Hello, hello. I’ve got a quick Olympiacos preview for you today and some chat about Arsene Wenger’s unwillingness to spend money before the anticipated unexpected return of the Arsenal FC Weekly podcast.
We of course host Greek side Olympiacos in the Champions League tonight at the Emirates in a game where three points will be expected. I don’t think many people would disagree that our overall performance at Fulham on Saturday was not good enough despite the win and I believe the manager and the fans will want to see better from the Arsenal boys tonight.
Unfortunately the team news going into the match-up is not good. Nicklas Bendtner has been confirmed as unable to play until the weekend after sustaining minor injuries in a car accident. Meanwhile Denilson has received the rather bizarre news that he has fractured his back and will be out for another two months. I seem to remember Gilberto Silva sustaining the same injury as Denilson a few seasons back, so perhaps geneticists should be taking a look into whether weak spinal chords are more prevalent in Brazilian defensive-midfielders. Or something.
The point is that neither player will feature against Olympiacos and they are joined by Theo Walcott who is apparently set for a run-out against an Olympiacos reserve-team. I’ve never heard of a Champions League reserve game but if it gives Walcott the run-out he needs to get back to first-team football then I’m all for it.
As I said before Olympiacos at home should be a relatively comfortable three points and a good opportunity to rotate a couple of our underperforming or tired players. I’d like to see a couple of Kieran Gibbs, Emmanuel Eboue, Thomas Rosicky, Aaron Ramsey and Eduardo come into the side and it certainly wouldn’t be the worst idea to give a very tired looking Cesc Fabregas a rest. Meanwhile Hero of the Minute Vito Mannone will start again in goals and I think it’s going to be interesting to see how he backs up from his sensational performance at Fulham.
Moving away from the Olympiacos game and Arsene Wenger has reiterated yet again that he’s happy with the current squad despite the fact that he has significant money to spend on players if he wants it. In his own words he said:
“There is money to spend, but at the moment I am very happy with the squad I have. It’s not because I’m against spending money, I have nothing against spending money. But I do not spend money because out of (the) squad is Nasri, Walcott, Bendtner. If by December we need to buy someone to add to the squad I will do it. Success on the pitch is the most important by far, but success on the pitch cannot be maintained if you are in financial trouble.”
By and large he’s right, but I am still of the opinion that the squad could do with another Alex Song-like player to provide quality back-up. Denilson fans will say that he can do the job, while there is also the feeling that Wenger sees Samir Nasri as capable of doing the job but with both players currently out with fractures and Song away for the African Cup of Nations in January I still feel we’re a little short.
Anyway, that’s that for the visual part of today’s post – now it’s time to tickle your auditory senses via the return of the Arsenal FC Weekly podcast.
This week I’m joined on the podcast by Jamie Sanderson from Young Guns in Part One to discuss the Carling Cup win over West Brom as well as Arsenal’s start to the season, while in Part Two Jammathon from Third Gen and discuss the 1-0 win over Fulham, Vito Mannone’s performance and why everybody seems to hate Abou Diaby.
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Cheers and here’s to three points over the Greeks!
Have your say on everything Arsenal by leaving a comment.
“If by December we need to buy someone to add to the squad I will do it. Success on the pitch is the most important by far, but success on the pitch cannot be maintained if you are in financial trouble.
Look at the two last players we bought – Arshavin and Vermaelen. We have spent money. When we bought Vermaelen was he a big name? Certainly not because nobody knew him.”
rest of the Wenger quote. They probably wanted to finalise the refinancing of the loan before spending, which occurred after august.
even on a bad day diaby pisses all over denilsong
Great podcast! looking forward to contributing 🙂
Haha Andy, no guts. I was one of two idiots left at the pub on Sunday night.. I was in the cab on the way home going “why is the sun coming up, this is odd.” Awful, awful. Thank goodness the next match is a 10:30 kickoff Brisbane time.
Now it’s all good Arsenal announcing these record profits. The problem though is Arsenal may have just kicked themselves right up the arse! Of course the Arsenal board are probably feeling very smug sitting on their throne of world-record breaking profits but I reckon they have just released a time-bomb that could go off next May. If, at the end of this campaign, Arsenal do not achieve success for another year then there could be a lot of Gooners going more mental. After the stadium move I knew things would be tighter. There have been grumbles from disgruntled Gooners over the lack of spending by the gaffer in the past. Now we know that he has got money to spend there will be many questions as to why he hasn’t spent it to improve our squad. I know Wenger believes in this squad even more than The Darkness believe in love but over the course of a long campaign it may become a little stretched. The quality is there. But I’d be a little happier knowing there was more quantity, with quality, too. I actually thinks it’s great we have a manager that cares about the future of the club and that Wenger will not skint us out but others won’t see it like that. When you look at the money others spend then it can be hard to not feel frustrated when we never seem to use ours! And we need to use it for the right reasons! We all know that football fans have a short fuse.
@ Panda – Heh heh, I bet you’re still happy you stayed though. I was quite happy getting up on Sunday morning and watching it with Annie and Otter.
Vitooooooo!
@ beast from the east – I wonder what Tom14 would say to that. I’ll hold my tongue for now though..
The thing is Wenger should have bought a top class striker and holding midfielder and maybe keeper we arethree players short of a great team hope Vito Mannone gets a run of games as i am not convinced about Almunia at all would put Vermalin as holding midfielder and play either song or senderos with Gallas there has been no protection from midfield for the defence everyone can see our weekness its midfield
@ otter – Thank you. Your voice will be a welcome addition in next week’s pod. It might wake a few male listeners out of their morning drudgery 😉
Just in response to your headline – No everybody doesn’t hate Diaby! He’s an extremely talented midfielder who lacks consistency, but on his day remains one of the most promising players in the world. Look at his age, do you think he’s the finished article. He has been a better player than Walcott – but no-one berates him.
Fingers Crossed…
@ jack – Excellent to hear it. On the pod, James and I talk about the fact that there seems to be a bit of a hate-fest about him on most of the blogs. I certainly don’t hate him and neither does James, so it’s good to see other people actually feel the same way! 😀
by now, we all shold have known that AW will not open up to say if he wld be buying anybody or not so that all the hawks wld not disrupt his plan. But i am sure with the imminent departure of SOng & Eboue to the African Nations cup in January, he might just be bringing in 1 or 2 more players in dat wondow. He wouldnt want to repeat the mistake of Lassana Diarra….all the same, the team has matured and i see them grinding out more Fulham results. I wld want them to win ugly than loose beautifully….this is what seperates us from the other big 4 teams…
Yes, I believe Denilson can do the job. I am not really his friend, but i guess arsenal misses him and especially cesc fabregas. Remember the first couple of games when denilson is available and playing alongside cesc and song. Cesc was literally able to show his skills and vision without having to care about defending.
When denilson was around for the man utd game, we played very well still, even though we lost. In the Ever since denilson is sidelined, we have lost 4-2 to city, liege have score against us and things like this.
Diaby is not a capable player to fill the boots of denilson. He is way over rated. He is slow in his gameplay, holds the ball for too long, and dribbles too much. He is not ronaldo or messi, his legs are quick enough. He does not have the vision as cesc or arshavin, his passes are either too light or too heavy and he loses the ball way too frequently. Worst of all, though he is tall and he scores OWN GOALS!!! He literally gave man utd 3 points during that match. He is injury prone and simply saying, he is a jinx. The only good point he brings to arsenal is his once-in-a-while brillance and his low wages. Hopefully wenger wakes up his idea and realises that no matter where diaby is played, he is a failure and sell him asap. Diaby to me only has the skills to make it at cardiff, milwall, sheffield or birmingham. He is just another over rated asshole that needs to get shipped out asap.
In actual fact, i can tell that wenger is planning to convert nasri into a DM. Nasri has joined us for only a year, and he is a talent and no doubt wenger would want to keep him. He can play on the left of the attack but we already have Arshavin, Eduardo, Rosicky, Wilsher and even Vela. On the right of attack we have Bendtner, Eboue, Wilshere, Walcott and even rosicky. In the cesc’s role, Nasri can definitely play there, however, ramsey and rosicky would be the preferred choice in wenger’s opinion. And lets not forget we have merida, traore and lansbury. So whats left of nasri. The answer is a DM.
Nasri has mentioned that he dont mind playing defensively, because he actually enjoys it. Imagine nasri becoming someone like andrea pirlo, that would be world class. Nasri alongside Song and Denilson would definitely compliment cesc fabregas very well. Denilson, Song and Nasri can all attack and defence better than the useless abou diaby. But we need denilson and nasri to be back asap, and probably in 2 months time, both would have recovered from their injuries. Hopefully by that time, we are still in the hunt for the EPL glory. And YES, hopefully abou diaby does not crash all the fans’ dream by dribbling and losing the ball too often.
Regarding song being away on the ANC, it does not matter much if denilson and nasri are back, as both could cover song’s job for that one month. Seriously i think we are frightening strong. Its just that sometimes wenger’s selection buffles me. Just like why does he keep sticking to that asshole abou diaby is still a mystery.
I don’t know what is good from the name of Diaby, but I surely know that Diaby is’nt good for the squad. I thought it is because we don’t have so much choice on the player. Merida is on country duty; Rosicky just get back from long-injury and i’m sure wenger does’nt want to gamble on him; eduardo is a striker; nasri is injured; unless wenger likes to play wilshere or Van Persie on the left while bendtner at the center then Diaby can be dropped. But tonight Bendtner isn’t able to play while Wenger doesn’t want to play Eduardo at the center cause tonight seems more like a physical match against olympiacos.
I agree with Jack because for me Walcott is far more aggravating than Diaby and for me at best a substitute NEVER EVER a starter. He could be another 5 or 6 million we can bank with no loss to the team. Diaby has talent – frustrating at times to say the least but .. sometimes he is awesome. For me the real problem with him is concentration and I have to ask why this has not been coached out of him or that a minder has not been assigned such as Vermalen to constantly nag him when necessary. Perhaps there is some other way but surely no-one can argue that Diaby does not have great talent. Hopefully we are a team and other team members should be helping out – not every player can be perfection all the time and others need to help, encourage and cajole when a mistake is made. I don’t see enough encouragement when an error is made – no-one is deliberately making an error and everyone needs an encouragement at times. I have a major major personal dislike of Eboue but at times he does the hard work and then screws up particularly in front of goal with a slash at the ball or horrible pass. Why is no-one just indicating to him – calm down enjoy the moment – many times just a solid connection is all required not trying to split the ball. Excuses such as he’s a defensive player etc is rubbish – he is a pro and should be able to strike a ball decently more times than scuffing or slashing.
@ Damn_Gallas – I don’t really think not liking Diaby warrants calling him an ‘asshole’. You’ve made some fair criticisms but we may as well get behind the players that are playing for our club.
I understand the call for patience with Diaby as he is the sort of player who can pull off a moment of sheer brilliance when you least expect it – eg Villa away last year.
However, I think the Arsenal fans want him out of the side would feel that they have been patient with him for a long time now. Diaby has been given countless first team opportunities that in truth he has done little to justify deserving. He has been treated as a first team player for a long time now but delivers once in three months. You get the impression that other players battling to play in that midfield would not be afforded the same lack of consistency and it appears as though Diaby gets preferential treatment.
I personally feel that Diaby has all the attributes to be a fantastic player. He reminds me of Cristiano Ronaldo when he first moved to United – there was no end product, he lost the ball a lot or held onto it for too long; his decision making just wasn’t right. If Diaby can make the same progress in terms of knowing when to pass, when to go on a run, when to release the ball quickly, we’ll have one hell of a midfielder on our hands. But until then something has to happpen to unlock all of the potential he undoubtedly possesses.
This is something I meant to add to today’s post about Diaby but completely forgot – for all of the criticism of Diaby’s apparently ‘woeful’ passing against Fulham the statistics told a completely different story.
I used the Guardian’s chalkboard to check his actual passing accuracy and the results:
Complete passes – 27
Incomplete passes – 1
Very interesting in my opinion.
Chelsea haven’t spent anywhere near 80 million in a very long time. As Abramovich is getting more bored, less money is being made available fro transfers.
That’s not even talking about in which state they will be once he fucks off. There’s a very real chance that they’ll be left with a squad of an average age of over 30 and little to no money to build a new squad (and that’s not the worst case scenario, might I add).
Man City is a very special case, nobody can compete with their spending power – whether you have a sugar daddy or not. Do you believe that Usmanov would be in a position to pump 100 million pounds for transfers into the club every year? Abramovich could afford that for 2 years, that was it.
What those examples should show us is that self-sustainability and a world class academy is the only way we can compete with clubs like Man City long term.
Andy,
What’s Diaby’s stat. on “lost possession”? Much more significant I would think!!!
I wonder all the time how you all can judge the single players like this, I’m impressed, really, I’m not able to judge like this
andy im sorry but ur way off if you think diaby gave away the ball once in the 90 mins…if he has ever gone 10mins having just givin it away once il be amazed…if i were mid sub watching him every game id be thinking wot the hell i hav to do to get my chance and will i get the same benefit of doubt that this guy has got for,what, 103 games now…i dont like criticising our lads but i know hel play toni and give the ball away at least 10 times…noi doubt
for me vela,merida,ramsey,gibbs and eduardo all need to get a game toni..
and almunia should not be reinstated when he is back fit because if he had been in sat wed hav lost 3/4-1…as youv already stated andy the last arsenal keeper to make 6+ fine stops was lehman nearly FOUR years ago when the likes of given,green,james,van der sar,cech and reina hav been doing this far more often for their teams..im actually tired of sayin it now and this is not being bad or anti-almunia on a personal level but its high time EVERY1 got real bout how good and reliable he is….he had 1 good game vs utd in his time with us,the rest are average or littered with inconsistency…in my opinion his performance against barca in the CL final should hav served as a wake up call to AW with the 2 most basic of goalkeeping errors you can ever make,but IMO the boss wanted to pull another from obscurity and has been desperate to prove he hasnt made an error when its obvious almunia couldnt get a game at his AVERAGE spanish club for a reason….quite simply we should put our faith in the young mannone who has already showed more ability in vital areas; reactions and decision making most notably,as i wouild rather see him make errors than the concrete-footed,self-second guesser almunia as mannone can learn from these and with him they would be just errors…not lack of ability on a weekly basis
Wenger is right. If need arises then there wont be any choice left but to acquire a back up. But then the current squad is just in good form. A few injuries should not send panic through and through. Anyway, a 3-0 against Olympiacos is inevitable.
Put me on the Diaby hate-wagon. Yes he’s talented, but bugger me the lack of consistency and laziness means he isn’t worth waiting for. He offers less than Song or Denil, and he is yet to put in the effort. Move him on please.
I do not hate Diaby. He add something to the team. I believe that in the right position and at his own moment he is very good. Also, he is very calm in front of goal which is a good quality.
I do believe in the technicality of Arsene but the only problem he has is that he only considers players on the pitch, he doesnot care about back-ups. Regarding today’s match,I think our guns must do everything to make sure that we win because I donot think it will be easy when we are away to them.I wanted to see walcot’s come back to day but I have been shocked by the news of his absence. Anyway we must gun them down today.
I think we thrash greekers .In my opinion Arsene should bring a Defensive midfielder on january.A person some what like”VIN DIESEL” OR “WILL SMITH” we Really needed a steal in the midfield.
Come on GUNNERS……….
we should not blame media for their hypocrisy or hatred towards arsenal when our own arsenal family members so called fans can do the job even better i believe the witch hunt against diaby,almunia and bendtner etc is far worse than the media’s. before booing and slaging our own players we should keep one thing in mind it wont help them at all insted it’ll crush their confidence and belief in thereselves.please lets back the lads after all they are all our own..
i read this blog probably 3 times a day, good job guys. keep up the good work. but i still fail to understand why ppl call for a “quality backup”. there is no way a quality DMF is going to come to our club and sit on the bench until Song is injured. the same thing applies to a Quality CB.
i think the problem with diaby is 2 fold. he is a talented player but dreadfully inconsistant and that is my main issue with him, the inconsistancy i think it stems from the ammount of time he spends injured. no seriously he hasnt developed as quickly as others cause of theamount of time he has been out.
secondly he is disliked so much because our first team choices are injured so much, so he has become a first team choice when really he is a squad player at his point of development, his flaws are exposed.
so my channel has stopped again, I couldn’t see much, nearly the second half at least, late goals, van Persies I saw in a repetition, seemed do be perfectly played out, sometimes you could blame Arsenal with: they want to carry the ball into the net, there it seemed to have succeeded! and typical play from the Greec, so far I know them from their national side, a wall in defensive play, second goal from Arsha seemed to be offside, but I have a bad view at my channel, so I can only feel it, doesn’t really matter, the important ‘casus Knacksus’ was the first, I guess, the wall began to crumble then, and I assume that it ended 2:0, don’t mind me, I have to report immediately after the match, now it’s your turn, good night
A really nice win this morning from the lads. The goals took a while to come but we were in complete control and the patience shown to keep playing our own way was evident.
I simply do not understand why there are idiots who think that Diaby is a good and talented player. Good at what? Giving the ball away? Simply the worst player since Arsene arrived to Arsenal, he is a piece of shit.
Fanner be a little more patient with him and you will be glad you did.
Thank you very much guys,i mean the ones who commented on Diaby.The guy is immensely talented and has some fancy footwork,but that is as far as it goes.The demerits-he holds the ball unnecessarily,tackles badly,a bad passer of the ball and never covers for his team mates,i say these to a lot of people but think am hard on him,but this blog confirms what i have said all long.Interestingly i pointed the same about Adebayor very early on and it came to pass and unless Diaby changes he is on his way out!!
Editorial Myspace 2009 “Steveo Stevo Being distroyed by UK Television” XFacta the media some bizarre Issues distribution I am sorry for such big caterlogue of to be scheduled for manufature of Some Bizzare Label 1981 -2011 the Some Bizzare 30th anniversary,… Arsenal are currently celebrating the 125th anniversary
The Some Bizzare Version
The bad guys… win, when good guys fail to act.
BBC 2010 histroy of electronic music of the early eighties no mention of Stevo or Some Bizzare wipe us from BBC Sky TV “Try” the history book
Editorial Myspace 2009 “Steveo Stevo Being distroyed by UK Television” Some Bizzare Label 1981 -2011 the Some Bizzare 30th anniversary,… Arsenal are currently celebrating the 125th anniversary
The Some Bizzare Version
The bad guys… win, when good guys fail to act.