Tag Archives: Gervhino

United Preview: high intensity, because they’ll be no free ride

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Well it’s been talked about for about a week, it’s been speculated and debated, discussed and digested, but here we are folks. Arsenal entertain Manchester United at The Emirates. It’s a sunny start to the day and as I merrily tap away at my iPad in my Arsenal dressing gown, I have a few flutters of nerves that reside deep within my person. My day today revolves all around The Arsenal and I don’t want there to be anything but happiness in my heart when I lay my head down to rest come this evening.

This is not about some Dutch bloke for me. I couldn’t care less what he does (as long as he doesn’t score) and I haven’t cared one iota about him since ‘The Statement’. If he plays today, he will no doubt be a threat, but it will be up to our central defenders to nullify that threat. They know what makes him tick and how he works, so they need to avoid giving him time and space to pull away off their shoulders and tuck away any chances. I hope Koscienly finds himself up against that player more often than not, as I think he has the better of him in terms of pace.

This is not about a ‘guard of honour’. It will be 30 seconds of clapping by the players and probably some of the fans; one of which will not be me. I don’t go to watch The Arsenal for any opposition, I go to cheer on my team. I clap my team. I cheer when they do well. There is nothing in a guard of honour for me to clap for.

This IS about three points. To do that we will need to press United high up the pitch from the first minute. There needs to be the intensity for the players that they can close the spaces between midfield and attack quickly and suffocate possession from the midfield to attack and then shift the ball from back to front quickly. It will be a challenge, of that we are all sure, but it is one our team is more than capable of. I suspect the back five will remain unchanged from the victory at Craven Cottage, with the only exception in midfield being the re-introduction of Jack Wilshire. He’s looked a bit leggy since his return and has been most certainly overshadowed by Arteta and Ramsey’s good form, so I suspect that whilst it would be harsh to see Rosicky drop to the bench, Arsene will prefer Jack in the midfield. If he does, we need to see the marauding Jack, the Jack that has a quick turn of pace to beat his man in the first five yards, the Jack that is all action and willing to get stuck in as well. If we get that Jack, then up alongside the excellent Ramsey and with the master of ball retention Arteta, we should hopefully see a midfield that can dominate possession.

The real challenge for us today will be how the attacking trio performs. There may have been a few people pleased at the absence of Giroud – expecting Podolski to start instead – but whilst that would be my preferred choice, I don’t think it will be Arsene’s today. I don’t think Lukas is fit enough for 90 minutes and so my educated guess would be that we see Gervhino up top. His form of late has been better, but that’s as a winger rather than a target front man. He just doesn’t have the ability to do it but, should he start today, I hope he proves me wrong on so many ways today.

Either side of the Ivorian – if he does start – I think we’ll see Theo and Santi start. Both were pretty quiet at Old Trafford earlier in the season so we’ll need to see better and more lively presence. Theo will be up against a tough challenge of Evra, but the Frenchman loves to get forward, which is why moving the ball from back to front quickly for us could be key to get Theo running into plenty of green space. Santi will drift in field so we’ll need to have either Gibbs or Monreal providing plenty of attacking width, and we need our little Spaniard to have one of his gems of a game today. He’s one of the keys we have to unlock the United defence.

I don’t think there is any hope for us seeing a United team turn up in party mode. I think Fergie will name his strongest eleven and they’ll be going for a win. I suspect there might be a 5-10% less intensity from United, but even a United at 90% is still capable of beating every team in the Premier League so I don’t think we’ll get any favours from them today.

I fancy Aaron Ramsey to score today. Don’t ask me why because he’s hardly a Frank Lampard style goal scoring midfielder, but I just have a feeling. If we get the same result as the last time he scored against United then I’d be more than happy, as we came away from The Emirates with a 1-0 win and three points safely in the bank.

After the Spuds result yesterday, we’ve got a real opportunity to establish some daylight between us and them. We need to take these opportunities. We need that buffer to ensure that we have the points in the bag as quickly as possible. It would both motivate our team more and also de-motivate our (geographically) closest rivals. Come on Arsenal, lets make this a happy Sunday to remember.

Right, time for a shower, so brekkie, then the pilgrimage to the home of football.

Until 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.

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.

Arsenal, can you do me a favour?

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Right, Arsenal, here’s the thing:

My the enjoyment levels of my weekend are significantly improved by you winning football matches. I know, I know, it seems silly for a grown man to have so much emotional investment in a collective of other grown men playing sport, but I’ve been doing this ‘supporting’ thing for longer than anything else in my life and it’s kind of ingrained into my personality and as such I cannot help myself. I love you Arsenal, I really do, and because of that, I really do need for you to turn up to that corner of the Midlands and put on a sporting performance that results in three points and more pressure on the other teams that are above us. I’m not going to name the teams – you and I both know who they are and that should be incentive enough to give everything against West Bromwich Albion and get the win that we desire.

I’m off out to a pub tonight for a birthday in West London and I could really do with going there with a happy feeling in my head and heart knowing that you have done the business and we have two home games coming up against Norwich and Everton where we could potentially close the gap to the ‘unmentionables’ above us in the league to just one point. Please don’t cock this up. Not that I think you will actually. You’ve been playing well recently and, dare I say it, last weekend you had an extra bit of swagger about you like the old days. Do you remember those? Boy were you stunner. You’d stop others dead in their tracks. You didn’t even care what others thought. You just breezed by them with an air of confidence that was so delightful to see as a lover of what you are. But even before you had that swagger, you’ve had class, and you knew how to grind out results. I know we won’t get back to that after a few games, but you can at least lay the foundations for getting back to that by finishing this season with your ‘swag-o-meter’ on full blast. It would give people like me a real boost and hope for the future.

I don’t know what sort of knocks you’re carrying, what your state of mind today will be, or even how you will set yourself up. But I hope you play with the same team that has been so good and on form recently. That Rosicky fella should probably start and I also think it might be worthwhile playing that crazy skinny-legged massive foreheaded dude Gervhino too – yes, I know he would trip over his own shadow if he could, but that unpredictability could be an advantage. And of course, if it isn’t working by the halfway point, you could always haul him off.

You’ve got to be up for this today Arsenal. IT’s no good just one part of you being up for this, you need all sums of your parts to be ready for these ‘Baggies’. Their recent form belies the team that they are and I think they will be wanting to prove a point that their recent form is not who they are and what they are capable of. they’ve got a bit of a bruiser at the sharp end of themselves in Lukaku and he’ll throw his weight around, but at least that mental ‘I don’t want to play with you any more some I’m going to have a tantrum and pick the ball up and kick it at you before I walk off’ chap Mulumbu is suspended. They’ll have other threats like Long who will run his arse off all day and you’ll need to be mindful of Brunt’s set piece delivery, but if you show all of the desire and strength of – dare I say it – mental character that you did on your recent day trip to Wales, I’m hopeful that you won’t get your nose bloodied.

This game is very important today because you’ll get the chance to leapfrog over the oil whores if you do the business. They don’t play until tomorrow so laying down a marker like this will be all important. There are some potato-based Spuds that would also probably not like it should you achieve your objectives, as it will make the ‘gap’ quite narrow for them to mind I have to say.

Anyway, you know what I’m after and I have many of my kinsmen that would also fancy a victory, so if you could just do this small thing for me, that would be great.

Kind regards

Chris

Reading: basking, control and momentum

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Welcome friends! And what a glorious Easter Sunday it is! Well, not in terms of weather, from where I’m looking in the world. But from a footballing perspective, it’s a metaphorical 30 degrees centigrade with a cloud ne’er to be seen across the skies.

Yes folks, we are basking in the post-game light of victory. That warm feeling you have right now, that’s because our boys did the business against a Reading team that never really caused any trouble whatsoever in truth. It was as controlled a performance as you are going to get in the Premier League and Nigel Adkins must be assessing which of his players he’ll be keeping in the Championship next season, because I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll be rocking up at the Madjeski in the Premier League from August onwards this year.

Before the game I felt nervous. Nervous because I have seen games like this become a very large banana skin on a newly polished hardwood floor already this season. I have felt that we should be winning these types of games all this season, yet at times we’ve come away from The Emirates with little comfort in the performance and dropped points or knocked out Of cup competitions. But not yesterday my friends! Yesterday the team were Ronseal – they did exactly what they were supposed to and dispatched Reading with a 4-1 victory.

In truth, it probably could have been more, certainly when you look at the first half chances. It is probably rare that we’ll see a game as one-sided as that one in the first half between now and the end of the season. The only real surprise of the day was that Arsenal weren’t more than the one Gervhino goal up at the interval. We probed, dominated possession and but for a series of last-ditch tackles and some dreadful refereeing decisions (Stuart Taylor must have found it almost funny how he didn’t concede a penalty after scything down Giroud) we could and should have been more up by half time.

I think what helped shape the eventual outcome of the match was how early we scored the first goal – on 11 minutes – and then also how quickly we were up and running in the second half when Cazorla curled in number two on 48. That essentially gave the team the confidence and swagger to continue to probe without getting frustrated by a defence that would sit deep and aim to frustrate. In all fairness, Reading’s defence was never going to put on that type of performance, but the early goals ensured we didn’t get too desperate to force the issue.

So it came to pass that we eventually ran away with a comfortable victory courtesy of a Giroud goal from a swift counter attack led by Gervhino and then a Mikel Arteta penalty. Yes, there was a Reading goal to worry the nerves ever-so slightly, but the truth of the matter (with the benefit of hindsight) is that Reading were never really in this game.

A quick word for Gervhino. Never has there been a more obvious example of the terminology ‘confidence players’. He had a really good game yesterday and was instrumental in our attacking play, both scoring the first and picking up two assists for the second and third goals. He really is an enigma. We’ve seen him at times look like the furthest thing from a professional footballer you could possibly imagine. We’ve seen him pick the ball up, run over his own feet and get closer to the corner flag with his dribbling than his opponent’s goal. Yet he showed yesterday how his unpredictability can still be used to his advantage. So whilst there were other players who were excellent yesterday, like Cazorla, I feel it’s only right to single out the Ivorian for praise given how I and many of us gooners have lambasted him at times this season. I still believe Podolski is a better option wide left, but the fact that he’s had such a good game yesterday fills you with hope that he will provide options for us in the coming weeks.

So it’s another three points and it’s another game that we can add to the ‘building momentum’ bonfire that is nicely simmering away at the moment. I look at our opponents for the Champions League places and, whilst I know the Spuds won against Swansea, I think that as long as one of them or Chelski drop points each weekend, the. It will always give us a chance. We are now two away from them and four from the Spuds with a game in hand. Next week we have a really tough game against West Brom but if we can pick up a win against them we have back-to-back home games that could see us close or maybe even leapfrog those two teams in the league given their respective fixtures in April.

So all-in-all a pretty happy weekend. Now to enjoy your Sunday.

International timings – good or bad?

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Morning Monday, you little bar steward, as the working week now stretches in front of me, you’re laughing your arse off I know. But not only that, it’s also an international break, which means domestic football takes a back seat and the boredom of international qualification takes a stranglehold on the lives of football fans everywhere.

Thankfully the weekend’s action will give us at least a day or two to survive, but come Wednesday we’ll be all out and the media will be discussing who plays here, what will happen there and such like for England.

And thankfully we were also dealt another positive result yesterday with the shock of Fulham beating the Spuds on their own turf. I don’t make a habit of watching the Spuds and I didn’t start yesterday, but you do wonder if 120 minutes in Milan had its toll on them. Who knows, perhaps their opponents in the next round can knock them out on penalties and we get the same performance.

As for The Arsenal, I can’t quite work out if the timing of this stop in play is beneficial or not. When your team has just lost you’re always inclined to say that maybe it’s good that they all go away and take stock, but when you’re on the back of a good victory you don’t know whether the momentum will be interrupted or not. Last week was a relatively good week for The Arsenal given the circumstances and the last thing you need is for that motivation and positivity to disperse as the players all take their respective flights to the corners of the globe. I hope that the team can keep the momentum going after this break because I have a gut feeling that we’re in with a shot of nicking that top four spot, but only if we win four out of our next four (three of which are at home).

Here’s a quick question: does Mikel Arteta just get extra holiday over this period, or does he still have to train?

Big Per has also been talking to the official site about how the defenders took time out of the game to watch the Spuds defeat and assess themselves as a unit. He claims it has bought a new perspective to the defenders and they are now looking to cover each other as a result. Far be it for me to question or second-guess the big man, but I wonder if the dropping of Vermaelen hasn’t had something to do about it too. Tommy’s been far from his best this season and we’ve seen complacency creep into his game since the first few weeks of the season, where As Koscienly has sat on the bench waiting patiently for a run in the team. Now that he’s got it, perhaps there is an element of desperation to retain his position, because the Frenchman has been one of the best players over the last two games. That is exactly the kind of squad competition we all want to see: players so desperate to get in and stay in that they grab hold of their chance and their concentration levels are heightened for fear of losing their place in the side. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all gravy if that’s the case in our defence right now.

What I am also pleased about is the way the team has coped without Wilshire over the last two games. He’s become somewhat of a talisman over the course of this season, so much so that I thought his absence would make the two games exceedingly difficult to pick up anything, let alone two wins. It’s pleasing to see that whilst the Spuds struggle if bale isn’t on form, we miss our main man and the team can still pick up victories. That’s not to say I don’t want Jack back as quickly as possible, but it gives a gooner like me a degree of assurance that we have been able to fill the void left by his absence. And in the case of Jack, the international break actually comes as a blessing in disguise, because it means we’ll not miss him for this weekends Premier League action because there isn’t any!

And finally, to that man Gervhino, who Arsene admitted had been a bit dejected recently because of his form. It’s interesting, because before he went away to that pointless competition in January, he made a few statements in the press about how he wanted to be an Arsenal great, etc, etc. It was all admirable stuff, but left myself and many of my fellow drinking compatriots from Block 5 wondering if he’d ever even been an ‘Arsenal alright’, let alone an ‘Arsenal great’. He showed flashes of ability at times but his finishing has always been a bit woeful. I, like Arsene, hope that this goal from the weekend brings a bit more self belief to the player. I may bemoan him, I may question his effectiveness, but as long as he’s an Arsenal player I’ll always want him to fulfil his footballing potential. I’m not thinking he should be getting a run of games, but if he does manage to get a few goals between now and the end of the season then lets give him some game time – even if its from the bench. Of course, now I’ve said that we’ll most likely see him running into corner flags next time he takes to the field.

Anyway, that’ll do from me today. Until tomorrow.

Blackburn: more physicality we need to overcome?

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FA Cup weekend people. I don’t care what anybody says about the romance dying a little bit, I’m still happy for Arsenal to still be in it, and it’s made all the sweeter knowing that the spuds aren’t. Yes, there are still most of the big guns in the competition and yes, Chelski have had their usual bye’s so far until they get to the semis, but I don’t care about that, only about The Arsenal.

It’s Blackburn Rovers today that come along to The Emirates to face an Arsenal side that, without anybody paying any real attention, has suddenly strung together a little bit of a run. We’ve won four out of our last six and even shaken off the ‘they don’t like it up em’ tag that limited northern teams try to perpetuate by kicking Arsenal players off the park. Both Stoke and Sunderland have tried, but to no avail, so the hope is that if Blackburn think an overly physical approach is the only way to go, they’ll come unstuck against a resolute Arsenal at home today.

The team news will most certainly include a bit of shuffling from the usual recognised eleven. I suspect we might see Vermaelen in at left back, Sagna at right back with the absence of Jenkinson, and Mertesacker possibly with Miquel at the heart of defence. In midfield I think Rambo will come in and I think Diaby will also get a start with Jack still not 100% recovered from his clattering against the Mackems last Saturday. Personally, I’d also like to see Rosicky get a run out instead of Cazorla too, as he hasn’t played much this season but on the occasions that he has played I’ve been impressed. Up top I think Arsene will use the relative security of a home game against lower league opposition to bring Gervhino back into the fold. The hope here must be that his confidence has risen after a good AFCON tournament, plus the opportunity to be on the scoresheet against lower league opposition, must surely lead to a start for the Ivorian. I think we’ll see him on the left and perhaps The Ox on the right with maybe Theo or Giroud up top. Personally I’d plump for the Frenchman but you just don’t know what Arsene is thinking.

As for Blackburn, they’re team is a slightly different one to the side that was relegated last year, with Jordan Rhodes being their most notable acquisition to help them to try and get back into the Premier League at the first time of asking. I’ve seen Rhodes a couple of times and he looks like a good player at the lower levels, but whether or not he can continue to bang in goals if Blackburn get into the Premier League, is another matter. Of course, this probably means he’ll be first goalscorer this afternoon so get your coppers on him now I’ve said that.

Blackburn may not have some of the more creative players like Nzonzi in their team any more, but they will still pose Arsenal a threat and we’ll still have to turn up and dominate position and convert into goals to get something out of this game. And look, if we do turn up and show that we’re in a bit more form that the beginning of this year, we should have enough to win this game comfortably. But Blackburn will bring a vociferous away support with them – the unwritten rule of any FA Cup tie to lower league opposition is that you get nothing less – and we will have to silence them quickly and make this game safe before half time if Arsene wants an easier passage into the sixth round. We know we’re going to come up against a team that will try to be ‘in their faces’, but it’s up to us to be too quick for them to get even close to the players’ faces, by out passing and outskilling (is that even a word? If not, I’m patenting!).

If we are sluggish, if we are expectant that our opponents will roll over and let us tickle their bellies, we will come-a-cropper on our own turf today. So I hope we see a purposeful Arsenal from 3pm.

I’m not at the game for family reasons today, but I’ll be checking my phone every five minutes, so I hope to hear some positive noises from the red and white side of north London today.

Up The Arsenal!

Relief, frustration, despair and Arsenal. The words go hand in hand

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So there we have it. Here we are. It’s finally over. until the summer that is. The over-dramacised, over-hyped, theatrical ‘Transfer Deadline Day’ has final set sail to return only to return at the end of August.

There is a very relived part of me this morning I have to admit. I can now concentrate on talking about football and not speculation. my Twitter feed will die down with ITKs and ‘i’m hearing’. Yep, definite relief.

Yet that is not my overwhelming emotion on this Friday morning. My feelings today are that yet again Arsenal Football Club has failed to deliver the required movements to really kick the team on this season. When the August deadline passed and no striker was incoming, we were provided with press soundbites of ‘there is always January’. Yet now we see that those comments were designed purely to instil that all important element of hope into the fans. ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got a squad that can cope, and if we’re not coping then we’ll go out and augment the team with quality signings that will ensure that we continue to eat at the top table. Well it worked until about 11.30pm yesterday when fans like me are once again left feeling like the club hasn’t done all in its power to ensure that we maintain competitive and improve as a club.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to wake up and see we’ve spent £12million on a good but not amazing central defender and we’re paying him £100k a week for the privilege. The signing of Chris Samba by QPR might be a good addition to the squad, but it is a huge roll of the dice by Harry. If QPR go down they will be in trouble of Portsmouth proportions. It is because of our thrifty way that we think like this by the way. If we signed a player for £12million and £100k a week, over the lifetime of their contract that’s £40million, which the way Arsenal work turns out to be £40million of the supposed £70million we have. That is why we Arsenal fans look so closely at the pennies. Because we know the team needs two or three quality players, yet if we go over the top on good but not great players, it will just make for yet another summer of discontent as we yet again fail to add to the squad.

But going back to my original point: I don’t want to see ridiculous money thrown at players. But there are players out there that could have added some genuine squad depth to this team. David Villa would have been a great signing. Jovetic would have been superb. Even Diame would have been a good bit of competition in midfield for when Diaby gets his inevitable injury on Saturday and is out for the rest of the season, followed by Arteta having a ‘little setback’ and turning three weeks out to two months. There are plenty of players out there that we could have called on to improve and yet we have continued to keep our powder dry.

Still, there was at least one signing that we were able to bring in that most certainly addresses a need, so I need to temper some of my angst at least in the knowledge that we have some competition at left back. The man known as ‘Nacho’ has joined us from Malaga and he will certainly add more depth and competition for the much maligned Andre Santos. Surely this is the end of the Brazillian’s time at the club so I’d expect him to be one of the first out of the door come June. If we can find a buyer that is willing to pay his surely exorbitant wages.

I know nothing about Monreal. I’ve read plenty from fans, journalists and players saying that he is understudy to Jordi Alba in the Spanish national team, which gives me the first indication that he will most certainly be challenging Gibbs more than the chunky Brazillian was. I’m not going to go into any major depth about his attributes, as it would be a false prophecy on my part, but I suspect we’ll find out all about him tomorrow (did he get clearance to play) or away to Sunderland the following weekend.

So we have at least added to our ailing defence. But to me it simply wasn’t enough. I read the AST statement about the money available to the club and with the new TV deal and other revenue increasing, failure to be in the Champions League will be off-set by that. Which again brings me back into questioning why on earth we haven’t done all we can to strengthen in key areas. The whole world knows where we need to strengthen, yet the stubbornness of the manager is all too prevalent. He is more concerned with sticking to his flawed socialist ideology of financial fair play. I say flawed because I am quite convinced that come the introduction of the FFP rules, we will see quite quickly how the big clubs get around it.

Arsene says the squad is good enough. Arsene says he has two players for every position. Arsene believes bringing in more players would create too much wastage. If that is the case, why is he only using a core of 12 or 13 players every single week. If he has so much faith in the squad why do we weaken ourselves by sending half of it out on loan? Will he start to utilise promising talents like Eisfeld or Gnabry? Or even Rosicky? You cannot tell me that Gervhino is a better player than Rosicky and yet he will probably come into the team as soon as the African Cup of Nations is over. You also cannot tell me that there are players that are within our price range that are not better than Gervhino. Crikey, there are players in some of the teams fighting for relegation that are better than Gervhino.

In reading this blog you could be forgiven for thinking that I am turning on Arsene. I can only assure you that this is not the case. I would like nothing more than for him to turn this around, put together a winning run and perhaps even send us on a cup winning run. But the probability of us doing that with this squad that, once you scratch below the surface is paper-thin in terms of quality, are leading me to question whether he knows at all. By not bringing players in he has made a rod for his own back. The doubters now have their biggest stick with which to beat him and he has no place to hide if the team falls away from fighting for fourth place. Just say that again out loud to yourself. We are fighting for fourth place. We are so far from the Invincibles now it is scary.

I will be going on Saturday. I will cheer on my team and I will hope that we can do something now that lifts us into the top four. But by not adding to the side as much as we’d hoped, I’m skeptical that we can do that.

Until tomorrow peeps.

Goals in our strikers, but not consistency

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Happy Friday to you all. Hope it finds you in good form.

Form. That most illusive of things that every football team strives for, yet very few achieve on a consistent basis throughout the season. Arsenal have never really hit the form that we’d all hope from the team this season, stuttering every few weeks, so it makes it all the harder to work out where this team is at. If you are a stat person, you’ll see the goals we’ve scored and some of the games where we’ve racked up goals and think that as an attacking threat we are quite potent. After all, we have Lukas Podolski on eleven goals for the season, Olivier Giroud on eleven, Theo on 16 and even Santi has bashed in eight this season. When you consider I haven’t even included to mention Gervhino (five) it appears as though we have quite a potent attacking threat.

When the full time whistle went on Wednesday I’m sure most gooners were over the moon with the performance – I know I was – yet doubt still remains as to whether our attacking options are strong enough. It’s where the heart of the frustration lies for us Arsenal fans and all gravitates towards that ‘f’ word ‘Form’. Much like the team themselves, our strikers have gone from sublime to benign in less than a week on a number of occasions recently. Not just this week gone by, but consider how we tore apart Newcastle, only to be blunted by a steady but hardly spectacular Southampton.

Our strikers need to move away from the Theo Walcott style ‘consistency in patches’ from last season and just to a simple ‘consistent’ in all matches. On Sunday just gone we had a problem with our striking options beyond Giroud. Before he left for the African Cup of Nations Gervhino was out of form, and Podolski has blown hot or cold quite a lot this season. That’s why I still advocate an additional top-notch striker to come in to the club. As good as Giroud was on Wednesday, we can’t lose sight of the fact that he was pretty absent on Sunday, so my hope is that Arsene isn’t sticking with his cards he already has in his hands. He needs to pick up an ace to make sure he gets his full house.

What could have happened on Sunday if we’d have had another option to throw up top? Even an option that could play alongside Giroud? Surely it must be something Le Boss is considering?

Anyway, we’ll know within the next week, as the transfer window slams shut and we’re left to wonder why we haven’t signed anybody (a realism I’m slowly coming to terms with – albeit disappointedly), or how our new players will perform with their new team mates.

There didn’t seem to be any team news on the official site yesterday, so I suspect Le Boss will be having his press conference at some stage today. More on the team to face Brighton tomorrow, plus his inevitable reaction to being asked about players, and the stock responses of ‘we’ll let you know when we’ve signed somebody’ and ‘we were never in for him’.

That’s it from me today peeps. Speak tomorrow.

Swansea: Tough, but we must have a reaction

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Sweep aside any pointless speculative thoughts or musings of incoming or outgoing players my friends, for today is match day, and today is the FA Cup.

I can’t tell you how pleasing it is to actually have a game to talk about, look forward to, and hope for victory. I tire easily of the transfer window: the longing for big names, the hope of players coming in that will change fortunes, the anguish as another day ticks by without any fresh blood. The whole reason we are here is because of football matches and today there is a tough challenge against Swansea that stands before us.

I don’t need to tell you how daunting a task this is today. Whilst Tottenham and Chelski made light work of their inferior opposition, sure to be playing against more shit teams in round four (I think it’s in the rules now – give the Spuds and chavs nice easy cup runs) we travel away from home against a Swansea’s side that knows how to beat us. In fact, they’ve won two out of three meetings since they’ve been in the Premier League and have done it whilst literally playing us at our own game, out passing and out fighting us. So it will come as no surprise to you my friends (for I am sure you feel it too) that I look at today’s game with a degree of trepidation. AWay from home against a team that will have no fear against us, plus the fact the match is ono ESPN, which I don’t think I’ve seen us win away from home (which I know because it’s the only matches where I have to go to the pub to watch as I’m at all of the games that are at home) since we beat Hull City with a late Nicklas Bendtner goal. Yes, I’m a superstitious man when it comes to football, so I’m going to try to recreate the environment of that win a few years back by going to the same pub, ordering the same drink and hoping for the same result. Although if we could not leave it until the last few minutes to get the win, that would be great Arsenal, thanks.

I’m not sure what sort of side MIchael Laudrup will be fielding today, or whether or not he’ll be rotating, purely and simply because they have a Capital One Cup Semi Final in midweek. Now If I was in Laudrup’s position I’d probably rotate a few, but not all, of the players. After all, you’re only two games away from Wembley if you beat Chelski in the Capital One Cup, so the chances of a cup final at this stage in the season lie with higher probabilities there. Having said that, he’ll know that a defeat might prove counter productive in terms of team morale, so I’d be surprised if he feels he could even make up to three or four changes. I think we’ll probably see Dyer, Michu, Britton, Williams, Monk and Vorm at the very least so he can maintain the spine of the team, but it’s then a decision whether or not he hands starts to people like Danny Graham up top.

Whoever starts, we know this won’t be any easy game. Swansea may have played us at a good time last season (no full backs) and then caught us cold in early December, but they’ve shown that they like playing Arsenal and they’ll be up for this today. It is on the players that take to the field at 1.30pm in red and white to show that they have the capabilities to get a result on a tough ground.

I think Arsene will do a bit of ‘mini-rotation’, making less risky changes to the side such as Jenkinson, Rosicky and probably Mertesacker into the side. I think both Mannone and Fabianski are unavailable, so I suspect Szczesny will maintain his position in between the sticks. I do wonder if our attacking three will be shuffled slightly, perhaps with Giroud starting at the top, possibly with a rest for either Theo or the Ox, with the other playing on the right and Podolski on the left. Gervhino is still available to play on the left, but I think we’ll all be hoping that Arsene doesn’t want to take that particular gamble. His form has been as wretched as his first touch this season and if he starts there will be more people just hoping he manages not to fall over his feet at crucial times, rather than what he could bring to the team in an attacking sense.

Now is the time that this Arsenal team has to start showing what they are made of. I don’t want to hear about ‘mental strength’, I don’t want to see interviews with players post game saying ‘we have to stay together’ and ‘we have to react to this disappointment’, I just want the football on the pitch to do the talking and a victory today will certainly help us before a few daunting games against Manchester City, Chelski and Liverpool. Arsene is the man who is responsible for motivating his team and he has to be at his inspirational best at this time of the year. I’m not even going to talk about what defeat today could me, so let’s just make sure we get behind the team, and that they give us the reaction we’re all hoping for.

Until tomorrow.