A 3-Points "Hull" Please!

Hull Preview

       The good thing about the past week has been the results of the team. 4 points from two matches’ one home and one away may not be the 10/10 we like but it shouldn’t be sniffled at. Put in the obvious fact that the “massive haul” was against some very tough opposition and there you have it, my positive spin to get you in the mood for the weekend. The icing would be a 3point Haul this Saturday and that would be perfect. Perspective is a two way glass and you see only what you desire to see, not always the exact obvious to a blind man. In the game of football results are what counts and these margins can be too fine, Arsenal has been very lucky at the least in this past week. The performance against Southampton was ok but not sublime lacking a “Killer Instict” and only snatched a win in the last minute, a very crucial one too. In Paris, I struggle with how to describe the snatch and grab we did to steal a point from the current ligue 1 champions. I take nothing away from Ospina, he did what a goalie is paid to do, keeping the gunners in the game till they woke up, but if Cavani hadn’t forgotten his scoring boots back in his villa in Monte Video, we probably would have been discussing a cricket score line right now. There you see what I am talking about…. fine margins. Results are the koko as we saiy in naija and the gunners did get the necessary results so kudos to them.

        Arsenal follow their away adventures at Paris with a Visit to Hull City or is it Hull Tigers KCom stadium which is just as well. The gunners seem to be getting more joy on the road with wins and draws.  Hull citys form has been startling and refreshing for a newly promoted side, a haul of 7 points from 2W 1D 1L, shows a team in good form especially when you look at the opposition and see the league champions as part. A potential banana skin for the gunners even though Arsenal has only lost to Hull once in its last 18 meetings. Mike Phelan must be doing something right even if its as an acting manager or he found some back doorway to get Fergie in. I don’t know which but it obviously is working, 3 goals only conceded in 4 matches with two clean sheets as against Arsenals same 7 points from 4 games with 6 goals conceded in as many matches. The gunners would need to to shore up at the back and play as a unit, no room for the way we defende in Paris, Hull may not be PSG but this s the premiership and its very unforgiving. I would go with the same Team  that finished in Paris as Ospina makes way for Cech despite his Paris heroics, a charge to Monreal to sortout his dip in form or Gibbs takes over his starting berth and then just a tweak to midfield base of Santi / Xhaka. I feel Elneny deserves a start and Santi at 30 somthing is no spring chicken anymore he should be rested, coupled with Chelsea match on the horizon. Give Perez a start over Giroud again…Yes, he needs to blend in “sharp sharp”. My line up will be

Bells__ Skod___Kos___Nacho

       

           Xhaka___Elneny

                    Ozil

Iwobi____Perez_____Alexis

Subs: Gibbs, Giroud, Ox, Coq, Santi, Walcott .

A nice 3 points haul would be a good weekend starter see that chelsea already dropped points against the 2faced side called liverpool, they are becoming like Arsenal in, you just never know what to expect from klopps men brilliant today ...Meh tommorow. Anyway thats it from us, do enjoy the match wherever  you are and please dont forget to comment like and share........Ciao

New Gunners or Ghosts Of Paris??

Hnmmm so we are off to Paris eeh? After a hard fought last gasp victory on Saturday there Is no time to sit and admire Giroud’s coiffed hair while sipping on 3points Nope, successful teams know they cant bask in the aura of their image like a CR7 oogling at his own beach body with narcissistic admiration…. Southampton is already a distant past of 3points done, now is time to focus on an occasion where the “Champions” come to battle in the UEFA Champions league 2016/17.

2006 UCL Final  Stad de France- Paris   coutesy: Getty Images

 Looking through our group one can't help but put the group winner between Arsenal or PSG, no offence to ...FC Basel and Ludogorets, no Leicester fairytale here. So many questions come to mind on Arsenal, Will this be Wenger's last roll of the dice in the UCL, can we top our group, are we now mature enough to handle the pressure have lessons been learnt from past repeated mistakes??? While 19 consecutive years qualifying for this group stage maybe something to extol, a habitual round of 16 exit 6 consecutive seasons reeks of same old same old frustrating Gunners that can't be depended on as they let you down. Wenger has to be running out of excuses as to why the Team seems to come unstuck here regardless of the opponent (Monaco hellooo). This year it appears that the luck of the draw has us starting with what has to be d most difficult match of the group stage, on paper ooo cuz after all this is football and Arsenal..... anything can happen. Considering that Paris hasn’t being a particularly good hunting ground for Arsenal. We have lost two finals there, in 1995 UEFA cup final and 2006 Champions league final. I hope this will be positively different, why not? One can dare to dream, yeah PSG has kolobied the Ligue 1 since the billionaires from Qatar took them over making it their own but still remain short of that extra step up into the "league of champions"  Arsenal can boast of a Final appearance at least . Speaking of leagues their start to this year's championat hasn't been the stellar usual, only 2wins and 1loss 1draw, very unlike d PSG we know, maybe losing Ibrahimovic Levezzi & Deschamps has them in some sort of Transition which Arsenal might do well to capitalize on. They still have very good players in Di maria (yeah he bummed at Man u, we know) Verratti, Matuidi, Cavani, Moura. Pastore. Motta and of course Thiago silva at the back. Some say that, in selling David Luiz back to Chelsea they have actually strengthened…....now that’s funny init? Arsene still has an almost full complement of a squad to call on except Ramsey who is a bit short on fitness while Koscielny is available after the eye incident he suffered on Saturday which is good news for the Gunners.

“He's alright,” confirmed the boss.

“He had a big knock on his face [after the Southampton game] but recovered quite well. I was concerned after the game that he wouldn't be available, but he's alright.”

We all know Koscielny had been key to our defensive solidity especially as Mustafi  settles in, it would be asking a lot of  Mustafi to play alongside Holding (despite his impressive start so far). I expect Xhaka to bounce Coq in midfield with Carzola retaining his spot and  Ozilla just ahead of them. I would still prefer to start Perez over Giroud just to get him bedded with d team quickly flanked by walcott/iwobi and Alexis. I believe a draw would be ok from Paris but who says the Gunners can't nick a win here. Don't be a kill joy ....one can dream naa.  My Team would look like 

Bells__ Skod___Kos___Nacho

                                                                     

              Xhaka___Santi

                      Ozil

     Iwobi____Perez_____Alexis

Subs: Gibbs, Giroud, Coq, Elneny, Walcott.   

Anyway the final result at the end will depend on which Arsenal Team shows up, the Boyz who we have come to expect to bottle things as usual or the Men as Wenger bullishly seems to think. 90+ minutes should tell. Do enjoy the game wherever you are...........Ciao

Saints Or Gunners??

   Well well well, football is back but it never went nowhere like Ludacris said after all we just watched decent footy on internationals. It feels like a lifetime of forever but it was only a weekend we missed. The hype is on about the Manchester Derby or is it Mourinho vs Pep all over again? Anyway we all know that’s going to be the star match for this weekend so lets move on.

Now to things arsenal ……...No I am not talking about the story on Eddie Howie being touted as our next coach, Naaaaaaaah that’s for the press. The Gunners welcome the Saints to the emirates in a must win match cuz absolutely any more slip ups in form of dropped points...…you can help fill in the blanks. It's funny how this suddenly is a must win match so early in the season, a reflection of the stiff competition the english premiership has grown to become, add the fact that Chelsea Man United and Man City all boast 100% starts so far (one of them will drop points here …TRUE THAT) can Arsenal make up on lost ground?? BIG BIG question! Southampton haven’t exactly had a stellar start to this season so far, sitting in 15^th place with just two points from a loss & two draws. There has been another summer of high profile exits for them, Saido Mane and Graziano Pelle both top scorers for the Saints last year add Victor Wanyama to that list of  departed...…....i think Arsenal fans can relate to that. Does this mean they should be push overs?? I doubt any match is after all Southampton also have a notable name at the helm - Claude Puel, who played under Wenger at Monaco and has translated his tenacity as a player into management so expect a fight. Arsenal on the other hand need build some momentum with a couple wins to help build team confidence and some momentum. Arsene at his press conference today talked up the maturity of his current squad and how he felt they could compete, especially with the new additions.

“I would say it’s the most mature squad I’ve had for a long time, because they are men,” Wenger said. “They are not 19 or 20 years old, they are 24, 27, 28, and the whole squad is quite mature. It’s the first time for a long time that I’ve had a team of what you can call men, ready to compete. After, we have to show that we are good enough to beat everybody else. “I always believe we have a chance [of the title], even when we had young players. Certainly, I haven’t had a squad of players [like this] for a long time, who have enough experience to compete”.

I am quite sure we have all heard that before, lets have football do the talking starting with another win. The team selection should remain the same as Watford except maybe Alexis could start from the bench since he only joined the team on Thursday from international duty. I wouldn’t start Mustafi over holding just yet, I am kinda liking Rob the way he is coming along even though it seems we have thrown him into the deep end a bit early but let us see how he performs. Let’s give Perez a start over Giroud.
                

                   Cech

Bells__ Kos___Rob___Nacho

                                                                       

        Granit___Santi

                Ozil

 Walcott____Perez_____Ox

Subs: Gibbs, Giroud, Alexis, Coq, Elneny, Iwobi.  

That should do it for a first of many three points at home, do enjoy the game wherever you are and please dont forget to comment/like/share the post...........….ciao.

Fillers On International Break

 The inter lull comes in just at that time when you are getting down with an ice cold lager, ready to chill with the boiz and enjoy the footy fest, yeah bad timing init? I know I am sounding like a fantasy football addict/nerd here, but you expect that those peeps at FIFA should know better than to punctuate the glee of league football just when we were all getting into the groove of the new season. Now don’t get me wrong, international tournaments are cool and also necessary for the global growth of the game, however the recent stink of corruption that has engulfed the global football governing body has left fans of the game just asking what exactly the essence of their existence is, a balance keeper or another vortex conduit for funneling the huge largesse the sport generates from sponsors??

  Ok so enough of my whining, still some titbits on football matters to banter even when the leagues are on pause for the internationals. The Nigerian super eagles did our FIFA ranking no ill with a narrow 1-0 win over the “Taifa” stars of Tanzania through a Kelechi Iheanacho scorcher curled into the top corner of Aishi Manula’s goal in the 78^th minute. See the goal here , now that’s 3 goals in 5 matches, Pep I hope you are watching.  Manula had more or less being the difference between what should have being a Dasukigate thumping & the respectable 1-0 score after 90+minutes. I must say the Nigerian forwards were very wasteful in attack having created chance after chance without taking them. I don’t mean to take anything away from Manula’s man of the match performance though, he was jaw droppingly imperious between the sticks for Tanzania, hats off to him, he was THE MAN!!

The Nigerian Super Eagles (Image courtesy soccernetdotcomdotng)

 We know the super eagles wouldn’t be at the next AFCON in Gabon 2017, however Gernot Rohr must realize that much work is to be done for the current eagles team to achieve anything significant at the next world cup, if we do qualify to be on the trip to Russia 2018, still a win is always a good start for any coach. I wish him best of luck with the drama kings at the glass house in Abuja.

Unto other happenings as per Gunners, a charity match between Arsenal Legends Vs Milan Glorie organized by The Arsenal Foundation rolled back memories. The football legends were coming together for the good cause of spreading the beautiful game to refugee camps of internally displaced people in Somalia and Jordan and I believe 1Million pounds sterling would go a long way in developing football pitches in not just Somalia and Jordan but also IDP camps in north eastern parts of Nigeria too[I wish]. Anyway not much to give in terms of a match report as these affairs are basically not about the scoreline, it was still nice to see the gunners come out on top by a 4-2 scoreline, with our own Nwankwo Kanu showing Ighalo, Moses and co how to do it in front of goal.    A throwback Kannuuuuuuuuu grabbing a hat trick and Bobby Pires adding a 4^th goal while Vieri nabbed a brace for Milan Glorie. It was nice seeing Seaman, Gilberto, Ljunberg, Keown, Anders limpar, Vieri, Dida , Cafu,  & other legends that made us fall in love with both teams strut their stuff on the pitch, showing some of today’s up and comings that the class was still there you know ………… we still gat game. I for one had never seen Anders limper play in an arsenal shirt, and it was nice to see him having heard and read so much about the nifty swede. The one thing that got me wondering was the absence of Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera……cant help but wonder if much is to be read into their recent criticisms of Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board over the way the club has seemingly refused to strengthen the team appropriately but that is talk for another day. Some can argue that Igwe was handling business with the Belgian Team on their world cup qualifiers, still eyebrows are curiously raised here. Elsewhere we hear rumblings that Ozil would very much like to take over the number 10 jersey vacated by Jack on loan, as well as possibly kick of discussions on a his contract extension which would be nice, maybe that would help convince Alexis make up his mind and stay with Arsenal too. You can definitely trust us to keep you posted the season’s events unfold.  On that note I will be leaving you to enjoy the rest of the weekend offering on international footy fest, please feel free to like share and comment on this post, lets make it an interactive community for lovers of the game and of course, things Arsenal……ciao

+234 Arsenal FC

The blogosphere for gunners is one with a wide gaping hole, none representing the pulse of the teeming supporters here in motherland 9ja. I get it, we are in far flung Africa right [the continent most misconstrued as a country] do we even have electricity talk less of knowing what a box called a TV might be? …..

Anyway let’s talk about what this blog is gonna be focused on, that is ……things Arsenal from a Nigerian supporters perspective, I must warn you though, it won’t be perfect no it won’t!! It would be no less passionate within objective reasonable means than what you get from other places of civilization because it would be sincerely from the heart however divergent or convergent you might find the opinion here, football first let’s all remember that.

Supporting Arsenal football club or Arsenal FC can be such a paradox at times, both exciting and frustrating all at the same time, trust me. This season I chose to wait until our first win before I launch into this blogging about Arsenal thing [the ink flows better writing in a happy mood]. The truth if we choose to face it is that, our preparations prior to this 2016/17 season’s kickoff has been avoidably less inspiring and that’s putting it lightly, yes Arsenal won a couple of preseason friendlies against lowly opposition scattered across the globe add the fact that we just beat man city coached by master Pep himself, the young lads [Chuba Akpom especially] did put in a good showing for maybe another loan spell…….still we all knew deep down what Arsenal and the board seem to inexplicably brush aside like we all are JJCs. The team had holes and still has holes that need immediate plugging. For about 3 seasons now we have been banging on about needing a “top-top qualiteee striker” (Arsene’s voice) and we had faffed about chasing Luis Suarez, Higuain, Benzema, Draxler, Griezman, Lacazette and ……Vardy but when it came down to showing the money like Juve / other teams did for Higs and the rest, we stuffed our hands in our cash loaded pockets, pouted our mouths and walked away, like we typically do. Now here we are, three matches into the season, Arsenal have 1 win 1 draw 1 loss and are 5points behind leaders from manchester and chelsea…..let that sink in!!

The league is a marathon as we all know so maybe we don’t have much to worry about for the gunners as there’s still lot of points to play for over the course of the season. The fear is Arsenal football club have left a lot more to be done for the team to properly compete against the perceived big boiz in the Premier league and Europe. Some may think we are being glass half empty here but far from it, the need for objectivity requires one to look at the numbers to see the big picture, 10 points off the champions Leicester and another round of 16 exit in the UEFA champions’ league reeks of stagnation not stability. Okay we got our first win at Watford plus the purchase of Mustafi and Perez, with loan moves for Joel Cambell, Calum Chambers and likely Jack Wilshire should stand the players/team in good stead but I believe we still might be a bit short on that very “next level” quality up front. I would love to stay away from the deadline hysteria cuz as much as it can be exciting from a neutrals perspective, it is hard to see Arsene Wenger dashing into the market for a marque splash ...even if the late dominos start falling in Madrid. In all i believe we are done, now would these players be able to cut it for the whole season by finally maing that stepUP??? Only time will tell, not that i advice you to hold a  breath on that .......naaaaah, i wont! Ciaooo