Note To Self…

…never write anything when you are angry!

I took that advice from the great ‘Holic over at Goonerholic and I have tried to keep it in mind. Today, however, is different. Today I AM going to write whilst I am angry because if I didn’t I wouldn’t be writing again for a while!

Afternoon Gooners and welcome to yet another conversation about profligacy in front of goal, bad defending, poor refereeing and players that simply are not consistently good enough to wear the Arsenal shirt.

In real terms the awful mess we just made of that game is fairly meaningless. We are still in the process of gelling a new look side, new tactics, newish formation and even new partnerships. What this team clearly needs more than anything else is time. What they will very shortly find they have least of in the world is that very commodity.

5 games in, 13^th in the table, 14 goals conceded and sitting 8 points and a game in hand off the leaders and confidence is surely at an all-time low. These are troublesome times indeed.

Having started brightly, passing the ball around cleanly and getting a great goal on 10 minutes through Gervinho after a fabulous straight ball by Song that tore the Blackburn defence in two, we then dominated possession, keeping the ball well, Ramsey and Song in particular looking a class apart. Then, as is so often the case, totally against the run of play, we throw away a goal with poor defensive coverage and communication. After a little pinball on the edge of the box, the ball was picked up by the exciting Hoilett who played a fairly simple and even more predictable toe poke through to Yakubu, lurking on the edge of the box. A simple early touch by him and the pace on the ball took it wide of Szczesny and inside the far post.

A great finish by a seasoned pro, but in truth, he should never have been allowed anywhere near the goal. When Hoilett picked up the ball The Yak was between Koscielny and Mertesacker both left to right and front to back. Mertesacker had his back to him and was also the closest defender to Hoilett so obviously he stood his ground so as to close the space. Kos, who had actually shown some of that same intensity we saw against Dortmund until now, facing Yakubu signalled his awareness of the danger by pointing at him and obviously gesturing to the eyes n the back of Mertesacker’s head that he should follow the run. I have to say that I am unsure of what Kos was planning to occupy himself with had the big German engaged his psychic powers, managed to turn 180 degrees and make up the yard that Yakubu already had on him at that point as there was literally no other Blackburn player even close to the play.

In short, the combination of his decision to pass all responsibility to a player in a weaker position than him and a simple pass played to the only player Kos really needed to concern himself with was enough to give Yakubu an extra yard, presenting him with the opportunity to coolly slot the ball home. 25 minutes gone and it’s 1-1.

The next 15 minutes provided a couple of heart in mouth moments most notably when Samba got in at the back post and above Koscielny, to reach a corner that the defence should never have allowed to travel that far. In truth, had he not tried to head the ball whilst almost falling over backwards to get to it, his colleague (apologies, I forget who!) a yard behind him would surely have scored.

So, riding our luck as usual, a delightful pass from the very impressive Sagna found Ramsey in acres of space heading into the penalty area. Without so much as looking up, he cut the ball back to the penalty spot and Arteta arrived to score his first goal with a side-footed effort into the roof of the net against the same team against whom he scored his last goal for Everton.

2-1 and we could all be forgiven for thinking that normal service had been resumed and that the gelling process was well and truly underway given the remarkable understanding shown between Ramsey and his new team mate.

But that was just it, wasn’t it. Normal service indeed WAS resumed.

Enjoying almost total possession of the ball once again and creating good chances, Van Persie found himself on the end of a lovely chip over the defence from Arteta.Had it not been for the quick reactions of the seemingly always in form against Arsenal Paul Robinson, he would have found himself with a great goal scoring opportunity. Robinson got to the ball just in time to collect and shut down the danger.

Gervinho shot when a pass to the open Van Persie would have been a much better option, he also over hit a reasonably straightforward cross field pass to Arshavin when we were 3 against 2 on the counterattack and Kos found himself with a decent opportunity in space in the penalty area but his control let him down.

So, half-time, 2-1 and things were looking quite good for us on the whole as well as for my 3-1 prediction, although Kos was continuing to do a good job of making the entire defence look sloppy.

The second half begins and one had to wonder what had gone on in the dressing rooms at half-time that had created such differing responses from both teams. 3 minutes in and the frankly hopeless Arshavin almost played Yakubu in with a suicide pass across the front of the penalty area, saved by the quick thinking of Mertesacker who intercepted and cleared. A minute later and Arshavin was involved again. Incredibly running half the length of the pitch to track back, he threw out a leg at Rovers midfielder Lowe on the right hand side of the penalty area who willingly accepted the opportunity to pick up a free kick in a dangerous area.

What followed can only be described as a mixture of a laughably static defence and a fairly large slice of bad luck. Rochina flipped the ball into the six yard box with almost no pace on it and no obvious intention of reaching anyone in particular when all 5ft 11” of Gael Givet rose above the flatfooted 6ft 1“ Koscielny and his flick-on from the near post found a line of 6 unchallenged Arsenal players doing impersonations of statues as the ball dropped to the only one that did move! Unfortunately for the otherwise decent Song, his involuntary reaction was enough for his left thigh to nudge the ball into the bottom corner of the net. 50 minutes gone and we were all square again. 2-2.

Now, people will of course claim that this was a result of zonal and not man to man marking and use it as a reason to start screaming for Wenger’s head again. The truth of the matter is, the zonal marking actually did its job perfectly. Not a Blackburn player anywhere near the ball and a queue of Arsenal players with all the time in the world to hoof it clear, not forgetting that Kos should never have allowed to Givet have gotten the flick-on. But this is a rough time to be an Arsenal player and the general lack of confidence seems to put the fear of Dennis into almost everybody in a red shirt whenever the ball enters the penalty area.

54 minutes gone and disaster of a different kind strikes. Sagna, who got a knock in the first half, had to go off, to be replaced at right back by Djourou. I can only assume that Djourou made the bench ahead of Jenkinson because of his (in)ability to play both right back and centre half. Anyway, his introduction caused the defence to go from carrying one clown to carrying two! Caught out of position, Djourou left space for Hoilett to get in behind the defence, lovingly played onside by the yet again flat-footed Koscielny, but thankfully the “Pole between the Poles” was more than a match for his rasping shot and his outstretched hand was just enough to turn the ball away. Szczesny had a good game overall apart from one moment where he chose to go walkabout in the box for a ball he was never going to get to, but on that occasion his defence returned some of his recent favours and dug him out of it.

Djourou found himself again out of position and allowed Hoilett to get past him again. A fairly cynical but altogether necessary shirt tug later and the referee was asking for the correct spelling of his name. A fully deserved yellow card.

On 59 minutes another set piece and a never rains but it pours refereeing decision saw Yakubu, marginally offside, with a simple tap-in from 4 yards out. For the record, Kos was the man tugging on Yakubu’s shirt as he ran out of the six yard box in an attempt to spring the offside trap. Had Santos a step further forward Yakubu’s would have been clearly offside and given the linesman, who had a perfectly clear view, no choice but to raise his flag. In the end, neither of these things happened and the goal was allowed to stand regardless of the furious protestations of Mertesacker. 2-3 and the ghost of season’s past was clearly in attendance once again.

5 minutes later and Van Persie found himself on the end of the pass from Gervinho that he should have received in the first half but a combination of the tight angle Paul Robinson saw the keeper cover his angles well and beat the ball out. A minute later and the back to normal after playing well against Swansea Arshavin was replaced by Walcott who almost immediately threatened down the right hand side, drawing a cynical foul from Scott Dann who rightly received a yellow card for his troubles. In all honestly, that and a decent cross or two was about all Theo managed in half an hour of football, if you don’t count the fastest player at the club’s inability to actually run at defenders or his stunning ability to simply run into dead ends. I have to say, when Arshavin came off I was surprised that we didn’t switch to a 4-4-2 with Arteta moving out to the left, Gervinho staying out on the right and Ramsey and Song filling the central midfield positions thus giving Theo the chance to get into a central role.With Van Persie finding lots of time on the ball about 30 yards from goal for much of the game having somebody with lightning pace to play the ball up to would have made a lot of sense. Yet again we wonder if Wenger simply enjoys putting goal scorers on the wings and all but eliminating their chances of scoring.

On 68 minutes the almost inevitable happened. Blackburn, defending a corner (and defending it well I might add) cleared the ball to first half substitute Olssen on the right wing. Djourou came across and, with the Rovers defender on the touchline, 50 yards from goal and with little support  threw himself into a totally unnecessary sliding tackle, missing by some margin and allowing the full back to continue his run. Reaching the by-line and with two attackers in great positions, Olssen took the only possible option, ramming it across the face of goal for Koscielny to complete his perfect day and turn the ball into his own net. 4-2 and Rovers had a goal more than they had managed shots on target in the entire game!

For the record, Olssen was booked for his celebrations and, a few minutes later, after literally throwing himself to the ground with Aaron Ramsey almost a full yard away and the referee with a clear view, was lucky to get a free kick for the “foul” rather than the yellow card that the smirking little git should have received.

5 minutes and a lot of sloppy passing after the goal a header from Van Persie had Robinson scrambling to put the ball over the bar although it was never really in any doubt that he would get to it. A minute later and Chamakh, on as a substitute for Song, drew a fine save from Robinson although the whistle had correctly been blown for a push on a Blackburn defender.

Another five minutes of inconsistency in possession saw Arteta whip in a great cross for Van Persie who again saw his effort saved by Robinson. Before the next goal there was still time for Djourou to reach the ball down the right hand channel with a ridiculous amount of space and time only to slice his cross into the crowd halfway between the goal and the corner flag. Seriously, if this guy is EVER going to be good enough for the Arsenal, we are going to have to be relegated first. Hopeless.

Anyway, I promised another goal and another goal we got. An absolutely inch-perfect cross from Van Persie on the found Chamakh in between to Blackburn defenders but he still managed to get above them both and place a header into the back of the net to get himself on the score sheet for the first time since November 2010.

Cue 10 minutes of all-out madness! Constant waves of attack were launched at the Blackburn penalty area resulting in Chamakh returning a cross from Walcott back across the six yard box only to find nobody there to tap it in, Mertesacker, now basically playing as a third centre forward, almost fulfilling my prediction of scoring today, heading an excellent cross from Santos over the bar when he really should have at least hit the target and Chamakh managing to miss a far easier header than the one for his goal after a cross in from the left corner of the penalty area by Walcott saw put his free header well wide of the target.

Theo was also denied a fairly decent late penalty claim. Well, I say decent. If Robinson coming flying out of his goal and sliding into Theo without even getting close to touching the ball isn’t as clear a penalty as you will see this week anywhere in football, I would be stunned.

The final whistle came after 95 minutes to end the mayhem and Arsenal found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-2 loss. The “fans” will be getting their knives out again, the back pages will think that the circus is back in town and the sports news channels will be harping on about our inability to perform simple defensive duties, our inability to convert good chances and our inability to hold onto a lead.

In all seriousness, I believe that we were a combination of let down by a combination of bad luck, a little bad refereeing, some horrible football by three players in particular, Kos and Djourou at the back and Arshavin nowhere in particular as usual but I also think that the problems for which we can take responsibility can and should be corrected over the next few weeks.

They better be or Wenger may find himself looking for work BEFORE Steve Kean.

Don’t Worry, It’s Only Blackburn Rovers!

Greetings fellow Gooners!

Just a quick one today due to:

a) My being phenomenally late due to some other commitments that the world forgot to warn me about until I had 40 minutes to get there including getting ready and travelling for 30 minutes and;

b) There isn’t a great deal to say that hasn’t been said a thousand and one times and thus that we don’t already know!

Today we play Blackburn Rovers in yet another no-win situation. What could be a potential banana skin for us is exactly that, win lose or draw.

You see, if we win, well, that is exactly how it should be and no special credit will be received. We are the mighty Arsenal FC and they are lowly Blackburn, bottom of the Premier League and in a general state of turmoil. Add to that the fact that their fans are planning a protest prior to kick-off, running an online petition and generally baying for the blood of their manager and of course we should run them out of their own ground.

Or maybe we will get a draw. Yes, that should get the boo-boys out of their prams! Obviously a draw at Ewood Park would not be the end of the world, let alone the end of any title aspirations the players and staff may still be harbouring, but it would not be the win that we should so obviously be getting.

Of course, there is another possibility. That unspeakable chance that we come away with nothing thus requiring the thrusting of Wenger out of the back window of the coach home to be left for dead somewhere on the M6 due to the obvious failure of his new look side (some 2 weeks old), his transfer policy of buying experienced players (some 2 weeks old), his obvious delight at selling 3 of our most prized assets after training and nurturing them almost from his own teat and, last but not least, the fact that he obviously hasn’t been able to manage the team since David Dein left.

In fact, let’s get to the truth of the matter;We all know that Dein was not just responsible for buying and selling players and running the entire executive branch of the club but he also took all of the training sessions, picked the team, wrote the match programme, read out the announcements on match day, played centre-forward in a Thierry Henry disguise, cooked all of the players meals and even washed their kits and cleaned their boots with his magical winning dust!

Ok, obviously I am being a touch facetious here…We all know that he can’t cook!

But seriously folks, as I pointed out prior to the Dortmund game, we are smack bang in the middle of a run of seriously winnable games against teams that we really should be beating. I hope that tomorrow sees us walk away with a healthy victory and I am plumping for a 3-1 to the Arsenal with Mertesacker getting his name on the scoreboard as well as putting n a cracking performance to quieten a few errant mouths that, after two perfectly decent performances in a row, seem to be suggesting that he is worse than Squillaci!

In terms of the line-up we welcome back Song, Gervinho and Jenkinson from suspension and may just see Ramsey on the bench depending on a late fitness test. Jack and TV5 are obviously still out, as are Diaby, Rosicky, Squillaci and Miyaichi. With the midweek exploits still fresh in the legs, I would expect Arshavin to replace Benayoun and I think that we may get a peek at Santos so as not to confuse Gibbs by him playing two games in a row and possibly even Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as I think that Theo may get a sit down for this one too.

So, the team may well look nothing like this:

Now, I have to say, that looks like a team with goals in it!

In other news:

Cesc claims NOT to have slammed our chances of winning any trophies ever again until the end of time, although anybody reading the comments section of my post on this topic will understand why I still have my doubts, regardless of how much Twittering he gets up to! Truth be told, I was furious yesterday and today I couldn’t really give a rats arse. There the much more important matter of actually winning a game rather than worrying about whether an ex-player thinks we will or not!

Manchester United are the latest club linked with a Middle East buyout, this time it is the Qatari royal family threatening the general wellbeing of football with a reported bid of £1.6bn. I don’t want to get too high up on my horse over this as, so far, it is appears to be rumour and counter-rumour. Not only that, but I cannot help but wonder how the likes of Chelsea, United and Citeh get a “Sugar Daddy” whilst we get the “Gingerbread Man”!

Wenger claims that his experiment with a zonal marking systemfor corners is working so far but nothing concrete has been decided regarding whether or not it is here to stay. Time will tell on that one, but, whilst we haven’t actually conceded from a corner yet this season, our goals conceded record so far leaves a lot to be desired to say the least and so one assumes that the experiment needs to show fruit in other areas too and fast if it to stand a chance. Personally I think that man to man marking at set pieces is too easy to break down for the attacking side unless you have very mobile defenders and so I hope that the lads get past the teething troubles as quickly as possible to give this new system a real chance.

Yossi Benayoun claims that his loan move was not the last minute shock that it appeared to be and that we were finalising the details about a week beforehand. All well and good, but it does beg the obvious question: If we knew we were signing him so long beforehand, how on earth did we end up taking him without a medical?!

Nicklas Bendtner is currently doing the media rounds with his latest Arsenal “revelation”. He claims he won’t be back unless he gets assurances of regular football from the club. First things first, we own you sunbeam and you will come back if we tell you too and you won’t if we don’t want you. Secondly, I hope that you keep your original promise of never coming back and good riddance too. Thirdly, shut your trap for two fecking minutes and give your arse a chance, would you! You might have been played desperately out of position, never really given a fighting chance to prove yourself and even been horribly misquoted over the whole “best player in the world” debacle (I hate to say it, but I saw the original of that interview and another subsequent interview and that “claim” was taken so out of context it was actually a disgrace to journalism, twice!) but has it never occurred to you that the fact that you spend more time talking about playing football than actually playing it might be riddled with all the clues you need?!?!

Still not convinced Nick? Well, try your own words for size:

“I have rented a good house and am probably going to spend most of my time there, as I did in London, and then spend time with my family when I am not playing football, so it’s going to be okay.”

Anybody else starting to think that he has literally zero friends in the entire world?!

And on that note, all that remains to be said is:

Come on you experienced Blackburn Rovers whipping Gooonnnneeerrrsssss!

 

Hate To Say I Told You So…

…but I did actually tell you so!

So, Borussia Dortmund, the champions of the Bundesliga, proved to be a tougher task than many gave them credit for, keeping possession for long periods, putting a lot of pressure on us when we finally did get the ball and contributing to an interesting game of football regardless of where your loyalties lie.

In truth, aside from dropping Arshavin and replacing him with Benayoun, there were no real surprises in terms of the starting XI either. I have to admit that I did feel Wenger’s decision to drop Arshavin was a rather odd one though when considering the wisdom of selecting Benayoun over him. The reality was that Benayoun was starting his first game for us, away at the German champions, in the Champions League. A tough ask to say the least. It seemed all the more confusing considering that he could have been “blooded” at home, against newly-promoted Swansea, in the Premier League.  Additionally, and as I pointed out in the post-match report for Swansea, Arshavin was strangely impressive on Saturday and, in my opinion for the first time in a long time, genuinely deserved his place in the side. Maybe Wenger is using a kind of reverse psychology with him. You know, play badly for about 18 months whilst bitching about the club, the team, the manager and your fellow players and retain your place in the team week-in, week-out. Play well for the first time in 18 months and receive the full wrath of the boss and a good thorough benching!

To be totally honest, I thought that Benayoun was a better fit for a late throw of the dice should we be struggling to get a desperately needed goaland lacking a bit of legs and creative energy, but notfor the full 90 minutes. As it transpired, it wasn’t such a terrible idea on Wenger’s part. Admittedly Yossi looked a little lost for the opening 15 minutes of the match, struggling to find a way into the game. In fairness, a great deal of his game relies a lot on the quick-thinking and understanding between him and his teammates and with only 2 weeks gone by since he joined the club, it was unlikely that understanding would be entirely established as yet and so it appeared to be proving. Not being a tough tackler or a midfield boss by any means, the decision to play him must surely have been based upon his general work rate and, in hindsight, I think that Wenger got this one right. After about 15 or 20 minutes it was obvious that Yossi was ready, willing and able to run his socks off for the team and he did a great job of that if nothing else. Apart from the immense Alex Song and the “hectic” Arteta, he probably covered as much of the park as anybody else and broke down the flow of Dortmund’s play on more than one occasion. As for the aforementioned Song, I said in the pre-match report that he would need to have an outstanding game if we were to get anything out of this gamer and so it proved as he relentlessly pursued, harried and, for the most part, snuffed out the creative forces of Götze and Kagawa and provided the crucial first line of defence that proved so effective in protecting our centre back pairing.

The first half went pretty much the way one would expect against a team who love the ball, pass it well, attack in numbers and rarely give you a second to think when you do finally dispossess them. They had a LOT of the ball and created a few good chances which, on any other day may have seen us 2 or 3 down by half time. As it happened, a combination of hard work, riding our luck, a decent amount of profligacy on their part and some great goalkeeping by our resident “Pole between the Poles” proved enough to keep them out before the seeminglyimplausible happened. In the 43^rd minute Van Persie nicked the ball of a slow to react Kehl with a sliding tackle that Tony Adams would have been pleased with before getting up and continuing his run whilst the altogether more impressive than against Swansea Walcott picked up the ball, slotted the simplest but most perfectly timed ofdefence splitting straight pass into the path of Robin whomade no mistake with the finish, leaving Weidenfeller with no chanceas he calmly placed a curling shot to the keepers right. A finish reminiscent of Henry in many ways and Robin continues to impress and grow with each passing game. One can only imagine what we could have achieved over the past few seasons had he been fit more often.

In the time it takes to say “proper old smash and grab in Europe in the style of one of George Graham’s sides” the scoreboard said 1-0 to the Arsenal, the half-time whistle was blown and we looked like we might just be about to pull off an unlikely result.

The second half saw us getting a lot more possession and Dortmund creating far fewer chances. We still have to work on not giving away a raft of free kicks in and around the box, but thankfully Dortmund seemed hell bent on trying to knock down the wall rather than go over or around it and, when they did manage to get the ball into the danger area, our defence looked organised and solid. As the clock ticked down it became more and more obvious that it was going to take something special to break down a resilient and determined Arsenal, but as it proved, something special was exactly what was coming.

With a free kick lofted in from some way out, Gibbs showed real strength winning the header in the face of two onrushing attackers and clearing the ball out of the penalty area. Cue a moment of magic from Dortmund substitute Perisic as he lashed the ball on the volley over the defence and into the far right of the goal. In reality, and I am sure that most players would confirm this, this was a Hail Mary of a shot and 99 times out of 100 it flies over the bar, into one of the 15 or so players in the box, sails wide or straight into the arms of the keeper, but that is not to take away anything from the scorer to whom we must simply doff our hats and move on to the next game thankful to have gained a point in what should really be our toughest match in this group.

In terms of personal performances, Koscielny played with an intensity which I assume is finally being generated by the competition that finally exists for his place and it is actually becoming a joy to watch. He is still sloppy in terms of positioning at times but seems much more willing to put in the effort to retrieve the situation before it is too late.

Gibbs looked his normal self and, whilst the late introduction of Santos gave us a very short glimpse of what our left back position will most likely be filled with once the Brazilian is fully match fit, I am worried that Gibbs is our only other realistic choice at left back. He just doesn’t seem to have the defensive wherewithal to get his job done effectively and crosses as well as you would expect from an Arsenal full back. I personally don’t see what he brings to the team if I am completely honest.

Arteta was busy chasing down every blade of grass on the pitch, second only to Song in terms of work rate and industry. Sagna found himself at sea a couple of times but worked hard and saved the situation on each occasion.

Gervinho showed again what, after only 4 appearances, we have already come to expect of him, looking lively and potentially dangerous almost every time he got near the ball.

Szczesny was assured and commanding and, yet again, appears to be going from strength to strength in the Arsenal goal.

Mertesacker wobbled a couple of times but, in general, looked unhurried and unruffled when dealing with the majority of what Dortmund had to throw at him.

But, and I am sorry to harp on about this but it bears repeating, Song was EXACTLY what we needed him to be. He was energetic, industrious, organized, in position and entirely disruptive to the Dortmund cause. In my opinion he was our man of the match by a long chalk, in fact, he was probably the man of the match overall.

In terms of the group and qualification, Marseille pulling off their own slightly improved version of a European smash and grab with a 1-0 away to Olympiacos puts the underdogs at the top of the group and, in all honesty, we couldn’t have wished for a better result. As wide open as it was before kick-off, the hardest game in the group out of the way and a point in the bag, things look about as good as we could have hoped for after this first round and, given that I expect us to beat the Greeks and for Marseille to grab a sneaky draw at home to Dortmund in the next round, things may well look rosy in our European garden in a couple of weeks.

All in all a good night’s work, as good a result as we could have expected, a good performance and a wonder goal the only difference between winning and coming home with a point. This new team currently in a period of transition – and make no mistake it IS a new team and it IS in a period of transition – is starting to show a lot of the qualities that we have cried out for in the past few seasons: Drive, determination, guts and the will to win in any manner necessary. We may have lost the creative engine room of Cesc and, for three months every three years, Na$ri, but we have gained a few die for the cause blood and thunder players with a wealth of experience and, once they start to gel, I think we will see a tougher and more rounded side that we have not had since those heady days of The Invincibles.

For the relentlessly unhappy among us, this was not a case of Arsenal throwing away yet another win at the death, but more a case of going into the match with a game plan of snatch a goal and hang on defensively and, but for a moment of the highest quality and a slice of luck, we would have pulled it off.

Meanwhile, we will get a chance to see exactly what direction we really are going in in the shorter term with what would,in recent seasons at least, been considered potential banana skinswith Blackburn away, Bolton and Stoke at home and the home game against Olympiacos as well as a chance for “the kids” in our Carling Cup match at home to Shrewsbury. Get through that lot without losing a game and we can genuinely say that we are turning a corner. Get through that lot with 9 league points, 3 Champions League points and our name in the hat for the next round for the Carling Cup and we might even say we have turned that corner.

Time will tell and I for one will be there watching and enjoying this new stage in our fine club’s history.

Come On You Shiny New Look Goooonnnneeerrrrrssssss!!!

Testing Times and Doubtful T(h)omases!

I have to say that, in the past three decades at least, I have not witnessed a time when, in the great scheme of things, games could be more meaningless and yet so damned important.

I know that there have been much more important games over that time such as the Champions League final against Farcalona, title run-ins, the odd FA Cup final, even those last few games of the Invincible season when you just knew we were going to throw away the chance to rewrite the history books away with a stunning reversal by Leicester City at Highbury! Conversely, there have been a few much less important games along the way too. The last three of four games of most seasons tend to provide that excruciating feeling of utter pointlessness regardless of how much we looked like we may actually be there fighting for the title until the death in the preceding weeks!

But I digress, as usual, from the main point that I am trying to make here! Sorry to bring this up, but as I am sure you are all keenly aware, the real successes that we have enjoyed in that period were quite some time ago now and a lot has changed since those heady days. Case in point, we were genuinely relieved when we beat Swansea 1-0 at home on Saturday and are all getting a little pre-match tension going before heading off to play Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

In truth, I don’t remember a time when things were, for all the best will in the world, so uncertain in terms of direction, ability, desire or even the chance of us actually winning something. Put simply, we don’t really know how the new boys will fit in, we are unsure of what system Wenger has in mind for the team or even if it will change at all and we are even less sure that he could survive the next couple of months if we do something foolish like troll off to Germany tomorrow and get a good old shoeing! All in all things are a little up in the air and a good thump down to earth is the last thing we need. If there is any team in our Champions League group that can provide that thump, it may well be Borussia Dortmund.

Key players for them include: Sebastian Kehl, captain, a fantastic tackler and very good passer of the ball, Mats Hummel, not just a good central defender but also a real threat from set pieces along with central defensive partner Subotic (if he plays), Robert Lewandowski, a proper handful of a centre forward who, apart from being fairly lethal from short range, long range or with his head, also makes a habit of providing the kind of well-timed, defence-splitting runs which the likes of Mario Götze, clearly amongst the very best young attacking midfielders in Europe right now, simply love to provide defence-splitting passes for him to get on the end of.

There are warning signs here. Our defence will have to be on their toes or the creative attacking midfielders of Dortmund could well do some serious damage. Having watched a fair bit of Dortmund last season, it seems that our defence will have to begin from the front too. The Dortmund midfielders tend to drop deep to get the ball but, in a three behind the front man Farcalona-style setup, they move the ball very quickly from defence or defensive midfield to the penalty area. Make no mistake, this is not going to be an easy fixture, certainly not as easy as we would like it to be given the general state of things right now.

In reality we have never really fared that well against German sides and, whilst they may not have the stature or reputation of the likes of Bayern Munich, this Dortmund side do play fairly attractive, very attack-minded football, a lot like us to be fair. They too come into the game off the back of a dodgy result, losing at home for the first time in 18 games to Hertha Berlin and playing, well, terribly in the process. They are playing in the Champions League for the first time since the 2002-03 season but are doing so as champions of the Bundesliga and, to be fair, are a good side with a lot of young players, all of whom appear to be as technically gifted as our own, with an average age of just 24, one could be excused for thinking that this should be a team for the future and yet here they are, Champions of Germany. Of course, all of this serves to bring yet more unwanted pressure on our own young players to produce the goods on Tuesday night or facing getting “out-kidded”!

In terms of our team, we have the usual mass of bodies queuing up in the treatment room. Rambo Myarse, (sorry, Ramsey) hobbled out of training on Monday with an ankle injury, Jack Wilshere is already out until the end of September at least although word from the club seems to suggest we could be more likely to see him pull on the mighty red shirt sometime around the end of October. Add to this the two T(h)omases who are both still out, Rosicky as usual and Vermaelan, well, as usual too, and then tack on Diaby who, believe it or not, is still actually paid a salary to play football, and we are looking pretty thin on the ground. Jenkinson returns from suspension but did not make Wenger’s 18-man squad whilst all 5 of the new shiny things got seats on the plane although Santos is still lacking match fitness having not played a competitive match since the Copa America almost two months ago and will therefore be unlikely to get a place in the starting lineup.

We will also welcome back the effervescent Gervinho as well as what could well turn out to be a pivotal role in the shape of Alexandre Song. If Dortmund do indeed have a weakness, I believe that it is in their full backs, Piszczek and Löwe. If Gervinho can get at them like he did against the full backs of Udinese, we may well come out of this with a share of the points or even three all of them. Of equal importance will be Song’s ability to stay in position and break up their attacks before we are praying that Kos hasn’t forgotten there is a game going on or Mertesacker finds himself trying to play catch-up with a Dortmund player he probably won’t catch up with!

I think the team is likely to line up in a much more conventional than usual 4-4-2 due to the injuries to Aaron and Jack and thus expect it will look something like this:

We have to hope that Mertesacker’s knowledge of Dortmund will be put to full use and as such we can also hope that he learned as much from his Bremen side getting beaten by them 2-0 away from home last season as he did when Bremen won 2-0 at home.

In truth, this is not the type of game that we as fans or we as a club really need right now. There are clear dangers here and everybody will have to perform well for us to get a result. If we lose concentration we will be punished and if we show the sort of profligacy in front of goal as we did against Swansea, we will be lucky to get out with a point.

All of that said, without precisely this type of game to go and win, how would we rebuild that fragile, shattered confidence?!

On top of that, we have a secret weapon, something cunning and devious, something that they do not have and something that they will not be expecting…

EXPERIENCE!

Come On You Champions League Challenging Gooners!!!

What A Difference A Day 5 Signings Makes

Firstly, an apology. Sorry for not being around this week but, in mitigation, a cleverly placed 20 litre water bottle, a wet, slippery tiled floor and my ribcage got into a bit of a fracas and, well, to put it bluntly, two of my ribs lost…BADLY!

So, a week on the sofa put paid to my desperate desire to write something predicting a resounding thumping of Swansea today…

So, broken ribs and a week of bed rest turned out to be a stroke of luck because now I can now sit here and write about how I just KNEW we would scrape through by the skin of our luckiest hind teeth!

Ah, it appears I may have already given the game away somewhat!

Ok, seriously, what really went on today?!

Well, firstly but of secondary importance to finally leaving a premiership ground with 3 points again, Arteta and Mertesacker made their debuts, Arteta the shining light of our first half performance whilst Mertesacker looked, at times, like EXACTLY what we have needed, cried out for and cried over for the past two or three seasons. Mertesacker didn’t have the best game of his career but he looked pretty solid when it mattered and has only actually been in the UK for about 20 minutes!

Arteta faded in the second half but his first half performance should have been more than enough to close a few unnecessarily whiney mouths plapping on about how he won’t fit in. He fitted in just beautifully in my opinion and RVP looked like he was really enjoying the movement and service going on just behind him that provided a little extra time and space and delivered a few opportunities along the way. To be fair, had Robin hit the sort of goal scoring form that we have almost come to expect of late or Aaron Ramsey found his shooting boots before leaving the dressing room, we could have been 2 or 3 up by half time and probably wrapped up a treat of a win by the end of 90 minutes.

But could haves, would haves and should haves don’t win points, as we all know only too well!

What happened in reality is that Ramsey, after about 2 minutes of the game had passed by, contrived to get himself clean through on goal (on the end of a quite delightful slide-rule pass from the Mighty Mikel Arteta), suddenly looked like a deer caught in the headlights and thrashed it well wide of the target! Two minutes later and Mighty Mik was at it again, playing a neat one-two with RVP leaving the Swansea defence with the usual option of “having” to hack him down on the edge of the box. Mightily stepping up to take the free kick, Arteta obviously decided it would be a whole load more fun to trying to remove the head of Swansea’s Agustien from his shoulders! He came pretty close too with the midfielder looking dazed even after he finally remembered his name!

3 minutes later the “Pole between the poles” decided that Mighty Mik was getting far too much of the limelight and pulled off what can only be described as yet another incredible stop in the fledging career of this soon to be legend. Graham goes clean through and, with everybody in the ground already convinced that the ball was in the net and with almost zero reaction time, our polish cat smelled the impending danger, growled a little growl but did not even stop to preen before he threw himself down to the ground and literally clawed the ball off the line like he was chasing his favourite ball of wool! Seriously folks, how good exactly is this kid?! He just gets better and bigger every time he plays. Honestly, is it just me, or has he actually grown 4 inches since the end of last season alone?!  Not for the first time, Arsene can quite literally claim that “He Knew”!

On ten minutes Mighty Mik was at it again with another defence splitter! Van Persie found himself the lucky recipient but his goal bound effort was blocked by the challenge of the reasonably impressive Caulker. In fact, it was the very same reasonably impressive Caulker that managed to block Theo Walcott’s effort on the line after he had cunningly slipped it under Vorm’s body. In truth, the keeper got a touch on the ball which slowed it down just enough to give Caulker the time to get back. That said, he then threw himself full length to get to the ball, almost taking the goalpost down with him!

At around the half hour mark the strangely impressive Arshavin managed to skip past a few challenges, including a cracker from “I’m No Angel” Rangel that could have only been described as attempted assault, and slip a lovely pass into Van Persie leaving him the choice of only the keeper to beat or a simple pass to Walcott to get the job done. Robin chose to not lob the keeper and not pass to Theo whilst Theo chose to look at Robin like he better keep a good close eye on his secret Dutch biscuit stash for a while at least!

5 minutes later Mertesacker decided he too wanted to impress. Throwing himself, last-ditch Tony Adams-style, in front of Sinclair when it looked like we may have a serious problem from a set piece, he pulled off not only a great block but also showed exactly why he is quite so highly thought of, not only a great defender but a gutsy performer too.

The next five minutes or so were typically nail-biting stuff for us Gooners. Swansea weren’t really creating a great deal, but we didn’t have the ball very much and, well, you know how that tends to go! They knock it around for a while, pick up a couple of corners and a free kick and, wham, bam, thank you ma’am, we are 1-0 down through some sloppy defending from a set piece. Well, that may have been true on another day but not today as, on 40 minutes, the still strangely impressive Arshavin (somewhere along the way I am pretty sure that I caught him covering for Frimpong and actually putting in a fine sliding tackle, but I may have dozed off for a second there!) actually scored a really, proper, meaningful goal in an Arsenal shirt!

This was a goal straight out of the Andre Arshavin School of Advanced Footballing Lunacy too. Vorm tries to roll the ball out and somehow manages to throw it at the back of Rangel’s foot and the ball falls to Arshavin. So, looking at an almost impossibly tight angle and with a list of other options all appearing to be far simpler and far more likely to be productive, what does he do? That right, he smashes the ball, first time, inside the near post of the keeper and produces that moment of magic that only the most gifted and arrogant of players are even capable of! Quite simply a goal of the highest importance as, if the end of the season brings us even a single shiny glint in the cobweb strewn trophy cabinet, it will be hard to look back and say that the season didn’t kick off for us in that very moment.  The relief on the faces of everybody in the ground, including the players themselves, told a story of its own.

This by no means killed the game off as Swansea continued to look dangerous on the break, but the change in attitude of the team was easy to see and even easier to enjoy. Suddenly everybody wanted the ball, everybody wanted to try a killer ball and everybody wanted to do things the Arsenal Way again.

The second half brought about no changes from either side. Incredibly this was a disappointment to those who actually found the need to complain that we had bought all this experience and were just leaving it on the bench. Like I have said before, you can please some of the people, some of the time!

Anyway, almost as quickly as the fairly poor Atwell could blow his whistle to get us underway, Kieran Gibbs did his best to welcome Santos to the club and his position! Clearly demonstrating that he borrowed the Gael Clichy Offside Handbook in the summer, he contrived to play Rangel onside whilst also marking him, no mean feat let me tell you, but thankfully Kos, not having one of his better games as seems to be the norm without TV5 at his side, was on hand to head away the danger.

Benayoun got his first taste of the Arsenal faithful and, if I am brutally honest, looked out of touch with the rest of the team. That said, and considering that there was only about half an hour left on the clock and Swansea were not playing pushovers for anybody, I have seen worse debuts from players with far bigger reputations and far bigger price tags! In fact, I don’t think that Veron or Forlan EVER played that well for United!!!

Coquelin got 15 minutes and, I am sorry to say, entirely failed to impress any more than in previous outings and, future surprises aside, I am still wondering what all the fuss others make about him is actually about. Frimpong is clearly the answer to the question “Who is the obvious backup to Alex Song for the defensive midfield position at The Mighty Arsenal Football Club” for $500. That said, I remember seeing Chamakh play really quite well in an Arsenal shirt once but once again he gave us 10 minutes of absolutely nothing interesting at all today. Well, nothing if you don’t count being open in the box with a free header and failing miserably to put the ball either side of a stunned and stationary Vorm in the Swansea goal. He simply won’t get many better chances than that and every time he fails to convert them he seems to take a step further away from ever succeeding in doing it again. I have to say, having seen what he is/was capable of, I do feel a little sympathy for him. He is clearly desperately low on confidence and every run out he gets just seems to make it worse. All that aside, he does appear to be doing his best to engineer another free transfer!

Swansea managed to pull off a few hearts in mouths moments of their own and credit must go to them for never giving up which, in reality, will be a necessity if they are to have any real chance of repeating their visit to the Emirates next season. The ever busy Sinclair cracking a great free kick against the bar on around 50 minutes which certainly got a few nerves racked and it was Sinclair again almost unlocking the defence in the 92^nd minute with a mazy run only to find Sagna ready to throw himself in the way in a “none shall pass” style. A minute later and with a matter of seconds to play, Graham managed to miss a candidate for “Sitter of the Season” in the 93^rd minute when, from about 2 feet out, he hammered the ball over the bar when a tap-in would have probably done the job.

In all fairness though, it would have been very harsh had either of those efforts gone in after Robin could well have gone home with the match ball, Theo should have probably bagged a couple and Ramsey will still be wondering how he didn’t manage to put us in front in the opening moments. All in all, we played a reasonable game at the back with a couple of shaky moments, a very good game in midfield with a lot of possession and some great work from Arshavin and Arteta and a fairly poor game in the final third. That is not to say that we are back to our old tricks again already as this was more profligacy than the inability to create any goal scoring chances regardless of possession. On another day it could well have ended 6-2, but it didn’t; it ended our dismal start to the premiership season, it blooded 3 of our 5 new players, it gave us a much nicer feeling than the one we have been carrying around with us for the past couple of weeks and will undoubtedly have lifted a few spirits in the dressing room and around the club along the way.

So, we could have had killed the game off by half time, we would have thrown a goal or two their way from set pieces alone and we should have had about 6 goals by the end of the match.

But this is the Arsenal, home of doing it the hard way. So what I should have said was…

We could have been forgiven for being a little nervous prior to kick off after recent events, we would have taken three points and a 1-0 to the Arsenal prior to kick off and we should have planned for nothing more than a home win, pretty or not.

3 points finally in the bag, a bit of a lift all round, no injuries and a run out for 3 of our 5 shiny new acquisitions…

I’ll take that all day long!

Before I leave I have t mention the home support today. A quite incredible performance by them may well have been the thing that kept us going in those dying moments, maybe even providing the convincing proof, were any needed, for the likes of Sagna to throw himself in front of the ball to ensure those three points went on record as being ours. Truly the twelfth man today and a joy to hear.

Until Dortmund, Well Done You Goooonnnneeerrrrssss!!!

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