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!!!

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!!!

Dig deep, bring home those precious three points!

There is not a lot you can add to the title of this post, it’s an absolute must for us to bring home maximum points later on this afternoon. Last three weeks have not been great for us, infact we only managed a draw at home against Sunderland which to me was certainly opportunity missed to get even closer to the Mancs.

No point to dwell on those disappointments now, I suppose,  time to move on we can still challenge for the Premier League tittle so let’s give it our best shot. Injuries are piling up again Abou Diaby will now miss the game with a groin strain which he probably sustained during training, they reckon it’s only short term and it’s a matter of days. Diaby is definitely not having a good season, he failed to impress so far and is out injured again. So it looks like Denilson will play alongside Wilshere. Denilson in definitely not a defensive midfielder we all know that but he hasn’t played a lot of games this season so let’s get behind him even though he hasn’t been that great, perhaps he needs playing time to improve, he certainly doesn’t look like the player from last season. We will definitely miss our backbone of Cesc, Song, Djourou and Walcott but I honestly belive that we have enough in the tank to beat The Baggies and make up for what happened at The Emirates earlier in the season.

I would like for Nasri to start in the middle this time around, he seems less effective on the left, Bendtner out wide with Van Persie in the middle and Arshavin on the right. With this selection Wilshere and Denilson behind Nasri. With Djourou out Squilliaci will pair Koscienly at the center of our defence so it looks like a complete French outlet there with Sanga and Clichy on the flanks.

Baggies will try their best to gain points themselves they are certainly not safe yet, there are two points away from relegation zone, so they will give us a game no doubt. I’m confident though that with our quality we can take all three points and keep our title run very much alive. We know we can go level on points with Man U and hopefully for a change we can take this opportinty and use it to our advantage.

We need to dig deep, no room for error and complacancy, every Priemier Lague game becomes a Cup game now.  I would like to sit down later on tonight with a smile on my face, knowing that we are still strongly in the title race. I’m sure the away fans will get behind whoever runs out onto that pitch in few hours time as always they have been really great this season, hats off to them.  I’ll be doing my bit from home, so let’s get beihind them all and hope for we can bring those prercious three points back home.

COME ON YOU REDS…!!!

Why Arsenal can take heart from Barca defeat

Barcelona are the best team in the world. We know this because we are told often enough by those in the know.

Some go one further. For me, they are the best team ever Graeme Souness cooed in the post-match fall-out following Arsenals 3-1 defeat at the hands of Barcelona on Tuesday.

Before anything else, something needs to be addressed. Barcelona deserve their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and out-played Arsenal during the second leg.

The first game was one of contrast  the team from Catalonians gentle caress opposition with Arsenal’s bloodied self-belief, this game sadly offered no such juxtaposition to raise the intrigue and heart rates, at least from an Arsenal point of view.

If styles make boxing fights then this one was set up as a classic that never materialised. Endless column inches dedicated to Robin Van Persie’s ludicrous sending off detract from the real issues that emerged from the game Arsenal simply never got going.

That was less down to their own limitations than the success of the Barcelona formula. Dani Alves and Adriano Correia spent more time in Arsenal’s half than any full backs have the right to, meaning both Samir Nasri and Tomas Rosicky were bound by their defensive responsibilities more than their attacking intents. Without the threat of a counterattack, both were given licence to roam as they wished.

Alves has had the 4th most touches in the opposition half so far in La Liga this season, making a mockery of his positions title.

And devoid of Theo Walcott, and with the shadow of Cesc Fabregas and Van Persie on the pitch as they continued to struggle with injury, Arsenal were shorn of the weapon that would have been so valuable against a team that applies constant pressure. It worked well in the first leg, so why not at the Nou Camp?

Messi, Iniesta and Xavi offered little else other than expected from a team who create angles and movement like no others are able to. It was hypnotising at times as Wenger’s men spirit slowly then more quickly as Van Persie departed – evaporated into the night sky. Betting forum threads wove a pattern as pretty as the home sides passing, alight with praise for a team looking likely to put as many as they wished past another that lives in their shadow.

Despite this, Arsenal still could have won the tie. If Nicklas Bendtner’s first touch from a Jack Wilshere pass had been better, then the mood which engulfs the club currently would have had an all-together different tone. How were Arsenal, who by rights should have been out of contention with ten men against eleven who delight in beautiful torture, allowed to get within a couple of inches of knocking Barcelona out of a competition they covet so much?

The Barcelona model is flawed, and they know it. There 28 chances across both legs resulted in four goals, one of which was a penalty. Even if there Plan A is the most mesmeric strategy in world football, it is just that, a plan A, and it comes without backup. Arsenal were direct at home and racked up two goals in succession, while in Spain their first real foray into opposition territory resulted in an own goal. For once it is Barca who should take note.

Little over 18 months ago, the Catalan club did something strange. They signed a big man up top. A talented big man of course, but a target man for, whisper it quietly, the long ball. The Zlatan Ibrahimovic experiment failed eventually; the Swede was farmed out to AC Milan on loan as Barca proved to be unable to deviate from the groove that has been bored into their psyche, but his signature alone shows their vulnerability.

It is a type of snobbery particular to football that means a club willing to score from a different method  in cricket, for example, Ali Cook is praised as one of England’s finest batsman for his dogged style which emphasises application over ability, while Paul Collingwood is revered for making the most of his talent, but not in football. There is only one way to skin a cat, apparently.

Arsenal now face a defining point in their season. For better or worse, they now play Manchester united at Old Trafford in another different competition with the knowledge of their trophy-less run blurring the lines between a game they must win and why they must win it. Bonus betting may adjudge the Arsenal spirit too broken after two demoralising defeats to set themselves up for another fall again, but this side is made of something more solid than years gone by. Wenger hailed his side as maturing earlier in the season, now we will see if his assertion holds up to the closest of inspections.

But take heart, Arsenal, you were inches away from doing what only a handful of teams have done before. Barcelona are not invincible, and Arsene Wenger knows it.

Mason made a meal but We had dessert in the end

By the end of first half last night I was livid, worse if I could I would be screaming at the top of my lungs calling Mason all sort of names which I did in my head anyway. It had to be quiet my little Gooner was already asleep upstairs. Not only his fellow colleague linesman made the wrong call when Saha was miles offside and gave the goal he also failed to notice how Everton stopped us from playing at every opportunity.

Now there are some mixed conclusions that Saha’s goal was either Onside and Offside. Let me point this out because this is the most important rule of them all and Saha at the time of the pass was clearly Offside. If this rule meant anything the linesman he should have flagged him Offside simple as that. It doesn’t mean shit if Koscielny touched the ball in any way as it certainly wasn’t a back pass to the keeper. This is obviously my opinion on the matter yours may differ in many ways.

What made me cringe even more was the fact that his ignorance to fouls committed by Everton was beyond belief. Jack got yellow for something that would never stand a chance of getting a yellow, Cesc was held by Rodwell a foul given no card, this was a tactical foul and surely deserved a yellow. Walcott elbowed by Arteta not even a foul given, Rosicky fouls straight yellow, Heitinga holding onto RVP foul given but no card and finally Fellaini stamping on Walcott off the ball was just an icing on top. Not only he ignored these he also never gave any advantage of play, I sensed he had definitely something against us and it felt as if corruption had something to do with this as well. It’s not for the first time Mason’s decisions were truly incompetent for a Premier League referee, clearly there is massive problem with referees these days and something needs to be done about it sooner rather than later. We can talk about this all day if we want to, we all know nothing will change anytime soon, as usual it will be brushed under the carpet.

Enough about those twisted individuals, we didn’t really had a good first half did we now? Passing was a bit sloppy and our penetration was no way near good enough for our standards, it took us sometime to find our stride and before you know, we were one nil down. Even our Captain admitted it was not good enough:

“It was a very testing game because we started losing, we didn’t start the game well at all, I think we were very very sloppy, we were not up for it since first minute”

“At that stage we can pay for it but fortunately the team stepped up in the second half, we realised that if we kept playing like that we were going nowhere, I think we did very well”

There’s not a great deal you can add to what Cesc said, I agree with his honest view of the game especially first half we looked as we had too much respect for Everton and allowed to play in our back yard. It backfired but we came on top in the second half. Our attitude, desire and hard work paid off as we produced the goods required to stay in the title race.

It was very good to see Arshavin getting goal, even though he did not celebrate putting us on level terms he did make up for it when Koscielny completely unmarked put us in front with a very decent header, great cross by Van Persie by the way. Credit to the lads they did us proud in every way, they worked hard for this victory and deserve their praise for an outstanding comeback. Looks like our little Meerkat is back, we all know he’s capable of great things and there is no better time for him to come back to his best in the absence of Nasri for the next three weeks.

I’m hoping Alex Song is not too badly injured, Arsene in his Press Conference said he couldn’t walk and that is rather worrying, hopefully he will recover in time for another tough fixture up north. Walcott also joins the medical treatment room, he has a ankle problem and wonder why, we all saw what happened at the end of the game last night.

I’m not too sure what Fabregas said to the fourth official at half time but it’s about time Cesc got to their faces, everyone else does it every week, at least he doesn’t go stamping on the ground like a 5 year old Rooney! He’s our Captain and he has the right to complain and question incorrect decisions. Moyes can say all he likes, he obviously had nothing else to say to defend his players, he just made himself look like a right twat!

I was going to finish on the high however I have just come across some bad news, it looks like Fabby will be out for the rest of the season. He just got back from Germany where underwent medical consultation to his injured shoulder. These proved to be not good and it looks like he will definitely need to undergo surgery. With Wojtek our current number one it’s probably a good thing that Almunia stayed at the club.

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