Arsenal travel to Brighton to face a team to whom they have never lost in a knockout tournament. There have not been frequent meetings between the two sides though, this the first since 1988′s fourth round tie at The Goldstone Ground where Arsenal emerged victorious by the odd goal in three. At least this time, those travelling by train are not going to see their tickets fly out of an open window, are they Neil?
The Arsenal scorers that day were Perry Groves and Kevin Richardson, the latter the type of midfielder that Jack Wilshere seems destined to develop into, albeit with more obvious flair. Having been keen to play down the hype surrounding his mercurial charge, Arsène succumbed to temptation yesterday and spoke of Wilshere‘s potential in an understated way,
The potential is there of course. But I’m not national-team coach – you should ask that question to Roy Hodgson, who will be happy to talk about it. In the national team you have a massive pressure straight away. It’s important that the player gets to the stage where he develops first completely into an accomplished football player and then takes responsibility to take care of other people.
He is naturally a guy who is not scared of anything on the football pitch and that is usually the sign of a leader. If you are asking me if I will take the captaincy away from Vermaelen, no. It is not a question that holds me at the moment. But do I think Jack will be captain of this club one day – yes, of course.
The Arsenal captaincy has become a poisoned chalice, the equivalent of handing in a transfer request. If that is the case, keep it away from Wilshere please. That he is being spoken of as a potential England captain is the media jumping the gun once more, their previous starlets have failed to deliver so it is time to put the weight of fifty years of expectation on another’s shoulders. Given he has yet to complete a full season since returning from injury, such thoughts are surely not in his mind with the first step following re-establishment into the Arsenal side being inclusion in the England squad. Not that there is much competition in the midfield.
For his club, it seems that he is favourite to be captain today, a theory springing from Wednesday. Will that happen? Were Bacary Sagna in better form, I suspect not but his own form must be occupying his mind and the captaincy would surely distract. Others who might be considered include Mertesacker and, well, we are running out of candidates if you are looking for inspirational players. It seems likely that Wilshere will become Arsenal’s youngest captain today.
There won’t be many changes from Wednesday; we don’t have the personnel. Mixed signals came with Emmanuel Frimpong’s loan to Fulham; is he just getting match practice or being prepared for sale? Moving out to make space for incoming players, Diame is still the man insists today’s papers, along with David Villa. Frimpong might be joined by Carl Jenkinson in going on loan with apparently Stoke interested. Yea Gods although he might return and be the only Arsenal defender capable of dealing with a corner. I can’t see that happening, the loan I mean, with too much pressure being put on the defence in the instant that injury strikes.
Thomas Vermaelen is out with Arteta and Coquelin not fit for return although Abou Diaby is. As harsh as it seems, Aaron Ramsey is the likeliest of the midfield trio that dominated West Ham to make way for the Frenchman. Whilst there might be a temptation for the manager to cast half an eye on the visit of Liverpool in midweek, his words suggested that Arteta is likely to make that match. It offers the chance of rotation, potentially with Oxlade-Chamberlain coming in on the right. There is still no depth on the bench in attack so maybe Theo Walcott dropping down to rest ahead of the upcoming Premier League games. I cannot see much advantage though in changing a winning team too much, especially in what is a tricky cup-tie.
The line-up I would expect to see is:
Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs; Diaby, Cazorla, Wilshere; Walcott, Giroud, Podolski
Brighton have come on a long and turbulent journey since the last meeting between the two sides, Liam Brady linking the two clubs currently and today’s tie resonates with history. For the Hove club, they hope history will repeat itself. Their third round victory over Newcastle will lead to a return to Wembley as it did thirty years ago whilst Arsenal want to emulate the feat of Terry Neill’s side who beat Brighton 2 – 0 at Highbury on this day in an FA Cup fourth round tie en route to meeting West Ham in the 1980 final. They definitely want to avoid their defeat at York City twenty nine years ago today.
Enjoy the match wherever you are watching it.
’til Tomorrow.
Well, not to keep anything going but AW has been discredited quite a lot recently. Shotta is not making things up.
i have stopped commenting here for a long time. even to come here and read comments is scarery these day. i come when i know the mood should be better. like after a victory, but most times it’s still the same wenger’s fault that we win.
at the start of the season when we’re the best defensively, most people here attributed it to ‘bould effect’. but now that the opposite is happening it wenger fault.
why cant bould, adams and robson of this world go out and test their talent elsewhere. it’s wenger’s fault
some regulars here make some categorical statements and when the facts come out to prove them wrong they even find it difficult to appologise.
we all know that walcott is gone, walcott cannot play centrally, wilshere is not an attacking midfielder. someone even said it today that that wenger’s tactical analysis of the game is not his strong point. how can anybody say that??!! he has been managing for over 30 years and some regulars here will say that and they will not be ask to prove it or be bin??!!
Well, lakesite, that’s been the most amusing thing I read all day on here…. Wenger is tactically inept in other words! Wow!
Shotta isnt far off, and I’m with Markus. Its easy to see why YW, CB, Jonny and Matt are having a tough time digesting Shottas remarks. They’ve been some of the most vocal critics at times this season so theyre probably just a tad insensitive to shottas relatively harmless gloating. Surely its far less harmless than some of the cancerous supporters we’ve got.
*far less harmful
Giroud’s goals were beauties.
Shotta’s more right than wrong.
And spending too much time on a blog seems to be bad for your sense of proportion.
Maybe we should all get out more?
Those saying shotta shouldn’t be pulled up for the details he gets wrong (as long as his general point makes sense) will do well to remember that choice when people who are more critical do the same thing.
It was not long ago that George, Evil, etc got into a long argument with JJ over details (something to do with what Arsene said) when it was clear what his overall meaning was. All of a sudden the pendantry is no longer ok because it applies to a ‘friend’?
Do we want to be pendants here or not? Make your minds up.
Always nice to proceed in the Cup.
Seems a few sensitive souls.
Is there a problem being critical of a player?
Is there a time limit by which an apology has to be provided for having a view overturned by performance ?
Is there a problem being critical of the manager/ owner et al?
Ok I admit, I have questioned Ramsay, but I am pretty confident in my current view that being played out of position has hindered his progress.
Better positioned now, and when he tries to be efficient rather than creative, it works. Forget the extravagant back heels etc , and focus on high tempo efficient passing.
My view on Santos hasn’t changed, and anybody who seeks to swap jumpers at half time, regardless of who it was with, doesnt belong in the team.
What some of you are missing is core to the principal of freedom of speech.
Firstly, whatever anyone says on here, unless credibly referenced, is opinion, no matter what or what manner they say it in.
Secondly, freedom of speech extends to the point where it still respects the rights of others to speak, and further in some interpretations, includes the caveat that the speaker may not insult or belittle other parties (known in some interpretations as “hate speech”).
Personally, I refrained from engaging a particular clique of posters on here because a). I felt their views and approach were unintelligent (from my perspective those posters contributed about 1 intelligent opinion or question for at least every 20 posts made, and thats being very generous), b). I found them unpleasant and offensive, and c). I felt there was little purpose in challenging their dogmatic and closeted ideas.
That didn’t seem to stop them having their say about my posts however, and that was where I drew the line and did respond on occasion.
However, that particular clique saw and for the remainder, still sees little wrong with lashing out and being thoroughly unpleasant to anyone who disagrees with their particular dogma.
A while back I referred to this as “fascist tendencies”, because that’s exactly what it is.
For me, it’s a rather sore point in my country right now, with no criticism of the ruling party escaping strong arm and over the top whining and hitting out way in excess of any reasonable response.
That’s not restricted to my country or continent however, one rather poignant example in recent times was David Kelly.
The inability for any leadership to accept and even embrace criticism, especially constructive criticism, is a very dangerous path, as history has shown, over and over again over the centuries.
People who feel the need to support and perpetuate that type of thinking, the “he’s been doing this for 30 years, who are you to have an opinion” crowd, are misguided and extremely dangerous in a democratic world. These are the pawns who have facilitated major dark eras in the world’s history.
I have been in my particular profession for nearly as long as Wenger has been managing. Many consider me exceptionally good at what I do.
However, one of my earliest reactions to criticism (I can’t claim it’s always the first, I, like most others, am only human), is to look in the mirror. I might not announce it to the world at that point, but I will take a long hard look at my culpability as a reference point very early n in the process.
The issue that many have here is that there has been a clique of posters who feel the need to be aggressive to any view expressed on here that contradicts their own.
Some of those posters were particularly obnoxious and unpleasant about it, stooping to personal insults, be that of fellow posters, the manager, or particular players. From what I understand, that is what YW was objecting to, and why he banned particular posters and not others.
I’ve seen many posts lamenting their absence, stating that they were “valued”, and “respected” posters. Those are opinions, just like all the others. They certainly don’t speak for me and, it would appear, a few others as well.
To reference this all to today. A post was made setting up a number of “straw men” arguments, all of which ignored the very real situation that a). This team, manager, and club are nowhere near being out of the woods yet, b). There are still a number of very valid concerns about the team, the manager, and the club right now, c). Like many of us, the poster made the mistake of lumping a plethora of complex views and differences into one pot and kicking it.
My own set of beliefs are a lot more complex than the “mixed grill” offered, none of which I recognized in it. Rightly or wrongly, I would not be surprised if I was at least partially one of the contributors considered as that being aimed at.
To suggest that YW, Bob, or any others are having a difficult time digesting some perceived “hard truth” in the context of that post is more than just a little delusional, a characteristic which seems to be in plentiful supply for those who seem to think it was even vaguely accurate.
Giroud will come good wont he? That is so cool. Chamakh started off bright but then kinda faded.Same with the left back behind Gibbs that i cannot remember the name of(santos?)
But Giroud, Giroud did not start that well, but is not slowly becoming the brightest star in the sky, together with Theo. That is so cool.
I bet the sale of RvP has made theo score alot more, where he before just lumped the ball to RvP, he now goes for a finish himself… It is exciting to see..
you guys think he will become one of those goal machines that just cannot help but scoring? hehe that would make me smile..
Great post, MA
Loomer
“Its easy to see why YW, CB, Jonny and Matt are having a tough time digesting Shottas remarks. They’ve been some of the most vocal critics at times this season so theyre probably just a tad insensitive to shottas relatively harmless gloating.”
I’m sorry, but is way off. Do you regularly read our comments? How about YW’s posts? I ask, as I honestly can’t believe that you can genuinely categorise the above posters and YW as being the “most vocal critics”. Critics of who? The team? The manager? The players? The board? It’s simply not a credible statement.
Has any criticism been levelled, at times, to all of the above? Of course it has, and why not?
I’ll speak for myself, but I’m sure you could easily attribute this to the others, when I say that there are far more frequent, far more vociferous, more extreme critics of all aspects of the club-and for me, this is at the heart of the matter.
What I don’t get is why on earth we are not supposed to “play manager”, act as coaching staff, and pretend to be the board. What is the point of a blog such as this if not to say what we would like to see happen; what we think would be good; what we think is going wrong etc. Of course it’s mostly unsubstantiated opinion and conjecture, but that’s what we’re doing, essentially just chewing the fat.
Again, we’re seemingly back to this place where some feel it necessary to present all matters as if they must only exist within two paradigms: you agree with everything Arsene and club does, or you don’t. This is an absurd position to take, from either side, and one that will obviously result in both “sides” constantly trying to establish who is ultimately right or wrong, which of course, will be never be 100% conclusive as there’s simply too much water under the bridge to take into account.
In reality however, most of us on this blog just like it when we win and want Arsenal to do the best that is humanly and economically possible. If we have different views on how that can be achieved, fine, but the goading, point scoring and “humble pie” offerings are meaningless, narrow minded and boring.
Poodle, unfortunately I think Chamakh faded because he got frozen out the team the moment RvP was fit again.
IMO, the failing was more Wenger’s than Chamakh’s. apparently here were other issues, but I doubt they arrived at exactly the same moment RvP was fit again.
In terms of context, Wenger does have previous with this sort of thing, where he virtually destroyed Manninger’s career.
Yes, Wenger has had some spectacular successes with man-management, but like all of us, he’s had a few abject failures too.
For me Chamakh is one of those.
as wenger says giroud definitely has presence. he is very hard working footballer too..all the ingredients are there for him to become a great correct?
playing for a team like arsenal, his passing and ball control need to be better..i think these will come with time..i think he will soon turn into a great striker..
we need a player similar to hleb/rosicky of 07..we have too many players whose best position is in the middle..
Loomer
I mean this most kindly but if I’m a vocal critic, you don’t get out much do you?!?!
The problem with the gloating is, as I said previously when it reared its head after a win that immediately preceded a defeat, to do so after one result is risky and therefore daft, because the one thing this squad is that they are consistently inconsistent.
Where Shotta got my back up was attributing the more extreme criticisms of the club to this club by combining the opinions of other blogs with more reasoned critiques from this. I don’t mind someone having a pop at the regulars on here with a reasoned and valid argument but I won’t have criticism based on false premise.
Looker that’s my problem with it. It’s ‘gloating’.
Ask me, that’s in some ways worse than those doomers who whine after a win. Exactly that sort of childish nonsense that creates an unpleasant atmosphere.
If its like this after a hard fought win against lowly opposition what ugly triumphalism will we have to tolerate if we win something?!
The last three paragraphs of Mike’s post are especially pertinent.
Any who tennis is on – tie break. Andy 2-0 up. C’mon andy.
Loomer*
On stupid correcty bollocks IPad at my dad’s.
Cricket’s on too.
Murray 1 set to love.
I’m a Djokovic fan
I’m at my dads Bob, no Sky. Dead rubber in a dying format anyway. I’m all about the Tests, me.
MGK that’s a belter of a forehand at 9.30. On the money.
Cheers, Jonny
I think Murray is firm favourite now, but Nova never knows when he is beaten. …
Is there a space for Nova in the Arsenal back four somewhere – what a clearance!!
*Novak
*Novak
If in doubt, get it out, ai AA
Lol
Ha ha – I was too lazy to attempt to spell his surname and copied your spelling of his first from you! Doh!
Morning Jonny – with you on the 5 Day Test v One Dayer’s debate btw!!
If at the end of the season both diaby and rosicky have remained injury free, think plenty (me included) will happily eat humble pie after voicing concerns over injury. But after 2 games after already missing huge bunks of the season? Keep that pie on hold thanks.
So Johnny my crime is to suggest that the manager may be right about his squad contrary to his many vocal critics. That this counts as gloating says a lot about the sensitivity of his critics.
Hmmm not sure I will Andy!
Agree 100% on the Test business, Andrew.
I was in Dharamsala many, many moons ago and it’s good to see the place again. Happy memories.
Shotta have you thought about a career as an actress?
No that is not it at all. AW may well be right but we are still allowed to have opinions. And yes you are gloating and it is childish.
Can’t you just enjoy the win?
Tennis is hotting up …
1-1 all!
The pendulum swings …
this is getting fucking stupid..
Never made it to India or Africa for the cricket Bob but would love to do both. Watching England lose the Ashes in Australia is not for the fainthearted, mind.
Splendid stadium in Dharamsala by the look of it – old style but dignified.
http://www.aclfarsenal.co.uk/?p=10484
Today’s gloat-free post.
True dat, JJ.
MGk’s post at 9.30 covers it from my side. If that’s not clear you’ll never get it anyway.