Arsenal End Of Season Review

Pepe LeFrits

Adebayor gets an extra game added to his suspension too. The FA really are a bunch of ****s.

Crossing firmly into the realm of fantasy football here, but I'd love to see Wenger go with a 4-3-3 at home against the park-the-bus teams next season - personally I reckon several of the players at the club at the moment would be much better suited to it. It'd look like Lehmann?/Almunia, Clichy/Traore, Toure/Senderos, Gallas/Djourou, Eboue/Hoyte, Gilberto/Denilson, Fabregas/Diaby, Rosicky/Hleb, Henry/Walcott, Adebayor/Bendtner, Van Persie/Vela. Never going to happen though, but it's an interesting idea all the same.

Here's hoping Henry can come back injury free and rejuvenated next season, 'cos he'd be the difference between a title challenge and not.

PHB

They're 5 points clear of 5th with 2 games in hand. It shoudn't be too much of an ask for them to finish 4th. I'm sure the aim is to finish 3rd anyway.

It'll be without Henry now though. It should be interesting to see how it goes, especially after the complete collapse in all three cups over the past month.

Adebyour is out for 4 games now.
Whos up front now? Van Persie gone.
4 games ahead of Arsenal with who
Baptista and Aliadiere?
Doesn't exactly breed confidence

Toure is out for 3 games, who has been a rock in defence.
Nothing is guaranteed yet.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

PHB wrote:

It'll be without Henry now though. It should be interesting to see how it goes, especially after the complete collapse in all three cups over the past month.

Adebyour is out for 4 games now.
Whos up front now? Van Persie gone.
4 games ahead of Arsenal with who
Baptista and Aliadiere?
Doesn't exactly breed confidence

Toure is out for 3 games, who has been a rock in defence.
Nothing is guaranteed yet.

Well i believe they've already been out for two games so its only one more for toure and two for adebayor

Galvasean

To be honest the injuries/suspensions to Arsenal's strikers doesn't seem such a huge loss. Having Aliadiere, Baptista and Wallcott (and Adebayor back soon) to choose from, although not the optimum situation they can make a strike force nearly as good as their closest rivals (Liverpool).

jesus_thats_gre

Arsenal have a number of issues that once addressed will result them being in a very strong position for a number of seasons to come..

1) They are too good at keeping possession. They can comfortably keep hold of the ball for 20 mins and do **** all with it. The underlying ability that they have if positive of course.

2) They do not have anyone on the bench that can come on an change things. Peter Crouch is not exactly the best example in the world but you get my point. All their players are in the same mould and a substituion just means more of the same thing.

3) Not enough experience. Only time can solve this one.


Regarding the argument. Arsenal are spending plenty of money. They are spending up to 10 million on 17 or 18 year old strikers for the future whereas other clubs are spending less than that on mature first team strikers. Arsenal are able to do this as they are a very stable club and Wenger has been at the healm for many years. The same applies to United.

When a club is settled after 5 or so years of moulding a first team, the manager can spend money on talent for the future while also making 2/3 big money additions that add genuine quality to the first team.

As a Liverpool supporter, I envy Arsenal for being in a position like this and look forward to being in a similar position within a year or two.

I also feel that Arsenal should cash in on Henry now and get 20 or 30 million for him. If they do not, he certainly should not be their captain IMO.



Just a thought, Arsenal could do with a strong skillful player like Berbatov leading the line with Henry and Adebayor or VanPersie coming onto him as part of a 4-3-3. Something like (allowing for rumours):


Eboue----Woodgate----Gallas----Toure

---

Gilberto

---

---

Fabregas

---

Rosicky

---

--Adebayor

---

Henry--

---

Berbatov

---

I have included Woodgate as it seems to be a pretty persistant rumour. I think it may happen as I do not see Real paying the money that Arsenal want for Reyes. So Arsenal might push for a swap deal for Baptista and Woodgate for Reyes or something like that. Put Toure on the left as I thinkt it would be a shame for him to be dropped but Woodgate and Gallas would be very impressive.

Pepe LeFrits

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

I have included Woodgate as it seems to be a pretty persistant rumour. I think it may happen as I do not see Real paying the money that Arsenal want for Reyes. So Arsenal might push for a swap deal for Baptista and Woodgate for Reyes or something like that. Put Toure on the left as I thinkt it would be a shame for him to be dropped but Woodgate and Gallas would be very impressive.

Wenger doesn't seem to like 4-3-3 at all, the closest he has ever gone to using a 4-3-3 has been the 4-1-4-1 last season. I think it could be useful though. If Woodgate did arrive, I think the most likely outcome would be Gallas or Toure playing at RB instead of Eboue. Clichy's position at LB is more secure than Eboue's at RB. Clichy isn't quite as good going forward, but he's better defensively and he's a model pro, unlike Eboue.

Van Persie on the right and Henry on the left flanking a central striker like Adebayor, Bendtner or Eto'o is a nice prospect.

jesus_thats_gre

Well my thinking revolves around that fact that Henry has a habit of drifting out for the left anyway. Most goals he scores also seem to involve him coming from deep.. He is rarely leading the charge if you get me. IIRC, Van Persie seems to like drifting out to the right too?

I would doubt Gallas would be too happy with being played out of position again too.

cson

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Put Toure on the left as I thinkt it would be a shame for him to be dropped but Woodgate and Gallas would be very impressive.

It would be a shame to say the least!

IMO you are way wide of the mark with the Woodgate-Gallas CB combo. Jonathon Woodgate is a talented player, he's playing well this season, however remember that in buying him you take on a huge injury liability.

Toure-Gallas have the potential to become one of Europes most feared CB partnerships.

Aside from all this, I think Kolo has been Arsenals best player this season, he has a real drive and determination for the club, you can see he cares. He is also one of the most talented and strong CBs in world football.

Entertaining thoughts of dropping Kolo? He should be given the captaincy.

jesus_thats_gre

I really rate him as a player myself but if I am not mistaken he is still very young. He has also made quite a few mistake this season also? I am not nessecarily advocating that he be dropped, I just think that a Arsenal should have 3 really good centre backs that can be changed depending on the opposition. Anything that would relegate Senderos to 4th or even 5th choice.

You will note that Liverpool will regulalrly swap Agger and Hypia depending on the opposition. Not that Liverpool are the definitive solution for everything

cson

Nope, kolo is one of the 'elder' statesmen at arsenal at 26 years old. As far as mistakes are concerned, only one sticks in my mind > At West Ham away Bobby Zamora I think turned him and scored.

Senderos is a disaster, an up and coming Pascal Cygan if ever there was one.

Roddy23

He didn't cover himself in glory away to Sheffield Utd earlier in the season either. But I would agree that Toure is a legend, that header he scored against Blackburn, that showed his true determination to win a ball he had no right to win.

Pepe LeFrits

Arsenal face a battle to keep Denilson, with Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona keeping tabs on the Brazilian midfielder. (Daily Mirror)

lol, it begins already.

Mossy Monk

that gospel of truth the Daily Mirror

The Muppet

SofaKing wrote:

BBC says Henry is out for the season !

I believe Henry will be sold in the summer. There appears to be cracks in his relationship with Wenger and the timing of this announcment with Arsenals season effectively over will only add to the speculation the Henry wants to move on. After all he only stayed after being given assurances about the arrival of quality players which just has not happened. That and his ommission from the squad/team while fit this season indicates that things are not right behind the scenes.

Roddy23

That and his ommission from the squad/team while fit this season indicates that things are not right behind the scenes.

But thats the thing Muppet, he hasn't been fit. He himself has admitted as much. I think if we can get Thierry back fit, and raring to go by August all the doom and gloom will have lifted, and all talk of him leaving will be knocked on the head.

Mossy Monk

http://www.fansfc.com/frontpage/frontpagenews.asp?newsid=164030 they say Wenger is to make a bid for Woodgate

this site is great for Arsenal news in case some of ye haven't seen it

Roddy23

this site is great for Arsenal news in case some of ye haven't seen it

It's the same as newsnow.co.uk except arsenal has been entered in.

WhiteWashMan

Henry hasnt been rested for about 2 years, so its no surprised that he wasnt fit and fresh at the start of the season and that all the little niggling injuries have caught up with him.

and i would expect him to move on. which i think is a shame, becuase i think the EPL is a much better place with players of his calibre there.

and as far as im aware, woodgate is staying at middlesboro, declining a bid from newcastle. which is a bit strange, but hey, maybe he has no ambition?

Pepe LeFrits

For a while there I was in the Henry-will-leave boat too but having thought about it some more, I don't think he will.

It's true that there are a LOT of parallels between Henry's situation now and Vieira's 18+ months ago, spookily so infact, but I just think that letting Henry go at this stage would be too damaging to the team at a critical stage.

Perhaps in the summer of 2008 the team will be at a stage where it will be able to absorb the loss of Henry without there being too much of an impact, but as it stands at the moment, he is too important a symbol to let go and that's not taking his contributions on the pitch into account.

Letting Vieira go turned out to be a a good move for the long-term benefit of the club, but in the short-term it was nearly a crippling blow. While letting Henry go this summer could have a similar effect long-term, it could very likely have a similar effect short-term. It'd also likely lead to extending the 'transition period' which is something that Wenger needs to avoid.

cson

I think letting Vieira go when he did was a huge mistake. Vieira was a presence, a wealth of experience and while he had started to go a bit flat I think Arsenal would have been better off keeping him (Im pretty sure he feels the same with the mess his careers been in Italy)

What the team lacks is experience, if you think about it we've lost Pires, Campbell, Lauren, Vieira, Bergkamp, Cole over the last couple of years and while the current crop are immensely talented, If Arsenal had kept the likes of Vieira and moulded Fabregas and Co. into the team there would have been a much shorter "transitional period" If not none at all.

The club should also hang on to Gilberto. Theres been noises of Juve wanting him, it'd be insane to let him go. Good midfielder and the potential to move to CB in his later years if needed.

Pepe LeFrits

Diaby has received a call-up to the French national squad, which I find pretty amusing considering Raymond Domenech has never been to England to watch any French player play. He's such a spa, glad Wenger is giving it to him in the press.

cson

Here we are again. Although this time around the season lasted 6 weeks longer. Progress