Arsene makes big team changes at the start of every season and sticks to his choice until the end of the season, then once pre season comes round he can guide the squad

Howdy Goons,

Little bits and pieces today, not much to get our teeth stuck into but certainly a few things that you can pop in your mouth and chew.

Manuel Almunia has been explaining the change of attitude so far this season, I touched on it yesterday evening in my round up.

Almunia said:

“I think everybody knows what we did last season, what mistakes we made, Everyone knows what we had to improve and every single player is trying to do his best. We will put everything together and that’s it.

“We had to improve our communication, our position on the pitch, we need to work as a unit, work as a team. Many, many things can be improved and at the moment, although it is only two games into the season, things are working really well. I feel very confident in the defence and I am relaxed.

“The whole team is defending well, not just the defenders. The midfielders are too and the strikers are defending all together.

“At the moment all the players are really fit and really focused and that is the key to a successful season. It is in the mind – every player has to think about what they are doing on the pitch. They have all the skills to be great players for Arsenal.”

I asked the question yesterday that why didn’t this group of players produce the same work rate during last season? Why has it taken a new season? and I have come to the conclusion that Arsene makes big team changes at the start of every season and sticks to his choice until the end of the season, then once pre season comes round he can guide the squad in a certain direction. This is not fact, I am just speculating.

Arsene has always tried to save his players energy, the number of times we started slowly then picked up the pace in the second half cannot be coincidence but this didn’t always work out for us as the game often passed us by and we left it too late to grab the goal. Teams would score a set piece or a long range strike and then we would have to chase the game.

If we keep working the way we are then you can expect the stats to show many more first goals compared to last season. I have always preferred the win the game then take your foot off the pedal as apposed to the start in second gear until the 70th minute.

Almunia has joined in with the praise of new boy Thomas Vermaelen.

“Thomas has been a good signing for us, he’s a very good player, a very good defender, He has a good left foot, he is good in the air and is very competitive. Now he has to keep it going. He has been at the Club for a few months now and he is a very relaxed player, and that makes the people around him relaxed as well. Not only William but me, Gael and Bacary, we are all very confident about this player.

“He is a very tough player, a great defender. Kolo Toure was one of the best defenders at Arsenal over the last few years and I hope Thomas can reach the same level.

“He has good power in the air and in his legs. It is very early in the season to make any decisions about the player but at the moment he is responding very well. But it is not only him, the rest of the team is doing well too.”

Yup, the back four certainly look more together but we cannot really judge them until we face a very good attacking side. I was going to say we will find out against Manchester United but judging by their performance last night and their home win against Birmingham then we have pretty much nothing to fear. Ok, it will always be a tough test, especially when they will be up for it against us but right now they are far from impressive. Ronaldo was such a big player for them and they will struggle to replace his goals.

I am just hoping that we can keep our squad fit before we get to that game, a victory against the Mancs will make everyone stand up and pay attention. Anyhow, that is the future, we have games before that one so that can wait.

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