Arsene Wenger: 800 games & moulding the English game.

800 and not out.

Arsene Wenger celebrates his 800th game in charge of Arsenal on Saturday as we welcome Birmingham to the Emirates, a record only beaten by Alex Ferguson at Man Utd.

Wenger first graced us with his presence sporting his massively over sized glasses on October 12th 1996 away to Blackburn. Two Ian Wright goals gave us the points that day and under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal FC went on to enjoy many fine years of success.

In Arsene Wenger's first full season in charge we collected the Premier League and FA Cup to complete the double.

Wenger's record in all competitions reads as P799 W465 D185 L149 that's a win % of 58% which is not bad at all and Arsenal fans have enjoyed watching the men in red scoring an impressive 1474 times, that's an average of 1.84 goals a game.

OK, that's the stats out of the way, if you want to find out more detailed stuff you will find it spread across hundreds of sites on the Internet, I'm gong to concentrate on Wenger the man rather than his stats.

Arsene Wenger in my opinion has not only changed the way Arsenal play but has changed the face of English football. When Arsene arrived from Japan, not a single person came out in the press to sing his praises, there wasn't even anyone to slag him off and tell us how he's nowhere near the man we needed for the job, in fact no one had heard of him - Oh how the world changes.

Arsene Wenger was the first manager to implement behaviours at a club that effected the players life off the pitch. He introduced new training regimes, he introduced new diets for his players, he stopped his players partying, drinking and behaving like..... well...... John Terry or Wayne Rooney.He even starting making players stay in a hotel the night before HOME games, this was the norm for most away games but to do it before home games was just pointless madness. Slowly but surely other clubs began to see the benefits of Wenger's crazy foreigners techniques and began to follow his methods. Before too long, other club's higher powers starting looking abroad for new managers in hope that Arsene Wenger's success could be replicated. If you look around premiership clubs today, they all follow Arsenal's model, they all put their players on a special diet, they give them fitness and weight goals during pre season, tried to stop the partying  and yes, even started booking hotels for home games.

Arsene Wenger's shaping of the English league still hasn't stopped. He started concentrating on youth systems, I'm not saying he started youth academies but he did change the way the players were brought through. He was among the first to start looking abroad for talent which is now the standard, he was the first to play his youth stars in the league cup which he was absolutely slated for and now even clubs who's season objective is to avoid relegation in the Premier League play at least their reserves if not their youth team and now most recently Arsene Wenger and Arsenal are role models for every other club in regards to our financial structure, the perfect example being the new Liverpool owners asking for a tour of the Emirates and details of our financial structure before they bid for the Mersyside club.

Like it or not Arsene Wenger is not only the most successful manager in Arsenal's history but is the sole reason the Premier League is the league it is today. He has lost many 'fans' in recent years but Arsenal cannot wish for a better manager to lead us through future years and I for one still sing from the roof tops IN ARSENE I TRUST.

Goonerfish.

Sagna out & Emirates talk about screwing Arsenal over.

Evening Gooners,

Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday, I ran a half marathon in the morning and had exactly no energy left at so couldn't turn my laptop on let alone type anything.

Anywho, feel a little more human today so browsed through the blogs and Arsenal news and surprise, surprise, what's the first thing I come across, a bloody injury. Sagna has declared himself out of action for 3 weeks and as part of that missed France's game in the week. Eboue should be the one to step straight in and will certainly be looking forward to a run in the team and hopefully Birmingham could be a great game to come in to. It will suit Eboue to come back into the team in a home game against a team like Birmingham who will defend their hearts out giving our whole team plenty of chance to push forward and attack from all angles. I hope Eboue enjoys his run in the team but also hope Sagna gets back quickly, he has been one of our most consistent players and consistency is the main aspect we as a team miss from our game.

In other news, the head of corporate communications at Emirates, the very humorously named Boutros Boutros has given an interview to 'SportsPro' said that they are ripping us off with our shirt sponsorship deal. Ok, admittedly he didn't Phrase it exactly like that but as I read

"The shirt, yes, it’s worth more. But it’s like when you buy a house: you pay a heavy mortgage the first two or three years, then the value of the house starts going up and that’s where your value starts coming back."

I imagined him saying these things whilst stroking an overly grown goatee and chuckling to himself between sentences. Our current deal is only worth about £5.5million a year which is now peanuts
compared with the deals companies have with Man Utd, Chelsea and even the spuds who earn considerably more. (I don't know exact figures for the other teams so won't mis-lead you with finger in the air amounts) It's worth pointing out it was a UK record deal when we signed it but surely someone has to be forward thinking enough to know the deal would lose value and demanded a shorter term or set review periods. Either way we are currently being screwed and still have a couple of years left in the same deal.
If you want to read the quotes for yourself you can find parts of the interview here.

The other main talking points today are our little Jack Wilshere declaring he believes we're still in the title race........Good!! I'd never expect one of our players to ever say anything else, especially in October. The other is Nasri telling the world how he wants a central role. As pointed out by several other people including Arsene Wenger himself we have a wealth of players who want to play in that role and more importantly who are able to play in that role but a certain Cesc Fabregas will keep them from playing there simply because as skilled as our players are, they are not as good as Cesc.

I want to finish today by congratulating Benik Afobe. Our 17 year old striker bagged himself a hat-trick for England U-19 level against Cyprus. Even more proof that our youth system is producing some of the best talent this country will see over the next ten years.

Till next time Gooners,
Goonerfish.

Club Vs Country

A simple question forms the base of today's blog: Club or Country?

I remember years ago that England games formed just as big a part of my life as Arsenal games. I would look forward to them and get involved in game build up etc but now I see international games as a game that interrupts proper football and would be pretty happy if they didn't happen at all.

I was asking myself when did this happen? When did I stop caring about the 3 lions? When did Arsenal become my nationality? Is it the same for all Gooners?

I've mentally broken it down and I think I stopped caring about internationals a couple of years after Wenger took over and I think the only reason I got involved before then was because England consisted of players such as Seaman, Adams, Dixon, Winterburn, Bould, Parlour and Ian Wright. So then I asked myself have I ever really supported England or just the Arsenal players playing for England? It is certain that my only interest in Tuesday's game is Jack Wilshere and  my interest in the World Cup dropped massively as soon as Walcott got dropped.

Is it my detest for players like John Terry and Wayne Rooney as people that drive me away from my national team? I spend every other week cheering when players from Chelsea, Utd, Liverpool or City fluff their lines, make a mistake and drop points that I find it difficult to change my attitude for just a few games a year. I will punch the air in delight when John Terry gets sent off, Lampard or Gerrard miss a penalty or Rooney misses the open goal from 4 yards and I have to admit I will enjoy those moments whether the player wears their club shirt or the 3 lions of England.

If you're not sure whether you are more loyal to club or country then ask yourself this question, would you have preferred Arsenal win the Premiership last year or England win the world Cup? You said Premiership didn't you?! Me too. Now ask if you would prefer the FA Cup or the World Cup? FA Cup? yep, me too. Now the real test World Cup or Carling Cup?

Considering that most fans would now choose club over country the question has to be raised, where do the players loyalties lie? But that's a whole new blog.

For now I'll wait for the international break to end, hope that no Arsenal players get themselves injured, and look forward to proper football starting again next weekend. Maybe one day I'll start to care about the England team again but probably not until Arsenal's young stars come through in a few years time and we again fill half of the England team.

Where do you stand? Simple question, club or country?

Till next time,
Goonerfish.

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The Injury Lottery.

Here we go Gooners,

The international injury lottery starts tonight as Rosicky takes on Scotland, Arshavin takes on Ireland, Eboue takes on the force that is Burundi and Jack Wilshere will take a staring role in England U21's game against Romania before he joins the big boys in the full squad. Jack's double dipping is great for him but not great for Arsenal. Wilshere has appeared in every game so far this year and although he's nice and young it has to catch up with him at some point and it'll be Arsenal FC that suffers when he does. Sagna, Nasri, Diaby and Clichy will line up France and Chamakh faces Tanzania in tomorrows game and then all except Chamakh and Eboue have another game to look forward to in midweek so plenty of opportunity for someone to get injured, putting them out for the infamous 4-6 weeks that seems to be tagged to almost every injury we get.

All that being said this week will provide a nice break for some of our players like Fabregas, Bendnter, Vermealen, etc who will all be enjoying a weekend off to relax before returning next week to finish getting fit for the Birmingham game. I said yesterday how I was looking forward to the other side of this and I think this will be the strongest we have come out of an international break for a long time. I look forward to our spine returning.

I don't think that Van Persie will be back in time for Birmingham however Bendtner has declared himself fit and with a week for our medical staff to access him we should see him at least on the bench for the visit of Brum. Our mighty Dane will be really important over the next few weeks while RVP is getting fit. He will not however return in his best form, he hasn't played at all this year and it will take time for him to settle back into the game, hopefully not too much time though. That also goes for our other players returning. Players take time to get back to their best but our boys will need to do it quickly as after the international break we only have two games before we travel to Man City.

I am off now to cross my fingers and toes, pray to any Gods that'll listen and sacrifice a couple of goats to ensure all our players get through the week injury free

Until tomorrow,
Goonerfish

Injury free Internationals & Super Rob returns.

International week how we love you.

This close to the weekend I am feeling an empty painful void as Premier league footie takes a break and our stars go away with their countries into a lottery of which one of our stars will snap a leg.

International week is an event I have grown to dread. We always seem to be 2 or 3 players short at the end of it and more often than not players that are starting to hit form i.e. Walcott.

However, a ray of light is starting to shine through the clouds as this time all our players are already injured. Walcott, Fabregas, Vermaelen and Van Persie will not take any part in this weeks Euro 2012 qualifiers, in fact, this time I'm looking forward to the other side of the internationals as two, possibly three of those names will be back in action when the real stuff returns. We could host Birmingham with almost a fully fit squad and I can't remember the last time that happened.

In other news, Bobby Pires has returned to the Arsenal training ground. He was released from Spanish club Villarreal in the summer. He's 36 now so I don't think we'll see a repeat of the Sol Campbell saga but it is nice to see Pires at the Colney again and his stories of success will only help our youngsters. Fans and pundits for a long time have said that no one in the Arsenal squad know how to win things, Bobby did and his experiences will be a huge benefit to everyone at the club. It's another smart move from Wenger and the former invincible can only increase the hunger in our young stars.

Another former invincible has been in the news today too. Patrick Vieira has come out and said that Arsenal Old boys Man City will not be able to win the league this year, however believes we can. It has also been suggested that he could retire at the end of this season. If he does it will be a sad day but Gooners will always remember that his best playing days were in our glorious red and wish him well.

Last thing today was actually brought up on Arsenal.com. Squillaci had the privilege of being our Captain at Stamford Bridge at the weekend in only his sixth appearance. This could possibly be a record for our club (excluding our first ever captain, obviously). Do you know of a player to captain us sooner? comment below and/or on Arsenal's website and share the knowledge. I actually think it's a shame if it is a record as our first four choices for captain were all injured but hey ho, a record's a record. Well done Squillaci.

Till tomorrow Gooners,
Goonerfish.

Wenger's Chelsea summary & transfer rumours already.

Evening Gooners, two areas to cover today,

Firstly the official stuff. Arsenal send out official communication from time to time including Arsene Wenger's weekly view of the world. I was interested to see how he would approach the Chelsea result after publicly being very honest about our performance against West Brom. He must have been knocked for 6 by it as he started with

"I think we demonstrated on Saturday that you can play well and lose the match"

I'm pretty sure we played Sunday but the point was valid. He went on to say

"The Chelsea game should have been over within a minute - we had the first two chances and we missed that header from six yards"

"we missed too many chances at that level and in the final third you need to be more clinical offensively and defensively. We had a great team performance and great energy. But we have to be more clinical to win titles - we can't lose a game like that"

I was surprised to read that last statement. Wenger has always been very protective of his squad and that sounded very negative. Could Wenger finally be losing patience with his players? I have a feeling that he is using the pressure from fans  and the board to bring home trophies to put a bit more pressure on the players to deliver. If this is the case we will finally see how mentally strong our guys are and it may be the extra push everyone needs to bring some success back to our great club.

Arsene did then sound a bit more familiar with

"I was not angry with my team. I felt sorry for them because they had an outstanding attitude and an outstanding display"

He also payed tribute to Jack Wilshere and Abou Diaby and rightly so, both players were superb.

Now for part two. We are exactly 88 days away from the start of the transfer window and already we are being linked with a number of players.

Mark Schwarzer has again come out seemingly determined to force a move in January. I;m sorry but I said this in the summer and I'll say it again now, Schwarzer is not better than the keepers we already have in our squad. I would honestly be surprised if we brought in a keeper in January, as long as we don't have a string of howlers from both Almunia and Fabianski then Wenger will stick with what we have.

A new pair of players linked with us are the Lukaku brothers. Romelu and Jordan both play for Anderlecht  with Romelu Lukaku being the latest teenager to be called one of the most exciting youngsters in European football. Now I can't comment either way on the ability of these guys but surely, October 5th is too early to be considering such things. Arsene Wenger rarely lets his targets become common knowledge (Arshavin and Nasri excluded) so I can only assume this is a move by the brother's agent or Anderlecht themselves to remind other clubs that they have competition for the players so better prepare bigger bids.

I'm still hurting from the weekend so will leave it there today, but would like to add one more thing. To
all those fans who have reappeared calling for Arsene Wenger to be sacked, ask yourself two questions. Why would you sack the most successful manager in our history? and Who would you replace him with? No other manager will get more from these players, or understand what this clubs needs, so with due respect, sit down and shut up!!!!

Until tomorrow,
Goonerfish.

I don't care if it's Chelsea, it's just 1 game.

I am still getting over my disappointment of Sunday, but only the result, not the performance.

We arrived at Stamford Bridge without Vermaelen, Fabregas, Walcott or Van Persie and despite the result, our team gave the better performance. We outplayed Chelsea throughout and we created chances and openings at a fairly regular interval but our downfall was that we failed to take any. Don't get me wrong, Chelsea defended very, very well but if we had that striker with the killer instinct of a Wright or Alan 'Smudge' Smith we probably would've at least scored. Chamakh seemed a little off but that is probably because of the amount of games he has had to play recently in a league he is still adapting to, Bendtner is almost ready now so he should help share the burden of replacing Robin Van Persie.

Chelsea won the game simply because they were more efficient with the possession they had. This is something that I feel comes with the experience of winning. We are not used to winning, we are used to playing very well and falling just short, we need trophies in our cabinet and the experience that comes with it. It is likely that victories in the league cup and FA Cup will come before the big trophies but in all honesty, I would be happy with one of those while finishing in the top 3 again this year. All we need is one trophy to get our players used to that taste of victory and more will follow.

Sorry, got off track there, back to the game. We have to look at this in as positive light as we can, as I see it, to truly complete you need to aim to win your home games against the big teams and avoid defeat away. A draw would have been a good result yesterday and the majority of Gooners would have been happy with that so we have lost only 1 point against that target. We drew at Sunderland whereas last year we lost there, 1 point gained. Get my point? It doesn't matter who we were playing it is only 1 game. I know that some may see it as an optimistic view but hey ho, I'm Goonerfish and that is how I roll, if you don't like it bugger off and be a miserable Scouser.

In my eyes, most of our players came out of yesterday's game in a good light, Fabianski was solid, Clichy is starting to get back to the player we know, Sagna put in a very under-rated performance, Diaby was like a new player, Wilshere continued to be the growing phenomenon that he is and Nasri gets better every game and has starting adapting his pre-season form in the central position to his more regular position of a wide attacker. As I said, Chamakh was below par, both centre backs struggled at times and Song wasn't...... um,...... singing.

Our players have an international break now to avoid getting injured and then come back motivated and ready to take on Birmingham where maybe, just maybe we should start seeing some players return.

Chins up Gooners,
Goonerfish.