Hleb to return to former club for friendly

Alexander Hleb will get the chance to impress his former home crowd at Stuttgarts stadium which is set to change its name from Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadium to the Mercedes-Benz Arena.

Arsenal.com have today announced that we will play Stuttgart as part of our pre-season training on Wednesday, July 30th. This is definitely a good idea as the Bundesliga team are not bad opposition at all, and this match coupled with the Emirates Cup which is rumoured to include clubs of the highest quality once again, and perhaps the Amsterdam Tournament to finish it all off could prove to be a very competitive  pre-season to get us ready for the new season.

Arsenal Youth friendly announced

 

Arsenal’s young guns will get to test themselves against a Dorchester Town testimonial team as a reward for Brian Benjafield’s contribution to Dorchester Town Football Club over the last fifteen years.

The game will take place on the 6th of May at the Jewsons Stadium which is home to the Blue Square South side. Dorchester legends will make up the opposition with names such as Mark Ormerod, Andy Harris, Scott Morgan, Steve Richardson, Tommy Killick, Shaun Brooks, Matty Holmes, Matt Groves and Owen Pickard playing as well as some of the present team. I don’t know whether any of these names mean anything to you, becauseI haven’t heard of any of them personally.

The Arsenal squad will be made up of a mixture of reserves and the youth side, and if you wish to see this game tickets can be bought at £8 or £5 depending on which stand you sit in for the 7pm kick off.

It’s not exactly huge news but as it isn’t very well publicised, any gooners living near Dorchester should check this game out for a glimpse of the potential we have at the club.

Tired Arsenal produce a stunning comeback

 

Yesterday really felt like a do or die game for Arsenal’s season. I know that Bolton are a fairly poor team this year, and that the Premiership is no longer in our hands bar a miraculous turn of events, but like when we finally lost our unbeaten run in 2004, if we’d lost yesterday you could see us losing another four on the trot, with the trio of games against Liverpool followed by the game against Manchester United coming up next.

And at 2-0 down at half time, we looked down and out, despite dominating most of the half. We had spurned several good chances in the first twenty minutes or so, with van Persie looking direct and shooting on site, and Bendtner also getting chances, when Steinsson produced a great cross for the home team, which Taylor headed home having lost Toure at the back post. It got even worse soon, Diaby lunging in desperately in an effort to win possession after a scrappy period of play, but only succeeding  in getting sent off for his crude challenge. And by the time Flamini dwelt on the ball for 5 seconds too long and gave Taylor the opportunity to put Bolton 2-0 up, which he duly did, Arsenal looked tired and forlorn. Even when Flamini was given a fairly straight forward chance to amend for his error which he skied, there seemed little hope of a comeback - Bolton had the game in the bag.

Or so it seemed, especially when they then dominated the possession and threat against the ten men of Arsenal, and with half an hout left to play Wenger went to three at the back, throwing on Adebayor and Walcott in a last attempt to salvage something.

Within a few minutes Fabregas’ good delivery was flicked on by Campo straight to Gallas who made no mistake. Having held the lead comfortably for so long, somehow Bolton managed to self destruct as soon as Gallas’ shot hit the back of the net, and it wasn’t long before the Gunners were level. A lovely backheel from Adebayor set up Flamini whose shot was saved, but came out to the onrushing Hleb who was brought down by Cahill for a penalty. Up stepped van Persie who made absolutely no mistake.

And having got the second, a third seemed like it was destined to come, van Persie going close again and again, once after fantastic work by Walcott which highlighted his immense potential once more. And in the final seconds of normal time, Hleb darted into the area, slipped the ball to Fabregas, who, with the aid of two deflections scored a wondefully scrappy goal against the kings of winning ugly.

That win keeps us fighting in the league, but more importantly gives us belief and confidence ahead of the Liverpool triple header. I just hope that the players’ fitness can hold up with the fixture list, as key players’ absences or fatigue could cost us the season.

Muller advises Pjanic to do the right thing - Choose the Gunners!

 

Joel Muller, Metz’s former coach, has told Setanta Sports that he believes Arsenal is the right choice for Pjanic to make at this stage of his career. And if you ask me, I’ve got to agree. Especially if he can do a job on the wing!

“As we are going to be relegated we have no choice and have to sell our jewel to earn money. I think that a team like Arsenal would help him to continue his education, with a coach-educator like Arsene Wenger and regarding the football they play, it would definitely be a good option. We helped Robert Pires and Adebayor to become great players, so Pjanic could go the same way. His talent needs to be brought out slowly.”

“He anticipates and is a great passer. He can be a playmaker behind two strikers. I know that Arsenal don’t play with a playmaker, but Miralem can be used on the wing as well. If his agents and himself take the right decision, he could have a superb European career. I think that he wants to carry on playing in the top flight. But maybe a team like Arsenal could sign him and loan him back to us for a year. It would be great for us.”

I think that will be enough of a hint for Wenger, who no doubt has had him scouted since he was about 14 anyway. I’m a bit confused about Joel Muller’s current position, but if it’s right that he is the current Sporting Director at Metz this statement is very encouraging for a transfer this summer. People will say that Pjanic is only 17, but I think that as back up to the squad I think he would be a great addition on what I’ve seen and heard of him.

Why have we blown it?

 

I haven’t been able to post since the Chelsea game for one reason or another, so I won’t bother with a match report or even the match ratings - that game is in the past now.

The most pressing issue at the moment for Arsenal fans is to find out what has gone wrong, and how we will rectify it for the rest of the season to come. Below I have identified the key points as far as fans are concerned, and have pointed out the reasons why they are or they aren’t right.

The players have bottled it - Now this is a very interesting point to raise. By “bottling it” we mean that the Arsenal players have got to the vital part of the season, when every game is important, and they simply haven’t managed to step up to the plate. But I honestly don’t think this is the case. I know we can’t keep mentioning the “luck” element, but the way that events have unfolded have contributed to the poor performances without a doubt, and I’m not too sure whether the other top teams would cope with it that much better than we have, although I do believe that if we’re not right at our game mentally, the style of football we play does hinder the effectiveness more than a direct style would, because there is less risk in a more abrupt way of playing.

Our beautiful football - So perhaps, then, it is the style of football that we praise our team for so often that has come back to haunt us at the most crucial time of the season? I think that throughout this season we have managed to alternate our way of playing pretty well to meet the circumstances, a prime example being the game against Everton at Goodison Park, a game where we would have lost pretty easily last season. But recently we haven’t done this. Against Boro’, a game that I saw live, we continued to pass it around throughout the game and that perhaps was what lost us the 2 points.

Lack of squad depth - I think this has been the main problem at this stage of the season. We needed to buy a couple of players, whether it was in January or last summer, because we have easily the most delicate squad in the top four, and bar Aston Villa possibly the smallest squad in the top ten. Now I know we have plenty of players on pro contracts, but most of these are nowhere near ready for the first team. We needed back up on the wing and at left back for this season, and frailties in both positions have costed us a good number of games, in particular the thrashings at Man Utd and Spurs. We can’t afford to classify Rosicky as a first teamer until he provves he can play for the first team for a whole season.

Poor decisions have let us down? - Another valid point is that officials have given us terrible decisions at crucial times. Last weekend against Chelsea the first goal was a shocking decision, while the refereeing against Middlesborough was also dire, as we could quite easily have had a goal and a penalty given, not to mention a slight confusion over Boro’s goal. Against Wigan and Villa though there was no injustice that can be blamed, we were simply not good enough, and I think a reliance on brilliant refereeing shows a desperation really. We should win the games, not the officials. But I think that when a last minute penalty was given when it shouldn’t have been against Birmingham in the last minute of the match on a day when Eduardo is carted off to the hospital, the blow that that makes is a hard one to recover from.

Bad leadership - William Gallas has allowed himself to come across as a very debateable leader over the last month or so, from his angry outburst against Birmingham followed by him sitting down on the pitch as far away as possible from the football itself as the penalty was taken, to reports of him having a go at Theo Walcott. But I think that since he did start crying against Birmingham, everything he has said has been taken out of proportion in a negative way, and if this has had a negative effect on the team it is not entirely his fault. In fact, if misconstrued comments have led to our downfall, we may as well sell half our squad and rebuild, because there’s no way if they’re that mentally weak we’d ever win anything. Thankfully, I severely doubt that’s the case.

As ever, it is almost certainly a mix of all of these points that have contributed to a bad run of form that has dumped us out of the title race almost certainly, and with the Champions League tie against Liverpool looming large, I sincerely hope that we will be able to re-invigorate the team enough to ensure that our season does not end within a fortnight.

Henry backs the Gunners

 

I was very disappointed that Henry finally left for Spain in the summer, but with a mix of his own interviews about Arsenal and the Gunners’ own resurgence this year have let me remember and respect just how brilliant he was for us, something which was lost in the anger following his departure and the doom and gloom that followed.

But you can never say that Henry doesn’t still have feelings for Arsenal and he is a true fan of the club, with him and Robert Pires acting as ambassadors for our club in Spain. And recently Henry had this to say about the title race in England:

“I have this feeling Arsenal will win the Premier League. They are playing well against the big four and I do think they play the most attractive football, though Manchester United have also played some good stuff. So far, Arsenal have lost only one game and, if they remain unbeaten from now on, it would be very unusual not to win the title.

Obviously, I love Arsenal,” he stated. ”But that’s not the reason why I think they will win the title. I just feel they have the quality. 

So nothing but sense from the Frenchman. I just hope he’s right, starting with the game against Chelsea tomorrow. And our former striker has also talked about his thoughts leading up to the big clashes in the Premiership, and how he thinks Arsenal will react to the pressure situations:

“Maybe, it is a good time to play Chelsea. Playing Chelsea was always special for me. No disrespect to any other team but when you play Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United and you are in the final 10 minutes, you somehow find extra power. At this stage of the season, I actually think it is better to play the bigger teams. It is a big month for Arsenal but I think that they can do it.”

And I actually think Henry could be right, even after the poor run we have been on. I definitely feel that we will get the three points tomorrow, even against a quality side like Chelsea, because I think that when it comes to the big games Avram Grant hasn’t proved himself by any means, while Wenger and this current generation of Arsenal as a team have always looked at their best against the top sides.

We’re not the only ones baffled about Rosicky

 

It seems that even Wenger does not know when Rosicky will be back.

Wenger said: “He is not making much progress. It looks like the tendon of his hamstring is healing slowly. He has been out now for seven weeks. It is difficult to say to you that he will play next week. In fact it is impossible to say when he will return. He has not practised and I don’t know what to say really. It is a frustration for me and him as well.

“He’s a very genuine guy who wants to play. If you tell him to come in tomorrow morning at 4am and leave at midnight so it will be better, he will do it. He has an absolutely genuine attitude and is 100 per cent committed but he’s just not ready.”

The injury situation with the Czech midfielder is ridiculous, I’ve got to say. I am afraid that he will never, ever, be able to become a solid first choice starter who you can guarantee at least 30 games from each season, and so with this problem there is only one solution, which is to buy another winger to go straight into the team.

This is a must if we are going to be able to challenge for the title next season, because at the moment we are not strong enough in wide areas to be able to cope as well as the other three big teams, and although I am not sure our recent bad run has anything to do with this problem, it is inevitable that a lack of freshness due to a lack of depth will cost us at least some points until its sorted.

 Rosicky is a quality player when fit, and so there is definitely no need to sell him, but if we can get in another wide man in the summer it will ease our worries about squad depth no end.  I know that perhaps we should be thinking about squad issues after the season is over, but I just think that with this latest amazing acceptance by Wenger of Rosicky’s injury problems just highlighted this clear problem.

Frimpong on target as England progress

The Arsenal contingent continued to impress as Frimpong, Arsenal’s Ghanian-born central midfielder joined Freeman in scoring his first international goals, after Freeman was on target on Wednesday against Japan.

Frimpong played the full game just 24 hours previously, but again stayed on the pitch for the full 90 minutes as he clinched the game late on in the match in the 71st minute in a tight contest against European giants Germany. There were also substitute appearances from Freeman and Byles, who along with Nicholas (who did not feature) will expect to get a start tomorrow against the USA while Frimpong will surely be rested after playing two full games within 24 hours of each other.

Thiago Neves being followed by Arsenal

A very nearly exclusive transfer story here (but unfortunately almost certainly untrue) as it seems that Arsenal are tracking Brazilian playmaker Thiago Neves of Fluminense, along with Milan, Bayer Leverkusen and in particular Werder Bremen, who want him as a potential replacement for their star player Diego, who has been linked with a huge number of sides about a possible summer move.

He has played for the Brazil U23’s previously and has scored an impressive 23 goals from 65 appearances for Fluminense. This rumour has come from Abola.pt, a source which I’m sure you, like me, have not heard of before, so the chances of it being true are of course fairly slim, although with Wenger you learn not to rule anything out. Below is a profile of the player anyway:

Name: Thiago Neves Augusto

Position: Attacking Midfielder (presumably)

Birthplace: Curitiba, Paraná

DOB: 27/02/85

Last Club: Vegalta Sendai (JAP)

Fluminense Statistics: 

Games: 65

Goals: 23

Source for this story:

 http://http://www.abola.pt/nnh/index.asp?op=ver¬icia=137682&tema=2 

Freeman scores as four players represent England U16s in France

 Sam Byles

In an illustration of the quality of our youngsters at the club, all four U16 players who had been called up for the Montaigu tournament started the opening fixture against Japan as the England U16s won convincingly against Japan.

New signing Luke Freeman cored in the 63rd minute for England to complete the 3-1 win, before being substituted six minutes later. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Frimpong and Oliver Nicholas both played the full game, with Sam Byles being taken off after playing 72 minutes of the game.

Germany also won their game in the same group, and so the game against Germany tonight in what looks to be the group decider will be especially interesting to see, and I will give you all the details as soon as I get them.