By Walter Broeckx
In my match review I didn’t talk much about our two new signings. I did this just because I wanted to think a bit more about their performances and to have a look at a few situations in the game.
So let us start with our goal scorer Chamakh. On Arsenal.com he was voted man of the match and I must admit I didn’t vote for him. Not because I thought he had a bad game but I really thought that Rosicky was the most impressive player on the pitch. He did more than all the other players of the two teams had done in the whole 90 minutes.
But on the Chamakh. The way he forced the goal was a very untypical Arsenal goal. A cross from Rosicky from the left and Chamakh was the quickest on the ball and was unlucky to only hit the post. Lucky for us Reina made justice happen by flapping the ball in his own goal. I loved the way Chamakh attacked the ball and I think that we will see him score a few goals this season when he gets some good crosses. I think one of his problems is that we haven’t had a striker like him for a while. So the team has to adjust a bit and has to practice on different crosses to give him good service. But let us not forget he made his EPL debut away from home at Anfield. Not the easiest game to play for your first match. But the fact that he forced the goal will give him a big boost.
The only thing he has to work on a bit is some of his close passing. I think he has a very good technique but playing a team that parks the bus, like Liverpool did for the majority of the game, is something that hardly is ever seen in Europe. Or it should be in Italy but I don’t watch Italian football unless there really is nothing else at my TV. This is something he will have to learn to play against. But this can only be learned by doing it.
Let us pass on to Koscielny who had a very mixed afternoon. His first half was really great I thought. Liverpool never really could come near our goalkeeper. Some good interceptions and stealing off the ball at times. Sometimes he missed but he was always back to smother any possible danger.
I also noticed that he is a player who is staying more behind than Vermaelen. I think this is good. He looks to be more a real defender than Vermaelen. Vermaelen could easily play in midfield but Koscielny looks to be a player who is more comfortable in taking the ball away and then hand it over to another player and keep behind to guard the defence. Just the thing we needed I think.
When he was bought some fans looked at a picture and said he would be blown away by the top strikers in the league. He was too thin. Yes he is not a big fat lump kind of defender. But certainly is not a player that is quickly intimidated. The tackle on him would have been enough to put most people off the field. According to Wenger he had had big lump on his shin after that. The doctors feared even a broken leg but our too thin defender raised himself from the stretcher in the dressing room, looked at his leg, felt he could walk, felt he could run and he came out in the second half. Much to the disliking of the Liverpool fans but much to my delight. By doing this he proved he is not a soft player. No he just escaped a broken leg but he just came out on the pitch and continued his game.
When Torres came on he did two great duels with the Spanjard who was fresh on the field. On both occasions Koscielny outran and out battled Torres. These were really fine pieces of top defending I thought and much needed. And that is what Arsène Wenger has bought him for. Leave the fancy football to Cesc and Robin and Koscielny will do what is needed behind.
To make his game ever more memorable he coloured his debut. The first yellow tackle was a very well deserved one. I think Mrs. Kuyt will have had a very quit night. I surely wouldn’t want to be in the place of Kuyt when his boot hit him where you don’t like it up there. But his second yellow card was a joke from the ref. Yes Koscielny handled the ball, but the ball was 1 foot away from his hand when the Liverpool player tried to hook the ball over Koscielny’s head. The ref gave a yellow card for it. Now you can only give a yellow card if you think it is a deliberate handball. In this case it was very doubtful. The other very deliberate handball I saw, from Ngog when he tried to nick the ball away from Clichy was not sanctioned with a yellow card. What do we always hear about refs: they have to be consistent. Well in this case the ref made a mess of it. If you give a yellow card for handball than you must make sure you hand them out to all the players who do this. And not just one player in the final minutes of the game with a handball that was not deliberate and it also was in Liverpools own half so it was not that Liverpool was on a scoring opportunity.
So the ref spoiled his debut by sending him off. So, it looks that nothing has changed during the summer when it comes to referees in the EPL. Same old referees, always cheating….
Anyway, it is just only one game played. An away game at Anfield so a difficult game. We were without many important players and with 3 debutants in the team, with a player who hasn’t played a minute this season like Diaby. With a player who is out of form. And we got a point. Our debutants did good, some of the players who came off the bench showed they are also ready. Some big players coming back soon. So, why worry there will be sunshine after rain, there will be another 37 games to be won.
Oh and don’t worry about that other EPL debutant Wilshere. I will bring my view on him later on. I think as one of our own youth project boys he deserves this.
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Keep an eye on this one in the future
All from Untold when Tony was gone
I was very impressed by Koscielny, it looked like Vermaelen was much more comfortable with him aswell. Chamakh did ok, he missed on a lot of passes, but with more training it will sort it self out. Now we know we have a player that will attack a high ball, which will create many chances for us.
Totally offtopic.. But I feel like a surging love towards Young Boys today.
😀
Nasri’s out for a month,, what do you think about this ?
Kos reminds me a lot of young fit Toure and think he is that sort of defender, which will be great…Size matters little. as much as I hate it I think Carvaliho was among the best defenders in PL and he was hardly huge ..what matters most for a defender is pace, awareness and positioning and from what I have seen kos does posses those qualities
If Nasri is out only for a month it is not too bad as he in at the most likely to miss 3 games, Bpool, Blackburn and Bolton due to internationals and Rosiky, Walcot, RVP and Jack can all do the job for those games but hopefully not longeer. In the past one month injuries have tended to drag on for 6
i believe nasri will be a big miss
Cannavaro is the best example of a small centre back he handled Klose easily in 2006 and Miroslav out battled John Terry and Matt Upson 2 big centre backs about 4 inches taller than lil Fabio. Kos was strong enough to hold off Torres who is no weakling. Chamakh looks like he will score some goals that usually wouldnt be for us none of our other strikers would have fought for that ball like he did. Sagnas non stop crossing should provied him with plenty of chances which is why we should play him inside left to come in and attack those balls while leaving RVP centre forward as that benefits our general play more
Nasri, out for a month is Fabrigas back this weekend, who will do what Nasri was doing at Anfield.
Was extremely impressed by the new Gooners
I was thinking earlier that when Wenger bought Vermaelen year ago people were saying he is not tall enough after 1 match we saw his timing while jumping is great, with Kos it was he is not big enough but after 1 match he has other quality that compensate that. I loved him. Also I rather miss him one match (stupid ref)than months because that tackle.
Chamakh was also good, but not as impressive as Koscielny.
BTW I totally agree with Tomas Rosicky being most impressive (getting my vote).
Reason Nasri will be out is “minor surgery on his knee following a meniscal injury sustained during the match against Liverpool on Sunday” (from Arsenal.com). But I think if Cesc is not better by Saturday TR7 can take that role. WE will be fine as long as we don’t think “it’s only Blackpool, we can beat them easily”.
Hey Totally off topic Tony…
Can I also buy a seat in AGM by buying a share worth £95 pounds.
Obviously I am not from England and I would just love to be a part of Arsenal
Gunners!!!! always trying to justify their own weaknesses.If it were an Arsenal player that was in Joe Cole’s shoe,they(Gunners) would still find a way of saying it wasn’t a red card offence.Typical of Arsenal.
Kumar. £95 is the price for 1/100 of a share. If you buy 100 you will get a seat at the AGM. If you buy one part you will only by drafted in a raffle which makes it 10% chance to attend. Anyone can purchase as much as they like I think. Visit http://www.arsenalfanshare.com/
I meant 1%
I certainly agree with you on Kols and Chamakh. Wenger is useless at a lot of things, but one thing he is good at is picking an unknown but good player. Now lets get onto what he is not good at. Does it take 5 seasons to recognise that you cannot have all your players playing the same way ? For instance, what is Wiltshere doing giving a short pass to the disinterested Arshavin that led to the Liverpool goal? why is it Arsenal defenders have always liked to dither with the ball close to thier penalty box instead of hacking it away like Kols does ? why do we not spend more in the window than persissting with clowns in goal and leaving ourdselves short at the back ? It does not matter that this can be remedied before the window shuts because this could have been sorted before Anfield, oh actually it should have been sorted years ago. After Rosicky and Nasri’s performance I was hoping Wenger would do the right thing against Blackpool – drop Arshavin and Diaby for their very poor performances. Nasri’s injury has probably changed that. Wenger do persist with rubbish for a very very long time. When will Diaby learn that he is not a world class player, therefore when the ball comes he should pass it to our player instead of losing the ball. Look at the Manu – Newcastle game. No Utd player saw themselves as superstars, they were passing each time they got the ball, and moving very quickly; that way you give the opposition no time to park the bus. A lot need to be learnt on the training ground Mr Wenger !
Chamakh did NOT score – it was an own goal. he was very quite, but not supprising considering how bloody awful the midfield was. How much longer will Arshavin be allowed to waltz around the pitch doing sod all for??
I thought Kos looked good, but when he looked to be injured, name me a gooner that wasnt thinking ‘what do we do now?’ we are thread bare and in desperate need for reinformcement(and a decent keeper)
Considering wenger said his signings would be done before the world cup, he seems to be making a rather large boob of himself
Bergkampslovechild, are we back on the he would do his buying before the world cup. The transfer market was not open before the world cup so he only could have the Chamakh deal done. Then came Koscielny during the world cup, I think.
Fulham have turned a bid down that we know of. Cagliare president said they durned a bit down. And those are the only one that have come in the open.
And God only knows how many bids we have made for other keepers and CBs in the last weeks. But if we get the door smacked in our face it is done in a quit way and not like Barceloanus. Where everyone can see their red nose from the door at Highbury we smacked in their face.
If a club doesn’t want to sell then we can do nothing about it. Also if they ask silly money we shouldn’t go that way.
But yes it looks easy from the sideline, I admit. Just go to the supermarket, put a player in your shopping car, go to the exit, pay and yes we have a new player. If that would be the case then Cesc would have been gone.
I dont think arshavin will start on saturday, he may not even be on the bench
Chamakh and koscielny are definately good additions to the team. Maybe Chamakh may take more time to settle but he definately has brought his ‘head’ into the game. His first touch though was poor but by the experience he has got, i can expect him to get moulded into our style of play soon.
Koscielny, on the other hand, played superbly. Defended superbly. He too has brought his ‘head’ into the game. Hopefully if we have both vermalen and koscielny fit for the whole season then we will concede fewer goals than last season for sure.
Only worrying part is that both Sagna and Clichy are not good passers of the ball in the box. Otherwise, we can then trully see the potential of Chamakh in the air.
@BergkampsLoveChild
If you go back and read carefully, he only said there will definitely be one signing before the world cup. Not all the signings. I’m tired of reading comments from people stating otherwise…
if you look at kos, hes much better than JD, who has had his chances. Even vermaelen looked so comfy in an advancedposition with Kos behind him. i loved his pace, yes torres may not be fully fit but this performance will surely lift our defence. Koscilny is already good enough for the gunners having just played one game. how many games does JD need to prove himself?
Joe71, where you one of those fans who slated Wenger for not playing Arshavin in the semi final of the FA cup 2 seasons ago?
I can imagine you did.
If Wenger plays him he’s no good, if he doesn’t play him he is no good.
And calling our players rubbish is an opinion, your opinion. Can you add some facts to when a player is rubbish or not? There should be some kind of way to decide when a player is rubbish and when not. It would be interesting to know how this is decided.
Anticipating on what Wenger not would do or do is a bit early I would say. No matter what I think you will always find something to be frustrated about Wenger.
It’s terrible that all credit is being taken away from Chamakh by labeling the goal a blunder by Reina. If Reina made a mistake it was to come out and get beaten to the ball, that is where Chamakh showed his skill and bravery to get in front of the keeper. I thought it was a similar move to the one against Legia Warsaw, and I think we’ll see him beat more keepers this way. It may have been Reina who ultimately bundled the ball over the net but it was Chamakh who made the goal.
Agree with you Waleed and also it was a similar goal like against Warsaw. I failed to see the similarity until you pointed it out. Chamakh deserves the credit for this goal no matter if Reina put it in his own goal. Reina made two mistakes: coming for the ball and getting beaten and then pushing it in his own goal.
LOL – did you just sneak in another Dire Straights lyric in there?
I have to give it to you Walter you have an absolutely fantastic memory, or were you just guessing? Anyway, dont forget Arshavin was in awesome form that season. One thing must be made perfectly clear – credit should go to those who perform well, and dont expect praises if you dont. I still feel Arshavin is a good player because he has already proved to us what he has got. But at this minute he is not doing well, and hopefully a stint on the bench will shake him up. I will definitely praise our players and managers when they do well, but when they are consistently not performing, I will criticise – I am only interested in Arsenal, and not individual players or managers.
Another thing Walter is that I do not decide when a player is rubbish – they decide this themselves, they are the ones playing. If you carefully watch a game, look at player ratings from others who watch the game, and we all come to the same conclusion – is this not evidence enough for you ? However, as I said one game does not make you rubbish – Arshavin has been consistently lazy for many games now. Against Liverpool I saw Rosicky and Nasri consisitently playing a lot better than Arshavin. Before, Nasri’s Injury, I would have played Chamkh, RVP (up top) then Nasri and Rosicky behind them against Blackpool. I like Arshavin as a footballer, but I love Arsenal better, and if another player is doing better than Arashavin then why not use that player instead ? Surely this is not rocket science for you Walter ? or do you already have something against me ?
Joe71, In fact I do have a good memory for some things.
I wouldn’t mind if Wenger would put Arshavin on the bench. I think he himself wouldn’t mind as he hinted himself he is not in the best form. But if you take Anfield and if Wenger would have let him out of the starting line up I think 95% of the fans would have been on Wengers neck because Arshavin has had great games at Anfield in the past. And he still is a man who can score out of nothing. It didn’t work out and I wouldn’t mind if let us say Vela got a chance next saturday to play on the left wing.
Maybe we could ask Arsenal.com to keep us up to date with the rubbish statistic centre or so. Or some other site maybe. 😉 there are enough of them whou would take it serious.
Wilshire, Diaby & Asha was our weak triangle. Am surprised fans are reserving thier comments on Wilshire rather than call him out. I hope that was his worst game otherwise he should be loaned to Blackpool for 3 yrs. Btwn the two keepers who played at Anifield that afternoon, Almunia did better. May be Lpool needs a keeper more than we do. Kos was da best. He reminds me of a python but his performance convienced me that Vermy needs to improve his game. Overall am +ve. Go gunners..
Joe-71, I don’t like rating players on an individual basis. I think a lot of times players appear bad due to no fault of their own. It can be down to your tactics or the opposition tactics. Sometimes your opponents will focus on one player and try to stop him, which might render him useless, but it gives other players more space. That might’ve been the case with Arshavin against Liverpool because he has been deadly against them at Anfield.
@ Waleed,
Well summed up, Denilson also comes to mind as a player who seems to be useless, when in fact, he is the best at winning the ball back in the entire league.
George if we want Wilshere to improve we must give him chances at the highest level. Just like Ramsey last year. He improved with every game he playd untill that *****@@@@@**** came along. I think this year will be Wilshere to get some chances and to improve his game.
But no way you can expect that Jack will be the key player to our team in the first few years. And also just have a look at the opposition he was facing. All very experienced international players who have been along for years and all with world cup experience and some even were very close of becoming world champion. I think he did more than enough at this point in his career on his debut at Anfield.
Why all the negative comments? Its the first game of the season- we were a bit behind Liverpool physically- not sharp enough. despite having half a team out we got a good point. I would have taken that before the game. How can people criticise Wilshere – hes only 18 – give him some credit. Lay off Arshavin- lazy? no way- hes a bit short of match fitness was heavily marked and the service to him was not right. Dont forget when he stayed up the field he kept Johnson occupied.
@aaditya
are you sure about denilson?i think essien, mascherano is the best after makalele,viera.. i remember denilson just running along beside opponent striker..maybe i was getting old and tend to forget things..
guys this young koscienly omg he looks really impressive has arsene done it again like henry omg i think he has his ability to pick players from knowhere and turn em into superstars is like nothin iv seen and i reckon kos is gona be somin big