Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

Arsenal’s injury list now has nine names: Vermaelen, Squillaci, Djourou, Wilshere, Diaby, Benayoun, Gervinho, Walcott and Koscielny.

Hopefully Arsene Wenger is just being overly cautious about the last three with an eye to Sunday’s game away to Spurs.  But having four of the first team squad’s six central defenders out obviously poses a problem.

Tonight’s game should be straightforward, with Olympiacos the weakest team in the group.  It’s a popular cliche to say there are no easy games in football.  There are easy games, but sometimes a team can complacently contrive to mess them up.

The two Manchester clubs provided a warning last night.  United thought they were sweeping Basel away and threw a two goal lead.  They then had to battle back to salvage a draw.  City thought their mighty Galactico’s would rampage over Bayern Munich and went our without their customary two holding-player formation.  By the time they got round to changing tack, Bayern were all over them and won 2:0.

Arsenal take note, the easy games are easy when you do your job properly.

Last time we had Olympiacos in our Champions League group we won at home and lost away.  The away defeat came at the end when we had already won the group and fielded a team largely made up of young reserves.  At least Tom Cruise and Kerrea Gilbert can say they’ve played Champions League football. If you want the full SP, Modern Gooner has done his usual thorough job.

So how will Arsene Wenger plug the gaps tonight?  Looking around the various Arsenal blogs, overnight opinion seems to favour experienced players out of position rather than new blood.

The popular choice or prediction is to drop Song back into defence rather than risk Miquel, with Frimpong or Coquelin as the holding midfielder.  Up front most reckon Rosicky being pushed further forward rather than a start for Park.

Personally I worry about players out of position and suggested Miquel and Park, but we’ll have to wait and see.

A draw away to Dortmund was fine, but we need three points today.  We learnt last year how failing to win the group pitches you in against the likes of Barcelona in the first knock-out round and we need to avoid that.

Then there’s the fact that winning against Bolton was just another step forward rather than an emphatic return to form.  But play as well as we did in the second half last Saturday and we will be fine.

Come on you Gunners!

Travelling in to London through a murky dull Essex this morning, reading the murky dull news that Jack Wilshere will be out for another five to six months after the operation to repair his stress-fractured ankle. Not good news at all. Perhaps there is something in the stories that Arsenal staff have been in Spain to secure a deal for Valencia’s Dani Parejo.

The news on Theo Walcott is that he won’t be ready to start against Olympiacos tomorrow but hopes to be back for the Spurs game on Sunday. I suspect that Walcott may not have started tomorrow anyway as Arsene Wenger needs to rotate here and there. Arshavin is the most likely change for Walcott.

There are probably two other choices to make: Ramsey or Rosicky, Santos or Gibbs?

The combination of Arteta, Ramsey and Song had been working well, but Arsene Wenger may be wary of overplaying both Ramsey and Arteta. I suspect that we will see one of them make way for Rosicky.

I think that Rosicky is a good option for European games. He’s got tons of experience. He can also adapt to a changing game because as well as going forward he can also tackle and hold the ball when we’re under pressure. For some reason it doesn’t seem to work for him as well in the Premier League, but for tomorrow I think he would be a good choice.

Santos or Gibbs? I’m slightly puzzled so far about Santos and assume that it is just his fitness level that sees Gibbs getting picked ahead of him. I want to see Kieran Gibbs succeed but Arsenal have so little margin for error now and he is the weakest link in the back four at present. I assume that Santos is the man unless he can’t go the distance.

The rest of the defence is looking steadily better. Not prefect but improving. I wouldn’t change Mertesacker or Koscielny unless they absolutely need it. The less we’re forced to change the central pairing the better.

Szczesny and Van Persie are automatic picks. How we agonised over keepers last season!

What does the unfortunate Almunia do at the weekends? I hope he finds a new club in January. He’s always struck me as a thoroughly nice guy. He just wasn’t right for Arsenal, a stop-gap who ended up playing most games.

Robin Van Messi is on fire at the moment and long may it continue. Maybe just a hint of an injury to be dropped around Christmas – just to ward off curious managers with deep pockets!

Gervinho also looks like an automatic choice at the moment. He could still improve on his decision making but he looks the real deal and is providing some variety to Arsenal going forward.

So that means something like:
________ Szczesny ______
Sagna _ Merte _ Kos _ Santos?
__________ Song _______
____Arteta ___ Rosicky ___
_ Gervinho _ RVP _Arshavin _

What do you think?

Time was when we knew nothing about transfers until they randomly appeared. Then we just followed them through the the transfer window. Now the rumour mill spins on whether the window is open or not.

So what are the Arsenal stories out there?

Van Persie
Well Arsene Wenger gave the mill a nit of a spin himself this week, pointing out that the likes of Van Persie need their contract renewing this season.

The Mail on Sunday duly follows up with a story that Manchester ‘Top Trumps’ City will toss in a £30million bid if Van Persie shows any reluctance to sign a new Arsenal deal before January. They don’t actually have any Man City sources to back this up, trotting out the ‘sources close to Van Persie’ as the only hint of verification. Which is to say, no verification at all.

Others are running the same story with Juventus or Inter-Milan as the interested parties. This is easy copy and we’re going to see it time and again this season.

Dani Parejo & Raffael
Various media sites are linking Arsenal with these two midfielders and with doubts over Wilshere’s fitness and Benayoun obviously a short-term option, this sort of story obviously has plausibility even if the players named are not the right ones.

Paco Alcacer & Ibrahim Afellay
Also touted are efforts to sign another forward such as Valencia’s Paco Alcacer or Barcelona’s seemingly out of favour winger Ibrahim Afellay. That last one seems pretty tenuous to me. It’s just the Metro picking up on the fact that Afellay has got injured and re-running and old story.

We’re a long way from the next window so this is all pretty speculative. The grain of truth lurking beneath though is the number of key players whose contracts need renewing.

Arsene Wenger used his last press conference to point out that there were four key players whose contracts need renewing this season or the club will be in the Fabregas/Nasri situation again only more so. To pile on the gloom he observed that Arsenal’s current maximum salary wouldn’t necessarily be enough to keep them.

So what’s he up to? Was he just having a gloomy day, burdened by the news that Jack Wilshere’s injury hadn’t healed naturally and would need surgery? We’re all dooooomed a tell ya! Dooooomed.

Is he telling us fans to get used to the world we now live in where the billionaire’s hobby clubs have inflated the market beyond Arsenal’s reach?

Or is he telling Stan Kroenke that, like or not, approve or not, the salary system has to change or Arsenal will slip into the Europa League tier of the Premiership?

Arsene Wenger isn’t one who generally likes to rock the boat publically. But you get the impression that the saga of this summer has left some deep scars. Arsene Wenger is at the stage of his career where he only needs to do what he wants to do. We might hear a few more home truths delivered.

Can Arsenal get a win against Bolton tomorrow?  The answer of course should be a resounding yes and it is the most likely outcome.  But the way this season has gone so far and the morale sapping time the club has endured make anything possible.

The win against Shrewsbury was pleasing, with Oxlade-Chamberlain and others showing their potential.  But beating Shrewsbury Town isn’t really what we’re here for.

A lot of fans are calling for AOC to be drafted straight into the first choice line up now and I’m sure he’s going to get games this season.  But let’s not forget the story of Jack Wilshere who clearly played too often last season and now we’re waiting on his return to fitness.

Kevin Davies and Tuncay Sanli will be the biggest threats to deal with, Ivan Klasnic is out on suspension after headbutting a Norwich player.

So who will play tomorrow?

For most of last season this is the point where we would dive straight into a debate about Almunia, Szczesny and transfer speculation.  Later adding Lehman to the debate.

At least we have this spot sorted now.  Wojciech Szczesny still has stuff to learn, particularly about distribution, but he is now the first name on the team sheet without hesitation.

Who is definitely out?  Vermaelen, Squillaci, Diaby, Benayoun, Rosicky and Wilshere are not fit.  So Arsene Wenger’s options are still limited.  Plenty of jokes mid-week about Yossi Benayoun’s true Arsenal style start – he scores his first goal, he’s out injured!  But I don’t think we really expected him to start every game.

The debate really is the same as last week: who will play either side of Robin Van Persie; and who is our first choice left back?

Santos didn’t have a dream debut last week, playing a Blackburn player onside before a goal, but I can’t believe he’s here as back up.  I’m guessing that he starts.

I also believe Gervinho will start, so it comes back to Walcott or Arshavin?  Last week Arsene Wenger opted for Arshavin and I think he will do again, though its a bit if a guess really.

Walcott is making more noise these days about playing a more central role. But he won’t get in against RVP.  Unless Arsene Wenger is about to tinker with formation, that leaves him out wide.  Just hope he doesn’t get his head in the same place as Bendtner did.

Anyway, unless Arsenal are holding something back on injuries, and we’ve not heard much about Rosicky or Sagna, I guess we’ll see a team like this:

_______ Szczesny _______
Sagna _ Merte _ Kos _ Santos
________ Song _________
___ Arteta ___ Ramsey ___
Arshavin __ RVP __ Gervinho

What do you think?

Benayoun, Miyaichi, Park, Arteta, Mertesaker and Santos  are will be keen to make their first appearance for Arsenal.  With six games in the next three weeks, including a Cup game against Shrewsbury Town, the chances are that all of them will have done so by the end of the month.  But who will we see on Saturday?

I think that there are two definite debut starts and a possible third.

With Vermaelen out, Mertesaker has to start.  Injuries allowing, I expect Arsene Wenger to rely on two from Koscielny, Mertesacker and Vermaelen through the season. So with the Belgium recovering from surgery, Mertesaker is bound to start.

The second definite debut is Arteta.  With no Wilshere or Song, the Spaniard has to play.

For the others it’s less certain. For those in the attacking half of the team it depends on the condition of Walcott and Arshavin on their return from national squads. I can’t see Wenger making wholesale change just for the sake of it.

Which just leaves – Gibbs or Santos?  My hunch, because he is coming back from injury and because I’m not sure he’s ready yet, is that Gibbs will miss out and we will see three new Gunners on Saturday.

If Santos does play I hope we’re going to make a bit more noise than usual. Arsenal v Swansea at the Emirates could seem a bit quiet after playing in Turkey.

Arsenal are still the favourite media whipping boy this weekend, with various hacks and has-beens having a go.  Sadly we’re all just going to have to take this on the chin for now because our club is the obvious story.  To add to the pounding fron the pundits, there’s news that Jack Wilshere may be out a while yet.

There may be twenty Premier League clubs, but in truth it’s the fight for the top four places that dominates the coverage.  There’s heavy commercial logic here right across the media so don’t expect this to change.

Whilst there might be some nit-picking over various aspects of United, City and Chelsea’s squads, no-one thinks they are going to be uncompetitive.  In contrast, even the most blinkered Gooner would admit that we have had a traumatic summer that followed a terrible closing third of the season.

So we’ve got it all to prove against the challengers for our top four status. To aid the media, this can easily easily be characterised as matey Kenny and ‘arry verses too clever by half Arsene.  So this is our lot until the team can prove otherwise.

What of the challenge from Liverpool and Tottenham?

Everyone agrees that Liverpool have got stronger this summer, but I think the jury is still out on quite how much stronger.  They beat us two-nil, but we were poor and understrength. I didn’t think they looked that special.

I don’t think anyone has really made their minds up about Spurs yet.  They have kept their two most influential players, Van Der Vaart and Modric, but have let go of a number.  In come Parker, Friedel and Adebayor.  Adebayor had just 15 starts last season.  Who knows just how much he’s got to give.

Gooners have been on an emotional roller coaster.  Depths of despair at old Trafford, the surge of relief from the closing stages of the transfer window.  Now we’re sat stationery, we’ve paid for another ride but we don’t know how it will go.

If the Arsenal as a team can be more than the sum of its parts, competition with City, United and Chelsea beckons.  Or will the ‘big top four’ turn in two groups of three?

Hold very tight now!

So how will the ‘new’ Arsenal line up?  Who is number one in each slot?

I think the back half of the team is pretty straightforward.

_______ Szczesny __________
________ Fabianski __________
Sagna __ Mert __ Verm __ Santos
Jenk ____ DJ ____ Kos ____ Gibbs
_________ Song ____________
_________ Frimpong __________

Central midfield is more debatable. Is it to be a blend of youth and experience?  Is this the pecking order?

___ Arteta ____ Wilshere ____
__ Benayoun ____ Ramsey _____

Or will it be more mix and match than that?  How many games will Rosicky start this season?

What about wide players?

Walcott __________ Gervinho
Miyaichi ____________ Arshavin

Where does Oxlade-Chamberlain fit in?

At the front I suspect it will be:

______ Van Persie ________
_________ Park ___________
_______ Chamakh _________

What do you think?

Well that was certainly a big finish!  Five players brought in over the last three days.  Two of them confirmed in the final hour.

Arsenal’s summer transfer story came in three parts: the pre-planned deals, the Fabregas/Nasri saga and the frenetic final sprint for the line.

Arsene Wenger clearly had the Jenkinson and Gervinho deals well in-hand before the window opened.  This part of the story was completely under control and to a plan.  Both players have already shown great promise, although obviously Gervinho is much more the finished item than Jenkinson.  Both have shown a bit indiscipline too, but I think these are probably just early mistakes and they will do well.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was also clearly part of a plan, but he took a little longer to land.  Just about every pundit agrees that he has great potential.  Perhaps more than previous Southampton recruit Theo Walcott.  But by this stage there were rumblings, surely we needed some more experienced recruits?  After a season where we were up for so much success and then choked, surely we weren’t just going to bring in more ‘stars of the future’.

This part of the summer can be judged a fair success, but we will how good the plan was at that stage, because the rest of the window was taken over by the fight for Cesc Fabregas and, to a lesser extent, Samir Nasri.

Much had already been written about this and there are still unanswered questions about Barcelona’s behavior, whether Arsenal could have taken more initiative to control the situation and who was really calling the shots at the club.  Arsenal has a culture of being very discreet about the way it goes about its business, but from the public comments that were made, there was clearly tension and disagreement in the management team.

Whatever the reasons, it put Arsenal in a precarious position.  The very late decisions on Fabregas and Nasri meant that potential recruits thought they might as well wait a few days more and see whether Arsenal’s Champions League status was secure.  By that time, Arsenal also had to attend to preparing for one of the biggest fixtures of the season with a mounting injury list.

Part two of the summer story was an undeniable shambles that destabilised the club.

So, on to the final part, three days to strengthen the squad and restore confidence in Arsenal and Arsene Wenger.

Clearly Arsene Wenger will have had a list of targets in mind, to go after once Champions League football could be promised.  But the humiliating result at Old Trafford must surely have stiffened the resolve.  As the game went pear-shaped and Arsene looked at the options sat around him, he must have felt pretty desperate.

The result of this mix of fore-thought and desperation is actually quite impressive and most fans will be feeling relieved this morning.

We wanted solid, experience.  Players who could come in and make a difference straight away.  That’s what we’ve got.

Per Mertesacker – 26, club captain with 75 games for Germany.
Andre Santos – 28, with 22 games for Brazil.
Park Chu-Young – 26, captain of South Korea.
Yossi Benayoun – 31, experienced playmaker with 83 games for Isreal and 163 in the Premiership.
Mikel Arteta – 29, now Arsenal’s most experienced Premiership player with 173 games.

I’m not going to hide from the fact that I’d hoped for better in midfield.  We have lost Cesc Fabregas and dreamed of Hazard, M’Vila, Kaka, Snjeider and Schweinsteiger.  But some of these great players probably had no intention of moving and if they did then United, City and Chelsea would have been there with cash too.

But Arteta and Benayoun are quality, experienced players, who together add considerable depth to the line up of Ramsey, Rosicky and Wilshere.  Mertesacker and Santos fill big holes in our defence.  Park has the potential to be a great impact player and to share Van Persie’s workload.

So not a dream finish, but a pretty damn good one that I think does enough to restore confidence.  Time will tell of course but today, we are back in the game at least.

It’s only our fourth competitive game of the season, but so much hangs on it. So much that could shape Arsenal’s prospects for some time.

Mess up and no Champions League football this season. No Champions League football this season and less reason for big players to join the club in this or the January transfer window. No big signings and a tougher battle to finish top four at the end of the season. So no pressure then!

Let’s start with availability then. Out are: Koscielny, Diaby, Gibbs and Squillaci.

Possibly fit again are: Djourou, Traore, Wilshere and Rosicky. Of these, Wilshere sounds the most unlikely. “He has a chance.”

The suspensions of Song and Gervinho don’t apply for the Champions League.

Starters for the first leg were: Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Walcott, Chamakh, Gervinho.

Szczesny will start, as will Sagna and Vermaelen. We have to hope that Djourou is ready again. Miquel may have a big future but Saturday shows that he is still finding his way at senior level.

Traore or Jenkinson as the second fullback? My hunch is Jenkinson. He’s already as good if not better than Traore. From what little I’ve seen of both, I think Jenkinson is also the most decisive of the two, which means a lot at the back especially when your taking a lot of pressure.

Song, Ramsey, Rosicky? Well I guess that depends where we are with Arsenal loving Nasri doesn’t it? Because if he takes anyone’s place I think it will be Rosicky’s.

So what is going on with the Nasri deal? My guess is that he is going, but if was a certainty it would already have happened. This morning it is being reported that Nasri will not be in the party travelling to Italy, at his request.

Walcott, Van Persie, Gervinho?

Hmm, this sounds familiar. Walcott or Arshavin? How many times did we ask that last season? Walcott or Arshavin? Heh, Theo’s our top scorer!

Both Arshavin and Walcott were quiet on Saturday. It’s hard to guess. Much easier is the prediction that Van Persie will start rather than Chamakh.

Best guess:

Szczesny
Sagna DJ Verm Jenkinson
Song
Nasri Ramsey
Walcott RVP Gervinho

What do you think?