They may not have scored on their respective Emirates debuts, but Arsene Wenger believes both Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud will be vital to Arsenal’s success this season.
While the German often dropped deep to tidily link-up play, his failure to finagle any fine opportunities in the final third, coupled with replacement Giroud’s wayward effort from the Gunners only clear-cut chance, left supporters nervously pining after the ruthlessness of the unnamed one who supposedly did the goal thing whenever he fancied.
Speaking to Arsenal.com after the match, the boss dissected Podolski’s contribution against Sunderland and hinted at room for long-term improvements.
“I see him as a centre forward but he has some work to do, to change his game a little bit, make runs in behind to protect the ball and move around the box.
“When you come from a wide position, it is not easy to do that. But he will get there. He is a fantastic finisher, but had no real opportunity [against Sunderland].
“I will have to watch the game again and see what he did when we had the ball. I will have to study it.”
Eager to take the pressure off both Podolski and Giroud by playing down comparisons with the unnamed one who supposedly did the goal thing whenever he fancied, Wenger continued:
“You cannot conclude on one game, but we knew before we started [that it would be difficult to replace Van Persie’s goals].
“Podolski and Giroud together scored 40 last year, so we have a credit of three, but unfortunately it does not work like that.”
Judging by Giroud’s own comments after the match it looks as though Wenger has conveyed exactly the same sentiment to the player as he has to the press.
Staying positive, despite 60,000 people chewing the cud over his shanked shot, Giroud urged patience from supporters. While flashing a winning smile and flexing a glossy bicep, he told the Mirror:
“The coach [Wenger] told me that I had more time but added that I had not to worry about it.
“If I had been on my left foot, I probably would have taken more time. It was on the right foot… I’ll have to work my right foot!
“This could have been the dream start. In Montpellier, I did not score for my first game. So I’m not worried. I think, here, I will get plenty of chances and I will score.
“People are clever enough to know that Robin took a lot of space here. His last season was wonderful. But before that, he took time to settle. So I’m just asking people to be a little patient with me.”
We’re happy to be a little patient Olivier, so long as you’re playing the sexy doctor. Arseblog News realises that last sentence makes next to no sense…
If we want to win the title- we don’t have time.
No we are going for the competing title.
till when I may ask? when they come good you’ll sell them to balance the books professor! go slow on the thumbs down guys.there is some truth in what I’m saying.we need actual game changers like CAZORLA!
well, we have carzorla, so enough with whining already
Well said about the unnamed one, Olivier.
Please sign M’Villa and Sahin. And another experienced defender, preferably one who can play CB and RB, Jenkinson showed again on sat that he has nowhere near the quality needed for this level of football, and Mertesacker scares me as he’s just so fucking slow.
On another note – if the rumours of Sp*rs wanting to loan Chamakh are true, that will make my day/week/month.
Oh, and one more thing – Alan Pardew is a fucking prick. If that was Wenger shoving the linesman, there would be absolute uproar, but because it’s that mug, its all ok and forgotten about.
Wenger is too classy to be compared to that prick Pardew
what did Jenkinson do exactly , did he miss a tackle ?, give the ball away ? I thought he did well..
There’s nothing Jenkinson could have done to avoid idle criticism.
These are the same people who thought Koscielny was rubbish and should have been sold after his first season. Six months later it was as if they loved him all along…
yeah, Jenkinson did ok.
its embarrassing to see all the ‘fans’ screaming abuse at our own players.
he’s come in as the understudy to sagna, and due to sagna’s injury problems the last year he’s been thrown in at the deep end.
he’s not the finished article yet but he’s got a lot of potential, he tries hard, and he’s a life long gooner for fucks sake!
i wish people would get behind him and support him more, he’s the player we have and piling more pressure on him from his own ‘supporters’ isnt helping the team at all
@edk:
And you are the one who thought Denilson, Lansbury and all the mediocre chill will make it.
Kos always had potential, Jenks missing it.
well as ramsey will play less for the moment they are need a new scapegoat
Jenkinson did do OK. As did Diaby, Ramsey and Theo. The problem is we need more than OK though. I like all of these players (Theo is probably my least favorite due to his inability to reach his potential) however we can’t afford to have that many players on the pitch with not little influence on the match. It’s not a knock on any of them as human beings. Jenkinson is simply not ready to be a starting fullback. He’s a decent player but we are talking about being a starting fullback on Arsenal. Considering Sagna is out for however… Read more »
We don’t need another centre-back. Anyway, Mertesacker (who looked very sharp on Saturday by the way) is very agile on his feet, as this clip shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wIAwyDFYJE
M’vila is not happening, you will get sahin and be happy with it!
Bergkamp and Henry didnt score in their first few games, and we saw how terrible they both were for our club…
Mate – this isn’t Le Grove. Don’t get all tearful over one mediocre result, and our future looks fairly rosy from where I’m sitting.
Yeah, I remember when we first bought Henry. When he sat on the left wing, running fast, and doing… nothing else. I remember seeing van Persie, thinking he was nowhere near as good as Reyes. I remember seeing Ljungberg and laughing that this was our “new” Petit, Pires as our “new” Overmars. They didn’t seem to have it in them. I remember screaming at Kos when he messed up with Szcz, not two years ago, and thinking he’d never make a good signing. I know it’s difficult, but give them time. Granted, we need someone to put it in the… Read more »
I agree completely with you……but i cant help thinking that time is not what we have got.
Just hope they ( Poldi & Dreamboat ) really start to hit the ground running soon or we might get left behind in title race.
Praying Arsene buys LLorente
and if i’m correct, chamakh scored on his debut didn’t he?
He forced Reina into an Own goal in the final minute to salvage a 1-1 draw at Anfield on his debut in the opening game of the 2010-11 season. seems a long long time ago.
ahhh Thiennis Hemkamp, what a man…thing
Not too concerned with his miss, I think both Poldi and Giroud will come good as the season progresses. I’m just concerned that we really need to hit the ground running this season to avoid the clusterfuck of a nightmare that was the start to last season. I’d say 10 points from the first 5 games will see us ease in nicely; unfortunately, that means we need to beat either shitteh or the Liverpuds away, alongside beating the knuckledraggers next week.
Still, trying to stay positive. We’ve got the team to do well this season.
Bitch, moan,bitch, moan, fuck me dead, enough already! The media is doing a damn good job already of shitting on us without the help of you cunts, get behind the team or fuck off!!!
Cunts like you are causing the stagnation. Fuck off already.
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Rvp is still a cunt though. I abused him. There.
Well, considering all that have been researched about sports psychology, relentless booing and moaning on the stands do depress player performance, so what he says makes sense. Get behind the team or at least don’t moan all the time, lest it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Agree with you. The media (racist, money-grabbing cunts) love shitting on us. Unfortunately I think sometimes it feels like the arse board is shitting on us too. Combine these 2 and some fans just explode with hatred. We do need to get behind this team and ignore a lot of the media, but I do think the board could up their game in order to give us a little more to cheer about.
Don’t think any gooner can argue with your statement Big Dave but believe it or not, you’ll still get some thumbs down!
Robin van persie to giroud is a like for like.
Giroud needs further settling into the squad then I bet goals will be flying for us. He’s got good movement inside the box something rvp perfected. Once you create space for yourself then leave gervinho and co to do their business I reckon goals, goals and more friggin goals.
We need to stop playing theo in these kind of games, when the ox comes back fit I’d rather have he or cazorla start on the right. We knew from the get go sunderland would put 10 men behind the ball, having a cazorla or chamberlain type there would give more flair, trickery, movement, passing ability, vision, pretty much every skill bar running very fast than wallcott would. Not trying to berate theo its just that if you’ve got a squad why not make use of it and mix things up a bit? To make a fist of this title… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more and Arshavin looked like a really welcome change when he came on, good on him for looking interested in the club that has showed him little interest in the last year.
I particularly loved arshavins wayward passes especially when it brought constant pressure on our defence. Swell game for him. Keep him!.
constant pressure…our defense…I don’t know what game you were watching my friend but I hardly remember seeing a sunderland player in our half of the pitch! let alone constant pressure…
Sorry I mean he kept giving the ball away when we were supposed to be looking for the all important goal. I was fucking irritated by it, keeping me on the edge of my seat like that?,
Santos should have been given a run in.
He also got a lot more involved than theo did and tried to make things happen for us and generally looked lively. Every player gave away possesion cheaply in that game so berating arshavin for it alone is more than a little harsh. Regardless, my original point was that you need players who are capable of producing a player capable of doing something special to unlock a stubborn defence and that just is not theo’s game. If you remember he hit a volley from a hopeless angle when podolski was ready at the near post for an easy tap in… Read more »
I think they just need time, podolski did look tired late on but looked lovely enough and giroud harassed well in the time he had.
Let’s not forget other more experienced players were below par too, let’s not single anyone out just yet
obviously a very disappointing result to drop 2 points like that.
i truly believe that we can win the league, but that means getting 3 points from sunderland at home
it doesnt feel like we have time to develop the games of poldi and giroud, we need to be scoring now, not in a few months time …. sigh
but lets stay positive, if we can build some momentum and the team gels, we can take some big points off our direct rivals in the ‘6-pointers’
and we should give sunderland credit for their defensive performance, they were pretty solid and held their ground
i just hope the fuckers put in the effort against our rivals 😛
Credit?, I say fuck! sunderland. Playing football like that?. It’s never been their style, but I guess the chelsea syndrome is catching on.
credit them for their result, yes.
they got an away point at arsenal, thats a great result for them
it wasnt all about us being rubbish, sunderland came for a point and they got it by defending en masse
im frustrated we couldnt break them down, but rather than beat up my team by saying that we are shit etc, you need to accept that the other team had a plan and it worked for them
The only problem is once you start playing like that it sticks just like the chelsea have been doing since their uefa miracle. Against wigan (yeah wigan) yesterday, they did the same. So as much as I would credit sunderland for getting the job done I think they did a better job than chelsea which in arsenals real footballing world sucks!!.
Strikers will always score @ Arsenal,& good strikers will score lots of goals. Giroud & Poldi r very good @ what they do;scoring goals so no worries Άßōϋ† them. Robin cunt P£R$I€ missed a quite a few sitters when he was with us(milan anyone?),so give the lads a break,a little time,& they’ll deliver
Hope we make quality additions 2 d squad b4 d end of the transfer window. Feel so optimistic Άßōϋ† this season…..bring it on!!
We are THE ARSENAL!!!!! COYG!!!!!
and we also bought poldi, giroud, cazorla etc.
the fans from those clubs will be missing them and wishing they hadnt left as well
clubs buy players, clubs sell players
oh, and i see that the ‘reply’ isnt putting the reply in the right place, but at the bottom of the page
Okay so so you enjoy them all I see?.
Well still, get behind the team or fuck offl..plain simple. This little speeches you’re giving really doesn’t make a difference. They are gone, we are here. SUPPORT!.
Some trolling smiting has been carried out. Apologies if any associated comments look out of place but it’s for the best.
Yes give them time,
Thats why Il keep RVP, so these lot can settle for one season.
Oh .
While I hate it that RvP was sold to Man united , But they had no choice but to sell. You make it sound as if they forced him to leave.
you heard the man the ‘littles boys’ in him screamed ,MAN UNITED BITCH!!
It was there first game they will need time to get match fit and use to there team mates and epl. I think we will do well this season once we settle. But come on its the first game why so negative??? And remember Rvp missed some sitters too, would he have scored girouds chance on his wrong foot? Maybe not.
Like some said,it’s high time we stop complaining about our team and give them TOTAL SUPPORT.
Why can’t they be compared? Aren’t they humans?
how would you like it if every time after sex your missus said…”meh, not as good as the last bloke I had! “
What do you mean “if”!
Lets just win something for the love of God.
Oh… OK, because it’s that easy?
Does anyone think Tiote would be a prefect replacement for Song? I know he hasn’t been on the radar but he is a defensive beast.
I couldn’t stand having to deal with another ridiculous hairstyle though.
off to ACN in january,get too many yellow (would be red if he play for arsenal) for jumping on people , we have a younger version in frimpong….so no
Its “only” 38 games so to hear someone needs time or isnt matchfit frustrates me. Isnt that what preseason should be used for? The transfer window and all the promotionstuff is annoying. Arsenal arent the only ones still not nice at all to get the necessary players on august 31st…
Agree with Red Carrot
I really wish Theo had made that cross in to Podolski instead of shooting. Other than that I’m happy with Saturdays efforts. Having Song not there and all our new players come in and give a good show I think we did what we could for the first game. Sunderland are never easy to beat. Giroud needs a couple more weeks to really become familiar with his teammates & the EPL. League One and The EPL are miles apart in terms of play and he will get there soon. RVP missed many of his efforts last season that were easier… Read more »
We will gel soon guys. don’t worry. These are all experienced professionals playing in a great team. The spirit and attitude are good. We will definitely NOT have 7 points from first 7 games like last year.
I only scrolled through but didn’t see a single comment about the sexy doctor line…
Take a bow, you had me in tears
Good to hear Giroud putting his own performance into perspective. I was a little worried that the miss would break his confidence but it seems he has the right attitude. I’m confident he’ll be a good player for us in time.
https://twitter.com/Footy_Jokes/status/237661226270859264/photo/1