Aug 15
Jack Wilshere starts at Anfield
Arsene Wenger has handed a start in midfield to 19-year-old Jack Wilshere, as the youngster gets given a chance to show what he’s all about.
The other major team news is that goalkeeper Manuel Almunia starts and captains the side.
There is no place in the starting XI for either Robin van Persie or Cesc Fabregas, with the latter being ruled out altogether due to a chest infection.
Almunia
Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Clichy
Wilshere – Diaby – Nasri
Eboue – Chamakh – Arshavin
Subs: Fabianski, Gibbs, Song, Walcott, Rosicky, Walcott, Vela, van Persie.
Anyone who says anything about diaby obviously didn’t watch the game. He put in a good performance and did exactly what he was suppose to in the dm role. Wilshire was in most part to blame for the goal with his clumsy pass.
Almunia is not a starting keeper for a top 4 side. His inability to handle long balls cost us in crosses and corners. Clichy is very weak physically, you do not need much fancy skills to go pass him, he needs to bulk up defensively. Koscielny looks very much a quality player, calm and composed throughout a game unlike Gallas who would show his frustration after the Ngog’s goal. Wilshere is decent not a stunning performance but that’s not his best position anyway just there as a stop gap solution. Diaby had a pretty good game for me, is discipline in his position, previously he would have wander off and leave our back four vulnerable. Arshavin needs to work on his strength too and his overall committment, no focus throughout the game. Chamakh is like a bendtner but just alot of times better, hope bendtner can reach his level one day. The man of the match for me is Rosicky. While some of you has been saying he should be sold, I kept saying he is one of the better players in our squad. Once he is on the pitch, we have a focal point of attack. He basically took over the duty from Nasri. He is calm, composed, can keep the ball well, can go pass player, should have a remarkable built up goal if not for Reina who I would love to have on our team even for that own goal. We were really playing better when we switched to a 4-4-2 with the introduction of Van Persie and Rosicky and we should stick with that. Van Persie and Chamakh up front, Nasri on the left, Rosicky on the left, Fabregas in the hole and Song as the shield, that will bring so much stability to our squad.
Liverpool away as the opening match is a tough match esp with a new manager.. players wanna proof their worth to the new manager. Reina blunder proved that any goalkeeper can make comical mistake ..
any news on spahic? or anyone else?
Does this mean we aint getting a new keeper??? GoonerChris any word on Given or mark Schwarzer? Or are we stuck with Almunia and Flappy?
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-sunday-s-keeper-will-be-our-no-1
Very tough match to watch. We dominated the match in the first half and yet Liverpool had the two best chances. We kept the ball the entire half and really did not move into dangerous situations. Wilshire and Nasri especially did a great job possessing but the former opted to pass laterally way too much instead of looking for a vertical pass or shot while the latter woefully wasted two free kicks in dangerous positions. Truthfully, our best chance by a longshot was Vermaelen’s free kick.
In the second half, we were very poor. Chamakh ran hard but his touch was poor. Arshavin was a goat and mostly disinterested. Wilshire was off the pace and unaware. Nasri was poor. Clichy would just bomb crosses into no one. Diaby would dribble unnecessarily. TV5 played a strong match but was caught looking slightly on the goal, though of course it was more Jack’s fault. Still, a keeper should not be beaten near post, even it was a powerful shot.
I felt Eboue was unlucky to be subbed. He was one of our better players up to that point, and only because Arshavin is capable of magic does he escape being yanked for his crap effort. Walcott and Rosicky made a difference, and the latter was the best player on the pitch in the second half.
We learned AGAIN that Almunia is not a first choice keeper. Kos and TV5 looked good in partnership. Clichy is still lax defensively. Wilshire is not ready for a top 4 clash. Nasri still disappears on the road. Chamakh works hard but his touch is sometimes poor. Arshavin is still Russian.
Against Blackpool, which will not be an easy match (especially with them buoyed by that smashing), we should see Rosicky, Song, and Cesc in the center, Arshavin and Nasri on the wings with RVP up top. If Kos’ appeal does not work, I expect Song in the back and Diaby in his place.
Gooner Chris, any news on that matter??
http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Football/42260/Barton_Given_is_going_to_Arsenal.aspx?
I saw some of the comments and most of them are right but one should also note that Liverpool were solid at the back.Agger never made a forward run.They were compact and determined.I`m still happy with a point but the 3 points were still there for the taking.
im really frustated with wenger. he can say all he wants but managers should and must be judged from what he does; the starting eleven, the strategy and substitutions. fine, we only had 1 game with many of our players still out and hanged from the world cup but yesterdays game was the exact copy of movements, facial impressions and passes of last season; lackluster, no believe in your teammates and no communication.
ive been supporting arsenal only since wenger came, granted im a newbie but im not blind to see that as seasons pass by, wenger kept loosing strong, talented players without ever replacing them. he keeps his faith with players that mostly in the end, would let him down; young, egotistic, self-centered players that never had to endure learning football from lower clubs with low salaries and muddy pitches. he could have kept 1 or 2 senior players who would show the youngsters how to keep their focus high, fight for each other on the pitch and have the winning mentality. instead, he keeps choosing to carry players that could not even carry themselves.
yes, wenger loves arsenal but the difference is, we love arsenal and no one else is above it, but to wenger, he loves arsenal so arsenal is his own toy to play with.
@xainuddinx: I think you are a bit harsh. To be honest the game agaisnt lfc is the best we have played at anfiled for many years. Last year we were outplayed in 60 min, but we won 2-1. In the 4-4 game we were outplayed throught the game, but yesterday we were the best team and got 1-1.
Given is not coming. Barton said he may very well be coming. Hopefully we get Schwarzer.
schwarzer will be a good addition for 1-2 years, hopefully by then one of chesney, mannone or god forbid fabianski will be ready to take over as number 1.. it doesnt look like almunia would want to stick around as number 2 to schwarzer and one of the others will go out on loan..
i think if we have no new keeper AND a new centre half we should boo wenger the next home match after the window closes. its not acceptable.
@The Left Hand Of HENRY: i think we will get another cb, not as confident about a keeper…wenger likes to stick by his players, no matter how incompetent they are
@ole: from my point of view, we were the best because it became 11 vs 10. had it been 11 vs 11, i dont think we would have pulled through like we did. that said, it was only when rosicky came on for jack that we really had our gear up. nothing to blame jack for since hes still learning the ropes, especially after he was partly at fault for the goal against us.
to me, our goal was simply down to sheer luck, not our effort. reina had a moment when he became 10 times more feeble that fabianski. chamakh did good to came for the cross and put pressure on reina though, adding to that he had the sun right in his eyes. still, only the first game of the season against liverpool, we did quite OK and lets see how things go when RvP and el-capitan are match fit with song also in the mix of things.
we need bak up in cb n a new keepa deffo
I think for an opening game of the season playing liverpool at anfield we did very well to come home with a draw. come on you gunners!
18 min Young Boys Bern 2 – 0 Tottenham H. oooo yeahhhhhhhhh comeon young boys score just one more and keep clean shit and you are there in the group stage
3-0 young boys hahaha
any sign of superior spurs? hahahaha
we have 9 days to buy schwarzer and a decent centre half.
i hope we dont buy another premier league virgin. i think wenger could get
roger johnson for around 8mil, with lansbury goin the otherway (loan).
OR lescott on the cheap, we went in for him b4 so why not try it.
OR cahill in my opinion is a gr8 defender and can play football too so could be the next o’leary
it wouldnt be spending stupidly. unless we sort it out at the back we’ll prob hav to score at least 2 goals to win every match.
also. in my eyes clichy needs to improve dramaticly this season coz he is soo weak. id rather gibbs there at the moment
wow gr8 news nasri out for a month with a knee surgery
wait…. what?
it seems to me that this season will be even worse than previous, one match played and we have denilson, song, diaby, djourou, arshavin, nasri, injured or injured recently, great
Not only have we not signed the needed players we need but we lost Nasri for a month.The most inform player.
Yeah sucks about Nasri although we still have Rosicky And Fabregas who can do the same job. Hope he’s back sooner than the 5 weeks being touted though.
can’t catch a break
Hey guys arsenal is set to sign sebastien squilacci from sevilla. it was reported on the guardian website as he was omitted from the champions league qualifier against braga. finally we are getting a quality defender!!!!
hope it is true, we were ‘set to sign’ a number of other players too. I will believe it when its on arsenal.com
Seville Offical website confirms we made a bid!
http://www.sevillafc.es/_www/actualidad.php?op=not&id=18269
Am sick of this now. why french players all the time wenger? that is annoying and very irritating. this is not french league.
Frimpong was the reason I was happy with our DM back up but now he is out for 9 months
@damstar:
i agree… for the reported amount, which is 7.5mil i think we’d be better off going in for roger johnson. who gets the odd goal, has played in the prem, is tall and doesnt suffer fools (he could handle drogba).
I think this could be our worst season for years. Wengers become even worse than usual when it comes to transfers and sticking with average players.. He gives this huge club such a small club mentality.. By all accounts we have the money and he still chooses not to use it. With Simpson and Traore out and eduardo we’ve made a profit again. Hardly ambitious signing a 30 year old frenchie and an ancient keeper.. Should be going for better players with the money he has.. Never been into a season with less hope.
and the dust on the trophie cabinet thickens………….
We will end up potless again!!! And I will be calling for wengers head. No wonder he signed the new contract so quickly. The bloke is taking us and the board for a ride. Joke. We are a second rate club and we will lose the our best player come the end of the season. Let’s see how many of u are so confident we will win something next year. We are an embarrassment. I can’t believe this is happening. I’m fuming
i think the club has become stagnated with wenger in literal charge of everything, he has way to much protection and freedom… he wont win us anything, he doesnt count the carling cup or fa cup as proper trophies anymore, only the champs league and 3rd/4th place.. with this squad we wont win either and the two comps we could win he doesnt take seriously anymore
I think you are guys overreacting. I’ m no longer a fan of Wenger too but we are not that far from winning the title in England. Don’ t think we’ ll beat Barca, Chelsea or MU in CL but in the league we just need a keeper and back-up for our defenders. We can still buy them but i ll be pissed off if Wenger would behave like scrooge and wont’ t pay extra million for Schwarzer.
And there’ s something else. We can play well when sometimes Nasri or sb like Walcott, Bendtner gets injured but if we have to play a few months without 2, 3 key players then the season is over for us.
IMO if we add a keeper and a CB and we have reasonably less injuries than a year ago then we are going to win the title or we’ ll be not farther than 5 points away from it.
I`m still very nervous about the signing of a GK….Hope i`m wrong but my feeling is that we will not sign anyone……On the other hand a CB will sign 100%……
@WillyG:
u know billy is now sulky scum
guys, i think we should all just cool off, i mean, it`s the beginning of the season and everyone is freaking out. just come down, he will sign schwarzer or given and one cb until the end of august and later, when may comes we will see how we`ll end up and then say ,, wenger this,, wenger that,,. i know it sounds like a cliche over these 5 years, but i think this is wenger`s final year to make it or break it(if he doesn`t match the expectations, he will be sacked next year, i guess). i think we should just see what happens game after game and in the end judge the man.
Y should we all wait and see? We all know what the problems are. We had known for the past 4 years what’s been wrong with our team. It needs fixing now. Not later now. No more talking. Get it done. I’m amazed wenger hasn’t gone out and spent millions, I know it’s not his style but we need help. If we purchased a world class keeper and world class defender we would be at the top and we would be able to compete. Until then we simply won’t and we will be saying the same thing in 12 months time (minus cesc) for gods sake wenger sort it out. We are so close to winning something if he put these things right we would win silverware. It’s so frustrating to see how close we are and we all can see how to fix it!!!!!
this board will NEVER sack wenger, even if we were relegated (wont happen..)