Yes, It Is A Must Win Match. Arsenal v Hull City, Match Preview

Anybody else sick and tired of the hue and cry over Hughes’ sacking?

Yet another fine example of British jingoism.

I don’t remember such a thing happening when Ranieri was sacked. I doubt anything will happen if Rafa is sacked tomorrow. But Hughes – Oh my! What a fine gentleman. What injustice!

I hope his next job is at Hull, or better still in the Championship.

Stan is CLOSE… just 17 shares away from the takeover.
Do we know what that means? Probably not, possibly nothing…
but I still find it interesting, and that an American could be the
majority holder at Arsenal.

Apparently many players at City are not too pleased with the
sacking of Hughes… reportedly disgusted are:
Given, Tevez, Barry and Bellamy.

Ummmm. Hey Shay, I understand completely. It’s terrible what they’ve
done… why not come over to the Arsenal, I think you’ll enjoy London.
;)

Anyone else watched Serie A recently? If not, I advise you not to. Its horrible!

Had nothing to do so settled down to Inter v. Lazio, thinking its better than nothing. Havent watched a full game of Serie A in almost a year now, and I never thought it as bad.

But this was by far the worst 90 minutes of soccer possible.

Endless passing amongst defenders, extremely low number of forays into the oppositions third, even lower number of shots.

Every single tackle or challenge is blown as a foul and even for the most basic of those “fouls” the players rolls on the ground in alleged pain for 2 minutes minimum. When he finally gets up, there is another 5 minutes of passing it among the defenders with little or no opposition challenge, then they pass it forward, lose the ball … then a foul … lots of Italian hand gestures of fake outrage, the medics come in and play doesnt restart for about 4 minutes!!!

In the whole 90 minutes there was only about 30 minutes of actual soccer, its incredibly insane. I would take Bolton-Stoke any day of the week.

Being a good defensive midfielder is also about physiology as much as anything else, and that’s simply down to luck in terms of physique, supple-ness, mobility, and speed.

Javier Mascharano is a phenomenal defensive midfield player in my opinion, but you wouldn’t break his game down and say he’s great tackler or brilliant interceptor. The truth is he’s decent at those two things but where he really excels his mobility, acceleration, and low centre of gravity which enable him to do cover ground quickly, block off passing lanes, and in general make his presence felt. He is a mediocre passer but he can escape from tight situations because he roll off players and sprint into space before offloading a simple pass.

These are things Song cannot do. He simply doesn’t have the pace, mobility, or balance to cover ground or block lanes to the same level as Mascherano. And when he attempts ambitious defensive moves, his mind often writes cheques his body can’t cash, leaving us exposed. Same with Denilson as well.

I won’t even bother critiquing Denilson in this sense because he’s more of CM and woefully inadequate as a permanent fixture in the defensive central position, but he does have decent ability in terms of intercepting and he can tackle fairly well. What renders these qualities almost irrelevant in the PL is his lack of power/speed and physical strength, which hinders him offensively as well because he can’t escape with the ball by making a driving run forward – he always has to play the ball back.

Okay, so I did critque him in that sense ;)

I would put Song on the same level as Mikel defensively.

Hilarious points about the “diving in” or non diving-in DM.

Its all well and good portraying the art of tackling as reckless, bad, “diving-in”. Tackling is just plain tackling. Its a BIG part of the game. Ofcourse you mix it up but you must know how to do both.

The “nicking the ball” theory is useful if you are playing against a plank AM who lets the ball run a few yards in front of them. On the other hand an above average AM or striker would have the ball very close to feet. You are not getting the ball unless you TACKLE him.

“Nicking the ball” only comes into effect when the guy pushes the ball a bit too far. So in other words you are waiting for a mistake.

Good luck using that approach against quality players!

Andez, I thought you observation abt Almunia, his right hand (side) appears to be his stronger – more dominate is a detail to his game that I failed to catch; maybe it was overshadowed by other glaring faults.

As to the Hull match:
Eboue and Sivestre at starting outside backs – a first.
Song, Denilson, Diaby in midfield – a first
These five players stepped up to the challenge for the club.

Mazz & Josh – very astute comments abt Cesc’s influence on Diaby’s play. The linking between Arshavin, Nasri, and Eduardo was superb.

I thought Eboue had his best match for Arsenal in over 2 years.

Very happy with the outcome. All that needs to be said seems to have been covered. Penalty save not withstanding, was anyone else surprised at how willingly Almunia was coming off his line? He was doing the sweeper role more enthusiastically than usual. After the Burnley horror show, the fact that he was still picked for this game suggests he’s going to be there till May at the least. In which case as Josh says we need to support him and I hope this game sees him at the least keep this level of performance up.

Mazza, about Diaby, I said the same thing a few seasons back. It was a moot point as Fabregas is certainly preferred to the Frenchman but it’s hard for Diaby as he has to think a lot more about what he’s doing with Fabregas instead of just playing intuitively. No Fabregas seemed to mean no “handbrake” for him.

I believe the attack would be better served with Diaby in a more advanced role just off the front striker. Cesc having a dribbler ahead of him gives him more time to create. Diaby could pose a similar threat as Hleb, being our only dribbler (besides Eboue) but also a greater aerial and goal threat. The only problem is his ability to pick out a smart pass is lacking. Lastly, Diaby seems to prefer an advanced role while Cesc seems to prefer to play deeper. However, I can understand Wenger opting the big and strong Diaby winning balls in midfield opposed to Fabregas.

As for Denilson tackling, I think if a player has the ball and an opponent (Denilson) puts himself between said player and ball, assuming control and possession of the ball, then that is considered a tackle. It’s not the typical, going-to-ground, Vieira-style tackle but if you disposess the player, who cares how? It’s even more efficient when you assume possession as opposed to kicking the ball into touch. Most BPL tackles are like an armed robbery while Denilson is more of a cat burglar. In the end, you’re still getting jacked? Denilson certainly isn’t the biggest, strongest or most experienced player but, at 21, he continues to find a way to be effective in the big and burly BPL.

Our midfield was more efficient with Diaby, Song, and Denilson than with Ramsey in that mix. It’s not a knock on Ramsey as he’s only 18 but his time is coming; just not yet.

A fact about City, is that they have only lost TWICE all season… once to ManU… nobody else has been beaten less.
I think they’ll be in the 4th place race until the end… as nobody
else is really going to pull away…

It will be an interesting and busy January for them.

Fair play to Denilson. Absolutely brilliant free kick.

Proper result from a proper performance. All eleven contributed today; including Almunia, Diaby, Denilson, and Silvestre. I’m happy to see them all have descent matches as, hate it or love it, they’re all a part of the team. We will need them all playing well in order to have a chance at the title.

Diaby is growing as a player. In seasons past, he seems to be at his best right before an injury. This last injury was no different. The difference is he seems to be coming back to form quicker these days. The true tests will come when we’re playing teams much stronger than Hull but atleast we had the resolve to finish off an inferior team.

I’m not looking past Villa, as that’s foolish, but I’ve been watching Portsmouth a lot this year. They have lost a lot of talent but they still have plenty of firepower down there. They have some strong, physical athletes that like to put the ball on the floor and play. They beat Liverpool pretty soundly today and I’m a fan. Of all the teams in the bottom three, I belive them to be the strongest. Time will tell but I’m not looking past them. With that famous Pompey crowd, they can survive and Grant is no slouch. I’m hoping they survive but to have a bad game against Arsenal.

Only watched the sencond half. But we played some beautiful football at times.

I have been impressed with Diaby in the last two games. Today he looked confident and deserved his goal. Theo did not look as woeful as in the two games he has started so I hope he is getting back into gear.

Shame about the Burnley result, I must read the comments after that game would hbe interesting to see waht the Negative Nancy’s had to say, and see whether Vermaelen got the derision Toure would have got if he was still playing for us.

This site is offering a typographical hint to Wenger – be bold, amigo. Take the game to Hull. Get the early breakthrough. Then wrap it the F. up with a second goal before halftime.

We couldn’t ask for nicer results this weekend. Two wins and we’re in second place.

The Van P. statistics shows how our attack founders without a pivot player who can hold the ball up and bring in other players into the attack. The Van P. reverse throughball for a player running forward is what I’m missing right now.

And that other statistic about us not scoring from a freekick since forever – that is the one area of Van P.’s game that declined. He used to smash them in.

Anyway, I’m going for a nice 2-0 home win with some howling controversy to set off Phil Brown.

Site note…the the typeface on this thread looks bolder. Don’t know whether or not it’s anything you did, DAG, but I like it.

Fulham 3 – ManU 0 ????

Pompey 2 – Pool 0 ????

What a weird season. Hope we get it done today. Seriously.

I know I get too caught up in each “moment” of the season, but watching the early match, Pompey-‘Pool, Man oh (10)man, Liverpool seem to have an important half hour here to rescue their season….

At the bottom of the table it is interesting that the relegation spots are currently occupied by more established Premiership clubs, so that none of them will be willing to go down easily, and they all will make a reasonable stand, at least in their home stadiums (as we certainly experienced in mid-week).

For us, we are right on the edge with the injury situation. We need to come through this match today unscathed and we need some of the squad players to step up and give us comfort in our notion of “depth”. With a week to get ready for Villa it would be nice to have some bodies back for that match as well as some confidence from some of our “supporting” players who are sorely lacking it.

off topic –
Arsene remarked today that he didn’t see much activity by all clubs during the January transfer window – FINANCIAL CONDITIONS OF CLUBS (everywhere) are delicate.

We will see Senderos depart, but I see our roster set in stone.

Anybody predict Denilson to score today?….Well “old” Denilson already has (in the 3rd place match in the club world cup or whatever it is)….

Hey DAG, I like the new font in the comments….a bit more forceful than the previous one–trying to turn up the volume on the debate here?

MacMac’s point about 36 goals in 11 games with RvP but only 5 in 5 without him is the most amazing stat about Arsenal this season. Does that make us a one man team?

I had big doubts about RvP settling into the main striker role in a 4-3-3 but he has far exceeded mine (and everyone’s) expectations. But the stats seem to show an over reliance on him which is not good at all (considering he won’t be back this season). And now we are without Cesc as well (thankfully for a short time only).