Monthly Archives: August 2015
Newcastle 0-1 Arsenal: Super Signing ‘Own Goal’ Does it Again
Newcastle 0 – Arsenal 1 (Coloccini o.g. 52′)
Match Report – Match Highlights – Post-Match Press Conference (via Arsenal.com)
After playing the last game of the previous week, the FA, in their infinite wisdom, decided that Arsenal was going to open the proceedings this week with an away fixture against Newcastle. Steve McClaren’s side was still buzzing after securing a priceless point at Old Trafford and I wondered whether Tim Krul was going to continue his heroics against the Gunners.
It didn’t take long before Krul picked up where he left off, making a close save from Theo Walcott, that had started in place of Olivier Giroud. The game was cagey affair but it was meant to spring to life when Hector Bellerin was clearly impeded in the box. For some strange reason, the ref turned a deaf ear to Arsenal’s appeals for a penalty and the game progressed. The ref was under the spotlight again when Aleksandr Mitrovic stamped on Francis Coquelin, and without thinking twice Andre Marriner brandished a red card to the Serbian forward.
With the home side losing a man, McClaren adjusted his tactics for his side to play really deep and they did their bit to smother the Gunners and deny them any space whatsoever. A window of opportunity arrived when Alexis Sanchez fired a shot that was parried by Krul, Walcott used his blistering pace to get to the ball but his shin lofted the ball over the bar, much to the dismay of the Arsenal faithful watching the game. By his huge standards, that was some miss.
From then on, the game had an erratic feel about it, with the Gunners wasteful in possession and playing without any urgency, despite having the numerical advantage. The breakthrough finally arrived early in the second half when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain fired a shot that was deflected into the net by Newcastle’s skipper, Fabrizio Coloccini. Own Goal has been a vital signing for the Gunners these days, scoring winning goals against Crystal Palace and now, Newcastle.
Ox would have had another chance to make it two when Nacho Monreal provided a superb cut back but he failed to get the ball under control.
Wenger made a couple of substitutions to alter the flow of the game but in the end, Arsenal went back to North London with three points in the bag, as well as propelling up fifth place in the table. From an attacking standpoint, the game was a disappointment for Arsene Wenger’s side as they failed to provide any cutting edge to put Newcastle to the sword. Yes, the Magpies defended really deep but there were moments when the Gunners should have at least, let one rip from distance but they stuck to their intricate passing philosophy and that didn’t reap much fruit.
Another talking point would be that blatant penalty that was denied by the referee. The standard of officiating in the Premier League keeps dropping with each passing season but that would go down as one of the key decisions that would have turned the game on its head.
However, I’m grateful for three valuable points and the Gunners can go into the international break feeling much better about themselves.
Sayonara.
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Reviewing Arsenal’s Opponents in the Champions League Group Stages
Arsenal vs. Bayern… an interesting prospect
With the qualifiers done and dusted, it was time for the UEFA officials to go through the process of the draws and as you’d expect, it was an occasion that was graced by football figureheads and dignitaries from all over the world. In the end, 32 of Europe’s finest were paired into eight groups as shown on the table below.
Final Champions League Draw
| Group | TEAMS | |||
| A | Paris St. Germain | Real Madrid | Shakhtar Donetsk | Malmo SK |
| B | PSV Eindhoven | Manchester United | CSKA Moscow | VFL Wolfsburg |
| C | SL Benfica | Atletico Madrid | Galatasaray SK | Astana |
| D | Juventus | Manchester City | Sevilla | Borussia Monchengladbach |
| E | FC Barcelona | Bayer 04 Leverkusen | AS Roma | BATE Borisov |
| F | Bayern Munich | Arsenal | Olympiakos Piraeus | Dynamo Zagreb |
| G | Chelsea | FC Porto | Dinamo Kiev | Maccabi Tel Aviv |
| H | Zenit St. Petersburg | Valencia | Olympique Lyonnais | Gent |
Group D has been widely regarded as the ‘Group of Death’ (there’s always a group of death every season but it’s never cliche) and it’s going to be very interesting to see how Manchester City performs in Europe this season. Despite being juggernauts in the Premier League, Manuel Pellegrini’s side are perennial underachievers in this competition and they would be hoping to strive for greatness this season.
Of all the English sides, Chelsea has the easiest run-in but Manchester United has tricky opponents in the forms of VFL Wolfsburg, PSV Eindhoven and CSKA Moscow.
How about the Gunners? For the past five seasons, Arsene Wenger and his squad haven’t gotten the hurdle of the first knockout round, losing twice to Barcelona and Bayern before AS Monaco added to the team’s embarrassment. This season, Arsenal will lock horns against three teams to earn a right to play in the knockout stages yet again.
Here’s a quick review of the Gunner’s opponents.
Dynamo Zagreb (Croatia)
The Croatian outfit has had many great exports to the footballing world in recent times with the likes of Luka Modric, Eduardo da Silva, Alen Halilovic and Mateo Kovacic coming to mind but the current crop of players aren’t household names even though the likes of Angelo Henriquez (bought from Manchester United) and playmaker, Paulo Machado, are worth mentioning. Machado joined the club last season, bringing with him a wealth of experience garnered from his days at FC Porto and Olympiakos.
Dinamo Zagreb are currently leading the MAXtv Prva Liga with 13 points after seven games, with Zoran Mamic’s side winning three games and drawing four. Most of the goals this season have come from Armin Hodzic (six goals already) so the Gunners would have to be mindful about the threat the striker would pose. The young Bosnian actually began his career at Liverpool but he failed to make the grade before he was shipped out to Zagreb.
Cesc Fabregas scoring Dinamo Zagreb in 2006
Arsenal and Dinamo have met a long while ago in the Group Stages of the 2006/07 Champions League campaign. Goals from Cesc Fabregas (brace) and Robin van Persie gave the Gunners a resounding 3-0 win in the Maksimir Stadium and in the second leg, Freddie Ljungberg and Mathieu Flamini scored the goals that handed the Gunners a 2-1 victory. Dinamo’s only goal of the night was scored by a certain Eduardo da Silva, who would become a Gunner the next summer.
Dinamo Zagreb would be regarded as the whopping boys of the group.
Olympiakos Piraeus (Greece)
Olympiakos won the Greek Super League for the fifth year in a row, edging out fierce rivals, Panathinaikos, with a massive 12 points. They also won the Greek Cup after defeating Skoda Xanthi, making it another ‘double’ campaign. Konstantinou Mitroglou smashed in 19 goals for his team, after a disappointing spell at Fulham.
Despite the fact that Olympiakos had a stellar campaign in his domestic league, the Greek giants had a torrid time in Europe – first of all, missing out of qualification to the knockout round after finishing third behind Atletico Madrid and Juventus but they were afforded a chance to continue their campaign in the Europa League. Olympiakos didn’t even go beyond their first hurdle in the second-tier European competition, losing to eventual finalists, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
Vito Mannone’s legendary blunder against Olympiakos
This season, Olympiakos has began the campaign with a 3-0 win Panionios, as they look to pick up where they left off last season. They are very familiar with playing against Arsenal, as both sides have played six times with the Gunners winning their three games at home and the Greek side beating the Gunners in the Karaiskakis Stadium. This would give the Greeks some measure of confidence knowing that they’ve always beaten Arsene Wenger’s side whenever they visit Athens.
Olympiakos would be sure-fire favorites to make the Europa League slot in the group.
FC Bayern Munich (Germany)
Bayern Munich would be among the favorites to win the big eared trophy they last won in 2013 under Jupp Heynckes but since Pep Guardiola took over, the Bavarians have been very unfortunate, losing in two semifinals against Spanish opponents – Real Madrid two seasons ago and FC Barcelona last season. The Germans won the Bundesliga last season and they had the likes of Arjen Robben and Robert Lewandowski to thank for the goals they contributed to the team’s cause.
This season, Guardiola has added some South American spice to his team with the acquisitions of Douglas Costa and Arturo Vidal. Costa netted on his debut in the 5-0 thrashing of Hamburg while Vidal opened his account for his new club from the spot in a German Cup match against Nottigen.
The Germans are odds-on to top the group but they’d have to go through Arsenal to prove their mettle.
It’s going to be a very tough group and I hope the Gunners play their best over the course of the six games.
Sayonara.
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How Can Arsenal Improve This Season?
On the back of a very superb preseason campaign, the start of the 2015/16 season can be described with one word – disappointing. With each passing West Ham result in the Premier League, the opening day loss to the Hammers looks like a blip but the win over Crystal Palace was no where near convincing. The Gunners opened the scoring with a brilliantly improvised goal from Olivier Giroud but the goal Arsene Wenger’s side conceded was a combination of poor defensive play and puzzling goalkeeping from Petr Cech.
Monday night was vital to both side and it’s fair to say it was a game of two halves. Liverpool put their hosts on the back foot and smashed the woodwork twice with Philippe Coutinho at the heart of everything good for the Reds. Calum Chambers had a shocking first half by his standards but he grew in confidence in the second 45 minutes. Francis Coquelin was made to work for his money and he was very influential before his substitution.
An improved second half performance wasn’t still enough to give the Gunners maximum points and with three League games gone, the Gunners have only four points to show for it. Five points off the pacesetters, Manchester City. Yes, it’s just early days but if Arsene Wenger’s side continues to drop points, they’d be out of the title race before they can even mount a challenge.
How can the side improve as the season progresses?
Better Ball Retention
One of the reasons why FC Barcelona is one of the best teams to watch because of their awesome ability to retain the ball, whether the players are under pressure or not. Their short passing has been a theme of their success because with such patient, incisive and intricate passing play, the opposition finally buckles and defenses are open like hot knife through butter.
Arsenal on the other hand, despite having talented football technicians like Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey, have been culpable for being very sloppy in possession. According to the Breakdown, the Gunners gave the ball away in their half 20, yes, 20 times against Liverpool on Monday night. Those that watched the game can vividly remember that every time the home team lost possession to their opponents, they were on the back foot and they had to thank some last-ditch defending and excellent goalkeeping to keep the scoreline intact.
As the games come thick and fast, the Gunners should try to hold on to the ball better.
F.I.N.I.S.H.I.N.G
Going back to last season, Arsenal has failed to score in five of their last six home games (Chelsea, Swansea, Sunderland, West Ham and most recently, Liverpool. According to the stats boys, Arsenal has had 103 attempts on goal in these five games but they’ve had no goals to show for it.
Giroud fired blanks against Liverpool
Many fans have made another case for the club to sign another center forward, but I wonder if Karim Benzema’s tweet would be the nail in the coffin on any plans to sign him. I feel we were never in for him though. Just some papers trying to get some hits.
Whether the Gunners find a new center forward or not, the players have to really improve in their finishing. When the Gunners were leading Crystal Palace, the Eagles pushed for an equalizer and they left gaping holes at the back. Santi Cazorla and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had glorious chances to put the game beyond doubt but they fired their shots straight at Alex McCarthy. Even Alexis Sanchez had a gaping goal in front of him in that game, and he fired it at a defender on the line. These are three clear cut efforts that weren’t taken.
On Monday night, the chances were hard to come by for the Gunners but there were some chances that were missed yet again, yet Alexis missing the most glorious opportunity on the night. If the Gunners don’t improve on their finishing, we would have more frustration as the campaign progresses.
Sayonara.
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