Arsereview

Open disunity shames the club. Thoughts on United and the last few weeks.

2012-01-24T23:21:00.001Z

It's undoubtedly been a bad few weeks for the club. Speaking to a friend before the United match I suggested that the previous five weeks had been the worst I'd seen us consistently play as a team in the 15 years I've been going to Arsenal. And after the match, we remain pointless in 2012.

But I do think people have suffered from raised expectations. The run of form from late October to early December coincided with a wonderful run of form for Robin van Persie, who along with a couple of others, carried the team up the table.

I look at this team and it's not the fourth best in the Premier League. It will be a lot closer with Sagna, Santos and Wilshere, but the expectancy that your first-choice team will and should be able to play the whole time is naive. When has it ever happened in the last five seasons? Incredibly rarely.

For what it's worth I think Abou Diaby is one of the most talented players at the club, and if fit, could provide drive and attacking vigour from midfield. But he's not fit and he's hardly ever fit so it's irrelevant.

And it's why I think the injuries are a poor excuse. We've definitely missed having any full-backs, but having seen the performances against Fulham and Swansea, I'm unconvinced they'd have helped that much.

I really like Mikel Arteta but he doesn't create enough chances. Neither do Aaron Ramsey, Gervinho or Walcott. One man who can create chances is Van Persie, but because he's starved of service, he now tries to find a way to shoot almost every time.

The sheer ineptitude of our attacking play in the last six weeks - I'd go back as far as Everton - has been the main problem. Which is why I was so shocked by the booing on Sunday.

Andrey Arshavin is a good player but he's not a winger and it shows. Wenger made a great change in bringing Chamberlain in and it worked, as we actually showed some real attacking purpose for the first time in ages, Wolves aside.

As it happens, I think the substitution was wrong - I think Walcott should have made way, and the fallout will have an impact on the rest of our season. Theo has played dreadfully recently and will never have the quality of Shava.

But I cannot fathom why people booed. Did they think he was suddenly going to change his mind and leave the Ox on?

It left a bitter taste in my mouth. And most importantly, it lacked all the class that 'The Arsenal' are known for. Booing your own manager in the midst of one of the biggest games of the season when there's an important three points at stake? Unbelievable.

Considering we hear ad nauseam about how the Premier League is the most popular League worldwide, I'd worry about further ramifications: it was unlikely before Sunday that a player of Gotze or Hazard's caliber would come to play for Arsenal; if they've seen how the home crowd react in a match of this importance to what was a reasonable (if incorrect) substitution, why would they want to come here?

Defeat to United in of itself is not a terrible result. We were unlucky to lose the game and played loads better than in the previous few matches.

But the spiral of negative stories around the club which the crowd - and, to an extent, the Captain's reaction - has caused will have a much greater impact on our season.

There are some winnable matches ahead, and we could well defeat AC Milan in the Champions League, but to do that, the club needs to stick together.

It's bad enough the referees hate us; fans should quit hating, and start supporting the team.

Keep the faith.

Arsenal's recent form is what you should expect - sort of

2011-10-28T17:25:00.003+01:00

The thing which everybody forgot was that it was hardly a great Arsenal side which challenged so strongly until March last season.

Tears were spilt on deadline day 2010 over a refusal to buy a veteran keeper; the centre half whom everyone insisted we signed turned out to be not much cop; the side as a whole was very dependent on Marouane Chamakh and Samir Nasri in the first half of the season, Robin van Persie in the New Year. On top of this, the captain and best player Cesc Fabregas was injured for half of the season.

And yet, this was a team which arguably should have won the League.

What was easy to forget in the midst of that wretched run of form from March until September, was that there was a reason that Arsenal were challenging for all the trophies. Partly, it was good performances - beating Chelsea 3-0 particularly springs to mind; but a lot of it was about other teams not playing very well.

This came in two ways: first, the opposition were poor. Although there were some great individual performances from Arsenal players, the poverty of teams like Wolves, West Ham and Birmingham was striking to behold. In fact, what was so frustrating about our results at the end of the season was that the teams didn't even play particularly well.

The 3-2 defeat to West Brom last September at least saw some excellent attacking play from the Baggies; defeats to Stoke and Villa were largely self-inflicted, clear by-products of our poor defending and inexplicable lack of inspiration in midfield, rather than the result of the opposition playing particularly well.

The second reason we were doing so well was that the other big teams had clear deficiencies, some of which remain: Man United had a lightweight central midfield which led to them being over-run on occasion; Chelsea's experienced squad at times looked very old, and ended up in a terrible run of form mid-season; and Man City, the great success story of the season thus far, couldn't play as a team.

To be sure, our three rivals of last season have improved. United strengthened their team (although their improvement has been greatly exaggerated), Chelsea have changed their tactics under AVB and look more competitive, and City have gelled as a team; it's this which will preclude us from winning the League this season.

But the poor teams in the Premier League remain. Sure West Ham and Birmingham went down, but Blackburn and QPR are equally bad.

And this is a good Arsenal team. Not a great Arsenal team, but a good Arsenal team. Heck, keep Szczesny, Vermaelen, Wilshere and RVP fit at the same time (unlikely, I know) and they could challenge for a League title.

Which is why when the fixture list gives us a kind run like this, we should win seven out of eight matches. We should expect it - we just shouldn't expect to win away at Chelsea.

With no Drogba and Arsenal coming into the match with momentum, I certainly give us hope; but I have realistic expectations for this season. And providing you accept that our ambition should be to finish in the top four, I think you'll actually have an enjoyable season.

Keep the faith.

Blogging about Arsenal is painful at the moment. Post-Blackburn thoughts.

2011-09-18T14:08:00.002+01:00

Blackburn Rovers 4 Arsenal 3

For all I said that it was time pressures which precluded me from blogging as much as I used to, it's also that I don't really see the point of writing the same thing over and over again, especially when other people are also writing the same thing.

What am I supposed to say? Blackburn are truly abysmal and Steve Kean is one of the worst managers in Premier League history.

If there was any team we should be able to beat, it's them: they're in even worse form than us (probably), and trailed twice. And yet we lost the game.

How many teams could have 43 shots on goal over two away games, score five goals, and still lose both games? It is beyond a joke.

I have never seen a team flood the opposition with confidence like this Arsenal team, and it sure doesn't feel seven months ago that we beat Barcelona at home.

For what it's worth, I'm not sure we've ever got over the Van Persie red card in the Nou Camp.

We don't need a defensive coach, so much as a sports psychologist who can sort these guys out mentally.

It's all very depressing. If you want to find out what happened during the match, the Guardian has a match report here.

The nadir. Man United 8 Arsenal 2. Eyewitness report.

2011-08-29T22:08:00.002+01:00

Man United 8 Arsenal 2

A terrible, terrible performance brought a terrible, terrible result. Make no mistake, this was the nadir of Arsene Wenger's time in charge.

For an hour we were outclassed but somehow were in the game at 3-1 down. Then we removed our holding midfielder and put an attacking player on to try and get a result, and conceded five goals in half an hour.

That's not meant to be an excuse. You know something has gone seriously tits up when Henri Lansbury is subbed on for Theo Walcott to play right back. It was tactically negligent. Maybe if we'd scored the fifth goal it would have been a different game, but when you're introducing a 17 year old debutant to try and change the game, something's not quite right.

I don't feel there's any point going into the match in any depth - none of the team covered themselves in glory (Coquelin, possibly, excepted) - but who expected them to.

There have been bad defeats in the Wenger era before - 5-1 to Spurs, and 5-0 to Chelsea - but those were in the Carling Cup with weakened teams.

The most depressing thing about yesterday is that it was the best team we had available.

And despite all that, amidst all the media hype, things aren't nearly as bad as the media would like you to think they are.

Real Madrid lost 5-0 away to Barca last year with none of their players being red-carded until the 93rd minute and won the Spanish Cup, reached the Champions League semi-final.

Strip away the hyperbole, and you have a manager who every player who leaves ends up praising, and a coaching set-up which consistently brings through young players who are talented.

Sure the United team was marginally younger, but would Rosicky start under ideal circumstances? Both teams had three players who had come through the academy in their teams. The difference was that United were able to spend big money on Anderson and Rooney, when we dealt in the bargain basement, signing players like Song and Bendtner.

And when they bought 20 million pound players, we bought ten million pound players? I'd rather have Theo Walcott than Ashley Young (though I'm probably in a minority there), Samir Nasri instead of Nani, and Fabregas instead of Carrick.

The issue at Arsenal is two-fold for me. Firstly, it's a question of personnel. I felt we were very close last year, and if Chesney had been keeper all season things might have turned out differently; but we were still without decent back-up at centre back, and now we've missed out on Phil Jones to boot.

And yet, since last season, we've lost a top-quality Premiership left-back, still failed to strengthen at centre back, and lost the best midfielder in the Premier League. I'm prepared to accept that Gervinho is a good replacement for Nasri, but that still leaves the other three positions.

Aside from United pressing better yesterday, they used possession a lot more effectively; where was our playmaker for the front three? Judging by yesterday's performance, Aaron Ramsey isn't up to it at present.

The other issue was at full-back: Carl Jenkinson has merits insofar as he's not Eboue but he lacks experience; Armand Traore lacks everything a good footballer should have.

I don't advocate the 'spend spend spend' philosophy of other clubs, but I think when you lose your best player, as well your first choice left back, and then you don't replace them, it's unsurprising the team looks weak.

But it's not easy when you're missing Vermaelen, Sagna, Gibbs, Diaby, Wilshere and Nicky Bendtner, along with the suspended trio - the squad players are playing, so the consequence is the bench looks weak.

I don't think we're as weak as all that. I think with three decent signings before the window closes (a left back, a centre back, and a marquee midfield player), we could really turn things around.

It's easy to trot out stats about it being a terrible start to the League season, but we're one point down on the corresponding three matches last season.

The bigger test will be not dropping cheap points at home against the lesser teams.

I think with those signings, we could do pretty well this year - and by that I mean finish 3rd.

But to do that, the other thing which needs to improve is the morale around the club. I was in Manchester yesterday and the away support really was excellent, but we need to see that at home.

There's a malaise surrounding the club, which is affecting the players. In short, they lack confidence on the pitch, mainly because of this dreadful run of form which stretches back six months.

Now, more than ever, we need to get behind the team and the manager. There's a reason all ex-players speak so highly of Arsene.

Keep the faith.

We created so little. Liverpool match report.

2011-08-23T22:22:00.000+01:00

Arsenal 0 Liverpool 2

It's not as bad as some people are saying it is, but it sure ain't great either. By my reckoning, the choice for the holding midfield role against United is between Francis Coquelin and Craig Eastmond. It's hardly encouraging.

But equally, if you wanted an example of why spending tons of money isn't necessarily a good thing, look at Liverpool on Saturday: for 65 minutes against a very poor Arsenal side all they created was a couple of headers which were easily saved by Szczesny. Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam were rubbish, Downing was anonymous, and Andy Carroll's movement was predictable.

It's this, in a sense, which is so encouraging. Spurs are dreadful, Everton worse, so if you were looking for a team to take the fourth Champions League place it would be Liverpool; and yet, against an Arsenal side which finished with ten men, and included Jenkinson, Miquel, Frimpong, Ramsey and Lansbury, they couldn't break us down until the sending off.

Or, alternatively, until the introduction of Luis Suarez. The malaise isn't as bad as some would have it, but our lack of creative players is troubling. When you sell Nasri and Fabregas, you have to look round and see who's going to replace them?

And there's nobody there.

Wilshere is injured, Rosicky and Diaby can't be relied upon to play two games in a row, Walcott isn't suited to our system, and Gervinho's start has hardly been auspicious. I have faith that Chamberlain and Miyaichi will be good players for us, but they shouldn't be first-choice back-up at the age of 18.

I'm confident that the manager will rectify things, but the next couple of games are difficult matches, and defeat to Udinese would be terrible financially.

On the plus side, if you were to ask why Liverpool struggled to break us down, the answer would be pretty solid defence. I think s lot will depend this season on us being able to play Vermaelen and Koscielny together. If we can, it might not be nearly as bad as some people are saying it will be.

I hope everyone gets behind the team tomorrow against Udinese.

It's clear that when you lose the best creative midfielder in Europe, and also one of the best young wingers, things aren't ideal, and that showed in the lack of opportunities we created. But if we qualify, there's still a week left to bring in two or three players. And if there's one thing the Liverpool match should have taught us, it's the impact that one really good player can have.

Keep the faith.

Good to win a game. Udinese match report and Liverpool preview.

2011-08-20T11:11:00.001+01:00

Arsenal 1 Udinese 0

Let's get one thing clear: the media reporting of this match was distinctly odd.

We were without our best player through suspension, and Arshavin didn't play. We had to deal with two defensive reshuffles in the course of the game because of injury. And crucially, Udinese played very well, with Chesney making a string of excellent saves.

And yet, rather than being congratulated on a committed performance which won the game, we're told Arsenal looked 'sketchy', 'disjointed', 'lacking creativity'; all of that has some truth. But to then suggest that it has 'added to the malaise' around the club is ridiculous.

I don't know how hard this is, but we won the game. And over the last few months, we haven't won many games.

The goal was a well-worked move between two talented young players, and our defending (which has so often come in for criticism), was well-disciplined and, generally, in command: Udinese had few chances.

I'm not trying to suggest it was a brilliant result; but when you read the media fawning over Manure's win over West Brom, about how they come through even when not playing their best, the portrayal of Arsenal's performance seems more than a little unfair.

Sure, we need a couple of midfielders, but if you read the papers, you might think this season will be armageddon for Arsenal.

All of this said, the return leg will be nervy, and I may well have to bake a lucky carrot cake.

Today it's Liverpool, the match which upset me so much last year I almost packed this blog in. I'm anticipating a similar game to last year, but we've now sold Eboue...

I think a lot depends on RVP, who was starved of service last week, but I am going to predict a win.

Keep the faith.

Same old, same old. Newcastle match report.

2011-08-14T14:30:00.000+01:00

Frankly, I might as well just cut and paste different bits from match reports from last season.

Apart from better defending, everything I watched today I've seen before: Arsenal denied a perfectly good penalty; Arsenal player sent off in ridiculous refereeing injustice; Joey Barton being a Grade A tosser.

It was a very odd match. After pressing for the first few minutes we dropped off and let Newcastle have a sizeable amount of the ball. There was no thrust to our play apart from Gervinho's dribbling, and pretty much zero chance of us scoring. Van Persie was isolated and Rosicky isn't Cesc.

But equally, we appeared very solid defensively. It underlines the point I've been trying to make all summer: the centre back we want to sign is somebody better than Seb Squillaci, but somebody who is going to be 3rd/4th choice. And it's hard to find somebody of the requisite quality who doesn't command a huge fee.

All of this said, I think it's easy to read too much into the defensive display: ignoring the controversial incidents, this was a very boring match in which very little happened.

So, to the incidents: first let me say that Alex Song is an absolute cretin. You can arguably make the excuse that Gervinho doesn't know about Joey Barton, and that it's hard not to react. Song, on the other hand, just stamped on Barton. He'll be banned for three matches and quite right too - and consequently we'll be without our best holding midfield player against United. Terrific.

But it was incident number two which has sparked all the conversation.

Jack Wilshere had this to say:

That is not football! I am pretty sure abu diaby got sent off for that last year!less than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet ReplyJack Wilshere
JackWilshere

To be honest, I think Jack misses the point. Abou reacted last year with a push after a bad tackle by Barton.

This year, Gervinho did nothing wrong, and Barton tried to grab him by the neck. It's completely ridiculous, not least because it was a penalty.

And it particularly upset me, as if you watched Gervinho all afternoon, he was constantly dribbling into the box and making dummy movements trying to get the defenders to foul him. Finally, Tiote ankle-tapped him and yet the penalty wasn't given.

On top of that, Gervinho was sent off, and Barton got away with what was essentially assault. As I say, same old, same old.

Ultimately, worse things happen than drawing away at Newcastle, particularly as we played pretty poorly. But equally, the next three matches are tough. I think the week ahead could be very interesting. Defeat to Udinese and no signings, and the stadium could be a horrible place to be come next Saturday.

Keep the faith.

2010/11: 15 points about Arsenal's season and where it went wrong

2011-08-12T00:25:00.001+01:00

Better late than never I guess, my review of last season...

Five myths about where it went wrong...

1) 'Arsene's management of the team is completely inept'
You know, I might have some time for people who say this - or similar things - if they'd been saying this in January and February. I don't remember anyone being too upset on winter deadline day when we signed nobody, but now everybody is criticising Arsene for not strengthening.

I didn't hear anybody criticising this team when they beat Barcelona in the Champions League, or battled through to beat Stoke at home whilst playing really badly.

There are certainly issues, but a change of manager does not necessarily mean success - Pep Guardiola has done well at Barcelona but he's also spunked 60 million on Zlatan. It's a choice of what you want.

2) 'The lack of depth at the back cost us'
Er, did it? This is the argument which dictates that Arsenal should then spend 20 million pounds on Gary Cahill because Seb Squillaci isn't world class. It is bizarre. Despite our best centre back being injured all season Squillaci only played 20-odd games.

I think everybody agrees he wasn't the signing we hoped he would be. But that's why I'm reticent to sit here and write that we should sign two centre backs. If they're the wrong players, it just extends our already lengthy wage bill.

3) 'Our passing game is boring and doesn't break teams down'
We were outscored by one team, despite some horrific refereeing. Our game is somewhat dependent on players picking a killer through ball but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

It plays to our assets. People say we should play a pacey counter-attack, but when your only really quick player is Theo, that doesn't really work.

On the other hand Cesc is the best passer of the ball in the Premier League. When he doesn't play we do seem to work it to the wings more, and there's a case that we need to get our players to work on their crossing more.

But I think there's little doubt that the passing system worked exceptionally well until February, and unless overnight all teams learnt to deal with it, it's more complicated than just to say our build-up play is too slow.

4)'We lack any determination to turn games around'
The amount of times I've hard this is truly astonishing. This is the team which came from behind to beat Barcelona and Everton, who came from two goals down to draw with West Brom, and scored a 97th minute goal against Liverpool. The reality is that Newcastle aside (and that has to be seen as an anomaly), the lack of fight has mainly been in quite meaningless end of season games. Is 2nd better than 4th? Yeah, but Champions League is still Champions League.

5)'Not buying a goalkeeper cost us the League'
This is a very odd argument anyway when one looks at the decisions which went against us throughout the season, which were much more of a decisive factor in the title race.

But more than that, sure Schwarzer could have done a job for a season - or even two, and though I hate to say it, he's probably better than Almunia. But Fabianski seems to be at the least his equal, and Szczesny is a far better keeper.

That's where I sympathise with Arsene. If he'd signed Schwarzer, we'd never have known how good Szczesny is because he wouldn't have had the game time. His contract was up this summer and he could have left. Instead, we quite possibly have our goalkeeper for the next fifteen to twenty years. I know which scenario I prefer.

Five areas where we really did go wrong...

1) The home support
There's a cruel irony that it's our fans who are the most vociferous on Twitter - cos' get them inside a football stadium and they either go silent, or boo and moan at their own team.

Of all the Category B fixtures, the loudest was probably Villa which was just people moaning.

As far as I see it, people want us to win loads of trophies and play super-entertaining football - and if we don't do that then they won't support the team. It's just childish.

But more than this, when other teams have huge levels of support when they're struggling, it makes an impact. No wonder we struggle to come from behind.

2) Retaining injury-prone/crap players
I don't care how good Abou Diaby or Eboue are in training. They're both either always injured or useless. The one criticism I would make of Wenger is that he's sometimes hoist by his own petard in his desire not to be proved wrong.

Sometimes - such as in the case of Alex Song - he's right. But sometimes he's also wrong, and somebody needs to tell him that.

3) Poor coaching
The only explanation for why a team of reasonably sound defenders concedes so many goals from set pieces is poor coaching. Ultimately, the buck stops with the manager; but I would ask what they do at Colney to become so crap at defending corners. I would love for us to appoint a coach in this area.

4) Dependence on certain players
The reason results tailed off was that we basically ended up dependent on one player in the second half of the season: Van Persie.

It's interesting to compare 2010/11 with the year before; then, it was much more of a team effort - 12 goals from Bendtner, 8 from Vermaelen, 5 from Denilson - whereas this season, especially after the turn of the year, contributions from the squad players were rare.

The bottom line is it's clear they didn't contribute enough. The obvious question though, is why? And I think the answer lies in our lack of goals from outside the box.

Those were the goals Vermaelen, Denilson et al were scoring. And arguably our failure to bang a long shot past a keeper when all else failed was what ultimately hurt us.

5) The team gave up
One of the reasons I didn't write a match report after the Spurs game was business/laziness.

But it was also because the team gave up, particularly in the last two or three fixtures. Ignoring the annoyance of a two-legged qualifier against a good team like Udinese, it also sends out a terrible message.

We were unfortunate to drop out of the title race, but we weren't unfortunate to finish fourth.

It creates headlines about us lacking fight and frankly they're hard to refute. Once again, I don't think this is a personnel issue, so much as our players needing to buck up their ideas - not least because of the message it sends out.

After the way we ended last season, the first few fixtures this years will be very interesting...

Five reasons to be optimistic...

1) Robin van Persie
In Van Persie, we have the best striker in the Premiership and a man who is at the peak of his career. If we can keep him fit for the whole season, I have no doubt we will win a trophy. Without him though, I'm more than a little bit worried.

2) The youngsters
I know Wenger's been spinning this yarn for years, but in the past the talent was Ryan Smith and Arturo Lupoli.

Now, it's players like Jenkinson, Chamberlain, Miyaichi and Frimpong - people who really could make an impact at first-team level.

Arguably it's wrong to build them up like this as it puts too much pressure on them. But equally, the best players come through young, and Jack Wilshere has hardly been harmed by it...

3) It's the first summer in a long while without an international tournament
No Confederations Cup, Euros or World Cup means our players are properly rested. Add the lack of long-term injuries (for once) and they should be fresh and raring to go for another season. And players like Sagna and Van Persie must realise they're running out of time to accrue medals.

4) Stability in goal
For the first time in a while, we have a competent keeper who is universally acknowledged as the best at the club. And Chesney is bloody good.

Having a solid goalkeeper obviously has an impact on the rest of the team. Which is why I'm optimistic with Wojciech in goal.

5) We were really f*cking good at times last season
It's easy to forget this but from December to the Carling Cup Final we were arguably the best team in Europe.

We produced comebacks, we played great football, nobody could beat us.

And the bottom line is clearly we can do it. The last two and a half months of the season were really painful, but it doesn't mean we lack ability.

Obviously a lot depends on how the squad looks at the end of August, but it isn't nearly as bleak as some might say...

Keep the faith.

I'll have more to say on Cesc/Nasri, if and when their transfers are sorted out.

It's all but over now. Spurs match report + Bolton preview

2011-04-24T14:44:00.001+01:00

Spurs 3 Arsenal 3

It's a point I've made over and over again in the time I've been writing this blog, but I think it's worth pointing out this week: you don't win the League by beating your closest rivals. Yes, it helps. But when the success of your League challenge is predicated on beating Liverpool, Spurs and Man United in successive games, then something has gone wrong earlier in the season.

If we'd taken six points from our two games this week - and you can make a reasonable case that we could and should have done - then we would be in the title race, but that doesn't mask the fact that it was poor results both at the beginning of the season, and in the last couple of months that have cost us. Our competing for the League was more the result of everyone else being crap, than some brilliant performances from us.

In fact, I have very little issue with the draw at White Hart Lane. Yes, we concede too many goals to mediocre Spurs midfield players by asking them to have a shot, but in reality - much though it hates me to say it - Spurs have improved. We don't expect to win at Anfield, Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge every season, and so to, we shouldn't expect to always win at the Lane.

But what was so galling about this performance was it had everything we'd been lacking over the previous couple of months: some verve, some elan, and more than anything else, some real determination. We played without the handbrake, and took the game to our opponents for once. For me, that we drew that game was moot.

Yes, we lost a lead again, but the idea that we 'threw it away', is simply nonsense. Spurs scored a goal from outside the box, and Szczesny was guilty of nothing except perhaps naivety when he gave the penalty away. It's easily forgotten, too, that we did score a perfectly good goal to restore a two-goal advantage when the score was 3-2, which was ruled out by the linesman.

And, lest we forget, we could have won the game right at the very end. This was a performance full of spirit and determination, for once I have no argument with the manager.

That's why I disagree with the popular opinion that Arsenal lack mental strength and bottle. I agree wholeheartedly with Patrick Barclay's argument in Friday's Times that what Arsenal are, is naive, not bottlers.

It was Spurs who probably needed a result more than Arsenal on Wednesday. The League was - but for a very lucky sequence of results - already gone. And yet, we went along and dictated the game, silenced their fans. A team which lacks mental strength couldn't have gone along and played like that after the farcical end to proceedings just a few days earlier.

A team which lacks mental strength would have buckled at 3-3 - but instead Wojciech made a string of excellent saves. That's character for you, particularly after he had given away a penalty which levelled the scores up. I was at the Lane, and I could see Cesc geeing the team up - they did not give up.

I just don't buy that we lack mental strength - if that's so, why were we favourites to go through in the Nou Camp, having once again equalised having trailed to Barcelona, before Robin's sending off? How could we come from behind to beat the best team in the world? How could we have the best away record in the Premier League, then?

It's obviously a disappointing end to the season, but we have to keep on fighting - not least because second would at least be an improvement on last season.

I personally think that this is a pretty good team; one might question why four ostensibly good defenders were made to look so ordinary in the second half on Wednesday, but the flip side of that is we only conceded one goal - they can't be that bad.

Bolton today is a good chance to stop the rot. After a 5-0 defeat last weekend, they'll also be hurting, but we should have no sympathy for them - they are Bolton, and I'm predicting a 2-0 away win.

Keep the faith.

It was bedlam. And then Eboue struck. Liverpool match report.

2011-04-18T11:00:00.000+01:00

Arsenal 1 Liverpool 1

Even the guy in the row behind me who wouldn't shut up had stopped. After Van Persie's free-kick had been claimed by Reina, it looked like the game was up, like the title was gone.

The fourth official had signalled eight minutes of injury time, and though we had only played five minutes, we hadn't created a chance of note.

I was convinced that the passing patterns weren't going to work, and that we needed to pump it long to Nicky Bendtner.

But that isn't the Arsenal way, instead they knocked it around, worked the ball, and it came to Cesc Fabregas. A quick 1-2 with Samir Nasri brought him into the box, and Jay Spearing clipped his heels. Van Persie stepped up...

And bedlam. Absolutely mental. It was truly hug a stranger time, one of the great moments in the new stadium, and it looked very much like the League title was still alive.

It was wonderful.

Until that point it had felt much like the other recent home games. Lots of possession, lots of passing, but few clear-cut chances. Pepe Reina fumbled a Walcott shot at his near-post, Koscielny headed against the bar, but we weren't exactly laying siege to the Liverpool goal.

And yet, it wasn't enough. It was, once again, the best of times, the worst of times.

The equaliser hurt bitterly. You can blame a lot of people: I think the point about time being up, is less about the amount of time played, and more that the players clearly thought it was done. If not, why did Dirk Kuyt shoot from the kick-off?

But having said that, we had the ball. And I would blame Szczesny quite a lot. Pepe Reina was time-wasting for the whole second half. But Wojciech kept the ball for but a few seconds, and then kicked it long. He's a good goalkeeper, but his kicking is woeful. And surrendering cheap possession when Liverpool were throwing their whole team forward is just daft.

You can blame the ref for giving a dodgy penalty, and you can blame Eboue for getting into a position when he could do that. But whoever you blame, it was one of our lowest moments in a long time.

And yet the one man you can't blame is Arsene Wenger. Suppose for a second, that the penalty should have been given: is he suddenly guilty for picking a player like Eboue who's a bit of an idiot? No, not really. Clichy has also mindlessly given penalties away in the minute of matches before. In reality, his third change was incredibly brave - bringing on a holding midfield player when we were chasing the game, but it was also the right change, as we were beginning to get over-run after Wilshere's withdrawal. For me, Wenger had a good day.

As an aside, quite why Liverpool celebrated as they did was a little beyond me, they'd drawn one game, not won the League but I guess that's somewhat irrelevant.

Ultimately, it's amazing. Go back to April 2008, and we also conceded a goal immediately after scoring a goal which looked decisive against Liverpool. And the inevitable question which follows from that is how much has changed? Truth told, have we improved?

Possibly. I think that for all this United side isn't all that great, we should have been so far ahead of them after the first half of the season that the current bad luck wouldn't matter. I think the League got away with results like the last minute 1-1 against Sunderland, the defeat to Spurs from 2-0 up, losing to two newly promoted teams at home, an inability to beat 10-man Wigan - even if we'd only taken six points more from those games, the table would look very different.

And yet it isn't over. If we were six points clear of United with six games to play, we'd still be worried. To give up now, would be inexcusable. Yes, we're in terrible form, and yes, we're not playing particularly well, but the more pressure we can put on United, the more chance of them slipping up. Their next two games are away to Newcastle and home to Everton - for differing reasons, there's no reason to think they couldn't drop points there.

I began the season by saying it could be a long and difficult one, and that's been pretty accurate. I don't think we've choked, but I think we are unfortunate - Liverpool played Man United and attacked; against us, they parked the bus. It's a similar tale for so many clubs who play us, and it does make things harder.

The players can't afford to be down now - next up is a trip to White Hart Lane; neglecting the fact that we need to win to keep the pressure on United, we also need to shut the scum up.

Keep the faith.

Kroenke's takeover makes the next seven games even more important. Blackpool match report.

2011-04-15T17:52:00.000+01:00

Blackpool 1 Arsenal 3

That was the week that was - a tumultuous week in the history of Arsenal Football Club.

To be frank, the most notable thing in a business-sense about Arsenal was that it hadn't been sold at this point - in a sense, it's the perfect investment, a team which delivers solidity and consistent qualification for the Champions League, together with a club which routinely makes a profit. It was only the lockdown agreement which had stopped Arsenal going the way of Chelsea, United, Liverpool, Spurs, Villa et al a long time ago in my opinion.

For me, while I was reasonably happy with having no one individual with overall control, I'd rather have Kroenke than Usmanov. He has a known track record of using his sports clubs as investments, rather than as 'playthings' a la Abramovich/Sheik Mansour.

So while on the one hand having the club owned almost entirely by two businessmen we know little about may be construed a bad thing, it looks like very little will change, at least in the short-term.

I do wonder, in the medium-term, how important the next seven games are. It's unlikely, but with a League title in the trophy cabinet, I can't see Kroenke dreaming of trying to tinker for several years. On the other hand, a trophyless season and a summer without a major international tournament would give many fans three months to demand signings. And I wouldn't expect Kroenke to just completely ignore that.

The takeover was precipitated by the illness of Danny Fiszman, and having tweeted something a little glib about not understanding why he had sold his shares, I think it's worth appreciating everything he did for the club - it was he, lest we forget, who made the decision that we would stay in the Arsenal area, rather than moving to Wembley, and the Emirates stadium is very much his legacy. The re-naming of the bridges in honour of Fiszman and Danny Friar, is as Goonerholic put it, another sign of how we're Classenal.

In amongst all this news, it's easy to forget that we also played a football match this week. And we won!

Sunday's win at Bloomfield Road kept the title race alive, and the next four games are hugely important. Sure, it would have been nice to make up ground on United, but I don't think anyone earmarked last weekend as the time to gain on them. If we can narrow the gap to a point, I have little doubt they will drop points somewhere - and if they don't, well then they probably deserve to win the League.

It was a good to win but this Blackpool side has got worse and worse. Ian Holloway's complaints about offside decisions would have carried more weight if we hadn't got in behind them over and over again. With the players actually running with the ball, rather than checking their runs, we saw the true potential Abou Diaby and Theo Walcott have to influence a game.

But despite how we contrived to make things difficult, Blackpool were not difficult opponents. The big game is this weekend, and it will give us some information on our chances for the rest of the season.

Win, and it could be a massive six games. Lose, and we're playing for second. It's that simple. Lets win it for Danny.

Keep the faith.

There has been no Arsenal collapse. It is a complete myth.

2011-04-10T12:50:00.000+01:00

Frankly, I'm a little bored of reading about Arsenal at the moment.

Bored of reading about the supposed lack of mental strength and character, but more than that, reading about how Arsenal have collapsed, out of three trophies in two weeks, and with a League challenge which is floundering. And reading about how the only team Arsenal have beaten in ages and ages is Leyton Orient.

And I'm not bored because I don't want to hear it - I'm bored because it's irrelevant.

Take, for example, the argument that Arsenal have gone from chasing a quadruple to chasing nothing. Perhaps I'm a little optimistic in saying the League title is still alive, but it's rather irrelevant.

If we'd been knocked out of the League Cup in September, the Champions League in December, and the FA Cup in February, would that somehow have been a better result?

The fact is, we were knocked out of the League Cup by a freak incident coupled with a man-of-the-match display by the opposition goalkeeper; we were knocked out of the Champions League largely due to one of the worst refereeing decisions in the history of football; and we were knocked out of the FA Cup by another man-of-the-match goalkeeping display.

In two of those competitions, we had the hardest draw possible. That is not a collapse.

Those matches aside, we were unfortunate not to beat Sunderland, with two refereeing decisions going against us, and we probably were a little disappointing against West Brom and Blackburn, but that's part and parcel of every football season.

It's easy to forget that the greatest season in the history of English football - Man United's treble - could easily have ended trophyless. But for a poor offside decision in the penultimate game of the season, Arsenal would have won the League on goal difference; but for Dennis Bergkamp missing a last-minute penalty in the FA Cup semi-final, they'd have been out of that too. And they were two minutes away from losing the Champions League final.

These are the fine margins Arsenal have been missing out on. A freak last-minute goalkeeping mistake, rather than a winner; Bendtner's heavy first-touch in the Camp Nou with the tie at his mercy.

And results cluster together in football. The recent results have been disappointing, but the negative momentum is largely not our fault.

And we certainly haven't been helped by the referees: compare the manifold poor decisions, with everything going for United - as Pete Gill put it:

"It is a startling truth - and depressing disparagement of the league's credibility - that each of United's five away league victories this term have hinged on an unfathomable error by officialdom: Gary Neville's escapes at Stoke and West Brom, Rafael's non-penalty at Blackpool, Wayne Rooney's hug at Wigan and Mason's various nonsenses this weekend".

There is, clearly, something very fishy going on. I've been saying it for a long time, and while its hard to prove unequivocally, the sheer number of decisions going their way is remarkable.

We now need to gee the team up for the rest of the season - for one, second is not a bad achievement, but there's a League title to fight for, and we are The Arsenal so we should fight for it.

Keep the faith.

There's still a League title to fight for. Blackburn match report.

2011-04-03T13:59:00.002+01:00

Arsenal 0 Blackburn 0

This was, in short, a dreadful day. Without wanting to come across all Myles Palmer, I started eating lunch and West Ham were 2-0 up; by the time I finished it was 4-2 to United.

Watching the highlights of that match in the pub before our match, I was once again shocked by Lee Mason's refereeing. Remember, this is the man who let Louis Saha's goal stand for Everton despite it being three yards offside: yesterday, he bottled sending off Vidic, and then awarded United a penalty which was never in a million years a penalty.

Meanwhile, we had to deal with Dowd. 'Nuff said.

And the more I think about it, the more the state of refereeing becomes a massive issue - English football is a multi-billion pound industry, and yet referees are paid pretty much bugger all. The obvious question is then why wouldn't they take a bung? Its the only way they're going to make any proper money out of their refereeing. It wouldn't even take very much money - perhaps ten grand, equivalent to the weekly wage of even the worst Premiership footballers - and in return, you've suddenly got the ref on your side.

I say this, because things really are beyond a joke. People are saying the League is over because we're seven points behind, but a look at the poor refereeing decisions just from the last few weeks shows how referees have changed things - at the very worst, if the correct decisions had been made against Newcastle and Sunderland we'd be four points behind, and frankly, it could have been even better than that: so much of football is about momentum, and those results definitely have had an impact on our season.

That's without even mentioning that I think we would be playing in the Champions League this week but for the most inexplicable refereeing decision I've seen all season.

Alas, enough about referees.

The performance yesterday was poor.

Frankly, nobody was particularly inspirational. In the ongoing game of Cluedo about why we can't win at the moment, I think its worth pointing out that even without Denilson, we were slow and insipid going forward - so much for him being the root of all our problems.

It's strange to say this, but the first fifteen minutes was our brightest spell - we just happened to have the wrong players on the end of chances. Theo was clearly rusty and had a poor game, and I remain unconvinced that Robin is fully fit - whenever he picks up even the most minor of injuries, it takes a long time for him to be fully tuned up.

Nasri was concussed and should have gone off but didn't, and we lost a lot of our impetus. When Dowd started playing five minutes stoppage time at the end of the first half, I was actually quite annoyed - I needed the toilet and the game had petered out.

But I didn't expect us to come out for the second half and continue with the weak football.

We did need a change - but what wasn't required was the removal of Arshavin, our best player up to that point. I'm unconvinced Cesc was quite fit enough to play, but regardless, him and Arshavin always link up well.

It was a very odd change, because Shava is the sort of player who can provide some of the magic which we needed yesterday.

When Theo was finally hauled off it was a blessing, but we didn't play into Chamakh nearly enough, a by-product of the bizarre decision to leave Robin up front.

Bendtner, as always, offered something, but I'm not convinced that our tactics for the last twenty minutes of putting it wide and crossing it into the box plays to our strengths.

It was, in all, a thoroughly unpleasant afternoon. Blackburn got a draw without offering any threat. I had a long argument with the guy sat next to me about Almunia, and I heard in the pub after the game that people had actually been fighting in the stands.

And yet despite all of this, it's very hard to blame the manager: at various points yesterday, we had Nasri, Wilshere, Arshavin, Walcott, Fabregas, Van Persie, Chamakh and Bendtner out there - if between them, they can't manufacture one goal, its hard to blame Wenger.

It's very, very easy to point fingers but the fact is, five weeks ago, we were doing brilliantly. These players clearly are talented, but they're just struggling for a bit of form. You can't coach that into them. Rooney was out of form for months, but he slowly rediscovered his touch - not because Fergie is a better manager than Wenger, but because he was given time.

Ignoring the key point in all of this - that there's still a League title to fight for - this is not a repeat of 2008 or 2010. Then, we were undone by a combination of injuries, defensive ineptitude, and in 2008 and inability to recover from the trauma of St Andrews.

This squad isn't too thin - every attacking player at the club was available for selection yesterday - and West Brom aside, we've actually defended pretty well.

I, for one, honestly think we've just suffered from bad luck, poor refereeing, and players hitting poor patches of form at exactly the wrong time in the season.

But there's still a League title to fight for: in reality, yesterday didn't change very much. The issue for me, is not the increased points gap - its whether we can actually play well and win a few games.

It was always unrealistic to expect us to win nine games in a row, but the larger point still stands - if we beat United and Spurs, I still think we'll be champions. That's a massive 'if' and the moment it looks very unlikely, but we need to keep on fighting.

Last season we gave up, and if we didn't, we might have won the League. Lets learn the lessons of last season and keep on fighting.

Keep the faith.

A good fightback. West Brom match report.

2011-03-22T13:43:00.000Z

West Brom 2 Arsenal 2

Apologies for the lack of blogging recently...
Life has become manic and I've become lazy. It clearly hasn't helped our form, although my brother would say I'm not supporting the club well enough.

The point about Denilson...
Is that he isn't playing particularly well at the moment - he isn't showing the form he's capable of. But equally, the criticism is ridiculous. We weren't 1-0 down at half-time on Saturday because of Denilson - we were behind because of a defensive mistake.

And I really feel like he's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't. He passes it sideways, and people complain he doesn't try and be incisive. He has a shot which goes high and wide (just like Jack and Robin did on Saturday) and people complain about him being inept.

The point about Almunia...
Is he made a misjudgment. A horrible misjudgment which cost us a goal, but that was it. The vitriol about him playing is completely misguided.

There were people screaming how James Shea should have played. I've seen Shea play for the reserves, and, frankly, he didn't particularly impress me. He may one day be a good keeper, but he's still very young. And it's unbelievably fickle to lay into Almunia - he made brilliant saves against Barcelona and United.

People say the mistakes are to be expected, but he's made one since he came back - nobody went for Fabianski like this after the Newcastle game, when we actually lost the game. In all, it's frankly a little distasteful - the last thing a keeper needs when he makes a mistake is to suffer a litany of abuse from his own fans.

The first half performance...
Was poor. It was a soft goal to concede, and we didn't take the most golden of chances, when Ramsey failed to convert from all of two yards out.

It's one of the reasons I don't agree with the torrent of abuse Arsene has taken in the last few weeks - look at the results which haven't gone our way: an unfortunate mistake in the last minute of the Carling Cup Final, a draw against Sunderland where their keeper was man of the match, a game against Barca which was ruined by the ref, and against United, we were very much in the game and VDS was the difference.

The performance on Saturday was pretty poor - but this wasn't a continuation of our previous form, it was an aberration.

All of this said, the tactics seem a little odd - because the 4-3-3 without one of the central 'three' pushing high (ie Cesc) easily becomes a 4-5-1. And against a relegation-threatened side, while chasing the title, that doesn't offer the team enough penetration.

Chamakh for Denilson...
In reality changed very little. For 20-25 minutes longer, we were still pretty blunt going forward. Which all the more underlines how ridiculous the criticism of Denilson was and is.

Arshavin...
Is a brilliant player, who our play should centre around. So much of what we do well goes through him, and yet his team-mates don't give him the ball nearly enough. It was a great goal to get us back in the game.

The comeback as a whole...
Was nothing special. There was greater urgency but we didn't play particularly well as a team. Andrey rifled a great finish home, but the second goal was scrappy, and we didn't muster any clear-cut chances to win the game.

But in terms of character and importance - and I know this comes across a bit like Wenger-speak - we did well to come back from two goals down away from home on a dodgy pitch.

The result...
Was not a terrible one. If we're a few points short at the end of the season, I won't point to this match, or the one against Sunderland. I'd point out losing at home to West Brom and Spurs, and the draw against Newcastle. Picking up a couple of iffy results, is part and parcel of every season - whereas those results were frankly ridiculous.

To win nine in a row...
Is a massive challenge. I suspect if we beat United and win six other games, it may be enough. But there's no reason to think we can't win this League.

Keep the faith.

Done by the referee. Barcelona trip report.

2011-03-12T16:33:00.003Z

Barcelona 3 Arsenal 1

There's been a lot of rubbish written about this match, and it's worth debunking some of it...

Myth No.1: Van Persie's red card wasn't a turning point
In the first half of the game, Barcelona managed one goal - a goal which was entirely of our own making.

Zonal Marking made the point that:

Fabregas’ backheel was a ludicrous decision, but Barca’s pressing can take some of the credit. Not just because there was a player closing down and intercepting at that moment, but because the pressure for 45 minutes had created the backheel. A backheel is something that you try on the edge of the opposition box, when you’re under pressure and need to do something ‘clever’ to get past an opponent. Fabregas is far from a stupid player, but Barcelona were pressuring so much that he felt he had to do something ‘clever’ merely to complete a pass on the edge of his own penalty area.

But I don't agree with that. They had pressed us up until that point without forcing a mistake - what Cesc did was stupid, not clever. He could have legitimately hoofed the ball out, as it was almost half-time.

And that was the one goal Barca scored before Robin went off. Adriano has a chance, but basically that was it.

And, crucially, at the time Van Persie was sent off, Barca needed to score two goals without reply to qualify. That's a whole lot easier, when the opposition only has ten men.

To go back to their pressing, it becomes even harder to play against with ten men, because there's one fewer person offering an option, etc.

Myth No. 2: Barcelona dominated throughout
There's been a lot of criticism of the manager's comments that it was a 'sterile domination' - presumably because Arsenal manage that quite a lot - but there's no avoiding the fact that before Van Persie was sent off, Adriano had a shot from a tight angle, there was the one straight at Chesney which injured him, and there was Messi's goal - and that all Barca had created.

Yes, they had a lot of the ball; yes, they had a lot of territory; but they weren't doing anything with it.

With an extra man, then they dominated and repeatedly cut us open - and my man Almunia did really well to keep us in the game.

And that's why the red card decision is such a terrible one - because it completely changed the flow of the game. I hope Busacca is punished for what was, a truly ludicrous decision.

Myth No.3: Arsenal deserved to lose because they had no shots
Ignoring the fact we scored a goal from our pressure, there are two points here - firstly, we didn't need to shoot, we weren't chasing the game. When it was 11 vs 11, we were behind for 8 minutes - that isn't a sign of a team just set up to defend and with no way of changing their tactics.

We were dreadful going forward in the first half, I don't deny that, but we were really coming into the game at the beginning of the second. We were already level and Robin was only marginally offside when he was given that stupid second booking.

I honestly believe that if he hadn't been sent off, we would have won the tie - and also had several shots.

All the history shows that Arsenal play best in the final quarter against Barcelona - and we weren't given the chance to do that, because of the referee. I think the manager is right they would have tired, but we weren't given the opportunity to take advantage.

----------------------

It was a fun trip - Barcelona is a lovely city - and if the big Dane had converted at the end, we still could have gone through.

That said, there's something a little odd about how the Barca fans in the Camp Nou behave - for a team who are supposed to be proud of playing football in the right spirit, the way their fans whistle when the other team have the ball is really distasteful. And it also means I fully sympathise with Robin when he says he couldn't hear the whistle - I certainly didn't.

The big question now, is how do we recover from this unfortunate defeat - hopefully we can beat Man United, and kick on and win the Double.

Keep the faith.

One of the worst refereeing decisions I've ever seen.

2011-03-09T11:31:00.000Z

Barcelona 3 Arsenal 1

If you rule out a goal for offside - like the one at the weekend - and you're wrong, it's acceptable. It's not right, but it's very hard to always get those decisions right in the middle of a match. That's why attackers are supposed to be given the benefit of the doubt, although they usually aren't.

This was different.

This was an example of the referee clearly having no idea what it's like to be a player, rather than the man with the whistle - how was Robin supposed to hear him?

And that overlooks that if you were looking to time-waste, there are much better ways. We see them at the Grove regularly, and they involve taking a minute to take each goal kick.

Aside from the poverty of the decision, I actually find it offensive that Busacca was insinuating Arsenal would timewaste with half an hour to play.

In all, an absolute farce which changed the game.

More thoughts to follow.

Same result against Barca please. Sunderland match report and Barcelona preview.

2011-03-08T02:05:00.002Z

Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0

I came away from this match disappointed but not too disheartened - as it happens, it was a point gained - but more to the point, an unlucky draw at home is part of football. We weren't brilliant, but we were far from terrible.

And we weren't victims of Dowd-esque incompetence - to be honest, I'm unconvinced the penalty which Arshavin wanted gets given a lot in the Premier Leauge. It was a penalty offence, but they're not given on the whole.

The offside goal clearly should have stood, and on balance we deserved to win the game, but if we look back at this season having missed out on the League by a couple of points, I won't be looking at this match - I'll be looking at losing at home to West Brom and Spurs, and drawing with Newcastle from 4-0 up. A couple of annoying draws at home are part and parcel of every football season.

We could have done more to win the game - and I would have preferred to see Diaby and Wilshere swap positions - but we weren't that far away, and there were no terrible performances. The return to a semblance of form from Marouane Chamakh is heartening, even if RVP may be ready to return sooner than first thought.

All eyes are now on tomorrow's game against Barcelona. I, for one, am particularly excited - I've always wanted to see Arsenal play (live) in the Camp Nou and now I'm going to get the chance to.

I think a lot of what has been said by the media in the build-up to this match is a little disingenuous - firstly, Wojciech Szczesny: I was delighted to see him make a great save on Saturday and show no adverse reaction to his error in the Carling Cup final, but nor did I expect him to - he's a confident player.

But more remarkable, is the suggestion that Arsenal are somehow struggling based on picking up a couple of injuries and some iffy results.

I mean, if Arsenal had won the Carling Cup final, would we be going into this fixture full of confidence? It makes no sense. It was a game we lost - no more, no less. We've also had good wins against Orient (apologies for the lack of a post) and Stoke which have been simply glossed over.

And the injuries are arguably a good thing: our two worst players in the first leg were Walcott and Song, and they won't play in Barcelona. I said it before the first leg, and I'll say it again - I have every faith in Denilson to come in and do well.

The title to this post was in jest - I predict we might just win again, although not too sure about the scoreline. That said, at 8/1, the Arsenal win is mighty tempting.

Any result which sees Arsenal progress will do me - vamos!

Keep the faith.

Where to start? Birmingham match report.

2011-02-27T22:30:00.001Z

Arsenal 1 Birmingham 2

Fair play to the manager - he offered no excuses.

But there's no getting away from the fact that this is a deeply disappointing result - not so much in that we didn't win the Carling Cup, but that the trophy drought goes on. Since we won the FA Cup in 2005, we've lost three cup finals and three semi-finals. For a club of Arsenal's stature, that isn't good enough. Period.

I have certain issues with the team selection - I might have started Bendtner over Rosicky and brought Nasri inside, but basically we were a shower of mediocrity. Nobody had an absolute shocker, but nobody came anywhere close to carving themselves into folklore either.

The bottom line is that whereas against Chelsea, or Barcelona we were really up for it, this afternoon we weren't. Not, that we let them win, but it was lackadaisical and lackluster, and I don't just use those adjectives for some cheap alliteration.

Out of the 90 minutes, we scored a goal out of very little on 38 minutes and dominated for seven or eight, and apart from that Birmingham were the better team. They hassled us and had some great performances - much though I hate to say this, Bowyer was immense, and Beausejour did well off the bench. As a point of contrast, Chamakh and Bendtner did okay but no more than that.

In terms of the goals, is it worth any analysis? The first goal was the sort of goal we specialise in conceding, much though fans hate to see them. Robin leveled with some instinctive play, and the winning goal doesn't merit any discussion. It was a colossal f*ck-up, simple as. Considering Szczesny could reasonably have been sent off after 90 seconds, and they hit the inside of the post, we really can't have any complaints.

Three goals in three games isn't great form, but equally our form remains impressive since the turn of the year. The big question is how do we respond to this setback? In this sense, there's no better opportunity than to face Leyton Orient.

If we can't beat them at The Grove, then, well, I'm not sure we deserve to win anything.

Keep the faith.

This team is in great form. Late Stoke report and Cup Final preview

2011-02-27T13:57:00.002Z

Arsenal 1 Stoke 0

This was a good test a few days before we played Birmingham - we got to face some scummy players (good preparation for Bowyer) and we dealt with Stoke's massive aerial presence (good preparation for Zigic).

It was a game we needed to win, and I thought we did enough. Frankly, I'm unconvinced it was Cesc going off injured which changed the complexion of the game. It was more that Stoke were an absolute shambles in the first ten minutes, getting over-run in midfield and with some abysmal positioning from their defenders. They managed to sort it out but by then they were already behind - but for the inside of the post, Squillaci's goal should have made it 2-0, although I was surprised Theo hit the post - it was pretty easy to score.

For those who like schadenfreude, it was pleasing that it was Shawcross who didn't manage to clear Wilshere's corner; Bendtner player it back across and Seb headed in - it was, if you like, a Stoke-style goal from Arsenal. And that basically mirrored the match, it was scrappy, with few chances, but we won the game.

That's the crucial point - you can't murder every team like we did to Wigan a few weeks ago. But since the turn of the year our form is incredibly impressive: two unfortunate draws to Man City and Newcastle, a couple of dodgy cup results which we've turned around in second legs/replays, and apart from that, winning every game.

And that's why today's Carling Cup Final is so important. Not, because I'm that bothered about winning a trophy - but because it's important to keep the momentum up. Win today, and kick on, and it could be a really special season. Lose, a couple of poor League results, defeats in the Nou Camp and (potentially) at Old Trafford, and it could be another disappointing season. It probably isn't as black and white as that, but after a trophy drought of six years, it would be quite nice to win something.

Now, what did she wear?

COME ON YOU ARSENAL!

Keep the faith.

We only went to see Tehoue. Leyton Orient match report.

2011-02-22T23:51:00.002Z

Leyton Orient 1 Arsenal 1

Frankly, I think the reaction to this match has been overdone.

We put in a good first-half performance but couldn't quite fashion a good enough opening to score. Tomas Rosicky put us ahead in the second half with his first goal in a long, long time and Orient really weren't creating anything. The fact is, we were the width of a post away from going 2-0 up, moments before Tehoue equalised.

And, more to the point, who was screaming for a substitution? I was a little puzzled Arsene hadn't changed it - Orbinho let me know on Twitter it was three years since the last time Arsene made no subs - but the reason I didn't tweet about it is because I wasn't too worried.

Sure, there was more impetus after Orient equalised, but you can't play like that for 90 minutes because throwing bodies out of position like that is quasi-suicidal. And, it's a little disingenuous to say we didn't go after the second goal - as I've already said, Arshavin hit the post just before Tehoue equalised.

In all, it was a disappointing result, but there were lots of positives - I felt Denilson passed the ball really well and his incredible passing stats show why for me, he is more use than Song against Barca. Ignasi Miquel did well on debut, and frankly, I didn't think anyone did particularly badly - I get the impression Chamakh needs games but I'm not sure he's going to get them at this stage of the season unless Robin breaks down. So he probably will get them.

A word too about Manuel Almunia. Regular readers will know that I've always liked Manuel and while he isn't as good a keeper as Szczesny, it's impossible to say whether the Pole would have saved Tehoue's shot. It was hit low and hard, and wasn't easy to save; and the abuse Almunia takes is staggering. People forget he made a brilliant save against Huddersfield and I don't understand why other players (like Van Persie) are given plenty of time to play their way into form, but the slightest of errors from Manuel and all and sundry are having a go at him. He is a good goalkeeper, and if he leaves in the summer, I have no doubt he could strengthen a lot of very good teams.

So a replay it is - not the ideal result for my bank balance, but there's a few players who need game time, and the replay will give them a further chance to make their case and play themselves into form - and that's probably a good thing with all the matches coming up.

I remember an excellent Edu performance at Old Trafford last time we won there in the FA Cup and he was a squad player - hopefully some of the players who played against Orient would like to show what they can do at Old Trafford, and I fully expect us to win the replay.

The fixtures keep on coming and it's dirty Stoke tomorrow night before the cup final - I expect a cracking atmosphere and we should take the points.

On another note, I'm still looking for a ticket to Wembley - if you have a spare of hear of any, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Keep the faith.

Not Too Xavi. Barcelona match report.

2011-02-19T22:32:00.002Z

Arsenal 2 Barcelona 1

Painful as it is, cast your mind back to that fateful day in October 2004 where we lost our unbeaten record at Old Trafford. Why? Because in spite of not winning the Champions League that year, that Arsenal side was the best in world football. And they were beaten not by a great counter-attacking performance, not by being out-passed or out-played, but by being kicked and an outrageous dive from Wayne Rooney.

And although that Arsenal side was excellent, it was no match for the current Barcelona side - as Cesc put it, they are one of the greatest teams ever. We beat them at their own game.

It would be unfair to say we outplayed them, but we made them press enough that they tired, and when they did, we clicked into action.

As well as being an excellent football match, it was a very odd game. Arsenal started as the better team - with the stadium really alive - but then Messi should have scored when through on goal. We continued to have a lot of the game, and then Villa scored, almost against the run of play. And after that, Barcelona absolutely murdered us for fifteen or twenty minutes - their fans will be feeling sheepish for olé-ing but it was entirely understandable: we could barely get a kick.

But despite the oodles of possession, there was little end product. We were solid in defence and there was no way through. And at half-time we were in the game, we were behind, but it didn't feel like we were out. We'd had a couple of half-chances and hadn't helped ourselves with some poor decision-making (Theo, quelle surprise...), and though lots has been said about Valdes' second-half performance he made a great save from Van Persie in the opening minutes which dramatically changed the game.

What was interesting was that despite being completely outplayed in the second 'quarter' of the game, we didn't change how we played. We still kept on playing the same game, Alex Song still looked like he might get sent off, and I, personally, was always scared that they would beat our offside trap again.

But, cliched as it sounds, as long as the lead was one goal, there was every chance for us to get back into the game. Credit nonetheless to the manager.

I was hoping Song would be taken off - I said in my preview that I hoped Denilson would play, and it's because I think Song's physical game doesn't quite work against the Barcelona midfield. Regardless, the manager changed things instead by introducing Arshavin for Song.

It was a bold change, but it was also the right change.

The Russian gave Alves something different to worry about, and with so much of the game being played in the middle third, although Nasri was nominally the holding player, he basically played as an auxiliary central midfielder.

We began to have more possession again, but we still weren't creating the chances and I was wondering where a goal would come from - Barca were beginning to tire, but whereas last year Walcott changed the game, this time he was quiet.

Once again Arsene was proactive - he went for it, with Walcott removed and Bendtner introduced. And 93 seconds later we were rewarded. Pep Guardiola would have prepared Barca for many things, but not for a scooped, inch-perfect ball from Gael Clichy. Robin's first-touch was a little heavy, but rather than checking, he just blasted it from pretty much the byline. It was, regardless of the poor goalkeeping, a great goal.

And the Grove was alive. People around me really started to believe, urging the boys on - the entire stadium, including the upper tier was on its feet.

The winning goal was something special - I must have watched it twenty times on my computer. Bendtner to Wilshere to Fabregas to Nasri and finally a sumptuous finish from Andrey Arshavin. A brilliant goal.

In the closing eight minutes, we could have made it 3-1 if Nicky B had chosen to play in Van Persie, but there were also some worrisome defensive moments - but I felt a lot more confident with Koscielny and Szczesny at the back than I have done in the past.

When the ref blew the final whistle, I knew I had been witness to something special - the best game I've been to in a long, long time; a sensational European night at the Grove; and I had seen Barcelona beaten, something increasingly rare.

It came partly from some inspired tactical changes from Wenger; partly from Guardiola removing Villa for Keita, a substitution which clearly didn't work; and partly from some really strong home support which spurred the boys on. It was an exceptional team performance, although Laurent Koscielny's performance was the strongest defensive performance I can remember from an Arsenal player in a long, long time.

Crucially, I'll travel to Barcelona with hope. The players won't have the same level of support, but if we can avoid injuries over the next few weeks I think we'll have every chance of progression.

This season is starting to look like it could be something special.

Keep the faith.

This is what we follow football for - Barcelona preview

2011-02-16T15:23:00.000Z

15:15, London

Describing something abstract as palpable tends to irritate me, but I genuinely can feel the excitement. In a little over four hours, Arsenal will kick off against Barcelona - arguably the best club side in the world.

All over the pitch there are exciting battles - Theo v Maxwell, Van Persie v Milito, Fabregas v Busquets, and, most mouth-wateringly of all, Eboue v Messi.

And yet I believe we can win. Barca haven't been involved in many genuinely competitive matches recently, and it will be interesting to see how they cope.

I'm not an expert on tactics, but I think what's vital for us to win the game is to have the ball. Obvious you might say, but Barca's tactics are based on pressing - if Arsenal have the ball more than 40% of the time, they will tire.

It's for that reason, I'd like to see Denilson play tonight - ball retention is really important tonight, and he's our best player at that. But more than that, his ability to intercept the ball could prove crucial tonight.

My prediction is an Arsenal win, I can't say by what score, but lets get behind the boys - this could be a special, special night.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!

Keep the faith.

Wolves thoughts: this is a team in form

2011-02-16T00:05:00.001Z

Arsenal 2 Wolves 0

The natural conclusion, after this performance, was that the second 45 minutes was a fluke constructed by a series of circumstances which should never come together again. The telling statistic is that aside from that second half, Arsenal have played seven and a half games and won all of them - scoring 22 and conceding three in the process. Considering that two of those goals were the Leeds' wonder-goal and Saha's offside effort, it shows how well this team is performing.

Saturday was no exception. It's odd - I'm just not used to seeing us dominate for 90 minutes and win comfortably. Matches like this one and the Wolves one are very different from much of what Arsenal have produced over the last couple of years, but they're more enjoyable. It's not just that I can't deal with the tension of every game going down to the 90th minute - though it isn't good for the heart-rate - but more to the point, it means the players can get a rest because they're not playing flat-out for 90 minutes every game. And, when we beat teams as convincingly as we did Wolves and Wigan, it helps build Arsenal up - and teams play us with less expectation of a result.

This match was interesting for how Arsene removed the talking points - people have complained in the past of him weakening his team and also about him dropping players. Last time he refused to do this - when Nasri played against Huddersfield, people complained, but I can see exactly why he does it. With Cesc and Van Persie on the pitch, this is a much stronger team, and credit to Arsene for recognising that.

Robin took his goals excellently - and made a pretty funny reference to his chocolate leg in his post-match interview - and he epitomises how this team is purring at the moment. Arshavin is back in form, and at the moment we're playing the best football. The second goal on Saturday was one of the best team goals I've seen from us in a long time.

We're clearly in a title race, and it's a two-horse race. If we can push the Newcastle result to one side and keep up this football, then we could well win the League.

And that, is enormously exciting.

Thoughts on Barcelona in the morning.

Keep the faith.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you have to blame the ref. Newcastle report and thoughts.

2011-02-06T20:36:00.001Z

Newcastle 4 Arsenal 4

Even for a team which specialises in collapses, this was a new low. I don't want to labour the point, but to blow a four goal lead takes a special kind of ineptitude. And yes, Abou Diaby's sending off hurt us, but there's no getting away from the fact that in our last four matches, we've seen five outrageous refereeing decisions go against us - the kind of decisions which dramatically change matches.

1) The drop-ball decision when we were through on goal against Ipswich.

2) Mark Clattenburg's decision to send off Seb Squillaci but not the Huddersfield player - despite them both committing professional fouls.

3) The ludicrous decision to let Louis Saha's goal stand in midweek, despite it being three yards offside.

4) The sending off for Abou Diaby, whilst Kevin Nolan gets away with the same thing - which incidentally was unprovoked - on Wojciech.

5) The award of a non-existent penalty which changed a two-goal lead with ten minutes to go to one, and left us wobbling. How can you be penalised for jumping for the ball?

I don't like to moan and bleat about referees, but there's something very odd going on here. If enough decisions go against you, eventually they'll come back to hurt you. That it happened in a game when we were 4-0 up is somewhat moot - if enough go against you, weird things can happen. It's worth pointing out that as an addendum to that list, Barton should have been sent off for two bookable offences (on Arshavin, and then the tackle on Diaby) and wasn't even booked, and Tiote's goal came from a non-existent free-kick.

It was a shame because we started so well. Walcott got in behind and finished nicely, Djourou headed home confidently from an excellent ball in from Arshavin, and Robin finished clinically to make it 3-0 within ten minutes. It was like the good old days where we could score three goals in a few minutes at any point in the game and completely kill it off. Sure, Newcastle had the ball in our territory a couple of times but that's football. People pointing to Laurent Koscielny assuredly mopping up in the first half and saying that Arsene should have readied them for more of this in the second half are missing the point. What with Robin crashing home after 26 minutes to make it 4-0, the first half was as close as we'll come to perfection all season. We dismantled Newcastle at will - nobody was seriously suggesting that the game would slip away from us.

And so to the second half.

I should probably make it clear at this point that I have a profound dislike for Alan Pardew. Any man who can provoke Arsene Wenger into a physical altercation must have something seriously wrong with him. I wasn't surprised that Pardew told his team to be more physical at half-time (I was surprised they didn't play like that originally)and losing Djourou after a couple of minutes to injury didn't help us with what followed.

But going down to ten men really didn't help us. What can I say about Diaby? His reaction to being tackled on the knee was eminently understandable, if not correct. And after Joey Barton's reaction, Abou was always going to see red. But, Barton should have been sent off for that tackle - it was all part of Phil Dowd's shocking afternoon. Shava skilled him in the first half, and Barton ploughed straight through the back of him - Dowd didn't even give a free-kick. If Barton had already been booked, he would have had less licence to rough up the Arsenal players; but more to the point, he would have been sent off for his tackle on Abou.

Forget Diaby's history of being injured by bad tackles, if Barton had been sent off, Abou wouldn't have reacted like that.

While we muddled through for a while, we were no longer really able to exert any dominance, mainly because we were over-run in midfield. Cesc barely saw the ball - but crucially, it was 4-0, it didn't matter. Then the Toon were given a penalty which seemed generous to these eyes. Fact is, Koscielny won the ball.

But 4-1 was still very comfortable. After the penalty went in, was in my eyes the turning point of the game. Nolan clearly manhandled Szczesny to get the ball - WHEN IT WAS ARSENAL POSESSION - and for his troubles, Szczesny was booked. He had the ball for about five second. It was a shocking piece of refereeing, one of the worst decisions I've ever seen. Nolan should have been sent off, Newcastle's man advantage would have disappeared, and Arsenal would probably have closed out a routine victory. But no, the thug Nolan was allowed to stay on the pitch. It was a decision made all the more unforgivable that when Cesc and Robin wanted to kick-off at 4-4, the Newcastle players were given all the time in the world to amble back. Complaining about the amount of stoppage time is probably a little disingenuous, but of all the crass and stupid refereeing decisions I've seen in my time, Dowd can never live that down. If referees really are assessed and picked on merit, then Dowd shouldn't referee again in the Premier League for several weeks. Even writing this now, over a day after the incident it makes my blood boil. After a week where we've been told about how we should respect referees, how can we possibly do so when we witness decisions like that?

And in spite of all that, having watched the game live and then watched highlights as well, I'm hard-pressed to explain how we conceded four goals. I felt we sat too deep after Newcastle scored their first goal, but it's worth noting that Szczesny made several good saves - this wasn't purely Newcastle getting not so much the rub of the green, as the entire green itself. It can't purely be a statistical quirk that Koscielny and Squillaci concede so many goals together.

I know Newcastle had the momentum, but at 4-3, with Djourou on the pitch you'd have backed us to hold out and take three points back with us to London. It's weird because at 4-2 I felt confident. The bookies were still offering 100/1 on the draw, and it was only the award of a completely non-existent penalty kick which changed things.

But as I said, we were over-run in midfield. Rosicky and Eboue came on and both were pretty hopeless. I accept Arshavin doesn't necessarily work the hardest, but I can't help but agree with Kevin Whitcher that Rosicky is finished. Fine, take off Shava, but bring on a man like Chamakh who gives us some presence and doesn't always give the ball away. Eboue clearly tries hard but I just don't think he's especially talented. And Theo's pace always stops teams throwing too many players forward. Equally though, it's very easy to criticise Wenger's substitutions after the event - at the time it just looked like he was introducing some fresh legs to a fairly dead game.

Equally though, I can't overlook that in the past ten months, we've lost two games from 2-0 up, and now drawn one from four goals up. At some point questions have to be asked about how this keeps happening. We were utterly dominant in the first half, yet a sending off, an injury, and we're on the back foot. At 4-0 up, we should push up and dictate play, pretty much regardles of circumstances. And, as the manager said, instead we tried to protect the lead. Odd indeed.

Next up it's Wolves, and it will be interesting to see how we react - I'd love to think we'll come out all guns blazing, but it could equally be a tetchy 90 minutes. First though, we need to avoid injuries in the pointless midweek internationals.

Keep the faith.

David Moyes is a moron

2011-02-02T23:37:00.000Z

Full thoughts to follow on the match in due course, but I couldn't let Moyes' quotes go. Particularly:

"I think not sending off Fabregas changed the flow of the game"

Five reasons why this is a cretinous thing to say:

1) As the picture shows, David Moyes is not exactly one to talk about respecting referees... (credits to @clockenders for the pic)

2) It was half-time. There was no game to change.

3) Who was the last footballer to be senf off in the tunnel?

4) Arsenal didn't exactly take control after half-time. It took the introduction of Arshavin and Bendtner mid-way through the second half to change things.

5) If we want to talk about changing the flow of the game, how about talking about Saha's goal?

I really hope he retracts his comments. They do a disservice to what was an excellent football match.

Keep the faith.

Was centre back even the weakest area?

2011-02-01T18:11:00.000Z

I would posit it wasn't...
Ignoring that yesterday was probably the most ridiculous day in the history of football transfers, there's been a lot said throughout January that Arsenal needed to sign a centre back. Now, I'm not convinced we needed to sign any players at all - but the wider point is I really don't think our weakest position is centre back...

The starting point for demanding signings in January is presumably that the current squad isn't good enough to win trophies. I'm not sure by that at all. But there are areas where one can say it is true. That Eboué will have to play at right-back in the first leg of the Champions League last 16 game creates a reasonable argument that we should sign a right-back - with Eboué playing, our chances of qualification in the Champions League will be greatly diminished. Is he a nice guy? Yes. But in recent weeks, he's been outplayed by Huddersfield and Ipswich wingers. Pedro will be quaking in his boots as I write this.

The point I'm making is that although Arsene not signing a centre-back is a risk, it could very well pay off - Djourou, Koscielny and Tommy V are all excellent centre backs, and Squillaci isn't nearly as bad as people like to make out. There are few teams in world football who have three centre backs that good.

On the other hand, if Alex Song is injured we have nobody who can really play his position. And on what I've seen this season, if there's one position where we really lack a strong player it's at left-back. Clichy is always knackered after sprinting and ends up out of position; Gibbs is no longer injured but is clearly a man out of form.

I'm quite happy to give them the chance to prove themselves, but a couple of injuries there would hurt us considerably more. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the desire for a centre back is more based on us historically picking up injuries than anything else. Right now, the partnership of Djourou and Koscielny is pretty watertight.

Arsene decided that he was happy with his lot. Time will tell if it was the right decision, but I think our weakest position is left-back. And even there, we're pretty strong so criticising the lack of signings seems very harsh indeed.

The ultimate judgement from the decision will come from results on the pitch, and as long as we keep winning, even Arsenal fans can't really complain.

On that note, it's a big game tonight against a good Everton side - I'm particularly impressed by Seamus Coleman, and a win tonight would be a good result, and an improvement on last season. Come on you reds!

Keep the faith.

A poor performance but a good result. Huddersfield match report and thoughts.

2011-02-01T01:55:00.000Z

Arsenal 2 Huddersfield 1

Say what you like, you can't say that watching Arsenal at the moment isn't exciting. It's bad for my health, but we are winning - and there is rarely a dull match. And people can complain as much as they want, but we're still fighting on four fronts.

The major gripe at the moment is that the players who come in aren't good enough. There's two major points I'd make in response to this:

1) Spurs lost 4-0 on Sunday by picking their best players available. The complaints from many Arsenal fans do seem to miss the point that we won our game. Yes, the players who come in aren't as good as the first-teamers - but Chamakh, Diaby, Rosicky, Bendtner and Denilson are all good players.

2) Part of the issue is that some of the squad players are lacking form. I thought Gunnerblog made a very interesting point about how Kieran Gibbs is too good (and important) to be loaned out but also needs game time. Chamakh was banging goals in a couple of months ago but isn't now. Diaby needs to get back to fitness and Denilson hasn't been helped by being harangued by lots of fans for not very much. Arshavin seems to have turned a corner and I was really impressed by the tackle he put in on his own six-yard line which saved a probable goal.

In short, I think the players who come in are doing a good job - and it's not like you can just play the same team for every game. Tomorrow's match will be our 12th in 37 days - players who may not be everyone's cup of tea are naturally going to play when the team is involved in so many games.

What I actually find shocking is how people seem to hope certain individuals play badly just to prove a point. It's actually astonishing how people want Denilson or Eboue to do badly, and yet they say they want Arsenal to win - go figure.

Case in point: when Manuel Almunia's name was read out I cheered loudly and sung his name - a guy in my row had a go at me. I asked him why and he told me 'Almunia is sh*t, he is a lazy Spanish f*cker'. Leaving aside the xenophobia, when people don't want you to support your own players, that's a new low.

It's amazing really - Van Persie put in a string of dreadful performances while playing himself to fitness in November and December but you don't hear a bad word said against him. But when Almunia comes back after a few months out, there's no thought he might be rusty. Rather, people question why he isn't racing off his goal-line at every opportunity. As it happens, I like Almunia and think he's a model professional who gives great experience to this team; but even if he wasn't, we should support all our players. He made a really excellent save and if it was his last performance for the club, then thanks for the memories Manuel. I, for one, will miss you, even if you did go backwards after 2008/09.

It was nonetheless, a poor team display. We started okay and Arshavin flashed a few shots wide. Bendtner was derided by the Huddersfield fans (who incidentally were some of the worst away fans I've seen) but then went on to score moments later, courtesy of a heavy deflection. Without us doing too much, it was all going swimmingly.

Then Nasri pulled his hamstring, and we lost some of our rhythm. 10 minutes later, Squillaci was back in the dressing room early. I don't like seeing players get sent off in that kind of position but I can see why he was sent off. I feel a little sorry for him, because when you're coming back from a few weeks out, somebody dribbling at pace at you is not how you'd choose to have to start defending again. If Tommy V gets fit, I do wonder how much more of Seb we'll see this season.

Wenger changed things at half-time with Alex Song brought on for Marouane Chamakh as a makeshift centre half. It says something about Chamakh's form that he has fallen in the pecking order enough that Bendtner was left on ahead of him, although I feel that if he could just score a couple of goals it would help to re-start his season - but he seems to have acquired an annoying habit of checking his run every time on the edge of the box when he should really just shoot. When I notice things like this, I do wonder what the coaching staff are playing at.

Regardless, the half-time change didn't give us defensive solidity. Instead, Huddersfield dominated. Gibbs and Eboue made it easy to get in behind them, and it was only a combination of luck, a last-ditch tackle from Shava, and a great save from Manuel Almunia which kept us level. When Alan Lee headed the equaliser, we couldn't exactly complain about it.

But what distinguishes this Arsenal team from that of seasons past is that we didn't fold. Cesc came on and his sheer desire to win is telling. Sure, Huddersfield had chances to score a second but I always thought it would be us who got the winner, and we did, even if it was from the penalty spot.

Usually I hate phrases like 'it was a real cup tie' because they're very trite, but the truth is it was. Both teams had loads of shots in what was a very open game. That was partly because our defending was pretty woeful, but it can be hard with ten men. As I said after the Ipswich game, there's a tendency among many Arsenal fans to just expect lower division teams to turn up and roll over. Huddersfield were well organised and looked better than a League One side for sure.

The bottom line is we're in the next round of the cup and three favourable draws, means we're a win at Orient away from the Quarter Finals. Maybe, just maybe, it's destiny that we'll win a few trophies this season.

Keep the faith.

One game from glory. Ipswich match report and thoughts

2011-01-29T20:10:00.001Z

Arsenal 3 Ipswich 0

We really needed this result. Not so much in terms of a chance winning the Carling Cup - I'm not sure the trophy will mean that much to many of the players - but that we didn't lose to Ipswich. I'd like to see us win the Carling Cup but I'd love to see us win a more major trophy.

Defeat against Ipswich would have been humiliating. It also would have meant our fourth semi-final defeat in a row, and when this team is accused of being soft both literally and metaphorically - already, a defeat could have had a disastrous effect on our season.

I think Arsene noted that in his team selection. For much of our cup run this season, I haven't really bought the notion that Arsene is picking a decidely stronger team than a few years ago. It's just that a few years ago we had a very young team all round. The players who came in for the Carling Cup were youngsters because almost the whole team were youngsters. I think the main difference now is we have squad depth, so players like Denilson and Gibbs can come in, and yet they're already top players. I wonder slightly about how this will affect the development of our youngsters, but judging by how Jack Wilshere and Wojciech Szczesny are doing, the answer is not too much.

Regardless of that aside, against Ipswich, Wenger had clearly decided he wanted to win a trophy. Picking Cesc from the start in both matches was a sign of that. And though the performance in the first leg was woeful, I don't 'buy' the idea that our first half performance was disappointing on Wednesday. The problem is, a lot of fans just expect lower-division teams to turn up and roll over - and they're shocked when they display more competence than Wigan, for example.

We passed the ball well in the first half but things just didn't quite click for us. The derision Bendtner was attracting from a gentleman to my left was really quite baffling. I later could only chuckle when Bendtner scored an excellent goal which displayed impressive technique to open the scoring.

We then bore witness to that rarest of things - an Arsenal goal from a corner, when Laurent Koscielny headed home. He had an all-round tidy evening and scoring the goal which sent us to Wembley pleased me. Certain fans were keen to get on his back earlier in the season but right now he looks like an astute buy.

For all people say how the squad don't speak the same language, there's clearly enormous camaraderie there - shown by how much the subs, as well as the team, celebrated Kozzer's goal. It's also worth pointing out that it came from Andrey Arshavin pressing on the opposition by-line to win a corner. With his assist for Cesc's goal after an excellent jinking run, two assists is a solid return - and hopefuly the sign of the start of a welcome return to form. Cesc's goal meant we were definitely going to Wembley and I enjoyed signing as much.

On a personal level, the big question now is how to get a ticket, and if anyone can help I'd be most grateful. [Gratuitous plug ends]

It will be interesting to see how we kick on from this. The fixture list is kind to us at the moment and we seem to be taking advantage. But we need to keep on doing this. Continuing tomorrow, ridiculously early, against Huddersfield.

Keep the faith.

Arsenal are a team in form. Wigan match report and thoughts.

2011-01-24T19:56:00.003Z

Arsenal 3 Wigan 0

It might seem very odd to say this, but the last three Arsenal performances have to me indicated a team in form. It might seem odd because, frankly, the two performances before these three games - the first game against Leeds, and the match at Portman Road, were two of the worst Arsenal performances I can remember in ages and ages. Particularly back-to-back.

But against West Ham, Leeds, and Wigan, we've exuded a dominance - and more importantly a confidence - which I can't remember seeing from Arsenal in ages, at least consistently. In the three games, we've scored nine and conceded on - and that goal a wonder-goal - but more to the point, we've dominated the opposition. Yes, West Ham, Leeds and Wigan are not particularly good teams. Yes, they're teams who are struggling. And yes we've beaten Wigan nine times in a row at home now. But I'm not excited about beating these teams, I'm excited at the manner in which we did it.

How many important tackles have Koscielny or Djourou had to make in the last three games? How many saves has Szczesny had to make? The answer to both of those questions is not very many, but more pertinently, we are making them. In the past, we might have conceded a goal against the run of play. Not any more. Look at the goals we've conceded this month - both the Leeds penalty and the Ipswich goal came as a result of sustained pressure. The Leeds wondergoal at Elland Road was an aberration, because essentially, there's a defensive solidity which I can't remember us showing for ages and ages.

And once you have that, it's a lot easier to win football matches. It means players like Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy can push on and really help the attack, and it means Wilshere, Fabregas et al have more room for manoeuvre to pick their passes. And it produces sumptuous football.

Look at how Arsenal worked the ball outside the box before the first goal on Saturday. It was like a boxer manoeuvring the opposition into position before applying the final blow. The second, was a goal of quality from two world-class players. One superb Fabregas ball over-the-top, one touch from Robin Van Persie and 2-0. The third was a cute finish and he deserved the match ball, in spite of his Rooney-esque penalty.

With Fabregas and Van Persie together, this Arsenal team can really do things. Of course Robin might well get injured again - but when he's fully fit, he's one of the best strikers in the world. With Nasri and Fabregas also in the side, you can't imagine this team failing to score goals very often. It's about retaining the defensive solidity which will determine how our season works out. Certainly, having Eboué play against Barcelona is not going to help our cause.

A word too, about the Theo vs. Arshavin debate. At the moment, Theo is the man who starts, and you clearly get amazingly different options from a front three of RVP, Theo and Nasri. Whether Theo should start long-term is the big question. I've defended Arshavin strongly and I'm also not a big Walcott fan. He's clearly not as good a footballer as Shava, as his ridiculous refusal to shoot in the first half against Wigan when clean through demonstrated.

But he does offer something different. For one, work rate. Arshavin influences matches but he also goes missing. If he was still scoring wonder goals, it would certainly help his cause. I still want to see him play and I still want to see him do well at Arsenal, but he is a man out of form. He needs game time, and the fixture list is kind at the moment. But I can also see why Arsene is not keen to change a team which is, for want of a better word, purring.

It is a team in form, and with Tommy Vermaelen to come in - and having players of the calibre of Arshavin and Chamakh in reserve is a good place to be. And who knows, maybe Arsene will bring in somebody else in the next week. Yet 10 days ago, we were all down in the dumps. And that's the thing with this Arsenal team - they could kick on and challenge on multiple fronts, or they could fold.

It's a team with momentum, but one disastrous result could take all of that away. That's why we really, really, need to win the next two matches.

Keep the faith,
Adam

A much better week. Leeds match report and thoughts.

2011-01-22T14:00:00.001Z

Leeds United 1 Arsenal 3

After a couple of poor results against Leeds and Ipswich, the performances against West Ham and Leeds second time around were much more like it. Even Arshavin - who has been pilloried recently, though not by me - worked hard, and I can't help but feel the next goal is just round the corner. Possibly today against Wigan.

What was notable about the Leeds game was how we got the early goal. It was something which was hurting us earlier in the season at home, and with the atmosphere at Elland Road, scoring the first goal was crucial. A fine goal it was too, with a lovely pass from Arshavin, a good dummy from Chamakh and beautifully taken finish from Samir Nasri. His performances are finally getting the plaudits they deserve. Praise, too, for Marouane Chamakh, who I thought played much better after struggling recently.

The first half was really a procession, and Bacary Sagna's goal was reward for the team's excellent performance, as well as his superb season. I've been a little less convinced by Kieran Gibbs' defensive nous in the last couple of games but Sagna has been nothing short of exceptional all season. That Leeds got one back to make a game of it was unfortunate, but hyperbole aside, it was a very good shot which was almost unstoppable. That Szczesny tweeted about being disappointed to let it in, underlines how good a goalkeeper he is.

In short (and I'm pressed for time because I need to get off to The Grove), this underlined the importance of a single goal. Both in that we scored early which made it easy for us, and Cesc's penalty in the 90th minute of the first game. From being out of the cup, we've now got a plum draw against Huddersfield, and we've got a real foothold in the competition.

Here's to four trips to Wembley before the season's out.

Keep the faith

From rubbish to sublime: West Ham match report

2011-01-19T14:49:00.000Z

West Ham 0 Arsenal 3

After what was one of the worst Arsenal performances I could remember, we needed a response. Whether or not Arsene was angry after the Ipswich game is somewhat moot - on Saturday we clearly saw a response and it was arguably the most domineering we've seen Arsenal this season.

With the exception of Johan Djourou who had a rare off day, it was an all-round good team performance. Sure, we weren't really troubled at the back but when we were Szczesny came good with a superb save. And that for me was the difference: in recent seasons, it wouldn't matter how much of the ball we had, because we were always incredibly susceptible to conceding to almost any opposition shot on target. With a goalkeeper who saves lots of shots (with all due respect to Manuel Almunia, he didn't save enough) we become a much stronger team.

It gives us room to play attacking, expansive football. Three times Carlton Cole had great chances, but it also meant that with lots of players high up the pitch, we could really attack the opposition. And there can't really be any argument about whether it paid dividends.

Wayne Bridge was arguably at fault for all three goals, but they were still well taken. A lot of the credit for this, has to go to an all-round good performance from Robin Van Persie. Aside from a dead game against Fulham on the final day of the season, we didn't really see a full, high-level performance lasting 90 minutes from him in the entire calendar year of 2010. Having him firing is an enormous boost - he helps link midfield and attack and he also scores goals.

On this occasion, it was a good finish with his chocolate leg, and his great cross, which gave us the two goal cushion which allowed us to control the game. Sure, Theo helped him out but against Wayne Bridge playing that badly, I reckon I could have got an assist. Full credit to him, he was clearly too quick for Bridge but sterner tests await - and it will be interesting to see how he copes with them. He's not going to keep Arshavin out the team on footballing ability, so he has to prove that his pace is an asset the team can't cope without. I am still unconvinced that's the case.

But as I said, it was the all-round performance which was so impressive. RVP and Nasri undoubtedly give us more sharpness in the final third - and boy was it nice to see some goals from open play - but it was also Wilshere (especially) and Song's battling in the midfield which allowed us to completely control the game. It can't have been easy for the West Ham players to go out there with a huge question marks hanging over the manager (and without their best player) but we made it a whole lot harder.

It's match two against Leeds tonight and obviously I'm hoping for a better performance than we saw at The Grove. I'd like to see Arsene rotate but I suspect he'll play a stronger team than first time around. Hey ho, if we get through I can't complain. The fixtures coming up are relatively easy, and frankly, it would be nice to see us win the rest of the games this month. Then, we can really start talking about winning trophies.

Keep the faith.

Ipswich away: the less said the better really

2011-01-15T16:51:00.001Z

Ipswich 1 Arsenal 0

Seeing as I don't call things right very often, allow me a moment of self-congratulation: when the teams were announced before the match, I asked why Djourou, Arshavin and Fabregas (among others) were being asked to play in a match of this calibre, and that younger players would probably be more (and I hate this particular cliché) 'up for it'. I think I was right.

Who, in that Carling Cup side had anything in particular to prove? Those who has been struggling for form recently, weren't suddenly going to grow in confidence by beating a team who had lost 7-0 at the weekend, and I'd question how much people like Cesc really wanted to be there.

I felt Cesc and Eboué were particularly poor but it was an all-round poor team performance. I was also surprised Cesc complained about Ipswich's long-ball tactics, because the TV I watch the game on made it look like the pitch at Portman Road was very poor. If so, this would explain why our passing was so dreadful - but it would also beg the question as to why we didn't play it in the air like the opposition.

Out of those who had any involvement in the match, it was really only Szczesny, Djourou and Koscielny who came away with any credit. But this match was beneath Fabregas and Arshavin. Play them if you need them in the second leg, but not in the first. Walcott's running in a straight line was always going to be hard on a boggy pitch, and Wilshere and Denilson were just generally poor. Bendtner seemed a little isolated, and it's a little unfair to criticise him when the service was so poor - he's clearly out of form but his team-mates didn't help him. I also think the media crowing towards Bendtner is thoroughly disingenuous - he has spoken before about how he's had patches of poor form, he just thinks he could be a top, top player. Good luck to him.

Eboué's poor performance was more worrying - admittedly Arsenal were playing too high a defensive line, but I'm unconvinced he retains any defensive talent, and he's going to have to play against Barca. If Djourou, Koscielny and Vermaelen are all fit for the Barca game, I'd rather see one of them play right-back than our cult hero.

But the bigger issue with the Ipswich game, is why exactly did Wenger select that team. I fully expect them to turn it around in the second leg, but the team which plays at home will probably once again be full of top players.

So many of our first-team squad had their first break in the Carling Cup - including Fabregas and Djourou - and it seems a little odd that we're not giving that chance to our young players.

Craig Eastmond was Man of the Match last season against Liverpool in the Carling Cup but he wasn't picked; JET is now 20 but he can't get a game. Ignasi Miguel and Tom Cruise - to name but two - aren't really getting a chance. If we don't give our young players a chance in the Carling Cup, it makes it even harder for them to come through.

The bottom line is it was a poor performance - collectively as well as individually. We conceded to a long ball but it would have been a different story if Cesc hadn't kneed one over from a few yards out just before the goal.

Ipswich will come to The Grove to park the bus, but if we can't beat them then heaven help us for the rest of the season.

It's time to move on though - heaping opprobrium on the team won't help them play better, so we need to get behind them. The truth is that we've already lost 8 games this season and this team ships goals - expecting them to be wonderful just isn't realistic.

I still think they can win trophies, but getting on their backs won't help them - so lets give them our full support, starting this afternoon at Upton Park (if Twitter rocks your boat, I'll be tweeting about the match at @arsereview.

Finally, I'm fully aware that posts have been a little sparse of late - rest assured that it will be getting back to normal now, I've just been particularly busy.

Keep the faith.

In defence of Arshavin. Late Leeds match report and thoughts.

2011-01-12T19:22:00.000Z

Arsenal 1 Leeds 1

There's a very nasty tendency among Arsenal fans to pick on individual players when the game isn't going for us.

The thing about the Leeds match, was that things just weren't going for us. Leeds weren't creating anything, but frankly, neither were we. And we can have no complaints about the penalty we conceded.

But then rather than trying to spur the team onto victory the fans start screaming at certain players. This time it was Arshavin and Bendtner, it's been Clichy in the recent past, and Eboué a little longer ago, and it does no good at all. Booing and jeering your own players has never made them play well, it just puts their heads down.

Case in point: against Burnley last year, people were screaming at Bendtner and he couldn't do any right; against Porto his name was sung and he scored a hat-trick. Go figure.

More to the point though, those two didn't even have particularly bad games. When Bendtner moved up front (where he's supposed to be played) he offered a lot more than he had at any stage previously in the game - he's not a winger, and frankly I thought Chamakh was anonymous. Maybe people disagree with me, but I'd rather see a player get into position and miss then just not get the ball at all.

As far as Arshavin goes, I think it's interesting to look at how he played with Fabregas. All his passes were completed because Cesc knows to run onto balls rather than expecting everything played right into feet.

Also, there's a worrying tendency to have it both ways. After City away, everyone pointed out how Arshavin had done well to get in behind the City defence before Boyata's red card, and how this proved we would have won the game regardless.

But after he misses a 1-on-1, there's no praise for his run - only criticism despite Kasper Schmeichel making quite a good save.

It clearly wasn't Shava's best performance, but I honestly don't think he's best when he plays among the squad players. He plays passes which require team-mates who are excellent at reading the game. If they are, they make goals; but if they're not, then its Arshavin who ends up looking like an idiot.

There were a lot of people in the stands screaming for him to be taken off, but seeing as I often criticise Wenger's substitutions, I'm happy to stick up for him when he gets it right. The first change was Cesc for Song. A lot of people thought Denilson should have gone off but it's worth remembering how much football Song has played, as well as my belief that Denilson offers more going forward and is better at instigating attacks.

The second change was Theo for Chamakh. That, too, was the right change - it let Bendtner play his best position when Chamakh clearly wasn't having any impact there and also gave us some pace at the end of the match against a tired Leeds side.

The final change was Vela for Rosicky and while I'm not sure the Mexican did much, Rosicky faded worryingly from a good first half to complete ineffectiveness towards the end. His form is much more of a worry to me than Arshavin's.

I always think that ultimately substitutions have to be assessed on impact, and our equaliser was made by one and score by another. Frankly, it was only a tug but that's what Theo's pace and directness give us and in that sense, he's a great asset. My issue is more that I don't like to see him starting when Arshavin is clearly the superior footballer.

The short-term effect of this is a replay in a week's time. I'd hope that we can beat them with a relatively 'soft' fixure list this month but I said the same thing before this match. Having seen they don't cope well with a forward trying to beat the offside trap, I'd like to see RVP play even if Wenger persists with a weakened team.

The only other thing which struck me about the match was quite how Cesc Fabregas can lecture about giving away cheap penalties: "Hello Mr Pot, meet my friend Mr Kettle". It was a poor tackle by Denilson but it;s better than jumping with your arm in the air.

It's Ipswich tonight, and I personally would have liked us to field a very weakened eleven - we've consistenly struggled at Upton Park and there's no getting away from the fact that this is a very poor Ipswich team. And even if we did struggle, I'd still back us to turn it around in the second leg. Anyhow, with the kind of eleven which has been mooted, we should win comfortably.

You can join me over on Twitter for updates during the match.

Keep the faith.

Maybe we should learn from Mancini. City match report and thoughts.

2011-01-07T17:59:00.000Z

Arsenal 0 Man City 0

First things first, although the score was the same, this was clearly a very different match from when we played City at home last year - we created chances, and it was only through luck that City didn't concede in the first half.

And of course turning up and playing like that is boring, and one can make any number of heavy-handed jokes about what an expensive bus it was to park, but the bottom line is, they came away with a draw. Again.

Sure, Mancini hasn't had that much success with these defensive tactics - as F365 explained:

"Seven different Mancini teams have played seven matches against those sides currently sharing a top-four placement in the Premier League table with City and each has failed to score a single goal.

0-0, 0-3, 0-0 against Arsenal. 0-1 and 0-0 against United. 0-1 and 0-0 against Tottenham. 630 minutes of football. Not one goal."

But doesn't that miss the point somewhat? When City played like they did on Wednesday against United, it was too negative for a home team; but for an away team?

It's easy to criticise them, it's easy to say they should come along and attack more; but the fact is they came for a point and they left with that point.

It's admirable to go out and play football, it wins plaudits but how good is it for the team. It's very nice to go to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and take up a gung-ho approach - but when you lose 2-0 or 2-1 every year, it doesn't gain anything. If we looked at what Mancini did - and at least played a bit more defensively in the big away games - it would do us no harm at all.

The reality is, there's a happy medium to be reached between the ultra-negativity of Mancini and the way Wenger plays. I'm not advocating returning to the days of 'boring, boring Arsenal', but going to Old Trafford and playing 4-3-3 when we've repeatedly lost to a United side playing a lone striker seems something of a folly.

Nonetheless, it wasn't just the tactics which were at fault. As we were walking along the Holloway Road back from the match yesterday, my friends said I was being deliberately argumentative because I said Alex Song didn't do that well over the 90 minutes. As the song goes, ‘he plays the holding role’. My complaint is he doesn’t. City defended so deep it didn’t matter on this occasion because it was impossible for them to counter quickly with ten men back the whole time. But I actually think he’s something of a hindrance in attack.

Certainly, there’s a school of thought that the more practice he gets higher up the pitch, the more he’ll improve – over time he’s definitely become a better holding midfield player. But if it comes at a cost to the team, then that’s no use at all.
I know Wilshere plays further forward than Song in general, but I often feel he tries to cover for him a little bit. I’d much rather have Wilshere with the ball on the edge of the box, because he has more of an idea of what to do with it. I’m not sure against City that Song did. And when it actually means we pose less of a danger going forward it has to stop.

That Sagna was sent off doesn’t really bother me one way or the other. I understand why the ref flashed the red card and he was stupid to do what he did – but him having a rest is no bad thing, and he’s hardly going to miss big games. Season-defining if we lost them, yes, but it’s hard to say that missing our right-back will make us lose to Ipswich or Leeds.

It was, to be honest, just one of those evenings. It wasn’t quite CSKA Moscow in 2006, but it genuinely could – without any exaggeration – have been three or four nil at half time. We’re unbeaten since Old Trafford, but the big question is whether we can string a few wins together and build up some momentum before the run-in and Barcelona. If ever there was a time when we were going to string a few results together it’s now – the fixture list is kind to us, and there’s no reason we can’t win quite a few now.

Here’s hoping.

Keep the faith.

Wigan and Birmingham: omens for 2010 and 2011?

2011-01-05T18:38:00.001Z

Wigan 2 Arsenal 2
Birmingham 0 Arsenal 3

Work, a busy life, and actually having to travel too and from two away games prevented me from having a chance to write about either of these games in any depth until now.

A couple of points I would make nonetheless about the Wigan match:

- In a sense, we were lucky to play Wigan before Birmingham. The match contained an opposition player sent off for an assault on an Arsenal player, the opposition benefiting from a penalty which never was, us deserving a penalty which wasn't given, and the game finishing 2-2...seeing as broken leg aside, the Wigan match was eerily similar to the famous Birmingham match in 2008, it was probably for the best that it was out the way before we went to St Andrews.

- I wouldn't have criticised Arsene's team selection after Wigan. But what I would say is that his weak substitutions continue to be a concern, and his failure to change a game so much of the time - when undoubtedly we'll need him to in the second half of the season is clearly a cause for consternation.

- Arsene's abdication of responsibility for defending is incredibly worrying. It's not quite only taking responsibility when his team wins but it's not far off. If we continue to defend set pieces as ineptly, I can't see this season ending as brightly as it could do.

- The vilification for the manager was astonishing. We got a couple of dodgy refereeing decisions, and it's not easy to win away in the Premiership - just look at Man United. That we have the strongest away record in the Premiership is no coincidence.

As far as the match at St Andrews goes, aside from the dirty early tackle on Cesc, everything went our way. There's no doubting that a starting eleven like that one can win matches, it's how the squad does which will decide things in the coming months.

I'm trying to be brief here, because I need to get off to the ground for the City game, but for me, these two games were interesting. The Wigan match showed the few percentage points (and actual points) we lacked in 2010, and the Birmingham game showed what we can do.

The big question is whether we can play like we did at St Andrews more of the time? Hopefully we can, starting tonight against City.

Keep the faith.

Didier who? Chelsea match report and thoughts.

2010-12-29T13:21:00.002Z

Arsenal 3 Chelsea 1

This is the blog post which I've wanted to write for so long. To painfully rip off Barack Obama, based on Monday's match, change has come to Arsenal.

It's very hard to say if this match will be the turning-point in the development of this team. But it's the first time we've really outplayed United or Chelsea in a long time. Sure, we beat both of them in November 2008. And we actually played well both times. But nonetheless, they were very much in the match. Truth be told, Chelsea were never really in this match. Giving a performance such as this one obviously lays down a massive marker of showing what we can do. It suggests we can win the League, and hey, if we play like this we can beat Barcelona.

I wrote in my preview that Arsene needed to get things right tactically and boy did he earn his money for this match. Djourou for Squillaci was an obvious change to many fans but he had shied away from it before this season. To make the change before a big game took balls; what's more, what was tacitly clear from Arsene's post-match interview was that he clearly rates Djourou, and for all he won't say it explicitly, the Swiss has risen above Squillaci in the pecking order. Quite right too though - clearly Drogba has been laid low by malaria just like Kolo Toure was but he's still a big, strong player and the way he was kept quiet was highly impressive.

The rest of his changes were also justified. Dropping Arshavin was a big call which paid off; but moving Nasri away from the right midfield position which he has made his own this season was a massive gamble which clearly paid off. And picking RVP to start in this match was another statement of intent. He went for the big guns and they delivered.

A word, too, about Theo Walcott. Seeing as I have been his chief detractor, these words do stick in my mouth somewhat, but he was excellent. Sure he didn't really do anything in the first half which was actively good, but by keeping Cashley quiet he made things an awful lot easier for us. Lest we forget, it was two crosses from the left flank by Cole last season which cost us this match. And more importantly, Cashley is a truly hateful man who deserves to lose every week - I think our fans did quite a good job of pointing out how much of a c*nt he is.

On this occasion, he was barely able to cross the half-way line. And couple that with Theo's all-round incisiveness, his well-taken goal, and his superb assist for Cesc, and it capped an exceptional performance.

Nonetheless, Cesc's post-match comments that the strength was in the team performance - rather than what him, Theo, Song or Djourou did - was very true. The key to this performance was pushing Chelsea back with a high-tempo pressing game. By not allowing Chelsea any time on the ball, it was much harder for them to build from the back. The pressing got an even more direct reward when Michael Essien gave the ball away for the second goal.

But it was the first goal, Alex Song's goal, which lit the touchpaper for a sensational evening. So often this season I've critcised him for a lack of positional discipline. On this occasion, he defended when he needed to but he also popped up at just the right time to angle a shot past Petr Cech and give us the lead. It was right on the stroke of half-time and considering how we'd dominated and how Cech had made an exceptional save from Nasri, it was no less than we deserved.

I was interested to see how Chelsea would come out for the second half having been so outplayed in the first 45. Aside from introducing the woeful Ramires for the hapless Mikel, nothing really changed. There was no statement of intent. Instead, it was Arsenal with most of the ball, and we got our reward when Essien gave the ball away and Walcott raced in and squared to Cesc to double the lead. While we were still celebrating that second goal, Malouda gave the ball away to Walcott who found Cesc, who returned the ball to Walcott for 3-0. I'm unconvinced I've ever seen such delirium amongst our fans, certainly not since we came from behind to beat United in Jan '07. I hugged an old man who didn't seem to take it too well, but it really was hug a stranger time.

The celebrations were cut short by Ivanovic getting a goal back but this time we weren't going to mess it up. When Chelsea brought on a teenage winger and right-back, we introduced Diaby and Chamakh, the Moroccan holding the ball up well to negate any threat of Chelsea getting back into the game.

I can't remember Chelsea playing so badly against us, but more importantly, I can't remember us playing so well against them. As Carlo Ancelotti is wont to say:

"Football is about results".

This was one hell of a result, a team performance which should inspire them for the second half of the season.

And yet, haven't we been here before. One of our most impressive performances of recent seasons was winning 2-0 in the San Siro in 2008. But we followed that up with a 0-0 draw at Wigan. It's vital we don't make the same mistake today, not least because I don't have enough days in my life to travel to Wigan twice for 0-0 draws. If we don't win today, it certainly won't make the Chelsea result meaningless. But this is a great chance to build some momentum, and even without Cesc, we should aim to do just that.

Keep the faith.

Chelsea preview: time for the big guns to step up

2010-12-27T13:24:00.000Z

I, for one, am more than a little bit tired of telling people that Arsenal are finally going to perform in a big game, only to have it thrown back in my face.

The statistics of our recent matches against Chelsea and Man United are more damning than anything I can say, even in criticism of Theo Walcott: in our last 11 games against the pair of them we've managed one draw and 10 defeats, with just five goals scored and a whopping 23 conceded.

What's more, at Old Trafford 14 days ago, we stunk it out. Edwin Van Der Sar barely had a save to make. Because of the snow, in the intervening two weeks we haven't actually played. It's not quite the winter break that Arsene has been asking for but near enough. He's had fourteen days together with the players (okay thirteen because of Christmas) to work on tactics and create a gameplan for this match.

Abou Diaby and Lukasz Fabianski are back fit, and while Vermaelen is certainly a miss, it's unrealistic to expect that any team - but particularly this Arsenal team - could be injury free. It's pretty much his entire squad that the manager has to choose from, and he's had time to create a tactical system around that.

And yet, I don't go into this match with any kind of expectations. I could predict Arsenal will win this match but I've been wrong enough times to make Messrs Hill and Ladbroke rather wealthy indeed.

To win the game, we need to defend well against Didier Drogba for one thing. For this reason, I'd love to see Johan Djourou play. He's good in the air and has the requisite strength to hold off Drogba. But asking this Arsenal side to defend well against Drogba is hardly something new. And yet they haven't managed to do it in a long time.

So I go into this match with hope rather than expectation. I know Arshavin has contributed a lot of assists from the wings but we haven't seen the great goals he produced in his first 12 months in English football. Because of the World Cup and injury, we're still yet to see a lot from Robin Van Persie this season. And when I say 'a lot', I really mean anything at all.

He came back from injury against Newcastle at the beginning of November and if he's not fit by now, that's just completely ridiculous.

But there is a hope that Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, Andrey Arshavin and Van Persie will show what world class players they are and beat Chelsea. This is not the domineering Chelsea side of last season. They're rocking. Many of their players are getting just a little bit old. And there has to be a hope that we can take advantage of this. A front six of Arshavin--Wilshere--Song--Fabregas--Nasri with RVP/Chamakh (depending on his fitness) up front would certainly give us more than enough penetration and that's the team which I would expect to start, much though I'd love Denilson to come in for Song.

I hope Arsene shows them the video of Robert Pires from yesterday and gets them to channel his love of Arsenal.

Arsene always talks about 'playing with the handbrake a little bit' when we lose and we need to get in the face of the opposition. Pires was hardly an aggressive player but he understood how important the big games were. Lets pass the ball like we can, and then we genuinely can win the game.

Cesc was on Twitter this morning, saying the following:

I'll give him and the rest of the team my support as usual. But please, please win the game for once!

Come on you Gunners!

Keep the faith.

The Inaugural Arsereview Awards

2010-12-24T14:57:00.002Z

With just a week left of the year 2010, I thought it would be apposite to hand out a few (virtual, obviously) awards to those players who've impressed in the calendar year 2010.

The Rosicky award
The Rosicky award is named after the Czech maestro for his achievement in being out for approximately 18 months between 2008 and 2009 with a 'hamstring strain' which would take 'a few weeks' to recover from.

Needless to say, there were many competitors for the Rosicky award but this year it goes to Manuel Almunia for the worst chest infection in history. Luckily he was able to recover in time to save a penalty against West Brom though...

The Martin Taylor award for 'not being that kind of player'
Competition was tight this year and in the end the judges couldn't split Karl Henry and Ryan Shawcross. It would probably be quite a good idea to join them together more often, then they'd probably do less damage.

The should have picked a different sport award
Retained for a fourth year running by Theo Walcott. At least Rebecca Romero got the hint.

The bingo award for predicting what Wenger will say after a defeat
Goes to any Arsenal fan who has ever watched more than one Arsene Wenger post-match interview.

The Sagna award for 'good hair'
The competition for the award this year was tough. There was Marouane Chamakh's mullet, Song's blonde afro and Sagna's nameless hairstyle.

But in the end, though they only lasted a couple of weeks, Denilson's dreadlocks were the runaway winner of this award. They were so good there aren't even any pictures on Google.

The Shakespeare award for profound writing
Competition was tough this year with Theo's immense series of books as well as the wonderful and utterly uncopyable 'Ask Andrey'. But in the end, there could only be one winner: Jay Emmanuel-Thomas' Twitter stream.

The Eboué award for being Eboué
This year, the award goes to Emmanuel Eboué for reaching new heights of awesome. I'm pretty sure I don't need to say anything about the video below...

The worst attempt to woo Cesc award
Although Pepe Reina, who isn't even a Barcelona player tried to make Cesc wear a Barca shirt, Xavi wins this award hands down for his comment that "Cesc has Barca DNA". And? He also bleeds red, so there.

The 'thank f*ck he's gone' award
Considering he was always crocked for at least three months a season, and also was an extremely bad influence on the dressing room, William Gallas' departure was a great moment for the club.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to deliver the award to him but even two years on, I think the same sentiment is still true of Emmanuel Adebayor.

The Editors Choice award
Partly because he has a brilliant song which I like to sing, partly because he scored goals against Tottenham, partly because he's the Player of the Season so far, partly because he scored the best Arsenal goal of 2010, but mainly because he looks rather like yours truly, this award goes to Samir Nasri.

Watch the video below, and just clap in appreciation:

Merry Christmas, and keep the faith.

Bring on Barcelona. Vamos.

2010-12-22T12:03:00.000Z

First, apologies for not sharing my thoughts on the home game against Partizan - work got in the way and I didn't really have any spare time.

Suffice to say, it's a little worrying that after winning our first three games we spent a chunk of the second half of Matchday six asking what the score was in the Braga game. To be honest, I'm not too fussed we didn't win the group.

Sure, we could have ended up playing FC Copenhagen but equally we could have ended up playing one of the Milan teams. There are no guarantees in the Champions League draw and AC Milan are looking pretty imperious at present.

More to the point, playing Barcelona is something we should relish - not something we should be upset about. The 2-2 draw last season was one of the best matches I've ever been to. I, for one, am delighted we drew Barcelona. Of course we could have drawn Schalke; but it's doubtful I would have been so excited to go there that I'd have booked flights within an hour of the draw, as I did with Barcelona. Barca are the best team in the world, and playing 180 minutes of football against them could be the making of this Arsenal side.

For all everybody remembers us being annihilated in the Nou Camp last year, we had Silvestre in defence, and no Song, Fabregas or Van Persie. Barca's form is impressive but that doesn't mean we can't beat them. On the contrary, we scored three goals against them last year and they even conceded to Theo. That alone should give us hope.

Do we go into this cup tie as favourites? No, but it's not as if things would necessarily be better if we'd won the group. We lost to West Brom and Spurs at home - nothing is certain with this Arsenal team, and we might well have lost to a smaller team.

The weird thing about this Arsenal side is anything can happen. Barcelona lost to Hercules. Admittedly we lost to Spurs, but still...

Messi running at Eboué is enough to scare anyone, but Samir Nasri is right up there as one of the best players in the world at the moment - lets see him, Cesc and everyone show the world. We are The Arsenal. We can win. Vamos.

Keep the faith.

If you don't shoot, you can't score. Man United match report and thoughts

2010-12-19T01:36:00.001Z

Manchester United 1 Arsenal 0

There's a bit in the book of Ecclesiastes about how there's a time for everything. Solomon who wrote it, is said to have been a very wise man. But I don't think it takes a particularly wise man to suggest that if you don't make the opposition goalkeeper make a single save of any note during the match, you will struggle to win the game.

And yet, I don't agree with the defeatism which accompanied this result. Over the 90 minutes, United probably deserved to win the game but this performance hardly put down a benchmark for us to be afraid of. Against Chelsea at the Bridge, it really was the same old story. This time, to be fair, United were almost as blunt as us. Szczesny made some really good saves but if you compare this match with the 1-0 defeat in the Champions League semi-final in 2009, the matches were poles apart. Both teams struggled to pass the ball and though they cut us open a few more times than we did them, that's more because of our defensive incompetence than anything else.

It's for this reason that the lack of shooting was so unbelievable. Few of us went into the match really believing we could keep a clean shoot - and yet apart from one Nasri shot which was saved, I can't remember us making a creaking Edwin Van Der Sar make a save. United were happy to let Arsenal pass the ball around in their half, knowing we weren't going anywhere. It doesn't seem unreasonable to suggest - particularly considering Arshavin, Nasri and Fabregas all have a decent shot on them - that it would have been sensible to have a go.

Arsene's complaints about the pitch seem disingenuous because we didn't do anything about it - if the pitch isn't good for passing, try something else.

Anyone who has ever been to an Arsenal match with me knows I hate the people who shout 'shoooooot' when we have the ball 40 yards out, but to fail to test the opposition goalkeeper seems pretty criminal.

Particularly, when one considers the side Wenger picked. Song has become a liability who likes getting forward. Arshavin, Rosicky, Nasri and Chamakh are all primarily attacking players who aren't much good at defending. So to not even threaten the opposition goal seems tactically negligent.

On that point, I think Wenger's team selection was absolutely preposterous. Rosicky's recent performances have been ropey and he just doesn't have the physicality to play in the centre in this sort of match. I know my affection for Denilson seems like something of a fetish, but pick him and at least you get some protection for your defence. None of the front six offered any kind of protection for the defence - Bacary Sagna deserves kudos for how well he did considering the lack of protection he was afforded.

And so, naturally, we turn to Clichy. First, I think he was unlucky a number of times - in Clichy's case you probably could point to the pitch and say it didn't help him, and the penalty United were given was absolutely ridiculous: a shameful decision and Nani's campaign to become more hated than Patrice Evra received a huge boost from his massive appeal for something which was never, ever, a penalty.

But my issue is that he's clearly lost all his pace. He just doesn't get back - I usually sit behind the left-back position at The Grove and it's obvious how often he is out of position. Obviously it would help if Song or Arshavin covered for him, but he must be an absolute moron if he hasn't twigged yet that they're not going to.

I actually thought his tackling was quite good, but that he tired himself out so much running back, that he then wasn't quite sure what to do next. Is Clichy's time up? I sincerely doubt it. Gibbs is just too injury-prone to be relied upon. But I remain convinced that he still has issues from his back injury and will never be the same player again.

That said, any argument that Clichy cost us the match is ultimately misguided. Park scored a stunning header, which was unsaveable, he did well - fair enough, lets move on. I think Theo should have done better when he whacked the ball into the crowd right at the end, but being disappointed with a Walcott performance is something I have long given up on.

As far as where we go from here, it's pretty unclear. We're still in the thick of the title race by virtue of the maths, but our performances against the big teams leave a lot to be desired. As Goodplaya pointed out:

Before this match, we'd won just one and drawn two of the last nine games against United.

Now, fancy this: in all six of those defeats, Fergie had gone with one up front, one winger and basically four central midfielders. Sometimes, such as in the FA Cup nearly three years ago, he even picked exactly the same six players in midfield and up front as in this match.

In all three of the games United didn't win, Fergie had played Rooney and either Tevez or Berbatov.

Stats don't always tell the full story, but our failure to come up with any kind of tactical system to combat how United play is a clear failing of the manager. My article in the current issue of The Gooner suggested that Wenger was far better on the training ground than during matches but even this seems questionable having looked at these stats.

Sure, on this occasion we passed the ball particularly badly and our substitutes seemed to be in a mini competition between themselves as to who could play the worst. But by and large, the manager is not taking this club forward.

I honestly think this squad is the best in the League. But as long as we make blasé decisions like picking Song as a defensive midfield player and putting six players in attack against United while we couldn't actually get the ball back, we won't win jack.

Keep the faith.

(Thoughts on the Champions League draw to follow in a separate post)

11 conclusions from Arsenal 2 Fulham 1

2010-12-08T18:39:00.000Z

Arsenal 2 Fulham 1

1)Whilst clearly stating the obvious, Samir Nasri is in scintillating form. The case against Arsenal is that we don't have a defence nearly good enough to win the League. The case for requires only two words: Samir Nasri. As somebody who has more than a passing resemblance to Nasri, I'm hopeful of being shown some love very soon.

2)Nasri's goals reflected a wider point - illustrated by Arshavin's goal last week against Villa. Our success in attack this season - at least in part - can be put down to a willingness to run with the ball. The lack of goals from outside the box is because we're no longer passing the ball around 25 yards from goal, looking for a break; instead, we're genuinely running at the opposition and it's a tactic which is clearly paying dividends.

3)In terms of pivotal moments, the save Fabianski made at 1-1 was crucial. I accept there were 20 minutes to go, but lose and it would have been yet another home defeat and yet another missed opportunity to go top. As it was, things turned out well, but how important a moment may that have been in our season? While this is massively stating the obvious, time will tell.

4) When will Laurent Koscielny drop in the pecking order? Good in the second half against Villa, the clash with Squillaci will bring the doubters out once again. At any rate, regardless of how low an opinion you have of him, Djourou is clearly a better player. Considering how long Wenger continued to start Wiltord, it is almost like he selects by price tag.

5) On a wider point about the defence, the second half performance was one of the best defensively for a while. Sure, we were cut open a couple of times. But Clichy was actually defending well, Djourou was immense, Sagna was everywhere, and Squillaci was solid and reliable. More of the same please.

6) That Andrey Arshavin continues to make chances and scare the opposition is certainly enough in my eyes to merit a pick. That people doubt him is moot; certainly he is not going to run your team back into the game with his work rate. But equally, having a player who can change a game in an instant is what makes him an enormous luxury, rather than a luxury player.

7) As I'm fond of damning Wenger's substitutions, I should praise him for bringing on Robin Van Persie - the Dutchman's assist for the winning goal was probably only his second good touch since August, and it took balls to bring him on.

8)If Aaron Ramsey recovers fully from his injury - and it's a massive if - blasphemous as it sounds, would selling Cesc be such a bad idea? Obviously this would be based on the proviso of reinvestment in the team, but with Nasri, Arshavin and Ramsey all on form, any reliance on Fabregas at the club would be normal. This is far from me advocating selling him, but with Nasri's extraordinary influence (admittedly from another area of the pitch), it's certainly a thought.

9) Song playing further forward is fast becoming a massive issue. It's a double whammy in a sense - not only does he interrupt our attacking flow, he's also not there to defend when the opposition counter-attack. That Wenger says it isn't a problem is worrying - it definitely is a problem.

10) For too long, Wenger has been concerned by resale value. With Rosicky, this is presumably not the case judging by his age and injury record. This is undoubtedly a good thing - the experience and calm head Rosicky has really helps our team. His versatility is excellent and he seems an all-round good egg. He is the sort of player who genuinely could take us to trophies.

11) Sorry to go on about it, but Samir Nasri was exceptional. If he was English (or Welsh...) the hype would never stop. His two goals were both brilliant and he seems to me to be the best player in England at the moment. If he keeps on scoring goals, this really could be a glorious season.

Keep the faith.

Time to win a trophy now. Wigan match report and thoughts.

2010-12-04T01:14:00.000Z

Arsenal 2 Wigan 0

I could moan about Carlos Vela's failure to take numerous chances in the first half. I could equally moan about Theo Walcott's woeful finishing and poor crossing in the second half.

But that would be missing the point. In a sense, the Wigan match was exactly the match we've been waiting for all season - a 2-0 victory, where the opposition didn't create anything and it was just a solid victory. It's been exciting thus far, but one of the hallmarks of champions is to play a series of nondescript matches.

We haven't had a series of poor matches, but the Wigan one was certainly a good place to start. Alcaraz headed home an own goal and Bendtner scored a tap-in but by and large, we didn't really create much. Nasri almost scored a goal from nothing at the end, and as I said, Vela and Theo could have had a brace apiece, but we did lack something of a cutting edge.

Yet this was unimportant - in the entire match Wigan really didn't create anything. It would be nice to see more matches like this one - with less stress involved and nothing to fret about. Equally though, with Szczesny in goal, I always do feel more confident, and Gibbs seems a lot more reliable than Clichy.

With Ipswich in the semi-final and (potentially) Birmingham or West Ham in the final, it looks very much like this trophy should be ours. Having not played in a cup final since February 2007 it would obviously be nice to have another day out - and if we can't beat Ipswich I predict some serious introspection.

But more importantly, it could be the start of something special. I'm not saying we're going to win them all, but we're the only club which can still win the quadruple. The whole thesis that this team needs to win one trophy to be educated how to win more seems a little disingenuous - there's a big difference between beating West Ham to win the Carling Cup and beating Barcelona to win the Champions League. But also, trying to win every trophy we enter can hardly be counter-productive. Quite the opposite in fact.

Beating Wigan has left us favourites for the Carling Cup, but with United's game postponed this weekend, two wins in our next two matches would leave us in a brillaint position - top of the League, in the Champions League last 16, and in the League Cup semi-final.

In spite of our floundering form so far this season, we couldn't ask for any more than that.

Keep the faith.

A definite improvement. Villa match report and thoughts.

2010-11-30T00:25:00.005Z

Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 4

For 35 minutes of Villa-Arsenal, we were facing the same old story. Tons of Arsenal possession, a few chances, but nothing to show for it. Playing the opposition off the park, but hesitancy in front of goal costing Arsenal – sound familiar?

Then, Andrey Arshavin scored a brilliant goal, breaking from 45 yards out and I just kind of knew when he got the ball that it would end up in the back of the net. That is testament to what a world class player Arshavin is. Nasri should have made it 2-0 a minute later when he rounded the keeper but conspired to miss, but it mattered not as he did make it 2-0 from an Arshavin corner just before half-time, with the help of a deflection. That deflection was the first piece of luck we’d had in ages, and I thought it was a really important moment.

Of course, 2-0 at half-time meant it was the same new story. True to form, a few minutes after half-time we conceded a goal to let Villa back in it and my Twitter stream was full of everyone with the same sentiment – here we go again.

This helped the referee because how he escaped criticism for his handling of that Villa goal was unbelievable. If Carew had been interfering with Fabianski’s view any more, he would have been gouging his eyeballs out. It was really poor and these refereeing mistakes really are starting to get my goat. I know people can trot out stats about us being awarded a lot of penalties, but that doesn’t change the poor refereeing we’ve seen in the last couple of matches.

Luckily, Chamakh tucked a goal away a few minutes later so it wasn’t the entire second half we spent worrying; we got a break for 10 minutes before Clark scored another goal, as we conceded yet again from a set piece. We spent 20 minutes worrying that we were going to have a horrible case of déjà vu, before Little Jack Wilshere tucked one home at the end to make it safe. A 4-2 win, another away win, and it seems churlish to complain when we score four away. Particularly, as Marouane Chamakh, Andrey Arshavin, and Laurent Koscielny were all excellent. After the criticism they had copped for their performances against Spurs, it was good to see them playing the way they can. It's become particularly fashionable to put down Koscielny, but he's only played a few games and the hyperbole about him being terrible is misguided.

Nonetheless, clearly while we continue to concede this number of goals, it seems unlikely we can win the League. We were top of the League for the first time this season, but not many defences will be as obliging as the Villa one. To be fair to us, the first Villa goal shouldn’t have stood, but equally we came out dreadfully from the interval. For that, the manager deserves criticism. The bad first halves appear to have turned into bad second halves. That we concede so many goals in the 15 minutes after half time, coupled with Wenger’s generally poor substitutions, is a really poor state of affairs.

That said, his substitutions from Saturday deserve some praise. Sure, one might question why he wasn’t more proactive and didn’t change things earlier; but equally, when he brought Gibbs and Denilson on and removed two attacking players, I feared the worst. As Villa didn’t have another chance, credit to Wenger.

I said we had to win the four games between Braga and United. Villa have been beaten, which leaves Wigan, Fulham and Partizan. Win those three matches and the United game, and we’ll be in the Carling Cup semi-final, top of the League, and in the Champions League last 16. If that doesn’t inspire the players, I don’t know what will.

Keep the faith.

Dismal Arsenal lose again. Braga match report and thoughts.

2010-11-26T15:58:00.000Z

Braga 2 Arsenal 0

The first thing to say, is that in spite of a terrible week, nothing has changed.
Last Friday we were two points off the top of the League with a chance to go top on Saturday lunchtime; in spite of the defeat to Spurs, remarkably if we beat Villa tomorrow we go top. Last Friday we were in the quarter finals of the Carling Cup and we still are.

And there is a dodgy argument which I’ve come up with that losing to Braga may actually help us. See, if we’d won, Wenger would have played a real scratch team against Partizan – with Tom Cruise et al – and we might have lost the game. First, it will be good to win before we play United (and I’m convinced we will). But more to the point, if we’d beaten Braga but lost to Partizan, we might still have come second in the group; on the other hand, if Braga beat Shakhtar – something which is very possible – we’ll top the group. I accept this is unlikely, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. It’s not even that fantastical at all.

More to the point, anybody who complains about having to play good teams earlier is missing the point. You have to play someone good at some point, so why not sooner rather than later? And two of our best victories in the Champions League have come in the Round of 16, when playing good teams – Real Madrid and AC Milan.

That’s not to say that the performance in Braga was a good one. Let me be unequivocal in saying it wasn’t. But while the week just gone has been disappointing, it is far from the disaster it has been portrayed as in some quarters; and any suggestion that the manager should go on the basis of two results is really very misguided.

That said, the performance in Portugal was wretched. Once again, I think it’s impossible not to question the manager’s team selection. Why play Cesc Fabregas, a man who clearly needs rest and recuperation and rest Robin Van Persie, a man who needs to play? Considering how poor RVP has been, giving him 90 minutes in a relatively unimportant game would have been a good idea and might have even let him get back amongst the goals against a very average Braga defence.

More to the point, we created practically nothing from open play in the course of the match. The only save I can remember their keeper making is from a Fabregas free-kick, although Theo nearly did get onto a through ball after a few minutes.
It’s true to say that if the referee gave us the penalty when Vela was brought down in the most clear-cut penalty decision of the season it would have been a different result but that’s football. The ref had a generally poor game but that doesn’t excuse the lack of creativity from our front players.

People talk about our strength in depth in attack, but how many chances did Rosicky, Walcott, Nasri, Fabregas, Bendtner, Chamakh and Wilshere create between them? Walcott was characteristically poor, but none of them really made anything. A plethora of attacking players who don’t do much is no use to anyone.

To be honest, I’m not going to slate the team for conceding the two goals. Partly, because the second goal was somewhat moot considering it’s time in the game and the number of players we had up the field.

But more, because criticising how the first goal was defended is just going over old ground. It’s disappointing, but Arsenal are a team particularly susceptible to the counter-attack and I don’t see that changing in the short-term. More pacey defenders would certainly help but I can’t see Wenger buying anyone in January unless Tommy Vermaelen is definitely crocked.

The big question is where do we go from here. The facetious answer is Birmingham, or more precisely, Aston. The realistic answer is that nobody quite knows. We’ve played better away this season, but if we spurn yet another chance to go top of the table, I can quickly see a sense of despondency settling in. It seems pointless to set targets to this ridiculously inconsistent team, but they really need to win every game between now and United. That’s only four matches, and yet it appears as if that is asking a lot. And that, is incredibly worrying.

Keep the faith.

Pick your own negative adjective. Spurs match report.

2010-11-21T23:33:00.000Z

Arsenal 2 Spurs 3

Much though it might surprise some people, usually I have an idea of where I'm going within each blog post. Not today. Not after that.

I'd come up with some kind of analogy to describe how I'm feeling but I don't think I could do it justice - I genuinely think I'd rather see George Osborne anally rape my new-born son whilst grinning maniacally than be subjected to the second 45 minutes of football ever again (note to the family: it's alright, the son doesn't exist).

The only positive thought today is that Spurs fans have been subjected to this over and over again. But in a sense, that makes it hurt even more. We're just not used to this.

And worse, it started so well. When we lost 5-1 in the Carling Cup in 2008, we didn't start well nor did we care. This time, Spurs were so thoroughly outplayed in the first half it was embarrassing (for them). Nasri feathered in from an incredibly tight angle to put us ahead, and though Chamakh made it two after about 25 minutes, it could have been more than that before half time. 3-0 at half time and it really would have been game over.

Make no mistake, the complacency had slipped in before half time. The tempo went out of our game after 40 minutes and the olés will only have helped to fire up the opposition.

But equally, what makes the defeat so galling is just how bad Hutton and Assout-Ekkoto were in the first half. To say they were poor would be the understatement of the year. Time and again, we got in behind them on the flanks and why we stopped running at them in the second half like we did in the first is still puzzling me.

There's a school of thought which suggests that Arshavin and Nasri were tired from the internationals, but that doesn't explain why Theo did as badly as he did when came on; I think the defeat was born more out of a collective poor second half than individual performances but Walcott was truly woeful.

And it must be said, that we made it far too easy for Spurs to get back into the game after the break. Bale’s goal from the defence being stretched (inexcusable at 2-0) and a failure to win a ball in the air from Jermaine Defoe. That’s pathetic. I suggested Fabianski might have come out earlier but to blame the goalkeeper seems very harsh.

The second goal though, encapsulated much of what I think is wrong with Arsenal. Fabregas jumped with his arm in the air against Liverpool in February and got away with it. But in retrospect, Liverpool were probably right to feel aggrieved that they didn’t get a penalty. That should have been a warning to Cesc to stop jumping with his arm in the air. But even if it wasn’t, you’d think Wenger would have had a word.

Clearly not, because Fabregas obviously hadn’t learnt from it. He did it again! I hate to criticise this team but it’s pretty much unforgiveable. We’ve been here before against Spurs and we’ve been here before against other teams. It hurts more because it was Spurs but we did the same thing against Wigan just a few months ago. There’s no real choice but to echo what Kevin Whitcher says for the Online Gooner, that these last five years have largely been trophyless because of an innate inability to hold a lead.

There are the ones which stand out the most – the 4-4 against Spurs and the defeat at Anfield in the Champions League quarter final – but that’s just because they were haunting because they were unexpected.

We’ve won at Old Trafford only once in this trophyless period – and how did we manage that? Because we scored in the very last minute. And still Jens Lehmann had to make an unbelievable save at the end. Twice, we’ve led at Stamford Bridge in the last few years and failed to close out victory. The only time we have won there post-Abramovich, it was because Chelsea didn’t have one shot on target after we took the lead.

And somewhere along the line, the manager has to hold his hands up and take some blame for it. His substitutions have become more and more ponderous in recent weeks. Cesc put in some very dodgy performances and Arsene has clearly shown that unless his captain is injured, he won’t be withdrawn. Yesterday, it was one thing to be readying RVP to replace Chamakh at 2-1. But 2-2 at home to your biggest rivals, he shouldn’t be replacing his main striker with just another striker, let alone one who clearly isn’t fit.

It says a lot that Denilson was our best player in the second half. I like Denilson but Arsenal won’t win the League with 11 Denilsons. I think there’s something mentally wrong with players who think a game is won and stop playing; but what’s the excuse for the subs? Rosicky, RVP, and Theo all came on and their impact was limited. Nasri and Arshavin had definitely gone off the boil in the second half, but in retrospect, they couldn’t have done any worse than their replacements.

The team selection was equally odd. I try to avoid watching Spurs, it generally makes me retch, but even I know that Spurs like playing high balls over the top. So to drop Johan Djourou after an excellent game against Everton – a player who is very good in the air – makes no sense. There was much made of how Laurent Koscielny didn’t lose a single tackle last year but as somebody in the pub after the game remarked, this is simply because he fouls players. A lot.

Everyone in the pub also said that Wenger should sit them down and make them watch a DVD of the second half while analysing their mistakes. But we all know he won’t do that. He’s far too nice to the players; why has it taken two full seasons for Nasri to establish himself in the Premiership as one of the very best? My take on this, and I may be wrong, but I suspect I am actually right for once, is that this year Nasri is trying to avenge not being picked in the French squad for the World Cup.

It’s really difficult blogging about Arsenal right now. I want to write positive pieces about how this team is going places. So I big them up after great away results at Wolves and Everton. And then time and again I’m left with egg on my face as they trip up at home. This result could easily have happened at Everton last week, with us holding on by our fingernails at the end. On the other hand, we do seem to have found some resilience away from home which means that we are hanging on in matches where we once wouldn’t have managed to.

The stats show we’re the best team in the League away from home at the moment. But if three home defeats wasn’t worrying enough, remember that Chelsea, Man United, Man City, Everton and Aston Villa all still have to come to The Grove – the home fixture list has been kind to us so far.

Chelsea’s defeat means that on paper we’re only two points off the top of the table. But what’s so tragic, is that considering how poor our rivals are this year, we’re not taking advantage of it.

To end on a positive note, if anyone truly does want some perspective: Harry Redknapp says Spurs are title challengers. As Goodplaya points out, they are on course to take 59.6 points from the season.

Keep the faith.

Denilson inspires a fine away win. Everton match report.

2010-11-19T17:15:00.002Z

Everton 1 Arsenal 2

In many ways, winning 2-1 on a cold November afternoon was more impressive than winning 6-1 last year in August.

Sure, the 6-1 was a great result and was arguably the best Arsenal have played in a long time before or after that match. But that Arsenal can play well on a sunny August afternoon is nothing new. The pressing displayed that day was impressive, but Everton stood off us and that tends to end badly for the opposition.

Jump to Sunday and it was a very different team we faced. Their fans kept on getting on Howard Webb’s back. They hassled us in midfield and it seemed very much an afternoon where we needed to get the first goal. It wasn’t at all clear we would – Seamus Coleman gave us the run-around and Tim Cahill missed an early chance which given his record against us, I would have backed him to score.

It was just getting to the stage where one wondered if Everton were going to get on top, when Sagna scored. To all those who criticise Andrey Arshavin and his work rate, this must have been a real kick in the teeth. It was his alertness and quick-thinking which created the goal – Howard saved a Nasri shot and the ball looked like it was going out; he kept it in, cut it back to Bacary Sagna who rifled a great shot home. The churlish among us Gooners may wonder why he doesn’t do something like that more often.

There then came something I’m unsure I’ve seen in many a season: an effective tactical substitution by Arsene Wenger. Wilshere had not really been involved in the game and to see the manager make a good substitution was oh so heartening. Denilson came on and immediately made an impact. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the first 25 minutes he was on the pitch was the finest performance by any Arsenal for a reasonable period of time this season. In the last 20 minutes he went off the boil a little, but that was true of the whole team – they really stopped playing and in the end Everton almost took advantage of that.

Denilson’s immediate contribution was to win the ball on the half-way line, run with it a distance and then create a goal which turned out to be the winner. To those who doubt his ability to make important contributions and think he merely passes sideways, this was some riposte.

It was that he continued to play well which was even more impressive. Despite Seamus Coleman still threatening us, on most occasions, it would have been over after an hour. Quite how Marouane Chamakh missed from two yards out is still a mystery to me even five days on. Sure, he was stretching, but still.

Rosicky came on and did well and it was an all-round good team performance, although one may question what exactly the manager was doing bringing Eboue on. Away from home, I’ve seen noisy home fans galvanise their team into a comeback before. Witness for example the 2-2 draw at Upton Park last year. That we held on, after conceding an unlucky goal was testament to our greater defensive fortitude.

Having a goalkeeper who actually makes saves is also a great improvement. If I was being very harsh, I would say Fabianski should have caught the ball which he pushed out for the corner which they scored from. But the point is, he made saves at important times and as long as he plays well enough of the time, people will forgive mistakes like the one against Newcastle. Make no mistake, without Lukasz in goal, we would not have taken six points from the last two games.

Paradoxically, we’re doing well in spite of some pretty poor home form. The big question is whether we can turn it around at home – last year it was our home form which kept us in the title race for so long. After the Newcastle game, things were looking bleak.

With the early kick-off tomorrow, we have a chance to move to the top of the table. And we’re playing Spurs. If that double-pronged incentive isn’t enough to inspire a good performance, I don’t know what is.

Keep the faith.

A bright result in the Black Country. Wolves match report.

2010-11-14T01:09:00.000Z

Wolves 0 Arsenal 2

After bemoaning Arsenal starting matches badly, only I could complain about Chamakh scoring so early that I actually ended up missing the first goal. Getting in late from work, it was great to see us one up, even if that was the first Arsenal goal I'd missed in ages and ages. Chamakh's all-round game was excellent and to see him playing well off-the-ball again after his shocking performance against Newcastle was reassuring.

The talking points from the game were threefold - Cesc's tackle, Fabianski's performance, and the general defensive resilience of the team so let's take them in turn.

I said at the time on Twitter that Cesc's tackle looked worse than it was, but in retrospect I think I was wrong. He was late, and more to the point, much the same can be said of Joe Cole's tackle on Koscielny as Cesc's one: even if he wins the ball, the angle he's going in at, the ball is going straight into touch. In other words, there's no real positive to the tackle.

Now, I'm not trying to insinuate that Cesc was trying to hurt the opposition player. But the referee has to make a decision, and though it may not be the rules, if the way the tackle is made means there's no possible benefit from it, and it's late and a little reckless, the player has to be sent off. I think that's what Cesc was guilty off. I complained in the Newcastle match that the little things has stopped going our way, but keeping Cesc for a couple of tricky away games and a North London derby is obviously a plus point.

There is though, the very correct argument that Karl Henry's tackle was worse. This doesn't excuse Cesc in any way. Karl Henry should 100% of been sent off, whereas with Cesc it's probably what Arsene would call 'an orange card'. The fact MOTD didn't show it was predictable if disappointing. But it was just another Karl Henry tackle; Cesc isn't known for that type of tackling and lets hope he continues that way. Mick McCarthy defending him was not a good thing - it just showed how he has this cynical view of football being a really physical game. Him praising Cesc for his tackling probably tells it's own story.

Turning to Fabianski's performance, I couldn't be happier. When I saw his kit for the first time, I thought it was some prank. But in the end he looked pretty in pink and made a series of excellent saves.

Whether he can be our long-term number one is obviously still a big debate. Do performances like those against Chelsea, Man City and Wolves cancel out the mistake against Newcastle? Probably not when there's a keeper as good as Szczesny waiting in the wings. But as long as Arsene refuses to play him, Fabianski is a better bet than Almunia because he makes more saves, even if they both make mistakes.

Against Wolves he was excellent - it may just be a statistical quirk that Wolves were the first opposition team we had kept 'two straight clean sheets' against since Spurs in 2009, but Fabianski's saves were what brought us the three points - after the first ten minutes, we really went off the boil.

That said, the team defensive performance was good. With what was nominally a reserve centre back partnership, we did really well. Clichy and Sagna managed to avoid their normal mistakes and though Wolves had lots of the ball, they never really cut us open or found it easy.

Games which we win one or two nil tend to be characterised as fixtures which show the team is growing in maturity. Trouble is, there's always been a couple of them a season - witness Fulham away last season. The big question is whether we can win this kind of game consistently. In the last few years we haven't - witness the draws at the back end of 2008 which cost us the League. The ups and downs with this team make it impossible to say - but the wider point is about keeping clean sheets. Over the last few years we've struggled to do this. If we can do it, success could be ours. Hopefully we can keep another one at Goodison...

Keep the faith.

11 conclusions from Arsenal 0 Newcastle 1

2010-11-09T22:52:00.000Z

Arsenal 0 Newcastle 1

1) In 2008, Arsenal fielded a weakened team away at Porto in the Champions League and proceeded to draw their next three games; in 2009, Arsenal sloppily gave away a last minute equaliser to AZ Alkmaar and then drew the next game; in 2010, we played slap-dashly in Donestk and followed up with a defeat in the Champions League. Is it any surprise that this team doesn't learn when their manager clearly doesn't?

2) On that note, Wenger gave a performance of quite startling ineptitude. Leaving out Arshavin was a massive mistake - when has starting Theo Walcott ever been a good decision (Blackpool aside)?

But it wasn't just that. Never before have I seen him make such poor substitutions, and that's really saying something. Sunday's game proved that Wenger is unwilling to ever take Fabregas off unless he's injured. Removing Nasri, our best player was bizarre. Introducing a patently unfit RVP was even odder. And then staying four at the back against a team trying to hold onto a one goal lead just seemed completely wrong. It's unsurprising the team performance was this poor, when Wenger managed them as badly as this.

3) Indeed, as Goodplaya points out, Wenger's substitutions were all the more baffling in light of the fact that we actually started the second half quite well. RVP's first touch was a great touch; but it was also pretty much his only touch. Nasri was our one midfield player having a good game and he was withdrawn. Our one good period in the game was ended by our manager, not the opposition. His substitutions were so incompetent that we didn't even manage our customary late flurry. That is really worrying

4) Theo Walcott's performance was absolutely woeful. Making a very heavy-handed joke, I suggested the only reason the Newcastle defence chucked their shirts into the crowd, rather than their shorts, was because the shorts would have been very heavy with Walcott in their back pocket.

The promising start he made to the season is over. He makes one or two good runs at the beginning of each half and is then completely anonymous. Against Donetsk it was less noticeable because he was at the centre of our best moment. Against Newcastle, with a full 90 minutes to show his talent, he failed spectacularly. With Theo Walcott, it still seems to be a case of one step forward and two steps back.

5) Laurent Koscielny's red card was unwarranted because it wasn't a clear goalscoring opportunity. But what exactly was he doing pulling Nile Ranger's shirt? I'm dubious he knew Squilacci was covering as the last man, so presumably he thought he was the last man. In which case, actions were terrible defending.

At any rate, what was the point of fouling someone who was going nowhere? It was quite clearly a foul if nothing else. At the very least, Newcastle could get a free-kick (and the ball) and waste a minute of stoppage time. When our premier centre back is out injured, Koscielny's actions are all the more baffling and show he is naive 'footballistically'.

6) The problem with Fabianski is that time and again he has shown a mistake is not far away. He may be capable of good performance - nay, he showed he is against Man City. But as long as the mistakes are there, he should not be in goal for Arsenal. Period.

7) In fact, the story that Szczesny is not being played because Arsenal don't want to pay him more for his new contract is really worrying. It's absolutely baffling. The way we're playing at home, it won't be long before they stop selling out these 'smaller' matches against teams like Newcastle and West Brom. That would really cost the club money; paying Wojciech 5k more a week won't.

8) As well as having a really poor game up front, Chamakh failed to track Carroll for the goal. It makes the team selection in Donetsk all the more baffling. In short, Chamakh looks jaded. So why several senior players were allowed to stay at home, but Chamakh wasn't, is yet another question Wenger has to answer.

9) Can somebody please tell Alex Song he's not a striker or an attacking midfielder?

10) How Arsenal are missing Thomas Vermaelen. He's the sort of player who would get us going in these lethargic first halves which are becoming commonplace. He'd have stopped Andy Carroll heading that ball first. And he helps us going forward. His injury may well not just be his achilles heel, but Arsenal's.

11) The bottom line is the most worrying: thus far in November, played two lost two. 3 goals conceded, 3 individual mistakes. This could well be a very long month.

Keep the faith.

Defeat in Donetsk actually really disappointing. Shakhtar match report.

2010-11-06T19:40:00.000Z

Shakhtar 2 Arsenal 1

This might seem a little odd, but I really think the defeat in Donetsk was a dangerous result. Not in terms of qualification from the group. Yes, people can scaremonger that if we lose away to Braga then the last match against Partizan becomes crucial. But first, I don't expect us to lose away to Braga and even if we do, I'd bet the house we'd beat Partizan at home if we had to.

But I think it's all about the culture at the club. I still remember that stunned silence after Gibbs slipped in the Champions League semi-final against United. But when you tell the players that only some games matter, it creates a dangerous culture.

It creates a culture in which it's very difficult to win things because you end up only competing in two competitions. And it puts so much pressure on some very young shoulders, when they go out in matches like that one against United, knowing Arsenal's entire season rests on one match.

To me, there's no coincidence between one and the other. And there's also no coincidence that the performance seems to be poor when the manager indicates that matches don't matter.

Look at the matches in recent years where he's made it obvious: United in the FA Cup - we got spanked 4-0; Spurs in the Carling Cup - we got spanked 5-0; Burnley in the Carling Cup - we lost an eminently winnable match; Olympiacos in the Champions League - we may have only lost 1-0, but if the youngsters only senior experience is of defeat, that's hardly ideal. And if anyone thinks that Wenger's failure to pick Arshavin in that FA Cup semi-final back in 2009 didn't dampen the morale of the entire team pre-match, well, it might sound puerile, but they're wrong.

And so, I was disappointed with the team Wenger picked. Eastmond and Wilshere is not a sensible central midfield partnership in a difficult away game. I can't help but agree with Kevin Whitcher when he says that Wenger would have taken any result from this match as a bonus.

There was more too. Why was Bacary Sagna not playing? What happened to Wenger's (sensible) tactic of playing Eboue at home and Sagna away? Sure, Shakhtar created lots of chances before they equalised, but it was Eboue's defensive naivety which gave them the easy chance to do so.

The less said about Gael Clichy the better. The simple truth is that he makes far too many mistakes and that they are always costly can't be a coincidence. He's a busted flush, a good egg turned rotten. If Kieran Gibbs could stay fit, it would at the very least introduce some competition into the squad - and competition has clearly done Bendtner the world of good.

Theo took his goal well and long may his excellent form continue. But by and large, Arsenal were decidedly average. Eduardo showed his class, both in finishing clinically, and in not celebrating. But if it hadn't been Eduardo, it would have been somebody else. Sure, Shakhtar were hammered in the reverse game; but with Jadson, Eddie and Chygryinsky all playing from the start, and in the confines of their own stadium, they're a different proposition. People may say Arsenal have eight games in November, and they have to rotate. And this was certainly the most palatable of all the matches to lose. But I'd rather not lose any at all.

This game will not live long in the memory. Arsenal will qualify and the history books will mark it down as an aberration. And it is true to say that we have always struggled in Ukraine. But when we're struggling because of the manager's team selection, I think questions have to be asked. Particularly if we don't beat Newcastle tomorrow - I don't know when, but at some point Arsene stopped believing in momentum. And it certainly doesn't help Arsenal's chances.

Keep the faith.

Tuneless Arsenal saved by Song. West Ham match report.

2010-11-06T19:10:00.002Z

Arsenal 1 West Ham 0

In a sense, it was very odd that I was always confident we would score.

By and large, this performance was very similar to the West Brom game. Fabregas was dreadful, Denilson was awful, Chamakh seemed isolated up front. Okay, we had a competent keeper and the defence was more on form, but still.

It's hard to argue that Arsenal were anywhere near even a remotely good performance. Okay, Rob Green made several great saves. But to act like we're surprised by this when it has become an annual ritual seems a little facile.

Arguably, we created more chances than against West Brom. But to me, the only real difference was that West Ham came to try and cling on for a draw. I know Scott Parker and Mark Noble played really well in midfield. But there was never any attacking intent from Avram Grant; indeed, it only took about 30 minutes before they started time-wasting.

So, my belief we would score was based on two factors which weren't really related to this match per se: one, was our consistent propensity to always score late goals; the other was that our players looked markedly fitter and less fatigued than the Hammers.

And it's easy to moan when players don't do good things. To read some blogs, you'd think that between Clichy, Sagna, Eboue, Walcott, Nasri and Rosicky, there has been one good cross in their entire time at the club. Now sure, Gael Clichy doesn't produce that many great crosses. But I think the way everyone treats it as really ironic that he did on this occasion is unhelpful. I don't want to come across like some great philosopher of football, but why not stress the positives rather than the negatives?

The fact is, Clichy put a good cross in and Song scored. And being able to do that, even if not often, makes him a harder player to defend against.

On Song, I'm not going to hide from my criticism of him: I lambasted him last week saying:

"But against West Brom his poor positioning was found wanting, and his first yellow against Sunderland came from being out of position in the first place. I'd rather he did a few things right all the time, then tried to be a master of everything and only managed it some of the time."

In retrospect, that was a mistake - there are clearly times when we need an extra man higher up the park, particularly if there is no cost from it. Against West Ham, we needed the extra players going forward, particularly with them sitting back. But the crucial point, that it will take a few more goals to convince me that this glut is not just a statistical quirk; if he contributes 15 goals this season, then by all means he can play further forward. But if it actually costs us, like it had been doing, it really isn't a good idea.

That said, though the team played badly, we won the game. It's impossible to play well every week. It's cliched, but the hallmark of champions is winning when things don't go your way. Football 365 always says how 'it is the Chelsea way to find a way' and that is what Arsenal have to aim at. Whether we can do, only time will tell. But West Ham has been a match we've struggled with since the move to the new stadium. Yes, it was a bad performance, both collectively and individually. But if we win anyway, we should be cheered not disappointed.

Four out of our next five games are away. The big challenge is to keep up some decent form. Here's hoping we can.

Keep the faith.

If you like this year's Arsenal kit you can buy it here...

The Carling cup is the new 'cool'. Newcastle match report.

2010-10-29T18:18:00.005+01:00

Newcastle 0 Arsenal 4

Cool has never really come into football. Obviously it's not cool to like Joey Barton or Ashley Cole. But then who would like Barton or Cashley?

But, the Carling Cup has brought the pursuit of cool into football. It's like the old quandary for the schoolboy – how little work can I do and still get away with it? Except for a long time, the question has been 'how weak a team can we field and still win in the Carling Cup'? Wenger almost managed it in 2007 but was denied by Drogba.

And yet, according to the media, this year the Carling cup has changed. Now it's about bringing something retro back into fashion – like men wearing cardigans or buying Gola bags.

To be honest, this is rubbish. It just makes a good story, gives the media a different angle to report from.

Against Newcastle, Arsenal made nine changes from the weekend – the two players left were Djourou and Denilson. Now I'm Denilson's biggest champion but nobody would call either of those players first-choice.

The relative strength of the Arsenal line-up was merely indicative of the good squad-depth we have, as well as that we have players coming back from injury who needed game-time.

Although we started well, the game was far too open – for all the chances we created, Newcastle also had their opportunities – whilst Wojciech (I'm not going to attempt to spell his surname...) did well at the end, we were lucky not to concede early on when he came out.

The early stages were also memorable for Gibbs' unfortunate injury. I just want to put it on the record that to class Gibbs as injury-prone is ridiculous: his injury last year was the result of a ridiculous challenge by the Liege player; the injury he picked up at Tottenham also came from a bad tackle. In fact, the only innocuous injury he's picked up was against Newcastle. And the good news is, it may only keep him out for a couple of weeks.

What the injury did do though, was allow Emmanuel Eboue to demonstrate his positional versatility. Having a utility man like Eboue is definitely useful for a team which is always struggling with injuries. And as this video shows, the man's a legend.

While the opening goal had a touch of comedy about it, few would have questioned that Arsenal deserved to lead at the break. Aside from anything else, we were playing a team containing Alan Smith and Joey Barton – they don't exactly garner sympathy from me easily.

The second goal came as the result of some cynical play by Nicky B. I don't doubt Walcott would have finished anyway which is why it annoys me – enveloping the club in unnecessary controversy is a really bad idea.

He did redeem himself with a great goal himself and then Theo proved what I've been saying for ages: he's not a terrible player, he just needs to play on the shoulder of the last defender to utilise his pace to the maximum. As Gunnerblog says, Wenger needs to tell Walcott to play like this all the time.

All in all a good result, and when you're in the quarter finals of any cup competition, you have to try and win it. Time will tell whether Wenger actually wants to win it – it's lazy journalism to say he does on the basis of the City game.

It's West Ham this weekend and while you'd think it should be three points, this time in October has not been kind to us in recent years.

Hopefully that will change tomorrow.

Keep the faith.

Sky are disingenuous as Arsenal beat City. Match report.

2010-10-27T14:42:00.000+01:00

Man City 0 Arsenal 3

As somebody who loves using the word disingenuous, this Man City match gives me some great opportunity. Because though we played well, it would be disingenuous to say that on the basis of this match, Arsenal are back to their very best.

And yet equally it would be disingenuous to say that it would have been a different result if Boyata hadn't been sent off. The cold facts are that in four minutes where City had eleven men on the pitch, we managed to get in behind their defence twice. But for a poor offside decision, it could have been 1-0 (through Arshavin) even before Boyata saw red.

It's also disingenuous to say that Alex Song's three goals so far this season vindicate him playing further forward. His position in the team is that of holding midfielder. I take no issue with him pushing up against City because Boyata's red card made Yaya Toure play at centre back. In turn, this gave us an extra man in midfield. But against West Brom his poor positioning was found wanting, and his first yellow against Sunderland came from being out of position in the first place. I'd rather he did a few things right all the time, then tried to be a master of everything and only managed it some of the time. It was nonetheless his best performance so far this season and we should be cheered by that.

Similarly, we should be pleased by Chamakh's continued good form and a very solid defensive performance all round.

But the two players I'm most cheered by are Samir Nasri and Denilson. Nasri started brilliantly in English football but seemed to suffer a little last year from second season syndrome – undoubtedly part of this stemmed from his missing pre-season and then picking up a series of niggly injuries but it took until March and the Porto game for him to really establish himself with a commanding performance.

This year his passing has been superb, his movement excellent, and his goalscoring record good. Of course one can point out that three of his goals have come from the penalty spot. But so what? No-one said anything when Lampard used to score 10+ a season from the spot. Nasri, as different from Lampard, isn't perennially reliant on deflections and scores really well-worked goals like his one-two with Arshavin on Sunday. On current form, he has to fancy himself for footballer of the year, even if Sky ridiculously insist that Fabregas played better on Sunday.

And on that point, let's point out how ridiculous Sky's coverage was. The idea that Arsenal played a dirty game because they picked up a few yellow cards was preposterous; in fact, we showed incredible maturity to not have anyone sent off despite it looking very much like that was going to happen when Clattenburg was handing out cards like they were going out of fashion. They were also the peddlers-in-chief of the notion that this game meant nothing because City had 10 men.

I say this game doesn't mean that much because we need to see Arsenal play this well reugularly. Sky say it doesn't mean anything as if the red card was some kind of fluke which had nothing to do with Cesc's ability to pick a pass, and Chamakh's superb running off-the-ball.

In fact, apart from picking up on Gareth Barry's ball-watching (which, truth be told, was pretty obvious) Sky reinforced my view that they rarely – if ever – have anything interesting to say.

For example, they didn't pick up on Denilson's barnstorming display. Now I accept that I am Denilson's biggest cheerleader and love to pick up on anything good he does. He's not quite up there with Bergkamp in the hero stakes but he's close.

But nevertheless, he was everywhere. He made some brilliant tackles. His passing was incisive. But for a super block by Vincent Kompany he would have scored another of his great long-shots. And crucially for me, he displays the positional discipline which Song has been lacking in recent weeks. Having a play in your team who literally never gives the ball away is very useful and we should appreciate him for it. In my eyes, with Fabregas, Nasri and Denilson, we have three of the very best midfielders in the Premiership at the moment – long may that continue.

But ultimately, this performance was based on a strong defensive performance. When you see Arshavin tracking back and then winning the ball it makes one wonder why he doesn't do it more often. Clichy and Djourou started a little poorly but pulled it around, and I couldn't fault Squillaci or Sagna, bar the right-back's miss right at the end which cost me £100 (yes, I really did bet on 4-0 before the match).

And so to Fabianski. It's long been said that it's easier for a defence when they have faith in their goalkeeper and this seemed to prove it. Before this match, Djourou and Squillaci had been at best inconsistent. Here, I felt they played well for 90 minutes and it obviously helps if you trust the goalkeeper – and Almunia had clearly been undermined before the season even started and it's taken three or four good games from Fabianski to give the fans (and presumably the players) some faith.

But it also works the other way, because a good goalkeeper seems to inspire the defence. Regardless, Fabianski was excellent. Not only did he do the things which you expect of a good goalkeeper, he made two excellent saves from shots which you'd realistically expect to go in. I know I'm stating the obvious here, but with a good goalkeeper, it's a hell of a lot easier to win a football match. Time will tell whether he can do this consistently but it was undoubtedly his best match for the club and he should be praised accordingly.

With us taking a strong squad to Newcastle in the Carling Cup, before a few 'easy' fixtures, it's a great chance to build some momentum for a few weeks before the Spurs game. Lets do so.

Keep the faith.

Progress in the Champions League almost assured. Shakhtar match report.

2010-10-23T23:57:00.000+01:00

Arsenal 5 Shakhtar Donetsk 1

I didn't expect Arsenal to find it so comfortable against Shakhtar but the reason we did was we took our chances. 2-0 at half-time definitely was a somewhat fortuitous scoreline, but football is ultimately about making possession count for something. We didn't at Chelsea and we lost 2-0. We did against Shakhtar and we won 5-1. There's no fluke there. Okay, having a competent goalkeeper is useful (and how nice it was to see the shoe on the other foot for the first goal). But if you score from all your chances it makes it a great deal easier to win a trophy.

Kevin Whitcher's comments that many European teams show Arsenal too much respect resonated exactly with how Donetsk approached the game - for me, they came along trying to nick a point and that's never a good idea against Arsenal. Games like Wolves last season show how we keep on going till the end. And clearly, it spectacularly backfired.

And this result means that we're now all but in the last 16. Again. With Spurs fans jizzing themselves over the margin of defeat to Inter being just a single goal, it shows just how big the gap is between the teams.

Partizan, Braga and Shakhtar was definitely not the hardest draw we could have had. But you can only beat what's in front of you and our continual progression to the Champions League knockout stages is something to be cherished - sooner or later we're going to string a few results together in the knockout rounds and reach the final again. But it probably isn't cherished enough: aside from when Eduardo came on, the ground was really, really quiet all night and no-one seemed that impressed by the performance afterwards in the pub.

And in a sense, it's only because we find it so easy in the group stage that we can afford to give players like Eduardo such a warm welcome back. To see the fans cheering an opposition goal, shows just how much Eduardo is still in our hearts.

This is a man remember, who would almost certainly still be at Arsenal but for Martin Taylor's tackle. The quality of his goal, in spite of the leg-break certainly leaving him a lesser player, shows just what a player he could have been.

Goodplaya also made the very pertinent observation that Eduardo truly is a unique player:

"Only at Arsenal can we imagine a guy who was nearly booted out the game for good ending up the victim of a legal witch hunt that had never applied to anyone but him beforehand and has never applied since. For weeks, his image peppered TV bulletins and newspaper pages as the first guy ever to be banned for diving.

Amazing to think that in the year since that incident, not a single other player has been charged with that offence. Shameful, shameful, shameful UEFA."

I can only wish him the very best of luck and hope that some more former players can come back to play against us in the Champions League - Vieira, Pires, Henry and now Eduardo have all come back in recent years. All have been given a hero's welcome and all have gone on to see their side lose (or in Henry's case pegged back from two up).

With Eduardo's return being pretty much perfect and Arsenal scoring five goals through clinical finishing, it really was a great night for us.

The big question though is can we follow up from it? Tomorrow's match against City is absolutely huge. We've now won four times in mid-week but on each occasion we've then failed to win on the subsequent weekend. With the way the League table is standing, that has to change. Win and we sit second, just five points behind Chelsea, in spite of our patchy form. Lose, and we could be sixth at the close of play tomorrow, eight points behind Chelsea and six behind City.

We've struggled there in recent years but to me that is purely incidental - we could easily have won last year in spite of losing 4-2. It's a huge match, particularly ahead of a week in which we face another difficult match (Newcastle away) which is important to win for different reasons. This City game is a test of whether this Arsenal side has a chance in the League this season. Thankfully, I think we'll win.

Keep the faith.

Nasri and Wilshere are like dumb and dumber. Birmingham match report.

2010-10-19T14:14:00.000+01:00

Arsenal 2 Birmingham City 1

There was a moment in this match not shown on MOTD which arguably is an even greater indictment on Jack Wilshere than the red card.

Because a few minutes before half time, Samir Nasri was clearly fouled by a Birmingham player after tracking back to help Emmanuel Eboué. And after getting up off the floor, he then went and kicked the Birmingham player.

My powers of recollection fail me, but I think the referee made an error and didn't give us the free-kick. But to go and kick somebody off-the-ball is bona fide stupidity. Nasri was booked. And to be honest, that was lucky; on another day, away from home, with a different referee, Nasri could easily have been off.

And to me, that's a big issue. Goodplaya is correct to point out that we hadn't had a red card for violent conduct in 140 games before Saturday, but I can only critique what happened on the pitch. And the reality is that Nasri could have gone and Wilshere did.

The question over who was more guilty is an interesting one. What MOTD missed, and what I thought was most interesting about the whole Wilshere incident, is that 15 minutes or so before that, Zigic fouled Wilshere a little cynically in the middle of the pitch. Martin Atkinson was stood right over Wilshere but little Jack still tried to go for Zigic at the time.

So Nasri should know better considering his age, but Wilshere was saving that tackle up for 15 minutes - I reckon he'd been waiting to do Zigic. So although it was a challenge incomparable to Martin Taylor's on Eduardo, there probably was the same degree of malice involved. And therefore, I feel I can do nothing but condemn Wilshere.

It was a match where truth be told, we didn't play well. Considering how ponderous Birmingham were for much of the second half, this should have been a much more comfortable victory. There's a school of thought which says it's good to win when playing badly but one has to question why we struggle against teams of the calibre of Birmingham. Chamakh won the penalty and scored the goal and there is certainly an over-reliance on him at the moment to make things tick - the return of Fabregas and Bendtner should hopefully ease some of the burden off his shoulders.

Ultimately, there were few people who came out of this match with a lot of credit. The goal scored by Birmingham was a good goal but it showed naivety to let them have a beautiful angle to cross from - I'm not complaining about the goal itself, but how it was created.

The positive from this weekend is three points when Chelsea and United dropped points, and a first win in four in the Premier League. The negative, is that against better opposition we'd have punished for our terrible first-half performance. Right now, this side is playing with nowhere near the fluency seen in August; I'd almost go as far as to say it's an entirely different style of play.

A win's a win, and if we can beat Shakhtar tonight then we can go to Manchester with a degree of momentum. But I for one am very much unconvinced by this team at present.

Keep the faith.

Birmingham preview: let's beat these bastards

2010-10-15T18:05:00.000+01:00

My history teacher at school often went on about a reciprocal relationship - you give something and you get something back in return.

Birmingham have never bought into the idea of a reciprocal relationship. They're all take and no give. We gave them Seb Larsson, Fabrice Muamba, and Nicklas Bendtner on loan - they gave us Eduardo with a broken leg and conned the referee into a penalty decision which arguably cost us the League in 2008.

We were reasonable people and started to forgive Birmingham for trying to defend Martin Taylor. So they let Kevin Phillips score a flukey equalising goal which cost us the League again.

And they employ Lee Bowyer, a man who should be behind bars.

Alas.

But perhaps they've finally bought into the reciprocal relationship: they've signed Alex Hleb on loan. If Hleb plays, tomorrow's match could - in a very loose sense of the word - be hilarious. For surely Hleb will perform as some kind of playmaker for them? In which case we may see the first match ever with 90 minutes of sideways passing and nothing else.

I jest of course, but we have to fancy our chances with Alex Hleb in the opposition team. He never really convinced me and even though we're still shorn of our best players, I'd hope for a return to winning ways.

Birmingham have cost us repeatedly. They've injured our players and been unapologetic about it. They've rarely done us a favour by taking points of our opposition.

Surely the law of averages suggests they've just got to allow us a nice easy, feel-good victory tomorrow? I bloody well hope so. I hate these bastards.

Keep the faith,
Adam

If you're going down to the game tomorrow, make sure to pick up the latest issue of The Gooner for my view of the Spurs game. And yes, this is a shameless plug.

11 conclusions from Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0

2010-10-04T20:21:00.002+01:00

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0

1) Three times Arsenal have played in midweek this season. Three times Arsenal have won in midweek this season. And three times Arsenal have then failed to win on the subsequent weekend. At risk of appearing contrary, perhaps the reason Arsenal's best chance is in the cups is that they play better under floodlights?

2) The last time Arsenal beat Chelsea was a 2-1 win against a Blues side managed by Felipe Scolari. One of the reasons he was derided as clueless was his introduction of Miroslav Stoch, an unproven teenager, to try and turn the game around when they were behind. He was portrayed by the media as an idiot. Arsene Wenger's second substitution with ten minutes to go? The introduction of Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, a man who had never played in the Premier League before. Go figure.

3) Occasionally you have to say 'too good'. Arshavin has scored brilliant goals against United and Liverpool, among others, in his time at Arsenal. In the 25th minute, with the score 0-0, he curled one towards the top-right hand corner which would have beaten any other goalkeeper in England. Hey, it probably would have beaten any other goalkeeper in the world. But Petr Cech made a world-class save with his finger-tips. At 1-0 it would have been a very different game. But perhaps more interestingly, the media (Sky) always remark after a Drogba goal that Wenger once had the chance to sign him; what they don't say is how close we came to signing Petr Cech. If we hadn't been outbid for him, I reckon the recent history of Arsenal would be very different.

4) With this number of players out injured, Arsene Wenger's selection dilemma in a nutshell: Jack Wilshere is a better holding midfield player than Abou Diaby but he is even better further forward. For me though, the mystery was this: why no Denilson?

5) There was a horrible symmetry to the match: it took Chelsea roughly forty minutes to score in each half. I don't know if this is interesting in of itself, but for my money the goals were counter-attacking sucker punches. Sure, Chelsea had a few other chances on the break. But by and large that means Arsenal were making the play for eighty minutes. And yet we didn't have the craft, guile, or penetration to score once. No wonder we usually lose to Chelsea.

6) How refreshing for Arsenal to lose and the goalkeeper not to be at fault. It allows some real cirucmspection and to work out where we're really going wrong.

7) Arsene Wenger must really not rate Carlos Vela. With his team trailing, and with only one striker on the pitch, he brought on Rosicky and JET ahead of him. One thing's for sure: if Bendtner had been on the bench, he'd have been the first sub. Or maybe it was just that he didn't think Vela could chip Cech...

8) It's been four years. Let's admit we got the worst of the Cashley-Gallas deal.

9) Ramires played well and I have no qualms about saying so. But the myth about Abramovich tightening the purse strings is just that. Arsenal's 'new' midfield player this season: 18 year old Jack Wilshere, cost free. Chelsea's new midfield player this season: 23 year old Ramires, cost 22 million Euros. As I'm wont to say a little too often, go figure.

10) Earlier today, I was trumpeting that I had unearthed some brilliant stats which were a lot more illuminating than Drogba's scoring record against Arsenal. And these are they: since the move to the new stadium, we've played Chelsea nine times in the League. With Van Persie in the team, it's played five, won two, drawn one, lost two - an even record. Without him, it's drawn one and lost four. If he wasn't permanently crocked, Van Persie is arguably even more of a player than Drogba.

11) Final word to Carlo Ancelotti, who had this to say after we lost by the same scoreline in February:

"Maybe Arsenal had more possession than us but that is not football. Football is about results".

It may have been a better performance, but how much has really changed?

Keep the faith.

Very late Partizan thoughts and Chelsea preview

2010-10-03T13:47:00.001+01:00

Partizan Belgrade 1 Arsenal 3

- The performance was neither here nor there. Playing away in Eastern Europe is never easy - witness the quite ridiculous floodlight failure fiasco. But after the Sunderland and West Brom results (and with our next two matches being Chelsea and Man City, both away) it was vital to win a football match. There was a danger this club would have no positive momentum whatsoever come mid-October - particularly if we hadn't won in in a month.

- Nonetheless, we played very well. Arshavin and Wilshere showed some real cutting edge and it was only our finishing which let us down in the first half. Cleo is a good player and the defence coped admirably with his threat.

- If we're going to miss penalties, let's do it in Champions League group games, probably the least important matches we play each year. Who will remember in a few weeks that Nicolas Anelka scored a penalty for Chelsea against Marseilles? Very few people. Who'll remember he missed in the Champions League final? Pretty much everyone.

- Of course the media coverage of Fabianski was overblown. But when has it ever not been? At Ewood Park last year, we lost 2-1 where we created very little. Blackburn pinged thirty long-balls at the Arsenal box and he missed two of them. We defended badly and attacked badly but he was blamed. There were no repercussions for the lack of protection from the defence. So of course one penalty save and one other save doesn't make him a brilliant goalkeeper. But the suggestion he was the worst goalkeeper ever to play for Arsenal was also farcical. I wish him well against Chelsea.

- And so to Chelsea. I know they're missing Lampard, but with no Almunia, Vermaelen, Fabregas, Van Persie, Bendtner, or Walcott, we're huge second favourites. We'd be underdogs even with all of them so for Arsenal to win today would be truly extraordinary. A national newspaper (clue: I can't link to it) said yesterday that Arsenal have a 2% chance of victory. I think that's a little harsh but I presume there are very few Gooners who wouldn't take a draw.

- Jack Wilshere was dreadful against Liverpool but has been imperious ever since. This is a huge game for him.

- Samir Nasri started his Arsenal career brilliantly in 2008 by scoring two goals against Man United. There's huge pressure on him to give us a performance today.

- This is the hardest match of the season. So to be seven points behind would not be a disaster. Think how Scolari's Chelsea started brilliantly and then folded later in the year. The League isn't won in October.

- If you're a betting man and you don't like betting against Arsenal, keep your money in your wallet.

Come on you Arsenal!

Keep the faith,
Adam

One result does not a season make. West Brom match report.

2010-09-28T15:48:00.000+01:00

Arsenal 2 West Brom 3

What's to say about a result where you're comfortably outplayed by a team which will probably flirt with relegation? Particularly, because as I heard somebody say outside the stadium, if we had scored in stoppage time to get a draw it would have been an absolute travesty. I'm unsure I've ever seen Arsenal outplayed to that extent, particularly at home.

But equally, I think criticising Almunia is very much the easy option. When I played under-10s, I remember Zak's mum didn't want him to play in goal because he always got the blame if we lost. And it seems to me that people have just been waiting to get on his back. Alright he had a couple of dodgy moments against Liverpool; but Wilshere was far, far worse. Guess who took all the criticism?

I don't think Almunia should be rendered blameless but some of the defending was pure slapstick. Clichy and Sagna barely made any tackles and the tracking back from Arshavin and Eboue was non-existent. There was a certain snobbery about it - Thomas is an Arsenal reject so he can't be much good; well I tell you one thing - he came charging through the midfield more than once.

The standard of the performance was woeful. I'm no great tipster but the first thing I said after Almunia saved the penalty was that he saved one against Villa and we still lost. It's embarrassing when you're team can't buck up their ideas and change it when facing a really average side. I may be wrong here, but the tannoy said 3 minutes until the kick-off of the second half and moments later the team was out on the pitch. I think Wenger sent them out early for the second half having given them a rollicking. It's worrying that it had no impact whatsoever.

And that for me is the crucial point. We know Almunia's isn't very good. Hey, we know Almunia isn't even quite good. So getting on his back for what was really one error is ridiculous. Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna are French internationals - what were they playing at? There were about 30 balls put into the box and Chamakh didn't win one - isn't he supposed to be brilliant in the air?

But frankly the truth is, it was a woeful team performance. Blaming Almunia seems particularly soft considering those who want him replaced by Wojciech are the same people who were screaming for us to sign Schwarzer on deadline day - either you want to promote the young talent or you don't but that really is the epitome of trying to have your cake and eat it.

In terms of unexpected results, this one has to rank right up there. It does create the worrying statistic that we've now failed to win after both of our midweek games this season. But it's also over-the-top in the extreme to suggest that if we lose at the Bridge on Sunday it's all over for the season.

First, if last season teaches us anything, it should teach us that seven points is not an insurmountable deficit. But above all, Arsenal should almost take heart from last weekend. Playing away at City is a difficult match. But the fact that nobody really took advantage of one our most surprising home defeats ever suggests that far less damage has been done than easily could have been.

It's definitely the best West Brom side I've seen. But it's also a West Brom side which got thumped 6-0 by Chelsea so it's not that good. And so I'm really in a quandary what to think. I certainly don't buy into the overwhelming negativity of Kevin Whitcher, editor of The Gooner. As discussed earlier in the year, it's difficult to buy a goalkeeper. But I think it's obvious to all and sundry that Gael Clichy is not the player he once was. I don't take issue with Almunia being in goal, so much as leaving him so exposed. The chickens didn't have to come home to roost with Almunia; but when you Song, Diaby, Clichy and Sagna are all dreadful it makes it a great deal more likely.

Ultimately, it's obviously disappointing but the best way to turn it around is in Belgrade tonight. And despite our general poor form away in Europe, I think we might just get a result.

Keep the faith,
Adam

Spurs not just beaten but humiliated. Match report.

2010-09-23T02:11:00.001+01:00

Spurs 1 Arsenal 4

If nothing else, Spurs' abject performance yesterday should cement the reputation of the 2007 Carling Cup team. Before, it had often been said that people don't take the Carling Cup seriously. But when a fellow Champions League team is this outplayed when they chuck in a few kids, it shows how well that team did. Players like Justin Hoyte may have long since moved on, but any suggestion that the Arsenal academy is a failure (whether relative or absolute) should be dispelled by last night's match.

It was, after all, Henri Lansbury who scored the first goal. A kid who grew up in Enfield and who has been at Arsenal since he really was just a boy. As I quipped when it was 1-1, 'this had better not go to penalties because Arsenal have too many Englishman playing'.

Much though I couldn't care less about nationality, it was brilliant to see Jack Wilshere bossing the game. Despite being kicked repeatedly (the fact Spurs only got three bookings is unbelievable) he continued to act both as a holding midfielder, and as a playmaker. It really was a consummate all-round display.

A word, as well, about the line-ups. I find it thoroughly disingenuous to claim that Arsenal played a really strong team and Spurs just chucked in a load of kids. Only one of the back five would ordinarily start. Denilson, Wilshere, Lansbury and Vela are all squad players. I would admit I was surprised Nasri started considering Cesc's injury but Spurs played Palacios, Bassong and Assout-Ekotou - all regular starters for them. This was not a scratch Spurs side and it seems a terrible excuse for their failure to create anything.

Harry Redknapp was angling after the England job a couple of weeks ago and yet he couldn't coach his team to test Fabianski - their first 'proper' chance wasn't until extra time and then it was a real scramble for Arsenal to get it clear. If I were a Spud (and I thank God each night that I'm not) I would be livid. It's hardly tactical genius to test a crap goalkeeper. After an excellent result I don't want to lay into him, but he should have saved Robbie Keane's shot and looks like a man bereft of confidence. I may be one of the few people who still believes he can make it; but he needs to be sent out on loan to play 15 games in a row and try and build up his confidence.

The only other complaint about the match was that it went to extra time. It was reassuring to see the excellent fitness of the Arsenal players but I can't be the only person who would be really shocked to see Rosicky start on Saturday after playing two hours in mid-week.

But Arsenal were a little blameless that it went to extra-time. Okay, they were overplaying it at the end of normal time rather than just trying to score a goal. But it should never have been 1-1 at that point. Keane's goal was offside, Gibbs would almost certainly have made it 2-0 and though the ref was brave to give two penalties in extra time, his linesman had a generally poor game. Alas these things happen and whereas it cost us against Sunderland it didn't against Spurs.

And let's be honest, the extra time was a good thing. The reason we all felt so good today was that we could really mock the Spurs fans. There's nothing like shutting up the noisy neighbours and if we had won 2-1 in injury time they would still be uppity. As it is, after three goals in extra time, they have been firmly put in their place. Two penalties in five minutes was amusing but I enjoyed Arshavin's fourth the most.

In a competition in which Arsenal usually lose out because of youth and inexperience, it shows tremendous experience and footballing intelligence. It also hopefully shows that they are learning from errors such as against Villareal last year where the same happened in reverse.

And yet, despite finding the result hilarious and brilliant in equal measure, I still feel I have to have a little moan. I tweeted from the ground that I couldn't understand why Wenger/Rice hadn't changed it at all and apparently it's because Wenger's phone signal was awful. Now, while usually Wenger's excuses tend to be ridiculous, this is often the case at football grounds.

But why, therefore, did Pat Rice not change it. Is he really just the cone man? Can't he think for himself? I think it shows him as being overly deferential to Wenger. When Chamakh and Arshavin were introduced it clearly changed the game so why not do it sooner. On a night where Spurs were embarrassed, it also showed up Arsenal football club - tonight the United assistant manager just managed the team. I'm not saying we should aim for that but it's better than waiting for a text which takes 20 minutes to arrive. Anyway, it's just a thought.

Keep the faith,
Adam

Positive points and negative points. Sunderland match report

2010-09-21T17:06:00.000+01:00

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 1

In the same way that there were positives and negatives to be taken from Arsenal's performance, there are times when a draw feels like a point gained and there are times when it feels like two points dropped.

What's been odd about the draws against Liverpool and again against Sunderland, was that they were somewhere in the middle. At Anfield it was disappointing not to take advantage of playing against ten men, but that said, we were losing until the last minute. Against Sunderland, we had almost an exact repeat of what happened to Liverpool.

Frankly, I find the media response very interesting. Liverpool were described as resilient and that they'd defended well; Arsenal are described as flaky and that they can't finish a game off.

Now of course it was disappointing that Rosicky skied the penalty which would have secured the three points. But the fact is that Arsenal played well. Koscielny was imperious and we kept Sunderland very quiet. The fact is, they scored from a goalmouth scramble where we were unlucky that Clichy's clearance hit Koscielny's leg.

It's just one of those things. And it's farcical because if it doesn't hit Koscielny's leg the ref probably blows the full-time whistle. And then we win the game and Arsenal are praised for a resilient display away from home. I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe the quality of the performance is proved by the result. When we drew 0-0 against CSKA Moscow after having 30+ shots nobody said Arsenal played badly.

And let's be clear here: it was not a bad performance. While the goal was a fluke, we created several other chances - this was not like Liverpool where we really struggled to test the goalkeeper.

So this game brought with it some positive points - that Arsene wasn't completely bonkers in signing Koscielny, that Almunia is dominating his box, and that Nasri really isn't feeling any after-effects of his operation.

And there were some bad points - Cesc's injury, Chamakh's weird refusal to take a penalty, Song's red card, and of course the last minute equaliser.

But these points all have caveats. It was disappointing to see Rosicky miss the penalty but that aside he played excellently, continuing his promising start to the season. It's rumoured he'll play tonight against Spurs and that would definitely boost our chances. Sky showed a reply so it was impossible to see if Chamakh wanted to take so I'm not going to point fingers; and as discussed, the goal was simply unfortunate.

Cesc's injury was one of those things which you can't legislate for and then there was the red card. I don't think it was a red card but I also think Alex Song was naive. And considering the number of Premier League games he's now played that's a little inexcusable. The Sunderland player wasn't going anywhere, diving in was pointless. It was unlucky but Blackpool were also unlucky to lose a man against us at the Grove - these things happen.

The ever-excellent Gunnerblog also made an interesting point with regard to Arsene - although it was stupid of him to push the 4th official, it shows he is ultra-competitive this season, like he really believes we can win. This is important, if nothing else because it reassures the fans.

But most importantly, this was by no means a season-defining fixture. Being four points behind Chelsea having played harder fixtures is hardly disastrous. Even if we lost at the Bridge things would be far from over. I really doubt Chelsea can keep up this level of performance over the course of the whole season.

Now things turn to the Lane and much like the draw against AZ Alkmaar last year, what's important is not to lose momentum by losing the next match. Of course it's the Carling Cup, of course we're underdogs, but I feel Arsenal could well get a result, particularly if it goes to extra time.

Come on you Arsenal!

Keep the faith,
Adam

Brilliant Arsenal destroy Braga. Match report.

2010-09-17T18:18:00.000+01:00

Arsenal 6 Braga 0

When Arsenal last played in the Champions League - in April against Barcelona at the Nou Camp - few in the media rushed to point out how Arsenal were missing many of their top players. Instead (and rightly so, in my opinion) they praised a quite extraordinary performance by Lionel Messi.

Fast-forward five months and the media's reaction to a pretty much perfect Arsenal performance in the Champions League is to point out that it was only Braga.

And yes Braga were a little tactically naive and clearly weren't learning their lessons as the goals (aside from the penalty) were all somewhat similar.

But as the manager put in the post-match press conference after the game:

"Braga are a good team. They beat a very good Sevilla team".

Arsene Wenger is not a man who goes around handing out praise willy-nilly. I'm yet to hear a word from him of praise from him on Chelsea's start to the season, so though I'm no great aficionado of Braga, I trust what the manager has to say.

Hell, considering we were tracking Squillaci at the time, it's likely he was even there watching that match in the flesh. It's really unlikely he made it up.

So to put down a 6-0 victory simply because it looked easy is farcical. It looked easy because Arsenal made it look easy. When the ball is passed at that speed it's very hard to keep up with. One of the problems of the days of Alex Hleb was that he often waited far too long which left the opposition time to regroup.

With a great finisher up front in Chamakh, and brilliant creative players who just keep on making chances it's always going to look easy if Arsenal play like they did on Wednesday. This wasn't some fluke, some mirage, perpetuated by Braga's incompetence. Instead, it was a virtuoso display which was brilliant in how easy it looked.

Jack Wilshere pulled the strings in midfield and I think his tackling has noticeably improved just in the last few weeks - against Liverpool I heard him compared to Paul Scholes but he repeatedly won the ball back in midfield with a tenacity which Arsenal players have often not shown.

But it was a performance which centred around how Cesc Fabregas played. He passed the ball exquisitely pulling out several more to show that his deft chip for Vela against Bolton was no fluke and generally bossed the game. Braga backed off him because they didn't want him to run past them but that just gave him room to pick a pass. I always thought it was ridiculous the idea that he would play badly this year just because he was tempted by Barcelona and after this performance, that idea should be put to bed once and for all.

The best bit about winning by a large margin is that when we struggle to get going, this can often be terminal and we never do a lot. By scoring out first goal early (as we generally have done this season) it releases the shackles more off our creative players and that really helps us not just to win, but to win comfortably.

It's impossible to say right now which direction this season is going to go in, but the signs so far are very positive. Sunderland tomorrow is another test, another of the bellwether fixtures which are so vital to winning the League. I fancy us to win, but Gyan is a good player and with no Thomas Vermaelen, I do still have creeping doubts about our all-French defence (not that their Frenchness has anything to do with it).

But ultimately, we weren't far away last year in the League and it's worth remembering that a draw would be a year-on-year improvement. It's good to have high expectations but it's also important to remember no teams wins every game. Braga certainly don't.

Keep the faith,
Adam

Let's be honest, we should beat Braga

2010-09-15T16:27:00.001+01:00

In a rare moment of me saying something interesting on Twitter, I dredged up the statistic that Arsenal haven't lost at home to a foreign team since 2003. And a dark day that was. 40-odd quid to stand on the North Bank and watch Arsenal get spanked by Inter Milan.

But since then, part of the reason we are always a danger in the Champions League is that we are exceptionally hard to beat at home. Even a Barca side playing at their very best only managed a 2-2 draw.

Though our group is relatively easy, our serene progression from the group stage in recent years has always revolved around winning the home games. Trips to Belgrade and Donetsk probably sound harder than they are but it's practically impossible to get knocked out if we take nine points from the three home games.

And, as Orbinho pointed out right after the draw, Arsenal have never won away in Serbia, Ukraine or Portugal. Frankly, I'd be surprised if that didn't change in the next few months but considering our past form, victory tonight is essential.

I broadly agree with Gunnerblog and Arseblog about the team which will play. Clichy and Sagna will presumably come back in, with Koscielny and Squillaci in the centre.

Seeing as Diaby was subbed on for Wilshere on Saturday, I feel that considering Nasri's recent injury, he's unlikely to start him, maybe saving him for Sunderland. I'd like to see Denilson start, because he was very good on Saturday (and I'm determined to see him come good) but it may well be Wilshere.

To be honest, I don't know a lot about Braga as I'm no great afficionado of Portugese football. But I spoke to my brother who lived in Portugal for a while and still follows the game there.

He said:

"I always found Braga a little annoying - sort of like Spurs in that they made my skin crawl - and they tend to get involved in stupid incidents. Their holding midfield player was banned for three months in March for getting involved in a fight. It's a team packed full of Brazilians, so they're always somewhat unpredictable, somewhat moody. But they try and push their holding midfielders forward [when they're attacking] and that will leave space for Arsenal to exploit."

There's always an issue that Almunia could be beaten from distance but frankly, if nothing else, I'd expect Arsenal to outscore them. And, if it doesn't go well, we can still laugh at how Spurs managed to throw away a two-goal-lead once again.

I'll try an Audioboo from the ground but I can't make any promises.

Keep the faith,
Adam

A comprehensive victory. Bolton match report

2010-09-12T22:26:00.001+01:00

Arsenal 4 Bolton Wanderers 1

Should I make a joke about how although it was a comprehensive victory, Arsenal's play had the confidence and swagger of an elite private school. Alright, against my better judgement I will.

I should preface my thoughts on the Bolton game by saying this was a little like a match Arsenal played circa 2004. Even at 1-1 I was super-confident that Arsenal would win the game. The always excellent Goodplaya kept on making the point in the spring that Arsenal were failing to kill games off early. In this respect it's been reassuring to see us score ten goals in our first two home games.

It's always difficult to make judgements at this early stage of the season, but trying to make year-on-year comparisons, a salient match to look at is Birmingham last year. For all we won 3-1 it wasn't until the 85th minute that it was well and truly wrapped up. And, far more pertinently, there wasn't the same air of confidence about the team.

In my eyes, this is incredibly important. Having a psychological advantage and believing we can beat teams of the ilk of Bolton and Blackburn is half the challenge - there's no doubting we are better on the pitch.

And it's in this light that one has to view the changes Wenger made on Saturday. He picked Gibbs and Eboue at full-back (for example) because he has confidence in this team at the moment. There's a certainly a case to be made that Arsenal always play well in August and September.

But frankly this is clichéd rubbish. It's easy to say the title challenge fell apart in April last year. Yet this overlooks that Arsenal lost two of their first four games. It's easy to say we were just too poor over the season in 08-09. But this falls down when one considers we lost five times in the League by the end of November.

I really think this team is playing excellently at the moment as a side. And this is in spite of some weak individual performances. Andrey Arshavin should have had a hat-trick by half-time and though thinks like this are endearing, it seems pretty clear he needs to lose a few pounds and so that he concentrates less on running, and more on putting the ball in the back of the net. My school teachers used to write on my report 'he can do it'. This is the case with Arshavin, but he needs to prove it.

I think pressuring Laurent Koscielny won't help. The fact he scored was moot, it wasn't like he did anything great to do so. Let's be clear, he cost us a goal and that's obviously not ideal. But he's still only played a few games, and that aside he did well. He could easily prove to be an exceptionally talented defender. He hasn't taken to the side like Thomas Vermaelen did, but then again, how many players do? With Squillaci hovering in the wings and clearly competent, Koscielny definitely knows there is pressure on his place. The fans don't need to drum this into him.

What does need to be drummed in, is that the referees need to pull it together. How often do they send a team down to nine men? It's clear Gary Cahill shouldn't have been sent off. But that does not in any way mean that Attwell should thereafter have let Paul Robinson off his foul on Abou Diaby. It was a really poor challenge and one can only rue the fact that two of our most impressive early-season performers (Theo and Diaby) are now on the sidelines.

The way this team is playing, I'd expect them to beat Sunderland on Saturday and West Brom the week after. But Chelsea have started in scintillating fashion and though I always say games between the Big Four don't decide the League, it would be a huge morale booster if we can avoid defeat at the Bridge. Still, the manager always says he takes it one match at a time and as long as we put the points on the board, it puts pressure on Chelsea to keep on playing well. Crucially, in comparison to say 2005-06, Chelsea haven't roared away to such an extent that they're uncatchable; hey, they haven't roared away at all.

Frankly, Liverpool aside, the fixture list has been reasonable to us. The crucial thing right now is to avoid any stupid mistakes which cost points. In this respect, it's good to see Manuel Almunia playing well. Long may it continue, he's definitely one of the good guys in football.

It's Braga to(morrow)night and it's great to see yet another year of Champions League football. I'll try and tweet from the ground, so follow me and you might get some interesting snippets. There may even be the odd Audioboo thrown in.

Keep the faith,
Adam

Bonus reading: GFL's 'Are we witnessing the age of Denilson?' - as one of my favourite players, I like to read a positive analysis of him.

Predictions for the 2010-11 season: a glorious year for Arsenal

2010-09-08T15:44:00.001+01:00

Back in August it was nigh on impossible to make predictions for the season. Even those who did had to temper them with a ton of caveats. Patrick Barclay in The Times tipped Arsenal for the title only on the proviso they signed a goalkeeper.

So I avoided making predictions bar writing that I was worried. And truth be told, the main worry was in goal. But that was mainly because I feared Wenger was going to play Fabianski. Now he hasn't done that, I am a lot more confident about this season, to the extent that I'm happy to make 11 (largely positive) predictions for the season. That said, I think the Goonerholic hit the nail on the head with his comment that

Those who blindly swear we cannot win anything with this squad have a distinct statistical advantage. It is odds on they will be right.

That's the reality. Saturday's Fink Tank said that even Barcelona, the favourites for the Champions League have a 23% chance of glory. So its probable that the favourites won't win, so what chance the slightly lesser teams like The Arsenal? Statistically, we are unlikely to win anything but my heart says that after 5 years of hurt, as Dylan would put it, the times they are a-changin.

I accept we are not as strong as we could be in goal but equally, few teams have our attack. Whether this will work in our favour is hard to say - both teams who reached the World Cup final had exceptional 'back fives' but European and particularly English football are more attacking than what was on show at the World Cup.

An injury to Alex Song would probably hurt us and we are reliant on Cesc to be our talisman. But the counter-point to this is that I genuinely think this is his last season at the club. I don't expect him to just go through the motions because he wants something to show for his time at Arsenal.

I predict his departure based more on history than anything else - 2011 is a summer without an international tournament and history suggests that when the players have nothing on in the summer, Wenger finds it much harder to persuade them to stay. The evidence is compelling - Adebayor in '09, Henry in '07, Vieira in '05 and Anelka in '99. The only huge money transfer in Wenger's time which has occurred in an even-numbered year was the sale of Marc Overmars. Considering what a battle it was to persuade him to stay, I find it difficult to imagine him staying beyond 2011 unless Barca are once again priced out of the market.

This is somewhat moot though. As I say, I expect him to play well this season. The injuries to Van Persie and Walcott are not good, but our lack of trophies has generally come from poor performances in February/March/April - it is very possible that Chamakh can shoulder the burden now put on him. It may also give Carlos Vela to prove that he really can make it at Arsenal.

With good back-up in the full-back positions, and as much strength at centre-back as could be reasonably expected, the only real hole in the team is in goal. The abundance of attacking talent means that even with injuries, Arsenal should challenge.

Frankly, history tells me enough to suggest we will struggle to win the Carling Cup or FA Cup. Which means that for us to fulfill my prediction and win a trophy, it will have to be one of the big ones. Which in a sense makes my prediction we will win something look even more of a folly.

And it also gives the naysayers even more meat to their argument. The rational part of my brain tells me that for Arsenal to win either the League or the Champions League will require a substantial chunk of luck. But that doesn't make it impossible, and this isn't like a roulette wheel. I think we have had our bad luck and it must end.

There's no reason that can't be at Wembley in May.

Keep the faith,
Adam

I wouldn't have swapped Almunia for Schwarzer

2010-09-01T18:40:00.001+01:00

Back in June I wrote that,

I think what Almunia has shown with his patchy form over the last two years is that he is good enough to be a back-up keeper but he has been promoted above his station. Whether he would want to go back to bench-warming is something I can only speculate about. But what I can declare unequivocally, is that Manuel Almunia should not be Arsenal no.1 next season.

And to an extent, I stand by that. I think Arsene should have spent some of the Adebayor/Toure money and brought in a top goalkeeper. But, to be honest (and I know this is easy to say now) I never expected him to do so.

Having been at the club for 15 years, Wenger has signed a keeper to be no.1 just once. Seaman played in goal for 8 years and then Lehmann was brought in. Almunia was signed merely as back-up, and I think it is fair to say he has been promoted above his station. The form he showed circa 2008 suggested he could cope with it. The way he played in spring 2010 suggested he wasn't good enough. But with Arsene's history of signing keepers, I didn't expect a big, new signing.

Possibly Mark Schwarzer. But not a huge signing. And Schwarzer would have been a signing just for the sake of change. He is not a better goalkeeper than Almunia. He's a solid pair of hands. Almunia kept us in the Champions League semi-final back in 2009 with some saves which Schwarzer simply couldn't make.

So the reality is, that while Schwarzer could have been signed for an exorbitant fee, I doubt it would have helped Arsenal. Undoubtedly it's possible to argue that the speculation over the goalkeepers has undermined Almunia. But I would posit that his confidence should be reinforced by the fact that after 3 months of looking, Arsene couldn't find anyone better to replace him with.

Add to this, that Almunia had made it pretty clear that he wasn't prepared to stay and play second fiddle to a new goalkeeper. And the one name who we ever close to signing was Mark Schwarzer - a 37-year-old who is clearly injury-prone. Almunia has supposedly suffered from dreadful chest infections, but I'd much rather have his fitness being the stumbling-block to Fabianski playing, than Schwarzer's dodgy back.

And in reality, while I would have preferred a top keeper, how many were available and are actually good. Buffon's injured for months. Hugo Lloris is like Miguel Veloso - a player for the FM generation but generally poor whenever I've seen him play. Certainly not worth the astronomical fee Lyon would have demanded.

So, frankly, if it's a top goalkeeper we're after it's a choice between Casillas, Stekelenburg, Cech or Reina. Cech and Casillas would have no motivation to come to Arsenal, Liverpool would not have sold Reina and maybe Wenger doesn't rate Stekelenburg. And when everybody knows you're looking for a goalkeeper, it makes it much harder to buy. Old suppply and demand economics, innit.

Although I'd prefer one of those four in goal, I recognise that would have been hard to make happen. Arsenal not paying a bit extra for Schwarzer is not like not paying a bit extra for Xabi Alonso - Schwarzer has no resale value. And, I genuinely wouldn't swap Almunia for Schwazer. For all the doom-mongers out there, time will tell whether this turns out to be a dreadful decision - there are no certainties in football.

And I'd also point out that this is the first time in many a year that Arsenal have had four good centre-backs and Chamakh has all the hallmarks of a great signing. It really has not been a bad transfer window; quite the opposite in fact.

It's very easy to go and throw a tantrum that Arsenal didn't sign a goalkeeper and I am a little disappointed. But anyone who thinks that Arsenal's chances of winning the League went up in smoke because we didn't sign Mark Schwarzer is wrong. The club may not win the League, in fact I think we probably won't because Almunia is probably not good enough and that is disappointing. But Schwarzer was not the solution and when one considers, how difficult it is to sign a new goalkeeper, it doesn't help to heap derision on Arsene.

Rather, let's get behind the team, back Almunia to the hilt, and see whether this could be our year.

Keep the faith,
Adam

The audacity of hope. Blackburn match report.

2010-08-30T00:40:00.001+01:00

Blackburn Rovers 1 Arsenal 2

At risk of coming across all Barack Obama, it looks like change has come to Arsenal over the summer. And with it, there is now a hope that this could actually be a good season, not the slog that I predicted a few weeks ago.

It's a hope tempered by the fact that as I type there is a little under 18 hours until the transfer window closes. Of which Arsene will probably spend about half asleep. And yet the goalkeeper which every Gooner has demanded over the summer has yet to arrive. I was a little late to the party and yet I pointed out on the 4th of June that it was necessary for us to sign a goalkeeper.

Most disappointing of all, is that if a goalkeeper arrives tomorrow, it will most likely be Mark Schwarzer. Admittedly I'm more of a fan of Almunia than most. But, overlooking the fact that Almunia has been undermined by the speculation all summer, Schwarzer is barely an improvement on Almunia. Sure, most great goalkeepers come good in their 30s. But a man whose career progression has been to play for Middlesbrough for 11 years is not a world-class goalkeeper. Not even close.

And what the Blackburn game showed is that Manuel Almunia is a perfectly decent keeper. He will make some mistakes but by and large he will play solidly. And in this respect, he is no different from Schwarzer.

The hope there is stems from the excellent performances of Abou Diaby and Theo Walcott. Undoubtedly they need to show some consistency, and do this week in, week out. But it seems the improvement stems from playing subtly different positions. Diaby, playing as more of a holding midfield player, has greater positional discipline. He also releases the ball earlier, playing a simple pass, negating the impact of his prolonged dribbling in circles doing nothing. If nothing else, his strong performance probably shows that an Alex Song injury is not the worry it might have been at the beginning of the season.

Last week I was described as Scrooge by a friend for refusing to praise Theo unequivocally. Now he has put in two good performances I am certainly warming to him a little more. But I took no pleasure in criticising him; it was just the truth. Theo proving his critics wrong absolutely delights me. If he continues to make good crosses and make the right runs, rather than straight into defenders, his pace makes him a frighteningly good talent.

The thing about the Blackburn performance was that it was, as Goodplaya noted pre-match, something of a bellwether game. I think the comparison with the fixture in May is a little disingenuous because frankly, I think Arsenal had given up by then so Blackburn beating us was a little moot.

Far more interesting is that we won up north in the rain against a team who plays long-ball which is what we usually struggle against. Sure, the first goal was a thing of beauty but everybody in the country knows Arsenal can play like that.

I was more impressed by Koscielny/Vermaelen dealing with the long balls, with Song and Diaby dropping back as and when was necessary. If the defence can protect the goalkeeper a great deal more, it becomes far less of an issue.

More of an issue is the injury to RVP. As a friend quipped, isn't this supposed to be the most unpredictable season ever? One hopes he recovers quickly and only misses a couple of games. On the other hand, one expects him to return in December only to disappear again with a ruptured sphincter or some other ridiculous injury.

7 points from 9 is a good haul and now it's just a question of sitting, waiting and wishing. But that said, I'd be surprised to see anything happen. It could be an agonising wait till January for some signings or Arsenal could come good. That's the point with this side, I really can't predict what will happen.

Nonetheless, if you're truly fascinated by the deadline day madness I will probably be making bad jokes over on Twitter.

Keep the faith,
Adam

11 conclusions from Arsenal-Blackpool

2010-08-22T15:19:00.000+01:00

Arsenal 6 Blackpool 0

1) There's been a lot written about how the goalkeeping situation has undermined Almunia and the other goalkeepers. Far less has been written about the fans getting on their backs. The first home game of the new season was really the test of this - how would the fans react to Almunia in goal?

Of course, I can only reflect on people sat around me. But the amount of disdain and vitriol thrown towards Almunia, simply for one wayward clearance when Arsenal were already 2-0 suggests the fans may force the manager's hand with regard to the goalkeeping situation.

2)Almunia is infinitely preferable to Fabianski simply because for Almunia to keep a clean sheet it is far easier - he had practically nothing to do yesterday. With Fabianski in goal, Blackpool would undoubtedly have played more 'route one football' and played it wide more to test him with crosses. In short, this makes Fabianski's position at the club untenable.

3) The truth about Theo Walcott is he was good, not great, yesterday. Part of his good performance was certainly confidence. In the past, he never had the confidence to just keep on shooting. And the fact he has taken two direct free-kicks in two weeks suggests he certainly isn't low on morale despite not being picked for the World Cup.

And he did some really great things. Twice he won the ball with headers before creating chances. And he link-up play with Chamakh was marvellous and the turn and shot for the hat-trick was fantastic.

But this was against 10-man Blackpool. At risk of coming across all scrooge-like, he would only get into those positions once or twice a game against Chelsea and he still appeared to have bad decision-making. One particular example was where he tried to square it even though the cross was on, simply because he didn't want to miss from exactly the same position twice in a couple of minutes.

Walcott had a really good game. I never thought I would ever write that. But a one-off performance against a poor team is not enough to win me over - he needs to do it consistently for three months.

4) This alludes to the blindingly obvious: Blackpool were really poor. I think the sending-off changed the game and from my seat I was unconvinced it was even a foul (I'm yet to see a replay). At 1-0 they had a decent period of possession and almost looked like the might conjure up a goal.

But more importantly, Blackpool were foolhardy. Man United and Chelsea accept that Arsenal pass the ball the best in the country; but that's why they sit back and counter-attack against us. There's a reason it's often a struggle to win games until late on - and that reason is almost all teams sit back against Arsenal.

Blackpool were foolhardy because by attacking they left Arsenal space to play in. Their fans were great and their team played proper football. But they won't stay up unless they play a lot more defensively - their style at the moment makes them too easy to beat.

5) Tomas Rosicky played arguably the best he's ever played for Arsenal. He was excellent last week as a sub, and this week it was his little touches which kept on playing Walcott in for all the glory. His passing was wonderful, his vision stunning, and his timing perfect. It was obvious why he was nicknamed 'Little Mozart' at Dortmund. But much like Theo, he also needs to string a run of games together. Unlike Theo though, he is the obvious beneficiary of Nasri's injury.

6) Marouane Chamakh will get in some brilliant positions and is very mobile. And considering he supposedly had a bad game, it's important to note he scored a goal and won a penalty. I guess the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and similarly, the success of Chamakh's Arsenal career will probably rest on whether he usually takes his chances, or he always misses a hatful. But as I said to my friends, give him a chance - it was only his second game in English football.

7) Carlos Vela looks like he's in better shape than last year. With Bendtner out injured for a couple of months, this could be his last chance. Lets hope he takes it.

8) Gael Clichy played a lot better yesterday than he did against Liverpool. Maybe it was the standard of the opposition. Or maybe it's feeling threatened by Kieran Gibbs. Either way it's a good thing.

9) Little Jack Wilshere will benefit from playing regularly. He was out of his depth against Liverpool. But by letting him build his confidence against Blackpool, this may not be the case in the future.

10) A 6-0 victory can easily influence a manager. Let us pray it does not. Nobody was signed after Everton were hammered last year. This team desperately needs a goalkeeper and a defender and I will be far more prepared to evaluate the team's chances for the season in 10 days once the transfer window has closed.

11) Any conclusions from this game have to be tempered by who Blackpool are. At Ewood Park next week, a sterner test awaits.

Keep the faith,
Adam

The Reina from Spain falls mainly on the ball. Liverpool match report.

2010-08-16T17:41:00.003+01:00

Liverpool 1 Arsenal 1

And so it came to pass. Except the problem was that Jack Wilshere didn't manage to pass it on the edge of his own box. Rather, he missed the ball, Mascherano played in Ngog who lashed home a fine finish. And at that point, it was always going to be very hard to win the game. If at half-time I was worried Liverpool would now sit back, a minute after half-time I was certain of it. With two solid centre backs and a (usually) reliable goalkeeper, Arsenal had a task on their hands.

Lets start with the obvious. I think almost any Arsenal fan would have taken a point at the start of yesterday's match. Arsenal did have an unbeaten pre-season; but they had also conceded five goals just a week earlier against a very average Legia Warsaw side. It could easily have been a massive struggle at Anfield. And, arguably more pertinently, a point is very rarely a bad result there - the League is not won by winning away to the rest of the Big Four. Of course that helps matters. But avoiding defeat is always the number one priority in matches like this one.

And to be honest, there was only sixty seconds of football where I would have taken anything other than a draw. Sure, Samir Nasri played well in the first half. But my moaning in the second half until Rosicky created his 86th minute chance was that Arsenal had not tested Pepe Reina once. The first half was flat - both teams were missing their best player and there were four very good centre backs on the field.

On the point, it is important to credit Laurent Koscielny. I had been really worried about his diminutive stature. But he played really well, showing great bravery to come back out and his red card was a joke. As different from Joe Cole's which was fully justified for a ridiculous lunge (and he has history). I just hope that the egg-sized lump Sky spoke of does not turn out to be an injury.

Still, if anything this game showed how Arsenal are living on thin ice. Wenger clearly doesn't trust Nordveit as he didn't even make the matchday squad so with Djourou perennially injured, its fair to say we're short at the back. With Koscielny's suspension, Arsenal go into the second game of the season with only one genuine centre back available. That is an outrage.

An outrage only compounded by the lack of a genuine goalkeeper. Although Arsene was being disingenuous when he said "Almunia had a good game", he wasn't all the bad. He just kind of reverted to type. He missed a couple of crosses and he was beaten by a fine finish at the near post. But that's the issue with Almunia: as different from Fabianski, he's not a bad goalkeeper. He's just not particularly good either. To win the title - or any trophy really - a team needs a good goalkeeper. There's 15 days left before the transfer window closes and if he doesn't bring one in, I echo Goodplaya's sentiment that this season will be a long hard slog.

But, to be honest, the lack of a good goalkeeper and the fragile position of the defence were immensely predictable before the game. The poor performance of the midfield was not.

Wilshere didn't seem to know what position he was playing and seems to (understandably) lack the maturity to play in a game of this magnitude. And his tackling is embarassing. Arshavin had said he was out of form and rarely has a truer word been spoken. But it was Diaby who really got my goat. I know he hasn't played at all in pre-season but this performance encapsulated everything that is infuriating about Diaby - the dribbling in circle, the refusal to lay the ball off early, and the refusal to play a simple pass. It was worrying.

Gael Clichy also seemed a little leaden of touch and I think he'll lose his place in the team before Christmas if Gibbs stays fit. That said, the back four did seem to function as a unit and the offside trap seems to be the one thing Arsenal do still have in defence.

Up front, Chamakh worked hard and hopefully he will recognise that being a little more direct does bring rewards. But this was an incredibly difficult first game for a new signing to play as a lone striker and he did well.

But the ultimate problem was that although Arsenal ended the game with Chamakh, Van Persie, Arshavin, Walcott, Rosicky and Nasri on the pitch, it was only an absolute howler which salvaged a point and they created very little.

And it's because of this that despite playing 10 men for 45 minutes, this must be marked down as a good result. But I'd still hope to see a massive improvement against Blackpool.

Keep the faith,
Adam

Season preview: The problems are all too obvious for Arsenal

2010-08-12T23:16:00.002+01:00

In a little over two days, Arsenal will step out at Anfield for the first game of a season which will hopefully end with Cesc lifting the Champions League trophy at Wembley.

And yet, we enter it with a squad which is at least two or three players short, and the failures of the past few seasons ready to be exploited even more. No more can the excuse be given that this team is young and inexperienced. Gael Clichy is 25; Bacary Sagna and Robin Van Persie are 27; all of them have played over 100 games for Arsenal.

The problems are all too obvious. Arsenal beat Legia Warsaw last Saturday. But the scoreline was 6-5 – at what point will Arsene Wenger realise he needs to strengthen defence? Every year we concede too many goals to compete realistically for the Premier League. Last year we conceded 41 goals in the League; the year before it was 37 and the year before that 31. The defence is getting worse, not better.

What’s tragic is that David Seaman has never been properly replaced. Jens Lehmann put in three good seasons but if you sign a 34-year-old goalkeeper you can’t expect more than that. Almunia has flattered to deceive and the less said about Fabianski the better. One of the extraordinary things about Wenger is that in 15 years he has probably failed to sign a top-level goalkeeper. It is a sign of how Arsenal have fallen that the fans are desperate to bring Mark Schwarzer in. He’s a solid goalkeeper. But he’s 37 and he’s never played for a top club which tells its own story. And, arguably more pertinently, he’d be yet another stop-gap.

It’s telling that neither Liverpool nor Pepe Reina rubbished the story that he wanted to come to Arsenal. Even last season, when Liverpool finished 7th, they conceded six less goals than Arsenal. He’s a truly world-class goalkeeper and its all too worrying that the gulf in class between the men in goal will be exposed on Sunday (and throughout the season).

And yet, there’s truth in the argument that Reina is expensive. But Schwarzer isn’t. And nor has he ever been at any point this summer. It would be better to sign him than have Almunia in goal; but equally, it begs the question why he wasn’t signed earlier in the summer. It’s like buying a winter coat. Undoubtedly, you can buy it cheaper in the June sales but that’s because you don’t need it (as much) then.

Arsenal may have knocked 500k or a million pounds off the price through their brinkmanship over Schwarzer. But they’ve also missed a pre-season with him training with the defence and the lack of communication that may cause could cost far more than 500k.

And even if we do sign Schwarzer so what? It’s worth remembering that in the Champions League quarter-final last season Wenger was forced to play Mikael Silvestre at centre-back. By my calculations, he was fifth-choice: Vermaelen, Gallas, Campbell, and Song would all be played in front of him. And Djourou if fit.

Since then, Wenger has lost Gallas, Campbell and Silvestre. And replaced them with just one defender. Bear in mind also, that he has nobody to cover (well) for Alex Song so he isn’t a realistic long-term or short-term option at centre-back. Now despite Koscielny’s dodgy defending in pre-season, I have faith that he can strike up a good relationship with Vermaelen. But all our history shows is that centre-backs always pick up injuries and aside from the perennially injury-prone Djourou, Arsenal have few options.

I accept it’s hard to persuade a top-class centre-back to sign with the offer of being part of a rotation system. But with the number of injuries Arsenal pick up every year it can’t be impossible. The idea that Vermaelen and Koscielny can play 50 games each a season isn’t necessarily a nonsense; but it’s based on hope, rather than expectation and that’s no way to run a top level football club.

What’s so tragic is that all the fans are aware we’re only a couple of signings away from being able to compete. And yet our opinion isn’t heard: we were kept waiting for hours at members day to simply have superlatives trotted out by the players and all the questions pre-vetted: nobody was allowed to ask Nicklas Bendtner whether he really believed this squad had improved so much over the summer. Instead, we were told that he’d like to be Batman.

I hate to be downbeat about Arsenal’s chances at the beginning of a season and it’s the first time I’ve really been this pessimistic. Last year, I talked us up a great deal to no avail. But I feel a degree of realism is necessary and if the squad was too thin last year, losing players will not help.

I really believe Marouane Chamakh is a great signing and if we can keep RVP fit we will continue to score goals all season. But Wenger wants Arsenal to be like Barcelona. And the reason Barca continually out-perform Real Madrid was that they had a very solid defence. This may well be Wenger’s last year at the club although he has hinted otherwise. But with this squad, I have my doubts it will be a glorious one.

I’d love them to prove me wrong and I’d love them to bring in two or three new players. But currently, I can’t see how Arsenal can out-perform Chelsea over 38 games. With a different goalkeeper it would be a different story though, so never say never.

Keep the faith,
Adam

Henry as Arsenal manager?

2010-07-06T00:51:00.000+01:00

The debacle of the French performance at the World Cup was entirely expected. The players were too old, and Domenech too over-paid and arrogant a coach.

But what I found most interesting was what happened after the players' rift with Domenech. Because what the BBC commentator repeatedly said was that it was Henry who took the players through the warm-up and seemed to be pulling them together.

Now if it was him 'managing' them, he clearly has some work to do as they were battered by South Africa. And he's clearly also very self-indulgent as he subbed himself on despite being in shockingly bad form.

But Arsene Wenger didn't start with much success and Mourinho (who clearly is a success) is the most self-indulgent manager out there. He also made some comments in The Time Magazine on Saturday about being interested in management - I can't link them because of the ridiculous paywall.

Anyway, it's not exactly hard to put two and two together and make four: Wenger's contract is up next year. Henry has seen someone in his mid-thirties be rejuvenated by management (Guardiola). Henry always talks about wanting to return to London. Henry needs to get his competitive edge back.

Let me be clear here: this is just speculation on my behalf. But I think it's interesting nonetheless and Arsenal may well be tempted having seen how successful Guardiola has been and the dearth of good coaches out there.

There was a story doing the rounds that Beckham could be the next England manager. But that was undermined by the fact Beckham never really had an understanding of tactics - he was merely a set-piece man / crosser of the ball. Henry did. He understood how the game worked. Him as Arsenal manager seems a lot more likely. Although its still unlikely.

Anyway, I'm off in a little over six hours to Bulgaria and Turkey for three weeks. It's unlikely I'll post unless a really big story breaks so expect the next post just before the Emirates Cup. I'll try and do some scouting while I'm there...

Keep the faith,
Adam

2009-10 player ratings: strikers

2010-07-04T14:04:00.001+01:00

Today this blog has a proverbial cherry popped: although it was started back in April 2008, I had never posted in July. Until today.

But I felt I owed it to myself, more than to my loyal readership (of one) that I should finish the player ratings which I started over four weeks ago.

So, in the hope that somebody is still interested with the World Cup ongoing, here are my player ratings for the strikers. (As I never wrote any player ratings for the strikers last year, there's no previous ratings in brackets. But there are some brackets here so all's well that ends well).

Eduardo 6

It has become popular to say that Eduardo's top-level football career was ended at St Andrews in February 2008. While it would be disingenuous to say this is completely untrue, I for one don't agree with that assessment.

Nobody said that when he scored that brilliant goal against Burnley in the FA Cup. Nobody said that when he was showing great movement at the beginning of the season. And nobody said that when he powered home that header against West Ham also in the Cup.

But for me, the crucial point about Eduardo is that he was signed to be a 'fox in the box' and score tap-ins. Playing that sort of game is all about timing runs to perfection and getting matches to always be ready to take your chance. Which is why I find it so odd that Wenger is planning to sell Eduardo.

Now I'm the first to say he hasn't played particularly well this season. He definitely suffered from the backlash after the Celtic penalty incident.

But this is somewhat moot: we waited a year for him to get his fitness back and then he wasn't really played. Nobody really knows whether his top-level career was ended at St Andrews because they haven't seen him play enough. So by all means loan the Crozilian out. But don't sell him, Arsene. Please.

Carlos Vela 5

I appreciate it must be depressing for Vela. Even with Van Persie, Eduardo, and Bendtner out, Wenger chose to play Arshavin up front on his own in December rather than turning to the Mexican. He must think he'll never get near the team and this is self-perpetuating because the result (seemingly) is that he doesn't train hard enough and often looks overweight (and doesn't get near the team).

But I have little sympathy for him. For one, apparently he played 20 games last year. Now I remember his goal against Fulham because it was our most recent game. And I remember his cameo against West Ham because he was quite good. But isn't it an indictment on Vela that those are the only memories of his season?

He's only 21. He still has a chance to make it at Arsenal. But only if he bucks up his ideas and stops ridiculous fiascos like his lost passport. Must do better.

Nicklas Bendtner 7

The problem with Bendtner is that that he attracts derision. There were the trousers falling down outside a club. There was his crashed Aston Martin. The pointless changing of the squad number. And there was his talk of being the best player in the world.

But on the other hand, Bendtner is clearly a player who cares. When he came on as a sub at Stamford Bridge, he clearly wanted to change the game and make Arsenal win. This desire is something certain players in the squad (Diaby) lack big-time. He clearly wants to be a fans favourite and he definitely does try harder than he did a few years ago.

Also, a record of 12 goals from 21 starts this season is nothing to be sniffed at. It would be interesting to see how good that would be if he hadn't pulled a muscle against Spurs when in form. And he's still only 22. I have high hopes for Bendtner to be another Arsene Wenger success story. I just hope he doesn't slip too far down the pecking order with the arrival of Chamakh. Losing him would be a mistake.

Robin Van Persie 8

It feels like a long time ago that I wrote 'The Strange Case of RVP'. Probably that's because it was a long time ago, November 2008 to be precise.

But it also feels like such a long time because Van Persie has changed so much since then. He scores lots of goals and he also creates lots of goals - he is the consummate attacking player. His cameo against Spurs after 5 months out was nothing short of breathtaking.He genuinely is one of the top strikers in the world.

The only shame is that he can't stay fit. It's a weak argument to say Arsenal should not sign Joe Cole because of his injury record - Van Persie's is much, much worse. That said, it's fair to question what would have happened if Giorgio Chiellini hadn't broken Van Persie's ankle. It might just have been a glorious season for Arsenal.

Conclusion: Eduardo and Vela both have appeared not to be up to the Arsenal standard, but I hold out more hope for Eduardo than Vela although I think it's more likely Eduardo will be sold as he's older. More depth was clearly needed, as shown by Arshavin having to play as a lone striker for over a month. With the signing of Chamakh, Arsenal have three good strikers in RVP, Bendtner and the Moroccan. It's simply a case of getting them to play well together, because I don't foresee another striker coming in.

And with that, I have finished my player ratings. Suffice to say, that what I've established was pretty obvious before writing this - Arsenal need signings. Can you hear me Arsene?

Keep the faith,
Adam

Some Arsenal-related World Cup observations

2010-06-24T18:47:00.000+01:00

Much though I dislike international football, I have nonetheless been watching the World Cup and I've been meaning to blog a few things about it for a while.

1) There was lot of revisionist stuff written in the media after the England-Algeria game about how Capello is not a very good tactician. This has long been forgotten as England have "swept through" to the last 16 with an "overwhelming" victory over Slovakia. (Quotes courtesy of The Sun).

But the idea that Capello is a great tactician is farcical. He's certainly a good man manager who gets a lot out of his players. But he was outwitted by Arsene Wenger, who for his many strengths is not a brilliant tactician: Capello's Juventus side simply could not cope with the runs and passing of a 17 year old Cesc Fabregas. Now I know that Fabregas is a great player but it says a lot about Capello: he sets his team up but they tend to be unable to deal with the opposition's strengths.

2) The Arsenal players out at the World Cup have yet to shine. Sagna, Diaby, Gallas, and Clicy were all pretty poor against South Africa. Fabregas has barely played. Nor has Song. Vela pulled a muscle. It has been left to Nicky B to fly the Arsenal flag with Denmark. That said, I'm hopeful that tonight Robin Van Persie's World Cup will come to life. That said, one must question whether Arsenal's end of season downturn has had an adverse affect on their performances.

My take on it is that they are still in a rut of playing meaningless games for The Arsenal and are struggling to raise their game. Of course, the standard has been generally poor. But it would be comforting to see Arsenal players play well. Although of course if they do, the club will have to deal with the inevitable transfer speculation.

3) The veritable John Cross wrote in The Mirror that Wenger is out in South Africa - watching one match every day. As I wrote in my player ratings, I strongly believe that new players are needed at the club.

One would hope that Wenger would be taken by players of the caliber of Mezut Ozil (young, pacy, good shot) and snaffle them up. But on past form I'd say it's more likely that he'll find a 15 year-old in a township who he decides is the next big things.

There truly is no Arsenal news at the moment. Even the official site seems to be giving up. I wait, in expectation of having something to write about.

Keep the faith,
Adam

2009-10 player ratings: midfield

2010-06-23T00:55:00.002+01:00

I know the season has gone. I know the focus is now all on the World Cup. But I felt, like a marriage counsellor, that I needed to provide some closure on the season just gone so I wrote an extra-long blog post rating all the midfield...

Tomas Rosicky 6.5 (N/A)

It's probably fair to say that Rosicky is given more leeway then several others by most fans. Sure, nobody likes to see a player out to a long-term injury so it was really good when he finally made his return.

But the reality is, that I'm unsure how much product we actually saw from Rosicky. I remember the 'Roy of the Rovers' goal he scored against Hamburg in the Champions League just after he had joined the club. There was also his brace at Anfield. Since coming back, he hasn't done anything wrong - he didn't repeatedly give the ball away, he didn't repeatedly sky shots.

But were there not the sympathy for Rosicky after his injury, it seems to me that opinion of him would be a lot lower. His performances have been insipid. There has been nothing special about him. He does not strike fear into the opposition like he once did. Ultimately, considering his age, I would advocate cashing in on him while he still has resale value. If there are any takers.

Abou Diaby 6 (5)

I am now convinced that Abou Diaby is not good enough for Arsenal. His stature means he plays excellently against small teams. But he truly is the embodiment of a flat-track bully.

He simply does not have the temperament for the big occasion. Against Spurs he went missing and clearly did not want the ball. He clearly has bundles of talent, but he isn't right mentally.

In short, Diaby is another one who flatters to deceive. I'm not out to attack the entire midfield, but he should be no more than a squad player.

Alex Song 7.5 (7)

If Song keeps improving like he has over the past couple of years, he will become a truly superb player. As things stand, he is still a very good one. It is testament to Arsene Wenger that he wasn't hounded into buying a replacement for Flamini but rather allowed Song to develop into the class act he is.

How good a player he is, was emphasised by how much he was missed against Barcelona. His positional versatility is an added bonus.

My only qualm about Song, is that occasionally he gets run out of position. But this is only a slight fault and Song is one of those players I'm delighted there is only one of, because it strengthens our team a great deal.

Emmanuel Eboué 7 (6)

Last year I wrote: The support he received at the tail end of the season shows what a fine line it is between cult hero and figure of hate. But that support was mainly because of some good performances where he chipped in with a few goals and passed the ball nicely.

I think that line has now been removed: there is far less of the play-acting and far more of endearing himself to the fans by giving his shirt away and signing autographs. Put simply, Eboué is now a real hero amongst the fans.

And to boot, he is also a good player. A good back-up right back and he offers real presence going forward. But most importantly: one can tell he cares. Arsenal is ran on a limited budget, so we need players like Eboué. The fact he cares makes his presence in the squad, a pleasure rather than a pain.

Denilson 7 (N/A)

I seem to be the one-man fan club of Denilson. Man of the match in the first leg against Barcelona. Scorer of terrific goals at really important times, and the one player in the side who is actually prepared to shoot from distance.

Dennis is not a showy player. But he is surprisingly adept at being a defensive screen. It's true that both he and Song lack creativity, so arguably the two shouldn't play together. But when they do, it is not an indictment on Denilson, but rather it shows up the lack of squad depth.

I have high hopes for Denilson and would be truly saddened to see him leave. He is a an all-round 'good egg'.

Theo Walcott 5 - that's generous(N/A)

As it happens, I never bought into the 'tactical genius' talk of Fabio Capello before the World Cup. But my opinion of him did go up a great deal when he didn't take Walcott to the World Cup.

And it also says a lot about Walcott, that he couldn't get in ahead of SWP and Aaron Lennon. Those two are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. But the reality is, as well as taking Wright-Phillips ahead of Theo, I'd have taken Kevin or Zara Phillips. At least she would have provided some Francesco (Totti) to alleviate the players' boredom.

I say this, because I genuinely believe that Walcott is not a very good player. I retain a slight hope that Walcott could play up front and run onto through balls and wreak havoc on central defensive pairings.

But as a winger, he just does not cut it: I cannot recall a good 90 minute performance by Walcott in his entire time at the club. Being able to run past tired defenders does not make him a good footballer: there is a reason Dwain Chambers did not make it in American Football - because he was a sprinter. Walcott is the same and therefore, he isn't good enough to be a top-class winger.

The boy has no footballing intelligence. Four and a half years training at Arsenal and he is still yet to develop one trick. His shooting is second-rate and his crossing is pitiful. Sure, he's been injured: but as I've said, Tomas Rosickuy contributes something. Wally Walcott does nothing.

The two reasons I wouldn't sell him is because I'd like to try him up front and I don't think we would get much money for him. But we seriously need to see more. Poor.

Aaron Ramsey 7 (N/A)

It truly was a dreadful shame when Ryan Shawcross brutally broke short Ramsey's season. Because the boy had everything: he seemed an amalgamation of Steven Gerrard and Cesc Fabregas containing the best attributes of both. Astonishing vision, brilliant passing, and a fine shot as was witnessed against Portsmouth.

The question is, will he come back the same player? I truly hope so. Wenger's youth project may not have been a success. But with players like Ramsey at the club, the future should be very bright. And his future health is really important to any future Arsenal success. Get well soon Aaron...

Andrey Arshavin 7

It has become popular of late to criticise Arshavin and claim he is lazy. I do not agree with either of these things: I enjoy watching him off-the-ball at games and he tends to make interesting runs which his team-mates do not see. In short, I think he is a little too good for his team-mates and could do with someone like Dennis Bergkamp playing in the same team.

But he still scores great goals and appears to be someone who enjoys playing in big games as opposed to Abou Diaby. He hasn't been as good as he was in spring 2009, but he was truly exceptional then.

Arshavin is one of the few players at Arsenal - indeed in the world - who can change a game in an instant with a moment of brilliance.

There is an argument that Arsenal should cash in on the 29-year-old Arshavin while he still has resale value. But this is an argument I flatly reject: he's an experience player with several top-class years ahead of him. The squad needs enough help without getting rid of the good parts. I'd just like to see a few less muscle injuries and a little more performance from the diminutive Russian with a quality song.

Samir Nasri 7 (8.5)

It would be easy to write that Nasri has suffered from 'second season syndrome' but I don't think that's right. It was more that having missed pre-season through Abou Diaby's incompetence, and then being out injured until the end of October, it took Nasri until the second half of the season just to be fully fit.

And he also had an exceptional season in 2009: the goals he scored, his passing, his assists - the amount he contributed pointed to another excellent signing. And that judgment remains intact: Fabregas aside, Nasri's performance against Porto was the finest midfield performance by an Arsenal player this year.

How he was not picked for the World Cup when Diaby was I do not know. But Nasri has a bright future and if he can stay fit, he's another player who has a lot to offer in Arsenal's future.

But not as much as:

Cesc Fabregas 9 (7.5)

Undoubtedly the best player at Arsenal and undoubtedly the best performer this season.

Fabregas truly is an exceptional talent. His performance against Blackburn in October was one of the best I've seen in Arsenal red. The goals and assists were also hugely important

Indeed, there was something Shakespearean about how he brought Arsenal back from the brink one more time against Barcelona, just before finally having his season ended by a broken leg. His importance to the club was underlined by how performances dropped off afterwards.

I admire the club's unequivocal stance with regard to Barcelona's ovetures because Fabregas is the most important player at Arsenal. I'm not giving anything away by saying he is my player of the season and by God, I hope he stays.

Conclusion: I think a couple of new players are needed. A right winger and possibly also somebody else to play in the middle of the park. But most important is the retention of Fabregas - without him, Arsenal will not be the same club.

Keep the faith,
Adam

Fixture list observations: All to play for

2010-06-17T12:33:00.002+01:00

The benefits of waking up late this morning, was that I had the Arsenal fixture list in my inbox and didn't have to go looking for it. The arrival of the fixture list is a momentous occasion for a blogger: it is when the season to come becomes 'this season' rather than 'next season', and the year just gone becomes 'last season. Admittedly, I still need to write player ratings for most of the squad, but exams and the World Cup seem to have come in the way. They will arrive eventually, I promise.

The full fixture list is here and it makes interesting reading. There will the highs and lows; the imagination now runs into overdrive, trying to work out where the great goals will be scored, and where Cesc, maybe, just maybe, could lift a trophy.

If you want a full analysis, it's very easy to come over all Jose Mourinho: five out of six of the Champions League group games are followed by away games and not just any away games: Sunderland, Man City, Man United, Chelsea, and Aston Villa. The astute amongst you will notice that Arsenal took a solitary point from the corresponding five matches last season and it will (yes, I know its obvious but still...) be important to take more from these matches.

Having said that, there is the point that every team has to play the other 19 twice. The opening day match away at Liverpool looks exciting. The run of six games from the 16th of April where we face Man United, Aston Villa and Liverpool at home, and Stoke, Bolton, and Fulham away will undoubtedly dictate how our season pans out.

I think it's fair to say that the League was lost in February by our defeats to Chelsea and Man United. It's asking a lot to think Arsenal will win all six of those games. But ultimately, this time last year I was predicting Cesc would lift the League trophy at White Hart Lane. Instead, our quest for the League title pretty much folded there. So I'm not jumping to any conclusions...

Keep the faith,
Adam

2009-10 player ratings: defence

2010-06-06T02:08:00.000+01:00

The aim is to manage to actually get through the whole squad - as different from last year - so I apologise for perhaps being overly brief.

For an explanation of how the rating system works, look at this post.

For clarity's sake, last year's rating is in brackets and by way of comparison, I've linked to last year's ratings here.

Gael Clichy 6 (6)

Last year I gave him a 6 and said he needed to play better. Frankly, I think we've seen more from the Frenchman. Sure, one can mitigate and say he had a serious back injury but he hardly inspired before that injury. There has been nothing wrong with Clichy's performances. But he no longer contributes a lot going forward and frankly, he no longer inspires confidence.

The big by-product of his injury seems to be that he has lost some of his pace. And that doesn't go with being a top full-back in the modern game. I'd like Clichy to do well: back in November 2008 I seriously thought he could replace Gallas as captain. Now, I'm ambivalent towards him. He's obviously one of the good guys in football but Gibbs seems the better player. Maybe with a full pre-season behind him, Clichy will appear quicker and back to his best, but to me he has seemed in a rut for the last two years. Needs to contribute a lot more, and certainly could do better.

Kieran Gibbs 7 (7.5)

Patrick Barclay has a long history of football journalism and has described this kid as the best young player in England. I'd struggle to disagree and it was a shame he picked up his untimely injury because my perception is that Clichy would have struggled to reclaim his place in the team.

Gibbs gives more going forwards and although he may not naturally be as good a defender, his phenomenal pace means he can make great recovery tackles. I have truly high hopes for Kieran Gibbs, and but for being pole-axed by an angry Belgian, they might well have translated into reality this season. Instead, he just appears to be a player on the cusp of achieving something. But I will confidently predict he will in 2010-11.

Mikael Silvestre 5 (5.5)

To be fair to him, he actually played really well against Hull and at the tail-end of December. But the abiding memory is of him being outpaced in the Nou Camp. Reportedly he is leaving the club, and although he brings experience, he won't be missed.

Thomas Vermaelen 8 (N/A)

Vermaelen epitomises what so frustrates Arsenal fans: that when Arsene Wenger spends money, the players he brings in are absolutely brilliant. Sagna, Eduardo, Rosicky, Arshavin, Vermaelen - all the recent signings have been really good players, we just need to see a few more of them.

The Belgian has been almost ever-present at the heart of defence and the sighs around the country when the news he had not broken his leg came through said it all.

He's an excellent defender who clearly communicates well and also chips in with a fair few goals. Moreover, the partnership he formed with Billy Gallas has been very solid. My only complaint, is that we don't have more players who can display his level of application and consistency.

William Gallas 7.5 (7)

Since having the captain's armband taken away from him, Gallas seems to have gone from strength to strength. As well as scoring goals whilst trying to re-create the lyrics of 'head, shoulders, knees and toes', he genuinely defended well with the partnership with Vermaelen being outstanding.

The reality though, is that if he is going to be injured for three months each season, how reliable is he? I think it's probably a moot point. Much though it displeases me, I'd be surprised to see Gallas in an Arsenal shirt again.

Sol Campbell 7.5 (N/A)

To be honest, when Campbell was signed I thought it was an absolutely bonkers signing: bringing in a 30-something has-been was not the January signing needed to push us forward to trophies.

And half of that was true. Sol Campbell could never have been the January signing to push us on to winning trophies. What was needed, was a player who could inspire the rest of the squad. Sol clearly cares. He clearly understands how much playing for the Arsenal means and he clearly has a great will to win and actually performed excellently.

For all these, I say bravo and say I was wrong. Sol should be kept on as he has played magnificently. But equally, Sol was not the right January signing and everything he did has to be viewed in this light.

Bacary Sagna 6.5 (6.5)

He's been a little better than Clichy but the fact he is always the first man hauled off if Wenger wants to have an extra attacker instead of a defender shows the manager's opinion of him.

Sagna is a good, solid right-back because he is solid defensively. But he does nothing inspirationally and is only very 'solid'. A title-winning team can have players like Sagna but only in moderation. I would question how many more years he will be in his position - three seasons in and he seems to be going backwards not forwards. Disappointing.

Conclusion:

It's probably fair to say Johann Djourou was missed: he's the third-best centre back at the club and one of Wenger's biggest errors this season was the misdiagnosis of Djourou's injury.

With Gallas and Silvestre almost certainly leaving, Wenger needs to find more reinforcements in defence, with players of the ilk of Thomas Vermaelen desired but understandably hard to come by.

Gael Clichy should fear for his place in the team but that aside, there simply isn't the depth to put any player under pressure. And that, is the single biggest issue which needs to be addressed.

2009-10 player ratings: Goalkeepers

2010-06-04T17:14:00.000+01:00

It's the end of another season and although football is a team game, I feel some player ratings are necessary to highlight the obvious deficiencies in this team.

Full details of how the rating system (out of ten) works are here, but essentially, 6 is average, 8 is excellent and anything below 5 is pretty abysmal.

I've put last year's rating in brackets by way of comparison.

Manuel Almunia: 6 (8.5)

Sometimes using clean sheet statistics can be somewhat crude. For a keeper can have a brilliant game - like say Marcus Hahnemann did when Wolves came to play us - and not get a clean sheet, and yet Fabianski was credited with one in the home game against Man City without really doing anything.

But the point I want to make here is two-fold: first, Almunia made 19 clean sheets in 2008-9 compared to just thirteen in the season which has just finished. But more pertinently, those 19 clean sheets were as well as conceding a series of wonder goals which were just downright unfortunate. So in a sense it is a double whammy - not only have Arsenal conceded more goals this season, not only did Almunia keep far fewer clean sheets, but couple that with the fact that it wasn't as if the goals he c0nceded were of the highest caliber and it all points to a goalkeeper who isn't quite good enough.

I think what Almunia has shown with his patchy form over the last two years is that he is good enough to be a back-up keeper but he has been promoted above his station. Whether he would want to go back to bench-warming is something I can only speculate about. But what I can declare unequivocally, is that Manuel Almunia should not be Arsenal no.1 next season.

Lukasz Fabianski 5 (6)

In a sense I think Fabianski has been a little hard done by. Very few keepers could have coped with the aerial bombardment Sam Allardcye' team of thugs put in for 90 minutes without dropping one cross.

But that only happened because of the perception (and reality) that Fabianski can't deal with crosses. And that is the big problem with Fabianski. He's a good shot-stopper and he's made a couple of gaffes but aside from crosses he isn't a dreadful keeper. That still isn't enough though, because the opposition can just exploit his weakness ruthlessly.

Frankly, I can't see Arsenal making any money from selling Fabianski this summer and supposedly he is always excellent in training. It makes sense to loan him out and give him a chance to rebuild his confidence. That said, I can't see a long-term future for him at Arsenal.

Vito Mannone 7 (6.5)

Mannone put in probably the one stand-out outstanding performance by an Arsenal goalkeeper this season against Fulham. On a larger scale it highlights the problem: none of the goalkeepers have consistently won us matches or even kept us in them.

Mannone's future is bright: as well as having an important role in the UN security council (Vito, geddit?) he has shown himself to be a competent keeper. He made a mistake against West Ham but that is only natural amongst young keepers. My only doubt is that he has never played particularly inspiringly for the reserves but that may just be my perception. But he's a young keeper who needs to go out on loan and play forty games and develop his game. It is testament to the paucity of goalkeeping options at Arsenal that he has been forced to play.

Wojciech Szczesny 7.5 (N/A)

He put in an excellent performance in the Carling Cup against Liverpool. From what I've heard he did very well on loan at Brentford and has enormous potential. But he's just turned 20. He's not ready for first-team football at Arsenal and that's the bottom line.

Conclusion: There is far more hope for Szczesny and Mannone than Fabianski or Almunia. But despite my protestations this time last year, goalkeeper is the one position we really must invest in.

Over to you Arsene...