Arsenal Reserves have tended to struggle against their Aston Villa counterparts in recent years, with Villa most notably running out 10-1 victors just over a year ago, so it was a measure of some relief that the Gunners fought back to come from behind and draw 1-1 against a side who are perennial challengers for the Reserve League title at London Colney this afternoon.
Arsenal once again called upon Ryo and Ju Young Park after neither of the Asian duo made it off the bench against Leeds United on Monday night. Both players were lively and registered efforts on goal after Arsenal had gone behind. Ryo struck a shot straight at the goalkeeper after good work from Rhys Murphy and ex-Barcelona youngster Jon Toral, who was making his first start at this level, and Park struck a post with a fierce effort.
However, it was a substitute who made the vital intervention as far as Arsenal were concerned, with Josh Rees, who was ravaged with injury during much of the early part of the campaign, emerging off the bench to prod home the equaliser. A draw appeared a fair result on the balance of play, although it remains to be seen what the remainder of the campaign will hold for the aforementioned Ryo and Park.
Neither player has come anywhere near to establishing themselves as a regular part of the matchday squad, with Park’s only involvement outside of the Carling Cup coming against Marseille in the Champions League when he flattered to deceive. Ryo saw his development somewhat stifled by an injury that kept him out for several months, and has turned out seven times for the second string this season, but has been unable to impose himself on the first-team picture thus far.
Arsene Wenger’s initial plan appeared to centre on Ryo providing back up for Andrey Arshavin during Gervinho’s exertions at the African Cup of Nations, but with Tomas Rosicky and Yossi Benayoun also capable of operating on the left flank, a loan spell may be the most viable option for the Japanese starlet.
Concerns have been raised that a spell in a physical league such as the Championship could do him more harm than good given his slender frame, but such a process of adaption to English football may prove necessary and beneficial in the long run.
As for Park, the return of Thierry Henry seems to have served as confirmation of Wenger’s current lack of faith in him, although Marouane Chamakh’s absence at least means that he is likely to make the bench with more regularity over the next few weeks.
Although part of the first-team squad, Park and Ryo have effectively been Reserve players so far in their first seasons in North London. That is not likely to remain the case for the rest of the campaign, however, as they both seek to be involved in first-team football of some description.
Hopefully park will get more chances
I am pretty sure Park can score 0 goals too , why not start him over chamakh ?
He’s not French.
Neither is Chamakh.
Chamakh IS french-ish , he was born in France
Am I the only one having trouble with getting sixpack from that sixpackshortcut.com products I bought? Those Asians say they found a shortcut to getting abs, I am having none of it. I paid 99.99£, it looked like a bargin.
Sorry?
what?? go away
It’s the advert on the top of the page dudes. Now they are telling me to find an Asian wife. That’s appropriate.
er, more fool you buddy, the ads on this page link to your recent search results, so you’ve been looking up sixpacks etc. or you’ve been marked as a mug who buys random crap and so now you will be inundated.
Park does deserve his chance in the first team. Much more so than out-of-form Chamakh who hasn’t done anything constructive for months. Ryo is clearly an exciting prospect, but his main issue seems to be the physical side of the game. I do, however, remember a game for Feyenoord where he suffered some very harsh tackles but kept going without any complaints. He’ll need to bring that toughness to England.
I rate Ryo quite highly, but considering he was playing Japanese schoolboy football a little over a year ago, he was always gonna struggle to break into the first team straight away. Going out on loan would be the best option for him right now. I recall him doing very well at Feyenoord last year. As for Park, well… clearly the manager has no faith in him! Its as simple as that. Shame really because I dont think he’s been given a proper chance. I was there for his goal against Bolton and he took it extremely well! Lets hope… Read more »
I question the faith and thinking behind both signings.
Park was a last minute arrival that was stolen away from under the nose of Lille. He has offered next to nothing so far and Wenger clearly doesn’t rate him as even Chamakh (and now Henry) is ahead in the pecking order.
As for Ryo, well Wenger fought tooth and nail to get him a special talent work permit and integrate him into the squad. Yet again his blind faith in inexperienced players has failed to pay off and now we are looking at loaning him out.
He’s not even 20.
Wait for him to mature for Christ’s sake.
Kinda funny that you’re trying to criticise Arsene’s youth policy.
Its like teaching your nana how to suck eggs.
Dammit, broadcast the reserve games already
they are all on Arsenal.com, surely the first place you’d look?
But you have to pay.
Ryo is an interesting prospect. I hope to see more of him in the coming years. Park, i hope AW will play him more. He have the scoring touch with him.
One thing for sure, I’m glad AW brought Henry back. It lift our spirit so much!
We’ll end up 5th or lower if we do not supplement the squad with better players
You have lost a lot of credibility after accusing Wenger of doing things wrongly by signing an ‘inexperienced’ 18-year-old Ryo Miyaichi and directly assuming Wenger wants Ryo to become a first-team player.
Go away troll.
he is not a troll,he is just stupid
i think wenger just likes chamakh more…he has been playing him over park just to be able to show ppl that chamakh is not as bad as ppl claim.
its a shame really becoz Park’s off the ball movement is said to be tremendous and he always takes intelligent runs to create space for him and his fellow comrades.
he is better than wenger gives him credit for… chamakh is the new walcott.
To be fair, Chamakh is a very good player when it comes to the effect on the team. His qualities can be argued, but it should be noted he was never bought as a out and out goal scorer. probably suited more for a team like Dortmund who depend on a UNIT permormance than Arsenal. Ryo however is. In my opinion he’s the closest thing we have had to the raw qualities of a young Henry. I doubt its his attacking attributes which have hampered him from breaking into the first team. Similarly to OX, there are areas of their… Read more »
I feel Park needs a chance, he now needs to be blended in. Cannot understand why an international player is not used, and he is brilliant at that level. There must b some reason or wenger might be close to using him. The little that I have seen has impressed me.
Like most fans its hard to have an opinion on a player we never see. But you can only assume that our manager thinks Chamkh was the better option as he’s been the player of choice lately even tho the bloke has been woeful and uninterested. So on the premise that arsene knows and can do no wrong. Park can’t be up to much can he.
When are we getting Karin benzema? I’m sick of all these articles and posts about chamakh and park and there inability to do anything.
All jokes aside, this is a pretty shitty spot for us to be in. I mean, everyone and there buck toothed uncle knows that these two suck. Let’s just hope rvp stays fit and TT can bang in a few and give robin a bit of rest. I can’t see arsene signing a striker untill the summer.
Saying Park sucks just because Wenger doesn’t have faith is a fucking fallacy.
Don’t ejaculate so prematurely bro.
Judging by his run-out against Marseille, Park sucks and lacks the requisite touch at this level. Harsh? Yes. True? Probably.
@Witoldo
Judging by ONE GAME Park sucks?
Dear anon, please remember the agreement we had about 5 weeks back. And if you must comment, please don’t be so vulgar, it has no need anywhere near my post.
Plus, if park didn’t suck, we wouldn’t have signed TT on a loan and he would have played at least a handful of games. So, he sucks.
Don’t you think it’s ironic that our strength is in our defence rather than shattering teams to pieces?
I think I agree with you that no other striker would come in now, heck I even wish our big dane is back.
At least our big flop is free when you compare it to other big flops like Torres and Dzeko
oh and Carroll too 😀
If not for this article I could have swear that it was a big Arsenal conspiracy to pretend to have him in the club while he’s in Korea doing his National Service.
I think calling someone stupid for saying we could finish 5th is ironic. He’s right. We are halfway through the season with this current squad and where do we sit? 5th, that’s where. It’s been clear for a long time that the backup we have for Rvp is far below standard. Yet for some reason Wenger won’t correct it. We have a squad that is 2 or 3 players away. But that has been the case for 4 years. The table doesn’t lie, my friends. Blind faith doesn’t compete with cold hard facts. At one point if Henry was injured… Read more »
brilliant point, apart from the fact that we’ve played man utd and citeh away, chel$cum away, sp*rs away, throw in the utterly shite start to the season that resulted in significant reinforcements (or panic buying, take yer pick) being added at the end of august, and we’re starting the second half of the season with home advantage in key games, and a better squad than we had at the start of teh season so it’s perfectly reasonable to say that with the current squad a top 4 finish is not only possible but entirely probable your analysis suggests we should… Read more »
and who else have we failed to beat and also in our recent run, look at how we have struggled to beat poor opposition.
this squad remains far from strong enough
@ anon so why does he not play him over a player that’s by anyone’s standards Of late is shite, surely a run out in the cup over a player that leaves for Africa the day after is preferable. Make sense ? I’m not having a pop at park because I’ve not seen enough of him. But you seem to think wenger can do no wrong then surely park must be inferior to chamack or arsene would play him.
If the manager won’t even give Park a place on the bench, then it must surely say something. Unless Wenger is giving Chamakh chances to prove that he isn’t an embarrassment to the team (which, if true, is having the opposite effect), he must simply think Park isn’t up to it. These days I just get the impression that Park was signed to give us more media attention in Korea.
As for Miyaichi, he looks an exciting prospect. He needs a loan, in my opinion.
If park is some sort of secret weapon then why not play the bloke. We are team fighting for our cl lives struggling to score an we still persist with Chamkh. A player that was beyond terrible on Monday. His positioning was a joke. But arsenal still won’t give park a chance, why ? Fucked if I can figure it out. Some people think arsene is infallible so if that case explain the park situation ?
It’s clear that Park is simply not good enough. Even Arsene “Mr Magoo” Wenger – the man who thought that a Spanish waiter could be our first choice goalkeeper – has realised that he’s dropped a massive bollock by signing the hopeless Korean. I suppose that Wenger has got an excuse for the purchase: he panicked and shat himself after we were thumped 8-2 at Old Trafford. In the Frenchman’s terrified mind, even a 27-year-old with no pedigree or talent was better than nothing as the transfer window was about to shut. How wrong he was. Next season I expect… Read more »
what about a left back wenger. this lack of quick investment will cost us points on saturday you idiot.
nail head hit
RVP cost £2.7m Carrol £35m Torres 50m. It is very easy to say go out an pay big bucks for a “big name” but it doesn’t always work. Which of those three would you have in your team? Park will no doubt play but initially with RVP/ and or Henry as he is an out and out goalscorer which if given space will I am sure thrive. Would Benzema or Podolski be the saviour for Arsenal – we would have to change our system to bring them in which certainly mid season could be disastrous as thy would be coming… Read more »
I forgot how its not the done thing to criticise, even if it is constructive. My respect for Blogs is pretty much all that has me keeping my mouth shut at the minute.
Oh Frog, spot on again mate.
Thank you sir.
Park showed in inability to understand the movement required by a striker in the formation which Arsene set up for the Marseille game. IMO that’s why he looked well below par. Sure he played against lesser opponents when he scored on international duty but that was in a different team with different dynamics. He needs time to properly understand and apply his role in the formation and tactics of the first team. This obviously begs the question ” why did Arsene buy him in the first place” maybe he thought that Park would adjust in a short period. As a… Read more »
Park isn’t the answer, Ryo isn’t the answer yet…
It’s possible we won’t reach a CL spot with RVP and without him we may be looking at our worst finish in like forever.
Really, hope we can find a striker or at least keep TH14 for the year.
I’m just glad I’m not making the decisions.
Who would you go after…Frog? Fat?
Like I’ve said before, mate, we might be able to get Yakubu as a stop-gap from hard-up Blackburn.
This Summer I’d love us to really go for it and sign someone like Benzema or Torres.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Realistically , I want Peter odemwinge. He’s a wenger ish signing that I could see happening.
In a fantasy world, pato or Torres.
Always liked odemwinge or at least felt that when we played them he’d be the player that could cost us points.
But it would be nice to get torres and Arsenal was where he returned to his goal-scoring form
You all are asking for Torres? Torres! You guys are hilarious!
It’s obvious you want a ‘name’ signing, rather than someone who will do a job.
We need a good finisher and there are loads of them around. Buy one Arsene.
P.s: Torres is not one at the mo.
dudes please! park is good enough to play for arsenal he just needs games like any other newcomer. the problem at arsenal is arsene’s favouritism. if park is bad what about ryo and chamberlain? are they bad too? arsene is just to weak to axe senior players and thats mismanagement. vela is not henry but he could have scored 15 goals has he been given a chance. he’s doing the same thing this season. wenger needs to grow some balls now and axe arshavin and walcott for few games and gamble on miyaichi or chamberlain. no he cannot do that.… Read more »
Wake up and smell the coffee, mate. Our squad is shit – especially Park.
hahahaha thanks for finally revealing yourself as a troll
always thought you were, but thanks for the confirmation anyhow
Our starting, healthy, 11 is capable of winning the league. The rest of our “squad” is shit.
backpedal all you like, son just out of curiosity, where do you think the first eleven started out? in the arsenal first team? or did i dream that alex song went on loan to charlton and was a squad player for a few years. probably one who you would happily slag off the manager for persisting with, instead of shipping him out and signing some star fucking waste of money. What about RvP? He was a squad player for years. Must have made you fucking weep with anger, that. There we were winning nothing and RvP a squad player! We… Read more »
Sorry Sam but I’m not back pedaling, not am I your son. Read the thread again before you post smartass dickhead comments son.
In fact, check the arseblog archives if you’d like. I think you’ll find that fat and I have being pedaling forward for quite a bit longer than you’ve even been posting here.
Tell me honestly that our squad players can compete with any of the squad players currently at any top side in Europe. No way. Check your tone son.
Gotta agree with frog, the drop in quality after the starting 11 is big. I’m all for giving the younger players game time but I’d like to see that mixed with quality players that can consistantly make a difference when we need it.
Shit compared to what? To City? Of course. Everyone’s squad looks shit next to City’s or Barcelona’s or Madrid’s. Are you seriously taking a dump on Arsenal because we can’t compete with a team owned by a country with endless wealth? But on a fraction of the budget of any of our competitor’s, I think we have more depth now than we’ve had in years. In fact, we look a better squad than Chelsea right now, and United’s depth isn’t looking all that special anymore these days. Yes, we’re still paying for a terrible start this season, but the players… Read more »
hey frog, did i insult you? nope, just pointed out that our current first 11 is almost entirely made up from players who were previously squad players. if your response to that is to call me a “smartass dickhead” (ass? really??!?!?) then it pretty much confirms that you’re a blowhard know-nothing who’s only here to troll, like fatgooner. calling our “squad” shit insults the first 11 as much as the rest of the playing staff. it shows ignorance as well. presumably you think coquelin is shit as well? frimpong, too. a while back szczesny was shit as well, only a… Read more »
What the fuck are you talking about. 99.99% of football players start out as squad players. No shit song and rvp and others were squad players.
By saying our squad players are shit I mean this. When we’re down 2-1 in the 71 min, who does our manager bring on as of late? Yup, chamakh and arshavin. Shit. Chelsea brings on one of either drogba
What the fuck are you talking about. 99.99% of football players start out as squad players. No shit song and rvp and others were squad players. By saying our squad players are shit I mean this. When we’re down 2-1 in the 71 min, who does our manager bring on as of late? Yup, chamakh and arshavin. Shit. Chelsea brings on one of either drogba, Torres or anelka. United has berbatov or chicarito. If we lose a cb, we bring on dj or the squid. Chelsea brings Alex or ivonovic, united have smalling or jones. Our squad is useless after… Read more »
oh dear frog, toys have vacated the pram.
you’re both being very black and white about this. Barca + Utd both have strong first 11 and weak benches. City and Madrid are blessed with a wealth of options, but we saw that even City last night have no defensive cover, and off the bench? they have Nasri who looks to me like he thinks he made a mistake. On budget spent our squad is by far the best performing in the league. Everyone above us in the table has a team that cost them £100m+ ours is less than £50m.
Itg for fucks sake you can’t compare the signing of rvp to carroll or Torres. Totally different times. I’m not saying buy this player or that player but signing no one just can’t be right. Spurs tonight could be 9 pints clear of us and I will never ever accept that that filth should be above us. The twitch is looking to buy and his team is flying. We are struggling to score. Better judges about the game than me all reckon we need another striker, I would rather sign someone and say ok we tried but just wasn’t good… Read more »
I still have no idea why we bought Park. The cynical would say “shirt sales in S. Korea” but why would South Koreans have any interest in buying the shirt of a reserves player? It baffles.
Maybe he just really sucks in training? Who knows.
I’m prepared to give park plenty of time to prove himself, the lads from a very different culture, he has to be given time to adapt. let’s compare him to park at utd, who after so many years at that club still doesn’t start every game for them, it isn’t fair or right for poeple to write our park off, when he hasn’t even been seen by many of us. judge him when he has had as many chances as chamakh to prove himself. And we’ve actually seen him play, But not until then. It’s the quick fix attitude, and… Read more »
Will, Park was playing for Monaco, not Seoul Rovers.
i know that, & your point is what exactly??
That you dont need 4 months to acclimatise if you’ve come from the French League. Gervinho didn’t get that luxury
have you heard of the saying that everyone is different? how can you pass judgement on a player being no good, when you haven’t even seem him play?? I dont work at the club, I’m just an arsenal supporter like you, and for whatever reason park hasn’t played, I’m prepared to support him, until we see beyond all reasonable doubt that he isn’t arsenal quality. but not until then.
If every football manager was a quick as some to dismiss certain players then alot of good players would be passed up.
You know what makes me sick? It’s when idiots like The Only Sam Is Nelson defend Wenger and the Board when any fool can see that we are sinking deeper and deeper into the shit. Tonight, Spurs have just gone nine points clear of us and are genuine title contenders. We are fighting for fourth place with the worst squad of players that we have had in twenty-five years. And still there are no signs of any new players being bought – especially the striker that we so desperately need. Instead of calling me a troll, Sammy, maybe you should… Read more »
Well said. It is unbelievable how people are so blind to what is really going on. It’s one pathetic excuse after another and these ” Sam Nelson” types just keep drinking the kool aide and taking shots at the people who call it how it is. This club that we love is being run into the ground and I’m not going along for the ride without speaking up. It’s as if people don’t realize that if either sZcz or rvp get hurt, we are FuCKING DONE. Don’t fees me this shit about man city or barca having all this cash.… Read more »
15 goals for Vela? Are you joking? Perhaps if we were 5 0 up in every game & then he came on as a sub. He couldn’t even get a game for WBA last year. Long & short of it Is that we have a fighting chance for 4th, onthe assumption that RVP continues in the same vein & Jack gets back to last yrs level once he is fit. With half the season left, a bit of judicious spending would get us a lot closer to Sperz & the Mancs. Leighton Baines would be an star at LB for… Read more »
you’ve got to admit Vela would be a better option than Arshavin
Not for me Dom, but he’s probably a better option than Park
I don’t think anyone is blind to anything here. We just have different ideas about how to express ourselves, and different ideas about what’s good for the club. Some take the short view, others the long. Some wait until the season ends before assuming we’re out of the top four. Some don’t. Honestly, you can go on and on about how shit we are, but for me I think we look good for the top four this season. I think we’re better than Chelsea now, and I’m fairly confident we’ll overtake them this season. I also think we’re not far… Read more »
If we waited untill the end of the season to talk about it, we wouldn’t have much of a blog community now would we? And as far as listening to “abused cocaine addicts”, you listened to your mo………. Never mind, I’ll let it go. Hahahahhaha.
Sometimes, we should all try & be a bit more positive. I was so taken aback by fatgooners thought that this is the worst squad for 25 yrs, I feel compelled to pick what I think is the worst Arsenal XI of that period. And guess what? There’s only one member of the current squad in there.
Have numbered the team 1-11 for all us old timers
1 Almunia
2 Lydersen
3 Silvestre
4 Hillier
5 Caeser
6 Cygan
7 Carter
8 Kiwomya
9 Mariner
10 Hayes
11 McGoldrick
sub Jensen
What do other readers think?
I feel so unworthy of an Arsenal fan for not knowing our worse players 🙁
Yes, individually no doubt this has been the worse XI + subs in quite awhile. But saying that though our team unity has been the best since the Invincibles era. The last minute buy might not have set the footballing world on fire but it has bought plenty of influences our team desperately need for the last 4-5 seasons. (except for Park, is he a reserve coach or something?) Even though its our worse XI for quite sometime this is in no way a decline. Our club still has very strong foundation of developing players that our future teams rely… Read more »
fatgooner, the club you love is, by the sounds of it, in N17. seriously, putting aside the fact that you can’t avoid being abusive, you’re so far wide of the mark with your assertion that our squad is the worst in 25 years it’s laughable. do you know who we played on our 100th annivesary game? if i remember right it was coventry. i was there. if you were there, you were probably telling GG off for persisting with adams, you were probably one of those arsenal fans who thought he wasn’t good enough. but i digress. it was a… Read more »
here is the things based on fact only…
Park’s been played 201 mins so far and he scored 1 goal….
this is approximately 0.5 goal per game…(90mins X 2 =180 mins)
it’s not that bad..int’ it?
I don’t see any reasons that why Wenger is not giving him a even single chance compare to Chamack…
agree???
Does that mean TH12 will score 4.5 goals a game since he played 20 mins and scored 1 goal?
wait… he may actually do that
the man is a legend
I think the overall signing of Park was one for an extra man that they were hoping would be a good addition for the squad although that may not be the case considering of how he hasn’t featured. But also i think he was bought so we can open up the eastern asian market exactly the same way when we signed
Junichi Inamoto.
Oi mates, this is a video of some scousers mocking Nasri on the way home from the Mickey Mouse cup game tonight. They tell him he should never have left the Arsenal and then he drifts away. What a wank!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaNDKK_HGxY
Absolutely brilliant!!
Thumbs Up for that!!
We need another striker simple as that. If we don’t get get one and then don’t finish in the top four who’s fault will that be ? Bad luck? Bad management ?
I’m sure on this site the blame will fall squarely on the shoulders of fatgooner and I.
Ryo gets a pass because I never expected him to make an impact this season.The guy was only playing school level football a while back!
Park was a last minute panic buy gamble from Wenger that has failed. He wasn’t exactly prolific in the french league and clearly sucks in training.
I really think that Park should be played lots more. I hope that his descent performance in the Olympics caught some eyes (such as Arsene’s). Did you see his two goals? Especially the one against Japan: what a beauty.