Arsenal’s Reserves’ potential title push took a massive dent tonight as they lost 2-0 at home to West Ham United. Knowing they could go top of Reserve League South with a win, a goal in either half from Davide Ferrari and Terry Dixon did the damage. With two games in hand, it’s Aston Villa’s title to lose now.
Banfield confirmed he would ask Arsene Wenger for first-team reinforcements last week and that was granted with Łukasz Fabiański starting between the sticks. He also welcomed back Nacer Barazite and Conor Henderson from injury while Craig Eastmond retained the captain’s armband. On the bench, Swiss defender Martin Angha was a surprise addition as his enters his second month with the club in the absence of Chuks Aneke and Benik Afobe, both away with England Under 17’s.
Fabiański
Coquelin – Cruise – Miquel – Evina
Frimpong – Eastmond (c) – Henderson
Barazite – Watt – Freeman
Subs:- Shea, Boateng, Angha, Yennaris, Özyakup.
Match Report – Arsenal 0-2 West Ham
Arsenal kicked things off but the hosts were not able to transform early possession into meaningful chances, something Banfield bemoaned last week. Indeed it was actually West Ham who came closest to scoring early on as Olly Lee curled a right footed effort wide from the edge of the box. It was a warning.
Just 60 seconds later the Hammers grabbed the lead in spectacular fashion. Italian loanee Davide Ferrari collected the ball just inside the box before smashing a left-foot shot beyond Fabiański and into the far corner. It was a fine strike but Thomas Cruise and the rest of the back four appeared a little slack.
The Gunners hit back quickly and forced two chances. Evina’s run down the left caused danger, he pulled it back for Frimpong who’s shot was headed behind for a corner by Jordan Spence. Conor Henderson’s too the corner, but he could only curl it out of play for a goal kick. The excellent Francis Coquelin and then Henderson again had long range efforts but both were easy for ‘keeper Peter Kurucz. Nacer Barazite had another opportunity after a lovely team move, yet his shot was charged down by Spence.
On the stroke of half time Fabiański took a battering and needed treatment, but then Barazite up the other end could have scored in a frantic end to the first period.
Half time – Arsenal 0-1 West Ham
The second half began just as the first one ended. Arsenal on the attack with Barazite leading the charges, but after he failed to dance his way inside the West Ham back four, the visitors broke away. The long ball over the top has caused all kinds of issues for the second string this year and it did again. Terry Dixon was put through and he calmly beat Fabiański, one-on-one.
More artistry from the brilliant Barazite should have seen a goal, but his 20 yard screamer just went inches wide. Francis Coquelin was excellent bombing forward from right back but the lack of a real striker in the middle was a huge miss. Freeman had a quiet game out wide but was replaced by Oğuzhan Özyakup with 20 minutes left.
Coquelin was again at the heart of Arsenal’s best chance with 10 minutes left, as his drilled cross was met by the head of Frimpong but the wood work denied the chance for a come back. With the game looking gone, Banfield turned to the future and brought on promising defender Martin Angha. In a real surprise, he replaced striker Sanchez Watt in a proud moment for the life long Gooner.
The clock ticked down and despite late chance for Dutchman Barazite, defender Miquel and winger Henderson, it finished 2-0.
Nice write-up. Sounds like they played pretty well overall.
The performances count more than the results at this level I think, but it’s still disappointing.
Nice to see Barazite get back in action,seems he had a pretty good game.
Fabianski… whether it be at first team or reserve team level, when he has played this season have Arsenal even won a game?? Everytime he appears on the team sheet we seem to have lost…
I really dislike these sorts of short-sighted comments. If he played badly, fair enough, but to attack him because the team lost, without any evidence he played poorly in this game is very mean-spirited.
You know in the game where all this fabianski-hating really started this season, he actually played pretty well apart from the 1st goal. He got screwed on the 2nd because there was no way that was a backpass (sol sort of stumbled onto it), and even after it was given, the ref allowed the kick to be taken much closer to the goal than the pickup, and when he wasnt even looking at the kick.
But overall fabianski was pretty good in that game especially given that he had to recover from his initial error.
It’s annoying how so many so-called arsenal fans try to force out players they dont like based on a few bad performances – particularly the younger ones. Song and eboue should serve as warnings against such an attitude. They came good largely because of the faith shown by wenger. Imagine if they’d had the backing of the fans as well!
would be awesome if the grey font color for comments was used all over the site instead of the white bold one that kinda hurts your eyes
Good point, Davy. Go watch womens curling or something Joe.
we should have done better with players we had but still defeats happen from time to time and that back four was pretty week with cruise playing as a CB and Coquelin learning how to play as a RB.
weak*
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JESUS
Birmingham have lost only twice at home in 15 games
they have drawn against Chelsea, United, City, Spurs and Everton and have won against Fullham and most lower table teams
We have to win against Birmingham and the only good thing is that they will play a game mid week other than that they are a team to be reckon with and this looks like a lot harder game than I first thought
Davi
Fabianski? poo. Same as Senderos that you hailed. Major poor perfromances by the joke as a GK. Spurs v Arsenal 5:1, Pool v Arsenal 4:4, Arsenal v Chavski 1:2, Stoke v Arsenal 3:1, Porto v Arsenal 2:1. He’s just not the GK we thought he was.
The scout conned Arsene for him. AW should bring back Szczesny.
Fabianski got his chance and although he’s an excellent shot stopper but he can’t keep his concentration and gitters under control.
I agree Szczesny is an excellent prospect for the future but that’s all he is right now nothing more.
YG
any news on MERIDA?
I am getting concerned now if he moves on we might get 3-4 million compensation for him but this kid is going to be one of the best midfielders and I want him to stay at Arsenal.
i dont get the amount of praise sanchez watt gets im not to impressed by that kid
I think Watt has a lot to prove and I am not sure why he came back prematurely from his loan spell but he has to go out on loan and prove that he is indeed worthy to be considered for arsenal first team.
A lot of players look god in the reserve and youth games but are disappointing in their loans spells and vice versa.
How people do in their loan spells means a lot more than how they do in the youth and reserve games
Davy and Brian
It was a question… which frankly no-one has answered yet; at any level (first team or reserve) have Arsenal won a game this year when Fabianski has been in goal? Maybe you could find that out for me… If the answer is “No, we haven’t won a single game with him in goal” I could say, “Oh how terrible for his confidence, blah blah blah” but I’m not because I do actually think it’s because he’s not good enough.
You might think it was a short sighted comment but I don’t… He’s played for us for what, 3 years I think? Based on that run in the league last year where he never looked convincing, the FA Cup game against Chelsea, he made a calamity against Porto (the second goal would be harsh to blame him admittedly) but he has only ever had one stand out performance in the carling cup, it’s hardly consistent!
Almunia will still be Arsenal’s keeper next year I reckon and maybe even the year after that, but when Wenger decides to go with someone else I just don’t want it be Fabianski. Mannone didn’t play great but played alright when he had a run earlier in the season, but I still don’t necessarily rate him; however, and not joining the Sczesney band wagon or anything but when that kid played against West Brom he had a presence between the sticks that made me feel naturally confident in him which is quite rare. Not only that, with the reputation he’s building at Brentford, perhaps he’ll bag himself a loan move to a Championship team next year and make a serious claim to be Arsenal’s no.1 the year after that.
However, if for some reason THAT doesn’t work out, Almunia will need a replacement bought in for when he leaves because I seriously think Arsene would be naive to think we could ever challenge for major domestic and european competitions with Fabs as our no.1 and if you don’t believe me, you could probably ask the 60,000 people who watch Arsenal week in, week out at the Emirates and get the same answer.
Fabianksi wont be our no.1 but its not because he’s not good enough I have seen him make saves that are out of this world but he’s not secured enough in front on goal and that’s why he will never be our no.1
This might be because he needs a decent run in with a good run in of game (6-8 games) but that’s the problem. We can’t afford him to get his grove on and that’s the difference between us and teams like Stoke, Bolton they can give players time and we can’t.
Mannone performed outstandingly for a third choice keeper. He didn’t make any mistakes and single handily won us the game against Fulham so I rate him very very highly.
Tech 9 has only played I think a single game for us and that’s not enough to rate him bad or good and until he performs like he’s performing in EPL side or at Arsenal then there’s not point in hyping over him
Off topic
This season has been all about players stepping up and fulfilling their potential, not just Eboue but also Song, Diaby, Fabregas (yes Fabregas) and Bendtner
I say Fabregas because he has now become a world class midfielder. He was good last year and the year before that but he has been outstanding this season and whenever a person talks about world class midfielder his name is in top of the pile
There are few players who will have to step up next season – Walcott, Vela, Denilson and Fabianski which makes that’s what makes this team so awesome
They all have so much they can improve upon.
We haven’t seen anything yet from of this team. This is what you all should remember when thinking about Arsenal. Most players reach their peak at 24 – 28
Now this is the age of arsenal team
Clichy – 24
Gibbs – 20
Vermaelen – 24
Djourou – 22
Sagna – 27 (getting to his best)
Eboue – 26 (definitely their now)
Song – 22
Daiby – 23
Fabregas 23
Denilson – 21
Bendtner – 22
Arshavin – 28 (World class player)
Walcott – 21
Vela – 20
Eduardo – 27 (if only he didn’t have the injury)
Rosicky – 29 (if only he didn’t have the injury)
Ramsey – 19 (if only he didn’t have the injury)
Van Persie – 26 (If only he wasn’t injury prone)
Wilshere – 18
Merida – 19
Nasri – 22
P.S ages might be a bit wrong
Michael
I agree with what you said about Sczesney needing to play as well as he has now in the EPL to rate him; but in my own defense I did say, “without joining the bandwagon” my opinion was based on one game and the repuatation he’s making at Brentford; not only that, he would need to get a loan move to a Championship team next year, then the year after stake a claim for the Arsenal no.1…if he still aint ready then perhaps he’ll go out on loan again and hopefully to a premiership team.
Anyway, with what you say about Fabianski needing a run of games in the league to get his groove, he has already had his chance to do that on occasions but was never good enough to force Almunia out of the side.
I know being a goal keeper is a position with a lot of responsibility, but saying a team as big as Arsenal can’t let someone take that chance with 6-8 games is almost as much as saying an even bigger team in Real Madrid can’t take a chance by putting a certain 19 year old Casillas in goal.
In all fairness, I don’t entirely know the full story with how Casillas got in the first team with Real Madrid, whether he was loaned out to begin with or what. But either way, if they could take that chance with him (which paid off), then why shouldn’t we do the same with a big potential in Chesney.
It sounds a bit like I contradicted myself there! But the point I’m actually making is sooner or later, we’ll need to give (like you say) 6 to 8 first team games to Chesney ahead of second and third choice keepers Fabianski and Mannone respectively… when do you think we’ll do that? 2010/2011, 2011/2012, 2012/2013… or never?
Madrid sold their no.1 because of contract problems and Casillas was one of the highest rated young keepers at the time and he was given a run of game before the reserve keeper and he did really well in those game which made him an instant fan favourite.
But his form plummeted and Madrid bought another keeper which brought Casillas back down to earth and next year he made that spot his own and has never let go of it.
So its true that Casillas debuted for Madrid when he was 19 but he didn’t become a regular till he was 21-22.
And the situation is different between us and Madrid at that time.
Tech 9 can be an awesome keeper so can Mannone and maybe even Fabianski and I disagree that Fabianski has been given a good run in. He has played 9 games in 3 years for us, how is that been given a good run in ?
Even Mannone got to play around 5-7 games on the trot before Almunia came back and I have seen Mannone play in the EPL and after seeing his performance against Fullham (EPL side) makes me rate him higher than Tech 9, WHO If I am right had to make 3 saves when he played against WBA and he fumbled on the crosses.
There’s a huge difference between a league one keeper and an premiere league keeper and even bigger if you are an arsenal keeper
Almunia who people love to slate on will get into any EPL side outside the top 4 and maybe in United and Chelsea team as well.
I am not saying Tech9 can’t be a world class keeper but dont deny that Mannone and Fabianski can be the same.
If they have the talent then its all about how they use their talent and all these 3 keepers have the talent to be the our no.1 lets give them a proper run in with 4-6 games and then judge them.
Making Fabianski play 1 game in 4 months and then saying its crap is like saying Fabregas isn’t world class if he has a bad game.
Mannone played 6 games and he kept clean sheets in the first 4 games and in the blackburn game where we won 6-2 first goal may have been his fault but the opposition keeper played the ball into the box and a header went over Mannone head and he was caught in no mans land (his fault maybe), in the second goal the goal was deflected in by gallas (no fault of Mannone)
In the 6th game he conceded another goal against Birmingham in which he was totally at fault. HE was being impeded by the opposition player and he couldn’t hold on to the ball but in both of the goals where he could have done better he would have never had been in that kind of situation.
In the 6 games he made 24 saves and in the Fulham game alone he made at least 4-6 world class saves. This is pretty good statistics for a 21 year old who has played a couple of games before that for us.
3 goals in 6 games with 1 goal caused by a deflection and 2 goals where he could be blamed and forgiven because most goalkeepers would have conceded it as well
Michael.
“I disagree that Fabianski has been given a good run in. He has played 9 games in 3 years for us, how is that been given a good run in ?”
Fabianski, in 2007/8 made 8 first team appearances.
Fabianski, in 2008/9 made 18 first team appearances.
Fabianski, in 2009/10 so far has made 6 first team appearances.
I’m assuming you meant 9 games in a row, which I think was last year otherwise you’d be talking bollucks. But even then, when he had the run like I said earlier, he looked unconvincing, aswell as 95% of the other games he ever appeared in which to me is good enough to form an opinion to say he’s not good enough.
——————-
Mannone, I agree that he took his chance well and I personally would place him ahead of Fabianski. I remember that game against Fulham and he did play well, but “4-6 World Class Saves” is slightly exagerating, and one of them was the ball that smashed him the face that he’d never of been able to get out the way of if he wanted to lol.
He played and got a few clean sheets, but looked nervy at times and unfortunately made some errors. I’m not saying he can’t be a good keeper and play regularly in the Premier League, but first impressions…. can he be Arsenal’s no.1, not really… no.2? definitely.
Bare in mind, when I say play for Arsenal, I mean be a “World Class Keeper”
——————-
Sczesney on the other hand is what, 19 or 20? Been playing really well apparently for Brentford, has a lot of potential and Wenger himself made the comment;
“I really believe in him that he will one day be Arsenal’s No 1,”.
“He has all the qualities you want from a goalkeeper. That means a good basic confidence level, he is very brave, fantastic size, very agile and his speed in his reflexes is absolutely unbelievable.
“When you think it is a goal, with him it is still no goal. He makes unbelievable saves. We are great believers that he will be an outstanding goalkeeper.”
And like I said earlier, Chesney will probably need a couple more seasons on loan and if he doesn’t make it or turn out as good as a lot of people on here think he’s gonna be… then we’re gonna need a replacement for Almunia and I don’t really think we should settle for a second class keeper.
I want to see barazite in the Emirates cup this summer
Fabianski may have an excellent reflex, but that alone is not enough. if he wants to be a top GK, he also need to have a good level of self confidence. Anyone who watch him play for us (at least this year and last season FA Cup match) can see how poor his self confidence is, even Mannone (whose ironically is behind him in the playing order) shows a lot more self confidence than him. Until he can sort it out, I don’t think he will ever gonna be a good GK.
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