Posts Tagged ‘arsenal’

Jonathan Wilson published an editorial during the 2013 African Cup of Nations in late January. The short piece highlighted the difference in Gervinho’s demeanour when playing for Arsenal and when playing for la Cote D’Ivoire.

Wilson concluded that Gervinho’s delicate mindset dramatically affects his form. Cote d’Ivoire deal with his shortcomings by sheltering him, but he’s often left stranded in front of Arsenal’s fickle 60 000 on Saturday afternoons.

Arsene Wenger commented on Gervinho’s psychological fragility in a recent post-match press conference:

“I believe that sometimes Gervinho has lost confidence because he played in a very negative atmosphere during a period. Strikers need confidence, and [with] his game, even more.”

So why is it that Gervinho is so diametrically different in Abidjan than at Ashburton Grove? A few factors come into play…

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Are Arsenal keen on Sunzu’s services?

by Maher Mezahi & Salim Masoud Said

In modern football, it’s seldom that a precocious Sub-Saharan talent stays in Africa for too long before he’s lured by the lucrative pastures of Europe. But 23-year-old Zambian Stoppila Sunzu is one of the growing exceptions to the rule. The reportedly Arsenal-bound centre-back and defensive midfielder plays for TP Mazembe, a Congolese continental behemoth with  a proud history and bountiful resources thanks to the financial backing and vision of wealthy businessman Moise Katumbi.

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Despite their worst league start in 58 years, Arsenal’s fate this season still lies in their own hands. With 2 games remaining, 2 wins will seal 3rd spot and guarantee them a place in next season’s Champions League. In spite of this impressive turnaround, there are undoubtedly still issues at the club. Having already conceded more goals in the Premier League than ever before, defensive problems remain unsolved and an over reliance on star man Robin van Persie at the top end of the pitch has been highlighted during his recent dry run.  With the transfer window nearing, now seems as good a time as any to assess some of the issues at Arsenal and give an SFG rundown on how one of their supposed top targets, Jan Vertonghen, could go a long way towards solving them.

Balance at the back

For a while now it’s seemed that there’s an imbalance in the Arsenal defence, but due to the lack of fitness of the 4 preferred starters (which we’ll take to be Gibbs-Vermaelen-Koscielny-Sagna) it’s been difficult to examine. This fitness problem is certainly an issue in its own right – the defensive records of Liverpool and Newcastle early on this season being testament to the value of consistency at the back. Whilst this year has seen a long term injury to Sagna, there’s no suggestion of him suffering recurring problems, however, his left sided counterpart, Kieran Gibbs, has a worryingly extensive injury record for someone of his age. Vermaelen may not be nearing Gibbs’ level of fitness trouble yet, but the past 2 years haven’t been especially promising for him either.

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After Wigan’s shock defeats of Manchester United and Arsenal in the space of a week, this week’s Sandals For Goalpost’s Player of the Week award has to go to Wigan and Nigeria’s Victor Moses. Against the current champions, Moses’ swagger and explosive power on the ball troubled Phil Jones throughout as well as the rest of the backline as Wigan broke on the counter when he moved centrally. With Jones lacking the defensive solidity of Rafael da Silva, you could have said that it was Moses’ lucky day, but he was to round of an impressive week against Arsenal at The Emirates. Charged with the task of getting the better of Bacary Sagna, the best right-back in the Premiership, particularly defensively, the muscle-bound left winger-cum-attacking midfielder delivered an unstoppable performance. Despite showing some of the weaknesses of his game, such as his frustrating selfishness, Moses gave Sagna a torrid time as he regularly left him for dead with a combination of his streetwise skill and raw power and pace on the ball.

Last term, I wrote what was quite possibly the worst essay I had ever written. Needless to say, I was dreading the day that the essay was marked and handed back to me; that day was last Tuesday. I got 84%. Feel free to congratulate me in the comments section! Anyway, while footballing fans got their first fix of African Nations football last night, I’m here with my first blog. Master of Arts, I ain’t, so please consider my contributions a work in progress and hopefully in time, they’ll actually keep you awake for more than 2 minutes. Don’t forget to like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

Five months in, we’re roughly half-way through the 2011/12 Premier League season, so it would seem that now is as good a time as any to look at how the second-half of the campaign may pan out for some of the teams. Here I take a look at who, in my opinion, is better equiped to take the crown, which teams will be contending for Europe come May and who will have to look forward to away trips to Vicarage Road and Fratton Park respectively next season (pending both Watford and Portsmouth retain Championship status, of course). So far, the season has been one of the most entertaining and closely contested in recent memory with freak results and the return of footballing legends.

Do the champions have what it takes to retain the trophy?

Champagne bottles and avoiding Channel 5
As expected, Man City are right up there and, at the time of this post, currently top the table by 3 points. Yet again, they invested heavily in the summer and blockbuster signing Sergio Aguero has done well to blend into the team so quickly; however there are still reservations over Samir Nasri’s performances which can, arguably, be attributed to a lack of game time. City are hardly playing fantastic football as of late, but with the talent they have in their ranks, it’s difficult to see them dropping points on a regular basis. They have yet to play Tottenham, Chelsea and United at home and considering their form at the Etihad Stadium over the past year or so, they can be seen as winnable games. If City have any sort of weakness it’s at the back, where after Kompany, Toure and Lescott they don’t have quality cover in the centre of defense. Savic may prove to be a good buy in the long-term but he has looked out of sorts in the games he has played so far. Further defensive reinforcements in this month’s transfer window would not come as a surprise. Having said that, whether or not City decide to spend in January, this season looks to be a two-horse race between the blue half of Manchester and….

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