By Martin Sejas
Arsenal fans, like me and my colleague Rayed, this season have experienced a series of emotions. From the highs of smashing Fenerbache, Sheffield United, Blackburn and Porto, to the lows of playing poorly against weaker teams such as Fulham, Hull and now Stoke.
This is an emotional rollercoaster that does not do justice to the Arsenal fan, who got so close last season. It simply doesn’t make sense to be doing extremely well against decent teams, but faltering against arguably much weaker opposition. There must be some fundamental problems and I think I know what they are.
These boys can’t defend a set piece or long ball if it meant their life. I mean for Pete’s sake, can you make your weakness any more obvious to your rivals? This is the exact technique Stoke used at the weekend, employing Delap to make long throws into the box consistently and no surprises, Arsenal conceded two scrappy off his throw ins. Against Fulham, they concede from the corner, as with games against Hull and Bolton.
Sure, I might sound a little bit harsh, every team is susceptible during set-pieces, its usually the way a smaller team is able to beat a bigger team, but let’s face it, there is a disturbing pattern developing at Arsenal and its happening more often than not. We often have our hearts skipping a beat or two when the opposition team gets a set piece, unfortunately for the Arsenal fan, set pieces are enough to cause a heart attack these days.
The second problem is that there is too much overconfidence, letting players shoot from outside the box. Too much space is being given and Arsenal are being punished. Look at the Sunderland and Hull games, wonderful shots from outside the box. Sure, on a good day they would have gone over the bar and Arsenal would be blameless right now, but they should have been closed down by the defenders, regardless.
The thing that should make an Arsenal fan sick, is the Spurs match. Many argue that Spurs deserved the point, which is true, but look at all four goals closely. Arsenal let Spurs shoot from long range for each of the four goals. I am being a little bit harsh, but think about it, four long range goals conceded in one night. Either they were unlucky, the other team was very good, or Arsenal’s defending was bad. I think it was a combination of all those factors.
So there you have it, each of the games Arsenal has dropped points and it nearly always comes down to those two weaknesses. What are Gallas, Toure and Silvestre doing? What is wrong with the centre backs?
When Arsene Wenger didn’t go out and spend big on experienced players in the transfer window, he was criticised. However, he continually stated that his young squad were good enough. I believe him, but he needs to have a serious think about these defensive issues. The attack is fine, we’ve seen goals galore in some games, but in the games they are losing, I think they’re losing confidence and so the attackers aren’t scoring goals.
A defensive midfielder like Flamini is needed to fill in the void in front of the back four and stop those long range shots. The centre backs need to get their act together or Wenger needs to buy new ones. They simply cannot afford to let in these silly goals.
A tough week is ahead. Fenerbache on Wednesday and Manchester United on Saturday. United will probably be the litmus test for this Arsenal side. These inconsistent results are inconclusive. Are Arsenal true title contenders or are they just going for a Champions League spot? We will find out on Saturday if they are the real deal.
Martin Sejas is the chief writer of http://www.SportsNewsFootball.com, a leading football website for football lovers known for its fearless and critical analysis of the major issues affecting the beloved game of football.
Volkswagen Scirocco by MCCHIP
By .JohnSmith.
Volkswagen Scirocco has become a popular model among tuners and the latest proposal comes from the tuning of the MCCHIP. German tuner has prepared a medium package for Scirocco 2.0 TSI which contains a new software and an exhaust system, turbo engine of 2.0 liters now arriving at 246 horsepower and 346 Nm.
MCCHIP not stopped here and the German model equipped with a suspension H
http://www.carztune.com/volkswagen-scirocco-by-mcchip/
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Facebook Constantly Receives Investing News Headlines
By MIKE SELVON
It is one thing to create a website that allows a group of college students to interact with each other. It is an entirely different thing when that network goes global. Mark Zuckerberg knew a good thing when he developed it. His networking site Facebook quickly took the world by storm.
It allowed people from across the globe to connect and be part of a growing social network. It allowed people to find friends and share stories about their daily lives. It is also about money. Investing news stories are continuously being published about this networking giant.
Investing news stories are always making the headlines. The Facebook empire made its first headlines when Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, invested $500,000 into the fledgling enterprise. Would this be the starting point for a top 10 business?
Many business experts conjectured that Facebook would join forces with a larger company to help back its financial needs. They were a bit mistaken.
Facebook makes its money, which allows it to remain a free website, through the use of advertising services. Each time a person clicks on one of the banner ads and makes a purchase, the company receives a portion of the profits. But there is a problem with that.
With revenue dependent upon you clicking a banner ad, it can begin to suffer if people do not buy through their advertising services. This is most likely why Facebook had a $3.63 million dollar net loss in 2005. It was spending more to host the website and provide services than it was bringing in.
Enter in the merger and acquisition talks with giants Yahoo, Google and other companies. These huge companies tried to enter into negotiations with Facebook and a bidding war was even started at one time. Zuckerberg issued a statement in 2007 that essentially said that Facebook would not be sold to someone else.
Was this the right thing to do? If you compare Facebook’s membership to MySpace’s membership, then you are left with the impression that it is no where near as successful. MySpace has more than double the members and is still a growing entity.
So what will happen with Facebook when its daily advertising is eclipsed by its spending? No one is certain of anything yet but with the huge net loss it suffered in 2005 it still remains to be seen if Facebook will be able to continue to compete with MySpace.
There might actually be a day in the future when it must charge membership fees. However, for now that is only a hypothesis set out by business experts. Facebook today is still free of charge and open to people everywhere.
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