Giroud Who?

Since my last post (way back in May - whoops!) we managed to secure that precious 3rd place by beating West Brom, signed Podolski good and proper and the Euro's have been in full swing. England were knocked out on Sunday so my attention turns right back to all things Arsenal. In particular, our new signing, Mr Olivier Giroud from French champions Montpellier for a fee estimated to be around £12 million. The confirmation of Giroud joining us took a while despite rumours claiming the transfer was all but done. Even Wenger came out and claimed the deal was "90% done", which was a surprise because Le Boss rarely talks so openly about transfers, especially when they're not completed yet.

The 25 year old French international joins us after a successful season at Montpellier. The 6ft 3ins striker scored an impressive 21 goals on his way to helping his side win the league and played in all four games France played at Euro 2012 before they were knocked out by Spain. Arsene had this to say about our new striker: "He has proved that he is capable of performing at the top level with club and country, and we saw what a big influence he was in Montpellier’s championship-winning side last season. We all look forward to Olivier joining us and seeing him play in an Arsenal shirt."

I'm excited to see what Giroud can offer our squad. His height could be a huge boost for us, especially from set pieces. He's not guaranteed a spot in the starting eleven just yet, as competition will now be fiercer than ever in attack. Somehow Wenger has to find a way of fitting Giroud, van Persie, Podolski, Walcott, Gervinho and Oxlade-Chamberlain (Ryo Miyaichi is a possibility too) into our forward-three, without disrupting the apple cart. The new boys, Podolski and Giroud, will not be happy with sitting on the bench, at least not for long. I haven't even included Chamakh and Park in the equation, both of whom look extremely redundant in this squad now.

There's been a few fans who've mentioned that the signing of Giroud has been made because van Persie is leaving but I don't believe that's the case. The club would be stupid to let RVP leave, even for the ridiculous money Man City would offer, and I don't think Wenger see's Giroud and Podolski as replacements for our captain. I'm sure the boss has secured the new signings to support van Persie and not to replace him but if the Dutchman were to leave the club, we're prepared for the fallout at least.

Giroud will join up with the squad in July and I'm excited to see how he gets on during pre-season. Let's hope he comes good and doesn't turn out to be another Chamakh.

Thanks for reading.

Back To The Blog

Escape to N5 is back from it's little hiatus and just in time for the start of the new season. I haven't blogged on here since May and that's down to a couple of reasons. Since my last post I have finished university and completed my dissertation, I have moved house and had to reconnect to the world wide web. So there's been a couple of obstacles in my way when it comes to blogging about the Gunners. Plus, Arsenal hardly finished the 2010/11 season in style which caused me to lack motivation to blog about the sorry state of the team - that end of season lap of "honour" was depressing wasn't it?

Anyway I'm back now, just as Arsenal have kicked off their pre-season activities. The Gunners are currently on a tour of Asia and dispatched a Malaysia XI yesterday with a 4-0 win. Wenger started with quite a strong team, handing first team debuts to newboys Carl Jenkinson and Ryo Miyaichi, and the opposition were naturally no match for our boys. Ramsey scored from the penalty spot early on, then Walcott lobbed the keeper to make it 2-0 just before half time. Carlos Vela produced one of his trademark chip shots to make it 3-0 and Rosicky headed home the fourth goal just before the final whistle to put the gloss on a typically sluggish pre-season game. The squad needs to get their fitness up and games like these are perfect preparation ahead of the new season. Arsenal travel to China next on their Asian tour and have the Emirates Cup to look forward to at the end of the month.

In transfer news, not a great deal of activity has occurred during my blogging absence. Clichy has left for the billionaire babies at Manchester City, which makes me slightly sad because I always liked our French leftback. The "Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona" saga is still on-going and I have practically ignored anything to do with Fabregas and the Catalans. The constant rumours of him leaving and twats like Dani Alves and Xavi piping up every minute have led me to become completely disinterested in this story and I pretty much ignore every 'rumour' concerning Cesc these days. The same can go for Samir Nasri and his quest to leave us for Manchester United; I'm not listening to any of the crap the media comes out with until I see Nasri holding up that shirt at Old Trafford - I'll believe it when I see it. Almunia and Bendtner are supposedly in talks with clubs looking to take them off our hands. Almunia should have been sold years ago and its probably the right time for Bendtner to leave. In the right system I think the young Dane will flourish but I don't think he was ever going to fit into the Arsenal system and Wenger's tactics, which is a shame because I'll be pissed off if he goes to another club and bangs in 20 goals plus next season.

The biggest piece of transfer news of late is the club have finally confirmed the signing of Ivory Coast striker Gervinho from French club Lille. This transfer has been wrapped up for a while now but it still took its time to become official. We've all had a good inkling that Gervinho was already a Gooner a couple of weeks ago but its great to finally hear he's one of us now. I'm looking forward to seeing him play and hopefully he'll add some much needed firepower to the team. Wenger now needs to turn his attention to some of the other gaping holes in the squad; the most pressing concern is his failure to address our defensive problems. I'm sure our manager is working on it, we all know he likes to play his cards close to his chest and release no clues on his transfer dealings, but a big-name centre back signing for the club would put all our worries to rest (for a while anyway).

That'll do for today, that's enough rambling I reckon. I'll post a bit more frequently now when I get the time and of course I'll comment on any big news concerning Arsenal in the near future. Until then...

Thanks for reading.

Taking Apart The Toon

Arsene Wenger's youthful Arsenal side strolled into the Carling Cup quarter-finals tonight, with a 4-0 win away at Newcastle. It was an open, often scrappy game, which swung back and forth for it's entirety, but Arsenal ultimately prevailed as they romped to victory at St. James's Park.

The boss went with a mixture of youth and experience tonight, an early sign that Arsene may be taking the Carling Cup more seriously this season, in light of our trophy drought (which the national media LOVE reminding us). Wojciech Szczesny started in goal for us, one of our promising young keepers waiting in the wings (for Almunia to move away and Wenger to lose patience with Fabianski.) Laurent Koscielny made his return from injury, as he partnered Djourou, Gibbs and Eboue in defence. Craig Eastmond was gifted a rare start in midfield alongside Rosicky and Denilson, complete with new haircut. And finally, Bendtner, Walcott and Vela started up front.

Due to my inability to get my act into gear, I regrettably missed the first ten minutes of tonight's match. So I didn't see our early chances to go ahead, and I also missed Nile Ranger taking the ball around Szczesny but failing to score after a Koscielny clearance. However I did see everything else, so here we go:

I thought for the majority of the game our young keeper was excellent. Szczesny looked calm and composed, and dealt with everything thrown at him to earn himself a well deserved clean sheet. His save from Alan Smith was superb, a finger-tip effort onto the post. Every time Newcastle threatened, Szczesny was there to halt the danger. He was dominant in the air and seemed to organise the defence well. The young Polish stopper had a fine game and I'd love to see him in the first team a bit more this season; It wouldn't hurt us to have him in goal for the West Ham game this weekend, who currently lie at the bottom of the league.

It was end to end stuff for the entire 90 minutes, and the result could have gone either way. Arsenal were their usual dominant self at times, passing the ball around leisurely and keeping possession for long periods, but Newcastle had their chances. Koscielny was brilliant on his return and seemed intent on keeping the Toon at bay this evening, often intercepting Newcastle passes and wrestling back possession. He was immense, and I hope he can slot back into the side quickly. However, not every Gunner had a fine outing tonight. Craig Eastmond seemed to struggle at times, which surprised me as he looked pretty comfortable in the first team last season. Carlos Vela also put in a very forgettable performance. The young Mexican appeared disinterested at times and ultimately failed to really get into the flow of the game. A poor outing for him tonight, when he had an opportunity to show Wenger what he could do; he'll be disappointed with his effort.

Despite the open nature of tonight's game, it was Arsenal's ruthless finishing that decided the match and put Newcastle out of the competition. The Gunner's first goal came from a rather messy piece of play. From a set piece, Bendtner headed the ball back into the six-yard box where Koscielny and Eastmond both tried to nod it into the net. The ball bounced up off of Ryan Taylor, whose clearance struck Newcastle keeper Tim Krul in the back of the head, and then rolled into the back of the net to gift Arsenal a 1-0 lead just before half time. It was pretty funny to watch but I was relieved we had finally scored.

Arsenal started the second half in strong fashion and it wasn't long before the Gunners doubled their lead. A header from Koscielny made it's way into the path of a free Theo Walcott, who raced towards the Newcastle goal and clipped the ball over Krul for a delightful finish. What a lot of people didn't see, including the referee, was Bendtner wiping out Newcastle defender Mike Williamson in the process. It was a daft thing to do from the Danish striker and it was a clear foul. I know if it happened to my team I'd be outraged as a fan, but it didn't happen to me and I'll take whatever I can get (excuse me for being honest... and biased). Bendtner proceeded to annoy the Toon Army a bit more by putting the game beyond doubt in the 83rd minute. It came just at the right time too, as Newcastle had been enjoying a period of pressure and looked close to grabbing a goal back, until Saint Nic himself blasted a shot past Krul to make it 3-0. Fabregas, who had replaced Vela earlier on, stole the ball in midfield and calmly played it to Bendtner out on the left. "The Great Dane" advanced on goal and unleashed an unstoppable shot to end the game; it really was a nice goal from our Nicklas. Five minutes later, Walcott grabbed himself another goal to make it 4-0. Theo took advantage of Newcastle's high defensive line and slipped clear to slide the ball under Krul for his second goal of the night, his sixth of this season. Another lovely goal, and the game was all but over. Szczesny made two more impressive saves from the pesky Andy Carroll (who was rather good tonight - Wenger called him 'charismatic') and rough-faced Ryan Taylor before the final whistle was blown.

All in all it was an entertaining game and it's always nice to get a win away from home, especially in a place like St. James's Park. I really do hope Wenger is taking this competition more seriously this season. The Carling Cup is deemed the least prestigious of the English domestic trophies, but it's still a trophy, one that the boss has never won in his time at the club. The Carling Cup is realistically within our reach, and has been for the past few seasons as we consistently make it to the latter rounds year after year. I'm all for letting our kids get a run out, and they always do really well, but I'd like Wenger to pursue this trophy like any other and after tonight's performance it looks like he might be doing just that.

Thanks for reading.