Tag: RVP

Arsenal ALWAYS have problems with International friendlies

Arsenal are a huge club. This would mean that the players we have are regularly selected to play for their respective countries, and we all know there is usually a full round of friendlies after just a few games into the new season. This is often an extremely sensitive issue for many managers. To allow their players to take the risk of injuries or to hold them back and prevent them from representing their nations is often the huge dilemma for many big club managers. What makes this even worst is that international football are often filled with passion and drive. This means players would give it their all for their nations and the injury risk becomes sky high as a result.

Arsenal are a team that is always a victim from international friendlies. From Van Persie in the past to Walcott and many others presently, Arsenal seem extremely unlucky when it comes to this. So much so that Arsene had to had a talk with Roy Hogdson regarding the issue of Jack Wilshere. What makes it harder is that the players actually want to play for their nations as we all know almost all great players have great moments for their countries. This means many of our superstars building their footballing legacy would want to represent their nation.

So, the question is do we let them go or do we hold them back like Sir Alex did to Giggs and Scholes?

My take is that we do not hold them back for friendlies. However, we must remember the fact that friendlies are essentially pointless unlike the tournaments qualifications. Thus, as much as we allow our players to go for them, we should limit it as well. One in two seems reasonable to me.

What do you guys think?

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Arsenal Review – Great chance missed at Utd but pretty good week

So after what was a very good week of football for the Gunners with two very important wins against fellow Premier League contenders Liverpool, and Champions’ League group rivals Borussia Dortmund respectively; it all turned down to Manchester United on Sunday at Old Trafford, but unfortunately we couldn’t produce the same sort of result and bowed out in a 1-0 defeat.

The result was perhaps not entirely fair because it was a game of two halves. Manchester United had the first half in the bag as Arsenal struggled to produce any real effort on goal, whilst we were also quite prone to becoming worried when United were on the attack. However it was a completely different game in the second half and at some stage Arsenal had 68 per cent position compared to United’s 32. However percentages do not win you games because at the end of the day, our opposition was clinical on one set piece chance, coming from ex-Gunner and seemingly public enemy number one Robin Van Persie, compared to Arsenal who had several chances in the second half which because of a few players we failed to really take advantage of.

Bendtner was one player who had a fantastic chance, as did Gibbs and most notably Giroud, who could have had a decent crack at goal on several attempts. Our midfield was really missing from the game as the trio of Ozil, Cazorla and Ramsey failed to perform. Sagna was on his game as was Gibbs and I thought Vermaelen did relatively well after being thrown into the mix with Mertesacker’s absence.

The thing that has made this defeat all the more annoying is the fact that elsewhere in the league the results were so good for Arsenal. Chelsea’s draw and defeats for Spurs and City respectively put Arsenal in a pole position to extend the lead even further however we couldn’t take advantage and instead Liverpool are just two points behind the Gunners now.

The thing is, although it’s disappointing to lose to United when we were so confident that we could finally take some points away from Old Trafford, at the end of the day, it’s not all over because we still lead in the premier League and I think the wins against Dortmund and Liverpool were more important that against United.

Now we have the international break, before returning to Premier League action with Southampton. The Saints are sitting nicely in 3rd place so again it’s a very tough test for the Gunners, however it’s vital that we knock them back and in fact pick ourselves back up because otherwise we could start to see what so many people see of the inevitable decline.

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Should Arsenal be more concerned about the dark side of Suarez?

It’s occurred to me that the majority of Arsenal fans are very keen on signing Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, after reports over the last few weeks have suggested that Arsenal have bid twice for the Uruguayan striker. Both bids have been made public by the Liverpool management team of Rodgers, Ayre and Henry, all choosing to voice their opinion on the matter but something has crept up to my attention.

Before a team is linked with a player, that player is either hated out of jealousy, if he is a good player, or just isn’t mentioned because he’s fairly average and in fact nobody cares. If you then link this player to a club, speculating a transfer could happen, in the majority of cases the fans will suddenly start to lap at his feet and this whole scenario has happened with Luis Suarez, although I believe to a great extent.

Arsenal fans seem to have forgotten all about his controversial years not just in England but in Holland with Ajax as well. Not only did he force his way out of the Dutch club, but there was also a biting incident there as well and it’s one of the major factors that show his controversial nature. Before the link everyone hated him, we all wanted him to leave Liverpool and the Premier League but now we are linked with him everyone’s keen on the striker and begging for Liverpool to let him go!

Pair this with an air of desperation from the Arsenal fans because we are yet to spend any money, and suddenly we find ourselves praising Suarez, comparing him to RVP and although I don’t doubt that he has unreal talent, people just seem to be forgetting that he has a bad attitude, controversial nature and also that he will be banned for the first 6 games of the season!

I just want to say, that I do recognise Suarez as a massive talent and for Arsenal to sign him it should really boost our chances, but it’s just come to my attention that everyone seems to be forgetting the nature of the player we are really signing. The player that hits the headlines for his controversies rather than his footballing talent.

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