Gervinho ready to show his worth to Arsenal fans

Gervinho’s Aim by AH

Gervinho has said he aims to be a better player than Robert Pires and that he wants to do it at Arsenal. The Ivorian joined from French Club Lille last season and he had a very mixed first season, with some outstanding performances, whilst at times it was like he was a missing man. But now, Gervinho has come out and said on Arsenal.com, about his wish to emulate Arsenal legend Robert Pires.

Gervinho said; “You should always look at these examples from the past, Robert is a fantastic player, very experienced, and I saw this for myself [when Pires was] training here.

“I really hope to emulate Robert Pires in my second season, hopefully do even better, but I hope to carve out my own niche of course.”

“I hope to push on personally, also to progress with the team and to showcase my qualities. I’ve learnt lots of things, coming to a new club, being new to the Premier League. I’ve learnt to adapt on the pitch and, when I think back, also in front of goal.”

“I really feel that I’ve come on a lot, I feel really good in training and I’m ready for my second season.”

Gervinho really impressed in last season’s pre – season and his looked like the same player he had been in France, but he struggled in the Premier League and got sent off on his competitive debut. His consistency continued to sway, much like in the way Theo Walcott does and it’s important that both players conquer that problem.

Gervinho certainly has talent and I hope that he can show the same kind of form as he did in 2010/2011 with Lille. Gervinho scored just 4 goals in 27 premier league appearances for Arsenal last season.

“I’m fully aware of that and I’ll have to give even more and raise the bar even higher after my first season here, I’m up for the challenge, I’ve got lots of confidence in my own ability and I know I’ve got to keep up my standards.”

“I may have to change the way I play, mix up my game a bit, but as I said, I’ve learnt and can take a lot from my first season. I’ll relish the challenge and I really want to show the Club and the fans what I can do this year.”

Good words from Gervinho and let’s hope that the winger can reach his goal, whilst scoring a goal or two for us along the way……

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Jenkinson and Gibbs have proved their worth to Arsenal

Full backs: by SV

I have already today commented on one positive aspect of our game against Sunderland and I would now like to comment on another: our full backs. The abilities of both of our current starting full-backs have come under severe scrutiny by pretty much everyone. There were many (sorry, there ARE many) who do not think that Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson can yet cut it at the top level.

But I believe that Saturday’s match against Sunderland should have given even their harshest critics something to think about. I though Kieran Gibbs especially was excellent. It wasn’t quite a flawless performance, as he was occasionally caught out of position and had to be covered by Vermaelen. However, this happens to every full-back, no matter how experienced or skilled. The nature of the position, where you have to venture up the pitch to help with the attack, is always going to leave you with moments when the opposition are counter-attacking, and your still in their half.

And the other aspects to Gibbs’ game were very good. One on one, I didn’t see him lose a battle all afternoon and he played with heart and energy throughout the ninety. He is, in my opinion, rightfully starting ahead of Santos. He has improved steadily since the beginning of this year, and long may it continue.

Moving on to Carl Jenkinson. Jenkinson was equally as effective if not as tidy in defence. He too played with a great deal of heart and rarely stopped running. It must also be noted that he was facing decent (not great, but decent) opposition in James McLean. McLean is a powerful, quick and skilful player…who Jenkinson kept in check well. I was not so impressed with the way Carl attacked, however, as he seemed nervous whenever he got the ball. You could tell when he had it that he was thinking too much about his next move and, as a consequence, always went for the easiest pass out, which was not necessarily the best one. Sky Sports, for once, summed up the performance well, describing it as ‘tentative’. I hope that more game time and experience will give Jenkinson the confidence he needs to be successful. I’ve always said that he has the tools to be a top player, he just needs culturing.

Overall, I would have to say that I was happy with our full-backs and indeed our defence as a whole. While I concede that lacked lustre offensively, I believe that the reporters talking about the ‘same old Arsenal defence’ are spouting lazy journalism. Throughout the match, there was only really once when we were really cut open by Sunderland, and even that only really lead to a half chance.

That’s it from me today, but I’ll try and get my own (delayed) analysis out later.

Till then.

If you liked this article, you can follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SVGunner.

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