By Walter Broeckx
Today we might have two Gunners in action at the European championship. One of them is Jack. That is if Jack Wilshere is selected to play and if not if he will come on later in the match. So not certain he will play and get injured.
The other is young Hector Bellerin. He will be on the bench probably as in the previous matches. Good for us, as that way he cannot show his potential to the DNA sniffers from Spain.
So two Gunners but neither of them is expected to start the match. Well not as far as I know and to be honest I don’t follow it that much. Just enough to know they are there.
Besides those two we also have a few other Gunners in the tournament. Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny qualified with France after beating Ireland. No controversy this time around. And as I was driving home I heard that France was losing 0-1 at half time. I decided to put on my TV and have a quick look at the match and in a few minutes the French scored two goals and had the match in the pocket.
I saw Koscielny being important in the French defence with some good interceptions and tackles. But most of all I saw Giroud being very important in the build to the second French goal. A long ball, Giroud between two defenders and heading it perfectly in the path of Griezman who only had to beat the keeper, and so he did. In my newspaper today they described the assist as a majestic assist.
I read on Untold in the comment section that the pundits couldn’t get many words of praise out for Giroud. Well in other countries they did. Not the match reporter in my country who is said to be a spud supporter. He managed to not name Giroud once in the 5 or 6 replays they showed of the goal. And who could have missed that well cushioned and well placed header? I guess only spuds supporters can.
Giroud then again was involved with giving an inch perfect pass to Griezman who was on his way again for a one on one with the keeper but was kicked down just outside the penalty area. A red card for the Irish player and that thanks to a great moment from Giroud.
Also still in the tournament is Özil. Özil missed a penalty. And so did Xhaka for Switzerland. So… well that might be the reason the PGMO doesn’t give us penalties. They are afraid we might miss them! So with that finally resolved lets go back to France. Özil has played some great football up to now I have been told. His performance against North Ireland being one of the best.
Xhaka also had some great performances for Switzerland but missing the penalty in the penalty shootout will not make him happy. To be honest… I rather liked the idea of Switzerland going out in this round. We will now probably see him arriving at the training ground together with Petr Cech in some 3 or 4 weeks. I hope he gets a good pre-season with us. Szczesny is also still in the tournament but as he was injured we now see ex Gunner Fabianski in goal for Poland and looking at it he does rather nice. What about Fabianski now you doubters and name callers when he played for Arsenal? I have said it then and will say it now again: Fabianski is an excellent goal keeper. Period.
A player who will be late back will be Ramsey. Wales have qualified for the next round where they will meet Belgium. For those who think Wales are out before a ball is kicked I will point at the results in the group staged in the last two years. Belgium lost in Wales and couldn’t win in Brussels. So nothing is set in stone.
And then we have two players who after playing a Copa America last summer had to do it again. Ooooospina took the bronze medal at this years Copa America. And once again he produced a performance that showed what a great keeper he is. His save from the Dempsey free kick clawing the ball away from the top corner was one of the best I have seen. But hey, let us keep on reminding ourselves what utter shit he was for the one big mistake he made at Arsenal over the last 2 seasons.
As we know good keepers never make a mistake. Never. LOL. I can only agree with Wenger and his wise words: I have no problem in selecting any of the two as they both are top class keepers. Yes they are. Period.
And then we have the good… and the bad. Alexis took once again the gold medal in the Copa America Centenario. Congratulations Alexis Sanchez!! But unlike last year there was not the major part of being able to have the last kick of the tournament for him.
As he had to go off the field with an injury in extra time. Oh bugger…. It looked like an ankle injury to me but what do I know looking at it from so far on my computer. But I noticed that he tried to avoid the jumping players a bit. So we don’t know the seriousness of the injury but let us all keep our fingers crossed that it was just a bruise from a kick and that it will go away with a few days rest.
Alexis had been in fine form in this tournament. I seem to remember they lost the opening match against Argentina but he was praised by our media as the best man on the field. And not only in that match he played outstanding football. In fact he was so good that they voted him as the Most Valuable Player of the whole tournament. Better than Messi. Nah nah nah nah nah (as they say in the playground).
So in this round up of the summer matches of our Gunners the main worry is that the injury of Alexis is a minor one. I don’t give a sh*t who will win the Euro’s but hope that the team that wins it has an Arsenal (or more) in it so they will have a great summer.
Now I got to stop writing as I have to keep my fingers crossed for Alexis and for some reason typing an article and keeping your fingers crossed is not easy to do.
- Untold Arsenal offers a total, absolute and unreserved apology
- Arsenal Ladies v Sunderland – the match report
- 32% of the adult population vote to leave the EU, and this is what it does to our football.
And elsewhere…
27 June 1900: the Central line between Bank and Shepherds Bush was opened. It is reported that a number of city bankers misunderstood the name of the station at the other end of the line and took to the train for a “pleasant trip into the country”. Only a handful survived to tell the tale, but the event was commemorated in the famous London saying, “A bird in the Strand is worth two in Shepherds Bush.”
Alexis was pictured after the game holding the cup and his golden ball with an ice pack on his left ankle. There were reports he picked up the injury in training a day or two earlier and missed the last training session.
I hope he has a good rest and comes back early August ready to go.
that ankle was stumped on about 5 minutes into the match (no foul given), Alexis lumped for about another five minutes and then continued as usual
he was on the wrong end of a few more leg-breaking tackles, and kicked in the balls, but still continued to run
i think the substitution was a tactical one as Chile prepared to soak up the final pressure and subbed-off the forwards
it’d be interesting to see a ref review for that match, as it was something really special
OlegYch,
Agree.
I have only seen the extra time but must say that the ref from Brazil made a bit of a one man show in that half hour.
Also missing a few yellow cards when Argentine players came in studs showing… his running around was also rather bizar at times. When Argentina kicked off in the second half of extra time he ran forward as if they had given a long punt forward and wanted to be on the receiving end. Only to find Argentina playing the ball in their own half. He was 40 meters away from the ball running in no mans land… if Argentina had lost the ball there and there would have been a difficult decision to make in their penalty area he would have been lost completely….
Alexis, the best and the beast 😉
Chaka on Arsenal FB live
https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal/videos/vb.20669912712/10154017121827713/?type=2&theater
Mr Broeckx, I hope Granit Xhaka and Mesut Ozil won’t bring their penalty missing to Arsenal to start missing sitters for Arsenal when the season re-opens in August.
Man Utd are on the verge of signing Mkhiteryan and Ibramovivh haven already signed a CB early on. And Liverpool are reported too to be about making their 2nd pre-transfer market signings in the player of, Sadio Mane. Like Arsenal, Man City, and Spurs have all concluded 1 signing each. While Chelsea are yet to show their colours at the transfer market.
I hope the Boss will not suffer any disappointments again at the market when next he makes a bidding for his 2nd signing for this coming season.
Samuel,
Don’t worry missing penalties won’t be a problem next season as it is extremely unlikely that we will be awarded any again.
It was noteworthy that Radio 5 this morning reported who had won the Cup and that Messi ad subsequently retired from international football but somehow ‘forgot’ to mention Alexis’ achievement. I wonder whether that would have been the case if he’d played for, say, Man U or the Spuds……..
Walter
Unless you think Fabianski is better than Cech, Ospina and Szczesny, then I fail to understand the need for the “I told you so” every time Fabianski has a good performance.
You could probably do this with every Arsenal player past and present, including Ozil and Sanchez ,who both have their critics amongst pundits and Arsenal fans alike.
No one is more happy with Fabianski’s performance for my Poland but you need to let go my friend 🙂
And how are you not excited about Belgium btw?
Don’t worry about our players not being good at taking penalties. There’s not much likelihood that they will need to take any when playing for Arsenal.
Alexis limping on during a game after he’s been hacked and crocked? Same as any other footballer or athlete would when in a final (or in Norwich!).
I blame Vengarrrhhhhhhh!
Tom, I just don’t like them and I am not a flag waving person. Only the Arsenal flag 😉 One could say I am an European but not an EU-fan. If you understand the difference.
And I was disgusted by the way some part of our fans treated Fabianski. The same ones that call for the head of Wenger on every occasion.
Nice to see Bellerin is safely out (no apparent injuries) of the Euro.
Go Iceland!
I heard on the news, that Iceland is trying to have an election for a new Prime Minister. 10% of the population is in France watching Euros.
How to go Iceland! That sees Wilshere safely on his way back, apparently without injuries.
Maybe Vardy can become manager of England?
Walter has every to say told you so every time regarding fabianski because Wenger was slated for keeping him, the keeper was called all sorts of names, yet he wasn’t bad or deserved the flack he took. In other words, he was made out to be something he was not to use him as a stick to beat Wenger with. I also don’t really see any logic in comparing him with Ospina or Czech as they weren’t with us then; we should just be able to judge fabianski on his own merits like we judged Lehman, Seaman, etc.
Walter has every right… 🙂