Get Real! Its Mon"REAL" : Who Is Monreal?

Nacho Monreal Completed His Move To Arsenal...Just

In the end, we did come up with a signing. I did not see that one coming to be frank. It looked increasingly like we would not make any signings at all. Fans and the media were expecting so many "big name" signings. They were virtually linking everyone seen playing with a football! Its almost as if Arsene made the signing just to dodge the question "Why didn't you sign anyone in the transfer window?".

So who is Monreal? The 26 year old former Osasuna youth and senior player(127 appearances for senior squad) only moved to Malaga in 2011(42 appearances in total). Here are his stats so far for the 2012-2013 season:
Appearances            : 14
Goals                        : 1
Assists                      : 2
Pass Completion%   : 85.3
Man Of The Match   : 3
Average Rating       : 7.19
 (stats from whoscored.com)
He is not a bad signing by any means. In fact,if you look at how well Spanish imports have been doing in the premier league, he could well turn out to be a very good signing. Many expected big name signings like David Villa or a physical enforcer like Diame to come in but...I guess something is better than nothing! The fact of the matter remains that one player cannot change the way we play, given how poor we have been this season, especially defensively(defense has been our Achilles heels for some years now!). Maybe we needed more signings...quality...signings..but our "ambitions".....(just read THIS. I already have a post about our ambitions). Only time will answer all our queries.
                                                                                      

GIVE ME A BREAK

So it is here again!It is that time when we go into a break in club football to be "Entertained" with some international football matches.The good thing for football lovers like me, is that we get to watch some good football.The hunger for watching football is constantly replenished for us,either through club football or through international football matches.But, you do have to take a moment and wonder how the players would cope with such continuous football week in week out.

From an Arsenal perspective, we have seldom done well in a match immediately following an international break(as if Arsenal fans needed to be reminded of that!). Either we have lost some important players to injuries or our players would not recover fully for the following match.And this "curse" seems to be upon  us again as new has surfaced regarding an injury to Koscielny.(God,no more injuries please...fingers crossed!)

Looking at the bigger picture, England national team seems to be suffering the most with so many football matches for club and country. Talks of a winter break like in other European countries has picked up fuel quite a lot recently. If you look at the performances of the English national team, they have been average,let alone being genuine contenders for any title.There is no proof that a winter break will help any team to perform well but other leagues who go into breaks seem to do better internationally (Germany,Spain,Italy,Netherlands,France).So, perhaps the call for a break is not a bad idea after all. (Although that would deprive us of some football matches!).

For the time being though, let us support all the teams that have players from Arsenal FC(which most of us will do) and enjoy some International action.

CHIT-CHAT

Today is a very important day for Arsenal FC. An important player of our squad,Jack Wilshere is playing tonight for the Arsenal reserves after a 14 month injury layoff that saw him miss the entire season last year.

It will be some time before he makes the first team.But non the less, it is an important step towards making it to the first squad.His return is good news for Arsenal who could benefit from the return of the outstanding player.His return is now more important as Diaby is out injured and we need that "assured" type of player in our midfield like Wilshere who can dictate the pace of the came while also creating countless scoring opportunities.

Midfield however is not at the top list of my concerns because it is a position where we have surplus replacements, also rightly claimed by Le Boss.My main concern is the striker's position. I do not(sadly) see any player in that position at Arsenal who is capable of scoring 20+ goals this season.Even more worrying is the fact that there are 20+ goal scoring talents at clubs that have traditionally been labelled as clubs below Arsenal. Everton have Anichebe and Jelavich (maybe Fellaini too),Sunderland(Fletcher),Aston Villa(Darren Bent),Tottenham(Jermain Defoe,Adebayor and maybe GarethBale), Southampton(RickieLambert), Reading (Shane Long).A club like Arsenal must have a world class striker,I don't see one at the moment. Gervinho could surprise me and score 20+ but he seems to be scared too many times to score especially when it matters(misses against Man City and Chelsea this season).Giroud too seems totally lost at Arsenal.He is already a flop to me.He missed  two chances that could have given us 4 points.Although, I will add that this is his first season and he will take time to settle.Maybe next season he will do better.But I would suggest Arsenal fans not to expect many goals from him this season. Podolski is a great finisher no doubt, but the manager is playing him at the left where he will not get many opportunities to score.And who is our other option?Chamakh? I think the manager knows how "good" Chamakh is.So he would prefer to use a false striker maybe like Barcelona and more recently by Spain.This could be a good option but what we must realize is that WE ARE NO BARCELONA or SPAIN.Our other option,Wallcott is pacey but too "lean" to be a striker in the Premier League.

The way I see it, I think Arsene should mix the "false striker" and the traditional number 9 kind of play with Gervinho upfront and maybe Giroud once in a while.It will be more likely for us to get goals then....ofcourse, from one of our midfielder! 

KNEE JERK REACTION

It is quite evident from past seasons that the winning teams are the ones that are more defensively solid. If a team prevents opponent from scoring, they have every chance of winning the match even if the opponent is outplaying them in every way possible.The Chelsea team last year in the Champions League are a perfect example(although they had incredible luck in their favor!).Spain conceded the least number of goals on their way to lifting the Euro 2008(1),FIFA World Cup 2010(2) and Euro 2012(1).There are other numerous examples(just google for all the stats).The result that you get is "the winning team is the one that concedes the least".

Arsenal started the 2011-2012 season very well,at least from a defensive point of view whichever way you look at it.Especially when you consider how many they let in last year,they conceded the least goals for the first 3 games in the league this season.The praises were coming every corner.Most fans and experts alike, credited the good work to the newly promoted Steve Bould to Arsene's first team coaching staffs as the assistant coach.Many even went on to say that now Arsenal could win this season with the new found defensive solidity.How all of that was thrown out of the window in today's defeat to the league leaders Chelsea!

Arsene had given indications of more "attacking" style he wanted the Arsenal team to show after he was asked of the defensive assurance Arsenal were showing in the first few matches.According to him,the style of Arsenal is such that we will concede goals but we will score more than the opponents.He has mentioned time and again during his tenure at Arsenal that he does not mind conceding goals as long as we outscore the opponent.But what he must realize, and I dare say he does realize it; the fact that all out attacks without any consideration to the defense has given him 7 blanks in 7 years!

The fans and experts alike are not helping here with their comments.They are presuming Arsenal to win trophies so early in the season.It is a knee jerk reaction to the win or the defensive display shown by Arsenal in the few games that they played.However, they must realize that a trophy is won if such displays are shown consistently over the whole season.If today's match is an indicator of things to come,the consistency is absent in Arsenal.

The moment the match started, it almost felt like last season revisited....at least to me.I never felt,during the entire match that we will not let in goals!I think most fans and experts expected Arsenal to win or at least get a point against Chelsea.But in the end ...we lost(how many times have we heard that before?).
The defensive aspect was thrown out of the window today.A really poor display from Arsenal.My appeal to everyone is that let us not "presume" anything.We know how we performed last year(or the years before that) so let us be practical and realists.If Arsenal win one game they do not win a trophy!If we "presume" they will win a trophy after watching 1-2 games, we will have expectations from the team which will ultimately lead to disappointment at the end of the season(the story has been similar for the last 7 seasons).
Let us just get behind our team(win or lose) and hope and pray that at least they give it their best(to me if they don't concede, that is as good as a win really).