Yaya set to join Kolo?

I have the feeling that Yaya Toure is going to be a player who will be linked to Arsenal until the day he decides to join the Gunners, or until the day he retires. Having joined the club on trial from Beveren in 2002, Wenger liked the look of the 6 foot 3 midfielder, but a deal couldn’t be done due to work permit issues. A year later Ukrainian team Metalurg Donetsk had a bid accepted for the Ivorian and although Arsenal had first refusal, again the work permit issues stood in the way of buying Toure.

Next he moved to Greek giants Olympiakos and he impressed for them, again attracting newspaper’s to rite about Arsenal’s interest in him, and this interest continued right up until his move to Monaco, but a bid failed to materialise, probably due to the presence of first Vieira and then Gilberto in the midfield at that time. But he didn’t stay at Monaco long either, with many impressive battling displays and great goals alerting Barcelona to his talents, and so the following summer Barca signed him for around £6m. He went on to play 37 games last season and looked very good in particular against Manchester United in the Semi Finals of the Champions League, despite getting knocked out by the Premiership Champions.

But the likes of Sergio Busquet coming through the ranks (who has also been linked to Arsenal) and the signing of Keita in the summer has seen Toure be used far more sparingly this season and again Arsenal have been linked with him, with talk that Arsenal had wanted him in a swap deal with Hleb in the summer.

And today the rumours about a possible departure from the Nou Camp have escalated with the News Of The World reporting that Toure’s eage demands prevented a move happening in the summer, but Arsenal are now willing to match his demands in order for him to join his brother at the Emirates in January. The People also grabbed hold of this story, although that seems to be just a carbon copy of the NOTW article.

You can see the News of the World article below, complete with “quotes” from a “Mr. A. Source”. Must be true then.

YAYA FIRED UP FOR GUNNERS

Toure looks like joining brother at Arsenal

SWITCH – Toure tussles with Tevez

25/10/2008

ARSENE WENGER looks like landing long-time target Yaya Toure — brother of Gunners defender Kolo.

The Arsenal boss has had the Ivory Coast man in his sights for months and sees him as the player for the defensive midfield role.

Wenger held talks with Barcelona over a switch in the summer and agreed on an £8million fee.

But they were unable to woo Yaya, 25, as they would not match his £50,000-a-week wages.

Yet a January move appears on after the Arsenal board agreed to up the offer of personal terms. A source said: “It’s now likely that he and the Gunners can resolve the issue.”

Personally I am not sure whether I believe this article, but The Sun/NOTW always seem to have far more credibility with its Arsenal stories than many other rumours they write. The Sagna and the Nasri stories are two of the recent rumours that I remember them reporting first as almost done deals and they both happened, although obviously they get their fair share wrong as well, so for supporters its only a guessing game. The crucial thing to this deal is whether Gokhan Inler or Xabi Alonso are available, and also whether or not Wenger considers St. Etienne player and part time stuntman Blaze McTweedy (ok, ok, his real name is Blaise Matuidi, I admit it) a better and younger option for a similar fee.

I can definitely see Wenger buying a midfielder or two in January, and a move for Toure could be on teh cards.

And the comeback is on – Eduardo back in three weeks

Fantastic news for the club, the fans and in particular the man himself, Eduardo being pencilled in to return to full training in only three more weeks – a simply remarkable recovery from a man who broke his leg in two places in a career threatening way in Febuary of this year. Even more remarkable is that he will beat Rosicky to a return to fitness, but I won’t get started on that particular topic at the moment.

“Eduardo is three weeks away from playing competitive football. What I mean by ‘competitive football’ is joining in completely with a normal training session”, Arsene Wenger said. “After that he has to come back to match fitness. But he is ahead of where we expected him to be and that is fantastic news. “

This will mean that with any luck we will have an almost full squad by the time the Christmas run-in begins, something that can only help us in grabbing as many points as we can during that tricky fixture congested period of late December. Of course, we can’t be sure how long it will take to become match fit and so perhaps a firt team appearance won’t be made until after January, but it great news nonetheless.

After a tricky opening to his Arsenal career where he found himself stranded on the left wing, he soon found his form in his natural striking position, showing himself to have ice cool finishing in front of goal that suited itself perfectly to the creative style we play. He is the sort of player who could have stopped us losing to Hull City and drawing with Sunderland, with the spirit for tough matches and the finishing to compliments the midfield’s chance creation. I just can’t wait to seee how he has recovered when I presume he’ll make an appearance for the reserves, perhaps as early as the mini North London Derby on December 1st.

Just like watching Brazil! Including the defence…

The Fenerbahce game showed a lot of what I love about Arsenal’s way of playing the beautiful game. Brilliant individual pieces of skill, fantastic quick passing and great off the ball movement. The way in which Wenger decided to go to Istanbul, in one of the greatest atmosphere’s around the world and have only the purpose to outscore the opposition is something that only Brazil and Arsenal, possibly Fergie’s Man Utd too, would dare to do. But surely, however entertaining it would be along the way, we cannot have set out to play that way completely, and so this leaves big questions to be asked of the defence once more.

As I have noted before, I believe that because of the attacking stance we take into games, we cannot expect clean sheets week in week out – it is simply not how we are currently geared to play, with 3 creative midfielders and a winger making up our midfield most weeks, but the way which the players took upon themselves to play was courageous, but also very naive had it been elsewhere against a stronger defensive unit.

However, we proved just how good we can be going forward, and of course if we had sat back and just countered all game then perhaps with a makeshift back four we would have been found wanting, so in any case the tactics worked and we pulled off a brilliant away performance.

Theo Walcott is going inside his full back a lot more this season, something that started to happen in the back end of last season (remember the goal at Sunderland, for example) and this could be really effective with Adebayor often drifting out wide to pick up the ball and link up play. His finishing, like his pace, is excellent and so the more dangerous runs he makes off the ball, the more he will score. That’s three already this season and I can see him scoring and creating a lot more this season if he stays fit.

Fabregas showed glimpses of genius but still didn’t run the game as he was last season, possibly down to Denilson’s inclusion, possibly down to lack of form. We shall see. Diaby made his full return after a bright cameo performance at the weekend and I have got to say that at times he is phenomenal with the ball at his feet, sadly though, he lacks the discipline to be the perfect partner for Cesc in my opinion.

Lastly I want to make a point about the offside line we decided to play. Normally we do of course hold a line higher up the pitch than other teams, but there was 3/4 of the backline missing against Fener, and to make things worse the pressure on the passer was not there and this asked for trouble. Almunia had a fantastic game and it’s just as well as our gung ho tactics could have bitten us badly if it wasn’t for him at times. The worst thing about that line was that it seemed to me that every time the line was in fact a diagonal from left to right, with Clichy deepest and Eboue furthest up. Silvestre was also always running forward to catch them offside while Song was already there, and this led to chaos. I hope never to see the same back four again.

Sorry Denilson and Toure, we need shape and balance

Right. So we won 3-1 after a great second half performance which was as good as the first half was poor. Great.

But it failed to assure any watching Arsenal fans of a title bid this season, and after only finishing 4 points away from the prize last season, fans have every right to expect another close run thing this season. However, at the moment there are crucial problems which will cost us if they are not changed soon.

The first half showed all that is wrong with the current Arsenal team. With an injury list as long as Chelsea’s but without the depth of the Ruble financed West Londoners, there is of course a ready made excuse for us. But what was worrying yesterday was not the missing players, but the way we lined up. Denilson has had a good start to the season, but he is first person who should get the chop from the team in my view. I really like him as a player, great passing range, creativity and has everything he needs to become a fantastic creative midfielder. But we don’t need one of them next to Cesc – that is what the Spaniard is for. Song was bizarrely put at right back when he is exactly the sort of player who should now partner Fabregas in the centre of midfield in the tricky away fixture on Tuesday in Istanbul. He can shield the back four and put a foot in where needed if he is given a run of games – Denilson merely assumes Cesc’s role and pushes our best players further away from the action, something that will only frustrate him.

What we have here is a classic Gerrard/Lampard problem – Two attacking midfielders who occupy the same role and cannot, without lessening their effect on a game, combine in the middle next to each other. So Mr Wenger, please identify this problem and give someone else a try. Denilson is simply the wrong player for the job and its giving our defence massive problems as runners are allowed to breeze past the midfield and score, as it happened against Everton yesterday.

Another problem is Eboue. Now the guy is a great morale booster in the dressing room as all our players mention in their interviews about team spirit, and he is a decent back up player for our team who never moans and wants out like some players might do. But why is it a player who helped take us to a Champions League Final at right back just 2 years ago is no longer good enough to fill in ahead of a 6 ft plus and almost cumbersome Alex Song in his former right back slot. It is just lucky that Toure’s unfortunate injury pushed Wenger into the change the team was crying out for. Eboue returned to right back, gave the team far better mobility on that side with Walcott replacing him on the right wing and we could puch on and take full advantage, scoring three good goals and keeping within touching distance of the top teams.

Hopefully this will prove to Wenger that balance is vital to any team, and unless Denilson ups his work rate and becomes a deeper lying midfielder, with Fabregas pushing on, we need to alter the midfield pairing or we will only encounter more problems against the more dominant midfields of the Premiership.

At center back we have a similar issue in that Toure and Gallas can’t work together either, or so it seems. Of course, the fact that neither are in anything remotely resembling form could be a factor, as could the attacking style of the team as a whole that leaves the back exposed. But I am now shifting my opinion to the one shared by many fans – one of the two has to be dropped. Silvestre, after a very shaky first 20 minutes or so, looked good and certainly won a good few headers. Maybe if he was to partner Gallas we would see a better team for it? I think there is a decent chance the two of them could work together, but if not there is the other option of Djourou who has impressed this season more than he has for a good while.

Either way the spine of our team needs some changes.

Inevitable international injuries strike again – but are they almost a blessing?

A difficult contest against David Moyes’ well organised Everton team on Saturday is the welsome back to Premier League duty for the Gunners this weekend, and it looks on the face of it to only have been made harder by the injuries picked up by Nicklas Bendtner, Bacary Sagna and club captain and shining example William Gallas while helping out their countries. The trio can now join the likes of Eduardo and Rosicky on the treatment table, although all three will hopefully return by next weekend’s game, something we can only dream of happening to Edu and Rosicky.

But despite what is on the face of it a blow to us, can the absence of Gallas and Sagna make a positive difference to the team. We have been stuttering in attack, and whatever you can say about Eboue, he proved himself to be an excellent attacking full back back in the days when he was considered a right back and not a left or right winger. Maybe moving him back to that position will give him a boost and help out the right flank, although defensively I worry slightly. Centrally it’s clear to me we have one of two problems – Gallas and Toure cannot physically play together in the same team, or our style of play allows the opposing team a suicidal amount of room to punish us on the counter. I am still not sure which, but I am in favour of splitting the partnership up and if Song or Djourou come into the defence it will be very interesting to see whether or not it is an improvement.
Eboue moving to right back also leaves Wenger with no choice but to play “proper” wingers – step up Samir Nasri and Theo Walcott. These two offer far more of a threat than the Ivorian, and should help create the chances Adebayor can finish off.
Up front Bendtner has been pushing for a starting role and so his absence is perhaps a blow to our options, especially as I am not sure how late Vela will return to the country after his trip to Canada, but van Persie is fit, although how good he was in his cameo appearance for Holland midweek I am not sure. In fact, van Persie’s poor form and Aaron Ramsey’s masterclass on Friday and Tuesday for Wales U21’s sparks an interesting debate – maybe the prodigious Welshman should take the number 10 role he thrived in for his country and be the midfield link for Arsenal on Saturday? My personal opinion is to go for experience over form in this instance, but it’d be a close call.

My Team:

—————————- Almunia —————————-
Eboue ———– Toure ————— Song ———- Clichy
Walcott ———- Denilson ———— Fabregas —— Nasri
——————- Van Persie ——————————-
——————————– Adebayor ——————-

Nasri will be vital this season

Watching the Porto match on Tuesday made me realise exactly what had been missing on the flanks for the last month – Samir Nasri. He wasn’t spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, yet without him I feel the team would have struggled that bit more.

He took Eboue’s (newly-found) place on the left wing, and this is no swipe at Eboue, but instantly the team looks a much better unit. On the other side I believe we are fine – in fact, more than just fine – Walcott has really found his confidence this season, little wonder why after his England heroics, and so he and Sagna, although not always the best going backwards, will cause defences problems all season long. And with Theo’s fairly robust injury record (Shoulder injury aside), the right flank is of little worry for me this season.

But the left hand side has been a problem ever sine we let Pires go and got in to replace him possibly the most frustrating player in World football. Poor old Tomas Rosicky has stumbled into injury after injury, which is bad enough, but what makes this ten times worse is how talented the guy could have been if he had played week in, week out. Then we let Hleb go this summer and things are starting to look bleak for us, great for Eboue’s first team opportunities. Luckily enough Hleb was replaced though, in the form of Samir Nasri. Instantly announcing his arrival with great finishes against West Brom and FC Twente, we were laughing our way to the top of the league. However, he got injured on the dreaded international break, and having returned just short of a month later on Tuesday, I can clearly see how much we missed him.

Clichy, a great friend of his and his partner in crime on the left wing, has struggled in the intervening period without Nasri, and I’ve noticed despite Eboue formerly being a right back, the work Nasri does defensively is greater and so its not just going forward we miss him. He’s not afraid to get stuck in as some Arsenal fans thought he might be, and this is a fantastic bonus as long as he stays fit this season. Going forward he is ice cool, playing it simple, creating chances and committing defenders throughout. Nasri also has the same awareness that Fabregas has and although I’d expected a certain rustiness after a injury break, I can only recall him giving the ball away once in the time he was on the pitch for.

If we are to finally win something this year, I have a feeling we’ll be relying on our new found number 8 more than many thought we would be.