Theo Made His Bed, Now He Must Lie In It.

by Rachid

Hi there. I'll start with a quote from Arsene Wenger from last November:

For me, the big season is with Arsenal, not at the World Cup. We do not pay players to go to the World Cup, we pay the players to do well for Arsenal. The first pride of a man is to do well for the guy who pays you in life, not to go to the World Cup.

This was obviously because Theo Walcott was constantly talking to the press about his chances of making Fabio Capello's England squad for the 2010 World Cup. If you read my post season review of the players a couple weeks ago you would've seen where I commented that Walcott spent too much time talking to the press this season about his World Cup chances and it affected his performance negatively.

Well surprise surprise. Capello cut his list from 30 down to 23 and guess who didn't make it. That's right. Theo Walcott missed out and I can't say I'm surprised either. I rated him at 6/10 for his performance this season and it was due to how inconsistent he was. I'm sure that must've been Capello's reason for not including him in his squad and he had no one to blame but himself.

Of his omission from the England squad, Walcott had this to say:

I am very disappointed not to be included in the squad going out to South Africa, but completely respect Mr Capello's decision. I would like to wish the team the best of luck and hope they have a really successful tournament.

Clearly Arsene Wenger was right with what he said last November. Theo had spent all of the Arsenal season worrying about whether he'd be going to the World Cup and as a result his performance suffered because he didn't go into the games he played with the required concentration level. It goes to show how that players in the team still lack a certain level of maturity. What I mean is, had he been mature enough to focus on the matter he had in front of him - helping Arsenal in the title chase, his performances would've been better and him making the final 23 in the England squad would've been axiomatic.

There are positives to take from this though. It's no secret Walcott suffers from injuries. At least him not going off to South Africa means he won't run the risk of getting injured over the summer in an international game. It means he can have a proper rest and focus on making better showings for Arsenal next season. He can take some time out and think about this and use it as a learning curve. He can use it to motivate him to push harder to be a mainstay in the England squad. This would be by putting his focus on his club, the people who give him his pay cheque. As I said above, top notch performances for Arsenal equate to international selection. It's that simple.

Of the 6 wingers in the club, Walcott joins a list of 4 who won't be making travel arrangements for South Africa. The others being Samir Nasri who, like Walcott, wasn't selected, Tomas Rosicky and Andrey Arshavin. Their respective teams the Czech Republic and Russia failed to qualify for the World Cup.

I'll leave you with a video to enjoy before you comment on this post and go click "follow" over to the right of the page.



Until next time, dust!

Arsenal 4-0 Fulham: Third place secured, frustrating season put to bed

by Rachid

The performance we've been looking for since losing the Barcelona game in March finally came yesterday. You could say we went up against a makeshift Fulham side that couldn't care less about playing yesterday because their focus was squarely on Wednesday's Europa League final but it's the result that's important. A win was needed to secure third place and a solid 4-0 win is what we got. It was a game where we still missed important faces but managed to put on a performance that you'd expect from us at full strength.

We started the match pretty gung ho and apart from an error on Fabianski's part early on where he came out to claim a loose ball and dropped it in the area, the first half was all about Arsenal attacking the Fulham goal. The opener came in the 21st minute when Mark Schwarzer uncharacteristically left his goal to collect a backpass but was beaten to it by Andrey Arshavin. The Russian skipped over him, went down by the byline and saw van Persie begging for the ball just in front of the goal mouth. He decided to ignore him and continued from the tight angle and slammed the ball into the net after a deflection off John Pantsil. If he'd missed that chance van Persie would've had every right to be pissed off but it just goes to show how sure Arshavin is of his ability. You could even argue that that was perhaps an intent to silence his critics who have labeled him as lazy lately. There was certainly no laziness about that goal and the effort he put into keeping the ball in play as it almost crossed over the byline, and all the power he put into the shot to ensure that it would hit the back of the net even if a defender had gotten a touch - as Panstil did.

We doubled our lead not long after as in the 26th minute Sagna played Walcott through into space. Theo looked up and saw van Persie waiting in the box and played the ball square to him. It took him two bites of the cherry to score as the first shot was tipped by Schwarzer unto the underside of the bar but the Dutchman made no mistake in converting the rebound.

Eleven minutes later we were three up. Walcott played the ball in from the right and it went to Eboue. He flicked it on but it bobbled between Pantsil's legs and Chris Baird's unfortunate touch took the ball into his own net.

In the 39th minute van Persie, playing deep, found Eboue. The Ivorian made a simply sublime flick off the back of his heel to find Walcott on the edge of the area. Theo left his marker standing and went through on goal from an angle but only had Schwarzer to beat and put the ball wide of the far post. It would've been an absolutely breath taking goal had he finished it. He won't receive a more perfect pass in his whole career. That would've definitely been one of the Arsenal goals of the season, a definite highlight reel moment missed.

The second half saw Arsenal attacking much like they did in the first half. The final goal came in the 84 minute when Carlos Vela made his way into the box and produced a sublime chip over Schwarzer for his second goal of the season. While watching him celebrate I had mixed emotions. I was happy he scored such an awesome goal but at the same time I was a bit frustrated. Vela has so much technical ability but to be honest, he's failed to take his chances when they've been granted to him this season. I've argued in the past that it's partly due to him not settling in England but after the uninterested performance he gave at Blackburn last week I'm beginning to think the amount of passion needed for him to make it in this team just isn't there. I also wondered if that was to be his last goal in an Arsenal shirt.

The victory meant we secured 3rd place as Tottenham stubbed their toes at Turf Moor against Burnley, losing 4-2. You have to say though that it shouldn't have come down to this. It would've been unthinkable for Spurs to finish ahead of us and the fact that we found ourselves in a situation where we were in a battle with them for who'd finish higher on the final day makes me a bit disappointed, even though the danger was averted.

The players went on their lap of appreciation but unlike in previous seasons many fans left before it took place and it sends a message to show how displeased Arsenal fans are in general with the way the season ended. It also went a long way in showing the growing skepticism surrounding Arsene Wenger and his ability to lead this team to victory. He'll no doubt have noticed the scantiness of the crowd and realised that he'll be under intense scrutiny this summer to improve the team in all the areas needed.

It means there'll be countless transfer rumours for us to wade through as the summer rolls along and I'll be back on here blogging about the rumours that have some ounce of credibility in them. Also, expect an in depth rundown of the season that was in the coming days.

Oh, one more thing: for all you cunts hoping for Spurs to finish above us...put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Until next time, fellow Gooners, have a good one!