It’s only good for The Ox; Tomas and Big Per commit

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The only thing that’s remotely good about this evenings international window is that it means thousands of men everywhere will not be subjected to an evening of horrendous soaps like Coronation Street. Actually, when I think about the prospect of having to watch England labour to a one-nil win against Denmark, a soap marathon wouldn’t be all that bad. Mind you, you’re unlikely to see any branded green pants baring a sports betting brand on in Emmerdale, so I guess every side has pros and cons.

From an Arsenal perspective, this ludicrously wedged set of matches at the business end of the season couldn’t have come at a worse time, after a stinging defeat to Stoke I’m sure Arsene would have preferred to set the team punishments of Magathian proportions, yet instead they can retreat to the luxury and bliss of their national team. The only hope all of us have is that we don’t receive bad news tomorrow or on Friday.

One player who I’ve heard a lot of Gooners talking about positively is The Ox, with a plethora of Podcasts all recently waxing lyrical over his form, and rightly so. He’s been a semblance of positivity in an otherwise relatively uninspiring half a dozen games and his direct running and added goal threat are one of a select few ‘reasons to be cheerful’ at the moment. Tonight will be an opportunity for him to stake a claim as a starter in the England team and, should he enable himself to perform as well as he’s done recently for The Arsenal, he’ll know doubt find himself getting plenty of game time in Brazil.

Of course, now that he’s starting to find some good form, we all await the inevitable injury tonight that will keep him out for the dreaded ‘three weeks’, followed by a ‘little setback’. In many ways, I’m a bitter, bitter man.

I tell you what I’m not bitter about, however, which is the news that the club announced yesterday that both Big Per and Rosicky had signed new contracts with the club. As usual, there’s no length of the contracts discussed, but I wonder if it’s a four-year deal for Per and a two-year one of Tomas. Either way it’s great for the club to see the experienced players committing to the club and it will add more stability to us in the summer. We’ve seen what wholesale changes does to a team in previous summer breaks, so to have these two committed is a good statement from the club. Some might argue the timing has been played in the most PR spun of fashions – particularly after Arsene confirmed that Rosicky would be staying at the club beyond this season a few weeks back – but I personally couldn’t give a monkeys about when it’s announced and for what reason, just that it’s done.

Now all Gooners will be turning their attention to getting Sagna signed up to a longer term deal, but if we’re all honest with ourselves, he’s on his way out in the summer isn’t he? What the two announcements yesterday show is that when both parties are willing, a new deal can be easy peasy, which clearly shows that there is reluctance – perhaps on both sides – to come to an agreement on the French International. You don’t need me to tell you how mental that is, particularly gone the fact that any replacement will have to have some time to bed in at right back, but it is what it is and we’ve seen too many contractual impasses to have the wool pulled over our eyes and not see this as anything but Sagna’s final swan-song as an Arsenal player. I hope we can deliver some silverware as a send off.

Anyway, that’s enough of my rabbiting on, you have a good day now ya’ here!

Time to roll the dice a little bit

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It’s an international mini-break at the moment which, if we’re all completely honest, nobody really wants, needs or will find remotely useful in the context of the Premier League. It’s farcical timing and you wonder why FIFA have to stick their noses in all the time just so they an cream more money through sponsorships and such-like.

Wouldn’t it just be grand if every domestic club team refused to release their players during the season? Let FIFA and UEFA have their end of season competitions, but apart from that you can’t play with our toys and we won’t let you anyway.

As if that will happen. We’re more likely to see Sepp Blatter make an admission that he’s more bent than a nine Bob note than see a universal resistance to these useless friendlies.

So we just have to suck it up and wait for the weekend. All of the Arsenal players – well, most of them – are too busy talking about their own national teams to be concerned with domestic issues, but the concern has to be that we don’t lose focus ahead of what is clearly now a season defining FA Cup tie.

At least we learned something about the FA yesterday. They’re only mostly useless most of the time, as they have now charged Charlie Adam for attempting to extract Giroud’s calf from his bone with his cowardly stamp. Unsurprisingly, Orc Central Command have reacted, saying they are ‘surprised’ by the decision. Well, we wouldn’t expect anything else, would we? Perhaps they are surprised that Adam didn’t ‘finish the job’ by spearing Giroud in the process, which is why they felt the need to make a statement on the matter, such is their mandate to generally maim as a collective.

Other than that, there really isn’t a lot going on, if truth be known. I am hoping that Arsene is back at London Colney watching the DVDs of the last few weeks’ games and realising that there needs to be some changes made against Everton on Saturday lunchtime. There needs to be more drive in the team and perhaps, just perhaps, it’s time to be rolling the dice a little on some players. He pulled out a couple of ‘sixes’ with the Sanogo move against Liverpool, but got The Old Snake Eyes against Stoke with what he thought was a tired and trusted team line up. I think it’s worth opting for a couple of wild cards over the next few weeks because you never know, they might just come up trumps and deliver victories when the established players might not, so to my mind it’s worth a punt. Smatter the first team with a Gnabry or maybe even a Sanogo. Give The. Ox a more pivotal place in the first eleven on a consistent basis and, above all, pray to every God and deity under the sun for the return of Ramsey into the side.

That’s it from me today. Another short one I’m afraid, for which I’m entirely blaming my new journey to work this week, on the dreaded trains in Hertfordshire going into London.

I’ll see you all tomorrow.

Still trying to understand

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I feel a bit uninspired this morning. We’ve had a shocker of a weekend as Arsenal fans, seen every team around us pick up either points or a trophy, yet we’re left licking our wounds (in some cases literally, because I’m sure Giroud’s ankles and legs will not have recovered from all the stampiness) and having to take the entire week bitterly reliving a poor performance that, in reality, should never have happened.

I still can’t put my finger on it you know. The conditions were right for only our second victory since The Orcs were promoted to the top flight. They had struggled for form, we were fighting for a title (haha!) and we’d had a week to prepare ourselves. Yet we wilted like the Peace Lily I have in my kitchen when The Management over waters it a little too much. For most of the games this season – Liverpool away aside – there have been mitigating circumstances, but not on Saturday.

What makes me most surprised is that everyone and his wife is talking about how we lack pace and direct runners, yet Arsene seems to be reluctant to use Gnabry as much and The Ox was reduced to a substitutes appearance. I’m not one for trying to second-guess Le Boss, because maybe The Ox was slightly fatigued or Gnabry is still a little raw, but it just strikes me as a little odd is all. It just felt a little bit pedestrian at the weekend and that is something that the manager is – quite literally – paid the ‘big bucks’ to rectify.

It’s something that we touched on with our latest SG Podcast yesterday evening, which was graced by the very funny James ‘Raul’ Stokes, the man formerly known as the Armchair Gooner. Take a look on the top bar of the website and hit the menu to see the latest one. We also talk cheese, ‘prick of the meek’ and spiral into a bit of a pit of depression over the weekends result.

Anyway, back to the team at the moment, to which the upcoming weekend match against Everton could be season defining/ending. If we’re knocked out of the FA Cup then that is realistically our last chance of silverware that slips away from our grasp, so the significance of getting a result has come into very sharp focus all of a sudden. With our form suffering, we need a reaction and we need a result against the toffees, so the need to regroup, reassess where we’re at as a team and perhaps even had another one of those long team talks like the players had after the Spuds defeat, is probably even more important now more than ever.

It’s a short one from me today. I figure it’s better that way right now.

Peace out homies

SG Podcast 18 – Prick of the Meek

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Rated 18!! Steve, Ben & Chris are joined by James ‘Raul’ Stokes from the Goonersphere Podcast. The discussions this week include the performance against the Orcs from Stoke, strikers, player of the month and the huge game at the weekend v Everton.

Direct Download - left click to play or right click to ‘save as

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Stoke: the day the title started slipping away?

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It was a strange feeling after the full time whistle yesterday, because rather than spiralling into a pit of depression, I felt like some wool had been lifted from my eyes (by the way, apologies if today’s blog seems a bit defeatist) because it feels like that defeat was the marker for which it became clear that we aren’t going to win the league this year. What probably made me feel this way to a greater degree was the fact I had to watch the game in a pub which was showing the Chelski demolition of Fulham.

So whilst we laboured to an utterly uninspiring 1-0 defeat against the Orcs, the Chavs extended their lead at the top of the table by three points. Hell, even Liverpool swatted aside Southampton, so we find ourselves third in the table today and when City play their two games in hand, we will most likely be fourth.

The display from Arsenal yesterday was abject. Far too many players gave a six out of ten and league title contenders simply don’t not turn up to games like we did at the Potteries. Passing went awry, the intensity was non-existent (even after we wet behind) and we looked like each player was running around with lead weights on their feet.

Let’s ignore the dubious penalty decision, because it clearly was dubious, because we simply weren’t good enough anyway to warrant a victory.

Our attack was the most feeble of the areas of the park. Olivier Giroud looked to be more concerned with complaining every time he was touched and, despite the fact that Charlie Adam should have been sent off from a horrendous stamp on the Frenchman, before and after that incident he was hardly firing us to three points. On a day where our rivals all swept aside lesser opponents with their firepower, it was perhaps telling that ours looked like it had been doused with a bucket of water. I don’t want to labour the already well worn point, but we are clearly a world-class striker shirt of going for the league title this year, which is why every Arsenal fan I speak to is so disappointed at the moment. This feels like it was the year that we should be taking advantage of the instability of our rivals, yet we are discussing the same problems yet again, like some sort of grim Groundhog Day.

It wasn’t all Giroud though, because Podolski was pretty much anonymous, Cazorla was quite, Wilshere misplaced pass after pass and Arteta just didn’t seem like his usual self. Even in defence we looked wobbly at times. I said before yesterday’s game that ‘the feeling’ of nervousness before each game had returned because we are in a title race, yet it feels like a familiar numbness has swept over just as quickly as it arrived. I know we’re only four points from the top of the league, but tell me honestly, do you believe with the next four league games that we have, that we’ll make up ground on the Chavs? I don’t. Like I said at the start of this blog, apologies for sounding defeatist, but yesterday was a game we simply couldn’t afford to drop points given our schedule, yet we rolled over and had our bellies tickled as if it was an end of season game with little to play for but pride. If that was even the case, we didn’t even play for that either.

It’s a sad blog today I’m afraid. I can’t offer any comfort and with every word I type I’m becoming more irritated, so perhaps I should hold my tongue for now, because the players have a week to sort themselves out before what is increasingly becoming our only chance of silverware this season against Everton.

Catch you tomorrow.

Stoke; The return of ‘The Feeling’ is welcome

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Happy Saturday to you, my fellow Gooners. I don’t know about you, but its first thing in the morning (had to drop the Management off at the airport – working in Dubai for a week :-( ) and I’m starting this blog with a little bit of apprehension ahead of today’s game. Don’t get me wrong, I think we can win it and I hope that we will, but I have ‘the feeling’ back. I remember it well. It was the ‘feeling’ I got when we were fighting for the league against United in the first half of Arsene’s reign. It was the nervousness and apprehension ahead of every single match leading up to the last ten or 11 games in a season, knowing that we were still in the race for the title and knowing that we have our own destiny in our hands. Silverware is still most certainly in our sights.

We do have our own destiny in our own hands. If we win all remaining eleven games we will be Champions. That’s a fact. That we have a host of extremely difficult matches in order to do that, as well as the probability that we will unlikely actually be able to win all of those games, still doesn’t detract from the pure cold, hard, facts that we are masters of our own destiny.

But it starts with today’s game against Stoke. Lose or draw today and not only is it more than likely not going to be in our hands any more, but with the run of games we have coming up thereafter, it won’t exactly have Gooners shouting that ‘I believe’ from rooftops, will it? The margins when you get to this stage of the season are so fine that, if you’re going to lift that Premier League trophy at the end, you really do need to take advantage of every opportunity. Today is an opportunity to keep the pressure up on an away ground in which we’ve won once in six attempts. Stoke – aka The land of Mordor, birthplace of Orcs and Goblins – represent a very real and very difficult threat to our assault on the league. They have already dispatched United (admittedly less of a feat these days), as well as picked up draws against Chelski and Moneychester City and have always been difficult to beat. Indeed, the bookies reflect that in their assessment of the odds. Arsenal are of course seen as favorites, but I’d expect slightly shorter odds from a team that sit just three points off the relegation spaces, so clearly history has played its part in the thinking of the bookmakers.

Will history play a part in today’s game? It’s hard to tell actually. The local Stoke regional rag has certainly been doing its level best to try to mask the deficiencies of this current Stoke sides form this season. Nobody likes a Tony Pulis, but it’s hard to imagine that he would have a well-drilled Stoke side in the same position they currently occupy under Hughes. The need and requirement of the locals in Orcsville was for a more expansive style of football, which they have, but it looks at times as though that has been at the expense of what is at the core of this team – built up over a number of years – and I wonder if that straying away from what they know i.e. longer-balls, target men receiving and relying on set pieces, has been a cause for them not picking up as many points as they probably would have imagined. History too seems to have played its part in trying to rile up both Stoke and Arsenal fans, with Stoke chairman Peter Noakes talking yet again about the Ramsey incident, as well as a quite ludicrous article from Danny Higginbotham about how Arsenal have ‘no character’. I am pretty sure Arsene isn’t the type to stick up a copy of articles in the dressing room before the game, but I hope comments like that filter through to the Arsenal team, because we have character and we’ve shown it on numerous occasions this season.

Anyway, regardless of that, there’s a job that The Arsenal need to do today and if the team plays to its full potential, then we should be able to pick up the three points. The team have had a week to prepare and recharge their batteries in preparation for today’s game, so there can be no excuses on ‘tired legs’ and we have to see a pumped Arsenal team. I think we will. There might be questions about who plays at left back, but the rest of the defence should remain relatively settled. In midfield I wonder if Arsene will offer to reinforce the two anchored midfield roles with Flamini and Arteta, with a three sitting in front of them of Cazorla, Ozil and I hope Rosicky. If you read my pieces regularly, you might have come across my Rosicky ‘love-in’ during the week, so I’m advocating that we thrust our ‘Little Mozart’ into the front line and see if he can’t make music in amongst the snarling Stokies. Up top I’d expect a Giroud hopefully buoyed by his two goals against Sundrland, as well as a full week in which to recharge.

For Stoke they’ll most likely welcome back German clobbermeister Robert Huth, as well as Ireland and Etherington, but thankfully we’re spared that bloke Assaidi, who loves a wonder goal. I hate wonder goals scored against us. Not least because they get replayed in adds again and again, so I hope there is nobody in the Stoke team that pops up with one of those today.

Anyway, I shall be watching the game from a pub in Ware with my fingers crossed hoping that we don’t have to go through hell and back to collect the points we need to stay level with Chelski who, let’s face it, won’t drop points against a terrible Fulham team.

Catch y’all tomorrow.

Preparing Arsenal for The Orcs – A-Team style

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Being the sneaky little devil that he his, Arsene and the club decided to curveball everyone by hosting his presser yesterday which, in actual fact, is great for fans, as we get more information about the impending trip to the fires of Mount Doom and which soldiers will be available.

In fact, I had a different theory yesterday on Twitter, as I believe Arsene had hired the A-Team to weaponise the Arsenal team bus in double-quick time. Of course, we all know about Arsene’s need to control everything at Arsenal, so I think that he needed the press conference early because he was rushing off to make sure Hannibal was instructing BA and Face to affix the turrets in the right position. I dread to think of the bickering that would have taken place between the leader of the Arsenal Team and the leader of the A-Team.

Anyway, what’s more important than the merging of two of my favourite things as a kid is the news on the team for this weekend and, as suspected it might be a little scary at left back if both Gibbs and Monreal are out. Only at Arsenal, eh? Only we can have adequate cover and still have our players injured! But having watched the press conference yesterday I suspect that Monreal is the most likely to return and he’ll face a late fitness test to see whether he’s available for tomorrow at 3pm. Let’s hope he’s bathing in horse placenta right now.

The good news is that we have Mesut Özil returning fresh from a 10 day break and I am hopeful that it has done him the power of good and we see the Özil that performed so well against United. I think we will because after that Liverpool game I saw a determination in him following some pretty unnecessary chastising from the press and some sections of the fanbase. Much like after the stinging Anfield defeat, I think Özil will be eager to put his penalty miss demons to bed with a stand out performance and what better way to do it than by weaving in and out of stripy goblins that only come up to your chest, like Charlie Adam.

Thomas Vermaelen will also come back into the squad for the weekend and his return gives us the defensive buffer that we need to ensure the squad can compete on multiple fronts. He’ll almost certainly be off in the summer I suspect, but whilst he’s still here he’s making all the right noises about being committed to the team and when he’s come in to the first eleven he’s always performed quite well. But when you have a Koscienly/Mertesacker axis like we have, he’s always going to play second fiddle and he knows it. He might start at left back tomorrow if we have no other options, but I’ll save my speculation for Saturday’s blog piece.

I thought Arsene’s reaction to the questioning about the time off he gave his players was interesting. He seemed incredulous that he was being quizzed as to why he should or shouldn’t be allowed to give some time off for his players, whilst hitting the journo in question with an icy stare, but as much as I like to give the gutter-press a barracking, I think he may have interpreted the tone slightly. From what I saw, I think the question was born out of interest as to whether the players were feeling fatigued after a run of some very tough matches. Yet I think Arsene took it as a questioning of him and his training/scheduling methods. I don’t think it was. Having said that, I actually think it was the perfect thing to do after a couple of tough weeks. We’ve had a full week without The Arsenal and the players had a week until the next game, so if that allows them to relax, unwind and be fully fresh and ready to take on The Orcs, then I’m all for it. I don’t want to see leggy performances like Southampton away in the first half, I want to see performances like the first half against Sunderland for the weekend just gone.

So hopefully the team is fully patched up, because no sour they’ll be some bruising after this weekend, before we play Everton at home in the cup.

That’s it from me today. Catch y’all with a match preview tomorrow.