Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

The media’s attempts to fill Arsenal’s fullback hole go on. Today a particularly curious story in The Times tells us that Arsenal will give a trial this week to an Omani left back called Saad al-Mukaini. Most of us have no knowledge of Omani second division football so comment on how exciting or how mundane this story is seems pointless. He has played international football for Oman, but beyond that I know very little.

Having decided that the Podolski story has gone cold, the media has moved on to Lille striker Moussa Sow as a prospect for Arsenal or Tottenham. But the stories are not backed up with sources on or off the record.

This is typical of what’s out there today, unsourced stories about the potential success or failure to secure players that Arsenal may or may not be trying to sign.

Real enough though are Manchester United’s problems, with them getting thoroughly turned over by Newcastle last night. Two defeats in a row is unusual territory for them. Heartbreaking I know. Hopefully we can add to their woes when they come to The Emirates later this month. What it does show is how much there is to play for still in this season.

Whether Thierry Henry will be an option for that and other games is still not finalised. Various loans terms still to be agreed apparently. Vito Mannone is spending the rest of the season on loan at Hull, where he spent a good part of last year. I guess this is a sensible move to get himself in the shop window now that his Arsenal chances are limited to long-term back up to Szczesny.

Meanwhile Luis Suarez has made something of an apology. It’s rather half-hearted, apologising generally for any offence caused, but it’s a whole lot better than anything that has come out of Liverpool so far on this issue.

That could be it for today folks unless some more exciting news turns up. Back tomorrow, hopefully with a bit more meat!

First-half Team -

Szczesny
Jenkinson, Koscielny, Vermaelen (C), Gibbs
Song, Ramsey, Wilshere
Walcott, Chamakh, Gervinho (sub Miyaichi)

Good performance going forward, great dribbling and passing from Jack Wilshere.  Great debut from Gervinho getting two goals with cool finishes.  A bit shaky at the the back though, mainly when Gibbs was slow coming back from getting forward, leaving the defence out-numbered at the back.  Carl Jenkinson was a bit unfortunate to score an own goal.  Should probably just of hoofed it with his other foot, but ended up with trying to control it with the outside of his boot and looped it over Szczesny.

Second-half Team -

Mannone (sub Fabianski)
Sagna, Squillaci, Djourou, Gibbs (sub Henderson (sub Afobe))
Frimpong, Rosicky, Nasri
Vela, Van Persie (C), Arshavin

Gibbs is the only one to survive the changes with the other ten all swapped round.  Squillaci and Podolski got nose to nose over some tight marking and shirt pulling by the Arsenal player.  Good snap shot from Rosicky.  Some nice flips from Van Persie.  Some good hustling runs from Arshavin. Frimpong is good at breaking up attacks, even if his passing is a bit wayward.  Nasri was completely anonymous. Henderson was stretchered off near the end after twisting his knee.

No point in over-analysing a pre-season friendly, but the first half team definately put on the best display.

Arsenal have annouced their 23 man squad for the games in Malaysia and China. So who’s going and who’s staying. And if they’re staying, does it actually mean they’re really going?

Goalkeepers -
On Tour: Szczesny, Mannone
On Hold: Almunia, Fabianski

According to the BBC, an Arsenal spokesman has hinted that transfer negotiations for Manuel Almunia could be in the offing with the club having more to say on Monday. Lukasz Fabianski is still recovering from the injury to his shoulder in February.

Defenders -
On Tour: Djourou, Gibbs, Jenkinson, Koscielny, Sagna, Squillaci, Traore, Vermaelen
On Hold: Eboue

Emmanuel Eboue apparently has a calf injury and the rumour mill has been pretty quiet for a while. There was some early talk of a move to QPR but nothing has materialised.

Midfielders -
On Tour: Arshavin, Denilson, Frimpong, Miyaichi, Nasri, Ramsey, Rosicky, Song, Wilshere
On Hold: Diaby, Eastmond, Emmanuel-Thomas, Fabregas, Lansbury

Diaby has an injury and, according to The Mirror this week, Arsenal are open to offers. Then again, other reports say Arsenal have turned down offers. Craig Eastmond broke an ankle back in April while on loan at Millwall. Not much on Jay Emmanual-Thomas. There have been rumours of him being a make weight sale or loan in a deal for Cahill, but nothing substantial. Fabregas, well of course he has an injury hasn’t he! The Sun today says that a season-long loan deal will send Lansbury back to Norwich for regular Premier League football.

Forwards -
On Tour: Chamakh, Van Persie, Vela, Walcott
On Hold: Bendtner

The BBC story on Almunia above also puts Bendtner in the same boat: something happening on a transfer soon, more to be said next week.

Of course, not everyone who is going is necessarily staying!

So in the end disappointment.  Barcelona were the better team last night and they won.

They weren’t the better team for the usual sublime skills that generally have you singing their praises for the silky passes.  Arsenal can do that bit too.  Last night they demonstrated the other side of their game – the determination to press their opponents on every inch of the pitch.

If you take the ball off Barcelona, they want it back. Always and straight away. It doesn’t matter if you are back in the corner at your end. They still want it back. They don’t think about ‘their end’ or ‘your end’, they just think about the ball and want it back.

Early in the first half, Nasri had the ball near the corner flag at our end.  Barcelona won it back.  It took four of them to do it and at the time I smiled at Nasri’s skill.  But the point was that, even though it took four of them, they had the ball back before Arsenal could even get across the half way line.  And so it went on.

Van Persie Red Card
That has to be one of the softest dismissals I’ve ever seen.  Van Persie contributed in getting the first yellow for losing his cool, but the second yellow was outrageous.  Barely a second passed between the whistle for offside and Van Persie taking a shot on goal.  To get sent off for that was so massively disproportionate it left me speechless.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

At first I thought there must have been some incident off-camera.  I was waiting for the TV Producer to run some replay that explained the appearance of the ref card.  But no.  It was a yellow and red for carrying on for one second after the whistle for off-side.  Something that happens countless times in every game, including last night.  Unbelievable!

Arsenal line-up
I was surprised to see Rosicky start.  When I thought about the team decisions Wenger had to take I hadn’t even thought about Rosicky.  He worked hard, putting heart and soul into the game.  I thought that he got the balance about right in terms of when to drop deep and help Sagna and when to stay in space to provide a way forward, but he didn’t have the pace or control on the ball to be enough of a threat.

Van Persie was clearly fit enough to be on the pitch, but not fit enough to make as much impact as he can.  I thought he wasn’t risking 100%, fearful of his fitness.  It was probably worth the gamble, but thanks to the mind-blowing decision of the referee we’ll never know.

First Barcelona Goal
Terrible and unusual mistake from Cesc.  The way that Barcelona were energetically pressing in numbers round the ball, the back heal was way too risky.

The Arsenal Goal
Even this was scored by Barcelona! But it was a good corner from Nasri and a great leap from Diaby, who still missed the ball but unsighted Busquets for an own goal.

Goalkeepers
We started the season with four first team keepers, now we’re down to Almunia.  Presumably Mannone or Shea will have to return to sit on the bench now.  Unlucky injury for Szczesny.  Almunia actually did very well and can’t be blamed for the goals.  He kept us in the game.

Abidal
Eric Abidal somehow got away with grabbing Robin Van Persie by the throat without being spotted.  Ironic given the advert they run at half-time about the extra match officials – “now we see more”!  Maybe there will be retrospective action after the UEFA comments after the Rooney incident.

C’mon Arsenal
All-in-all a disappointing night, but not too much of a shock.  Thanks to our first leg-win and the own-goal we were only one strike from going through right up until the end.  The team gave their all last night but were out-played.

Let’s try and take it out on Man Utd.  C’mon Arsenal!

***** Man of the Match poll running here. *****

Whilst we wait for our fate in the Champion’s League draw later this morning, what do we make of this week’s keeper speculation?

Not so long ago, the situation must have seemed fairly straightforward.  There was a trio of promising keepers coming down the production line, no need to splash a huge amount of cash, just find a mature, competent journeyman to cover the gap between Lehman and Fabianski.   I really don’t think that Almunia was meant to be more than a stop-gap.  But football isn’t a science and players don’t always develop as planned.  What looks like a wealth of talent turns into a confusion of four first-team keepers but no obvious first choice.  Fabianski doesn’t develop at the hoped for speed.  What’s a manager to do?  Frustrating business, especially in the one role where you can’t give time on the pitch through playing out of position.

But we might slowly be seeing a solution.  Everything that you read about Almunia points to the exit.  I think that it’s just a question of whether there is a good deal for him somewhere this January or whether he has to wait for the summer.  I think that he will do a could job for someone, just not at the top end of the Premiership.

Mannone is safely parked out on loan at Hull where he has just kept his third clean sheet in four games.

So that leaves the two Poles – Fabianski and Szczesny.   A lot of speculation about this week that the the younger Pole, Szczesny, will get a second start against Stoke.  Some go further, suggesting that the nature of Fabianski’s injury is the same as Almunia’s – Wenger’s humane habit of not wanting to humiliate a dropped player.

Szczesny made a very decent league debut on Monday in a big game. He handled well and didn’t look like missing any cross that he tried to claim.  He wasn’t always exactly where his team-mates expected him to be for a pass-back and his kicking needs plenty of work, but it was a good confident display on the fundamentals and he topped our Man of the Match poll .

Is Wenger getting all decisive on the keeper question or is Fabianski a bit short of fully fit and he’s hedging his bets? Either way it looks like Szczesny gets a second go.  My guess is that Wenger hasn’t quite made his mind up yet, but at least the choice is getting clearer.

What do you think?

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It’s widely reported that Wojciech Szczesny is stalling on his new contract. On the one hand I wouldn’t blame him.  Arsenal’s strategy over keepers has been far from clear!

Plus that’s the way contract negotiations seem to go these days – a well-placed leak here and there, adding a bit of pressure.  On the other hand, I would have thought things weren’t developing to badly from his point of view.

So what happens next with Arsenal goalkeepers?

Do we think Almunia is really that badly injured, or did a lighter knock give Wenger the excuse to let Fabianski have a run in the team?  Either way, I think it’s good thing.  As I’ve posted before, Arsenal know everything they are ever going to know about Manuel Almunia.  It’s time to find out about Fabianski for real.  I hope his run goes on a while.

I wouldnt be surprised if the one definite Arsenal goalkeeper move was the departure of Almunia.  Vito Mannone has gone out on loan.  I would have thought that was a good signal for Szczesny as well.  It could be to give more experience, but it strikes me more as a shop window job.

Aresnal certainly don’t need four first-team keepers and probably don’t need three.  Don’t forget we’ve also got James Shea back down the track.

Personally I think Arsenal should bid for a better and experienced keeper than all of the above but you don’t always get what you want and Manchester United are in the market too.

Plan B is probably Fabianski number one and Szczesny number two, with the departure of Almunia and Mannone.  Szczesny will probably wait to see what happens in the window before he puts pen to paper.

The Arsenal goalkeeper saga rumbles on and will dog the club until January at the earliest.  We’ve got ourselves into the situation where we have four first team keepers, who of course all want to play, plus the expectation that we are still in the market for another.

Every goalkeeper in the world seems fair game for a ‘linked to Arsenal’ story.  Goonersaur lists twelve keepers we are apparently monitoring, despite missing out one that Caught Offside touted on Saturday.

Some football agents seem to think they are serving their clients by getting their names out there, journalists have pages to fill everyday and websites all love the traffic.  Arsenal fans surfing the web are desperate for any news.   I did a post called ‘Arsenal goalkeeper rumours‘ back in August and got a massive spike in site stats, it’s still the second highest scoring page.  So there are plenty of reasons why this isn’t going away.

In the meantime, by which I means at least until 1st January, we have: four keepers who can read anywhere they like that they are not good enough; four keepers who all want to play; three keepers each week who feel pissed off; two keepers who don’t have anywhere to go on a Saturday and one keeper between the sticks each week with all of this on their shoulders trying to keep goal.

Even ardent Wenger fans, and I’m still pretty keen, have to admit we’ve made a dog’s dinner of this!

So what to do between now and the new year, and which goalkeeping rumours make any sense?

Now until the New Year

I don’t think there’s a massive amount to choose between Almunia and Fabianski.  I think that they have similar strengths and weaknesses.  On the upside, they are both agile shot-stoppers who are at the their best in open play situations or facing penalties.  On the downside they can both be indecisive and get stranded between positioning options or a flapping too far from a high ball.

Is it about confidence, skill or experience?  Probably a bit of all three and not the same mix for both.  Given that Fabianski has just had two of his best performances in a row, I’d be inclined to give Almunia’s injured elbow a bit longer and keep him in the team for Birmingham.  A successful run in the team would give him experience and confidence.  Maybe enough to inform the club what to do with him January.

The best you can do for Szczesny and Mannone is alternate them on the bench or send one out on loan.  It isn’t ideal but it’s about all they can get at the moment.  I don’t think there is that much to choose between them at the moment.  Szczesny was the more popular when we ran a poll last month, but I know that Mannone has his fans too.

Making sense of the rumours

Most transfer rumour are rubbish of course.  But what sort of keeper makes sense for Arsenal. Only two I think. Option 1, is splash the cash for a really top keeper.  You could call that the Buffon option.  Option two is less cash for someone who isn’t one of the biggest names, but has proved themselves as a confident, self-assured, experienced keeper who is always in the right place, even if their time of cat-like agility is behind them.  You could call that the Schwarzer option.

Whichever you go for, you then let three of the existing four go, leaving one as reserve and Shea as back-up.

I don’t see the point of another unproven keeper aged under twenty-five (the Begovic option). That wouldn’t make the choice any clearer than it is now.

And you resolve never to get into the situation where you have four first team keepers but no standout choice again.

Spent five minutes this morning trying to get a Polish colleague to teach me how to say Wojciech Szczesny in the hope that it may come in useful someday!  I got as far as ‘voytec shelsnee’ but she still wasn’t completely satisfied with the beginning of the surname.

This afternoon I see that Szczesny has made the squad for Belgrade, making it an all-Polish goalkeeping line-up after Almunia got the elbow an elbow injury in the first half of the game on Saturday.   A lot of Arsenal fans are calling for Szczesny or Mannone to be given a chance rather than Fabianski but I think that’s more out of desperation more than anything else.   The slogan seems to be ‘better the devil you don’t know’ at the moment.

The truth is that despite Arsenal having four first-team keepers we don’t have an unimpeachable number one.   We have two that have come up short on too many occasions and two that are largely untested.  Buying a keeper is probably the most difficult of all the positions.  You don’t get to see the younger keepers against serious opponents very often.   The solution for a club the size of Arsenal was to buy a tried and tested keeper, but for whatever reason it didn’t happen and can’t happen this side of Christmas at the earliest.

So what should Arsenal do?   Bob Wilson said last week Szczesny wouldn’t get a game because the risk is too great.   What would it take to change the balance of risk?

The truth is that us fans don’t have a better idea that Wenger and his coaching staff as to who is the best choice tomorrow.   But what the heck, we can still have an opinion!   We’ve seen enough to know that Fabianski is a risk.   Would fans rather risk the unknown?

What do you think?

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Here we go again! Various media reports that Mark Schwarzer really has put in a transfer request now. Direct quotes from Mark Hughes who now expects a fresh Arsenal bid. This sounds like a solid story other than for the fact we’ve been here several times already.

This could be good news, we need a new keeper (see several thousand previous posts). But if true the timing would pose a short-term dilemma for the Liverpool game. Would you play Almunia if it was obvious he was about to be replaced, or Fabianski unsure whether he was being replaced or being confirmed as a number two?

Or tell Mannone or Szczesny that this is their chance to show that they are the future?