How many times have you heard of this phrase this week? Well before you even try to estimate I can assure you that you would be hearing this for years to come. Whether you are an Arsenal fan or not it doesn’t matter, the way Arsenal play the game makes any one sit back and admire their exciting football. And this match (Carling Cup- 3rd Round) was no different and to make this even more special, this was the youngest ever Arsenal team (Avg: 19 years). Interestingly at Arsenal you can sometimes call 20 year-olds as experienced players ala our talismanic mid-fielder Cesc.
Carlos Vela, a nineteen year old Mexican, scored a hat trick on his first competitive start for Arsenal. The way he controls the ball, his touch, his pace and finish are just moth watering. We just can’t fathom our thoughts right now and find words to describe him. His second goal in the match was a treat to watch, to some it may remind them of Henry or Bergy. More of Vela is surely yet to come!!!! .
He adds to a long list of success stories at the Arsenal academy. He is the youngest ever league debutant for Arsenal. He is also the second youngest goal scorer for Arsenal after Francesc Fabregas. He is Jack Wilshere – Surely and almost certainly he is a star in the Making.
Aaron Ramsey I think is the second best capture in the summer for Arsenal. Though he may take some more time adjusting to the Arsenal style there is no doubting his prodigious talent.
With other youngsters like Randall, Gibbs, Hoyte,Merida
Aaron Ramsey I think is the second best capture in the summer for Arsenal. Though he may take some more time adjusting to the Arsenal style there is no doubting his prodigious talent.
With other youngsters like Randall, Gibbs, Hoyte,
Rohan.
Let me introduce my self. I am Rohan, Vivek's colleague. I passed out from IIT-G.
And, I am a Gunner-4-Life
16 comments:
the beautiful part of football has always been there , but where is the mental strength. Where are the victories? where is a captain ? gallas is a joke.
Wenger must be the luckiest manager in mordern football. He has the backing of the board that only dreams are made of.He is at a big club and i dont think there is any pressure on him to win anything.At the end of the day it is not all about the type of football played , u need trophies to show that they can be won with that kind of football.
I think managers across the world might start to think that playing in a Wenger or Rijkaard way is easy to out smart. A subjective opinion of course , something to talk about.
Hi Rohan,
I am Harsha and i am your fellow arsenal fan here.
Talking about young guns it reminds me of something. Wenger is always accused of not bringing up emough english talent. But now with the likes of Walcott, Wilshere, Randall, Lansbury, hoyte coming up it would settle the scores
Only if they all come good and he sticks with them harsha.
Arsenal might have lost the title but not the style with which they play the game. One more thing I want to put forth, the only thing separating arsenal and a trophy last season has been luck,
1)I remind you we were at top of the league before the Eduardo mishap (horrible tackle), and which followed is a last minute penalty against Arsenal, any human being who has gone through tremendous pain will breakup.. even if he is a Captain.
2)The penalty claim on Hleb on UCL 1st leg vs Liverpool and a controversy penalty decision in 2nd leg at Anfield.
If you talk about players individually, can anyone explain what had happened after the match of Chelsea Vs ManUtd (last season).
Arsene previously has won many trophies for Arsenal. He knows what he is doing.
I will always support Arsenal till I die. We may not win trophies but when young Theo Walcott runs 80 yards through five players and makes an inch perfect pass for the forward to convert then I am transported into a new footballing realm of dreams and aesthetics.
Its hard to define Arsenal , A timeless beauty of Football , A Mascot of Quality , An attribute without which definition of Football is Incomplete. You can only understand it if you are a Gunner.
Rohan has said correctly that luck was the only factor that came between Arsenal and the trophies. Any person who don't even know the off-side rule will surely be mesmerised by the way the gunners play the beautiful game. How many times have you heard the pundits describing the Arsenal game to be from a different planet. The slick one touch pass, the perfect triangle formations which allow them to have multiple options throughout the field are just treat to the eyes.
And how many proofs do you want of the their uncomparable play...doesn't the 7-0 thrashing of Sparta Prague or the 6-0 thumping of Sheffield United come into the mind. Or what about the unbeaten streak which arsenal had in their championship winning season. None of the teams in Europe in a premier league have gone thru the the entire season unbeaten.
You will say that the Arsenal team at that time had Henry, Pires, Viera and Bergkamp.But you can't replace players of such caliber overnight. From the type of football Vela, Ramsey and the rest of the young gunners play it won't be long before they emulate that feat again.
Gunner for life!!!
Nice to finally see some arsenal fans on the board. Nice to read your comments as well.
Rohan , after the birmingham game last season , Arsenal went through a series of below par performances. I was surprised when everyone blamed eduardo's horrible injury for that instead of fatigue.
Now even before you pin point fatigue as the factor , United won the title in 06/07 with as big a squad that arsenal had last year. There performances dipped towards the end of the season and just could not cope with milan in the UCL semis. And considering that there were also in the FA cup and the average age of that united squad is more than that of Arsenal's last season.
Luck plays a hand , no doubt about that , for around 5 matches i dont think so. Correct me if am wrong ,arsenal finished 6 points behind United right ?. that means had they won 2 games more towards the end of the season , when they faltered, they were in with a chance.
@ Abhishek, as I said before the question is not about if arsenal play beautiful football or not, it is are they missing players who can rally the troops around or can they be easily shut out by teams who park the bus in fron of the goal. When Arsenal won trophies , the single biggest contributor for that was Viera , he was a leader.then there was Keown , Toure is a little like him.
And even Inter Milan won a season unbeaten .
Looking forward to the retorts.
Heard it all before about Arsenal mates but where is the trophy to show off? I love the way Arsenal plays to be honest and sometimes I'm left in awe of the way they slit open defenses. But then, history doesn't remember Theo's 80 yard run, or Fab's splitting pass...what is remembered is trophies.
In '99 Chelsea were one of the best attacking forces, and played some beautiful football, even thrashing ManUtd 5-0 at SB. But could not convert that form into a trophy. People don't remember that season much....but 2005, when we actually won something.
@vivek
Responding to ur comments about mental toughness of arsenal, compared to 2006-07 season arsenal had more no. of wins in matches where they conceded goals initially. Also Arsenal was the team which scored most number of goals in the final 15-20 min. If they werent tough mentally they would have crumbled and submitted themselves. Though it is not the only factor for mental toughness, it matters to be resilient enough and respond accordingly.
also Gallas is the captain more due to his experience than leadership skills. any way there are people like fabregas, toure who motivate the players inspite of not being captains.
u were telling that manu won the title with a similar sized squad, but what about the experience. Arsenal had a relatively young team. also before you say that older people suffer more from fatigue, dont they know due to their experience how to play at the end of season and how to cope with the fatigue factor??
And to be honest, most of the youngsters Arsenal boast are actually not from the Arsenal academy, but hugely talented individuals snapped up from abroad at the age of 16, 17, 18 years. Thats really not called educating youngsters. The fact that Arsene gives chance to these youngsters to show off their talents on the big stage is worthy of credit but then one might argue that he has no other option. He spends so much on youngsters, he has to give them chance.
and forgot to correct you, arsenal was 4 pts behind Manu last season
@Rahul: I totally agree with you that trophies are a must to stay in the history. It is high time that Arsenal should win some silverware and they will.
also may be people wont remember teams which play beautiful football for a single season or two. But if you do it for more than a decade, at least you will be remembered as a team which stuck to its principles.
A little support to Harsha's point No body will forget the cryuff lead Dutch team that lost in the finals to Germany in the world cup (74 or 78 i dont remember). No silverware for Dutch there, but if you ask some on to name a team that played the best football ever it is the 1970's dutch team that comes to mind (inventors of the concept of complete football).
I don't say Arsenal is as good as that team, but the point is you don't forget "out of the world football" just due to lack of some trophies.
83 points in any other season would have been good enough to win the league.
@ Harsha , Even that was my point Harsha , though u put it differently. When I meant a leader , I meant a player who can calm his players down , get the best out of others on the field, see through them in difficult times. Hell Roy Keane and Viera were like that. They used to put it straight to a guy on the pitch if player was in a slumber.
Gallas has been there , he knows what it takes to win a premiership, Toure is experienced enough.
And coming back to your point , the team is an year older and experienced now.Do they have it in them to turn the fortunes around this time. Last season the title was Arsenal's to lose, there was no doubt about that.United had experience , definitely , even the Arsenal teams in the late 90's were experienced. The youngest united team to win the trophy when the famous five, 20 yr olds, were introduced there were experienced players. I'm not questioning Wenger's youth policy,it is excellent . Even Fergie attributed his success over the years to youth and continuity. But for how many years more would you wait for the young guns to mature and then win a trophy on their own or do you think Arsenal might miss an experienced player again , come the end of the season.
@ mavevik
"Everybody thinks that they have the prettiest wife at home!" - Arsene Wenger.
Rohan address me as vivek :)
The comment applies more to arsenal than any other club , right ? or did u intend to say that ?
@ Vivek
It says, " Everyone..."..... so it includes Arsenal as well as every other club....
Every club thinks they have very good players.. dont they??
If you do not believe you can do it then you have no chance at all. In Arsene we trust.
While coming to point, if the present (young) squad is good enough for the entire season.... we have to wait and see how they play the better oppositions than Sheffield. Only time can say...
Last season when Henry left Arsenal, no one expected Arsenal (other than Arsenal fans) to finish in the top four, but we were sitting at the top of the table for quite sometime.
@rohan
amazing post!
keep up the great work...
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