We've been crying out for it since before the start of the season. After knowing we needed at least one more central defender and Arsenal doing nothing to address it in the summer transfer window, all hopes were pinned on us making a signing in January. Knowing how this club has operated in the past, there was a large part of me that wasn't sure we would even do that.
Then, lo and behold, stories started to emerge about Arsenal looking to sign Gabriel Paulista, a Brazilian center back for Villarreal. Again, the cynical side of me thought it sounded almost too good to be true; surely, we would somehow mess this up and if we did bring in anybody, undoubtedly at the last possible minute of transfer deadline day, they would be an equivalent of the Kim Källström signing last January (already injured, slightly washed up, etc...).
As it stands though, we are on the verge of completing his signing now that he has been granted a work permit. All that remains is for Gabriel to pass a physical, which reportedly took place earlier this afternoon, and Arsenal should be announcing the deal soon. Although I still wish we could have identified a target sooner than this, I am extremely pleased with the job the club has done in making this signing.
This is actually an extraordinary signing, compared to most of our transfer business over the past decade or so. That we were able to identify a target and successfully complete the signing with time left to spare in the transfer window is much different than how many of our previous deals have worked. I also like the fact that Gabriel is just on the cusp of entering his prime (much like Danny Welbeck) and is not simply coming here to be a backup. Our first choice defensive pairing is still Mertesacker and Koscielny, but we were going to have to address the need for more center backs at some point as they are 30 and 29 years old, respectively.
Gabriel's signing has also drawn a lot of comparisons to that of Koscielny, for several reasons. In the small amount of video I've seen of him, all from admittedly dodgy YouTube compilations, his playing style has looked extremely similar to the Frenchman's. At 24 years old, Gabriel is also the same age Koscielny was when he joined us from Lorient and was pretty much equally as unheralded and unknown. Those in the know have given him very good reviews, though, and he has been a part of a very airtight defense in La Liga with Villarreal this year. So hats off to the Arsenal for making a very important signing in a time of need, which is not easy for any club to do. Well, except for those clubs for which money isn't an object, but for any real football club, it is.
It's also amazing that we were able to get around the work permit issue, which has been a major hurdle for us in the past. One such player who experienced those issues, Joel Campbell, will actually be heading the other way in exchange for Gabriel on loan for the rest of the season. Whether or not that spells the end for his time at Arsenal remains to be seen, but it certainly does look that way. I'm just glad the club gave him a chance to see what he could do in our team, albeit a very limited one. I've seen Campbell play a few times for Costa Rica and I saw the game he scored in against Manchester United in the Champions League last year, there was just little-to-no room to see him getting into the team ahead of the players we already have. But after the long, drawn out chase for his signature, only for his work permit to get rejected and having to send him on loan after loan after loan, at least we tried to see if it could work out or not. I wish him all the best at Villarreal and the Spanish league will likely end up suiting his style a lot better than England.
This past week really couldn't have gone any better. Our trip to Manchester City resulted in a famous victory for the Gunners, possibly a paradigm-shifting one, and everybody in the media had to talk about how great we were for days on end. Then, this FA Cup round saw Man U forced into a replay by the lowest-ranked team left in the tournament, Chelsea lost 4-2 after being up 2-0 at home against Bradford, Spurs gave up two goals at the death to lose 2-1 and Man City lost 2-0 to second division Middlesbrough. We followed that with a 3-2 win over Brighton, which sees us move on to the 5th round of the FA Cup and gives us our fourth win in a row, which is the first time we've done that all season. In the next round, we face a home match against the Middlesbrough team that knocked City out.
Plus, Theo and Özil scored their first goals after their injury spells and Tomas Rosicky turned in a masterful performance, notching a goal and an assist. So all in all, things are looking up in a major way for us. The challenge will be to build off of this positivity and try to make this season a real success.
Showing posts with label Laurent Koscielny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laurent Koscielny. Show all posts
September 1, 2014
Two Dropped Points - Deadline Day 2014
Yesterday, Arsenal quite disappointingly dropped points away at newly-promoted Leicester, only managing a 1-1 draw. Alexis opened the scoring in the first half only for Arsenal to concede the tying goal less than three minutes later. Leicester's Leonardo Ulloa headed his goal in over Laurent Koscielny, who earlier in the game had been down for several minutes after a clash of heads left him requiring stitches. The length of time he was down, combined with the fact that he was knocked directly in the head, would've been a good time to follow proper concussion protocol and sub him off. Instead, Kos had his head patched up and he was sent back on the field.
That decision cost us dearly in two ways. First and foremost, soccer has a real problem with following safety standards regarding player head injuries. For player safety, anyone who may have suffered a concussion needs to be substituted to prevent further damage from a repeat blow to the head and it really doesn't get any simpler than that. Secondly, that the goal was headed in directly over him leaves us wondering whether his timing, positioning or awareness were impaired in that moment. Also maybe being slightly reluctant to stick his head in again just moments after clashing heads on a 50-50 ball, or even whether it was even safe for him to head away a whipped-in cross after likely being concussed, for that matter. Any way you slice it, that was a key moment that cost us the three points, in my opinion.
Arsenal took lots and lots of shots, but many of them were blocked by Leicester's well-organized defense or were just unable to find the target. In the second half, Ulloa missed a chance with a wide open goal that should've sent us to defeat and other than a few counter attacks, Arsenal were unable to find a winning goal.
Yaya Sanogo started up top in place of Giroud, who is now out of action until January. Sanogo is the closest replacement we have for Giroud in terms of size, strength and style of play but yesterday showed exactly why we're going to need an upgrade in that position while we're without Giroud. Sanogo is still just too raw at this point to be an effective player for us. His first touch was off all game long and it looks like he knows what to do when the ball comes to him, it's just that his lanky legs can't quite execute it as of yet. Even his involvement in "setting up" the Alexis goal was really just him bumbling the bouncing ball and it kind of falling off of him into the Chilean's path.
It was also slightly worrying that Mesut Özil hasn't had a strong game since his return to action. At this point, it looks like it has less to do with match fitness and more to do with the fact that nothing he tries is really coming off for him. Many of his passes were intercepted, a lot of dribbles led to nowhere or to him losing the ball altogether and more than once he passed up the opportunity to go for goal himself only for it amount to nothing. In watching him, the quality and the class is still there, again it just comes down to the execution at this point.
At the end of the day, a draw on the road early in the season isn't the end of the world. At least we stay unbeaten and unfortunately, a draw was the fair result on the day.
As I'm writing this, the transfer window is drawing to a close and so does any chance we have to address the remaining holes in our squad (as well as the newly-formed ones). It goes without saying that simply buying available players is not always the best strategy, but it's time for Arsenal to follow up on the good transfer business done early in the window and bring in the required players on deadline day. While that's easier said than done, our depth has already been stretched thin barely weeks into the season. If we're serious about challenging for the Premier League title, we need to fully flesh out the rest of our squad.
That decision cost us dearly in two ways. First and foremost, soccer has a real problem with following safety standards regarding player head injuries. For player safety, anyone who may have suffered a concussion needs to be substituted to prevent further damage from a repeat blow to the head and it really doesn't get any simpler than that. Secondly, that the goal was headed in directly over him leaves us wondering whether his timing, positioning or awareness were impaired in that moment. Also maybe being slightly reluctant to stick his head in again just moments after clashing heads on a 50-50 ball, or even whether it was even safe for him to head away a whipped-in cross after likely being concussed, for that matter. Any way you slice it, that was a key moment that cost us the three points, in my opinion.
Arsenal took lots and lots of shots, but many of them were blocked by Leicester's well-organized defense or were just unable to find the target. In the second half, Ulloa missed a chance with a wide open goal that should've sent us to defeat and other than a few counter attacks, Arsenal were unable to find a winning goal.
Yaya Sanogo started up top in place of Giroud, who is now out of action until January. Sanogo is the closest replacement we have for Giroud in terms of size, strength and style of play but yesterday showed exactly why we're going to need an upgrade in that position while we're without Giroud. Sanogo is still just too raw at this point to be an effective player for us. His first touch was off all game long and it looks like he knows what to do when the ball comes to him, it's just that his lanky legs can't quite execute it as of yet. Even his involvement in "setting up" the Alexis goal was really just him bumbling the bouncing ball and it kind of falling off of him into the Chilean's path.
It was also slightly worrying that Mesut Özil hasn't had a strong game since his return to action. At this point, it looks like it has less to do with match fitness and more to do with the fact that nothing he tries is really coming off for him. Many of his passes were intercepted, a lot of dribbles led to nowhere or to him losing the ball altogether and more than once he passed up the opportunity to go for goal himself only for it amount to nothing. In watching him, the quality and the class is still there, again it just comes down to the execution at this point.
At the end of the day, a draw on the road early in the season isn't the end of the world. At least we stay unbeaten and unfortunately, a draw was the fair result on the day.
As I'm writing this, the transfer window is drawing to a close and so does any chance we have to address the remaining holes in our squad (as well as the newly-formed ones). It goes without saying that simply buying available players is not always the best strategy, but it's time for Arsenal to follow up on the good transfer business done early in the window and bring in the required players on deadline day. While that's easier said than done, our depth has already been stretched thin barely weeks into the season. If we're serious about challenging for the Premier League title, we need to fully flesh out the rest of our squad.
August 18, 2014
Three Points From Three - Besiktas Preview
So since we last spoke, Arsenal won the Community Shield quite convincingly, then opened the Premiership campaign with a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace at the Emirates. Tomorrow, we travel to Turkey to face Besiktas in the Champions League qualification round first leg. Busy times all around but so far, so good.
I didn't get to watch the Palace game live, but I did watch it on DVR. Understandably, we looked a little sluggish & disjointed, likely due to the number of members of our squad who participated in the World Cup. That, plus Crystal Palace's blockade-style setup, made for a mostly frustrating match for the Gunners, except for our ability to get two goals just in the nick of time.
After Hangeland's opener from a corner kick for Palace gave them a 1-0 lead, Arsenal returned the favor through Laurent Koscielny in first half stoppage time. Then in the second half, Welsh Jesus scored off a rebound in stoppage time again to steal the three points for us, really. While it was disconcerting to see us concede another set piece goal, it was encouraging that we did what we had to do to get a win in the end, whether we played well or not. Cliche or not, it's more important to get wins at this stage until we work our way into form with each coming match. After Besiktas, it's Everton at Goodison Park, so we have to get better in a real hurry.
I think it's going to take us some time to regain the fluidity in our performances with our German contingent of Ozil, Mertesacker and Podolski yet to return to the lineup. Plus, our new signings are being thrown right into the starting lineup, which isn't a surprise for Alexis and Debuchy, but it still means they are getting used to playing with a whole new squad and a mostly new style of play. Another very encouraging sign is that 19-year old Calum Chambers looks the most settled and composed of the new field players we've signed (Ospina is still recovering from injury as Szczesny's backup in goal).
Even with that, I think we're still a signing or two away from fully fleshing out our squad with the obvious need for another center back and maybe even another body for the midfield. At this stage, we're probably looking at another deadline day deal if that is going to happen, but we will still be acclimating another new player into the system after the games have well and truly gotten going.
So right now, all that really matters are the results. Besiktas features a couple of familiar faces in ex-Chelsea and Newcastle striker Demba Ba, as well as former Arsenal youngster Oguzhan Ozyakup. We already face a bit of a fitness shortage at defense with Kieran Gibbs out for three weeks and Koscielny a doubt to start the match, but what else is new? Last year, we beat Fenerbahce 3-0 in the first leg so while I'm hopeful for more of the same, just to keep a clean sheet and nick a goal or two would set us up well enough for the return leg in London.
That's it for now though, until later.
I didn't get to watch the Palace game live, but I did watch it on DVR. Understandably, we looked a little sluggish & disjointed, likely due to the number of members of our squad who participated in the World Cup. That, plus Crystal Palace's blockade-style setup, made for a mostly frustrating match for the Gunners, except for our ability to get two goals just in the nick of time.
After Hangeland's opener from a corner kick for Palace gave them a 1-0 lead, Arsenal returned the favor through Laurent Koscielny in first half stoppage time. Then in the second half, Welsh Jesus scored off a rebound in stoppage time again to steal the three points for us, really. While it was disconcerting to see us concede another set piece goal, it was encouraging that we did what we had to do to get a win in the end, whether we played well or not. Cliche or not, it's more important to get wins at this stage until we work our way into form with each coming match. After Besiktas, it's Everton at Goodison Park, so we have to get better in a real hurry.
I think it's going to take us some time to regain the fluidity in our performances with our German contingent of Ozil, Mertesacker and Podolski yet to return to the lineup. Plus, our new signings are being thrown right into the starting lineup, which isn't a surprise for Alexis and Debuchy, but it still means they are getting used to playing with a whole new squad and a mostly new style of play. Another very encouraging sign is that 19-year old Calum Chambers looks the most settled and composed of the new field players we've signed (Ospina is still recovering from injury as Szczesny's backup in goal).
Even with that, I think we're still a signing or two away from fully fleshing out our squad with the obvious need for another center back and maybe even another body for the midfield. At this stage, we're probably looking at another deadline day deal if that is going to happen, but we will still be acclimating another new player into the system after the games have well and truly gotten going.
So right now, all that really matters are the results. Besiktas features a couple of familiar faces in ex-Chelsea and Newcastle striker Demba Ba, as well as former Arsenal youngster Oguzhan Ozyakup. We already face a bit of a fitness shortage at defense with Kieran Gibbs out for three weeks and Koscielny a doubt to start the match, but what else is new? Last year, we beat Fenerbahce 3-0 in the first leg so while I'm hopeful for more of the same, just to keep a clean sheet and nick a goal or two would set us up well enough for the return leg in London.
That's it for now though, until later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)