From out of position to out of proposition

Arsene Wenger is known for his skills to convert players from what they are to what they would be. It had done wonders to lots of players in the past courtesy to Thierry Henry, Van Persie & lot more. But have you ever wondered how many times it has flopped?
We would look at the current crop of gunners and see what's the status with each one of them whoever had a position change under the boss.


1. Robin Van Persie
Nothing to discuss, just have a look at his stats this. Now on his way to break Alan Shearer's record of 38goals. Hope he gets there. Starting as a lone striker and centre forward for Holland too.



2. Abou Diaby
Used as a supporting striker and attacking midfielder before joining Arsenal for his close control, technical ability & dribbling skills. But Wenger visualized him as an attack minded centre midfielder who is good for box to box game. Maybe due to this change he is more like a hospital to hospital player. He was becoming an influential player in French dressing room when he went on to grab some rest due to injuries.


3. Tomas Rosicky
Nick named "The little Mozart" for his skills to orchestrate the game from the middle of the park. Often used as an additional attacking player in wings by Wenger. Rosicky is a specialist in using outside of his foot for quick passes. Imagine what a right footed Rosicky would do with this skill while playing in the right side of the park? A playmaker used with Fabregas and Nasri in previous years. He needs more time in the centre to unleash his play making rather than being used as a substitute to come on as a winger. Czech Republic captain for long time and one of the best to serve them ever in a football field.


4. Jack Wilshere
An attacking midfielder/winger by nature, Wenger turned him into a box to box player. Wenger needed a box to box player to play with Song as holding midfielder and Fabregas as the creative engine since Diaby was often injured and Denilson was not giving what he wanted. Emergence of Wilshere caught few eyes and it even led him to represent the senior England side. He has good vision, movement, dribbling and combination play which makes him one of the most lethal players to have in your shirt.


5. Johan Djourou
Started off as a defensive midfielder but converted to centre back in Arsenal ranks as a backup player. He dreamed of filling in the void left by Flamini but never materialized. Wenger still uses him as a centre back without much success to show off. Third choice central defender for Swiss national team. But his age shows he has a long way to go.

6. Kieran Gibbs
Often dubbed as the replacement for Gael Clichy never made the impact that he should have created. He is quick and has good offensive game. When it comes to the defensive part he is caught duck footed at times. He is good to be used as a left winger rather than a solid left back or wing back. Already started for senior England team couple of times on the left back position.



7.Andrei Arshavin
The king of flops this season in Arsenal shirt is one of the real heroes of the world football. The whole world knows Arshavin is best when he is playing in the centre of the pitch in a attacking role. He is used as winger time and again by Wenger after continuous failures to perform the winger role. Arshavin should either be spared to find another employer who would be happy to play him in centre role or allowed to do what he is best at. He is not a youth player to try to change position at this age just because he can run fast. One of the best players ever produced by Russia who is obviously their captain too.

Aston Villa Vs Arsenal - 21Dec2012: Preview

Aston Villa hosts Arsenal for another wonderful evening match before the Christmas. Arsenal had been on the up except the lose to Manchester City whereas Aston Villa is finding it tough to be back where once they were with Martin O'Neil guiding them. Aston Villa will get Agbonlahor back from suspension and Darren Bent is expected to shake off his injury which would surely make the match more interesting. Aston Villa's loss to Liverpool had been a bad one for Villa fans and stars alike which would make them more fired up for the match against Arsenal. Arsenal on the other hand is back from tough fight against city which would make them crave for a win before going for Christmas.

Arsenal will start without Alex Song who would be serving the suspension due to his fifth yellow card of the season. I would guess Wenger would try out something different tomorrow rather than just a predictable inclusion of Frimpong to cover Song's absence.

Szczesny
Koscielny-Squillaci-Mertesacker-Vermaelen
Frimpong-Arteta
Rosicky/Ramsey
Walcott-Gervinho
Robin Van Persie

I suspect Rosicky would get a start tomorrow since January is fast approaching which would make him look for other options. Arshavin is somebody who definitely needs a game or two in centre of the park since his wide game had been a bit too wide for Arsenal considering the chances he is creating from there.

Squillaci might get the rare start tomorrow since Djourou is out injured and Miguel won't be able to play right back. Vermalen was twice as good as Santos and Gibbs in left back if we relook at his last appearance as left back or compare his heroics in Ajax. Ramsey might get some rest since he looke bit jaded in last match.

Players to watch:
Gabriel Agbonlahor, Darren Bent, Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Frimpong & Thomas Vermaelen

Arsene Wenger Hits & Flops - Episode 3

Wenger Hit No.3

5. Kolo Habib Toure
Commonly known as Toure joined Arsenal in 2002 from ASEC Mimosas for as low as £150,000. It took Toure full six months to get a starting berth in the famous Arsenal team of his time. Toure started as a attacking midfielder and occasional right back during early stages of his Arsenal career. He partnered Sol Campbell during the invincible season in the heart of the defense. Toure later partnered Senderos and William Gallas successfully. The last European goal in highbury still stands on his name against Villareal. Due to a rift with Gallas, Toure wanted to move away from Arsenal. Unfortunately he was the only one left in invincible team who had tasted success in his career when he eventually decided to move on. Kolo Toure was sold to Manchester City for £16 million in July, 2009. As most of the cases, this time too Wenger got a good deal for one of his key men once upon a time. Toure had been one of the unsung heroes of Ivory Coast for last decade and still continues to be one of their top players.

Clubs Player For:
1. ASEC Mimosas
2. Arsenal
3. Manchester City



Wenger Flop No.3

6. Sylvain Claude Wiltord
As most Arsenal fans would remember, Wiltord was one of the most expensive player ever to play for Arsenal for a long time until Arshavin broke it. Wiltord was signed for club record of £13 million during 2000 season. He played upfront with Henry and also on the wings at times. He scored 49 goals for Arsenal in 175 appearances and was voted 33rd among top 50 players ever to play for Arsenal. Sylvain could not establish as the main choice since the same timeline showed the emergence of a star in Thierry Henry. Wiltord didn't care to renew his contract with Arsenal and he went as free agent to Lyon in 2004 when his 4 year contract came to an end. Wiltord didn't enjoy much success playing for France. But his goal in Euro 2000 final against Italy and 2006 World Cup penalty shoot-out remains as most memorable moments since France took the game to extra time in Euro 2000 with that goal and later in world cup it was the first penalty during the shoot-out.

Clubs Player For:
1. Rennes
2. Deportivo de La Caruna
3. Bordeaux
4. Arsenal
5. Lyon
6. Rennes
7. Marseille
8. Metz
9. Nantes

Manchester City Vs Arsenal Dec 18 - 2012 - Highlights

Man City stays on top

A good game for the neutrals to watch but for Arsenal fans once again the same sorry state after the game. Although I enjoyed watching the game last evening but lot to learn from what we saw. Congrats to Arsenal for putting up a real fight there and limiting Manchester City to one goal which would have been 3-4 considering the miss of sitters they had.

Man City started of well against a gunner's side which had a very predictable line-up. Song and Arteta was cautioned with a yellow card early in the match which should have affected their game for sure. I often see this behavior from some Refs whenever Arsenal is playing against big teams like Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Barca & others in England and Europe. Maybe its my own story. But if you guys also felt the same then you ought to know you got company.

Yaya Toure was omnipresent killing of lot of Arsenal moves and also starting for city. Arsenal defense coped well against EPL leaders except for Djourou. The only game came through David Silva when Balotelli skipped passed Djourou into the box and took the shot which slipped from Szczesny to Silva for a simple tap in. Koscielny was having a good game in the center of the part but was moved to right back once Djourou was substituted. Robin Van Persie got few chances which did not find the back of the net as it was the case in recent past. Walcott was not seen in the game for the first one hour. As always he was substituted with Arshavin when Walcott started to get in to the game with his pace and shots which to me looked like a bad move. Again how predictable Wenger is turning out to be. Later Chamakh who had been the flop of the season for Arsenal was introduced to play upfront sacrificing Mertersacker who was having a good game. I would have opted for Benayoun instead of Chamakh but boss takes the call. Wenger admitted it was a good game and sad to lose it but we had seen good games from Arsenal for last 3-4years without real results when it was needed.

We should be looking at a creative midfielder once January comes and also a good striker to replace Chamakh if possible if boss really feels like we need to improve. Gareth Barry was one of the standout performers for Man City along with Kompany. Thomas Vermaelen proved to be the most attacking Arsenal player in the park when he took couple of good shots towards goal which made Joe Hart stretch hard. If not for Joe Hart, Arsenal would have won the match even though we lacked creativity in the final third. Ramsey looked nervous last evening unlike his other games but a powerful Song and decent enough Arteta did the cleaning of the mess for Ramsey whenever he lost the ball. A clear penalty when Micah Richards had handled the ball inside the box was missed by referee when the replays showed that referee was looking at Richards for sure.

Next game is against Aston Villa which seems to be a good time to play considering the bad form they are in. Hope Arsenal goes to X'mas with a good win!

Season 2011-12 - First Half

Arsenal had always portrayed the belief in youngsters ever since Wenger started in Highbury. Gunner's had done their best to identify young talents across the world with their well accomplished networks and scouts; without doubt Wenger could woo lads into the training camp without any competition considering the chance any youngsters would get here in Emirates. The story had been no different for Fabregas and Nasri but unfortunately passion for homeland and once parent club and money prevailed over Wenger's dream and hard work for these talented play-makers.

Let's not scrutinize them for what happened but let's see what really happened in the team. Everything has to change one day and not sure when Arsenal is going to follow that. Wenger had dreamed of building an Arsenal around Fabregas but Cesc had other plans.

Arsenal sold and send on loan lot of players without fear this season:
Kyle Bartley (loan)
Nicklas Bendtner (loan)
Pedro Botelho (loan)
Joel Campbell (loan)
Gael Clichy (undisc.)
Thomas Cruise (free)
Roarie Deacon (free)
Denilson (loan)
Jamie Edge (free)
Emmanuel Eboue (undis.)
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (£1.1m)
Cesc Fabregas (undisc.)
Henri Lansbury (loan)
Samir Nasri (undisc.)
Mark Randall (free)
Gilles Sunu (undisc.)
Armand Traore (undisc.)
Carlos Vela (loan)
Wellington (loan)

At the same time brought in experienced and powerful legs to the dressing room:
Mikel Arteta (£10m)
Yossi Benayoun (loan)
Joel Campbell (undisc.)
Alex Chamberlain (£15m)
Gervinho (undisc.)
Carl Jenkinson (undisc.)
Per Mertesacker (undisc.)
Park Chu-Young (undisc.)
Andre Santos (undisc.)

The season started pretty badly with Gervinho one of the new guy losing his cool on Barton during a 0-0 draw against Newcastle United. The pre-season friendlies were not as good as it used to be since the team never showed any spark except for 3-4 players. Maybe because everybody was worried who is going to come in and gonna go.

Arsenal was thrashed by Liverpool for 0-2 and Manchester United for 2-8. This led to a bad start to the EPL with Arsenal sitting as low as 15 in the table.
These thrashings caught nerves of fans and management alike which led to signing of all these champion players.

We had moved to Champions league quarter finals to play against AC Milan who is now second in Italian League. We had been knocked out of Carling Cup courtesy Manchester City the new star in the block. Sitting on sixth spot in League table we hardly stand a chance to be winning the EPL considering the form and strength of other English clubs. But we should not be writing off Arsenal since we saw the exit of Manchester - United & City from the Champions league when Arsenal & Chelsea progressed. We will be facing Leeds United in next round of FA Cup which could be one of our main targets this season.

This team needs time together to win the league at least 1-2years. We had been heavily dependent on Robin Van Persie who had been season's top scorer and also stands a chance to overtake Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry.

The usual starting line-up had been as below:
Szczesny
Djourou-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Vermaelen
Song-Arteta
Ramsey
Walcott-Gervinho
Robin Van Persie

Robin Van Persie, Arteta, Koscielny, Alex Chamberlain & Frimpong had been few players getting few players getting noticed during the first half of the season. Thanks to the hard work of Song, Arteta and Ramsey. But we really lacked good creativity from centre of the park which was quite often the brainchild of Fabregas and Nasri. Most of the RVP goals came from assists from wingers.

Flops of the season so far had been Arshavin, Chamakh & Squillaci. I would say playing Arshavin on the centre as a CAM would be lot better rather than using him as a winger. Chamakh is showing no signs of interest when he is playing and always looked tired.

Rosicky & Benayoun played decent when ever they were given chances but lacked getting chance since the midfield mainstays were doing good together except lacking great creativity.

Wilshere is the most missed player on the pitch along with Bacary Sagna.

It won't come as any shock to me if Arshavin, Chamakh, Rosicky & Squillaci looks for other employers in January 2012.

Hoping Arsenal does well on coming days, I would like to resume my blog Arsenalite. Sorry for not writing for long time since I was stuck in the game called life.