Date: April 2007

Arsenal 3 – 1 Fulham

Apr 29, 2007 by

True to form Arsenal made it much harder on themselves than was necessary, and when Fulham pulled level with twelve minutes to go, one could hear every Arsenal supporter in the world sighing, “Here we go again.”

However, after a torrid six minutes of Fulham attacks, Cesc Fabregas again made his case for Player of the Year. In a classic example of counter-attack, Cesc’s cutting through ball found an on-rushing Emmanuel Adebayor, whose brilliantly placed curled shot beat a diving Niemi to restore the Arsenal lead.

A few minutes later, Alex Hleb drew a careless foul from former Gunner Moritz Volz to earn a penalty, which acting-captain “Gilbo” Gilberto converted with aplomb.

It was by no means an easy game to watch, but then, those have been few and far between this season. Next up are Chelski, who visit the Grove desperate for points to stay within reach of ManUre in the race for the Premiership title. It should be a “cracker”.

Kickoff is 11AM ET next Sunday, the 6th, and Fox Soccer Channel will provide live coverage here in the US.

Mad Jens to stay at Arsenal

Apr 27, 2007 by

Jens Lehmann has announced today that he has signed a one year extension with Arsenal, and will therefore retain his title of “Mad Jens Of North London” for at least another 12 months. There had been speculation that Lehmann would move back to Das Bundesliga, but, the German was quoted as saying, “I’m going to stay an extra year, Arsenal’s a great club with a good outlook. I want to play in the Champions League next season.”

Despite the signing, reports abound regarding Arsenal’s rumored interest in Scotland #1, Craig Gordon, who currently plies his trade with Hearts in the SPL. I’m half inclined to think these are just re-hashed stories from the last transfer window back in January, but everything I’ve read on Gordon makes the stories at least somewhat plausible.

Lehmann the keeper

Apr 25, 2007 by

I know many may disagree, but I believe keeping Lehmann for one more season is very crucial.

I have a firm believe we will launch a serious charge on the Premiership title next season. In order to achieve that, we cannot afford to experiment a new ‘keeper in one of the most crucial positions of the team.

I always believe goalkeeper is the most difficult position to replace. Take Man Utd, it took them several years to properly replace Schmeichel. Ferguson had tried many different goalkeepers, all with less success.

This is a position we cannot afford to try the youngsters. A promising young ‘keeper may be able to shine from time to time, but the key of a good goalkeeper is the CONSISTENCY. Alex Manninger, Richard Wright, Stuart Taylor of the past, they all had that ability to pull off some remarkable performance every now and then. Yet the more matches they played, the more they got found out.

It’s the same with the young keepers today like Green, Foster. Their performance against us at Emirates were sensational. Yet they also made a lot of mistakes over the course of a whole season with their clubs.

And the bottom line is – if you are playing for a team fighting for a title, you can’t afford to make mistakes.

And mistakes could destroy a young goalkeeper, especially when he’s playing for a big club. Richard Wright is the classic example. He made his debut at Ipswich at the age of 16, showing a remarkable potential… until he arrived at Arsenal. Made a few high-profile errors. Ever since, he’s no longer the same player he once was.

One major asset of Lehmann is the man got an attitude. He could make a horrible blunder in a match, yet not bothered by it at all. This soft of confidence is extremely important for a goalkeeper playing for a big club.

Therefore, Arsenal, or indeed Man Utd, reknown for developing youngsters, none of those clubs produced a single home growth ‘keeper to be their No. 1 during the past 20 years.

Unless we can afford a Buffon, otherwise it’s better stick with the tried and tested.

I have my own theory of the poor form of Lehmann this season. The World Cup effect as I call it. I wasn’t really surprised he had has his best season with Arsenal last term. Back then he was fighting for a starting place in the World Cup with Olive Kahn. In order to achieve that, he needed to give his best, his all for Arsenal to impress Klinsmann.

Now that he had achieved his goal and did himself proud with his performance in the World Cup Finals, there was always a chance this season would turn into an anti-climax season for Jens.

So personally, I hope he will stay, for at least one more season. Let’s win something next year, to take the pressure off Wenger, in order for him to keep building on his project. Otherwise, no matter how much improvement our outfield players will make next season, if we are going to have a new ‘keeper who are taking time to adapt to the team (plus adapting to the country if he’s a non-English player), developing understanding with his back 4… there would be every chance we are going to take another step back.