The likes of Allerdyce and Pulis just don't get it

Afternoon gooners!

I just can't believe what I'm hearing from the likes of Allerdyce and Pulis - criticising Danny Murphy for coming out and making some genuinely insightful observations about managers sending their teams out to 'play rough'.

You only have to hear some of the pre-match comments these managers make before they play Arsenal to know that this is indeed the case. As Murphy correctly pointed out, players don't go on the pitch to deliberately break someones legs but they do intend to 'ruffle a few feathers'. The hypocrisy is the hardest thing for me to stomach especially given that these managers deem it perfectly legitimate to crticise referees after a poor performance or indeed a bad challenge from opposing teams players. However, for some reason unbeknown to me one cannot dare say a bad word about a manager - ridiculous.

Danny Murphy is a good player and he plays football the right way. In addition, when a pundit on TV he articulates his thoughts far better than most so called experts. The fact that he pulled out of his pundit role for the England game in mid-week suggests that he may think twice about appearing as a pundit in the future which would be a great shame.

So Birmingham up next and although I would usually call it a home banker, I think we need to be cautious given our woeful appearance against West Brom a few weeks ago. One thing that does annoy me is the constant Hleb bashing that has been going on in the Arsenal blogs today. As I wrote in this article, he was a superb footballer who was crucial to our counter attacking style that propelled us to the top of the table in 2007/08. The fact that the season after he left for Barcelona was one of our poorest in many years tells its own story. I for one will not boo him tomorrow, he did Arsenal a great service and was one of the most gifted players I have seen in an Arsenal shirt.

Enjoy the game tomorrow.

Tenz

Why it’s time for the FA to make a stance although the Dutch have ulterior motives…

One has to commend the Dutch FA for dropping Nigel De Jong from the squad for their up and coming Euro 2012 qualifiers. It’s very rare for an international manager to come out and openly criticise one of his players for breaking the leg of an opponent but all credit to him for doing that. Many football writers and fans are of the opinion that tackling in modern day football has gone over the top and that it’s now worse than it’s ever been before. I disagree, players could get away with so much more in the 60s, 70s and 80s – I wasn’t born to see the Don Revie Leeds team but from what I’ve heard and seen, they were a team who deliberately went out to harm other players and what’s more they never saw red for doing so. We of course live in different times, every tackle can be seen from a number of different angles and quite rightly scrutinised to a mass audience. That being said, the FA now has to make a stand by retrospectively punishing those who commit dangerous tackles on an opponent regardless of whether the player gets injured or not. Only a few weeks ago, a player was banned for two games by the Spanish FA for a late challenge on Lionel Messi, the incident had been seen by the referee but the authorities decided that it warranted further punishment. The English FA will no doubt trot out the same line that by punishing a player when the referee has seen it will undermine the referees authority - this argument is totally flawed for the simple fact referees have no authority anymore and haven’t done so for a long time. By bringing in retrospective punishments for incidents seen by a referee, I would argue that the authority of the referee and the FA will actually increase with fans and players alike knowing that at least justice will be done after the game. This would therefore hopefully provide a deterrent to those who deliberately go out to harm their opponents (although there is no chance of eradicating this completely). When you have players like Paul Robinson coming out and saying that his tackle on Diaby was fair, then there is clearly a problem which needs addressing at the highest level especially given that we are talking about players livelihoods here. Furthermore, neither Henry or De Jong have come out and apologised to the players they assaulted which is nothing short of disgraceful. Yes players do earn a lot of money but in one silly moment, their career can be over and this is something we don’t want to see – The FA therefore has a responsibility. The old line spouted by Brian Kidd that De Jong is ‘not that type of player’ is insulting to all football fans and just doesn’t wash anymore. We all know that he IS that sort of player and we’ve seen it time and time again from him as we did with Shawcross and Henry.


Moving on, I think the Dutch are being very clever with the whole De Jong incident and I believe it to be mainly an exercise in PR. Following the world cup, Holland were absolutely vilified by the worlds media and by former Dutch greats such as Johan Cruyff for their tactics throughout the whole tournament but especially against Spain in the final. Earning a reputation for being a dirty side is not want the Dutch FA wants, it goes against their footballing legacy and thus I think they realised they needed to act now before it was too late. My guess is that they weren’t too worried about it until now, as if they cared so much why didn’t they drop De Jong for the last round of internationals? His challenge on Xabi Alonso in the World Cup final was infinitely worse than the one on Ben Arfa. To me it’s provided the wake up call to the Dutch who now recognise that they NEED to restore their legacy and reputation with gesture going some way to doing so.


These are just some thoughts… do you agree with me? Let me know what you think…


Tenz

Same old Arsenal

Another game at Stamford Bridge and another defeat, déjà vu was once again in the air. Beaten 2-0, the game was almost a carbon copy of the game last February where we huffed and puffed, dominated possession for most of the 90 minutes but still came away with nothing. That’s not to say that we haven’t progressed since last season, there is no doubt that we are a better team but we just lack that killer instinct in the final third. Considering the players we had missing it’s hard to be too harsh on the lads and sometimes we just have to accept that we were beaten by a better team. I know it’s said time and time again but if Drogba was in our side yesterday then I have no doubt that we would have run out worthy winners.

The first goal was always going to be vital and after two minutes we really should have had it – quite how Koscielny failed to head in from a few yards is beyond me and it was clear in Wenger’s post match interview that this was a source of major frustration to him. We were doing okay for the first thirty minutes, one Drogba chance aside the centre backs were coping well with the Chelsea threat. We were looking dangerous going forward, Arshavin had a few shots well saved and I thought that if we could get to half time without conceding then we would have a chance. The goal was disappointing, Nasri switched off and allowed Cole to get away from him and then Drogba did the inevitable and scored his 13^th goal in 13 games against us. Once that goal went in, it was fairly obvious that Chelsea would sit back, defend solidly and try and catch us on the break. Although we had plenty of possession in the second half, we never really looked like scoring, against an excellent back line; this was where the absence of Fabregas was all too evident. Whether the game would have turned out differently if the little genius was on the pitch is open to debate but the fact is that when we needed that little bit of extra composure and the ability to pick out a final ball, we just simply didn’t have it.

Having thrown JET on for his debut we had to big strikers up front so I was hopeful that we could nick an equaliser but the second goal came shortly after and the game was over. Nasri played a ball straight to Drogba and Koscielny had no choice but to bring him down, at the time I thought it was a sensible decision and worth taking a yellow for. You have to say it was a wonderful free kick from Alex, even though the wall parted like the red sea; I can’t blame them, as if I saw that ball coming towards me the instinct to avoid it would have been far too strong. Whilst the score flattered Chelsea somewhat, the deficiencies in our squad were there for all to see, Arsenal just simply cannot win when we don’t have Fabregas and one wonders what things will be like when he isn’t there permanently.

In goal, apart from one strange attempt to catch a cross, Fabianski played well and looked solid. Basing my judgement on his last two performances I think he should remain in goal when Almunia is fit to return. The centre backs had a difficult day, Squillaci almost gifting Anelka a goal and Koscielny being easily out muscled by Drogba, but on the whole I thought they did okay and they’ll take comfort in the fact that they don’t have to face Chelsea every week. The real plus for me was the performance of Jack Wilshere, as I have said on countless occasions, I prefer to see Jack as the deepest lying midfielder and that’s exactly where he played yesterday. The young lad was composed on the ball and I thought he was our best player; the 18 year old did himself proud especially considering who he was up against. Once again Arshavin went from the sublime to the ridiculous, he gives the ball away so cheaply mainly because he is lazy and has a rather inflated opinion of himself. It’s time for Wenger to flex his muscles and put the Russian on the bench for the next few games and give Rosicky a chance in his place. Chamakh didn’t have a great game but it’s hard when you’re not getting the service but he put in the effort which is the main thing.

So 7 points behind Chelsea already, whilst it’s still early one can’t help but wonder if we are out of the title race already. With our next away game being at Manchester City, it’s crucial that we beat Birmingham after the international break or things could get very worrying indeed.

It’s not all doom and gloom though…at least we don’t support Liverpool!