Stats on Goals in last 10 mins January 21, 2009
Posted by freekicker in Arsenal, Arsenal Online, EPL, Statistics.add a comment
| Team | Total Goals | Goals in last 10 minutes |
| Arsenal | 37 | 11 |
| Everton | 30 | 9 |
| Aston Villa | 37 | 8 |
| Blackburn Rovers | 25 | 8 |
| Liverpool | 36 | 8 |
| Manchester City | 39 | 8 |
| Manchester United | 34 | 8 |
| Hull City | 29 | 7 |
| Newcastle United | 28 | 7 |
| Sunderland | 23 | 7 |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 21 | 7 |
| Middlesbrough | 18 | 6 |
| Stoke City | 19 | 5 |
| West Bromwich Albion | 20 | 5 |
| Wigan Athletic | 25 | 5 |
| Bolton Wanderers | 22 | 4 |
| Chelsea | 42 | 4 |
| West Ham United | 29 | 4 |
| Portsmouth | 22 | 3 |
| Fulham | 19 | 2 |
| Team | Total Points | Points gained in last 10 minutes |
| Everton | 36 | 10 |
| Liverpool | 47 | 9 |
| Arsenal | 41 | 7 |
| Aston Villa | 44 | 7 |
| Middlesbrough | 21 | 7 |
| Wigan Athletic | 31 | 7 |
| Blackburn Rovers | 21 | 6 |
| Manchester United | 47 | 6 |
| Hull City | 27 | 6 |
| Sunderland | 23 | 6 |
| West Bromwich Albion | 21 | 6 |
| Stoke City | 21 | 5 |
| Chelsea | 45 | 4 |
| Portsmouth | 24 | 4 |
| Newcastle United | 23 | 3 |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 21 | 3 |
| Manchester City | 25 | 2 |
| West Ham United | 29 | 2 |
| Fulham | 26 | 2 |
| Bolton Wanderers | 23 | 0 |
Arsenal survive & a thought-provoking article December 9, 2008
Posted by freekicker in Adebayor, Arsenal, EPL, Eboue, The Independent, Wigan.1 comment so far
Arsenal held on to some 20 odd nervous minutes in the end to take all three points at home against Wigan. Adebayor’s first half goal was all that they had to show at the end of 90 minutes. Van Persie missed quite a few chances and if his hooting was a bit more sharp all those penetrative passing from Fabregas would have resulted in assists to goals. Denilson had a couple of chances too and it was nice to see that he was taking his chances.
It was unfortunate to see Eboue being booed off the ground. It was unwanted and I hope the fans are better behaved. It is true that he is a player that most fans do not like but I think we should stick by our players. He did some really gross mistakes and Wenger thought it safe to sub him instead of playing him for the last 5 minutes as Wigan were on the offensive and smelt an equaliser. Silvestre and Song were also showing some signs of weakness towards the end of the match. But for me it was Cesc who shone throughout the match and he is getting his groove back.
Here is a thought-provoking article from The Independent on the debt doom of the clubs in the Premier league. A good read.
Lucky Arsenal beat Chelsea December 1, 2008
Posted by freekicker in Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Chelsea, EPL, Fabregas, Stamford Bridge, Van Persie.4 comments
Before the match started any Gooner would have told you that one point from this game is more than enough, especially when the team is going to Stamford Bridge on the back of 2 defeats. So when with a bit of luck the team beat Chelsea convincingly in the end, every fan would be relishing in it. It’s really different when Arsenal win. You go to sleep feeling nice, and you wake up the next morning feeling even better, especially after you beat one of the strong, title-contenders.
Chelsea applied pressure from the first half and deservingly went ahead by an error from Djourou, which resulted in an own goal. And when Chelsea went into the break leading by a goal, Martin Tyler made a telling statement, Chelsea has not conceded a goal in the second half of any premier league match this season. Well, whatever confidence a Gooner would have had, got drained there itself.
I should say that the way we played was not upto our usual standard. Denilson and Song to some extent were below par and I dont know how many times we ended up giving wrong passes. It was only in the 60th minute when luck turned in Arsenal’s favour. Van Persie who was clearly offside banged a shot into the right corner using his wrong foot. In another three minutes, Fabregas’s freekick was headed down by Adebayor and Van persie turned and swirled a shot past a diving Cech. Anelka and Kalou proved to everyone that they are not exactly the best strikers that a rich club like Chelsea can afford. It was as if the youngsters were teaching the oldies at Stamford Bridge a lesson.
Gallas returned to his old ground amidst a lot of jeers from the crowd throughout the match, but he would have been one of the many who would have left the stadium happier.
“William was outstanding today,” Wenger said. “Absolutely amazing. He came out of that period with a lot of credit and his commitment is fantastic. He was outstanding today, just as he was against Dynamo Kiev. He shows he is a real fighter. Instead of giving up, he’s a fighter.”
“There’s no problem at all,” Van Persie said. “He’s a respected colleague and a very good player. It’s not my day, it’s our day.”
So it is Wigan next saturday and if we can keep the winning run under the new Captain, it would do the chances of this team a whole lot good. Liverpool come to Emirates on December 20th and I would love to see how this team responds to the current League leaders. Till then…
It is the rich Man City vs the poor-strength Arsenal November 21, 2008
Posted by freekicker in A Cultured Left Foot, Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, EPL, Gallas, Man City, Van Persie.add a comment
It has been quite disturbing to watch Arsenal in the Premier league…one week they go and beat the title-holders in style and the next week they show new levels of incompetency and get beaten at home 0-2 by the Aston Villa. I am not saying that Villa did not play well, they did and that’s why they won. But Arsenal’s inconsistency has been quite unnerving to a lot of us, fans who have been behind the team in ups and downs. The only problem is that for quite a few years now its been only downs and not many ups.
It is true that a bunch of youngsters are coming up in the League cup and they hold a lot of promise for the future, but what about for the now and present. There is a great article by “A Cultured Left Foot” which I believe is one of the best I have read in recent times. Wenger has himself to balme for this season because he trusted this set of players to do well and they didn’t. So his judgement has been wrong about players like Song, Diaby, Denilson, Gallas and to some extent even Walcott. He took a huge risk by signing Bischoff, when he could have signed a played who would have been available to play now. Why is Wenger betting on these kind of things when everyone knows that he had close to 20 million pounds to buy some healthy, world-class player?
Anyways let bygones be bygones and lets hope this weekend against Man City they put up a display which will please all their fans and the coach. The team doesnt have Fabregas (suspended),Walcott (injured), Eboue (injured), Sagna (injured) and Toure (injured). So this means that our right side looks very depleted.
The only positive is that Van Persie is back and he has been on a goal scoring nick in the International friendly midweek.
Lets hope for the best and see if we can get the 3 points against the blue half of Manchester. I seriously believe that we are not fighting for the title anymore as 9 points is a lead which if we have to overcome needs Chelsea and Liverpool to do an “Arsenal of last season”. Lets wait and watch…
And somebody please ask William Gallas to shut up. I think he has gone too far this season and would be better off playing on the field rather than in front of the media. This is probably the last season for him in Emirates.
The season starts now… November 11, 2008
Posted by freekicker in Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, EPL, Fabregas.1 comment so far
Arsenal breathed new life into their season with a thrilling 2-1 win against their traditional rivals, Manchester United. Double strike from Nasri in either half set up the victory, though Arsenal had some nervous 6 minutes of added time to play with. But this victory will give the team the confidence to carry on in this season.
Hull, Stoke and Fulham were the shocks for the season and Saturday’s victory the morale-boosting win that should take this team through this season. The team played with pace and conviction, taking on the bigger stars of United in their stride. Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov and later Tevez were all made ineffective by this young Arsenal team. Almunia made some decent saves and the United finishing were not upto the mark to add to the visitors misery in the first half. But Bendtner also missed couple of chancecs to put the team ahead.
It took the new man, Nasri to provide the breakthrough in the first half, a deflected shot which went in but full marks to Nasri and Arsenal. It seems Nasri described the match as ”the greatest of my career so far” and one played in front of his father, who usually does not watch his son perform. His second goal was set up by Fabregas and Nasri’s clinical finishing is far too good than Hleb. Clichy had Ronaldo’s number and nullified most of the moves made by the Portuguese. Rooney, I thought might end up getting sent off as he had a frustrating match.
Arsenal played 5 in the midfield and for once Diaby and Denilson played together well. Diaby was in a advanced role when Arsenal were attacking and was back defending when Arsenal lost possession. Probably for the first time, the back four were entirely French – Sagna, Silvestre, Gallas and Clichy. And to top it there were 2 more French players in Diaby and Nasri. Bendtner was the lone forward and Walcott made it up on the right of midfield.
So hope to see the team maintai the tempo and do well for the rest of the season.
Arsenal vs Manchester United preview November 7, 2008
Posted by freekicker in Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Bendtner, EPL, Manchester United.1 comment so far
As Manchester United visit Emirates Stadium, the team sheets and confidence levels of both teams can never be so contrasting. Manchester United have more or less a full strength squad to choose from and coming on the back of a victory over Hull City in the premier league (nevertheless a fighting comeback from the opposition) and a draw against Celtics away from home in the Champions League, they will be primed to give the Gunners one more blow to their Premier league hopes. Arsenal on the other hand face a host of injury problems and the draw against Fenerbache will not be encouraging coming on the back of a Stoke City defeat.
On the injury front, all parts of the field except the central midfield looks rosy for Arsenal. Starting from the back, Sagna’s injury means that Toure would play on that role on Saturday. Gallas and Silvestre are both injured and Wenger will take a call on matchday to keep one of them and maybe start with Djourou, who is a good bet to start. I hope he does that because Djorou would be capable of handling the aerial balls better than any of the other central defenders that we have. Clichy is fit and hence that position will be secure.
Coming to the midfield, injuries to both Walcott and Eboue means he will have to again look at Denilson/Diaby/Ramsey in that order to start on the right of midfield. I would prefer him to start with Ramsey but it might be too much for the youngster to start on a unfamiliar role in a high tempo match like this. Central midfield has been the debating point for the last few weeks now. I would like to see how Fabregas and Ramsey can play together in that role and if we can mould Ramsey into a defensive midfield role. Alex Song will also be in the picture when it comes to this match. Nasri retains his position on the left side of midfield, though he was very patchy in the last couple of matches.
Forwards are short in the current team and the only available two forwards are Bendtner and Vela and it looks like we will start with both or if Wenger goes for a 5 midfield we might start only with Bendtner. I would like to see Wilshere also coming through in this position, but maybe in the next match as Van Persie will and Adebayor might miss 2 more matches. But this is one of those moments in a footballer’s career where destiny is giving them a chance to prove a point to the coach and supporters and if Bendtner can make use of this opportunity he will endear himself to the entire Gooner community.
The team is definetely going through a bad patch and this is when they require us to support them and encourage them, whatever be the result. Lets hope Wenger does some magic with this set of players and we do not go down that soon this season.
What next for Arsenal? November 3, 2008
Posted by freekicker in Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, EPL, Fabregas, Flamini, Stoke City.2 comments
So in 11 matches this season Arsenal has equalled the no. of loses in the whole of last season…three…against Fulham, Hull City and now Stoke City…three teams who we would have thought are sure shot 3 points…and we haven’t even played the other 3 big ones, not to mention the likes of Man City and Aston Villa. It looks very challenging at this stage with the team we have now.
Wenger got the team sheet wrong and had to make all three substitutions in desperation and paid the price by
a) losing the match
b) Seeing off Walcott carried off on a stretcher and
c) seeing Van Persie sent off
I am not saying that Wenger is responsible for all the three, but the buck stops with him. Maybe we fans are not as confident as him on some of the players like Song, Denilson, Diaby, Silvestre and last but not the least William Gallas. We never got a replacement for Flamini and that basically has been our problem, contributed partly by Fabregas’ form this season. He is playing one level below his last-season-form, which was allowed by Flamini’s biting form last season. Denilson, Song, Diaby etc have not been able to fill that void. Is Ramsey the solution??? Maybe. And where is Rosicky???
Every weekend is now a worry as we don’t know which Arsenal team wil come out on the field. The all-attacking, tight at the back and biting in the middle Arsenal or the getting into a shell, play around the box ithout a final shot at goal and conceding one at the other end Arsenal.
But this is the time to be behind the team and I am completely behind them and hope we surprise United next Saturday.
Been missing a lot of matches :( October 28, 2008
Posted by freekicker in Arsenal, EPL, Tottenham Hotspurs.add a comment
I have been missing a lot of Arsenal matches with my reocation to Hyderabad and finding a new place to stay etc etc…The guest house that I stay in shows two channels which show only Cricket 
But I guess Arsenal has been doing a good job so far. With the derby coming up against Spurs, I hope the good form continues.
There has been some good work done by Song in the midfield which is probably alowing Cesc to play more freely. Ade’s substitution wored in the team’s favour as he came in and had a part in the first goal and scored the second.
So here is to a comfortable victory against the Spuds 
Sunderland and other thoughts October 8, 2008
Posted by freekicker in Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, BBC, David Bentley, EPL, Fabregas, Riquelme, Sunderland, Theo, Theo Walcott, Tim Vickery, Walcott, Wenger.1 comment so far
After the Sunderland fiasco I am convinced that in the last couple of years Wenger has not been able to think of a strategy to deal with any team that defends with 10 men. The same happened last Saturday and it was a pain to watch so much of possession being wasted. We did nothing in the final third of the pitch.
Another reason possibly is playing players out of position and not choosing the right combination. Why was Nasri not started in this match and getting Denilson and Song along with Fabregas was not a right move. We did not have any width and the left flank was hardly used. Only after Nasri came in did we see any play on that side of the pitch. The start for this season has been a problem but if we can start showing some consistency it would be good. Now we are left with no choice but to beat Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool if we need a sniff of the top honours in the league.
Tim Vickery, who probably writes one of the best football blogs in BBC, writes about Riquelme, one of my favourite players. He says
I love watching a player who does his part to keep alive two unfashionable concepts in modern football.
One is change of rhythm, the idea that the game can be slowed down before the application of the killer pass. The other is surprise – the ball that no one was expecting, that wrong foots the entire defence.
I call these kind of players the second-thought-players. They always think twice before making a pass. What a common person would think “on second thoughts”, he does it in the first instance itself. The other player I know of who does the same is Cesc Fabregas. He keeps the ball, waits for the right moment before slipping in the ball. He deliberately does that, making the defenders make the first move and commit themselves before delivering that killer ball. I love that guy.
And here is the Bentley dude complaining yet again. Isn’t he the same guy who asked Theo Walcott to leave Arsenal if he dreams of playing for England??? And now the same Walcott has replaced him from the team…Justice done I believe
Arsenal’s Consistency in Question September 30, 2008
Posted by freekicker in Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, EPL, Emirates, Hull City.2 comments
This is a shock result, no doubgt about that, but the way in which the Gunners responded to the two goal deficit was appalling. The team was not there and whatever chances were created did not get converted. It was a match where all the eleven players played a bad game.
Hull City like any other newly promoted club put in a 110% performance in a stage which they would not see that often. They fought for every ball and showed more committment on the field. Arsenal on the other hand were lacking in the spirit and I wonder if they were complacent of sorts. The movement was lacking in the Gunners and the passing game was not taking off all that well.
There have been complaints of whether Gallas and Toure form a god defensive pairing or not at the centre of defence. Djourou might be better bet to replace any one of them and I would love to see Gallas being replaced by Djourou in the next match. Or dont be surprised if Silvestre partners either Toure or Gallas in the defence. Clichy looked a bit out of sorts and did not have any notable runs in the opposition half.
Defence was just fine with fabregas taking a shot at goal towards the end and Denilson loking decent with Fabregas at the centre…But do we need a more fighting defensive mid-fielder is the question? And even if that is the question do we have an answer in the form of any player is the even bigger question? Can we try out Ramsey to play that role? I am sure Wenger has started pondering on all these questions and more after the end of this match.
Forward line was looking toothless with RVP shooting wide off the mark. If he can get it on target then 90% of those shots are goals because they are unstoppable shots. Adebayor had a bad match to add to our troubles. Is consistency the key problem for us? Should we rotate the strikers more often? I think so.
We should give credit where it is due. I thought Hull City played really well. They fought for every ball and were not as physical as people expected them to be. They played fair, won the ball and outscored us to beat us at home. The first goal was a beauty and I do not think anyone can be blamed for that goal. It curled and dipped at the right time beating a stretched Almunia. The second was something which we should have averted. We concede out of a corner again. We need to have a strategy to take care of this blemish which we encounter every time we concede a corner or a freekick.
Emirates stadium which should have been a fortress is not turning out to be one and 2 defeats in 6 games might not be what we expected if we wanted to win the league. This leaves us with no room for error anymore and we have six matches against the likes of United, Chelsea and Liverpool. Consistency is the key and tonight’s match against Porto would be the best palce to prove that we are back with a bang.
