Social Media stats of the Premier League in 2011/12 - Courtesy: Freestyle Interactive
Who stands where on the social media
About all the football that I get to watch and about some I dont
The Beautiful Game
Happy New Year
to all you gooners and all you football fans! Have a great year
May Arsenal go on to win one trophy this year and qualify for Champions League next year. I think that’s all I would like to see happen in this season atleast.
I have been off this blog for sometime now, work and travel has been the primary reason. But I think I will be back with more commentary on what’s going on in the football world soon and more regularly.
How can leave you all without mentioning the most important player of this season so far, Robin Van Persie! He has been his best this season and has contributed in goals, in leading from the front and in inspiring the team from the early lows of the season. Lets hope he stays fit and continues on his goal-scoring trip for some years for Arsenal.
Who needs Batman when we have Robin!
Cesc moves back home
Fabregas the new no 4 of Barca
The long drawn saga of will-he, won’t-he finally ended with Fabregas heading home to Barcelona. He expressed his gratitude to Arsenal where he came in as a boy and returned home as a man. The only creative midfielder left in the top drawer of EPL now heads to Spain.
If you are an Arsenal fan I am sure you are also seeing the huge void left behind by Cesc. Will Wenger sign a creative player to replace Fabregas or does he think we can manage with Ramsey and Wilshere. I hope he buys an established midfielder.
Apparently by afternoon, all the no. 4 jerseys in the official shop of FC Barcelona were sold out as per Sport.
Cesc Fabregas joins a long list of Arsenal players who have moved to Barcelona. Infact it represents about 41% of transfer income received by Arsenal, amounting to be about 128 million Euros!!! The list reads like this – (all in Euros)
Marc Overmars – 40 million
Emmanuel Petit – 15 million
Gio Van Bronckhorst – free
Thierry Henry – 24 million
Alexander Hleb – 15 million
Cesc Fabregas – 34-39 million
I am gonna miss this classy player in our team and I wonder if we would ever get a better passer of the ball than Cesc. All the best Cesc!
The top team in South America – Uruguay
After reaching the semifinals of the last world cup, Uruguay enhanced their reputation as a top footballing team by winning the Copa America in style. They beat Paraguay 3-0 in the finals with two goals from their talismanic Captain Diego Forlan and his forward in command Luis Suarez.
Forlan & Suarez - The world's best attacking combo
One should note that Uruguay has a population of just 3.5 million and are one of the best footballing nations in the world today. Great stuff!
I wish I was there!!!
Arsenal fans watching the match between Arsenal & Malaysia XI
Arsenal won 4-0 in the end
Football Statistics – A good article to read
Came across this wonderful article on Football Statistics and its importance. Written by
Copa America 2011
Last Copa America I was in Malaysia and enjoyed every bit of the tournament. The only sad part was the final where Argentina lost to Brazil. This time though the tournament is in Argentina and the hosts have played really bad. Not to mention Brazil has also not been a good team to watch. The whole tournament has been a bit drab so far with some boring draws.
Neymar has been the individual who has shown some skills and looks promising…this is the first time I am seeing him play. Messi has been disappointing and their match with Colombia. Its the coach, his strategy and the formation and the lack of a good creative midfield and a strong defence is going to hurt the Argentinians.
Messi in action
With 13 goals in 10 games lets hope the tournament will pick up from the second week.
The last link in the ‘Invincibles’ leaves…thanks Clichy
I thought he was one of our outstanding players over the last few years if you leave out the last couple of seasons…A fighter who never thought twice before making a tackle and winning many a ball…Infact I would not have been surprised if he was given the captaincy before Cesc when that happened…anyways his form over the last couple of seasons have been average and he made more mistakes than he ever did in the previous 5-6 yrs he was with the club.
I liked him and I would miss him when they show the team sheet next time…he has been a regular for so long and was a good replacement for Cashley Cole…
Thanks a lot Clichy may you have a great career except when you play against us!!!
Thanks Clichy
What’s wrong with Arsenal?
This season has been yet another season of what could have been! The way we were alive in 4 fronts and how we collapsed and look like we will end up winning nothing, sounds quite familiar if you have been tracking Arsenal in the last 3-4 years. It has been a very very frustrating year for the Gooners, this year in particular as we thought we had a team that could win silverware and to some extent the fact that the other biggies Manchester United and Chelsea looked fallible and out of sorts throughout the season.
If I had to describe the form of the club based on the last match, the one against arch rivals Spurs, I need to just tell you about how our young goalkeeper, Szczesny performed in that match. He was brilliant when it came to making saves. He must have made atleast 4-5 good ones throughout the match. But then he gave away a penalty which was a silly mistake from an inexperienced goalkeeper. This cost us the match, or lets say 2 points. That has been the way our team has performed through this season. Brilliant in most of the phases in some crucial matches but lost concentration or became vulnerable when all we had to do was play on for a few minutes of the match. It has reached such a stage that we don’t know what is the buffer of goals that we need to say we are relatively safe and assured of a win.
The Newcastle match stands out as a glaring example. We lead by 4 goals and then spectacularly collapse to let Newcastle comeback into the match and draw 4-4. How sad can that be. We have not been able to close out matches by defending. We do score goals but you we also need to know how to defend as a team. I don’t want to individually blame our defenders but we need to show some more care in defending, especially if we are leading.
Lets look at some of the reasons why we are at this situation, not in any particular order-
a) Home form: In 17 matches we have won 10, drawn 4 and lost 3. If we look at Man Utd it is 15 wins and one draw. So we know which is the difficult venue to play and get points. There was a time when Highbury was known as a fortress and the visitors knew that they had to show up just to get beaten. But things have changed and now the visiting teams know that they have a chance to atleast draw at the Emirates.
b) Vulnerable Defending: We have been a very offensive team this year, having scored 66 goals in 33 matches. That is 5 less than United’s tally, which is fine. But we have conceded 34 goals this season and that is like 2 more than Utd and 7 more than Chelsea. The critical piece I believe is we have conceded goals when it mattered the most for us. Points lost per goals scored ratio might look very bad for us. I think the opposition doesn’t give up when they are a goal down against us as they think we are vulnerable and can let in goals.
c) Loss of form: Players like Arshavin seems to just play around casually this season. They don’t seem to be presenting any danger to the opposition defence. He seems to be just going around his motion, not come back and defend and not running as much as he should. And one player who seems to be presenting danger to his own team is Clichy. I never thought I would write about him like that. But sometimes he seems to be fooling around with the ball and making some costly mistakes. Bendtner has been subed in most of the matches playing at the right flank and being ineffective.
d) Goalkeeping: Like I mentioned this is a problem area for a long time and Wenger has not addressed it at all, making things work with what he has and not investing in a good goalkeeper. I think we need a goalkeeper who doesn’t make mistakes. Shot stoppers are fine, but we do not want some one who makes crucial mistakes which cost us a trophy or points.
There are many more which you could think of I am sure. Do let me know of your thoughts on the same. But lets keep hoping that a miracle will happen somehow this year 
