Check it, you know how I be. Hello everyone. How is everyone doing today? That's fantastic I'm actually doing ok but I'm a little sick, sore throat and all that fun stuff. Not a whole lot going on in the world of Arsenal today, but I did watch the FA Youth Cup game Arsenal versus Sp*rs last night and it was great, so I figured I'll talk about that a little today.
When I turned the match on it was just about to start but I had to shower so I missed the first part. When I came back we were already 1-0 down. We settled in though and we were playing well. I thought our passing was as good as, if not better than, our first teams passing and movement. Watching Jack Wilshere among the rest of the younglings is like watching men against boys. While he isn't THAT much better than all the rest of them, every time he touches the ball I still half expect him to score.
I was talking to Joaquin throughout the match and we picked out a few players that really looked the business to us, and had a chance of making it to the big time. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas scored a great goal to give us the win in extra time, and I thought he played a great game. His versatility is astounding, as he looks comfortable really at any position on the pitch. There was no better example than in extra time in the 2nd half. He was playing up top as a third striker, brought the ball in, dodged two defenders and launched a cannon into the net to give us the lead. Next thing you know, he was back playing as a third center back to make sure Sp*rs didn't get another of their own. That doesn't even mention that he played in the midfield almost the whole game. It's fantastic and I really am looking forward to seeing what he can do in the future.
Gilles Sunu looks like he also has a great future. The guy is just electric quick and can accelerate and turn on a time. He should have had a goal probably late in the first half but he still looked very good when he was out there. I wouldn't be surprised if he maybe went on loan somewhere in the lower divisions next season.
Emmanuel Frimpong and Francis Coquelin pretty much ran the midfield along with Thomas and Wilshere and they both look pretty good too. Coquelin was the one to set up the final goal with a long ball to Rhys Murphy on a counter attack. Rhys Murphy is one of the top scorers for the youth team for the season and his finish after bringing in that long ball was out of this world. Bendtner and Adebayor could use some tutoring from Murphy on half volleys like that.
So it's on to the FA Youth Cup Semi-Finals for the youngsters. We'll face the winner of Manchester City and Norwich city, who play tomorrow. It'll be a two-legged affair, with the second leg of it being back at the Emirates. Liverpool is already into the other semi-final, and they await the winner of Birmingham City and Ipswich Town/Watford. It'd be great for our youth academy to win the whole thing. Imagine the kind of talent you can attract if you have the best youth academy in all of England, and maybe all the world judging by how they have come through in the last few years.
The matches really are enjoyable to watch and as soon as I get the date of the semi-final matches then I will get it all to you.
Tonight I have my first practice with my new team of 8 year olds, so it's time to whip them into shape. Let's go Green Monkeys!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Arsenal Beat Sp*rs In FA Youth Cup
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Arsenal 2-1 Barnet Match Report
Our first preseason friendly is done and dusted, and while it certainly wasn't Arsenal at their best, we did get the job done eventually. It was great to see so many youngsters along with some of the veterans, plus our new signings Ramsey and Coquelin on display. Carlos Vela was not included in the squad, presumably due to some type of injury.
In the first half we went with the more experienced lineup, and also saw Aaron Ramsey make his debut in midfield. The lineup looked like this:
Sagna-Nordtveit-J. Hoyte-Clichy
Lansbury-Ramsey-Denilson-Traore
Bendtner-Walcott
At the start of the game Arsenal had a lot of the ball, and we had a chance pretty early when Ramsey played a great ball through to Bendtner who really should have done better with the chance. He took a bad touch and tried to play it back but couldn't get anything behind his pass.
This seemed to be a continuing theme throughout the first half, Bendtner getting chances and just not being able to put any of them away. His whole game really looked to be off as his passing wasn't very good either. Walcott didn't give him much help though as he seemed drift in and out of the game.
In the fifteenth minute Arsenal gave away a free kick in a dangerous position because of a foul I believe against Havard Nordtveit. Barnet took the kick brilliantly to beat the wall and Manuel Almunia to give Barnet a surprise 1-0 lead. They certainly hadn't had much of the possession and the goal was against the run of play, but they took advantage of the chances, which Arsenal hadn't done so far.
Aaron Ramsey looks to be a wonderful signing already. He completely controlled the midfield for the first half, showed great awareness and ability on the ball. He always seemed comfortable, even under pressure, and his passing was precise. He looks like he could be (forgive me for the reference) the new Cesc Fabregas. I'd say he was the best player on the park for the first half. After the game however, when asked about Ramsey's performance he said simply that Aaron "looked tired but works hard in training." He must not agree with my thoughts on his performance.
Unfortunately though Arsenal were unable to create much in the way of chances in the first half and went in at the half 1-0 down.
The start of the second half saw us make 11 substitutions, so I'll try to remember them all.
Ogogo-Rodgers-G. Hoyte-Steer
Wilshere-Randall-Coquelin-Barazite
Simpson-Fonte
The youngsters started a bit sloppily at the beginning of the half, giving some passes away and looking a bit shaky sometimes in possession but they got into form soon enough. Jay Simpson for me looked particularly impressive, making good runs and mixing his passes well.
It wasn't long before we had equalized. Jack Wilshere, who was brilliant (he's the type of player that I get excited every time he gets the ball) fed a beautiful pass to Jay Simpson, who was making a run into the box. Simpson hit it first time and sent it into the back of the net. It was a great shot that the keeper would have done very well to save. 1-1 was the score and Arsenal were looking for more.
The second goal also involved Wilshere. He fed Jay Simpson running through the middle who sent a perfect ball across to the left side of the box which Nacer Barazite met first time and sent into the bottom right corner of the net, past the onrushing Barnet keeper. 2-1 to the Arsenal and looking much better.
The rest of the match was pretty uneventful. Arsenal were content to keep the ball and Barnet didn't really have much going forward. They did have a free kick right outside of the box with about 8 minutes to go but they wasted it.
So the match ended 2-1 to Arsenal and while it wasn't the best performance by the regular starters, the youngsters came in and got the job done, which was great to see.
Man of the Match: Jack Wilshere, closely followed by Jay Simpson. Wilshere is already a master of the pass even though he is the youngest player on the pitch. His awareness going forward and willingness to run at defenders is exceptional and he's a player that is very exciting for the future. Hopefully Arsene will keep him grounded so his potential doesn't get to his head, but I'd expect to see him in some Carling Cup games this year.
Needs Work: Just the team's sharpness as a whole. Bendtner and Walcott looked extremely rusty but that will come with time.
Arsene's Post Game Comments: He is VERY adamant that Emmanuel Adebayor will not be leaving. He said after the match that his is a very different situation than Hleb's was and will not be leaving under any circumstances. So it would be a good time for Adebayor to start rebuilding the ties with the team. Arsene was asked about which players were likely to be included in the first team squad and would only say that "a few of them" would be included but gave no names.
I'm really looking forward to the next preseason game. It's quite exciting to see all the youngsters get to play. Lots to talk about so let's hear your comments about the match and Arsene's comments. Cheers!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Nasri, Robinho, Meteor in Moscow
Good morning all. Incredibly, I am still sick, which makes it like five days straight now. I've also been working massive hours at the ACC baseball tournament so sorry for not posting the past two days. Today there isn't any massive news that I can find so I'm just going to go through even more transfer news/rumors/rubbish, etc.
We'll start off with a post from Online Gooner that caught my fancy. He talks about how nobody was calling for the signing of Samir Nasri before the transfer rumors started and now everyone is talking about him like he's the best thing since sliced bread. Nobody really knows what he will be able to do in the Premiership. He's only twenty, he plays in the French League and it's expected that he'll switch positions to winger once he gets to Arsenal. Does that sound like he'll make an immediate impact? He makes a valid point about the Bergkamp and Campbell signings too. They were big names when we signed them and we knew they could come in right away and play and look how they turned out. Wonderfully, if you didn't actually know how they turned out. If Nasri is the "established player" that Wenger said he was going to bring in, then maybe he really is losing it. We've signed big players under Wenger before, and we need to hope we do again. (PS: I'm not asking for Villa, Robinho, and Kaka, just a player that we KNOW can play at this level already.)
Robinho's agent was in London this week, which of course led to rumors of him heading to Arsenal, Chelsea, or Sp*rs. Not sure what to think of this one. I like Robinho as a player, I really do. I'm just not sure if he'd be the right fit for what we're doing at Arsenal. If somebody who watches the Spanish league could give some insight on what they think in the comments or something that would be great.
Several sources have reported that Arsenal have signed 17 year old Francis Coquelin. He is from Laval, a small Ligue 2 French club. He spent 7 days on trial with the club last month but it was cut short due to injury. He is a defensive midfielder and is definitely one to watch for the future. Young Guns wrote a good article on his reasons for signing with Arsenal over competition from Lyon and Nantes.
Arsene Wenger spoke about Lasagna Diarra, saying that he panicked and couldn't handle not being first choice in midfield. It's pretty funny reading, as apparently Diarra refused all loan moves and said he could handle not being first choice before complaining about exactly that for half of a season before pissing off to Pompey. Whiny little cunt.
Thierry Henry says he may quit International Football after the Euro's, which would be a shame
because I love watching him in the French team. He'll be 31 in August so 2010 would be a long way away so he said he'll wait and see after the coming tournament what he wants to do. He also used his old fashioned line he used at Arsenal for all that time, "I have a contract at Barcelona, therefore I am a Barcelona player for now." At least he didn't only do that at Arsenal.
And last but not least I suppose I should comment on that cuntfest Wednesday night in Moscow. I'll admit I was working for the most part of it, and I only got to see extra time and the shootout. I hear it was a pretty good match, but I can't agree. Anytime you have that many people who's heads you want to bash in on one pitch it can't be that good of a match. I, like many, was hoping for a meteor or tornado or something to hit the stadium but it just didn't happen, which was highly disappointing. The shootout made me laugh though, as Ronaldo missed his penalty and Terry missed his penalty. That was the best part for me. I didn't watch the celebrations, I couldn't. On the bright side, Chelsea losing means we can still be the first London team to win the Champion's League. On the downside, ManUre won the double. I hope they all are hit by buses.
Remember to join the forums so we can get something going on there, or leave your input in the comments, or whatever else suits your fancy. Cheers!
Oh and try out this Brazilian nickname converter I just discovered. My name translated to "Sayreca Pau." Interesting...
