The trash-talk begins

As we approach the crunch game against ManYoo, Evra has fired the first trash-talking shot across Arsenal's bow.

Suggesting that we are good to watch but no end product isn't news, sadly its been fact for a few years now. To say we're in crisis however is foolish. We're top of the league, we've qualified in Europe, we're already more successful in the League Cup than ManYoo and we haven't sold out on our style and pretty football to achieve that.

Evra has always been outspoken, he's always been forthright and vocal when he has something to say but this time I hope we make him eat those words with a smattering of salt.

We're due a result against ManYoo, we're in good form and I think we're favourites.

WG

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Laurent Koscielny - the good, the bad and the ugly

I like Koscielny, I think he has everything in the bag to be a good defender.

He's got good recovery pace, I'd say he's the best jockey'er of opposition players we have. Forcing players out wide and nicking the ball off them. 1v1 he is excellent.

His desire to win the ball is commendable and after an initial flurry of cards his timing of challenges has improved and he is in good form at the moment (head injuries aside).

The one thing I hate seeing him do - and he did it at least three times last night was break out of the back four to chase down a ball in the midfield. This generally ended up with him being miles out of position and left us a little exposed.

Its not his fault, its desire to win the ball and desire to win. He does need to be a bit more disciplined in these moments and let Song and Denilson do the chasing.

I do tip him for great success in the Arsenal squad, I think he's a good player, he just needs to keep improving and these creases will be ironed out.

WG

Super Nasri carries Arsenal forward

Nasri was superb last night. He was at the core of everything good that went on the game last night. I felt for Chamakh, it just wasn't his night, everything was a yard too far in front of him or hit to him a bit hard or just caught him unawares. Games like that happen to a striker and hopefully he'll save a few goals for ManYoo next week.

Arshavin looked exhausted again, I wonder if we need to create a fitness regime for him or keep him back a bit in training to stop him from becoming so tired. It can't be good that he struggles to play 90 mins after 4 days rest. He was another player who didn't have a good day at the office, but again I'm hopeful he's saving himself for monday.

Denilson is a quandrary that I'm struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel for. He's a solid player, but he needs games to get match fit. That was never more obvious than last night but when he puts in performances like last night who's going to give him 90mins? I wonder with the dearth of central midfielders that we have now whether he will go in Jan or the Summer. If it was me, I'd try and get him a short term loan somewhere from Jan to the end of the season and see how he does. He's capable of being a good player but he's struggling for form.

Walcott showed the best bits of his game last night, he took players on down the line and attacked the space behind the defenders with pace and verve. He showed his quality with a great placed finish. The question is of course, can he do it regularly. He took advantage of tiring legs from Partizan and tore them apart. I don't deny his quality, but his consistency will be criticised, perhaps unfairly due to injuries and he's still so very young.

In truth I'm pleased we qualified, I'm not bothered that we're going to face a good side, you have to face them sometime to win. If we're good enough we'll do just that.

WG

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3:1 not enough. Not nearly enough

In truth its nothing to do with the scoreline, I wanted a better performance than that. We are so much better than they are. Yes they made it difficult, but we should have been more incisive.

We were all over them like an angry moss and I feel we lacked penetration at times. Denilson didn't really have a great game and I wish Rosicky was there or Wilshire instead. That way their midfield five would have been chasing back rather than closing us down.

Negativity aside however, we've qualified and thats all that matters for now. Performances will need to come later against the later teams.

I'm excited and mildly fearful of our next opposition on this form.

WG

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Arsenal target Connor Wickham

I've been told that Arsenal are spending a lot of scouting time looking at Ipswich's young Connor Wickham. It seems Steve Rowley has been assigned to watch his progress, with a view to a purchase and loan back agreement in January, with the player to join us full time in the summer.

This source is usually reliable as he's friends with several of the Arsenal staff (he also goes to the gym with the webmasters at Arsenal.com) so I trust him.

WG

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Tear into Partizan as if our lives depended on it.

Thats the attitude our players need tonight. We need to set down a marker tonight. Another performance of lackadaisical football will not be enough.

Arsenal set records this season for the most goals scored in the first three games of the group stage. We need that form back. Noone will fear us if we nick a 1:0 result at home.

If we annihalate them 7:0 however, that might make people stand up and think.

Thats what I want to see tonight, I want Nasri, Wilshire, Song and RvP to rip them apart. I want Chamakh to hit a hattrick and the rest to weigh in too. As fans we deserve a performance after the last two Champions League games.

This should be our line up tonight, I'll leave it to Mr Arsene to make his own modifications as is his wont..

Fabianski
Sagna	Squillaci Koscielny			Clichy
	Song Wilshire
Nasri		Robin Van Persie		Walcott
		Chamakh

That teamsheet should, on paper, destroy Partizan and thats what we need.

WG

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The importance of being Samir - Part 2

See part 1 here

Samir Nasri's career has been meteoric. He began playing with Marseille when he was just 9 years old. He rose through the youth ranks and he started playing in Ligue 1 in the 2004/2005 season at the age of 17, where he started 13 games and came on as a substitute in 11 games, scoring one goal.

In the 2005-2006 season he saw European action in the form of the UEFA cup where he played 10 games and then the UEFA Intertoto Cup where he played one game and scored on his debut and only game in the competition.

I have nicked the below career stats from Wikipedia to highlight his career so far.

As of 4 December 2010 ^[19]

Club	Season	League			Cup [20] [21]			Europe			Total
		Apps	Goals	Assists	Apps	Goals	Assists	Apps	Goals	Assists	Apps	Goals	Assists
Marseille	2004-05	24	1	0	1	0	-	0	0	0	25	1	-
	2005-06	30	1	0	5	0	-	11	0	0	46	1	-
	2006-07	38	3	6	7	0	-	4	0	0	49	3	6
	2007-08	30	6	11	4	0	-	8	0	3	42	6	14
Total		122	11	17	17	0	-	23	0	3	162	11	20
Arsenal	2008-09	29	6	2	5	0	3	10	1	0	44	7	5
	2009-10	26	2	5	2	0	1	6	3	0	34	5	6
	2010-11	13	8	1	2	2	0	4	1	2	19	11	3
Total		68	16	8	9	2	4	20	5	2	97	23	14
Career Total		190	27	25	26	2	4	43	5	5	259	34	34

At 23 years old, he's played a considerable amount of football. For the purposes of this article I am not going to look at his international career as the games are infrequent and selection doesn't necessarily reflect form.

I'm sure its relevant that we are seeing the best of Samir now that Gallas is no longer at Arsenal. Bundle that with a settled home life and we are reaping the benefits. Deemed as something of a playboy in his final days at Marseille, it is refreshing to know he is still in a steady relationship with Tatiana Golovin - a french Tennis player who lives with him in Hampstead.

I remember watching him vs Porto where he danced through the defence and scored. I went practically mental at that and spent the next ten mins trying to convince the mrs to watch the replay. I said at the time I wished he would do that more often and its refreshing to see another of my wishes come true.

Samir has taken his best ability, the ability to control the ball at full pace and is applying it against the opposition far more regularly this season. I think this is more to do with his advanced position, starting farther up the pitch, closer to the opposition back line. At pace he's terrifying. You either foul him or let him through.

Long may it continue, because with him in the side, Arshavin, Fabregas and Rosicky have someone to play with, someone to read that stabbed first-time pass into space behind the opposition. Something that Samir is excellent at. Don't be fooled into thinking he is Fabregas-lite, Wenger doesn't want to replace Fabregas with Samir, Samir is something else altogether.

WG

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