From an Arsenal fansite perspective. For me Given could win a lot of points for us this year:
http://www.arsenalnewsreview.co.uk/inde ... eturnid=42
Right now, the biggest difference between Arsenal and Manchester City isn't the Arab millions of Abu Dhabi.
It certainly isn't the very long history of failure by Man City teams compared to the vast history of success by Arsenal teams.
It isn't that Adebayor and Kolo now play for them.
It isn’t even that Arsenal have, crucially, changed their tactics, although I'll come to that in a moment.
For me the biggest difference between the two teams is the goalkeepers.
Shay Given is one of the world’s best.
He really is.
Shay Given has 98 caps for the Republic of Ireland.
Almunia is uncapped and will always be uncapped.
The fact that Man City have Shay Given and Arsenal have Almunia gives me some reason to doubt whether Arsenal can finish above Man City this season. I’ll need to see the first ten games. So far we’ve only seen three. If City win on Saturday, they will be six points ahead of Arsenal after four games.
Shay Given has 98 caps for the Republic of Ireland.
Almunia is uncapped and will always be uncapped.
The last time Arsenal won anything, in 2005, they had Germany’s Jens Lehmann in goal. He made the difference in the FA Cup Final in 2005, when Manchester United should have won but Arsenal stole it in a penalty shoot-out. To this day Wayne Rooney doesn't know how he lost that final.
We read today that all the Arsenal junior teams are now playing 4-3-3 and learning it in training. It’s a radical change by a boss who is a strategic thinker and always has been.
Previously, much of Arsenal's best play was on the counter-attack.That is where you them have the ball, bring all eleven players back to defend a corner, then create an explosive raid from deep in your own half by using three or four passes played by sprinters.
If you have Overmars, Anelka, Bergkamp and Henry, you can play that way. If Petit, Vieira and Parlour can win it high up the pitch, you can press as well as counter-attack from deep. Later, when Fabregas released Adebayor, Arsenal could score a goal, if he didn’t miss, which he mostly did.
But if your only greyhounds are Clichy and Theo Walcott, and the latter is always injured, you need another method.
Pressing suits young legs. 4-4-1-1 was all about playing 5-a-side football with 11 players, about exploding forward with slick, fast passes, about having a very strong left flank where players interchange and penetrate as Ashley Cole, Pires and Henry did for so long, about creating one-on-one chances against the keeper. Pires and Ljungberg scored a helluva lot of goals like that.
The new 4-3-3 pressing system makes the most of Denilson and Song, two of Wenger’s favourite protégés.
Arsenal were able to destroy Everton and dismantle Portsmouth.They won 6-1 and 4-1. The system wobbled against Celtic when Arsenal were 2-0 up from the first leg, but Eduardo’s dive won a controversial penalty and Arsenal cantered home after that to win 5-1 on aggregate.
Pressing is what coaches call "defending from the front" and what I call "attacking when you don't have the ball."
That system wasn't possible when the lazy Adebayor wouldn’t chase defenders, so you couldn't play 4-3-3 with him last season. He had doubled his wages and retired and everybody hated him. Including those who, like me, detested him the season before.
Now Ade has been sold, a huge experiment has started. Arsenal can play most of the game 60 yards from Almunia, so he will not have a lot to do. That's the theory. Well, part of the theory. You’re saying : go on, kick it long then, Gallas will race you for it, Clichy will race you for it.
We have yet to see what role Samir Nasri will play in this system. I hope Nasri plays a big role, starts 50 games, and scores 10 goals.
Man City are good when they counter-attack with pace. When the sky blues fly forward at high speed, they are exciting to watch. Yes, Tevez and Robinho are injured, but they still have Craig Bellamy, Adebayor and SWP, plus the fleet-footed Stephen Ireland, a touch player with a Formula 1 engine. Can Arsenal stifle those breaks at source? Can they smother them and shut down Ireland? Can Arsenal’s speedy, agile defenders outrun City’s attackers and win every long pass?
Gareth Barry was England’s best player against Slovenia but not so prominent when they smashed Croatia 5-1.
Perhaps surprisingly, Kolo Toure is now Man City’s captain.
Russia beat Wales 3-1 in Cardiff, where Arshavin played 90 and aggravated a groin injury that has put him out for the next three games.
Bellamy said: "Arshavin was exceptional for their first, he produced a great run, great touch, great pass and created an outstanding goal. He leads a very good team who can punish you, I have watched them a lot on TV and they are one of the best teams around."
Arshavin might be back before the Fulham game because he’s not a baby. He’s a man. When he played against Blackburn in March, and got a gash his foot, he took off his boot at half-time, tipped out the blood, and told the doctor, “Do whatever you have to do to get me out there in the second half.”
The doc inserted 8 stitches and Arshavin went out and scored an excellent goal in 65 and Arsenal won 4-0.
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