s a better why to describe this: he’s French. So is Benzema, incidentally. If Chamakh is being thrown off his rhythm not only by a BPL that is violent and all about power and finesse, but also by his own teammates ruining his chances, of course he won’t be able to convert.
This keeps happening late in the season, an inability to overcome adversity late in the game, and I believe that is directly related to Wenger’s complete lack of understanding about the chemistry of his team. Just because you can throw three strikers into a game at once doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. Especially when the skill sets and dispositions of those players are in direct conflict with each other. This is something that Guardiola at Barca understands so well: football is as much about who is on the pitch as it is about how good they are. Iniesta and Xavi are best friends, Puyol and Pique are inseparable, and Messi and Villa are already extremely close, and were so even before Villa’s transfer even happened. That is why those back heel flicks and brilliant through balls happen over and over again in their games. It’s about the flow, and no one can kill flows faster than players like Bendtner, Song, and RVP. If they’re all on the pitch at once, it’s a living nightmare of bad soccer. A compression of this point: Sagna curls in a cross that goes STRAIGHT to RVP with four yards of space around him, clear line to the goal, if at a slight angle. What does the experienced striker do? Wait for the ball to drop and hit it on the volley with enough power that even if the goalie blocks it with his hand, it breaks his wrist and goes in anyway. And trust me, RVP is capable of breaking wrists with his shots. What does RVP do? Control it with his chest and then take TWO TOUCHES before a defender knocks it out of play. I can’t think of any situation where a PREMIER LEAGUE player can expect to be able to take three touches in the penalty area (which is something Berbatov finally figured out this year at United). Why does this happen? Because RVP doesn’t believe in his beautiful, stunning Howitzer cannon of a foot. And because Wenger is too dense to realize it and just take the risk to go with Chamakh and then let Sagna, Nasri, or Ashravin curl one in at him.
This is my first post in a while, I’ll be trying to be more frequent about it now. Thanks for reading, sorry about all the fragments.

On the Premier League: Match Day number two.

Match day number two in the Barclays Premier League was full of goals and full of excitement. I'll be giving you my impressions of the major clubs, as well as my reactions from some great games today.

Without further ado, let's see how the Gunners faired today:

1. Arsenal 6-0 Blackpool.

Blackpool found themselves in Emirates Stadium today after defeating Roberto Martinez's Wigan Athletic 4-0 last week. This was the first victory for Blackpool in top flight English football since 1973.

However, Blackpool were brusquely shaken from their dream today with a 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Arsene Wenger's ailing Arsenal side.

The man of the match today, quite obviously, was Theo Walcott. Walcott got a hat trick today and each goal was well deserved. He showed off his blazing pace and finally demonstrated that he can strike the ball with his left foot. This was a big match for Walcott, who has fallen out of favor with the Emirate faithful in recent years. But he showed today exactly what it is that makes him a special player in top flight football.

But Walcott would have never been able to get some of these goals were it not for the marvelous and tireless efforts of Tomas Rosicky, who was the orchestrator of nearly every Arsenal attack and was breathtaking on the ball.

Indeed, the one touch football was on display in a big way for the Gunners, as Rosicky, Chamakh, Diaby, Wilshere, and Ashravin passed circles around the hapless Blackpool defenders.

Speaking of those players, let's evaluate their performances. Jack Wilshere, the promising young English starlet, was impressive today. He was all over the field and had a great work rate. Abou Diaby was, as he was last week, untouchable on the ball and was monumental in linking play. He also ended up with a well deserved, well finished goal. Andrei Ashravin continued to not impress me today, with a relatively timid performance. He mishandled a number of balls and really didn't seem like his old self. He got a goal from a penalty which left Blackpool with only 10 men, but other than that, the Russian looked rusty. Marouane Chamakh, until finally connecting with his head on a cross to get the sixth goal, was miserable. Mishandling balls left and right and an absolutely comical miss on an open goal made the Frenchman look a little ridiculous. Hopefully he'll find his form before too long.

Cesc Fabregas finally made an appearence late on in the game, but still didn't seem to be totally fit. Robin Van Persie also came in and continued to fail to live up to expectations. Both looked flat footed and out of shape. But, they have Arsene Wenger coaching them, so these things, you'd think, will change soon.

In the back the Gunners were rock solid, particularly the returning Alex Song who chased down every ball and cleared his lines without fail.

2. Chelsea 6-0 Wigan Athletic

Not to be outdone, Chelsea also put half a dozen on their opponent, the woeful Wigan managed by Roberto Martinez.

Of particular note were the Chelsea center backs Alex and John Terry, who extinguished any hope that Wigan had in the match throughout. Florent Malouda got his third of the season to start the scoring, but that was the only goal in the first half. In the second act though, Chelsea piled on the goals, with two for Nicolas Anelka, two for Salomon Kalou, and Yossi Benayoun finished off Wigan soundly.

3. Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Stoke City

Both goals in the match for Spurs were scored by Gareth Bale, the young talented Welshman. His first goal was hilarious, bouncing off his head, unbenownest to him, into the goal in a fray in the 18 yard box.

His second, however, was sublime. A cross from Aaron Lennon found Bale on the left flank. Then Bale swung with his left foot, catching the ball beautifully and sending it on it's way to the upper 90.

Tottenham were helped greatly by this win in their hopeful quest to stay in the top four, and also gain some confidence ahead of their Champions League bout with Young Boys, whom they trail 3-2 in the aggregrate.

Other news: West Ham lose again 3-1 to Bolton at home with Upson starting the scoring with an own goal, West Brom debut boy Peter Odemwingie (signed two days ago) gets the only goal in their match against Sunderland providing a welcome victory after their thrashing at the hands of Chelsea, Everton continue to disappoint drawing 1-1 with Wolves, Birmingham surprised Blackburn with a come from behind 2-1 victory.

That's all from me today, stay tuned tomorrow from comments on MANCHESTER UNITED's second match against Fulham, on at 11 AM on the Fox Soccer Channel.

On Eastern Europe: The top five best attacking players

So for some reason I decided to rank my top five attacking players from Eastern Europe. There are quite a few great ones though, so this list should be interesting.

5. Dimitar Berbatov. Current club: Manchester United. Home country: Bulgaria.

If he was in better scoring form, Berbatov could top this list. But with just 12 goals last season, it's difficult to place him higher. But with that being said, Berbatov is still one of the most skilled strikers in the world. He's got an immaculate talent for finishing and a great amount of skill with the ball at his feet.

Maybe Sir Alex Ferguson has finally devised a way that Berbatov can be used to his full potential, and if he has, Man U will be hard to stop in the Premier League.

4. Andriy Schevchenko. Current club: Dynamo Kyiv. Home country: Ukraine.

Schevchenko is a legend in the truest sense of the word. If you watch any great ball skills video on youtube, he's bound to be there somewhere. He invented like four moves. He's had a career at Chelsea, AC Milan, and has decided to round out his career playing at the best club in Ukraine, the Dynamo Kyiv.

He's also been the captain of Ukraine something like six years in a row and is the current captain of the Dynamo.

3. Ivica Olic. Current club: Bayern Munich. Home country: Croatia.

Olic deserves this spot because of his hat trick in the Champions League semi-final against Lyon. But other than that, Olic has proven to be an extremely compatible strike partner to Gomez, Mueller, or Klose at Bayern. He's a great compliment to any player because of his selfless play, his top-class finishing, and his passing ability.

2. Andrei Ashravin (pictured above). Current club: Arsenal. Home country: Russia.

Ashravin is currently, in my book, the best player on Arsenal's squad. He's just the complete player. He's got everything: ball skills, shot power, pace, field vision, creativity, defensive tenacity.

He's also without question the best player on Russia's squad and could be the best player to come out of that country ever. I watch Arsenal games for Andrei first and Fabregas second, that's all I'm saying.

1. Edin Dzeko. Current club: VFL Wolfsburg. Home country: Bosnia & Herzegovinia

Dzeko was tied for the most goals last year in the Bundesliga with Kiesling. That's a massive achievement in the top scoring league in the world where over 30 players get at least 10 goals a season. Dzeko is an absolutely ruthless striker with an extremely powerful accurate shot and a real gift for finishing in the final third.

He's also been the source of a great deal of transfer buzz, garnering the attention of big name clubs like Real Madrid and reportedly Chelsea and Manchester City. But the faithful Bosniaherzegovinian was quick to shut down any speculation.

This is my list of the top five best Eastern European attacking players. Do you care at all? Comment!