Champions League qualifying, Udinese 1st leg.
It is a daunting task to go into a game that you must win, having just lost your best player, your captain and best goalscorer suspended, your rising star midfielder injured, and 50,000 fans waiting for you to cock it up. It is not wrong to say that Arsenal went into their first champions league game with a more than a little trepidation.
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What is value in the transfer market?
In my last post I put forward that there are at least 3 different type of shoppers in the transfer market. As such quality and value have different meanings to the different buyers and also to the vendors. Today we’ve seen Liverpool value Jordan Henderson at £20m whilst a few weeks ago Real Madrid paid £9m for Nuri Şahin so why the discrepancy?
The Übers, The leveraged, and Mr. Prudent
Ah the transfer war chest, what would we do without it, or more appropriately what would we do with it. Given that the club has changed owners the inevitable speculation on transfer spending and targets has begun in earnest. It is generally accepted that there are two types of shoppers in this market, those who shop at Harrods and those who shop in the bargain basement.
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The Under-21 fallacy
So we are to believe that going to the under 21 finals next year is a necessary step in the education of young Jack Wilshere. Those who disagree with Wenger will point to a number of reasons why that’s the case. The most used refrain is to cite the current under-21 champions and how that was a stepping stone for their great performance in South Africa 2010.
Goalkeepers end Arsenal title hopes.
When W.B.A scored their second goal on the weekend Arsenal fans finally conceded that the title race is over. We are still within touching distance but our goalkeepers or lack thereof means that we won’t touch it and the blame for our situation lies squarely on the shoulders of Wenger and his arrogance. Read on →
Arsenal edge closer to the title.
As they say there are two sides to every story, so when we failed to score against Sunderland the narrative focused on the performance of the referee. The other side to this game is the performance of our forwards. I agree with the assertion that the referee influenced the outcome of the game, but our strikers really have to start putting chances away. Read on →
Nicklas Bendtner to lead Arsenal to glory.
Now that the injury omen has hit, again, it’s time for the rest of the squad to show what they’re made of. Without Robin van Persie to lead the line, I’m putting my faith in Nicklas Bendtner to see is through the upcoming fixtures.
Nicklas or Marouane, who is going to fill van Persie's shoes
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