Wenger “If you want to have a successful season you want to be strong at home” – Time to show it v LFC
It’s Liverpool at the Emirates today and I’m cautiously optimistic about the outcome of this game. Not so much because we demonstrated brilliant football in the first two games (though our first half against Palace was pretty damn inspiring), but because Liverpool simply don’t look up to scratch. They’ve won the first two games, however […]
With the money in the game and the stakes so high is ‘Cheating’ inevitable?
Yesterday, Anushree Nande published a very interesting and well-thought piece on Gunners Town regarding player simulation (diving) and poor on-field behavior, citing Gerard Pique’s recent meltdown as an exemplary incident. Like all good and thoughtful pieces, it made me think. I realized that I had some feelings about the piece and, having a background in […]
Who starts of the right Chamberlain or Ramsey? Does it depend on the match/opposition?
This is the sort of question that Arsene Wenger has had to answer ever since the rather fortunate but successful emergence of Francis Coquelin as Arsenal’s first-choice defensive midfielder. Over a difficult period in December 2014, with Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey all missing through injury, Arsene’s hand was forced in moving to […]
Arsenal deploy new boxy “Zonal Attacking” system to great effect in away games?
Crystal Palace Last week I wrote this; “…it wouldn’t surprise me if we played narrow again with the intention of forcing them to match our shape.” We did indeed play quite narrow, but with a very specific shape which Andrea suggested was very much like a 4-2-2-2. Watching the game back I began to notice […]
Coquelin makes us STRONG but “YOU NEED TO BUY WHEN YOU ARE STRONG!”
I have five replica Arsenal shirts hanging in my bedroom wardrobe, one of which I am proud to wear, and four I am not. For the sake of continuity, over the years I always ensured I purchased large versions of each jersey for the simple sake of re-use. I found out – probably the hard […]
EXCLUSIVE – The Definitive Guide to be an Arsenal Fan during the Transfer Window
Happy New Season, everyone! Not quite the start we wanted at home to West Ham, all that optimism after a great pre-season, and the feeling that this could be “our year” killed stone dead after a home defeat in the first game of the season. At 1.30pm we were in the best position we had […]
Simulation and Disrespect are rife in Football – Why so and what are the solutions?
How many times over the last few years have we read about misbehaving football players? Whether it is Luis Suarez, Mario Balotelli, Ashley Young or even the likes of Joey Barton, there are certain infamous personalities who make the headlines for all the wrong reasons, on and off the pitch. Granted that as long as […]
Width to the rescue – Do Arsenal need a left winger? Reus they do!
In what was one of my first articles for GunnersTown (back in March) I argued we need a winger. The idea wasn’t greeted with open arms back then: I was pointed out we have Oxlade, Alexis, Walcott and Welbeck. 4 players for two positions is a balanced and healthy squad, right? Not exactly. Fast-forward five […]
The Cherry On Top: new signings that would fill Arsenal’s squad gaps.
Omar wrote a great blog earlier about players playing in certain positions, also calling the manager’s (I don’t mean Wenger per se but a manager in a general sense) tactics as a factor in how that player performs, for example Wenger using Eboue as a right-winger when he was a full-back by trade, or Mourinho […]
Still a cherry short of a cocktail – Wenger must spend before we can all relax surely?
Where do Arsenal need to strengthen in the next 2 weeks? It wasn’t so long ago – I had just returned from my holidays, Arsenal had just completed the signing of Petr Cech, and me and my sun-kissed skin had a strange feeling the squad was now complete and set to challenge. However, here I […]