Bleacher Report - Articles by Stefan Vasilev

Time To Look Ahead: Arsenal's Youngsters May Provide Needed Moral Boost

Stefan Vasilev — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:11:25 -0500

Flowers do not seem to be blossoming for the Gunners at present times. Two losses in a row in the Premier League—one against a supposedly inferior team. Understandably, the spirits of the team have been lowered. Nobody wanted to record a defeat, especially two, that’s for sure.

But all is not lost. While Arsenal is currently trailing 11 points from the leaders Chelsea, there is still hope as a significant part of Chelsea’s team is to leave for the Africa Cup of Nations in January. Same goes for a lot of other teams.

Nevertheless, the source of hope and uplift may come from the most unexpected places. The youngsters at Arsenal, ironically, can be the ones to provide the team with a significant moral boost.

Players like Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere, Sanchez Watt, Armand Traore, Fran Merida, Jack Wilshere, and Vito Mannone are more motivated than ever to prove themselves.

The injury epidemic at Arsenal brings them one step closer to their dreamed first-team participation.

And what better motivation than seeing what you want just in front of you, only an arm’s reach away; and the only thing you have to do is just reach and grab it.

Just recently, after the match against Chelsea, Wenger announced that the youngsters will get their chance to prove themselves.

On Wednesday, Arsenal is playing Manchester City in the Carling Cup. A good performance by any of the aforementioned players can put pressure on the first-team starters to perform better.

Eduardo is one of those players; undoubtedly, he feels Carlos Vela breathing down his neck. This may prove beneficial to him. Even if it does not work, it is a good chance for Vela to apply for a regular first-team place, in case he provides several good performances, of course—a chance he will definitely have in the coming weeks before Nicklas Bendtner returns from injury.

Similar is the situation on the left-back position. Personally, I was tad surprised to see Kieran Gibbs being chosen over Armand Traore during the last year. I have always considered Traore to be the more progressed player. But this still is beneficial for the team. Competition will always raise the bar for its participants.

With Clichy out for another two weeks, and Gibbs out for a significantly longer period of time, it is a golden opportunity for Armand Traore—an opportunity which he surely has waited for a long time.

Another positive sign can be found even in the much tormented and problematic front-line of Arsenal.

The absence of Van Persie is certainly a big blow for the Gunners, and Eduardo’s current form does not help as well. But here’s where two relatively new faces will see their chances.

Carlos Vela has been talked about a lot, ever since the time he spent loan spells at Salamanca and Osasuna, where he gained invaluable experience and was often involved with the first team. Now, he is prepared for Premier League football. His fitness is top notch, and he is more eager than ever to prove himself.

Recently, he stated at the Arsenal web site :

"I really want to improve on last season," he said. "I want to score more goals than last season and play more and the main aim for the team is to win something."

After an injury-stricken beginning of the season, the hunger for improvement for Carlos Vela is there. There is only one way for him: up. And what better than that for the team.

Another new face that may become involved in Arsenal’s attack, and most likely will be seen in the game against Manchester City, is Sanchez Watt.

I have always been an admirer of the youngster’s skills. Skills he demonstrated during the team’s preseason preparation. He is tall, technically apt, and reads the game very well.

He recently signed a new contract with Arsenal, which proves that he has what it takes to remain at the club.

"This is a contract that gives me more time to prove myself and hopefully I will," he said.

"I want to get a few first-team chances, even just getting in the squad because you know you're improving if you're getting on the bench because there are a lot of players in the team.”

He is still quite young and is ever-improving, but if he is able to grasp his chance against Manchester City, he can be a contender for a first-team spot, or he can provide some pressure on the first-team starters, and maybe push them to improve their form.

Vito Mannone is a young player who has already proved himself to a degree. Now that he has tasted first-team football, the motivation to come back will be even stronger. He is a more than decent goal keeper who could become the next big thing, but at the moment, his drive to get into the first team can be beneficial for the first team.

Even in an injury-stricken squad like the current one of Arsenal, the youngster can provide Wenger with a headache or two. But that is only if they perform well.

They will have their chances, as Wenger said. It’s up to them.

And at times like this, their determination to prove themselves is exactly what the team needs. Ironically, the source of problems that the age has caused for Arsenal can be the source of hope and inspiration as well.

Good luck, young Gunners.

Arsenal: Maturity and Team Spirit Can Overcome November Injury Problems

Stefan Vasilev — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:20:09 -0500

Same old, same old.

Come November and Arsenal is once again tormented by injuries. With 10 players currently sidelined, it looks like the hard preseason program Wenger introduced at the beginning of the season has not worked to full effect.

The absence of important players such as Robin van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson, Theo Walcott, Carlos Vela, Gael Clichy, and several others are surely giving bad headaches to Mr. Wenger.

To top it, Emmanuel Adebayor’s departure in the summer, and the failure to secure a replacement in Bordeaux’ Maruan Chamakh, leaves Wenger with even less choices up front, at least in the coming week or two.

The problem might materialize in the match against current league leaders Chelsea on Nov. 29, where a good result will be very important. It is a hard match for any team and missing some important key players before such fixture is not what any manager would wish to himself.

However, even due to the many similarities, when problems are concerned, with previous seasons, Arsenal’s team looks a bit different as well. And it is exactly where the hope stems from.

Many of the young players have matured. The memory of the 2007/08 season, when Arsenal was able to remain at the top of the table until the very last moment but couldn’t, has surely taught them a lesson.

Denilson is a lot more stable and improved player than then. William Gallas plays better, not feeling the weight of the captain’s armband on his shoulders.

The defense looks capable of dealing with high balls, and there is a lot more chemistry between Thomas Vermaelen and William Gallas than there was between Gallas and Toure in that memorable '07/'08 season. Not to mention the nine goals that both defenders have contributed with so far.

Alex Song has emerged a valuable and absolutely adequate candidate for the very demanding, since Patrick Vieira’s departure, position of holding midfielder—a position which many thought would be best filled with spending a large sum of money. Wenger had different thoughts on his mind though.

The changes of tactics from the standard formation of 4-4-2 to a more innovative 4-3-3, as well as the employment of pressure in the oppositional territory, proved to be the right way to get results.

With the absence of a hefty number of attacking type of players though, Wenger would need to improvise to keep the team in the good form it has displayed so far.

Still, there are options—Andrei Arshavin is apt to play as a forward, Vela is coming back for the match against Wolves; Eduardo needs to improve a bit, but nobody would dare to doubt his skills; and Walcott is also set to return soon.

On top of that, and what could be considered as a big improvement from that '07/'08 season, there is the team spirit. With captain Cesc Fabregas, and his stunning array of goals and assists, team-mates would not complain about a lack of inspirational source in the team.

The form of the Arsenal captain can only inspire his teammates to follow his example and push themselves harder to reach his level of play.

Cesc Fabregas’s captaincy is certainly beneficial for the team and that is another difference and improvement from the previous seasons.

While the loss of one of Arsenal’s best players, Robin van Persie, to injury may bring down the spirit of the team a notch, its ability to deal with such situation is unquestionable. The young Gunners have gone through a lot in the recent years and they have shown that they can deal with it.

Six weeks and counting for Van Persie to return to play, and for Eduardo to return to his old deadly form, which I’m sure he will do.

Come November and December, the months in which the wheat is separated from the chaff in the Premier League; Arsenal is prepared.

Arsenal's Weak Spots: Four Things That Could Ruin Their Season

Stefan Vasilev — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:46:07 -0500

“Yes, know thyself: in great concerns or small, Be this thy care, for this, my friend, is all.”—Juvenal, Roman poet.

Juvenal is right. Knowing yourself will significantly improve your chances of success in everything you do. Knowing yourself means to know your strengths, that with which you will push for success, and to know your weaknesses, that which you have to guard and improve.

The same rule applies to football; the same applies to Arsenal.

Every team has its own strengths and weaknesses. But what are Arsenal’s? And most importantly in a time of positives what is its negatives? What to guard from? What can ruin their good form, their season; what can counter their display of strength if left untended? Let’s look into it.

Defensive Frailty

One of the most obvious weakness in Arsene Wenger’s squad, and one that could ruin yet another title challenge, is the lack of depth in defence.

Thomas Vermaelen was bought in the summer transfer window, but Kolo Toure was allowed to switch for greener pastures, Manchester City. Now, while the Vermaelen swap might have proven to be a successful move, little can be done if either one of the current first-choice centre backs gets injured or restricted from playing in one way or another.

Vermaelen and Gallas have stricken a good partnership contributing to the team with not only quality defending, but also with important goals—nine in total.

It is looking good so far, but I won’t be surprised to see Wenger sweating there on the touch line every match, hoping neither one of those rocks in defence gets injured.

The players that could serve as replacement if such case arises are Philipe Senderos and Michael Silvestre, who are not known for their stability in defending. More than once they have made crucial mistakes. It is quite obvious that they would not be able to adequately replace the two current starters.

The absence of another defender, Johan Djourou, who is going to be out for another four to six months, does not relieve the situation in any way as well.

The ice at the back certainly looks thinner than elsewhere for the time being.

Over-reliance on One Player

Arsenal has felt the effects of a similar kind of mistake, when Henry was the player who was relied on to push the team forward. The results were that the progress of certain players at the team was blocked and the momentary form of one player, Henry, corresponded to the form of the whole team.

Currently, one player stands out from all the rest with splendid performances and that is Arsenal’s captain Cesc Fabregas.

His work rate is terrific; he passes the ball perfectly, battles for the ball, and scores goals. He has contributed with the unbelievable nine goals and 10 assists in 15 appearances so far. But it would be wrong to rely solely on him to make results. Why you may ask?

Because a one dimensional team such as the one that relies on one player is easy to defeat. With the presence of Van Persie and significant others, the team currently doesn’t have problems of this kind.

Complacency

There is nothing worse than to ruin the effects of a lot of hard work by smugly giving yourself a rest at vital time of the season or the game. Trophies and victories do not go to the most talented team. In most cases, it is the harder-working team that gets all the points and trophies.

Complacency when the work is not done is typical when a certain lack of maturity is present. Arsenal has experienced its share of complacent displays in the recent years. With such a youthful squad, it did not come as a genuine surprise to many.

At present time, a lot of the Arsenal youthful players have gained the invaluable experience, and beneficial suffering, which in a way decreases the possibility of complacency. Still, it is something that can be influenced by other factors as well—lack of adequate leadership on the field being one.

With the ever-improving Fabregas and the maturing young players, Arsenal is going on the right track, but matches like the one against West-Ham still remind for the complacency-ridden years in the past.

Goal Keeper

The goal keeper position is one of the most important ones in a football team.

The team relies on the performance of one man in their quest for results. If the goal keeper is not playing well, the whole hard work of the other members of the team could go to down the drain in just seconds.

Since David Seaman, Arsenal has always had problems at this position.

Lehmann, his replacement, was good, but he couldn’t offer the stability and mental tranquillity to his team-mates because he was simply unpredictable.

Similar is the situation with Manuel Almunia. He has very good shot-stopping skills and can be a world-class keeper. But here is where the problem emerges: He can be adequate for the position in one match, and then he can make mistakes that prove crucial for the result in another.

He is inconsistent.

Almunia’s backup players are Lukasz Fabianski, Vito Mannone, and Wojceich Szczesny. They are young keepers who are patiently waiting for their chance to shine.

Fabianski has shown that he can be a stable keeper, but also that he is quite injury prone. Injuries have restricted his development, but still he will get his chance.

Mannone performed quite well for the several matches he played in the absence of Manuel Almunia due to injury. He made some great quality saves, hinting for his world-class potential as a goal keeper. But he will need time. As will Szczesny. So, the goal keeping problem still remains an issue for Wenger.

If Wenger’s project is close to completion, the goal keeper will be one of his finishing touches. The January transfer window could strengthen this weak spot for the Gunners. It remains to be seen if Arsene Wenger will think it necessary to do something about it.

UEFA's Newly Considered Regulations in Favor of Arsenal's Policy

Stefan Vasilev — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:26:44 -0400

Arsenal’s ruling body and manager received a huge boost for their confidence after the announcement of the UEFA administration that they will work towards accepting new regulations which would restrict the financial freedom of some clubs. By introducing the Financial Fair Play concept, they are hoping to retain the integrity of football.

Among the points being put into consideration were that clubs would be forbidden to repeatedly spend more than their income; a limit would be put on the players’ wages and on transfer fees as well; also the clubs would be expected to fulfill their commitments, whatever they might be, on a timely basis.

UEFA’s new theoretical, for now, regulations would attempt to curb the financial chaos that some clubs are creating by spending a lot more than their income. These are clubs usually owned by very rich people who ignore the actual turnover of the club and take all financial issues in their own capable hands.

Clubs like Manchester City, Real Madrid, Chelsea, and others would have to adapt and are expected to strongly feel the ramifications of this rule.

Arsenal, however, has already embarked on the road of a financially self-sustaining club and it is certainly in a significantly more favorable position than most of its rivals.

Speaking on the Arsenal website , Arsene Wenger shared his thoughts on UEFA’s intentions:

“We can be only stronger, because at the moment we fight with teams who do not respect that [Financial Fair Play],” said Wenger.

“I do not know how much time it will take to get that rule in place, but we will adapt.

“Whether the rule changes or not, it does not influence the way we behave.
It can only influence the way some other clubs behave, who do not live completely within these rules.

“But I believe we will dominate even without a change of rules.”

It is certainly a welcome decision by the Arsenal manager and board. But to really be able to comprehend how teams would be affected by such decision by UEFA, we will need numbers.

How much have the clubs really spend? Is it that much?

In the past years, here’s how much the major players have spent in the transfer market:

Chelsea, under their billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, has spent around £600 million since he took over in 2003. Real Madrid has spent an even more staggering £673 million since 2003.

The two titans rocking the financial world of football are followed by the new member in the club of billionaire-owned football clubs, Manchester City, with the sum of around £185 million (£120 million spending during this year’s summer transfer window and around £65 million more from the previous years).

If you compare that with Arsenal’s measly £60 million since 2004—a sum which still remains unreachable for the majority of clubs out there—you would begin to understand why UEFA is attempting to take such measures.

Since the invasion of billionaire owners began, the world of football has been split into two. On the one side, there are the supporters of—let’s call it—the-brutal-law-of-nature financial policy in which the small one is eaten by the big one; policy signified by the big spending of the clubs, with the help of their billionaires’ unending resources.

On the other side, there are people like Pele and the current UEFA president Michele Platini, who believe that football is much more than a business and have more than once come out with their annoyance and disapproval for the unreasonably big spending of some clubs.

Pele once said for the L'Osservatore Romano , “All I know is that it is not fair or democratic,”

"It is the big one eating the small one. Maybe it is normal, but it is dangerous for football.”

It makes you stop and think, doesn’t it? Where is the whole thing going with this transfer-fee funfair going out of control? To top it, the inflation of money amongst economic crisis certainly doesn’t help those numbers too.

So, in the end, someone has decided to act. UEFA is considering the new rules, and they have made the first steps in keeping the integrity of football in tact.

For some it may be a step backwards, but for others, this could mean the beginning of a long process of reincarnation of football in its purest form.

One thing that cannot be denied is that UEFA’s drive to make the football clubs financially self-sustaining would improve the financial health of football. Eyes can be turned away from foreign desirable players and turned towards the clubs’ own youth divisions.

The rule could help the development of more players from the youth ranks. What better than seeing more world-class players emerging on the field, and not only a handful of great players?

One thing is certain: A change like that can bring the end of the billionaires’ reign in football, and the clubs that have not been bought by ones would benefit the most.

Arsenal: Can Manchester City Result Provide the Wake-Up Call?

Stefan Vasilev — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:40:52 -0400

Just when you thought Arsenal are on their way to materialize their dream, they are thumped hard on their bottom once again. In a closer encounter than the result suggests, Arsenal lost their second match of this season’s campaign.

Goals were scored by Micah Richards, Craig Bellamy, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Shaun Wright-Phillips for Manchester City, putting the match beyond doubt. A mild consolation was provided for the Gunners, in the form of two goals, by Robin Van Persie and the returning Tomas Rosicky.

Despite the surprisingly positive start of the season, this match further fuelled the doubt s that there are problems yet to be solved in Wenger’s side. What was even more worrying on the day was that the Arsenal manager allowed himself to be tactically outplayed by his counterpart.

His recently discovered 4-3-3 formation seemed worryingly ineffective. While, the reasons for that cannot be fully credited to the fine work of the opposition. It was more than obvious that Arsene would look for domination on the wings, placing the tall and imposing players, Nicklas Bendtner and Abou Diaby, there.

They are not known for their speed, and that was Wenger’s first mistake. Micah Richards outplayed the slower Diaby and neutralized him. On the left side, the Danish striker was also struggling to create chances for his team. Eduardo was left on the bench, when it was obvious that a faster player would do a lot more damage on the wings. Wenger did not see that soon enough.

Another mistake Wenger made, was when he decided to use the team’s most creative player on the right side of the midfield. Why was that needed?

Cesc Fabregas, provided with the right helping hand, can dictate the tempo of the game from midfield. So why place him on the right side and, subsequently, isolate him from the game?

He had a lot less to do there. Alex Song was preoccupied by giving a helping hand to the defence, and Denilson barely had what can be called a decent game.

The midfield looked unimaginative and dull.

Something that could not be said when Andrey Arshavin was playing. Fabregas has the quality to change that, but on that day his strength was not used by Wenger. And that was mistake number two by Wenger.

Now, while a result of 4-1 might indicate a dominating game for the winning side, it was far from that. The two sides were not that far away from each other in terms of quality.

The difference lay in defence.

The recently criticized side of Mark Hughes for their lack of defensive resources may have proved their critics wrong. The partnership at the back between ex-Gunner Kolo Toure and recent purchase Joleon Lescott looked as stable as a rock. They easily neutralized all attacks from the air. On the other side of the field, their colleagues dressed in red and white looked shakier than ever.

The impression of Thomas Vemaelen and William Gallas collaborating well, that they managed to create so far, was stripped of its substantiality after this game. They were too far apart from each other, could not communicate well, and allowed the oppositional attacking players to out jump them far too many times.

As if to not stay behind the lone man restricted by the two posts, Almunia, also had a terrible game. He could have saved half of the four goals that he conceded. The first one would not have even gone in, if it was not for diving Almunia’s back to bounce the rebounded off the post ball inside the net.

But it’s easy to be critical of the goal keeper when the defence has not been playing well. Almunia will share the responsibly of this loss with the rest of the team.

One thing was made certain: Arsenal still have a lot more work to do to materialize their dream. It’s far too early in the season to discount them from the title race, but conceding four goals cannot be called top quality too.

We are asking ourselves the question: what went wrong in Manchester? Is Wenger going to ask himself the same question and benefit from the answer?

Time will tell.

Manchester United or Arsenal: This Needs to Stop, People

Stefan Vasilev — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:18:43 -0400

As it is already well-known to everybody—it has been all over the media—Arsenal was defeated at Manchester United’s Old Trafford on Saturday.

A lot of controversy surrounded the game. Arsene Wenger was sent off, an Arsenal goal was disallowed, a penalty was not given, and players supposedly dove. Some said Arsenal should have won easily, while others said that it was Manchester United that should have won.

Subsequently, instead of the game being forgotten and moving on, it seems the match has sparked a war of some kind on Bleacher Report between the Manchester United fans and the Arsenal fans.

A lot of comments were written, some insulting, to both people and teams. Articles with an obvious note of mockery and barely-hidden aggression have started to appear.

Well, it’s gotten out of hand. This needs to stop.

Bleacher Report has not been created for that reason. It has not been created for people to express their hostility, but for substituting it with meaningful conversations. It also was not created created as an opportunity to mock people for their favourite team’s misfortunes.

It has never been about that, and I’m surprised to see such things now.

The specific goal of Bleacher Report—and I’m sure many of the people that have been on this site longer will agree—has never been to encourage verbal exchange of extremely low quality between users.

On the contrary, it has been created to build bridges between people and to give a chance for sports fans, like you and me, to express a valid opinion. And I cannot emphasize the word valid enough.

How can an insult, a mocking remark, or acts of aggression be a valid opinion?

Why disrespect a fellow writer and a sports fan? Why disrespect yourself? Because he or she is a fan of the team you hate? This could be a two-way street.

But when does it end? Does it end with an insult? You will feel better, maybe? I doubt it.

My fellow bleachers, please do not forget that you are here, on this site, to enjoy yourselves, to write articles, and to become better in one way or another. There are thousand of reasons for everyone to be a part of this forum, and I really doubt if the reasons for some to be here are genuinely ill-intended.

Even if you stumble upon such cases, I would ask that you, fellow writers and sports fans, ignore them.

Do not encourage such articles or comments. Do not cast fuel into the fire. Let it burn out. Do not comment on articles of such quality, and do not vote for them.

The hate can only spread, but what’s its use?

It has none, except for causing your own and everyone else’s discomfort.

Let’s stop hateful barking.

Manchester United or Arsenal? It does not matter. They will continue to play, and they will continue to show respect towards each other.

So should we.

The Greatest Comebacks in U.S. Open History

Stefan Vasilev — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:45:39 -0400

The time has come again, folks. One of the biggest four tournaments in modern tennis is about to resume on August 31st. Once again, we will cheer for our favourite tennis heroes. Once again, we will watch some out-of-this-planet tennis. Once again, we will witness the great potential of the human mind and body. Throughout the years, the US Open has been a stage on which legendary tennis players like Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Bjorn Borg, Andre Agassi, Stefan Edberg and many more have attempted to eradicate to the word impossible from the dictionary. They have been a great threat to that word, but nevertheless it still remains in the dictionary (but it has begun its transformation to its opposite—possible). Tennis is not only an ordinary game of two players, two rackets, a net, and a ball. Tennis is much more than that; it is a reflection of the human strength and the unending potential of the human body and mind— the two reasons for which we have seen countless of comebacks in tennis. The US Open has also had its fair share of great comebacks. But which ones were the greatest? Well, let’s look into it. Here are the greatest comebacks in the US Open since the day the tournament was created from its predecessor, the US National Championship, in 1968.

Begin Slideshow

Sun Tzu's Six Must-Know Rules For Every Football Manager

Stefan Vasilev — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:22:41 -0400

Sun Tzu was a Chinese military commander who is considered to have profoundly influenced the development of military strategy. His book The Art of War was a source of inspiration for many military commanders, and nowadays is a must-know for any business strategist.

But what’s that got to do with football?

Football has been used, throughout the ages (as yearly as 4000 BC) as a game to serve different pagan beliefs. It has also been used by the Romans and Chinese as a kind of military training. It was considered to be a game that keeps the body and mind fit for the time both would be put to use—war time.

If we look into the tactics used by the football managers around the world, we would notice a lot of striking similarities with Sun Tzu’s strategies for war.

Let’s not keep you waiting. I’ll let Mr. Tzu do the talking with his book The Art of War:

“You have to believe in yourself.”

It is probably the most obvious thing of all. No win would come to a team without a solid amount of self-confidence and belief in their own abilities. There are plenty of teams out there that have all that is needed to be a great team, but they are found wanting when it concerns this vital attribute.

That exact thought of Sun Tzu could easily replace the “You will never walk alone” slogan on Liverpool’s crest. They are a team that have proved more than once that Sun Tzu has the right recipe for victory.

“Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack.”

I doubt if there is a football manager in the world that does not know this rule.

If your team has a good defence, they will concede fewer goals; if your team has a good attack, they will score more goals. But it is the balance that most work to achieve. Being a good defensive team will not bring glory in modern football.

Ask the many Italian football clubs that concentrate their efforts toward a defensive style of play. Ask technically-inclined teams that have plenty of attacking power, but also have failed to meet the necessary defensive requirements.

“Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.”

The essence of football is to outplay the other team tactically. It is the path to victory in football. We have seen many times how less talented teams have taken it all and have beaten stronger teams by using the right tactics and strategy.

A football team is much like an army. The correct executions of the general’s strategy, the manager in this case, would lead to victory. The best teams know how to adapt their game to that of the opposition.

“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.”

Rule No. 1 when it comes to life, not only football. The surest way to defeat is by not knowing the opposition or yourself. The football team must know their own weaknesses and what to do to protect themselves; they must know their strengths, use them to attack, and apply them in the most appropriate way.

If a football team is weak in the air, then it is better for them to avoid crossing the ball, keeping it on the ground while attempting to close in the opposition’s wingers on defence.

If a football team lacks technical players, then they should attempt to neutralise the opposition's technical players by being more physical. We have seen this work to the advantage of weaker teams many times.

“To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting”

Only a selected few even attempt to try their hands at this. Even though a “fight” cannot be avoided in modern football due to its strict schedules, the resistance of the opposition can be broken even before the start of the particular match.

Sir Alex Ferguson may be considered to be the typical example of the application of this rule. We have seen him play mind games with other managers frequently. His attempts to disrupt the opposition has been extremely successful on multiple occasions.

“All war is deception”

This rule is embedded into most of the tactics that the football managers use on the field. The constant swapping of positions, tricks of the players, and deceptive passes are all an inseparable part of modern football.

Six quotes from Sun Tzu; six rules; and the similarities do not end here.

Football is just a reflection of life, or of what it has been before. People like Sun Tzu, who have found ways to improve different aspects of life have also improved exactly that—more than one, different, aspect of life.

Football has not been left behind.

Sun Tzu, with his book The Art of War, has given the world not only the basic strategies for successful warfare, but he has also given the modern football managers the formula for success. Sun Tzu would have been a great football manager.

Decide Already: Is Arsenal Capable of Winning the League or Not?

Stefan Vasilev — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:27:06 -0400

The Premier League has started. There were some surprising results, as well as some expected results. Interestingly enough, there was one match that contained both of those things.

Arsenal won 6-1 as guests to Everton. Now, the result might have been unexpected by some, due to summer problems that Arsenal supposedly had.

The pundits talked and wrote millions of words; they gave thousands of opinions, explained, discussed, and argued how Arsenal is about to fall apart, or how they are still found wanting. The club was labelled as the fourth-place-to-give-away team this season.

They have been considered as title rivals by very few.

Another team from the Premier League, Manchester City (which was also hugely debated throughout the summer), spent mind-blowing sums of money to buy players. In contrast, Arsenal sold two of theirs and brought only one.

For some, that signalled the capitulation of the London club; it signalled the transformation of the club from a top European football club to a mediocre one, annually fighting for a place for the European tournaments. It signalled its inability to contest with the big teams.

They were dismissed as title contenders even before the season started. But let me ask: Why?

If the answer of this question is because they will get a lot of injured players sometime along this season, then I will ask you how you know that.

A lot of people have learnt that history does not lie. Arsenal has not won anything for four years now. Wouldn’t stating that they will fail for another year be considered a safe bet?

The truth is that it is a safe bet. It is safe because it has already happened in the not-so-distant past. It is still fresh in our minds; nothing has been changed, and failure for Arsenal is expected to happen again.

But let me try to disrupt that up-to-date notion.

During the previous couple of years, Arsenal has been labelled as a young team without the needed experience to adequately compete in the tournaments.

Well, four years of drought have passed. Aren’t the players who were considered green two years ago more experienced now? Haven't footballers like Denilson, Alexandre Song, Gael Clichy, and Abou Diaby matured since then?

Logically, the answer must be yes.

So, why then are Arsenal being dismissed from the title chase when the same team, only more inexperienced, finished with 84 points two years ago? Eighty-two points is usually enough to win the title in most of the cases.

Some will say because Mathieu Flamini and Aliaksandr Hleb were on that team. But Song and Denilson have matured, and Andrey Arshavin is an adequate replacement for Hleb.

If you remember, it was the year when, just before the season, Arsenal lost their captain and legendary player Thierry Henry. What were the pundits saying then? Did they expect such a performance by the Gunners? No, they didn’t.

Pundits have argued that Arsenal do not have the needed depth to challenge for the title. While this may be true, there was another team that lacked depth and still was able to win the title: Manchester United.

Many will remember the period of the last season when Sir Alex Ferguson had to use youngsters like Jonny Evans and Rafael Da Silva, and versatile players like John O’Shea, when his first-team starters Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, and Nemanja Vidic were either injured or suspended. But still Manchester United won the title in the end.

So why is Arsenal being dismissed? That’s a team who has the same manager who took them to three Premier League titles and four FA Cups, and all that happened not so long ago.

One thing should be remembered: This is football. Sometimes it defies logic, whatever that logic it might be.

The “invincibles” were not the “invincibles” before they became such.

Who could have known that Arsenal would complete a season undefeated?

Surely, the football pundits had not expected that. But it happened.

And so, a new season of the Premier League has started. Twenty teams will battle for one title. No one should be dismissed, especially a club that has won it in the not-so-distant past.

An Open Letter to Arsenal's Critics from Arsenal's Players (satire)

Stefan Vasilev — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:43:45 -0400

Dear critics of Arsenal,

We, the Arsenal players, are writing to you to apologize for our inappropriate behaviour in our match against Everton at Goodison Park. You must know that we respect your opinions very much, and we hold your rash criticism close to our heart, just in case we need it.

Our team captain Cesc Fabregas conducted a meeting in order to reflect on our terrible performance; we asked ourselves the question you are probably asking yourselves now: Why, oh, why did we win with a five-goal margin, away from home, against a side that finished fifth last season?

After a long discussion, we were able to come up with a few explanations of our own that we would like to supply to you. We hope that by doing so, you will forgive us and understand that we have nothing against you; we love you, and we need your criticism.

Firstly, that little Samba-dancing Brazilian kid, Denilson, has never really listened to us. He is a kind of a quiet rebel. We never thought that he would act against your most respected opinions, dear critics.

By the time we saw him preparing to shoot, we understood that he will rebel again. Alas, it was too late, the ball was already in before we even attempted to stop him.

It was Fabregas’s mistake really. He should have known better than to assist that rebel.

Secondly, we forgot that we had signed that Belgian ex-captain of Ajax, Thomas Vermaelen. Thus, we also forgot to tell him that you wanted us to submit to your most-respected opinions. We should have lost, we know that, but unfortunately Vermaelen did not.

Theo Walcott was burdened with the task to tell that to the new guy, but he got injured and could not make it to the game. In Van Persie’s words, “I did not know he was there; I wanted the ball to go out, but the new guy jumped out of nowhere and scored.”

We felt so bad, to have a two goal lead away from home. We were shocked, and we would have never consciously thought that our ex-captain William Gallas would nod the ball in, behind Howard. He later explained that he was still dazed by the second goal that we had scored earlier, and because of that, was playing on automatic mode.

We are so sorry.

At halftime, we reminded ourselves that we were to start the season badly because that would make you, dear critics of Arsenal, feel good and all-powerful for identifying the quality that we possess. We love you so much.

We are very young, and we are still learning. Give us a chance to explain how it all happened and you will see that it was not really our fault.

It was that manager of ours.

He told us to constantly swap positions to confuse the opposition, and that the new formation, 4-3-3, or something, would work if we did that. Most of us are young, and we were confused, so did what we were told to do.

Leading 3-0 in the second half, we realised we had made an irreversible mistake. With great regret, we decided to see the rest of the game through, as the result was irreparable already.

We finished the match off with two goals by our captain, who by the way is leaving for Barcelona soon, and one by that injury-prone guy—Eduardo.

Once again, we are very sorry that we won by 6-1.

We did not mean to disappoint your expectations of us. We will try to make it up to you, dear critics.

Please proceed with your criticism; we will keep in touch with you.

Sincerely yours,

The Arsenal players

Arsenal-Everton: A Preview and Statistics

Stefan Vasilev — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:28:01 -0400

We have waited a long time for this. Premier League football, along with its excitement and a world of its own, resume on Saturday, after a long, long summer break of drought, to start yet another season.

Arsenal has the difficult task of meeting last season fifth-place finishers Everton. The match has a special value to it as a good start will boost the confidence of either of the teams.

Let’s look into both sides just before the sparks start flying on Saturday.

Arsenal is once again tormented by injures, but that does not quite surprise anyone. Tomas Rosicky, having sustained a hamstring injury, will be unavailable for the game. Players that will keep him company tomorrow are also Theo Walcott (back problem), Abou Diaby (groin injury), Samir Nasri (broken fibula), Johan Djourou (knee problem), and Lukasz Fabiansky (knee problem).

Although, many important players will still be missing, Arsene Wenger will count on the rest of his squad, which will include last season’s surprise package Andrey Arshavin and team captain Cesc Fabregas, to see off the first challenge of the season. They will receive the more than qualified help from Dutch forward Robin van Persie, the towering Nicklas Bendtner and Eduardo.

Fortunately for the Gunners, Everton are also experiencing problems with injured personnel.

Everton manager David Moyes will be void of the services of Spanish playmaker Mikel Arteta, who is out due to a ruptured cruciate ligament, Phil Jagieka (anterior cruciate ligament), Victor Anichebe (knee injury), Yakubu (Achilles injury), and Jo (ankle injury).

So, things look pretty even when it comes to the number of important players missing from the first team squads.

Arsene Wenger will probably use the dynamic formation 4-3-3 against the most probable and more reserved 4-5-1 by David Moyes, which could easily turn out to be something else due to the absence of key players.

Some key battles that could decide the outcome of the match may form between Bakary Sagna and Steven Pienaar, Tony Hibbert and Andrey Arshavin, Cesc Fabregas and Marouane Fellaini.

Arsene Wenger has opted not to use young starlet Jack Wilshere in an attempt to take some heat off him. Speaking for the Arsenal’s website, he said:

“Tomorrow no because he is not in the squad but during the season, yes [he will be involved],”

“On one side people say ‘you are too young, you do not have enough experience’. On the other people say ‘why do you not play people who are 17 and win the league?” said the Professor.

”We are already very young and Jack Wilshere will play a part in our season, but not the whole season. He is 17 years old."

"This is the eighth time that the sides meet in the opening day of the Premier League. The Gunners have lost only once to their counterparts on the opening day.”

Most notable goal scorers in the Arsenal side include Robin van Persie, who has netted four goals against Everton, and Eduardo who is shortly behind with two.

Everton has met Arsenal 176 times recording 54 wins, 85 defeats and 37 draws. The last win recorded by Everton on the opening day of the English Premier League was in 1970, when Everton beat Arsenal by 1-0 at Highbury.

The big question is can Everton sustain their form from last season in which they managed to record 15 clean sheets in their last 22 matches.

It remains to be seen. It has arrived, folks. The Premier League football is knocking on your door. Open it. Tomorrow it all starts again.

Arsenal is meeting Everton at Goodison Park at 17:30 UK time. The first match of this season is to be played at 12:45 between Chelsea and Hull City.

Arsenal Community Roundtable: A Discussion with Our Analysts

Stefan Vasilev — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:00:00 -0400

Welcome to the Arsenal community round-table.

We will discuss and dissect Arsenal’s problems, expectations of the new season, transfer policy, status of the current players, and much more.

First off, I would like to express my gratitude to our community’s analysts, Deepak Israni, Callum D’Souza, Tumang Bokaba, and Mohamed Eldin Masri for their willingness to participate in this round-table discussion.

They have burdened themselves with the difficult task of exploring the most pressing matters for the Gunners, just before the start of the new season.

Let’s not keep you waiting. Let the discussion initiate:

The new Premier League season is just about to begin. What are your expectations for the Gunners this year?

Deepak Israni

Well, like our captain Fabregas said in an interview, "Our goal is never the fourth spot, we want to win." I also expect nothing less than the Premier League title from the Gunners. We have a good squad, and we can definitely win.

Callum D’Souza

I am confident that this is the season the Gunners will break their trophy drought, whether it’s in the league or in a cup tournament.

I accept we have lost key players, but a big positive is the batch of players Arsene Wenger has been working with for a couple of years now: Alexandre Song, Abou Diaby, Denilson, and Johan Djourou. They all have sufficient experience under their belt.

Last season, we witnessed what the likes of Denilson and Song can do and now with a full season behind their back, they can become seniors of the team. As for Diaby, he will be a huge star if he manages to stay fit. I pray he maintains fitness throughout the season.

Tumang Bokaba

It’s easy for me to say, I expect them to win the championship. But honestly unless they beef up the squad and add more depth, we wont do any better than last season.

Barring any more injuries, and knowing how quick Arsenal tends to start the season, I expect them to do at least better last season and eventually capture at least one cup trophy.

Mohamed Eldin Masri

I believe that Arsenal should not be judged by the preseason performances—they played against much weaker sides, and also against Valencia with the reserves in the second half of the game.

If the young members of the squad learn from the mistakes they made last year, then I believe silverware will come to the Emirates Stadium at the end of the season.

Arsenal are meeting Everton, Manchester United, and Manchester City in three of the first four matches of the new season. Do you think a good start will signal a title challenge by Arsenal? Why or why not?

Deepak Israni:

Definitely! Everton, United, and City are all good teams and if Arsenal do manage to win all of those matches, it will surely instill a lot of confidence in our players. Arsenal would then be in the driving seat.

Callum D’Souza

Those encounters will reflect which way Arsenal's season will go. If they win all three, then it's clear Arsenal will be genuine title contenders. If they lose the majority, then Arsenal will be playing for the fourth spot this year.

Everton and Manchester United will be tough challenges and it's important that Arsenal do not shrink from the physical encounters of those battles. As for City, I will wait and see.

Tumang Bokaba

If they win all four, they might be unstoppable. I think the club learned their lesson from two seasons ago when they led the log for the better part of the season, only to crumble in the end.

Remember one thing: no one is giving them a chance. If we beat Everton, our tails will be raised with confidence. If we pass the Manchester United challenge, then we will be roaring. Manchester City is a touch-and-go for me, but a draw against them would be a disaster.

Mohamed Eldin Masri

Definitely, not only will you have a good start, but you'll also avoid the stronger teams and be left with the weaker teams to collect points from.

If Wenger's boys hurt both United and City in their own backyard, then all they'll need to do is deliver the final blow at the Emirates.

Let’s address the issue of signing new players. Arsene Wenger has been labelled as a bit inactive when it comes to dealings in the transfer window. Do you agree with that? Thinking realistically, which player do you want to see at the club?

Deepak Israni

Well, I sort of agree with that. After signing Thomas Vermaelen and the sales of Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor, we acquired £41 million and we still haven’t seen a bid made for a decent player. If you are counting Chamakh as a good signing, then I must say sorry, he is not that great.

I would love to see Jeremy Toulalan and Per Mertesacker joining Arsenal. A striker is not that necessary, but Alvaro Negredo, with his physical presence, would do a world of good.

Callum D’Souza

Arsene is awful in the transfer market. I admit he has brought talent to the club over the past few seasons, but Arsenal have lost so many vital players; such as Vieira, Henry, Gilberto, and Toure—they need to be replaced.

I don't think Arsene has really found the proper replacements for some of them, though he has brought in some immensely talented rough gems.

I believe Wenger has to get Marouane Chamakh; he is tall, imposing, has a great work ethic, and can finish. Brede Hangeland and Blaise Matuidi are also must buy.

The same goes for Patrick Vieira, as he should come cheap. Actually, he doesn’t have to play that much, his presence will be so vital; he can be a mentor to the likes of Denilson and Abou Diaby and can lead the team.

Tumang Bokaba

I am not crazy about his "stealth" recruiting; it inflates their prices if you try to sign a player at the last minute. My frustration stems from his silence on potential new signings, though I still understand that talking about players you are interested in might raise unwanted attention.

For me, Matuidi would be ideal and Brede Hangelland too. Otherwise, the presence of talent in the squad is solid enough.

Mohamed Eldin Masri

I'm not against selling the likes of Toure and Adebayor. I'm scared of not getting replacements.

Realistically speaking, I believe German internationals Per Mertesacker and Simon Rolfes are exactly what Arsenal need—a strong defender capable of clearing the ball who also possesses a great header, and is a brilliant defensive midfielder that could help break up the play of the opposition. On top of that he is also player who occasionally goes forward.

If Wenger isn't planning to sign any new players, I believe he should at least let Johan Djourou play as defensive midfielder, his original position.

Where do you think Arsenal’s current biggest strengths and weaknesses lay?

Deepak Israni

Arsenal’s biggest strength is going to be the attack, with Arshavin, Van Persie, and Eduardo, we have a lot of quality in attack.

The biggest weakness of Arsenal has to be its players being injury prone—we seem to lose players to injuries in important junctures of the season. If we keep everyone fit, we have a chance of winning.

Callum D’Souza

There biggest strength is their passing and pace up front. On the day when Arsenal has an injury-free team, you have the likes of Asharvin, Nasri, Rosicky, and Walcott causing problems for the opposition in the centre of the park, and upfront Van Persie, Eduardo, Vela, and Bendtner are finishing the attacks.

The weakness would have to be the defensive aspect of the midfield and the defense from set pieces.

However, I believe Song can cure the defensive problems in the midfield, and if Gallas returns to the top form he has shown last season, as well as if Vermaelen manages to adapt quickly, all will be well.

Tumang Bokaba

Our strength, I believe, is also our weakness. We attack like there's no tomorrow.

Our strength is our ability to keep the ball, make the other team chase for it, our counter-attacking is as beautiful as it is breathtaking, but in truth we can’t defend properly. If we get that right, we will be unstoppable.

Just imagine what an Arsenal vs. Barcelona game would look like!

Mohamed Eldin Masri

As usual, Arsenal's strength is in its offense, while its weakness is defense.

The defenders rely too much on the off-side trap and usually fail, Silvestre and Djourou never seem to understand each other.

Also, Silvestre is usually a left back, but Wenger keeps trying to switch the players' positions; it shouldn't be done with a 32-year-old, he's just not that fit for experiments.

According to you, which player will do great this season? Your prediction for Arsenal’s Player of the Year?

Deepak Israni

Andrey Arshavin.

Callum D’Souza

Andrey Asharvin and Jack Wilshere.

Asharvin is like a magician with the ball and we saw what he could do in only a few months of EPL football. Imagine what he can do in a full season of EPL and Champions League football.

Jack Wilshere is just an amazing talent and he needs to see first team football.

Tumang Bokaba

It is a toss-up between Van Persie, Ashavin, and Fabregas.

Mohamed Eldin Masri

I believe that would be hard to predict, you've got Fabregas and Van Persie as usual, Arshavin who is definitely the biggest nominee for the prize—judging by his recent performances, maybe Bendtner (depending on his consistency), maybe wonder-kid Wilshere.

However, in my opinion, the biggest surprises might be Rosicky and Eduardo. Both are starving for football. Rosicky might be out for five weeks now, but I believe if he finds his form, along with Eduardo, they might be the biggest surprises of the season.

Finally, there has been a lot of talk about players being allowed to leave the club for profit. Do you think Wenger is still running the club well, if not what has he been doing wrong?

Deepak Israni

Wenger is doing fine, the sales of Adebayor and Toure are highly justified. He has not, like many say, "sold the fourth position" to Manchester City.

Callum D’Souza

I still trust Wenger, but leaving the club for profit isn't the way to go. However, I trust Wenger and still remain confident in the Frenchmen.

Tumang Bokaba

What Arsene Wenger is doing now is something he has been doing for well over a decade now. The difference is that we were winning then.

Fans can be myopic sometimes, but Arsene Wenger isn’t doing anything differently now than what he has always been doing since his arrival at the club. I promise you we will win the EPL, all those sales we'll be seen a masterstroke.

Mohamed Eldin Masri

Like I said before, I don't care about the players who left. The players that aren't arriving are what really scare me. Wenger should sign a great defender and a top-class defensive midfielder, if not, then there might be a chance of Arsenal missing out on trophies yet again.

Four Things We Learned From Arsenal's Defeat at the Mestalla

Stefan Vasilev — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:01:33 -0400

“The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain”—the phrase proved to be right (well, almost, if we consider the “plain” to be the football field) last night at the friendly match between Arsenal and Valencia. The rain poured relentlessly over the heads of footballers and fans.

But we are not going to talk about the rain. We are going to talk about Arsene Wenger’s experiments, and we are going to ask ourselves this question: What did we really learn from that match?

Arsenal lost that game, their last of the preseason preparation, by the seemingly convincing score of 2-0.

Nevertheless, that is not the important part here.

It was a result in a friendly—a match that is used to test the side that you have at your disposal, and to prepare your players for the new season.

That was exactly what Wenger did. In the first half he fielded a much familiar to everyone side, although in a much unfamiliar formation.

And that is the first thing we learnt.

1) The Formation

The formation that Wenger is very likely to use this season is 4-3-3. We saw him using it in almost all the matches in the preseason so far.

One of the distinguishing marks of this formation, and it is quite interesting as well, is that Nicklas Bendtner, who is the towering striker in the Arsenal squad, will be used on the right side of the attack (he played there in every preseason friendly).

Moreover, Robin van Persie could be used in the centre, battling out his first-team spot with Eduardo. An interesting thought is what will happen if both of them are on the field; rarely have we seen it. On the left, Andrei Arshavin and Samir Nasri, when he gets well, could be used.

Furthermore, placing Van Persie on the left could release the spot in the centre for either Eduardo or Bendtner.

Another interesting distinction in that formation is the variety of the midfielder combinations that Wenger could use.

Cesc Fabregas is definitely a first-team starter, but who will partner him in the centre of the park is an entirely different issue.

Rotation among Denilson, Alex Song, Abou Diaby, Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, and Jack Wilshere could be used by the Professor, and we have seen that in some preseason games of Arsenal this year.

2) The Centre-Back Partnership

At the back, the choices are more clearly highlighted. There are four backs, among which Thomas Vermaelen and William Gallas are the clear favourites for a first-team spot.

Another thing we learnt from the game against Valencia was that Mikael Silvestre and Johan Djourou are not the best possible choice for the back two in the centre.

During the second half we saw them missing a hefty number of cutting through balls, going in exactly between them. A lot of the troubles for Arsenal originated from there.

In addition, Djourou has a slight problem with his positioning. Fortunately for him, he also possesses the pace to correct the mistakes he is making. He is stable in the air and has some pretty impressive tackling skills.

It seems like it is only a matter of time to see him improve more.

3) The Left Side

Another thing that we learnt was that Kieran Gibbs and Armand Traore, who are both left-backs, can play at the same time. How did that happen?

Traore remained on the left side of the defence, and Gibbs took the more forward position in front of him.

That small trick looks like an adequate solution to keep on using Arshavin on a more forward position in the 4-3-3 formation. It remains to be seen if the young talented left-backs can improve to challenge for even more first-team football.

4) The Goalkeeper

Finally, we learnt that Manuel Almunia will have to compete for his first-team spot with Lukasz Fabianski.

The 24-year-old keeper showed great reflexes to save a couple of solid shots toward his goal and made a terrific diving save to deny David Villa’s penalty shot.

He only let a goal near the end of the match when it was clear that he had sustained some kind of injury on his leg.

Almunia is in for a run for his spot this season.

To conclude, Arsenal’s loss against Valencia may be looked on as a negative by some, but it also can be looked on as a concluded test to determine Arsenal’s strengths and weaknesses.

Now, Arsene Wenger knows what to do, what is missing, and how to use to the maximum the available resources.

The Battle of Britain Initiates: Arsenal to Face Scottish Side Celtic

Stefan Vasilev — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:47:14 -0400

The draw for the Champions League playoff round has been made. Arsenal will face the Scottish side Celtic to decide who will proceed to the group stages of the tournament.

Earlier this season, Arsenal had the chance to test themselves against another Scottish side in the Emirates Cup; this time they are facing Rangers’ fierce rivals—Celtic, but they will be playing for much higher stakes.

The sides have never met before in an official match.

Here are some statistics for both clubs:

Celtic

Domestic achievements: 42 times winner of the Scottish Premier League, 34 times winner of the Scottish Cup, 14 times winner of the Scottish League Cup

International achievements: one time winner of the European Cup—1967

Manager: Tony Mowbray

Last season’s standings in the Scottish League: second

Last season’s top goal scorer: Scott McDonald—16 goals

Key players: Gary Caldwell, Scott Brown

Average age of the squad: 26.23 years

Arsenal

Domestic achievements: 13 times winner of the FA Premier League, 10 times winner of the FA Cup, two times winner of the League Cup, 12 times winner of the FA Community Shield.

International achievements: one time winners of European Winners’ Cup—1994, one time winners of Inner-Cities Fair Cup—1970.

Manager: Arsene Wenger

Last season’s standings in the FA Premier League: fourth

Last season’s top goal scorer: Robin van Persie—11

Key players: Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie

Average age of the squad: 22.8 years

The matches will be played on August 18, when Arsenal is travelling to Glasgow, and on August 26, the Gunners are hosting Celtic at the Emirates Stadium.

Kolo Toure: There Are No Leaders at Arsenal

Stefan Vasilev — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:27:33 -0400

A week ago, Kolo Toure decided to join the quickly progressing side of Manchester City.

Giving his reasons for leaving, he stated:

“I came to Man City because when you look at Arsenal you see all the great players have left the club and are now in the past”

“Look at what has happened there. Thierry Henry has gone, Patrick Vieira has gone, Ray Parlour has gone.”

“These were the players that brought success to Arsenal and I believed it was right at this stage of my career to also move on.”

“We lost too many leaders at Arsenal. When we were winning the league title the spirit was fantastic, we were like a band of brothers.”

One of the main reasons he pointed out for leaving Arsenal was that City were doing what Arsenal should be doing; but it’s not:

“The best teams are at the top only because they have the best players and to get those players you have to spend a lot of money,” he said.

“You can't be successful in football without money. This is the football business. City have a project to build a big team and so it is natural it is going to cost money”

But if we look into what Toure said, we will find that there is another side of the story.

Kolo Toure has been at the club for eight years. He has experienced the influence of ex-captains of Arsenal such as Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Tony Adams, William Gallas and Cesc Fabregas.

Surely, he must have solid grounds on which to compare the leadership of the different footballers.

Undoubtedly, at the moment, there is no one even close to possessing the leadership qualities of Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira; leaders like them are rare for any club.

But if we look into the current Arsenal team we will find plenty of players with adequate leadership qualities.

Tomas Rosicky, for example, has been out of the action for a year and a half, and he has returned to once again challenge his football goals.

Isn’t that the spirit of a leader—to never give up in the face of hardship?

There is another man at Arsenal that can serve as an even more adequate answer to this question—that man is Eduardo.

Few would have recovered psychologically after a career-threatening injury like his.

I will never forget the look on the players’ faces when they witnessed the consequences of Martin Taylor’s brutal tackle on the short Croatian striker.

Eduardo is back now, after more than a year out, ready to challenge again. Isn’t that another inspiration for the young Gunners?

Maybe what Toure really meant was that Arsenal lacked a leader who can motivate them on the field in difficult moments.

There is a player fits those requirements too—that player is Andrei Arshavin.

We have seen him to single-handedly turn around matches with his skill. His sheer presence is assuring to his team-mates. We have seen the positive effects of his presence in more than one match.

The same could be said about the young play-maker, and current captain of Arsenal: Cesc Fabregas.

Every year he matures more and more. He has begun his transformation as a leader, and every year he is getting even better at the job.

What about another Arsenal player—Thomas Vermaelen?

The new Arsenal signing was a captain of Ajax for the 08/09 season. He has proved that he has the leadership qualities and organisational skills needed by Arsenal.

So what did Toure really meant by saying that Arsenal had lost its leaders?

Did he mean that at Manchester City there are leaders like Henry, Vieira and Adams? (He moved there, didn’t he?)

I doubt it very much.

The real reason for his decision to leave, and it is not surprising, is money. As he clearly pointed out in his statement, the most successful teams are the teams who have the sufficient resources.

Maybe he is right about that. We see a confirmation of his statement every year.

Many players that have served a team for a long period of time, that have given a team their loyalty to a team, eventually leave to seek for greener pastures.

Thierry Henry also left; when he was at almost the same age as Toure too. He knew his career was nearing its end. He wanted to taste something different; but he never, at any time, showed disrespect towards Arsenal. For that reason, he remains in the hearts of the fans.

Kolo Toure is right about one thing.

Traditions are giving way to a more effective, but also more ruthless way: the way of monetary system.

Money rules the world—football included.

The Arsenal fans cannot be angry with their last “invincible” for stating his opinion. They should not forget that he has given eight of his best years in football at Arsenal, and is entitled to his opinion.

Although, many would not agree with his opinion, including me; I wish him good luck at his new team, and with his career.

He will be remembered as one of the “invincibles” and as an influential player who has given a lot to Arsenal.

With his departure, Arsenal enters a new period: the post-“invincibles” period. A period of new success? Only time will show.

Arsenal Snatches the Emirates Cup After Vintage Display

Stefan Vasilev — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:32:05 -0400

In front of an almost full Emirates Stadium, Arsenal and Scottish side Rangers played the last match of the Emirates Cup, to decide who the winner would be.

Despite being backed by a lively and vociferous crowd, Rangers were not able to oppose Arsenal and eventually suffered a heavy defeat: 0-3.

There was good mood on the stands as the weather was shiny and clear in contrast with Saturday’s rainy weather.

Again, Arsene Wenger went on with the experiments with the squad.

Eboue was back to his old position on the right side of the defence, Gallas and Silvestre partnered in the centre, and the left side was Clichy’s.

Eduardo was leading the attack with Wilshere on the right and Arshavin on the left.

The match started and it was not long before the first opportunity of the match arose.

Receiving a pass from Fabregas in the box, Arshavin skilfully worked the ball and returned it to Fabregas. The Spaniard, though, fell down on the ground, and out of nowhere yesterday’s man of the match, Jack Wilshere, appeared. His shot slid beneath the diving goal keeper Allan McGregor.

Two minutes after the match has started it was 1-0 Arsenal.

Stunned, the Ranger fans did not quite down though, and went on loudly supporting their team.

Nine minutes later, they received another blow.

Fran Merida produced a through pass to Eduardo, who got the ball under his control, and coolly directed it towards the right lower corner of the Ranger’s keeper. The ball bounced off the post and rolled in.

From there on it was only Arsenal until the end of the first half, with Rangers threatening only once in the 27^th minute when Silvestre intercepted a cross by Davis to send the ball a foot off Almunia’s goal.

Just before the half time whistle, the fans were reminded of a player from the past, by a player for the future.

Jack Wilshere dealt with two Ranger players before he chipped the ball exquisitely toward the goal. McGregor stretched to save his team.

It was like watching Bergkamp!

On the half time, both managers decided to bring in new faces.

Clichy and Gallas gave way for Denilson and Traore for the Gunners. Thompson, Lafferty and Beasly from the guests were replaced by McCulloch, Novo and Miller.

With a complete change in personnel at the back, and an improved motivation by Rangers, Arsenal started to experience difficulties.

First, Almunia was able to deflect a cross by Novo, but the ball fell to the feet of Steven Davis. It seemed as if he would score, but Song’s tackle parried the shot at the last moment.

A couple of more attacks passed fruitlessly for Rangers, when in the 62th minute they missed their golden chance.

On the counter attack, Davis was set free by Song’s mistimed tackle. After a spectacular save by Almunia and one more unsuccessful attempt by Ranger’s strikers, the danger was gone.

Then, Wenger made another three substitutions; young talents Watt and Ramsey came on for Arshavin and Eduardo.

But there was one man on fire on the field. Seventeen-year-old Wilshere continued to terrorize with his dribbling and passes.

With the help of his ex-reserve team-mates he scored his second of the match. Twenty minutes from time, Watt battled out for the ball, won it and passed it to Ramsey on the edge of the box.

Ramsey’s cross connected with Wilshere who sent the ball into the top right corner. 3-0 to Arsenal.

Later, Tomas Rosicky was introduced into the game, taking the captain’s brand off the replaced Cesc Fabregas.

Rangers had one more chance to score a goal, unfortunately for them, unsuccessful.

The final result was meant to be 3-0.

The two goals that Jack Wilshere scored were enough to grant his second man of the match award in two days, and to draw the attention of the England manager Fabio Capello, who was watching the game.

Arsenal continues to prepare for the start of the new season. For now, it all seems to go well for Wenger’s team.

They are meeting Valencia six days from now in their last game of their pre-season preparation.

Arsenal Overcome Atletico Madrid in a Narrow Win

Stefan Vasilev — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:27:08 -0400

Having said goodbye to the prestigious preseason tournament Audi Cup, the football fans were happy to say “hello” to another as much prestigious tournament as its counterpart: the Emirates Cup.

In this rainy Saturday, the opening day of the Cup, Arsenal took on Atletico Madrid in the second game of the tournament.

Rangers defeated Paris Saint Germain in the first game of the tournament with one goal to 0.

There was plenty of enthusiasm on the stands of the Emirates Stadium as the Arsenal fans were eager to remind themselves of the drama that is to be expected during the new season.

The match started with one minute of applause for the football legend, Sir Bobby Robson, who passed away on Friday.

The first half saw the ball being passed along mostly in the centre of the field.

Emmanuel Eboue was part of the attacking trio in the formation that Wenger had chosen to use once again: 4-3-3. He started on the right side of the attack, but eventually swapped positions with Bendtner.

In the centre was today’s captain of the Arsenal team: Robin van Persie.

He attempted a few through passes, spectacular back-heel passes, and a few extraordinary dribbles.

However, the first half finished without something really interesting developing.

The second half was a completely different picture though.

Armand Traore, returned-from-injury Tomas Rosicky, and Emmanuel Eboue were replaced by Gael Clichy, Fran Merida, and Jack Wilshere, all of whom were taking part in their first game of this year’s preseason.

It is exactly because of the latter player that the problems for Atletico’s defence significantly multiplied. The 17-year-old Wilshere, once again proved that he has what it takes to be a part of the first team.

His movement down the right flank and his cutting inside toward the centre was a constant menace to Atletico’s defence. His razor sharp passes tore the opposition into shreds, only chance lacking for his team-mates to materialize those passes.

Atletico answered by substituting one of their most threatening players, Sergio Aguero, with German Pacheco.

With 25 minutes to go, Wenger decided to bring in the heavy cavalry.

Arshavin, Fabregas, and Eduardo came on, replacing Van Persie, Ramsey, and Bendtner.

It was near the end of the match when the drama was bound to unveil.

As it started pouring over the Emirates, Atletico began to look increasingly threatening with their attacks.

First, Juardo fired a shot from 25 yards to make life miserable for Arsenal’s keeper Mannone. The ball bounced of his hands, fortunately for him, only to pass inches from his left-side post.

Two minutes later, again Juardo found Maxi Rodriges, who was unlucky to see his shot parried by Vito Mannone.

Arsenal looked like they were on their way to crumble. But were they?

As the speakers announced man of the match award to Jack Wilshere, hardly would the announcer have known that another Arsenal player will decide the match.

Fabregas crossed the ball to Arshavin, who with a volley from eight yards sent the ball underneath Sergio Asenjo and in the net. 1-0 to Arsenal.

The fans were ecstatic. The match was over for them. But they were wrong.

Atletico still had a knife up their sleeve.

Substitute German Pacheco applied for a first team spot at Atletico after coolly finishing an attack for his team, with only two minutes to go until the end of the match. 1-1.

As the supporters started leaving the stadium the unbelievable happened.

It was again the short Russian play maker, Andrey Arshavin, who took advantage of a mistake in Atletico’s defence.

He nudged the ball aside from rushing keeper Asenjo before he was able to reach it, and from, practically, a zero angle sent the ball into the net.

It was a win that took Arsenal to the top of the tournament’s table, with five points, one ahead of Rangers, who beat PSG 1-0 earlier this day.

Arsenal is meeting Rangers on Sunday to decide who will be the winner of the Emirates Cup this year.

Today's News: Breakthrough In Genetics Allows Arsenal to Taste Old Glory

Stefan Vasilev — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:20:48 -0400

Yesterday, Arsenal’s spokesman William Hill-Wood, grandson of ex-chairman Peter Hill-Wood, announced that Arsenal would be attempting to capitalise on a new breakthrough in science.

Arsenal has failed to win a single trophy for the last 20 years.

The last trophy that came to the Emirates was in 2045 when they beat Glazer-Hicks United in the FA cup (the oldest tournament in football).

The situation for Arsenal has been getting worse lately.

Some of its fans have turned against the current club’s administration, requesting the resignation of the chairman Ben Kroenke. The new technology would be welcomed as a breath of fresh air by the Arsenal board.

The board have voted and accepted a plan to apply for a spot in the government program for reproducing, and request the reproduction of some of the long-gone, past legends of the club.

They have contacted the families of the legendary footballers in question and have successfully obtained hairs, nails, or other parts of the legends’ bodies that contain the needed for the reproduction valuable DNA material.

Many are excited by the prospect of seeing again players like Thierry Henry (remember him?), Patrick Vieira (he was a captain of Arsenal for more than six years), Dennis Bergkamp (The Dutch Magician), and even the most successful manager of Arsenal—the man with a similar name, Arsene Wenger.

The Arsenal faithful have expressed their delight of the board’s plans to resolve the current difficulties.

Fan representative Bryan McDonald commented:

“We had a meeting with a member of the board in the VS (virtual space) on Tuesday.

“Talks went on for hours, eventually ending in agreement between the two sides that this is the right way to proceed.”

“A present was uploaded to the member of the board as a sign of goodwill by the fans."

It only remains to be seen if the new plan will take the club to a different path than the one it has taken now.

We will have to wait and see.

It should not be a problem since waiting is a process that the supporters of Arsenal are very much used to.

The sheer prospect of seeing Arsenal back into its glory days again justifies the waiting.

Sometimes being patient pays off.

Arsenal Pass Test Number Four As They Defeat Hanover 96

Stefan Vasilev — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:21:33 -0400

Despite the departure of one of the longest-serving Arsenal players in recent years, Kolo Toure, Arsenal was back to business for their fourth game of the pre-season against Bundesliga side Hanover 96.

The mixed emotions that have emerged out of the summer developments in the Arsenal squad were nowhere to be seen as the smiling Arsene Wenger seemed to be infected by the good atmosphere on the impressive Amd Arena.

The match started well for Arsenal.

Surprisingly, Wenger had decided to experiment with a different formation than his usual 4-4-2. This time it was to be 4-3-3, with Denilson, Fabregas, and Song playing in the centre of the park.

And the tactic gave results quite early in the game.

In the seventh minute, Bendtner lobbed the ball over a couple of Hanover midfielders to find Van Persie just outside the box.

Changing his trajectory of movement, Van Persie set himself free of his marker and with a beautiful, precise through pass found Fabregas rushing inside the box.

With a nudge of the ball, he released himself from the keeper and keeping his composure, tucked the ball in.

From there until the end of the first half there was only one team, Arsenal. Hanover remained threatening only from the scarce set pieces they managed to have.

After the 20 minutes of play, Cesc Fabregas surprisingly took on the holding-midfielder role, behind Song and Denilson.

Arshavin received a chance to double the score, but failed his example to be later followed by Bendtner.

The result remained 1-0 to Arsenal.

Armand Traore was replaced by Mikael Silvestre in the 33th minute.

The beginning of second half signalled the end of the Arsene Wenger’s experimentation period.

Aaron Ramsey, Johan Djourou, Wolceich Szczesny, and Bakary Sagna replaced Cesc Fabregas, William Gallas, Nicklas Bendtner, and Vito Mannone to form the classic and more familiar 4-4-2.

Hanover started more aggressively.

They pushed to equalize and almost got the equalizing goal when Ramsey attempted to clear a cross, but saw his header sending the ball a few inches off his own goal.

Robin Van Persie and Karim Haggui reminded us that even in a friendly match there is passion and desire for winning when both had an incident which resulted in Haggui being warned with a yellow card.

Later, Robin Van Persie made things even and also got booked. It is when Wenger decided to substitute him with Eduardo coming on for him.

With 15 minutes remaining, Eduardo was fed a pass from Silvestre, but his shot sent the ball wide of the goal.

Until the end of the match Hanover pushed, their direct style of play testing the Arsenal defence. However, it was not to be and although with a few moments of uncertainty, the Arsenal back four successfully neutralized the oncoming attacks.

The match further extended the successful pre-season run of the Gunners.

So far they have kept in good form. The form the Arsenal supporter would want to see at the Emirates where they travel back to meet another friendly challenge.

They will play Atletico Madrid on Saturday and Rangers on Sunday in the annual Emirates Cup tournament.

The Diary Of a Football Fan: Summer Contemplations

Stefan Vasilev — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:54:40 -0400

The football fan dies every year, only to be reborn once more after a short period of time—usually two to three months.

For the ordinary man, the summer is the best season of the year. It's the season during which one rests from everyday life.

Just think about it: mohitoes, bright sun, palms, Latino music, time off work, beautiful things everywhere you look at, and water, lots of water.

How could you not wait for times like that?

Surprisingly, a special breed of people exist that scorn this season of the year: the football fans.

These people have spent their year watching matches, discussing them with their friends, and going through the roller coaster of emotions that the football game is. It has become a way of life for this special kind of people.

Now you understand why the football fan hates the summer. How could he not?

There is no football. What is he a fan of then?

Nothing.

He is just a man, or a woman, ordinary, like all the rest; but not quite as ordinary.

In the morning the football fan wakes up, gets out of the bed, goes to the desktop computer and switches it on, then returns to the bed to lie for a couple more minutes. He then rises up again, sits in front of the computer, logs into his account on Bleacher Report, and checks his e-mail. He then visits all the sites that are relevant to him: his favourite club’s site, and the newspapers’.

He browses for a couple of minutes, checking on the latest news, hoping to see a new transfer singing, just as he has seen it in his head the day before. Then he makes a coffee—which is only an excuse to keep browsing for another five minutes—dresses up, and goes to work.

Of course, at work, the football fan rarely thinks about work. He thinks about football, doing everything automatically, only focusing on the work at hand if it is really necessary.

Who is his favourite team going to sign next? Wouldn’t the signing be the solution to solve the team’s problems?

He fast-forwards the remaining time to the first match of the season. He imagines the atmosphere on the stadium.

It is a bright and shiny day. People wear smiles on their faces. The teams come out of the tunnel. The crowd roars; an array of ornaments and balloons spring up in the air above the football field.

Then, he is rudely interrupted and brought back to reality. Something is not working properly. Who cares?

He goes on to repair it, smiling cryptically.

The football fan knows there is a match today, a match of his favourite team. It doesn’t matter that they play against a team that he and his mates would probably beat if they wished.

He knows he can watch it online.

He leaves work earlier than usual, says goodbyes to his colleagues, and heads home. When he gets there, he murmurs a greeting under his breath while passing by his girlfriend, goes straight to the computer, and switches it on.

The morning procedure is repeated. This time without the coffee—no excuses are needed.

The match has started. He is excited—like when he was when watching the Champions League final.

He yells and gestures, falls down from his chair. His team has scored.

The football fan in him is happy. He lets his thoughts drift toward the first whistle of the new season again. A happy moment, and it’s coming; only three weeks to go.

Bloody summer!

Arsenal: Preparations In Austria Going On Smoothly

Stefan Vasilev — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:38:38 -0400

The pre-season preparations of Arsenal in the Austrian training camp are continuing as planned.

On Tuesday, Arsenal trounced third-division Austrian side SC Columbia in their second friendly match of this year’s pre-season preparations.

However, two familiar faces were missing from the squad for this match: Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo.

Tomas Rosicky took part in Arsenal’s first pre-season friendly against Barnet and it came as quite a surprise that he was missing from the line-up for the match against SC Columbia.

“Rosicky played on Saturday but we allowed him to rest after that, as he had not played for 18 months. He will play on Monday.” - Arsene Wenger explained on the club’s online TV.

The same goes for Eduardo. He will also be featured in the line-up against Szombathelyi H. on Monday.

Despite the extreme temperatures, in excess of 30 degrees Celsius, the team looked intense and motivated. Arsenal’s centre-back Johan Djourou shared his opinion on Arsenal TV about the current status of the squad.

“I think there was a real hunger in the squad because like the fans, we are disappointed with how things went at the end of last season.”

“We live for the club. We wan to win trophies and of course, we are disappointed that it hasn’t happened.” Djourou said.

“We are hungry for success, and you can see that in training. Every one is really focused, and they are getting ready for the start of the season.”

Meanwhile, Robin Van Persie expressed his regret that his team mate Samir Nasri sustained an injury and will be out of action for two months.

Van Persie said:

“I thought it was a bit sad for him and, of course, for us, because he is a good player and he will be missing for a couple of months.”

“But in football you just have to move on. It is hard because I will miss him for the first couple of months.”

“Hopefully, he comes back really soon and in a good shape as well, because it’s a nasty injury.”

“He played over 40 games. He was a regular so I will miss him, and everybody will miss him. He is a good player who can play on five, six positions.”

On Monday, Arsenal takes on Hungarian team Szombathelyi Haladas in their third friendly match before the start of the new season. Last year, the match finished in a draw: 1-1.

At Arsenal, Robin Van Persie Has Undergone a Significant Transformation

Stefan Vasilev — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:18:15 -0400

Three weeks ago Robin Van Perise dispersed all doubt that he was leaving Arsenal, when he signed a new five-year contract to keep him at the club until 2014.

The skillful Dutch forward turned down offers from clubs like Chelsea, Juventus, Manchester City, and their city rivals Manchester United.

Before signing the contract, Robin Van Persie had set a number in his mind, that number was the wage he felt he deserved: £80k.

However, he agreed to sign a new contract with a wage of £70k per week.

Surely, this is a sign that the player does not want to leave and is fully committed and happy to stay at the London club.

The thing is that a club like Arsenal really needs a player with his skills and not only that, but it has also come to need the personality of Robin Van Persie, a personality that has gone through a significant transformation since he joined the club.

Back in 2004, he was signed from Feyenord for the convenient sum of £2.75m.

In his first season at Arsenal it became evident that Arsene Wenger has signed a player with extraordinary talent. Unfortunately, like in many other cases, his talent was accompanied with some negative sides.

One of the most obvious problems was his selfishness on the field.

In a team like Arsenal where the team effort is put first, such individual displays are not usually the best solution to maximize the effectiveness of the attack. Van Persie’s failure to comply with that rule did him no favor in the beginning of his career at Arsenal.

On top of that, it became evident that Van Persie was an injury-prone player. He suffered a number of injuries throughout his years at Arsenal which put him aside from the action for a long period of time.

He also had difficulties with keeping his discipline in tact, resulting in a dismissal against Southampton in his first season at the London club.

To make things worse, Robin also experienced difficulties outside of the football field. He was arrested in 2005 upon suspicion of rape of a Dutch beauty queen. He was eventually released from jail, with case being closed due to insufficient police evidence.

In contrast to all the problems he had, Van Persie has undoubtedly transformed for the good to become a different player and man.

It cannot be denied that he has benefited from the good influence of the people in the club, of Arsene Wenger, of ex-captain Thierry Henry, and of his countryman Dennis Bergkamp.

A solid proof for his positive development can be found in the examination of his statistics on the pitch.

Van Persie’s performances on the field last season made up his most successful season for Arsenal so far. He became the club’s leading goal scorer, winning the fan’s Player of the Season award.

He managed to score 11 goals in 28 matches, remaining uninjured for most of the season. It is a sure sign that Wenger has found an effective way to deal with Van Persie’s proneness to injuries.

Nevertheless, the most significant highlight of his transformation has to be the change of his style of play.

On the field during the last season, Van Persie was not the same selfish player who had joined the team in 2004. He combined with his teammates, did not hold the ball for unnecessary long periods of time, and contributed a lot the team’s build-up play.

Eventually, Van Persie finished the season with 11 assists, a number of assists which was only surpassed by the team’s play maker: Francesc Fabregas.

Another big transformation that Van Persie has undergone was his change of attitude towards the club. He has fallen in love with Arsenal and he has had not fear of openly expressing this love.

He recently stated that he had signed the new contract because he felt he had received the respect he deserved from the club. After signing the contract, Robin spoke in the club’s web site:

“My heart is with Arsenal and I just can’t picture myself in a different shirt. I just can’t see it now because I love this Club so much. If you look at the last five years, look at the steps I have made every season, if you look at the support the Boss and the whole Club gave me, the fans gave me, my team mates gave me – this is the right decision.”

Those are words spoken like a true Gunner.

Undoubtedly, there is a lot more yet to be seen from the Dutch technician but there is one thing for sure. Robin Van Persie has embarked on his long road to becoming an Arsenal legend.

The Double-edged Blade of Arsenal's Transfer Policy

Stefan Vasilev — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:32:06 -0400

During the last several years, competitiveness in the transfer market has risen significantly to eventually become what is today: ruthless and uncompromising.

Prices of the already proven players have risen to a level that only the richest football clubs can afford.

Teams like Real Madrid, Manchester United, Milan, Barcelona, and Manchester City have been battling it out among themselves for the best players on the market.

For teams like Arsenal, it is more difficult. They have never been reckless in the transfer market.They have never been a team to buy to most expensive players. Arsenal has had to play it smart.

With the difficult economic conditions and also a huge debt to repay, there is only one thing left for Arsenal; to sift through the remaining crumbs in order to find the needed quality.

But there is one thing that Arsenal has as an advantage over the rest of the teams; Arsene Wenger.

The board of Arsenal knows that.

They know that he will do his job, and squeeze all the juice out of the transfer budget that is presented to him.

So far, he has not disappointed them. Wenger has successfully made deals for less money than what the quality of the player that is bought requires to be paid. A bargain, some would call it. He has even succeeded in making profit in the market.

But there is one thing that Wenger does that can backfire on him and the club, and it has backfired more than once.

It is the fact that he is waiting too much. Waiting for the pressure to build up on the other team. Waiting for the price of the wanted player to drop.

It’s a good tactic. We have seen it work more than once.

But it has a flip side.

Two to three summer transfer windows with only one, maximum two, bought players prove that. Eventually, the much needed players are not bought because sometimes Wenger waits too much, and misses the deal.

Some would say that he trusts the players he already has on the team, but the truth is most of them are young and simply cannot solve another problem Arsenal regularly faces.

Experienced players always seem to leave the club for greener pastures.

Being too cautious in the transfer market saves you money, yes, but if the deal doesn’t materialize, it could cost the team points during the season.

What I mean by saying this is sometimes waiting too much is not the right choice. Eventually, the player that is targeted either goes somewhere else or becomes too expensive and out of reach.

Nobody can blame Arsene Wenger for using this tactic though. With the limited resources at his disposal, he has been doing a great job. But the question is could he have done even better?

For a finale, here are the questions that really bother me.

Will we see another player joining Arsenal until the end of this transfer window?

Better: Will we see two players? Are the gaps going to be filled at last or will we watch another painfully similar season?

Only Arsenal’s directors know. The truth is it could go either way.

Arsenal: Has the Club Gone in the Right Direction?

Stefan Vasilev — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:12:03 -0400

The world has changed and with it everything else. Football has not been left behind too.

In those times of change people have been forced to make tough decisions. In the world of business, tolerance for mistakes is lower than ever, and mistakes lead to bigger consequences than ever.

Arsenal has also not been spared in terms of making tough decisions. It had to decide which path to take to secure its future and confirm itself as one of the biggest clubs in the world of football.

In order to understand the difficulty of the decision that Arsenal has had to make let me introduce you to a man that represented one of the choices.

We all know who David Dean is. He was a director of Arsenal, who currently is working on returning back to the club’s administration. An endeavour that is unlikely to materialize because of the bad relations between him and the current board.

David Dean has always been a man who cared about the club.

He is the man that supported the hiring of Arsene Wenger at the club.

In addition, he was the main promoter and one of the most ardent supporters of women’s football. The results are easily seen by everyone today. Arsenal Ladies is the best English football club in the ladies division of football at the moment. Dean’s part in this is enormous.

David Dean’s influence on Arsenal FC cannot be denied by anyone. He lasted at the club for a very long period of time—from 1983, when he bought 16.6 percent of Arsenal’s shares, to 2007, when he sold his remaining shares to Red & White Holdings, the president of which is Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov.

It is also no secret why David Dean left the Arsenal, to be more precise, why he was sacked from the club.

It was pointed out that the main reason for his departure was that there existed “irreconcilable differences” between him and the rest of the board.

Those differences arose from the different views of how the club should continue to develop.

Before his departure, David Dean had openly supported an investment of money from outside the club, provided by the selling of the shares to an outsider. In other words, he supported a financial takeover.

What is the interesting and ironic here is that he was behind a potential takeover bid to be made by a man who now is in the club’s administration, accepted by the board—Stan Kroenke.

The American tycoon holds 28.3 percent of Arsenal’s shares through his company Kroenke Sports Enterprises.

While on the other side of the barricade, the board of Arsenal, led by the chairman Peter Hill-Wood, vigorously opposed Mr. Dean’s views and were on the opinion that they should not sell their shares. After sacking David Dean, they even agreed a contract not to sell shares to anyone for one year—a contract that was later willingly extended.

One of the sparks that started this fire was the debt that Arsenal has sunk into. The club’s debts rose drastically after loaning £400m from the bank of Scotland to build their new stadium at Ashburton Grove. The loan deal with the bank was the least to say ingeniously made. Almost half of the debt was replaced by bonds to be repaid in the next 25 years and the interest rate of the remaining debt was fixed and remains to be 5.6 percent.

That means that the club has to pay around £20m annually to repay its loan.

In addition, the club is waiting to capitalise on the property development of Highbury Square.

With last year’s announced profit before tax of £24.5m, and the current debt lessened by more than £200m, it looks like the board have been doing a good job. But have they?

The club is in a difficult situation. Money for players of proven quality is inadequate. The club has to count on Arsene Wenger’s ingenuity to solve its problems on the field. The fans of it have no idea what to think.

Does Arsenal need more money to be competitive with the rest of the big teams in England and Europe? Do they have to trust the board?

Despite the obvious success in business, and the stable financial position that the club is in, the fans want to see results. Who can blame them? But they must understand that the path the Arsenal board have chosen for the team is a long one indeed.

They have decided to secure the long-term future of the club. A decision that is supported by the business they have led, the policy of developing young players, and the goals they have set before the club to achieve.

You may ask. What now? Should Arsenal wait more years until the next time it tastes success or does it take the shortcut—David Dean’s way?

Many teams like Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Manchester City have already done it. Rich foreign investors have bought them instant success. Although I must say Manchester United can be an exception to this rule.

But ask yourselves this. What will happen to them in 10 years? Have they made the right choices? These are questions that are asked by the people who will really feel the consequences of the mistakes of their club’s board—the fans.

Arsenal has already made its choice. The club has embarked on its chosen path now. And the path is full of dangers, especially in a time of global recession.

But is it the right one?

What do you think? Should Arsenal take the David Dean’s path to success or should they keep their sensible way of doing business and developing the club?

Grigor "Grisho" Dimitrov: Is The Talented Kid On The Right Track?

Stefan Vasilev — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:25:42 -0400

The 18-year-old Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov has had his share of bad luck of lately. After his hugely successful 2008 in the junior division, when he became junior champion of both Wimbledon and US Open, Grigor entered men’s tennis.

Like many other talented young players, the expectations of him doing well were quite high.

Knowing that, Grigor tried his best. He stirred the imaginations of many by taking a set off previously No.1 ranked Rafael Nadal, eventually losing the match. But the sweat on Nadal’s forehead never left any doubt for the young Bulgarian’s tennis skills.

Since then, Grigor Dimitrov has played 26 matches. He has lost 14 and won 12.

In order to see if he is on the right track in his professional career, we have to take a look at the matches he played and how he performed during the year so far.

After putting a few wrinkles on Nadal’s face, he decided to do the same to his next candidate— No. 7 ranked in the world French player Gilles Simon—who was one of the four players to have succeeded in beating Rodger Federer.

To confirm Dimitrov’s class and bright future, Gilles Simon struggled during the match,and had to produce an extraordinary performance to come back from 2-5 in the third set. Eventually, Grisho(that’s how his friends call him) lost the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

In March, he participated in the Davis Cup for the national team of Bulgaria. He defeated both of his opponents from Hungary.

Later, Grigor played in the $50k ATP Tournament in Thailand, where he met Thailand N.1 Danai Udomchoke in the second round and lost 6-7 and 5-7.

Then, the young Bulgarian struggled with four losses in a row in respectively another ATP tournament. He lost in Thailand, the Zagorka Cup in Bulgaria, Aegean Tennis Cup in Greece, and the Israeli Open.

Grigor must not have been happy with his performances in those tournaments.

He then participated in the hard-surface tournament, Trofeo Paolo Crozzi, in Italy. He defeated four of his opponents to meet German Benjamin Becker in the quarter-finals, where he lost 4-6 and 5-7.

In June, he had a similar performance in the Aegon Trophy, which is played on grass in Birmingham. He had four wins and two losses, reaching the quarterfinal but failed to advance beyond it.

Then, again in the Ageon Championships on grass in Great Britain, Grisho met his old acquaintance in the second round, Gilles Simon, and lost once again to him 6-7 and 6-7.

Meeting many top players, especially players in the top ten of the world ranking ladder, could have only played a good role in the development of the young Bulgarian tennis player.

His luck once again put him up against another top 10 player and a countryman of Gilles Simon—Jo Wilfred Tsonga. This time, Dimitrov gave in easily and lost 1-6 and 4-6.

Unfortunately for young Federer look-alike, bad luck struck him at one of the tournaments where he had tasted success, Wimbledon.

He beat Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-3 in the first set but then suffered an injury. Nevertheless, Dimitrov showed a great spirit and forced himself to continue to play. After losing the next 10 games, he decided to retire from the match.

To complete his year so far, the young Bulgarian took part in the Swedish Open with a reward of $450,000. He was defeated in the first round by Argentinean Guillermo Canas who is ranked No. 151.

Despite the mixed success that Grigor Dimitrov achieved this year, he has gained a lot of experience and he has certainly improved.

Currently, he is ranked No. 326 in the Men’s World Ranking List, which is more than 300 places since last year.

There is a lot more to be wanted from the young talent but for now, he looks like he is on the right track. He only needs more time to develop into a top tennis player.

And in Today's News...Real Madrid Buy a Continent, City Follow Suit

Stefan Vasilev — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:33:08 -0400

Real Madrid, having bought world-player-of-the-year award winners Christiano Ronaldo and Kaka, and the talented and young Frenchman Karim Benzema for the combined sum of about 180 million euros, now turn their heads toward another target but this time hoping to be “cheap.”

The potential target is Xabi Alosno from Liverpool who has openly expressed desire to sit on the bench of Florentino Perez’s Real Madrid.

The people of the Spanish club, hearing exactly what they have been waiting to hear—a player wants to play for them, have made an offer to Liverpool which is believed to be in the region of £25 million.

Real Madrid, after their initial bid being rejected, has decided to make am improved new bid by lessening it with £3 million.

Maybe, their heads have started spinning. Mine is, after having seen the shocks of this year’s transfer window.

Having seen Real Madrid spent so much money, we ask ourselves is that proof they have come to a moment of realisation that their resources of money are not endless.

In another country, an island, another team from Manchester that probably wants to call themselves United, or maybe regrets not being United, have decided to pick up the crumbs that the Spanish club has left.

Surprisingly, they have dwarfed Chelsea in the transfer market. The club of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has been having difficulties even with keeping their own captain: John Terry.

Ironically, the same guy wants more money than that is being offered by Abramovich’s club. He wants to play for the people that have no idea how much money they possess- the Sheikhs at Manchester City.

One hundred and fifty bags of money (£150 000) a week is not enough for you Mr. Terry? We all wonder how you are able to make the two ends meet. We are with you on this one.

Meanwhile, City also aims for another striker—Arsenal’s starlet Emmanuel Adebayor. They have initiated talks with Arsenal and are believed to be willing to spend about £25m for the striker.

But after having bought Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, and Craig Bellamy to add to forwards who are already in the club like Valeri Bojinov, Robihno, Benjani, and Felipe Caicedo, we could say that they have successfully thrown a challenge to Real Madrid’s reserve team.

Certainly, if the two clubs create a reserve league, there will be no need for an All-Star game to be organised as we will see one every match between them.

Real Madrid and Manchester City have taken the term “galacticos” to a whole new level. Congratulations!

What’s next? The World?

Why Trophies Will Follow at Arsenal

Stefan Vasilev — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:33:26 -0400

During the past four years the fans of Arsenal have become disgruntled by the way the board has behaved after not winning any trophies. The board of Arsenal has acted as they aim for something completely different than winning some much wanted by the fans trophies.

And the cold truth, and no secret to all, is that they aim for profit.

Arsenal is a business.

Even after countless statements made by the chairman Peter Hill-Wood, in which he explains how he loves the club, it is nevertheless run as a business.

Let me point out some of the things that become evident when we examine how the club has been run for the past few years.

Firstly, it has become not as important to win trophies to make a healthy profit. In a way this is an understandable tactic employed by the board since there is a global crisis going on in the world economics.

It has worked well so far and because of it Arsenal are in a stable financial position, not to mention that the club is still waiting to capitalise on its residential development of the old stadium at Highbury Square.

In addition, Arsenal has not been able to compete financially with teams like Chelsea, Manchester United, and Manchester City of recent due to the reason that Arsenal has not received an outside influx of resources.

So the choices that were set before Arsenal were either to give in to those teams and concentrate on the long run, or allow a take-over and an influx of money from outside, which would have probably brightened the picture but only in short term.

The reason I say this is because we never know the next idea that may come to the mind of a billionaire.

Can you count on them for supporting a club forever?

Another thing that comes to mind is the sensible approach of the club in the transfer market. It has also been a trademark of Arsenal’s for the past few years.

The most notable signings that signify this approach are exemplified by those of Eduardo for the sum of 7.5m, Andrey Arshavin for around 15m, Samir Nasri – 12.7m, and Bakary Sagna – 6.1m. They are good players bought for a considerably small amount of money.

So how can that way of management of the club bring trophies to the club in the future?

If we compare the spending to teams like Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United, and others it seems like Arsenal are only aiming to preserve a stable financial position. That would certainly leave the importance of winning trophies on a lower step in the ladder of priorities.

I cannot agree with that.

If you look at the big picture the truth is that Arsenal has also been going through a change of personnel on the field.

The last trophy that it won was the F.A. Cup in 2005, when the “invincibles” have already started to fall apart.

Since then the team has undergone a deep transformation. Only Kolo Toure has remained from the side that was the “invincibles”. But the manager is the same; the financial situation is getting better despite claims that it’s bad.

So, it could be said it is completely normal for Arsenal to go through a trophy-less period after it faces a change of generations and players.

The reason I called the transformation a change of generations if that when you look into Wenger’s decisions in the transfer marker you will see the only player that he didn’t want to lose from the team and still lost was Flamini. The others were above 28 years of age.

But now Arsene Wenger, with a little help from the board, has built a new team. Although there are still more holes to be filled, the transformation is looking close to completion now.

The big plus is that so far no players have left the team for this year. With one or two more “sensible” signings we will be looking at a perfectly capable team of winning the Premier League and pretty much everything else.

Even though fans will remember those years as years of famine in terms of trophies, it cannot be denied that Arsenal has made progress.

You only have to look at the results in the strongest competition in Europe, Champion’s League, to consent.

Arsenal is getting stronger and the building of the team is near completion.

So why doubt them. Trophies are coming for sure.

There is a considerable amount of truth in what Arsene Wenger said: “We have to keep the belief and the trophies will come naturally.”

A Tribute to Jesse Owens: The Athlete Who Defied the Nazi Ideology

Stefan Vasilev — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:11:20 -0400

In history, men existed who with their way of life have inspired many others to act for something better. Some used words, other actions. But all simply did not quit even when facing enormous obstacles in they way.

The American athlete Jesse Owens was one of those men.

James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens was born on September 12, 1913, to Henry and Emma Owens. In his early years, he suffered from health problems. In fact, he almost died while suffering from a recurrent pneumonia. His mother helped him to overcome his illness and get back to his feet.

It was a difficult time for Jesse. His family was poor and like other black people at that time in America, they were also mistreated. His father, Henry Owens, was only skilled in farming and had difficulty finding another job which made things even worse for the family. Jesse’s brothers had to work hard too in order to get by.

After his family moved to Cleveland, Jesse Owens became involved in athletics for the first time. His coach at his high school, Charles Riley, encouraged him to take up running to improve his health and make his lungs stronger. Jesse first declined the offer because he had to work after school. But when Riley later suggested that he come one hour earlier to school to train, Jesse agreed to do it.

Gradually, he fell in love with running and began to transform into a champion on the track.

His success on the red track brought him many scholarships but Owens decided to reject them. He told his coach that he couldn’t bear living well while other members of his family lived in hunger. He took several jobs during that time to support himself.

On May 25, 1935, Jesse Owens competed at the Big Ten College Track and Field Championships in Michigan. He broke three world records and tied a fourth. What was even more impressive was that he did all of that while having an injured back.

Jesse Owens was starting to become one of the most popular athletes in America at that time. But the real success came when he competed at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Adolf Hitler was the head of Germany and the Olympics were then organized by the Nazis to show the revival of their country after the first World War. The Nazi ideologies had engulfed the whole of Germany and were dominating the atmosphere of the Olympics.

Adolf Hitler intended to use these Olympics as a podium to sell his ideology to the world—the ideology that a “supreme” race exists.

However, he had hugely underestimated one of the participants.

Jesse Owens, being one of the few black athletes at the Olympics, dealt a heavy blow to that Nazi ideology by winning four gold medals—in 100 m, 200 m, 400 m relay, and the long jump). In fact, Hitler was so deeply disappointed that his German athletes did not win all of the events that he refused to shake the hand of the man causing the turmoil.

His real feelings were later revealed in the memoirs of one his ministers, Albert Speer:

“Each of the German victories and there were a surprising number of these made him happy, but he was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvellous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games” (Inside the Third Reich, p.73)

Jesse Owens was hardly affected by Hitler’s feelings though. He broke two more Olympic records and tied another. He succeeded in winning the hearts of the 110,000 people in the Berlin’s Olympic Stadium and they cheered for him during his races. After the games, people sought him to ask for his autograph.

Even after this great defying act in Berlin, Owens’s battles for equality did not end. He was appalled by the unfair way black people were treated in his own country. He later became a philanthropist, giving speeches in India and East Asia, which he visited as a messenger of goodwill.

Jesse Owens died on March 30, 1980 from lung cancer.

Jesse Owens was a man who had a dream. That dream was of equality and of love—love towards fellow humans. He lived that dream which was directly opposed to that one of the Nazis. And he came out on top triumphing over their ideology in the heart of the Nazi’s country then.

He had a dream that every human wishes to have, but not every human has the courage to follow. Jesse Owens was an American athlete but was also much more than that. He was a representative of humanity.

“May his light shine forever as a symbol for all who run for the freedom of sport,

for the spirit of humanity, for the memory of Jesse Owens.” (Charles Chigna)

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens

http://library.thinkquest.org/2667/Owens.htm

The Perfect Footballer: What Skills Would He Possess?

Stefan Vasilev — Sat, 09 May 2009 13:54:17 -0400

We have all seen some very good, even great, footballers at times. But if you think about it, they all have been human; they all had some kind of deficiencies, or weak sides. What would have been like if they didn’t? A perfect footballer is practically non-existent, due to the human factor. We just don’t have enough time to develop all sides of particular subject so we usually concentrate only on those who we are naturally good at, you may called that talent, and on which we are most effective at. But purely theoretically, a perfect footballer would be able to play on all position and would have the following skills (In this list I have include only currently active footballers):

Begin Slideshow

Thanks to Thierry Henry, Arsenal's Champions League Campaign Isn't Over Yet

Stefan Vasilev — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:34:15 -0400

The semifinals of the Champions League are over.

We witnessed a lot of things, among them drama, tears, happiness, hope, and excitement. Some were disappointed, and others were delighted. Well, isn’t that what football is?

But it cannot be argued; it has already been decided. Rome is already waiting for the last two teams, who will fight it between themselves to determine who the next kings of Europe will be.

However, as an Arsenal fan, I cannot hide how very disappointed I was to see my team go out of the Champions League. Witnessing the performance of Arsenal, some thoughts even crept into my mind that they did not deserve to reach that phase of the tournament in the first place.

But I’m not going to write about yet another failed Arsenal mission.

Instead, I’m going to write about a part of Arsenal’s history, and hope. This can be amalgamated into one person, a fan of the club, ex-captain, and a great footballer—Thierry Henry.

Thierry Henry has declared more than once his love and respect for Arsenal FC, love and respect which are shared.

He has fought for the team for a whole eight years. He was always there to offer his invaluable advice to the young and developing players. He counseled them and guided the team through his leadership. He was trusted and respected by both the fans and the players, and still is.

Henry repaid that trust by scoring a staggering 174 goals in 254 matches for Arsenal—an achievement that has put him in the club’s history as the player that has scored the most goals for Arsenal.

He spent eight memorable seasons at the London club, and somewhere along that time he became a fan, like all those who came to watch him and his teammates every match. Henry demonstrated his love for the club on the field and outside of it with his behavior and his goals.

He remained a true “gentleman” footballer, always fair-minded and always competitive.

Then came the time when he had to rethink his life, his career, and to think about what was right for him. Who could have blamed him?

He left for Barcelona in 2007 after two years of heavy speculation linking him with the Catalan club. Nevertheless, he remained in the hearts of all Arsenal fans. What he had given the club simply couldn't have been neutralized so easily.

Henry left Arsenal because he saw in Barcelona his last chance to achieve his dream—win the Champions League title. Now, two years later, he has the chance to fulfill this dream of his. I doubt any fan of Arsenal would not want to see him lift this trophy.

Partly, it was what has kept him from being widely recognized as a legend of his time. It’s a fact that he has never won the “FIFA World Player of the Year” award. Undoubtedly, he has won it in the minds of all the football fans, not only Arsenal fans, but not for real.

This year, he will at last play in the final of the Champions League. It could be his last chance to win it. He will still remain one of the greatest footballers of all time whether he succeeds in doing that or not. This cannot be changed.

I, for one, though, would like to see him lift the cup. It would symbolize a lot. He could still teach the young Gunners something. It doesn’t matter that he could not to do it with Arsenal. Now when he is 31 he has one more chance to win it—and he deserves this chance.

It's a chance that the Gunners will have as well. Their time will come sooner or later. They should only follow Henry’s example and never stop believing...“better late than never.”