Arsenal 4 - 0 Atlético de Madrid

 After a long hiatus due to personal matters, I have decided to pick up my blog on Arsenal back up again.

 WHAT A GAME!!!

 

That was a phenomenal night at the Emirates! Arsenal didn't just win against Atlético Madrid; they produced a blistering 4-0 thrashing in the Champions League that sent a massive statement across Europe. I was really impressed with how we went about it.

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The Story of the Match: A Second-Half Onslaught

The first half was the classic cagey affair you'd expect against Diego Simeone's resilient Atlético side, ending 0-0.

Crucially, Arsenal's defense was immense. Up until the final minutes, it was almost a third consecutive European clean sheet where the opponent failed to land a single shot on target. In fact, Atlético only managed one shot on target for the entire 90 minutes.

Even when things looked shaky—specifically when David Raya made a mistake wandering far out of his box, nearly allowing a wide-open shot—the team kept their composure and immediately regained control, smashing their opponents in the second half.

Whatever Mikel Arteta told the players at halftime resulted in a stunning second-half transformation, with Arsenal netting four goals in a dizzying 13-minute spell that blew Atlético away:

• 1-0 (57th min): The floodgates opened with a familiar weapon: the set-piece. Gabriel Magalhães connected perfectly with a Declan Rice delivery to head home the opener.

• 2-0 (64th min): The team's electrifying pace shone through as Myles Lewis-Skelly charged forward before finding Gabriel Martinelli, who finished with trademark precision into the bottom corner.

• 3-0 (67th min): Striker Viktor Gyökeres finally ended his recent goal drought, scrambling home a rebound. You could see the relief in his celebration!

• 4-0 (70th min): Just three minutes later, Gyökeres got his second, tapping in from close range after another set-piece sequence, perfectly sealing the brilliant win.

This result wasn't just three points; it was a massive confidence boost for the Gunners, particularly seeing Gyökeres get his goals and the team remaining perfect (3 wins from 3) in the Champions League campaign so far!

 

Arsenal vs Sunderland

First game of the season, home to Sunderland, who loves to just sitback and hope for a counterattack, as they did under Martin O'Neill last season. They certainly 'parked the bus' and set out to frustrate Arsenal, with the Sunderland goalkeeper even resorting to time wasting only 20 minutes into the match.

Except for one chance where Sunderland got through a little too easily early in the game, where the shot was directed straight at Szczesny, it was all Arsenal. Possession and the chances were going on all game.
However it was not to be, Arsenal despite a few good chances, and one glorious chance, could not break down the resolute Sunderland defence.

Cazorla had a good debut. A few times he looked a little too complacent, losing the ball and misplacing passes on a couple of occasions, but when he clicked into gear, he created some glorious chances. Podolski had a fairly quiet league debut, despite the good performances against his former club in a friendly.
Giroud could have had a great debut as a substitute, but somehow put it wide.

Frustrations grew with the fans as they got more and more restless as the game continued. One of the major gripes I had was the tempo was far too slow with no real urgency throughout the game.
Arteta should have been pushed up more, but now that we have lost Song to Barcelona (again), one wonders about the DM position. Arshavin came on late and despite people willing to give him another chance after a brilliant Euro 2012 performance for Russia, unfortunately he looked like the player we are used to who gives balls away and doesn't seem to 'try'.

After the match, Wenger had this to say, "We played in a good spirit and tactics... with creativity and the chances we created, we couldn't finish" and also admitted its difficult without RVP as he would have surely put that chance away that Giroud missed.

It is disappointing to not win the first game, especially home, but I think its far too early to feel all doom and gloom about it. We just have sit and wait and be patient. Something that by now we as Arsenal fans are good at.

Lets hope in the next couple of weeks, we do bring in at least a couple of more players, as on the face of it, we need it.

Robin Van Persie to Manchester United

Well, I think most people realised that Van Persie was leaving Arsenal sooner or later, and more than confirmed when Wenger bought in both Giroud and Podolski. 

Still, it is a shock that he has left to join Manchester United.

It is in stark contrast to some of his ex-team mates, that he refused to move to Manchester City. However it is small consolation for Arsenal fans. I cannot help but feel this is a strange move on part of Van Persie. 
Yes, there have been no trophies, and yes the last couple of seasons losing 2 very important players had been a massive morale hit, but still it feels more like a sideward step. 

Wenger had this to say regarding the transfer "To strengthen an enemy is the other negative point of this loss," Wenger told TF1.

"We wanted to avoid it but we couldn't. Honestly, I'd rather sell him abroad, to Paris Saint-Germain for example.

"Manchester United know him and know his qualities. He's really an exceptional player, believe me."

I think even if we lost out on around £5 million pounds of the transfer, he should have pushed through the deal with a team abroad. One of the main gripes I have with Arsenal's transfers is that they do tend to sell quite a few players to league rivals, when other options might have been viable. Of course it could be that the player themselves might not have been interested in a move abroad.

Looking at the positives however, the reported £24million is an excellent price to get for a 29 year old that has a long history of injury problems. And with Podolski and Giroud, along with Santi Cazorla pulling the strings from behind (as was witnessed in the 4-0 hammering of FC Cologne), I think Arsenal fans have a lot to looking forward to. We need to build on the 3rd place of last season and really push the sails out.

Cazorla comes to the Emirates!

Wow, wow, wowwwwwww!

What an incredible signing, this has changed the whole mood of Arsenal fans and make everyone quickly forget all about the RVP fiasco.

For those of you who do not know much about Santi, he is a very versatile attacking midfielder who is ambidextrous with both feet. He is also a Spain international usually used as a central attacking midfielder, and thats no mean feat when considering who he has to jostle with for the positions (Xavi, Iniesta, Silva anyone?).

He has great control (as you would expect from a Spanish international), great vision and one hell of a long shot. He is also a free kick specialist. He's also a very experienced Champions League player, having played in the competition for many years with Villareal.

Having brought in 2 strikers, including the highly impressive Podolski (who also, lets face it, Arsenal needed, as he will simply attempt to blast the ball at every opportunity, as opposed to walk the ball in), having a creative midfielder like Santi will be sure to supply that needle eye accurate passes.

Now we will see if RVP changes his mind and decides to stay, but with the striking signings and Arsenal having already made a statement that they can live without him, it has now become less important whether Robin stays or not.

Here comes another great season and a rollercoaster ride that is being an Arsenal fan. 

Van Persie contract run down?

Well it really shouldn't come as a shock that our captain Van Persie has dodged any talk of signing a contract extension. As much as it is disappointing, I think its more a case of we are lucky to still have him this season and that he didn't hand in a transfer request after seeing all the key players leaving. Despite all thats been going on and the pressure on him, he has handled it incredibly well.

I think it may be a blessing in disguise, that he holds out until next summer and sees what signings will be made, thats presuming that we qualify for the Champions League. Because lets face it, its going to the most difficult season in recent years. Hopefully if all goes well for Arsenal, position wise, Wenger will be forced to bring in established world class players. Im sure that will give confidence to RVP to stay with us.

Of course due to Arsenal's tendency to keep quiet regarding what goes on in the background, its hard to know, but I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that the board is the one that is reluctant more than Wenger to spend big, something that was somewhat confirmed by Ivan Gazidis coming out and saying that they will stick to bringing in more youth rather than buying established stars. Which sounds to me that they tend to pressure this style of business on Wenger and is a blatant disregard of the fans' pleas to get a world class player in.

Losing RVP next season will be disastrous and Arsenal should do their all to keep hold of him. From what I know, he gets paid in the region of £85,500-£90,000 a week, which in football terms nowadays (thank you wage-and-transfer-inflating-buying-club(s), yes I'm looking at you in the north west...), however ridiculous it sounds, is not exactly a lot for a player of his quality, especially when Man City are more than happy to double that amount or more.

Lets hope that RVP will pressure the Arsenal board to showing the same commitment that he has shown to the club both on and off the pitch.

Arsenal 3-0 Bolton

Great result today, and once again our captain Van Persie came up with the goods. I just hope we managed to keep hold of him. He has been exemplary in his conduct by not wanting to leave Arsenal and is really showing good leadership capabilities.

There were some nervy moments, especially when Bolton were on the counterattack, but more than anything we had the clinical finishing to complement the possession and domination that sometimes we lack to kill off games. Still some questions on the occasional defensive lapses. But we can at least enjoy the win today!

Ivan Gazidis confirms no change in policy

Ivan Gazidis a few days ago came out to say that no change will happen in their 'youth-first' policy, which is a little worrying. Couple that with Wenger stating about how he knows better due to his experience in management for '30 years'' which is also a concern that shows he is not showing flexibility in his approach and not really learnt from his recent mistakes.

Both Fàbregas and Nasri wanted to see a world class player come to the Emirates during the summer transfer. You cannot get more blatant than when Fàbregas tweeted how much he admires Agüero out of the blue, to which also Agüero responded thanks and gave equal compliments to Cesc.

It was not to be and there was no signs that any world class players would be coming, and as a player, you would be disillusioned that your manager has made no progress in this sense and only young players were bought.

Other clubs are buying left, right and centre and unfortunately, you do have to spend to keep up. Arsenal have done admirably well but they need to see that in the current climate, they need to spend, they need to offer the wages that is in demand.

I really appreciate what Wenger has done so far, and his idea of not rocking the boat by having one player on stupid amounts of money, as there is a danger of a 'domino-effect' with other players wanting more too, but sadly that is football nowadays.

Now the problem is Arsenal are struggling to attract big names due to their difficulties. How is it that we did not get Juan Mata or Eden Hazard when they themselves WANTED to come to the Emirates.