Football Special Report: Chances of Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League – Part 2
With Marouane Chamakh included in the Gunners first team, the one thing that they lagged throughout the last season was very much filled. Last year they barely had a good finisher but Chamakh proved to be a great striker over and over. He is definitely one of the best choices for Arsenal’s first team.
However Eduardo was not the only one who suffered with the “outrageous” English football tackles; later on Aaron Ramsey suffered one of the worst tackles in the history of English football. After the injury, the tackler himself cried on the pitch as Ramsey walked out of the ground and another “future star” for Arsenal was sidelined for the whole year. Ramsey, however, is expected to make a return after the current international break. The question is, will he be able to play the same way he used to? Comparing the injury to the striker Eduardo, it was worst than what he suffered. Eduardo suffered with a broken ankle but the injury wasn’t that serious and he was expected to make a return just like the Manchester United winger, Antonio Valencia.
For Aaron Ramsey, the doctors said things that weren’t really motivating the fans. The medics told the press that he might not be able to recover. Later, the news line changed and Aaron Ramsey started to recover quickly. The youngster, Aaron Ramsey is a midfielder for the Gunners and he can seriously act like Owen Hargreaves who used to play for the eleven times Premier League winners, Manchester United.
Aaron Ramsey is currently out of action and his place is taken by the young Jack Wilshere. To be honest, Wilshere is very over rated and he cannot really fill in the place for an experienced midfielder. A midfielder is required to make the game and move the ball around, and against experienced teams like Manchester United and Chelsea. Players like Wilshere come under pressure and they can’t perform the way they should.
Currently, Arsene Wenger is playing his traditional 4-3-3 with Andrei Arshavin and Samir Nasri on the flanks, and Chamakh in the centre to strike the ball into the net. The three midfielders are Jack Wilshere, Cesc Fabregas and Abou Diaby. Then comes the weak defensive line up along with the “legendary” Spanish bum Manuel Almunia.
No matter how harsh the words seem to each and every Gooner, this is very true. Almunia is a goalkeeper who makes almost all the goalkeepers in the world look good. Goals that deflect off his chest, his hand and his head simply remind you of the FIFA World Cup 2010 group stage match where the English side faced USA and Robert Green came with his own special moment.
Whenever Almunia is out of action, the French coach would play Lukasz Fabianski between the poles. He is probably the only goalkeeper in the world who might make Almunia look better. However, his performance against Chelsea was simply outstanding. But every player has his day, that day he still conceded two amazing goals; one coming from the Chelsea star Didier Drogba and the other coming from Alex’s fabulous free kick – a shot that was probably “unstoppable.”
With such a bad goalkeeper trying to save the goals for the English side, the defence becomes even better. Who can forget Thomas Vermaelen’s great man marking against the 2-2 draw that Arsenal played against the Catalan giants Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League last season. The Belgian defender and unfortunately the captain of the Belgium national side, Thomas Vermaelen simply tried to go for the ball and not the man, totally leaving Zlatan Ibrahimovic on his own. It was obvious that the Swedish legend would finish the ball with Almunia in front of him. However, if it wasn’t for Vermaelen, that goal might have not happened.
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