Chambers wants out?

It is nearing the transfer window and the rumors are flooding in. This one however, has substance. Sources VERY close to Calum Chambers and Arsenal are saying that they are expecting a bid from Manchester City for the youngster, who has had to share playing time at right back with Montoya and Debuchy. It is thought that the Arsenal boss see's Chambers' best position as a Centre back but the partnership of Koscielny and Howedes are too hard to break apart.



Troubling times at Arsenal as they face losing not only players, but also their manager.

January

Debuchy departs
The right back had fell out of favor at The Emirates and to give Chambers and Montoya more playing time the 30 year old Frenchman had to go. Galatasaray bought him for $10m.

Game of The Month

Arsenal vs. Liverpool


The Barkley show

The 22 year old burst from where is circled on the pitch to around half way before offloading the ball to the ever-willing Alexis Sanchez. Barkley breezed past Liverpool's midfield like they weren't even there! Lucas, the supposed defensive midfielder was nowhere to be seen.
Ball watching

Barkley was able to ghost in behind the defender here so easily. He anticipated Alexis' cross and took one touch past the onrushing Liverpool defenders trying to close him down and finished calmly.
5 parts of the pitch

I personally believe there are five key segments you can cut a pitch into (without separating areas around the box). Here you can see when we are in possession we resemble a sort of 3-4-3. Meanwhile, Liverpool are in a 4-5-1. The only problem is Liverpool haven't set anybody up to close off in which we can feed Danny Welbeck the ball. The triangle is where Lucas should be. The diamonds are potential areas in which Welbeck could turn and set our wingers into - instead we kept the ball.
On the left hand side in the middle zone we have a centre midfielder going over to create a 2 vs. 1 on their winger. This would create a 3 vs. 2 if you include my winger and their full back. - and that is what the aim is - when we are in possession we need to create advantages all over the pitch. We had 61% possession in this game and the game plan worked perfectly.

Report cards

Manchester United

27 goals and 12 assists between Falcao and RVP in the league alone makes for a deadly strike duo for any defence to fear. Backed up by the craft and skill of Di Maria and Mata, they have a shot at the title just like last year. They were unbeaten in 21 in the league until Everton beat them 1-0 at the end of January.

FFT's prediction: 2nd.

Arsenal

The reigning champions! a win in their game in hand will see Arsenal go top on goal difference. But IF Chelsea win all their games in hand they will go top.
15 goals for Welbeck see's him joint top with Falcao, and 8 assists for Sanchez (along with 9 goals) see's him joint top with three others. Ozil has contributed 7 assists, too. It really is Arsenal's to lose we think - although they aren't in a strong commanding position, they have got the taste for winning and don't really have many weak links.

FFT's prediction: 1st

Chelsea

20 goals and 10 assists between Costa and Hazard this season. Costa has been bullying defences and most people cannot get near Hazard when he is in full flight. This could be Chelsea's year if they gain consistency in the last stretch. Khedira has been bossing the midfield and Fabregas and Willian have been chipping in with assists! It is the big games that have been letting Chelsea down this year - the winning mentality and grit seem to have disappeared for now.
FFT's prediction: 3rd


*** Manchester City haven't made the cut because of their poor form and poor consistency, a change of managers last month doesn't help their cause***

February

Game of The Month

Arsenal vs. Stoke

Ramsey found a pocket of space and had runners to aim at. One of which was Ozil who was making that diagonal run on the graphic. He takes the shot first time after being slid in and finishes very, very well in the bottom left corner.

Wilshere's awareness

Ramsey pings the ball towards Joel Campbell and as soon as Wilshere realizes he won't be involved in the first phase of this play he turns and provides support to Campbell.

Campbell plays the ball to an onrushing Wilshere and then turns into space. This provides a pocket of space for Wilshere to operate in and also takes the defender with him, but because he didn't stick tight Campbell lost him and was able to square the ball to Welbeck for an easy finish.

Manager's Comment

Really happy with this month. STILL unbeaten in the league and we are in all the big cup competitions still. Roma took the lead against us but we came back. The character and spirit in this side is fantastic and it's like watching the Arsenal of old - teams are in the tunnel knowing that they are already 1-0 down. Mental strength is key and we have that right now.

March(ing) on

Invincibles?

Game of The Month

Arsenal vs. Manchester United



Jones should have switched the play when he had the chance. Instead he plays the ball to Rafael who has no obvious passing options when he receives it.


Now when we cut off Jones Rafael has to play the ball inside. If I was United's manager I would be looking at Jones to slide back so Immobile either lets him have the ball again or he follows him and then you can play the ball inside easier. The other option would to have the Attacking midfielder make a run down the line so Rafael has an easier pass. This is the problem of playing a 4-3-1-2. No options/outlets out wide at times.
Chamberlain's awareness

Before the ball is played Chamberlain is on his way inside to snuff out any balls being played. But Rafael still plays the ball and Chambo nicks the ball ahead of Rojo coming forward and he then makes his way to the goal and that made it 2-1.

The title race became clearer after this. We are ahead of United and Chelsea now and still unbeaten!!!

Manager's Comment

The most pleasing game of this month was the Tottenham game in the premiership. With ten minutes to go Welbeck draws us level and in the last minute - Jack Wilshere, who has had a fantastic year put away the penalty to win us the game. This was the performance of champions, when we appeared down and out, we fought back and it fills me with pride that the boys want this unbeaten season as I do.

The only low of the month would be the loss to Juventus away. But a 1-0 deficit is definitely one we can overturn...

nice month, Love the detail

2014-12-08 02:44#203050 Denzy : nice month, Love the detail

Thanks mate ! It's interesting analysing the games / sections of the games because you really see how your ideas towards the team actually come into play.

April

Game of the Month

The scene was set, beat Juve by two goals and we are through to a Champions League semi-final. The Emirates was rocking, the players were up for it - and within eight minutes the place fell silent. Campbell, a lad who I have given a chance over the two seasons I've had with the club had thrown our plans into turmoil.


Ramsey has excelled in the deep lying playmaker role this season and really steps up when we need him. He is our equivalent to a Gerrard or Lampard I'd say, big game player - just needs to add goals. Here, he spots the run of Welbeck who squares it to Walcott for a simple finish. This is with ten men vs. Juve's 11. If you look how narrow they are, they've really offered us space in behind, and also we could have switched the ball to out right back who had acres of space too.
Poor tactically from Juventus.

Wonderful Walcott

The lad overcomes injury time and time again to get back to the top level/form we need him in. He picked up the ball on the edge of the box and with defenders closing in all around him he dodged and weaved through them and fired in a rocket of a strike!

REVENGE



Barcelona do not only have talented players but they also have intelligent players. Messi epitomizes everything good about Barca and they went 1-0 through good movement from him and Rakitic. Rakitic comes into space in front of my back 4 and loses his marker too easily. As this is happening Messi finds space so that Rakitic has the passing option.


Now Messi has the ball he can give the return pass to Rakitic, who was free to hit the ball first time top corner...
The red lines are my corrections to the players positioning; it is where I think they should have been to prevent the goal from happening.


This goal we scored to level the game was a carbon copy of the goal against Juventus. Barcelona's problem defensively is that they leave too many gaps. With Walcott pushed on so far we will either have chances to put him in, OR we will push their left back further down the pitch meaning he cannot join in with attacks. Here, the former happened and he was able to square the ball to Welbeck to level the game up.

Manager's Comment

The best month I could have asked for. In big games we thrive. If Walcott and Welbeck aren't at the races, Sanchez, Ozil, Ramsey, Chamberlain and Immobile can come in and take the mantle from them. The defence have always been solid this year and we are a hard working team. We can mix it up, play short and can also go direct if we need to.

The hurt that Barcelona have inflicted on Arsenal in the past has started to fade away after this win on aggregate. Now we have remain focused and win the finals that we are participating in and make sure we can keep our eyes on the league title also.

May

Ross leads Arsenal through unbeaten season!!!

Game of The Month

Arsenal vs. Chelsea


Will Hughes and Ross Barkley had to deputise for the injured Ramsey and Kramer and they performed very well this game. Controlling the midfield for us. You see in the graphic that when Ozil receives the ball he has three clear options. Chelsea never really put pressure on us consistently to stop our passing game.


Ozil gives it to Sanchez, who gave it straight back to the playmaker and from there, he had the option of playing Oxlade Chamberlain through. Although there was no goal from this particular move, it is just showing you how:
1. We can manipulate the opposition and create space to work in.
2. How Chelsea let us dictate play and how deep they sat.


Ozil was at the heart of most good we did on the day of the final. and he found Barkley in a ton of space on the edge of Chelsea's box. The Chelsea payer circled is the one that should have been tracking Barkley.


Eventually, it was a defender who came out and pressured Barkley, however he still got his shot off and Courtois parried the ball right into Alexis Sanchez's path. 1-0 to us and that's how it stayed!

Treble winners and Invincibles.

Manager's Comment

The way we have conducted ourselves throughout the season has been very commendable. We have remained professional and got on with the job. Manchester United pushed us in the league but we were just that much better than them.
Juventus gave us a scare in the Champions League but we performed when it mattered most. Barcelona never posed a threat over both legs as we created so many chances we knew we could score goals.
The FA CUP draw was kind to us and the semi-final vs. Chelsea was the biggest hurdle.

The biggest issue now is trying to motivate a team that has won it all. Where do we go from here? There will be changes next season, watch this space...