Kim Kallstrom says finally playing for Arsenal in the Premier League is like a dream come true although he admits his debut was spoiled by Swansea’s late equaliser.
Finally appearing for the Gunners 55 days after signing at the end of January, the Swede put in a decent shift in midfield catching the eye with both his composure on the ball and a couple of nicely sprayed cross-field passes.
Reflecting on his first minutes in red and white, the 31-year-old loanee told homeland publication Expressen that he hopes to be involved more regularly from now on.
“It felt really good coming on. I had a lot of time with the ball, I had some clean passes. I was involved and I’m just pleased to be out there playing.
“It’s exciting, and it’s like a dream come true to play for Arsenal in the Premier League. I’m just unhappy my debut didn’t end in a win. Everything felt good for me, obviously except their last goal and the last minutes of the match.
“It’s a very high level and I’m really looking forward to contributing to Arsenal. It was a special moment for me making my debut for this great club.”
Reflecting on Mathieu Flamini’s injury-time own goal, Kallstrom continued:
“We had some bad luck on the late goal. It’s hard to analyse so close after the game. The ball has bounced on our keeper, defender and midfielder, it’s just bad luck. We did well to get the game back to 2-1, and we are all disappointed with the result.”
He looked alright when he came on last night, perhaps a little heftier than you might expect but he certainly didn’t looked overawed by the situation.
In truth, we’re just relieved that our “Kall-amity Kim” headline remains in the draft folder for a little while longer.
Kallstrom to rescue us from this shitstorm
I think he might just be great for us.
He had great ball retention yesterday, and had something our players have been lacking. “Strength”. I mean the likes of Ozil and Cazorla are technically gifted, technically they’re 2 of the best in the world, but they get bullied off the ball when we play strong pressing teams, I think Kallstrom might be able to stop some of that, a yaya toureish player if you may. He’s also well known to be an amazing freekick taker so it should be good.
Youtube searched him, and his freekick ability look awesome. But i like the fact that he is a playmaker with strenght. Good to have in the Premier League. Our team ia a bit heavy on weak but superb technical players. Good to add some more strenght in to the mix. Even Giroud whom is supposed to be our strongest player is usually knocked around by the opposition as if he was half his size. So some additional strenght cant hurt.
I thought he looked pretty decent when he came on.
Considering the current shit storm the club finds itself in, a somewhat ..difficult climate for any new signing to make their debut.
Hopefully he has fully recovered from his back injury, as we are currently balls deep in an injury crisis.. definitely in need of some fresh legs to say the least.
He looked very good. Spread the play nicely. Made some good runs and got back to defend. Should have started.
Would like to see him and Flamini start against City. Arteta has sadly looked off the pace against the big teams all season 🙁
T’was great to see him come on yesterday. I think he can get us more “composure” in midfield which is that we so desperatley need at the moment. Reminded me a bit of Paul Merson, the way he made passes and moved on the pitch.
Just a thought (and I don’t mean to appear negative here, maybe it was just my perception), didn’t he seem quite slow when he made that one run back (running after some City player)?
he did seem slow, but hopefully he would lose a little bit of they heftiness in the days to come. I reckon his back injury would have meant less physical training.
had a pretty impressive range with his passes, looked lively and composed
and slow
i love when defensive midfielders use their pace to dribble past the fullbacks and cut the ball back from the byline…
or drill it into the top corner .either is good.
Fuck it. Do you ever see Pirlo chase around like a headless chicken? No! Of course you don’t because you don’t have to be to play football FFS!!
Arteta < Kim
err..dude he has played 15 minutes. Arteta has been one of our most reliable and consistent players for the past few years and still is.
With that in mind, im sure Kim will make a positive difference for us
Arteta has faded a bit this year, but that’s because of the injury problems and being asked to play out of position. Arteta has never been fast or strong enough to be the lone DM as we saw in the Chelsea game.
Kim looked great and had lots of energy; the more competition for spots the better.
I’ll always love arteta ,even if he might not be a regular next season onwards. Came to us when we were struggling and bailed us out that season with brilliant performances. And well a great leader too.
I really don’t think he’s a bad player. Yeah he’s a little unknown, but with age comes experience and be definitely has a lot of that which showed with his composure yesterday. Wasn’t the player we needed, but with a lack of midfield options at the moment, I’m happy he’s here.
Apparently he’s quite good at free kicks too, would be nice to see him convert a few in the remaining games.
He has a real sledgehammer of a shot and good technique on the free kicks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ESE_N10zIc
Thought I saw a glimpse of Cesc in some of his passes. Great ball retention too
Love how we compare every new midfielder to Cesc except Ozil who is in the same elite bracket as him.
But Cesc is still my favourite player and will always be <3
Balls to Cesc. Another disloyal player.
well then balls to henry, bergkamp, pires, kolo etc.
I hate to call Cesc disloyal but to a certain extent he is and that’s the truth. Blah Blah Barcelona DNA… All that just really bored me to death… Fine we got him from their academy butArsenal gave him a chance at such a young age and grew him from that point much more than Barca could have. He had so many more chances with Arsenal than they would have given him. We had them ruing losing him within a year of signing him up. Built him into an international class player and not only that, a leader too! And… Read more »
He does look a little hefty, but then I thought maybe that’s what we need someone with meat on their bones in the middle of the park and not the fly weight midgets we have at the moment.
He’s got kind of a hockey players body. He actually played both hockey and football at high level until he was 16 and made his professional football debut in the Swedish top flight. But yeah, that heftiness comes with a side of slow.
There’s also been a lot of talk in sweden, sort of like a meme, that he is pretty much useless when it rains. Don’t know about that one though..
Its Nothing.. Kim the man.
He got what we lack. Power.
I dont really see who the hell.could replace wenger.
Klopp – having a terrible season with europes second best team last season, has had injuries but so have we.
Simeone – I doubt he’ll leave madrid with good theyre doing, especially if they actually win the league. And has yet to be tested for a long period.
Martinez/laudrup etc. – Theres a ton of young impressive managers out there but I really wouldnt imagine they would be cut out building something at Arsenal.
And theres literally no one else.
We probably have 2 years left,
Now I know this won’t happen, but my dream replacement would be;
Bergkamp comes next year as assistant manager, works under Wenger for 2 years where Wenger teaches him everything he knows. After 2 years, Wenger becomes head of our transfers (as is planned), and Bergkamp takes over the managing role and Arsene still helps around.
Obviously there’s the issue of flying, but Bergie can take the ship for most European games against major teams. Minor teams Arsenal should be able to beat without him. 😛
“Obviously there’s the issue of flying, but Bergie can take the ship for most European games against major teams. Minor teams Arsenal should be able to beat without him.”
If Arsene stays with Arsenal but isn’t coaching and Bergkamp comes on, I’m pretty sure Arsene would want the gig of “Champion’s League Away Fixtures Coach.”
How about Roberto Martinez when Wenger goes? He’s done excellent work as manager wherever he’s been plus he has class unlike certain others. It’s not that I want Wenger to go but when he does I’d hate to see him replaced by someone from The School of Vulgar Pricks where the likes of Mourinho graduated from. I reckon Martinez would fit right in at Arsenal.
Erm, Wigan, who were established in the PL, were demoted under his watch. He seems like a great manager, but he has his deficiencies.
I’d like to see Rudi Garcia, but I doubt he’ll be leaving Roma anytime soon, so it depends on when AW leaves.
René Girard did a good job at Montpellier and is doing a good job at Lille.
I keep seeing these articles about Martinez—He would get my vote, but I don’t think anyone is going to ask. I really like what he has done with Everton (I actually really like Everton—until they play/compete with Arsenal) and I think a modified version of his style would suit Arsenal well. And there are a few Everton players I wish he would bring with him too (those fullbacks–mainly Coleman if Sagna left. And I want someone like Distin for 3rd/4th CB next year. “Old but not slow” is a good quality in a reserve defender—Someone who doesn’t need to play… Read more »
“perhaps a little heftier than you might” Oh Andrew…. Lol, but I hear you I guess he needed to build up bulk to strengthen the hair line fracture in his back I was surprised not by his weight but by how tall he is and wide of shoulder (Yummy- Woof) (I’m a girl) I had time to observe him nearby at the game, ( Lower tier) as he was warming up directly in front of me. Both he and Sanogo were celebrating the Giroud second goal as if they all belong. Nice to see. Just another observation : Rosieky sure… Read more »
So Arsene did have a good January transfer window…because he seems to have signed some “ROSIEKY”
Precious Goonerboy Precious
How abt frank de boer with bergkamp asistant manager next year ?
That does sound quite exciting but when a new manager comes in the more they have to fix/replace the worse it could turn out to be. We have numerous signings to make in the summer and a new manager would have a lot of assessing and scouting to do. I personally want Arsene to sign a three year deal and (this is a long shot) make a sweet deal for pep guardiola. He did his manager badges at Arsenal. If wenger has a great squad put together by then it could happen.
“If wenger has a great squad put together by then it could happen.”
Dream onn…….
I don’t want Pep even a little bit. His ability to succeed at Barca and Bayern is not impressive. Winning 90% of your league games when you have a budget 900% larger than anyone else does not make him a great manager. There are 2 or 3 teams in the leagues he has been in and he has had massive budgets and all the talent he could want. Arsenal function without oil money (which is a good thing), play in a league that is much more competitive top to bottom (which is a good thing), and have succeeded (CL that… Read more »
Regarding his body mass, Kim has always been what we in Sweden call “sneaky-fat”.
I wouldn´t worry about it 🙂
‘Sneaky fat’. Love that! He’s solid.
From the picture was he playing on his own …..
A slightly bigger, left-footed, Tomas Rosicky.
Interesting point Bobby the Beast. It’s easy to say ‘ Wenger Out’ and in recent days I’ve been thinking that maybe it is time for a change , but other than Klopp and Matinez I cant think of anyone else I’d like to see at the helm.
Having only played 6 minutes since november before this game, he looked pretty composed and some of his passes were actually pretty sublime. He can definentiley contribute if he gets a chance.
I was there and to be fair to him he did well. He’s a lot taller and stronger than he looks. His passing and link-up was impressive. He made an impression in that brief cameo. Arteta has been looking knackered of late so he’s a decent option. Can take a set-piece too
Not really relevant but we’ve only got 12 points from our last 9 games… 15 points dropped man, damn.
the very moment he makes one mistake these same people will crusify him. Hmmmmm Arsenal fans are something else
Think he’ll be signed permanently in the summer? Got a sneaky feeling he might if he feels settled here.
He does look like a bit of a unit, but reckon we need a bit of that at the moment. He’s certainly not going to be skinning anyone anytime soon, but decent passing range. He takes free kicks too, right? Or did I make that up?
come to think of it, it we had signed Kim earlier, Park would have worked overtime for us.
Damn you turtley Dik Lo
He will be shit at Free Kicks now that he has joined us.
Haha, i laughed at that. He will pobably get a career ending injury aswell
He has a hammer of a left foot and strikes a mean dead ball. He is something of a free kick specialist apparently.
Can’t see him starting when Ramsay gets back but looks an option off the bench.
Are some of us getting a little excited about this kallstrom fellar a little early?! 20mins on the pitch, a few completed passes, some tackling and an admiral amount of hustle and bustle. But even I have my days where I think I could play for AFC, they’re sprinkled sparingly amongst games where it seems I’m trying to play in a pair of clogs. All i’m saying is let him play a few more games, maybe even complete 90mins before we start raving about him. Which would be ironic considering the initial reaction his loaning was met with by (most)… Read more »
Did you see how easily we were continuously pushed off the ball? It was as if our boys weren’t expecting opponents to come and jostle. Low cobtact training style?
So with that, I’m glad we’ve got a strong unit like Kallstrom. Arteta has been a true professional (albeit with a temper of late), but lets favour more minutes to Kallstrom. I think its worth the gamble. We shouldn’t under estimate his CV.
He was certainly up for it and that’s all we’re asking for at this point, that the players show a bit of fight and not throw away the good work done in the season completely.
COYG!
We may need him to help stabilise the listing ship. It’s again all hands on deck and experienced ones please. Kallstrom can help anchor midfield with Arteta and Flamini. Should we need Sagna in at CBack, Flamini could find himself at RB and it will be important to have someone next to Arteta then or as a back up. The issue of course in January is that we did not bring in someone-else up top that would have given us a wild card and some added magic. Wish we signed Pato on loan with an option to buy. He needs… Read more »
Everybody saying DB10 needs to look at one more man. Patrick Vieira, get him the hell back from city and teach our players to bully the opposition till they crap their pants like he used to do. I really wish he was around, specially as a mental conditioning coach
Imagine Pat Vieira staring coldly at the Gunners at HT at the bridge as Wenger gave his halftime talk, could have taught our players to grow some balls :/
We don’t seem to have the composure to keep the ball at the moment, even at home against Swansea with 3 experience players in midfield.
We need to rediscover this and calm down. Pass the ball (and the clock) down.
There’s too much nervousness at the moment (understandably) but we could help ourselves if we had two players (a striker and LW) who have sufficient skill on the ball to retain in better for us.
That would take the action further away from the backs and afford the centre of midfield slightly more composure.
Is it just me or does Kim Kallstrom kind of remind you of Matic? He is tall, powerful and he can spray the ball around like it’s nobody’s business. I think it will turn out to be a good signing by Wenger who was criticised for signing Kallstrom, given the injury crisis we have had recently it might not be the worst bit of business in the world!
Yeah he covers centre midfield with (or in place of) Arteta allowing Flamini to cover RB in case Sagna is called upon to deputise at the back (With Koscielny out). I think that was the key thinking. We would have given ourselves of course a better shot this season at the title had we also added one player up front but I feel Wenger did try and the options were limited. he did not just want to sign anyone because there are better players coming on market in the summer and he did not want to be saddled with yet… Read more »
Has anyone told Kim yet that John Terry is a racist cunt?
I think wenger will sign his last arsenal contract so y’all need to lay off a bit for the next maybe 2 years but lets hope when we get there its more of better things and not more like a David Moyes replacement.
I hope he vindicates his assertions against citeh
I won’t hold my breath. We have been saying lofty things every time we hit a ‘death run’ and come up short. And we haven’t been able to do the business against the teams around us. We are due a win against one of them (City being the last chance) but can’t say we are odds on favorites to do it. Just hope the CHelsea game hasn’t taken the wind out of the sails completely. If we get a big win against City, we need to finish the remaining games and take maximum points. And then there is the FA… Read more »
“And then there is the FA consolation cup….” What? Surely winning that should be seen as far more than simply a consolation? The club desperately needs to win something to get that fecking monkey off our back. Win it, and we go in to next season with a little bit more of a spring in our step. Who knows, it may even make us a bit more of a tempting proposition when scouting for players in the summer. Personally, I love the cup and that nostalgic glow it brings with it. Some of my best experiences as a fan center… Read more »
Since when was the FA Cup relegated to “consolation prize”? I missed that memo.
Arteta looked really tired.
Kallstrom could be a stop gap replacement if he continues to do well.
Good touch and competitive plus good distribution from deep. A bit heavy set at the moment but he is powerfully built.
Have a peek at Sweden’s World Cup qualifier against Germany. Score was 4-0 for Germany when Kallstrom was substituted. With his ball winning in midfield and perfect passes, he managed to take control of the Swedish game, which led to Swedens amazing equaliser, 4-4.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_IQ6KOG4TEk
Minutes in movie:
4:45 wins the ball, then makes a great pass to Zlatan who scores, 4-1
5:54 another great cross, this time to Lustig, 4-2
8:08 yet another great ball by Kallstrom to Zlatan and Elm, 4-4
Arsenal players involved in 5 out of 8 goals in that game 🙂
BFG, Özil scoring for Germany, and Källströms assists.