By Walter Broeckx
I have read somewhere over the internet that the pundits in England had a hard night. I can understand that. How can you explain Arsenal beating Porto with 5 -0 when you have been saying a whole season how bad we are.
And then to realise we played without Cesc, Gallas and Van Persie. Players who when fit always would have started in such a game. Like our match commentator said before kick off: the spine of the Arsenal was completely out for yesterday’s game and one never knows how a team can cope with such a situation. Let’s take MIOU for a game without Ferdinand, Scholes, Rooney in a game like that. Let’s see how Chelsea would cope in such a game without Terry, Lampard and Drogba. Would they win? Possibly. Would they win with 5-0? Doubt it.
The game against Porto showed another glimpse of what Arsène Wenger is trying to build.
I think he is trying to build two teams. Two equally strong teams that he can field any time when he wants and what ever team he picks they will be as good as anyone.
If you look at our midfield yesterday we had Song, Diaby and Nasri and they are 22 years old. Another combination could have been, if some of those were fit, Cesc, Denilson and Ramsey. That is even a younger combination. If all those players are fit we have 6 people who can play in midfield for 3 places. And the best thing is their age. I think those 6 are the youngest combination at that level. All at the beginning of their career and showing their amazing skill, technical ability, vision and above all desire.
If we can keep these 6 players together for the next years we will have a team that can beat the whole world in that period of time. And don’t forget there are still other players that are waiting to come through.
As others will be highlighting the performances of Bendtner for his hat-trick. We all knew he was saving his goals for tonight’s game, didn’t we. Others will be lyrical about the Nasri performance. And rightly so. He played like Cesc and I even forgot that Cesc was sitting in behind the bench biting his nails until the showed him on TV. Nasri’s goal was one of the best you will ever see I think. Nasri is no new Zidane. No in 10 years time he will be the new standard in football in France and over the world.
I will be putting the spotlight on Rosicky this time. I have always been a great admirer of him even when he played in the Bundesliga for Dortmund. He was such a nice player to watch and I really loved it when he came to The Arsenal. He was the player that scored my first goal at the Emirates in my first game at the Emirates. I even loved him more for that. When he hobbled off the field more than 2 years ago we didn’t know how long his absence would be but it has cost us a lot.
It looked at one point that he would be lost forever for professional football but in his quite way he worked his way back. He got a number of setbacks and I think for most of us it would have been the end for his career. But not for Rosicky. He kept on working, kept on fighting. When he played in our first friendly at the start of the season I was happy but I really feared if he would last. He picked up some little injuries every know and then and I sometimes feared he just wouldn’t make it back completely.
When I was at the Burnley game I saw that he was back completely. When he got the ball he turned and twisted like in the old days. In the first half he only could be stopped by numerous fouls. But with his past medical history I was thinking that he would be on the bench today to take a rest. Wenger did otherwise and put him on the field. And again he did what he is so good at. Strong with the ball at his feet, great vision and above all working hard for the team and willing to do this in the shadow of other players who stand in the spotlight for the next days.
Wenger kept his faith in Rosicky and even gave him a new contract. And we can all thank him for that. With his experience on and off the field he is one of those players whose contribution goes further than just his performances on the field. He is one of the players who can help those magnificent 6 young midfielders I mentioned before to become even better. He also can show them how dark the night may be sometimes, at the end the sun will come back to shine. He was one of the leading persons in his national team and I really think he is more than just a player for Arsenal.
So I like to salute Thomas Rosicky for his hard work on and off the field, and I know he will give us something extra in the weeks to come and all this with a friendly smile on his face and in the knowledge that he beat the injury demon and you see the joy on his face when he is playing. Maybe even he never expected to be out there again so you can see he enjoys it and a player who is enjoying himself is a player that is giving his best.
—————-
NOTE RE THIS COMING SATURDAY (that’s the one after Friday and just before Sunday and runs over a period of hours):
You may have been inconvenienced in the last few days by finding that the Untold site has gone down a couple of times. We’ve tracked this back to something rather simple: the readership has just shot up again.
God knows where all these people keep coming from, but Hi guys, how you doing? Glad to have you join us. Etc, etc.
Anyway, we have a problem because the latest rise in readership has overloaded our server, and we are going to have to add another four billion trillion gigsandwiches or ramraiders or something. This will happen on saturday (not ideal for Untold, but there is a business called Hamilton House Mailings to consider, and it is the best time for the money making side of the operation.)
So for much of this coming Saturday there will be no Untold Arsenal. I am shocked and devastated by this state of affairs, not to say mortified beyond belief, but there it is. People will keep reading this stuff, so we have to move with the temporal anomalies (or anemones) (or something).
To be technical about it, all being wonderful and well Untold will work ok until Saturday morning, then vanish, and then reappear.
But seriously, you wouldn’t believe the readership figures we have just been getting this month. I am overwhelmed by everyone’s support.
———————————–
ARSENAL IN THE FUTURE
- Tottenham could decide the championship
- Predictions for the rest of the season: the start of the new golden era.
- The media are starting to realise they got it wrong
- Complete review of EPL clubs’ debts, and why it is getting worse.
————————————————–
ARSENAL IN THE PAST…
- Arsenal’s darkest hour
- The days when football journalists could write, entertain and make us laugh (a true newspaper report about Arsenal in the 1930s)
- “Making the Arsenal” – the novel. The most extraordinary book about Arsenal ever. And that’s unofficial. Available from Amazon.co.uk and from the publishers direct.
—————
Untold Arsenal is published by Gigsandwich Temporal Anemones of Basingstoke and the Micrododo Publishing Ziggurat of Croydon
agree with most of your points but Nikki B is not useless, come on mate he’s scored 3 goals, but he needs to do better. Also arshavin needs to go, too greedy, does he not get payed enuf, and he shudnt argue wwith the manager. but agree with everythin else, diaby, clichy and bendner need to go and wenger needs tto sign 5 players, villa, ramos, buffon, alonso and robinho then we will be complete. so get behind the team and stop slaggging them of.
I agree and moreover Wenger is constantly looking at new additions that could complete a near complete squad.
@kaka
had a pint or two?
Great Piece.
Loved the last bit on Rosicky. Brilliant writing about a brilliant player.
yeah i’m ok with u atleast for all your observation. but stiil njk should always show thirsty of winning like yesterday. he was focused and above he had a desire so its very rare to watch nik running at the ball as he did when he scored the first goal. so he should aim higher he has got potential in him.
Bendtner is going to score many more hatricks. I can’t believe some haters want new players that will run arsenal into debt. The only improvement should be defense. Stop hating Bendtner. When Drogba was 22/23 he wasn’t as good as Nikki B
One of my favourite post-match comments from AW, some time ago, 07/08?
Hack (I paraphrase):” Rosicky was amazing in that game! Er,(there’s a slight pause), what do you think of Rosicky?”
AW, gives a rueful smile: “He is a player I like to have in my team.”
There is no doubt about it that we have what is truly becoming THE world class team. The Lord Wenger really does know something that we mortals here in Thailand and in other countries on the planet do not know. This team is so special: just take a look at Sami – what a game he had; Alex was (mostly) his efficient self in the holding role; Andrei looks more comfortable again despite the open goal miss; Rosicky looks as good as ever; Clichy looks to be returning to form; Diaby is someone I would willingly have sold last season – not now though; Eboue – what CAN you say about him? Fantastic attacking fullback/midfielder. It’s the WHOLE team. They are working as a team for the good of the team and we should all be thoroughly grateful for having such a wonderful manager. We have to win something this year.
Thanks,Walter, for your insights.
Shit! I forgot TV – the best signing of the decade (last and this)!
@kaka! U are such a retard! Our team is the best and will be the best for a long time to come! Wenger is the best ECONOMIST in the world and he is the reason why arsenal will be the richest club in the world (apart from city)
Well Tony, if I can’t read Untold Arsenal on Saturday I might just have to stop reading altogether!
Thank you Walter!
United without Rooney,Rio and Scholes WOULDN’T have played like Arsenal,but people like Souness were STILL complaining about the performance.Had to turn down the volume when he spoke,makes me mad listening to these idiots.
Is Nasri a starter for france?haven’t seen him in a french shirt yet.
Keep up the good work, I love untold arsenal you are the best.
We were amazing last night, now wenger just needs to keep the squad together and arsenal will soon be unbeatable with all the youth players coming( espacially looking forward to wellington)through.
greetings from gothenburg
Your homage to Arsenal’s two midfield teams is well made, Walter. I think most Gooners think AW is the best midfield coach in the world.
I think he’s still got a work in progress to get two defences, two attacks and two goalkeepers to quite such heights, but he’s on the way there I think…….
But I think all of us who were there last night should just be thankful, because performances like that don’t occur twice a week.
Reminded me of Bergkamp’s request for a new contract at Highbury, although I only saw that on the telly…….7-0 that night……
Let’s see Arsenal do that against a Man Utd or a Barcelona before we say they are the greatest team of the decade……they’re progressing really nicely, but you don’t summit on K2 by saying at the 8000m point that ‘we’re going so well we’ll make it’…..you hope you will, but it’s not a gimme…….and the challenges coming will be bigger, not smaller………
Marc Marc please don’t go away and leave us. I promise to get the site back up as fast as possible.\
Honest.
And its not my fault, its all these people who keep reading the bloody site.
Mr Kaka sorry about my comment but I think you are simply an anti-Arsenal fan a very foolish analyst of Arsenal football. I need you to convince me that you don’t watch the back of the Telli when Arsenal is playing you are simply advising us to sell off our prospects for Silvestre, to stay. you are so blind that you dont know how important Diaby is to Arsenal modern football. Where are Bentners mates in other clubs where is United’s Machelda ? bench where is Kakuta in chelsea apart from his injury, you are full of shit. please keep your comment about Arsenal to yourself. You even said we should sell Arshavin you are incredibly poor at analysis. Suck!!!
Rhys I agree it is no science when I say we will be the best team over the next ten years or so. It is how I see us develop and yes how I wish we develop.
But I really am very confident on this. I must admit that in my wildest dream I was thinking they would begin to deliver from next season on. If they deliver something this season this would be a big bonus.
Excellent piece Walter, especially the section about Rosicky he is definitely back, because he played the majority of the game for the Czech Republic and Arsenal twice in the last 2 weeks. He is an important player for us and contributed a lot to both recent results for us.
off topic but I really enjoy it: Real Madrid are out of the CL
Yep, just finished watching as well. Dont know if you’ve seen it Walter, but the English media has been going on for the past couple of weeks about the “end of English dominance”, primarilly to justify why Arsenal are so close to Chelsea and Utd. If the past two nights are the end of English dominance, and if the English clubs are worse than they have been for years, as the English media wants us to believe in order to justify their false predictions for Arsenal, then I’d hate to see what it would look like if English clubs got their act together again.
As I try to avoid the English media as much as I can, and from over here that is not so hard to do, I haven’t seen that Paul.
The great thing about the exit of Real Madrid is that once again money can’t buy the CL in a moment. The buy, buy, buy and buy even more strategy is not that good. Maybe a lesson some could try to learn from when the next round of Arsène must buy X, Y or Z for ridiculous amounts of money.
Good piece, Walter. Now, if we could only buy a £25m ‘keeper to go with that 6…
Kaka , unlike your namesake you talk pure KAK. Doubt very much you are an Arsenal fan either so on your bike you Spurs supporting muppet.
Walter, that is exactly right, I think.
Interchangeability is what this squad is all about, especially in the forward and midfield positions. It’s brilliant to watch, and what’s scary is that they will only improve.
You’ve forgotten Eastmond, Cocquelin, Merida……
Great post As always Walter. Keep up the good work
Tim, I agree with your comment and suddenly realise that in fact our forwards could also play in midfield and some of them are even considered midfield players.
To stick with Rosicky, he is in fact a midfielder but he can play in attack like he did for most of the game on tuesday and also saturday. The same goes for Arshavin or Van Persie who have also been playing in midfield during the last years.
And then to think that players like Song who is a defender but who plays in midfield and I think Vermaelen could play in midfield as well. Clichy and Sagna are als capabable of playing in midfield. And most of the time in the Emirates they play some kind of half midfield position.
Apart from Almunia we have a team of midfielders one could say.
I think Almunia could do ok in mid-field*
(*Post modern irony section)
kaka likes to infuriate members of this blog with some gr8ly stupid comments, may be he is tony in disguise trying to make ppl unite…..in a new way?????
Great article Walter, I too had a little chuckle to myself after the E260m spending Real Madrid went out of the champions league last night. It is quite conceivable that their outrageous spending may end with no trophies at all therefore putting even more pressure on them next season. Anyone who is able to analyse rationally, must conclude that our model of coaching youngsters into our style of play before integrating them into our first team is THE most sensible option. Every world star began as a youngster looking for someone to give them a chance. Others have already covered our midfield abundance, but at left full back Clichy, Traore, Gibbs…right full back Sagna, Eboue, Coquelin, Eastmond Centre Back Gallas, Vermaelen, Djourou, Nortveld,Bartley. Strikers Bendtner, Eduardo,Van persie,Vela,Simpson,Sinu and I have left off a host of players on loan !!!! The future is potentially frightening…I can foresee the headlines now of how football has become boring because arsenal are cleaning up every season
Walter, I concur with you that the prospect of Arsenal future is pleasantly frightening. Especially when you take into account the players comming up.
Rosicky has truly got his groove back. He is one of the hubs of our team right now.
One point we have not mentioned enough though is Wenger’s masterstroke of breaking one of his principles at the RIGHT time to bring Sol Campbell back. If he had not, I don’t think our defence would have been as stable as it was Tuesday night.
Im happy you wrote about my favourite players Rosicky, i dont think people realise the diffrence he makes to the team.
Hi all. I’m a little concerned about Eboue. What is his contract situation – I think he has just 18 months to run? He has gone from clown to essential cog in such a short space of time it would be really hard to lose him on a free now.
@countryman … I don’t think Eboue will leave the club. See this
Quote
The player is also delighted to be working with a manager he describes in most affectionate terms.
“Arsene Wenger is always with us when we have a bad day so for me I think he is like our Daddy so we are all happy to play for him,” he enthused.
Unquote
Cheers
I think that one could say that Eboue is a very happy Arsenal player for the moment.
When he played in Beveren he never would have thought that he would be in the Arsenal team so he gives me the impression that he really likes it in London. I think if he ever would have left, it would be after last year when he was being booed by the fans.
Now I think he thanks the lord for being an Arsenal player