Massive Fixtures Ahead : Arsenal Title Credentials On The Line

They said "Arsenal will be tested by Swansea"; Arsenal won the match. They said "It will be Napoli who will really test Arsenal"; Arsenal won the match- comfortably I should add. We lost against Dortmund but they were champions league finalists last season and Arsenal did not make it a walk in the park for them did they?

Arsenal Flying High But Tougher Tests Lie Ahead

Arsenal are 2 points clear at the top of the EPL and there still remains doubts, in the minds of the so-called football pundits at least, whether Arsenal are genuine contenders to the title. Who cares what they think, Arsenal are top of the league and Arsenal fans are loving the view from the top :). My honest opinion is that it is too early to predict who will win but we will get a better idea at the end of December.

Moving on from foretelling the title winner, Arsenal are heading into the start of a very difficult period in the season with some tricky ties coming up. Staring with the home match against Chelsea tonight in the Capital One Cup, Arsenal host Liverpool followed by a visit to Dortmund in the Champions League and then to Old Trafford to face Manchester United in the League and they face an equally daunting task against a flying Southampton side at home in the league.As if that was not enough, Arsenal will arguably have an even tougher December to follow with games against Everton(H), Machester City(A), Napoli(A) and Chelsea(H). It is incredible how these big fixtures have all been put together. No wonder people are reserving their thoughts on Arsenal's credibility, because if Arsenal get past this storm of massive fixtures unscathed, or at least not battered, the title would be Arsenal's to lose.

A short note on tonight's match. Arsene knows that a critical phase is approaching in the season and I think he will be forced to prioritize here. He would want his best players to be fit for all these fixtures ahead and I think he will take a big gamble if decides to start with any of his regulars in tonight's match. Whether he will take that risk remains to be seen.

The Fall From Grace - Part II

A Ray Of Hope

So, where do Arsenal go from here?


In my opinion, the way forward for Arsenal is to look back.

The Arsenal team with which Arsene initially  had so much success was handed down from George Graham. This team had the meanest defense on the land.So much so that"1-0 to Arsenal" was the cliche at that time. What Wenger did to this team, after he came in, was that he bought some players with attacking flair to give our club some "Style". However, and most importantly, the back four remained unchanged. What I am trying to say is that we have to have a strong defense if we are to succeed. The team must be built from the back. If Wenger looks back in time, he will realize it. Obviously,he has not done so yet. He has even claimed many times that he will be happy as long as his team scores more than the opponent! That will just not work.Definitely not if the club sells its best attacking players each year!

We all know how the teams that have the best defenses or defend the best get to win trophies(Chelsea anyone?). Our defense is among the worst in the league. You might argue that we have conceded the third lowest number of goals in the league. But, at least in the league,the defense with the most clean sheets win. Just look at Manchester City last year or the Manchester United team this year and the previous years and Chelsea. It would be very bold to predict that Arsenal will keep a clean sheet, even if it is against a "lesser" side. Just look our recent matches. Bradford, we conceded 2, scored 2. Blackburn, conceded once and lost.Bayern,we conceded 3, scored 1. If we had managed to keep a clean sheet in all these matches, we would have still been these competitions. The thing with keeping clean sheets is that we give ourselves every chance of winning.

The worst part of all this is that, we can just sit there and point to our team's nooks. We know that our protests will fall in deaf ears and we can do absolutely nothing about it. Its painful and difficult. To look at a club's rise to the top and fall so dramatically. Well, we were with the club when Arsenal were at the top, lets get behind the club when we are on the way down. "Through Thick and Through Thin" as they say.

The win yesterday was a pleasant welcome. But again, we made it difficult for ourselves and until the final whistle blew, we never knew what could have happened, against one of the league's minnows this season, Aston Villa.

The Fall From Grace - Part I

Is he to be blamed?

So we are out of the trophy hunt. Yet again.
Our hunt for a trophy(if we are looking for one at all!) continues for yet another year.

I doubt anyone would have expected such a trophy drought when Arsene was sweeping everything before him when he first arrived at Arsenal. The pinnacle of his achievements would unquestionably be the 2004/2005 season when Arsenal won the league without a single loss all season. After the victorious campaign, I still remember what he claimed to the world : "There will be a new power shift from Manchester to London". He could not have got it more wrong.

It would not be wrong to say that Arsenal are no longer a power house.(The talk of "power shift" is out of the window)! They are a good club no doubt. But, we are no longer a force. It was made apparent by our tame defeats against Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and more recently against Bayern Munich.We were well outclassed in all these matches. Even Arsene admitted it. After the defeat to Bayern, Arsene claimed "Bayern were class". (Of course, that means we are not!). Defeats against League Two side Bradford and Championship side Blackburn suggested we were not even close.

Is it the fault of the Board or Arsene or both? We can blame whoever we want to but the fact remains that Arsenal have become just another average team.

Why Arsenal Proved Again They Won't Win Any Trophy For A While

Arsenal's Defense Not Scary Anymore

Arsenal lost against a league two side Bradford.
We were taken all the way by Championship side Brighton Hove & Albion, conceding 2 goals in the process.

I can't remember when we last kept a clean sheet..can you.

Where am I going with this?

Our defense is no longer mean. It seems like ages ago that we had a mean defense and teams would be scared of our defenses. They knew it would be tough to score against Arsenal and more than that, they knew that they would get hassled and kicked throughout the the 90 minutes. Team were genuinely scared of the presence of Martin Keown, Sol Cambell and Patrick Viera. They were the enforcers,leaders,commanders... whatever you want call them. I don't think I need to tell everyone that we won when these players were in our side and when they left, we never won anything....zero....zilch...absolutely nothing at all. You don't need to know rocket science to know that we need such players in the side to win trophies do we?

THE TEAM THAT CONCEDES THE LEAST GOALS WINS IN THE END. This is a golden rule that applies to all winning teams. We need to look no further than last season when Manchester City won the league on goal difference because they conceded less than they scored compared to Manchester United.

The most sickening part of all this is that even after 8 years since the last of our "commanders", Patrick Viera left, there has been not a single player who has come in and claimed to have come close to replicating them. Many compared Diaby to Viera but just because they look alike does not mean they have the same presence. Who would be scared of seeing Diaby in the team sheet?

We keep conceding goals against every side and cannot keep a clean sheet at all. The manager says that as long as we keep scoring more than we concede, he is happy with this team. But until and unless we are capable of keeping clean sheets with the use of some "commanders", 8 years will soon be 16years.

Arsenal Slip Further Into Mediocrity

Arsenal 0 Manchester City 2
The scoreline was by no means a major shock. The EPL champions were in town.
You call them a "plastic" team or "money-bags" or whatever you want. They have a good squad and we knew it would be a difficult game. The Arsenal team have not covered themselves in glory by giving very erratic performances all season. On top of that, we had to play with 10 men for most of the game after Koscielny was sent off just 10 minutes into the game.

The most worrying thing for me after the match was that we never had the zeal, the drive to beat or at least compete with the opponents. That was the most disappointing aspect of the match. Yes, Wilshere,Sagna and to some extent,Szczesny had a good match, yet again. But a team consists of 11 players. Where were the others? There were a few sparks here and there but not consistently for the full 90 minutes.

Very few people would say we do not deserve to be mid-table, where we have been for the whole of the season. We are likely to finish mid-table come the end of the season on this form. I am not telling fans to switch teams or start calling for Wenger's head or put pressure on the board for spending lavishly in transfers. We should not react to the situation; we should respond to it. Keep supporting the club and get behind the team and the manger. They desperately need our support. What is true though, is the fact that the fall of Arsenal is truly complete. It really has been a great fall from the top to mid-table mediocrity.

WHAT WE WILL ACTUALLY GET IN THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW

WILL THEY DON THE ARSENAL COLOURS NEXT SEASON?

        








As the January transfer window approaches, the talk of the town is- who will get in and who will get out of their club. If you are a Man City fan at the top of the league or QPR fan at the bottom, every fan likes to see quality players(players in their FIFA dream team :-)) to come into their clubs and the player(s) they loath most in the club to leave the club. The transfer window is always an exciting period for all fans alike.

Arsenal have been linked with a gazillion players before this window(hardly a new thing). Interestingly, although Arsenal have almost always signed youngsters and unproven players, we have been linked mostly with some of the best in the business than with rising prodigies this time around. Not that we were not linked to bring in big name players in the seasons gone by;somehow, it is different this time. Most of the rumors are ofcourse  pure works of fiction. But are they all fictitious?

Fact or fiction, what is undeniable is that Arsenal fans have their hopes raised sky high. The mere thought of players like Huntelaar, Llorente, Cavani, David Villa,etc coming to Arsenal gives us goosebumps. What fuels the excitement even more is the fact that Arsenal have recently given preference to signing proven players like Arteta, Mertesacker, Podolski and Cazorla. Also, Arsene is coming under more and more pressure form the fans as well as the media to buy proven talents. The signing of a new and, as claimed by Ivan Gazidis, a "huge" deal with Emirates is another reason for the fans to get excited about.

It won't be an understatement to say that Arsenal fans expect something big in the window; no doubt about that. There are enough reasons to believe that we could get the names(at least one if not some) that we are linked with in the January transfer window. However, I don't need to remind everyone about how many times we have been let down on this front in the past. So, lets keep our feet on the ground yet be optimistic, cautiously.

BACK TO "ARSENAL" WAYS

I have never liked Arsenal conceding a goal.In fact,I would take a 0-0 draw any day for a 2-1 win!(well maybe not all the time!).I have always believed that for a team to win trophies, it must show solidity from the back(unless you are Barcelona or Real Madrid ofcourse).

For their first 3 games of the season, Arsenal managed to keep as many clean sheets.They were being praised from all corners regarding their new found defensive solidity.Some even tipped them to challenge for the title after watching just 3 games!(which was ofcourse an overreaction).How things have changed.They started their old habit of conceding goals again after the 3 matches.So much so that they have not kept a clean sheet in any tournament after the first 3 matches!And the repercussions of conceding goals are clearly to be seen in the matches.The only match in which we looked comfortable conceding a goal was the one against Southampton.We had some luck in winning the other matches where we conceded while our luck ditched us against the matches against Manchester City(where we could and should have won easily) and against Chelsea(which ofcourse we lost).

When we were not conceding,you could see that all our players oozed confidence and they believed we could win.That is true for any team.As I have mentioned in my earlier post,any team that does not concede has every chance to win.But,if you analyze the matches in which we conceded, our players seemed more nervous and as a result, we gave chances to the opposition.

Personally,whenever Arsenal concede,I get nervous myself!I just can't take a goal!I start to get thoughts like "Ok. We might throw away this game here" "Here we go again!".These thoughts are mainly due to that dreaded night at the Emirates against Newcastle 2 seasons ago when we went from 4-0 up to drawing 4-4 and 8-2 defeat last season.Win or lose,I have always watched Arsenal matches till the final whistle.However, this season,I expect so much from Arsenal's defense that when we conceded a goal, I stopped watching the match altogether.I can't hold my nerves after we concede! It is in a way, too painful too watch.Please, Arsenal, do not concede....so that I can watch the full match.

To Arsenal FC Fans

A big hello to all the fans of the Arsenal Football Club (England),especially to the fellow South Asians and more specifically to the Nepalese supporters of the Arsenal FC.


As I die hard Arsenal FC fan since......antiquity(Ever since I started watching football!) it gives me great pleasure to start an Arsenal blog in the South Asian country of Nepal.


Today marks the day that the Arsenal-Nepal blog is born.The blog does not have a specific aim or direction but I am interested in sharing any knowledge about our beloved club that is Arsenal FC and would welcome your opinions and comments.


In the present environment when nothing is going right in the world,it would not be an overstatement to say that Arsenal FC supporters too would, mostly claim that it is not exactly going our way. Although we have made a decent start to the new season, the past seven (yes the number 7. It hurts me too!) have been trophy-less and largely been forgettable ones from an Arsenal point of view.This has been a torrid period, especially for the Arsenal FC fans and with the rise of Manchester City in recent years,we have seen many Arsenal FC fans swapping for the blue half of Manchester and many others are confused if they really want to support Arsenal FC!


The "real" supporters will of course support Arsenal FC through thick and through thin but it is obvious that some supporters need to be brought out of their delusions.Ultimately, it is the fans that make a club great and why should Arsenal FC loose any of its fans? I believe this blog will help in bringing Arsenal fans closer together and more importantly closer to the club they love.