admin

A few seasons back Arsenal moved away from the 4-4-2 formation, after experiencing limited success with the lightweight Fabregas and Flamini occupying the two central defensive midfield roles. To accommodate the growing number of less physical but highly technical central attacking midfielders in the squad at the time, Arsenal appeared to change their formation to a 4-1-3-2 setup. In that particular season, Flamini took on the lone central defensive midfield role with Rosicky (left), Fabregas (central) and Hleb (right) operating in central

Jack Wilshere is a special talent, a teenager that more than held his own against the best midfield trio in world football at the Emirates on that famous night against Barcelona. He is the one player that I think will replace Cesc Fabregas in terms of game influence. I really believed that we would see a stronger Jack Wilshere at the start of this season. He had that glow around him in the early pre season

battling performance at Newcastle that saw the now notorious “spend some f*cking money” chant rear its ugly head. I’ve mentioned before that I have no issue with the chant itself and it is fair to say those in charge needed a kick up the backside as they allowed the season to begin with the squad in a

I agree that a striker needs to get into good positions in the box but it cannot be called a blinking good cross if there is no team mate in the box. We don't play the game blind folded. A great cross is when a player has the vision and ability to pick someone out. Ramsey's cross for Walcott in the home

It was all up in the air, contrasting views on if it was M'Vila, if the sighting of Kaka wasn't just a UFO at Heathrow, if Michael Jackson had really returned outside Craven Cottage, to be fair, it was all a bit of a shambles. But bam, 6pm hit and stories of Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun broke out. Duncan Castles and BBC's very own David Ornstein reported murmurs of a deal for either one, not both together. Vast majority of twitter was HIGHLY against the Benayoun signing, you'd honestly think he scored 30 own goals a season as such the demand for no deal for him was shouted. But then came Arteta, the guy often dubbed "The poor mans Cesc Fabregas", the Spanish Maestro of Merseyside. Very mixed views,

D-Day began with none of the excitement of the previous day where we virtually sealed deals for Santos and Mertesacker completely out of the blue. In terms of paperwork etc, I’m sure the Club wanted to get these rubber-stamped before the search for a midfielder or two began in earnest. And so Santos and Mertesacker were announced at 3pm and 4pm respectively, leaving a good seven hours

Granted we didn't sign one marque CMF and we're relying on Jack but who else would you have had over Arteta....? There can't be many. Don't get me wrong i would have loved to have seen Hazard but he plays on the flanks and isn't exactly known for his ability to dictate play in the centre of the park. He is incredibly skillful but Gervinhio was more productive for Lille, plus they were not going to sell for less than £40M which is more than what we spent on all 5 of our shiny new players

The injuries were unfortunate and are largely unavoidable, especially with Vermaelen and Sagna missing out late on. But blame can also lie at the feet (and hands) of those who were suspended, especially Alex Song. Remember his second-half against Udinese last Wednesday where he protected the back four so expertly? We sorely needed that on Sunday, but ill-discipline

We can all sit and point fingers at Wenger for the shambles we are in but I won't be a party to that. The board in my opinion are solely to blame. Put the cash down and Wenger would strengthen. Why wait till the sales of Cesc and Nasri before we start making arrangements for replacements when all knew they would leave at some point this summer. Why not make the required purchases before

Midfield; be prepared. Actually, I’m not going to say much about the midfield. Coquelin’s performance was okay, I suppose, for a young player playing with tremendous pressure in his first Premier League performance. Ramsey is not Cesc, silly Gooners. He never has been, he never will be. He is Aaron, and remember, he is a young man still recovering from his injury, and any abuse toards him is unjustified