Why Joel Campbell Should Start Up Front Against Everton

I drove 50km tonight to watch my beloved Arsenal play against Besiktas at my brother's house. It was an underwhelming performance to say the least. We didn't control the game and we didn't have a decent spell of possession in their half. I haven't checked any Arsenal news since the match, but I'm sure the blogosphere is insisting that Giroud's performance tonight is evidence that we need another striker. He did play poorly, but I believe his form will come right and he'll perform better than last season.






Before the game I was telling my brother that it's my belief that this is Giroud's year - that he's going to be superb up front; but my faith wavered during the 90 minutes. I believe that this is the opportunity to give Joel Campbell the chance that Wenger has been promising. Arsene Wenger was quoted last week as saying," He is a member of my squad at the moment, He had a good preparation and played well against Benfica. In training he is very focused and eager to do well. I would like to keep him.” 

I feel that it would be the perfect time to give Campbell a chance because Giroud is obviously not playing well and his confidence is low. Enough about Giroud, this piece is supposed to be more about Campbell than anybody else. The primary reason I think Campbell should start against Everton is because his biggest asset is a weakness for the Evertonian centre-backs: speed. Campbell is a lot faster than Jagielka and Distin, but still offers the height and strength that Sanchez can't offer. I also think that his confidence is relatively high and a starting spot against Everton will boost that. I believe that he's hungry to do well for Arsenal, something that most of the team were lacking tonight.

A slight hidden agenda on my part: I hope to see Akpom play in the League Cup matches because I believe that he could be world-class. If Campbell gets enough game-time in the league, Akpom could play in the domestic cups.

Regards

Player Season Analysis: Per Mertesacker

When the big German came to Arsenal in 2011 I thought he would be like my younger brother: I would rather play squash with a pretty girl, but if she's not available my brother will do. He's slower than Tony Adams is now and already 28 years old, but Per Mertesacker had a good 2012/2013 season.

It didn't start particularly well, but his performances improved as the season went on and he formed an important partnership with Koscienly in the second half of the season. The centre-back scored 3 important league goals and received his third career red card. He played the third most games in the premier league behind Cazorla and Arteta. Statistics are taken from whoscored.com.
Here are his statistics in the premier league:

Starts

Sub

Goals

Assists

Shots

Target

Fouls

Fouled

YC

RC

33

1

3

0

17

6

12

19

3

1

Match in Brief: Arsenal vs Norwich City

It was a very important and hard-fought victory by The Arsenal on Saturday afternoon.


Michael Turner opened the scoring in the 57th minute with a header from a Robert Snodgrass' free-kick after a number of first-half Arsenal chances. Mikel Arteta converted a suspect penalty late on to give Arsenal hope, and Olivier Giroud and second-half substitute Lukas Podolski finished the turnaround.

Talking Tactics: 4-2-2-2

 

You’re all probably as disappointed as I am. Yes, the ref made two bad decisions which gifted Chelsea two goals, we played well in the second half, Jack Wilshere is a great player, etc, etc.

Wenger was forced to put Santi Cazorla on the left wing because we don’t have any decent left wingers available. Chamberlain and Podolski were injured and ill respectively, Gervinho is at Afcon and Arshavin is totally out of form. Although after Santi played poorly on the left wing during the Swansea game, I was surprised that Wenger didn’t change it up. Cazorla is an integral part to Arsenal’s attacking play. He already has 6 assists in the Premier League and his creativity was evident when he played a near-perfect pass to Walcott for our solitary goal from the centre of the field, not from the left. I think Santi is a great player, but not a natural winger: he can’t influence the game enough.