Category Archives: Attack

Wigan preview: heed the words of Macaulay Caulkin

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So here we are folks. After a season of slogging towards the finish-line – an adjective that I feel is certainly fitting for our season – we find ourselves with five days to win two games and stake our claim to continue to eat at European Football’s top table.

As Macaulay Caulkin said famously in Home Alone: “This is it; don’t get scared now”.

Tonight it’s Wigan at The Emirates with, I think it’s fair to say, a lot riding on the game for both teams. I watched a bit of the Championship Play-Off semi final between Brighton and Palace yesterday, to which the annually trotted out line of “the most expensive match in world football” is often used, but I wonder how much tonight’s game is worth to both teams – just putting that into terms that Stan Kroenke and the Arsenal board might understand.

An Arsenal victory will condemn Wigan to a life away from the trimmings of the Premier League (albeit with ‘Parachute Payments’) for next season, whilst a Wigan win will all but end our hopes of a Champions League qualification slot for next year. And with it the possibility of added investment to the playing team (or at least a reduction in what could have been budgeted for) I don’t think I’m being too overly dramatic when I say that – there is no way Sunderland will do us any favours at the weekend against the Spuds – you can be sure of that. A draw does nothing for either side. It means a win on the last day for Wigan needs to be by about 12 goals and Arsenal have to beat Newcastle whilst waiting to hear from news from White Hart Lane.

Yesterday I spoke of how much more nervous I seem to be this season compared to seasons past – well, that tension and stress has now hit fever pitch, such is the worry that the team fluffs their lines tonight. We have looked shaky at times during this winning streak we’re on, and if we show any sign of psychological ‘handbraking’ as Arsene might put it, then you can be sure own opponents will capitalise.

For Wigan the threat to us is all to clear: Kone, Maloney, McManaman and the ball winning abilities of James McCarthy. They are the offensive threats and will attempt to catch Arsenal on the counter. Martinez is not stupid and he knows he won’t control possession for the whole match, so he’ll most likely set up with three at the back, look to catch Arsenal on the break with his wing backs and snatch a goal or two. That’s how Wigan beat us last season and that will be their game plan tonight. The decisions Martinez will need to make is how much rotation he can legitimately hand to his players. They have played three games in eight days where Arsenal have played none. If he is going to concede possession then he’s going to need his fittest players to be running their guts out tonight. He’ll also want a quick start. Last season they got two first half goals that stunned us and they managed to hold on through some shocking offensive play by Arsenal and some heroic defending. Martinez will know that his team will tire in the last 30 minutes or so, so his game plan will be to hope he is at least a goal up at half time.

As for us, well, I’ve got no idea how Le Boss will line up his side. He admitted yesterday that Jack is currently on painkillers and will undergo an operation on his ankle in the summer, so I’d be surprised if he’s anything but on the bench tonight. That means I suspect we will either see Cazorla dropping into midfield with either Gervhino or Podolski on the left, or the diminutive Spaniard will move across to the left to accommodate a starting slot for Tomas Rosicky. My personal preference would be to have Cazorla in the middle with Arteta and Ramsey, with Podolski up top and Gervhino on the left, and The Ox on the right. I know Theo has stepped up in his last two games and scored both of our goals, but at home against a team that will probably sit deep (especially if they are a goal up) his threat is nullified and so we need tricky players that can beat their man. Gervhino beats himself half the time, but the other half he can beat his man, so we might get more joy from him starting.

Whoever does get the nod from the manager needs to be up from this from the off. We steamrolled Manchester United for the first half a couple of weeks ago and our high pressing, intensity and desire got us up quickly and only a defensive mistake on Sagna’s part stopped us from winning the game. We need that same level of intensity from the first minute tonight. If we pour cold water on Wigan’s hopes early in the first half, they will tire enough for us to finish them off in the second, so we have to start quickly.

I think my nervousness about tonight stems from what happened to us at home against Wigan last year. We went into the game in form and a win would have all but secured Champions League football, yet we got our noses bloodied. I was confident before that game last year and was dealt a real reality check. Wigan had, and have now, the tools to damage us and we can’t – nay, mustn’t – let them do it again. There is more riding on this game for us than there was last season, just like their is more riding on it for them, so the pressure is on both clubs.

It’s never easy supporting Arsenal, it requires the constitution of a professional chilli eater, and it is going to be tested tonight. Let’s hope The Arsenal players can pass with flying colours.

See you on the other side my friends.

External factors irrelevant, Arsenal must do their job, Theo too

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Last night I decided, against my better judgement, to watch Wigan versus Swansea. My main motive for doing such a thing was to see what this Wigan side have about them and what we could expect at The Emirates in just under a weeks time.

Wigan were up against the Welsh Charlton. Secured of safety long ago and with the League Cup tucked safely in their trophy cabinet, they haven’t really been playing with any kind of momentum or form so I expected Wigan to win.

But Wigan were positively dire defensively. The third goal they conceded could have been recorded, greyscaled into black and white and re-marketed as a Laurel and Hardy sketch.

Of course, that means that footballing anomalies like Gary Caldwell will suddenly decide to roar like Spartans at the Emirates next weekend, spurned on by Mike Dean who is now some form of anti-Christ figure to Arsenal fans.

I have to say I’m surprised to be constantly reading completely non-related Arsenal factors being jumped upon and moaned about on my Twitter feed. We had people already writing us off on Sunday because Chelski beat a United team that couldn’t care less, people taking to their timelines to cry foul about the appointment of Mike ‘Arsenal haven’t won in 20 games’ Dean and we had people analysing what the best permutation for Arsenal would be in relation to last nights results. I am genuinely concerned for some people’s health tonight I have to tell you. On the basis of some of the fan hyperbole that is being thrown around like a sack of potatoes so far there will probably be some suicide pacts drawn up if the Chelski v Spuds game doesn’t bring the right result.

The reality of our current situation is that the players, the manager and everyone else at Arsenal football club can do nothing about external factors, and I don’t think they are looking so intimately at whether or not Mike Dean will be giving Wigan all the freedom of North London next week. Yes, he’s a plebeian and his refereeing decisions over the years have cost us, but if our players come out to the turf on Tuesday night and are up for it, there is nothing Dean could possibly do to stop us from scoring. He’s not going to disallow a flurry of goals for no reason.

Let’s also look at who we are playing. As it stands, our next two games are against the teams third and fourth from bottom. If you are looking at finishing in the top four and thus getting a Champions League qualification place for next year, you really should have the players capable of picking up six points. And if we do that then we’ll finish on 73 points, which is three better than last season and shows how much more competitive this season has been.

Our current potential for an improvement points-wise this season has been aided by a sharing in collective goalscoring and, with Theo Walcott now hitting his 20 goal target he set himself this season, he’s spoken to the official site about how the teams collective objective of Champions League football is more important than his own tally. Of course he’s right, but I think the goals that he has shown this season has helped to really push him up the scale in terms of his importance to the team this season. He’s quite an enigma of a player is our Theo. he can go a couple of games looking like the most bang average £100k per week attacker, then hit purple patches that see him get vital goals, which leaves fans like you or I frustrated that he hasn’t added even more to his tally this season.

There’s no doubt he’s a talented finisher. And he scores goals against the better opponents – the week before lasts goal against United being testimony to that – but he does sometimes seem to get even the most obvious things wrong. At the weekend he did that thing where he has a bit of grass in front of him, opens his stride, but forgets to take the ball with it and ends up having to check himself. That’s the sort of ‘d’oh!’ moment that, could he eradicate from his game, we could be looking at a 30 goal a season striker.

The debate will continue to go on as to whether he could ever be a central striker, but as far as I’m concerned as long as he’s banging them in to the tune of a minimum of 20 a season for the next few years, we should just ensure that he gets on to the field as much as possible. Lets also remember that he’s still 24. He can still get better and can still score more goals. Perhaps he’ll never fully eradicate the errors in his game, but as long as he remains prolific over the duration of a season, you won’t find people like me complaining.

He’s still got time to bag a few more though, so lets hope he does over the next couple of games. Anyway, that’ll do for me for today. Catch ya on tha flip side. Or something like that.

A formation change? Plus Santi talks possession

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Wotcha gooners, how goeth it? A little bit of a later one from me, on account of lady liquor and a late night conspiring to keep me in the land of slumber a little but longer than usual. Thankfully there’s no Arsenal today though, so it does become quite a quiet Saturday afternoon in effect.

I don’t think I’ll look out for any of the football games today. Unfortunately I just don’t see those spuddies dropping points away to a Wigan team that are making a habit of playing well and still coming up with nothing. So watching the final scores coming in come 5pm will be a depressing thing methinks, as plebeians like Garth Crooks drool and slobber over the second coming of his messiah Monkey-Boy Bale. No thank you. I think I’ll get my hair cut instead.

Arsene had his usual pre-game presser in front of the assembled hacks and, as you’d expect, they tried to make this about that Dutch player returning rather than the fact we have a game at home that we have to win to try to secure Champions League football next season. Arsene did his best to focus on the team we’re up against rather than a player that may or may not play and he said that he didn’t expect Man United to ease off tomorrow. I think he’s right and he’s probably on the money when he says that in a couple of games they might ease off, but they’ll still be on the high of winning the league and so that might not be a benefit for us at all. For them, it’s not as if they had the same target that The Invincibles had of going unbeaten. Sure, they can go for the highest points total currently held by Mourhino’s Chelski, but you don’t get anything special for that. It’s not like the Premier League will give them a little miniature gold Premier League trophy in that regard (yes I’m petty and yes I had to get that in there).

I think we’ll still see a very tough game tomorrow and I’ll give more thoughts about the match and the team line up tomorrow, but Arsene did talk specifically about the striking issue and who would be playing up top for us in his press conferences, stating that he hadn’t made his mind up. He did say however, that we would be keeping to the same philosophy and style that we always do. I’ve heard on a podcast or two and read in a couple of news pieces that Arsenal do practice a 4-4-2 in training and although I am skeptical that there will be that formation deployed tomorrow, in the absence of a target man to be the focal point of the attack and bring the wide and midfield players into play more, I do wonder if we should see a change in formation. Changing formation doesn’t have to mean we change our philosophy, but you have to play to the strengths of the players we have and, with the attacking options of Gervhino, Podolski and Walcott all we’ve realistically got, you have to wonder if it might be worth throwing United a curveball by playing two up top. It would certainly catch United off guard as I’m sure they think they know exactly how Arsenal will line which, to be fair to them, Arsene hardly has a history of throwing tactical curveballs into the mix.

Whether Arsene does switch it or not, it will also impact another players position. Santi Cazorla also spoke to the official site about what he thinks we need to do and spoke of how we need to retain possession against United to do them damage. Whilst I agree that being dominant in possession gives you more opportunities to create chances, and whilst it also wears the opponents down if they have to spend the game chasing the ball, I can’t really agree that possession alone will ensure victory and the spoils go the way of Arsenal. Ever since Arsene arrived in England we’ve been one of those teams that always sees a lot of the ball; the trouble we’ve had (particularly over the last few years) is making sure we are the most efficient team in the league in converting possession into goals. And more goals than the opponents at that. We’ve even seen in our most recent game that possession is not the be-all and end-all, because if you’re good enough on the counter then you don’t need to have the ball all the time. That’s basically how those Chavs won themselves an undeserved Champions League trophy last season. So Cazorla is right in some cases, but wrong in others. Where and how he is deployed in tomorrow’s game will be interesting depending on the formation, but I’ll leave my pondering on that one until tomorrow.

Arsene also spoke of our big game record this season and when you look at our results it doesn’t make for pretty reading. Against the current top five teams we’ve picked up four points out of a possible fifteen. Whilst we all bemoan some of the lacklustre performances at home to Swansea and Sunderland, plus away to Norwich and Southampton, those big games against the top teams are the ones that can really give you a confidence boost. There have been mitigating circumstances in some (down to ten men against both City and United), but we’ve also shot ourselves in the foot on a couple of occasions, which doesn’t really help. In the Premier League you can’t afford to do that against the mid-table teams, so you sure as hell aren’t going to get away with it against the best.

I’m not sure quite why we haven’t turned up against some of the bigger opponents this season. If you look at each game individually they all tell their own unique story of why we failed (e.g. Vermaelen shocking clearance to give that Dutch bloke a sniff, or playing a high line against the pacey wingers of Bale and Lennon), but we certainly haven’t scored enough goals – the spuds game aside. In some games we never started, some we started well but never got that first goal, whereas in the one game we were successful we had to react after going a goal behind and being a man up. I hope we go at least some way to rectifying the poor points tally against the top five with a win tomorrow at least and to do that there will definitely need to be an urgency coupled with clinical finishing.

Righto, I’m off for a haircut, an afternoon on a canal boat and probably a couple of Peroni’s. catch you all tomorrow.

Jeff Goldblum can solve our striking problems

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Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday. The ‘in between’ weekday that doesn’t really know what it wants to be in life. It should be an astronaut. That’d show Tuesday and Thursday about ‘identity’.

As expected yesterday, the FA announced that Olivier’s red card had about as much chance of being rescinded as a fairly refereed game by Howard Webb at Old Trafford has of happening. The ban remains and the club now have to think of how to replace the loan front man with another one of the forwards that we’ve got at the club. At least Giroud has the fact the goal at Norwich has been attributed to him and not an own goal by Sebastian Bassong. Personally, I thought it looked obvious it came off Bassong, so to hear that it’s given to Giroud is a surprise. Perhaps this is one of those ‘everybody wins’ scenarios. Bassong doesn’t want the goal, Giroud does, and the result was secured by an additional goal so there wasn’t really much else to consider. I suspect it might be the last chance our dashing Frenchman has to add to his 17 goal tally, as he doesn’t like rippling the nets away from home and he’ll only have one more attempt at doing that. Of course, I’m trying the old Chris tactic of saying he’ll not score so he smashes in a hat-trick, so you can thank me on the final day of the season if it happens and we get our Champions League prize.

I saw a couple of murmurs on my timeline yesterday about the Goetze to Munich transfer. A few gooners were slightly unhappy that we hadn’t activated his €31.5million clause to be in with a running of getting the player. Yes he’s a fantastic player but let’s be realistic here, his position isn’t exactly number one on our priority list, is it? Just because Arsene had an interest in a player a couple of years ago it doesn’t give us a divine right to then go out and splooge a ridiculous transfer fee and get the player. Even if we’d triggered his release clause and were discussing terms, he’s always going to join a team in his own country, that is the biggest in their league and have already won their domestic league. And they’ll possibly in the Champions League final two years running.

The reality is that we have to make our moves when the hyper-inflated ‘big-name’ players have been cherry-picked from the oil whores or other big teams like Munich or Madrid. They can’t go after everyone on the planet and there are plenty of excellent players that can be purchased for the positions that we require.

I just hope we don’t go after Valdes. He’d cost a premium, he’s the average link in a good Barca team, and I rate Szczesny over him any day of the week. I suspect we’ll see Fabianski offski in the summer, so we’ll need to replace, but I hope it’s with an experienced keeper that can give Wojciech a couple of years of competition before he becomes our stand-out number one.

Anyway, back to the striking dilemma, particularly in reference to this weekend’s action. I think Arsene has a real dilemma on his hands. Gervhino has hit a bit of form lately, but not as a front man; Theo is out of form but can be dangerous if United try to push themselves higher up the pitch and try to press us further forward; and Lukas is the most natural finisher but looked a bit leggy when he came on against Fulham. There is no ready-made replacement that can play the same role as Giroud and hold up the ball well enough to bring other players into play to join the attacks later, so with whoever plays on Sunday, there is going to need to be a change in our composition in order to beat the newly crowned champions (which even hurts to type I might hasten to add). I have to admit that I don’t really know what the best answer is, but with Theo going missing in the last couple of games and Gervhino clearly unable to play up top, I would plump for Poldi in our current formation. We shall wait and see to what Arsene fancies doing come Sunday morning. Perhaps he should try that thing Jeff Goldblum did in his lab with that fly. He could entice Gervhino in by saying there is a lifetime supply of extra-large headbands, Theo in by telling him there’s a new children’s book deal contract on the table, and Lukas can have all he can eat Bockwurst. The. When they’re inside BAM! A hybrid player that is in form, can play off the last man and is the best finisher at the club. I bet Jeff would be an awesome addition to Arsene’s management team. And I bet he’d be cheap. After all, what’s he done since Jurassic Park and Independence Day? He’d be absolutely delighted with the opportunity of a new role in the team and the ability to tinker with DNA once again would be something he’d bite yer hand off for. But only so he could put it in his machine and combine it with the head of a goat. Then you could have a goat’s head running around with a hand as a torso. Crazy old Jeff and his maniacal ways.

Anyway, not a lot else going on at the moment, so I’ll take my leave with the scheming plans of Jeff and Arsene still fresh in your minds.

Guard of honour-schmoner, the big news is Giroud’s appeal

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Yesterday evening Manchester United won the Premier League with a certain nameless player scoring the goals. It means they have picked up their 20th title and it will probably mean a guard of honour for them at The Emirates. I suppose I should congratulate them on a title well deserved.

But in many ways, I’m a petty, petty man. We have a phrase where I come from. Loosely translated, it goes something like this:

‘Fuck Manchester United and Fuck Robin van Persie’.

That’s the first and last time I’ve used his name on this blog since he left the club. Because all he is to us is a blip on the history of Arsenal. I hope he plays next weekend so he can see how he has ripped his legacy into shreds at the club.

Anyway, even that small dilution of this blog away from Arsenal matters isn’t enough to distract me from something much more important than the title, which is the decision of Arsenal to appeal the red card Olivier Giroud received on Saturday. To me it seems a bit fruitless if I’m honest. The FA have a history of shirking any kind of responsibility when it comes to contentious decisions and, if Aguero can’t get suspended for a rake down the legs, then how on earth do our army of lawyers expect to get Giroud out of a three game ban? The referee will surely just say “nah, I saw it alright, still a red” and the FA will simply agree. Unless the team of lawyers we have are promising to show the FA the only known piece of rocking horse poo in existence if they let our Olivier off with a slap wrist?

Perhaps we’ll hear of a Tom Cruise/Jack Nicholson “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH” style fist smash on the table by Dick Law when he fronts up against the disciplinary committee. Or he’ll convince the panel that there is, in fact, no such person as Olivier Giroud. The Kaiser Soze of the footballing world if you will. He’ll then just need to make sure each member of the committee is the conveniently ‘busy’ every time we play between now and the end of the season, but I’m sure old Dicky can do that for us. After all, it’s not like he’s spending any time negotiating transfers at the moment…

With the inevitable ‘denied’ stamp hovering over the FA suspension paperwork, our attentions should be turning to who will take Giroud’s place at centre stage at the top of the pitch. There are a few that have tried this season, but for me the projects of Gervhino and Theo didn’t really work as well as we’d liked them to and so therefore it has to be Podolski. I could go on about his successful role in the team I think he could have, but instead I would encourage you to have a look at GoonerDave66‘s piece on the matter yesterday, as he is much more eloquent and in depth than I could ever be on my forty-five minute time frame I have to write the blog on the Met Line. Suffice to say, I couldn’t agree any more with his comments. It has to be Poldi. Playing Gervhino up against a team like United would not only be heart-breaking, but show us how far we’ve regressed.

I must say though, it will be interesting to see how our opponents line up on Sunday, having just completed their objectives for the season. Will we see some reserves? Will we see them give 100% now that they are playing for nothing? My hope is that we can capitalise on the fact the title is done and dusted and put ourselves on the road to Champions League qualification, but I’ll save some of these thoughts until later on in the week.

There’s not really a lot else going on in the Arsenal world today, as you’d expect. There’s some stuff from Ramsey about defending as a team following the Fulham win, but it’s all pretty obvious if I’m completely honest. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to her they are doing the defensive donkey work to better effect now than we have done all season, but it is stuff we should have been doing all season, so it’s hardly something to get too excited about.

That’s it from me today unfortunately. Back tomorrow with interesting things to talk about hopefully.

Fulham review: Arsenal to include medical insurance in membership packs?

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I think that Arsenal Football Club should be announcing a brand new strategic partnership with a private medical insurer like BUPA or Simply Health, whereby when the membership renewals letters come through for Platinum, Gold, Silver, Red and the Away Member, there is also the option to have an Arsenal ‘Membershsip+’ that covers you in the event of any heart problems that occur during th course of the season. Such is the seemingly ongoing nervousness that good people like you and I have to endure from game-to-game, I think it is a scheme that would put a lot of mothers, fathers and other half’s at ease that in the event of one of us keeling over, at least they can be supported financially.

Yesterday’s win at Fulham was undoubtedly welcome. It was another three points and is edging us closer towards the end goal of Champions League football next season. But we dun’half make it difficult for ourselves sometimes. Le Boss named a similar side to the one that triumphed at West Brom, with Rosicky returning to the starting eleven, so as Three O’clock edged closer I felt that we should see an Arsenal team that is up for the game and ready to show Fulham how different we were confidence-wise to the one that wobbled a bit against them earlier in the season.

There was barely any time registered on the clock before we were handed our first boost, as Steve Sidwell decided that Mikel Arteta’s ankle was clearly far to handsome and needed to be roughed up a bit, going in over the top of the ball and catching the Spaniard in a nasty tackle. I’ve watched a few replays now, seen the Match of the Day morons discuss it, plus heard some garbled rubbish from Martin Jol about how he’s know Steve for ages and he’s not a nasty player, but how anybody on this planet could not see that it was not an easy decision for Andre Mariner to make is beyond me. The Scottish chump on Sky Sports Football First commentary said “Mariner keeps him on if he wants to”. Excuse my blog grammar but – ?!?!?! Alan Hansen even said tackling is being taken of the game! Well Alan, if that’s what you call a ‘tackle’ then I’m glad mate, because under your stewardship there’d also be a lot of footballers being prematurely taken out of the game too if tackles like that were allowed week-in, week-out.

The red card came after 12 minutes and as soon as it happened you felt that we would be the ones to start asserting our dominance, control possession, create the most chances and eventually go on to win the game. But for some reason the red card didn’t spark us into life as much as I’d have hoped. We certainly controlled possession for the most part in the game and ended up having 70% by the end of the match, but we hardly carved Fulham open after Sidwell’s early bath.

We did find that all-important goal though through the Big Friendly German Mertesacker. Having spent years bemoaning our inability to deal with set pieces, I have to say I find it pleasing when our own efforts are rewarded. A deep-lying ball into the back post was nodded back across goal by Koscienly and Mertesacker was on his own about a yard from the line to nod it home. We need to give special thanks to the ponderous Philippe Senderos, who gave us a little glimpse of the player we all used to roll our eyes over. His inability to see a 27ft tall giant slowly trot beyond him to head in will have had Fulham fans scratching their heads as much as we used to.

If the first half wasn’t great, the second half was worse. In the first half there were some warning signs that, despite being down to ten men, Fulham were a threat. Berbatov had a good chance which was well saved by Szczesny, who was also alert enough to tip a cross-cum-shot over the bar in the second half. I thought Woj had a good game yesterday actually. It was a solid enough performance where he made a couple of smart saves, came and collected the ball well a couple of times when asked to and overall can be pleased with a second clean sheet in a week. Likewise too, the back four will have been pleased with their overall showing.

Where I think we can all agree it didn’t really happen for us yesterday was in attack. Giroud hardly set the world alight as the lone front man and at times in the first half Theo Walcott went missing as he has the tendency to do sometimes. You’d expect a team in mid table with nothing to play for and down to ten men to be on the back foot and under the kosh for the duration, but Schwarzer hardly had to dirty his palms for the duration of the ninety. That was most certainly a disappointment. Podolski came on later in the second half but his impact was minimal, which was something of a worry, because I’d expect him to be more of a feature after Giroud’s sending off in injury time. I thought the sending off was harsh, but because he went over the top of the ball the referee clearly felt he couldn’t do anything else given the way he assessed the Sidwell red.

We had some hairy and nail-biting moments towards the end of the game, but I think we have to just chalk this game down to the ‘job done. Moving swiftly on’ archives. We’ll be without Giroud for the most part of the remaining games this season, so Arsene will need to make some decisions about who is playing at the top of the front three. It’s a decision that shouldn’t be as up in the air, as we should already have another striker to call on in situations like this, but Arsene’s lack of desire to play Podolski there all season means that he’s hardly had plenty of first team match practice there. IF it means we end up with Gervhino up top against United, well…..I shudder to think.

Anyway, that’s enough from me. Enjoy your Sunday. At least we can sit back and watch the Spuds and Chelski games knowing we’ve done our jobs.

Fulham: Expect no favours, start strong and be efficient

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On the banks of the River Thames today our brave and mighty red and white centurions will do battle against the local cottagers defending their land from being pillaged for three points. For today my friends, is game day, which means today is a day for you and I to wait patiently then watch patiently as a battle unfolds in front of our very eyes.

nothing like a bit of drama and hyperbole to start you off on a Saturday, eh? What we all hope to be reality is that Fulham put up as much fight as Audley Harrison and the match is over before half time. The likelihood of this eventuality is obviously slim, as Fulham will be reeling from their recent 0-3 defeat in which they probably shouldn’t have been 0-2 behind at half time at all. But such is the ruthless nature of football, and the football karma gods, that they saw it fit to give Chelski safe passage along Fulham Broadway with three points tucked safely under their arms. Why Chelski deserve anything, like, ever, is a mystery to me but they say the gods work in mysterious ways.

I suspect we’re in for a hell of a tough match today. Fulham may have nothing to play for, but they have established themselves as a solid Premier League side over the years and have still managed to bloody our noses when it doesn’t really look like they should be bothered at all. They will want to put on a show for their fans and take a ‘big team’ scalp today. It is on our players to ensure that it does not happen.

We go into the game off the back of a good run of results against some tricky opponents, so the hope is that we extend that good run another week at Craven Cottage. To do that we need to continue to use the blueprint of our success of the last two months: out of the traps early, pressing higher up the field and popping the ball around with pace and purpose. I believe the midfield will be the key in achieving this objective. One of the key features of this good run has seen Ramsey as the man in the engine room charging down and hassling opponents, Arteta as the metronome keeping everything ticking over and providing an outlet for the defence to distribute to as well as an option for the more attacking players should we need to retain pressure, and finally the guile and quick turnover from defence to attack that Rosicky brings with his energy to get the ball forward as quickly as possible. Rosicky has missed the last two games and faces a fitness test, but if he’s fit, he plays in my book. Jack has looked slightly sluggish in midfield against Norwich and Everton, so perhaps he could do with somebody to take the burden off him and have an opportunity to slowly feel his way back into the side.

Up top is where I’ll be most intrigued to see who plays. In the middle of the three there will inevitably be Giroud. He’ll come up against Hangeland and Senderos and his physical presence will most certainly be more of a handful than a Gervhino, Walcott or Podolski. But who to sit alongside him in the left and right positions? Personally, I believe we should see Cazorla on the right and Podolski on the left, dependent on how fatigued Cazorla looked when Arsene was assessing him yesterday. If he looks like he might need a rest (and lets face it, he’s played nearly all the games this season) then I would be inclined to play Walcott or perhaps even The Ox. Walcott will get more space against Fulham at home than he would against a Fulham team away from home and set up to defend, and Theo has the beating of the ageing legs of John Arne Riise. The Norweigan is a player that likes to get forward, so I’d expect there to be gaps to open up for the England international. Alternatively, the talking up of The Ox over the last couple of games could be a sign that Le Boss is ready to unleash him in today’s game. He too should have the pace to beat Riise and a little bit more trickery than Walcott, so I am hoping that one of those two players start on the right – probably with a preference of The Ox.

We know where the threat will come from Fulham, which will be the languid but effective style of Dimitar Berbatov. He has 13 goals this season, of which two were scored against us at The Emirates, so he knows how to swan his way into our defence and ripple the old onion bag. Thankfully (I hope) we have a different Arsenal team that will line up today to the one that drew 3-3 earlier in the season. More defensively aware, with a better idea of defending (although still room for improvement), Gibbs/Monreal will play at left back instead of Vermaelen, plus we have some steadier hands in goal than the bang averageness of Mannone, so I don’t think it’s too much to expect more from our defenders to not capitulate to the tune of three goals this time around.

If we continue to play as we have been playing, then this game should be ours for victory. We have the creative players to get goals against Fulham, we have more to play for than Martin Jol’s side, and we are the form team. But unfortunately none of that will matter if we are not up for it after the first five or ten minutes. If we give Fulham a sniff that we’re not up for it their players and the crowd will smell blood. We want them to smell poo. The poo of their players playing like they’ve fallen into a cesspit of sloppy passing, lack of cohesion and overall rubbishness.

We’ve not actually beaten Fulham for a couple of seasons now, having drawn at home last season and not picking up three points since December 2010 when we won 2-1 at home. So our recent form shows that this will be a tough encounter. But our overall record against Fulham isn’t too bad, so I’m hoping that we re-address the balance in terms of recent history and we give Fulham a good seeing to today.

If you’re off to the game, you know the drill, so sing until your lungs get saw – I know you all will. Up the Arsenal.

Everton: Ramsey steals the show, Giroud couldn’t buy a goal

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In the immediate aftermath of a home game, it’s hard to look at any result other than victory and three points for The Arsenal as abject failure, such are the fine margins of football and it’s fickle followers. Oh sure, it may look like I’m giving you my synopsis of last nights game after a night to sleep on the result, but I write this whilst hurtling home on the central line with nought but a tinge of disappointment and a smidgen of resentment.

I resent the teams that have a prolific striker. I resent that they have what we do not. I’m going to try not to give Olivier Giroud too much stick on today’s blog, but after a series of misses and good opportunities yesterday, it’s hard not to do the blogging equivalent of put my hands on my hips, lower my face slightly and give Giroud a shake of the barnet that says “Oh Olivier, you just aren’t that good, are you?”.

The cold light of day should hopefully have me waking up and feeling that this 0-0 draw against Everton wasn’t the worst result in the world, but I’ll let to know at what point of the blog I get to that point, because right now I’m only thinking of the missed chances.

Perhaps I should give some credit to Everton. After all, they are a very difficult team to break down and with players like Distin and Jagielka, they throw their bodies on the line for their team. It’s a shame we couldn’t get the Englishman a couple of seasons ago; such is the impact he has on that team. So whilst I am rueing our own profligacy, I must give ‘props’ to the Everton defence for standing strong.

I cannot however give ‘props’ to a referee that, quite frankly, was useless. If you read my random Arsenal musings regularly you’ll know that I try to avoid bemoaning the referee at all costs because more often than not, you need to look at you’re own team, which I’ll duly get to shortly. But Neil Swarbrick was terrible, in my opinion. On five occasions I saw Marouene Fellaini commit a foul, yet only three were even picked up and no yellow was distributed. But worst of all, the failure of Swarbrick to pick up the obvious second yellow foul by Gibson was the most irksome of all. Irksome because he even recognised it as a foul. If he thought Walcott had dived then he should have played on, but instead he recognised that Gibson had impeded our player, most probably looked at his watch and completely bottled it because we were within the first half an hour of the game. That, my friends, is totally unacceptable and I’m afraid is what we have come to expect from rapidly deteriorating refereeing standards in this country.

Ok, ref rant over, so what about The Arsenal? Well, defensively we came up against a physical presence of Anichebe, a fluffy aerial threat of Fellaini and the tricks and guile of Pienaar and Mirallas and largely kept them quiet for the whole game. We dealt with everything that was put our way and Szczseny was hardly troubled for the duration of the Evening.

In midfield I thought Arteta did well, whilst Jack had another ‘ok’ game, but we have to save the best for last: Aaron Ramsey. He was like the Duracell bunny. Attacking, defending, in the mix, winning the ball, distributing it, driving us forward. In my mind he should be one of the first on the team sheet right now. His game is all about action and yesterday he really was all-action. Superb stuff from a much maligned player who many questioned could make it, yet few will now argue about the potential and start talking about the reality. Once again, Arsene’s faith appears to be paying off.

Unfortunately, as much as I can praise the midfield and defence, the same cannot be said about the attack, particularly given the big fat ’0′ next to our team name. On the left we saw Cazorla who actually played really well, keeping the ball and always finding the man, but I see him as more of the ‘midfield’ success rather than the attacking disappointment. Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott were, unfortunately, average at best. Giroud missed a golden opportunity in the first half plus a miss within the last few minutes of normal time. But what really made me sigh yesterday, what made me turn to my fellow gooners and look around in despair, was what he didn’t do. I’m talking of the moment in the second half whereby Gibbs got in between the defence, looked for the cut back and open goal for the Frenchman, then played the ball off an Everton player and out for a corner. People around me bemoaned Gibbs, but I’m sorry, I’m just not having that. When I watched the replay I saw Giroud standing completely static on the penalty spot. There was no movement, there was no dart to the front or back post, there was just expectancy of the perfect ball laid at his feet. The reason I was sad? I know that a £25million clinical striker would have made that goal his own and given us the three points. Instead, we have a very capable £12million striker that, at times exactly like yesterday when you need a little something special, he’ll be found wanting. He will get goals in this Arsenal team, but I’m not sure he’s got the ability to take us on to the next level we’re after.

I’d love to make comments on Theo’s game, but actually I can’t really, as I didn’t really see anything of note. A couple of runs, but he was largely quiet, which isn’t really a major surprise. But that’s Theo. That’s what you get sometimes. When The Ox came on he looked a little more lively, but the problem we had was that he kept venturing inside and it made the play far too compact, which suited an Everton team that were happy to hold on in the last ten minutes.

So as I round up today’s blog, I’m still no nearer as to working out whether to accept a point or be disappointed. Everton are one of the top six teams in the league. They make it difficult for any team and tonight was never going to be easy. A point may prove to be vital when we hit the end of May, but when you’re looking over your shoulder at your nearest rivals for a top four space, you want the margins to be as stacked in your favour as possible and, after last nights draw, it’s no longer technically back in our hands if the Spuds with their game in hand.

All to much hypothesising for one day, I know, but you tend to do this a lot when you’re an Arsenal fan. They never make it easy for us.

Until tomorrow.

Norwich review: Mostly grumpy, ultimately happy

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Football really is quite a conundrum of a sport. If you take just the 95 odd minutes that you tend to watch the actual action take place, you can watch the majority of it and be thoroughly upset, yet still end up elated and happy come full time and for the rest of your weekend.

That was my observation from yesterday. I sat watching the game and for 80 minutes I was fairly grumpy. Yet for ten minutes Arsenal were on song and the result meant the afternoon and evening was spent in a happy mood rather than a vexed one. It’s why the old cliche works I guess – football is a results business. That’s all that really matters.

As expected yesterday, Arsene shuffled his pack ever-so-slightly with the departure of Mertesacker through suspension, Monreal through rotation and Rosicky through injury the only changes from last weeks starting XI. And as the team kicked off I think everyone was happy with the line up and expectant for us to put Norwich to the sword. But that never really happened, did it? The first half was one of little chances, mostly coming from the home side, as you’d expect. Chris Hughton had no intention of coming to The Emirates and having a go at The Arsenal, so he set up his team to be compact, press hard and try to catch us out through set pieces and maybe the odd counter. That’s not a slight on Norwich, I hasten to add; they have limited resources within their side and picking up a point at The Emirates through frustrating the home team was always going to be Plan A.

So the first half passed by with little of anything concrete for us to get too excited about. Giroud had a half-chance header off the top of the bar and Gervhino should have done more on two occasions with a 1-on-1 and a drive into the box, but he was having one of his ‘being Gervhino’ days and so on both occasions the home fans were left rueing his unpredictability and general inability to look like he has any kind of control of his limbs.

The second half didn’t exactly start with an onslaught of biblical proportions either. Norwich were content to sit deep with yellow bodies all over the place, only venturing forward for the occasional corner or set piece. And we weren’t looking like the side that had picked up three wins on the bounce. So it was no surprise when Norwich took the lead. Some Norwich player drove past Gibbs on the left hand side of our penalty box and, with a touch of the Gervhino about him, tripped over his own feet to win a free kick for the away side. Later, Chris Hughton would bemoan the decisions of the officials at the other end, but I’d suggest he take those yellow and green blinkers off and look at his teams’ own bit of fortune that led to a goal. Then perhaps he could climb down from what he believes is some kind of moral high ground and realise that in the grand scheme of things, the officials got just as many results wrong for us as we’ll as agin us.

We all know we can’t defend corners or set pieces, so there was almost a sense of inevitability as the ball was chipped to the back post, for Turner to nod the ball in unchallenged. I’ve given up talking about how we can’t defend with zonal marking. I’m not going through it again.

So once again we’d need to dig deep and produce something that would salvage points from the game. This is the point for which I must praise Arsene Wenger. We all bemoan his lack of tactical awareness or decision making, especially when it comes to changing a game, but yesterday he got it spot on. He didn’t wait until 75 minutes, he simply gave his subs five minutes to warm up after the Norwich goal and sent on Podolski and Walcott for Gervhino and Wilshire. Both players had, it’s fair to say, been pretty poor for us up until that point. Perhaps it was a little bit of rustiness from Jack, but we all know Gervhino has a stinker in his locker, so that came as no real surprise.

The substitutions were just the tonic. Suddenly we looked more of a threat. We popped the ball around with a bit more purpose and just before the penalty Giroud chested a lovely ball down for Podolski to rattle the bar. I’d love to say the feeling was that the goal was coming, but you never know with this Arsenal team, so when Giroud went down after some shirt pulling by some Norwich player, there was palpable relief in the stadium when the linesman raised his flag. This is where the ‘controversy’ started. The Norwich players and management were incensed that the referee didn’t give the challenge but the linesman did from 30 yards away. I have two observations here: 1) how can the linesman be any closer to see the play unless he walks onto the pitch, 2) what is the purpose of ‘referees assistants’ if it isn’t to assist the referee from a different angle if they see infringements? Let’s also bear in mind that I believe this was the same ref that decided to decline a stonewaller for us a couple of weeks ago when Giroud was clattered by Taylor (happy to be corrected there though, as I’m not 100%). Let’s also not forget that it was in fact a clear penalty. So these factors being the case, why did I hear various people in the media crying over the decision? Oh, wait a second I know, because its ‘plucky Norwich’. Balderdash. A foul is a foul and a foul in the box is a penalty. Move on.

If the canaries felt hard done by on the first goal, they can have no complaints on the second. After joining proceedings five minutes earlier, The Ox exchanged a lovely one-two with Giroud and found himself in space beyond the Norwich back line, to stroke the ball into a defenders nightmare of a spot, a yard on the line. With Bunn nowhere to be seen, Giroud and Bassong challenged and the ball hit the back of the net. Fabulous stuff from The Ox who, after some recent impressive performances, I hope gets some starts soon. Perhaps even on Tuesday.

There was still time for an Arsenal implosion though, but thankfully it didn’t come, as Fabianski earned his weekly wage with a good save low down from Howson. And as the game ticked into injury time, Podolski made the points safe with a clinical left footed shot from just inside the box.

Three vital points, a step up into third, plus the chance to get clear daylight from our rivals with a performance and a win against Everton. But lets not get too carried away just yet. If we play like we did yesterday against Everton, they will ask more questions of us, so it’s important that the team is ready and willing to do the business against the blue half of Merseyside.

Until tomorrow people. I out.

Heart-stopping, but vital three points for Gunners

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Well, you wouldn’t expect anything else from The Arsenal than a bit of harum scarum, heart-janglingness ”can this last twenty minutes just hurry up and disappear please?” action would you? because that’s what we all got yesterday.

When the final whistle blew and our step up into the top four (most likely albeit temporarily because I’m not expecting Sunderland to show anything today against Chelski at Stamford Bridge) was confirmed, I felt like I had aged about ten years. I wasn’t at the game and my laptop is fairly useless and prevents me from watching live streams, so I had to contend with the excellent Arseblog Live blog, Twitter and Sky Sports Soccer Saturday all running in tandem for my news from The Hawthorns. I think that actually made it worse for that last twenty minutes, as each minute ticked by so slowly after Mertesacker’s sending on that it felt like a lifetime.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here and so should start from the beginning. Le Boss named an unchanged side from last week – expected given the performance – and once again players that many thought were ‘squaddies’ in Rosicky, Ramsey and Gervhino were all afforded another bite at the first team cherry. None of those players disappointed. Rosicky put in a man-of-the match performance to score two well taken goals and looked lively throughout. Most of the play in the middle of the park went through him and his ability to beat a man or move the ball from back-to-front so quickly really helped the high line of pressing the team deployed in the first half and at the beginning of the second.

Ramsey was also good yesterday I thought and his ‘never give up’ attitude is what can quickly win himself favour back in the hearts of those Arsenal fans that questioned his ability. This was epitomised in one particular moment in the second half. A poor pass intended for Arteta in the opponents half was swiftly followed up by a winning tackle and successful pass completion to Rosicky. Yes, he missed a golden chance for us to be two nil up at half time when on the six yard box with nobody but Foster to beat, but I’m more pleased that we had somebody getting into that position in the first place.

Gervhino too looked lively whilst he was on the pitch. His assist for the first goal was a classic example of what we hoped to see more of from the Ivorian when he arrived. Chasing a fabulous Arteta cross field ball into the box, he picks up the ball, weaves the defender this way and that and puts in a great ball (which I suspect might have been curling in at the far post) to which the Little Mozart heads in. It seems that we’re seeing somewhat of a purple patch for The Forehead and it couldn’t come at a better time for us. It means there is genuine competition, players like the three I describe above are knocking hard on the door to keep their places and it means the others that have lost their places will have to work harder, concentrate more and be at their best to retain their place.

Defensively we also looked sound yesterday. Let’s face it, when the ball came over the top by the West Brom player Morrison and Long’s first touch was perfect to put him through, we all knew when he went down inside the box that Mertesacker was off. And we all knew it would be a really tough last quarter of the match. But we must credit the defence with their response. Vermaelen came on and, despite a few moments where we probably should have conceded but for some profligacy from Lukaku and a header from some defender at the back post from a corner, they held firm. And not that any of us gooners like to smash lazy misconceptions about out team, but we now have the best away defensive record in the league. Funny that, given all of the pundits you hear always talk about how terrible some of our defenders are. Funny that, eh?

There’s a bit of swagger about this Arsenal team at the moment. The type of swagger that comes with confidence-boosting wins like yesterday. We’ve gone about our business flying a bit under the radar with everyone else praising the Spuds and drooling over the collective attacking threat of Mata, Oscar and Hazard, which is absolutely fine by me. i seem to recall the same thing happened last year. We started to put together a run of games that suddenly found us in third spot to which we then went on to keep and confirm our Champions League status for next season. Watching that game yesterday I saw some very confident passing and attack-wise we looked to get the ball forward very quickly with some verve and panache about us.

It’s looking good at the moment. We can sit back today and watch some of the Sunday games knowing that we’ve done our job. Next week we have Norwich visit us and I hope the players are desperate for a bit of revenge to be served up after the defeat at Carrow Road in October last year. Thereafter we have Everton at home and if we can get two wins under our belt there then it will put us above the spuds and I think above Chelski too.

Have a good Sunday you marvellous people.