The first week of the Premier League began in earnest on Saturday and Sunday and I made a few random observations. Just like the way Arsenal put 6 past Blackpool, Bolton showed QPR that the Premier League can be very harsh for newbies. Liverpool’s draw against Sunderland showed me that a sum total of £106m in midfield and attack wasn’t still good enough to get 3 points, Aston Villa proved to the World why they still hold the Premier League record for the highest number of draws (17) starting with the first day, Chelsea’s draw against Stoke Rugby FC was a reminder that the Britannia Stadium still remains a fortress for the Rugby lot and Manchester United’s win against West Brom showed that character that has brought Sir Fergie 12 league titles.
Arsenal began its Premier League campaign with a stalemate against Newcastle and it was a perfect result for me because it showed Wenger that playing without creative midfielders like Fabregas and Nasri all season long would be disastrous to Arsenal FC. If Arsenal won on Saturday, Wenger would have said this in his post-match interview.
“The team had showed character and I was impressed with the efforts of Ramsey and Rosicky. There might not be any need to another midfielder after all.”
Rosicky can’t score a goal even if his life depended on it and Ramsey still has a long way to go if he aims to be at Wilshere’s current level and a consistent run of games will get him there but Arsenal is a very injury prone squad so one extra attacking midfielder is needed. Wilshere played 3,817 minutes for Arsenal last season but he hasn’t played a Premier League minute this season because…….he’s injured.
Speaking of injuries, Arsenal just suffered a bad knee cruciate ligament injury because the club and Barcelona have agreed a deal for Cesc Fabregas. Wenger said,
“We have been clear that we didn’t want Cesc to leave and that remains the case. We thank Cesc for his contribution at Arsenal.”
“We understand Cesc’s desire to move to his home town club and have now accepted an offer from Barcelona.”
The unit working for the media Vultures whose sole aim was to write about the Fabregate Saga will have to be dissolved because there’ll be no more El Capitan news for them in England. They’ll probably resurrect back to life when Platini fixes up another meeting between Arsenal and Barcelona in this season’s Champions League semifinal and I’ll do with another famous ‘backheel’ from Fabregas and I hope that a tendon in Victor Valdes’ finger would be ruptured from an evil free kick by RVP then the ref of the day would give David Villa a red card (second yellow) after he cleared the ball angrily when he was caught offside.
I know what you’re thinking, Karma is a bitch.
Arsenal’s legendary right back, Lee Dixon has urged Wenger to sign replacements for Fabregas and Nasri and he doesn’t have to give Wenger any specific name because the media Vultures have their summer wish list for Arsenal’s manager.
They are back with tales involving defensive messiahs and the name Jagielka has popped up again. The experienced centre back recently dismissed claims of him joining Arsenal but the media Vultures say that Arsenal has renewed its bid for Philly the defensive Jag of all trades. I was very impressed with Laurent Koscielny’s performance against Newcastle and the lad has done well to hit the gym to gain some meat. The Koscielny that got a red card at Anfield in August 2010 is way skinnier than the Koscielny that played with Vermaelen on Saturday and his physique will go a long way in shoving off the threat of bullies like Kenwyne Jones, Nikola Zigic and the chief bully of English football, Didier Drogba. With Djourou and Squillaci somewhere in the mix, it would be interesting to know where Wenger would place Jagielka if/when he signs him.
Moving up the pitch, the media Vultures have labeled two short footballers as the likely replacements for Fab. The first is so short, Lionel Messi, Andrei Arshavin and Diego Maradona could look at him and chuckle with pride, his name is Marvin Martin and he’s a superstar in the Ligue 1 where he plies his trade for Sochaux. A few weeks back, I wrote a piece on the chap and he’ll be a decent buy for Arsenal because his passing range as well as his technique will be essential in Arsenal’s dynamic midfield. Let’s not forget that he’s French and Arsenal’s manager hardly says no to a compatriot.
The Wenger that bought French superstars like Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and Sylvain Wiltord also bought calamities like Pascal Cygan, Jeremie Aliaderie, Mikael Silvestre and Sebastien Squillaci.
The other short player linked with a move to Arsenal is a player that Wenger openly stated that he wasn’t going to make a move for…Shakhtar’s Jadson. Both players are technically astute and will add depth to the team. They may not start week in week out but they could be used as impact subs when the chips are down. When Arsenal played Newcastle on Saturday, there was no player on the bench that was good enough to replace TR7 and Ramsey. Frimpong came in to hold the fort and Djourou was summoned to steady the defensive ship.
Like van Persie, Rosicky is not a player that can assure you of being fit all season long so it’ll be important that Wenger heeds to Dixon and every concerned gooners advice to replace Fabregas and Nasri but if I’m Wenger, I’ll keep Nasri against his will, use him for the entire season then let him go for free to Manchester City if they still need him. If things go on well, he might want to renew his deal but he needs to be around to reach the point where he’ll decide to sign a new deal or not because Fabregas’ exit certainly means that the attacking midfield role would be his to lose.
Arsenal is in Forbes’ list as one of the richest clubs in World football so I don’t know what £22m will do for the club’s destiny or ambition. Arsenal has already lived up to its tag as a ‘selling club’ by letting its best player leave for peanuts so it would be very unfortunate if Wenger sells Nasri to a club that would face his team in the Premier League, FA Cup, Carling Cup and potentially the Champions League but I’m just a writer sharing my thoughts with gooners and football lovers alike. If Wenger sells Nasri, I’ll have no choice but to write about it and I’m 100% certain that I will not write another tribute for Nasri because I wrote a special tribute for him on his birthday on the 26th of June, 2011.
When Arsenal visited St. James Park on Saturday, there was an incident that change the outlook of the game. Gervinho ran with the ball and was fouled in the box. The ref wasn’t impressed so he waved play-on. While he was backing Gervinho, a certain volatile brawler popped up from nowhere and dragged Gervinho up like a school kid he was trying to bully and Gervinho returned the favor by grabbing his shirt too. Players crowded the scene and Gervinho swung his hands at the other players direction to release himself from the man’s evil grasp but the player performed a stunt Tom Cruise couldn’t even think of doing. A very theatrical dive that made the ref’s decision easy. The ref brandished a red to Gervinho and booked the Nazi. He’s simply known as Joey Hitler.
Shortly after the game, Hitler admitted that he went down to easily and even had the time to write a thing or two on Twitter,
“@Joey7barton: “I went down easy, no doubt. Still, you can’t raise your hands… What do I have to gain by standing and trading with him?”
If he didn’t get involved in the first place, Gervinho would have finished the game and probably might have scored a debut goal. Hitler didn’t keep his Nazi mouth shut and he had this to say,
“Standing and defending myself has only got me in trouble before. What do you want me to do, hit him back? Or hope the ref keeps him on [the pitch]? If he doesn’t dive then the incident doesn’t happen. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten involved, but diving and trying to win a penalty is s***. Needs stamping out.
“I train all summer to have him cheat us out of a hard-earned point? It’s not on. Diving should be a three-game ban. Respect the game. If there’s contact, go down – but don’t blatantly try to con the ref. Refs have it hard enough.”
This is a player that was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment for assault but he didn’t serve it completely. He then came back to his club and assaulted a fellow teammate Ousmanne Dabo and served another jail term. Yet he has the nerve to uttler all these words. The fact that he’s pleading guilty won’t make Gervinho’s ban to be revoked even if Wenger has told the media Vultures that he’s going to appeal against it.
Wenger won many trophies in his first 9 years at Arsenal but has gone through a drought in his last six and it has really been difficult for him because the fans have lambasted him and barraged him with questions regarding his predicament with the ‘when are you going to sign a new player’ question as their favorite.
There were days when I joined the bandwagon to show my disappointment but after reading this brilliant article by Gary Neville, my perspective about the issue has changed and I urge every gooner to click on the link.
If you’re not cool with the link enclustered with words,
Because its a must-read.
The fact that it was written by a footballer that played for Arsenal’s rivals, Manchester United all his life is more touching so no sentiment was attached to it. instead of laying emphasis on everything Mr. Neville wrote, I’ll end this post with the best quotes from the article.
“So they haven’t won a trophy for six years? Well, Manchester United went 26 years without winning the league, Liverpool have now gone 21 years without the title and Manchester City went 35 years without winning a trophy. Tottenham have gone 50 years without winning the league”
“I grew up as a United fan in the 70’s and 80’s when the club won three trophies in 20 years.
It’s not easy. Sometimes you have cycles where trophies are hard to come by. What you don’t do is panic when you have the right manager.”
“Look at Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey and the opportunities that exist for them. Wilshere has already seized his chance and now Ramsey also has the opportunity to become a top player at a top club. If you asked Arsene Wenger whether he would like to sign one or two players before the end of the transfer window, then I’m sure he would say: ‘Absolutely.’ But if you’re asking me if he should rush in a panic and spend £30m, I would say not only that he shouldn’t, but also that I don’t think he would do that. And if I were an Arsenal fan, I would support him in that.”
“Could any other manager have extracted more from those players and been able to draw so many young players through to the top level and create such a great team for so little money? The answer is there is only one other man who has done that in the Premier League.”
Finally, my quote of the day.
“Gary Neville: Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for”
For all those gooners that “want Wenger’s head on a plate”,
He who’s without sin
Please cast the first stone
Sayonara
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