Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

Lukas Podolski
Welcome to Lukas Podolski. Especially welcome in what I hope is a statement of intent from Arsenal that this summer is going different to last year. That there might even be a plan. OK, so we were thoroughly screwed over by Barcelona, but the club’s collective management drifted through the summer with no obvious attempt to control events.

Wrapping up the Podolski deal now is hopefully a sign of a more assertive style. Much of course still hinges on coming third, or fourth at a pinch. Third place means that more early transfer business becomes easier and both will be needed to guarantee Robin Van Persie is with us next season. But a good start has been made with a proven international striker to share the load up front.

Man City
There are plenty of permutations to come this season, but City’s win last night is marginally in our favour. It gives them the strongest incentive to take out Newcastle at the weekend. And that comes after Newcastle’s trip to Stamford Bridge. The game itself wasn’t that exciting. Mancini finished it off the way you would expect from a traditional Italian manager defending a one nil advantage, with five defenders and three holding players.

Roy Hodgson
This season Roy Hodgson has taken a group of mid-range players, pulled them together as a team and guided them to a position where they are punching above their weight. He did the same thing at Fulham. Now it seems he has the same task again. So maybe the Club England committee just decided to get real.

Personally I think that he is as good a choice as any who would take it. It all went horribly wrong at Liverpool, but it’s debatable how much that wad down to Roy Hodgson. Look at all his replacement King Kenny has achieved, with the budget for massive spending on Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam and wonder. Raul Meireles, who Hodgson took to Liverpool and King Kenny sold to Chelsea is playing regularly and scoring crucial goals.

Of course being England manager is a thankless task that requires a healthy dose of luck. The media have been laying into the decision, calling it a shock and astonishing. But this is mainly to cover up their embarrassing discovery that it wasn’t their decision to make. They crowned their mate Harry and said he was the only possible choice.

There’s something about Harry
To be fair to Harry, he has handled the announcement of Hodgson’s appointment with a lot of good grace, saying that he is very fortunate in life. And so he is, a very well paid job with some good players, nice house, car etc and a talented dog as well.

I wouldn’t have grumbled of he had got the England job but there is something about him that makes you think twice. Don’t know quite how to define it, but the FA obviously think so too.

The best media excuse is that it came down to some row with Trevor Brooking over West Ham. I doubt it. I think that England have made a pragmatic long-term choice. The long-term bit may be a bit optimistic because I think that the trend to club before country will continue and may even go further to the clubs’ advantage. But good luck to Roy.

Arsenal don’t play tomorrow but it’s a big day with our three rivals all playing their catch-up games. Then it’s just two to go for each. Eyes down for a tight finish.

So, final day of the transfer window.  We know the deals done or nearly done.  But we still don’t have the midfield playmaker we surely need.

So what deals can Arsenal still do?

The media are still largely running with the same names this morning.  Yann M’Vila and Mario Hamsik are all over various football websites, whilst the Mirror still favors the idea of Arteta and/or Fellaini from Everton.

There are some passing references to Yossi Benayoun, but mainly in the context of him going back to Liverpool in a cash plus player deal for Raul Meireles.

Sky Sports are running with Juan Manuel Vargas, the Peruvian winger at Fiorentina.  But I would have thought we had wingers a plenty now.

So who will it be?  Is there any life left in the moves for Hazard or Cahill or are they really out now?  I think Arsenal still need one more big signing, or two solid, experienced ones to restore the credibility that stops the media bandwagon.

My dream result would be Hazard or Hamsik plus M’Vila or Fellaini.  But that’s probably being greedy with the time that’s left.  What we really, really do need is a creative midfielder.

Hours then not days, and long, nervous ones at that!

Stand-by for a barrage of rumours, plus all the usual guff from Keith’s granny’s neighbour who runs a cab company near the training ground/stadium/airport!

Except for those taking comfort in blaming the referee, I guess most fans first reaction was to heap it all on Emmanuel Eboue.

I was certainly stunned by him conceding a daft penalty and I had a bit of a post-match rant myself.  Lucas was heading away from goal with only seconds to go before the whistle and Eboue was well-placed between him and the goal if he tried to turn.  Whatever you think Lucas was up to, there was no need to risk making contact.

The irony is that Eboue actually had one of his better games up until that point.  Yes he still got caught out of position, leaving some big gaps for Meireles, but he was more effective than usual and more determined than some of his team-mates.

More of a problem was the fact that it took us ninety-eight minutes to score despite dominating the possession through-out.  And that was on the back of two previous goal-less home draws.

Kenny Dalglish is no fool and had correctly analysed the videos.  Stick two diligent defensive midfielders (Spearing and Lucus) in the middle and tell your fullbacks to stay in a tight formation with the central defenders to form a tight barrier on the edge of the box.  Don’t worry if that means Arsenal get down the sides because when they do get crosses in there generally isn’t anyone running into the box to do anything with them.

What will happen next (as in the whole of the next ninety minutes) is that Arsenal’s talented midfielders will grind down their enthusiasm and their very souls against this wall of six disciplined defenders until their passing becomes more and more ambitious and less and less effective.  Give Arsenal’s midfield space to play and they will up the pace, stretch the game and kill you dead.  Take away the space and they won’t know what to do.

Arsenal were quite good at the back yesterday, despite opting for Diaby over the more consistent Song.  Koscielny plays better alongside Djourou than he does alongside Squillaci.  Presumably because he can focus more on his own play.  Rather like Viera playing better alongside Gilberto.

Clichy, with good help from Nasri, kept Kuyt under control.  Eboue was better than usual until his gaffe.

Szczesny kept his concentration up to be good when needed.  His distribution still needs work as he put Clichy and Djourou in difficult positions during the game, but he’s convincing me at the moment that a new keeper isn’t the priority.

The problem is that we don’t score enough goals.

There’s quite a bit around the blogs today about how Arsenal should stop all this tippey-tappey football.  But I don’t think that’s quite the point.  The only problem with the way we attack is that it’s the only way we attack.  We’ve been sussed!

Eboue (we’re a forgiving lot!) and Djourou lead the man of the match poll.  Add your vote here.