You have To Laugh Or Else You Cry…

Or: I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused…I’m on holiday so here’s more thoughts of Club Captain, Consolsbob

It’s going to be a long season. Whatever approach you adopt for supporting The Arsenal this year and however the campaign goes there are going to be several occasions when you will want to throw your television set out of the window, or, at least, throw something hard at Jamie Redknapp. Similarly you are unlikely to get through MOTD without risking apoplexy at the ‘insights’ offered by Hansen or Shearer. I have endured many seasons now of ranting at the television and, as a result, feeling duty bound as a ‘reasonable’ person, explaining myself to consolslel. This becomes tiresome and, eventually, embarrassing.

Moreover there will be many miles of newsprint that will inflame the mind of any AKB and unreserved Arsenal supporter. No matter how hard you avoid the Daily Mail, The Sun, Mirror, in fact almost any newspaper, sooner or later a piece of analysis or comment will cross your eye line or be repeated in your presence.. Many of those pieces of journalese will be derogatory of Arsenal, Arsene Wenger and his ‘experiment. Often they will offer in marked contrast the magnificence of Chelsea‘s play, the genius of Old Red nose and the wise team building policy of Mancini. I guarantee that there will be many occasions when your blood pressure level will rise dangerously. You will risk being thrown out of public places.

In case you are one, like myself, who rarely bothers with either MOTD or newspapers but gets their comment and news from the web, specifically from Arsenal blogs such as our own dear ACLF, then I am afraid that another form of vexation awaits you there. Yes, you know those of whom I speak, the doomers. Those who spend their lives waiting for another failure of our team to win every game by at least four clear goals and sign Messi and Flamini. Such perceived shortcomings can lead to hours of trawling through their own peculiar brand of misery on your favourite sites. Worse are the futile arguments with which you will respond to their diatribes in a bid to either make them see reason or just piss off.

Nor will there be any escape at the Emirates. Too many fools with opinions fuelled by the expert analysis provided by ‘Talksport’.

In short, the season will be trying at times and, make no mistake, if Arsenal actually win the Premiership or European Championship then your rage will know no bounds as the excuses are trotted out for the mancs and chavs and grudging praise is dispensed with great charity by Richard Keyes and his ilk. No, we are on our own. Frankly I can’t stand another year of it. Why should Arsenal fans be unable to read a newspaper and watch television like anybody else?

Obviously most of us will watch an awful lot of football on television. We will also spend too long on this website. It’s unavoidable. So, how do we come through it all without making raving lunatics of ourselves? The solution requires us to consider an alternative view of television sports programmes, the back pages and doomers. For too long we have given the fools, liars and miserable bastards too much credence, too much respect. Now I see them for what they are, comedians and writers of some of the funniest lines since ‘The Office’. Once realised, a whole world of entertainment is opened up to us.

We know that the media is pisspoor, that for every pundit who is lazy and ignorant there is another that despises our club. We know that the only cheap headlines that Arsene and Arsenal provide will be to do with the ‘experiment’, ‘cheap’ foreign imports, and a failure to play the game ‘properly’. They will steadfastly ignore the differences that make Arsenal a model for the game, a game that is desperately in need of an escape route from the vision of the future offered by the remainder of the ‘Big 4 plus 1’. A trio of clubs, plus 1, that in their own distinct ways threatens to destroy the game and all it was and should be.

They will delight in every ‘big name’ signing provided by unsustainable debt or people so rich that they can do whatever they like for as long as they want to do it. They will pontificate about the English virtues of fair play while watching Stevie Me ‘earn’ another penalty or some troglodyte scythe into the back of some ‘fancy dan’ foreigner in an Arsenal shirt. That is their way. I can’t see it changing. How could it? Why would it?

Sports journalism and punditry is at a very low ebb. Think we can change their minds by shouting at them or debating the issues?  Scientists believe that it took a long time for dinosaurs to die because it took an awfully long time for the fatal news to actually reach their brains.

How about the ‘fans’? Those who don’t have the intelligence or interest to think for themselves. They, of course, are going to echo the views of the same pisspoor pundits. Those pundits will then use the views of those fans to support their ‘opinions’ and spew it all back at us, justified in their smug and self sustaining world view. As for those who know very well what they are doing, those who cynically encourage a negative view of their own club. Well, it’s a job isn’t it?

No, no more raging against the dying of the light. I will waste no more time on the fools, liars and cynics. I will follow my club with passion and celebrate its victories in all fields with those likeminded fellow travellers. For the rest, I will treat them with amusement.

What’s that Alan? ‘Football is a contact sport‘? ‘Arsenal won’t win nothing unless they add some steel to their game‘?  Bloody good, tell us another one. ‘No strength in depth, their squad doesn’t compare to United’s, Fletcher would walk into their first eleven.’ Pffft! I nearly bust a gut there. Truly hilarious. Seriously, why wouldn’t we laugh at Craig Burley?

I shall treat ‘Sunday Supplement’ as a warm up for a lunchtime session in the pub crying with laughter at Tony Cascarino in the Times. Actually, he’s so funny I’ll probably tune into him on ‘TalkSport’ a bit later.

No longer will the sports pages of our sordid press be avoided. I will be able to watch MOTD as much as any chav or manc supporter. I am liberated. I am an Arsenal supporter and free man. Even better, only Arsenal fans have their own glut of new comedy available practically 24/7.

As for the doomers. Well, when you think about them, they really are very funny in a sad sort of way, To my mind they are following in the footsteps of some great British comedians who successfully mine that seam of human existence where you don’t quite know how to deal with the world, where you are a victim of your own shortcomings or situation. A stranger in a world that has moved on and left you alone in your bedsit. Try reading their posts in the voice of Tony Hancock.

’til Tomorrow.

Laurent Sees A Red Card and Marouane Paints It Chamakh

Liverpool 1 – 1 Arsenal

1 – 0 N’Gog (’46)
1 – 1 Reina o.g. (’90)

Arsenal began their 2010/11 Premier League campaign with a well-earned point at a packed Anfield yesterday, on what turned out to be a sunny Sunday afternoon on Merseyside.

The watching 44,722 were not disappointed as an evenly-contested curtain raiser for the two famous old clubs offered up a little bit of everything.

Arsenal debutants Laurent Koscielny and Marouane Chamakh were at the heart of the action; Koscielny coming through his baptism of fire with a red card and an egg-shaped lump on his shin, and Chamakh through his with the assist for a last-gasp equalizer in the 90^th minute. These were the defining moments of an entertaining game.

With and without the ball Arsenal were impressive from the off, with a somewhat rag-tag midfield of Diaby, Nasri and league debutant Jack Wilshere turning over possession in the attacking third time and again. Winning the ball back quickly is vital in a system that relies on possession and Arsenal pressurized and isolated Liverpool players, forcing them into mistakes.

The travelling support were in fine voice. Resplendent in shiny new away shirts, they were full of vim and vigour as they belted out a long and poignant rendition of “We’ve got Cesc Fabregas!”, across the fields of Anfield Road.

At the back, Arsenal organised their high-line very well, repeatedly catching N’Gog and Kuyt offside. The passing was crisp and penetrative right through the side and at corners the team set themselves up well, each man utilized for their strengths. Eboue was employed as an athletic first-line of defence on the edge of the six-yard box; a distracting and agile presence for any corner-taker to avoid.

In the 46^th minute of the first half Joe Cole slid right through Koscielny as he cleared down the touchline. Arsenal fans winced, cursed and bit their knuckles collectively as one of three precious first team central defenders was stretchered away and down the tunnel. Cole, out to impress his new fans, had completely mistimed what was intended to be a sliding block.  

The shades of grey between recklessness and malice have been too well-trodden by Arsenal fans in recent times, but suffice to say – this tackle had none of the latter about it. It was however no surprise at all to see the red card held aloft.

Television replays showed a flex in Koscielny’s lower-leg that made it difficult not to think back to Stoke last February – as well as bringing the fragility of Arsenal’s squad at the position of centreback – painfully into focus. It was a surprise to see Koscielny remerge after half-time then, and even more of a surprise to see him exit with a red card of his own 45 minutes later, after receiving a soft pair of yellows in quick succession.

Manuel Almunia, made captain for the day by Arsène Wenger and dressed in an ill-advised seaweed green, had a mixed, if conspicuous day. The couple of fine saves he did make will be overshadowed by his perceived lack of strength at the near post as he failed to deny N’Gog’s 46^th minute opener just moments after the restart. In truth, far more culpability must be placed at the sheepish feet of Andrey Arshavin and Jack Wilshere who conspired as one to gift N’Gog free passageway through the right hand channel of the Arsenal penalty box, buy him a 1^st class ticket to Goal Town, gift-wrap the ball for him and wave him off at the harbour with hankies. The Frenchman was heard to shout over his shoulder at the hapless pair, “Merci! Au revoir!” before duly going on to crash the ball high into the top corner of the net. It was a terrible goal to concede, concentration seemingly left malingering around in the dressing room.

In Almunia’s defence you would have to say that if the same shot had flown past Petr Čech or Júlio César then we would perhaps be talking about an unstoppable pile-driver instead of a weak near post. It is all grist for the mill though, to those who have already made up their minds about Almunia.

After a prolonged period of rallying pressure from the 10 men of Liverpool, driven on by a typically direct Gerrard, it took the introduction of Tomáš Rosický and Theo Walcott around the 60 minute mark to bring Arsenal back to life.

The Czech captain was instrumental; constantly probing forward he lifted the tempo of the entire team and had Arsenal looking for the first time like a side with a man advantage. With ten minutes to go the side in yellow were buzzing.

Exchanging a sharp 1-2 with the busy Chamakh on the edge of a crowded area, Rosický threaded himself inexplicably between three red shirts and unleashed a shot destined for the top corner. It was a moment of mesmerizing class from the one we like to call Mozart, and it deserved a goal.

Five minutes later and Arsenal finally did have their equalizer, courtesy in part to Pepe Reina. New-boy Marouane Chamakh struck the post from the latest in a series of whipped Rosický crosses – Reina reacted quickest, only to fumble his catch and spill the ball into his own net. It was an unfortunate clanger to befall the man who had kept his side ahead for so long, but not so unfortunate that it should befall the man who stuck a Barcelona shirt over Cesc Fabregas’ head the other week.

In an age where ball technology hands the advantage to the attacker we shouldn’t laugh too heartily at moments like these because they will be happening to all of us, with more and more frequency. Sadly, the days of the impassable custodian are over.   

Still, it allowed The Arsenal to march on out of Anfield with a point in the bank, a spring in our step and heads rightly held high after an enjoyable, heart-racing draw in the sunshine, which ended up, pleasantly, feeling much more like a win.

’til the next time.

Liverpool Match Preview

Liverpool V Arsenal 16:00 SS1

Well, here we are, the moment has arrived ! The 1st game of the season. Four interminable months of reading posts predicting the end of arsenal, watching a world cup devoid of quality and dreading the announcement that Cesc would be off to Catalonia. Did anything happen of any real sporting significance between the end of last season and now  ? The world cup ? Nah… a FIFA sideshow with an unpredictable ball and Vuvuzela din, superseded now by the main event, the premiership.

We now know of course that Cesc is staying, well, we knew he was staying, and the word is that Wenger has been pulling a fast one by saying he will not start. In all probability, he will start, and we wouldn’t put past Wenger introducing VP as well. According to the super information highway, Diaby is also fit. This means that the predicted start of season injury crisis looks to be, well, … a load of old bollocks.

So what of our opponents today, Liverpool ? Well, don’t know about the general feeling amongst gooners, but they do seem to be the lesser of all evils. We all hate the chavs. That is a given. We hate the mancs and fergie red nose. I think we probably now hate the northern chavs, because, they seem to be, well, indecent and somehow grotesque. But the scousers, I think we probably have a soft spot for them. Perhaps it is because of the events of 1989, one famous May night. Not sure, could be wrong. Invite your comments on that one.

Roy Hodgson is now there. Torres and Gerrard have been retained whilst Liverpool have been adding players to their squad. Joe Cole (free transfer), Christian Poulson, Danny Wilson, Jonjo Shelvey (free transfer) and Milan Jovanovic (free transfer)  have joined. It seems that Christian Poulson is a replacement for Mascherano, who, at the time of writing, is said to want a move, and is probably on his way out of the club. Does this make Liverpool any stronger ? Difficult question to answer. What one might suspect is that there is renewed optimism at Anfield, which will make them a very dangerous proposition indeed. An in form Gerrard, with the tactically adept Hodgson, we will do well to come away with a point. That is my view. And it is not a slur on our current capabilities or line up; it is just the impetus that comes with a team who are playing for a new manager.

The other factor is that there appears to be not money following money, but money following debt, with megalomanic billionaire investors looking to buy their club. This must be pleasing to the players, who will welcome a change of ownership. The comedy american director duo, Laurel Hicks and Hardy Gillett, backed by RBS, a bank with the liquidity of Enron, are in the death throes of their last act.

Back then, to us. We seem to be well prepared. An excellent pre season in which we won all of our games bar AC Milan. The last one jinxed as I was there. The insistent call for a top class keeper and centre back shows no sign of abating. This means that we go into the game with either Almunia or Fabianski, and Koscienly. I saw Koscienly against AC Milan, and his performance was top top class. Let’s not make too many hasty judgements about the guy until he has had at least 20 games. The team ? Well, it is difficult to predict because we know that there are late fitness tests on Denilson, Song, VP and Cesc. Assuming they are all available, perhaps the line up will be something along the lines of:

Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Vermaelen, Koscienly, Song, Diaby, Cesc, Nasri, Arshavin, Chamakh

Subs: Fabianski, Gibbs, Denilson, Rosicky, Walcott, Eboue, VP

If either Denilson, Song or Diaby are not available, then expect to see Wilshere or Frimpong.

Enjoy the game, wherever you are.

Muppet.

How Is Supporting Arsenal For You?

Consolsbob has taken time out to share a thought or two with you.

So. It’s here. Another season, another campaign full of promise for our great club and it’s supporters. Gone are the disappointments of last season, the old shrugged off with the anticipation of the new. Football, that greatest of games, returns to excite us all anew.

That’s how I want it to be. That’s how it used to be. The reality is that football no longer brings to mind the excitement of that first Saturday afternoon of the season, the rummaging around for the scarf, the feeling one gets when you take a brand new red cricket ball in your hand.

The reality is that we have just endured another ‘World Cup’ with the inevitable failure of an England team, riven with internal strife and short of talent. The dead, tacky hand of FIFA all over the trophy itself, a cynical media building up impossible hopes only to delight in their destruction and finally, the poor deluded fan left bemused and angry by it all.

We have watched as players whose clubs ‘failed’ last season have played their games of ‘should I stay or should I go’ with their agents, existing and suitor clubs, never mind the heartstrings of their team’s supporters.

We follow the stories of clubs, hopelessly drugged on debt, oil money or nationalist ambition looking to discard last years marquee signings in favour of this years must have striker or midfield maestro. We look at the state of the worlds’ economies, see the growing list of bankrupt clubs and wonder or despair.

It is not a pretty picture and yet…there is a way through all this. We, as Arsenal supporters are best placed of all to adopt a new, old way of watching football. That is, to just enjoy the bloody game. After all, we are the supporters of “…the Greatest Team the World has ever seen”.

It is apparent from the Arsenal blogosphere that not many currently share my view. So many have decided that this season is, as my granddaughters would put it, ‘so over’. Lost before a ball is kicked. All that is left to do is wallow in our inevitable defeat at the likes of the ambition of the red and blue mancs and the chavs. What a bloody awful way to follow football. What a truly miserable way to support our great club. What a way to live your life.

I very much hope that we will win the Premiership, FA Cup and/or the Champions League. I think that we have a good chance of doing this. Our squad looks good, stronger in key areas than last year, the players are another year older and I have to believe that injuries cannot be as cruel again and that Arsene has been kicking backsides. However, I don’t expect us to win. There are other very good teams competing for the same trophies, perhaps more of them than last year. I mean, you have to think that sooner or later the blue mancs will find the right combination of star purchases to actually play as an effective team. Fate is capricious.

There, there is the key difference to enable the enjoyment of the coming season. Hope, wish and dream but don’t fall into that media trap of expecting or demanding, therein lies the misery that already afflicts too many. The hours of sad debate in pubs, the rending of the back pages of the papers, the screaming at the television set followed by hours of spreading your misery to all. Worse, is the adoption of the views of Hansen, Shearer and Redknapp, as one’s own. The ultimate loss of self.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Look forward to watching Arsenal play great football, shout whenever we score and hug yourself when we win, which we will, many more times than we lose. Expect that we will concede goals, lose games, perhaps get turned over on occasion. Yet, at the end of the season, hope that we will have amassed enough points to win the Premiership or beaten all those put in front of us to win a Cup.

Exult in supporting a club that actually has a plan than doesn’t inevitably end in bankruptcy. That places value on developing players properly. That has delivered a fantastic stadium. That isn’t the plaything of a billionaire or the convenient vehicle of national promotion. Exult in these things because it means that we will not find ourselves dumped as soon as our owner tires of us, or runs out of money, or finds a better vehicle for their ambition. Exult because it means that we will still be competing at the highest level for a very long time. Exult because when we do win something again, and we will, that we will have done it in the face of financial doping, a lickspittle FA and a pisspoor media.

Feel sorry for the supporters of the chavs , blue mancs and Liverpool. I wouldn’t want their owners, and God knows who will actually land the latter, at our great club. I watch the TV pictures of blue manc fans applaud the spending of another £100 million and laugh. I think ahead to the inevitable come down. It will all end in tears.

For us it isn’t like this. I can still look at my signed picture of Charlie lifting the Cup with Frank on the wall, get my silver commemorative medal of out first Double out of the drawer, feel the excitement of that walk to the ground because we are different. We are a great club with a proper heritage, a very good team, the best manager in the world and every hope of a great season and future ahead of us.

I promise to enjoy that this season, whatever happens. If the chavs or blue mancs buy a title, if the other mancs grind out another campaign beyond their seeming ability, I will be disappointed but I will have enjoyed the season. The FA, UEFA and the media? Pfft! Frankly Scarlet, I couldn’t give a damn.

’til Tomorrow.

Stone Cold Friday: Welcome to the Arsenal Rollercoaster Ride

Before we launch into today’s post, anyone who wants to ‘rent’ a Season Ticket’ for 2010-11 should contact Ashitey on a.akomfrah@student.liverpool.ac.uk PDQ. The deadline is today.

Also, a note that the ACLF Fantasy Football League can be found at http://fantasy.premierleague.com. Once you have logged in and entered your team, click on the ‘Leagues’ link you can find on the right of the page. Enter the code 755155-171684 to join the private league.

Anyway, emerging from the mist like a hero in a novel written centuries ago, here’s Darius with the first of this season’s Stone Cold Friday’s.

I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am that good old fashioned Wengerball is back on the menu. Every summer, I’m convinced that the Arsenalitis I and thousands of others suffer due to lack of proper football is more vicious and more brutal than the time I decided to quit smoking cold turkey.

I’ve consulted long and hard, high and wide as to whether I should change my customary pre-match rituals for the season. With my better angels shouting down my resident demons each time I try to contemplate some of the suggested (and sometimes insalubrious) rituals, I find myself praying and hoping that perhaps the only rituals we need are those that appease the injury Gods so that they can smile down on us this season.

A lot has been said in the summer about what the manager and the club need to do to change our fortunes during this campaign. I get the sense that there will never be a satisfactory consensus as to whether Wenger has done enough to give us the best chance to fight for the title.

Right across the world, passions are running high within the Gooner nation. Many will still have the memories of the anti-climax of last season at White Hart Lane and the DW stadium etched firmly in their psyche. Those 2 matches against the Spuds and Latics were a representation of the pain that millions of fans endured when the team capitulated on the home straight having fought a gallant battle for most of the season.

And yet as the team stand in the tunnel on Sunday and stare firmly at the “This Is Anfield” sign strategically placed to intimidate the enemy, you can’t help but wonder whether the demons of the seasons past have been slain and buried and that the boys are ready for the new campaign.

I think it’s fair to suggest that Liverpool is as nervous as we are because firstly, Arsenal is unpredictable; and secondly, we do love scoring at Anfield. Liverpool though, has pride to play for and that makes them a very dangerous proposition. I find it hard to believe that they’ll have as bad a season as they had in the last campaign.

Nevertheless, it’s certainly not a game for Arsenal to fear, and it’s exactly the sort of game that has the ability to galvanize the Gunners for the first stretch of this campaign.

Last week’s visit to Warsaw left many an Arsenal fan baffled and not knowing what to expect, especially when we had our first choice back 4 on the field; and in the second half, all our full backs. Having sailed through the preseason, the match against Legia shocked many out of their comfort zones.

My sense is that it was all part and parcel of our world renowned rollercoaster ride. The kind that makes the hairs at the back of your neck stand up; the kind that makes you hide behind the sofa when there’s 90 seconds to go and we are still looking for that winner or equaliser.

It’s the kind of ride that makes you scream in ecstasy at the sublime and scintillating attacking football that is delivered with panache; yet leaves you in despair as you feel like punching through the telly and bitchslapping all our defenders and goal keeper for letting in a shocking goal.

It’s the kind of ride that makes you proud and privileged to have watched a team grow and mature together; yet still test your patience and resolve with the inconsistency that comes with development

It’s the kind of ride that keeps you shamelessly smiling all week when the Arsenal win emphatically; yet when we lose, you feel that you don’t want to face your peers at work or down the pub, and will only get out of your bunker after the next game when the team can salvage a modicum of respectability.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the damn rollercoaster ride.

To Hell with those pundits and hacks who sit on sofas in the TV studios with their cheap Mataland suits and tired clichés that they pick from the bag behind the sofa. Let them continue to suggest that Arsenal won’t challenge for the title unless they buy 2 or 3 world class players.

News flash: Arsenal doesn’t buy world class players, we build them.

To Hell with the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal fans who are more content spending their energy whining and moaning about competing with financially and morally bankrupt football clubs.

News Flash: We believe in Arsenal and the ability of the club to win and win in style, and without losing focus on the vision of the club.

I hear some people complain and moan about the fact that players are leaving and we aren’t replacing them. How better to replace them by turning to our rising stars like Kieran Gibbs, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Jay Emmanuel Thomas, Emmanuel Frimpong, Craig Eastmond, Havard Nordtveit, among others?

Our time has come and this is our season with this team.

Many will jump and suggest “…but surely Darius, we’ve been here before and we still aren’t there yet and we need 2 or 3 world class players…”

I would suggest, get your ticket, jump on the rollercoaster and let’s enjoy the ride for the season.

There used to be a time when supporters were supporters; and customers demanded their consumer rights and the right to moan by virtue of spending their hard earned money. I forget at what point the lines became blurred and Arsenal accumulated customers who didn’t like the look of the roller coaster and rather than get on the ride, they decided to stand on the sidelines and throw stones at it because they didn’t liked how it looked and ‘had the right to throw stones at it’.

So he’s got that off his chest. ’til Tomorrow.

Internationals Behind Us, Premier League Season Ahead

International matches over and the wait begins to see if any of the walking are wounded. It seems few, if any, played the full ninety minutes which is a good thing ahead of the trip to Anfield on Sunday. Whilst the scheduling of these fixtures is bloody stupid, in some instances such as van Persie and Fabregas, additional match time speeds their pre-season along. Fifa claimed yesterday that these fixtures are scheduled by the national associations and this week is one of two allocated to international friendlies. If the various FAs are hellbent on these matches bringing them forward a week would be better for the clubs who begin their league programmes this weekend.

For England, Theo Walcott put in more ‘dangerous’ and accurate crosses in the first half than Wright-Phillips or Lennon managed during the the whole of the shambolic World Cup campaign. The folly of Capello in not taking Theo was there for all to see but it must be said, his form going into that tournament was nowhere near as good as it was last night. The benefit of hindsight does wonders for assessing a player…

Keiran Gibbs and Jack Wilshere got their debuts, the left back the whole of the second half, young Wilshere the final ten minutes or so. Neither did anything to damage their claims for inclusion in future squads although Capello did stress the need for the players to be getting match action with their clubs. It wasn’t as some have been concluding, a warning that either should leave Arsenal on loan or permanently but more of a warning that they need to up their games to get into the first team squad on a regular basis.

The goalkeeping situation seems to have taken over from central defence as the primary thought occupying minds ahead of the new season. I have said all along that I would be happier with a centre back to protect the goalkeepers in a more organised fashion. The manager presumably has been stifled in his attempts to sign someone rather than the spurious claims made that he ‘lied’ and has not tried. Perhaps the fees demanded were too high or clubs unwilling to sell, taking their lead from Arsenal’s rebuttal of Barcelona.

The latter is the case in point for Mark Schwarzer. Fulham have denied that the Australian has put in a transfer request but media reports suggest that he is to confront Mark Hughes and demand a move to allow his previously middle-of-the-road career to finish on a high, signing for the biggest club of his career.

There are still two and a half weeks to go before the window closes and Wenger has history in recent seasons of leaving the deals to the last minute. Sunday’s fixture against Liverpool is the toughest of the initial matches until we meet Chelsea and I suspect that Wenger might be satisfied if he goes into that match with four wins and a draw under the belt. This would be some vindication of not rushing to sign a new player, preferring to wait for the right one and getting that deal done rather than settling for a ‘make-do’ solution. If it goes wrong, then the criticism will start in earnest. Until then it is all supposition. This should be a time of looking forwards to the new season instead of indulging in navel gazing.

Finally, a note that the ACLF Fantasy Football League can be found at http://fantasy.premierleague.com. Once you have logged in and entered your team, click on the ‘Leagues’ link you can find on the right of the page. Enter the code 755155-171684 to join the private league.

’til Tomorrow.

Decision Time: Rosicky Fit For Action & Fabianski Fit For Purpose?

The Arsenal Supporters Trust has published their membership survey, results which contained few surprises. Opposition to Kroenke owning the club is not as vehement as that to Usmanov owning the club. A curious outcome is that few – 21% – are in favour of supporters owning the club in its entirity. Perhaps the shenanigans at Madrid and Barcelona has shown that there is little to stop unsavoury characters rising to positions of power.

The current board scores high marks for its corporate financial responsibilities but fares less well in terms of ‘managing the manager’. 40% of the survey believes that they carry out an average or poor job in this respect. It is an unsurprisingly high mark. Quite what Wenger was supposed to do whilst the stadium was being built is beyond me. Further explanations escape me when the clamour for expensive signings grows. In some quarters, the younger players should be dumped and £100m spent on signing unattainable targets.

This was never going to happen. Wenger’s belief in the younger players is almost unshakeable until they let him down. But the future of football is Youth Academies. If Wenger abandoned his beliefs now, the impact on the youth system at the club would be catastrophic. The key to attracting talent to the club has been the chances given to younger players. Is he supposed to abandon that now when the best starting coming through?

With the internationals being played this week, the Arsenal squad are in front of their own media and chatting away to their hearts content. Tomas Rosicky got the ball rolling, declaring that his DNA was made up of Arsenal and in no way did it have any poison from Barcelona in it:

I must thank everyone for showing interest because it flatters me, but I must repeat myself – I am satisfied to be with Arsenal. And as long as the club want me to stay, I am not interested in moving elsewhere.

The principle interest in the Czech international has come from Galatasaray and it seems that the Turkish league is awash with cash, well certain clubs anyway, since Rosicky, Gallas and most improbably of the lot, Alex Song, have all been linked with moves there this summer. All at cut-prices as well so El Mundo Deportivo‘s campaign to convince their readers that Arsenal were even more cash-strapped than their paymasters, travelled well.

Rosicky hinted at the dilemmas facing Arsene when he spoke of his selection for the team:

In pre-season the coach used me on the right, in the centre but also on the left. I simply played everywhere and am curious myself to see where I will be playing.

Much will depend on the injury situation. There are already a number of players carrying knocks, the most serious of which are Ramsey and Bendtner, neither expected back before the autumn leaves drop as carelessly as points against lower Premier League teams.

In attacking midfield positions, Arsene has an embarrassment of riches and the players have to be adaptable. With the manner of injuries in recent seasons, he will be playing anywhere across the pitch, not ruled out for centre back if they fall like nine-pins once more.

It seems as much of a summer as Mexes and Frey being linked to the club, when we talk of keeping TR7 fit. It would be a triumph for the medical staff if they did, his long spell out still seems to pose niggling problems for as skilful a player as the club has had in Wenger’s reign. It is once more my hope that he remain relatively fit for he poses as much goal threat as any other midfielder, if only he would shoot more from distance.

Another area that Wenger has decisions to make about are goalkeeper. The move for Schwarzer appeared dead a day or so ago, resurrected this morning with the player reportedly about to hand in a transfer request. It highlights one thing: the media are as desperate for the resolution of this as we are. Were Given to be available, he would be more preferable than the Fulham ‘keeper but if this is the manager’s choice, then so be it.

Not that Lukasz Fabianski is having any of it, he thinks he’s good enough to be first choice this season:

I hope it will be a breakthrough season for me. I have a double task. I want to become the No1 in the Arsenal goal and that would help me to realise my second target – to be No1 in the national team. Of course I don’t know if I will play but I do believe I will as I played in many of the pre-season friendlies. I am 25 years old, it is a good time to establish myself in goal for good.

He went onto observe that he thinks he is good enough to play for Arsenal, and then added that he’s good enough for ‘a Premier League team‘. He may well be but has been erratic in his displays for the first team that well-documented doubts are re-aired whenever his name is mentioned.

The issue I have with goalkeeping at the moment is not confined to the players. There seems to be an air of uncertainty about who is Number 1. Wenger may well have told the player concerned but not his rivals yet which would explain the non-commital nature of Fabianski’s comments. However, if Wenger has not done so, it is remiss of him.

The defence needs to be know who is behind them and what they can expect. They must have a fair idea although the ‘illness’ suffered by Almunia suggested that he is not going to be first choice, allied with Fabianski playing in more matches, suggested that the Pole is probably going to be taking the field at Anfield.

That was before the trip to Legia where old concerns resurfaced. Not all of the goals were his fault when he was on the pitch but his rashness in coming for a corner which led to Koscielny’s own goal indicated that previous lessons have not been learned. Indeed, it combined a couple of them in one go, failure to deal with corners properly and rushes of blood, leaving his goal unguarded.

These are failures of inconsistency, possibly exacerabted by lack of match action where experience would let him understand situations more clearly. Wenger’s problem is that he cannot allow a goalkeeper to grow up in public, mistakes are too costly in that position. For all of the good Fabianski does – and he does a lot right – it is the ‘wrongs’ which are making people nervous.

’til Tomorrow.