Category Uncategorized

It’s been less than 12 hours, but Luis Suarez’s bite incident with Branislav Ivanovic seems already predestined to enter the Premier League’s Hall of Shame. In the same week the Uruguayan was nominated for the PFA Players’ Player Of The Year, the latest of his misconducts has put the Liverpool striker in the eye of the storm – blurring his league merits in the process. But, is his behaviour reason enough for Suarez to lose, scandals apart, a well deserved award?

Just minutes after the PFA announced the shortlist of nominees for the Player Of The Year award, hundreds of polls in several media, websites and football forums were asking the fans who their favourite was to succeed Robin van Persie as the best Premier League footballer this season. The Dutchman, also nominated this year, Gareth Bale or even Michael Carrick were the most demanded names, while the Premier League top scorer and Liverpool hero took a secondary position. No doubt, his personality and manners on the pitch have an impact on people’s assessment of his footballing virtues.

[cat_link cat=”liverpool” type=”list”]

The sad reality is that if we merely stick to football reasons and try to choose the winner judging exclusively ‘who has been the best Premier League player this season’, the answer should be Luis Suarez. Having a bad temper on the pitch is not something that eases the always difficult task of sticking ball in the opponent’s net, and he has done it on 23 occasions this season – and there will be no more after he receives the appropriate punishment – similary, no adding to his 10 assists.

Only van Persie matches his numbers – 21 goals, 13 assists – and will probably beat them by the end of the season, but the club circumstances should not be overlooked when conceding individual awards, and it is here where the Uruguayan takes the lead. No other player – Gareth Bale would be the closest one on this aspect – has had a bigger importance to his club. Therefore, while van Persie has been the finisher of the indisputably best team in the league, Suarez has made his way through to the top of the scorers’ table in a team that lies in 7th position in the league. A true reflection of this is the percentage of goals they have scored for their respective teams: 37.7% compared to RVP’s 28%.

Regardless of his numerous controversies, Suarez has been one of the best players, if not the best, this season, and the nomination is simply admitting it whether we like him or not. Gary Lineker claimed via Twitter after the game that the striker should be withdrawn as a Player Of The Year contender. Doing that would be ruling out every one of his 23 goals for a bad gesture that was not related to any of them – if anything, to the 23rd, as he should have been sent off. The award recognises the best player of the season, and every player should be eligible to win it. His punishment should come from the FA and from his club, but never affect the merits he has earned by scoring goals and being a vital component of his team.

Is Suarez going to win the PFA award, then? Of course not. Dives, brawls, bad gestures to fans and racial scandals seem a way to heavy burden to shrug off. Biting an opponent is the straw that breaks the camel’s back and could cost him his future at Liverpool, but the PFA honour was lost long ago and it’s perfectly understandable.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

After all, Robert De Niro would have never won an Oscar if he had bitten, kicked, punched or racially abused the judges.

[opinion-widget op width=”full”]

“Winning isn’t everything,” says Tom Fox, the Arsenal commercial officer. And that is all we needed to confirm that Arsenal are no longer a football club, but rather a business who use the sport as a device to grow financially.

Maybe that’s not always the best way to paint the picture; plenty of clubs, whether they’re football teams or clubs of other sports, drive to become stronger financially. But the need has always been to invest in order to grow on a number of different fronts. It just seems to make very little sense to sell a losing club as a fantastic model for which others should follow.

Where does Theo Walcott come in? Well like every season gone past, and starting with the year Ashley Cole moved to Chelsea, the club have seen little value in rewarding and keeping it’s best players. I’m firmly of the belief now that the Walcott ship has sailed and the player will be off come the end of the season. ‘Its not about winning’ is just a method to paper over the impending disappointment of losing another player for whom many supporters can identify.

Yes the player has been frustrating for so long, but there are very few fans who want to see the player leave. At the other end of the scale, many, many fans want to see the player as a regular member of the starting XI following his good performances up until this point.

[post_link url=” https://www.footballfancast.com/premiership/arsenal/finances-aside-this-could-be-a-good-thing-for-arsenal,https://www.footballfancast.com/premiership/arsenal/wilshere-getting-back-to-his-best-at-arsenal,https://www.footballfancast.com/premiership/arsenal/the-real-finger-of-blame-at-arsenal” target=”_blank” type=”tower”]

Tom Fox is one of the many names currently at the club who have no idea how to run a football club or what it means to be a football club. How much of Arsenal’s identity will be preserved with people openly talking about winning being a secondary to something else? It’s almost as if the club are drawing the landscape for the future, yet one that doesn’t feature the trophies that helped elevate Arsenal’s status in English football.

Naturally, Fox, Ivan Gazidis and Richard Law’s job descriptions are likely to be rife with terms that keep the club’s finances in check, and that just sums up where we are with Walcott.

Arsene Wenger seems determined to keep the player, although it’s difficult to say how much influence he has over the matter of the final wages offered.

There is no ambition other than to sit on as much cash as possible—from the board’s perspective, not Wenger’s—even if it means the best players move on. There’s no concern for strengthening your closest rivals while you continue to decline.

Gazidis came from the MLS and Stan Kroenke owns franchises in America, but do any of them know how to properly run a football club? It’s all about working to a wage structure that is unrealistic of what the club needs: Champions League football.

It worked for so long because players were in place from a previous regime, but slowly and without remorse, the current figures at the club have helped to disband a squad who were the only alternative to the heavy spending of clubs like Chelsea. Now that Walcott and soon Bacary Sagna remain the final few to be forced out the door—because I’m not convinced either of them want to leave—where do the club go next?

There seems to be absolutely no method to the madness, at least from a footballing perspective. Perhaps that is why there is such an emphasis on the club retaining Wenger, for he appears able to keep the club at the highest level. It’s maximum revenue from competitions and match days, but extremely little spend when in comparison to others. At some point or another, the well will run dry and the club will have no answers.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

On the pitch, Walcott is one of the team’s most dangerous players. He makes the team come alive and helps them raise the tempo, something which is absolutely key for the style of football they play. But he’s so much more than just an important figure in the squad. It’s players like Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who you want representing your club. Yes there’s the English factor and the sense of connection with the fans, but it’s also the role models and the players who know how to speak in front of the camera.

None of that is taken into account, and yet the club think they’re standing in a reasonable position when offering £75,000-per-week. Theo Walcott may not be worth £100,000-per-week or just shy for his abilities on the pitch, but everything that adds up including the morale at the club is so important. Yes he is worth more than the reported wages he’s been offered, but the club do not see it that way and they never will.

[ad_pod id=’ipad’ align=’center’]

As reported by The Sun, Rangers have opened talks with Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard about taking over as manager of the Ibrox side this summer.

What’s the story?

Currently a youth coach at Anfield, former Reds captain Gerrard has never managed a senior side at this point of his career, making him a surprising candidate for the Rangers manager job.

However, it certainly appears he’s in the running with The Sun reporting today that he is already in talks to become boss of the Ibrox side at the end of the season.

The paper say those talks are ongoing and that a potential deal is close, with Director of Football Mark Allen leading the negotiating party.

Can he be the one to inspire the Light Blues to major honours like every supporter craves?

[ad_pod ]

Difficult first job

Although Gerrard clearly has a fantastic playing career behind him, won multiple trophies and demonstrated his excellent leadership skills on a weekly basis as captain of Liverpool, the Rangers manager’s job is still a massive one to take as your first.

Gerrard would be coming into a high profile, high pressure situation, in a league he doesn’t have experience of, against an elite coach that he formerly had a relationship with in Brendan Rodgers.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

It’d certainly capture the imagination of supporters and the media, but it also has the potential to go massively wrong for both Gerrard and Rangers themselves and perhaps the club should be seeking a man who has the experience and managerial knowledge needed for such a task.

There’s a chance that Gerrard can be as good a manager as he was a player, but he’s simply untested, and the next Rangers appointment is too important to treat as an experiment.

Tottenham will most likely fail to make the Champions League places and a summer clearout is highly expected. Numerous well known players will face the chop and Brazilian Paulinho should be at the top of that list.

When Gareth Bale left for Real Madrid in the summer of 2013 Spurs needed to find a prolific goal scorer to make up the deficit.

Spurs went on a huge spending spree signing the likes of Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela and former Corinthians midfielder Paulinho in a bid to rejuvenate the squad.

The 26-year-old cost the North London club just under £17million and was highly rated at the time as a box-to-box midfielder who had strong defensive qualities and was good from set pieces. But in his two seasons Paulinho has failed to make any real impact.

Last year he made 28 league starts for the first team while that has dropped to just two for 2014/15.

The Brazilian has obviously lost the faith of his new manager and if he does survive the window then he’ll probably have a similarly frustrating season as his last two. So is he to blame for his poor performances or has he just suffered from the lack of cohesion and consistency at White Hart Lane since his arrival?

[ad_pod id=’ffc-video-small’ align=’left’]

In Mauricio Pochettino’s first year as Spurs boss he has had a decent season notching up confidence-building wins against Arsenal and Chelsea. It would be unfair to expect the Argentine to get this ragtag group of players to break into the top four when at times there were roughly seven teams competing to do just that.

The Lilywhites have suffered much uncertainty in recent times owing to the quick hiring and firing that has resulted in two new managers arriving at White Hart Lane in the space of a year. And now that the club seem happy with Pochettino this summer he will likely be allowed to further stamp his mark on the underachieving squad which certainly does not look good for Paulinho.

Although the club has lacked stability Paulinho still hasn’t been good enough and a move in the summer is probably his best option. His lack of impact is likely to reduce his chances of moving to a big team and instead he may need to just get away from the Premier League and work on rebuilding his reputation. At his age he still has time to salvage his career but he will need to find a club where he gets to play more regularly that he has.

It is hard to believe it now but when the midfielder joined he was actually a record signing for the club and supporters were excited to have such a player among their ranks. Now he is surplus to requirements with Christian Eriksen dominating his central role. There is a similar situation for Paulinho at international level with the Brazilian squad. He has failed to make it into Dunga’s starting XI and with the Copa America on the horizon he is unlikely to feature at all for them.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Things are getting worse for Paulinho at both domestic and international level and after two seasons without really producing much, Pochettino and Spurs should not let him stick around for a third try.

Better to cut their losses than carry deadweight.

[ad_pod id=’ricco’ align=’center’]

Mick McCarthy has made a name for himself by being a manager that is great at grinding out results. His style may not always be entertaining or exiting but he prides himself on making every side he takes over hard to beat, which could be the key to Ipswich’s survival.

The criticism of the former Wolves boss all started at the end of February after a goalless draw away at Huddersfield. Before the game, McCarthy admitted that he would take a point and the Ipswich manager focused on shutting down the opposition’s creative players rather than looking to create chances for his own side. This made for an extremely boring 90 minutes of football but a more than valuable point away from home.

Some Tractor Boys fans were even more upset after McCarthy then announced that he would be happy with a point away against struggling Peterborough United. Again the side made sure they were solid at the back and did not take many risks going forward in this match. Although Ipswich were the better team in that clash, gaining a point away from home was another example of McCarthy’s philosophy in use.

Of course both games against Huddersfield and Peterborough were potentially winnable and you couldn’t criticise the manager if he saw them as games he wanted to win. However when you are in a relegation dog fight you have to be very careful about what philosophy you take.

Mick explained after the Peterborough game that regardless of the opposition’s league standing, he will go into every away game looking for a point. He said himself that in the games against the struggling sides it is more important to prevent them from getting three points rather than to try gain three.

This approach seems logical, especially as McCarthy went on to explain that he will set his team up to try and win every home game until the end of the season.

The answer to those questioning the manager’s tactics is simple; as we are not in the relegation zone it makes much more sense to deny the teams around us rather than risk giving them three points. Yes Ipswich will need the occasional win and not just draws to keep them in the Championship, but they stand a much better chance of getting those wins at Portman Road.

The clubs that are currently sitting in the relegation zone have to go out and try to win every game, because their situation is desperate. That is the approach that some Ipswich fans want to see from their side. However, taking that high risk high reward strategy should always be a last resort.

The likes of Barnsley, Peterborough, Wolves and Bristol City may take this approach and it may well pay off for at most one or two of them. If one of those teams starts picking up three points from almost every game then it isn’t a problem with Ipswich sitting 20th in the league table.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Things may get more desperate if another team goes on a great run and McCarthy may well have to change his philosophy, but for now he is doing everything right.

On their day Ipswich can play extremely well at home too, beating the likes of Middlesbrough and Leicester at Portman Road is no easy task. If they can keep on grinding out away draws with the occasional win at home then they will secure their place in the Championship for next season.

[ad_pod id=’writer-1′ align=’right’]

Southampton manager Mark Hughes confirmed in his pre-match press conference for the vital Premier League clash against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Thursday night that Mario Lemina and Sofiane Boufal will miss out through injury and illness respectively, but Saints fans feel that there is more to their absence than meets the eye.

Considering the talent the duo clearly have, they have been two of the south coast outfit’s most disappointing performers in what has been a difficult season for the club, and both have found it difficult to gain a spot in the starting XI under Hughes in the last few matches, with Lemina struggling in the 3-0 defeat against West Ham United in which he came under heavy critcism from fans on Twitter for his display.

Now the pair will miss what looks to be a must-win game for the club against the Foxes and former manager Claude Puel, and the St Mary’s faithful feel that their absence perhaps is down to their attitude, rather than injury and illness.

Southampton supporters were quick to have their say on the two players via social media, and while one said “I think it’s code for the fact that they’ve been told not to bother coming back in”, another said they are “obviously not up for the fight”.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

They have a brand new manager, who did not win his first game in charge. They are clear the drop, but only by a single point. With just eight games left in this Premier League season, can Sunderland be saved?

Sunderland’s season did not get off to a flying start. They drew on the opening day, away to West Brom 2-2. Sunderland did not manage to secure their first league win until October, in a 3-1 home win over Stoke City. This joy was short lived, as their next fixture was their worst of the season. Poyet’s side travelled to St. Mary’s to face Southampton, and lost by a landslide 8-0. Koeman’s side were deserving of their win, but Sunderland were humiliated.

The ever busy festive period was not kind to the Black Cats either. They recorded just two wins out of ten league games in December and January: 0-1 at St James’s Park and 2-0 at home to Burnley.

The latter part of the season has not been what Sunderland had hoped for. They progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup, but were knocked out by Bradford – who had been one of the surprise packages of the cup this season, after knocking Chelsea out 4-2. The final straw for Gus Poyet came in the home fixture against struggling Aston Villa. Villa dropped their manager Paul Lambert, and brought in Tim Sherwood. Sherwood’s side dominated the Black Cats, scoring four goals in the first half.

[ad_pod id=’football-friends’ align=’center’]

Gus Poyet himself was then sacked as Sunderland manager – to be replaced by Dick Advocaat. The new manager was brought in on March 17, with just over two months left of the season. His first hurdle was away to West Ham, but the home side snatched all three points.

Advocaat certainly has a mountain to climb before the season comes to a close. Sunderland are by no means safe from relegation, given how close points are at the bottom. Sunderland still have to travel to Everton, Chelsea and Arsenal; all of which will be difficult fixtures.

Yet the current relegation candidates will also struggle as the season finishes. Burnley still have to host North London’s Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, as well as travel to West Ham, Everton and Aston Villa. Queens Park Rangers will welcome league leaders Chelsea, and travel to Anfield and the Etihad. Leicester, who are certain to be in the Championship, still have to host Chelsea, Newcastle and Southampton. Sunderland’s saving grace could be the other sides dropping points from these upcoming fixtures. But Burnley could still keep themselves in the league, and it could be Sunderland for the drop.

If Advocaat can’t keep his side up at the end of the season, it is no real reflection of his managerial abilities, it will just go to show that time was not on his side. He has had limited time to learn his best squad and work with his players. If he does stay up, he’ll be a lucky man.

[ad_pod id=’ffc-video’ align=’center’]

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

[ad_pod id=’ricco’ align=’center’]

//embed.scribblelive.com/Embed/v7.aspx?Id=1163928&ThemeId=22054

Liverpool forward Luis Suarez has revealed that he would be open to a move to an ‘elite’ club in the summer, but in an industry that only asks loyalty of those possessing enough quality to be demanded of it, does he owe the club anything? Or to put it more pertinently, would he be doing them a favour if he stayed for one more season?

For the sake of brevity, considering that Suarez is entering the peak of his career, the longer he continues to play for a side not even in the Champions League, let alone competing seriously on a consistent basis for honours, the Uruguayan could be said to be sacrificing the best years of his career out of affection for his current club.

The 26-year-old told AFP on Wednesday: “You never know in football. A player’s ambition is always there, the ambition of wanting to play in elite teams is always there. I’m in a world-class team, an elite team like Liverpool. And if another team comes around with more prospects of competing in international club competitions games, which is willing to have [me], they are welcome. We would talk to the club, we would see if I want to go, if I don’t want to go.”

Describing a club which hasn’t been and isn’t likely to get into the top four this season as ‘world-class’ is clearly a very flattering take on events, given that Suarez is likely the club’s only truly world-class talent at the moment. Protestations that he is happy on Merseyside sound genuine, especially since he has a young family that have settled well in the area, but when it comes to the rest of the country, the mercurial playmaker is something of a pantomine villain and the whole circus that surrounds him must be tiresome to say the least.

That is not to say that he doesn’t at least owe Liverpool a sense of gratitude for the way they stuck by him during the whole Patrice Evra racism scandal; the club’s position effectively cost Kenny Dalglish his job at the end of last season and his eight-game ban derailed what at one point was a promising league campaign. He has made his bed and he must lie in it, but the club have staked a lot of goodwill and capital on him and he knows it. Even in a game where loyalty is little more than a word, Suarez should at least acknowledge that his reputation has damaged the image of the club to a global audience and there’s a sense that as much as his goals have repaid some of the debt, only giving back a year of his time when he could be at a bigger, better-equipped club will be seen as penance for his actions.

Loyalty is a strange thing in football – fans always demand it of talented players, but when someone on the fringes of the club professes his commitment to the cause, it is dismissed as self-interest, or when a player the club is actively trying to sell signals his intention to ‘honour’ his contract, which he is well within his rights to, he is portrayed as a money-grabber, draining the life-force from the club and a representation of everything that is wrong with modern football. The currency of loyalty is almost always interlinked with ability and we only demand it of those that have some, otherwise it’s simply a case of ‘thank you, there’s the door’. Any other position on the matter is just deeply hypocritical and ignorant.

[cat_link cat=”liverpool” type=”list”]

When managing director Ian Ayre went on BBC ‘Breakfast News’ yesterday morning under the smokescreen of talking about the women’s game to defend a transfer story, there was more than a hint of emotional blackmail behind his attempt to deny the quotes as being misrepresented: “Yeah, absolutely, there’s a story about Luis every week. It’s in his local language. We did a new four-year deal with Luis last summer, he’s had a fantastic season for Liverpool and it doesn’t surprise us every day when he’s linked with a move or he’s asked to comment on it and he makes a comment that gets taken in different directions.

“We love Luis being at Liverpool, our fans love Luis being at Liverpool and he loves being at Liverpool and we fully expect him to be there next season. He’s spoken to me and he’s spoken to the manager and he’s been quoted very recently, actually saying about how happy he is. He’s said he wants to be a part of the team and that’s what we expect. We signed that new contract on the basis that he would continue to provide for us.”

The tone of the debate has been set, the club will be loath to sell Suarez as he’s an essential part of their plans to crack the top four; the sheer level of self-interest hangs heavy in the air. Could the club reject an offer in the region of £40m? Everything we’ve learned about FSG so far tells us they’re pragmatic businessman prone to a bungling, and it’s doubtful they’d simply reject it out of hand, despite the protestations from fans and manager alike. Losing Suarez would signal a lack of ambition just as it did when Arsenal sold Robin van Persie to Manchester United last summer.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Nevertheless, the longer Suarez continues to ply his trade in the Europa League, the more it seems like the club are holding the player back to achieve their own aims and there’s a certain amount of desperation about the club’s position at the moment. The power all rests with the player. They know it, he knows it and everyone else knows it. Suarez is not a local born and bred academy product, nor does he in all reality owe the club a thing; he is paid to do a job and he is doing it extremely well, instead the brunt of the matter will focus on an emotional response.

If I had to place money on it, I’d bet that Suarez stays one more season at Anfield before leaving just before the 2014 World Cup. It’s a compromise position that could quite easily be negotiated after he receives his bumper pay packet at the end of the season just like Thierry Henry did at Arsenal before leaving for Barcelona. The game is set, the players all know which moves they’re going to make and both will have danced this awkward dance before, the only irritating thing is that it’s going to be dragged out over the course of a few months before reaching its inevitable conclusion. Next year may not be Liverpool’s, but it will be Suarez’s last at Anfield.

[opinion-widget op width=”full”]

Adam Armstrong is once again forcing himself into Newcastle fans’ minds, after the young striker scored another brace for Blackburn Rovers on Monday.

Newcastle fans can’t decide what the future holds for Armstrong, as the 21 year-old kept his sensational run going with two wonderful goals against MK Dons.

Blackburn are now top of League One, and it’s no surprise given the form of Armstrong, who has nine goals and two assists in his last nine games.

The 21 year-old opened the scoring on Monday with a lovely finish, racing onto a long through ball before firing past the keeper. He added his second just before the break, once again finishing with aplomb after receiving a through ball.

[ad_pod ]

Armstrong has struggled in two Championship loan spells in between two fantastic spells with League One sides, prompting comments from some fans that he has “found his level” in League One.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

February’s League One player of the month will surely want to force his way into Rafa Benitez’s plans next season, as the youngster is reaching the age where he needs to produce at the top level.

Fans have been discussing his future on Twitter, and some of the best reactions can be found below…

Well, there you have it, Arsenal are the third English team to crash out of the Champions League this season following a crushing away goals defeat to Monaco.

Despite bagging the victory in France, Arsenal couldn’t undo the damage done during a hellish 90-minutes back in north London – how Arsene Wenger must look back on that late Monaco third goal as the game-changing moment.

If anything, the two-legs sum up this Arsenal side; you just never know which one will turn up. You can get the pathetic and weak XI that played at the Emirates or you can get the side that dig deep, that take their chances but, ultimately, always just fall short.

Fair play to Monaco, though, who know what they’re good at and stick to it – a friendlier Stoke City perhaps?

Anyway, Arsenal’s Champions League campaign is over for another season at least but before they return home, let’s have a look at what we learnt from tonight’s game

Aaron Ramsey is getting back to his best

It was a welcome sight for all Gunners when Aaron Ramsey was named in the starting line-up against West Ham last weekend. And that sight got even sweeter when the Wales international bagged Arsenal’s all important second goal to kill off the Hammers.

Ramsey’s performance was so impressive that Gooners were gutted to see him back on the bench for tonight’s game against Monaco.

When Ramsey did eventually come on, he changed the game with his forward-thinking play and, of course, his well taken goal.

Mesut Ozil will forever be a scapegoat

The anti-Mesut Ozil brigade is a bizarre one and one that isn’t going to change its agenda anytime soon. The German international was in his usual subtle genius form against the Ligue 1 outfit tonight. However, as soon as the cameras picked up the World Cup winner swapping shirts at half-time with Kondogbia, that was it for the attacking-midfielder.

Scapegoat; now, forever and always.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Arsenal will forever be valiant losers

We all knew what to expect from Arsenal tonight; it is what the Gunners do time and time again, ‘heroic failure’. They came close against Bayern Munich in the previous two seasons, however, ultimately, the damage was already done and they had left themselves with too much to do.

When will it change for Arsene Wenger’s side? Something has got to give? Something has got to change? They’re in a cycle and don’t know how to break it.